The dominant territorial power of the early guild era, HackForums kept the same owner in every recovered revision of its recruitment thread from 2016 to 2023: "HackForums [Hax] - Created 12/24/2014. Guild Owner: TheDarkSoul"^[1].

History

Ordo Malleus, expulsion and readmission (1015–2016)

HackForums was one of the seven founding guilds of Ordo Malleus on 6 November 2015, TheDarkSoul sitting in its leader chat^[2], and it was assigned the desert after End of Everything was expelled from the alliance on 1 December 2015^[3]. It was later expelled and then readmitted. Drew1011 wrote in 2016 that "Hax was actually kicked out of Ordo"^[4], and that "Hax was one of the original guilds, although we kicked them out, and then for some reason, let them back in"^[5], giving no date or reason.

The expulsion came in early January 2016, immediately after TheDarkSoul was banned from the forums: Drew1011 raised the ban in the alliance's senior chat, Yamipanda of ToastedPandas moved a vote, and the vote was unanimous or nearly so. The grievances were repeated accidental attacks on allied guilds, and defending recaptured allied territory with full mob defences instead of the light defences the alliance's recapture tactic required.^[6] HackForums is absent from Ordo Malleus' 20 February 2016 roster^[7], and on 11 February 2016 its own opening post listed a different alliance entirely — "Alliances: Astrafterí-affinity"^[8]. In late February 2016 Paladin A'renos re-invited the guild.^[9]

The rise to dominance (1016–2017)

Drew1011, writing in February 2018, gave no dates for the guild's rise: "even my timelines and knowledge of guild history has its limits, and I know no exact dates for any of this. All I know is that Hax began their reign sometime around the summer of 2016."^[10] By his account the guild's freedom of action grew when it moved into the Astrafteri Affinity, because "they no longer had a massive list of allies that they could not attack, and had much more freedom in wars"; when Astrafteri's guilds went inactive and the alliance died, "they stayed in an alliance with Libertas, and divided all of Wynn amongst themselves and a few others such as Blacklisted"; and when those partners in turn went inactive, "Hax was left as the one truly active war guild. With nobody to challenge them, they expanded their horizons and engulfed all of Wynn and Gavel."^[11] He adds that the guild "would occasionally give territories to other guilds such as Paladins United"^[12], and offers a judgement: that HackForums "intended to share the glory with a few allies such as Libertas" and expanded into the vacuum its allies left^[13].

One element of his sequence is dated earlier than he places it: he puts the move to the Astrafteri Affinity after Ordo Malleus' collapse of 9 March 2016, but the guild's own thread listed Astrafteri as its alliance on 11 February 2016, a month before^[8]. The Hax–Libertas–Blacklisted bloc was described repeatedly at the time. A June 2016 post described a "rule of two" with Libertas: "This enemy, known only has 'Hack Forums' quickly established their rule through military might... Soon after, another guild, Libertas, joined the surge. The two guilds crushed all opposition and still rule with an iron fist."^[14] A member of UltimateXeons wrote the next day that "our alliance with Hax and Lir (we are UXs) is gonna let the three guilds keep their territory... without anybody really taking it unless one of the guilds leaves or breaks the alliance"^[15]. "You do realize Hax has not been a one many army in ages?", a poster objected in August 2016. "They work with Lir and Bla in order to hold territories."^[16] Blacklisted [BLA] — founded 19 Jan 2016 under NeonRider and Naraka00 — stated the arrangement from the other side in its own recruitment thread, under a heading reading "ALLIANCES AND ALLIES": "We are allied with Libertas (Lir) and Hackforums (Hax)."^[17] In March 2017 a defender of Hax asked its critics "are Lir, BLA, UXs somehow exempt?"^[18].

On 8 June 2016 Hax held 94 territories^[19]. By 23 September 2016 HackForums held 146 of the map's ~332 territories, nearly two and a half times the next guild (Libertas, at 60), with Hax, Libertas and Blacklisted together on 228^[20]. Its peak ran higher still: a May 2017 forum thread title asked why Hax had "MORE THAN 300 TERRITORIES", and in 2020 a player put the maximum "closer to 350", "when they owned the whole map"^[21].

The bloc appears to have had no name while it existed. A contemporary corrected the UltimateXeons member by calling it "a mutual land agreement" rather than an alliance^[22]; a Libertas member who asked his own guild owner "the name of our alliance" in August 2016 received no answer anywhere in the thread^[23]; and no alliance thread was ever posted for the bloc^[24][25]. The label "Hax & Co" is retrospective: Drew1011 used it in August 2018^[26], and the earliest public use is a July 2019 post listing "Federation, Hax & Co, Coalition" among Wynn's mega-alliances^[27].

The dominance was resented in public and never checked. Two anti-Hax alliances were posted within three weeks of each other in June 2016. The Banhammer, opened by Mr_Robin_Hood on 8 June, proposed a universal non-aggression bloc on the ground that "Hax currently owns 94 territories / They are too strong for a single guild to fight / and the only way for us to be able to beat them / is if all of the guilds unite!", and listed World of Crafters [WoC], The Wynn Guard [TwG] and MythicZodiac [MZS] as members^[19]. A Hax-side poster answered it the same day: "I will not stop till every inch of wynncraft is mine or my allies, my allies will attack you or be attacked if they revolt."^[28] The Separatists, a Star Wars-themed open-enrolment alliance founded by Tapu_Fini on 26 June around the guild The Anarchy, followed^[14]; its founder conceded that "even if we don't beat them, at least we can be an annoyance"^[29]. At the end of the month a Hax chief noted in passing that "right now there is 2 anti hax alliances"^[30]. Neither worked; an UltimateXeons member's verdict on the earlier attempts was "It didn't work, all those guilds no longer have any territory."^[31]

In March 2017 a thread titled "Haxforums Should Be Limited On Territory Influence" argued that Hax's "taking advantage of the broken guild system has clearly killed the guild system for everyone else"^[32] and that "they cheat the game with there control and need to be broken up"^[33]. The thread's respondents rejected a cap almost unanimously, Drew1011 among them: "Although I dislike a single guild or alliance having such a monopoly over the territories, I have never, and will never support the limiting of guild territories... Their success should not be limited just because other people are upset."^[34] His explanation of the position was that it was an artefact of a broken and unloved system rather than of force: "The reason that Hax is able to hold so much is because, to put it simply, nobody is trying to challenge them... When people begin trying again... it will become very difficult for Hax to maintain control of the 100+ territories they currently own."^[34] A 2020 retrospective listed the mechanics that had made it possible: "subguilds were heavily abused; there was no cd timer after you took a territory, you could instantly snipe it back; alt warring was legal; wars hardly worked at all so no one was motivated whatsoever."^[35]

The Coalition and the wipe (2017-2018)

By the end of 2017 HackForums was a member of the Coalition, the alliance holding full map dominance that winter^[36]. Drew1011, who recruited it, records that he approached TheDarkSoul personally in the autumn of 2017 and that the guild was revived for the purpose: TheDarkSoul "said that he was busy and did not know when he would have the time to revive Hax, but that when he did have the time, he would most certainly help us deal with War Syndicate."^[37] The guild reappeared on the map that winter.

On 17 Feb 2018 HackForums left the Coalition with four other guilds to form Alliance Alliance, starting the Coalition Civil War^[36]; the community timeline gives the same five departures on the same date^[38], and Drew1011 dates the split to 16 February, within an hour of the announcement of a proposed division of the province of Wynn^[39]. Two days later, on 19 Feb 2018, the newly formed Federation attacked HackForums' 111 territories and wiped them to zero^[40]; the guild held none by 22 Feb 2018^[41].

The attack came at the end of a four-day campaign that had already taken Llevigar, the swamp and the forests; the decision was Snowythewolf's, of Hall of Fame. Drew1011 wrote: "At the very latest hours of the 19th, Snowy announced it was time to attack Hax. At the time they held 111 territoires. Less than 10 hours later, they had none."^[42] His figure of under ten hours is shorter than the "under 12 hours" of the community timeline image^[40], and both are estimates. The thread of 22 February reporting the fall noted that "the guilds with the most territories have only 43"^[41]: guilds nobody was fighting had drifted to the top of the leaderboard in the confusion — Blacklisted among them, which "sat at #1 on the leaderboards for roughly a day"^[43]. It was the end of Hax as a territorial power, and the agent was the Federation rather than the Coalition. A moderator closed the 22 February thread four minutes after it opened, as not relevant^[44].

The fall is often placed in 2017 — a participant wrote in 2020 that it was "probably the biggest event that happened in 2017"^[45] — but it came in February 2018. What belongs to 2017 is the decline, from a reported peak near 350 to the 111 territories Hax still held on 19 Feb 2018^[40].

After the fall

The guild endured. By 3 March 2019 it was back at 33 territories, at guild level 82 with the largest roster on the leaderboard (84 members)^[46]. In 2021 it joined Valhalla at its founding^[36], and it was a member of the community alliance Hestia by 6 Jun 2021, in a six-guild roster posted to the guild megalist^[47], remaining through September 2022^[36]. Its thread today describes a guild that has given up the thing it was known for: "This is a community guild, we do not war."^[1] The guild still exists^[48].

Alliances

• Ordo Malleus — founder guild, 6 Nov 2015; expelled early Jan 2016 and readmitted late Feb 2016^[49][50][51]
• Astrafteri Affinity — listed by the guild from 11 Feb 2016^[8]
• Unnamed bloc with Libertas and Blacklisted [BLA], with UltimateXeons [UXs] in the pact in mid-2016 — Jun 2016 – Mar 2017; called a "mutual land agreement" at the time and "Hax & Co" in retrospect^{[15][16][17][27]}
• Coalition — by late 2017 – 16/17 Feb 2018^[36][52]
• Alliance Alliance — 17 Feb 2018 – 20 Mar 2018 (co-founder)^[36]
• Valhalla — 11 May 2021 – 28 Nov 2021^[36]
• Hestia — 6 Jun 2021 – 19 Sep 2022 (community alliance)^[47]