Libertas [Lir] was one of the largest guilds on the Wynncraft map in 2016, holding 60 territories on 23 September 2016, second only to HackForums^[1].

History

Origins

Libertas' founding date was never recorded, and its own thread was not opened until 30 March 2016. Drew1011 placed its creation in the autumn of 2015 and traced it to a change of ownership at Holders of LE. When that guild was sold on 22 September 2015 and its acting leader yosteric5 was demoted, a group of members left with him: "Quite a few other members left too. The 'yosteric loyalists' as I like to call them. Most of them retreated to Validus, and then later to Libertas when Yos created it."^[2] Drew1011 further asserts that Ezura, the leader of Validus, "had given Yosteric the funds to create the guild and considered Libertas one of his best allies"^[3]. Drew1011 was on the other side of the 2015 dispute, and the funding claim is his alone. Nothing was written about the guild before 2016.

At its height (2016)

On 23 September 2016 Libertas held 60 territories — nearly a fifth of the ~332-territory map, second only to HackForums' 146 and ahead of UltimateXeons' 53 — at guild level 59 with 57 members^[1]. That number marked a first-rank power.

On 30 Mar 2016 the opening post of its thread gave "Rank: 17, Level: 41" and a leadership of three: "Owner: yosteric5. Co-Owner: Amplitude. Head Chief: Master_NinjasHD", with every rank below them empty^[4]. On 10 Apr 2016 yosteric5 posted "Libertas is now Ranked #15! we hit level 43 today! I would like to think my active war members for all there hard work."^[5] By the thread's last revision on 6 Nov 2016 the header read "Guild Rank: 2, Guild Level: 62", and the guild was recruiting "active players that are level 89+ who are willing to war and attack often"^[6]. Roughly fifty members are named in that revision, among them Beastovrlrd, who would go on to lead the guild Beasts inside the Emperium of Wynn^[6].

Applicants who quoted that header preserved it at nine dates between August 2016 and May 2017, and those quotations track the guild where no leaderboard capture survives. It read rank 2 at guild level 51 on 2 August 2016^[7], level 53 five days later^[8], level 56 on 14 September^[9], and level 62 by 6 November^[10]. All nine gave rank 2. The recruitment bar rose with the guild, from "level 75+" on 14 September to "level 89+" by 6 November^[9][10]. A quotation taken on 9 May 2017 still reads level 62, but the opening post had not been edited since November, so it dates the header rather than the guild^[11].

Inside the guild

Rank was earned by warring. The published ladder gave Recruiter to a member after "a recruit's first war", Captain "to members who attack often, and contribute", and Chief for "being very active, contributing a lot, and participating in many wars"; the only alternative route ran through "contributing 30k Emeralds", and Co-Owner was hand-picked by the owner^[6].

It was enforced. Accepting two applicants in August 2016, the chief etclement told them to "make sure to war a lot, or else you can be kicked for inactivity"^[12]; yosteric5 announced a kick the same evening^[13]. He barred a former member who reapplied — "your were demoted in the guild for a reason not warring, i gave you multiple chances but they were never taken, you will barred entry imto Libertas until i see fit"^[14] — and turned down another with "We need people who can war."^[15]

Recruiting was run by the chiefs, not the owner alone. Through August 2016 yosteric5 sent accepted applicants to "a Chief Like @LeoDiesAlot or @Kiieran"^[16], and both, with etclement, posted acceptances themselves^[17][12].

Alliances and the Hax bloc

Libertas belonged to more alliances than any other guild of its size in the period. Its first was Ordo Malleus, which it joined on 1 December 2015 after Drew1011 and yosteric5 "made our amends" and Drew1011 sponsored the application^[18]. Libertas appears in the twelve-guild Ordo Malleus roster of February 2016^[19]. It belonged afterwards to the Seraphim community alliance of August 2016^[20], and to the Emperium of Wynn from May 2017^[21], which had moved it to its "Honored Retired Guilds" list by that August — the guild's last dated appearance^[22].

It was also part of the bloc that held the map during HackForums' dominance, and the earliest account of that bloc makes Libertas its senior partner rather than an independent second power. The June 2016 opening post of The Separatists describes a "rule of two": "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."^[23] A member of UltimateXeons described his own guild as a third party to the same pact — "our alliance with Hax and Lir (we are UXs)"^[24] — which another poster called "a mutual land agreement" rather than an alliance^[25]. "You do realize Hax has not been a one many army in ages?" asked LeoDiesAlot, a Libertas chief, in August 2016. "They work with Lir and Bla in order to hold territories"^[26][27] — Bla being Blacklisted, whose own thread listed "We are allied with Libertas (Lir) and Hackforums (Hax)"^[28]. In March 2017, defending Hax against calls for a territory cap, another asked "are Lir, BLA, UXs somehow exempt?"^[29]. On 23 September 2016 Hax, Libertas and Blacklisted held 228 territories between them^[1]. The grouping had no name at the time; a Libertas member who asked yosteric5 for "the name of our alliance" in August 2016 was never answered^[30], and the label "Hax & Co" arose only later, in 2018 and 2019^[31][32].

Drew1011's account of that partnership, written in 2018, frames Libertas as the intended senior partner and dates the pairing to the period after the Astrafteri Affinity decayed: HackForums "stayed in an alliance with Libertas, and divided all of Wynn amongst themselves and a few others such as Blacklisted", and, he adds, "they intended to share the glory with a few allies such as Libertas" before those allies went inactive.^[33] That is his reading of the bloc's intentions.

In August 2016 a small guild opened a thread recruiting for a war against Libertas over the territory Nessak^[34]; the replies were discouraging. A bystander warned that "Libertas is extremely powerful, i wouldnt try them to start off"^[35]; the other reply came from inside the guild, the Libertas chief Kiieran telling the recruiter to "See if you can somehow do better than the other 50 guilds exactly the same as yours that tried" and that the attempt "gives us something to do"^[36][37]. No other attack on Libertas was ever written down.

What cannot be known

Not one Libertas war was ever described. Its own thread runs to 517 posts over twenty-six pages, and every one is an application, an acceptance or banter^[38]; the guild is named in other people's threads only as a member of a list or a party to an alliance, never as a belligerent in a recorded action. War data from before January 2018 was never made public^[39]; the campaigns that produced its 60 territories were never recorded.

Its end is equally unrecorded, and it outlasted its own retirement notice. The Emperium of Wynn had moved Libertas to its "Honored Retired Guilds" list by August 2017^[22], but yosteric5 was still inviting applicants on 21 September — "If you are both still interested you guys are invited!"^[40]. The thread's last post, the following day, reads in full: "RHEEVIVED :D"^[41]. There is no disband notice and nothing after it. By 16 April 2018 it was gone from the map entirely — all fifteen territory holders that day were Federation guilds^[42]. Whether it dissolved on its own, fell with the Hax bloc, or was absorbed elsewhere is unknown. A guild named Libertas with the same tag exists today, created on 23 Jul 2018 with nine members; whether it has any connection to the 2016 power is not known^[43].

Alliances

• Ordo Malleus — joined 1 Dec 2015^[18][19]
• Unnamed bloc with HackForums and Blacklisted, with UltimateXeons in the pact in mid-2016 — Jun 2016 – Mar 2017^[24][44][28]
• Seraphim — Aug 2016 (community alliance)^[20]
• Emperium of Wynn — May 2017^[21]; honored retired guild by Aug 2017^[22]