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Ordo Malleus

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Ordo Malleus, the Order of the Hammer, was the dominant war alliance of the winter of 2015-16. Founded on 6 November 2015 by seven guilds to defeat Concordia, it held the territory map through a system of designated territories, grew to twelve member guilds by February 2016, and collapsed on 9 March 2016 after three founding guilds left in sixteen days.

Ordo Malleus was created on 6 November 2015 and fell on 9 March 2016.[1][2]

The record

The alliance's own thread — "-= Ordo Malleus =-", opened by Paladin A'renos on 6 November 2015, 15 pages and 296 replies, locked, last post by Ha_Ha_Redstone on 10 March 2016 — survives only as forum metadata; the posts themselves do not.[3] Drew1011, a founding member, wrote in 2018 that the thread had been deleted and was restored on request in early 2017, and that he had used it to recover dates: "many of the dates and minor events during the Ordo parts of this story would have been educated guesses without it."[4] Beyond that, three kinds of source survive: a member guild's recruitment thread carrying a February 2016 roster; an argument its veterans had on somebody else's thread five months after it died; and Drew1011's retrospective first-person account of 2018, which is partisan, was written by a party to the disputes it describes, and is in most particulars the only witness for what it reports.

History

Founding, 6 November 2015

The alliance was founded on 6 November 2015 by seven guilds: Kangronomicon [Fuq] led by Dar_Krusos ("Kru"); Holders of LE [HoL] led by Drew1011; Ha Ha United [HHU] led by Ha_Ha_Redstone ("Red"); End of Everything [EoE] led by "Shadow"; Hack Forums [Hax] led by TheDarkSoul; ToastedPandas [TnP] led by Yamipanda and Killerfish; and Sinners [Snr] led by Rani.[5] Drew1011 gave the purpose in one sentence: "Ordo Malleus was created for the sole purpose of defeating Concordia."[6] Glitchedslayer likewise put the alliance at seven guilds[7]; the twelve-guild roster below dates from February 2016, after five further admissions.

The alliance was assembled by Paladin A'renos, then a chief of Kangronomicon, who recruited the member guilds and created the leader chat, while Dar_Krusos held the senior authority; the requirement that each member guild elect a council of four officers — a Diplomat, a War Commander, a Community Manager and a Merchant — came from Kangronomicon shortly before the alliance was announced.[8]

Governance

The alliance ran on four tiers of coordination. Above the guild councils sat a leader chat; a superseded earlier chat was renamed "The Board" and "quickly became very inactive and was almost never used"[9]. The rename followed a manoeuvre Drew1011 described carrying out himself within weeks of the founding: he canvassed the other member-guild leaders, secured a majority, and had alliance business moved to a new leader chat that excluded Paladin A'renos, citing A'renos's manner toward the other leaders[10]. Above the leader chat, Dar_Krusos later created a top tier called the "Shadow Government", described as "the highest leadership tier within the alliance", whose members were Drew1011, Killerfish, Yamipanda, Ha_Ha_Redstone and Rani[11]. General business ran through a hundred-person Skype chat[12], and new members of member guilds were asked to join "the Ordo Malleus skype chats".[13] Voting was by guild rather than by person: when Killerfish was added to the leader chat, Drew1011 checked "to make sure that TnP still only had one vote when it came time to vote on things", and was assured they did.[14] Admissions and expulsions were decided by votes of the leaders.

The mechanism by which the alliance won the territory war was a system of assigned territories. "Each guild was designated certain territories to focus, and as long as we actually succeeded in defeating Concordia, we would get to keep them… We attacked those territories and defended them religiously, and before long Concordia gave up on touching those territories," Drew1011 wrote; Holders of LE held Nesaak and Mining Base, End of Everything was given the desert, and ToastedPandas held Ternaves.[15] An associated tactic governed how allied territory was recovered: a guild retaking a territory for an ally left "minuscule defenses" so the owner could take it straight back, a rule whose breach later became a grievance against HackForums.[16]

A territory map from Drew1011's account showing Ordo Malleus at its height, with every guild holding its designated block: ToastedPandas around Detlas and Ternaves, HaHaUnited around Nemract and the savannah, Sinners in Nivla Forest, Holders of LE at Nesaak Transition and HackForums at Elkurn.A territory map from Drew1011's account showing Ordo Malleus at its height, with every guild holding its designated block: ToastedPandas around Detlas and Ternaves, HaHaUnited around Nemract and the savannah, Sinners in Nivla Forest, Holders of LE at Nesaak Transition and HackForums at Elkurn.

The Concordia war and the forum campaign against Ordo

The alliance's target, Concordia, was effectively finished within weeks. Drew1011 recruited Historical [UEZ] out of it, and its leader 3zPz posted a thread titled "Concordia Disbanded" — dated 8 November 2015, two days after Ordo's founding rather than the three Drew1011 recalled — after which, he wrote, "most people began to consider the alliance dead", although Ezura of Validus denied it in the thread itself.[17][18]

The alliance's dominance produced a public reaction on the forums. On 28 November 2015 tangler, a chief of Validus, opened "Come Join! The Odeus Anti-Validus Pact", a thread in which, Drew1011 wrote, it "was revealed that Arenos had tried to bribe guilds in to joining Ordo Malleus"; he qualified the allegation — "I cannot entirely recall if this was true, but I believe I remember a discussion with Arenos where he admitted to it" — and said the thread devolved into A'renos and Ezura posting screenshots of each other before a moderator closed it.[19] The moderator Mekyr made the thread's last post the following day.[20]

The same day a thread appeared under a new account called TheOrdoSpies, announcing that members of the alliance were passing information to Validus: "We are the Ordo Spies. We have just changed paths to give Info about Ordo to Val. Just to help end Ordo faster." The account was banned and the thread locked the same day, and no moderator ever disclosed whose alt it was.[21][22] Drew1011 speculated that the account belonged either to tangler or to 3zPz.[23] "All this talk of spies within Ordo made many of us paranoid," he wrote, with no evidence to act on.[24]

The thread posted by the account "TheOrdoSpies" on 28 November 2015, claiming that Ordo Malleus members were leaking to Validus. The account was banned and the thread locked the same day.The thread posted by the account "TheOrdoSpies" on 28 November 2015, claiming that Ordo Malleus members were leaking to Validus. The account was banned and the thread locked the same day.

Admissions, expulsions and the February 2016 roster

Historical [UEZ] joined around 9 November 2015 and left on 1 December; on that same day End of Everything was expelled by vote for failing to hold the desert it had been assigned, its territories passing to HackForums, a boss-killing service called the Demon Hunters was founded, and Libertas was admitted[25]. Death Reapers were rejected on a first application and admitted on a second days later[26]; grimmcat's White Wolves were revived to join[27]; Necronomicon [Feq] was promoted from Kangronomicon subguild to full member and complained about having no assigned territories until ToastedPandas and Holders of LE donated three each[28]. Megitsune [Bri], under Amaranthe, joined about a week after Gavel's release and left on 1 February 2016, its leader disbanding the guild rather than passing it on[29]. Applications were closed after Gavel because wars had stopped working, and reopened in late January[30]. WynnTheory [WTh], bought by Paladin A'renos after he left Kangronomicon, was admitted on 3 February 2016 over Drew1011's objection[31], and The No Lifes and Ultimate Xeons followed within days[32].

On 20 February 2016 the UltimateXeons owner motoki1 posted "Update: Joined the Alliance Ordo Malleus!"[33], and the guild's recruitment thread carried an alliance section headed by a single rule, "Don't attack the territories that ally guilds own", above twelve guilds:[13]

GuildTag
KangronomiconFuq
Ha Ha UnitedHHU
ToastedPandasTnP
TheNoLifesTNL
Holders of LEHoL
Wynn TheoryWTh
SinnersSnr
White WolvesWWA
NecronomiconFeq
[[libertasLibertas]]
Death ReapersDxR
UltimateXeonsUXs

End of Everything, Historical, Megitsune and HackForums are absent from the list, all having left or been expelled by then.

The expulsion of HackForums

HackForums was expelled and later readmitted. "I think you're forgetting that Hax was actually kicked out of Ordo", Drew1011 wrote in August 2016[34], and earlier that summer: "Hax was one of the original guilds, although we kicked them out, and then for some reason, let them back in"[35]. Neither remark gave a date or a reason. In early January 2016, immediately after TheDarkSoul was banned from the forums, Drew1011 raised the ban in the Shadow Government chat as reflecting badly on the alliance, Yamipanda moved a vote, and the vote to expel was unanimous or nearly so. The stated grievances were repeated accidental attacks on allied guilds and the practice of defending recaptured allied territory with full mob defences instead of the light defences the alliance's recapture tactic required.[36] HackForums is absent from the 20 February 2016 roster[13], and its own recruitment thread listed a different alliance — "Astrafterí-affinity" — on 11 February 2016[37]. Paladin A'renos re-invited the guild around late February 2016.[38]

The collapse, February–March 2016

Drew1011 called his account of the collapse the most partisan part of his story: "in no part of this story will this be made more apparent than in the collapse of Ordo. Parts of it will contain my biased perspective. If you ask others who were here, they might give a completely different perspective."[39] He described the leadership as having drifted into two informal factions — one around Paladin A'renos with Dar_Krusos and Rani, one around himself with the ToastedPandas leaders and Ha_Ha_Redstone — and said nobody acknowledged the split at the time.[40]

ToastedPandas left on 22 February 2016, after which Dar_Krusos left the Shadow Government[41]. On 25 February a row broke out over A'renos having invited another guild, Sleeping Knights, into a "sub-alliance" without the other leaders' approval; Drew1011 created a chat excluding him and moved to expel WynnTheory, and the motion failed, with most leaders abstaining or declining[42]. Ha Ha United left about 3 March[43]. Drew1011 withdrew Holders of LE on 9 March 2016 at approximately 5:27 PM EST, and the alliance ended the same day: "The alliance would crumble a mere 16 days after TnP left."[44]

In his withdrawal message he wrote that "instead of this alliance being a balance between all the guilds, it become more of a dictatorship between Kru and Arenos", and gave as his ground that Ha Ha United and ToastedPandas had been Holders of LE's closest allies and that their departure had left his guild alone on one side of an unnamed dispute.[45]

Drew1011's message withdrawing Holders of LE from Ordo Malleus on 9 March 2016, the departure that ended the alliance.Drew1011's message withdrawing Holders of LE from Ordo Malleus on 9 March 2016, the departure that ended the alliance.

The community timeline dates the collapse two days later: "11th Mar, Ordo Malleus collapses after a chain of leaves started by Holders Of LE [HoL] approximately 2 days before."[46] The alliance thread's last post is dated 10 March 2016, by Ha_Ha_Redstone.[3] Drew1011 wrote that afterwards "many people began naming me as its destroyer. Did I truly deserve that title? To this day I'm still not sure."[47] Both Paladin A'renos and Dar_Krusos left Wynncraft shortly afterwards; A'renos returned about a year later, while Kru "has never returned, except to pass down leadership of Kangronomicon."[48] Holders of LE and Ha Ha United joined Valkyrie on 18 March 2016.[46][49]

Membership

The February 2016 roster above is the alliance's only surviving membership list.[13] Machine-recorded membership data begins in January 2018, after the alliance's end.[50]

Legacy

Ordo Malleus became the yardstick veterans reached for whenever a later power looked too large. When Glitchedslayer compared HackForums to it in August 2016 — "both were known as the king of guild territories and stopped everyone from getting and holding land"[51] — Drew1011 objected to the comparison itself: "if you're going to try to compare your guild to the greatest alliance to inhabit Wynn, at least spell it right. It's Ordo Malleus. (Order of the Hammer)"[34], adding "I was just trying to defend the memory of the alliance that my friends and I developed."[52]

Glitchedslayer wrote that Ordo "collapsed from the inside because of guilds fighting and was much slower because they had the split the land together" — a structural contrast with Hax, a single guild that "gets much more land for itself so it lvls faster and is much harder to die because of inner fighting".[51] Drew1011's gloss on the difference was about the era rather than the structure: "people cared a lot more about guilds then and there were a lot more active guilds fighting for territories".[53] He also credited Ordo with the first guild ball, the community-event format later alliances copied: "First guild ball was hosted by Ordo. Legio never hosted events."[54]

The alliance kept a social afterlife. A reunion Discord server was created in early 2017; Paladin A'renos joined it, the deleted alliance thread was recovered through it, and it was where A'renos began planning the alliance that became the Emperium of Wynn.[55] Members still identified with it years later — "Once an Ordo brother always an Ordo brother", written on the 2018 Federation tribute thread.[56]

References

  1. ^ A Very Never Ending Guild Timeline!, post #1, the community guild-timeline image (imgur seklYAQ) · original
  2. ^ Guilds, complete census of Alliance-prefixed threads, page 1: "-= Ordo Malleus =-", Paladin A'renos, Nov 6, 2015secondary · original
  3. ^ Guilds, complete census of Alliance-prefixed threads, page 1secondary · original
  4. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L692–695, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  5. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L169–178, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  6. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L179, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  7. ^ Alliance - » Seraphim Alliance « For Those Who Give Very Few Shits, post #13, Glitchedslayer, 9 Aug 2016 · original
  8. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L148–162, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  9. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L190, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  10. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L186–190, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  11. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L248–257, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  12. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L344, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  13. ^ Guild - Ultimate Xeons | Lv. 53, post #11, Drew1011, 20 Feb 2016, quoting the opening post · original
  14. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L253–254, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  15. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L197–202, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  16. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L336–338, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  17. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L203–204, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  18. ^ Guilds, complete census of Alliance-prefixed threads, page 1: "Concordia Disbanded", 3zPz, Nov 8, 2015, 27 replies, lockedsecondary · original
  19. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L215–226, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  20. ^ Guilds, complete census of Alliance-prefixed threads, page 1: "Come Join! The Odeus Anti- Validus Pact", tangler, Nov 28, 2015, last post Mekyr, Nov 29, 2015secondary · original
  21. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L227–232, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  22. ^ Guilds, complete census of Alliance-prefixed threads, page 1: "Ordo Spies", TheOrdoSpies, Nov 28, 2015, lockedsecondary · original
  23. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L231, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  24. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L232, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  25. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L234–247, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  26. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L233, L255–256, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  27. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L258–260, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  28. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L261–268, composed 22 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  29. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L326, L362–364, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  30. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L329, L361, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  31. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L366–370, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  32. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L375–376, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  33. ^ Guild - Ultimate Xeons | Lv. 53, post #7, motoki1, 20 Feb 2016 · original
  34. ^ Alliance - » Seraphim Alliance « For Those Who Give Very Few Shits, post #7, Drew1011, 9 Aug 2016 · original
  35. ^ Alliance - The Separatists, post #6, Drew1011, 27 Jun 2016 · original
  36. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L333–342, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  37. ^ Guild - | ♕hackforums | [☆☆ Hax] | Level 93 | Community Guild | Level 80+, post #13, ThePastryMaster, 11 Feb 2016, quoting the opening post · original
  38. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L435–436, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  39. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L393–397, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  40. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L404–410, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  41. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L381–385, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  42. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L414–431, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  43. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L438–439, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  44. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L390, L454, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  45. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L454–455 and the accompanying screenshot, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  46. ^ Wynncraft guild history timeline (community document), Mar 2016 entrysecondary · original
  47. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L457, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  48. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L462–463, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  49. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L472–473, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  50. ^ Chronicle alliance and event records (TAq database), Chronicle alliance and event recordsderived · original
  51. ^ Alliance - » Seraphim Alliance « For Those Who Give Very Few Shits, post #10, Glitchedslayer, 9 Aug 2016 · original
  52. ^ Alliance - » Seraphim Alliance « For Those Who Give Very Few Shits, post #9, Drew1011, 9 Aug 2016 · original
  53. ^ Alliance - » Seraphim Alliance « For Those Who Give Very Few Shits, post #11, Drew1011, 9 Aug 2016 · original
  54. ^ Alliance - The Emperium Of Wynn, post #61, Drew1011, 22 May 2017 · original
  55. ^ Drew1011 storytime — first-person account of early Wynncraft guild history, L691–700, composed 26 Feb 2018retrospective · original
  56. ^ Alliance - Federation Tribute, post #6, Drew1011, 13 Nov 2018 · original