The Empire
| The Empire | |
|---|---|
| Clan | |
| Name: The Empire | |
| Status: Collapsed | |
| Formed: Autumn 2013 | |
| Bases: Caladan, New Caladan, Tamarisk, Verdologa, Perfuga, Cosa, Zakros | |
The Empire was a large team formed by Pippenger in August 2013. It had very ambitious goals, and for the most part, it completely failed to accomplish them. The Empire lasted only approximately half of a year before collapsing. However, The Empire served as the foundation or example of many bases to follow, most notably including Ascaris, Aggersel, Virunum, Quinsigamond, Stonetown, and its work was directly carried on by other factions including The Order, The Principate, The League, and The New League, and also imitated by many later teams.
Purpose
The primary mission of the Empire was to create an orderly, unified team to bring stability to the chaotic server. Its decidedly pro-noob and anti-anarchy viewpoint put it at odds with the culture of the core players on Simpvp. Noobs were often unconditionally fed and clothed, and massive efforts were undertaken to repair the natural ecology of spawn by importing grass and trees, and even, at certain points, to fill /world with public farms. The desire of the Empire to not only survive and thrive on Simpvp, but also to fundamentally change it, was a major cause of its failure.
Another goal of the Empire was to construct a massive amount of castles and cities, and to create them all in one unified, high quality style. This further distanced the Empire from the general culture of the server, which had typically preferred a much less structured type of faction leadership. It proved incredibly difficult to convince most players to build in the official imperial style, causing the team's bases to fall short of their intended sizes.
Members
The Empire had a huge amount of recruits, but most members did not stay with the team for long, and most quit the server entirely. As the team is now disbanded, every player listed is now a former rather than current member, though most who are on this list can be assumed to have been on the team for a significant length of time or to have helped in a significant way.
- Pippenger and Not_Pippenger
- iQuint
- Alexknvl
- RythinTheSausauge
- Deflowvesper
- Morl0ck
- LDRPC
- Rumpslem
- Brauk
- KikiGreyDragon
- Capnruch
- Dakkadok
- Unclechain
- Many Others
History
The Empire was started by Pippenger in August 2013 when he began looking for people to fill his island castle, Caladan. Rather than bring recruits directly to the base, he first set up a series of over a dozen small colony towns, which can still be found in the general spawn area. Then, he moved to a base directly outside of spawn, and began recruiting any interested players. After living with them for several days close to spawn, he led all of them at once to Caladan, stopping in the colony towns at night to rest.
When they reached Caladan, the recruits began building additions to the castle, some of which were not up to imperial standards. Pippenger published a series of building codes on the forums, mandating what types of things could be constructed in the Empire. This was an unpopular move, and perhaps as a result, the castle was griefed not long after, though not before significant progress was made. It is currently entirely covered by lava pouring down from the height limit, but the complex stone structures underneath are mostly intact.
After the first major strike against the Empire, many members left. Pippenger created a series of rough but large cobblestone castles within 5k of spawn, and continued the same general strategy, using these new Castles as bases instead of the superior Caladan. Attacks against the Empire were very common in this period, and while many players were recruited, few stayed for very long, and little was accomplished. The castle Tamarisk still stands and is sometimes used as a base by players unaffiliated with the Empire.
In November 2013, Pippenger used his alt, Not_Pippenger, to manage the construction of a large capital city, New Caladan, tens of thousands of blocks from spawn. Dakkadok, using his alt Sappu Jappu, and Capnruch, helped in the early stages of construction, while Morl0ck donated some items. At first progress was rapid, and it seemed that a sizable and pleasant metropolis would soon occupy the entire island. However, the other players besides Pippenger did not enjoy building in the imperial style, so progress was very slow. Aside from a large house by Deflowvesper, a few sewers and bridges by Alexknvl, and several machines by iQuint, the citizens of New Caladan hardly worked on the city at all. Even Pippenger eventually became discouraged when he realized he had to accomplish a task alone that had first been intended for a dozen people.
At the same time, Pippenger tried to continue recruiting new players and repairing spawn on his other account, still using the spawn castle Tamarisk as a base. As a result, neither New Caladan nor Tamarisk flourished, and both slowly declined. Eventually the Empire officially abandoned its spawn efforts and its system of absolute government, becoming a Republic that did not attempt to control land beyond its immediate borders. But by this point, the citizens of the Empire were disillusioned, and scarcely had even the desire to see it succeed.
An unknown player using the pseudonym Horus set the city on fire, and the people scattered. Pippenger continued helping noobs and repairing spawn with his main account, and with his alt, he started the city Ascaris with Cinnabars, superior in both size and quality to New Caladan.
Legacy
In the summer of 2015, many ruined imperial bases were restored by The Order. These castles and towns provided the bases for the new team and served as the focal points of social activity for months. Imperial ruins also had a great influence on the architecture of some of the new players who mimicked them.
The large cities Aggersel and Ascaris, both led by Pippenger, also used Imperial Architecture as their basis, and included many former members of the Empire.
While the Empire failed, it is not accurate to say that it accomplished none of its goals or had no lasting impact on the server.