|
|
| Line 8: |
Line 8: |
| |location = | | |location = |
| |clans = Gerb | | |clans = Gerb |
| |bases = hole, Gerb main base
| |
| }} | | }} |
| <!-- will be edited --> | | <!-- will be edited --> |
|
| |
|
| Gerb was a player on SimPvP who joined on February 11, 2019, soon becoming notorious for his involvement in several controversies and schemes. As a result of the Imperial War, the subsequent base tracking controversy, and sweeping changes to server climate and policy, he unofficially quit the server on March 29, 2021. A few months later, Gerb left all active SimPvP discords, finalizing his departure. Though he pledges to return in 2025, the following is a highly detailed account of Gerb’s complete experience on SimPvP. | | Gerb |
| | |
| =First days, Egnaroky, and Caudices=
| |
| | |
| Gerb’s close friend, egnaroky, joined SimPvP after finding it from one of Porkington’s reddit advertisements. After setting up a small base not far from spawn, egnaroky recommended the server to Gerb, with whom he had played minecraft a few years prior. Despite being unfamiliar with vanilla servers, as well as being tricked into killing himself with the now-defunct /op command, Gerb took an immediate liking to SimPvP and soon joined up with egnaroky at his mountain base. In the following days and weeks, Gerb became the more active of the duo, constantly mining, trading, and building up their meager resources.
| |
| | |
| However, egnaroky and Gerb would soon come into conflict with one of the wealthiest and most feared SimPvP players at the time. While trading with ostrich1414 in /world, Gerb lost almost all of his diamond gear after being attacked by clipchip. Angered by this, he convinced egnaroky to help him get revenge. Gerb soon contacted clipchip, requesting to buy glowstone from him at a relatively high price. Clipchip agreed, and so the two began planning an ambush. The plan was to simply splash clipchip with instant damage potions as soon as he arrived, hopefully killing him instantly. However, both Gerb and egnaroky were not aware that the “protection” enchantment greatly reduces the damage from all potion effects, so they were woefully overconfident in the success of this scheme.
| |
| | |
| Less than an hour before the ambush was launched, Antzakes1, a player who Gerb had become acquainted with due to the similarities of their usernames, became aware of the plan through an unintended /r. During the early half of 2019, Antzakes1 and clipchip were perhaps the two most dangerous players to encounter in /world, and often clashed over this rival territory. One of Antzakes1’s few pvp world deaths was in a ground battle against clipchip, fought prior to Gerb and egnaroky’s joining. Because of this rivalry, Antzakes1 actually joined their conspiracy and assisted in the attack. However, due to the aforementioned overconfidence, the instant damage potions failed to do significant damage to clipchip, and he quickly struck back. Antzakes1 and egnaroky actually managed to escape, as both were invisible, but since Gerb had to execute the “trade”, he was in full diamond armor. After a brief sword battle, Gerb was slain by the far more skilled and supplied clipchip, ending the scheme in failure.
| |
| | |
| This encounter, though it seems minor, set in action a domino effect which had major influence on the Second Burning Age’s history, arguably exceeding the consequences of TheOnlySlash / Lord1 rivalry, or the formation of the YMP. Not only did the event cement clipchip as Gerb and egnaroky’s primary enemy for the next year and a half, but also began a strong bond between Gerb and Antzakes1, who became more closely affiliated over the next two months. Furthermore, researching Minecraft’s technical workings was greatly prioritized for egnaroky and Gerb, as their ignorance had directly contributed to failure. All of these developments would directly or indirectly result in several ruinous wars and catastrophic controversies which otherwise would have been avoided.
| |
| | |
| Having angered clipchip, the duo found themselves in urgent need of allies. In addition to Antzakes1, they soon befriended Earned_Awesome77, later known as Hamieb, and began actively trading with them, despite clipchip’s /world blockade. Around this time, egnaroky and Gerb decided to officially form a team, which they eventually named “Caudices”. This name roughly translates to ‘Idiots' in Latin, and though originally meant as a self-deprecating joke, accurately predicts the moronic decisions they would make later on. The Caudices banner was soon given to ostrich1414, and though they had interacted before, this officially began their complicated relationship. One of the first actions Gerb would take on behalf of the Caudices was to defend VetoTheNeato’s base. VetoTheNeato, seeking basemates, had given his coordinates to The_Arma, a member of the Fellowship and known griefer. Aiming to befriend VetoTheNeato, Gerb warned him of the danger and was permitted to defend the base against The_Arma. This scared Arma, causing him to delay the attack by several hours. VetoTheNeato evacuated, and, thankful for the help, would be on good terms with the Caudices for many more months.
| |
| | |
| Concurrent with the Caudices’ expansionist diplomatic focus was the cataclysmic YMP griefing campaign. The team was new, large, extremely aggressive, and despised by most of the server. In addition, the YMP was a surprisingly effective fighting force, slaughtering fully geared players with ease. Gerb’s attention was drawn to the group after they managed to kill clipchip twice in quick succession, something which was, in Gerb’s mind, an increasingly mythical feat. For this reason, Gerb secretly contacted Tupik (jake276493) and pledged to materially support the YMP. While this ultimately went nowhere, it’s the first example of Gerb risking his reputation in service of a greater goal. This scheme was not made known to egnaroky, even though the two were still constantly communicating and building together. As a result of their high productivity, the Caudices had far outgrown their first base. The base, later named “Cliffhaven”, was less than 12k from spawn, and extremely vulnerable to a strike from either clipchip or the YMP. For this reason, in early March, Gerb and egnaroky packed up their valuables and embarked to find a more permanent home.
| |
| | |
| =Nil, Florestria, the CAB, and the MCMAFIA=
| |
| | |
| The new base was further out, at a respectable 80k from spawn, and so the team felt far more comfortable building larger and permanent farms. The majority of these farms were conceived and built by Gerb, although egnaroky, who was at this point immensely more knowledgeable about the game, often had to assist. As an example of Gerb’s depressing lack of competence, he attempted to build a gunpowder farm using bottom slabs as the intended spawning block. It was only when egnaroky investigated the interior did Gerb learn that mobs are unable to spawn on transparent blocks, a fact which egnaroky mocks him for to this day. But, slowly, their farms became functional and productive, and both Gerb and egnaroky(Though mostly Gerb) became more familiar with Minecraft’s mechanics. Access to 1.13 chunks was also a significant boon to their prosperity, as the structures and resources in these regions yielded rewards for exploration. As the territory was increasingly explored and mapped out, Gerb noticed that their base's geography was strikingly similar to the real-world Iberian peninsula, and so proposed the new base be named “Iberia”. Egnaroky however was strongly opposed to this naming, his main reason that it was “dumb”. In actuality, he didn’t think the base even needed a name, because he didn’t think they would ever need to specify more than one location. Contrasted with this internal perspective, Gerb was concerned with building recognition with the server at large, and he thought a base name would help in this sense. After a few days of argument, they finally reached a compromise. The two agreed to officially name the base “Nil”, a play on how the word is a synonym for “nothing”.
| |
| | |
| Florestria was a small lake town founded by the players ReaganKindred and ostrich1414 in early March. Intrigued by ostrich1414’s conversations about the city, Gerb asked to join, a request which ostrich1414 accepted. On the day he arrived, Gerb constructed a small tower and yacht in the lake, and terraformed some of the land for a future town hall. Within a few days, egnaroky was invited as well. Gerb’s efforts to build a cooperative relationship with the larger server had been successful, and this was the beginning of Gerb's closest SimPvP friendship. At the time however, Gerb would probably have considered Antzakes1 his closest ally. Antzakes1 was a firm source of support, and would often donate supplies to help Gerb recover from clipchip’s attacks. Antzakes1 was, and most likely still is, an incredibly paranoid player who only bases underground. This meant that he could not acquire certain resources or build certain farms, so he was heavily dependent on trade to survive. For instance, in 1.13 and prior, villagers required sky access to breed, and so any villager-related means of production was cut off from him. As a result, he exported his waste, most notably rotten flesh, to his allies in exchange for emeralds, bows, or villager products. This constant source of villager trading was invaluable to Gerb during this period, as he was rich enough to produce god armor, but not yet experienced enough to escape clipchip. Over the course of his first year, Gerb lost more than twenty god sets to clipchip alone, not counting the damage the /world blockade did to his trading prospects. As Antzakes was his only ally willing to oppose clipchip and consistently resupply him, Gerb was firmly within Antzakes1’s sphere of influence. Antzakes1 also maintained similar relationships with other groups, most notably the group Passione, and was thus in a considerably strong diplomatic position during early 2019.
| |
| | |
| As he built this alliance with Antzakes1, Gerb focused on the events in Nil and Florestria. In late March, Gerb finished constructing “Castle Bravo”, an immense cobble monstrosity hosting a 1.13 villager hall and aforementioned gunpowder farm. Despite using up most of Nil’s cobblestone to build it, Castle Bravo remains the ugliest structure Gerb has ever constructed on SimPvP. Shortly after the castle’s completion, he also created the much-prettier Florestria Blimp, which housed yet another gunpowder farm. Around this time, Gerb gave basemates MoWobbler, ostrich1414, and ReaganKindred access to Nil. (Sidenote: Florestria and Nil cooperated intimately throughout their existence, and could technically fit the definition of Sister Cities). Over time, more and more of Nil’s produce was used for Florestria’s aims, and new projects slowed down. While Nil began to stagnate, Florestria was experiencing rapid growth, fueled by the steady addition of enthusiastic new players. However, in the server at large, Florestria’s expansion was not an anomaly.
| |
| | |
| In the early months of the burning age, which at the time was still considered the tail end of the Silver Age, the player population had exploded, yet server culture remained relatively trusting and peaceful. This allowed for the formation of huge ad-hoc teams, and several massive cities sprung up as a result. The YMP, the Commonwealth, The Fellowship, The Fellowship of the Kittens, and the SFR, were all upstart teams, creating large settlements with no ties to existing powers. The fact that these groups were often expansionist and aggressive, combined with their cities dragging TPS down, fostered an oppressive anti-noob sentiment amongst the established playerbase. This gave the old powers a reason to cooperate, which ironically resulted in their own massive teams and cities. During this epoch of urbanization, one such city stood above the rest in power, prestige, and size: Struthio. As leader of this megacity, and recognizing the current server climate, ostrich1414 began an ambitious project. He saw the potential, and need, for an international system to promote peace and cooperation. In mid March, this resulted in the creation of the Coalition of Allied bases, or CAB, which was an alliance of four cities affiliated with ostrich1414: Struthio, Nos Aeterna, Triterrus, and Florestria. At its conception, the group hoped to incorporate even more cities, with the ultimate goal of peacefully resolving conflicts through collaborative projects and common ideals. Unfortunately, the process of deciding which ideals were common, and which projects to collaborate on, was woefully dysfunctional. This was most evident by a few bizarre and comedic arguments between DakkaDok and egnaroky. DakkaDok’s strictly formal and logical thought process was constantly at odds with egnaroky’s zany suggestions and eccentric means of communication. In part due to fundamental incompatibility, lack of focus, and egnaroky’s argumentative position, the CAB quickly entered stagnation. However, the fact that ostrich1414 had brought four disparate cities together with relatively little hassle is a testament both to Struthio’s prestige, and ostrich’s serverwide connections.
| |
| | |
| This diplomatic might was awe-inspiring for Gerb, and as time progressed, joining Struthio was increasingly seen as the “next step” for the Caudices. Struthio membership also represented a way to finally end the conflict with clipchip, as Gerb hoped sharing a base would at the very least discourage aggression, and at best help form an alliance with the player. Obviously this relationship could also be negatively exploited: If clipchip remained belligerent, Gerb and egnaroky planned to use Struthio as a means of finding his portal network and bases, with the ultimate goal of marching on clipchip’s main base, Golden Sun. But, either way, Gerb and egnaroky desperately hoped to end the conflict. This was made all the more imperative when clipchip and Javelinfury reformed the MCMAFIA, quickly adding established and new players to their ranks. Gerb’s future basemates, cheesy_chips22 and IAmTheSheriff, were ordered to kill and imprison him in /world. Even MoWobbler, a fellow Florestrian, joined the group.
| |
| | |
| By early April, egnaroky constructed one of SimPvP’s first fully automatic obsidian farms at Florestria. Gerb, of course, had completed the Florestrian gunpowder farm, but was also designing a zoo and iron farm on the Florestrian outskirts. Undoubtedly the most significant achievement of theirs was the Florestrian Gold Farm, which took the combined effort of all Florestria’s residents and egnaroky’s machine. The vast majority of the Caudices’ diplomatic and industrial efforts were invested in Florestria, efforts which were now directly threatened by clipchip’s sphere of influence. Hoping to balance the scales, Gerb formally requested Struthio membership from ostrich141. While Struthio had admitted noobs before, this request was doomed from the start. Firstly, ostrich1414 was fully aware of the Gerb-clipchip rivalry, and was not going to risk Struthio becoming a battleground. Secondly, he was increasingly unsettled with Gerb’s closeness to Antzakes1, and tension would only grow between the two players. As could be expected, ostrich1414 denied the request. From this point forward, both Gerb and Antzakes1 moved away from ostrich1414’s diplomatic approach and began to plot direct action against clipchip. The waxing conflict was also a major reason that egnaroky and Gerb eventually abandoned Nil. While they wanted access to the upcoming 1.14 chunks, the primary concern was Nil’s overall lack of security; it was easily accessible by ostrich1414 and MoWobbler, but also relatively close to spawn. After a day-long journey, (during which egnaroky almost died several times) egnaroky finally stopped at a nether fortress approximately one million blocks from spawn. Gerb quickly set up a place to sleep and store resources in, a small tower which would eventually become one of Mil’s few aesthetic buildings.
| |
| | |
| =Java Linsghey and the Antzakes1 Crisis=
| |
| | |
| Despite Florestrian tensions soaring, egnaroky remained relatively detached from politics. In fact, his experience during this time was almost the opposite. Since he didn’t often enter /world, even the clipchip conflict rarely affected him. Instead of engaging with the increasingly toxic server conflicts, he befriended a few members of the Drago Guard and devised plans for new farms. As shown earlier by Gerb’s scheme during the YMP campaigns, egnaroky and Gerb had completely unrelated ambitions and ideals. However, unlike Gerb’s secret support for the YMP, his alliance with Antzakes1 would soon become controversial public knowledge. This meant that egnaroky, despite having nothing to do with Gerb’s actions, would be considered an affiliate. This association also worked the other way. Egnaroky’s bizarre comments in chat, and in the CAB especially, insinuated that Gerb was similarly argumentative, or shared similarly incomprehensible ideas. Gerb’s attempts at serious negotiation began to be undermined by egnaroky’s eccentricity, and egnaroky’s attempts to cooperate amicably with other players was undermined by Gerb’s increasingly radical perspective and actions. But, despite grave dysfunction, both continued to enthusiastically support the Caudices’ existence as a political entity.
| |
| | |
| In mid April, Antzakes1 obtained the coordinates to the base Java Linsghey from ShadyB0B(Sidenote: ShadyB0B is responsible for the destruction of several other bases, and was later discovered to be a CrackyJoe alt). This was a massive development for the anti-clipchip duo, as the base hosted clipchip, JavelinFury, the #GetClipChipAGirlfriend headquarters, and was (in theory) active. Without much delay, the two descended upon the base, raiding whatever supplies they could find, and attempting a few lavacasts. However, they were both inexperienced and unamused with the griefing process, so the base survived relatively intact. While Gerb and Antzakes1 gained a small amount of loot and satisfied their desire for retribution, the raid was a huge strategic blunder. While Java Linsghey was technically a clipchip base, it was also home to several previously neutral, well established, and influential players. Among them were the admins DakkaDok and Misterstrawman, but also ostrich1414 himself. Because of this, the raid was extremely counterproductive. These neutral players now saw Gerb and Antzakes1 as griefers and a potential threat, and clipchip and Javelinfury simply hardened their stance. Ostrich1414 confronted Gerb about the event in a lengthy private conversation, disapproving of his association with Antzakes1, and condemning his actions in Java Linsghey. Unfortunately, Gerb had already committed to actively resisting clipchip, so there was little ostrich1414 could say to dissuade him. In a matter of days, Gerb’s radical position, as well as ostrich1414’s inability to resolve the conflict, would come to a head as a pivotal moment of the Second Burning Age.
| |
| | |
| On April 23rd, the group Passione randomly discovered Struthio while exploring the overworld. While Antzakes1 and Gerb were closely allied, Passione was arguably closer to Antzakes1. Antzakes1 gave them the same supplies and support which Gerb received, but they were wealthy enough to help Antzakes1 with his own supply issues, and even invited him to their main base. Because of this close connection, Passione granted Antzakes1 coordinates to Struthio. The presence of the group, including Antzakes1, was soon made known to the residents. While the discovery of Struthio was already shocking to the server’s population, it made Gerb’s prior plans to end the clipchip conflict tenable. After a two day long negotiatory period, Antzakes1 agreed to give Struthio coordinates to Gerb, with the promise that he wouldn’t visit until Antzakes1 allowed him to, and Gerb agreed to give Antzakes1 Florestria coordinates, with a similar promise that he wouldn’t visit until Gerb approved. Almost immediately, Gerb regretted this exchange. Now in control of both of ostrich1414’s bases, Antzakes1 began to make increasingly inflammatory statements and act more recklessly. This prompted ostrich1414 to invite several skilled pvpers to Struthio, and all progress in the city ground to a halt. This was the beginning of the so-called “Antzakes Crisis”, and it would only get worse.
| |
| | |
| On April 27th, Gerb was killed by clipchip while attempting to deliver a few shulkers of supplies to Antzakes. This greatly angered Antzakes1, who demanded that ostrich1414 take immediate action. Emboldened by his newfound power, he even threatened the well-being of Florestria. This revealed to ostrich1414 that Antzakes had access, an act that violated his promise to Gerb. Antzakes’ behavior after accessing Struthio had already started to make Gerb nervous, but this overt betrayal of trust was a sharp wake up call. Too late, he began to distance himself from Antzakes1 while trying to stabilize the panicking Florestrian community. During this flurry of activity egnaroky had remained completely unaware of the coordinate exchange, and it was a total surprise to him when he found out that Antzakes1 had access. But for ostrich1414, who had been monitoring Gerb closely, the event was merely a confirmation of his worst suspicions.
| |
| | |
| After a period of debate, the Florestrians made the cautious decision to remain in the city. A few days later, Chris_Chord, a member of Passione, was invited to Florestria, and the city continued to slowly expand despite the looming threat. In Struthio, things were quickly reaching their climax. The Struthio team, horrified by the possibility of an Antzakes1/Gerb griefing campaign, completely evacuated all valuables, militarized the city, and began to prepare for war. However, Gerb was now in complete opposition to Antzakes1’s increasingly insane actions, and after it became clear that the two were no longer aligned, the Struthio team decided to limit their war to only Antzakes1. Gerb was not the only ally who felt betrayed, though. Passione, the group which had given Antzakes1 access to Struthio, was also extremely uncomfortable with the crisis. They too began to distance themselves from Antzakes1. Faced with wavering support and an increasingly likely war, Antzakes1 took revenge on Passione’s perceived betrayal, ambushing and killing Chris_Chord in Florestria. This incident, combined with reports that Antzakes1 had sold Florestria coordinates to ShadyB0B, confirmed to the Florestrians that peace was impossible. Gerb, even though he was directly responsible for these events, was extremely disturbed by them. His entire rationale for the coordinate exchange was an eventual resolution of conflict, but Antzakes1 was actively inciting it. It soon became clear to Gerb that Antzakes1 had hidden his true intentions for the alliance, using it as a means of gaining more power and wealth. Finally, Gerb confessed the extent of his collusion with Antzakes1 to egnaroky, who then shared this information with the Florestrians on May 9th. The citizens, especially ostrich1414 and ReaganKindred, were justifiably enraged that Gerb had betrayed the city, and began to evacuate.
| |
| | |
| News of Gerb’s involvement in the crisis spread quickly. Established players, who were already wary of Gerb because of the Java Linsghey raid, broadly condemned his actions as selfish and malicious. On the same day, Gerb was blown up by ostrich1414 while he was AFK, damaging a portion of the gunpowder farm in the process. This event was the final nail in the coffin for the city of Florestria, and though evacuation efforts were still ongoing, the now-dormant city would largely see no player activity until its final destruction two years later. Gerb, stricken with extreme guilt, removed his tower and yacht from the town, replacing them with the Florestria Memorial Fountain. (Sidenote: The memorial fountain is the only surviving Florestrian build, preserved in Korijenkin’s Museum). At his lowest point on SimPvP yet, he resolved to isolate himself from the community as an act of penance and self-reflection. While he embarked on this hermetic journey, the widely known consequences of the Antzakes1 crisis unfolded. With Struthio evacuated, ostrich1414 invited a massive host of players to defend the city against a possible attack. Despite these efforts, Struthio would ultimately be griefed in June, definitively ending the lifespan of one of SimPvP’s most influential cities.
| |
| | |
| As shown, the Antzakes1 crisis was far more complex than is usually presented. By building multiple alliances with new players, Antzakes1 was able to guarantee their trust and support, resulting in mutual benefit. While these alliances may have been at first genuine, Antzakes1 was able to subtly manipulate them to increase his own influence. Using this diplomatic template, Antzakes1 was able to thrive in an unproductive but hyper-secure base. Of utmost importance to this strategy was a facade of trustworthiness and mutual respect, one which was lost when he betrayed his alliances and became a serverwide pariah. Antzakes1 was at the peak of his power during the crisis, but in acting so aggressively, destroyed the fundamental reason for his success. Over the following year, Antzakes1 would slowly decline in relevance, further decrease his reputation, and eventually slip into inactivity. Gerb, however, was able to survive and repair many damaged relationships over the coming months. This was possible for a few reasons. Firstly and most importantly, ostrich1414 became increasingly aware of the extent that Antzakes1 had betrayed and manipulated his allies. He was able to discern that neither Passione nor Gerb intended any malice, and saw Antzakes1 as the primary enemy. After a matter of weeks, he effectively forgave their actions and was prepared to move on. Secondly, Gerb was genuinely upset with the loss of Florestria, and rightfully took responsibility for what happened. Egnaroky, having been uninvolved with the conflict, was able to vouch for the authenticity of these feelings. This led to an overall cooling of tempers, and while most would not yet forgive Gerb, they were also not openly hostile. Over time, Gerb would reenter SimPvP politics, dramatically more paranoid, but with a renewed commitment to base loyalty. Nonetheless, the damage caused by this incident would not be soon forgotten. Javelinfury and clipchip used it as constant anti-Gerb propaganda, and from this point forward, Gerb would forever be associated with duplicity and scheming.
| |
| | |
| Fortunately for the Caudices, not all was lost when Florestria was abandoned. During the latter half of Florestria’s lifespan, they were simultaneously expanding Mil, a small village that would soon become their main base. Just as Nil had been a driving force of Florestria’s expansion, the high-quality farms at Florestria supported Mil’s development. Mil’s distance from spawn allowed the Caudices to focus on new ambitious projects, as both egnaroky and Gerb had become proficient in redstone and farming. Egnaroky began work on a nether perimeter, while Gerb imported supplies from Nil and improved the overall quality of the base. Despite the crisis, the former members of Struthio and Florestria were experiencing similar recoveries. Both groups resolved to start new cities, and began to search for new base locations as little as one day after the abandonment of Florestria. These efforts quickly bore fruit, and the two teams would found the successor cities Yittrium and Segoria. Unlike their predecessors, these cities attempted to be far more secure, and would be located millions of blocks from spawn.
| |
| | |
| =The Yittrium Epoch=
| |
| | |
| Yittrium’s early days were surprisingly optimistic and active despite the total loss of Florestria. Willing to give him a second chance, ostrich1414 even invited Gerb back into the group. This invite ended Gerb’s brief self-imposed isolation, and he soon traveled to the newly-founded town. In this first week, he would build an air balloon and a small coastal house with a few farms in its basement. However, it would be about a month until Gerb truly became active there, as he was currently focusing on the newly-founded city of Mil. The Caudicean city was far more planned than Nil had been, with a series of homogenous underground laboratories to host their farms and storage, and a massive nether perimeter already underway. With egnaroky in charge of building the subterranean tunnels, Gerb expanded the surface region and mapped out the surrounding chunks. Progress was steady, and soon all of Nil’s resources were relocated to Mil, cementing it as the Caudices’ main base. However, egnaroky demanded total control over new expansions to the subterranean section, something which rapidly became an issue. Gerb was the more active of the two, and this system made it impossible to expand industry without consulting egnaroky first. Egnaroky did complete new sections over time, and Gerb was sometimes permitted to make additions to the underground, but this restrictive planning system decimated the potential of the new base. Mil would grow at a painfully slow rate, and as a result, Gerb increasingly devoted his efforts to Yittrium.
| |
| | |
| Between late May and early July, Yittrium experienced rapid, uncontrolled growth. New members, most notably the Passione team and later, cheesy_chips22, brought fresh build styles and unique districts, while the old members used their experience from Florestria to create a bustling city center. Despite all the conflicts leading to this point, things were looking up, and Gerb hoped to never again return to the turmoil of the Antzakes1 crisis. Unfortunately, these months of peace would come to an end when cheesy_chips22 joined Yittrium in July. Cheesy_chips22 was an open supporter of clipchip and the MCMAFIA, and had climbed to a high position in the organization in a short span of time. He had also been uncannily persistent in his efforts to join Yittrium, and once he was there, was openly antagonistic towards Gerb. Tensions with clipchip, which had since died down, now had the potential to catastrophically reemerge. Spooked by this possibility, Gerb began to organize a secret society amongst Yittrium’s most active and trusted members.
| |
| | |
| This would become the Yittrium Security Council, or YSC, consisting of ostrich1414, MoWobbler, Gerb, and egnaroky. While its original goal was to detect and prevent any threats to Yittrium, it soon became a place where many of Yittrium’s political goals and external operations were planned. In its 9 month history, this secret group helped organize peace talks, formed spawn bases, and eventually led the main war effort against the Commonwealth. Gerb became obsessed with these covert activities, and his building output at both Mil and Yittrium declined. Though at the cost of building, the value of the YSC was proven just weeks after its formation. In mid August, clipchip and Javelinfury invaded a Yittrium-funded noob base, where a brief battle occurred. Gerb engaged the MCMAFIA in the ruins of the town, while the residents were blown up or fled. This reinvigorated the Caudices-clipchip rivalry to a point not seen since the fall of Florestria, and both sides openly threatened to grief eachother’s bases in the immediate aftermath. Recognizing that cheesy_chips22 could potentially leak Yittrium to his MCMAFIA allies, these threats were taken seriously. Peace talks were immediately organized, chiefly by the YSC’s moderate members MoWobbler and ostrich1414, in an attempt to solve the rivalry once and for all. While these peace talks ultimately didn’t resolve the broader conflict, they certainly cooled tensions to a more manageable level, and Yittrium survived the incident unscathed. Nostrum_Regina, Gerb’s alternate account, was also able to spy on clipchip’s “Chad Lounge”, giving Gerb firsthand insight on the player.
| |
| | |
| The Chad Lounge, unfortunately, was mostly inactive, and clipchip’s inner circle proved far harder to infiltrate than Gerb originally thought. So, as time went on, Gerb focused Nostrum_Regina’s efforts on allying with the ever-paranoid Antzakes1. Since Gerb knew Antzakes1’ values and personality from when they were genuinely allies, Nostrum_Regina easily befriended him. To get more relevant information from this alliance, Gerb manufactured a “rivalry” by raiding Nostrum’s base and “bedtrapping” the alt. While this fostered additional hatred for Gerb, it garnered sympathy for Nostrum_Regina, who was quickly resupplied by Antzakes1. The incident worked as intended, as Antzakes1 became far more willing to share information with the account. Nostrum_Regina had become an invaluable source of intelligence, so Gerb kept the Nostrum_Regina alt entirely secret, once again not informing egnaroky of his schemes. Nostrum_Regina and the YSC, which had both started as a simple attempt to keep Yittrium safe, slowly turned into an all-encompassing project for Gerb, the extent of which none of his allies were yet aware.
| |
| | |
| Now monitoring his rivals, Gerb resumed building at both Mil and Yittrium. The introduction of 1.14 initiated a flurry of activity in both cities, and was most effectively exploited in Mil. The Caudices’ capital city quickly became an industrial powerhouse, home to some of the first totem farms and 1.14 villager halls on the server. Gerb also constructed a large villager breeder in downtown Yittrium, which produced so many villagers that they had to be killed en masse. He also resumed work on the Yittrium Arena, a vast project that had remained incomplete for months in the middle of the city. While not as thrilling as Yittrium’s first months, this period was immensely more memorable, if not occasionally tense due to server politics.
| |
| | |
| Around the same time that Yittrium was flourishing, the remnants of the Fellowship and the Fellowship of the Kittens dissolved, quickly reforming into the Dominion and Church of Francis. These two groups, which owed their existence to the War of the Fellowships, continued the rivalries of their predecessors. In the summer of 2019, COF and Dominion fought a series of low intensity conflicts which resulted in the participation of several previously neutral players. While these conflicts drew serverwide attention, the rivalry escalated significantly after the COF’s Golden Sun raid. Consequently, the MCMAFIA aligned themselves with the anti-COF Dominion, and Gerb, surprised to see the upstart Church take down clipchip, sought closer ties with Lord1 and the Church as a whole. This was Gerb’s primary motivation for joining the Bloc for Smaller Clans, a group originally started by Burger_Malone and HJah to give power to small teams, and of which the COF was a member. Within a few weeks, the Bloc for Smaller Clans was largely led by the efforts of the Caudices and COF.
| |
| | |
| All of these developments, though significant, were temporarily disrupted with the sudden emergence of the Holy Wilbur-Francis War. Yittrium, which leaned towards the interests of the Order of Wilbur and many of the older players, became the head of an anti-COF crusade. Despite Gerb’s positive view of the COF, he felt closer to Yittrium and joined the war on Wilbur’s side. The Wilbur-Francis war, though it turned out to be mostly a meme, represented a significant step for the Caudices’ public image. The war coincided with dramatic meta shifts following 1.14, namely the devaluation of diamond armor, totems, and enchants. Many teams, especially the older players within the OOW, had not yet adapted to these changes. The Caudices, however, who had just upgraded Mil into a villager powerhouse, were able to produce an immense amount of resources relative to the team’s age and size. As a result, the Caudices proved themselves an independent and capable team within the Wilbur coalition. In truth, the Caudices were simply ahead of the curve at a convenient time, and would be quickly outpaced in both farm quality and manpower in the coming months. For instance, neither Mil nor Yittrium had a gold farm. To foreshadow future events, Yittrium member TonTheKidRS ended up transferring large amounts of gold from the Commonwealth’s main base to use in the Holy War.
| |
| | |
| When the Holy War came to an end in November 2019, many participants suffered from a lack of direction. The war didn’t seriously disrupt the status quo, but it did freeze progress for practically every party involved. Between October 17th and November 18th, nothing major was completed at either Yittrium or Mil, and it took some time for building to resume. However, since the war didn’t disrupt server politics too much, Gerb and Lord1 once again began cooperating in the Bloc for Smaller Clans, now shortened to just Bloc for Clans or BC. And, despite technically being allies with clipchip during the war, tensions with clipchip were at an all time high. As nothing had really changed, the conflicts of early October quickly ramped up again. In fact, the Caudices and COF, despite just emerging from the massive conflict, immediately began to prepare for war against clipchip and his allies.
| |
| | |
| On November 23, just a week after the Holy War came to an end, Gerb declared war on the MCMAFIA with support from the BC. At the start of the war, Mil was invaluable for supplying wartime material, both leftover from the Holy War and produced specifically for the conflict. As the Caudices were now allies with the COF, Francillian soldiers were decked out with Caudices gear, and the Caudices were fighting previous Wilburian allies, the Caudices - COF alliance was seen as very odd. The Caudices also brought a few unconventional tactics to the Intervention War, adding to the eccentricity of the conflict. Most famous of these tactics was the “wolf bomb”, a device which would teleport up to 2,000 buffed wolves to the player and devastate any enemy in an enclosed area(Sidenote: egnaroky, one of the worst pvpers on simpvp, almost killed TheOnlySlash with this device). Other tactics were used to varying effect, ranging from enderpearl stasis combat HQs, to signal flares, to flooding spawn. However, due to blunders like the invasion of MCCAPITAL, support for the war gradually waned, and Gerb soon became entangled in two successive Yittrium crises. Because of the MCMAFIA’s apparent apathy to fight, growing division in the BC, and an architect of the war distracted by other issues, the Intervention war ground to a sudden halt.
| |
| | |
| In late November and early December, Antzakes1 shared two intriguing pieces of information with Nostrum_Regina. Firstly, it was discovered that CallsighRaine (AKA ReaganKindred, the founder of Florestria and semi-active Yittrium member) was also in a close alliance with Antzakes1, and even had a shared base. This bore a concerning resemblance to Gerb’s relationship with Antzakes1 during Florestria, and the YSC, similarly concerned, agreed to closely monitor the situation. They soon noticed Antzakes1 was acting very strangely, asking specific questions about Yittrium’s farms and the home locations of numerous players there. The YSC, not knowing about Gerb’s secret alt, reacted with minor alarm at this sudden shift in behavior. Gerb, however, knew why this was happening. While Nostrum_Regina was faux-hating on Gerb in a private dm, Antzakes1 revealed that he had “found Gerb’s base” and was planning a scheme to replace him. After further DMs with Antzakes1, it was proven beyond all doubt that ReaganKindred had leaked Yittrium to Antzakes1, a worst-case scenario for the YSC and the city at large.
| |
| | |
| Both ostrich1414 and Gerb agreed that it would be best to attempt a peaceful integration rather than risk another violent crisis, and soon alerted the rest of the YSC of the situation. It was at this time that a large amount of Yittrium’s wealth, primarily enchanted books, iron blocks, and slime blocks, were transported to a secret underground vault in the case of emergency. However, this issue was still only known by the YSC, and most other residents continued building as if nothing was wrong. The YSC quickly realized that mass panic posed as much of a threat to the city as Antzakes did. A plan was hatched to slowly introduce this information to one person at a time, so that no runaway panic could happen as it did in Struthio, and to a lesser extent Florestria. On December 6, Antzakes’ presence in Yittrium was announced in the main Yittrium discord and an official vote was held. As everyone had been privately briefed on the situation, the vote passed with 7 people voting to accept him and 2 people abstaining. However, since everyone already knew the consequences of refusal, this acceptance was essentially coerced. But still, unlike Florestria, Yittrium survived Antzakes’ arrival with very little incident. This was a major accomplishment for Gerb and the YSC, but one which proved ultimately futile. Even the YSC members conceded that the base was irrevocably compromised, and so began to retreat back to their private projects. And, as nobody was invested in base security anymore, several more members joined with very little fanfare. Despite their fears about the MCMAFIA or Antzakes1, after a month of deterioration, disillusionment, and stagnation, Yittrium met a conclusive end on January 5th, 2020 at the hands of the Commonwealth.
| |
| | |
| In its 9 month existence, Yittrium rose from the ashes of Florestria to a server-renowned megacity. Rivaling Struthio in both size and influence, it dramatically impacted the course of its members’ history, and the server’s history. For the Caudices, it meant an unprecedented era of cooperation and prosperity. Their role in the Holy War, for instance, was entirely due to Yittrium’s existence as a city and a power bloc. Its loss, therefore, was catastrophic. It meant the disillusionment of all of Gerb’s closest allies, and permanently set the Caudices on a path of isolation. And, more broadly, Yittrium’s rise and decline coincided with a turning point in the Second Burning Age. Many expansionist teams and cities, which had flourished just months prior, were similarly tested. As the newer players struggled to assert themselves, they created an environment which rewarded paranoia and ruthlessness. And, as these players vyed for dominance, the broader community was increasingly divided into incompatible factions. Alts, trickery, backstabbing, xraying, and exploiting, though certainly not unknown to SimPvP, increased to the point that the community’s trust in each other disappeared. No longer could massive teams or megacities emerge organically as they had in early 2019, no longer could the server support a “friendly war”, and no longer could anyone feel truly secure.
| |
| | |
| =Pride Before the Fall=
| |
| | |
| It was in this toxic climate, with most of the Caudices’ closest alliances slowly fading, that Gerb and egnaroky rekindled an old idea. They had discussed, at the very start of their team, the creation of a larger “Empire”, one which would ultimately aim for serverwide peace. This idea was put on hold when they joined the CAB, and then was mostly forgotten when that group disbanded. The CAB’s stagnation led them to believe that coalition teams had little influence, defensive, punitive, or otherwise, to further their goals. And, with the emergence of the Sigil Conflict, this belief was strengthened. Even though Lord1 broke the BC’s laws, there was nothing the BC could do aside from kicking him, and even then he rejoined shortly after. So, by late January, the Caudices were fully convinced that inter-base teams were worthless. However, as the Caudices’ unique basetracking projects increased in viability, they second-guessed their beliefs. If it was possible to hold members accountable, and to viably enforce a team’s laws, then coalition groups had great potential. Without conflict, and with actionable guarantees of defense, such an organization could be capable of achieving practically anything. So, isolated from their previous allies, and radicalized by the server’s climate, the Caudices became obsessed with finding a basehunting method which could make this possible.
| |
| | |
| In the short term though, Gerb found himself at the forefront of two active wars. If anything, he wanted to end them quickly. Worst of these was the Intervention war, which had shifted against the BC when the Dominion entered on clipchip’s side. Unlike the MCMAFIA, the Dominion was eager to fight, and soon destroyed several BC-affiliated bases. These losses, along with the Sigil conflict, sent the BC into its lowest point yet. Yet, even though the MCMAFIA - Dominion “Axis” was winning, the Caudices were mostly satisfied with the state of the war. MCMAFIA’s influence had declined sharply after the fall of Golden Sun, and in 2020 the threat of clipchip and Javelinfury’s team had totally evaporated. If there was any benefit to the fall of Yittrium, it was that the MCMAFIA could no longer use the city for blackmail. They couldn’t rely on pvp skill either: at this point, Gerb was experienced enough to mostly avoid their ambushes and traps. So the BC, having technically achieved its goals of destroying the MCMAFIA, and completely unable to fight a total war with the Dominion, voted to withdraw from the Intervention War in late February.
| |
| | |
| Around this time, the Caudices became interested in a relatively unknown turtle mechanic. When bred, turtles return directly to their hatching point before finally laying eggs. Egnaroky jokingly referred to the mechanic at one point in the late days of Yittrium, but the concept of using it as a basefinding method suddenly occurred to them. This meant, in theory, that it could be used to form their “Caudices Empire”. In the following weeks, Gerb solicited numerous people and teams for live turtles. Many assumed that this meant turtle eggs, but . The bizarre nature of this request, and that the Caudices found the concept extraordinarily funny, meant that most of these deals fell apart at the slightest scrutiny and often turned into complete shitposting. But surprisingly, out of the many denials, Gerb actually got turtles from the SFR and the Commonwealth. It was eventually discovered that the latter was a troll, as the Commonwealth was aware of the turtle behavior, but the SFR remained ignorant until Gerb and egnaroky made their methods known.
| |
| | |
| The Byzantium war, fought between the YSC and Commonwealth, was still ongoing at the time of Gerb’s trade offer. However, many major participants had dropped out, and nothing appeared to be happening. The only recent activity had been a foray into an unnamed Commonwealth city, but this was wholly insignificant. However, armed with turtles, Gerb, egnaroky, and MoWobbler secretly worked on finding the Commonwealth’s main base. After flying millions of blocks, and activating tens of portals, they eventually discovered that the turtles led to a random beach in the middle of nowhere, discovered that they had been duped, and finally the Byzantium War came to an end on March 29th, 2020. With that, many players assumed that the server’s worst conflicts were over, and everyone started to rebuild. The Caudices still had potentially viable SFR turtles, but by this point the turtle method had proven to be too slow, inconvenient, and costly to ever use for their ambitions. No effort was made to find Revalia, the SFR capital city, and the Caudices focused on a more recent and promising discovery.
| |
| | |
| The Caudices had worked with tamed pets, specifically wolves, since August of 2019. Their infamous “Wolf Bomb” was a difficult machine to build and operate, and so Gerb and egnaroky were well-versed in wolf behavior and manipulation. This being said, it took several months until, intrigued by the turtle exploit, and knowledgeable in pet pathfinding, they finally discovered the wolves’ basetracking potential. If prevented from teleporting, wolves and other pets will instead try to walk to their owners, and this path can be charted to find the owner’s location. In one test, Gerb’s location was pinpointed with 95% accuracy. This was groundbreaking for the Caudices. They now had the means to locate any player, any time, with extreme accuracy. With this power, they could form their empire, force immediate retribution for breaking its laws, and become effectively undefeatable. The Caudices then spent weeks scouring the ruins of destroyed bases: Yittrium, Triterrus, Golden Sun, Francistan, Foxhole, Drago Guard, Ascaris, MCCAPITAL, and Aurora, among several others. While many of these bases bore nothing, several pets were acquired, notably those of ostrich1414, MoWobbler, Lord1, Bren4020, and TontheKidRS.
| |
| | |
| By this point, though, the Caudices’ rationale for a serverwide team was falling out of relevance. In truth, their isolation wasn’t as severe as they convinced themselves. The BC, though at times dysfunctional, was still an operational organization, and the Caudices had also been invited to VetoTheNeato’s TAKYON. They had also participated in the SimPvP Summit, a collection of the most notable groups on the server. If Gerb had tried to do so, the Caudices could have used any of these things to re-enter server politics cooperatively. The nonstop wars of the past months were mostly over, and SimPvP was in a period of rebuilding and relative peace. However, the Pet Exploit’s power corrupted the Caudices’ originally-pragmatic motives. What started as an altruistic idea slowly morphed into the pursuit of an Orwellian Caudices dystopia. Both Gerb and egnaroky suggested adding taxation, armies, centralized currency, and gladiatorial combat to the policies of their previously pacifist organization.
| |
| | |
| Fortunately for the server, the Caudices were severely dysfunctional. The Fall of Yittrium and successive wars meant that they had no large city to focus their efforts(Sidenote: They were technically members of TAKYON, but both players thought it was too unsafe to build at), and now struggled to cooperate in Mil. Gerb, annoyed that egnaroky was using Mil’s materials on projects he saw as useless, attempted to split Mil’s storage between them. Egnaroky was angered by this since they had previously agreed to share, and his lesser activity meant that he would eventually run out of uncommon resources. Egnaroky, on the other hand, upheld his strictly independent building codes, growing angry when Gerb tried to expand the subterranean system for direly-needed farms. This culminated in the “Caudices Civil War” which was a day of nonstop violence in and around Mil. Eventually, egnaroky crystalled Gerb within Mil’s first tower, killing him. In revenge, Gerb broke egnaroky’s spawn point and killed him with a crystal of his own. He brought egnaroky back to Mil, hoping that the fight was over, but as conflict broke out again, he sent egnaroky to Spawn for the second time that day. This is the most extreme example of their bickering, but, stuck together in Mil, they had serious cooperation issues.
| |
| | |
| This disunity seriously hampered any of their ambitions, especially their empire. Additionally, they began to suffer serious supply shortages. Mil had once been at the vanguard of industrial development, but a significant amount of the Caudices’ materials came from elsewhere: Florestria, Yittrium, and the Caudices’ several colonial territories. As each of these cities fell or became unusable, the Caudices’ supplies dwindled. Mil lacked rare resources like obsidian and gold, but also basic resources like iron. At one point, Gerb depended on the fledgling city TAKYON for all of his sugarcane and gunpowder. This resource shortage was partly because he had naively relied on the stability of their outer cities, but also because Gerb felt uncomfortable building in egnaroky’s subterranean farm area. This problem became large enough that the Caudices actually agreed on fixing it. Egnaroky permitted the construction of farms elsewhere, and at last the two had an actionable goal to work together on. Many notable farms were constructed over a short span of time, including what is possibly the first fully automatic obsidian farm on SimPvP. This permitted the construction of an enormous gold farm, completed sequentially over a few months. Around when the first of three gold farm layers was added, Gerb finished bombing out a 256x256 perimeter, inside of which he built an extremely efficient gunpowder farm. A second nether perimeter, which eventually would house a ghast farm, entered construction. More minor farms, including iron, melon, pumpkin, sugarcane, and cactus, were also constructed. These efforts quickly paid off, and soon they had more than enough supplies to support themselves.
| |
| | |
| Using these resources, the Caudices built up a massive reserve to eventually support their Empire. And, in mid April, the bulk of their tracking and planning efforts commenced. It was decided that The City of the Divine Lord: Wilburia and TAKYON, given their already close relationship with the Caudices, would be assimilated first. Annexing allies may seem counterintuitive, but Gerb and egnaroky wanted to demonstrate that their efforts not only applied to everyone equally, but also that they had no intention to destroy the bases they assimilated. Since they were close friends with Wilburia and TAKYON, the Caudices figured the cities would survive the initial shock of their actions, and possibly establish some trust in their institution. If this went well, phase 2 of their plan included the entirety of the COF, and then MoWobbler’s personal base(Sidenote: they had also intended to annex Byzantium in this phase, but Bren4020’s parrot accidentally died while they were tracking him). After these annexations, the Caudices believed they would gain access to more pets, and therefore be able to expand exponentially from that point on.
| |
| | |
| The actual tracking process occurred in a series of underground “tracking hubs'', all of which had copies of each pet, and were connected to each other. Since Wilburia was first on their expansion plan, most of their hubs were devoted towards that city, but TonTheKidRS’ pets also received significant attention during this time. These interconnected hubs would ultimately prove to be a major security issue, but at the time, they were considered secure enough for use. As the Caudices drew closer and closer to Wilburia, they began to act much differently towards its citizens than they had before. This clued the residents that something was going on, and they began to closely monitor all of the Caudices’ actions. Indeed, after a month of progress, the Caudices swooped into the city on May 6, 2020, coincidentally almost one year after the Antzakes1 Crisis.
| |
| | |
| =Pandemonium, Reflection, and Regret=
| |
| | |
| Immediately after arriving, Gerb and egnaroky, in a tense faceoff with ostrich1414 and cheesy_chips22, announced that the city of Wilburia would be integrated into the “Caudices Empire”, and that “Resistance was futile”. Surprising nobody, the citizens of Wilburia reacted negatively to this. This event was handled in what may have been the worst way possible, and for lack of a better word, exposed the Caudices’ autistic diplomatic ability. Gerb and egnaroky, after declaring a “forceful annexation”, then outlined their supposedly peaceful and altruistic goals. This was confusing to everyone, and the ways they expressed this also confused the Caudices themselves: some of the Caudices’ baseline assumptions about their plans weren’t communicated properly, so that they often contradicted each other. As the night progressed, the Wilburians began to frantically evacuate their museum and storages while the Caudices looked on. Had they intended to raid the city, they could have obtained many valuable historical artifacts and an immense amount of loot in this time. However, they still upheld fundamentally pacifist ideals despite the unfolding catastrophe, and encouraged the Wilburians to remain active in the city.
| |
| | |
| While both Gerb and egnaroky expected their arrival to cause tension, they also expected that their friendships with the members would preserve at least some stability. If they had approached their arrival in a different way, such as through a private conversation, or invited the base into a coalition prior to their arrival, perhaps this would have been true. Their worst mistake, aside from showing up altogether, was declaring an annexation, even though what they actually had in mind was far less invasive. Their goal was not annexation, but rather the formation of a coalition similar to the CAB, where each base would retain total autonomy over its own affairs. However, the Caudices were blinded by both hubris and optimism, and had not planned their arrival at all. Even their own framing actually presented the image of a hostile team trying to destroy an innocent city, and this spread like wildfire across the entire server community.
| |
| | |
| Second to the outrageous event itself was the mysterious means by which they had found the base. Wilburia was a small, close-knit, distant base, and such bases usually lasted for years, not months. DakkaDok, facing immense pressure from the community, eventually revealed that the Caudices used a secret, but legal exploit to find the base. This caused immense speculation in the community, and some even believed that the exploit didn’t exist at all. The Caudices, not expecting such an enormous backlash, argued constantly in the official SimPvP discord about their intentions and ideals. However, egnaroky and Gerb continued contradicting each other. This was taken by some as inconsistencies in a greater lie, but in reality the Caudices were woefully uncoordinated. For the most part, Gerb emphasized their altruistic goals, while egnaroky emphasized his personal dream of taxation and centralized currency. This had the terrible effect of diminishing the merits of both policies, as everyone saw their contradictions as proof of malicious intent.
| |
| | |
| By this point, Wilburia was fully evacuated, and the wider server had united against the Caudices’ efforts. Despite this massive failure, the Caudices decided to double down and proceeded to annex their second city: TAKYON. Gerb wrote a detailed message explaining the situation in the TAKYON discord, pinging everyone. The Caudices had been completely inactive in the city, and many had forgotten they were even present at all. As such, this notice was taken as an insult to the rest of its members who had actually devoted significant effort in the base. Therefore, this went as badly, if not worse, than the Wilburia annexation. Two days after this announcement, the members of TAKYON hosted a massive rebellion against Caudices influence, destroying their entire city in a scorched earth tactic. By this point, the Caudices’s reputation was in shambles, the entire server was united against their efforts, and their once-allies now appeared to be irrevocable enemies.
| |
| | |
| The Caudices team, which had been a major reason for the BC’s existence in the first place, was kicked from the group after an overwhelming vote. This event left the COF in sole control of the BC, and the ever-expansionist Church used this opportunity to take over the whole group. While the BC had been on the decline for months, the COF takeover was still relevant enough to be cited as a reason for the coming Republic - COF war. The whole Caudices incident in fact, which had originated as a plan to reduce violence, ended the month of relative peace on SimPvP, after which it once again descended into ceaseless war. Seeing the hopelessness of the situation, the Caudices withdrew all plans for their empire and retreated to Mil.
| |
| | |
| What followed was an intense period of introspection. Their predictions, plans, and actions had all gone awry, and eventually the two conceded that the Caudices, as a team, was completely dysfunctional. Its existence had artificially bound Gerb and egnaroky as one political unit, even when that contradicted reality. A month after the annexation of Wilburia, the two decided to dissolve the Caudices as a team, and to only cooperate when it made sense to do so. Mil remained their main base, but was no longer affiliated with any specific group. This alleviated much of their bickering as the stakes were generally lowered, and they had no central goal to compromise on. The dissolution of the team also allowed egnaroky to successfully distance himself from the imperial annexations, and he soon began to focus on more cooperative projects. Gerb, on the other hand, became heavily interested in “funnies” – essentially trying to find as many interesting or useful game mechanics as possible. He also would occasionally recruit noobs and pvpers, attempting to artificially create new alliances. Of these bases, the combat town of “Avaricum” survived the longest. Recruits Zimmels and Flameknight did actually participate in a few battles under Gerb’s command, but ultimately all of these recruitment efforts were a failure. Mostly, Gerb was directionless after the failure of the Caudices’ project. He had once again ruined his reputation for a failed cause, and it looked as though he would be a pariah forever.
| |
| | |
| =Blocktown, Brunoland, and Quabbin=
| |
| | |
| In late June, egnaroky made an unexpected discovery. While browsing social media, he discovered an account by the name of “Sellout9” (Sidenote: This account has now been deleted, Rule 3’rs) with which he had numerous mutual friends. This was the very same Sellout9 which they knew from SimPvP, and in the coming weeks, they discovered that they had been living minutes away from each other for years. Though initially reluctant to do so, Gerb agreed to meet with Sellout9 in person, beginning a new ingame alliance and a close irl friendship. Over the coming weeks, Sellout9 would brought to egnaroky’s new base “Blocktown”(Also known as Fucktown), where he made major contributions and remains active to the present. This event would reignite Gerb’s interest in SimPvP as he built with a budding friend, and finally recovered from the events of May.
| |
| | |
| Despite their recovery, the Caudices annexations were still a polarizing topic between Gerb and egnaroky. Their hubs, while they never ended up using them after May, were still fully stocked and functional. Gerb was a firm believer that they should be kept in this state. Firstly, killing the pets had the risk of leaking their technique, and this meant that violent or expansionist groups like the COF or Dominion could use it with massively more destructive results. (Sidenote: Some players, such as the GS Trading Co, were already familiar with this technique, as it was used on 2b2t. Gerb and egnaroky assumed it was fully unknown, so treated it far more seriously). Secondly, Gerb was not fully convinced that they wouldn’t be needed again. In an unknown worst-case scenario, whatever it may be, he thought it was wiser to keep the pets as a last ditch defense. Egnaroky, on the other hand, took an extremely principled stance against the use of the method in general, even if this meant forgoing their own defense. He reasoned that, since they had been so incorrect in their assumptions before, it was better that nobody had wolves at all, even in a worst-case scenario. After weeks of heated arguments, egnaroky acted on his beliefs, and completely destroyed all tracking hubs, pets, and broke their connections to Mil. This was distressing for Gerb, as they were still largely hated by the community, and could at any moment be griefed. But, in the coming weeks, Gerb accepted egnaroky’s actions as being morally correct, if at the very least shortsighted.
| |
| | |
| Shortly after this event, Gerb became acquainted with the player bruno_vera. He joined SimPvP in August to find his old base had been completely destroyed. Moved by his appeals for help, Gerb flew to his location and gave him supplies. The two soon became allies, and decided it would be best to found a new base together. After a long walk through the nether, the two emerged into a plains village which cut into a mountain and was bordered by the sea. Charmed by the glitchy village generation, they decided to settle in this area despite it only being ~60k from spawn. Bruno_vera soon brought his friend Ragdety and sister DongusY2K to the base, which was later dubbed “Brunoland”, and Gerb started constructing several farms at the fledgling base. Most ridiculous of these was a full gold farm, built because of Mil’s extreme obsidian surplus. Ragdety and bruno_vera were surprisingly active at the base, and it grew rapidly. However, many were annoyed by bruno_vera’s eccentric presence in chat, and soon _Goujon_ would kill him in /world. This incident quickly escalated into the two week long Brunoland War of Independence, pitting the small town of Brunoland against the entirety of the GS Trading Co and their allies. However, in a surprising turn of events, Gerb, Sellout9, and Flameknight defeated the GS Trading Co. - Order of Wilbur /world blockade, starting the war off in Brunoland’s favor. Sice_01, a COF member, would join the base soon after. The Order of Wilbur pulled out of the war days later, and for the next two weeks nothing much happened. However, immediately after the official end of the Sim Kast Removal Team, a GS Trading Co raiding force descended upon the prospering town, and, after a lengthy struggle, the Brunoland defense force was defeated. While Gerb had initially treated the town as somewhat of a meme, he grew attached to it in its short lifespan, and this event soured relations between him and the GS. It looked as though Gerb would return to his isolation, but just two days after the destruction of Brunoland, this proved false.
| |
| | |
| Gerb and ostrich1414’s alliance, though complicated in nature, was remembered positively by both players. The alliance was largely responsible for the development of Florestria and Yittrium, cities which, for the most part, managed to escape the toxic trends of the Second Burning Age. Both players felt profound nostalgia for this time, especially for the Yittrium era. As such, in early September, ostrich1414 suggested to Gerb the formation of a new city, including all the old YSC members and a few new allies. This was a complete surprise to Gerb, who had previously been convinced that ostrich1414 would never trust him again. Gerb, who had grown deeply ashamed both by the results of the Caudices annexations, and his often-shifty behavior in the months before, was humbled at this opportunity, and quickly agreed. On September 2nd, for the first time in over a year, the Yittrium team reassembled to form a new megacity: Quabbin.
| |
| | |
| Despite Gerb’s initial doubts, the base was a resounding success. Almost everyone was actively building during the city’s first month, and it was quickly shaping up to be a true megacity. Amongst other things, Gerb worked on two major projects at Quabbin. The first of these was Area 69, a high tech military facility located high in the mountains, and the second was simply known as “Hole”, a series of concentric cylinders dug into the ground. Still obsessed with discovering new mechanics, Area 69 became the testing site of the new “Fox Bomb” and “Llama Combat Aircraft”, both intensely impractical, but extremely funny, pvp inventions. However, Area 69 also sat on top of a series of tunnels, accessible by elevator, which housed many smaller farms and Quabbin’s village hall, giving the site some practical use. While Area 69 was a monument to Gerb’s love of obscure technology, Hole was an artistic building intended to symbolize the cycle of destruction which had characterized the Second Burning Age. While never completed, each concentric cylinder was intended to house a separate stage in this cycle: from undeveloped land, to small castles, to megacities, and ultimately, a lifeless desert. Emerging from the innermost sand, inspired by the poem “Ozymandias”, Gerb constructed a massive terracotta figure which towered over each ring. Had it been completed, Hole would have symbolized Gerb’s new philosophy of embracing SimPvP’s chaotic flow, instead of trying to resist it as he had done before.
| |
| | |
| As Gerb embraced SimPvP’s unregulated chaos, the admins shifted against it. In the latter half of 2020, partly as a reaction to Gerb’s pet exploit, but also because of increased ambiguity about the legality of unintended mechanics, the admins re-evaluated the implementation of SimPvP’s rules and policies. Most significant of their reforms, at least in October, was the removal of TNT duping. The admins did this in an attempt to make the rules more consistent, but also because of their belief that it made griefing far too easy. This decision sparked a huge debate on both the forum and SimPvP’s official discord, as the majority of players disagreed with the decision. TNT duping, in fact, was almost never used to grief bases. Its main application, especially in 2020, was the mass removal of terrain, such as SKRT’s lavacast removal, or the construction of mob perimeters. Many players, Gerb included, also used it for more niche applications, like tunnel bores and blast chambers. Gerb was obsessed with using unintuitive mechanics like TNT duping, and this change was the first sign that SimPvP was transitioning away from its traditional anarchy identity. Though annoyed, and somewhat disconcerted, he ended up accepting this change, and continued playing regularly.
| |
| | |
| Another incident would quickly occur, and this time it would be consequential. In early October, ostrich1414 accidentally pasted Quabbin’s full coordinates in chat. Ostrich, who had frequently expressed his annoyance for all of his cities being leaked, now had experience in the hobby. The whole Quabbin Qrew took a week-long hiatus from building in anticipation of a raid. However, no raid would come, and everyone eventually returned. They expressed optimism that perhaps everyone thought the incident was a simple shitpost. Gerb, however, whose espionage network had survived post-Yittrium, soon learned that at least two outsiders had visited the city. Whereas this would have driven him up a wall in 2019, Gerb didn’t try to alert anyone or evacuate anything. Rather, he built with reinvigorated focus. Despite a potential catastrophe brewing, Gerb had truly embraced his philosophy of impermanence, and just tried to have fun while the city was thriving.
| |
| | |
| Following this attitude of carefree mischief, Gerb resurrected the long-inactive Nostrum_Regina account, messaging Antzakes1 with increasingly off-kilter and insane comments just for personal amusement. Antzakes1, who had been suspicious of Nostrum_Regina’s behavior for a while after the fall of Yittrium, quickly understood that he had been played by Gerb the whole time. A week or two later, Gerb publicly revealed Nostrum to be his account, and thereafter occasionally used it as a pvp or afk alt. This reveal was met with apathy amongst the newer players, and surprise by those he had insided. However, no controversy was spawned from this, and those few who did care found it funny. In general, Gerb was enjoying Sim in an entirely new way, and mending his old relationships while he did it.
| |
| | |
| In mid October, Gerb was invited to a Holy War memorial summit alongside ostrich1414 and several Church members. While Gerb had become relatively apolitical and “laid back” in his approach to SimPvP, the Church had certainly not. Throughout 2020, the organization had shifted from a meme/larp group to something of a genuine cult, and had recently had begun a mass-bombing campaign against all “rebel” bases. Many of these bases were barely affiliated with anti-Church sentiment, and some, like Stonetown, predated the religion entirely. Gerb, though annoyed with the Church’s recent behavior, wanted to remain cordial with Lord1 and the organization as a whole, and agreed to attend the Holy War event.
| |
| | |
| In a voice call with anti-Church players TheOnlySlash and Sellout9, he soon learned that Xexc, a church member, had been trapped in spawn while en route to the Memorial. Gerb soon arrived at spawn and met up with Sellout9 and TheOnlySlash. Xexc, seeing that Gerb was neither attacking them nor being attacked, assumed that he was also trying to trap him in spawn. Gerb, however, was actually in favor of him getting out of spawn so that the Memorial event could start. Gerb didn’t like TheOnlySlash very much, but he was IRL friends with Sellout9, so even though he disagreed with what they were doing, also didn’t want to fight them. Instead, he gave xexc a few invis potions and messaged him advice on how to confuse his trappers. However, xexc was convinced that this was a scheme to lure him out, and so remained trapped in spawn. The Memorial eventually started despite xexc’s absence, and the old Holy War members signed a few books and larped a bit. Throughout the whole conference, Slash and Sellout were begging Gerb to leak the location to them, which he consistently denied. However, when the event ended, Gerb saw no harm in finally giving in to the request, since players were leaving and all the larping had ended. Slash and Sellout shortly showed up, beginning a brief, inconsequential battle (Sidenote: I don’t actually remember if anyone died during the battle, but it’s possible). Gerb quickly moved on, largely forgetting about the xexc incident and the conference. The COF, however, enraged by what was perceived as yet-another Gerb scheme and an insult to their prestige, added Gerb to their growing list of enemies.
| |
| | |
| In the latter half of 2020, many players were annoyed by the COF’s pattern of overreaction, aggression, and religious fervor. The Church had many influential bases and community projects, sure, but at the same time was bombing ancient builds, spamming in chat, and labelling anyone it didn’t like as “rebels”. While hanging out with its members in /world, Gerb, not actually aware that he incited the anger of the Church, was ambushed and slain by xexc as “revenge” for what happened during the Holy War memorial. This confused Gerb: it was true that he had given Slash and Sellout coordinates to the event, but this was long after it had ended, and he had actually tried to help xexc out of spawn, not trap him there. After explaining the misunderstanding to Lord1 and xexc, he neither received an apology, nor any of his items, proving to Gerb that the COF considered him an enemy. Shortly after this, Sellout9 was killed in a similar manner, and for the same reason. Even though the COF’s reason for the ambush was actually true in Sellout’s case, it was a major overreaction to make Sellout9 a permanent enemy for such an inconsequential event. As the COF was treating most of the server in this aggressive and domineering way, disparate players, from long-time Church enemy TheOnlySlash to pacifist ostrich1414, joined Sellout9 in forming an anti-Church coalition.
| |
| | |
| Sellout9 confessed to Gerb that he actually wasn’t too bothered by the COF’s shift in behavior, rather, he wanted to use the chaos to make as much money as possible. While Gerb thought this was a comically greedy thing to do, he was also increasingly affected by the Church’s uncooperative disposition, and joined the coalition on December 9th. This finally ended Gerb’s apolitical, hands-off approach to the server, even though he still believed it was the best way to play the game. The People’s Coalition (or PC) declared war on the COF on December 10th, 2020, beginning a conflict characterized by espionage, trickery, griefing, and unseen escalation.
| |
| | |
| The period between May and December 2020 mirrored the previous year in many ways. It began by Gerb causing the death of another ostrich1414 city, then progressed into numerous smaller conflicts and projects, and finally ended with a major war and an increasingly insecure collaborative base. However, the server at large was in a far different state. Every major group was, for the most part, increasingly isolated. Gerb had tried to resurrect the Bloc for Clans, renaming it to the apt “Reformed Bloc”, but as players were focused on their in-group projects(Also, admittedly, because the RBC lacked a clear focus), this group didn’t achieve very much. This factional isolation, as it had done to the Caudices a year before, meant a more radicalized, paranoid, and aggressive server populace. This process, which began in mid to late 2019, met its height in late 2020. Perhaps as a result of this toxicity, the server’s fundamental policies were headed towards a far more restrictive, “friendly” state. In mid 2020, portals were patched to no longer teleport pets, a clear attempt at making the pet exploit irrelevant, but a more well-known, and hated, example was the removal of TNT duping. Technical players like Koeng102 and Gerb despised these changes, as much of their enjoyment of the server, and Minecraft as a whole, was in finding new, interesting, or unintended game mechanics. Over time, these rule changes alienated–and in some cases banned–a large part of SimPvP’s playerbase. Overall, in late 2020, SimPvP began a long process of reform in its community, culture, and policy.
| |
| | |
| =Grand Finale=
| |
| | |
| Nobody was sure whether the Imperial War would be more similar to the lighthearted Holy War or a serious conflict. For instance, the COF released a comedic, larpy response video after the PC declared war, and ostrich1414 was in the process of setting up a few staged battles as they had done in the Holy War. Many groups in the PC were also not overly concerned about the Church’s behavior, mostly joining for profit or out of boredom. As a result, the first few actions of the Imperial war were trivial compared to what would later occur, mostly centered around the spawn region or /world. However, it would soon become clear that the Church was not interested in replicating the friendly atmosphere of the Holy War. On two separate occasions, the COF agreed to a staged battle, but both times didn’t show up. During the planned battle time, they instead griefed PC-affiliated bases. The second of these bases was Tol Honeth, a decently sized and respected 2018 base. This, and griefs soon to come, showed the PC that the COF was not interested in an amicable conflict, and had no reservations about targeting full-fledged bases.
| |
| | |
| As such, the Imperial War escalated into a conflict of an intensity never seen before or since. Skirmishes, griefing, and ambushes took place everywhere, often with no more than a couple hours separating them. The PC itself was massive, consisting of practically every major team on the server, and, as a leader of the group, Gerb felt significant pressure to advance it in their favor. However, at this point in the war, the PC was running out of things to do, while the COF seemed to be intensifying their efforts. In late December, as a last-ditch effort, a small PC raiding party descended upon the MBI’s old gold farm, disabling and griefing it. The gold farm itself was TonTheKid’s old AFK spot, and because of this, it had been partially tracked by the Caudices during their imperial phase. As it turned out, one of the long-forgotten, disabled tracking hubs had been less than a thousand blocks away from the farm, and Burger_Malone, a member of the raiding party, coincidentally stumbled upon it. While many had suspicions about their methods before, this was the first piece of concrete evidence related to the Caudices exploit. Burger_Malone quickly discovered the rest of the tracking hubs, and messaged ostrich1414 and Gerb about them soon after. Gerb and ostrich1414, who had been told about the pet exploit in late September, played dumb, not wanting the powerful method to become public knowledge. However, Burger_Malone would eventually figure out the clandestine nature of the hubs, and was among the first to reveal the Caudices exploit to the server’s community.
| |
| | |
| The pet exploit itself had not been used since Wilburia, despite Sellout9’s numerous requests for its use in later 2020. Partly out of general reluctance, and partly because egnaroky had disabled their tracking hubs, it remained unused in the early days of the Imperial War. However, as the war escalated, Gerb and ostrich1414 knew it would be the PC’s best, and possibly only chance of ending the war in any meaningful way. As such, Gerb built an entirely new series of hubs specifically for the war effort. After about a week of tracking, Lord1’s pets pointed towards a region tens of millions of blocks from spawn, and, with the war at its peak, Gerb began the long journey on his alt 27872. Now confident that they would be able to end the war favorably, the PC’s leadership declined the COF’s peace offers.
| |
| | |
| Faced with stronger opposition than they had initially expected, the COF ramped up their griefing campaign. After obtaining its coordinates through an unknown member, the COF griefed the first active base of the war: Gold Forge Citadel. In retaliation, the PC destroyed Swaglabs, one of Lord1’s previous main bases. Just days later, the COF destroyed Axetown, one of the YMP’s old main bases. This was less consequential than GFC, but the PC was completely out of COF bases to retaliate with, so morale within the coalition worsened. On January 5th, Sellout9 scammed GS member ZedZeppelin for a whopping 64 dbs, and since Sellout9 was a leader of the People’s Coalition, this caused the GS Trading Co to exit the group entirely. Now at its lowest point, the PC was a losing, inactive, and increasingly small force. Gerb’s tracking efforts, however, would soon have their intended effect of ending the war.
| |
| | |
| On January 11, 2021, a small PC force descended upon Lord1’s main base and COF capital city Three Words. The city, which was over 25 million blocks from spawn, was founded with the explicit purpose of being unfindable. Tenced, the city’s founder, had flown the millions of blocks alternating between the overworld and nether, so as to not leave an obvious chunk trail. Furthermore, the only members were Lord1 and Tenced, making the risk of leaking basically nonexistent. As with Wilburia, the server was shocked and confused how Three Words could have been found, and began to suspect foul play. However, the PC had essentially decapitated the COF’s leadership, and this invasion was by far the most influential of the whole war.
| |
| | |
| Nonetheless, it came at a cost. Ostrich1414, when he was informed about the discovery of Three Words, was extremely reluctant to attack it. Aside from North Koria(Sidenote: BTW Korijenkins, I also partook in that grief, cope & seethe), he had never destroyed someone’s main base, especially not one of Three Word’s scale and quality. Furthermore, he was more or less certain that this would result in the COF launching an invasion of Quabbin. At this point, Quabbin had been found by at least 4 major groups, and by some miracle, had remained ungriefed and semi-active throughout the Imperial War. Gerb, however, irrationally despised the COF in the latter half of the Imperial War. It was a conflict which, in essence, had been the fault of the Church’s uncalled for dickery, and with each old, active, respected, or neutral base that the COF griefed, Gerb’s hate would only grow. Using their trail of destruction as a smoking gun, Gerb finally convinced ostrich1414 that invading Three Words was their only option. However, he conceded that, if they destroyed the city, they would be no better than the COF. It was decided that they would annex and demilitarize the city, so that nobody, not even the COF, could grief it.
| |
| | |
| With that done, the PC was finally able to accept peace with the COF. In their eyes, the invasion of Three Words balanced out what the COF had done to their cities in the past month. The COF, which had assumed that the PC was a disorganized non-threat, now had to re-evaluate their entire strategy. However, still convinced that they would be able to crush the “rebellion”, the COF declined peace talks (though Lord1 claims the opposite), and progressed with the war as they had done before. Lord1, now a refugee of Three Words, his account resided at TomixPlay’s and MrMeep’s city, Pepe’s Holyland, whilst he used a alt to fly out and eventually found [[Bodacious Sneeze]]. Unfortunately for the COF, this meant that Gerb could track that city too, and almost a day later, he had the precise coordinates. Worth mentioning is that DakkaDok, who had originally given the go-ahead for the pet exploit, was increasingly against it in the latter half of 2020. However, as far as Gerb was concerned, it fit within the server’s rules, and the other admin’s actions implicitly confirmed this. It was true that the portals had been updated to make the exploit more difficult, but if they wanted to outright ban it, Yukarion would have explicitly said so, or done the equally easy task of removing the pet's ability to pathfind altogether. In truth, the admins, including Yukarion, eventually agreed with DakkaDok’s stance, but this took months to be communicated properly. Nonetheless, aware that the admins were taking measures to officially ban the exploit, Gerb asked Yukarion’s permission to use coordinates to Pepe’s Holyland and all other bases he had tracked before. Yukarion’s responded “I guess so” with no further comment, so Gerb, eager to take another PC win, invaded Pepe’s Holyland on January 18, 2021. This invasion, which Gerb referred to as “Nagasaki”, angered the COF, but continuing the war wasn't an option for them due to lack of targets. In the following week, Gerb, Sellout9, and ostrich1414 accepted the COF’s offer for peace, and on January 27th, 2021, six COF-PC representatives met in the ruins of a Francis temple, and finally agreed to end the devastating Imperial War.
| |
| | |
| While this peace was much less than a full end to the conflict, it effectively marked the end of the PC and organized action against the Church in general. Gerb and Sellout9, who had aimed for the complete destruction of the religion, killed the Church of Francis pope while peace talks were ongoing, and Lord1 and James8B, who were unshakably pro-Church, secretly raided Quabbin and Sellout9’s old base around the same time. Neither side truly “won” the Imperial War, but its devastation had profound effects on its belligerents. In the months following, the COF would step back from its supremacist, pugnacious stance, reinvigorate its focus on spawn projects, and work cooperatively with other players and teams, officially putting an end to the aggressiveness which Gerb and many others had despised. It is difficult to generalize the war’s effect on the PC: it consisted of so many players with so many differing ideologies that some actually benefited from the war, while others were made homeless. Gerb personally had complicated feelings about its conclusion. On one hand, he had humiliated the COF by annexing their capital city, and played a significant role in the war’s end. On the other hand, he had violated his principled stance against using the pet exploit, and what this had accomplished, aside from yet more destruction, was simply a continuation of the status quo and the deepening of SimPvP’s factional divisions. Progress at all of his bases, Blocktown, Mil, and Quabbin, was put on hold during the whole war. In fact, during the Imperial War, one of Gerb’s cats teleported to him while he was at Mil, and Lord1’s behavior in the immediate aftermath confirmed that he was at least partially responsible for this. This was a major reason for his radical stance against the COF: he assumed that they would, if left functional, essentially destroy the server with the pet exploit. This incident led to Gerb completely evacuating Mil’s resources into a hyper-secure bunker millions of blocks away, and throughout the war, he would only be active on his alts to avoid potential pet tracking. Quabbin would be raided at the end of the war, leaving only his bunker and Blocktown as viable bases. In the weeks after the end of the Imperial War, the bunker would be expanded and given the name “Milk”-- essentially just “Mil” with a random k at the end – however Gerb would quickly enter a depressive state, locked underground, alone, and conflicted.
| |
| | |
| This state would worsen in February. While some players, notably Burger_Malone, had a vague idea of what Gerb’s exploit was, their theories were confirmed when DakkaDok publicly leaked Gerb and egnaroky’s usage of the pet exploit in public chat. This immediately enraged the entire SimPvP community, especially those in the COF who had just been affected by it. The “#BanHand” movement included practically every active player besides Gerb’s close allies, and as a result, Gerb’s diplomatic position reached its worst point ever. In the following days, the pet exploit was officially declared illegal and completely disabled. Not wanting to allow any chance for its future use, Yukarion disabled all pet AI past 200 blocks from its owner, a decision which certainly made the pet exploit unusable, but also made pets far more glitchy and disabled legal inventions like the Wolf Bomb. It was this overreach, not the disabling of the pet exploit itself, that angered Gerb. As soon as he had heard of the admin’s decisions to ban the method, he suggested the removal of the “pathfinding” portion of the AI, a far more precise, yet equally effective, way of fixing the mechanic. Instead, the admins decided to opt for completely lobotomizing every pet further than 200 blocks, as well as blacklisting them from portals entirely. Furthermore, it became clear that the admins would severely limit the use of any unintended mechanic, no matter how inconsequential or funny. Gerb, who in 2020 had become an increasingly technical player, was not only made into a serverwide pariah, but also had his only remaining means of enjoyment severely limited. However, he was never all too concerned about the success of the #BanHand movement. When he was using the Pet Exploit, he had always used it with the confirmation of its legality, whether implicit or overt, and had a large collection of screenshots to prove this. To explain his position, and possibly quell the outrage, he released a 9-minute long video showing approval from Yukarion, DakkaDok, and ostrich1414. Additionally, he showed a screenshot of DakkaDok’s promise that, as an admin, he would be banned if he ever leaked the method. This was a significant cause of anger for Gerb, as the reformed rules demanded that players inform the admins about their exploits, but also took no action against their own for leaking any of these exploits.
| |
| | |
| Gerb would remain unbanned, as he had predicted, but this was no cause of celebration. These events made him ever-distrustful of the server’s administration, and, if DakkaDok wouldn’t be banned(Or otherwise punished), he vowed that he would take justice into his own hands. After asking around, he discovered the rough location of Nos Aeterna, and began flying to its location under the bedrock (Sidenote: this was an exploit which had been approved by admins and used by several players at the time) with his alt 27872. When he arrived, Gerb planned to make tiny changes to the city, placing string in one house, breaking a block on another, placing a mapart on a wall, etc. to drive DakkaDok crazy. Despite everything, Gerb’s pacifist / mischievous side had survived the war, and his great “retribution” was essentially a big meme. However, unknown to Gerb, the sub-bedrock flying technique had been patched in the middle of his flight, so even his efforts at funny retribution were dashed(Sidenote: Gerb didn’t have the email for 27872, and it was lost during the account migration. This means that, regardless of server policy, it will remain trapped underneath Nos Aeterna forever).
| |
| | |
| In his final month on the server, Gerb tried to find new ways to enjoy SimPvP, as he had during past crises. Using his knowledge of Minecraft’s mechanics, he figured that he might as well help the admins rather than fight them. In this month, he discovered that the admin’s patch of the Wither exploit was incomplete, and could essentially be bypassed if a player used angular coordinates and two listening stations. The wither exploit was actually patched by Yukarion at his suggestion, and Gerb also confirmed that lesser-known basefinding mechanics, like the dolphin exploit and enderman exploit, to be illegal. Nonetheless, any chance he had at forming a collaborative relationship was doomed from the start; most of the adminship disliked, distrusted, or even hated, Gerb. So, with the introduction of BRP, increasingly restrictive rules, community outrage, distrustful & distrusting admins, postwar depression, and yet still nowhere to go but down, Gerb was utterly and completely defeated.
| |
| | |
| On March 29, 2021, Gerb logged out for the last time (Sidenote: he accidentally joined the server again in May 2021 while trying to log into Hypixel, so /age will show that as the last time he played.) He wouldn’t announce his quitting until months later. This was so that he didn’t feel forced to never play again, but as the months passed, his disdain for the server remained consistent, and he officially announced his departure from SimPvP on the messaging application “Discord”. In fact, would be somewhat active on Discord for a while after March, and because of this, many players believed that he still played on secret alts. However, by December 2021, he finalized his departure by quitting all active SimPvP discords, and generally focused on real life. However, as the months passed, a certain nostalgia for SimPvP grew, and, as he had spent thousands of hours on the server forming friendships, enemies, and funnies, he finally decided to reacquaint himself with ostrich1414 and begin the process of writing a overly long, egotistical, and wholly unnecessary wiki page.
| |
| | |
| The End.
| |
| | |
| =My Final Message(s)=
| |
| | |
| ==Disclaimer==
| |
| | |
| I’ve tried to write this article as accurately as possible, with the clarifying benefit of hindsight, but I’ve certainly missed some things along the way. This is not to say it is unbiased, as it is intended to be written from my perspective and include my own interpretations of events, but if I’ve made a dire factual mistake, feel free to correct it. Additionally, as much of this info is years old, I’ve filled in or ignored a few gaps that I have forgotten since then. I’ll probably make adjustments to this article in the immediate future, as I’ve most certainly made a few mistakes.
| |
| | |
| ==Text Wall==
| |
| | |
| My old computer died a few months ago, and it housed most of my coordinates, chat logs, and screenshots, so that’s why this whole page is so bare. Nonetheless, you can find visual and textual proof for everything I’ve said in this, but it might take a bit of digging.
| |
| I also can’t be fucked to add any embeds to this monstrosity, so I’ll give that task to editors, if they even care.
| |
| | |
| ==So long, and thanks for all the fish==
| |
| | |
| Writing this article has made me profoundly nostalgic for my time on SimPvP, but also remorseful for all that I’ve done. I’m certainly not the antagonist many players make me out to be, but I have done plenty of indefensible things to my fellow players. To those I’ve impacted: I am deeply sorry. I know that apology probably isn’t enough to make up for all the bullshit I’ve pulled, but if I ever return, I hope I can make it up to you. To everyone who has befriended me despite my bullshit: I’m certain you’re leaving a better impact on SimPvP than I ever did. That being said, SimPvP has genuinely helped me through a lot of stuff in my real life, and despite everything that’s happened, I can’t help but remember the good over the bad. So long SimPvP, and may your Dakkas forever do a funny.
| |
