The Byzantium War

The Byzantium War
Event
Name: The Byzantium War
In-game name:
Alts:
Status: Ended through Peace Treaty
Date:
First joined:
Last seen:
Formed: February 23rd, 2020
Abandoned:
Disbanded: March 29th, 2020
Location:
Coords:
Members:
Clans: Byzantium, City of the Divine Lord, Wilbur, Caudices, Church of Francis, Takyon
Bases: Yittrium, Triterrus, Antzakes1's Invisible Base
Schematic: {{{schematic}}}

The Byzantium War was a political war primarily fought between two groups: Byzantium and a few former members of Yittrium and their allies, informally referred to as "New Israel". Faced with a complicated history, the Byzantium War was rooted in Byzantium's initial raid of Yittrium on January 5th, 2020. After a little over a month of uncertainty, tensions culminated when Byzantium's first SimPvP base, Triterrus, was raided, annexed, and then later griefed. This resulted in several former Yittrium members declaring war on Byzantium on February 23rd, 2020, with Byzantium retaliating with a war declaration of their own shortly afterwards.

On March 29th, 2020, the war finally came to an end as all major participants from both sides of battle met together at a peace conference located at the site of the turtle graphing spot (informally known as "Turtle Beach"). They all mutually agreed to sign a peace treaty and end the war peacefully, ensuring that there would be no "winners" or "losers", and to move on from what had happened in the past.

Most notably, the Byzantium War came at a bizarre time in SimPvP history when three major wars succeeded after the other in flawless chronological order: The Holy Wilbur-Francis War, the Intervention War, and then the Byzantium War. Ironically, none of these wars are related, despite occurring one after the other.

For an in-depth documentary on the Byzantium War, be sure to check out ostrich1414's video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqV-ItAkvMw

Timeline

The Byzantium War is a very complicated war to follow; thus, listed below is a simplified timeline of the events both before, during and after the war that played a significant role in its inception:

• January 5th, 2020:
  • The City of Yittrium is raided by three Byzantium players: Hamieb, Passaconaway and Duffilufagus.
• January 20th, 2020:
  • Byzantium officially claims responsibility for the Yittrium raid, revealing it to the public for the first time.
    • Hamieb is temporarily invited to the Yittrium Discord, where his response for the raid is met with criticism, but no action.
• February 16th, 2020:
  • DarthBacca77, a friend of Byzantium, changes his name to "RIPYittrium2020".
    • This is perceived as mockery by the former members of Yittrium.
• February 17th, 2020:
  • The City of the Divine Lord, Wilbur (a.k.a. "Wilburia") raids and annexes Byzantium's former city, Triterrus. Ostrich1414, Zepheron, cheesy_chips22 and AntHand are in attendance at the raid.
  • This is met with criticism by Byzantium, with several members arriving at Triterrus to undo the annexation and reclaim the city.
• February 23rd, 2020:
  • More taunting, mainly on behalf of RIPYittrium2020, leads to the leaking of Yittrium's coordinates in public chat.
  • Ostrich1414, AntHand, cheesy_chips22, Lord1 and CrackyJoe retaliate by returning to Triterrus and severely griefing it.
    • An alt of Das_Dankgineer is followed and killed by Lord1 after spying on the griefers.
  • Ostrich1414, on behalf of Wilburia, declares war on Byzantium, The Cult of Sanchez and all former bases of The Commonwealth. The Caudices and the Church of Francis follow suit.
  • Das_Dankgineer, on behalf of Byzantium, declares war on Wilburia, the Caudices, the Church of Francis and the Institute.
• February 24th, 2020:
  • Takyon declares war on Byzantium to help its sister city, Wilburia.
• February 25th, 2020:
  • Das_Dankgineer and Duffilufagus retaliate for the Triterrus grief by severely griefing Yittrium.
  • MoWobbler catches the two in the middle of the grief and calls ostrich1414 and Lord1 to help him.
  • The three former Yittrium members chase Das_Dankgineer throughout the city until he crash-lands in a failed suicide attempt.
    • Das_Dankgineer is eventually cornered into a cave and killed by MoWobbler.
• February 28th, 2020:
  • Ostrich1414 and VetoTheNeato re-establish peaceful relations with Byzantium at a peace conference in Quinsigamond.
    • To honor their peace, ostrich1414 returns the elytra Lord1 had stolen from Das_Dankgineer, and Passaconaway returns several historic artifacts taken from Yittrium during the raid.
    • Ostrich1414 and VetoTheNeato officially withdraw from the war, despite it still waging on.
• March 25th, 2020:
  • MoWobbler finally discovers the home beach of the turtles he, AntHand and egnaroky had been tracking and graphing for over a month.
    • Instead of discovering the location of Byzantium, they find an empty beach with a few sarcastic signs.
• March 28th, 2020:
  • Byzantium members Das_Dankgineer, Duffilufagus and Hamieb discover Antzakes1's old underground base via his portal route.
    • The three raid the base and then severely grief it.
  • Peace talks begin between members of both Byzantium and New Israel.
• March 29th, 2020:
  • A peace conference is held at the turtle beach discovered a few days earlier; in attendance are Byzantium members Das_Dankgineer, Duffilufagus, and Hamieb, and New Israel members ostrich1414, Lord1, AntHand, egnaroky, cheesy_chips22 and MoWobbler.
    • After constructing a makeshift assembly building, each attendee gives a speech. Afterwards, a peace treaty is signed; all but MoWobbler sign the peace treaty.
    • It is decided that the Byzantium War will come to an end, neither side will be labeled as a "winner" or "loser" of the war, and all affected parties will move on in an attempt to mend their relations.

Participants

With no general structure or "army", the participants and their respective "sides" are listed below:

(NOTE: Those who prematurely dropped out of the war before its end are italicized)

• BYZANTIUM:

• Byzantium
  • Das_Dankgineer
  • Hamieb
  • Duffilufagus
  • Passaconaway
  • Anthonys244

• The Commonwealth (Former Members)
  • DarthBacca77

• NEW ISRAEL: (NOTE: All former Yittrium members have a * at the right of their name)

• City of the Divine Lord, Wilbur (a.k.a. "Wilburia")
  • ostrich1414*
  • Zepheron
  • cheesy_chips22*

• Caudices
  • AntHand*
  • egnaroky*

• Church of Francis
  • Lord1*
  • CrackyJoe

• The Institute
  • Antzakes1*

• Takyon
  • VetoTheNeato*

• Nocturnia
  • MoWobbler*

History

General Background Information

Long before the Byzantium War, the current members of Byzantium were instead involved in a group called The Commonwealth, focusing on two main bases: Triterrus and Atlas. In early 2019, Triterrus and Struthio were official Sister Cities, with ostrich1414 forming a strong alliance with the Commonwealth. Their close alliance lasted almost a year completely untouched, with ostrich1414 even inviting one of the Commonwealth's members, TonTheKidRS, to his city, Yittrium, in October 2019.

By this time, the other members of the Commonwealth were inactive. Triterrus had largely been abandoned, and Atlas had been put on hold indefinitely. Thus, with TonTheKidRS being the only active member, he began to be significantly more involved with Yittrium and its affairs. Many of the Commonwealth's resources and products were taken by TonTheKidRS for Yittrium-related use, especially for use during The Holy Wilbur-Francis War, where dozens of gold and gunpowder from Atlas were used.

Furthermore, TonTheKidRS brought ostrich1414 to both Triterrus and Atlas without the approval or permission of the rest of his team (the Commonwealth had a specific rule against inviting players that they did not know in real life). Although ostrich1414 was a strong ally with the Commonwealth, many of the members were disappointed by TonTheKidRS's actions.

With other miscellaneous instances of in-fighting between TonTheKidRS and other members of the Commonwealth, especially on their Discord server, a few of its members decided to take actions into their own hands as a form of revenge. A few of the core members of the Commonwealth, namely Hamieb, Passaconaway and Duffilufagus, decided to rebrand themselves and form their own new team and base away from TonTheKidRS - Byzantium.

The Raid of Yittrium

While many days of preparations and planning had been made, these three Byzantium members planned to find Yittrium and raid it for revenge. Knowing that Yittrium had been accessed via DakkaDok's 15 million portal, they utilized this as an entryway to the city. They then followed ostrich1414's old flight paths from the portal, eventually discovering Yittrium, which was located not too far away.

Byzantium's essential plan was to rob Yittrium of many of its resources, as they felt TonTheKidRS had done to them. They did so by destroying many of Yittrium's chests, as well as looting its valuables, stealing its villagers, and taking several rare, historical artifacts from its museums and library. Several farms were also tampered with or destroyed by Byzantium.

On January 5th, 2020, cheesy_chips22 discovered that Yittrium was in the process of being raided after noticing an invisible player and seeing the destroyed chests. A state of emergency was declared in the city as many of its members logged on to try to find the culprits, although there was no success. Unfortunately, ostrich1414 was on a short hiatus at the time, and would only hear of the raid a few days later. Nonetheless, the city had effectively been raided and looted, with very little left. This prompted its members to officially abandon the city, seeing no reason to continue to live and build there with its core farms and valuables gone.

Furthermore, no culprit had officially been discovered yet. TheOnlySlash claimed responsibility, but no serious clues were discovered.

Byzantium Claims Responsibility

Fifteen days later, on January 20th, 2020, Byzantium finally decided to acknowledge their actions. Duffilufagus announced in public chat that he, Hamieb and Passaconaway were behind the Yittrium raid, followed by Hamieb privately contacting ostrich1414 on Discord and briefing him on everything that happened, from why they did it to how they did it.

Hamieb later explained these reasons to the rest of Yittrium, with its members heavily criticizing Byzantium's actions, annoyed and angered that their city had been compromised by players they trusted. However, no actions would be taken on behalf of Yittrium. The city had been abandoned, and its members decided to simply move on.

The Raid of Triterrus

After a little over a month of no contact between Byzantium and the former Yittrium members, mainly due to other significant events taking place (namely the Intervention War), tensions would soon rise when DarthBacca77, a former Commonwealth member, changed his name to "RIPYittrium2020". This was perceived as very disrespectful by the former Yittrium members, which they felt was a case of mockery and lack-of-remorse for the raid. Things only worsened when several Byzantium members began to kill RIPYittrium2020 with named Yittrium-related memorabilia, with the death messages showing up in chat.

Annoyed by this, and tired of cowardly accepting defeat, ostrich1414 decided to strike back and get revenge for the Yittrium raid by setting out to Byzantium's former city, Triterrus, and raiding it in return later that night. Along with Zepheron, cheesy_chips22, and later AntHand, they arrived at Triterrus that same night, on February 17th, 2020, and began to raid and annex the city for Wilburia, taking whatever they could find and replacing Triterrus banners with The Order of Wilbur banners. While no large-scale griefing occurred, the building that held Triterrus' constitution was destroyed. Ostrich1414 later announced his actions in public chat, declaring Triterrus as Wilburian territory and denouncing Byzantium's instances of "mockery". Zepheron later released a video of the raid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBdRvUx5578

The raid of Triterrus was immediately criticized by Byzantium, with its members, including Das_Dankgineer who had joined after the Yittrium raid, arriving at Triterrus long after the raid to reclaim their city. They removed all Wilburian banners and signs, claiming that Triterrus was once again under their control.

The Grief of Triterrus

Over the next few days, while nothing major would occur, tensions flared as Byzantium and the Yittrium members began constantly bickering and insulting each other in chat. The Order of Wilbur and the Church of Francis both publicly denounced The Cult of Sanchez, and talks of "war" began to gain popularity. Nevertheless, several Byzantium members were still interested in restoring peace.

On February 23rd, 2020, after a heated debate between Sanchez and Francis in chat, RIPYittrium began to continuously taunt the former members of Yittrium by mocking the city and pretending to sell its coordinates. However, things escalated quickly when he publicly leaked Yittrium's coordinates in chat, much to the anger of its members. This incident ultimately resulted in the decision to retaliate by any means necessary.

After preparing dozens of stacks of TNT, ostrich1414, AntHand, cheesy_chips22, Lord1 and CrackyJoe once again arrived at Triterrus, this time with intentions to fully grief it. The five players worked together to severely grief the city, completely destroying Duffilufagus' district, Mythruindale, destroying Hamieb's twin towers, and ruining several farms and other miscellaneous buildings. Midway through the grief, Byzantium discovered what they were doing after Lord1 killed Hamieb's dog, and a few of Byzantium's members arrived in the city to prematurely blow up some of the TNT. Nevertheless, the city was destroyed, with ostrich1414 even creating a video on the grief: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEbILuemQmA

War is Declared

Byzantium was furious by this action, vowing to take revenge. Simultaneously, the former members of Yittrium were fed up with Byzantium, not yet finished with their plan. Ostrich1414, on behalf of Wilburia, declared war on Byzantium, the Cult of Sanchez and all former members of the Commonwealth. He was soon followed by AntHand, on behalf of the Caudices, and Lord1, on behalf of the Church of Francis. Das_Dankgineer soon retaliated and declared war against the three of them, as well as Antzakes1. Despite almost two months of tensions, war was officially declared that same day, on February 23rd.

The Grief of Yittrium

Shortly after the declarations of war, plans were well underway to continue to take action. VetoTheNeato, on behalf of Takyon, declared war on Byzantium in support of its sister city, Wilburia. Furthermore, the Bloc for Clans (which many anti-Byzantium members were a part of) voted to officially end the long-term Intervention War in order to focus on the new Byzantium War. This new group of anti-Byzantium players, mainly consisting of former Yittrium members and their allies, donned the unofficial team name "New Israel".

Meanwhile, Byzantium was still severely angered by the Triterrus grief, losing a nostalgic part of their early SimPvP experience. They vowed to take revenge, and began targeting an attack on Yittrium. On February 25th, Duffilufagus, aided by Das_Dankgineer, arrived at Yittrium and prepped the city for a severe grief, placing TNT bombers all across Downtown Yittrium. These bombers destroyed several buildings and skyscrapers, as well as turning the ground into craters. However, several neighborhoods in Yittrium, most notably Yittport, would remain untouched. Nevertheless, Yittium was effectively in the process of being utterly destroyed. Duffilufagus even released a video of the grief, much like ostrich1414 had before: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40otZASnaQM

Midway through the grief, MoWobbler arrived at Yittrium, purely by chance, when he discovered the two Byzantium members blowing up the city. He immediately called over ostrich1414 and Lord1 for support, while dodging flying TNT and risking capture.

Ostrich1414 and Lord1 arrived to help MoWobbler, and the three began to dismantle the TNT bombers as they searched for Duffilufagus and Das_Dankgineer. They soon spotted Das_Dankgineer, and an intense aerial chase occurred as the three pursued him for several minutes. Das_Dankgineer eventually attempted suicide by plummeting to the ground below, but survived. He was then chased further into the Yittrium woods until he was cornered into a cave, with MoWobbler killing him instantly.

The three returned to the city, scanning the area and analyzing the damage, while Duffilufagus narrowly escaped capture through suicide. The grief of Yittrium severely worsened tensions between Byzantium and New Israel; the former members of Yittrium were especially furious, ensuring that they would pay.

Quinsigamond Peace Conference

On February 27th, Passaconaway, Das_Dankgineer and Hamieb reached out to ostrich1414 via Discord, eager to re-establish peace and to ease tensions of the war. Although hesitant at first, ostrich1414 would soon decide that warring against his longtime allies was of little use, and thus, both Byzantium and ostrich1414 decided to make up. However, the prospect of peace and forgiveness with Byzantium was not a popular move among New Israel; aside from ostrich1414 himself, only VetoTheNeato would be interested in peace. To everyone else, war was necessary and important.

It was decided that a peace conference would be held at Quinsigamond, mainly due to the city's symbolic significance a year earlier, in February 2019, when it was the site of a treaty signing between Struthio and Triterrus, establishing the two as sister cities. On February 28th, preparations were made as ostrich1414 and VetoTheNeato prepared to meet up with Byzantium at Quinsigamond for peace, a move they hoped would ease wartime tensions for the others. On Byzantium's side, Das_Dankgineer, Passaconaway, Duffilufagus and Hamieb would arrive, and all six players would meet up that night, forming a temporary conference location on top of an old building in Quinsigamond.

First, a treaty was signed by all parties, formally apologizing for their actions before and during the war, offering forgiveness and peace, and recognizing ostrich1414 and VetoTheNeato's withdrawal from the Byzantium War itself. Afterwards, a gift exchange began: ostrich1414 returned Das_Dankgineer's elytra, one which had been stolen from him by Lord1 after he was killed in Yittrium days earlier. Duffilufagus was also given an elytra, as he had lost his that same day. Furthermore, Passaconaway returned several rare and historic artifacts stolen from Yittrium during its initial raid, ranging from Florestria artifacts to relics of the Holy Wilbur-Francis War. Other gifts included exclusive pictures of Takyon from VetoTheNeato, and city banners.

While the Byzantium War would not come to an end, two of the war's core members had withdrawn, leaving its future uncertain. Byzantium would be forced to continue fighting against the other members of New Israel, with anything being possible.

War Slowdown

Shortly after the Quinsigamond Peace Conference, with ostrich1414 and VetoTheNeato now withdrawn and the other Byzantium members slowly falling in and out of activity, the Byzantium War became far less active than it had been in late February. All throughout early-to-mid March, very little to nothing at all occurred between the members of New Israel and Byzantium, save for the occasional jab in chat. In many ways, peace seemed to be much more viable: some of the players were beginning to get along with each other again. Yet, behind the scenes, a few members of New Israel were working on a top secret scheme that would make or break the war.

The Turtle Graphing Plot

Early Origins

In February, AntHand and egnaroky of the Caudices had a realization: since turtles are programmed to return to their home beaches, then they could feasibly track down the base of any player on SimPvP, so long as that player gave them turtles from their base. However, while testing out this theory, they also realized that tracking down moving turtles was not entirely accurate, and left large margins of error to fill. Thus, the two decided that it would be best to release the turtles in a large area, and narrow down their results through a process described as "turtle graphing".

That same month, AntHand and egnaroky attempted to acquire turtles from several notable bases, failing each time to do so. However, their main target, Byzantium, was more than happy to provide the Caudices with turtles, and a trade was made long before war had even been declared. Finally, they had turtles from Byzantium, and they could begin the turtle graphing process, a process which would take over a month and serve as New Israel's top mission behind the scenes during the war. This was a very exclusive project, however, and only three players truly partook in the process: AntHand, egnaroky and MoWobbler.

The Graphing Process

The first goal of the project was to fly five million blocks out to a specific point in the overworld. MoWobbler was chosen as the flyer, and thus spent several days in late February flying via the nether for millions of blocks until he reached his goal. Once there, AntHand and egnaroky arrived, and began to set up the turtles given by Byzantium.

The three tackled this project using a very specific method: they would create very large graphs, and at each one million interval, they would release the turtles and track them. At each intersecting point between lines, they would carefully narrow down the points further and release more turtles, graphing them in a similar process at designated intervals. Eventually, the three gave up on the calculated graphing method entirely when they knew they were getting close to the original beach, and kept narrowing down their margins via releasing turtles, getting closer and closer.

Discovery of the Home Beach

On March 25th, 2020, over a month after the entire turtle graphing process even began, MoWobbler finally discovered the home beach of the turtles using the graphing method. As he followed the last turtle to the beach and arrived at the destination, rather than discovering the city of Byzantium, he discovered something else: four signs placed around a cheaply-made turtle farm, mocking them.

Of course, upon realizing that the turtles were not birthed in Byzantium itself, but rather, a random beach, the members of New Israel were upset. The entire process was very time-and-resource heavy, and consumed a large part of the war's duration behind the scenes. Nonetheless, the precision and determination of the three turtle graphing participants led them to the point of origin farther out in the world, and Byzantium still held onto their city; the war would remain ongoing, albeit in a very different climate than it had first began.

The Grief of Antzakes1's Invisible Base

With the failure of the turtle graphing plot, and a lack of interest on either side to continue the war, talks of peace were finally coming to fruition. However, by March 28th, another major event would occur, akin to the early griefs of both Triterrus and Yittrium: Antzakes1's old underground base was griefed.

After discovering the beginning of Antzakes1's portal chain at an old base he used to live at, three Byzantium members - Duffilufagus, Das_Dankgineer, and Hamieb - set out to follow the chain in the hopes of finding Antzakes1' infamous invisble underground base (named for its invisible potion manufacturing site). Utilizing old screenshots that they were given and other related information about the base, the three followed the chain as closely as possible, searching for the next few portals within a defined area and keeping an eye out for oddities or clues. Eventually, after hearing the crackling of fire underneath them, the three Byzantium members discovered a cave entrance that ultimately led to Antzakes1's base.

After looting and raiding the base of what little valuables and resources it had left, the three set out to grief it, largely in retaliation to negatively-perceived comments made by Antzakes1 over a month prior. Using TNT from Byzantium, the three layered the underground base with hundreds of explosives before detonating them, turning the series of underground ravines and tunnels into a large crater.

This would be the third major grief of the Byzantium War, and only worsened relations between Byzantium and Antzakes1. Although much of New Israel's members were now longing for peace, there were still players who felt otherwise, and the war's effects were still ongoing.

The War's End

Peace Talks Begin

A few hours after the grief of Antzakes1's invisible base, the members of New Israel, fed up with the pointless direction of the war and longing to simply move on and focus on other things, attempt to begin talks of peace with Byzantium in the hopes of ending the war soon. Similarly, Byzantium was also eager to end the war and regain peaceful relations, and accepted their request for peace talks. As such, many hours of peace talks are held on Discord, with the final verdict being that all parties want to end the war and achieve peace due to the pointless and "unwinnable" nature of the long-stagnant war. It is decided that a peace conference will be held the following day at the end site of the turtle graphing plot, informally referred to as "Turtle Beach".

The Turtle Beach Peace Conference

On March 29th, all New Israel members begin to make their way to the site of the peace conference and prepare a set-up. MoWobbler, cheesy_chips22, Lord1 and ostrich1414 work together to construct a makeshift assembly building in order to house the conference, located right along the coast nearby the site of the turtles' home beach. Banners of each participating city and faction are displayed inside the meeting hall. Shortly afterwards, AntHand and egnaroky arrive, and the three participating Byzantium members, Das_Dankgineer, Duffilufagus, and Hamieb, join as well.

Once everyone is within the assembly hall, the Turtle Beach Peace Conference begins. Firstly, three major "Points of Resolution" are cited and agreed upon by all parties to follow as of the conference:

• 1.) The Byzantium War shall have no clear winner or loser; merely, the war shall end on a mutual note of peace and respect.
• 2.) All participants and belligerents of the Byzantium War do agree to acknowledge that the Byzantium War will officially end on March 29th, 2020.
• 3.) All participants and belligerents of the Byzantium War shall come together and unify under the common banner of alliance and friendship.

After these points are agreed upon, every participant gives a speech from the building's podium. MoWobbler is the only participant to announce his rejection of signing for peace during his speech, although he still agrees to end the war and move on. Nonetheless, every other speaker asserts their desire for peace through their speeches, apologizing for their actions and accepting the apologies of others.

Finally, the peace treaty is signed by nearly all parties. MoWobbler abstains from signing the treaty, instead drafting a "Peace Rejection" pamphlet, opting to merely break his ties with Byzantium but to end the war and move on nonetheless. After the peace treaty is signed by everyone else, the Byzantium War officially comes to an end of mutual peace; neither Byzantium nor New Israel emerged as the victors or losers, merely moving on to new opportunities. This peace is solidified by Byzantium's, once again being referred to as The Commonwealth's, acceptance into the Bloc for Clans. Duffilufagus and cheesy_chips22 also decide to build a base together, and AntHand extends an offer to all participants for a mutual base together.

Memes and Propaganda

Much like the many SimPvP wars before it, the Byzantium War produced many memes and propaganda pieces relating to its causes:

• 

  A Postcard made by CrackyJoe on the day of the Triterrus grief

• 

  A meme made by MoWobbler about his time traveling for the turtle graphing scheme

• 

  A screenshot of ostrich1414 delivering a speech at the Turtle Beach Peace Conference, by Duffilufagus