The Byzantium War
| The Byzantium War | |
|---|---|
| Event | |
| Name: The Byzantium War | |
| Status: Ongoing | |
| Formed: February 23rd, 2020 | |
| Clans: Byzantium, City of the Divine Lord, Wilbur, Caudices, Church of Francis, Takyon | |
| Bases: Yittrium, Triterrus | |
The Byzantium War is an ongoing 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 is 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.
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.
Timeline
The Byzantium War is a very complicated war to follow; thus, listed below is a simplified timeline of the events both before and during 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.
- Byzantium officially claims responsibility for the Yittrium raid, revealing it to the public for the first time.
- February 16th, 2020:
- DarthBacca77, a friend of Byzantium, changes his name to "RIPYittrium2020".
- This is perceived as mockery by the former members of Yittrium.
- DarthBacca77, a friend of Byzantium, changes his name to "RIPYittrium2020".
- 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.
Participants
With no general structure or "army", the participants and their respective "sides" are listed below:
- BYZANTIUM:
- The Commonwealth (Former Members)
- 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")
- The Institute
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, Das_Dankgineer and Duffilufagus 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.
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
