The Empire of Exiles

History

Introduction by EEX_Ian

 

You're probably scrolling down now and thinking "wtf" I'm not reading this long post. But let me tell you that reading this history was the most enjoyable thing I've done in a long time. Certainly more enjoyable even than playing a game of AOE3(not that that's not fun). So it's now with great pride that I bring to you the history of EEX copied from wanderlust's history of WND. He deserves 95% credit for this. All I did was add/fix small parts, edit the history so it's not so blatantly told from wander's point of view and I added a bit at the end from after WND left us.

 

Chapter I: LKS and The Fall

Many members of EEX came from a clan called LKS. LKS was the Lonely Knights Clan, a clan founded originally on free ezboard and based on the game Age of Empires II: The Age of Kings. It had expanded into SimCountry, Unreal Tournament and UT2k3, Age of Mythology, WarCraft III, and StarCraft, and forayed into Empire Earth briefly. It grew to hundreds of members, with a scroll listing over four hundred knights.

 

But all was not well in LKS. As the community grew, newer and stricter laws were put into place by the leader, LKS_Imperator, and his cabal of administrators, LKS_Cheesy, LKS_Oldman, LKS_Derok, and LKS_Pacasac. On Sept. 30th of that year, anarchists and troublemakers (but also very popular people and jokers) LKS_Black_Sun and LKS_Donkay were banned, for not complying with a very minor punishment handed down by the leaders for spamming, really, and light trolling. Donkay and Black Sun complained about freedom of speech and started cursing and starting trouble after this, and found proxies to avoid their IP bans.

 

The clan was up in arms, these were very well-loved and popular clannies and the boards went crazy. The forums had to be shut down for several hours because of the flood of angry posting and threats to leave, made by about forty members simultaneously.

 

But the clan survived, and soon afterwards a tribunal was formed to mediate further events like this so they did not get out of hand. LKS_Cyanide, ('nide) a notoriously long-winded Canadian PoliSci major, was appointed head of the tribunal, and filled his speeches with political science philosophy and the like.

 

LKS endured for a long while, with a few minor bumps but mostly relatively peacefully. A few governmental reforms were initiated, and there was talk of Imperator's (or as he was affectionately called, Impy) dictatorship. A Board of Members was created, where all the members who "did work" for the clan and were on committees and branch leaders and the like were given a say in clan affairs. The majority of the clan could not see this forum, which bothered many people, as the decisions were made there and were not given as public record, and members who were not on committees or who did not play a part, even if they wanted to, were not given access.

 

Trouble began when LKS_Zard, a coder joined the clan. Impy, who was also a coder, took a liking to Zard, and within three months of his acceptance into the clan he was promoted to Imperator status on the boards and soon after, Impy resigned his position and gave it to Zard. Zard accepted, thunderstruck, while many of the existing administrators and older members cried foul, claiming quite correctly that someone with no experience and lacking special amount of respect that are typically reserved for leaders was promoted, but they were ignored. LKS_Oldman (Oldie), LKS Treasurer, took his servers offline and left. LKS_Feudal Master (FM), head of the Welcoming Committee, followed. Two weeks later, Zard's account was mysteriously deleted. Impy came back, having recieved a letter from Zard that he had joined as a joke. Oldie and FM came back. Impy lost a whole lot of respect from the whole situation.

 

Next, LKS_Icehammer (Icey) was banned. Icey, the fourth member on the LKS scroll, one of Impy's oldest friends, had given Donkay his account password so Donkay could view the forums. Donkay, using Icey's account, sent a whole bunch of angry PMs to LKS_Oldman and gave himself a singing flash avatar, causing havoc and computer crashes when threads were accessed. Icey complained. Icey was another popular member, and people said that Impy was putting a technical law (do not give your password away) ahead of friendship and that Icey had learned his lesson.

 

Impy, as a result of these events, became paranoid and distrusting. Derok and Pacasac became rather inactive. The Board of Members was frustrated, and after a couple of Donkay, Icey, and Black Sun smurfs infiltrated, Impy, 'nide, and Oldie proposed asking members for their addresses in order to hold them accountable for their actions (thus ensuring any further hacking attempts by Icey Donkay or Black Sun would be prosecuted). Meanwhile, members who had contributed money to LKS_Oldman and the LKS treasury were given gold stars, which appeared right next to their name. The younger members who were not authorized to give out their addresses and could not pay complained they were being discriminated against. Derok had been busy playing with a MMORPG-type game which he had coded into the LKS db, Impy wasn't gaming anymore. Cheesy was skinning only, and Pacasac wasn't active. Oldman was the only admin left playing games.

 

Impy grew to distrust the younger members after the fierce, fierce opposition they had given him regarding the Black Sun and Donkay incidents and followups and the member addresses. He told LKS_Cheesy he did not trust him enough to maintain him as admin anymore and demoted him.

 

poop happened. Cheesy was a younger member, the only one with administrative CP, and the tenth member to join LKS. He was also extraordinarily popular, a consistently funny man who mastered the skins and worked on extra-gaming activities like LKS Survivor. He wasn't really interested in politics, and his crime had been sending a letter to Impy telling him he had changed a lot. Cheesy's reinstatement was demanded, and Impy had acted singlehandedly in this significant demotion and without the consent of the Board of Members. Cheesy himself was stunned. People began leaving, citing Cheesy's unfair demotion and the oppression of the younger members. The flood multiplied and grew. Black Sun, Icey, and Donkey encouraged it. There were maybe forty leaving posts, ten a day at points. The clan was splitting in two, as the younger members tended to leave and side with their friends and the elder members stayed and sided with theirs. Within a week, LKS was shattered. People were encouraging their friends to leave via PMs. LKS_Benzoid was banned; he hadn't even left yet, but was Icey's best friend. Everyone who had left found themselves banned from the forums. Cheesy set up a forum for all of us on his website, www.cheeseland.net, under the directory LKSR for LKS resistance. Many people who just joined to visit and hang with their friends were banned by LKS for registering. The clan finished splitting on May 11th, 2003, on Cheesy's birthday.

 

Chapter II: The first days and the CDLC

 

LKS considered many types of government, initially looking for elections. In a late-night conversation with Wander, Cheesy and Ian, Wander posited that elections were divisive and would just cause party politics and rivalries. Cheesy agreed. The conversation was kept secret, but leaked and was posted on a website by 'nide. The new clan would be Roman-themed. Three consuls would be elected-for-life, and a system of branch leaders as governors and provinces put together after that, all with a Roman theme. Cheesy was webmaster and admin, and Wander, Darksaber (Dork), and Feudal_Master were elected consuls. Empire of Exiles (that is, exiles from LKS) was chosen as the clan name, and the domain was bought by Klown.

 

Over the course of the summer of 2004 EEX was put in shambles. The consul wanderlust had gone away for the summer and with him gone the clan tempoarily lost a consul. EEX_Ian and EEX_Darksaber plotted to put Ian in consul position which would be labeled as tempoary until Wanderlust came back. The truth was however was that they planned to demote Feudal_Master who was not very liked and generally was very much out of the loop being one of the few older members of the clan. A few weeks into the summer the trouble started when EEX_Donkay who had since joined the clan hacked LKS's forums. In response to the hacking EEX_Ian who had never liked Donkay went against the clan's general attitude and banned Donkay. Darksaber respond by demoting EEX_Ian and unbanning Donkay. The clan was in turmoil and only man could set things right again. That man was the missing consul, the one who was chosen for his moderation. That consul was wanderlust.

 

Having just returned from his vacation, Wanderlust proceeded to ban donkay, demote Darksaber and FM, and set himself up as the sole leader on the boards. Cheesy came back from his summer program and also had administrator.

 

Wander however was met with opposition. Something had happened to EEX while he was gone, and the opposition to spamming and flaming and the old Code of Conduct of LKS had completely gone out the window. Impy and 'nide, were equivalent to curses and were consistently made fun of at EEX. Wanderlust cracked down on that, trying to make the boards more respectable and trying to possibly rebuild some sort of connection between LKS and EEX. They spoke of friendship with each other over all, while Wanderlust thought respect was important as well. Wanderlust tried to maintain connections with and contact with as many LKSers as he could; He was the only EEXer who spoke to Cyanide and who spoke to Impy still. Wanderlust was still naively interested in theoretically patching these things up.

 

However wanderlusts plans were not working well, he was being called the next Impy. Darksaber, Icey, and Donkay led a crusade against him and opposed everything he tried to do. Wanderlust created a secret forum for all of those still in EEX who, like Wander, looked for respectability and a clan that resembled the old LKS. Wanderlust created the CDLC forum, which stood for creme de la creme. At this point, Klown, Cheesy, and Wanderlust were admins, and all of us had access. In addition, Ian, Spook, Airborne, Byzy, Greyfox, and all of the old crowd who stood with Wanderlust joined and we were looking for solutions to actually change the culture of the clan we were involved in. This proved impossible. Klown despaired.

 

He removed Wanderlust and Cheesy from admin, and made the CDLC public. We were equal to the Board of Members, and everyone except Klown in the CDLC left. Klown eliminated all ranks and all private forums, and pretty much turned EEX into the thriving community that it is today.

 

Cheesy, Byzy, Airborne, Spook, Greyfox, and Wanderlust left. Wanderlust founded WND on Oct. 19th, 2003, as secret from all EEXers, at this site. Most came with him, except Cheesy and Ian. Ca_aok and Mindwarp shortly followed. Cheesy did not. Ian after a time of being banned due to excessive spamming and trouble making on the EEX forums, would eventually be unbanned and welcomed back into the clan.

 

Since that time EEX has thrived. A clan no longer divided by personalities, nor stuck in the past. Over the next year EEX would rebuild and become more active than ever, with new recruits coming from all branches.

 

Chapter III: A clan again

 

Over the course of 2 years EEX had drifted away from being a clan. New recruits were often left out of the loop and soon left. The same old core always remained but the clan often stagnated. Under the leadership of Ian and everybody else the EEX community now attempts to be made a clan again. This chapter is left unfinished because it can not be accomplished without the work of new recruits. The time of stagnation is over. It's time for the senior members of EEX to open up and accept new friends, because without a doubt this clan will not last forever. The only things that will last will be the friendships we've made and will never forget.

 

So from all of us at empire of exiles, have a nice day and good night.

 

Written by: WND_Wanderlust

 

Introduction and additions by: EEX_Ian

 

 

The History of EEX