Guru Order

The Guru Order is an aqua sphere alliance founded by Guruland on August 19th, 2008. It consists of a large number of small nations, as the Order's main recruitment programs target only nations new to Cyber Nations. The rulers of the Order's member states are of varied ethnicity and as such the members are spread over several time zones.

Philosophy
The Guru Order was created with the aim of becoming a premier online community for "personal development and positive minded individuals". Cyber Nations was selected as the ideal online game to develop such a community.

The focus of the order is collectivism, unity and mutual-contribution. Members of the Order strive to feel apart of something greater than an online clan, this attitude has assisted the Order in becoming one of the fastest expanding communities on Cyber Nations since its creation.

Being a Guru is seen as an honor among members. Everyone who joins advances through the Academy System, climbing the ladder of development. The size of a member's nation is not a factor when assessing the value of their membership. It is instead their contributions to the community that is seen as truly important. Positions within the Order are not voted on, nor are they handed down based on favoritism. Members are actively promoted all of the time within the Order, so that each member can have their chance to shine. The Order is unique in its member-development, "there is no alliance in CN [...] which develops and grows leaders as does the Guru Order".

"The concept of being "inactive" has never existed in GO, in fact we do not know what this is, even though it is a chronic issue among alliances. Efficiency, organization and civility is something which makes GO stand out among others. GO has no enemies, we hold no grudges and never linger on the past. We Fully understand that GO is part of a game and everything which takes part in this game is purely role play; We never settle for being "good", we thrive in being the best! Defining best, this does not mean we have the largest National Strength, most members or any such in game statistics, which we do admirably in anyway. Best in the eyes of the Guru Order is having the feeling that you are part of something different and special and unique."

- Guruland

Ultimately, the goal of the Order is to assist people in developing and improving their character. The Order strives to improve each new member as a person, and hopes that the philosophies and principles people learn whilst a member of the community help them to live an enriched life.

The Beginning
The Guru Order Alliance Affiliation was created August 19, 2008 with the first member joining August 24. The Order underwent a recruiting push and by August 30 consisted of 22 member-states and was a listed alliance. The Order had no large nations to provide finance, as such it spent a period of time participating in several minor technology trades with individual nations. It wasn't until FOK provided the order with its first bulk technology order that the order managed to solve its financial problems.

By the end of September the Order had doubled its number of member-states and increased its alliance strength sixfold. This growth attracted the attention of technology raiders, which resulted in the order entering a protectorate with the member-alliances of the Trident on October 28, at which point it had reached 83 member-states and an alliance strength of 185,000. The Guru Order continued to sell bulk technology to FOK and Farkistan.

Times of Stability
The Guru Order continued its sale of bulk technology to its main external buyers with a total of 15,200 technology sold in November alone. During the start of 2009 it entered into a ToA with FOK and reached 112 member-states and an alliance strength of 550,000.

Exponential Growth
From February to April the Order increased from 174 member-states to 303 and its alliance strength from 625,000 to 1,000,000. This was a result of changes to the Order's recruitment programs and technology selling. Around this time it became apparent that the Order was lacking experienced members as the average age of the member-states was below two months. The Order relied heavily on selling technology externally.

War and Rebellion
The end of April saw the beginning of the Karma War, during which the Guru Order declared neutrality as its protectors were on separate sides. Due to the war, the Order's amount of technology orders diminished greatly. With the length of the war and the lack of technology deals many member-states became restless. At the beginning of May several high profile members staged a rebellion and attempted to sabotage the order through rumours and attacks on higher level members. The rebellion proved a failure and the first wave was removed from the order.

Despite the victory, the Order remained cautious and recruiting ceased for over a month. By late June the Order removed two additional spies which initiated a war against a multi-account alliance. During July the Order entered into a MDoAP with its now former-protectors (Farkistan, MHA and NATO) and was selling a large amount of technology externally again. However, the number of member-states had reduced to 174 and the alliance strength remained just above 1,000,000.

New Wave
With the Order recruiting as normal again a new wave of member-states joined, and with it came a large amount of new talent. A record number of Gurus made their way through the ranks, with the September Guru Order Government made up completely of the "new wave" of Gurus with none of the original members involved. The goal of the Order was finally realised, a self-working system under which any nation may join the order and achieve high levels of growth, activity and unity had been created.

By the end of September the Order had entered into a MDoAP with FOK and reached 226 member-states, an alliance strength of 1,300,000 and was selling 25,000 technology a month.

Nation Strength Push
During October and November a large number of the Guru Order's member-states broke the 3,000 infrastructure barrier and the order ranking system was restructured. By the end of 2009 the Order reached 214 members an alliance strength of 2,000,000 and cancelled its MDoAP with NATO.

The First War
January saw the outbreak of the Second Unjust War, with the Guru Order becoming involved in its first inter-alliance war to date. This resulted in a shortage of technology buyers and a cessation of recruiting. By the end of February the Order had returned to normal operations and assisting member-states rebuild their nations, with $500,000,000 in recovery aid sent to those most affected.

With growth continuing at a rapid rate, the Guru Order entered the Amazing Sanction Race for the first time on May 12.

Growth
The Order's main focus is economic growth through recruiting, technology trading and several internal programs which provide members with an influx of money and technology in exchange for certain services and good performance within the Order.

Community
The Guru Order was formed with synergism in mind. This is evident in the way the Order has been structured, with each member state relying on the other member states in order to succeed and grow. Members are expected to support each other through foreign aid and advice, with each party benefiting each time.

The Order accredits its consistent growth to the synergy displayed by its members, allowing them to grow collectively more than they would alone.

Foreign Relations
The Guru Order promotes and embraces a policy of peace and diplomacy over war towards all other Cyber Nations alliances. It has a number of foreign diplomats supervised by the Minister of Foreign Affairs responsible for improving and maintaining good relations with other alliances.

The Order invites any alliance interested in learning about the Order and improving relations to open an embassy at their forums and visit them at their IRC Channel.

Technology
Because of the Order's large number of small nations, it boasts a vast technology selling base. Expectedly, the Order has a large technology trading department which is maintained by the Minister of Finance.

Organisation
All members of the Guru Order are encouraged to participate in technology trading, and completing a Tech Deal is a requirement for Academy Members to graduate. Nations submit an application to the Minister of Technology to become either technology sellers or buyers. Their foreign aid slots are then tracked by the Minister of Technology, who places nations in Tech Deals as they become available.

External Selling
The Order uses its surplus of sellers to trade technology externally to several alliances. Its current main external buyers are FOK, iFOK, Fark and MHA. Interested parties can contact the order to purchase technology through their forums or by approaching the Minister of Foreign Affairs/Minister of Finance on their IRC Channel.

Organisation
Each month a new government is appointed by the Guru Order Elders Council. The day-to-day operations of the order is split into four ministries: Security, Foreign Affairs, Finance and Internal Affairs. Each ministry is maintained by one Minister and an unlimited amount of Deputy Ministers. The Ministers are all watched over by the Prime Minister, a position filled by a selected Elder.

Formation
Towards the end of the month, Guru Masters may submit their application for any government position to serve for the following month. The Elders Council reviews the applications and appoints each government member based on previous experience and ability. Guru Masters generally serve at least one term as a Deputy Minister in their chosen Ministry before becoming a Minister.

Charter
The Charter of Guru Order exists to protect the rights and freedoms of the sovereign nations of, and provide structure for, the Guru Order. It was last updated on May 1, 2010

Organisation
The current organisation of the Guru Order's military has come into place as a result of the Order's recent change of focus towards military readiness. Nations of the Guru Order are able to elect to become a War or Bank Nation. Bank Nations are required to make larger aid contributions, but do not have to risk much of their nation during inter-alliance war. War Nations are required to follow specific wonder guidelines and are able to start purchasing technology earlier than Bank Nations.

Conflicts
The Guru Order's first involvement in an inter-alliance war was during the Second Unjust War.

Propaganda
During the Second Unjust War, several pieces of War Propaganda circulated throughout the Order, created in the hopes of boosting morale and encouraging participation in the war effort: