The Rise, Fall, and Rebirth of the Legion

The Rise, Fall and Rebirth of the Legion is a historical account of the Legion alliance compiled by Iron Wolf. The original compilation covered January 2006 to July 2008 and has since been updated with more recent events.

Forward
This work is first and foremost written for Legionaries by Legionaries. This is not the story of one or of several famous alliance members. This is about all of us, from the humblest of nations with only 1 NS and having never posted anything other than their application for membership to those who have received our accolades and positions of greatest honors. This is a record of our history, our actions or in-actions, as told by those who were there to bear witness to or were the cause of the events.

My sources for this tale come from many different Legionaries. Some are Hall of Famers long gone, and general membership here currently; some have served the alliance with distinction and others who have only just begun their careers. The greatest debts go out to Sinatra, VL Empire, Korlus, and Lord Swampy. Their memories and memoirs of the earliest of times were fully ransacked in the creation of this history. Where necessary, the CN Wiki has been used for date references and other involved alliances.

When I first started this writing, I had what I had thought a simple goal in mind: restore the knowledge base of Legion-specific events and a point of view that was lost due to the events of Purplegate, the subsequent exodus, deletion by outgoing members, and the final blow of our old forum home being destroyed by one or more hackers. I believe that *we* have succeeded in restoring that Legion-centric record of events.

In creating this labor of love, I have found a renewed respect for the community we have founded and continue to keep alive. It is like none other; this is a fact.

o/ Ave!

/s/

Iron Wolf of Lakota

July 14, 2008

Founding and the Earliest Days
On January 31st, 2006, Planet Bob heard an announcement that a new and unique alliance, FCS Foreign Legion, was formed. The world was young then, with only a small number of alliances; many of those were crossover alliances from other games. The major alliances around at the time or shortly thereafter were the New Pacific Order (NPO), Orange Defense Network (ODN), National Alliance for Arctic Countries (NAAC), LUEnited Nations, and Global Alliance and Treaty Organization (GATO). The Foreign Legion membership initially got together on a message board for the Crystal Palace (a British football team for us Americans who would know no better) for defense, camaraderie, and co-operation. With this, the beginnings of The Legion were made.

Soon the name was changed to The Legion; forums set up and adopted purple as its team. A concerted effort was made to take the purple team Senate and applications were taken on the CyberNations big boards.

The Legion’s major foreign policy concerns didn’t extend much beyond trying to stay out of the violent confrontations between the NPO, GATO, ODN, and NAAC. The Legion’s leadership was talented but untested and inexperienced in the ways of CyberNations. However, we possessed the advantage of a tight knit community of nations.

A Provisional Cabinet was formed to guide the alliance while the charter was worked out. The first two terms (the Interim and the first elected term) the Cabinet consisted of six positions: Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Minister of Defense, Home Minister, and Director of Intelligence. After the interim term and the first elected term, the DoI was reassigned as a director level position. The five position cabinet would continue for another nine terms, a total of about two years.

The First Charter
The Legion’s charter at that time was a loose statement regarding the focus and future of the alliance. Our alliance soon outgrew that initial document and thus The First Charter Convention was convened and the work of writing an alliance charter began in April, 2006. From this Charter came a formal election schedule for The Legion’s cabinet.

Some of whom would go on to become some of The Legion’s Hall of Fame members were present at that first Charter Convention. The convention included luminaries such as Fonzoland (who acted as chairman/secretary and wrote our first charter), Great Britain, Zunea, Yenissey, SocCarolina, Korlus, and VL Empire. There may have been other notables present, but no record can be found. The convention ran two or three weeks by best recollections available.

Another body to come of that convention was the League of Nations. This was the general memberships’ arena of direct democracy. Changes to the charter, Declarations of War, and the ratification of treaties had to pass the LoN. This slowed processes down overall, but in the beginning with fewer members, this didn’t put the alliance in a bind. It is believed the first Speaker of the LoN was Mighty Bahb, but there are no surviving records to verify this.

As founder of the alliance, Great Britain was given the title President. He was to be the figurehead of The Legion, in much the same way that today’s real world Constitutional Monarchies tend to have royalty that are figureheads while the real authority of government lies with the Prime Minister. However, a large part of the population of Planet Bob believed that The Legion’s President actually did have authority in The Legion’s direction. Future Legion cabinets would find this both blessing and curse.

The First Polar War and the Citrus War
During this time of alliance building and coming to terms with our alliance’s growth, two major alliance wars happened. The first was the First Polar War, which was between NAAC and NPO. After four days of war, the NAAC surrendered on February 9, 2006. The next major war was between ODN and NPO; The Citrus War. That conflict lasted from February 25, 2006 to April 12, 2006. These major conflicts occurring so close to The Legion’s formation taught a lesson of neutrality to our alliance and the belief in being peaceful and friendly to all whom are likewise not behaving aggressively.

Sometime between those initial turbulent months when alliance warfare was happening and April 2006, The Legion and the NPO signed a Mutual Defense Pact (MDP) called The Imperial Accords. While this provided assistance to both alliances initially, this pact would bring about a lot of animosity and hatred between the two alliances.

Our first Mutual Defense Aggression Pact (MDAP) was signed with an alliance that would come to be viewed as our closest partners and best friends forever: ODN. Signed August 15, 2006, this treaty with ODN would eventually grow into a closeness that rivaled the bond between NPO and New Polar Order (NpO): The Citrus/Concord Decree. Much of the closeness between The Legion and ODN can be said to be the work of Korlus.

By the time of the third cabinet, a major revision in the way The Legion wielded its war machine would occur. Previously, the Defense Ministry consisted of a war alert forum. This would change with the work of VL Empire. When he became Minister of Defense, the Admiralty was created. It was organized by Nation Strength ranges formed into 8 Legions divided into multiple Cohorts. One Legion was comprised entirely of nuclear capable nations. The leadership was provided by Centurions and Praetorians. Soon this would be tested in battle, the best proving grounds available.

The Second Polar War
The first real war The Legion found itself drawn into was the Second Polar War. This was the first major war on Planet Bob to have widespread use of nuclear weapons. The conflict ran from May 22 to June 3, 2006. It began when the NPO was told of espionage attempts by NAAC against them. As bad as spying is, it was made worse in that it was in direct violation against the NAAC’s peace terms from the First Polar War to the NPO.

On May 23, GATO discovered that NAAC had attempted to spy against them as well and entered the war on the NPO’s side. Later that same day, the NPO activated the Imperial Accords, bringing The Legion into the war against NAAC. Between the desertions of many of NAAC’s upper level political leadership and the power of three major alliances being brought to bear effectively sealed NAAC’s fate.

After 4 days of warfare, The Legion offered an Armistice to NAAC. This would later be called “white peace.” The Legion’s Minister of Defense VL Empire announced to the world that The Legion’s cabinet felt the damage dealt to NAAC was sufficient to make NAAC no longer a threat and was just punishment for their actions. However, behind the scenes, The Legion’s leadership was increasingly concerned about the NPO’s desire to totally destroy NAAC.

The Legion’s leadership informed the NPO of their decision to cease combat operations against NAAC. The NPO’s Imperial Officers and their Emperor, Ivan Moldavi disagreed with The Legion’s leadership but accepted their reasoning; so continued to fight on. The Legion’s announcement was made on May 27th, and took effect May 29th.

Creation of the New Polar Order
The Legion’s peace with NAAC would have more or less removed our concern of the conflict from our attention except for two very controversial actions taken by the NPO. On May 24th, 2006, The NPO’s Emperor Ivan Moldavi announced his move to re-stabilize the Blue trading sphere by creating a mirror image of the NPO in the Blue sphere. This new alliance was called the New Polar Order (NpO). At the head of the new alliance would be Emperor Ivan Moldavi. Lots of national leaders and alliance heads regarded this as the NPO’s attempt to take over another color sphere or “NPO Imperialism.”

Many made jokes at the time calling Polaris “NPO-Lite.” In response to the formation of the NpO, The Legion and other alliances offered to take in refugees from the war under their own banner. The Legion’s offer in this regard was hampered by the Charter however. At the time, the Charter stated that to be in the alliance, a requirement was to be on the Purple trading sphere. That would change in the coming months.

The other issue that arose was Emperor Moldavi’s requirement for NAAC’s surrender was that their membership takes an oath. This oath would bind them to never again raise arms against nor aid other alliances standing against the NPO or their allies. According to the CN Wiki, there was a statement leaked from The Legion’s forum made by the Foreign Minister Zunea “where he blasted the idea of anyone taking an oath to the leader of another alliance.”

As divisive as these events between The Legion and Pacifica seem in hindsight, at the time they were not regarded as anything more than just disagreements between friends. The disagreement would too soon escalate.

A Defensive Alliance
During that first early Summer of 2006, a debate began within The Legion on whether or not to continue to allow Wars of Aggression against un-aligned nations (what is nowadays called the “Tech Raid”) for those who wished to enjoy the thrills of battle.

The rules at the time were that they were allowed only on nations that had no alliance, and if a member nation “bit off more than they could chew” and was losing the fight, they could not call for assistance from the Legion. They would be on their own to get out of it and rebuild. That policy however made the recruiters’ jobs that much harder and awkward. After a small nation had been attacked by someone flying The Legion alliance, it was a tough sell to then try to get the nation to join The Legion. It was at times a heated debate, but in the end the raid style Wars of Aggression were banned. Some members left The Legion over this decision, but it sent a clear message to Planet Bob that The Legion was an honorable alliance and defensive in nature.

Upon The Legion’s entrance and exit from the Second Polar War, there was a growing perception on Planet Bob that The Legion was just “The NPO’s lapdog.” This didn’t sit well with the general membership or the leadership of The Legion. From these events began a growing unease then outright dislike for the NPO took hold; it soon spread through most of The Legion.

The Warpstorm War
Before relations between NPO and The Legion could completely disintegrate, The Legion was attacked without warning or explanation by the WarpStorm Alliance. The WarpStorm Alliance (WSA) was a smallish alliance on the purple team. Their opening attacks were directed at The Legion’s strongest nations. The unannounced war was declared by the unleashing of nuclear weapons against The Legion on July 7, 2006.

The Legion quickly activated the Imperial Accords and brought the NPO into the fray. The NPO brought in the NpO from the Ordinance of Orders treaty, and then GATO also entered the WSA War on the side of The Legion by way of treaty. Planet Bob at large called this either the Purple Civil War or the WarpStorm War while The Legion called it either the WSA War or among themselves, When Stupidity Attacks War. At the time, this war had the largest number of nuclear weapons released ever. Many nations simply didn’t bother with conventional forces and went straight away to nuclear attacks and reprisals.

It was a very handily crafted smackdown of the WSA nations. The war lasted two days, with organized resistance ending on July 9, 2006. There were no surrenders in this war. The WSA nations were destroyed completely. The lesson was not lost on Planet Bob. The Legion has no sympathy and no remorse in destroying nations that launch nukes first and then say “Oh yeah, about that nuke… we’re at war.”

The CoaLUEtion
Uneasy peace settled on the world, and very short lived. About a week later, Planet Bob would become embroiled in the first Great War. The reasons the war started are many, and most if not all of the reasons contain at least a half truth to them. The most used reason is that a LUEnited Nations member, committed account suicide (AKA LUEicide) by posting graphic stories and pictures on the big boards in an attempt to get his account banned and deleted. This kind of behavior is considered to be “Out of Character” or OOC. Many within LUE did not support this action but the action failed to get officially condemned by LUE’s leadership. Behind their closed doors, however, there were many LUE members congratulating the LUEicide.

The NpO Emperor, Tygaland, took issue about the LUEicide with a LUE member, and for an unknown reason launched a nuclear missile at a LUEnited Nations member. LUE responded and war broke out between the two alliances on July 15, 2006. NPO then joined on the side of Polaris.

The lines were quickly drawn with most of the world siding with the CoaLUEtion (alliances on the side of LUE) or remaining neutral. Among the CoaLUEtion were LUE, GATO, NAAC, and ODN (others as well, the list is a long one). The Coalition of Justice was NPO, NpO, and International Green Coalition (since disbanded). There were also neutral alliances; most notable were Green Protection Agency (GPA), Independent Republic of Orange Nations (IRON), and The Order of the Paradox (TOP).

The NPO tried to bring The Legion into the war with the Imperial Accords, but The Legion felt that since it wasn’t a defensive war (the NPO attacked, it was not on the defensive) therefore the Imperial Accords did not apply. Needless to say, this did not go over well with the NPO. They felt stabbed in the back by The Legion. At the time, The Legion looked at Mutual Defense Pacts as just that: Mutual Defense. The Imperial Accords were an MDP, not an MDAP. There was no clause to activate the other alliance due to offensive action.

Without the additional might of The Legion, the Orders and the CoLUEtion were roughly evenly matched. IGC had declared a cease-fire after three days of fighting on July 18, and withdrew from the war on July 19. Both sides of the conflict wanted The Legion on their side to change the dynamics of the war to favor their side, but The Legion wouldn’t budge. This simply was not our fight. And then something changed.

War with Pacifica
A covert group calling itself “The Coven” had been formed, with members in positions of trust in many of the sanctioned alliances. One such member leaked an IRC log of a meeting between some of the NPO’s war council and their Emperor, Ivan Moldavi. The logs revealed the depth of the NPO’s displeasure with The Legion’s neutrality in the war and advocated attacking The Legion as soon as they had finished winning the Great War.

The Legion’s cabinet was stunned by the logs revealed by the recipient Coven member in The Legion, EvilCartyen, and the incredible breach of the Imperial Accords. The cabinet felt there was only one resort: The Legion declared war on the NPO a couple hours before game update on July 23, 2006 in a move that surprised virtually everyone on Planet Bob. The NPO has stated at the time that the logs had edited out Emperor Ivan Moldavi stating “absolutely not” to any Legion-NPO war. This claim was later substantiated, but the damage between Legion and NPO was fatal. Legion cabinet members did not feel all warm and fuzzy about an ally with a number of advisors clamoring for war, and only one person’s say-so averting that war.

The Legion’s attack just before the update and again immediately afterwards was just as textbook in execution as the NPO’s pioneering of the tactic. At least 50 nations in the NPO and NpO resigned. Many of the Orders’ membership had no stomach for fighting a recent ally in battle. Over the course of the 44 hours between The Legion’s declaration and cease fire, the NPO dropped from the number one spot in the alliance listings and was losing ground. While The Legion was technically not on the side of the CoeLUEtion, the effect was the same.

On July 24, 2006, The Legion, ODN, NPO, and NpO entered peace talks and on July 25 Legion and NPO nations were ordered to cease fire. The Legion-NPO War as it is formally called by the rest of the world and as The Barfight or Two Day War by The Legion was short but the damage to the Orders’ war fighting ability in the Great War and in Orders-Legion relations was irreversible. NPO and NpO lost momentum and ultimately, the Great War. The Four Party Peace Agreement stipulated that Tygaland step down as Imperator Emeritus of NpO and post an apology to ODN. Also, NPO’s Emperor Ivan Moldavi had to post an apology to ODN and to The Legion. The Great War itself ended on August 1, 2006 with the defeat of the Orders. The grudge held by the NPO would not be forgiven.

The Legion's Golden Age
Even on Planet Bob, peace must come eventually and so it did. Nations and alliances great and small rebuild and make plans. Events occurred on a daily basis that all groups have to face and deal with that are just the everyday happenings in all alliances. The happiest moment for The Legion came on August 15, 2006 with the signing of the MDAP with ODN mentioned earlier. With several nuclear wars having raged in the previous months, there came to be a very clear dislike for the use of nuclear weapons on a first strike basis. Global radiation levels affected everyone’s environment horribly and to an extent the economy as well. Thus was born “For the Love of God, Think of the Children,” a no first nuclear strike treaty pushed heavily by The Legion. Months later in CN history, it is a tribute to our honor that our alliance was the last alliance to stand by the treaty and be the last signatories still bound by the treaty.

In The Legion, having been successful in all three major wars to date had built our confidence up. We were sure of ourselves, and our place in Planet Bob. As a community, there was a feeling of accomplishment and professionalism that was undeniable.

During this time of peace The Legion found itself reaching out to other alliances and establishing friendships. However, alliances that held important treaties with the two Orders were not greeting us with open arms or friendly handshakes.

There were two camps forming again and looking towards war. “The Initiative,” alliances bound by the “World Unity Treaty” with the major alliances being the NPO, NpO, FAN, TOP, GOONs, GGA, and many others were on one side of the fence. The other bloc being formed was called “The League,” made up from GATO, NAAC, GOLD, LUE, and others.

Neutrality
War was brewing up yet again as the world headed towards Christmas. With nation rulers making plans to be with their friends and families away from CN, the Cabinet headed by VL Empire announced to Planet Bob that The Legion was observing a Christmas Peace. The Legion was ordered into Peace Mode. This move helped to secure our alliance from an attack during the Christmas holiday in an uncertain time with hostilities forming between alliances again.

The looming war between The League and The Initiative finally erupted once the holidays had passed. Great War II broke out in early January 2007 and lasted about a week and a half, ending in the defeat of The League on January 15, 2007. LUE and Fark were in the center of that short-lived maelstrom with LUE surrendering February 4, 2007. Fark was left alone to fight on against The Initiative until it finally surrendered on June 10, 2007.

The Legion took a pass on that conflict, as it was really just not our business. We were not a member of The League, although we did have treaties with some of their member alliances. Our allies had not been attacked, they were doing the attacking. Some praised The Legion for staying peaceful while other nations felt we had abandoned them and cursed us, that our power would have been decisive in tipping the scales to a League victory. However, we stayed true to our word and treaties and did not enter the war because it was not defensive.

The aftermath of the war left The Legion in the role of a superpower and was now looking eyeball to eyeball with the NPO. The Legion was in a close second ranking just behind the New Pacific Order. During this period between wars, The Legion reached 10,000,000 total Nation Strength and over 1,500 member nations. This was a feat that has not been matched since.

Internal Strife and the Founding of Valhalla
During this time, there was some internal strife within The Legion. Members come and go all the time, but this time it was different. Prime Minister Zunea had stirred up some controversy. Most of the membership felt a censure was all that was required. But a small faction within The Legion had different ideas. They wanted much more serious consequences for PM Zunea and radical changes to the charter, which the majority simply did not want.

The most vocal person in this faction was a former Legionnaire named noWedge. He and this small faction left The Legion and on February 28, 2007 founded Valhalla in the purple sphere. Some viewed this as friends deciding to part ways and try something new while others felt betrayed. There ended up being hard feelings in both alliances, though none could guess at the depth of the problems this would grow to cause.

Old grudges continued to fester and politics continued with both League and Initiative forces gearing up for yet another major conflict. Everyone on Planet Bob new war must surely come soon. Both The League and The Initiative forces were stalking each other, attempting to goad the other into war. The carnage of Great War II had no equal in CyberNations history. However, compared to what was coming, Great War II was a brief skirmish.

A Great War Looms
Our cabinet was hard at work attempting to make ORRPLE into a bloc. In private discussions, IRON, the Green Protection Agency (GPA), and the Coalition of Defensive States (CDS) were being looked at as serious member alliances to ORRPLE. The hope was to move away from the warring politics of the past that mired The Legion to continual warfare between the NPO on one side and NAAC and its allies on the other.

Our cabinet informed NAAC and GATO of the intention to drop their MDP treaties, and in at least GATO’s case, get it downgraded to a PIAT. The Prime Minister of The Legion, VL Empire, came to the League of Nations and presented ample justification to end the MDPs with GATO and NAAC. However The Legion membership was unwilling to let the two alliances be left to be slaughtered by the NPO and allies and refused to end the treaties. Everyone in The Legion knew that on their own, those two alliances would never survive and voted with their strength of character and morals, refusing to do what was needed to avoid the coming war.

‘No-one expected what was to happen next. An NPO mass email saying that GATO would be blitzed at update was sent to a Legionnaire and The Cabinet kicked in to overdrive working out if it was authentic. It was confirmed as authentic and GATO was alerted and The Legion war machine was started up.’* Hours were spent in negotiations at the highest levels with the NPO in trying to stave off what was looming ahead. But Emperor Ivan Moldavi would have none of it. The NPO wanted revenge for the Barfight and wanted The Legion to come to the aid of an MDP partner. With no choice in gaining additional diplomatic results, The Legion’s cabinet worked tirelessly in getting Aegis alliances and The Legion ready to fight.
 * (Quoted directly from Sinatra’s memoirs)

Great War III
Once the newest Great War broke out, it quickly erupted into a very violent confrontation. It could have been started by any number of events. The event that kicked it over the edge into open war according to the CN Wiki is GATO was accused of spying on the NPO’s forums and had leaked chatroom logs as proof.

The NPO declared war on GATO only minutes before update on March 19, 2007. Within minutes of the NPO’s Declaration of War, \m/, Maroon Defense Coalition (MDC), and Grand Global Alliance (GGA) all declared war on GATO, with the rest of the Initiative alliances declaring support for the war.

VL and another highly placed member of The Legion quickly worked out a battle plan. According to available information, the NPO was fighting hard against GATO. However, they expected The Legion to declare against them, and would send in FAN and TOP against us to nullify our war machine.

So, a controversial war strategy was planned. Rather than fighting defensively against the NPO’s flank guards, we would move with NAAC against FAN and TOP first and catch them by surprise. Once they were down, we would attack the NPO together with NAAC.

The next day, NPO’s Emperor Ivan Moldavi posted a statement both praising The Legion while insulting it at the same time, stating that since The Legion never cancelled the Imperial Accords, the NPO had never officially canceled them either and was so reactivating them. Since the cause of war was just, The Legion would not intervene. This left The Legion in an awkward position and made no comment.

Overall, Aegis alliances were slow to support, with the first activation of MDP treaties about 27 hours after the NPO declared war on GATO. The Legion declared war on March 21, 2007 against all Initiative alliances that were in a state of war against GATO or had declared material support for the war. Unfortunately, bad timing on the part of some Legionaries cause attacks to go off 10 minutes before the Declaration of War. The FAN and TOP alliances claimed surprise because they had not considered themselves in a state of war with GATO. That night, ODN was with The Legion, declaring war against their target, GOONs.

The war engulfed almost every major alliance and dozens of smaller alliances. Over 30,000,000 Nation Strength was marshaled by both sides with between 2,000 and 3,000 combatant nations. While there were few nuclear launches, there was carnage and devastation unparalleled in previous alliance wars.

The Costs of Great War III
The devastation brought quite a few nations within The Legion to “ZI”; Zero Infrastructure. The nations that didn’t give up hope at this point banded together under Macross the Mad. Macross used humor and determination to form this band into the Imperial Zombie Infantry, or “Izzies.” Membership was open to all Legion nations that had been brought to less than 11 Infrastructure. Upon regaining 11 or more Infrastructure, the member was “retired” but allowed to keep any title earned during their time with the Izzies. A member that actually achieved getting their Infrastructure reduced to zero was awarded the title “Knight of the Undead Legion.” This group of nations played havoc on The Initiative’s newer nations that didn’t expect there to still be any fight left to nations ravaged so badly.

In all, The Legion fought with ferocity and honor. In spite of the best plans that could be put together on short notice, The Legion’s war machine was outdated; it was unable to handle the stresses and strains of a multiple alliance war. Many nations were just simply geared for defense against rogue nations. Aid nations were overwhelmed and unable to get any meaningful amount of aid to where it needed to go. This problem wasn’t confined to just The Legion. Aegis alliances across the board were losing strength.

We had reason to be hopeful that IRON and GPA would enter the war on the side of Aegis, but the hope ultimately proved false. While there were private discussions about their entering the war on the side of Aegis, there was never a call to arms.

Some Legion nations broke under the strain and surrendered. Others showed their devotion to their fellows by fighting on until bill-locked or reduced to Zero Infrastructure or “ZI’d”. Once it was obvious that Aegis and The Legion had been outmatched and there was no hope for victory or even a stalemate, VL did his duty and contacted the NPO for surrender terms.

Great War III Surrender and Terms
The Legion was given harsh surrender terms: $800,000,000 in reparations, disarmament to soldiers only, and destruction of all military improvements including factories. The worst part of all was in having to exile VL Empire and Great Britain from The Legion. Some nations voted against the terms and would have rather fought on. Many other nations only voted to pass the terms because VL had begged The Legion to accept the offer rather than see The Legion destroyed. With that, the measure had passed the League of Nations.

Great Britain and VL Empire showed that no matter who they are, no one person is the alliance and without hesitation gave themselves up to save the alliance that they loved so much. With their exile, The Legion formally surrendered to Initiative forces on April 10, 2007. Great War III finally came to an end four days later on April 14, 2007.

The Legion while horribly damaged still retained sanctioned status. While much was lost, other alliances had it worse. Some Aegis alliances lost their sanctioned status, while others including NAAC and LUE had been disbanded. The Legion’s survival after sustaining such harsh losses is testament to the strength of our community.

The Legion had kept its word and proved its honor, and very nearly had given up its life to defend our allies and our principles. While we had lost the war, there was no dishonor in having done our duty and given the task our best effort. After the war was over and the chips had fallen where they had, information surfaced to The Legion about its former allies, NAAC and GATO. As hard as the NPO had been pushing for a rematch, GATO and NAAC were both working just as hard at scheming for global war.

Pax Legio
After Great War III was over, The Legion bent itself to the task of rebuilding its member nations. Those who were bill-locked got priority over the other nations for the available aid. A great effort went into organizing the aid trains to ensure that no one got left out who was in need.

Those left to rebuild The Legion took a look around and found their member nations significantly reduced in number. For a long time afterwards, in many Legionnaires’ signatures was the phrase “WWVLD?” which stood for What Would VL Do? The Legion was in a depression that wouldn’t shake loose until after the terms of peace was over about two months later. There were some nations that tried to buoy everyone’s spirits and refused to give in to the depression. Those few beacons of light were sorely needed.

While under terms, The Legion did craft an important document to provide future Legionaries direction and a path to keep to. This was the blanket Non-Aggression Pact with Planet Bob: The Pax Legio, passed on May 17, 2007. The main architect behind this treaty was then Foreign Minister, Thom Solo. Too soon, this would prove to be ironic.

During this time of depression was also a time of change in the attitudes of Legionnaires. Previous to Great War III, the most often used phrase to describe the attitudes and conduct of Legionnaires was “ruthlessly professional.” The Legion was lost and trying to find where we fit in the new scheme of things. Many members resigned because “The Legion is not what it used to be…” All things change, and The Legion was face to face with this inescapable truth.

Rebuilding
Losing 7 million Nation Strength from Great War III, plummeting to about 3 million after the war, The Legion finally pushed back above 5 million. This took the efforts of the membership over the time of two cabinets to achieve, and the reparations from Great War III were paid off.

Our gaining strength was multiplied at the time by a war the Grand Global Alliance (GGA) was fighting. With that conflict happening, The Legion gained in standing and came back to being the sixth strongest alliance in CN. While not as strong as before, we were still a force to be admired and reckoned with.

A side-effect of having lost so many members and strength was that there was a general withdrawal from members posting on the CN forum. This gave an overall impression to many alliances that The Legion was aloof and uncaring. Nothing could be further from the truth, but perception is reality and this attitude was greatly amplified by those outside The Legion.

Many Legion members and in the government hoped that with Great War III being done, the bad blood between The Legion and the NPO could be set aside and have at a chance to begin again. Unfortunately this was not to be so. NPO found a new ally on the purple sphere in Valhalla and their leader, noWedge.

Legion, Valhalla, and Pacifica
The Legion tried to create a purple bloc to promote strength and unity in PUPPY, later named GRAPE. Other purple alliances more or less agreed with the tenets of the document and with discussions joined the bloc. The only alliance to stir sand into the ointment was Valhalla for various reasons that continue to be debated over.

noWedge and Valhalla looked to try and derail any diplomatic move made by The Legion. They were a small alliance with no more than 90 members at any given moment, but they had a very persuasive protector in the NPO. At the height of tensions between Valhalla and The Legion, a popular joke within The Legion was that when it came to the CN Forum announcements, “It’s not an official Legion thread until noWedge flames The Legion at least three times.”

No alliance would allow this kind of behavior to go on without ramifications, but with the NPO having Valhalla’s back made diplomatic overtures or military responses difficult if not impossible. In effect, we were being pushed around by the scrawny kid with the gang of thugs at his side.

The Dove War
There were various incidents between Valhalla and The Legion during this time. One incident in particular got very serious. A member of The Legion was accused of spying on Valhalla’s forum. This happened just after elections, leaving some cabinet members on previously announced vacations and others at reduced internet access times due to other Real World problems.

Immediately, Legion members were ordered to go into peace mode, AKA “Hippy Shield.” Events happened incredibly fast. Those who were active in checking the Legion forum and those who spent time on The Legion’s IRC got the message and quickly switched to peace mode. This was done to give the cabinet members a chance to get a diplomatic resolution. A number of nations didn’t get the warning in time, and very soon found themselves at war with Valhalla, NPO and all the Initiative allies. Thus began August 6, 2007. The Legion is in a war it cannot win.

For a week, things looked very bleak for The Legion. The cabinet begged ODN not to come to our defense because they would face certain annihilation with us. To add to the confusion, the outgoing cabinet caught a very large amount of criticism from the general membership for not being accessible and giving assurances and updates. Resolution came with Lord Swampy promising $40 million in compensation and a public apology for the whole affair. The money was paid by Lord Swampy alone per his wishes. Potential and real hostilities concluded on August 13, 2007.

This was dubbed the Dove War, since the majority of combatants were in peace mode the whole time. However, Legionnaires, do not forget ever that some members during this time were in a very active and destructive war for their nation’s survival, many times giving as good as they got. While it is called the Dove War, some wear that ribbon due to combat.

During this time, Jazzi was the Foreign Minister. She was ill in the real world, but worked with Lord Swampy to sort out and end the Dove War. The outgoing cabinet caught a lot of Legion membership anger for not being present during the conflict even though they were on vacation and out of touch before things went sour. Jazzi in particular caught a lot of the anger and frustration of the general membership. Soon after the Dove War concluded, she resigned from The Legion and joined GOONs. Not long from this event she and one other former Legionnaire-to-be would show their true colors.

Internal Shakeups
Another internal event came to light the existence of a group within The Legion called the Anti-Cabinesta/Phoenix movement. This group felt that moment in time was the last chance that The Legion would have to clean their own house and change The Legion for the better. This meant changing the culture of The Legion. Over time, cabinets were being elected more out of popularity of the person rather than a demonstrated ability to lead competently and ethically. The incoming cabinet listened to the group’s counsel long enough for the group to disband. It was thought that the ideas had taken hold but time would prove they did not.

One idea that came about after the Dove War was the institution of The Legion Protection Squad, AKA The Propaganda Squad. This squad’s duty was to help change The Legion’s reputation to more or less pro-Orders on the CN Forum. Another goal was to make The Legion seem less “standoff-ish and arrogant” and to correct mistaken beliefs about The Legion. The Propaganda Squad did an amazing job at beginning to turn public opinion about our alliance.

With the Initiative and World Unity Treaty nations on top tier politically and militarily, it wasn’t too many months before they started to jockey for positions within the WUT structure. FAN made a move to create their own bloc, and was treated to every WUT signatory attacking them for a few months. This was called Viet-FAN. The next group to start their own bloc within WUT was GOONs and their allies. They called their bloc the Unjust Path (UJP).

The Unjust War
The UJP alliances had seemingly gone out of their way to annoy and provoke any alliance deemed less powerful or less well-connected with allies. They were given their way for a short time just due to their sheer power. Finally, the NpO had had enough of them and their pushy ways. Polaris was ready to fight their former allies and so war broke out again in September 9, 2007.

The Unjust War or Great War IV went into full swing. However, The Legion once again proved its defensive nature by announcing that it would only go to war if either we or ODN was attacked. And then the UJP performed two actions that were unaccountably inept. The alliance “\m/” attacked ODN, and then the same day tried to extort 1,000 tech from The Legion. Now we had two reasons to go to war.

The Legion had carefully rebuilt its military command structure and had stressed the need for every nation to build large war chests, money that had no other purpose than to fund a nation’s war machine. We believed the changes put in place would work, but lacked the practical experience to test it out. Great War IV was the proving grounds. The Legion declared war on September 11, 2007 against “\m/”and unleashed a fury not seen since the NPO Barfight.

The Admiralty was able to direct reinforcements where needed, and a new banking system was able to get funding where it was needed most. Towards the end of The Legion’s assault, Valhalla declared war on The Legion. This was ostensibly to honor their MDP treaty with GOONs, but they also had an MDP with the NPO. For the NPO’s part, they did not contribute troops to the fight, but were certainly funding their partner, Polaris and their allies.

Scandal in Wartime
A week into the attacks, two former Legion Cabinet members, Jazzi who used to be our Foreign Minister and sleepy who had been Defense Minister for a short period created a web page with anti-Legion Cabinet propaganda. Using logs saved during Jazzi’s tenure as Foreign Minister, she had posted what she and sleepy thought to be damning evidence as to Lord Swampy’s courting favorable relations with the New Polar Order’s Imperator Emeritus Electron Sponge, ostensibly without the general membership’s blessing. The logs were also interspersed with Jazzi and sleepy urging Legionnaires to resign from The Legion with honor and remove themselves from the war.

The reality of the revealed logs is that it showed that behind closed doors, the cabinet and some of their advisers swore like American sailors. The courting of the NpO was a well-known happening within the alliance as we wanted to have better relations with the Orders, and the NpO was the logical choice. There just was bad blood between the NPO and The Legion, so Polar was the path of least resistance to a pro-order stance. All that posting those secret logs proved was that Jazzi and sleepy, while no longer members of The Legion, were traitors by posting meeting logs that were not for public view and The Legion’s property, not Jazzi and sleepy’s, nor the GOONs. They are either traitors or spies; it depends upon how you chose to view the incident.

The End of the Unjust War
The casualties of Great War IV-The Unjust War fell hard on the Unjust Path alliances. At least two of the alliances that practiced relentless raiding on the weak were disbanded: Gen[M]ay and “\m/.” GOONs is still at war to this day with the NPO coming from this conflict (The GOONland Resistance Movement). When the end became apparent to “\m/”, they ordered first strike nuclear launches from their nuclear members. Use of nukes became widespread, but still was not as prevalent as in past wars. Those who did strike with their nukes first were almost universally put on alliance “ZI” lists and refused peace no matter what alliance they try to flee to. The Legion called off its assault after three weeks of furious, hard hitting attacks.

After two days of fighting, Valhalla was ready to sign peace terms with The Legion. They were to publicly admit they surrendered to The Legion. We were to both immediately cease flaming and trolling each other’s threads on the CN Forum. There were other conditions as well, but it was not documented at the time because there was a secrecy clause. If the true terms got out, that would be reason for Valhalla to declare war again for a breach in treaty. Upon getting terms, most Legionnaires had already offered peace to the Valhallans as per their orders.

noWedge and the Emperor of the NPO, Dilbert, caught The Legion’s Prime Minister, Lord Swampy alone in a chatroom. noWedge stated that the prior peace terms had never been agreed upon; his second in command, chefjoe who represented Valhalla at talks was mistaken.

The NPO “suggested” that what was much fairer was that The Legion offer Valhalla “white peace.” Lord Swampy put off the decision as long as he could, then broke the bad news to The Legion’s members: noWedge had managed to out-maneuver the cabinet politically once again.

We would have no choice but to do what the NPO suggested we do and offer white peace to Valhalla. While our military was much improved, there was no way we could oppose the NPO and all their allies on the field of battle. It would have been a massacre. We just did not have that kind of political or military strength.

But what we did take away from Great War IV was a renewed confidence in ourselves, and improved relations with the Orders, particularly with the New Polar Order and their Imperator Emeritus, Electron Sponge. Public opinion was becoming more favorable. There was also a new respect for The Legion’s military might. While we were not the superpower we used to be, we were once again a very deadly foe when angered to action. The Legion’s part in the war was concluded on September 23, 2007.

Aftermath of Great War IV
In the aftermath of Great War IV, things were looking up for The Legion. We had a respected, experienced cabinet headed by Lord Swampy. Planet Bob did not appear to hate us and flame our threads on first sight. Our military prowess was acknowledged to be fine tuned and of the sharpest of edges. We admittedly still had a long way to go politically, but few doubted that we were finally on the road to the top again.

Valhalla continued to be a sore point with most Legionnaires, and discussions of Valhalla and noWedge never ceased to come. There were many Legion members that did not have an ill wish of Valhalla until after events of the Dove War and Great War IV changed their opinion. Unless things changed, there was going to be another conflict of war between The Legion and Valhalla and therefore probably the NPO.

Lord Swampy chose not to run for a second term as Prime Minister leaving the field open. The Prime Minister position was hotly contested between two very well-known Legionnaires: Sinatra and Thom Solo. They had very different cabinet experience that would put them in the running for the leadership of The Legion.

Sinatra was Home Minister during Great War III, and Deputy Prime Minister two times during the reconstruction period after that war. Thom Solo was Foreign Minister in the cabinet immediately after Great War III. He had spent the majority of his career in The Legion as ambassador to various alliances, many of them very important and high-profile. As stated earlier, he was the guiding hand behind the blanket Non-Aggression Pact, The Pax Legio. On the surface, it would appear that both men offered The Legion sound, proven leadership skills.

The vote was the closest in recent memory, and ended up with a run-off election between the two choices. In the end, Thom Solo won by a nine vote margin. Thom Solo was a Hall of Fame member; as his avatar stated, just an “All-Around Nice Guy.” But as Sinatra states in his memoirs, “Thom was a fine Legionnaire however his presence in office would prove to be near fatal to The Legion.”

Another problem in the cabinet that didn’t seem to be readily apparent to most voters was when Pezstar won the office of Foreign Minister. In retrospect, “controversial” would be the kindest way to describe her leadership, if not entirely accurate.

The Calm Before the Storm
October 2007 was peaceful for The Legion. There was nothing of major importance to worry about, other than the ever-present noWedge issues. That Halloween was a happy time in the alliance. Many members celebrated the time of year by changing their avatars to masquerade as other Legionnaires of note (or of infamy). There was a competition on GATO’s forum (called GATOween) challenging other alliances to a spam-off. The Legion acquitted themselves with honor, beating easily all other contenders for the championship. Of many things The Legion can be rightly accused of, talkative and masters of spam are definitely something we can claim without any doubts.

The Legion’s public relations group to the outside world, The Legion Protection Squad, was going full steam ahead. As misinformation came up on the CN Main Forum, those members were on the ball and quickly countering it with The Legion’s real stance and intent.

Then that fateful November happened. Without warning, Lord Swampy resigns from The Legion, as does Thom Solo. The remaining cabinet orders everyone into peace mode again. Then the announcement that was the worst blow anyone could imagine.

While still Prime Minister, Lord Swampy was either approached by lead elements within Valhalla or approached them to discuss the coup of noWedge and oust him from power. Prime Minister Thom Solo was advised of this by Lord Swampy when Thom took over the leadership of The Legion.

Purplegate
In a move that can best be described as a total loss of sanity, the architect of the NAP treaty with Planet Bob, The Pax Legio, had given his consent to continue with the plan to attempt the coup of noWedge. The leadership of The Legion had directly attempted to interfere with the inner workings of a foreign power; every alliance with an MDAP with Valhalla including the NPO now has just cause to go to war against our alliance should that secret come out. And came out it did, in spades.

Thom’s resignation moved Vidra99 to the Prime Minister position since he was the Deputy PM. He appointed Wain as DPM and the cabinet attempted damage control. The cabinet contacted Valhalla and NPO to inform them of the illegal coup attempt by the two former Legionnaires. However, the damage was beyond control. By electing their leaders, the general membership had made themselves accountable for their leaders’ actions. That is the double edge of democracy: those with the right to vote are responsible for the actions of the elected whether they actually voted or not.

Confusion still reigns, and Pezstar announces on the CN Forum that The Legion is disbanding to save the general membership from a second Dove War. The announcement however, was illegal as many Legionnaires found out after following the disbandment order. Pezstar had signed two cabinet members’ names to the disbandment notice in direct opposition to their wishes, making the order illegal.

Legal or not, many Legionnaires followed the order, cutting the membership strength of The Legion in half in less than a day. Most of The Legion’s most experienced members; sometimes called our best and brightest resigned and left. Many stay because they simply did not know what was going on while they were away from the internet. Others stayed out of duty and love of their home in The Legion.

The loss of so many members with experience in running an alliance government was devastating. Junior members with far less experience and sometimes none at all was left to step up and lead in this dark hour. The exodus forced those newer members to learn their trade and grow up quickly. In the long run this could be seen as a good event, as it ended a long-running debate over whether or not the upper tier of leadership was an exclusive club of elites or not. This massive “brain-drain” leveled the playing field giving many a chance to shine who otherwise might have been overlooked.

Triumvirate and Pacifica's Terms
The remaining cabinet members, Vidra99, Lincongrad, and Ayrrie, appointed Sinatra, HymenBreach, and FreedomBringers to form the provisional government, The Triumvirate. The triumvirate is to lead the remainder of The Legion and attempt to get what terms may be had for surrender. After appointing the Triumverate to their task, the three remaining cabinet members resigned to give those who stayed behind a better chance at getting surrender terms. A short while later, Lincongrad had a private talk with Z'ha'dum and arranged to re-enter The Legion.

The terms are harsh and non-negotiable. $300 million in reparations per month, to end at some future point in time to be determined. The Legion is to have an NPO Viceroy installed to oversee the rebuilding of the alliance to where it can be self-governing and the rest of Planet Bob can trust us to not go off and cause another major global incident. No one is allowed to resign from The Legion. We were to be moved off from the purple sphere to gray or no team. All our treaties were suspended until further notice. While under Viceroyalty, the NPO would see to our protection should we Legionnaires fall under attack.

The terms were put up on a poll. Not to vote whether to accept or not, but to gauge where the rest of the membership sat in regards to these terms. To accept the terms and make the best of it was the majority opinion of Legionnaires active that November 9, 2007. It was a majority of about 6 votes, but a majority nonetheless. This disaster came to be known as Purplegate.

Before the NPO could take possession of The Legion’s old forum home and gain root admin access, itches, who was the Director of Cruelty and Beatings, deleted all the old forum threads to deny the NPO access to secret information that would have cause irreparable harm to other former Legion and allied nations and alliances. He performed this act knowing full well that it would mean his nation being a permanent member of the NPO’s “ZI” list. While this was done to protect those who had been friendly to The Legion, the sad side-effect was the destruction of much of our written history. Fortunately, Korlus was able to restore many of our historically important threads.

NPO Viceroy
That night of November 9th, the NPO installed Viceroy Z'ha'dum was the first NPO member to ever enter The Legion forum in an area other than the foreign embassies. Some members made him feel welcomed in The Legion, while others had hard feelings and were openly antagonistic towards him. Z'ha'dum surprised many members with his initial statement of intent. He was here to help rebuild The Legion with us. He would do whatever he could to help facilitate the process, but ultimately our success or failure would be up to us. He did not demand trust, but rather asked to be given the benefit of doubt and let him prove he was trustworthy.

Some former Legion members came back after finding that the disbandment of The Legion was falsely done and illegal, even knowing full well how difficult the task ahead would be. It takes a lot of courage to stand your ground knowing the task ahead is damn hard. It also takes an equal amount of courage to willingly walk back into a situation that may well end badly but try anyway.

A New Charter for a New Age
The first month and a half was hard. Members set themselves to the task of another charter convention. The debate was heated and sometimes very personal over the direction we would take in forming the new government. Would we go back to our treasured direct democracy, mirror the NPO with a single appointed leader, or mix and match them? On December 20, 2007 the announcement of our leadership and more importantly, our new charter came with the answer.

We reached the best compromise possible: 4 appointed Consuls to lead the alliance, one elected from the ranks of the Representatives who are elected from the General membership to be the 5th member of the Consul. The third part of the government was to be the Senate made up of Legionnaires appointed to the old Director-level jobs and would form the pool of members who would replace Consuls as they resigned their posts.

The First Consulate
Our first Consuls were: Minister of Internal Affairs TechDragon, Minister of Economics ShadowPhoenix, Minister of Defense Xineoph, Minister of Foreign Affairs SeasonsOfLove, and Speaker of the House Lincongrad (SotH added after Representative elections as of January 18, 2008—the Ministers were selected by Z’ha’dum as of December 20, 2007).

One term that was changed after only a couple days was the forced move off from our traditional sphere, purple. That was at the suggestion of Gibson, a Legionnaire, with the very tangible work and effort attributable to Z’ha’dum. In exchange for staying on purple, the members would have to vote for noWedge to hold the in-game office of Senator, giving him the power of sanctioning trades against nations that caused problems for the purple sphere. This was also open-ended, so potentially could have remained in force forever just like the reparations.

On January 19, 2008 the lockdown was removed. Legion members that wished to leave were now allowed to do so. Some nations did chose to leave soon thereafter, but few overall had left. After enduring so much together, there just weren’t many members willing to leave the alliance with so much work yet to go.

Then in early February 2008 someone or some group hacked into our old forum home on http://z10.invisionfree.com/The_Legion_ and deleted everything. All documents, member records, surviving histories. All gone. Some of what was lost was recovered because Legionnaires had saved some of the documents they either referenced frequently or treasured for other reasons were saved to local computers. Graphics were largely rescued due to their being out on individual accounts at websites such as Photobucket. A temporary forum was set back up while we Legionnaires had a quick discussion on what to do. Do we set up again on the same free server that had little in the way of security, or do we move to a paid service that would be more secure and offer more customizing? Melidan stepped forward and out of his own real-world money paid for the initial setup and continuing maintenance fees for space on the server that now hosts our home at www.avelegio.net. Our new home came online on February 14, 2008.

Unbelievable news happened a week later on February 21, 2008. noWedge, Regent of Valhalla had been removed from power by their Norns, a group charged with the protection of their own charter. Approximately a week afterwards, their chefjoe was named Regent of Valhalla. There was cheers and laughter from many Legionnaires at the news of noWedge’s fall from power. Most members of The Legion felt the “scrawny bully in that gang” finally got what was coming to him for such a long time.

After the change in power within Valhalla, relations between Valhalla and Legion improved seemingly overnight. The old Legion was gone, and now so was the much hated antagonist. And very soon, there would be even more cause to celebrate within The Legion.

Restoration of Sovereignty, Treaties with Pacifica and Valhalla
March 7, 2008 was a day of epic announcements. Most stunning of all was the end of the NPO Viceroyalty over The Legion! Finally we were free to determine our own destiny! We were freed as well from the reparation payments. Because of the destruction of the old forum in February, it is impossible to tell just how much was actually paid to the NPO, Valhalla, and their other allies. What is certain is that it was in between $1.6 billion and $1.8 billion. No other alliance on Planet Bob has paid anywhere near that sum for reparations.

Then in the same announcement came more unbelievable news. The Legion and the New Pacific Order were once again allies. A new MDP had been signed, called Z'ha'dum's Legacy. Also announced in a different thread the same day was another MDP: The OMGWTFBBQURKIDDING Mutual Defense Pact between The Legion and our old antagonists, Valhalla. See Legionnaires? Miracles really do happen sometimes.

The Legion set about doing what all alliances do in peace: build relations with other alliances, build their member nations, and ensure we were ready for the next conflict to come around. Planet Bob is never at peace universally, and conflict can come quickly as we had sadly discovered the hard way. The Legion didn’t have to wait long for the next conflict.

In violation of GATO’s Great War III surrender terms, they had unknowingly had Chris Kaos in a position of leadership from June to September 2007 under a pseudonym. With this, the NPO and its allies in One Vision declared war on GATO on April 26, 2008. GATO’s only allies in this war turned out to be the Imperial Assault Alliance (IAA), Commonwealth of Sovereign Nations (CSN), and the United Sovereign Nations (USN). By the time all the MDP activations occurred for One Vision, GATO and allies (also called “No Vision”) were outmatched 8 to 1 in nation strength alone.

The Drunken Blitz
For The Legion’s part, we were asked to help attack CSN and so we did on April 27, 2008. At the time of The Legion’s Declaration of War, there were five members online that were socializing and came up with a plan to blitz CSN. The five members were Melidan, Jacosby, Onichan, Imperial and Assarax. Most of them were drunk at the time, so dubbed themselves the “Drunken 5.” Their attempted update blitz went off five or six minutes after the server update. Needless to say, it was a less than optimal execution of an otherwise good plan.

The war was destructive to CSN, though to their credit they did try to put up a good fight. About two weeks later on May 17th, peace terms between The Legion and CSN were announced. CSN was to pay The Legion 550 tech, reduce its military to 30% level of soldiers only, and to destroy all strictly military Improvements. Not particularly hard terms because CSN’s entry into the war was due to their honoring a treaty. Certainly, The Legion’s remaining experienced members could empathize with their plight; memories of Great War III coming to mind.

During the events and excitement of war, a huge announcement came from the purple trading sphere. On May 6, 2008 the Poseidon Mutual Defense and optional Aggression Pact (MDoAP) was announced to a surprised world. What was attempted under PUPPY and GRAPE finally has come to be a reality as originally envisioned. Peace officially reigns between members of the purple trading sphere.

The Path Ahead
Drama continues to happen in the big world of Planet Bob, and changes are the only constant. However, The Legion has shown and continues to show that there is another constant. The Legion will always act with honor and integrity; will not flinch in the face of adversity, and will continue to show by our actions that we conduct ourselves with nobility worthy of our purple colors and trappings.

o/ Ave Legio!

The PAIN/Universalis/Vanguard War
In August 2008 a rare occurrence in the modern Legion would come to fruition. In complete contrast to our new spell of making friends we would find ourselves with a few new enemies in what would become know as the Universalis war. In this war The Legion would fight three alliances, they were PAIN, Vanguard and Universalis. An allied Valhalla attack on Hyperion and a developing Great War would lead The Legion to strike PAIN on evidence that they were conspiring to enter the war on the opposite side. The Legion acted and on the 14th of August 2008, declared war on PAIN. The war would result in clear Legion victory with reparations paid, and we would fight proudly among allies such as M*A*S*H. However the war came at a cost, The Legion entered thinking it would be a small conventional war and it resulted in a prolonged highly nuclear conflict. The Legion would gain confidence and military prowess, but lose 700,000 NS in the process.

Legion's Third Anniversary and Growth
In January 2009 The Legion celebrated her 3rd anniversary, making The Legion among the top three oldest alliances in CN. This grand occasion was celebrated in style with festivities and a swapping of memories in the special Legion Letter edition. Beyond the razzmatazz and celebration a far more profound message was sent by this achievement; that we were still here after three years, and above all, we were as strong, united and committed as ever. When so many great alliances had faulted, we remained. The Legion was yet to change again in the upcoming months and a structural shift in how our government operates was on the tips of everybody’s tongue.

The Legion would now enter a period of mega growth. Under Melidan’s reuptake of the director of recruitment our numbers soared by almost 100 members. This combined with economics functioning efficiently and giving us programmes such as “sleds”, jumped us from 33rd to 19th in alliance rankings over a period of four months. This fast sustained growth was acknowledged by all as a fine achievement from sources foreign and domestic.

A Charter Amended, An Imperator Elected
It is during this period the charter discussions reached new elevations. Talk of a new charter had been in the air for some time, with dissatisfaction with the House and the need for a leader a new charter was drawn up. Arcadian Empire took the role of “Charter Chair” and through various debating threads and polls a new charter was established over a period of four months. This charter was then warmly voted into power. The biggest addition of the new charter was the presence of a single leader, or Imperator. Elections quickly followed and the most in-depth and historic elections in the alliance’s history began. The list of candidates went into double figures and they consisted of many of our best, brightest and most decorated members. After close fought battles in every voting round, Imperial was elected as The Legion’s first Imperator. Never had The Legion placed so much power in the hands of a single individual.

The Karma War
On his first day in office Imperial took us to war. Tensions had been increasing for some time in CN and the focus of the tension was towards our allies over at the New Pacific Order. After a spying incident, the NPO, after failing to reach a peaceful settlement declared war on the OV alliance. This triggered a chain of events that led to what would be known as the Karma V’s Hemegony war. Many allies refused to support the NPO, and cancelled their defensive obligations to the NPO both pre, and during the war, however The Legion remained a true ally. Due to the controversial nature of the war an optional fighting order was given, whereby a nation could fight, or legally stay in peace mode during war depending on his/her personal feelings on the war. Regardless of what was chosen on the 22nd of April 2009 The Legion declared war against RoK in defence of the NPO and fought honourably and with great skill. This skill was recognised, and whilst this was an almost un-winnable war The Legion’s bravery and competence in combat was recognise, and white peace was achieved between all alliances that were warring with The Legion.

The Legion came out of the Karma war, full of hope, we had stood toe to toe with several major alliances and had come out well, even gaining NS. However, a few Legionnaires, wanting to have a different approach, left our ranks and founded Quantum. So The Legion continued on, saddened by the loss of such good Legionnaires, and continued to grow.

Purple Tension and Fourth Anniversary
Time passed, and The Legion saw another Bloc move onto the purple sphere, the Stickmen. Tensions quickly rose between the members of PEACE and Stickmen as both blocs competed for the purple senate seat. Luckily however, the crisis was always averted and so 2010 came. The Legion celebrated it's Fourth Aniversary. Wild parties were the order of the day on our forums and IRC channels as we celebrated our storied past and heroes.

The Second Unjust War
February came and soon the clouds of war began to cover Digeterra. The NpO declared war on \m/ and suddenly things broke loss. Our allies IRON, along with TOP preemptively hit the Complaints and Grievances Union. When Sparta attacked IRON, we stepped in and declared war. The battle raged on for weeks. Although finally we were forced to surrender to Sparta and multiple smaller alliances such as The Brigade, The Templar Knights, Asgaard, and The Circle of Icarus. We gave more than we got and left confident that we could go toe to toe with any alliance, no matter it's size.

The Present
That ends The Legion’s memorable events until this point. At the time of this writing we look forward to the possibility of sanction. The Legion lies on the doorstep of being recognised as one of the most powerful alliances in CN, but our history proves that beyond our physical strength, our rich community, culture and history make us the strongest entity within CN.