History of the Grey Council

This is the history of the Grey Council as documented by Galaisa, one of the founding members of the Grey Council.

= The Grey Council - A History of the Mystery = Author: Galaisa Note: This is a revised history taking into account new information which has come forth.

Part One
The day was March 19th and Cybernations was in the middle of a wave of growth unlike any in its previous history. New alliances were being formed in every color and new ideologies previously unheard of on Planet Bob were being brought forth to be tested in the public forum. Among the new alliances was the GPA which preached neutrality and still does to this day, The LUE, and a multitude of alliances I am unable to remember at the moment. While the color teams seemed to be prospering a new ideal was ready to manifest itself. Up to this time there had only been one alliance which had chosen no team, this alliance was the NRNC. However the NRNC was a subsidiary of a larger gaming group and its membership was made up largely, if not entirely of members of the NRNC boards. It had no structure independent of the main NRNC gaming forums and did not actively promote itself on the CN forums. Also a player by the name of Yenisey had tried to create a trade union for Grey (no team) nations.

The time was right for a true no team alliance to form. A player named Bumpy came forth and wrote a document known as the Grey Charter. At this point there were no team nations, such as BASE USA, ranked in the top 100 in the world and the overall ranking of no team was not as poor as it is today. Bumpy was a talented alliance builder and eloquent diplomat who attracted a solid base of knowledgeable players to the alliance. Among these players was Keylock (one of the top grey nations at the time) and Experimentum both of whom were original signatories of the Charter.The Declaration of Interdependence was posted on the original CyberNations forums, and can still be viewed here: http://s15.invisionfree.com/Cyber_Nations/index.php?showtopic=1833.

The response was mixed once again but it can be seen in the thread that many praised the articulateness of the charter. The diplomatic language which Cybernations seems to lack now and then can be seen in full force within the thread. The effort attracted members who were interested in preserving their national sovereignty and playing the game in a new and different way. No team has no senators, no bulletin boards, and no pre-established alliances which rule the previous two aspects of the team environment. All no team nations would be created equal and no one nation could gain an advantage by subverting the votes of others. Also there was really no incentive to rule in no team unlike in the pre-established teams where battles were taking place for whatever reason the alliances could come up with. The NPO/ODN war was a carryover from Nationstates, the ICSN war was started and promptly ended leaving the NPO in charge of the red team. The game was losing its political edge, peace talks were not conducted and the war aspect of the game had everyone in frenzy. The Declaration of Interdependence was, among other things, a call for rationality and strong national governence. It was a call to leaders to build their nations for reasons other then war but at the same time if attacked by rogues the Council encouraged the doctrine of “Peace Through Superior Firepower” so that the Council would be able to ward off an attack by a sheer display of force but only if diplomatic means had been exhausted.

In the beginning the Council consisted of the original charter signatory nations of Bumpyvania, Experimentum, Canis, and Blaque_Out. Galaisa only joined the Council four days later and was not an original signatory of the charter. Initially activity on the forums was low and the Council had gone into a state of hibernation. The forums were re built and the Council reopened in the middle of April. Efforts were made with some success to recruit new nations into the Council but due to RL reasons the head of the recruitment efforts, Canis, had to resign. Galaisa was made an admin and rebuilt the forums to something resembling their present configuration. However subsequent governments have continued to build the forums to great effect.

The next episode in the history of the Council took place from mid April to May 20. New members had come to the Council and one of them, Narva Khan, was added to the admin team. The administrative structure at this point in the Council’s history resembled that of an oligarchy, with power in the hands of those running the forum. Demands were made by several members to hold open elections for officers as set forth by the Charter. The date for the elections was set to May 20th and the elections were administered by Bumpy. The winners of the elections were, by office: Narva Khan-Chairman, Bumpy- Judge Advocate General, JcZim- Vice Chairman, Galaisa-Censor and Steve Romero won the office of Field Marshall.

Following the elections, diplomatic contacts were opened with several alliances and embassies established. Up to this point the Council had chosen to forego official diplomatic contact with fellow CN alliances because the no team environment and small number of members did not mandate a need for diplomatic relations also rogues were usually acting alone and not under a false banner. Once diplomatic relations were established the Council voted to adapt a resolution by which all pacts proposed by other alliances would be turned down. The leadership was confident that the Charter of the Grey Council should be indication enough of the peaceful nature of the Council. Were we right in doing so? Yes and no. It was soon discovered that three members of the Council had violated the terms of the Charter and launched rogue attacks against nations. These members were Dark NZ, American Clam, and SECRET DICTATORSHIP (sic). Votes of confidence were launched against these nations and they were promptly ejected from the Council. The Cybernations community was informed of these events and the Grey Council offered to pay reparations to the victims of the attacks.

The next phase in the history of the Grey Council was marked by start the second NAAC wars (Polar War II). There was much debate as to what position the Council should take regarding the war. Our chairman voiced his discontent with the NPO while others pointed out the positive diplomatic relations between our two alliances. Ultimately a declaration of “Enlightened Neutrality” was written and issued by Bumpy. Many in the Cybernations community assumed that the Grey Council was a neutral alliance but in reality we were not a neutral alliance at this point. We took sides but only in defence of our nations, we never had imperialistic interests or reasons to wage war on an ideological basis.

Part Two
Yesterday I ended part one at the second NAAC war. The period of time between the second NAAC war and the Great War was the most eventful and decisive for the future of the Grey Council. The Great War caused many casualties on both sides but not from the Grey Council. The impact on the Grey Council was very much political and contributed heavily to the current state of affairs. Part two of this history will be divided into sections arranged chronologically and will mainly deal with events between the Second Polar War and The Great War.

Section One: New Arrivals and Old Acquaintances
Events described in this section will overlap with events described in the final lines of part one, particularly the expulsion of the traitors. Between mid June and mid July the Grey Council experienced a wave of unprecedented growth. The membership of the Council grew from an average of 22 members per census to above thirty by mid July. Among the new members was Nocturne who single-handedly discovered and exposed the aggressors and thereby pointed out a flaw in the GCs security which needed to be fixed. The GC also expelled a number of members for inactivity but this had no effect on the overall numbers as growth far exceeded decline. There was also an important shift in GC military policy at this point. A number of nations which had attacked members and failed to respond to diplomacy were put on a list and declared fair game by the Field Marshall. New members such as Monkeydamia took part in wars against rogues for the purpose of neutralizing them as a threat to members of the Council. Along with the new members came the unexpected return of two of the original signatories of the Grey Charter. They were Canis and Experimentum. Both were re-accepted into the council and gave all that they could in the goal of assisting the Council. Canis took an active role in updating the library of information he had compiled on playing the game and introduced the trading exploit into common use. Experimentum took an active part in the military policy of the Council and began reshaping it so that the nations of the Council were more prepared militarily. Based on the experience these players had gained from abroad, the arrangement of the GC boards and departments was changed. The Department of Defence saw the biggest changes as its structure now mimicked the system used by larger alliances. With the arrival of new members and activity on the forums at a new peak, tensions started to flare among some members.

Section Two: The Many Interpretations of One Man’s Writing
As it became clear after the incident with the traitors, the application process to the GC needed to be changed. The Membership Act was tabled by the writer of this history, and subsequently passed. The new system meant that all new applicants would need to swear an oath to the Council and its Charter. The new system also meant that applicants would be questioned by members and after a set period of time members would on whether to allow an applicant into the Council based on their responses. This change was implemented without much opposition and is still used today in the Grey Council and The Order of the Black Rose. The Membership Act however was not the first bill to be passed into law by the will of the Council. The Participation Bill, requiring all members to contribute in some way to the workings of the Council was the first. This document was also the first in a series of bills which would spark a debate among members with different interpretations of the Charter. The specific issue which sparked the debate was that of aid slots. Certain member nations were aiding nations at war and also nations outside of the Council. A debate broke out over whether or not to make it mandatory to reserve a certain number of aid slots for use only with Council members. The divide in ideologies among members was brought to light as some argued that this was infringing on their national sovereignty and the Charter held national sovereignty paramount. Bumpy was for the proposed bill saying that a dedicated member of the Council, which all members were expected to be, would have no objection to such a bill. The most outspoken of the opponents were Canis and lvleph (pronounced Meph) who argued that the Grey Council was deviating from its original purpose of being a loose collective of nations for the sheer purpose of mutual defense. Bumpy and other members of the council, and all of the elected officers with the exception of jczim saw it a different way and the debates continued to get uglier until the various elected officers and Bumpy adapted the position of, “ This is the way its going to be if you don’t like it leave”. Up to now the idea of active members leaving the Council for anything other then RL reasons was unheard of. At the same time, laws were tightened in the DoD which enforced a chain of command by which nations without the proper authority could not send messages to nations attacking the Grey Council. This law was largely due to the irresponsible messages and threats sent by a former member named Zoger. This enforcement of a chain of command prompted Canis and lvleph to resign from the Council. This was a large blow to the Council because much of the economic analysis and game tips were produced by these members.

During the time that Canis, and Experimentum were members of the Council the GC had reached its zenith. At its peak it had a total of 38 members, most of whom were active on the forums .It is unknown whether the arguments regarding national sovereignty could have been avoided had we had a system of bank nations such as older alliances like GATO or the NPO. It should be noted that Bumpy had considered grandfathering his nation to the Council for the purpose of making it into a bank nation. The Grey Council had reached its peak, however Bumpy had plans for it to go even higher. The goal was 50 active members which would form the core of an active alliance. The strength and weakness of the GC was its adherence to democracy and debate for all proposed legislation. We did not have an emperor but we had elected officers. Democracy unfortunately works by the will of the majority and sometimes it works against even the most talented if they are unable to be persuasive enough to sway the will of the majority to their cause.

Section Three: The Militarization of the Council
“Bash their heads in and bring their brains to me” was the motto of General Experimentum, while he was not the elected commander of the Grey Council militaries he was definitely the most active commander. Under Experimentum’s lead the military of the Council became increasingly more offensive in nature and also more skilled in dealing with threats. As the membership grew so did the number of wars and by the middle of July attacks on GC members had become the norm. The armies of the Council were constantly at war with rogues and were constantly improving their tactics with the help of Experimentum and foreign consultants who shall remain unnamed. When there were no rogue attacks there were campaigns against nations on the GC revenge list. The militaries of the Council improved to such a point that Experimentum began applying a new principle by which uncooperative nations were beat down to zero infrastructure and their rulers told to have their nations deleted to escape from the onslaught.

Section Four: NPO Fiasco
The Grey Council openly sought positive relations with all of the major alliances and in particular the NPO. This goes back a different world known as Nationstates where both Bumpy and Galaisa were acquaintances of former and current Cybernations NPO members. Bumpy was ambassador to the NPO and sought to form a positive diplomatic connection with then. However other prominent members of the Council such as the Chairman Narva Khan who was in charge of diplomatic relations saw the NPO as an evil empire. These opposing points of view came to a head at the worst possible time. Some of you may recall an event known as the Great War. Well coincidentally it broke out the day before our elections were supposed to take place. The event which prompted the NPO attack on the LUE disgusted the entire Council however the NPO response was judged to be overkill by some members of the Council. The Council was divided as to what to do and Narva Khan issued a declaration of our neutrality before the debate was concluded. Contrary to Narva’s declaration Bumpy issued the infamous “Petition to Ban the LUE”. This declaration was supported publicly by all female members of the Grey Council including Wvyveros who had taken it upon herself to redraft the Grey Charter. For my nation the declaration meant I would have to resign my office without being able to know who would succeed me as Censor. The elections were meant to take place on the 18th but were postponed because Narva Khan saw Bumpy’s petition as a violation of the laws of the GC which would disqualify Bumpy and the others who publicly supported him from seeking office. I left the GC on the 18th of April on a vacation so I cannot give an accurate account of events between then and the 25th of August as I was away. But from Anonymous sources I heard that a vote of confidence was brought against Bumpy and Wvyveros. The vote was lost and they were allowed to stay in the Council. The elections were eventually held and the new officers were: Narva Khan-Chairman, Kelva Khan- Censor, Experimentum- Field Marshall, Wvyveros- Judge Advocate General, and Steve Romero- Vice Chairman. Also in my absence I was told that Zoger was caught trying to spy on the GC for the LUE. He was expelled from the Council and was deleted by admin for having multiple nations before he could be put in the ZI club. It needs to be noted that the LUE did not take Zoger seriously and ignored his attempt to pass information to them.

Section Five: The Admin Enforces The Rules
Upon my return to Cybernations, I was shocked to find my nation in one piece but in very poor economic shape. The trade exploit had been cancelled and as a result I had lost two of my trades and another two had become effectively useless. The admin had closed the trade exploit many members of the Council had been using and Grey nations lost all happiness bonuses from trading. At this point it became clear that changes would need to be made in the Council. Many ideas were brought forth including a switch to a team (one of the newly established teams the name “Gold Council” was brought forth as a possibility by Bumpy). A vote took place and the motion was defeated however a campaign to petition the admin was put into motion which only seemed to result in the admin getting angry (He publicly stated that the Grey Council would be banned if he received one more petition telegram). With the issue stalled I resigned from the Council and moved my nation to the Purple Team (Galaisa was the first to leave in an event which some would refer to as the Great Grey Schism). Other nations which left were Wvyveros who would start a new existence as AterAta, not leaving the game permanently as some thought she would.

Section Six: The Great Grey Schism
The departures did not end there however. Lvleph would return to the Council only to leave and form the Liberty and Life Commune (LLC), a pacifist anarchist group which was later merged with the LSF. Controversy erupted however as many of the high profile members of the Council resigned and went on to form the Order of the Black Rose. Nations who had proclaimed that they would stay Grey forever now defected from the Council. The members who resigned included; Narva Khan (The Chairman of the Council), Experimentum (The Field Marshall), and Gwalchfaen (The JAG in the absence of Wvyveros). and Kelva Khan (The Censor). The resignation of essentially all of the elected officers caused confusion in the Council and prompted hostility by some towards those who had left. The cause of this confusion and hostility was the timing of the departure as the Grey Council was on the cusp of an alliance war. Also the private telegrams, sent by some of those who resigned, encouraged others to follow them and join the Order of the Black Rose. These actions contributed to the hostility and confusion and prompted many to question the motives of those who had resigned. Bumpy would later join those who had resigned in the Order of the Black Rose.

I am hoping that thanks to this document the Grey Council is no longer such a mystery to the rest of the Cybernations world. It is an alliance which sought to do things differently and succeeded in doing so. The history of this prominent alliance is still being written today by those who proudly fly the Grey Banner and those who have resigned but this reflect fondly on their time in the Council.