History of the League of Small Superpowers

The following is a history of the League of Small Superpowers.

Creation
In March 2006, in order to correct the lack of greatness in the world, the League of Small Superpowers was born as a new Blue alliance out of the joint plans of Uq Lee and Vaelar. Unbeknownst to the founders, one of their very first decisions would change the face of LoSS beyond their imagination. The decision, to recruit Alexandros Dios Nidhogg. Nidhogg has gone on to become the longest active member of LoSS with membership running what can be considered the entire time of existence. He is widely considered to be the member that started LoSS as a "real alliance" by creating the original charter. That prestige is rare amongst alliances as old as LoSS. Growing to an estimated 20 members, LoSS founders approached the National Alliance for Arctic Countries, a large world power at the time, to establish a protectorate agreement with them. During the time the protectorate agreement was created the leaders of LoSS had also started the development of the governing charter. The backbone of that first charter still lies at the heart of the charter used today.

Polar War Two
When May came, everything internally was falling into place perfectly as planned, but on the world scale Polar War Two was beating on the door. PW2 would go on to involve LoSS's protector, the NAAC. In a move to protect LoSS, NAAC would cut it's treaty with the young alliance to save it from destruction. With possible annihilation on the line, LoSS was forced to make a decision, to rectify the problem of the inactive founders. To do that a group of higher standing members decided they would grant power to three emergency dictators, who would govern LoSS during the war time. Those dictators were King Justin, Nidhogg and Zarchay. Because LoSS was no longer a protectorate, the decision was made as an independent alliance to stand by their friends against almost sure defeat. Any LoSS member that wanted to fight entered into a member change program that allowed them to move into NAAC during the duration of the war. This was in order to protect the alliance as a whole but still stand with their friends in NAAC. In an act of pure nobility and honor every active member joined the NAAC. This friendship would become something that would be forged in the fires of war and molded to stand the test of time. Destruction was nothing compared to the bonds that held LoSS and NAAC together. After standing tall in the face of defeat, the war would end for LoSS when NAAC surrendered to a force over 3 times its size. The emergency dictators saw the end of their power when King Justin left the alliance and Zarchay stepped down to become inactive. This left Nidhogg as the alliance's soul leader and at the end of his dictatorship, a working charter was finally put into action. Government shifted into positions that were created within the charter with Consul being the leader. Being the sole remaining leader left, Nidhogg would take his place as Consul. It was during this time that a very valuable member would join the alliance and continue to be a member to this very day. Drugsup is considered the member who has probably put in the most hours of hands on work in the alliance. This includes doing everything from administrating the forum, filling government posts and is the most solid and consistent factor within LOSS, being active even when Nidhogg would spend some time away. During his early time in the alliance, Drugsup would hold the MoFA position creating a huge network of contacts in the world that he still maintains today as a Consul Emeritus and as the acting High Judge.

During June through the leadership of Nidhogg and Drugsup, LoSS would grow too nearly (if not over) 100 members. Programs were put into places that still run within the alliance today such as the mentor program and the library system. After the information gathered during PW2 a military structure was built that would rock the very core of every enemy it faced in the years to come.

GW1 and the CoaLUEtion
July would prove to be an explosive month, not only for LoSS, but for the world. Along with NAAC, LoSS had started making friends with other world powers, LUE and GATO. The biggest draw for all of the friends was the common enemy amongst them all: The Orders. On the 15th all hell would break loose and a rift would be started that would not be fixed until nearly a year later. After an event that involved the problems of a departing LUE member, the world’s verbal hostility would boil to the point of war. Finally, after claiming the LUE government did not do enough to condemn their departing member’s actions, Polaris would fire the first shot in an epic war at LUE. NPO would then fire the second shot, placing LUE in a corner. Calling on all their friends, which LoSS was apart of, LUE stood up to The Orders and formed the CoaLUEtion, a wartime coalition built to fight against the growing power of The Orders. LOSS was fighting on the side of the CoaLUEition and participated in its first victory in a large-scale war. LOSS then moved to the black team, where they felt they could find a new open arena in which they could expand, specifically the trading sphere.

The end of the worlds first Great War brought forth many changes to LoSS. They had handled themselves very well during their participation in the war. While LoSS played a smaller role in the war than the majority of the CoaLUEtion, it still reflected well for them. With the noble actions of Polar War 2 still fresh on everyone's mind and now with the way they handled themselves in GW1 LoSS was a respected alliance on both sides of the word spectrum.

During the second half of 2006 LoSS would really start to thrive. New government members Rom and Sully would step up and become the first real help current government officials would have in a long time. Rom would lead the FA department while Sully led the MoRE department. They were also the first new members to take some of the stress off of long term government members Nidhogg and Drugsup.

In September of 06 within the ministerial chambers of LoSS a new type of treaty was born. It was known as The PIAT. Government members had been discussing ideas for treaties to offer to other alliances because of the MDP treaty to NAAC they did not want to bind themselves to another alliance with the possibility of conflicting with NAAC. So other types of treaties had to be used with other alliances. One idea that was tossed around was a possible mutual rogue killing treaty. This idea was pushed down and thoughts were put into finding a middle point between the MDP and the NAP. Supremicist, the then MoFA, and Rebirth of Gorniar, a senator and lead diplomat, took control of working on the treaty creation. The first resemblance of the treaty was released to the world on Sept. 24, 2006 with the Wonderful Intelligence and Nonaggression Entreaty. (W.I.N.E.) signed by LoSS and GATO. On Oct. 2, 2006 LoSS would release the LL Bean Pact: A Peace, Intelligence and Aid Treaty between the Legion and the League of Small Superpowers. This would mark the first ever official PIAT treaty as it's used today.

October would see the first change in Consul since its creation. For the first time Nidhogg would loose the election. "In honor of Nidhogg's work with the alliance the senate sat down and worked out a new honorary position within LoSS government. The senate finally reached an agreement the all honorable previous Consuls of LOSS can be granted a positions as a permanent senate member of LOSS under the title, Consul Emeritus. Although this position holds no official power within LOSS it will drastically benefit the decisions of Loss's future with all past honorable Consuls as permanent seat in the Curia. There are some terms to this position and the senate has the power to remove Consul Emeritus from his position at any given time. All previous Consuls of LOSS have to be confirmed by senate before receiving the title of Consul Emeritus. Congratulations to Nidhogg on being the first of many to become Consul Emeritus."

With Drugsup becoming the new leader of LoSS the person that would fill his shoes as IA minister would be a new breed of minister. This minister would be Idriveavw and October would mark the first of five consecutive election wins for Idriveavw. He spent many hours putting in time on the forums and really working to revitalize the internal workings of the forums. His 5 terms held a LoSS record for most terms served in one position by a minister, until it replaced by CDavo's MoRE 6 term span nearly a year later.

New Reverie and the Red Senate
November of 2006 would be a time that would forever mark LoSS in the history books of the world. For the first time ever the red team would have a senator that was not a member of NPO, but instead hold membership to LoSS. New Reverie had joined LoSS in October and had, since his creation four months earlier, been a member of the Red team. On his acceptance into LoSS New Reverie would be the strongest member of the alliance and after unsuccessful attempts to find trades on Loss's Black team. New Reverie chose a different option, to obtain a senate seat on the Red team, which had always been held by NPO. Reverie would begin messaging members of the red team that were not part of the NPO to garnish support for his run at the senate. At this time there were more unaligned members on the Red team than there were NPO Red members. Reveries messages were working and he was gaining votes very quickly. It was at this time that he was approached by NPO's Emperor, Dilber, with a request to leave the red team, which would clear his votes. Refusing to leave Reverie brought the situation up to LoSS government who had previously been officially unaware of the situation. LoSS helped by standing their ground, protecting New Reverie with statements on the OWF and working on a diplomatic solution both publicly and privately.

The red senate’s struggle would reach international headlines when the emperor issued a decree forbidding New Reverie or any non approved NPO nation from running for red senate. In addition, should New Reverie fail to remove himself from the red team within 24 hours, both he and his alliance (LoSS) would be destroyed. Reverie and LoSS would then issue a statement to thousands of nations from all teams now involved in the first debate over the freedom of the red senate. With the added publicity and continued campaigning, New Reverie eventually earned enough votes to win a seat on the red senate. This was the first time any non NPO nation had earned a red senate seat since the creation of the NPO. The growing support and political pressure caused the NPO to reevaluate its position on the red senate. In an epic retraction, Dilber issued a new decree that made allowances for New Reverie to continue to run for the red senate. This marked the end of the first red senate debate.

With the issue settled, New Reverie continued to campaign for the red senate, but was eventually ousted by the superior numbers and heavy campaigning of the New Pacific Order. This incident had placed New Reverie and LoSS in direct confronting lines with the most powerful alliance in the game and they stood their ground believing in their stance on the freedom of the Red team. It became an exemplary chapter in LOSS history.

Riding on the wave of popularity brought in by the powerful stance LoSS took against the NPO, membership would start to rise to nearly 140 members under the control of the new MoRE Trace. Trace is arguably, together with CDavo, the best Minister of Recruitment to ever grace the alliance. LOSS would reach a peak in its existence at the end of his 4 month governmental career.

The month of December would drastically change the alliance from how it was on day one to how it was the thirty-first. Until December the LoSS GOONS relationship had been a somewhat competitive one. Jesting remarks at each other trying to push each other to try and out do the next, so that the winner could be better than the other. Growth for each provided health for the black team. While the competition was heated it could still be said it was not completely a hate filled relationship. It wasn't until December 15th and the singing of the World Unity Treaty and the formation of The Initiative that things would go from bad to worse. The competition would blow up into full fledge trolling on both sides. The friendly competition was out the window and it was replaced by hatred. While personal feelings fell apart with each other, professional embassies were still kept in order until December 19th when LoSS Consul, Rebirth, cut off all relations with GOONS, and closed off their embassy on the LoSS forums. All GOONS ambassadors were de-masked and all ambassadorial/diplomatic conducts, halted. This was due in part by the actions of GOONS involving Drugsup, the LoSS diplomat and the LoSS embassy on the GOONS forum. On the 19th Drugsup found all diplomatic topics deleted and replaced with a single topic that contained graphic posts, insults and swearing. This event led to the end of everything but animosity and hate between the two alliances. This hate would breed one of LoSS most notorious members: Neuronia. He led the LoSS members on the OWF and everywhere else against the GOON trolls with trolling of his own.

December would also usher in New Reveries second attempt at the Red senate, with much more dire results. The run originated from an idea Reverie had to message unaligned members and try to recruit them to LoSS. Reverie developed a method to be able to mass produce lists to help the alliance. In order to test his method Reverie used it as a tool to run for the Red Senate again, PMing unaligned red members. With the decree from emperor Dilber giving New Reverie permission to run in the red senate, New Reverie, although cautious and worried, felt that this time things would turn out differently and that he'd be able to serve the red team from the head of the senate. This second attempt at winning a senate seat would be met with even greater threats by the NPO. Unlike before where the world seemed to favor Reveries actions, this time the NPO would be supported by the World Unity Treaty, which at the time consisted of many of the world powers. LoSS and New Reverie had few options against this new and unstoppable force. On December 23rd New Reverie was sanctioned by the two additional red team senators. Despite leading the red senate in votes, New Reverie could not remove the sanction and lost all trades and abilities to send or receive aid. New Reverie still gained votes in the senate and lead the other senators by a margin of over 200 votes. Many called for New Reverie to sanction the other senators or even high ranking officials of the NPO. New Reverie did not see the morality of such a course of action and the war that it would inevitably cause instead he released another statement informing the world of his position, to continue supporting unallied red nations. After actions taken by Admin for a possible rules violation Reverie lost his Red Senate position. With his loss of position Reverie quickly went into peace mode and on December 29th the NPO declared war on him until he left the red team. New Reverie was willing to stay and fight the NPO and suffer all consequences. LoSS however still needed New Reverie and ordered him to silently change teams. On January 1st 2007 he did so, thus ending the 2nd and last Red Team senate challenge.

While New Reverie was going after NPO's Red Senate, LoSS was working with NAAC and others of the former CoaLUEtion to pull together a group that would counter The Initiative. The base plans for The League had started months before LoSS became involved. A group of alliances had been discussing the possibilities of an extended Mutual Aggression Pact to counter the increasing number of allies the NPO was bringing into its fold. The failure of The Spectrum Defense Accord as it was known would lay the groundwork for The League, an extended MDP between LOSS, NAAC, GOLD, LUE, GATO, ICP, CDS, and ACID alliances. On December 24th The League would be officially announced with the LoSS tag proudly listed as an original member.

Great War 2 and The League
As things settled down between LoSS and NPO, other clashes with the Initiative by LoSS allies, namely GOONS and LUE, would soon usher in the worlds second Great War. Thus pitting The League against The Initiative. Great War 2 would start on Jan. 9th and end less than a week later. LoSS would enter the war at 11:47 pm on the 10th with a surprise blitz on CIS, a member of The Initiative who hadn't joined in with the other alliances the night before. LoSS faced both superior numbers and strength against CIS, but their attacks would prove to be insurmountable. Overnight important members of the CIS government resigned and the alliance was left in chaos. CIS never gained ground during GW2 and although LoSS surrendered to The Initiative with the other League alliances, their part in the war was considered an overwhelming victory. The little anarchy against LoSS came when a few members of FAN broke to attack LoSS.

The time after the war was mixed. With the war over LOSS was able to achieve forgiving peace terms that wouldn't hinder them too much. They would fair better than other League members due to the damage done to CIS and lack of damage done to them. Trace, who started membership increase as MoRE was able to do even more when he became Consul. Between Trace's work and New Reverie's lists members flowed into the alliance. This was helped by the fact that even though their side lost the war, LoSS was able to ride high on notability because of the damage caused in GW2. While membership crossed 300 and continued to rise to a peak LoSS has never again reached, internal strife was leading to the loss of high strength and government officials.

In February Trace won Consul again, but do to arguments with long term member Drugsup, he left shortly after the start of his term as did other long term and high NS members for reasons of their own. With the void in the Consul position LoSS was controlled by senate Praetor, +Zeke+. +Zeke+ had been in different positions within Government for the past 5 terms and has been the one person to have the most power bestowed upon him without actually serving in one of the traditional powerhouses in LOSS government (Consul, MoFA, and LSAF). He is credited for revolutionizing the office of Praetor, from a figurehead position to someone who rallied the Senate, and proved more of a counterweight to the Consul, breaking with traditions left and right.

With the close of February and the start of March things were finally calming down internally and on a global stage LoSS was fighting with GOONS and the ever present threat of other Initiative members for control of the Black team. With the induction of New Reverie to the Consul position, plans that had been in the planning process came to a head. ACID, a Black team friend and former member of the now defunct League had fallen on hard times after the war. Their leaders and many of the alliance left, which left ACID a shell of its former self. The plan would have ACID become a protectorate of LoSS and fly the LoSS AA effectively boosting the alliance to its membership peak at just over 400 members and over 1mil strength. While this protectorate treaty was disliked by a few members of ACID the majority changed their tag to LoSS. ACID still kept their independent forums and government, but in effect any that flew the LoSS AA was protected under the treaty.

During this time LoSS would feel growth and prosperity it had never felt before. Forums were ripe with activity and as one the alliance prospered. With the absence of +Zeke+ in power LoSS government was persuaded to start using IRC more. +Zeke+ had been a big opponent to using IRC and with him not in power to fight the motion LoSS would move and flourish on IRC. Everything was going the right way for LoSS. Even as shadows were looming on the horizon and hollow whispers were flowing, nothing was going to deter the alliance from their party. Then those shadows turned to fire and the whispers turned to war drums and war was upon the world.

Great War 3
Prior to the war, New Reverie and other strong members of LoSS had been declared on by several members of the GOONS alliance. Allegedly the declaration was made in jest, but the greater purpose was to prevent the strongest of the alliance from entering peace mode in the coming war. New Reverie, as Consul, pleaded with his larger allies to help resolve the wars declared on LoSS, but no help was to be found. It was becoming more apparent each day that the biggest allies of LoSS were once again going to be of little help when LoSS was in need. They were forced to survive GW2 without much help and it was apparent the coming war was going to be the same. The possibility of staying neutral if war really did break out was being discussed, but the idea was quickly dropped. LoSS has always had a solid base of honor when it came to friends and they all knew this would be no different.

March 19th would be the starting date of the deadliest event in history. Early in the day the plans of the Initiative were shown to the world when the New Pacific Order and allies attacked the Global Alliance and Treaty Organization due to claims that GATO was spying on them as well as harboring intentions of hostility, as revealed by several leaked chat conversations. The allies of GATO slowly rallied around them and discussions of a counter attack started. LoSS was brought in due to military treaties. Many former League members were also there. Even crippled as they were, because of the GOONS slot filling attacks, LoSS rallied to help. The leaders of GATO, Legion, and LUE drew out the war plans for the coalition that would be known as Aegis.

The LoSS war council looked at the situation and the alliances that had entered the war on the opposing side and decided that LoSS would be of most use attacking the Grand Global Alliance. The GGA had an appearance similar to CIS in GW2. GGA was slightly stronger than LoSS, but LoSS had superior numbers, and GGA would be split because they had already begun attacks on GATO. LoSS would also be able to enter the war on moral grounds against the GGA thanks to already established treaties with GATO. It was the obvious match for LoSS, so the Aegis war planners were informed of the desired actions. But instead, even after arguments with LoSS leadership, the Aegis planners decided that LoSS must attack the Viridian Entente, whom LoSS were friends with and currently held a treaty, with the aid of the previously neutral and unpredictable /b/ alliance. After hours spent pushing against fighting VE and asking for LoSS to defend GATO by attacking the GGA, LoSS finally gave in to the demands of its allies. Thus leaving a bad taste in their mouths once again by those alliances they had considered friends.

LoSS entered GW3 early on March 22 in a full blitz against VE. /b/, an alliance that had long been neutral in similar conflicts, declared war on the VE and other select alliances of The Initiative. LoSS fought very well at the start and what they had done to CIS in the previous war was on everyone's mind. They sustained few losses during the first week of the war even while fighting a much larger and stronger enemy. As the days drew on LoSS continued to fight strongly in the lower ranks, but the strongest members started suffering devastating attacks. By the end of the first week it was apparent this war would be different for LoSS than GW2. The bright star of LoSS was its middle ranks. Even though VE recovered quickly those middle members were still able to dish out damage for a long period of time, before even they too were overrun. It wasn't going to be the enemy's strength or numbers that would defeat LoSS, but instead the mere fact that VE had better backing and was easily able to outlast LoSS. Aegis as a whole was fairing the same way. Even NAAC, who LoSS was still very close to, was hurting.

When LoSS went into battle, moral was high amongst the general membership. CIS was still fresh on everyone's mind and everyone was still riding high on the fast growth between the wars. Pro LoSS propaganda was everywhere and members contributed their own fun in preparation for war. Membership may have been blind to the large picture, but it wasn't scaring them. LoSS had always done well for itself and this would be no different. Mess halls were established where eggs and bacon and other items were served daily. Custom foods were made if you brought your own ingredients. When the war started there were RnR stations set up for the battered soldiers from the war, in which a nice hot lady and a resort room were provided. As the war carried on things became worse. It was easy to see that VE was not going to fall as they were still receiving aid packages from the rest of the Initiative. It was like that throughout the battle fields. Aegis was crumbling all around itself forcing alliances to aid themselves to stay afloat instead of other Aegis members. On the other side the Initiative was passing aid too all alliances even those not in the Initiative. When it came to LoSS reserves were very low as bank nations were unable to get to peace because of the jesting GOONS early attack. While /b/ was supposed to be countering the larger nations in VE they were instead falling apart. /b/ attacks were uncoordinated and were not causing the damage needed to fend off VE. In the past LoSS had always been able to rely on NAAC if things got really bad, but NAAC had been cornered by NPO in a threat of nuclear war. For the first time in any war LoSS was alone and there was no upside. For LoSS, the days of destroying CIS were over and their fight with VE and The Initiative had turned into a fight for survival. Things would get worse on March 30th, Dark Friday. Rogue /b/ members started launching nukes and (spam) attacks against the world. This would bring both sides of the war to their knees (game goes offline). In disgrace leaders of /b/ disbanded the alliance leaving LoSS even more alone. On April 3rd, when the dust settled after the /b/ suicidal attacks (game comes online), Aegis members were quick to condemn the events of Dark Friday. LoSS, not wanting to be tied into /b/, went as far as to order all their soldiers to stand down and surrender, even though they continued to be attacked. It was an honorable move to show that did not agree with /b/ actions even though they fought on the same side. Sadly it didn't help their cause; VE would not stop attacking without terms.

Government received peace terms from VE and decided to put them up for an alliance wide vote under the agreement that LoSS would have 5 days to accept or reject the terms. LoSS had fought and died together, so it was government's view that this decision was beyond them and something the alliance had to decide as a whole. The vote ended in a near deadlock, acceptance winning by a very slim margin. New Reverie posted the acceptance of the terms publicly, only to everyone's surprise to find them rejected by the VE. Unbeknownst to LoSS, two days into the voting on the surrender terms, GOONS pressured VE to add an additional term. That term was LoSS must leave the black team or no peace. GOONS had finally found a way to rid themselves of LoSS and take full control of Black. The new terms were begrudgingly agreed upon. The two terms that affected the alliance the most were the downgrading of all MDPs to PIATS and an alliance wide move to the pink sphere. The terms would not be the last blow that LoSS would suffer. NAAC, LoSS's long time MDP partner, former protector, and eternal brother would bring about the end of the war with their disbanding on April 14th. A relationship that had been molded to stand the test of time and the fires of war was now extinguished.

The Pink Era
The war had come to a close and what was put before the alliance was to be nothing more than a very bleak and isolated future. This dark future was supposed to break the alliance from within, something that three wars had been unable to accomplish. Two primary things were put into place to bring down the alliance. The first was to isolate LoSS from their friends by downgrading all military treaties to nothing larger than a PIAT. The second, isolate LoSS from the world by forcing them to move to the pink team which had become the home of hippies, communist alliances, and other alliances forced into isolation after an unsuccessful actions.

Right from the very beginning it would seem the isolationism would destroy the alliance. Angry membership left which included some government officials and the member count plummeted from near 400 to just 130. Part of the membership drop came when ACID ended their protection treaty with the alliance. Those members who had been flying the LoSS tag went back to the ACID tag. They had plans to merge with another alliance.

April was a rough time for LoSS. With New Reverie and a few other government  members from the previous term exiting it truly was a month of chaos. Everything seemed like a dust storm with nobody really knowing what to do.

Though not known at the time it would be a defining moment for some younger members as it was a time to test their true resolve. They would go on to become core members of the alliance still to this day. One such member, Shinbay, stepped up and was finally able to bring back some sort order to the chaotic alliance. As Praetor he did what he could towards the end of April and then in May he would step up to take full control as Consul. Shinbay would go on to lead the alliance for 3 months in a row, a standing record, during one of its harshest moments. Because of his efforts LoSS was able to rebuild the entire foundation for future growth. Shinbay was supported greatly by other members such as Caesar di Cesare, who would become one of the alliance's greatest MoFA and CDavo the longest minister to ever serve in one position in a row, he kept the entire MoRE department running just by himself for many months. Others included Legion-X and Nhoj, two long term senators who between them have served 18 of LoSS 28 months of existence as a senator. More backup came from Co God Ben and Desert Ratz who both became trusted military advisors and program builders in the early days of Pink.

May was focused on distributing the rebuilding aid. Shinbay had a direct standing order to all remaining members of LoSS: all those above 3000 infra must aid those below or get the hell out of the alliance. Slowly in those early days of surrender the alliance was being pulled back together. While control was slowly being created internally, LoSS still had to deal with pink. The current pink alliances, orchestrated by Libertarian Socialist Federation, were in talks of fighting LoSS to keep them from joining pink. It could have been devastating because LoSS was in no way prepared to repel an attack. Luckily, Caesar went to each pink alliance and defused any worries. LSF had their own issues to worry about with Norden Verein, so Caesar had an easy time with them.

With Pink threats quelled Shinbay really started trying to come up with a way to turn the situation around for the alliance. Everyone knew that if they were ever going to be released from their terms it was going to be a long time off. Thus LoSS had to do the best with what they had. While Shinbay continued his internal reformation, he set Caesar to the task of reforming pink. Until now pink was a wasteland of small and destroyed alliances. Other color spheres had organization and senate control, but since the disbanding of LUE, pink was without control and it was that control that Caesar would seek to form. That control came in the form of CALIPH (Coral Accords Legislating Indomitable Pink Harmony). The purpose of this treaty was to promote stability, amity, and economic wellbeing throughout the Pink Sphere. The signatory alliances recognized that in order to truly prosper as members of the Pink Team an environment of open trade, cooperation, and peaceful relations must exist within the trade sphere. When it came to team senate each signatory grouped up to gain a senate position. LoSS, being the largest pink team alliance, was able to take a senate position by them selves. Shinbay was voted into this position. Oddly, while the treaty was more for pink unity it had an unexpected global reaction. It showed that LoSS was not dead, that they were even prospering. The treaty announcement was supported on a wide scale by many former enemies. Many welcomed it because of the strength it gave to the Pink team, and until that point pink was a forgotten wasteland.

During the formation of CALIPH, Caesar would meet Herooftime the MoFA of UNO, and Magicman, the deputy MoFA. It was unknown at the time, but these two would later start a confrontation within CALIPH members LoSS and UNO. Hero and Magic would both start purchasing nukes when they were capable despite other government officials request not to, due to power balance. This would go onto be a nuclear standoff between Hero and Magic against UNO leaders. After speaking with Caesar, LoSS granted Hero and Magic asylum to try and keep the peace amongst CALIPH signatories. After the two governments met and spoke of the events it would become a buy off. LoSS paid UNO a minimal amount and both Hero and Magic were able to leave UNO. Luckily for LoSS they both decided to stay within the alliance. Magic would go on to serve in government while Hero would continue his nuclear campaign and until his leave of LoSS would hold the most nukes within the alliance.

As bleak as things had started they finally started turning around. Members were sticking together well after the loss of all the in actives and old government had left. The family atmosphere was setting into place and it really had become "the alliance first, your nation second" and that feeling was accepted by all. In late May and early June an opportunity opened up for LoSS that could have been very disastrous or very refreshing…a release from terms. With the disbanding of VE, LoSS was in essence free from the one alliance it surrendered to in GW3. Without authorization from the rest of government, LoSS Security Minister Oberwoot approached NPO with the idea that LoSS was now free because the alliance holding their terms had disbanded. But NPO Emperor Moo proceeded to declare war upon LoSS until a full surrender was given to the entire Initiative. Due to quick work by Shinbay and Caesar everything was worked out and war was diverted. The end result was Loss's total surrender to the entire Initiative. While things ended badly everyone knew it could have been a lot worse.

Another global move LoSS made during this time was to acquire a new protectorate. With the loss of ACID, LoSS was looking to gain a new protectorate who they could then try to absorb if possible. Explosmer would be that newly acquired protectorate. After a misunderstanding with NpO, Explosmer approached LoSS about previously discussed relations. Unlike the ACID treaty, the Explosmer protectorate would be a normal one. On June 19th, LoSS would announce it's second ever protectorate to the world. Due to the inability to add a defense clause to the treaty, the protectorate was a well fortified optional aggression and defense style treaty. PHD, who would later become a Consul of LoSS, was the Minister of Explosm Affairs to LoSS. During their time on IRC, PHD and LoSS senator Kaiser Paul and later Co God Ben slowly worked out plans for Explosmer to merge into LoSS. Days later PHD and another Explosmer councilor, Itastenice, worked it out on the Explosmer side to finally convince the 50 members of their alliance to join LoSS. PHD would go on to become a very influential member of LoSS government, serving his entire time as a member of the alliance in a government position starting with the Explosm Affairs Minister and moving up to lead the alliance as Consul.

August would mark the transfer of power within the alliance. After 3 months of rebuilding everything during the darkest days of LoSS, Shinbay would step down from Consulship. Caesar would win the August Consul election and Magicman would replace Caesar as MoFA. It was during the August Moldavi Rebellion that NPO approached LoSS. An event shocking to some within government for this was the first time NPO had approached LoSS for anything. The only communication had been the repeated denials of LoSS appeals to their surrender terms. NPO wanted to know which emperor LoSS supported: Ivan Moldavi or Moo. The alliance government stuck to the surrender terms put on by NPO and replied to them that LoSS is neutral and staying out of world affairs. This would set LoSS up for their position in the coming global war, neutrality. This would be considered by some LoSS's first step back into the world playground.

With the coming of September a face would rise to Consulship that hadn't held the position for 11 months; Drugsup. Drugsup had plans to secure the growth the alliance had been going through since its rebuilding stage. Since its drop to 130 members after GW3, LoSS had regrouped to over 200 members. Drugsup, in a stance to make everything safer created the ghosting policy that required every member to state their ID in their nation bio and after a given time anyone that didn't do this would be considered a ghost and forced to leave. While the majority of the alliance did this, a few did not and were hunted down and forced to leave. While internally things became safer, the LoSS membership and strength started taking a big hit. Some considered this a good thing, while others considered this procedure detrimental to the alliance. One such member was Shinbay. Fearing that everything he had done to rebuild the alliance was for nothing, Shinbay left the alliance. In the end the final result of the process being good or bad is left in the eye of the beholder. While it did secure the alliance it also cut out many members and strength.

Security was going to become a large issue fast. Since the Moldavi Rebellion The Initiative had started showing signs of cracking and with the formation of The Unjust Path, two sides could easy be seen with The Initiative. War rumors had been brewing for nearly a month and on September 9th they came to a head with NpO leading the ~ side of The Initiative against the Unjust Path side. This war would bring the end of LoSS's long time enemy The Initiative and mark the first Global War without a LoSS presence. Both sides of the war would approach LoSS government asking for them to fight on their side and both sides were quick to wave releasing of surrender terms as incentive to join. At the time there was no clear winner and since there was no loyalty held to either side government stuck to their terms as they had before and explained that LoSS was neutral and would not be involved in the war. After the war NPO made it known that just because The Initiative was no longer around that LoSS was not free. They now officially had complete control of the terms. There was no public ill will for LoSS not fighting as they were happy LoSS abided by the terms and did not fight in the Unjust War.

Back to Blue
After the war LoSS took a new try at getting released from the terms. Up to that point LoSS had been rather quiet since the terms were first put into place asking only once every now and then about a release. Now in late September early October it had become a coordinated effort by Drugsup and Caesar. Drugsup had been working with NpO to gain some favor while Caesar continued his talks with NPO higher command. On October 24th the first big chunk of getting the terms removed hit and it was announced to the world that with the blessing of the NPO and BLEU, LoSS would be moving off the Pink Team and onto Blue. For LoSS this was a grand achievement. It had been 7 months since LoSS was forced off Black and moved to pink. For LoSS it was a return to its birth place, a return to its roots setting us up for a fresh restart. Sadly, with our leave from Pink, CALIPH quickly fell apart. It had been a baby of the alliance since its conception and while it was hard to see it fall, the move to blue would open us up to the BLEU economic treaty, which more than made up for the loss of CALIPH. And oddly enough, when we left Pink, a few other Pink alliances were angry we were leaving; just the opposite of when we arrived, they were angry we were coming.

With everything working out globally LoSS senate started working on the first of what would become many charter revisions. Drugsup hadn't been the only older face to return to government. Neuronia had returned from his few months' vacation and took over the LoSS military. For him many things had changed since he left after GW3. He tried to work within the new established system, but was unable to adjust. Many arguments broke out on how things were done. It was these arguments senate used to start amending the charter. The first one was adjustments on how to remove military command from the LSAF and give it to the MoS, which was run by Grand Duke Stephen. GDS had come to the alliance in August after leaving GGA for personal reasons. He quickly gained the trust of the alliance and worked well within government. Much strife appeared between GDS and Neuronia. Neuronia fought to keep the LoSS military from falling into the government's control, but failed to win. The senate passed their first amendment disbanding the LSAF position and granting military control to the MoS. Other amendments created new Minister Positions on a trial bases including the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Communication. Those trial positions would go on to be removed at the end of the December term. Other things were going well internally as LoSS had two small alliances unofficially join: Spork and The New Republic. Both alliances had been friends for a long time and Spork had even been a member of CALIPH. One of the best results of the mergers was the gaining of long time friend Embereus, who would become active in Government and at one point becoming Consul.

The internal bliss would come to a halt with the November election. While this election ushered in the return of Shinbay it would end with a quarreling government and the loss of Magicman. Jaaku, who had been Praetor in October, ran against Shinbay and former MoFA Caesar. Through most of the election it was a tight race between Shinbay and Caesar with Jaaku pretty far behind. Midway through Jaaku PMed the entire alliance campaigning for himself. The only thing the charter said about PMs was that they should be personalized. After the PMs went out Jaaku's votes skyrocketed propelling him to win the election. This caused much strife amongst the government, current and prospective, with some calling for Jaaku's win to become void. In an honorable move Jaaku admitted he exploited the loophole and stepped down from the Consul position. Shinbay, who had been one of the complainers refused to let Jaaku step down. He admitted that Jaaku had won the election fairly under the charter, while maybe not in spirit; technically he had done nothing wrong. Shinbay petitioned other government members to put Jaaku back into place. Overall most supported the move and Jaaku become Consul once again. The process outraged Magicman, causing him to leave. Caesar, while not as supportive as Shinbay did not leave the alliance like Magic, but he did make it a very rough term for the governing body.

In December everyone knew things had to change and with the way it was building up it looked very promising. Shinbay won Consulship with promises of building like the days on Pink. As before with Pink Shin would have a fresh new group of up and comers that were quickly building themselves to become the future of LoSS. Members like Embereus and PHD, who both joined from previous joining alliances, and Michael Locke and Lord Slade, who had both joined the alliance during the pink era. Locke had been working in military while Slade had been working in government. Supporting old timers like Caesar, Nidhogg, Kaiser Paul, and Co God Ben would return to help solidify the group. As expected everything did become progressive even with Shinbay having to step down due to interests that would keep him inactive. With Shinbay stepping down it put the government in an odd place. Locke the current Praetor, who had never been in government before now, became Consul. By the charter, if Consul leaves then the Praetor becomes the new Consul. Some government officials didn't feel that he was ready to lead the alliance and asked that something be done to keep him from doing so. In his defense it was brought up, that by the charter Locke was now in charge and free to do as he wished. In a statement by one government official it said that Locke, as Consul had to know when to do the best thing for the alliance and it was up to him to decide on what was going to happen. In a move that showed the young leader was wise beyond his time, Locke refused to take the Consulship. In an emergency vote, senate voted that Nidhogg would replace him as Consul. It had been 13 months since he last owned the position. The first of more charter reform happened with the creation of the Pro-Consul. This was in a move to keep what happened with Locke from happening again. Now, the elected Consul would appoint, upon election, a minister as Pro-Consul, so that if something ever happened, the Pro-Consul would lead. Other reform included the recreation of the LASF and the ending of the trial ministry positions. Starting in January election terms would be two months instead of one as they had been since the creation of the charter.

2008
In the New Year LoSS would continue to grow and thrive on Blue. While not reaching the members it once held the alliance has well surpassed any strength it ever held with more members. While growing, more and more efforts were being put into a full removal of terms. Subtle as they were, it was working. LoSS was winning more and more sympathy from alliances in The Continuum and One Vision, namely certain individuals within those alliances to help put good words in for LoSS to the NPO. While being subtle with everyone else, LoSS was slowly becoming better friends with NPO. Drugsup, who had spent many a day trolling NPO and their allies in the days of The League, had become good friends with former emperor Dilber.

Freedom Returned
Finally on April 10th a year and six days after surrendering in GW3, NPO removed LoSS's surrender terms. LoSS was finally free. No one had ever expected for LoSS to survive, but survive they did. To quote Dilber "To be perfectly frank, no one really expected LoSS to survive under the terms. However, LoSS exceeded all expectations, and not only survived, but thrived under the terms." Directly after the release LoSS signed the "Old Dogs Can Learn New Tricks" Mutual Defense Pact with NPO. It represented a moment of pride within LoSS. The alliance had ridden out the terms better than any other alliance under terms ever had. They flourished where it was said they wouldn't flourish, they turned a desolate wasteland into an organized trading bloc, they shrugged off grievances of days long ago and in the end, after over two years of existence and with 230+ membership and over 3million in strength, were exactly where they wanted to be.

After celebrating it's two year anniversary in March and then with the release in April LoSS was feeling a high it hadn't felt since the devastating destruction if CIS in GW2. Everyone sent in treaty requests trying to pull the alliance in every direction. As some members of government stated it was a bit overwhelming. After rushing into the MDP treaty with NPO the government decided to go slow with all other treaties. Signing massive amounts of treaties in the old days had been what severely hurt the alliance. Government was bound and determined not to let that happen again. In the end 3 more treaties were accepted. An MDoAP was signed with both Greenland Republic, who was the embodiment of NAAC and had always been very close to LoSS and with TPF (The Phoenix Federation) who LoSS had become very close friends due to older members in both alliances being old friends. The fourth and final treaty would be the MDP with NpO. Polar had backed the alliance since the days of the Unjust War and worked with the alliance to get NPO to release terms.

The alliance continued growing and along with many older members, members from the pink era, and a new breed of government consisting of TBone, LoSS's longest running Minister of Economics, AlmightySquare, MoRE, and Deth2Munkies, a long term senator, orchestrated LoSS's 3rd protectorate, The Ravyns.

The Ravyns started out as friends within the alliance of CIS and when the group of friends decided to create their own alliance LoSS was approached through a friend of AlmightySquare. LoSS worked out a deal with The Ravyns and offered them a protection treaty. The group told LoSS that CIS would not like the fact that they were leaving and that things could get bad. LoSS, remembering the days of GW2 informed the The Ravyns that they had nothing to fear and could create with the full backing of LoSS. Though tensions did rise between the three alliances nothing ever came to blows, even though an internal debate about the situation caused long time member Caesar to leave LoSS. Until its disbandment in early August, members of CIS government continued to try and find things The Ravyns would do wrong and try to get LoSS to turn them over. LoSS continued to stick by Ravyns and never gave into CIS demands.

In late June early July the world seemed to somewhat spilt again. During the Pacifica-Polaris Dispute many alliances backed one Order or the other in their verbal disputes. LoSS was approached many times asking who the alliance stood with. The sides of the dispute had put LoSS in an awkward position. LoSS had two treaties of both kinds on both sides of the dispute. NpO and GR were on one side, while NPO and TPF were on the other. Not wanting to break any treaties, as so many alliances had already done and normally does when events like these arise, LoSS honored all treaties and used the conflicting treaties to stay neutral. While the dispute never came to blows LoSS government made a stand against the normal move of dropping whatever treaties doesn't fit you at the moment. It has been a stance LoSS has had since it's creation and until this day still holds to its values.

August would be a dark month for the alliance. Late on August 11th Legion-X, the Minster of Foreign Affairs, was hacked. Using the hacked account, the hacker gained access to the LoSS government IRC room as well as causing havoc within the forums. While in the government room the hacker impersonated PHD, the leader of LoSS, and created forged logs of an IRC conversation between PHD and Legion-X stating that LoSS would cancel their treaty with GR, whose protectorate had been attacked earlier in the evening. The hacked account then spread around the forged documents to different alliances as well as to LoSS senator Deth2Munkies. Being upset that PHD would turn his back on allies Deth was unknowingly persuaded by the hacked account to call for PHD's removal by a senate vote. After Deth put the proposal up for vote, two other senators, Michael Locke and Descarte, would vote for removal as well. It would be found out later that both Descarte and Locke's accounts had been changed to allow the hacker to use them at his will. Locke had been asleep for awhile and Descarte had been AWOL for a few weeks. After getting support from the two other senators the proposal passed with the votes to the good. Deth then published on the Open World Forums that the LoSS senate had, by vote, removed PHD from Consulship. At the moment the announcement was made the hacker started changing and removing things within the LoSS forums and posted many topics that instantly made Deth realize what had happened. Deth called for OWF moderators to delete his topic while he informed Desert Ratz, LoSS LASF, what had happened. As the 11th faded away and the 12th came the real PHD logged on to find things in Chaos. It was then a long morning of cleaning things up. PHD, AlmightySquare, Michael Locke, and Lord Slade slowly corrected the issues that had befallen the forums. While the clean up was going on PHD addressed the world through the OWF about what had happened to the alliance and come to find out the hacker had been working on other alliances as well.

LoSS(T) Brothers
August 12 was a rough day. Many things in LoSS were still in turmoil after the events of the night before; while everything was secure on the forums trust became a big issue on IRC. Users were kicked and banned from all private rooms until security questions were developed and answered. Slowly, the government started getting back together, but for the first time trust had become a big issue amongst the group. Deth2munkies wasn’t around much to talk about the night before and PHD and the others were left to think what they will.

To make matters worse, backdoor channels developed with information flowing in from GR about the probability of war due to the events the night before between a GR protectorate and members of One Vision and The Continuum. At this moment LoSS was in no way shape or form prepared for a war. Chains of military command were distorted, membership communication was down and the government chambers were in shambles. As more and more information came in from GR and others about counterattacks and the knowing what that would mean on a larger scale LoSS government members were unable to act as a whole due to communication breaks and different things were promised to different people on all sides. GR was probably told two or three different times by three or four different people that LoSS would help them and LoSS would not help them. Key government members were not always around thus nothing was official and the way everything was handled was probably the biggest mess up by all members involved in the history of LoSS. Finally in the changing hours of August 12th and 13th order was reestablished and the discussion was had as a whole. In a move to counter the missing votes the AWOL members of senate presented, government decided to have an emergency vote to elect two additional senators to senate. Long time and active members BMK and Co God Ben were elected. Now with a full senate, a vote was put to order on what LoSS was to do in this war. GR and Polar were both on one side and were preparing for a counter attack to come very soon. Their attacks on GGA and Valhalla were sure to bring in TPF and NPO as they were all allied together. This possibility weighed heavily on all discussion between government members. No one wanted war and everyone knew the alliance was not prepared. LoSS had been neutral since Great War 3 and it showed within the military organization. Finally after much discussion votes were cast. The end result: one Yea, three Nays, and three Abstaining.

It was a difficult decision. It was not just the treaty with GR that bound LoSS to them and everyone knew it. Friendships were close. But some within the government felt that those long time friendships had been abused. It was told to government that war plans had already been made with LoSS included and some felt that meant LoSS was just being tossed in without consultation. A government member would latter say that it looked and sounded a lot like events that took place before GW3. The vote started what would become a large blow to LoSS. After the results were posted Deth2Munkies resigned from the alliance and fled to the Mushroom Kingdom, who was also conspiring with GR and Polar. Once there Deth posted IRC conversation from private rooms of the LoSS debate on the war. It outraged the LoSS government, not that he left, but that he would betray the alliance and give out private information. The one solid decision made throughout this whole era was that Deth was permanently banned from LoSS. The vote shook everyone in government; they were all torn. Obligations, friendships, treaties, duties were all tearing at everyone. Government was flip flopping every 10minutes. While great debate was happening within closed doors, the counterattack by GR and others took place. As predicted many others took their turn in attacking back. With debate still roaring and no one being satisfied with LoSS’s current role another vote was requested by senate. Its end result was one for war and three for no war. It was brought into light that with Deth leaving a vacant spot was open within senate. The position was filled by long time member Rebirth. The discrepancy didn’t help the situation. More and more people clamored for one side or the other. Finally, on the 14th of August, a move to end all debate and to finally make a decision stand PHD, Consul of LoSS, called for the final vote. This time senate would not vote alone. It would be a full government vote. Senate also took it to the general membership, who until this time had only sparsely been briefed on LoSS’s stance.

By this time LoSS’s holdout had been perceived by NpO as being back stabbed and not standing with allies and they canceled our treaty with them not knowing that we were still in discussion. Many Polar members spoke ill will about LoSS. This caused discussion within the membership vote area. To rebut the allegations made by Polar, LordSlade posted in the membership area. “And for any of you reading the OWF and seeing NpO bash us because we were their friends and didn't come to help when called.........It wasn't too long ago where they were on the other side backing CIS against us telling us to leave and to back down and to go away. Some friend they were then.”

In the end the membership voted down going to war by a massive landslide. LoSS would stay as it was, neutral. This final vote would end in a big blow to the alliance. Those within government who wanted to go to war left the alliance. Praetor; SilentSwift, former Consul; Embereus, LSAF commander; Desert Ratz and after much discussion on who would replace him current Consul; PHD left. While most resigned from the alliance and went to war for MK, Desert Ratz would resign, but not change his AA. He ghosted LoSS for awhile before finally officially returning as general member. Since he had been chosen as ProConsul by PHD at the start of the election term, LordSlade took over the alliance as Consul Pro-Tempore. With the position of MoFA being officially vacant since the issue with Legion-X and the hacker, the position was filled by Drugsup for the reminder of the term. Nhoj and Michael Locke were the only remaining senators from the start of the month. Locke was the newly appointed Praetor.

A new direction
For the first time in their long history LoSS did not stand and fight with the members that now made up GR. It would scar the alliance for months to come. GR would cancel the MDP with LoSS on August 16th. The cancellation was a sad thing to see, but many members thought it would allow for a new direction for the alliance. Until the war LoSS had anchored itself on events of the past; forever living by the events of the forerunners. It was a rarely known fact that over half the membership at the time joined after Oct 1, 2007, well after Great War 3, and so the LoSS of the Black era and the fighters of the Great Wars no longer existed or were very few. The base of the current alliance had been developed in a rich history of peace and growth. It was time to develop that train of thought and really start to push the alliance in a new cultural direction.

As the war raged on in the world, LoSS focused on re-stabilizing. The emergency government took up their rolls and quickly made their presence known amongst the alliance making sure everyone knew they were being looked after. On the world scale, after a verbal attack by many old comrades, the LoSS name quit coming up as those ill wishers had other things to deal with. Even as we were being harked at by one side of the war the other side supported our decision to stand down and remain neutral. Many alliance diplomats came to offer support and help and even protection while LoSS re-stabilized, for they thought the leaving of so many government officials and the actions of the earlier part of the month had hurt the alliance much worse than it had. What those diplomats did not see was that the new leadership had already stepped up and took control of things and brought the alliance back to a cohesive force. As before, in situations like this, when leadership spots became vacant there is always someone well trained and trusted to step up and fill any position as needed. As the month ended, many old faces returned to the alliance, not as members, but as friends making sure things were run properly and that no one took advantage of the situation. Those friends faded back into the shadows when they realized all would be well.

The culture change LoSS desired would come at the hands of both new and old members. Even before the war started government wanted a new order, but what that would ultimately mean was unknown. Talks started here and there, but never amounted to much. When the war hit and the government was shaken up and a few former and current members started talking in hopes they could develop a new direction plan for the alliance and for once these talks started developing into more than just ideas. Democracy was no longer working within the alliance and a new step needed to be taken if the alliance was going to stay together. Finally, after much back room developmental discussion a new charter was purposed. The new charter completely dropped the more Democratic styling of the original charter and established a structure based on meritocracy rule. Writing contributions to the new charter include long time members Drugsup, Nidhogg, and Rebirth. Former members and close friends Jaaku and Caesar also had a hand in the shaping of the charter. When the charter was put to the people to vote on, nearly 75% of the alliance voted in the poll during the time line given. 70 votes were yes and only 10 disagreed. Disagreements came mainly from those members that believed democracy was, as it is in real life, the best style of government.

The Consul position as it was known was retired along with all the old Consul Emereti to be replaced by the Princeps; the Princeps would be a non-voted ruling figure that leads the alliance. The Princeps is appointed for life. If the Princeps decides to step down from office, he must appoint a successor. His successor would normally hold the position of a new form of Consul. The Consul is the successor of the Princeps. He is the first member of the Prefectorial Staff, and appointed by the Princeps. The Prefectorial Staff is the gathering of all high executive offices with the alliance; its members serve to act as leaders of the alliance, and/or advisors to the Princeps. New offices can be added to the Prefectorial Staff by the Princeps, who may appoint any member to such a position. Senatorial powers were changed as well. The Senate acts as the representation of the people in LOSS. Its membership consists of four elected senators and two senators appointed by the Princeps instead of the five elected senators of the previous charters. While all other positions are appointed, Senators serve a bi-monthly term where the alliance will elect two new senators each month. So each senator servers two months where one will overlap the next two senators. The one position to hold everyone together is the Custos who is the guardian of the alliance. His duty is to preserve the integrity of the alliance as a whole and act as an advisor to the Princeps, the Senate and the General Assembly. The Custos is appointed for life

On August 28th, 2008 Drugsup, after being unanimously voted on by the alliance elders and current government, took the position of Precept in an announcement to the alliance. “Today is the day I assume command of LOSS. There will be some changes to the way things work around here but I can guarantee that it will all be for the betterment of LOSS. We have such tremendous potential that is lacking the kick-start. I am not going to lie to you, I am not a miracle maker, and I cannot help LOSS unless you help yourselves. We are going to work together on this; together we can overcome our obstacles. There are no limits. LOSS has suffered these past couple of months, like a drought. I'm here to bring the water and you are the seeds which keeps us alive. Do not think of me as a dictator for I am here for you and will do anything within my power to keep you happy and safe, what I ask of you in return is your devotion to this alliance and your help to build it.”

In his announcement, Drugsup appointed the first full government body under the new structure. Jaaku, after returning home, became the new Consul, while the Prefect Staff was made up of Rebirth in the FA, LordSlade in IA, AlmightySquare in recruitment, and Tbone in Economics. With the second longest active member in the leadership role it was befitting that the longest active member become the Guardian of LoSS and thus Nidhogg was appointed the Custos. Senators would be voted on by the alliance after they nominated themselves. Those that won the elections were OneGirlRevolution, Michael Locke, CDavo, Kaiser_Paul. OGR was a member who gained notoriety during the days leading up to the war with her activity and fun loving topics. Locke had been an active member for a long time and fell into the position easily. Davo and KP were long time members who came back into activity during the chaos that was the hacker and the war troubles. They easily assumed their roles as core members. The two senators appointed by Drugsup were Nhoj and Co God Ben both long time and active members of the alliance. The government was finally completely stable and looking to the future.

For LoSS, September would be a month of protectorates. After going for over a year without one and then just having the Ravyns for awhile LoSS would end the month with two new protectorates: SPA and FUCN.

The Socialist Peoples Army (SPA) is a small, socialist alliance that first became friends with LoSS in mid to late August. The first connection between the two alliances was through LoSS member IG, who had been buying tech from SPA. After introducing LordSlade to Bobithy, leader of SPA, Slade started to buy tech from them as well. After a few good deals were completed IG, Slade, and Bobithy sat down and worked out a tech treaty between their alliances that would turn out to be the foundation for the relationship leading to the protectorate treaty. After more and more LoSS government officials became introduced to Bobithy and his people through the inflow of tech to LoSS and money to SPA relations prospered. In the end after discussion between Jaaku and Bobithy the tech treaty was advanced into a protectorate treaty to better secure the friendship the two alliances had. On September 15th the Drunken Party pact was signed and announced.

The Federation of Unified Confederate Nations (FUCN) was a fledgling splinter group of the Hegemony of Periphery States organized and formed by Moufassa, Straightupnobull, and Ajna Sahasarara. While the members of FUCN were still within HPS they became good friends with LoSS members that frequented IRC. When talk of breaking away from HPS started Moufassa started talking to LoSS government more about what their friendship could lead to. The end result of those talks was the promise of protection of FUCN if they broke away from HPS. On September 26th, when FUCN announced their existence to the world, the announcement was quickly followed by a LoSS announcement of protection. The preamble of the “Another FUCN LoSS Protectorate” best states the relationship that had grown between the two alliances.

“LOSS and FUCN have gotten to know each other very well. Since before the creation of FUCN even. What started out as a simple tech deal has evolved into a relationship. It is here where we come to the present. FUCN has potential and LOSS wants to see that potential reached. As such, we enter this agreement.”

October would start an odd trend for LoSS. Externally LoSS was making friends and tightened bonds that had started during the war. Those relationships that became iffy after the war were slowly being mended. Internally, LoSS was suffering. Inactivity seemed to really be hurting the alliance no matter what government did; Members started leaving due to deletion or because they were unwilling to conform to some of the new policies government was pushing through, such as more frequent Alliance check ins. At first the alliance strength and score took a minor hit because while most of the people leaving were new or very small a few were larger nations. As the weeks and months passed the score would start to rise even with the decrease in membership. Membership dropped to nearly 130 at one point, a number not seen since the after math of Great War 3, and would average 148 for the remaining of the year. Even with the loss of membership, score kept rising. And those active with the alliance used this to further shape the alliance. Many alliances proved you could be few in numbers, but still have a strong score. That’s what the government was going for. They started using the leaving of members to raise the score and it worked well as even though the alliance was hitting Great War 3 member numbers LoSS was setting new highs when it came to alliance score.

The end of October would mark two new treaties for LoSS. The first being on October 23rd with TORN. The TORN treaty was a PEACE treaty designed to grow relations that were already blossoming with each other. Many friends from the time of LoSS trying to get out of the Great War 3 surrender terms now resided within TORN. The PEACE treaty was followed the next day by the LoSS-Echelon MDoAP treaty. This treaty started with Jaaku, who had resided in Echelon before returning to LoSS after the war. He created many ties that were solidified by this treaty.

While November and December would continue the trend of the membership drop and score increase that started months before, both months would have their separate milestones. November would mark a return to a treaty style not used in the alliance since the time of Great War 2...a bloc treaty. While the Agora Accords was not a full military bloc like the bloc LoSS participated in beforehand, it still had a military backing. Coming together in the waning moments of the War of the Coalition, many of the blue alliances that fought against BLEU or didn’t fight at all, knew that the blue sphere would be hectic with the disbanding of BLEU in site, so talks of re-stabilizing the trading sphere started. Bringing with them their stabilized red sphere for economic purposes the NPO joined the discussion and after months of tweaking and discussing, what would become Agora was formatted into a joint color economic bloc, with optional military backing. The original alliances in Agora were LoSS, ICENI, The Foreign Division, Echelon, NADC, MCXA, and the NPO. The announcement brought some hostility from those that had fought along side the BLEU bloc and some criticisms over allowing the NPO to join as some thought Agora was just another NPO scheme, but in truth NPO was there only to filter in money to the blue members for tech. After a while the hostility finally ended and Agora went on without problems adding new members at later dates.

Internally December would mark the first changes in a prefect position. Rebirth, who stepped down to increasing inactivity and Tbone, who had always said he was just filling the spot temporarily until someone else could be found, were replaced by DWtheGreat and ShadowSlayer. DWtheGreat had been a member for a few months, but in all that time had worked directly under Jaaku. His experiences prior to his time in LoSS left him with many outside ties, which fit the Foreign Affairs role perfectly. ShadowSlayer has been a long time LoSS friend and ally, dating back well before Great War 3. It had been a running joke to try to recruit him on site and after all that time he finally joined the alliance. Bringing with him a vast knowledge of the game he fit perfectly well within the economic position. Externally, December would mark the signing of a treaty that had been months in the making, dating back to before the hacker troubles of August. On December 5th the San Francisco Accords, an MDoAP treaty between MCXA and LoSS were announced to the world. This treaty had been a long time coming as talks started in late July early August. With hopes of really allowing the two alliances to bond both sets of governments had many private chats getting sure that both groups were who the other wanted to relate to. When LoSS started to recover their forums it was Anakey from MCXA that offered technical help and always made sure LoSS knew they were protected until they could stabilize as it had become known that members of other alliances wanted to attack LoSS for not helping in the War of the Coalition. While LoSS wasn’t down for long the bonds between the two alliances tightened. When talks shifted towards Agora after the war LoSS and MCXA were always on the same path for the betterment of the blue sphere. After Agora was announced and underway the final touches of the treaty between LoSS and MCXA were hashed out and then released.

LoSS would finish 2008 in odd circumstances internally with almost 100 members less than they had just 9 months earlier, but with strength edging towards halfway to 4 million, which was a big jump from that 9 months earlier mark. While activity was increasingly low the core members of the alliance were doing their best to hold things together. With a new government in place and ideas growing the New Year looked bright for this ever aging, ever prospering alliance.

The Council
With the New Year passing everyone knew LoSS was in trouble and something needed to be done. Inactivity was destroying the alliance from within and everything tried up to that point had failed and nothing was enticing members into activity. On January 6th an idea was developed between Almighty Square and Slade that would start a project rolling to spark life back into the alliance. This project: the development of a council, or a second senate as it was sometimes referred to, that would bring together all active members of the alliance into one body on equal standing and demand results. With the agreement of the rest of the LoSS government a list was put together that consisted of those member that had not only shown dedication to the alliance, but were also an active member on the forums. This group of members, both new and old was set to be the new core of the alliance. The list consisted of the current government and advisors: Almighty Square, Drugsup, Jaaku, Nidhogg, Slade, The Great and Powerful, Rebirth, Tbone, ShadowSlayer, DWtheGreat, Krunk, and IG; Long time and active members: Legion-X, Cleaverlch, Kaiser Paul, Locke, No40s, KingRichardVIII, Joelwest and Lee; and some die hard devoted newer members: Supreme Master, Amossio, rol20kid, Junior, Phoebus, and bombebomb.

As the council came together they were purposed with a question: “Where do we want to be standing in 6 months and how do we want to get there.” From that moment they set to work on evolving government structure, forum activity, and growth. Other topics included things like guides, programs, rules and regulations and the upcoming 3rd birthday of LoSS. Due to the council, activity within LoSS was the highest it had been in nearly a year. In its infant state the Council could be considered a success.

While the council started working things over internally, the foreign affairs team was finishing up with a treaty with Valhalla that had been started in December. They also started work completing the relationship that had started between LoSS and Zenith. Also being worked on was a possible protection treaty for a small alliance by the name of the Keepers of the Covenant.

These three discussions resulted in the signing of the Thrust Accords with Valhalla in mid-January; the Treaty of Lozen with Zenith was announced on Feb. 6th, followed shortly by The Promise Keepers Accords with KoTC on Feb. 9th. KoTC would bring the LoSS protectorates back to three, as the SPA treaty was mutually ended right after Christmas due to LoSS and SPA having differing viewpoints.

The next major change to government would fall towards the end of January when Drugsup, the first LoSS Princeps, would be forced to step down due to real life obligations. On January 18th, Consul Jaaku was chosen as Drugsup’s predecessor and became the 2nd Princeps. The now vacant Consul position went under the review of Jaaku as he looked to fill the position. During this time of review PHD returned to LoSS. PHD, the final LoSS Consul under the old charter, had left the alliance at the onset of the War of the Coalition in August to fight for the Mushroom Kingdom. After the war was over PHD stayed with the Kingdom to pay his part of the surrender term reps presented to MK by NPO, even though leaders of MK said he did not have to. With his reparations paid PHD left MK to return to LoSS. His arrival gave Jaaku his primary candidate to fill the position of LoSS Consul. Along with PHD, Jaaku choose Lord Slade, who was the Consul Pro-Tempore between the time after PHD had left and the new charter was enacted. Becoming the third Consul was Drugsup, who Jaaku choose to fill the position out of respect to what Drugsup had put into the alliance. As Slade had been the current IA prefect, the IA position was given to KrunktheGreat. Krunk had been Slade’s right had man in the ministry and fit the position perfectly.

The return and admission into Consulship of PHD didn’t set well with everyone within the alliance. One notable mention of this fact was February’s elected senate leader Michael Locke. Locke would go as far as leaving the alliance in protest to PHD’s admission.

Birthday Buildup
With March rolling around it was time for the major birthday planning to take place as LoSS would celebrate its third birthday on the 31st. Being in the top 10 oldest alliances active in the game, the birthday needed to be big and everyone knew it.

In early March, LoSS veteran and former LoSS(t) brother Desert Ratz would drop his moniker of being just a normal member and once again rise to be promoted as a military advisor Prefect. It would be Ratz that would drop the bomb on the rest of the government that would usher in what would become the “Epic” portion of the birthday announcement. His proposal, a return to the black sphere, the color sphere LoSS was forced to move from by GOONS and The Initiative at the end of Great War 3. With LoSS being free to do as they wished and GOONS being long removed from power on the black sphere, there was nothing really standing in the way of the move; at least based on the proposal.

A move to black had been discussed in times past, but there had always been a roadblock and even as the current move was discussed people were trying to find something that could become a barrier, but they did not succeed. No one could really find a reason not to move and the majority of the government members were excited about a possible move. The rest of March would be filled with talks of the black sphere. Things that weighed on the conversations included LoSS’ membership in AGORA, the possible membership in NOIR, the black version of an econ bloc, other alliances on black, current allies, possible black allies, and what LoSS membership would think. All of those concerns were dealt with over time and the final obstacle became what the general membership thought. A poll was sent out alliance wide to find out what the membership wanted. The end result would not be known until later.

Black was not the only topic on hand for LoSS. On March 6th, the “An IRAN LOSS” PEACE treaty was announced. Old connections with Mogar, the former CDS leader (CDS was a member of The League), had brought his new alliance, IRAN, to the attention of LoSS. Those connections plus the enjoyment of Mogar’s “amsg IRC news updates” made it easy for the two groups to produce the treaty.

Shortly before March 11, former LoSS leader New Reverie approached LoSS with a request for help. New Reverie had been away from planet BOB for near 6 months and had just returned from his otherworld travels to help revive his former alliance, IngSoc. On his return New Reverie discovered a string of continuous raids upon his alliance as even though they were an alliance they were small enough to be considered by some not an alliance. To remove the heat, New Reverie contacted Jaaku about protecting IngSoc. Everyone quickly agreed and signed the “IngSoc is BACK” protection treaty. A coincidence to this event was the alliance that had been raiding IngSoc was Oceanic Kingdom, which weeks prior, had also been in talks with LoSS about protection. OK had a former member of LoSS that had left BOB due to inactivity and then came back months later under a new name. He was now in a leadership position within OK and had been talking to Locke, before his resignation, about getting OK protected by LoSS. Due to Lock’s resignation and internal troubles within OK the relationship never developed. Those connections were quickly used to get OK to back off IngSoc, even though they never developed into anything more.

Following in his recent treaty trend, DWthegreat started work on two new treaties: an upgrade with Zenith and a possible MDoAP treaty with IRON. The upgrade with Zenith went through without a hitch and the upgrade was announced on the OWF on March 18th. On the other hand the IRON treaty had issues. The government could not come to a consensus about signing the treaty as while some signed the treaty others with held their names, refusing to sign it for one reason or another. The debate went on, slowly losing interest until the talks about the IRON treaty completely died out.

Birthday surprise: The Return of the Black Panther
On March 31st LoSS ascended to a level of epicenes that only eight alliances currently occupied, three years of activity. LoSS’ third birthday was announced by acting princeps PHD. An excerpt from his world announcement (http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showtopic=52765): “Three years ago, the League of Small Superpowers was formed by a couple of friends who thought the world of Bob needed a new alliance (back before alliances popped up every hour). This alliance would go on to become one of the oldest alliances in the game. Looking back, it's been quite a ride. Starting out as a small blue team alliance, to thriving on black with an eternal war with the GOONS. We've been forced into neutrality on pink by one of our worst enemies, only to become friends and allies with them. We've seen alliances die, we've seen alliances born. We've had friends come and go. But LOSS has always been here. From the small blue alliance with less than 3k strength, to an alliance just 4 million strength, we have been here, and we won't be leaving any time soon.”

Unlike the previous birthday where the speech was full of comments from former leaders, the current speech had small paragraphs from each of the four leaders PHD, Jaaku, Slade, and Drugsup. While the leader’s comments were nice they were not the anchor of the speech. Included within the birthday speech was an announcement labeled: The Return of the Black Panther. The membership voting on the move to black was a success for the pro-black group and as of March 31st 2009 LoSS once again placed their home within the Black color sphere with over a 3rd of the voting membership voting for the move. A place they had not called home since being forcefully removed by the GOONs and the Initiative over two years previous. In the same announcement LoSS’ ended its membership to the AGORA bloc. Members of AGORA knew of LoSS’ possible leaving beforehand and gave well wishes when they did finally leave.

Restructure Phase 1
One of the things that moving to black was set to do for LoSS was to instill a larger sense of pride amongst the membership. No one expected that the move would start a process that would shake the very foundation of LoSS and cause a dust storm that would lead to a completely new LoSS emerging from the chaos. LoSS leadership wanted to get LoSS back into the world position it had been in during its past time on black. In order to achieve this goal a discussion was had that involved restructuring and what being a member of LoSS truly meant, as some felt that that position had changed since the previous stint on black. A post by Slade made in the birthday announcement really set the tone for what LoSS had in store for the future. “Be it good or bad (depending on who you are) you may see a new LoSS in the coming months. Pride tends to make backs straighten and stand taller, shoulders to broaden, and balls to grow.”

The first phase in what would become the restructuring plans was the move to black. At that time it was just pure hope that the move would come out great and allow for changes. Nothing was for certain yet, but it was a start. The second step, which started in backroom discussions and would have the greatest impact on the alliance, wouldn’t be made public for weeks to come.

As the excitement of the previous day died down April 1st was marked with the results of a government review by the executive branch. The review had started on the 27th of March in order to make sure those that deserved to be a prefect, were prefects. The end result had the positions of MoRE and MoD changing as well as new senators added. Current MoRE Almighty Square was promoted, due to his year and three months of tireless work, to an advisory role notably on his request to step down when presented the opportunity. Square was replaced with his deputy and current senator Phoebus. Phoebus had been a deputy of Square’s for the last few months and between the two and MoR worker Bombomb, recruitment had skyrocketed to a level unseen in LoSS in years. The defense prefect changed on the grounds that TGAP’s nation was deleted due to inactivity. After short debate the position was filled with Great War era vet, former military academy leader, and current appointed senator Co God Ben. Bombebomb, who had won a senatorial position through elections, was promoted to appointed senator and his elected position was passed to runner up and former senator NHbigman.

While previously in AGORA while on Blue, LoSS desired to join the black econ group known as NOIR now that they called the Black sphere home. Unlike the dismal efforts of the few AGORA alliances, NOIR was currently 17 alliances strong and actually worked together for the better economic prosperity of Black. Back in early march a couple of LoSS members had started talking to members of NOIR about possibly joining if LoSS moved to black. They wanted to make sure that LoSS was not going to be stepping on any toes if the black move became true. Old friends were contacted to lay foundations. Then after the move became a reality LoSS election into NOIR started and with a sweeping vote of yes, LoSS was announced an official member of the econ group on April 3rd, 2009.

While earlier in the day moods were high because of the NOIR announcement, that evening had a different tune. Michael Locke, former LoSS member, attacked Joel West of LoSS, defeating him in battle. Locke, who had been talking to Co God Ben, had stated he was leaving planet BOB and was going to go rogue on Joel and a member of TOP, both people who he had conflicted with in the past. Ben thought he had Locke convinced not to attack, but during that time Locke supposedly “accidentally” pushed the attack button and because of Joel’s already weak military Locke’s attack was an automatic success for him. Attacks were fired back and forth between Locke and Joel before a resolution could be made. Locke agreed to pay reparations to Joel and the others he had hit. While he would be paying off the reps, he would rejoin LoSS.

Outcry for change
While the Locke/Joel issue was resolved, the final decisions of the government did not set well with some people and it lead to a small group to start plans to leave LoSS. This small group would actually be just one of a few groups of people looking to leave the alliance.

The only grouping of people that would ever actually leave LoSS as an established group was the three members consisting of current MoFA DWtheGreat, current senator NHbigman, and member 2burnt2eat. The group left on April 5th to found The Big Top Order stating no chance to lead or even advance in LoSS under the current charter. DW, who would lead BTO, worked out a protectorate with LoSS and became one of the many LoSS protectorates now consisting of The Ravyns, FUCN, KoTC, IngSoc, and BTO. While DW would stay with BTO, Bigman and Burnt would leave BTO within 2 months for other alliances.

Because Bigman would leave for BTO, once again the senate position would become vacant. When Phoebus was promoted to MoR, his senate position had been given to the next runner up in the election, NHBigman. Now that Bigman had left, the position once again moved down the election list. Liltrekkie had only been a member for a short time, but was very active and had been encouraged to run for senate just to get the experience. Now he would be a full senator. As with the senate position, the MoFA position was now open as well. To fill this position LoSS would bring in an old friend who had recently left the Greenland Republic. Spectre had been going back and forth from LoSS to GR for years and in his past stays at LoSS had helped out in government. Spectre said in his induction to the MoFA position that his main goal would be to rebuild the relationship between LoSS and GR. While the rift between the two alliances had not grown wider since last August it has also not been mended either.

Five days after the departure of the BTO group, Consul Slade was presented with some disheartening news. While on IRC Slade was queried by a member who will forever remain nameless except to those that knew him. In the query, Slade was told of plans of a large exodus from LoSS unless some things changed. Echoing the same complaints that the BTO group gave, the reasoning given was that of elitism amongst the government. No room for advancement, favoritism by certain government officials, stagnation due to lack of competition were other reasons. When Slade presented the news to the government in the Curia he compared it to the events MCXA recently went through with the forming of TSO, stating LoSS was on the verge of becoming the next MCXA only instead of the government leaving for not feeling appreciated it would be the general body leaving for not feeling appreciated. A rough estimate of people that could be in the exiting group numbered close to 50, but there were reports that other small groups had been talking about leaving as well and it is unknown if these small groups were counted in with the 50 or how under or over exaggerated the numbers really were.

In order to fix what many members saw as a problem, Spectre came forth with a new charter draft to stem the outcry for a change in policy. The draft quickly got mixed in with the debate that had roared through government since Slade’s announcement. On one side of the government disdain for the anonymous members was strong, while on the other side pro charter change sentiments were high. When the new charter debate was taken public there was a large calling for the draft to be completed and pushed through. By the time the second draft was released it was clear that the new charter was something the public had been waiting for.

Restructure Phase 2
As the recent debates over activity, charters, and exoduses were finally put on auto pilot the government continued on with a debate that had been in steady talks since the move to black. Those talks would come to be the second phase of the new reconstruction process. With the new faces in government and the new attitude that Black gave older government members, a proposal was brought to the table representing a fully restructured treaty list for LoSS. While it was only joked about before the color move, once the move went into action some government officials started really pushing for a few treaties to be dropped. One or two even pushed for all treaties to be dropped. At this point LoSS held military treaties with NPO, TPF, MCXA, Echelon, Zenith, and Valhalla.

As of now the only alliance that nearly everyone was ready to drop was the Valhalla treaty, while the two alliances that nearly everyone wanted to keep was Zenith and TPF. In the middle rested Echelon, NPO, and MCXA. These 3 alliances had their fighters for both keeping and dropping.

While the executive group brought in the opinions of the rest of the government it wasn’t until Spectre joined the government staff that a full on push to get rid of everyone came into play. The thought process was that in order to establish a new identity LOSS had to completely let go of what it was already tied to. With this new wave of debate going the topic had changed from “whom to keep or drop” to “keep some and downgrade some or drop all.” The topic slowed down when the exodus and charter talks started up, but only as far as the whole government body was concerned. The small group that wanted to end the treaties and get away from all the alliances that LOSS currently was related to, started talking on how to take more of a stance on this plan.

The group finally pushed forward after the exodus event was under control. The debate moved from the open government floor to the private executive council. In the council area Slade started laying out the desires of the group to Jaaku. While that was happening on the forums, in the executive adviser IRC channel advisers started pressuring Jaaku heavily to agree with Slade. Jaaku had been the loudest opponent of dropping the treaties as he fully supported keeping all current allies.

PHD, who admittedly had been torn on the treaty situation, never fully supported dropping the treaties, but did not openly agree that keeping the treaties was the best thing for LOSS. With the layout of the government forums and adversarial IRC channels and the privacy rules the government abide by, the treaty debate had been centered off to locations that isolated Jaaku from others that fully supported keeping the treaties. So, as it was, Jaaku stood alone against nearly the entire group that wanted to drop the treaties.

Finally, after a week of debate and holding out Jaaku gave in and dishearteningly agreed to sign off on the restructuring and the dropping of the treaties. On April 16th Jaaku went to each alliance personally and explained the situation, while he did not truly want to end his friendships with these alliances many members of his government did and thus he had to go with what they wanted. He even went as far as making a note in the OWF treaty suspension post that as long as he remained Princeps, LOSS would do no harm to any of these alliances. The cancellation process would go on to be one of the last things Jaaku would do as Princeps of LoSS. From then on he would frequently leave the Princeps power to PHD while he would be away.

Knowing the history, Government members had known that there could be a possible backlash when LoSS ended the treaties. To help stem off any possible threat, membership called on an old friend to come to LoSS’s aid. When Jaaku first agreed to end the treaties, government members informed Bob, an old friend who had once been a member of the NAAC and leader of the Greenland Republic and currently a leader of the alliance Nemesis. Bob went on to introduce LoSS to the other two leaders of Nemesis, Hoo and Soccerbum. With both sides understanding LoSS’s situation they signed the “Back in Black” MDoAP. This treaty was released to the public 20 minutes after the massive treaty drop. One of the noticeable marks for this treaty was it was signed by LoSS as PHD ~ Acting Princeps, Slade ~ Consul, Spectre ~ MoFA. Jaaku's name was not on the treaty. After signing with Nemesis there were talks about also signing with the alliance Monos Archein to allow LoSS a bit more leeway with their current treaty voids. MA was close with Nemesis and was introduced to LoSS through Nemesis leader Hoo. While things went well in talks, even going as far as having a treaty drafted, and both groups got along well, LoSS decided to stick with the black theme and decline the treaty as MA was not a black alliance.

With the government finally happy with the way the foreign situation had progressed they devoted their time to finish the internal restructuring. The new charter was nearly ready, but one major road block stood in the way. Under the current charter senate and the Custos had to sign off on any charter changes. Nidhogg had been inactive for several months and was not around to agree to the charter. On April 17, senate praetor Nikolaos purposed the immediate impeachment of Nidhogg from the position of Custos. The vote won in senate with a majority vote and then on the following day was given to the public to vote on. The motion won clearly with a 54/4 vote of active members. Also given to vote on was who was to fill the position of Custos. An active Custos held nearly extreme authority within the alliance and with the buildup of war looming in the world and charter changes hinging on the Custos vote, whoever won the election would play a pivotal role in shaping LoSS for the immediate future. The two nominees were a PHD nominated Almighty Square and a “pro-charter change” group nominated Co God Ben. The election resulted in a 33/25 win for Co God Ben.

On April 19th the first real backlash of the mass treaty drop finally hit LoSS. While LoSS had been prepped militarily for a “just in case” moment, the ordeal was on a much smaller scale and came from a shocking source. BTO, lead by DWthegreat, became very irritated that LOSS would drop all the treaties, especially the ones with TPF and Zenith. DW had played a pivotal part in the original signing of those treaties. It was a known fact that DW had become very close with the leaders of both alliances and as such came forward with his complaints. His primary issue was the fact that BTO had not been told what LoSS had been planning when they dropped the treaties. When LOSS officials explained to him that they didn’t have to give him the info, DW presented those officials with an ODP between BTO and TPF, one that had not been discussed with LOSS government as was a common place with LOSS protectorates and military grade treaties. DW said the treaty was being signed so he could keep himself connected to TPF and Zenith. It was at this point where others within BTO came forward and said that LOSS should be weary of DW and that BTO had been offered protection by TPF and Zenith if they wanted to leave LoSS, something that DW had hinted at. To make matters worse noticeable NPO member Dark Mistress had been recently seen hanging around in BTO’s channel talking with DW. While it wasn’t an odd thing in BTO’s case, considering the TPF treaty, it was for the other protectorates as they had new visitors from NPO as well. KoTC stated that out of the blue they had been requested to sign an MDP with an NPO protectorate. Ravyns and FUCN also said NPO had become very active in their IRC channels and that some were being approached about treaties. The intent seemed to be very clear, NPO wanted LoSS to be pulled back to their side one way or another. BTO would be the only LOSS protectorate to sign a treaty involving friends of NPO and with the brewing war on the horizon trusting BTO became an issue no matter how much DW swore that he would fight for LOSS if anything every happened. The shadow of doubt had been cast.

Gathering Storm
Over the past few weeks rumors of war had been thick. Those rumors, in one form or another, started in December of 2008 when The Gramlins left The Continuum and continued to grow when FOK followed suit and left the Continuum in January. These rumors thickened in February when a military bloc known as “Below” was formed by Viridian Entent, Ordo Verde, and the Global Order of Darkness. The following month VE would have its treaty with IRON cancelled by IRON, only to in turn cancel treaties with IRON allies NPO and the Grand Global Alliance. This was followed by FOK’s signing of a military treaty with Mushroom Kingdom, a long time thorn in NPO’s side. This was a noticeable event because even though FOK had previously exited the Continuum they had continued to keep their direct military treaty with NPO. The move would become seemingly clearer when in early April FOK announced their plains, along with Ragnarok, to cancel their treaties with NPO. Over the course of March and April over a dozen treaties and blocs were created and broken.

The burden of war even played part in the mass treaty drop LOSS went through. At the time no one knew what the sides of any possible war would be as treaties between alliances shifted. As history says if you’re on the same side with NPO during a war you’re going to be on the winning side. That fact played a big part in the treaty drop situation; stay connected to our current treaty partners and probably come out on top of the war or go back to where LoSS held its roots on any anti-NPO side of a war. The political split within LoSS government somewhat revolved around this theory. Go back to our roots, which some felt LOSS abandoned during the War of the Coalition, or stay within the safety that NPO and Co. provided. With the war rumors spreading fast, even at the time of the treaty drop discussion was going on within LOSS, everyone knew it had to happen then or it would never happen at all. After the drop occurred everyone prepared to lose the war because Nemesis tied LOSS to what appeared to be the anti-NPO side, right where they wanted to be.

The LoSS treaty drop, along with The Order of Righteous Nations (TORN) would play, as stated in the CN WIKI, a key role in the treaty shifting phase of planet BOB. TORN and LOSS held a peace treaty with each other and both had massive treaty cancellations either on them in the case of TORN or by them in LoSS’s situation. After LoSS split away from their former allies, the same allies that TORN still held treaties with, TORN canceled on LOSS.

While other blocs and individual alliances bounced around with treaties NPO’s two power blocs, The Continuum and One Vision, looked to stand strong. Not since early February had anyone left The Continuum. This would all change in a whirlwind action. On April 18th Sparta announced to the world that they would be leaving the Continuum. Also leaving the Continuum was the Mostly Harmless Alliance and in one of the most epic actions of the pre-war The Order of the Paradox resigned as well. The reason this can be called epic is that TOP was also in the Citadel bloc. The Citadel held a sizable military force and could easily sway the tides of any war. With two members of the Citadel connected to the Continuum, Old Guard being the second, no one would dare stand against the bloc. Now that TOP was out of Continuum and The Gramlins, a third member of the Citadel, being vocally against NPO it appeared that even if The Citadel didn’t fight the NPO they wouldn’t be fighting for them. An apparent rift in The Citadel could be noticed with Gramlins and the others appearing to be standing on the anti-NPO side, while Old Guard seemed to be sticking with the Continuum over the Citadel. What had been the largest and strongest power bloc since The Initiative; The Continuum was down to seven of its original twelve members.

Lighting Strikes
Until the end of April 20th, war had been nothing but speculation, every move by an alliance called under speculation, every treaty looked on with doubt, every friend a skulking enemy; it was a conspiracy theorist dream. But in the final minutes of that day every person in every nation in every alliance was called to attention, for the hounds of war were released upon planet BOB as nations from the NPO and TORN initiated attacks on nations from Ordo Verde. The attacks were followed by a full out declaration of war by the two alliances revolving around speculation of spying by a member of OV. Towards the end of that first day, while NPO and TORN had easily dominated the fighting, they were just as easily loosing the public relations war as many alliances throughout the world threw down heavy criticism. While many used words against NPO, some went further and ended their treaties with the attacking alliances.

Amongst the criticism an announcement was posted by Archon, the ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom. In this post the first instance to the name Karma was announced representing the force that was building to stand against the NPO. With all the alliances levying criticisms and the rapid treaty drops from NPO this showed the possibility that for the first time in many wars there could possibly be a force willing to stand against NPO and its Hegemony that could be equal in strength. By the end of the first day of fighting and verbal bashing, NPO was willing to talk peace with OV and other mediators from alliances that were now coming together under the possible Karma war coalition. While some terms could be agreed upon by all parties not all were acceptable in NPOs eyes. Archon, the person who was seemingly becoming one of the primary leaders of Karma, threatened to end the talks if not all terms were agreed upon by NPO. TORN, who had also attacked OV, were not represented in the peace talks. After the “within the next minute” deadline given by Archon passed, as well as a grace period after the fact, the peace talks were ended without an agreement.

While NPO was entered into peace talks with OV and Karma representatives, TORN were left to its own with regards by the NPO. When the talks were over between the groups TORN announced to the world its cancellation of the treaty it held with NPO, the same one used to join NPO on the attacks upon OV. In the same announcement TORN gave their intentions to withdraw completely from all battlefields. TORN’s reasoning was that while NPO worked closely with them to plan and fight the war they completely left TORN out of all peace negotiations and tried to save themselves while leaving TORN to fend for itself. TORN condemned this action and removed its allegiance to NPO.

When the reports of the attacks filtered into LOSS, preparations were immediately made for war. As word that peace negotiations with NPO were failing, alliances started circling around the Karma banner. While no one knew exactly how big the secondary Karma alliances were going to be, the primary group, centering around the Complaints and Grievances, Super Friends, and Below military blocs, held many treaties with alliances all across BOB. Nemesis, which held the one military treaty with LOSS, was tied through treaties to those primary Karma alliances and as such so was LOSS. At first LOSS started prepping on its own. Dispatches were sent out to all protectorate alliances and many of those joined the LOSS AA. Shinbay, the former leader of the alliance and LSAF commander, came out of retirement to provide advice to the government. Shinbay was invaluable during Great War 3 and was one of only a few Great War era vets still around to help prepare an alliance that had not seen an alliance scale war since Great War 3. Other vets Desert Ratz, Legion-X, and Lee also stepped up to prepare the members of LOSS. As for the leadership role of the government Jaaku and PHD had been trading off power duties since before the treaty drop. Because of that issue LOSS went into full military mode and current LSAF commander Co Cod Ben stepped up and took the commanding role. After internal prepping and communication with Nemesis LOSS was then invited into war councils with Nemesis and other alliances. Slade, Co God Ben and Desert Ratz represented LOSS in these meetings.

The Raging Storm
When the peace talks ended without resolve no one knew exactly what was to come. Karma leaders promised retribution for NPO’s actions. But, even though NPO had suffered many individual treaty drops, it was still the center of the two strongest military blocs consisting of TPF, Valhalla, GGA, Old Guard, NATO, IRON, Echelon, and MCXA. These alliances would form the core of “The Hegemony,” which is a term representing the world power structure that became dominate after the War of the Coalition. Any action by Karma on NPO would, in theory, spark the Hegemony to come to NPO’s defense. It would be a gamble for any alliances involved in a war, but NPO had history on its side.

History did not deter the promised retribution. Between the night of April 21 and the early morning of April 22 twelve alliances declared war on the NPO including former LOSS ally and current C&G bloc member Greenland Republic, Super Friends bloc member Ragnarok, and Below bloc member Viridian Entent. Later in the day FOK joined Karma by joining other members of the League of Extraordinary Oranges bloc in attacking NPO. With the attacks on NPO the world prepared for a world war as everyone expected the members of The Hegemony to rally and counter attack in defense of NPO. In a shocking moment, instead of attacking, all members excluding Echelon announced in a joint announcement their immediate cancellation of their MADP treaties with NPO. Echelon announced in an individual post its own intention to end its MADP with NPO. These eight alliances were dubbed the Coalition of Cowards by the masses. Some members of Karma believed this was a trick and those alliances were trying to get Karma to let their guard down, while others believed they really were just trying to save their own hide. With this knowledge more and more attacks were made upon NPO as treaties were activated. The era of the curb stomp looked to be ending in the stomp of what some people believed to be the very alliance that ushered in the era. But, alas, the NPO and the Hegemony would not die so easily. In the early hours of the 22nd, mere hours after they posted their cancellation with NPO, Echelon once again shocked the world by activating their still intact One Vision bloc treaty and came to the defense of NPO by attacking all alliances that had declared war upon NPO. Nearly thirteen hours after Echelon the rest of those dubbed the Coward Coalition started joining the war on behalf of the NPO.

LoSSs entrance to this war would lead through Nemesis’s attack on The Legion and Aurora Borealis. The Legion declared war upon Ragnarok at 11:32 PM on the 22nd in defense of NPO. By that time five of the eight members of the Coward Coalition had joined the war. Minutes before, AB had declared war on GOD in defense of Echelon. Nemesis was brought into action when their treaty partner Vanguard entered in defense of Ragnarok. This in turn activated the treaty between LOSS and Nemesis and at 11:07 PM of the 23rd LoSS announced to the world the Declaration of War upon The Legion and Aurora Borealis. This marked the first battlefield LOSS would march upon as an alliance since their surrender nearly two years before. It was a brand new alliance fighting this time and the odds seemed once again stacked against them, but again LOSS was allowed to stand up for what they believed in. No more hiding, no more pity, no more turning the other check, no more standing side by side with the enemy; LOSS was where they belonged.

Very few LOSS members attacked AB as the main strike force was set against the Legion. While Legion held superior numbers against LOSS, LOSS was able to devastate the middle portion of the Legion in the midnight blitz. So much so that even the DJ’s of Cybernations Radio noted the destruction the blitz was causing in a large portion of the Legion’s ranks. The attacks went better than any LOSS military commander had expected. Even with years of rust the LOSS military units still held power. Even throughout the next day the remaining non update units attacked their targets without much problem. Everything was fun and games until the expected counter attacks came. Stating the treaty with the Poseidon bloc that the Legion was part of, BAPS attacked both LOSS and Nemesis on the night of the 24th, quickly followed by their ally Tempest declaring only on LOSS. In regards to the two attacking alliances Tempest was regarded on the same level as AB and very few resources were diverted to fight them. It was BAPS that would concern military leaders. BAPS had fewer numbers but rivaled LOSS in strength and outgunned them when it came to nuclear power, holding even more than their ally Legion. To counter BAPS nuclear threat all nuke capable LOSS members were given the green light to use them on all targets. And that is how the first 3 nights of war went for LOSS; the few members attacking Tempest and AB were doing well more damage than they received. Those fighting Legion were decimating the high membership, low military alliance with nukes and traditional attacks. Blows continued to be traded with BAPS with no real ground gained by either alliance. A huge advantage for BAPS was their ability to really damage the middle mostly non nuke members of LOSS without taking any nuclear counter attacks. On the night of the 26th a bit of help came when Umbrella and TOP attacked BAPS. Umbrella, a fellow Noir member alliance, used Noir's ODP clause to engage BAPS, and TOP, who along with Umbrella is a Citadel member. Unfortunately, Umbrella was already engaging Zenith and Valhalla, and couldn't offer much relief. TOP, while helping with some nations, were engaging three other purple alliances, and did not have nations to spare in the range that was damaging LoSS most.

Help on the BAPS front was not the only one to come, as on the 27th the ODP clause of the NOIR treaty LOSS was a part of was activated by fellow member The Shadow Confederation. TSC attacked Tempest. While not a military one, another huge surprise was given to LOSS when former IAA leader Chimaera entered into talks with LOSS government about a treaty with his yet unannounced alliance. After further probing Chimaera said he was once again bringing IAA to Planet BOB after its disbandment during the 1V-GATO war of 2008. He wanted to ally once more with LOSS as at one point they had been great friends. LOSS quickly agreed that once IAA was reformed LOSS would fully support and treaty with them.

Daybreak
With the smell of death clogging the air for near 6 days LOSS waged war on its enemies and held their ground. They fought for their own reasons and had their own goals. In this war they did not rely on another alliance as with Polar War 2; nor did they fight under the orders of larger alliances as with GW1; or be forced to settle with winning the battle but losing the war as with GW2; or being utterly defeated as with GW3; no, in the Karma war LOSS fought for 3 years of tradition, pride, and resolve. And it all paid off on the evening of April 29th after a day of talks resulted in the total surrender of The Legion followed hours later by Tempest.

Tempest’s largest member, who seemed to be holding the Tempest line and acting as the rallying point for his allies, was all but obliterated by a last minute Blitz unit formed of LOSS and Ravyns members organized by LOSS military leader Co God Ben. Before the Blitz the Tempest fighter was attacking LOSS members that it held a near 20K NS advantage over. During the Blitz, the blitz attackers worked with the LOSS member being attacked and laid waste in an epic 4 on 1 smashing that forced the Tempest member to surrender hours after the attack, leaving Tempest all but fully depleted. Both Legion and Tempest signed white peace terms with all alliances allowing them to leave the war without reps of any sort other than the agreement to stay out of all further engagements. For LOSS this meant only two alliances of the four they had been fighting were left in the war: AB and BAPS.

The following day the LOSS war council started the debate on what should be done about BAPS. Many ideas were tossed around centering mainly on reps coming from the few BAPS members that attacked before their declaration of war was given. From April 30th until May 9th many terms were denied by BAPS, which kept the war going. While many compromises were made amongst LOSS and their allies about exactly what the surrender terms would be, LoSS held to the point of receiving some sort of reps and military disarmament from BAPS. Depending on which leader was spoken with in other alliances the LOSS idea of reps and disarmament was supported or unsupported. While LOSS would be told by leaders that their alliances would not settle for anything less than the idea LOSS put forward, when it came time to act other leaders of those same alliances would say that no, their alliance did not support the LOSS idea. LOSS could never get settled on things because they were being forced to change items of the surrender terms. On the 10th of May LOSS leader PHD was pulled into talks with the alliance leaders that did not support the LOSS idea as well as leaders from TOP and TSO which were new to the peace talks. It was in these peace talks that LOSS was told by TOP diplomats that surrender terms had already been agreed upon by everyone and LOSS could choose to sign them with everyone or continue their war with BAPS. If LOSS did not sign then they would be left to fight BAPS and their allies alone. The surrender terms completely disregarded any items that LOSS wanted in the terms and PHD was told by TOP and TSO that none of LOSS items would be added. LOSS was being “sold up the river” and felt slighted as TOP had only fought a few BAPS nations and now showed up and dived out terms that did not take into account the wishes of everyone. Reluctantly LOSS signed the white peace surrender terms and after nearly 20 days of fighting BAPS surrendered to their enemies removing themselves from the war.

After the conflict over the terms, heated arguments between members of the LOSS and TOP diplomatic teams erupted. LOSS argued that TOP had strong armed their way into peace talks and the result was only what TOP desired. TOP argued that LOSS was slandering them. Even when the alliance leaders that had supported the original LOSS terms said that they had not been aware of the terms TOP had set forth and gotten passed while they had been away came forward nothing changed from TOP’s point of view. One of LOSS’s most vocal arguers was Caesar, who spent a lot of time ripping into TOP. So much that TOP came forward to LOSS government with thinly veiled threats that what they took as slandering must stop as they did not appreciate or would they stand for it. As time passed and after Caesars departure from LOSS the arguments subsided.

While the Karma war for LOSS was dying out, AB was the only foe left standing, LOSS was patching wounds with the knowledge that their total victory was close at hand. To further the healing LOSS was finally able to move forward on the treaty with Chimaera as he was announcing the reformation of IAA. On May 12th the “Why does Chimaera have Founders” treaty was signed by LOSS and the new IAA. Former LOSS MoFA Rebirth was part of the IAA government that signed the treaty.

The final victory for LOSS came on the 17th as AB finally signed white treaty surrender with LOSS and its allies. AB had said they were staying in the war until all of its valued allies had been given surrender. It was one of only six alliances left fighting on the Hegemony side of the war. After its allies signed their surrenders a beaten and battered AB came forth accepting terms. AB had been an honorable foe as a few friends had been made between LOSS and AB. There was never any discussion that AB would receive anything more than a white surrender. At 9:22, after 25 days of fighting, LOSS was finally done with war. Legion, Tempest, BAPS, AB all fought and lost to LOSS. As it looked LOSS was on the verge of achieving a milestone that it had yet to set in its 3 and a half years of existence: winning not only a battle in a large alliance scale war, but also the war itself. In GW1 a stalemate ended the war, in GW2 LOSS won its battle, but its allies lost the overall war, in GW3 LOSS lost everything, but now in the Karma war not only was LOSS leaving the battlefield victorious, but in the overall war LOSS’s allies were doing the same.

The official Karma War was ended 2 month later as the New Pacific Order finally surrendered to the forces of Karma. As NPO surrendered there were two alliances left that had yet to surrender: The Phoenix Federation and Avalon. TPF had said they were not leaving the war until NPO was finally allowed to surrender and Avalon said the same for TPF. Once NPO surrendered TPF was expected to do the same, but refused as members did not want to pay reparations to the alliance Poison Clan. They would do anything but pay reps to PC. As such the conflict became known as the TPF Resistance where TPF and Avalon fought remnants of what was Karma.