The Imperial Entente

Merge notice This alliance merged to become part of Non Grata. Merger occurred on/around June 28th, 2021

The Imperial Entente
Disbanded
Flag of TIE War Flag of TIE
Team Color	Yellow
Founder(s)	Lucius Optimus
Founded	5/6/2016
Leader(s)	Vocalese
Statistics as of 6/14/2022
Total Nations	▼ 1
Strength	▼ 35,873 ▼ 30-day net loss ▼
Avg. Strength	▲ 35,873
Nukes	▼ 0
Aid Efficiency	▲ 5 / 6 (83.33%)
Rank	▼ 93
Score	▼ 0.25

The Imperial Entente is a small, micro alliance, primarily on the yellow team. It was founded on May 6th, 2016 by Lucius Optimus.

On June 28th, 2021, Tankobite announced that they were disbanding and merging into Non Grata.

Alliance History

Pre-empire summery

As a concept, Imperial Entente had existed as early as 2014. Adapting from his primary rivals in aNiMaLz, and Limitless Nexus; Lucius Optimus had several takeaways:

1. Micro alliances could be unified into a formidable force under inspired leadership.
2. National leaders respond more to coercion than compromise
3. While democracy could be useful, it was ultimately undesirable and potentially dangerous.

These theories ultimately lead Lucius to the earliest contemplations of an Imperial Entente. An Empire of small alliances in confederation ultimately guided by an Emperor and his close council. with a thick and fast, xenophobic approach to other alliances (especially large ones) and for the first few years; very aggressive foreign policy.

As the Free COBRA Army lost control of its civil war in mid-2016 and Lucius went into exile, he did not lose faith in the ultimate goal and arose to the top of The Resistance Federation by late September 2016.

Declaration of Empire

On September 30th 2016 The Resistance Federation identity as well as its constitution was officially voided by decree as Lucius Optimus had secretly built an independent forum and declared the First Imperial Charter in effect.

First year of TIE

If Imperial Ententes entire existence could be summarized by various rises and falls followed by a flat calm then the first year was all of that in miniature.

Much of the first year of Lucius's tumultuous reign was spent finishing up the final stages of the COBRA Civil War. influencing events with agents abroad, utilizing superior nation development, and bases such as The Mages Guild, Imperial Entente proped up every anti-Kanabis movement that could be found or conjured. In the end it all came crashing down as General Kanabis secured the COBRA alliance affiliation again and the TIE-COBRA war of 2017 cemented General Kanabis as the legitimate leader of COBRA. Lucius would never again offer serious contest to his claim and would consider the matter settled.

The road the Snake Eyes

The Emperor would see his approach to COBRA changing rapidly late 2017. Seeing the direction the world was taking; Lucius now chose to work with General Kanabis in a quest to unite the micros rather than directly competing. With such trust building activities as the Aveum campaign, The Commonwealth of Cynics and the Legue of Micros, Lucius and his Entente had begun to reforge its relationship with his wayward COBRA; though he steadfastly maintained the culture of his alliance as very separate. A key event would glue TIE and COBRA fast together in 2018 and would keep them together for the next three years. On September 21st 2018 CLAWS sold COBRA down the river and CLAWS, Freehold of the Wolves, and Imperium of SupernovaX stomped COBRA. Imperial Entente stood by during this conflict; but it was now that the SNX inspired rhetoric disappeared from the Imperial Charter. The seed had been planted to take the Micro revolution to its logical conclusion.

Snake Eyes(Korlath War)

Imperial Ententes involvement in Snake Eyes was considered controversial by Freehold of the Wolves to put it mildly. Lucius considered the sprit of the FTW non-aggression pact broken sometime before the war, the FTW government saw it as a backstab. Neither side ever agreed to a narrative.

The Korlath War (as it was known within the Cobralition) saw Imperial Entente fight for nearly six months alongside COBRA, Non Grata, Kashmir, and SellSwords. Although no lasting damage had been achieved, a micro-centric union of sorts had emerged from the conflict. In this sense it could arguably be a strategic win for TIE.

Rise of Boognish

Post war discussions among the micro leadership focused on the interest of maintaining communication and a broadly united front against Doomshpere interests (this including CLAWS) and maintaining influence on brown team to prevent the resurgence of a Limitless Nexus empire. By Fall of 2019 the term "Boognish" had been widely accepted within COBRA and SellSwords leadership circles, while "Cobrasphere" was adopted with TIE and large swaths of Bob. This signaled the arrival of the latest, and perhaps the last, of the great Micro spheres of Bob.

The Boog Era

Much like the Civil War Era, TIEs time in Boognish could be defined by its tension with Doom/CLAWS. The first six months after Snake Eyes was focused on rebuilding, any orienting the fledgling Boognish in a way that was Independent/anti-doom. In this Imperial leadership lobbied hard. The hardliners stance taken by Lucius nearly led to war with SellSwords on at least one occasion.

Despite progress, the long twilight on the reign of Lucius Optimus did not relent. Throughout his time lobbying in Boognish, Lucius tried to build TIE at the same time. "Propping up" his alliance proved to be a careful balancing act. TIE managed to absorb The Harvest alliance and take on Legue of Ultra Nationalist Nations and The Kossack Entente as close associations with seats on its internal council. Only through these displays of having a pulse could Lucius justify TIE maintaining Shtanto as its own representative on the Brown team senate.

By the summer of 2020 Boognish was on a collision course with CLAWS and Doombird Doomcave. Lord Hitchcock had succeeded from COBRA reviving a division of Monsters Inc, and Knights of the Round Table had drifted into the DBDC sphere of influence.

Around this time TIE would be at near constant war mode, though there were two small distractions. A rogue nation struck TIE prompting a Boognish response, and a brief but intense war was fought against Indonesian hackers that attempted to down the TIE discord server.

Claws-TIE war/end of the Emperor

By late summer 2020 Lucius had reconnected with one that had helped define his early career on Bob. The Dark Emperor posed as a friend of Lucius; preying on Lucius's paranoia around CLAWS, The Dark Emperor would manipulate the Emperor into giving him enough written words to eventually twist into a CB for the very alliance Lucius and Boognish tried to avoid a direct conflict with.

Against the backdrop of Boognish calling out DBDC raiding with impunity, COBRA invading King Neptune's Bar, and The Phoenix Federation (formerly SellSwords) and COBRA actually striking at the lower rungs of DBDC, CLAWS sprung their trap.

The carefully selected screenshots and narrative were damming. Although Shtanto got to peace mode, much of the rest of TIE was hit. Although the Boognish allies stood ready to assist, Lucius refused; recognizing that TIE was in the end not worth a coalition effort.

Negotiations with CLAWS eventually resulted in harsh terms for Lucius who would go on for several rounds of war, buy infrastructure, and decommission his SDI. Although not explicitly stated in the terms Lucius recognized that "The Emperor cannot survive". And in his "Eyes on the prize" speech declared that he would've ultimately resign as Emperor. At the time of his relinquishment of the title on October 1st, Lucius had ruled for four years.

Tankobite, the last Emperor

Tankobite ascended to Emperor immediately upon Lucius's resignation, officially taking power October 2nd. But for both the new Emperor and newly appointed Primo Dominus, priorities had shifted. TIEs public image had to be reconstructed, it's style of government had to be preserved, and the bleeding had to be stopped.

From the end of CLAWS-TIE to Bicycle War, TIE under Tankobite would be mostly internally focused. Government was revamped, new regimen introduced, and old symbols were moved to the side to make way for a new style. Even the old Imperial flag was substituted. All the internal revamping would result in TIE being officially absent from Bicycle. Lucius would make an appearance flying "The Lords Cavalry" alliance affiliation.

Decline of Boognish/Easter War

After victory in Bicycle War, the fractures that had been forming in the Boognish bloc reached the surface and began to rapidly deteriorate. Within just a month of Bicycle, TPF had left Boognish and returned again, and COBRA, fulcrum of the bloc had lost its entire government and began to disband. With COBRA destabilizing, TIE lost much of its lobbying power in Boognish. With factionalisim setting in, the Emperor of TIE was about to be caught on the wrong end of duality purge enforced by the interim COBRA government. TIE for its part attempted to stay on the fence and even to maintain and restore relations between Boognish and Non Grata. Eventually TIE decided internally that the position was untenable, and decided that Congress would vote on leaving Boognish. Their decision was about to be made easier...

On Easter Eve 2021, TPF, COBRA and Kashmir attempted regime change in Imperial Entente with military force. They were unaware of the impending internal vote and focused down on the Emperor Tankobite as a "punishment". They were rapidly countered by Lucius Optimus. Marathon talks initiated by Shtanto eventually brought the war to terms. TIE would be allowed to leave brown team and Boognish in peace. But the extent of the unfolding tragedy put a big underline on the Boognish condition. The message was clear and nothing was off the table, three years of peace and cooperation with COBRA had amounted to little and nothing. And with that, the Emperor led TIE off of brown.

Gold rush and revival

With the seperation from Boognish achieved, Imperial Entente looked inward. This ultimately led to the alliance doubling down on its 2nd charter adopted sometime earlier; and in many big ways TIE would return to its roots of being a smaller group role-playing as a larger one. This redoubled effort resulted in a highly successful if short-lived revival of Imperial Entente on Yellow team. Within a month Shtanto had finished his term as senator on brown and had been rapidly elected to represent TIE on yellow. Entente would peak during this revival at 25 members, higher than it had ever achieved before. As well as the strongest foreign affairs in its history; its treaties rivaling all of Boognish put together at that time. Unfortunately the progress was not to last. As the For Egg war loomed, TIEs momentum would be cut short one last time.

Helter Skelter

On the eve of the final confrontation between Boognish and Non Grata; it was clear the Boog allies planned on using TIE as a stepping stone to drag Non Grata into a larger war. Knowing this, the Emperor Tankobite made the controversial decision to dissolve his Congress and declare anyone not in peace mode by the appointed time would be kicked from the alliance. The results...were not pretty. Immediately the decision was met with rage and calls of betrayal on part of the Emperor. However the desired result had been achieved; Imperial Entente AA was untouched and its use as a stepping stone made moot. TIE nations caught outside though were not lucky, and were as expected beset upon by all manner of Boognish allies. Those that would adhere to the alliance leadership continued to serve under the Non Grata banner for the war. The AA was spared direct war, but most all of the momentum gained was now null.

End of Imperial Entente

By late June the inherent weakness of TIEs design and global position had been laid bare. Despite the best of intentions and efforts of it government, it could never be more than a path to undermine its own larger allies. And that government in sticking to the interests of its allies had lost much of its internal credibility and stability. Building up the alliance since the Easter War only to see it driven down again by its own systems had been a grievous blow to moral. In a larger sense, TIE had lost its purpose on Bob with death of organized Micro alliance activism. The confederation of people's had been the Imperial mantra; and with no people, there was little reason to carry on such a lofty crusade. On June 28th with a little fanfare, Imperial Entente would put its government chambers in mothballs and dissolve to merge with Non Grata.

What? A Legacy?

Since it's dissolution, Imperial Entente has popped up on and off in international debate, referenced directly or indirectly. In the immediate aftermath Lucius Optimus changed the alliance bio in an attempt to steer the perception of TIEs checkered rollercoaster of existence.

"This alliance has merged into Non Grata. We were the foremost micro activists in the 2014-2021 Era. We fought the great tyrants of the microverse, as well as the crushing might some of the largest alliances on the planet. All in the name of making a new, self aware micro community that believed in Liberty and self Determination. In the end this dream was betrayed by selfish individuals, who only cared about amassing what they thought of as "power" in reality only enslaving themselves"

While the alliance is often referenced with finger pointing blame games in former Boognish circles it is also sometimes referenced to with some nostalgia.

The few of TIEs remaining interests were to more or less a degree; protected under the Non Grata umbrella post-merge although most of that legacy has now itself disappeared. Boognish itself could be considered in part TIEs legacy but was smashed into several pieces during Egg war and may well have structurally evaporated before the end of TIE.

The longest lasting and most obvious parts of TIEs legacy still visible today are Shtanto on Yellow team senate and the affiliation itself under the care of Lucius Optimus.

As of May 21st 2022, The Imperial Entente alliance affiliation has lapsed into oblivion with its last caretaker. The nation of Lucius Optimus (The First Order) had been gone since August 2021.