World War 3: Game of Thrones

World War 3 started in mid March 2017 and concluded on the 7th April. The war was started by Volterra due to the fallout of being caught raiding an ally of theirs, Wyvernhurst. The war was fought between Volterra and the Resistance (Ruin, New Veritas, Cantina and Aegis). Every major power group was a part of one side or the other - and as it later turned out sometimes both sides. The war was notable for the number of high profile betrayals and their documentation.

The prelude to the war involved Volterra raiding their ally, Happy Ninja's town of Wyvernhurst and making off with a large amount of wealth. It was publicised on the subreddit here. After a brief attempt at containing the situation via the subreddit and some PR on various discord servers it became clear that Volterra was generally considered guilty. Members of the Chimeran alliance, New Veritas and Ruin sought to make Volterra accountable but diplomatic attempts to resolve the raiding were not successful. Then in an abrupt move within the Volterran discord, Senator British_Wanderer raised the vote 'All in Favour of going Nox', in reference to the server destroying faction from Civcraft 2.0. The vote was unanimously agreed.

Santa, a Volterran Senator and military leader asked Dollaz, the leader of Ruin if he would go 'full Nox' with them. Dollaz declined and so that night Santa, still being trusted by Dollaz and having access to the Ruin vault, went and freed all the prisoners from the vault on the condition that they fight for them. Dollaz's reaction can be found here.

Volterra immediately attacked the Ruin vault. Their aim was to lure the defenders out of the vault into an open fight and pearl one of them - preferably a leader and end the war quickly. The attack was not a success in this regard - they pearled an unimportant member of Ruin and lost an equally unimportant Volterran. Volterra tried again the next day. They built a small bunker for safety and resupplies a few hundred blocks from the Ruin vault and dug an attack tunnel. After a brief skirmish in the outskirts of the vault they sought refuge in their bunker. They were pursued by Resistance defenders who quickly began breaking the bunker doors. Seeing that the doors would not hold for long and that they were outnumbered, Santa, leader of the attacking Volterrans gave the order to abandon the bunker. As they began to exit via the minecart teleporter the first betrayal occurred, although in the midst of the ensuing chaos it was noticed until war footage was reviewed a few days later.

Within the Volterran attacking force were core Volterrans from the nations deep past on several previous servers and some new additions. These were Saren Solaris and his compatriots - members of the Solarian Order, who had been freed from Ruin's vault by Santa, and some unaligned fighters - Reiko, Thoths and Steve_Buscemi. Unknown to the Volterrans, the Solarian Order were in fact working for the Resistance whilst Thoths and Steve_Buscemi were working for Aegis. It is believed that Reiko was working for Cantina or the Resistance.

When the order to escape the bunker to the surface via the minecart teleporter was given, the Solarian Order sprung into action, destroying the minecart before many of the Volterrans were able to escape. As they broke it, the bunker door was destroyed and the Resistance fighters flooded into the bunker. A massive brawl erupted in the confined bunker. Somehow all of the Volterrans managed to escape except for Highboy who was pearled and placed in Ruin's vault. Here is the moment the Resistance breaks into the bunker, you can see the minecart being destroyed in the far corner.

The Volterrans retreated to their vault, the traitors still in their midst, though suspicions had been raised. Over the next few days theories were developed over who was a traitor - recordings showed Bewjsie, a member of the Solarian Order attacking Santa during the bunker fight and missing potion materials were later discovered to have been stolen by Poseideon - also a member of the Solarian Order. It was becoming clear that something had to be done about these insiders but how and when remained a difficult question to answer. The Solarian Order equalled the Volterrans in numbers and skill making pearling them difficult - and simply removing them would bolster the Resistance greatly.