IF-Norlund conflict

The IF-Norlund conflict was a period of high tensions between Norlund and the Imperial Federation (Later the entire FSA as well) which lasted roughly from the release of the new world to the completion of Serenity Superbunker. While for the most part it consisted of a cold war, there were brief moments of actual conflict such as the Norlund and Paradise coup of IF elected government.

Backdrop

Pre-claims IF government

The IF had existed for several months before the official announcement of the new world, subsisting on various rumors of an eventual set of expansion islands. During this period their government was composed not of those democratically elected (As it would be later), but of those who contributed the most materials to their stockpile of things they would need in their eventual departure to the new world (Things such as various factory mats and the like). Aside from the original founders and those who had been admitted to the government for their contributions, they were also joined by ComradeNick, who was looking for a place to vibe after all the excitement of being head of MTA, and who the rest of the government believed would be helpful in issues of national defense. The idea was that each of the senators who chose to remain with the IF after they left for the new world would found their own state within the IF, while the rest would lay down their senatorship to lead elsewhere.

Pre-Release

Shortly after the New World was announced by Crimeo, accompanied by various screenshots of its natural beauty, but before it was released on the live server, IF government (Namely Gordona22 and Cylinder) managed to backwards engineer these screenshots to figure out the map by cross referencing them against Planet MC maps. With their discovery, they spent several hours in debates over what land to claim, and whether or not to claim it before the map was released. Eventually they decided to make land claims for themselves and Varathia (As WNS2 was, at the time, IF senator in addition to being a Varathian Official) before releasing a discord where other nations would be able to settle disputes over the remaining land diplomatically. The IF also met favorable negotiation with SPQR, who had been letting them borrow land on the mainland prior to their departure. These three nations, the Imperial Federation, New Providence (Varathia) and SPQR dominated the two westernmost islands, with the rest of the map belonging primarily to other various mainland nations. Notably, while New Providence's and the Imperial Federation's claims were largely centralized (Although the IF did take small exclaves around the map), SPQR's claim was split into two roughly equally sized chunks, one north and one south of New Providence, a split which became relevant upon the release of the world.

In order to protect these unbastioned claims, Blackwater (A realms PVP nation) offered deals for protection against enemy attacks and raiders to various nations in exchange for large amounts of stamina, most of whom accepted recognizing that if they did not pay for the protection, Blackwater themselves would most likely attack them. While most nations bought protection before the launch of the map, or as soon as the continent was found, the option remained open for well over a month after the new world was found. Importantly, while the IF had paid for protection already, ComradeNick also paid for protection of his state, Fortuna, as he had put it on what had been the SPQR northern claim, which was not territory which had been previously claimed by the IF.

Post-Release

After the vast majority of the players had been sailing around the map for hours looking for the new world, _Kicky eventually stumbled upon the new world when sailing some twenty thousand blocks^{[Citation needed - please check this number]} from the mainland. Within the next few hours people from various nations arrived and layed down bastions, solidifying their claims. Many nations started early construction on bunkers, however because people had been spread out all over the ocean, there was a time difference of several hours between when people arrived, which transferred into a great disparity in combat readyness across the new world. Nonetheless, Blackwater had arrived only shortly after the discovery of the new world, and were well prepared for whatever conflict was to come.

While Norlund had been very interested in the new world, both economically for farmland where they could grow new crops and culturally (Among the various names vying to become the official one for the new world, theirs was Kingsluund/Kingsland), yet they had been unable to secure widely recognized claims. As such, when they arrived and tried to settle in what had used to be the SPQR lands, their northern claim was not recognized by the IF, as ComradeNick had decided to put Fortuna there. Norlund's attempt to settle there nonetheless led to severe losses at the hands of Blackwater fighters in the pay of ComradeNick. The first responded and most notorious of these fighters was Vah, who won despite being highly outnumbered, allegedly stealing the prot of the norlish fighters he had killed when his own armor broke. After winning a decisive victory in the new world, the still pvp-hungry Blackwater turned on Norlund's mainland claims.

Sack of Norlund and Resettling

Severely weakened due to the fact that much of the settling party demolished by Blackwater in the new world had also been important Norlish pvpers, Norlund fell quickly to the Blackwater invasion. At this point Yggdrasil also joined in, helping Blackwater to raid, sack and generally grief Norlund, pearling many innocent citizens as they went. The sack lasted for several days, but eventually the three nations came to peace, albeit a very humiliated peace for Norlund. After taking a while to recover, Norlund decided that they would take another stab at settling the new world. SPQR, who had to leave the new world following a conflict over an IF meme state, Synlandia, agreed to cede their land to another nation. SPQR decided to give the land to Norlund, who promptly restarted their attempt to settle.

However, the IF had failed to make it clear that they wanted the land ceded to a nation already present in the new world until after SPQR attempted to give the land to Norlund, which Norlund found out upon arriving and noticing that the IF had not relinquished infrastructure in the land. After intervention from Prawny331, an official in Gallagher (Otonabee) and important player in New Prov (Varathia), the IF reluctantly withdrew. However, Norlund soon realized that almost half the land promised was being occupied by an OMN, isles, who had beaten them to it, and when they attempted to remove him they were entirely unsuccessful. Despite another humilating defeat (named The War of the Isles), Gallagher gave them some of their land in sympathy, and Norlund now had new world claims larger than a few other nations there. They constructed a couple houses and a massive cocoa plantation before realizing that they would only get coffee from it, not the cocoa used in XP recipes. Around this time they were also admitted to the FSA, with the majority of new world nations finally recognizing their claims as valid.

IF development

Being a much larger and more unwieldy nation than most other new world nations, in addition to having several first-time leaders, the IF was slow to develop and heavily influenced by Paradise, another new world nation comprised largely of power players and pvpers. The government had grown more corrupt, with more and more paradisians holding positions of power and valuable land. Paradise was interested in completely controlling who could or couldn't enter the new world, and was notably the only nation not in the FSA in aside from the IF, which despite having many friends in the FSA was considered to be too unstable and prone to getting in trouble to include. If the FSA saw any issues with the steadily growing Paradise influence in the IF government and military bases, they said nothing about it.

Coup of the IF

Black ops

Upon being contacted by Paradise about potentially couping the IF in exchange for land and a chance to gain retribution for ComradeNick's attack on them, Norlish leadership jumped on the opportunity. Despite claiming that "The Norlish attackers notably only went after pre-determined targets, did not attack innocent bystanders, and did not indiscriminately raid", they were seen breaking into a Prot shop with over 200 stamina worth of armor inside after pearling Gordona22 and the rest of the government. The coup succeeded and Raindrop, a Paradise puppet state, was put in power over the IF land, such that Paradise and Cantina back on the mainland could use the IF's excellent XP biomes. While they achieved their stated goals of pearling and overthrowing the IF government, Norlund never managed to deal even the least bit of harm to ComradeNick, instead choosing to attack the other (Notably weaker and less likely to pull off a successful combat op in retribution) members of the IF government. They did also get the farmland they were looking for, as Raindrop also gave the old IF territory of Arlington to Norlund as a reward. However, the diplomatic fallout which promptly followed arguably made their venture a net loss.

Aftermath

After what happened was fully reveled, Norlund faced great disdain from all corners of the map, washing away old sympathy which had been garnered during the sack. The Norlish leadership were forced to step down, and Norlund was quickly and unanimously removed from the FSA, significantly weakening their power in the new world.

As Norlund was kicked out, the FSA covertly accepted the IF loyalists, most of whom took shelter in the nearby and secure city to New Providence. Gordona22 negotiated for his and his governments freedom immediately, accepting defeat by Paradise/Raindrop and Norlund, and agreeing to their treaty, although he would later go back on this, claiming that a treaty signed under duress is no treaty at all. This left the IF players in sanctuary in New Providence, the IF land lost to Raindrop, and the FSA searching for their path of action.

The Countercoup

Reconquering the IF homeland

With their main bunker lost to the Paradise insiding by Onedrop and Dama, the first course of action involved the construction of a new defense bunker near the capital, Callisto. Construction was primarily completed over one day, with several FSA members helping to speed the construction of the bunker hole. However, the bunker was never truly completed, only existing in a half functional state without being properly functional. Nonetheless, the bunker proved a valuable resource in staging the rest of the countercoup. Over the next couple of days, members of the IF government removed old bastions which were on various state groups and therefore hadn't been handed over in the transfer of power, which enabled the IF to regain control of the vast majority of their own land. Additionally, Onederful, who had been part of Raindrop at first, decided he was opposed to what they were doing and began to transfer groups back to the IF.

The death of Raindrop

Having lost their norlish allies to internal turmoil in Norlund (Their citizens weren't thrilled with their government couping the IF to install a puppet state), paradise quickly realized that they weren't going to manage to fight the whole FSA and take back the IF. Raindrop had completely lost their grip on the IF, and clearly weren't getting it back. Nonetheless, they held onto the IF discord (which they had gotten at the same time as the perms) for quite a while before eventually giving it to Kannon, who in turn eventually transferred it to Gordona22. However, this led to a second IF discord being made, and the first was never reinstated as the official IF discord, eventually being deleted several months later. With Raindrop gone, and Dama and Onedrop officially denounced for their actions by Paradise, Norlund remained the only nation with interests remaining in the IF, who had not addressed the Norlish claim to Arlington as of yet.

FSA-Norlund Cold War

Coming soonTM