Autonomy of Wessex

[Varrick ChaosWielder]

Greetings,
With the overwhelming numbers the Imperium has received, Wessex may be able to split off and become autonomous by itself, as we also have large numbers. It would also add less drama, the ability to do our own thing, be able to role play once again. The one major gripe I have with Imperium is that for such large numbers, they barely donate. Almost all donations that I see are done by Wessex members. It may be time for Wessex members to reap the benefit of all their donations by themselves. What do others think?

Sincerely,
Reverend Mister Varrick ChaosWielder

[Azzerhoden Razeri]

Even though my the desire to split off is strong, I do not believe we can split off at this time.

We agreed to be part of Imperium, and until His Majesty commands it to be done we must demonstrate to the rest of the alliance that Wessex is valuable as a separate entity. Right now that is not the case with the rest of the alliance. Excluding Imperium, because they DO see us as a valuable ally, and have demonstrated great friendship to us.

[Varrick ChaosWielder]

I must admit that I am worried with the numbers growing so quickly, the lack of donation, and the lack of team work of the Imperium. It is turning into a giant zerg. Of course Wessex stands tall and proud, and we donate, we are organised, and we work as a team. But is it fair to us to support the rest of the zerg? Not to mention some of the things going on in clan drama. But, I will obey the Will of His Majesty the King. If he wishes us to continue with our new allies, then thus it shall be. I just think if His Majesty is coming to the kingdom in the next while, wouldn't it be better for us to deliver him new holdings in His name?

[Azzerhoden Razeri]

I agree with your concerns Father Varrick, the rabble is strong within the Imperium. However, the Imperium is not preventing us from splitting off, it is the rest of the alliance we are part of.

When the beta launched, the plan was to form a clan called the Hyperion Kingdom, with His Majesty at the head of the government. Wessex, SSR, and the Imperium would have formed the core duchies. The plan was to take Calfardar as the first seat of power for the Kingdom, with the other two duchies taking the other two cities on Cairn. We also began looking for other large clans to form an alliance of mutual protection.

However, as we came closer to launch His Majesty started a new term of school, and Duke Brando also became involved in outside tasks. In deed, many of the Duchy members who first started playing Beta dropped out as the game had not changed all that much from DF1 (using prowess to raise skills was not in yet). Thus, at launch, the rest of the alliance expressed concerns that they would become a target just for having a Duchy of Wessex clan under it's banner. Indeed, if you peruse the forums it will become apparent that this was a real possibility.

Which brings us to the only downside of the new prowess system. If you cannot take a hold a spawn to earn prowess, your character growth will be much, much slower. Now if we had had the activity we are currently seeing, we could have made a more forceful argument, but as it was, it looked to be a very real possibility of the Duchy consisting of 3-4 players.

So the bottom line is that Sir Audin had to make a difficult choice, but he did so, and chose correctly.

As it stands we are, in my opinion, the most organized militia in the Imperium. The Imperium offered us a home, and we are going to respect that by being fully active and loyal members to it's leadership. That does not mean we are not going to continue to work on growing ourselves into a more powerful force, as that helps the Imperium as well as ourselves. We are still the Duchy of Wessex.

When the time is right and we are able to split off and be our own clan, it will be done in such a way as to support the Alliance, and hopefully the Old Timers Guild and the rest of the alliance in a helpful manner. Hopefully we will be able to claim one of the cities on Cairn. In fact, I am thinking of working on the building blocks for a bank for Izland, which is where several of us is bound at the moment.

[Kyrendis Varen]

I agree with Azzerhoden. As much as we wish to go free from a philosophical standpoint, from a practical and political standpoint we do not have the power to go it alone yet.

We need to recruit more players, and - this is a very important one - promote and reward skilled players into leadership positions. We are getting a reputation as a sort of 'old boys' club, with most of the officers being remnants of our first jaunt into DF1. Azzerhoden is an exception, but many of our officers, myself included are from that time.

We may need to rethink or at least modify our policies for advancement. While we are operating under Imperium's system, we should focus on filling up the Serviens spots in our Militia with good players and leaders, and then sending the best of them, as we get enough people, to form their own Militias.

All of them can operate as pseudo-fiefs, with the leader of each Militia being a Knight-level or equivalently ranked player.

This will allow us to rebuild the kingdom from the ground up, while still remaining supportive of Imperium's structure and rules. When we get four or five of these militias, we would have the numbers and hopefully the power to go it alone. If we prove ourselves to Imperium, we should also be able to get a city on Cairne out of it. Ideally Serruk. Serruk has the harbor, and while that is not vital now, it may be in the future. We should be looking at the long game.

As well, there are certainly members of Imperium who are spending time and effort to donate to the total effort - EFX for example is organizing several huge events which are aimed at getting together a prodigious amount of resources to be donated directly to the clan. We are doing a lot of individual donations ourselves, but we might think about tracking said donations for the purposes of convincing others to match them.

Friendly Competition, when wielded carefully, can be an effective weapon at combating selfishness or sloth. We can organize some inter-militia competitions, with perhaps a reward for the group who gathers the most over time. Include Hyperion or Wessex in the name of the competition as a subtle reminder that we still exist.

Right now our main focus is on rebuilding our numbers. Without a significant amount of good and loyal players, we simply cannot project power in the manner required to progress and dominate in Darkfall.

Who is currently responsible for recruitment? We should get a forum post up.

[Varrick ChaosWielder]

You both bring very valid points. I will meditate upon this. In the meantime, I will ensure the moral of our troops, both spiritual and physical, is taken care of. Thank you both for this very enlightening debate.

Sincerely,
The Reverend Father Varrick ChaosWielder
Cleric & Priest of Soldeus

[Audin Cardew]

No one has taken the initiative on getting an updated recruitment post together. Though, I would advertise we are currently in Imperium but rather have them PM us in game or go to the website to apply. Once we have contact then we can let them know of our status in game.

Perhaps, one of you could put together a draft for recruitement? We can go over it and tweak it if necessary.

[Azzerhoden Razeri]

Actually - I haven't figured out how we could structure such an advertisement.

[Varrick ChaosWielder]

Hrmm, I guess I will work on this task this weekend, and have a draft ready Sunday for you to review. Ill try brainstorming as well with a few people.

[Otto Osterwind]

Actually - I haven't figured out how we could structure such an advertisement.

Why not take His Grace's usual template and just whack it on with some added details?