4/23/09 - Morning Edition

Fighting in Mirendil spilled into Nagast just after midnight today, as Winterblades of SB Alliance declared a challenge against the hamlet of Velmuna, owned by DUSK clan Les Hombres de Tierfon, which came to an abrupt end as the Winterblades shardbearer disconnected just a few minutes after declaring the challenge, netting 20,000 gold for the Hombres.

The Tribune interviewed Ssly, one of the three Supreme Generals of Winterblades, who confirmed that the challenge against Velmuna was part of the ongoing war between SB and DUSK. According to Ssly, the Velmuna offensive was launched in the hopes of provoking a response from DUSK. As he said,

"Our daily raids have shown a smaller and smaller DUSK force trying to defend against us. We're hoping this siege will bring us more of a fight than what we've gotten in the last few days."

The Velmuna challenge is one of the first actual territorial challenges issued in the DUSK/SB war, as both sides have focused destroying enemy facilities rather than taking and holding land. More on the war in Mirendil as it develops.

This concludes the Morning Edition of the Agon Tribune.

See you in Agon,

Edmund Grain

Editory in Chief

agon.tribune@gmail.com

4/21/09 - Evening Edition

Tribune readers, the last few days have seen some startling developments in Darkfall. Across the game world new wars have sprung up, old ones have intensified, and overall Darkfall has become a more chaotic place.

We begin with Yssam. Long the site of fighting between the Yssam Coalition and the Stasis alliance, with Hyperion Kingdom intervention on the side ofYC throughout, last week saw a significant shift in the jungle subcontinent's power dynamic as the last Stasis settlement was taken by YC forces and occupied by the Knights of the Blue Sky. Tribune sources within Stasis claim that their side of the siege was disrupted by in-game glitches, as theYC shard-bearer for the challenge did not appear as a ping on their maps as per game rules. Warfare on Yssam has been plagued by such technical difficulties since release.

Stasis remained on Yssam, initiating a guerrilla war against the Yssam Coalition--but on Friday of last week, 4/18/09, the Yssam situation intensified. The Coalition of Character Killers, formerly of the Cairn Alliance and declared enemies of the Hyperion Kingdom, joined Stasis and aided their new alliance in a fresh offensive. Challenges were launched againstMehatil, city of YC clan Virakar, and Aputan , city of the Villagers of Eternity--the first by Coalition of Character Killers using their hamlet-island in the southern seas ascollateral , the second by Covenant of the Phoenix using a pure cash challenge. Warfare on Yssam was plagued by technical difficulties again: five minutes after theMehatil clanstone should have gone vulnerable the game servers shut down--the countdown to vulnerability had been stuck at 0:00:00 for those five minutes regardless. Hostilities continue on Yssam.

Meanwhile, the coast of Dvergheim has seen increased violence of late. Ongoing raiding between the hamlet Skogul, owned by former Dvergheim Compact and current Hyperion Kingdom member Agony and the island hamlet of Surstone, taken by Death Alliance forces from DC member Lys Noir, met a conclusive end this weekend with the capture of Skogul by Death forces, along with the hamlet of Mahirim alliance Cerberus to the west of Skogul. Tribune sources inside the Death Alliance confirm that Death forces were raiding Skogul regularly throughout last week after a joint operation by Agony and the Mercenaries du Nord against Surstone. No response from the Hyperion Kingdom on the fall of their border hamlet has been forthcoming.

Finally, the situation in Mirendil has intensified considerably. Last week saw a declaration of war between the SB Alliance and DUSK/Dawn, with warfare centered on the territories of Dawn memberOromea and SB member Dreadnaughts. Unlike the conflicts described above fighting in Mirendil has taken the form of raids rather than outright sieges, for the most part. Though Tribune sources indicate that SB forces were initially repulsed by DUSK/Dawn troops efficiently, the weekend saw SB raids cause significant damage to Dawn settlements. The Mercs are also taking part in the ongoing Mirendil war, attacking and damaging DUSK/Dawn cities. Sources within SB Alliance confirm that while The Mercs are focusing their attacks on DUSK/Dawn, they are not affiliated with SB and are acting independtly at present.

The Tribune spoke with Captain Arnie, clan leader of the Shipwrecked Pirates and member of SB, who confirms that no diplomatic process currently exists between the two alliances. Arnie states that SB does not intend a peace short of the destruction of the other side and, as he puts it, the "lamentation o' their wenches."

The Tribune has made several attempts to contact Dorundain Dunedhel, clan leader of Oromea, but has yet to meet with success. We welcome Dorundain and Oromea in general to make contact outside of the game to provide coverage for both sides of the conflict.

The Agon Tribune would like to take this space to thank our contributors, who make these updates possible. They know who they are, but in particular the paper would like to thank Calen Amlir of Virakar, whose contributions were invaluable for the Yssam piece above, and especially all those valuable contributors who request their anonymity. There would not be an Agon Tribune without you.

This concludes tonight's Evening Edition.

See you in Agon,

Edmund Grain

Editor in Chief

agon.tribune@gmail.com

4/13/09 - Evening Edition, "Consolidations and Reprisals"

A new week dawns in Agon and the Cold War between the great powers continues--though the last 48 hours have seen an uptick in skirmishing in northern and northwest Agon.

In the early morning of 4/13/09, EST, the Death Alliance's easternmost hamlet, an island off the coast of Agon, was raided by forces from clan Agony of the Dvergheim Compact and the Mercenaries du Nord. The raiders were approximately a dozen strong, but their hardware was significant: the party came on two rafts, and once ashore deployed what Tribune sources confirm was a warhulk. The warhulk was armed with flame cannons, and kept the few Death personnel on the island effectively pinned while the raiders took what they could from the hamlet's grove and other resources. The raiding party withdrew, but a Death reprisal followed shortly: forces from Niflheim attacked the mainland and sacked Agony's hamlet, destroying every facility they found, though Death forces did not move to conquer or occupy the site. The status of the warhulk used in the initial raid remains unknown. Unconfirmed reports indicate that Agony is now fully allied with the Hyperion Kingdom.

Today saw a similar military excursion as, in response to a raid by forces of the Primal alliance on member clan Apollo's hamlet, Death forces invaded Primal territory in the Tribelands. The hamlet of Primal clan The Exodus Syndicate was sacked by Death forces with minimal losses.

To the south, the past week marked a series of victories for the DUSK Alliance. Dusk forces captured the former hamlet of the Generals of War off the east coast of Rubaiyat, establishing complete DUSK control over the territories of the southeastern continent. As mentioned in previous editions DUSK forces also took the hamlet of Death in Excess in Mirendil, in a joint operation with the Death Alliance. Vinco Vici Victum, the last territory-holding member of the Savage Alliance, has reportedly joined DUSK's subsidiary alliance, Dawn. Dawn is made up of those clans associated with DUSK that do not follow the DUSK rule of accepting only Alfar members. The Tribune would like to thank Vindicore of the Shulgan Knights Council and Yomm of the Sturmgrenadiers for clarifications on all things DUSK.

Finally, there was some confusion today as various member clans of the Hyperion Kingdom declared war upon each other, traded settlements, and promptly made peace. The Agon Tribune can confirm through Monte Anvil, one of the three seconds-in-command of the Society of the Anvil, that what occured was a shifting of territories between Hyperion member clans. The Society of the Anvil now holds Realm of Kirdain's former city on the southwestern coast of Yssam, Kirdain now holds Haven's hamlet on the northeastern coast of Agon, and Haven now holds Society of the Anvil's old city. Reports that the Hyperion Kingdom was temporarily in a state of civil war are a bit of light-hearted forum trolling on the part of Hyperion members and should not be believed.

That's tonight's Evening Edition.

See you in Agon,

Edmund Grain

Editory in Chief

agon.tribune@gmail.com

Morning Edition - 4/9/09

The Agon Tribune greets its first morning here on the east coast and finds Agon quiet, for now. In previous weeks the world of Darkfall was gripped by the paroxysms of war--struggles for control on Yssam, Niflheim and Cairn, raiding on Rubaiyat, conquest and consolidation on the mainland--but with much of the world settling into defined power blocs the rapid shifting of territories has slowed. To take advantage of the relative calm, this edition of the Agon Tribune will bring readers up to speed on Agon's recent history and political disposition. The Darkfall Political Map for 4/08/09 can be found at the right of your screen.

• Niflheim: The frozen subcontinent is one of the quietest these days in terms of territorial shifts. The Death Alliance, formed around the Lords of Death and associated guilds, contested with the Savage Alliance and now-defunct North Agon Alliance for control of Niflheim throughout late March, but has held control of the subcontinent for several days now. The only disputant to complete Death control of Niflheim, called Deciet by the LoD in rememberance of their territories in the Shadowbane online game, remains the SB Alliance. SB is a recently consolidated guild formed originally around the holdings of the Undead Lords, now centered in the western islands of Niflheim, but which now includes the Shipwrecked Pirates and Dreadnaughts and their Tribelands holdings. As we will see with the other powers of Agon, the Death Alliance is slowly expanding outward from its core territories.and now has land borders with Hyperion Kingdom, the Dvergheim Alliance, as well as settlements in close proximity to DUSK and Coalition of the Chillin's KGB.
  

• Rubaiyat: Far to the south of the growing Death empire, the desert subcontinent is currently ruled by DUSK Alliance. DUSK was one of the first subcontinental empires to emerge, as the guilds who first staked their claim in Rubaiyat banded together for mutual defense. Despite a rocky start, plagued by raids from small, fast-moving groups which the widly scattered DUSK forces were ill-equipped to defend against, DUSK has expanded to take territories far beyond their desert home, with new member clans scattered across Nagast. Though a compact held between DUSK and the Coalition of the Chillin until very recently, that diplomatic process appears to have broken down--an interesting development, as DUSK's continental holdings abut those of the CotC.

• Cairn: The smallest subcontinent was also the first to unify. Divided between two warring factions in the opening weeks of the game, the Northern and Southern Cairn Alliances, this first, bitter subcontinental conflict was resolved swiftly. The Southern Cairn Alliance took full control of the region, forcing survivors of the NCA out onto the southeastern shores of Agon, where a vestige of the alliance survives in the eXile clan under the Coalition of the Chillin. Since unification Cairn, both the subcontinent and the alliance which now claims that name, have gone quiet. Cairn leaders proclaim a neutral position in conflicts on the continent, but this has not stopped the alliance from broadening its territories. Sovereignty of the Tribelands recently converted to Cairn, and the alliance holds the four island hamlets off Agon's southern coast. Revently, internal events have reached the rest of the world from Cairn: the Coalition of Character Killers, Darkfall branch of online community Lords of the Dead and early member of the Southern Cairn Alliance, was ousted from its city in the early hours of 4/8/09, EST. Cairn and CoCK leaders cited disagreements on the alliance's neutrality policy as the root of this falling out. The Cairn Alliance deployed significant forces and sieged the CoCK from its clan city, forcing the clan north much like the NCA of old. CoCK leader CountValor has declared the clan's intentions to take up a nomadic, PKing life within Hyperion territory. A special report on developments on Cairn may be forthcoming.

• Yssam: The jungle subcontinent to Agon's northeast remains a troubled land, despite weeks of ongoing warfare. Initially Yssam was divided between the Stasis alliance and the Yssam Coalition, but history has not been kind to Stasis. Through weeks of fighting the Yssam Coalition, aided by forces from the Hyperion Kingdom, has forced Stasis from one clanstone after another. Today only one Stasis settlement survives, a hamlet in the center of Yssam's jungles, while the YC dominates the north and Hyperion holds cities across the south. Mahtisoturit, a clan which holds a hamlet on Yssam's southern coast, has joined the Coalition of the Chillin. Unconfirmed reports indicate that Stasis intends to continue fighting on Yssam even if their last hamlet is taken, a move which would begin an insurgent phase in the ongoing Yssam conflict. Leaders from both sides who wish to get their message out are welcomed to contact the Tribune.

• Agon, the Continental Powers: As indicated above, much of Agon proper has been colonized by alliance powers from the subcontinents. Each of the politically unified regions (Niflheim, Cairn, Rubaiyat) has continental holdings, and this week has seen hesitant expansion by the colonial powers throughout Agon. Two powers, however, call the continent their home: the Hyperion Kingdom, Darkfall's elephant in the room which dominates in an arc from dwarven territory to human lands, and the Coalition of the Chillin which stands in the crook between Nagast and Mercia. Hyperion, is Darkfall's largest alliance in both numbers and territory, and used its pre-release media campaign to drum up vast recruiting numbers before Darkfall even went live. Political unity and sheer force of population have allowed the Hyperion Kingdom to expand further and command more influence than any other single body on Agon--but initial skirmishes with other alliances have shown Hyperion to be mighty, but not truly invincible. The esistence of the Coalition of the Chillin, Hyperion's most direct competitor, testifies to this. Headed by Awful Company, Darkfall branch of the Something Awful forum goons, CotC has engaged in low level warfare with Hyperion across their shared border and lived to tell the tale. The goons, infamous for their community's showing in EVE Online, have a potential population pool to give even Hyperion pause, but to date the two alliances have yet to initiate a full-scale confrontation. Like the colonial powers, Agon's two continental empires appear to be biding their time.

• Elsewhere: Beyond the subcontinents and CotC/Hyperion territory, much of the main continent remains fairly disunified. The Forest Republic, which held territory throughout Mirendil, disintegrated recently and no new alliances have fully filled that void yet. Meanwhile, the Tribelands have been colonized by a smattering of Alliances and form the heartland of SB but are not yet fully claimed by any force. The Dvergheim Compact, formerly the Latin Alliance, borders most of the eastern Tribelands with hamlets scattered throughout the mountains and hills between dwarf and mahirim territory. Mirendil and the Tribelands, situated between DUSK, Death and Hyperion, remain wild and dangerous country where forces from each of those alliances are active, and remain home to some of the last independent clans of Agon. Travelers in the region are advised to be cautious, as one can never be too sure of the disposition of groups encountered in these border marches.

This concludes the Morning Edition. Clarifications and corrections from the community are accepted at agon.tribune@gmail.com.

See you in Agon,

Edmund Grain, Ed. in Chief