Rumours Over Illyriad Bonds

There have been rumours recently that Milliardo Peacecraft, the player who runs Illyriad Bonds, has been failing to repay investors. It is not yet clear how many players have been affected by this. Please IGM me if you have invested in Illyriad Bonds and not received your gold back.

An anonymous source suggested that the investment scheme may have been a scam used to buy prestige for use in SIN's current war, saying the following:'my suspicions are that its very handy way of paying for [prestige] scrolls isnt it.' .I cannot disclose more without risking their identity.

I will do an update when I get a response from Milliardo or if more players step forward to confirm that Illyriad Bonds is a scheme.

UPDATE:
SIN leader Jejune sent me an IGM soon after I posted this. He denied the allegations that Illyriad Bonds were used to buy prestige, claiming 'this is slander against SIN'. However, all I have done is report what my source has said which is not slanderous.

Fiona, a GATE/SIN player, posted this response on the forums:

      ' Milliardo went inactive 18 days ago. After taking a few peoples gold for bonds, (including mine). He did this on his own without help from SIN/GATE. We have not heard anything from him. Neither alliance has access to his account. He was never asked to do his bonds. It was a complete solo project on his part. I have proof of his inactivity. (He has been booted from GATE).

        The rumors that have been thrown around are pure speculation on some peoples part. They are trying to start a propaganda campaign against SIN. 

        I have always been an honorable person. So I find it insulting that we would be accused of scamming Illy. That has never, nor will it ever happen. '

I would like to say that I was not accusing Fiona of scamming, I was accusing Milliardo as he was the one who set up Illyriad Bonds. Milliardo being inactive, that does change things. I would also like to apologise to SIN as, if he was just inactive, then he can't have been using the gold to buy prestige. As for the fact that this is propaganda against SIN, I am open about my bias towards TUF but will never post something I know to be incorrect.

I have also received confirmation from Jejune that Milliardo is inactive in the form of a screenshot

Fiona confirmed that Milliardo's towns may be used as reparations by those who have lost gold, saying:  'His investors are free to exact any reparations they wish out on Millardos cities, we will have no part of it.'

I would ask anyone else who creates an investment system to appoint a sitter to prevent things like this from happening. I have a sitter to allow for the RIF to be sorted out if I leave suddenly.

Author: Eowan The Short

A new author for the Telegraph / The RIF gets a new trader

In the past few days, an author for the telegraph has been found. They would like their identity to remain anonymous but I will reveal that they are currently in Order.

I would also like to announce that IKnights has become a trader for the RIF. He will be starting off with 50 million gold and hopefully will make running the RIF easier. Please continue to contact me for withdrawals/deposits.

Author: Eowan The Short

Curmudgeon Abandons

Yesterday morning, Curmudgeon and his alt, Mac Soith were abandoned after allegations of grooming leading to a police visit to his house. He posted the following in the comments section of the Telegraph:'sorry for being melodramatic, but I'm done. I've just had the police at my door accusing me of all sorts because it was reported that I spoke to someone aged under 18 in game about sexual matters, therefore I am a peadophile. 16 is legal in my country and I am 49 and happily married. Shame on the idiots who accused me'

The chat in which he is alleged to have spoken to someone in a sexual manner is reportedly an external chat on a website such as slack chat though it was based around Illyriad.

GM Stormcrow appeared in global chat at 1:18 and said: 'Um. Nothing to do with us. Whilst we have had legal requests for account details in the past; nothing of that sort has occurred for at least 2 years...'

This seems to confirm that the chat was on an external site.

Curmudgeon was recently threatened with a ban from GM Rikoo for innuendoes towards myself. I did not find these in anyway inappropriate as they were clearly harmless jokes and I believe that this is probably similar to what happened in the external chat and someone just over reacted. However, I have not seen what was said and this is solely based off of my impression of Curmudgeon from talking to him.

He was an excellent player and was a lot of fun to talk to. If anyone who knew well would like to write him an obituary, I would be happy to publish it here.

Author: Eowan The Short

Ppjotr Breaks Siege / Goldy1 returns to SIN

A recent RE siege on Ppiotr's city of Pir Urbas was broken by his alt, Ppjotr at 9:36 on the 14th July. Reportedly, the siege break was preceded by a number of elite cavalry hits and then by some larger hits.

I was online at the time of the siege landing and got in touch with Patience King, the sieger and head of RE. His response, which indicated that this was the start of something larger, has been deleted since the siege break. I would ask all players to not delete messages sent to the Telegraph's reporters as it makes writing articles much more difficult as we have to rely on our memories. If you do not want something reported, mention it in the message or in a message afterwards.

The past week has been a tough one for RE; between the 2 razed towns and this siege break, it seems like they might have bitten off more than they can chew.

Goldy1, who defected from SIN on the 25th June and joined TUF on the 27th rejoined SIN on the 11th July. This could indicate that Goldy1 was a spy, sent to keep an eye on TUF's operations.

UPDATE: I am crap at this news thing. I would like to apologise for my earlier accusation of deletion.
Patience King had this to say about the siege:
'The glorious roman empire is sure that the goals of the siege will be met in full, some people may be surprised on the main purpose of the siege but they are to find out in the future.
Rome has lost several isolated towns and participated in a tourney but we are far from spent.
Consul Patience King'
In this, Patience King, indicates that the objective of the siege was not the raze or capture of Pir Urbas. It will be interesting to see whether the result will help RE break TUF's momentum.



Author: Eowan The Short

Rikoo's Censorship on Innuendos

GM Rikoo has recently been clamping down hard on inappropriate content in GC.

On the 5th, he hit Agalloch with a two week chat ban for reasons which reportedly remain unknown.

However, his most recent act of censorship is much further reaching. In an IGM to several Illyriad players, he said the following:

'Date:

13 Jul 2016 02:18

I am sending a few of you this message to make sure that you know that Eowan volunteered his age in chat as a minor. I know because I saw you all there when he said it. This means that you all need to stop engaging in sexual or sexual-like chat with him, and he needs to stop engaging in the chatter back. I will not warn again, and if I get one more complaint I will ban all involved. Thanks, GM Rikoo' It should be noted that minor in this case means 17, an age at which consent can be given in the UK where I live and where Illyriad Games is based. The server for Illyriad is run by a company based in Florida where the age of consent is considered to be 18 but can be as low as 14 with Romeo and Juliet laws. It is not yet clear whether the ban is a chat ban or a full game ban though one would assume that a chat related offence of such minor nature would not be considered offensive enough to warrant a total ban. To reassure anyone who feels that they may have in someway corrupted me, I am a 17 year old boy with unlimited internet access. It is almost impossible to corrupt me further. I would also like to remind players of the block feature which can be used to hide the words of players who may be saying things you find offensive. To be fair to Rikoo, this is not the first time he has been in touch for inappropriate chatting. Previously, he has warned me after posting an ASCII art representation of male genitalia with ejaculate coming from the tip in global chat. I understand that he has good intentions with stuff like this but there must come a point where common sense takes over; if I can do something then why can't I talk about it? It will be a long, hard time before I am able to fully speak my mind but I am excited for when that day comes. Author: Eowan The Short

A new author for the Telegraph

I would like to announce that Josh has become an author for the Illyriad Telegraph. He will mostly be aiding me with reporting on TUF's current conflicts.

He will not publish an article without me first reading it to check it is suitable for the Telegraph.

If you want to become an author for the Telegraph, IGM Eowan The Short. If you would prefer to be anonymous, that can be arranged but your alliance will be disclosed.

Author: Eowan The Short

RE suffers two razes in as many days

In the past two days, TUF has razed two of RE's towns. The first was on vgsrhhheth in the Long White. This siege was similar to the one on the failed siege on Knight of Ancients, taking advantage of the city's isolation from RE's main cluster in Westmarch. However, RE were unable to break the siege and the town of lonesome fell to ThorOdin at 9:32 on the 10th July.

Elfend was the second town to fall to TUF, this time to AianNick. The Illyriad Times reported that Xander also had a siege on Elfend. The town, formerly belonging to parthenon, was also isolated as it was in Middle Kingdom. This seems to reflect a common strategy for TUF where they pick off towns where help will take a long time to arrive. The town was razed at 18:13 on the 11th of July.

This double raze is likely to have been a big blow to RE's morale but could also reflect a depletion of troops after the recent tournament in which they lost just over 1 million troops. RE will still have enough troops to defend within their landclaim but towns further away might be left with insufficient support.

Author: Eowan The Short

TUF under fire/ New siege on RE

A recent SIN siege on Persona Non Grata by siege came to an end at 00:12 on the 6th July when OleBlacklord razed 'publi city'. The Illyriad Times reported that the siege began on the 5th at 2:00.
When asked about the siege, Jejune had the following to say: 'we met only moderate resistance from TUF -- just one substantial stal hit. The rest were elites or poorly-matched troop types (one attack was with T2 spears, for example). For us, this was a relatively small, standard siege model. We'll look to put together more substantial ops in the weeks ahead as we ramp up.'. The 'substantial stal hit' came from Mexican Dwarf.

TUF has also exodused cities away from inbound RE and SIN sieges, first Pir Cerxes away from a siege by Salgerluk and then My Belle away from a siege by Kerg. This could show that after months of fighting, TUF's forces are wearing thin.

TUF has fought back against RE recently with a siege on Knight of Ancient's city of  'Vgrumkik' by kaven at 11:31 today. The siege is on a plains square, however due to the remote location if the siege, it is likely that no forces will arrive in time to break it.

UPDATE: The siege was broken on the 7th July with the help of SIN forces. Since the siege was broken, Knight of Ancients has left RE and joined WILD.

Is STFU set to become next military power?

On the 3rd July at 07:42, Bob Diamond took the name 'The Unfettered' hostage by forming STFU. A ransom note was reportedly sent to Agalloch of TUF saying 'I am holding the name 'The Unfettered' hostage'. As yet, it is not known if any demands will be made for the release of the name but sources close to the telegraph indicate that a ransom payment of 1 Trillion gold is being considered.

Not content to simply hold onto the name quietly, Bob then proceeded to declare war on SIN, TUF, MEH and YARR! in the space of 10 minutes. Since the war declaration, MEH's members have fled leaving the alliance empty.

STFU's next target was WILD and when asked why he chose WILD, Bob Diamond replied 'He took my axe and used it as a toothpick! What else was I supposed to do?'.

STFU was then relatively quiet for around 24 hours until, at 00:17 on the 5th of July, Bob began declaring war on alliances again. In just 31 minutes, Bob declared on nCrow, SHAD, mCrow, ITG, Dlord, DKS and RE, mostly for saying cow puns in GC thought the RE declaration is though to be due to their involvement in the wars TUF is currently in.
During this spate of declarations, STFU's membership doubled which shows that many feel allied with Bob's cause.
A peace was negotiated between STFU and nCrow by Rill after she threatened to totally destroy Bob in GC. This appears to be a white peace though neither alliance has yet confirmed or denied this.

However, shortly after the peace was negotiated, TFs declared war on STFU. This was the first war declaration on STFU declared by another alliance.

Bob then declared war on GATE, M-X, X_C and ACHE. Soon after the war declaration on M-X, Bob appeared in GC and announced that the declaration on M-X was a mistake and he offered peace to M-X.

India joined TFs in declaring on STFU at 20:30. Dakota, one of this newspaper's editors, is leader of India.

In total, STFU has been at war with 19 alliances.

So far, there have been no sieges though Bob has sent a large army to attack Lone Wolf of mCrow. Artefore did send an army to Bob's town of Ponzi Scheme but recalled it almost immediately after sending. Bob has also been thieved twice.

Judging by STFU's aggression, high growth and ambition, it seems like they could be on their way to becoming Illyriad's top military alliance, a spot currently held by SIN after the Second Newlands War. It will be interesting to see how STFU expands and whether they move in the Broken Lands.

Author: Eowan The Short

Korlat2 sieged mid-exodus/TUF declares on RE

Korlat2's city of 'black coral' has been sieged whilst she was trying to exodus her towns out of elgea. The siege began landed at 21:03 on the 4th June. Both TUF and YARR! officials have confirmed that the reason why the town wasn't exodused away from the siege was that Korlat2's town of 'malaz city' was already being exodused when the first blockade on the city landed. 'malaz city' is now located at 669|-356 in Zanpur. Spektor is the one sieging Korlat2, it is his first siege for TUF since he joined on the 28th June from Unbow.
At the moment, there is 1 blockade, on the north western square and the siege is on the south western square. Both squares are on large hills with a jungle biome.
YARR!'s Solanar has said that even though the town is in an isolated position, they will try to defend it as Korlat2 was in the process of exodusing the town to the Broken Lands as asked and is active. This goes against Ranalos' comment on the siege of Hedeby when he said that cities in Elgea were 'indefensible'. Spektor has confirmed that YARR! are attempting to free the city as apparently there have been ' a few elite infantry divisions, and a moderate infantry force from his [Korlat2] other nearby town'. There were also some cavalry forces on their way to help free the city before the siege landed.

Some of the forces sent to remove the blockades were from Blaxx Stoneaxe, a player from Roman Empire. There has been high levels of  tension between RE and TUF before, they were very nearly at war at one point this year however, this was the straw that broke the camel's back. TUF declared war on RE on the 4th of July at 03:20.
RE is the third land claiming alliance to join the war against TUF. When asked about why Blaxx Stoneaxe attacked the blockade, Patience King, the leader of RE, said the following:
'Yarr asked us to help break a blockade on a member in Elgea so i asked blaxx stoneaxe to break the blockade on korlat2 , I did not involve any other members in the fight and since yarr did  not ask us to officially enter the war RE did not intend to declare war or have the entire alliance participate in the conflict'

Since the declaration with RE, it appears that TUF have exodused at least one town away from an inbound RE attack. Kentbird's 'Flo's Road' was exodused at 17:52 today away from a diplomatic mission by RE. It is not currently known by the telegraph whether there was a military force inbound in conjunction with the diplomatic mission which would have alerted kentbird or whether the exodus was just a coincidence. UPDATE: Black Coral hasbeen razed by Spektor

Author:Eowan The Short