Latest revision as of 18:53, 29 January 2025

Shadow, originally The Shadow Realm, was an active nation on Horizon's End from April 2023 to July 2024, led by Ae0n (de facto by star_litty starting in winter 2023/2024). The nation was, at alternate points in its history, dominated by pirates and by colonists, and had varying priorities over the course of its existence. The nation's capital was ThievesHaven on Chimgara.

Shadow was succeeded by Radiance on 3 July 2024.

History[edit | edit source]

	Shadow
	; Icon of Shadow
General
Demonym	Shade
Activity level	Disbanded
Capital city	ThievesHaven
Settlements	ThievesHaven, Cicatrix, The Rose Garden
Stations	Jay
Government
• Sovereigness	Ae0n
• Ambassador	star_litty
• Director of Operations	Astrobolt
Formation
Foundation date	27 April 2023
Dissolution Date	3 July 2024 (politically); 8 October 2024 (purged)
Culture
Language	English
Links

Early Days[edit | edit source]

In April 2023, a group of friends began joining Horizon's End in search of a new server to play on. They were previously organized as a crew (equivalent to a nation) named Shadow, led by Ae0n, on the Movecraft server "PirateCraft." On 27 April, when many of them had already joined Horizon's End, Ae0n created Shadow as a formal nation in-game. Over the course of the following months, Shadow would quietly develop its bases throughout the Ilios System, largely staying out of server political affairs at the time.

Shadow-Orovika War[edit | edit source]

On 22 August 2022, the nation of Shadow, under the leadership of Ae0n (with significant influence from Noix444), declared war on the colonist nation of Orovika, sparking the 40-day Shadow-Orovika War. The war quickly became unpopular among many of Shadow's members as they were the targets of Orovikan attacks. This was also influenced by the builder playstyle of many Shadow members at the time, which conflicted with the SvS-oriented playstyle of many recent recruits including Noix444, AdelieXY, and FellOffBridge.

Over the course of the war, several members of Shadow (such as star_litty and VoidsentRose) elected to leave the nation in-game in order to excuse themselves from conflict with Orovika, a movement which highlighted overall dissatisfaction with the war and brought Shadow to the negotiating table on two separate occasions. Following a catastrophic first round of diplomatic negotiations between Orovika and Shadow, which were broadly perceived by both Orovikan and Shadow witnesses as a diplomatic failure on Ae0n's part, star_litty became accepted by Orovika as the primary diplomatic contact for Shadow. This recognition was initially unknown to Ae0n, leading to internal conflict between her and star_litty after star_litty coordinated surrender terms with Orovika. These conflicts abruptly led to star_litty's departure from the nation. Following this, Astrobolt picked up star_litty's negotiations, working closely with both Ae0n and Orovika to end the war. After continued negotations, Astrobolt was able to secure Shadow's surrender to Orovika on 29 September 2023, using the terms that star_litty had previously arranged, which involved the turn-over of one 12k destroyer to Orovika.

Rebuilding Shadow[edit | edit source]

After the end of the Shadow-Orovika War, Ae0n became increasingly inactive, eventually leading star_litty to assume a de facto leadership position during the winter of late-2023/early-2024. By this point, Shadow had been materially exhausted due to the Shadow-Orovika War - an issue that was only compounded by the start of the server-wide Horizon Federation-RentDueYesterday War just a week later on 6 October - essentially requiring the nation's infrastructure to be rebuilt from scratch

During this period of de facto leadership, internal politics changed drastically. Astrobolt coordinated with Ae0n, who eventually named Astrobolt and star_litty as co-leaders (as opposed to their previous position as Council members). Following various role permissions changes, star_litty became the primary leader in spring 2024 in all aspects except formal in-game leadership (as recognized by server plugins) and except ownership of the discord server. During star_litty's de facto leadership, Shadow drastically, yet gradually, changed course to become more builder-centered and community-centered. The nation admitted several new players including KBUSJ, EloMilo, and Kay_2905, who began contributing significantly to Shadow. Diplomatic priorities also pivoted; Shadow began distancing itself from players like FellOffBridge (who had since gone on to form RentDueYesterday), and aligning with the colonist nations on the server via the Horizon Federation. Positive diplomatic engagement with nations such as Cortesia Del Mar gave Shadow access to more advanced ship and factory technology, as well as combat training that reduced the nation's previous reliance on imported muscle. On 26 March 2024, star_litty founded the settlement of Cicatrix (then "cherrytown") on Aerach, continuing the ongoing, informal process of moving Shadow's primary activity and operations away from ThievesHaven on Chimgara.

On 23 April 2024, after over a week of careful negotiations, Shadow formed the Ilios Alliance alongside Cortesia Del Mar and Orovika. The Ilios Alliance would prove to be crucial for Shadow throughout the following months.

Radiant Revolution[edit | edit source]

While star_litty had been operating as Shadow's de facto leader and, alongside Astrobolt, eventually became a co-leader of the nation, she was still formally considered the nation's Ambassador. During the late-winter and early-spring of 2024, this increasingly became an issue. While Ae0n's influence over the nation was dwindling due to her inactivity, she still retained all formal leadership and, in hopes of becoming more active in the future, still wished to be part of major discussions while star_litty and Astrobolt were co-leaders.

This situation led to increasing conflicts between star_litty and Ae0n regarding formal leadership. Following discussions led by Astrobolt, these concerns were temporarily put aside and plans were put in place for Ae0n to formally and voluntarily transfer formal leadership of the nation to star_litty. These plans, however, became delayed for outside reasons and, following continued internal conflicts, were set aside altogether.

These conflicts culminated in June and July 2024. As a result of numerous miscommunications, general support for star_litty among Shadow's members, significant pressure and influence from other nations, and failed negotiations by Astrobolt, Ae0n removed in-game permissions from all nation members, including Astrobolt and star_litty. While initially intended to be temporary (although this was unknown to anyone at the time), this was seen by many members - and especially by other nations - as malicious. Because of this, star_litty formed the nation Radiance on 3 July; the new nation quickly took hold of many of Shadow's assets, and was joined by every active settlement of Shadow.

Radiance immediately received widespread diplomatic support from nearly the entire server, including from the Ilios Alliance. The new nation received especially strong support from Cortesia Del Mar, one of the members of the Ilios Alliance, allowing Radiance to quickly build itself up. On 8 July 2024, Horizon's End staff manually transferred several Shadow claims to Radiance and Ae0n was permanently banned from Horizon's End.

Shadow was purged in-game on 8 October 2024 after being upheld through activity logging for several months. Nearly all of its remaining assets were claimed by Radiance.

Legacy[edit | edit source]

@@ Line 11: / Line 11: @@
 | position_title2 = Ambassador
 | position_name2 = [[star_litty]]
+| position_title3 = Director of Operations
+| position_name3 = [[Astrobolt]]
 |language=English
 |activity_level=Disbanded
 |settlements= [[ThievesHaven]], [[Cicatrix]], [[The Rose Garden]]
 |stations = [[Jay]]
-|foundation_date=26 April, 2023
+|foundation_date=27 April 2023
 |foundation_custom_title1=Dissolution Date
 |foundation_custom_value1=3 July 2024 (politically)<br>8 October 2024 (purged)}}
-'''Shadow''' (alternately '''"The Shadow Realm"''') was an active nation on Horizon's End from April 2023 to July 2024, led by [[Ae0n]] (''de facto'' by [[star_litty]] starting in September 2023). The nation was, at alternate points in its history, dominated by [[pirates]] and by [[colonists]], and had varying priorities over the course of its existence. The nation's capital was [[ThievesHaven]] on [[Chimgara]].
+'''Shadow''', originally '''The Shadow Realm''', was an active nation on Horizon's End from April 2023 to July 2024, led by [[Ae0n]] (de facto by [[star_litty]] starting in winter 2023/2024). The nation was, at alternate points in its history, dominated by [[pirates]] and by [[colonists]], and had varying priorities over the course of its existence. The nation's capital was [[ThievesHaven]] on [[Chimgara]].
 Shadow was succeeded by [[Radiance]] on 3 July 2024.
@@ Line 25: / Line 27: @@
 == Early Days ==
 [[File:HGM_issue1_pg3.png|thumb|300px|An issue of the newspaper "[[Horizons Galactic Media Weekly]]", published by [[Oliveburger22]] on 19 May 2023.]]
-Shadow first joined Horizon's End on an indeterminate date in April 2023; Shadow (at first briefly named "The Shadow Realm" ingame) was an established nation from the [[Movecraft]] server "Pirate Minecraft". Over the course of the following months, Shadow would quietly develop its base in the [[Ilios System]], largely staying out of server political affairs at the time.
+In April 2023, a group of friends began joining Horizon's End in search of a new server to play on. They were previously organized as a crew (equivalent to a nation) named Shadow, led by [[Ae0n]], on the [[Movecraft]] server "PirateCraft." On 27 April, when many of them had already joined Horizon's End, Ae0n created Shadow as a formal nation in-game. Over the course of the following months, Shadow would quietly develop its bases throughout the [[Ilios System]], largely staying out of server political affairs at the time.
 == Shadow-Orovika War ==
 {{main|Shadow-Orovika War}}
-On 22 August 2022, the nation of Shadow, under the leadership of [[Ae0n]] (and informal co-leadership of the recently-admitted [[Noix444]]) declared war on the colonist nation of [[Orovika]], sparking a 40-day conflict termed the [[Shadow-Orovika War]]. This war was deeply unpopular with the bulk of Shadow's player-base, who did not wish to be in conflict with players with whom they had positive personal relationships, and resented the [[SvS]]-oriented players that Ae0n brought into the nation to wage the war, such as [[Noix444]], [[AdelieXY]], and [[FellOffBridge]].
+On 22 August 2022, the nation of Shadow, under the leadership of [[Ae0n]] (with significant influence from [[Noix444]]), declared war on the colonist nation of [[Orovika]], sparking the 40-day [[Shadow-Orovika War]]. The war quickly became unpopular among many of Shadow's members as they were the targets of Orovikan attacks. This was also influenced by the builder playstyle of many Shadow members at the time, which conflicted with the [[SvS]]-oriented playstyle of many recent recruits including [[Noix444]], [[AdelieXY]], and [[FellOffBridge]].
-In this time, several members of Shadow (such as [[star_litty]] and [[VoidsentRose]]) elected to leave the nation in-game in order to excuse themselves from conflict with Orovika, a movement which crippled Shadow's war-making capacity and forced them to the negotiating table on two separate occasions. Following a [[Shadow-Orovika War#First Attempt at Peace Negotiations|catastrophic first round of diplomatic negotiations]] between Orovika and Shadow, which were broadly perceived by both Orovikan and Shadow witnesses as a diplomatic failure on Ae0n's part, star_litty (despite being in exile) became accepted by Orovika as the primary diplomatic contact for Shadow. star_litty was able to successfully negotiate a conditional surrender for Shadow on 29 September 2023, involving the turn-over of one 12k [[destroyer]] to Orovika.
+Over the course of the war, several members of Shadow (such as [[star_litty]] and [[VoidsentRose]]) elected to leave the nation in-game in order to excuse themselves from conflict with Orovika, a movement which highlighted overall dissatisfaction with the war and brought Shadow to the negotiating table on two separate occasions. Following a [[Shadow-Orovika War#First Attempt at Peace Negotiations|catastrophic first round of diplomatic negotiations]] between Orovika and Shadow, which were broadly perceived by both Orovikan and Shadow witnesses as a diplomatic failure on Ae0n's part, star_litty became accepted by Orovika as the primary diplomatic contact for Shadow. This recognition was initially unknown to Ae0n, leading to internal conflict between her and star_litty after star_litty coordinated surrender terms with Orovika. These conflicts abruptly led to star_litty's departure from the nation. Following this, [[Astrobolt]] picked up star_litty's negotiations, working closely with both Ae0n and Orovika to end the war. After continued negotations, Astrobolt was able to secure Shadow's surrender to Orovika on 29 September 2023, using the terms that star_litty had previously arranged, which involved the turn-over of one 12k [[destroyer]] to Orovika.
 == Rebuilding Shadow ==
-After the end of the Shadow-Orovika War, [[Ae0n]] became highly inactive, leaving [[star_litty]] to assume a ''de facto'' position of leadership over the nation. The Shadow that she inherited had been materially exhausted during the Shadow-Orovika War - an issue that would only compound with the start of the server-wide [[Horizon Federation-RentDueYesterday War]] just a week later on 6 October - essentially requiring the nation to be re-built largely from scratch.
+After the end of the [[Shadow-Orovika War]], [[Ae0n]] became increasingly inactive, eventually leading [[star_litty]] to assume a de facto leadership position during the winter of late-2023/early-2024. By this point, Shadow had been materially exhausted due to the Shadow-Orovika War - an issue that was only compounded by the start of the server-wide [[Horizon Federation-RentDueYesterday War]] just a week later on 6 October - essentially requiring the nation's infrastructure to be rebuilt from scratch
-Under star_litty's informal leadership, Shadow's strategy on the server pivoted drastically. The nation admitted several new players (such as [[KBUSJ]], [[EloMilo]], [[Kay_2905]]) who rapidly became integral components of Shadow. Shadow's diplomacy also pivoted, distancing from players like [[FellOffBridge]] (who had since gone on to form [[RentDueYesterday]]), and aligning with the colonist nations on the server via the [[Horizon Federation]]. Positive diplomatic engagement with nations such as [[Cortesia Del Mar]] gave Shadow access to more advanced [[starship|ship]] and [[wiring|factory]] technology, as well as [[SvS|combat training]] that reduced the nation's [[Shadow-Orovika War#Noix444 Joins Shadow|previous reliance]] on imported muscle. On 26 March 2024, star_litty founded the settlement of [[Cicatrix]] (then "cherrytown") on [[Aerach]], moving the locus of Shadow's activity away from [[ThievesHaven]] on [[Chimgara]].
+During this period of de facto leadership, internal politics changed drastically. [[Astrobolt]] coordinated with Ae0n, who eventually named Astrobolt and star_litty as co-leaders (as opposed to their previous position as Council members). Following various role permissions changes, star_litty became the primary leader in spring 2024 in all aspects except formal in-game leadership (as recognized by server plugins) and except ownership of the discord server. During star_litty's de facto leadership, Shadow drastically, yet gradually, changed course to become more builder-centered and community-centered. The nation admitted several new players including [[KBUSJ]], [[EloMilo]], and [[Kay_2905]], who began contributing significantly to Shadow. Diplomatic priorities also pivoted; Shadow began distancing itself from players like [[FellOffBridge]] (who had since gone on to form [[RentDueYesterday]]), and aligning with the colonist nations on the server via the [[Horizon Federation]]. Positive diplomatic engagement with nations such as [[Cortesia Del Mar]] gave Shadow access to more advanced [[starship|ship]] and [[wiring|factory]] technology, as well as [[SvS|combat training]] that reduced the nation's [[Shadow-Orovika War#Noix444 Joins Shadow|previous reliance]] on imported muscle. On 26 March 2024, star_litty founded the settlement of [[Cicatrix]] (then "cherrytown") on [[Aerach]], continuing the ongoing, informal process of moving Shadow's primary activity and operations away from [[ThievesHaven]] on [[Chimgara]].
-On 23 April 2024, after over a week of careful negotiations, Shadow formed the [[Ilios Alliance]], a tripartite colonist and privateer alliance between Shadow, [[Cortesia Del Mar]], and [[Orovika]]. The Ilios Alliance would prove a major boon Shadow in the course of the following months.
+On 23 April 2024, after over a week of careful negotiations, Shadow formed the [[Ilios Alliance]] alongside [[Cortesia Del Mar]] and [[Orovika]]. The Ilios Alliance would prove to be crucial for Shadow throughout the following months.
 == Radiant Revolution ==
-{{main|Radiant Revolution}}
+{{main|Radiance#Radiance Revolution}}
-In the nine months following the end of the [[Shadow-Orovika War]], [[star_litty]] led Shadow from a ''de facto'' position; her formal title within the nation, per [[Ae0n]], remained "ambassador". As Shadow became increasingly detached from Ae0n's legacy, this situation became more of an issue, especially as Ae0n would still need to be consulted on major national decisions, and would often be obstructionist towards changes that she believed deviated from her version of Shadow (despite not playing the server). This situation caused increasing dissatisfaction not only to Shadow's leadership council, but to the whole player-base of Shadow, as it led to the impression that Shadow's players were not in control of their own nation, and indeed most of Shadow's players had never known a version of Shadow led by anyone other than star_litty.
+While [[star_litty]] had been operating as [[Shadow]]'s de facto leader and, alongside [[Astrobolt]], eventually became a co-leader of the nation, she was still formally considered the nation's Ambassador. During the late-winter and early-spring of 2024, this increasingly became an issue. While Ae0n's influence over the nation was dwindling due to her inactivity, she still retained all formal leadership and, in hopes of becoming more active in the future, still wished to be part of major discussions while star_litty and Astrobolt were co-leaders.
-[[File:Radiant revolution.png|thumb|400px|star_litty announces the [[Radiant Revolution]] to the server.]]
+This situation led to increasing conflicts between star_litty and Ae0n regarding formal leadership. Following discussions led by Astrobolt, these concerns were temporarily put aside and plans were put in place for Ae0n to formally and voluntarily transfer formal leadership of the nation to star_litty. These plans, however, became delayed for outside reasons and, following continued internal conflicts, were set aside altogether.
-Following months of peaceful attempts by several players in Shadow to convince Ae0n to hand over in-game leadership to star_litty (by setting the capital of the nation to [[Cicatrix]] over [[ThievesHaven]]), on 2 June 2024 Ae0n elected to log into the server specifically to strip star_litty and [[Astrobolt]] of in-game permissions as retribution. Circumstances had now become intolerable, and so the vast majority of Shadow's player-base enacted a mass secession of all active settlements from the nation on 3 July, taking most accessible assets with them, and forming a new nation called [[Radiance]].
-Radiance immediately received widespread diplomatic support from nearly the entire server, most especially the [[Ilios Alliance]] (with [[yodabird19]] of [[Cortesia Del Mar]] declaring that "The Republic of Cortesia Del Mar recognizes the nation of Radiance as the legitimate, direct, and sole successor to the nation of Shadow (2020-2024), and the inheritor of all of its assets, obligations, and entitlements" a mere minute after the formal announcement of the change-over). On 8 July 2024, Horizon's End [[staff]] manually transferred several Shadow claims to Radiance on 8 July, concurrently with [[Ae0n]]'s "unfit for community" permanent ban.
+[[File:Radiant revolution.png|thumb|400px|star_litty announces the [[Radiance#Radiance Revolution|Radiance Revolution]] to the server.]]
+These conflicts culminated in June and July 2024. As a result of numerous miscommunications, general support for star_litty among Shadow's members, significant pressure and influence from other nations, and failed negotiations by Astrobolt, Ae0n removed in-game permissions from all nation members, including Astrobolt and star_litty. While initially intended to be temporary (although this was unknown to anyone at the time), this was seen by many members - and especially by other nations - as malicious. Because of this, star_litty formed the nation [[Radiance]] on 3 July; the new nation quickly took hold of many of Shadow's assets, and was joined by every active settlement of Shadow.
-The nation of Shadow finally purged in-game on 8 October 2024, after being upheld through [[activity logging]] for several months.
+Radiance immediately received widespread diplomatic support from nearly the entire server, including from the [[Ilios Alliance]]. The new nation received especially strong support from [[Cortesia Del Mar]], one of the members of the Ilios Alliance, allowing Radiance to quickly build itself up. On 8 July 2024, Horizon's End [[staff]] manually transferred several Shadow claims to Radiance and [[Ae0n]] was permanently banned from Horizon's End.
+Shadow was purged in-game on 8 October 2024 after being upheld through activity logging for several months. Nearly all of its remaining assets were claimed by Radiance.
 = Legacy =