On Dwarven Druids war declaration on Harmless?

I am sorry for posting this so late, but the war declaration happened late at night my time and although I spend too much time playing Illyriad, I do have a life.

The Dwarven Druids, currently ranked alliance number 42 if you look at population, has declared war on the alliance that is by a fair margin number one in population. We have not done this because we believe that we will "win" by doing that, or because we think that we will take a step closer to "controlling the server" by doing that. We are declaring war to keep playing the game as we see it, without fearing attacks for irrational reasons by larger players than ourselves.

Before taking the decision to declare war, believe it or not, I read the something like 38 pages of the "Rhyagelle Responds To Absaroke Aggression" thread (now that number has increased to 55), because it seems to be the most official forum regarding this conflict and both sides have posted their arguments there at some length. I have reached the understanding before and the forum posts by Harmless? players confirms my view that Harmless? is playing a wargame while we in Consone are playing a game of building and collaboration.

I feel strongly that the reason Harmless? declared war on our confederate Invictus was that Harmless? fears that of the growth in playing a game of building and collaboration will take away the importance of the wargame that they are playing and thus reduce the control they feel and their “winning” of the game as they play it. The size and growth rate of Consone is obviously a danger signal to a wargame player, and although we have never done anything aggressive to the wargamers, we have always been accommodating and striving to make peaceful and rational decisions and agreements; a wargamer will not understand what a builder-game player has as a motive, and they turned even more frightened by our lack of aggression.

Dwarven Druids have declared war on Harmless? because Harmless? declared war on an alliance that we are confederated with, and according to both Harmless? wargame code of honour and our building game code of honour that is what you do, it is the default action. But there is more than a default action of protecting a confederate alliance from an unwarranted or at least un-proportional attack. We have declared war on Harmless? at this instance because we believe that if we do not stand up now and defend our way of playing the game by peaceful building, then the next alliance that grows big from successful application of those ideals will be the next target for attack – or worse, the game might deteriorate towards one of many similar wargame clones and the joy of building, exploring and seeing the world unfold into exciting details and events will be lost in a mist of battles. (Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the occasional wargame, it is just that that is not my reason for playing Illyriad.)

Thus, for those in Harmless? that understand the concept of the builder game that the bulk of Consone players are playing, if you just take the time to read our posts and declarations with that in mind, you will find that we do not challenge Harmless? as an alliance, we just want to be able to play our somewhat different game in our part of the world – the two parts could indeed overlap almost completely and we would only very rarely notice, unless you choose to keep regarding us as a competitor for power in your wargame. We are not a competitor, and will not be, unless you force us to compete – we might not be the best at it, but we are pretty persistent, and by the way the game is developing there will be more of us coming in, so you better get used to us if you want to keep your wargame up and running as well.

May your beards grow, and your wisdom!

/Nesse, Great Archdruid

PS.

Peace negotiations should preferentially be directed through Jasche, as the head of Consone.