History 21: The Day Mercia Went Dark

As previously mentioned in the 16th History, grief has always plagued the World. Multiple corrupted worlds, server failing, rollbacks, and lost artifacts. These severely harmed the Realm but nothing came closer to absolute destruction than the day Aixros crashed the Realm. Early into the Fourth Age, before Sancre Tor was the trading hub of the world and Lapis Nation was still building their first base, Aixros had joined the fray along with his clan, The Vicerant.

It was an unassuming clan, no different than Lapis to the normal player, and their impact was minor during their initial weeks. Aixros had been recruiting more members and, when they disagreed with him, he'd threaten them into submission. Some joined willingly, some allied with them, but a few stood their ground.

Xaasty was the best known example, outright calling him a fool and taunting him any chance he could. This angered Aixros, but there was nothing he could do. Xaasty made it a point to get under his skin, and he did just that. Aixros, annoyed, began searching for another to take his anger out on. This is where Salmon, prior to the formation of the Shield, comes in. She too taunted Aixros outright but, unlike Xaasty, Salmons base was publicly known. Frontier City, formerly Kings Cross, was her location. It was here that Aixros had set a trap for her, which would mark his first act of treachery.

While he had many times attacked the world in one way or another, like The War of 1000 Withers he started, this was a personal attack. This was a chance to show his "power" for all to see..

Upon logging in the next day, Salmon had only seen Sky. She couldn't move, couldn't talk, and eventually would crash out of the game. This was the first time this had ever happened, on Mercia and to Salmon herself. Worried that this was Aixros' doing, she requested that I come investigate. Hurrying over to Kings' Cross, I figured it was probably a Bedrock bunker or the like.

I wasn't familiar with hacking in general, and so I'd never encountered something like this. Upon entering, I too crashed. Confused, I tried to log back in to no avail. It's not that I couldn't, it's just that it wouldn't let me do anything at all. I couldn't teleport away either. Seeing that this was an anarchy Realm at the time, I didn't want to rollback under any circumstances, but after two hours, I had no choice. After the Rollback, we were both able to rejoin.

The effects were felt though, even if the moment temporary. It was a sobering realization that, at any point, a hacker could essentially end someone's time on Mercia for good. Hacked items are one thing, but a chunk ban is a whole different beast. It was on that day Mercia realized that Hackers aren't to be tolerated or entertained. Nothing good will ever come from dealing with a hacker, and as such, almost all facets of the world changed forever.

Recruiting was made more difficult and trust was harder and harder to earn. I think it's fair to say that anyone could have caused that mindset to occur, but either way, it was on that day that Mercia went dark