Welcome to the South Island!

[Anaris]

There was no average time. As far as I know it was only once ever fully reset after Sandalak defeated the others. The second time the island was sunk as Taselak was winning after defeating Sandalak and almost defeating Ikalak.

You talk as if there was only one South Island that was reset.

The South-West Island was reset when Taselak won in mid-2005. Its second incarnation was still running in the first half of 2007, and I believe it, too, was sunk around the time of Dwilight's launch without another victory.

[dustole]

I have heard stories of Dukes seceding on the war islands in the past.  If this is true, that is much more extreme than what I did.  I stepped down from my lordship and moved to the front lines providing scout reports and assisting in take overs.  I gave all the gold I got each tax to the new ruler.  I spoke out against what I felt was wrong, but all my actions were in support of Ikalak.  I never spied or participated in any of the 2 or 3 rebellions that were forming.

I didn't begin working against Ikalak until after I was banned.   If you ban a duke there ate consequences. 

[Anaris]

I have heard stories of Dukes seceding on the war islands in the past.  If this is true, that is much more extreme than what I did.  I stepped down from my lordship and moved to the front lines providing scout reports and assisting in take overs.  I gave all the gold I got each tax to the new ruler.  I spoke out against what I felt was wrong, but all my actions were in support of Ikalak.  I never spied or participated in any of the 2 or 3 rebellions that were forming.

I didn't begin working against Ikalak until after I was banned.   If you ban a duke there ate consequences.

But why were you banned in the first place?

It seems to me that this is likely to be the root of the problem.

[dustole]

I was banned because I spoke out against the government.  They never once tried to soak to me in private.  They came out with a law specifically targeting me.  They didn't bother talking to me about it before hand.  They changed the law abruptly with no fire warning our discussion with the Duke and then at the same time as they announced it they made a very public spectacle out if it.  I wasn't banned for at least a week after that.  I complied with the law and spoke out against it.

I wasn't allowed to have any say in who the marshal if my army was and there were other very micro managing things going on.   I sore my opinion and I knew there could be consequences for it, just as there ate consequences for banning a powerful noble.

It's not fair to set the blame on me for the disintegration of Ikalak.  That realm had lots if infighting.  There ate consequences to all actions in BM.  If you make defections and seceding impossible on the war island then you take away a large part of what it means to be a noble.

[Jens Namtrah]

Let me throw out another wacky idea - seems a lot of the issues came from groups who planned to take over a realm and create a certain role play realm, a la Dwilight.

So,

randomly assign people to realms (at least for the initial setup period) like is done with Advies

Downside: you don't get to play with your friends

Upside: you don't get to play with your friends

[Wolfsong]

I don't think that was the problem at all. I know Sandalak had some trouble because of a religious group joining from another continent, but I don't think "roleplaying" itself was to blame. OOC groups, maybe, but they'd just travel to join realms anyway if they were randomly assigned.

[retipuj]

I don't believe Xander Kabrinski was the sole cause of the destruction of Ikalak from within. There were a lot of politicking, and our first ruler, and a few others in positions of power made some decisions which were not taken kindly by all the other nobles. That being said, I think Xander the character made some choices that were pretty influential in terms of bringing down Ikalak.

1) His first action as Duke was to build a tournament ground. Really? A tournament ground is what you decided to build FIRST in the WAR ISLAND?
2) He appointed himself Margrave of Ikalak, giving himself enormous amounts of power.
3) I'm not a Council member, and am not privy of the discussion, but I seriously doubt the law where a noble is not allowed to have more than one position is specifically targeted at you. It was the outcome of having so many active nobles in the realm, and wanting to spread the power around so that EVERYONE can have a bit of fun, instead of a few players holding multiple positions. Your reaction to this decision, in game and OOC, was to put it nicely, not good. It was becoming obvious that Xander was becoming too power hungry and coming up with lots of excuses to refuse stepping down as either Margrave or Duke.
4) I don't know what you mean that you are not allowed to have any say in who the Marshal of your army is. You know the rule about not nobles not allowed to have more than two positions. You can easily choose any other capable Marshals from your army.
5) I don't know about any micro management, so I shall not comment on that.
6) Finally, and quite importantly, the accusations that Xander was stealing gold from the tax office in one Ikalak's regions. I don't know if this is true or not, but IC, my char had reasons to believe he did. And this was the final straw in the camel's back, it seems.

[dustole]

Xander did not steal  gold and could not hide gold.  The tax reports were quite clear on what my income was.  The banker was accused of stealing gold but they couldn't prove it our even gain enough protests to kick him out.  I still believe the reports of banker misconduct were forged.  Then the Ruler changes government to make banker elected to get the banker out.   The government took  a very strict and totalitarian stance.  It was almost as if we were all expected to play drones.

No, I was told quite specifically that I could not pick marshal.  I was told who to appoint as Marshal and vice marshal.  Had I gone against that, it would just be "one more reason".   The one time I blatantly broke the law was to appoint a marshal to a lordship.  He asked for the, lordship and knew the laws just as I.   I didn't even realize he was a marshal.  So my blatant law breaking was an accident.  It's not the dukes job to enforce the law.  If a noble wants to be lord and doesn't step down from their marshal position then the noble holding the two positions should be punished. 

[Jens Namtrah]

I don't think that was the problem at all. I know Sandalak had some trouble because of a religious group joining from another continent, but I don't think "roleplaying" itself was to blame. OOC groups, maybe, but they'd just travel to join realms anyway if they were randomly assigned.

yes, but they'd be locked in their own realm for the first period, so they would miss out being able to collude at the beginning.

Assuming that was the problem - perhaps it wasn't. I assumed Ikalak went through something similar to Sandalak

[Zakilevo]

2) He appointed himself Margrave of Ikalak, giving himself enormous amounts of power.

Kinron is both the duke of Sandalak and the lord of Sandalak and you don't see us having any problem.

It is all about giving the position to the right person, especially someone who is dedicated to the realm.

[Jens Namtrah]

I'm quite certain the problems in Ikalak extended far beyond just Xander, for a very long time.

Notice I said just Xander, because it is quite obvious he was a very big problem as well. But it's pretty clear there were far bigger ones.

Doesn't matter now - your realm is on its knees, and I don't think your new leadership is going to help get you back in the game

[Constantine]

Well, you did have some issues initially from what I've heard.
The main problem I had with some people in key positions in Ikalak was not even ineptitude or OOC drama but how they were willing to actually actively harm the realm to make a point or.. god knows why else they'd do it.

[Mac Tir]

Like a General who ragequit and sent our army deployments to the other two generals after declaring the Queen his killer?

[Jens Namtrah]

You had a General rage quit as well?

Generals don't seem to fare well on the War Islands. 

[Penchant]

You had a General rage quit as well?

Generals don't seem to fare well on the War Islands. 

He is talking about Taselak. We have it worse. We have a general who I have heard isn't having fun any more so isn't playing that character, but is keeping the character alive and unpaused, the taking a very valuable position. What really irks me is he decided to do this right after he ran for re-election.

I will comment more on the Ikalak situation but to throw one tidbit out:

As Anaris stated, people expect to run the realm as is best for the military. That means not picking marshals because he is the duke's best friend (IC) people can shut the hell up with their OOC accusations or assumptions of accusations. The general of the realm decided who was best to be the marshal and from there the marshal's decided who was best to be the Vice-Marshals. In other words, those qualified to make a proper decision on the matter were the ones who made the decisions on who got Marshal and Vice-Marshal in Ikalak.

P.S. The ruler of Sandalak never died so please don't make accusations of him demanding to be made ruler right after his character dies. All I have heard from the player related to that is complaints his ruler hasn't been killed yet so someone else can have power. (He enjoys it and is quite good at being a ruler, he just is looking for proper atmosphere like high turnover)