Jane the Bane Affair

The **Jane the Bane Affair** was a political dispute between Bardonia and the Huitca Federation on December 20, 2020. The dispute contained accusations of malicious intentions, criminal offences and diplomatic stand-offs between major alliances. Primarily affecting the two main states, it involved numerous others including Escharien and the member states of the VAWR.

The controversy alleged that Jane the Bane, along with numerous conspirators of other states, planned to politically influence the internal affairs of Bardonia to disrupt their relations to Escharien. The alleged effort's ultimate goal was to assassinate the Escharian Kaiser Siegfried von Aspach. Ultimately the resulting litigation found Jane the Bane guilty of conspiracy, although even the trial itself is disputed in reputability.

The involvement of multiple major personalities including the united Bardonian Senate, the Tlatoani Infinick of the Huitca, Kaiser Siegfried von Aspach, Emperor Whiskey of Uldarash, Doge 8jaaroud and citizens of Yimmu-Audal, made this one of the tense moments in the servers history. it is generally agreed on that if it came to war, this would have likely sparked a global conflict.

## Details

### Catalyst

Jane the Bane became a notable individual to the Trillium Alliance during the coronation of Kaiser Siegfried to the throne of Yimmu-Audal. She was among the crowd of people from all over Rathnir who had come to the event to voice their displeasure with the legally dubious claim to the empire after the resignation of Dalatra. At the event, a number of people cursed Kaiser Siegfried and yelled obscenities during the procedures.

The initially political protest began to turn violent as veiled threats and insinuations of assassinations began to be heard from the crowd. Violence erupted when T2snow, a citizen of Carvay, broke through the wall behind the throne and seemingly charged at the Kaiser. Confusion broke out as t2snow was slain on the stage shortly after throwing vials of acid and poison at the people on the stage. On his body more of these alchemical weapons were found and authorities began investigations into the incident. Initial controls on the scene revealed that the attack was possibly coordinated with GreenToss, a notable individual of the Ryzan Confederacy.

Jane the Bane, being among the protesters, was immediately a suspect after the GreenToss revelation. She and six more would be brought to the authorities attentions and would lead to Escharien's response to the protests. Jane the Bane would later attend an emergency Session of the VAWR Ambassadors which denounced Escharien's actions as an illegal usurpation and sanctioned military force if called upon by its Yimmu-Audal ally.

### Escharian Denunciation

On December 18, 2020, Siegfried claimed that the following people and the nations/alliances of which they were a part were involved in a conspiracy to kill him and overthrow his empire, some such as T2snow and Ean were present at the usurpation and attacked the parties there:

1. WhiskeyKnight of Uldarash
2. BlueMarble & Ean Carroweather of Yimmu-Audal
3. Essendor of the VAWR
4. GreenToss of Nova Balreska
5. Jane of the Huitca
6. T2snow (of Carvay)

Shortly after this, Bardonia proclaimed that everyone on that list was an outlaw, and that they could be killed on sight if they came near Bardonian land.

This further inflamed relations between the VAWR (although not Carvay), Yimmu-Audal, and the Trillium, which were horrible to begin with. Several relevant world leaders made speeches denouncing these allegations:

> The court of the Huitca Federation, via a unanimous decision by me and no one else, finds Jane not guilty on all counts due to the overwhelming evidence of Sieg being a paranoid fem and the overwhelming lack of evidence of any sort of assassination conspiracy. I was there myself, and there was no conspiracy.
>
> -Tlatoani Infinick

> In response to the baseless accusations perpetuated by the Emperor of the East, first and foremost I ask where is the proof? You make great, sweeping denouncements, damning both our names and countries as a whole, and yet REFUSE to provide proof. This is lying slander at best, and a vicious method to undermine our states at worse. If by 'conspiring against the reign' of Escharien, you refer to denying your *ridiculous*, *absurd* claim to a title which you hold **ZERO** dejure claim too-not by history, blood, territory, culture, religion or even war; than of **THAT** I am guilty. If you are referring to my denouncement of the *slaughter* you performed against the sacred Order of Aurora, an Order that has protected the realms of man from the realms of demons since the days of the Lycanthropes, without pay, land or expectation of any form; than of **THAT** I am guilty. If you are referring to completely denying your attempts to trespass past treaties made in the Phagosian Sea area, in order to steal the dejure Huitca lands of Ocotlan, and displace their people simply so that you may have a strong foothold in the West; than of **THAT** I am guilty. If you are referring to calling you out on your repeated lying on rather Escharien citizens have served as mercenaries before, in order to justify declaring war on those who simply *allow their people to fight*; than of **THAT** I am guilty. If you are referring to recognizing your thinly veiled attempts to create an Escharien puppet state out of UAC, upon it's formation, citing, *unbeknownst to many of the rebels,* that Escharien would "temporarily occupy the capital of Urnu-Arrak", to serve as a "transition government", despite having no plans to ever *have* a transition; than of **THAT** I am guilty.
> However, I remind everyone that simply denying Emperor Siegfried the right to conquer & undermine the stability of Rathnir without cause, as much as he would want to it, is NOT a crime. Not yet, anyways.
>
> -WhiskeyKnight

### Ad Mortem Soleanna

Jane viewed being placed on this list not as a political condemnation, but as a personal slight. All she had done was shout obscenities during the Usurpation. It was then that she sought to undermine the Trillium through more covert means. At the same time, BeaverDung, an associate of hers, invited her to the server "Ad Mortem Soleanna". The name meant 'Death to Soleannan', being a play on how Sieg liked to used Latin phrases to bolster the gravitas of his empire.

The members of this server were discussing various ways to take down Siegfried or otherwise reduse his influence on the world stage. These varied greatly in their scale and ambition. Of particular note to future investigations were the proposals of GreenToss, BeaverDung, and ConnorBruh131, to have a team enter Lileanen and assassinate Siegfried. Jane was speaking in the general chat as these plans were being conducted, but she never consented to any such plan. Her actions there at that time were to coordinate a response team to defend Urnu-Arrak on a short notice. To this end, she sought donations of war materials such as arrows, TNT, diamonds, etc. She offered to buy 5 diamonds, since that would be enough to complete her diamond set.

This is when she was approached by ConnorBruh131 who offered to complete her diamond set for free. He told her to teleport to Columbia to recieve the gift. Upon her arrival, she was given a full set of diamond armor with Protection IV and Unbreaking III enchantments, colloquially known as a god set. She was stunned by this gift, and when she asked why she had been given it, Connor did not answer. He did say that he obtained it through less than reputable means, but she was not about to look a gift horse in the mouth.

This exchange would be the subject of a later Bardonian investigation. It discovered that the armor in question was stolen from a Bardonian by GreenTomato5 after a kill. Green would go on to lose that armor in a duel with ConnorBruh131. Because of this, Jane would be accused of profiting from stolen Bardonian goods. In addition, since Connor was a citizen of the Kingdom of Nieden, which was part of the Trillium Alliance, the incident was used as evidence of inciting insurrection within Trillium. Due to the overly generous offer, the Bardonians assumed that the offer was quid pro quo payment for assassinating Siegfried. However, no evidence exists to support this. Not even Jane knows why Connor was being so generous.

Within the Ad Mortem Soleanna discord, Jane was among the least aggressive planners, even though she was the most bellicose in public. She argued that the Trillium should be severed before they took on Escharien directly. To this end, she favored diplomatic measures that would lead to Bardonia leaving their alliance. She was commited to using her role as the Huitca diplomat to achieve this. However, she had no successes in acheiving this goal.

## Bardonian Claims

On December 20, 2020, the Bardonians received evidence that Jane was conspiring against The Trillium and Escharia, wanting to seclude Bardonia from Escharian so Jane and others could assassinate the Kaiser of Escharia. At present, it is unknown what evidence they were using to come to that conclusion. The Bardonians, without further investigation, immediately declared war on the Huitca Federation with Moyye's town Alcholism, which hadn't been seen since The Great Golden War.

### Litigation

All 5 of the Active Senators of Bardonia (Chancellor Uni, Ezexus, BackToTheHub, Moyye, and Tzseu) agreed to a meeting with Huitca Federation Prime Minister Zelorm in Dorasterrock. Throughout the meeting, additional Huitca Federation members joined such as RedFireRex. Jane teleported there, but was convinced to not enter the chamber because it would inflame the tensions. Most of the consisted of Huitca demanding proof of Jane's actions, which Bardonia wouldn't provide due to them alleging that confidential information would be displayed in the proof. A trial was agreed upon by both parties and a 3rd party Judge, Lokki de Nuuk, was appointed. The evidence was presented to Lokki, who after seeing the evidence sided with the Bardonians. It should be noted that Jane was not asked to represent herself or to give testimony at this trial, and that she was not aware of it until after a verdict had been reached. Both Jane and Infinick would continue to insist that there was no conspiracy, and that the evidence that had been presented was circumstantial. The Bardonians dismissed the meeting as the clock of war loomed on Huitca.

Bardonia requested the following actions take place in order to call off the war:

* Jane was to be exiled from The Huitca Federation
* Huitca would state that Jane was guilty in the national-announcement's channel on the StoneWorks Discord Server
* Huitca would issue a formal apology to Bardonia & the Trillium Alliance for those faults

Infinick was able to reduce these terms, after many hours of negotiations with Moyye, to a simple public apology. Infinick was keen to avoid war with the most powerful nation in Rathnir, as that could lead to full destruction, but he also wanted to avoid forcing Jane into exile. Hoping he found a good middle ground, he released the following statement:

> I as Tlatoani of the Huitca people, would formally like to apologize for the actions of my subject Jane. I want to emphasize that Jane does not and has never held a position within the Huitca Federation government, and has never acted on behalf of the Huitca Federation government. Even so, Jane is of the Huitca people, who I am the sovereign of, and therefore I am at fault, and I am responsible for the events today. The actions are absolutely unacceptable to being a Huitca, and cannot be tolerated. Therefore, as punishment, I hereby revoke Jane’s status as a Huitca. Once again, I’d like to apologize personally for the clear anger this has caused the Republic of Bardonia, who I’ve always held in high regard and have fought and died fighting alongside. Additionally, I’d like to apologize to the Trillium Alliance as a whole.
>
> -Tlatoani Infinick

Jane strongly objected not only to the wording of the apology, but to the idea that an apology should be given in the first place. She said that Infinick taking responsibility for her actions implied that she had done anything wrong to begin with, a conclusion she vehemently opposed. As such, she publicly denounced her leader. In Tlahatl, she attempted to rally a small group of supporters to build a wall around the temple district and assemble the VAWR to prepare for war. However, the Tlatoani and Cihuacoatl were vehemently opposed to any conflict, even though they believed that she was innocent. She backed down from her plans at 1am EST the next day, 5 hours after the war was declared.

### The War that Never Was

After the hours spent at diplomacy and Infinick's public statement, the Bardonian demands were met. At this point the surrender fee was set to 0, so Huitca couldn't surrender the war, although the fee was changed to $1 by Senator Moyye of Bardonia, but the Huitca had lack of land permissions to surrender the war. The war started, but the Bardonians didn't enter any Huitca territory in the 2 hour war span. The war ended in a tie with no theft or casualties.

## The Aftermath

Peace was returned between The Huitca Federation and Bardonia, but Jane was still labeled as a criminal by the Bardonians.

ConnorBruh131 was accused of treason and expelled from the Kingdom of Nieden.

The next morning, Jane publicly renounced her Huitca citizenship and moved to Port Ravenus. There, Essendor swore her in as a citizen of Carvay. When her close friend Toronto Dougwald asked her why she did this, she said that her nation's leaders had betrayed her and that she could not support any government that would not support their citizens in their times of need.

Infinick asked for Jane to be removed from the Bardonian criminal list multiple times, even after she left the nation, but was unsuccessful. Feeling betrayed by Jane's departure after many stressful hours spent in negotiations trying to reach a settlement that would not render her homeless, he gave up after a few requests. While it had been planned for a while, Infinick formally allowed the new Cihuacoatl to take charge of the nation after this event.