Second Renaissance

The term **Second Renaissance**, also known as the *Era of Good Feelings* was a period of remarkable growth and expansion within the UNKNOWN [?] Trading Company(2013–2016), during which, it became a clan power and adopted the role as *MineZ's Protector*, particularly over the regular playerbase and the political meta-game.

Between 2013 and 2016, a period referred to as the *"Empire"*, over scores of new members and new territories were added to the Company's dominion. Following the June Reforms, the Company was left with an elite core of dedicated members that served the clan well throughout in spite of the general decline of the community that has wiped out many other clans, leaving the UTC as the longest continuously active clan in MineZ. The period marked a highpoint in conflict with premiums and admins, with the Company keeping careful neutrality between the two and always trying to align with the public regulars of the game. When multiple indications of admin corruption were revealed, the most well documented being Boogaert's Revenge, the Company confirmed its legitimacy and moral supremacy over its enemies with many players, including premiums seeing them as the more honest party.

The Second Renaissance is also marked with a boom in the UTC's culture both its art, literature, and political thought. The Company also modernized its infrastructure with a Server and replacing RaidCall with Discord. The Company at this time contained experienced PvPers and generally maintained a well-balanced army with both sufficient numbers and quality, though generally smaller than its premium counterparts.

Alongside its in-game assets and holdings, the Company projected such influence over clans and players that it had also formed an "informal empire" with a few clans looking to it for protection, alliance or support, though the Company maintained its neutrality and did not reciprocate, particularly with Dawn Brigade and its issues with YakuzaFour that strains relations.

## Causes of the Second Renaissance

### **The June Reforms**

> *see main article: June Reforms*
>
>

On the 8th of June 2013, the Directory purged the Company of undesirables and established the regimental system, during which, the Company earned the ire of its former friend, The Night's Watch, who proceeded to vote brigade and harass the Company's subreddit. The Company for the most part ignored and carried on, in spite of increased adminization of Night's Watch members.

Aside from the Night's Watch, multiple other people and groups antagonized the UTC and its ideals, some from kicked Company Members, but soon after the June Reforms was declared, the new model group proved itself in the following trade run and exceeded expectations, setting a record for the trade run.

The June Reforms is lauded by many UTC senior members to have saved the Company from decline and dissolution, being celebrated every year as a Company Holiday.

### **End of the Southern War 2013-2014.**

The Southern War, though spoken of as a terrible memory in the Company's history, was crucial as it taught the Company to fight and learn tactics and strategy, culminating in the Company's Field Manual. It ended early April, 2014 when the admins finally relented after multiple complaints and removed horizontal grappling. The Company also used the Southern War to acquire its reputation as the most organized fighting force in MineZ and as a respectable PvP group.

The end of the Southern War however did not stop hostility or suspicion between the Company and its enemies, but was a psychological victory and gave the Company a peculiar confidence that was highlighted with the clan motto "*Nihil Nocet Nobis*".

Hostilities and distrust marked the relations between the Company and the Admins, made worse when Night's Watch members and vengeful kicked Company Members started to influence the administration, mostly by portraying the Company as "racist", which was enough to earn the disgust of lazertester and antagonized them as a toxic community.

## Pax Imperii 2014-2016

After the Southern War, the Company experienced a period of relative peace, with domestic issues being either quickly resolved or were considered irrelevant. It was at this point that the Company began concentrating on "foreign adventures" as shown in their policies and experiences of the Company's national sectors.

### **Political**

Throughout the Pax Imperii, the political situation remained tense between Shotbow and the UNKNOWN [?] Trading Company, with more and more premiums and enemies of the Company becoming admins, especially with NavarrB's efforts at helping promote his own clan's members to admin positions, thus cementing and protecting his clan from regular rules and restrictions as demonstrated by their public shaming of the UTC. The Company in contrast was more appreciated by the common actual players of the network who were more likely to trust the in-touch feel and policies of the trading clan.

Events like Boogaert's Revenge revealed that a deep distrust or bias against anything UTC have infiltrated the upper echelons of Shotbow Staff administration. In spite of this, some pro-Company staff and other such assets did exist but remained mostly minimal as the Company feared it would lose its sense of independence and neutrality if it were to be entangled in Staff affairs.

Many attempts by smaller clans and some bigger clans were made during this time to draw the Company into a league, coalition or alliance, but the Company stressed its neutrality and made no commitments to any of them.

### **Military**

PvP reforms and standardization were one of the utmost priority of the UTC. Noted for its anti-premium sentiments, the UTC was not reliant on PvP-adept premiums to fill in its security needs. The Company came to rely on white, regular newbies who would be trained and drilled by the Company to act as their protectors and fighters. Premiums may still join the Company and usually best acted as guards and fighters, but the UTC's own homegrown fighters and PvPers gave the Company a distinct advantage in terms of morale, organization and discipline. The unique PvP methods of the UTC is best surmised in the Formation Fighting System, a fighting doctrine that emphasized order and reliance on officers to coordinate the group's efforts.

Members reliant on the officers they've trained under and fought with gave them better morale and unit cohesion than their premium counterparts who, though better than UTC members in individual PvP, could not effectively muster tactics and strategies like Company-trained members.

In order to facilitate this, a Drill Server was bought and purchased by the Company during this time and has turned out sufficiently adept fighters for the UTC until its long downtime session. The server until its long downtime oversaw 40 Drills and PvP exercises.

The resulting pool of PvP capable members allowed the Company to expand its influence from its initial Far Western borders towards the Sea of Mordor and penetrate the Midlands into Frostbain. Because of its highly modern and organized PvP force, many new territories were being added to the Company's dominion that have served as bulwarks against enemies and important factories, resupply and logistic stations for the UTC.

Many noteworthy PvP actions were achieved by the Company during this era, those being Sahlgutmir's March, Geuten 2014, Portsmouth 2015 were awarded during this time.

### **Economy**

The security and stability acquired from its modern PvP force ensured the regular flow of goods both old and new. Diamond Swords and Infinity Bows, which were once considered too risky for the early UTC to acquire, was now a regular item in stock and on demand. The Company's prosperity allowed it to be able to support four active regiments at the same time.

Multiple regiments were formed and disbanded or amalgamated during the Pax Imperii. Many regiments such as the 29th, 65th the 101st and 55th were all formed, disbanded or amalgamated during this era. The 65th's descendant in particular became the 93rd.

Aside from diamond swords and infinity bows, multiple other goods, such as legendaries and exotics were also gathered. Potatoes, golden carrots, Grey Bows, Thorned Crowns and their succeeding Void Bows and Binding Helmets were regularly manufactured for use and sale by the Company. During Majicou's Secret Update, more goods were made available as well from the old world goods such as Iron Axes which at first were of dubious or undervalued in the South but found to be quite useful by the Dungeoneers of the game.

### **Culture**

Perhaps the most defining attribute of the Second Renaissance was a boom in Company culture and identity. Primarily influenced by old Unknown [?] Clan culture which was influenced by conservative and or libertarian ideals and philosophies, the Company began to implement a society based on merit and personal freedom. The right to choose one's own path without any illegal or unjust form of coercion became a much protected right and was valued by the Company. The emphasis on freedom and liberty made the Company strong and morally sound, which helped it through the tough times MineZ was going through with many clans disbanding or becoming inactive.

The Company preferred laissez-faire doctrines over direct control and always opposed illegal admin and premium interference on player affairs. The constant conflict and head-butting with other MineZ groups and players made the Company see themselves as not just another clan in the game or part of one camp in MineZ's politics but rather a unique group with its own unique way of playing and thinking. During the Pax Imperii, Company members began to see themselves as the protectors of MineZ and its meta-game who opposed any one-sided form of play - be it bandit, healer, trader or any other. This caused some confusion and frustration between many who once associated with the Company. They have either felt betrayed as the Company suddenly opposed them or have drew themselves closer to the Company's platform.

Another important influence or attribute of Company culture was for its inclination for order. Everything was to be organized or efficient and the economy or clan was constantly streamlined to meet challenges or problems facing the clan. The love of order gave birth to the Regimental System, Company Diction, Formation Fighting and Cornets. Imitating Napoleonic aesthetics and attributes, the Company began to model itself from the First French Empire and considered themselves the most organized fighting force in the game.

Many of the arts and literature were also flourishing in the UTC. Primarily done by Irishkaiser, many pieces of works such as pictures, books, poems, songs and even architecture became a manifest of the Company's ideas and culture. Gritty realism coupled with heroic romance were combined to form the UTC's artistic heritage and artworks were commissioned to honor deeds of Company members in battle. Warfare was a much studied topic in the Company and the Company was the first to proclaim a formula for winning PvP in MineZ:

> Maneuver + Momentum = Victory
>
>

Soldierly and honorific virtues were considered the ideal in Company society. A compiled list of the virtues of an ideal Company Member is known as Company Chivalry was made to be introduced to new members and to remind older ones of how a Company Member was to act.

## End of the Second Renaissance

Although there have been many false calls that the Golden Age of the Company ended, Directory Member Irishkaiser declared the Second Renaissance to be over on the 11th of March, 2016 after an obsolete infrastructure and lack of control over certain Company Members that led to their being kicked, leaving or transferred to other regiments.

The primary causes of the end of the Pax Imperii are speculated, but it is supposed that premium culture began infiltrating the Company and affecting certain members, specifically new ones. It was also discovered that the three-vouches system was being abused by the 93rd Regiment of Virtues, then the largest regiment of the clan to vote in their own recruits into the clan without needing input or a say from other Company Members as to a recruit's value. This devalued Company Membership consequently affected their quality as many newer members were never even given the Field Manual and or educated in Company Chivalry.

The long downtime of the drill server is also seen as one of the reasons for the end of the Pax Imperii. The Drill Server was used to train and teach recruits of not only PvP aspects but conduct, culture and Company philosophies. The Company's reliance on it has made passing on tradition via training non-existent.

A scandal happened immediately after the UTC ended its Golden Age and was received by Irishkaiser with bouts of cringe and disappointment as both new and old members were realized to not be living up to Company Chivalry.

## references

1. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/UnknownTradeCo/comments/1g31io/the\_empire\_the\_companys\_official\_news\_source\_17/
2. ↑ https://shotbow.net/forum/threads/vertical-grappling-only.190030/
3. ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/UnknownTradeCo/comments/49xhb1/your\_golden\_age\_ends/