Army of Saradomin Cold War

The Cold War (also known as the Army of Saradomin Cold War or the AOS Cold War) was a period of mostly non-violent conflict and political tension between the Universal Triumvirate (founded by Zerouh) and its allies and the Army of Saradomin (founded and lead by King Aeraes) and its allies. Though its origins remain disputed between both parties, the general consensus has been that of a misunderstanding over a declaration of war issued between the two in Janurary of 2010.

In the beginning, both sides waged a media war at each other, aiming to gain the majority of support on the RuneScape Clans Wiki. Though Aeraes gained powerful allies in Airblade86 (the wiki's first Beauracrat), Farcrusader, and The Excel among others, Zerouh's non-violent stance on the conflict proved favorable with the majority of the community, including Solder1033 and gr8kingchaos.

Discussions and debates between both sides often escalated into flame wars. Various members from both sides often found themselves blocked for poor conduct on the wiki. Aeraes also resulted to spreading rumors about the Triumvirate, and though Zerouh was able to dispel most of them, the words had lasting impact on a few Triumvirate members, including Trade Lords and Kaiser Blade.

In early May of 2010, Aeraes successfully inserted a mole into the Executive Branch, known as Darkness0988, who gave Aeraes access to the Triumvirate base site, resulting in a massive spam attack by Aeraes and Darkness0988 himself. The attacked marked the first and only time actual "violent' attacks were used.

After recovering from the attack, Zerouh publicized the event on the wiki, using it to bring down Aeraes politically. In response, Aeraes launched several more flame wars against Zerouh and his allies. Despite this, Aeraes rapidly began to lose power among his peers. The loss of Aeraes powerful ally Airblade86 and the rise of Soldier1033 as the wiki's new beauracrat, marked a major end to Aeraes influence.

On May 23, 2010, Aeraes was finally blocked by Soldier1033 for a month (later changed to indefinitely 3 days later). That same day, Zerouh was promoted to administrator on the site. Both events are used to define the day as an official end to the "war".

The war was notable for reducing the power of the Army of Saradomin on the Clans Wiki and establishing the Universal Triumvirate as its replacement, which it was able to use to its advantage very well. With Zerouh becoming an administrator and the Triumvirate being recognized as one of the protectors of the wiki it took mere days for almost all of the clan wiki community to recognize what the Triumvirate was and what it stood for.

## Origins

Hostilties between the two sides presented themselves even before the two made official contact. Zerouh had debuted himself onto the Runescape Clans Wiki in late December of 2009 and was extending invitations for the Triumvirate to the various members of the community. King Aeraes, who had established a reputation on the site, took notice of this and grew disasteful, as he perceived Zerouh as a no-lifer recruiting people for a lost cause.

Zerouh, who had gained respect for the Army of Saradomin, sent an invite to Aeraes on January 6, 2010. Aeraes took the opportunity to criticize the Triumvirate and Zerouh himself, claiming that the Triumvirate would make illogical choices that would hurt his clan. He also made his infamous "Dorito quip" alongside claiming Zerouh to be an elementary school kid.

The discussion lasted about seven days (January 10-January 17). Zerouh continuously claimed Aeraes to be misguided and unwise, announcing his regret at ever inviting Aeraes. In retaliation, Aeraes openly challenged Zerouh to a war. Zerouh, not wanting a simple disagreement to escalate into a war, calmly informed Aeraes that war was unnecessary and bid him farewell. Aeraes continously called Zerouh a wimp and a coward, names that he would use for the remainder of the war.

Anarchy Dies (known as Sojourn's End on the wiki), Zerouh's then military leader, responded to Aeraes' taunts by challenging the Army of Saradomin (as well as Farcrusader and Airblade86) to a clan war with his own clan, Sacred Band. Aeraes accepted and a date was arranged for either Friday the 29th or Saturday the 30th. From there, the exact knowledge of what went on is left to debate. According to Zerouh and General Ehtya, Anarchy Dies had prepared his army, but had requested a date change from the original time. As a result, Aeraes declared the Triumvirate cowards. According to Aeraes and various members of the Army of Saradomin, Anarchy Dies never showed up and thus labeled the Triumvirate cowardly.

Whatever the case, the failure for both sides to successfully settle the issue with a quick clan war would result in a 5-month period of bitterness and hatred, that would officially begin on February 1, 2010.

## Late-January to February

The end of January and the majority of February constituted the peak of the anti-Triumvirate sentiment as King Aeraes and allies Airblade86 (aka Sjblade), gr8kingchaos, and Farcrusader all began a hate attack against Zerouh, whose pacificistic stance prevented him and the Triumvirate executives from engaging more actively.

#### **Empire of Siscia**

On January 30, 2010, King Aeraes and Sjblade set up a union to oppose the Triumvirate, called the Empire of Siscia (EoS), which consisted primarily Aeraes' Army of Saradomin and Sjblade's Dark Knightmare. EoS attracted several other allies of Aeraes, including the infamous flamer Farcrusader, gr8kingchaos, and former executive Exo Malakii. Though EoS ultimately failed to do anything significant, it helped unite the allies of King Aeraes into a single force, preventing Zerouh and the Triumvirate from successfully out-lasting each one individually.

#### **The Kings' Attack**

King Aeraes and his top lieutenant gr8kingchaos, began their first major attack against Zerouh by spamming his user page on February 4, 2010 with messages about the 2010 Superbowl. Sjblade, rather than block the two as was his duty, acted inappropriately and humorously supported the attack. Rather than fight back, as Aeraes intended, Zerouh instead deleted all the messages, citing his talk page as his domain. Both Sjblade and Aeraes grew angered at this, with Sjblade even going so far as to revert Zerouh's edits.

Later in the day, Zerouh requested on Sjblade's talk page that gr8kingchaos be banned for his actions. Unfortunately, Aeraes and chaos caught ahold of the message and started another large-scale argument with Zerouh, resulting in all three users becoming banned for 3 days.

On February 12, 2010, Zerouh, after having become unbanned, delivered a small speech to Sjblade, telling him how disappointed he was in him for his handling of the situation and that he was abusing his power as an Administrator. Though Sjblade was angered by the comment, the two ended up working out a solution wherein Sjblade would leave the conflict alone, though Zerouh convinced him to support peace as his final message.

#### **Final Events**

The last major event of February occurred on the 19th. A day earlier, Zerouh had asked Sjblade to protect the Triumvirate Constitution page on the wiki. During the discussion, Zerouh happened to state that Aeraes and his allies were continuing to lash out against the Triumvirate. Aeraes caught ahold of this and, along with gr8kingchaos once again, attacked Zerouh for falsely accusing him. The dicussion lasted till March 1, 2010, therein leading into a new month where the Triumvirate would take a stand against its attackers.

## March

The month of March emerged in the aftermath of another heated debate between Zerouh, King Aeraes, and gr8kingchaos. With Zerouh and Aeraes now possessing nearly two month's worth of experience, both of them turned to forming and utilizing alliances with the various members of the community. The month also saw a decline in the presence of Sjblade, the wiki's bureacrat, resulting in a lack of proper control over the actions of the wiki members.

#### **Farcrusader: the Troll of Tomorrow**

Farcrusader, another user on the Clans Wiki, had already gained resentment against Zerouh in mid-December of 2009, when a disagreement over the status of the Triumvirate's aid to Farcrusader's clan (United Federation of Knights) resulted in him quitting. When he received note of Aeraes fall-out with Zerouh, Farcrusader immediately joined up with him, leading early, solo attacks against Zerouh (with his infamous play being written on January 26).

Throughout January, Farcrusader constantly challenged Zerouh to a fight, taking every opportunity he could to call him a "noob" and weakling. Though he remained mostly quiet during February, Crusader returned on March 6, 2010, reopening his old wounds with Zerouh and calling him "slime that pollutes this wiki". Zerouh retaliated, calling him a fool that couldn't stop talking. On March 11, 2010, Farcrusader delivered his ultimatum that he wanted Zerouh to admit that he was just a kid and to go die. Sjblade intervened at that point, warning Crusader to knock off the hate.

Farcrusader attacked Zerouh a final time towards the end of the month on March 23, 2010, where he questioned Zerouh's views on historical figures and history itself. The debate, though lasting a single day, was a massive one, ultimately convincing Zerouh that Farcrusader had a low intellect. Following the argument, Farcrusader left Zerouh alone for the most part, finally ending his hate campaign.

#### **The Return of Silvabane**

Silvabane, the dictator of the Confederate Independent Systems (CIS) union who had briefly aided Zerouh in the early days and left in January of 2010, returned on March 16, 2010. Zerouh was extremely glad at his old friend's return and immediately offered him a position within the Executive Branch. Though he wouldn't consider it till April, Silvabane did briefly help Zerouh by attacking Farcrusader during his major rant on March 23.

#### **Monarch Skirmish**

An interesting aspect about the month of March was the limited interaction between King Aeraes and Zerouh. The only notable discussion between the two was a brief argument over the definition of a monarch on March 18, 2010. Aeraes, tired that Zerouh continually called him Aeraes rather than King Aeraes, used the definition to justify his usage of the title.

## April

The month of April culminated upon a single event- the defection of gr8kingchaos from the Army of Saradomin to the Universal Triumvirate. The event was significant in the downfall of the Army of Saradomin from the RuneScape Clans Wiki as gr8kingchaos and Zerouh utlilized the opportunity to spread an anti-Aeraes message. It would also inspire Aeraes to use drastic measures against the Triumvirate.

#### **gr8kingchaos vs King Aeraes**

Beginning in April, gr8kingchaos had grown disillusioned with the Army of Saradomin, particularily with King Aeraes' goals. When a fellow member named Koramon6 showed him the true intentions of AoS (the ones that Zerouh had been preaching before), he quit the Army of Saradomin.

On April 20, 2010, gr8kingchaos posted on Zerouh's talk page his famed message:

***"In the end it seems King was corrupted and thus I no longer follow him you probably won't ever hear from me again......give him hell man"***

Zerouh messaged him back, thanking him for his apology and complimenting him on seeing the truth of Aeraes' ways. On the same day, Aeraes, desperate to ruin gr8kingchaos' reputation, challenged him to a war. With aid from Zerouh and his own taunts, gr8kingchaos managed to end Aerae's rampage within 5 days (April 20th - April 25th)

Aeraes remained quiet for the remainder of the month and the beginning of the next, planning out his next tactic to compensate for the loss.

## May

The month of May, though providing the end date for the Cold War, was full of as much, if not more, hatred then the month of January. King Aereas, following gr8kingchaos's defection, made desperate attempts to destroy him, his clan (The Black Hand), and the union he had defected to (the Universal Triumvirate). Aeraes spent the first week-and-a-half of May developing his greatest attack, one that he hoped would end Zerouh and his union. Though tragedy would befall the Triumvirate, it would soon rise out of the event stronger than before and finally beat the man that had been harassing them since January of the same year.

#### **The Trade Lords Scandal**

Trade Lords was a clan founded by Yoshi123789 (popularly known as Lord Yoshi) that had joined the Triumvirate in January after the Triumvirate World Project caught the eye of Yoshi. However, as the project failed to progress (due in part to the lack of Triumvirate members), Lord Yoshi grew distasteful and on May 2, 2010, pulled Trade Lords peacefully out of the Triumvirate.

The next day however, Yoshi gave Zerouh an ultimatum- to finish the Triumvirate World Project by the sunday of that week (May 9th) or risk rebellion by Trade Lords (using a misinterpreted version of an article of the Constitution to justify his threat). Zerouh called him on his mistake, and a large debate ensued regarding the reliability of the Constitution and the definition of a rebellion. Yoshi consistently told Zerouh that he would be a better leader than him and stated that the Triumvirate was falling apart.

At the same time, Yoshi contacted Aeraes about a plan to destroy the Triumvirate and the two agreed to meet in-game. In the mean time, Aeraes joined the discussion, supporting Yoshi's arguments about revolting.

The discussion lasted four days, from May 2 to May 6 before reaching a stalemate between both parties, though Aeraes moved onto another attack on gr8kingchaos.

Two days later, on May 8, 2010, Yoshi resumed the conversation, though Zerouh easily put down his argument, ending it early on May 9.

#### **Darkness0988**

On May 1, 2010, Darkness0988 (simply known as Darkness), a former member of General Ehtya's clan EE, applied for the Head of Media position and was succesfully inducted five days later on May 6, 2010. However, within hours of his inauguration, Darkness disappeared for nearly a week. Ascencia, having grown disasteful of Darkness's long absence after a recent election, started an impeachment trial on May 15, 2010 against him. Before the trial could conclude, however, Darkness reappeared, citing that family problems had prevented him from participating. Soon thereafter, he started a new thread, threatening to destroy the Triumvirate if the Executive Branch did not get rid of Ascencia. After conversing with several Executives, Darkness revealed that he was an old friend of Aeraes and a "runescape terrorist". Following this message, Zerouh started an impeachment trial, though Darkness resigned before it conclude, but not before mentioning that he had friends to join his "game".

Minutes after he left, Darkness once again appeared, this time with his associate King Aeraes. After sarcastically complimenting the site, Aeraes, along with Darkness, began to massively spam the forums and take print-screen images of the items contained on it. Despite the short tenure, chaos erupted on the forums, with Red unprofessionally flaming the two, Mr. Mojo Rising and Ehtya trying to calm down everyone, and Zerouh taking immediate measures to block both of them and improve site security. Within ten minutes, Darkness and Aeraes had been blocked and the site was secured. Zerouh then closed the site for twenty minutes while everyone recovered.

#### **Reconstruction**

At 8:01 PM of the same day (May 15), Zerouh reopened the site to every Executive but Mr. Mojo Rising (who was regiven access within the hour). Zerouh informed everyone of what had transpired and told them to stay united despite what had happened. After a small debate over the security of the current site, Zerouh informed everyone of a new site that he and Ascencia had constructed earlier that year just in case an emergency occurred (preempting that something like this infiltration into the Triumvirate site might happen).

On the new site, Zerouh surprised everyone by asking them if they were willing to join him in "rebooting" the Triumvirate so as to give everyone a fresh start. This suggestion revealed to the Executives the toll that the Cold War had taken on Zerouh, despite his appearance to the outside. Not wanting Zerouh to give up on all that he had worked on, the Executives managed to convince Zerouh that restarting was not the answer and that they could all learn from their mistakes. Inspired by their words, Zerouh decided not to give up the fight and agreed with Ehtya on using the event to bring down Aeraes publically.

#### **Red's Big Fight**

On May 16, 2010, Aeraes, recontacting his old friend Farcrusader, posted on his talk page images taken from the event. Zerouh caught ahold of this and accused Aeraes of being a hacker, resulting in the penultimate debate of the Cold War.

After seeing Zerouh's definition of the word hacker, Aretheid (an ally of Zerouh's known as ZeroStrikr on the Wiki) surprisingly defended Aeraes and accused Zerouh of manipulating his followers. Zerouh, not wanting to lose an ally he considered important, apologized to Aretheid. Red (known as Red Dog31 on the wiki) however, not wanting Aretheid to get away with his comment, attacked him, resulting in massive argument that ended with Aretheid leaving the wiki on May 18.

King Aeraes, however, picked up where Aretheid had left the argument (May 17), and attacked Red, stating that this was between him and Zerouh and should stay that way. Red, still retaining feelings of hatred from Aeraes' infiltration, fought against Aeraes and his fellow member offsidejimothy (also known as itzEggy). Zerouh managed to calm down the argument, however the damage had already been done, and Zerouh would soon engage in his final conflict with Aeraes.

#### **The Final "Battle"**

Zerouh, after a successful community vote, placed the Triumvirate as the "Clan of the Month" on May 20th, 2010. Aeraes, wanting the clan Zibens to be in its place instead, reverted Zerouh's edits and added the clan. Zerouh appealed to a bureaucrat on the site, known as Chiafriend12. There, Aeraes and Zerouh had their last argument of the war, going back and forth over the site rules and which clan deserved the Featured Clan title.

At 2:35 PM of the same day, Aeraes, tired over the months of fighting, asked Chiafriend12 to ban him, who did as Aeraes requested by blocking him for a week. By then, however, a new bureacrat was taking control of the situation.

#### **The Return of Soldier 1033**

Soldier 1033 (known commonly as Soldier) had been a part of the RuneScape Clans Wiki since its creation in 2008 and was awarded bureacrat status in 2009. However, by that time he had grown inactive and semi-retired from the site and gone onto the Runescape Wiki.

On February 20, 2010, Red, who had been unfairly banned by Sjblade at the time, discovered Soldier on the RuneScape wiki and had asked him to unban him on the Clans wiki. Soldier obliged, and from then on, regained his interest in the site, making infrequent visits throughout the remainder of February and the month of March.

On May 23, 2010, Soldier redubuted himself on the wiki as the main bureaucrat and made large-scale decisions to consolidate his status, starting by dealing retribution to those involved in the May 17-18 argument. The result was the following: Red was banned for 3 days, ZeroStrikr indefinitely (though it was later removed on January 10, 2011), and King Aeraes' block was extended to a month (and later indefinitely after Aeraes evaded it on June 12, 2010).

On the same day, Soldier, recognizing Zerouh's neutral attitude and contributions to the wiki, made Zerouh a sysop (administrator) on the wiki. With King Aeraes loss of power and Zerouh's gain, the Triumvirate took the opportunity to expand its retinue and influence throughtout the Wiki community, thus establishing a permanent presence and bringing an end to the Cold War.