Ordo Christmas Special Deluxe

MikeyNoodles

DB

DC

Invicta

Aotus

On the day of Christmas eve, a community party was held not far from spawn. The event saw over thirty invited people show up to a single location in purity and not kill each other on sight. The festivities would last for a fair 12 hours, before the event was prematurely ended and self-griefed, as planned. Due to it's size, it is expected to be the biggest community organized event, where pvp and griefing was off limits untill the event was over.

## Before the event

The first idea for the event was started when previous Ordo leader, Jmen\_07, thought up a group activity, in the hopes of reaching some of the less active members of the faction. Due to the holidays, all would have time to visit the project, which was named: the Ordo Christmas special. The plan was originally gonna have TwistedMedia and himself build a Christmas themed base that all players could visit and share presents. This idea never took off, as most inactive players would find it difficult to reach a functional base and none had any use for items if they were not intending to play, leaving the reasoning useless. Having previously mentioned the idea, an old friend and ally in GlaceonGuy, who had previously kept good relations with Ordo whilst in GLM, came up with a better idea. While he liked the idea of  Christmas themed party, he came up with the idea of expanding it server wide. Jmen, who was certainly intrigued quickly started planning it with him. They would host the party together, recalling it Ordo Christmas special Deluxe and inviting only those they could trust in not spoiling everyone's fun. Originally some big names were kept off the invites, but after some discussion they were either invited because they were deemed trustworthy enough, or had little reason to disrupt peoples fun anyways . When both organizers started inviting, the group quickly started taking shape, as Chadlets, Ordo, Aotus and DB members flooded the discord.

The plan was to set up a small area, close to spawn for easy access, where those invited could build, talk, gift presents and exchange mapart and, towards the end, grief it as a community. As the event grew in size, with the organization no longer waiting for eulo to extend the invite to DC and instead doing it themselves, it became clear some more preparations had to be done. Jmen would invite close friends of his own as well, one of these being MikeyNoodles. As Jmen explained him the premise, Mikey showed great interest in contributing his part, which convinced Jmen to invite him to the organization team after a quick acceptance from Glaceon.

As all seemed to be heading the right direction, a massive blow to the event was struck when Jmen\_07 got himself banned on the 21th of December, for supposed ESPing. He had mined into a hidden room beside the highway on accident, containing a baitchest. His reputation wasn't enough to clear his name, as the mod team were looking for clear evidence, even though no clear evidence could be presented to either confirm his innocence, nor of his guilt. a solid 18 hours after his ban, Glaceon posted a message that the event would continue, regardless of Jmen's unfortunate ban, however, Jmen removed the message and replaced it with his own, telling people to keep hope for a bit of a Christmas miracle. Eventually he managed to convince the mods, not with evidence, but reasoning and was allowed to play again, thus saving the skin, a mere 2 days before the event. Soon he started to schout for a location with Mikey, finding it after a two hour search. The location contained an ice spikes biome bordered by a snowy tundra. As Glaceon later arrived, he built and decorated a Christmas tree, Jmen built a small podium with candy cane lanterns to light the place up without melting the structure and Mikey got working on the dinner table, which featured all but 2 food items in the game. After much difficulties, the party seemed to finally be ready for its grand opening.

## The festivities

Before the event had happened, it was decided to start at roughly 7 am UTC. This would give the Australian and Asian playerbase a chance to join in too, as these were their peak hours. As Glaceon posted the coords, it didnt take long for the first players to arrive. Eulo and Caudimorda were amongst the first to arrive, but were accompanied by players: Atom, Oranges09, OpuIar, TewtyFruity and Emcee. By this time no actual event staff had showed up, as Glaceon had to go, whilst Jmen was still working on his present. After being unsupervised for over an hour, Jmen finally showed up to find some of the earliest structures built. A santa statue was created close to the stage and beside it Eulo was planning to build his iconic mosque. across a house was built and Jmen himself added a map showcase of the surrounding area. Some presents were exchanged, but things would only spice up more once Caudi got his building materials out.

Whilst Caudimorda was building with ice in the distance, several notable community members joined up with the group, such as Tarqshark, Zuni, Neth, Rhonor, Foxtrot, Mikey and Glaceon himself. In almost any other circumstance, having all these players at one location would have started conflict. However, rather then being tense, the situation was joyful. All knew the reason for the party and all were happy to enjoy the moment while it lasted. The mood was hampered when it was found out players like Ragsterinja, an uninvited oldfag, were actively hunting down the base, as they took issue for not being invited. Whilst certain of these definitely have the reputation to belong among purity's elite, it was common knowledge some players were too much of a loose cannon to be expected to behave. Several players were still invited, even though they were seen as risks, but others were purposely left out for this reason.

Around this time Caudi finished his built: an ice racetrack with obstacles. Whilst being built just outside of the event area, this track became a landmark the event was known by. As several races occurred, one thing became obvious: Caudi had trained for this enough to win every game. During this, Eulo finished another of the famous sites of the event in his mosque. He decorated it so that it would explode itself completely were you to press right click inside, showering the place in respawn anchors. He would soon log off and thus never got to see it blown up prematurely. Another house was built by Opu on the outskirts of the town, trapping a snow golem inside that would not see the outside world ever again. Furthermore a big snowball, A house sized skull, Glaceon's chateau and a mistletoe torii were constructed. The nearby lavacast had also been covered in several faction symbols and abbreviations, plus featuring the religious symbols of both Christianity and Judaism. in the center of it all, a wall of signs was kept showcasing the participators.

As time moved on to 4pm UTC, several more American players were able to join the party. The timing of the party was before criticized, as it made it difficult for American players to join in on the event during the early hours, however these timing would allow players from all across the globe to join in and make it more organized for the staff. It was promised that the event would carry on for long enough for all players to participate, as the ending was not planned for another 6 hours according to the original idea. Player's like Creep, Von, Twistedmedia, GriefyoudotEXE, Headasshippie, UvenEhart754, HailSatin, shennaine, Senddoes, Loker, Jimothy Peace and Jake made their way to the festival. Several more builds were constructed including Jmen's betting stand for the races, a house by twistedmedia, another house built by glaceon and several faction logo's sprawling the area. Not much later the groupscreenshot was taken and both Glaceon and Jmen had to log off at this time, to enjoy Christmas with their families. While it was suspected for the event would still go on for several hours, tensions started to rise, as the unsupervised location was being taken by fear.

At any point the first casualty could happen which would cause a full on bloodbath and no one wanted to be unprepared. the tensions almost boiled over once a series of tnt explosions had gone off on the dinner table, which later turned out to Foxtrot. Having been at the event shortly after it started, he had been one of the longest players still present at the party. As it became apparent the original ending time wouldn't be reached anymore, people did their best to calm things down. Mikey himself was still present and part of the staff, but had very little sway with most present. The party could have turned into a battlefield, were it not for Caudimorda, who managed to calm everything down. His status was enough to temporarily halt the madness until the other organizers came back. Glaceon, who got word of it first, opted to put up a vote offering 3 options:

Grief the whole base in a few hours and allow anarchy to resume, spare the base till boxing day and grief it then or spare the base completely and see how long it could last. This was against the original idea for the ending, in which the base was griefed by all those present as a nice send off to the event. Whilst Jmen would have loved to imply this at the time, he was still enjoying his dinner and wouldn't come back before it was all done. A close margin saw option one being chosen and thus the one place where no violence was allowed under any circumstances, had it's main ruled removed. From that moment forth, the area was seen as any other build in purity and was thus allowed for griefing and fighting.

To the ones present a warning was given that within 10 minutes any pvp would be legitimized again. Most people left while they could, but a select group chose to stay and grief the base, before any outsiders could get their hands on it. Foxtrot, who had previously set off the first explosion, now set to work as he demolished the entire racetrack using several stacks of tnt. Most of the center was demolished by withers from Chadlet members, Caudi and Rhonor. Several players who had been logged out, suddenly found themselves logging in, into a warfield and were slain without any warning. In this chaos, someone or several people leaked the coords publicly and before long spawnfags like Drew and Ragster showed up to take their revenge. without much conflict, the area had been properly griefed, with over 20 withers swarming the area.

## Aftermath

While the ending had been earlier and more chaotic then previously expected, the event overall can be called a huge success. Having players from different groups come together in peace is a delicacy on a server like purity, especially when this many people are involved. In total 32 players made it to the party, with several missing out due to their time zone. close to half of the entire playercap was at one event at one given moment and were able to build together, rather then work against each other. Moments like these are rare and often don't lead to any prolonged friendships or plans, as soon as the event finishes, but it are events like these that show the community of purity isn't half bad once you get to know them.

The once populated location is now mainly a crater, inhabited by a select few withers that survived the continuous hunting parties. All guests, both present and those expected, have had their names engraved in a guestbook held by Jmen. together with some other goodies he plans to share these as a tribute to the event, but has not been able to do so as the book has a tendency to kick players upon closing it.

Whilst the party has not become a much talked about event, it is still fresh in many of the players memories, as they all have fond memories of the day. Whether the event is a one year special or an annual tradition still has to be seen, but most agree that it earned it's place in the annals of purity history.