Second Araga-Starym War

The Second Araga-Starym War, otherwise known as World War III, was a large scale war that happened in late Earth World Mark VI. It was and still is widely considered to be one of the most destructive wars in Mappercraft history, due to most major cities being griefed in some way and that it had a large cost on resources and morale on both sides. The war begun when the Aragan Federation declared war on the Empire of Starymglia after not accepting their territorial demands, causing long lasting tensions between the two nations to finally boil over. Several other nations also involved themselves in the conflict besides Araga and Starym: on Araga's side was the Kingdom of Columbia (also by extension the rest of the Auburn League) and Arabia; solely on Starym's side was the Kingdom of Maple, who were loyal allies with Starym. The war ended two days later with the time limit on wars being reached and the Treaty of La Rochelle.

Background
Araga and Starymglia had formed a rivalry amongst each other since Earth World Mark V. Being the two sole major powers in Europe, they began to saw each other as threats. This resentment boiled over when on January 4th, 2017, Araga declared war on Starymglia after rumors of Starymglia initiating a war surfaced. Much fighting and destruction took place before peace talks were eventually held between Araga and Starymglia. After brief negotiations, the Treaty of Helsinki was signed among all parties, which—among other things—mandated Araga to cede Czechia and most of Scotland and give 10 stacks of diamonds, 7 stacks of TNT, and a mending book to Starymglia in reparations. These terms greatly upset Aragans, as they felt forced to accept these biased terms for a war that had no clear winner in the first place.

Antagonism between Araga and Starymglia persisted throughout Earth World Mark VI. Proxy conflicts, such as the Libyan War and the War in France, were frequent between the two nations. Meanwhile, Araga began to improve their diplomatic relations with the Pan American Union.

Prelude
During the afternoon of September 4th, 2017, several players fed up with Starymglia, including bonito_pibb, TheCambrian, LordKarutemo, and The_Ohioan, traveled to the city of Cataan in Keem to loot valuables and generally mess around. Emperor of Starymglia FedexMC was called on by other members of Starymglia to dispose of them, eventually making them go away.

Later, the same players who raided Cataan went to Lyvonis, the capital of Starymglia, and began provoking Starymglians present in the city. They notably started placing doors and boats in the downtown, which began to annoy Starymglians who were online at the time. Aragan leader Extratere, who had arrived to Lyvonis after others did, demanded FedexMC to cede back Scotland and Czechia to Araga. FedexMC refused, however, considering that they did not want to be taken advantage of by other nations. In retaliation to the negative Aragan response, Fedex then started to taunt Araga by standing by their refusal of the demand and even mocking them for it.

Beginning (Sep 4th)
Fedex's continued refusal of the territorial demands signaled to the Aragans that the only way they can reclaim their former pride is to declare war on Starymglia. While in a Skype call, TheCambrian ordered Tomad to declare war. Tomad complied, sending an official declaration of war on Starymglia in the Minecraft chat at 20:45 EST. Imperia, due to their status within Starymglia as a vassal, quickly affirmed their neutrality. Soon after, Arabia declared war on Starymglia and therefore issued their support for the Aragans in the war.

The Kingdom of Columbia, wanting to make use of the global situation, declared war on the Kingdom of Maple, with Araga promptly doing the same.

The battle and subsequent destruction of Lyvonis began soon after the initial declaration of war was made. Tomad spawned three withers in the downtown as a show of strength and, with the help of other Aragans, forced Starymglians out of the city. The Aragans had begun constructing large, tall cobblemonsters in the city, which were nearly impossible to destroy by hand. They also did considerable damage to the cities of London and Cataan through conventional methods of griefing. Meanwhile, Fedex and his friends (presumably Czin, jere_x, and franmox) were on their way griefing Aragan cities in Germania, most notably Vasque City and Berlin.

After Columbia declared war on Maple, King Freezepond of Maple logged on the server and started attacking and griefing a few cities of their cities. In order to honor their alliance with Maple and to support their efforts, Starym—unilaterally by Fedex—declared war on Columbia, too. At this point, the entire world was effectively at war with each other, with only minor powers avoiding the conflict.

By the end of the day, a great amount of major cities throughout Europe and North America were at least moderately griefed, with some such as Lyvonis bearing the worst of it. No side seemed to be on the top, although it is arguable that Starymglia and Maple were behind Araga, Arabia, and Columbia in strength and infrastructure by this point. Due to the next day, September 5th, being a school/work day, Araga offered a truce to Starymglia until both sides could be sufficiently active at the same time; however, Starymglia refused this proposal and even remained online until they had to go to sleep. This begun a pattern of one side of the war (typically Starymglia and Maple) staying online, effectively preventing the other side (typically Araga, Columbia, and Arabia) from logging in until they could properly mobilize.

Middle (Sep 5th)
The second day of the war, September 5th, is sparsely documented, though it is considered the most eventful. Cities across the world continued to be griefed, and PvP skirmishes occurred across Europe and North America.

Lyvonis continued to be griefed heavily, resembling nothing of its prewar state. The city reached to a point where there were cobblemonsters on top of other cobblemonsters. Additionally, an allied invansion of Sandistan began on this day, as The_Ohioan and Wolfkall destroyed Sandistan and Pan-American forces besieged and took over Soup.

End (Sep 6th)
The final day of the war, September 6th, was the calmest time, with griefing and PvP being less of an occurrence; however, attempts were still made by each side to grief each other's cities and settlements.

In the early afternoon (EST), Tomad began talks with the other Emperor of Starymglia, batboy1999, regarding peace and territorial demands. Later on the same day, around 19:00 EST, Tomad and batboy1999 resumed discussions, gathering other major leaders in the war into a Skype call. King Sikorskiii of Columbia made a Google Doc for the upcoming treaty. The ultimate name of the treaty was a contentious matter among the leaders, with some proposed names being the "Treaty of DDD" and the "Treaty of Treaty of Treaty"; eventually, however, the name was decided to be the Treaty of La Rochelle. The treaty mandated multilaterally agreed upon demands by each party that participated in the war. Aragan demands included 6 stacks of TNT and 5 stacks of firework rockets from Starymglia; 1 stack of firework rockets from Maple; receiving back the rest of Scotland in exchange for Alsace-Lorraine; and receiving back Czechia in exchange for Trebizon. Starymglian demands included 5 stacks of TNT and 5 stacks of firework rockets from Araga, Columbia, and Arabia; annexing Alsace-Lorraine in exchange for their Scottish territory; and annexing Trebizon in exchange for Czechia. Maple demands included receiving 15 diamond blocks from Arabia, receiving 10 diamond blocks from Columbia, receiving 64 TNT from Aragan duchy states excluding Russia, and receiving 64 diamonds from Russia in exchange for them keeping Helsinki and everything to the north of the Gulf of Finland. Auburn League demands included annexing the Maple settlements of Landing and Soup; forming an NAP with Starymglia and Maple; and 64 TNT from Starymglia, which would be distributed to each member of the alliance. Arabian demands included 128 TNT from Starymglia and giving Cuba (excluding Havana) to Columbia in exchange for Egypt. In addition to each nation's demands being addressed, an global agreement was made: a rollback would be done in all cities and Cuba being released under independent or Columbian control. While the war de jure ended on 20:45 EST, the Treaty of La Rochelle was finalized 22 minutes later on 20:52 EST.

Aftermath
After the Second Araga-Starym War ended, batboy1999 (who was then an admin of the server) rolled back all the griefed cities and settlements—except for a large section of Vasque City, which was most likely forgotten on accident.

Despite the rollbacks effectively resetting most cities back to their prewar state, the war still had a major impact on all nations involved, which now had to deal with a large resource cost, particularly in regards to TNT, armor, tools, and weapons, as well as reduced morale. The global effect it had makes it difficult to determine which nation(s) actually won the war. A case could be made that Starymglia and Maple endured greater losses in battle and destruction than Araga, Columbia, and Arabia during the war. Therefore, it could be assumed that Araga, Columbia, and Arabia effectively won the war and that Starymglia and Maple lost. However, a balanced trade of territory and resources outlined in the Treaty of La Rochelle would seem to suggest that there were no real victors in the war.

Nevertheless if their performance in the war caused it in some way or not, Starymglia began to see a decline in relevance and power after the end of the war, with Araga and Columbia—the latter reforming back into the Pan American Union in Earth World Mark VII—starting to emerge as the two main superpowers, or Superstates, that existed at the end of the Earth World series.

In addition to its effect on the nations involved, the Second Araga-Starym War also had an impact on player activity at the end of Earth World Mark VI. Activity among members of all nations significantly declined after the war, with the number of online players at peak nearly halving.