The Ages of Graal Militaries

The military community began in the Summer of 2011. It has gone through many changes and reform over the past six and a half years. When looked at retrospectively, you can break the military into a few select ages.

The Golden Age of Militaries (July 2011- April 2012)
The Golden Age of Militaries began with the Royal Guard in the throne room of the old castle. The guilds quickly grew, and eventually became Imperia. The military guilds then never had the massive activity levels that they do today, but even in the early days, there were always a fair handful of people on around the clock. Back then, the military community was smaller, there was not twelve different militaries at any given time, there was only one. Everyone knew each other, got along, and were friends. This was a time of legends, of friendship, and most importantly, a time of fun. The community was at peace with each other, and at the time, it felt like a family. This changed, however, when Harau Bacsey, the former king who was overthrown in a coup, attacked Imperia in it's third era one day, sparking The War of Paranoia.

The Silver Age of Militaries (April 2012- December 2012)
This era began with the aftermath of the War of Paranoia, while the Imperians had defeated the Bacseyian Federation, the war had a lasting effect on Auel, and many within the military. The war caused people to become less trusting, less personal, and more efficient. Imperia continued another 6 eras during this time, but the feeling of family within the military had vanished. The community as a whole was still strong though, and the greed and competition for ranks was minuscule during this age. While during the different eras of Imperia, internal tensions were still high and personal relationships minimum, between Imperian eras there would oftentimes be a separate guild with a non military related goal, allowing people to have time to recuperate from the military lifestyle. This included guilds such as Shinra, Baby Puncher's Association, and multiple attempts at a Graal News Network. It was also during this time that Imperia flourished, still the only significant military, it's membership grew stronger with each era, and the reputation of the community started to spread. Eventually, Imperia began to grow old, and ended up merging with two other guilds to create the first State, and launching The Machine Age.

The Machine Age (December 2012- May 2014)
The State was the first of many guilds to be created in this age, and it had countless iterations throughout this period. This era is known as the machine age due to the ruthless efficiency developed by the leaders of the guilds. Activity skyrocketed, recruiting was perfected, graphics were made to depict guns, tents, signs, banners, and many other structures. Uniforms were introduced during this time as well, and the structure of guilds was streamlined to be efficient as possible, although oftentimes it ended with a guild consisting of mainly officers. The downside of this era was that the comradery of past militaries was abandoned entirely. Every soldier was easily dispensable and just as easily replaceable, training slowly degraded to the point where they only consisted of formations, and the greed and thirst for power among the soldiers far outweighed their desires to see the military actually succeed. Regardless of all of this, the efficiency and power of the new methods could not be ignored, and militaries exploded to a point that was never thought possible in earlier ages. Unfortunately, the innovations hit a wall eventually, and with nothing new to bring to the table, many slowly lost interest in the community. This lack of innovation slowly brought the Machine Age to an end.

The Bronze Age (June 2014-July 21st, 2015)
Eventually, the many innovations of the State began to get old, and as activity levels began to drop. In order to renovate the community, Auel convinced Xinke Magnus to create a new Imperia, and when it was created, they arranged a war. This war quickly grew, and became known as the Second War of Paranoia. This launched the Bronze Age of Militaries. Even after the war ended, the war had reinvigorated the community. Many of the guilds that spawned off of it were far more innovative. Eventually, however, this era came to an end when the Admins cracked down on military guilds, and The State in particular, after the events of July 21st, 2015.

The Iron Age (August 2015-August 2016)
The Iron age was a fairly dull era in military history. Many of the guilds in this era were fairly dull, many just being attempts to replicate the state without any innovation. The early half of this era almost exclusively state clones, almost always failing fairly quickly. In January 2016, Auel launched The Republic, which only brought minor innovation, but did unify people long enough for the aftermath of it's crash to create new guilds that were more than just State clones. The largest success of this era was that of the New Sarovian Empire, a guild which spanned most of the summer of 2016. This era ended with the events surrounding the fall of the NSE.

The Dark Ages (August 2016-June 2018)
The Dark Ages began when the New Sarovian Empire fell after it's prince refused to accept the outcome of a democratic election. With a few minor exceptions, his era was mainly filled with many chaotic guilds, often times they were poor attempts to replicate the success of past State guilds at best, and at worst a poorly structured mess that lasted a week. During this era a new Sarovia was formed, which is both one of the longest lasting and most divisive militaries in history. Rampant in this era is the abuse of a glitch that allows for any member of a guild to mass kick it, even if that specific member did not have kicking abilities, this was dubbed as a "Nuke". Also rampant is the collection of personal information, and the use of it to blackmail members of the community.

The Brazilian Age (June 2018-Present)
This age is identified by two major game breaking changes in the community, the first being the implementation of the "New Guild System", which did away with guild allies, and restricted militaries from a 150 man total roster to a 50 man total roster. This put a hindrance on larger militaries, and caused more separation between guild divisions, militaries were able to adapt, but it was not the same. The second was the introduction of the Brazilian population to the military community. It was heavily pushed by the new leader of Sarovia, Martius. The Brazilians quickly grew and became a large, albeit controversial, part of the military community, and many brazilian divisions cropped up, mainly in Sarovia. The quality of the guilds in this time was mostly consistent with the previous age, albeit with occasional language barriers. The kick-glitch which was rampant in the Dark Ages was fixed with the new guild system.