The Secret Society

The Secret Society, or TSS, was founded on the 28th of February by Rebecka, but is now led by a democratic council with ohKast as the leader. The council members are Rebecka, TooAtomic and Queueue. The group was originally meant to be a small, secretive group (hence the name) that Rebecka would use to help out new players, but it started to get bigger and gain more members very quickly, so after the move to Isbukt, the group became more serious.

Foreign Relations
TSS originally allied with every non-belligerent group that they could think of, as was the custom for groups in early 2020. After the server's "culture shift" and the breaking of the Lumen alliance, TSS became a lot more picky with their allies. The war with M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E. also caused them to be a lot more careful with who they trusted.

Allies:

 * Passione
 * The Free People
 * Omega

Enemies:

 * Provinces of Lumen (formerly)
 * Odyssey

Towns and Outposts
Active locations:


 * Utopia
 * Aurora
 * Morioh
 * Redacted
 * Obi outpost
 * TSS Christmas town

Inactive locations:


 * Varva - leaked by benchkcb
 * Lagom - griefed by M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E.
 * Namibia - found by multiple outsiders
 * Sam and Sophie's humble abode - died due to inactivity
 * The Stronghold - raided by early TSS members
 * Isbukt - griefed by The Boomers
 * Ikea - griefed by a TSS member
 * Torne Town - griefed by a TSS member
 * Pigstep outpost
 * Farmen outpost
 * Gelato - griefed by M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E.
 * Stargate - griefed by M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E.
 * Aska - griefed by M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E.
 * Khalida - mysteriously griefed

Early days
TSS began on the 28th February 2020, when Rebecka, a member of Chronos at the time, founded the group to secretly help out new players, inspired by the hospitality that Chronos had shown her when she was new. The first town, The Stronghold, was built on the same day. It would last a while until some of the new recruits raided the base. After that, on the 11th March, TSS moved to a new location where they built the town of Isbukt, the first capital city.

On the 26th March, TSS would end their secrecy and become allies with the Provinces of Lumen, Heretics, and Chronos; on the 10th April Rebecka would create The United Nations to grow closer with Lumen and Chronos.

Growth
On the 19th April, the first recruitment town, Ikea, would be founded. Sam and Sophie's humble abode would also become a TSS outpost 10 days later. During May, TSS extended alliance offers to Moon Clan and The Order, both of which accepted. They got their first major taste of griefing though when on the 24th May 2020, Isbukt would get found and griefed by a hacker. Its residents moved and created a new town, Lagom, hoping to return to Isbukt later and to keep Lagom as a "middle town", not wanting to abandon their original location.

By this point TSS had been growing rapidly. At the end of may Farmen Outpost was founded, and 3 days later Obi Outpost was created too. On the 19th June, Isbukt would finally be reinhabited, but Ikea was griefed by a TSS member's alt on the 23rd June (though they did not know who it was yet). On the 24th June, TSS would enter The Great End Race, and although they were the first to reach the end, they did not get the final hit on the dragon. Yet another outpost, Pigstep Outpost, was founded on the 25th June, along with Torne Town, a recruitment town to replace Ikea. To celebrate the nether update, on the 26th June 2020 members of TSS would gather together at spawn and mine for netherite.

On the 1st July 2020, TSS held an event on the creative server with pvp and parkour with a "beach party" theme. They also won wertia3's end race on the 18th July, gaining a coloured sword named the "Dagger of Isbukt". TSS also finished construction of a giant obsidian dragon outside spawn named Simon. Although things were going very well for the group at this point, their luck would eventually run out.

The Summer Wars
On the 6th July 2020, The Boomers would manage to kill TooAtomic whilst griefing the spawn farm, and acquire a map of Isbukt. Tynominally and Alkyrn would use the map to search for Isbukt, and even narrowed its location down to one quadrant, but were ultimately unsuccessful. CreamForce, however, wasn't, and unbeknownst to them, had used the server's seed to get coordinates to the town. So, on the 22nd July, The Boomers and AT&T would move out to grief the town. TSS were aware of this though: they had an insider in The Boomers, so they were able to evacuate all valuables and prepare for the incoming griefers, and so the Battle of Isbukt occured. After the town was abandoned for good, TSS's second capital, Gelato, would be founded.

Despite losing their capital, the battle was a TSS victory, as CreamForce would be banned for his use of exploits and his group would quit (for the most part) with him. In the immediate aftermath, TooAtomic, a notable TSS member, partially griefed an abandoned Heretics town due to its connection with EdgyCommunist69. Edgy was (correctly) speculated to have been connected with The Dongos and the Isbukt griefers. Upon learning that Edgy had left the base ages ago, Atomic stopped his attack and carried on to grief The Boomers' old base. This event would cause the reformed Heretics to not renew their alliance with TSS.

Tensions with Lumen
During TSS's initial rise to power, Mr_Murphy, the most notable leader of the Provinces of Lumen, became very worried about the growth of what he originally thought was a group safely in Lumen's sphere of influence, and saw it as a potential threat to Lumen's position as the richest and most powerful group on the server. He had already offered that TSS become a sub-faction of Lumen a few times, but all of them were declined. After Isbukt was griefed, Lumen did not offer any aid to TSS to help rebuild their group. Plus, Annick30, a leader of Lumen at the time, griefed Simon out of jealousy. The final straw happened when TSS was celebrating the completion of their gold farm at Gelato, only for Murphy to point out that Lumen had a gold farm too. Rebecka asked Lumen to stop their belittling, and recieved an apology. A few days later though, Lumen were back at it. This prompted Becka to seek a diplomatic resolution again, but Murphy couldn't see what he was doing wrong. Feeling like she had no other option anymore, Rebecka ended the alliance between TSS and Lumen.

The two groups would still be in contact though via The Senate, but all that happened was constant arguing among themselves. Tired of this, TSS would leave the senate on the 12th October.

Brief Reconstruction
Since M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E.'s attention was solely focused on Lumen in August, TSS recieved little trouble from either group, going so far as to form a non-aggression pact with M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E. Torne Town would be griefed on the 6th August by a TSS recruit on their alt account, thinking that the group wouldn't find out. The griefer was wrong though, and they were killed and kicked from the group. It was also revealed that this same player had griefed Ikea. 2 days later, Namibia would be founded to replace Torne Town. On the 14th September 2020, Stargate, a TSS end base, would be founded, and Obi Outpost would be recolonised on the 26th. On the 2nd October, TSS held another event with the winner of it recieving an optifine cape and an ingame prize. The winner was KingGroyo, but he chose to gift the cape to LoneMiner247. Namibia would be abandoned on the 11th October due to multiple players from outside the group finding it. A new recruitment town, Varva, would be created in its place.

M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E.-TSS War
AT&T were unbanned on the 1st September 2020, and the first thing they did was fully mine Simon, the obsidian dragon at spawn. EdgyCommunist69 would help with this. This broke the truce that M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E. and TSS had made and put them at war. M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E. would achieve the first victory, after Edgy killed TooAtomic on an obsidian platform made from Simon.

When The Void was griefed by M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E., TSS would show up and take over defense from Lumen. Their superior numbers would drive the griefers away, but not before the base was partially destroyed.

At this point, TSS were yet to lose an actual town to M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E. This would change on the 14th October, when the Battle of Lagom occured. TSS was not affected much though since Lagom had been quietly abandoned earlier due to suspicions that Lumen had the coordinates. Although M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E. won the battle, TSS managed to cut their losses by identifying benchkcb to be the one that leaked the town. This prompted them to abandon and grief Varva too before M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E. could. Construction of Aska would immediately begin to replace the town.

Seeing Annick30 at the Battle of Lagom would prompt more conflict between TSS and Lumen. Annick revealed to them that he was insiding M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E. to try and get Edgy's base coordinates so that Lumen could grief them. He promised to give TSS a heads-up whenever M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E. was to grief another town.

On the 11th November 2020, the Battle of Aska occured. After almost a month of inactivity in TSS, Rebecka got a DM from Annick30 showing him and EdgyCommunist69 griefing the town. A few TSS members logged on to attempt to defend the town, but fled after commandervv and KingGroyo were killed by Edgy. Since Annick failed to let TSS know that an attack was incoming, it led them to believe that Lumen was behind the grief, so they retaliated by griefing Howick Plains, a Lumen recruitment town. The Battle of Howick was a victory for TSS as they had griefed the base thoroughly, but Edgy showed up and chased the attackers off. Stargate would also be griefed after the outbreak of war between TSS and Lumen by aria_minecraft, Tynominally and Annick30.

On the 13th November 2020, Annick30 would 'accidentally' (whether or not it was truly an accident is still unknown) leak plans to grief Gelato to erikblue1234, who then warned Rebecka about what was going to happen. This was not ideal for neither TSS nor M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E. - TSS had to abandon the capital they had worked for months on, and M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E. had prepared to grief Gelato the very next day. Out of options to deliver a thorough blow to TSS, M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E. gave coords to Lumen. aria_minecraft would make their way over to Gelato and began griefing it, and they were later joined by Edgy. aria would be killed by ohKast whilst afking at the grief.

After the attack, Lumen and TSS signed a peace deal. The treaty was that TSS reveal how they acquired Howick's coordinates and to stop claiming that Annick30 was griefing TSS bases in the name of Lumen. Gelato would be the last town to be griefed during the war.

Eventually, when M.I.C.R.O.W.A.V.E. disbanded and the Soviet Stardust Crusaders were formed, the war ended.

Post-War
After the signing of the peace treaty between TSS and Lumen, the people of TSS voted for the group going completely passive, which had been considered ever since TSS left The Senate. This meant that TSS would no longer have official enemies, but also allies, and instead aimed to be a group of friends playing the game together instead of getting involved into server politics. This sentiment came from the feeling that they were forced into a war they didn't want, and that their reputation was very poor following the attack on Howick. TSS also began scouting for a new base location, and on the 21st November Khalida was founded.

On the 11th December 2020, after accidentally finding the base via a open tunnel from the highway, Rebecka and ohKast travelled to Pluto, the recruitment town of the Soviet Stardust Crusaders, and left gifts and an invitation to the TSS Christmas event set to take place on the 19th December. Although SSC leadership wasn't too pleased about them showing up uninvited, they appreciated that they didn't grief the town despite the history of their members. This led the two groups to grow closer together into a sort of unofficial alliance.

The TSS Christmas event took place on the 19th December 2020. There was a pvp competition, won by EdgyCommunist69, a boat race, won by Najivka, a minecraft version of Hungry Hungry Hippos, and a team deathmatch involving crossbows and fireworks.

On the 17th December 2020, Mr_Murphy would save coordinates to Khalida after they were accidentally shown on the preview to a stream. He flew to the location to make a 2x4 map of the town, which he put in a museum at the Lumen capital. A Lumen member would become concerned about the prospect of another war, so they reached out to Rebecka to ask how Lumen had the map. Khalida would be immediately abandoned and Rebecka asked Murphy to take the map down, which he did, but only a few days later the map was back up. On the 24th December, Khalida would be griefed. It was widely speculated amongst TSS members that Lumen was involved in some way, but there was no concrete evidence to point to that fact.

On the 24th December 2020, Rebecka made ohKast co-leader in preparation for him to take over the group entirely, and on the 28th a new council was elected, being Rebecka, adamercsn, AdmiralHelios and Queueue. On the 4th January 2021, TSS voted to end their passiveness. On the 27th January, TSS formed their first official alliance with the Soviet Stardust Crusaders, making the pseudo-alliance they had previously set in stone.

Modern TSS
February of 2021 saw even more growth for TSS. Aurora was founded on the 2nd February, and on the 10th and 17th February, SSC respectively became a TSS sub-faction, whereas the faction of Omega became the closest ally to The Secret Society - SSC brought Morioh into the fold as a TSS town. On the 28th February 2021, one year after the initial founding of TSS, ohKast became the sole leader, with Rebecka stepping down. February would not be free from controversy though: on the 8th, commandervv, against orders not to, raided Hisashi. This led to him losing the vote to gain Utopia access, which in turn made him leave the group and form Odyssey.

March saw Utopia go public and become the official capital of TSS on the 6th. On the 22nd March, a pvp and costume contest was held at Morioh. 3 days later though, the admins of the server would forbid any interaction between TSS and Lumen, who were still feuding, in an attempt to prevent drama. This only caused more drama, and several members of TSS took a break from the server in protest. After seeing the outrage, the admins quickly lifted this rule.

On the 1st April, the unexpected happened, and TSS would become a sub-group of Lumen.

just kidding lol

April was pretty a uneventful month for TSS. On the 20th May, TSS would form an alliance with The Free People. They would also manage to win the second end race and get the dragon egg on the main server. They also managed to get the dragon egg on the hardcore server, but not without losing Rebecka and Storm_Surge1 to a bed bomb from Captain_N00B, and Najivka and adamercsn died to the dragon.