Europa Role Players Association
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| Part of the Ultima Online series on Europa  |
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Notable towns and villages Role-playing Associations |
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The Europa Role Player's Association (abbr. ERPA) was a community of guilds on the Europa shard of Ultima Online, dedicated to role-playing, generating plotlines and organising quests and events. It did its best to foster a set of values and fair play, and enforce them.
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Founding
When the rumours that a European Shard was going to be opened, Ogodei, an old Catskills roleplayer, came up with the idea of the ERPA. The ERPA was modelled on a similiar organisation in Catskills. Ogodei formed the Oymak Batachikan (OyB), as the first ERPA guild. It was originally named the European Roleplayers Association. The name was eventually changed to reflect the fact that members came from all parts of the world.
=Founding guilds
The Oymak Batachikan [OyB] The Severed Heads Orcs [Orc] The Chael Nadra Elves
Drachenfels
When Drachenfels, the first European server, opened there was a large amount of frustration among the ERPA and many other European players, who already felt as if Europa was their new home. There were large "protests" outside of Castle Britannia. It was eventually decided that the ERPA guilds would start on Drachenfels as a 'dry run', and then move to Europa when it opened.
Early History
Europa opened and all the ERPA guilds decided a move to the new shard, that a fresh start was the best idea. The first tenative contacts between brand new characters, the establishment of interaction and activity patterns, recruitment, and the land grab took their toll, and several of the early ERPA guilds never truly got off the ground. The most sucessful interactions were those between Orc and Oyb, who started a war with one another that led to a great increase in the membership of both guilds.
During this early period, the Dark Elves of Naggaroth joined the ERPA and engaged in the war, initially tricking OyB into an ambush and allying with the Orcs.
Deepwater
Deepwater was the first player-run town to be founded on Europa, during the early land-grab. It were based in the bay around the Justice shrine, to the east of Yew. Deepwater quickly became a hub of activity, and it was not long before they were interacting with and joined the ERPA. It is important to not underestimate the significance of this event, as it was a dramatic change for the ERPA. Deepwater became the defacto centre of ERPA during this period.
Deepwaters intention was to create an inclusive town that welcomed all comers, a haven where anyone could interact, including non-roleplayers and PK's. One notable result of this was the Deepwater Fighting School, which became a haven for PvP'ers and PK's, a vital training ground where they could meet under a set of strict set of rules. This worked as a solution to the problem of PK attacks on the town, as the establishment of the Fighting School gave Deepwater a standing anti-PK army, as well as procluding any PK'ers who attacked Deepwater from participanting in the community of the Deepwater Fighting School.
This led to internal conflict between Deepwater and other members of the association, specifically the Guardsmen Militia, who felt that Deepwater had, through it's policy of tolerance towards none-roleplayers made a mockery of the ERPA's aims. The counter argument stated that those opposed were taking an over-simplified and elitist viewpoint, believing instead that they were introducing new blood into Europa's roleplay scene. This debate eventually led to the schism that resulted in certain members leaving ERPA to found the Crossroads of Yew (CoY) group.
Naeloth and Nohkmahr
Naeloth was founded initially as a drow city, though it quickly become an 'evil' city, taking in most notably several Vampire guilds. Naeloth remained sucessful for a long period being the last roleplaying town left on Felucca, though their relative isolation on Fire Island was an obstacle to interaction for some guilds.
Nohkmahr was founded by the The Severed Heads Orcs and The Undead Lords (Und) as a base of activity for the Dark Alliance, a group of evil guilds headed primarily by the two aforementioned guilds. Nohkmahr was mostly abandoned when the Orcs returned to their fort and The Undead Lords collapsed, though it remained in the posession of the orcs and was the location of several events.
Spiritwood
Though Deepwater continued to remain active, the new town of Spiritwood near Skara Brae grew quickly. The focus of interaction in the ERPA moved very slowly over time from Deepwater to Spiritwood. Many notable quests were held by Spiritwood, and they enjoyed unprecedented Seer interaction. Also notable was the invention of bagball, which enjoyed popularity throughout the whole of UO.
Renaissance
Many people believe that the Renaissance was the death of the golden age of Ultima Online. Initially most of the ERPA stayed on the Felucca Facet. This rang the final death bell for Deepwater, and led to a slow and very gradual decline in Spiritwood until they eventually too moved to Trammel. In Trammel, the Duchy of Trinsic (DoT) and Vesper (-V-) rose to activity, Vesper from the 'Crown of Thorns' scenario and from guilds that were for a long time unrelated to the ERPA. Trinsic and Vesper both joined the ERPA and became the primary centres of activity in Trammel. To begin with they had little interaction or association with the older members who remained in Felucca, though this increased with time.
The Nobility Project
In an initiative to create a broad-reaching role-playing scenario in which all guilds could participate, the Nobility Project was started. The Nobility Project sought to officially recognise the towns of Britannia, install a Regent in the person of Barahir Netanve and create a coherent and historically accurate political framework in which to create quests, scenarios and day-to-day interaction. It was initially greatly hyped and slow to get off the ground, many feeling it failed to live up to its promises.
There was some controversy early on that the Republic of Vesper saw itself as independent of Britannia, and thus not a part of the regency. Vesper had even fought a war against the Lord British Loyalists [L*B] (later called the Britannia Guards) during the Crown of Thorns scenario. Though [LB] were never recognised as more than loyalist vigilantes under the Nobility Project and the Crown of Thorns was retconned into being an act by a single power-hungry noble (Xel'Naga), this still created some confusion. Research into Ultima canon cleared most of this up, showing that Vesper had a long history of defiance of Lord British, and that it was feasible that they had never signed the unification pact. This created a framework for conflict between the Duchy of Trinsic and Vesper, the former being staunchly loyal to the throne and the latter being the only independent continental city.
The Nobility Project also led to the rise of or adoption of several town-based guilds, some more successful than others, including the Barony of Minoc [Mnc], the Tradeport of Cove, the City of Britain [CBr], the Sultanate of Nujel'm [NuG] and the City of Skara Brae, though the City of Moonglow [CMg] remained as a notable non-participant. Player towns, most notably Spiritwood, were also recognised under the project.
CoRE Split
See also: ERPA/CoRE-split
In a move that shocked many members of ERPA, but had been widely predicted, the Britannia Guards, Vesper and Trinsic split from the organization and formed CoRE. There was great animosity between the two groups. With membership cut and centralization an issue, the ERPA entered a period of decline and collapsed 18 months later. The few remaining members of ERPA had little choice but to join or interact with CoRE.
References
See also
- CoY — Crossroads of Yew
- CoRE — Community of Roleplayers, Europa
- ERPA/CoRE-split
