Clan History

Birth
February 2010

The founder of Knights of Aether, Swordman599, was a high-ranking member in a previous clan, Army of Olympus. In late January, Army of Olympus collapsed, and Swordman considered creating his own clan. After being pressured from a member of Army of Olympus, OdysseusSlay, Sword created Knights of Aether on February 7, 2010. (Note: KoA is and was not affiliated with Army of Olympus (OA) in any way, shape, or form. KoA was just created after OA's collapse, so OA is worth mentioning here.)

{C}Knights of Aether was created with four divisions, or knighthoods, each representing an ancient element: Maris Knighthood (water), Aeris Knighthood (air), Terra Knighthood (earth), and Ignis Knighthood (fire). In theory, each of the elements function by themselves perfectly well, but when they're combined, they create the fifth element, aether, which is the element of the heavens and universe. The same theory applies to this clan. Each knighthood can function alone, but when they're combined into the clan, Knights of Aether, they're even better. See the symbolism?

Growth
February - March 2010

The clan was growing fairly slowly, but that didn't stop Sword or his loyal members. On February 11, Sword decided to appoint his four elders - the leaders of the elemental knighthoods. The chosen elders were: Lt Gen Blez (Maris), Piracy4 (Aeris), Urbansith (Terra), and OdysseusSlay (Ignis). Sword also chose Ironfist402 as his Grand Disciple.

On February 24, Sword implemented a system to quantify the activity of his clan members: Activity Points (AP). AP could be mainly be obtained by donating to the Clan Bank, attending events, and recruiting members.

On March 13, Sword transformed the governing system of the clan from an Autocracy (one leader with all power) to a Limited Autocracy (one leader with most, but not all, power) with the implementation of the Council of Aether. Council was created for the purpose of advising the Grand Elder and voting on important matters (such as demotions, some promotions, etc). Over the entirety of the clan's history, more and more powers will be awarded to Council, making Council the most authoritatively powerful group of members in the clan.

Umbra, Solis, and the Solis Golden Age
March - April 2010

Urbansith was a f2p member, and since the knighthood he led was mainly p2p, there was a definite difficulty communicating between Elder and knighthood. To relieve some of this f2p/p2p stress, Sword created a new knighthood that was solely for f2p members: Umbra Knighthood (darkness). By adding a fifth element, the elemental balance within the knighthoods was thrown off, so Sword had to add a sixth knighthood: Solis Knighthood (light). The leadership was placed in Solis to keep the leadership neutral and out of other knighthoods. Urbansith was placed as Umbra Elder, and Zigman32 was promoted to Terra Elder.

During this time, the clan reached its first "golden age" - a time of outstanding activity, growth, and pride. The Solis Golden Age (named after the creation of Solis Knighthood) included new clan ideas, many active and loyal members, and opportunities for growth and betterment.

Due to his inactivity (later learning that he was hacked), Ironfist402 was unable to perform his duties as Grand Disciple for about a month. The newly formed Council of Aether held a vote to remove Ironfist402. The vote was cast 9-0 in favor of removing Iron for severe inactivity, and on March 22, Ironfist402 was removed from his position of Grand Disciple and from the clan.

On April 10, Urbansith was promoted to Grand Disciple, and his Disciple, Rebelition, became Umbra Elder. Also, Lt Gen Blez stepped down from Maris leadership and Axeman69 was promoted to Maris Elder.

Rebellion
April 2010

The clan was running smoothly for a month until Sword started gathering intelligence that some of his more loyal members might leave the clan in April. He tried as best as he could to keep the clan together, but on April 20, several of his most loyal and trusted clansmen resigned because they disagreed with Sword's leadership decisions.

For the next several days, the clan seemed to wobble a bit not knowing what would happen. Regardless, Sword managed to keep the clan in tact and continued on.

Threats from the clan that was created by these members, American Kings and Royalty, were coming during the following month. Word of their clan crashing our events and going to war were commonplace during this time. Eventually, AKAR declared war on KoA, which Sword adamantly declined.

This decision to decline war started to transform AKAR-KoA relations from hostile to becoming increasingly better. AKAR and KoA never officially allied, but many of the members who once resigned were now close allies with the clan.

On May 17, AKAR disbanded, and its leader rejoined KoA on nicer terms than when he left. Other members within AKAR left to create other clans, and these clans have had lasting friendships with KoA.

Divine Legion
April - May 2010

Due to our f2p members being inactive and the obvious barrier between the f2p knighthood and the mainly p2p clan, Elvl0 B0y created Divine Legion on April 20 to help increase KoA's f2p activity.

Sword decided that it was best for KoA's events to be completely p2p and for f2p clan members to be cross-registered with Knights of Aether and Divine Legion. This way, the f2p members get the community from KoA and everyday events from Divine Legion. Divine Legion and Knights of Aether are considered sister clans, instead of a normal alliance.

During this time, XXDiggettXX became Interim Aeris Elder due to Piracy4's inactivity and Elvl0 B0y became Interim Umbra Elder due to Rebelition's inactivity. The lack of activity from a couple elders were starting to cause Sword to think about removing them as he did earlier with Ironfist402.

Post-AKAR Golden Age and Summer
April - June 2010

A small change within the clan was starting to surface during this time - moving the CC from Sword's CC to a f2p clan account. Some people were initially opposed to this move, as it could have been a bit of a nuisance to move. However, on May 19, KoA Clan Man's CC became the official clan CC, and the move to the new CC was relatively painless.

Since the collapse of AKAR, KoA has been coasting along as a successful clan with over 100 members. The clan was even considered to be in one of it's "golden ages" because of the huge success that the clan has had. However, starting May 22, Sword became increasingly inactive during the summer time. His Grand Disciple, Urbansith, has been dealing with real life circumstances to prevent him from being on the game. Because the clan needs a leader during Sword's inactivity, Zigman32 was promoted to Interim Grand Disciple on May 26.

About a week later, on June 4, there was a considerable amount of leadership shift. First off, the 7th Council of Aether voted in a 7-0-1 vote to demote Piracy4 from Aeris Eldership in favor of promoting XXDiggettXX from Interim Aeris Elder to Aeris Elder. Next, Zigman32 was promoted from Terra Elder to Grand Disciple, so his Disciple, Kaserias, was promoted to Terra Elder. A couple days later on June 6, Nazgul Elder resigned from the clan due to personal reasons and one of his disciples, Blud KoA, was promoted to Maris Elder.

Glacis, Keravanos, and Primoris
June - July 2010

Ever since the creation of Solis and Umbra Knighthoods, thoughts and ideas about creating additional knighthoods were always floating around the clan. New knighthoods create additional leaders (Elders) and add an extra element (lawl no pun intended) to the clan.

After weeks of struggling, discussion, and at times arguments, Sword went through with the creation of two new knighthoods: Glacis Knighthood (ice) and Keravnos Knighthood (lightning). The creation of two new main knighthoods during a period of the clan's decline was a bold and frankly irreversible decision. Sword met a considerable amount of opposition to this decision, but Glacis and Keravnos knighthoods were created on June 18. Dragon Eater was promoted to Glacis Elder and KoA Jenkins was promoted to Keravnos Elder.

During the Glacis/Keravnos discussion, one clan member, Mintee Mint, thought of the idea of creating a knighthood to place all new recruits in once they join. This would allow for new members to learn about the clan together and for people to accept applicants and directly place them in a knighthood (previously, only Sword could place applicants in a knighthood and recruits would have to wait for Sword to get on to put them in a knighthood).

To continue with the Latin/Greek knighthood naming scheme, this new knighthood for recruits would be named Primoris Knighthood. New recruits would be placed in this knighthood and upon earning 5 AP, they would be placed in one of the six main knighthoods. C K80 was selected to be Primoris Elder, and he was promoted on July 7, along with the implementation of Primoris knighthood.

The Dark Ages, Part I: Decline
July - August 2010

Clan success is directly proportional to the leader's activity. Ever since the start of Sword's summer inactivity, the clan was experiencing a lull that no one could argue. The summer of Sword's inactivity is the biggest hurdle that the clan has had to overcome, and it did not come without the price of decline and clan-wide inactivity.

During the time Sword was not in-game, the two Grand Disciples - Urbansith and Zigman32 - were in charge of running the clan, CC, and events. However, for the past couple months, Urban was "moving" and wasn't heard from or seen for a considerable amount of time. Zig was going on a two-week vacation starting July 22, so there would be no one to lead the clan during the time Sword was absent. To compensate for this, Sword promoted Blud KoA to Interim Grand Disciple on July 21.

For the next week, Sword, Blud, and Council members discussed the possibility of demoting Urban because of his drastic inactivity. On July 28, the 12th Council of Aether voted in a 8-1-0 vote to demote Urbansith from his position as Grand Disciple. Shortly thereafter, Blud KoA was promoted to Grand Disciple and his Disciple, Allah72virgn, was promoted to Maris Elder. The next day, Skeezey J stepped down from his position as Ignis Elder and his disciple KoA SWAG was promoted to Ignis Elder. On August 7, Lord Diggett resigned from the clan and his disciple Alexias was promoted to Aeris Elder.

With an influx of new recruits, increased member activity, and a functional/active co-leadership, the clan was finally starting to recover from it's two-month summer recession. August 7 marked the sixth month anniversary of the creation of Knights of Aether. With the summer winding down and the clan successfully being around for six months, another period of success and prosperity was hopefully just around the corner for KoA.

The Dark Ages, Part II: Alerion
August - September 2010

Unfortunately, it wasn't. Despite the active co-leadership and new recruits, the clan just wasn't getting back to how it was before the summer. August wasn't an eventful month for KoA by any means. A few minor changes happened with PyroTek resigning from Keravnos Eldership and Kaser and Skeezey becoming the first Eruses outside of Solis Knighthood.

However, September proved to be much more eventful for KoA. First off, Mcdermitt42 was promoted to Keravnos Elder in the very beginning of the month. As the clan progressed, the veteran members were consistently disappointed with how the clan was running and how much the clan's atmosphere has changed since it's beginnings.

On September 10, Alexias (the Aeris Elder) and Allah KoA (the Maris Elder) both resigned over personal conflicts and created a new clan named Alerion. Once Alerion was created, some veteran members saw it as a preservation of the old nostalgic days of KoA. Consequently, several of the veteran members of the clan resigned and joined Alerion. This was a big "punch in the stomach" to KoA. The clan was already at a low-point in its history, and now several of the veterans - the foundation of a good clan - left.

Alerion wasn't intended to be a rebellion by any means. However, that didn't stop it from feeling like one. Because of that, KoA relations with Alerion were never officially friendly. Over the course of the next two weeks, relations were improving, but not to the point of an alliance. Things looked okay with Alerion (better than with AKAR) until on September 24, when Alerion closed down due to inactivity.

A few of the veterans that joined Alerion returned to KoA following Alerion's collapse, but a few of them parted ways with KoA forever. Unfortunately, some of those veterans will be direly missed, but the clan must continue on.

The veterans that rejoined helped with clan stability, but the clan was still suffering towards the end of September because of a plethora of new recruits and no new leaders shining through yet.

The Dark Ages Part III: Knighthood Purging
September 2010

Coinciding with the Alerion predicament, the clan was undergoing some rapid and drastic changes. First off, six moths after it's creation, on September 11, Umbra Knighthood was dissolved. The clan was a strictly p2p-functioning clan for a while now, but it took a while for Umbra to officially be removed. In order to maintain the elemental balance within the clan, Primoris Knighthood was renamed to Umbra Knighthood. However, this proved to be confusing (obviously), so it was then changed to Luna Knighthood a few days later.

Towards the end of September, Sword came to terms with the fact that Glacis and Keravnos Knighthoods would never be as great as the others. They were taking away from the original main knighthoods and because there were few veterans left, there weren't any Elders to run them. Because of those things, Sword dissolved Glacis and Keravnos Knighthoods on September 25. Mcdermitt42 was moved from Keravnos Elder to Aeris Elder after this change. Members in the two knighthoods were moved to other knighthoods.

With three knighthoods dissolved within a month and no longer taking up the clan's resources, hopefully things will start to turn around for KoA in the months to come.

Restoration
October 2010

After the chaotic month of September, the clan was ready for a month filled with improvements, structure, and activity. In early October, the clan was in dire need of a boost in its Diplomacy and Military department.

Purest KoA was elected to be Chief Diplomat on October 9, for the second time, and created several alliances and improvements to the Diplomacy department.

Blud KoA was elected to be War General also on October 9. The clan has suffering from horrible military leadership from LTG Taylor, the previous War General, so it was due time for the clan to beef up it's military. Within two weeks of being elected to War General, Blud was able to straighten out the ragged fighters, help create the rank of War Advisor, find us a worthy opponent in war, and lead the clan to victory in our first ever war.

On October 23, KoA went to war with Kingdom of Fiends. We were victorious in this war, and Purest was able to ally with KoF after the war.

Also towards the end of October, many of the members who were new recruits in September were now starting to be valuable members and potential candidates for future leadership positions.

Three events contributed to getting the clan out of its time of darkness and on the path to being the outstanding clan it was meant to be:

1. Dissolution of Umbra, Glacis, and Keravnos Knighthoods

2. Election of an active, functional, and expert Chief Diplomat and War General

3. Many loyal and active members

After four months of decline, depression, and occasionally chaos, the clan was finally improving to be the clan it once was. Not the same by any means, but definitely better than it has been.

Friends and Fights
October - December 2010

With newly active Diplomacy and Military departments, the clan was becoming better and better. More alliances were being forged. More wars were being fought and won.

The months of October, November, December, and January were filled with an explosion in the diplomatic affairs of the clan. In October, the clan allied with Kingdom of Fiends and The Knights Templar. In November, we created alliances with Dragon Knights, The Spartan Empire, The Onyx Empire, The Roman Empire, and Phoenix Legends. In December, we allied with the Kingdom of Yanille and the Kingdom of France. In January, we became allies with The Renaissance and we created a rank to coordinate events with our ten allies. Most importantly, we expanded diplomatically so much that we created a Diplomacy Thread for the clan on January 19 to be the headquarters of all diplomatic affairs and show how serious we are in the clan world.

Militarily, in the upcoming months, we won several wars, assisted our allies in times of crisis, trained our troops, and organized our military. As the War General, Blud was responsible for completely overhauling the clan's military department and organizing the fighting force of the clan. He created War Advisor and War Scout ranks to aid in war preparation and execution. The commands he created and implemented whipped the military into tip-top shape.

With this kind of growth in the clan's foreign relations, hopefully KoA's name will be known throughout the RS community.

Departments and Ministers
January 2011

With the diplomatic and militaristic departments of the clan growing at such a rapid pace, Sword decided that the other facets of the clan needed attention and a sense of uniformity across these facets needed to be achieved.

After careful discussion, on January 22, 2011, Sword implemented Departments and Ministers into the clan.

The Departments of the clan were decided upon being the Diplomacy Department, Military Department, Economy Department, and Interior Department. Each Department was led by a Minister (Minister of Diplomacy, Minister of War, Minister of Economy, and Minister of Interior) and was co-led by a Subminister, who helped run the Departments.

KoA Purest, the current Chief Diplomat, was appointed as Minister of Diplomacy. The Diplomacy Department would be the section of the clan responsible for interclan relations, alliances, and recruitment.

Blud KoA, the current War General, was appointed as Minister of War. The Military Department would be the section of the clan responsible for training, commands, wars, and battles.

Zigman32 was appointed as Minister of Economy. The Economy Department would aid in Clan Bank transactions and monitoring, and donations.

Kaserias KoA was appointed as Minister of Interior. The Interior Department would be responsible for scheduling events, taking attendance, and updating some clan archives.

With the four new Departments off to a great start, this could only bring good things to the clan. This was a huge step forward in organizing the clan and sharing authority amongst a few clan members.

Annus Golden Age and Clan Camp
February - April 2011

On February 7, 2011, Knights of Aether officially turned 1-year old. One year may not sound like much, but in clan-terms, one year is a significantly long time. Not many clans can say that they've been around for over a year. Members of KoA can proudly say that they're in a clan that's been around for a long time.

Along with the one-year anniversary of the clan, the clan also experienced the longest golden age of the clan - the Annus Golden Age lasting for approximately 5.5 months. During this golden age, the clan reached the pinnacle of activity so far for the past year.

Toward the end of the Annus Golden Age, the creation of the Clan Camp on April 12 changed the clan environment with some minor additions.

For one, the clan was able to recruit and advertise better with clan cloaks and clan vexillums, to which a design was created by Sword, Zig, and Blud. A purple background color was chosen and declared the official clan color because purple and black has been widely accepted to be the color of aether. Silver was chosen as the secondary clan color because of the regality and purity it portrayed. The two symbols chosen were the 8-pointed compass rose and the scroll. The compass rose can be interpreted in two ways: (1) how the clan will always end up heading in the correct direction and (2) the four main prongs symbolizing the main knighthoods and the four secondary prongs symbolizing the four departments in the clan. The scroll was chosen as our secondary symbol because when faced with adversities and dilemmas, the clan always reaches for diplomatic solutions before resulting to war, fighting, and violence.

Another change included the clan chat channel (CC) being separated from the friend chat channel (FC). The CC is clan-specific and would have all clan members in it, whereas the FC could be individualized per person. This change drastically shaped the clan with each knighthood now having their own FC to converse in, along with having a clan-wide CC. New ranks were implemented at this time also, which provided with more opportunities to assign CC ranks to different Imperial Ranks within the clan.

The Annus Golden Age was made up of the implementation of Medals, creation of Departments and Ministers, creation of Letum Elite, several war victories, outstanding Elders, strong Council, and most importantly active, loyal, and amazing clan members.

Social Divide
March 2011

In the beginning of March, the clan was in the midst of the Annus Golden Age. However, Sword noticed that some members were complaining about not having regular high-leveled events for clan members.

Letum Elite was created on January 22 to alleviate some of the stress caused by not having high-leveled events. However, the requirements set in place by the founders of Letum were extremely harsh and only allowed a select few to participate in the events offered by Letum. Letum ended up becoming its own little clique within the clan, which caused non-Letum members (the vast majority of the clan) to feel a social divide between the clan and Letum.

The pressures caused by this social divide caused a few flare-up situations in the months of February and March. There were several instances where Letum was close to being disbanded due to Letum members' elite attitudes and their beliefs that they were above orders and certain rules.

The social divide reached its first apex on March 28 when a couple members (Bow KoA and THC User) dishonorably resigned from the clan to create their own clan, called Silent K0ers. The members who left to join SK0 were dissatisfied with the lack of high-leveled events and started hostile actions and attitudes toward KoA.

The members of KoA treated the hostile situation that SK0 created with maturity and dignity for the most part. After Silent K0ers' hostile advances were ignored by KoA, the two clans eventually drifted away and never really interacted again.

SK0 hasn't had any official relations with KoA since their conception. Any hostilities between the two clans have all since dissolved. As of today, Silent K0ers have faded away into darkness and eventually closed down.

Letum
April - May 2011

Even with the formation of SK0, the social tensions and problems in the clan were not alleviated and continued to persist. Little did we know at the time, SK0 would be minuscule compared to the events that were about to unfold. In April, the clan was moving along and being very successful; however, the clan would be turned on its head within the happenings of a week.

On April 17, a few key members of the clan that were involved in the PvM group Letum, Pope Suicide (the member who created AKAR) and Lord Diggett (former Aeris Elder), resigned from the clan to create their new clan, called Letum Elite. The name of their clan was taken from the group within KoA, because those members grew attached to the name.

Letum preached how they desired to become allies with KoA and not enemies. Pope knew that the AKAR rebellion a year ago did not end well, and he did not want the events of that rebellion to occur again.

Despite the appearance of Letum's intentions, members of Letum were actively recruiting members of KoA to their clan, saying that KoA was on the verge of collapsing. Letum members attempted to convince valuable KoA members that they should jump ship to prevent being caught up in a collapsing clan and that the clan was doomed to fail. The biggest blow to KoA was when Arasdotle (current Maris Elder) left KoA to join Letum. After days of trying to actively recruit KoA members, Pope was caught in his lies by members of KoA. Letum then sought to pursue hostile actions toward our clan.

Even though Letum members were spreading propaganda that KoA was doomed to collapse, key members (Kas, Zig, Mcd, Blud, Rad, Baba, Nub, Atoz) stuck with KoA until the end. Luckily, the end of KoA was not in sight and the many many loyal members who stayed with KoA brought the clan back on its feet.

KoA and Letum were on the verge of outright war, but in the week after Letum was created, Pope and Diggett suddenly left their clan and left Arasdotle to lead it. Because of the friendly ties between Aras and many members of KoA, Aras steered Letum-KoA relations from hostile to closest allies. Unfortunately for us, Aras decided to close down Letum on May 17 due to his clan members not wanting an organized clan.

The Letum Revolution was similar and different to the AKAR rebellion that occurred almost exactly one year prior. The two events were different in their births and progressions, but both held similar outcomes: our clan would lose some loyal and valuable members for good.

Spring Cleaning
April - June 2011

After the Letum Revolution, the clan emerged with a significant shift in who held Imperial Ranks.

Arasdotle resigned from the clan and his position of Maris Elder on April 19 to join Letum. Immediately upon Aras's resignation, Rad KoA was promoted to Maris Elder.

H-TOWN SWAG resigned from the clan and his position of Ignis Elder on April 17. Swag quit RS shortly after he left the clan. The position remained vacant because Sword couldn't decide who to appoint as Ignis Elder.

Sword was able to narrow down the candidates for Ignis Elder to NubCake KoA and Atoz KoA. Because he couldn't make a decision, Sword deferred the power of appointing Ignis Elder to Council. The members of Council voted between who should become Ignis Elder: Nub or Atoz. The Council vote resulted in surprising results: 4 votes for Nub, 4 votes for Atoz, and 2 abstentions. The Council vote accomplished nothing and it was up to Sword again to decide who would be Ignis Elder.

The next day, C K 80 resigned from the clan and his position of Luna Elder on April 22 to join Letum. Similar to the position of Ignis Elder, the position of Luna Elder remained vacant for a few days. CK left Letum and rejoined KoA the day following his resignation.

On April 25, Sword decided that Nub would be promoted to Ignis Elder and Atoz would be promoted to Luna Elder. By this time, the clan was starting to get back on its feet and continue on, despite the events that unfolded over the past week.

Toward the middle of May, Blud, one of the Grand Disciples, had increasing inactivity. Kaserias, the Terra Elder, was promoted to Grand Disciple on June 4 in order to help Sword and Zig with leading the clan during Blud's inactivity. Baba O Riley was promoted to Terra Elder upon Kas's promotion.

Blud continued to be inactive, and he was gone from RS for the month of June and part of July. Mcdermitt42, the Aeris Elder, helped run the clan with Sword, Zig, and Kas during the late spring and early summer. This would set the stage for a shift in leadership in the upcoming month.

League of World 31, Part I
May - July 2011

Coinciding with the Letum Revolution, our clan gained a presence in World 31 diplomatic affairs. World 31 is one of the oldest RS communities, and being a part of this community would open up many diplomatic and militaristic doors for our clan. World 31 operates with land-claims, which is when clans "claim" parts of Gielinor for "roleplaying" purposes, and the League is the coalition of World 31 clans with land-claims. World 31 has a vast history all its own, but this chapter is just the first of two parts of our happenings on World 31.

Our clan entered World 31 as to assist the Orion Empire with their war against the Kingdom of Galadhrim. The Orion Empire has been our close ally since November 17, and our assistance to them in this war was invaluable to them. Because the war allowed W31 allies only, we had to claim land on W31 in order to help OE. The leader of OE, Ozz Arcane, was also the threadholder of the League, so he was trying to get us into the League to the best of his ability.

We attempted to claim the Agility Pyramid, but the community denounced that claim and we had to find other ways to gain footing into the community. Another W31 clan, The Dark Moon, was selling their land-claims and we jumped on that offer so that we could get into the League.

We purchased Waterbirth Island, Braindeath Island, the Frozen Plateau, and Void Knight Outpost from The Dark Moon on April 10. We then purchased TDM's last claim, Burthorpe, on April 15.

With our territories, we were allowed to participate in the diplomatic affairs of W31. Adopting an overall attitude of neutrality, we made several new allies with W31 clans: Bloodlines, Guardians of the Realm, Empire of Zaros, and Corrupted Warriors.

Our holdings on W31 grew over the coming months. We traded Void Knight Outpost for Trollheim with the Orion Empire on May 24, we gained Clan Camp and Castle Wars from the Spartans on July 1, and we gained Yanille from the Empire of Zaros on July 12. By August, our W31 empire was one of the largest in the League.

Although the clan population as a whole has been separated from our involvement in W31, we have been able to establish a name for ourselves to other clans on another world. Due to our members' disconnect with our W31 happenings, the overall dissatisfaction with W31 affairs, and the unnecessary frustration from the League, our clan's stay on W31 may be short-lived. However, only time will tell.

Unforeseen Growth
July - August 2011

As the summer progressed, the clan was growing larger and larger with the clan reaching 100 registered members on June 20, and 200 registered members on July 27. This growth was mainly due to two causes: (1) our close allies, Rising Forgotten, closing down and having most of their members join KoA, and (2) high levels of clan recruitment in-game and on forums.

This explosion of growth - doubling the clan size within a month - caused a complete shift in clan experience, management, and responsibilities.

With an overwhelming number of new recruits in the clan and CC, some of the veteran clan members were complaining about immaturity and a change in the clan atmosphere. This was quickly and effectively suppressed by Sword, the Grand Disciples, and the Elders. However, the atmosphere of the CC has been affected and changed ever since.

Management of the CC grew increasingly difficult due to the influx of new recruits. Before the clan's growth, the Grand Elder and Grand Disciples did most of the CC management and regulation. Doubling the clan's size called for more people to manage the CC, which forced Sword to call for Elders and Council members to step up and assist in managing discussions and arguments. The growth also caused Elders to step up - more members in their knighthoods led to more people to manage.

This explosion of clan growth also caused Council members to step up and demand changes happen in the clan. Council called for the demotion of Blud from Grand Disciple and NubCake from Ignis Elder, due to their severe inactivity over the past several months. On July 27, Council's vote to demote Blud ended because of Blud's decision to resign from his position as Grand Disciple. He wanted to focus his attention more on the clan's military and Maris Knighthood and was aware that his inactivity was hurting not only himself but the clan as well. Mcdermitt42 was immediately promoted to Grand Disciple following Blud's resignation. On August 10, Council voted in favor of demoting NubCake from Ignis Elder and MJ was immediately promoted to Ignis Elder following Council's decision.

The new, active people who were promoted to positions of high authority allowed more to get accomplished. Sword also placed more responsibilities on Grand Disciples, Elders, Ministers, and Council members as the clan grew. In the past, Sword was burdened with doing almost everything in order to keep the clan running smoothly. Now that we were much larger, Ministers took complete control of their Departments, Elders were given more autonomy with their Knighthoods, and Grand Disciples were tasked with overall clan management more than ever before. The clan changed from being a small community to being a large empire, and more people were depended upon in order for the clan to move smoothly. Responsibility is daunting, but the solid foundation of loyal clan members will prove to stabilize the clan and succeed with any responsibilities given to them.

Knighthood Pride
April - September 2011

The increased autonomy that was given to Elders after Summer 2011 growth fueled a drive for Elders to make their Knighthood distinguished from the others. The Elders took pride in the Knighthoods they governed over, and wanted to instill that pride in all members of the Knighthood.

Back in April, Arasdotle was the first Elder to be recognized as starting the Knighthood Pride movement. He was proud to be a member of Maris Knighthood and wanted to let the entire clan know of his pride for the knighthood he led. Toward the end of his reign as Maris Elder, he started to get several Maris members to join him in his sense of Marisian pride.

When Aras resigned from the clan, the new Maris Elder, Radiant Rahl, continued Maris pride. The pride that Maris showed was distinct from the other knighthoods, but the entire concept of knighthood pride was slow for the clan to embrace. The obvious spread of Maris pride was to Terra Knighthood - Baba O Riley started to counter Maris pride with pride in Terra Knighthood, which created a friendly rivalry between the two knighthoods.

Soon, knighthood pride spread to the other knighthoods within the clan, championed by the Elders. Atoz was instrumental in spreading Luna pride, reminding everyone that they would have been in Luna at one point in their clan experience. With the promotion of MJ to Ignis Elder in August 2011, he tried to kick-start Ignis pride, along with injecting activity into the least-active knighthood in the clan (suffering from inactivity since Skeezey stepped down in July 2010). Aeris was the last knighthood to visibly catch onto knighthood pride, with Purest Telum and 2Good4Awsome (Aeris Disciple) pioneering Aeris pride.

In the upcoming months since Maris championed it, knighthood pride would spread like wildfire in the clan and end up changing the entire clan experience. Over Spring and Summer 2011, knighthood pride would be a strong force in the clan experience. It served the purpose of creating friendly rivalries and strengthening knighthood connections, but it also served to somewhat isolate the knighthoods from one another (knighthood-specific friend chat channels exemplifying this). In the end, the six knighthoods can have as much rivalries and pride as they want to, but we must all unite under one clan banner.

Imperial Golden Age
July - September 2011

With an active Leadership, Elders, and Council, a golden age in the Summer and Early Fall of 2011 was evident.

During the Imperial Golden Age, new people were appointed to various ranks to add fresh new ideas. On July 16, Weez was promoted to the position of Minister of Diplomacy. She brought extreme activity and organization to the Diplomacy Department and the clan made many allies during her time as Minister of Diplomacy. In August, Kaserias was appointed to the position of Minister of War, and led the clan to several victories and attempted to reorganize the clan's Military Department. In August, Sword and Council decided to create the Security Department, which would be in charge of espionage, activity sweeps, and checking for rule-breaking in the clan. Mcdermitt42 was unanimously appointed as the first Minister of Security to ensure that the new Department got off to a good start.

In early September, MJ was unable to continue duties as Ignis Elder and Minister of Interior due to real life reasons. On September 5, Weezy was promoted to Ignis Elder from Maris Knighthood, and she added a blast of Ignis Pride and friendship with Maris Knighthood. Additionally, Clone was promoted to Minister of Interior and introduced activity in that Department.

Because of all of the autonomy that was given to knighthoods, the Elders decided on making new ranks within their own knighthoods. Atoz created Luna Advisors with the purpose of advising him on matters relating to Luna leadership and to figure out overall satisfaction with Luna Knighthood. A few weeks later, the main knighthood Elders also created Advisor ranks within their knighthoods, but the functions of these Advisors were looser and less defined than the Luna Advisors.

To recognize the hard work that all of the clan members were putting into the clan to create this time of growth, Council awarded 57 Medals to various individuals over the course of the Imperial Golden Age. Sword believed that the clan's system of Medals was underutilized, so he awarded Medals to clan members to give credit where credit was due.

The month of September marked the decline of the Imperial Golden Age with overall clan inactivity resulting from people going back to school. The fall was especially hard on Sword, for his activity had severely decreased due to real life conflicts. Due to him not being able to carry out his duties, Sword had appointed Kas as Interim Grand Elder 2-3 times, so that the clan had a main, central leader during weeks of Sword's absence. This was the first time in the clan's history that an Interim Grand Elder had been appointed, and having it happen more than once was an obvious time in the clan's history to identify the decline of the Imperial Golden Age. The Imperial Golden Age had truly ended after the Great World 31 War against the Empire of Zaros (covered more in the next Chapter).

League of World 31, Part II
July - October 2011

Late summer marked a period in the League history where the Threadholder, Ozz Arcane, was severely inactive to the point of physically being unable to uphold his duties as Threadholder. At this time, there were four major entities on World 31: Knights of Aether, Empire of Zaros, World 31 Black Knights, and the Onyx Empire. Because the Onyx Empire was led by Ozz, the Onyx Empire was considered to be dead by most of World 31 and therefore had no influence.

In August, the Empire of Zaros managed to maneuver their way into World 31 by claiming a piece of land. The leadership of EoZ was on a war path to reclaim the grandeur that they held on World 31 back in July. Toward September, EoZ was warring the majority of clans on World 31 to regain the land they once had. KoA also had decided to have various wars in the month of September.

By the middle of September, World 31 more or less had three main entities trying to direct a dying League: Knights of Aether, Empire of Zaros, and the World 31 Black Knights. EoZ and the BK had a strong alliance with each other, and their leadership sunk to the levels of flaming, trolling, and outright disrespect. The several smaller clans of World 31 looked to KoA as the strongest clan to take the League back from the oppression that EoZ and BK were trying to impose on the League.

However, one of the steps to get EoZ back to its former glory was to war KoA. In the week-long preparation of the war between EoZ and KoA, it was discussed within the Military Department on how to get through this war. World 31 has had a long record of cheating and deceit, so the Military leadership (Kas and Rad) wanted to have backup allies to call in during the war to ensure our victory if EoZ cheated first. However, Sword wanted to keep KoA's name clean on World 31 and show that regardless of what the clan faced, KoA would not stoop to cheating. Sword and Kas agreed that there was no way the clan could pull off a win against EoZ; EoZ was a 100+ clan with 200+ members, whereas KoA was a 70+ clan with 200+ members. The clan was staring defeat in the face, but we moved forward with dignity and as best we could.

On September 25, two W31 giants clashed in what KoA will remember as The Great War of World 31. KoA held its own during the war, but EoZ was just so much more powerful than KoA. We walked away from the war with a defeat, but most importantly we walked away more mature and dignified than EoZ. The clan lost Waterbirth Island and Dragontooth Island to EoZ after the war, and EoZ went on to war other W31 clans afterwards.

A week before the war, Sword and Rad agreed on leaving World 31 because the League was falling apart and World 31 was causing more stress than benefits. However, the Great War of World 31 prevented us from leaving World 31. After the war, we developed an escape plan, but we couldn't leave too soon after the war for EoZ would claim that they drove us from W31, which was untrue.

On October 7, we withdrew from the League of World 31 because of the League's decline, EoZ/BK oppression, and the stress it was causing the clan's leadership and Diplomacy leadership. The League struggled to survive in the coming days with EoZ/BK oppression directing it and the BK attempting to gain control of the League. All of the other clans on World 31 left the League to let Eoz and BK to lead themselves. With no one in the League beside the two overbearing clans, the League imploded and Ozz declared the League dead on October 17. KoA managed to leave the League at the most opportunistic time, holding our heads high as we leave and being a respectable, mature clan upon our departure, which is all Sword could have asked for at this point.

Our 5-month stay on World 31 had its ups, downs, benefits, and detriments, but regardless of what happened on World 31, KoA walked away with an enriching experience and many lessons to look back on and learn from. The League of World 31 was not by any means our most important undertaking in our history, but nonetheless it was influential and would make its marks in our clan history.

Dawn of Maris
October - November 2011

With the end of the Imperial Golden Age occurring due to Sword's severe inactivity and punctuated by our loss against the Empire of Zaros, the clan atmosphere was beginning to become dampened. The culmination of leadership inactivity and knighthood pride caused people to form knighthood cliques and for people to forge much closer friendships within their knighthoods than with the clan as a whole. With the sheer size of the clan, the knighthoods started to feel a sense of difference from each other more than a sense of similarity by being in the same clan.

Sword's inactivity truly caused the atmosphere of the clan to change, and it was changing in a direction that members generally disliked. The members found the knighthood atmospheres to be more appealing than the varied, disconnected, watered-down atmosphere of the clan, and although that wasn't preferred, no one really complained about it.

However, with the clan resignation of Alzecha (a Council member and a clan veteran) on October 14, no one would have fathomed the events that were about to unfold in the clan. Being in Maris Knighthood, Alzecha felt a strong connection with Maris Knighthood and the members in it. He resigned with the aspirations of being allied to the clan and creating a friend clan called "Dawn of Maris," thus creating a friendship between DoM and KoA.

What Alzecha didn't expect was that the majority of Maris Knighthood would leave KoA and join his new clan. The various active members that left with Alzecha left on their own accord because they believed that it was soon to be their time to leave the clan, but the creation of Dawn of Maris seemed to spark resignations of a few people. That spark eventually turned into a wildfire, with a total of 15 people leaving KoA to join DoM over the course of 3 weeks. Included in that list were Rad (Maris Elder), Blud (former Grand Disciple), Aras (former Maris Elder), and several other active and veteran members. Some of those people honorably left the clan, while some slunk away and left the clan without saying anything.

At first, the impact of DoM was minimal, as only around 5 people left during the initial few days. However, the exodus of active members lasted for approximately 5 weeks and was such a long, drawn out process that it took a serious toll on the clan.

Although DoM and KoA desired allied relations, any alliance between the two clans was placed on the back burner, because both clans were focused on building/rebuilding. Some members of KoA viewed DoM as traitors and a general nuisance, and some members of DoM viewed KoA as a flawed clan doomed to fall. Despite what some people may have thought, Sword and Rad (a leader of DoM) kept the alliance between the two clans.

Toward the end of November, the people who would have left for DoM had already left, and the clan was starting to recover from the blow that DoM dealt us. At this time, the Ignis Elder and Minister of Diplomacy, Weezy, resigned from the clan to create her own PvM clan called Divine Rippers. About five people left KoA to join DR, and the relations between KoA and DR were immediately friendly and genuine, as Weez (as the Minister of Diplomacy) knew what damage DoM had done to the clan and she did not wish to do that. The creation of DR was also much smoother because Weez agreed upon smoothing the transitions between Ministers of Diplomacy and Ignis Elders, something that did not happen in previous resignations.

The very end of November and beginning of December marked an end to the 1.5 month-long depression that occurred after the initial creation of DoM. This time in our history marked a point where the weakening from DoM was over and the entire clan focused on moving forward and overcoming the happenings of the past 1.5 months. Dawn of Maris created a truly unique set of circumstances, as it was the first clan where the leadership of both clans tried to create an alliance right off the bat; American Kings and Royalty, Letum, and Silent K0ers were all created with overall immediate hostilities, whereas Alerion was created with immediate neutrality. This alliance posed difficult problems with KoA leadership and high-ranking members because of the hostility and distaste they felt toward DoM after the indirect damage DoM’s creation had done.

As of December 2011, the creation of Dawn of Maris, the subsequent exodus of members to that clan, and the dark times that occurred were combined as one of the worst times in KoA history. The impact from DoM shook the entire foundation of KoA and left a scar that would take much time to heal. Like with any adversity before, the members of KoA will keep going and overcome whatever stands in our way.

However, this holds true for the past, present, and future of this clan:

Outstanding, loyal, and active members are the foundation of any successful clan. Luckily for Knights of Aether, this foundation is strong enough to stand the test of time that so many other clans crumble before.

Current
And here we are now :D