Nevermore Brigade

Overview
The Nevermore Brigade was founded on July 14th 2021 by LordCrowe, who stated his goal to create and support an organization that would be known as the Knights of Nevermore, in the modern day the Brigade resides in the snowy plains of southern Gaushan in the unoriginally named Castle Nevermore

Beginnings
The first founding of the Nevermore Brigade on the 14th of July happened practically the same day as its founder LordCrowe's first time ever logging on to the server, despite his relatively new status LordCrowe pointedly said that he already had plans for a town of his own after a deluge of invite offers poured in. After saying this the nation of Elyria, and its ruler _SHS_, expressed interest in LordCrowe's town, offering land with prebuilt structures and a lump sum of money to get started as long as his town joined Elryia. LordCrowe's acceptance resulted in the founding of the town.

Tensions Arise
Almost from the beginning tensions arose between the Nevermore Brigade and its parent nation of Elyria, at that time Elyria's system of government consisted of "councilor's" made up of the leaders of its constituent towns, who voted on matters of state with _SHS_ acting as tiebreaker and ultimate speaker for the government. The newly instated Grandmaster LordCrowe was shocked to find however that when he arrived for his first council meeting that Elyria had snubbed him, leaving no seat in the council chambers for him, with one councilor sneering out that "a knightly order and their noble lapdog have no place among free people". Despite this outrage, the Grandmaster simply stood in the council room, and allowed the meeting to continue, seething internally all the while.

The Ashina Crisis
After a tumultuous and chaotic council meeting Elyria decided on a policy of aggressive defense of its home continent against the then superpowers of Ashina, Acquendavia and the Free Cities of Alathron. The first order of business under this policy the councilors decided, was Lyon, A tiny little island town only nominally tied to Ashina. The decision was made to ask Lyon to leave Ashina so as to prevent Ashina from using Lyon as a foothold on the continent, and a launchpad for further unwanted colonization. To Grandmaster LordCrowe's shock however, this "polite request" was delivered by sending the Elyrian army to march on Lyon and "request" that they leave Ashina at swordpoint. After Ashina reinforcements arrived, including the famous warrior Hargreeves, tensions seemed near a breaking point, though both sides ultimately backed down and went home, preventing a massacre. After this incident Grandmaster LordCrowe was thoroughly disgusted at how terribly the Elyrian government handled the crisis.

The Acquendavian Hypocrisy
Meanwhile, in the east, the United States of Alathron stood defiant after being given an ultimatum by Acquendavia to submit or die. After hearing about this, the Grandmaster rushed to prepare his arms and armor, as he had his doubts that the Elyrian government could resist sticking their noses in the incident. To Grandmaster LordCrowe's horror however, Elyria did indeed get involved in the USA-Acquendavia war, but in the worst possible way. Given the Elyrian's principles of freedom and the fight against oppressing superpowers the Grandmaster had assumed he would be marching to the aid of the USA, to his disgust however he later found out that Elyria had actually aided Acquendavia in crushing the USA under heel. An incompetent government Grandmaster LordCrowe could tolerate, even if he didn't like it, but a government that was both incompetent, dishonorable and hypocritical the Grandmaster could not stand for.

The Declaration
After hearing of the great hypocrisy of Elyria, Grandmaster LordCrowe declared that he would not stand for such a violation of honor and principle by any government who held his loyalty, and as such declared independence. This left the Grandmaster in a difficult situation however, as the original land occupied by the Nevermore Brigade was given to them by Elyria in return for their loyalty, and given the Elyrian's progressively larger and more unrestricted uses of brute force to solve their problems the Grandmaster feared he would be killed by the vengeful Elyrians. He was offered an out however was _SHS_ came to him and gave him a simple ultimatum: if he wanted to be free it was his choice, but Elyria did want their land back, he had one week to leave.

The Southern Migration
Faced with the choice between facing the might of Elyria alone or leaving to start anew somewhere else, the Grandmaster drafted a plan to build a castle to the south, it would be done within the week, and they would move their items and belongings their. And so construction began on Castle Nevermore, the foundations were up in a day, and the castle was complete 3 days before the deadline. The remaining days would be used to move all the collected items and gear of the Brigade to their new location.

New Friends
On the 29th of July 2021 The Nevermore Brigade was again founded, this time under the name Castle Nevermore. Immediately after this Grandmaster LordCrowe searched for new allies, concerned that Elyria would have a change of heart and sweep south to destroy him, The Southern Union was considered, but they were ultimately just too far away. The Grandmaster recieved a surprising offer that day however, from the demon of greed Devox Runehart, wary of the devilish figure but in need of aid LordCrowe accepted the demons invitation to the up and coming nation of Southeda, where the Brigade remains to this day as of time of writing

The Brigade's Purpose
Ultimately, Grandmaster LordCrowe founded the Brigade with the intent that it would work as a support base for a new organization to be dubbed the Knights of Nevermore, providing the Knights with weapons, armor, supplies and even manpower as needed. It was Grandmaster LordCrowe's hope that with their basic supply needs met by the Brigade, the Knights could focus wholly on completing the epic journeys they were designed to go on, without getting bogged down by a lack of food or a broken weapon.

The Knights Of Nevermore
The Knights of Nevermore, as imagined by their Grandmaster LordCrowe, are a knightly order tasked with "creating stories". The Knights are to keep the story of the server going, creating epic moments for themselves and other players, with the goal of ending as much boredom as possible. to facilitate this Grandmaster LordCrowe came up with the "Code Of Epics", an alternative to the usual Code of Chivalry, which all Knights must swear to uphold to join the order.

The Code Of Epics
1. Firstly and above all, you exist to create a stories, when the villains seem triumphant be a hero, when the heroes stand idle be a villain, you care not how the story ends, only that it is an epic for the ages.

2. Do not accept incompetence in yourself

3. Do not accept incompetence in others, throughout our stories heroes and villains learn lessons through their journeys, if the world is full of fools, teach them the hard way

4. Do not give in to black and white morality, the world is shades of gray, and if you stick solely to a light vs dark paradigm you will bore the world, that's not to say however that a good demon lord or white paladin is bad, simply don't overdo it.

5. Remember to distinguish needless drama from the creation of epics, we are here to cast a play on the world stage, not bicker in chat rooms and create flame wars, there will be critics, but do not get drawn into petty arguments with them.

The Coat Of Arms
The Coat of Arms of the Nevermore Brigade consists of a Raven holding a key on a gray field divided by a red line. The Raven symbolizes wit and storytelling, the Key represents possibility, the gray field represents the boring nihilistic world, the red line represents a river of blood cutting across and through the gray boredom