Metahistory (Merveilles des Morte)

 

The following is an out-of-character, meta page explaining the history and thought process behind the writing of the Merveilles des Morte timeline, often called “Morte” for short. This page attempts to document the creation and development of the timeline in a neutral manner, and should not be viewed as, or used as, a slight against any of the users mentioned.

History

Background (2019–2020)

The impetus for creating Merveilles des Morte was born out of the similarly named map game Merveilles du Monde (abbreviated to MDM), which began on 8 October 2019. In mid April 2020, several new players joined the map game in quick succession after being invited by users Nathan1123 and Emaliay, many of whom would later become founders of Morte. Emaliay, who had demonstrated quality work in the creation of pages such as Derigi Empire (Origo Mundi), and was a regular on the Conworlds Wiki prior to this, was asked by Nathan to become a deputy moderator of MDM. Specifically, Emaliay was knowledgeable about Central European history and was a mapmaker, and so was tasked with creating a more accurate map of the German region, and to create and moderate the game’s “mod events” and occurrences relating to that region. Emaliay subsequently advertised the game on other servers, causing a surge of activity.

Among the new players who joined the wiki in April were Javants03, Nathanadrian, T0oxi22, and Renereve, while wiki regulars such as Firesofdoom also joined. The uptick in new players, as well as the relative closeness of their signups (mostly in the Holy Roman Empire), caused alarm among the playerbase. Fearing that these players were conspiring together to break the mechanics of the game, they were asked to switch nations in some cases, and were closely monitored. Emaliay displayed a tentative interest in joining the game, but instead elected to be a deputy moderator solely and forfeited the right to play. Of these new users that did play, they had no prior experience with map games or the typical conventions of the wiki, leading to creative but often polarizing early map game turns. As Thuringia, Nathanadrian posted several turns that were written in a first person narrative with little regard for the engineering of Thuringia itself, which caused confusion and criticism for their length from more experienced players. However, his 1480 turn would later be awarded a Multiverse Award for Map Game Turn of the Year.

These users in Central Europe, collectively known as the “New Users”, initially attempted to ingratiate themselves to the wider community, despite a general atmosphere of mistrust remaining. To this end they created concepts such as the King of Switzerland competition, a roleplaying adventure which attracted non-New Users participation. However, any comradery developing quickly reversed in the game’s 1484 turn, in which Bavaria (played by Firesofdoom) attacked the Swiss Confederacy. This developed into a conflict that attracted most of the New Users to join against the Swiss. Fearing that this was evidence of the previously mentioned conspiracy to break the game, or to slowly eliminate the established playerbase for nefarious purposes, a coalition of older players formed on the side of the Swiss. The formation of the majority of non-New Users into an opposing bloc ironically pushed the New Users into an alliance of their own, and because of out-of-character disdain and mistrust, this would quickly galvanize the players of the game into these two camps.

The Swiss ultimately lost this conflict, causing further disdain against the New Users. As the wiki has/had a long history of dealing with a bloc of trolls led by the infamous user Mscoree, known as the “Cronies”, as well as a history of paranoia related to spotting his many sockpuppets and accomplices, parallels were drawn between the New Users and the Cronies, with some going so far as to argue that the New Users were in fact the Cronies/Mscoree. These claims were investigated by the TSPTF but determined to be uncredible, but nonetheless the claim and misinformation pertaining to it was spread among the MDM playerbase. Therefore, the fact that the moderators, namely Nathan, were not taking disciplinary action against the New Users was seen as if he was apathetic to the Cronies themselves. This caused widespread disrespect and disobedience toward the moderators, especially Nathan, which gradually eroded authority within the map game.

At the conclusion of the Swiss war, the players who had backed the Swiss, joined by other older players, spontaneously formed a petition. This petition called for the war to be reversed, for harsher punitive action against the New Users or their nations, and for other restrictions placed against them, both within and outside the game. Collectively known as the Petitioners, this group demanded these changes or they would quit the game en masse; although the war was not reversed, the moderators conceded to many of their points.

An “Us vs. Them” dichotomy formed, as the rest of the playerbase became sharply opposed to the actions or participation of the New Users in the game. Although the New Users’ alliance often broke up or fought amongst themselves, and it became clear the theory that they would systematically wipe out every other nation was unfounded, they still often cooperated between each other due to the fact that the rest of the game refused to.

The juvenility and competitive nature of the map game contributed to toxic behavior arising; the New Users became constantly harassed by older players, especially in chat. This was compounded by the fact that many of the New Users were members of the LGBT community, leading to some using homophobic or transphobic rhetoric or insults against them to strike a more personal chord. Many older users acted out from a belief that the game would be destroyed anyway, leading to some being temporarily suspended from the game due to bad behavior, however, most remained unsuspended. When Renereve was attacked on chat with a series of homophobic slurs, his attacker was banned from the now defunct wikia live chat (but not the wiki or discord) for one week. Conversely, Renereve was banned from the game around the same time. This inflamed player relations, as the New Users decried that the homophobic attacks had essentially gone unpunished, while the victim in the situation had been more severely punished than the attacker.

The New Users’ unorthodox playstyle and controversial in-game ideas, paired with their higher rate of scrutiny received, led to constant condemnation of their nations, suspensions, and arguments with the moderators. Nathanadrian would be responsible for creating the ATL Protestant Reformation in the game, causing the two blocs of users to take on a religious angle, and causing him to receive criticism for his religious developments. This led to frequent suspensions for such things as his nation’s coat of arms, his turns, and his plans. At the demand of the older players, suspensions were given out frequently and impulsively, with many being reversed upon further consideration. This led to the moderators receiving a reputation of being indecisive, and the New Users being accused of fighting against any and all consequences, or of being pampered.

MDM continued until the in-game year of 1560, or until about 4 July 2020, at which point it ended. By this time the game was highly polarized and unfun to both blocs, and was becoming inactive regardless due to players quitting. Although some of the New Users were still members of the game by this point, many others had been banned. On 23 June the moderators decided to permanently ban Renereve (who played as France) from MDM. This was not because of any particular action, but because cumulatively moderating France was becoming too controversial or tedious. This action caused outrage, and numerous players splintered off to form a new map game, which later evolved into Magna est bellum. In the server for this new game, T0oxi22 expressed flippant anger at the state of MDM, but this was witnessed by the moderators of the game, and it was decided that she would be permanently banned as well soon after Rene. Banning these players did little to turn the state of the game around, and dissatisfied with the state of affairs, on 4 July Nathan resigned as moderator. As he was considered the leading moderator and the game’s lynchpin, this effectively ended the game.

That June, T0oxi22 created a new page, originally styled as a map game, which was envisioned as “a version of MDM where we collaboratively write the history and do it more plausibly … The sudden banning or bullying-out of several users resulted in an ASB map game where things sharply fell apart due to lack of players, this timeline explores what should have happened”. However, this page was quickly deleted and T0oxi22 was banned from the wiki for one week, with it being argued that the page was “trolling”.

Formation

On 26 June 2020 the Merveilles des Morte page was created by Javants03. The title and style of the page was inspired by the previous attempt made by T0oxi22, but through negotiation with the TSPTF the page was allowed to stay, as it was made clear that the page was not an attempt at trolling, but was a legitimate timeline. It was brought up that several users had been banned from MDM, but had contributed pages to the wiki for their nations; they could move their work into Morte and thus be able to edit their own pages again. Additionally, the timeline received the backing of influential MDM members, such as Nathan, and was carefully written to be as neutral and non-inflammatory as possible. Crim would state, “I think this is a fair compromise”. It’s opening statement was:

Welcome to Merveilles des Morte, a community timeline based on the Merveilles du Monde Map Game created by TheCrimsonOracle, in which an alternate timeline is explored. In map games the comings and goings of players makes for a unique experience in which different nations rise and fall, and this timeline seeks to explore one such possibility of if things had gone differently, primarily from the mid sixteenth century onward. This timeline is not in opposition to canonical MDM, but rather a what if scenario based on the lore already established by the game. This timeline also seeks to emulate the plausibility of MDM prior to the point of divergence, and as such no revenge-seeking, extensions of in-game feuds, nation wanks, harassing or bullying of past or present MDM players, or disregard for background information from the game will be allowed.

As such, Morte was originally envisioned as a version of MDM, however, after MDM ended, and it became likely that Morte could be interpreted as the continuation or legacy of MDM, this caused controversy and was reversed. The founders of Morte would gradually reverse any ties to MDM, especially as some former players asked them to not use their MDM ideas in the timeline. It also became clear, as the Morte members began to investigate the past events of MDM, that they were not pleased or in interested in the MDM history, causing Morte to take less inspiration or influence from MDM, and to overhaul the timeline such that it could no longer be interpreted as a version of MDM. As Morte was founded by a New User, it quickly attracted the other New Users, but also generally attracted people either annoyed at the MDM map game, or simply interested in creating pages for a timeline version.

In the final days of MDM and immediately after, Morte remained controversial and was derided by those who continued to support MDM or the anti-New User group. Although Crim initially showed interest in contributing to Morte, he reversed course. It was feared by the anti-New User group that Morte was just a vehicle for the New Users to create a biased version of MDM in which they were successful and unchallenged, while others had reservations that it would cause theft of work from MDM to Morte, which the members assured was not the case. Most uncritically was the belief that Morte was a “troll timeline”, either not worthy of respect, or solely as a means to insult or upset people. However, the members of Morte showed serious interest in a timeline and attempted to disprove these claims.

By the end of June, Morte had 16 members officially signed up, and a few dozen pages, of which about 25 had been previous MDM pages converted to Morte pages by their original authors. The timeline also received the blessing of some established writers and TSPTF members, such as Nathan and Vandenhoek, raising its legitimacy. Some of the first original pages to be made post-creation of Morte would be the War of the Three Henrys and the Amiens War, which showcased neutrality and creativity, especially compared to the relevant events in MDM—the Amiens War imagined a more interesting war involving France, whereas in MDM the banning of Rene had caused France to become stagnant due to inactivity, and its war was undeveloped by comparison. These pages helped convert New User-skeptics such as Solace, into Morte members and advocates. Those still opposed to Morte popularized the phrase “troll containment” or “go to containment” when talking about Morte, as a way of dismissing its members as trolls, and Morte as their distraction. The most zealous anti-Morte advocates still demanded that Morte be deleted and campaigned toward this goal, however, debates in the TSPTF ruled against this.

Golden Age (July – December 2020)

Although arguments broke out regarding Morte in early July, spurred on by the now pressing realization that MDM would end, after this period fighting subsided. This began a period of rapid expansion, nicknamed the “Golden Age”, as timeline members worked hard to prove themselves, and to prove the timeline was not a “troll timeline”. On 27 June Javants03 advertised Morte for the first time on the Althistory discord server, and by 19 July he posted the timeline to the community timelines channel, stating that by this time the timeline sported almost 100 pages/items. On 29 October, Nathanadrian added Morte to the new directory channel of Althistory, although it was later unpinned from the directory. The mention of Morte in chat often caused a visceral reaction from those opposed to it, leading to public harrying that Morte was a “troll timeline”, a “shitpost”, and worthy of deletion. As such, discussion of Morte on Althistory diminished and became confined to its own server. Additionally, Morte pages suffered occasional vandalism or were marked as biased.

During this period pages were most often created regarding Central Europe, as that was the speciality of many of the timeline’s early members. Pages such as the Forty Years’ War and the Rätian Union would be created during this time, which became two of the timeline’s most celebrated pages. Development in general was spearheaded by Javants03 and Nathanadrian, who remained the most active members of the Golden Age, while Marrybore became one of the chief makers of ruler pages. After being dismissed as “fanfiction”, the members of Morte decided to formally abandon any ties to MDM in November 2020, although a courtesy nod to MDM would remain on the portal page of Morte into 2021. Because of frequent threats that Morte would be deleted, the timeline was also ported to the Conworlds Wiki on 3 September 2020, and would continue to be hosted there in parallel to Althistory.

In December 2020 Morte received praise at the 2021 Stirling Awards, with pages being nominated in numerous categories. On 30 December Emaliay and T0oxi22 were permanently banned from the wiki, and a few days later three other Morte members, including Javants03 and Nathanadrian, were also permanently banned. These bans would be highly controversial and led to a number of arguments around the new year, as well as into 2021, as the banned members maintained that they were innocent, and received backing from other users. The tangible effects of these bans were that Morte’s golden age came to an abrupt halt. It was feared the timeline would be deleted, and critics of Morte were also vindicated as the writers of the “troll timeline” had been banned as “trolls”. Morte’s lead in most Stirling Award categories was reversed by the deletion of these five users' votes.

Dark Age (January – May 2021)

Morte entered into a dark age of inactivity, as its principal writers and overseers had been banned. Although many members remained unbanned, most were hesitant to edit out of fear of being targetted or banned, and generally suffered from leaderlessness. Writers in general became highly demoralized by the state of affairs. As a result, almost no edits were made to Morte for the first four months of 2021. Behind the scenes the banned users attempted to have their ban lifted to no avail, causing Javants03 to disappear from the wiki community, and Nathanadrian’s interest to fall as well. Both Emaliay and T0oxi22 remained active in unofficial althistory servers and in Conworlds, becoming active contributors and respected users there (T0oxi22 would later be promoted to admin of Conworlds).

Silver Age (Summer 2021)

By the spring of 2021 paranoia surrounding the bannings had begun to subside. After being persuaded by other non-Morte and high ranking members of the wiki, T0oxi22 regained a tentative interest in Morte again. Although she had been only minorly involved in the Golden Age development of Morte and its page creation, with the disappearance of Javants03, she became the leading champion of reviving the timeline. Receiving assurances that such a thing was allowed, T0oxi22 and other banned users began quietly writing Morte pages off-wiki (often in Google docs), which members of the timeline could add to and post to the wiki. On 29 April 2021 T0oxi22 would make an announcement on the dilapidated MDM server, stating intentions to revive Morte.

As contributions began to quietly increase, other users who had not been banned began to become active contributors once more. Among the most prolific unbanned users were Renereve, who focused on European nations and ruler pages, and Kuupik, who focused on North American articles. The increase in contributions was also noticed by non-members, with some choosing to join the timeline for the first time. Pages such as Vinland by Kuupik expanded the realm of Morte outside of Europe, catalyzing a dimension of the timeline focusing on Native American culture and Kolumbian history. On 22 July Vandenhoek posted Oasisamerica, expanding the world of Morte to the other side of the continent. Both of these pages captivated onlookers, and members of the Althistory discord began to widely circulate work created by the banned users, helping to improve the reputation of Morte and the plight of the banned users further. On 20 May Kuupik catalyzed a walkout from 1983: Doomsday, arguing that it was unfair to patronize a timeline informally led by the admin who had wrongfully banned his Morte compatriots.

During this period, T0oxi22 created works such as Naðúnsaga and Nathan, Duke of Saxe-Lochau, which became standout narratives of the timeline. Emaliay refined the making of family tree charts, and began making numerous charts for the timeline’s dynasties, and also spearheaded work on flags and emblems. Nathanadrian sporadically returned and worked with Renereve to create pages such as Danish Intervention in the Forty Years’ War, and expanded European history into the Seventeenth Century. In September Nathan created the page for Religion, while in November Solace created the Byzantine Empire, and they both quickly became two of the largest pages in the timeline

In June 2021 several new pages were spotted that seemed inspired from Morte pages, which was seen as a sign of growing appreciation. Debate also ensued about whether or not Morte’s title was grammatically accurate, with it being claimed that Morte had been intentionally named that way. Comradery among the members of Morte developed outside official channels of Althistory, creating new memes and inside jokes, such as “AGILE meetings”. In total the timeline would grow from about 200 pages to 350 pages between May and July 2021.

The Silver Age saw a reevaluation of MDM and its legacy on the wiki, not only in the form of Morte writers taking less influence from MDM, but among non-Morte members. It became more widely accepted that behavior in MDM against the New Users (and in general) was unacceptable, and the reputation of the New Users was rehabilitated. Several users would speak out against the harassment and homophobic behavior that had been prevalent, catalyzing Althistory discord to crack down more harshly against such behavior. During this time numerous fervent anti-New User people came around to the New Users and apologized for their past belligerence, stating that they were wrong about Morte, and gradually the movement in favor of the New Users and unbanning them grew, attracting pro-New User and former anti-New User alike.

In an act of reconciliation, several high profile Petitioners joined or expressed interest in joining Morte, and joined the outcry demanding unbannings. The growth of Morte in spite of the bans, especially in attracting new contributors, and its continued striving for neutrality and fairness, convinced many that Morte was in fact not a “troll timeline”, as exemplified by Crim stating on 4 September, “Morte has really come into its own as of late”. A cult following emerged surrounding the timeline among frequenters of Althistory’s discord. Additionally, all throughout 2021 work was being done, primarily by Vandenhoek and Nathan, to exonerate the New Users to the rest of the TSPTF.

Bronze Age (November 2021 – March 2022)

On 21 November the five users banned the previous year were unbanned, as it was proven that they had been innocent, and the TSPTF was convinced they were not trolls or the Mscoree Cronies after all. This was the culmination of much advocating from New User supporters, and was by this time largely uncontroversial. This unbanning went without official announcement, but some New Users gradually rejoined the Althistory discord, although others would not reingratiate themselves. The New Users gradually reconciled with the admins who had banned them, who now showed remorse for the actions of late 2020. The unbannings also spurred a large round of activity, as previously unbanned users began frequently editing again, and Morte grew to about 450 pages by the end of the year.

In December the Multiverse Awards were created, and with Morte being at the forefront of people’s minds due to recent events, the timeline and its writers received numerous nominations. In a reversal of the previous years’ misfortune, Morte was awarded Timeline of the Year. Morte was also recognized for its high concentration of large pages, with data collected at the end of the year showing it sported an average byte count of 12,000 bytes per page.

On 22 February 2022 the timeline was nominated as a Featured timeline, and would unanimously pass two weeks later, making Morte officially a featured timeline on 9 March.

Future (2022 onward)

Since becoming a featured timeline, development on Morte has steadily continued, although the timeline experienced a dip in activity in the spring of 2022. This can be attributed to many of its users moving on temporarily to leading new projects, work on other wikis, and a general sense of disinterest on account of accomplishment of Morte’s initial goals. However, discussion regarding the timeline remains active and plans continue to develop.