Well if BliXem checks in then this is kind of how "family" is:
I personally loathe many of my "extended" family members in real life. I wouldn't accept a wedding invitation from them (but I would send a gift) and I wouldn't go to any family function they held short of a funeral, but if something bad happened to them like their house burning down, getting robbed, assaulted, hospitalized, whatever ... I'd be there to help them out because that's what a family does.
I was not really into the causes of this "war" until I looked up the postings of "builder attacks" on the IRF site, I saw that you have recorded 11 attacks against your builders for a total loss of 280 and ZERO KO's. ARE YOU GUYS SERIOUSLY WHINING OVER THIS? Mors Jors hit me for 377 on a single duel and I had no problem with that ... however, as I discussed with MeanMonster and Coyote Coles both I do have a problem with the cowardly act of leaving a town just to travel back to your own town in "safety". What a coward, IMO. And I told MeanMonster at the time that I had no problem with IRF but if that's the way you guys duel as a town, then I would hold the town that welcomes him back as complicit in his actions ... he was back in your town a few hours later so that pretty much sealed the deal ... I gave about a five minute expletive laden rant in our chat rooms when I found the duplicity of your arguement ... CarolAnn was even considering dropping this "foolish" workers protection "rule" that many have adopted ... I have builders on other worlds that get dueled and I just hit back (ie - No WHINING) and the only reason I don't hit builders is because it's too easy, not a challenge to measure the mark of dueler by how many defenseless, helpless crippled people he can shoot in the back .... that's why I even stayed away from you personally on the last visit to your town (as a Character, the XP is not worth the time or effort and neither is the money).
So, let me ask you .... surely, you have more against our towns than these 11 builder duels ... don't you? Please tell me that you haven't thrown your entire alliance "under the bus" for these mere 11 duels?
Now as for being under "control" of our family, I have to ask if you've ever had one or been a part of one where everyone was always "under control". You've never gone against the wishes or instructions of your parents? EVER? Nor have any of your siblings .... EVER? And of course you've never had a cousin, Uncle, Aunt, Grandparent or anyone else in the family that has gone against the family "rules"? No traffic tickets, no assaults, no divorces, no convicted felons .... everyone is perfect in your world? Well we're managing a "family" of 25 towns and over 500 people and for the most part they are good playing members but we do have bad fish in our pond too. Sometimes they are shoppers, sometimes they don't understand the rules, sometimes they just don't care about rules (Hell, I've been hit three times in W11 by my own alliance members so I know there are people who can't read English or understand and follow simple rules) and sometimes they are just "rogue" players who enjoy causing problems (read the threads about people who don't like alliances and want to bring them down, you don't think someone who is anti-alliance could intentionally disrupt the game). But our organization has a "chain of command" and I haven't received any details of systematic builder attacks against your alliance (I don't consider 11 duels between December 31st and February 26th to be a pattern of behavior especially when there were NO KO's, very little money was taken and there is only one instance of a Shadow member making more than one attack on the same day - February 4th by Reckless). Let me know if your data is incomplete, I really am interested to see if there is truly a problem and if there is then we will do more than send out a request to not duel builders in the future (After this whole war thingy runs its course).
Tracker John, Ambassador and Marshall of Shadow Town Empire (Assistant to the Alliance founder, CarolAnn)