Greetings, sea dogs and rapscallions!

Today the British people have voted in favour of an amendment to our charter. It concerns the British Empire’s PvP regulation and is thus important for every crew to see.

Article IV – Raiding and War

Citizens of the Empire may engage any player whose crew has not signed a Non-Aggression Pact (NAP) or other non-aggression treaty with the British Empire. Crews which have signed such treaties with the BE are considered allies and may not be targeted for player versus player combat (PvP) without their consent unless in defence. Likewise, no citizen may engage another member of the Empire without their consent unless in defence. Individual players and groups of players who act physically aggressively, regardless of nationality, may be immediately targeted for retribution.

Put simply: If your crew doesn’t have a non-aggression pact with the British Empire (BE), our folks will be allowed to fight you.

BE therefore cordially invites all her allies to sign a binding non-aggression treaty which can be found HERE. If you are not friends with us, but would like to avoid any future conflicts, we ask of you to do the same.

Undoubtedly, many of you will be asking yourselves: Why has BE decided to implement such a change? For this reason we have prepared a short Q&A session which should hopefully put your thoughts to rest. Please feel free to pose any questions you may have in this very thread.

Q1) Why is BE changing its charter?

Over the years our crew has grown experienced in the ways of Piratecraft. We have fought in many wars and we have accomplished many feats. We have also enjoyed a very large population of crew members in our time. BE generally maintains good relationships with those who have left for greener pastures – even months after their departure. What interests us is the reason why some people decide to leave in the first place. The answer, coming from the majority, is that they are unable to pursue their PvP interests. While BE does not support the raiding of innocent, peaceful players, we do recognise that duelling and raiding is a valid reason to play on the server. To a certain degree we are willing to accommodate that.

The second reason is to render defence somewhat less complicated. Up until now our charter has not permitted us to retaliate until first blood has been shed. Now citizens of the Empire may act preemptively against presumed hostiles. We will maintain lists of crews who we are friendly with on various channels. This is less time consuming than keeping individual kill on sight recordings up to date.

Q2) Is BE now a pirate crew?

No. Since her founding in early 2015, BE has always sought to pursue neutral to friendly relations with all non-hostile crews. This treaty does not change our core values. What it changes is our definition of a “non-hostile” crew. In our reckoning, any crew who wishes to be friendly with BE should be willing to sign a non-aggression treaty with us. Any crew who refuses is basically saying that they would attack us if they got the chance.

Q3) What happens if an allied crew member breaks the treaty?

Same thing as what happens with any treaty. If the ally is serious, there will be appropriate consequences. If not, there is no reason why BE should sign any future non-aggression treaty with them.

Q4) Will I now be attacked by BE PvPers?

Not if you sign a simple Non-Aggression Pact with us. If you’re a one-man (or lady) crew, we’ll even consider making a personal treaty with you. Also, we discourage our citizens from raiding players with a peaceful reputation. If you do not belong to this group, there is the possibility that you will be raided.