Wolf359 wrote:A brief (and by no means complete) SGW history.... (from my perspective, of course):
The 1st Age (The Race Wars)Back then it was very much Tauri/Asgard Vs Goauld/Replicators and it was extremely rare for alliances to have mixed membership of all 4 races. This time saw 2 major powers in the game' The Order of Chaos (predominantly Goa'uld with a smattering of Replicator) and the TA/EPA Alliance (Tauri & Asgard + the odd Tok'ra). There were other groups (who could forget the Spymasters?) but these two were by far the most vocal in the forum, and most active in-game with many battles being fought. This era came to an end pretty soon after the EPA Vs The Order war (a titanic war even by today's standards!).
During the 1st Age, the galaxy was ruled initially by the Goa'uld, but slowly the Tauri loosened their grip on power and began to dominate, while all the time, the Asgard kept building unbeatable defences, knowing that their time to rule was coming.
The 2nd Age (Emergence)The '2nd Age' saw more alliances opening up membership to all races, the EPA in fact being probably the last of the major alliances at the time to do so. By this time, many of the old powers had disappeared/subsided (The Order of Chaos was all but gone, and the TA had been abandoned by its leadership), but newer powers were emerging, such as The Dark Dominium, Unseen Threat (UTA), Crystal Force, and the Omega Allegiance. During this age, Omega formed alliances with both the UTA and EPA. A relatively short and peaceful era, from which the 3rd Age emerged....
The 3rd Age (A Grand Domination)The Grand Alliance (GA), made up initially of a coalition of alliances which included the EPA, Omega and UTA (and subsequently their sister alliances - TSA/Visible Threat/Alpha), dominated what I would call the '3rd Age of SGW'. These 3 alliances formed the main power in the game and remained largely unchallenged. The coalition was temporarily reduced to Omega/EPA as UTA decided to leave the coalition, taking Visible Threat with them. Ancient Brethren (AB) were soon drafted in to replace them, while UTA went off to form what would become The Liberum Coalition (TLC).
Tensions mounted between these two great super-powers until EPA Intelligence uncovered plans that TLC were planning an attack against the GA. With the timescale for the attack known, the GA launched a pre-emptive strike, launching the two sides into war.
The GA emerged victorious, only to find a new power was rising in the shape of Crystal Force (CF).
For the first time, the GA decided to expand beyond the range of its 3 core alliances (EPA/Omega/AB) and the DirtyDozen were added to the coalition. They brought with them their own sister alliance, D12. The GA was now effectively 8 alliances (4 main, 4 sister) and many see this as teh beginning of the end for the GA, as some of its member alliances began expanding independently outside of the GA - most notably Omega and EPA, who had created Omega System Lords and 359 Company respectively; the formation of 359 Company effectively being the birth of the EPA Confederacy (EPAC).
Eventually war broke out between the GA and CF (who by this time were comprised of many alliances (divisions) - CF Elite/Cf Div 1/CF Div 2/ CF Div 3/CF OCS - despite the fact that CF were negotiating peace with many GA members at the time. How the war started is debated, but from this perspective it seemed that CF attacked Omega Allegiance before also launching an attack against the EPA (having just resigned a Non Aggression Pact 2 days earlier). CF were not alone in the war, and had the aid of the TA and TCW, as well as a number of notable lone wolves such as nuto vixen and Huxley. Collectively they became known as 'The Faction' and the war became known as the GA v The Faction war.
The GA also had assistance from elsewhere during this war - the DARK DOMINIUM EMPIRE fought well and was admitted to the GA, as was 359 Company. Another EPAC alliance, Sine Pari Militia, also fought against the Faction, and their was further assistance from Warlords of Briton (whom were added to the EPAC afterwards in recognition of their loyalty).
Once again, the GA emerged as teh victors, further cementing their domination of the SGW universe. However, GA ranks were now swelling, their was a lot of internal unrest, and some bright spark decided that all sister alliances of GA member alliances should not be attacked. This meant that the following were no longer open to attack from GA members:
EPA (GA/EPAC)
TSA (GA/EPAC)
359 Company (GA/EPAC)
SPM (EPAC) (subsequently disbanded)
The_Hive (EPAC)
Warlords of Briton (EPAC)
Bad Wolf Project (EPAC) (added later in recognition of loyalty during battle)
Omega Allegiance (GA/Omega Empire (OE))
Alpha Allegiance (GA/OE)
FAHQ (OE)
Omega System Lords (OE)
Ancient Brethren (GA)
Disciples of the Brethren (GA)
DirtyDozen (GA)
D12 (GA)
Dark Dominium Empire (GA/DDE)
Dark Dominium II (GA/DDE)
(I may have missed some)
That's 17 alliances in total that were considered off-limits.
There became lots of internal squabbling about members being attacked, officers being attacked, and their was pressure on some alliance leaderships to break away from the GA.
All that became inconsequential as approximately 1 year (real time

)after it was formed, the GA was effectively dissolved when Omega, DirtyDozen and DDE broke away to form the Coalition of Paragons (CoP). At this time the EPAC was also offered membership on teh condition that their current membership was reduced/alliances removed. This offer was not accepted.
The 4th Age (??????)Has only just begun, but has been extremely active, with a multitude of wars involving the EPAC against Omega, Alpha and DDE, starting (and finishing) with the EPA V Omega war, which i'm sure anyone who has visited these forums recently knows about!
What happens next? The page is blank for all you potential authors out there.....