This is the chain of events as I know it. I promise that I will not change, exaggerate or distort details of it.
- REPO and HEROES had an agreement to do WWs together. I believe the deal was made between BaronGreenback and Markovuk. I don't believe they went into specific details, but there was an agreement. I'm not sure when it was made, but presumably after both alliances were no longer pacted to Thermopylae.
- Partway through the coalition, HEROES approached Atlantis to suggest a merge. The idea was to set up 1 main branch alliance and 1 academy, in preparation for the WW stage when it came around. These teams would remain part of the coalition, and relationships with other coalition alliances would not change.
- A few days after the agreement was made, Atlantis was informed that REPO and HEROES had a longer-standing deal, and that REPO would be joining forces with us for WWs. We were not specifically told who would merge into who, I believe, but it was implied by HEROES that REPO would merge their best players into HEROES, and that HEROES would be the WW branch.
- Several weeks later (maybe a month, I am not completely sure), REPO and HEROES decided to include Carpe Diem in the WW group. This was partially due to the way Imperium leadership had been acting towards Evanescent within the council. Atlantis was not asked for its opinion on whether CD should be included in the team, and only found out later that day, after it had apparently been agreed that CD would be included.
- There was a fair bit of heated debate at that point, partially due to the fact that Atlantis was disappointed at being left out of a major decision that involved them. It was decided to go back to the drawing board between REPO, HEROES and Atlantis, and sort out a new agreement that everyone agreed on. Again, there was no intention to break up the coalition or change stance with any other coalition alliance at the time.
- At some point in preparing for the new set of talks, there was a disagreement between REPO and HEROES. Each side believed that the other would merge into their own team for World Wonders. Neither side was willing to back down on the issue. There were a few attacks on each side, and war almost started. Apparently REPO attempted to reopen negotiations of some sort with HEROES, in order to patch it over, and there was definitely a ceasefire for a while. The HEROES diplomat claims that there was not a proper offer to reopen negotiations. Either way, there were no more negotiations between REPO and HEROES, and the relationship between the two was severed. I never did see concrete evidence for either side as to who was meant to merge into the other, and I suspect that each side just assumed it would be the other alliance merging into them.
- Atlantis had to make a choice between sides. Given that we had a significant amount of overlapping territory with HEROES, and had no border or proper territory overlap with REPO, we chose to side with HEROES. This decision was probably also effected by the fact that we had been talking to HEROES leadership for longer than we had been talking to REPO leadership (we had limited direct diplomatic contact with REPO before CD was included without our permission).
- New talks were opened between Atlantis and HEROES, in order to make a new agreement, because of the changes caused by REPO no longer being involved. One of the first discussions was whether to include Carpe Diem. It was voted that they would join us if they wished to. At this point, the coalition was already basically gone due to impending war between HEROES and REPO, and increasing tensions between Imperium and CD. I am not quite sure when REPO dissolved the coalition forums, but it was sometime around these talks.
- After leaving the agreement with HEROES, REPO and Imperium made an agreement (according to Imperium leadership - I cannot remember if that was confirmed by REPO leadership).
To summarise:
- HEROES and REPO had an agreement.
- HEROES added Atlantis.
- REPO/HEROES added CD without asking Atlantis, causing lots of debate when we found out.
- REPO/HEROES disagreed on who was meant to be WW branch. Talks broke down, REPO eventually left the agreement.
- More arguments between CD and Imperium.
- Coalition collapsing.
- New agreement formed between HEROES and Atlantis, CD then included. Imperium and REPO made an agreement to work together against CD/HEROES respectively (and us if we did side with HEROES/CD).
BaronGreenback said to me on Skype that Atlantis did nothing wrong, and Virdian has said that it will be nothing personal when fighting Atlantis. I can provide quotations of both to you on Skype if you would like. We in Atlantis did not wish an early end to the coalition. Unfortunately, that coalition is now over. I have no personal issues with REPO or Imperium as alliances.