The Blade Keepers

The Blade Keepers
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Leaders	Vio (TBK Amethyst)
Founders	Vio
Founded	February 2011
Status	Closed (4 May 2011)
Members	N/A
Focuses	F2P Multi
Ideologies	Honour ARPK
Colours	Green
Heraldry	Team-37 Cape
Motto	Your Blade is only as strong as your Heart

The Blade Keepers (TBK) was an exodus of the Wilderness Guardians, formed by Vio in 2011. A short rivalry occured between TBK and WG which lasted for around one month, before TBK's closure in May 2011.

Formation

File:Tbk and wg.png

TBK and WG meet in the Wilderness and a cease-fire is called, 12 February 2011.

In January 2011 Vio (as WG Amethyst, the Historian of WG at the time) recieved a temporary suspension from the clan for an unrelated issue. After offering and rescinding his resignation, he reached an agreement with WG staff to leave for an indefinite period. Around this time, Jagex had announced the "re-release" of the Wilderness, reverting PvP to near it's original state prior to the updates on 10 December 2007. Having previously founded and led a number of moderately successful clans before joining WG in 2009, Vio chose to found a new clan once again. He adopted the RuneScape display name TBK Amethyst for the majority of the clan's lifespan.

TBK saw a reasonable amount of success at the start, mainly through in-game recruitment. Within 2 months of opening TBK had over 50 members - more than WG at the time - though WG had better levels and significantly more experience. An important factor in TBK's numbers was a merge between TBK and another small clan, The Vigilantes. The merged clan retained the name and attributes of TBK, though grew considerably in size, and the TV leader Madz was given a staff rank - much to the displeasure of a number of the original TBK members.

Although not intended as an exodus from WG, TBK also recieved a number of former WG members including former warlord WG Justin. Even so, TBK was initially on considerably peaceful terms with WG for the majority of February 2011. The initial aim of TBK had been to support WG with PvP events such as raids and anticrash services. While joint trips were not officially held, members of the two clans would often be permitted (and sometimes requested) to attend the other clan's raids without issue, and on at least one occasion the two clans met in full force within the Wilderness, without engaging in a fight.

Rivalry

Due to the perceived nature of Vio's departure from WG along with the ex-members who had joined the new clan, TBK recieved a degree of hostility from WG. After approximately one month, a rivalry developed between the two clans, which lasted for around one month.

Initial Hostilities

File:Wg vs tbk 2011.png

WG ambushes TBK during a raid, 27 February 2011.

The event which sparked the rivalry occurred on 27 February 2011, when a group of WG members decided to hunt TBK during one of TBK's raids. Vio was partially aware of WG's intentions, but chose to allow the engagement to occur - believing that a rivalry could serve as beneficial to WG, based on his experience as Historian of WG. WG successfully managed to ambush TBK, killing Vio and several other members with ease. Vio would go on to sabotage subsequent diplomatic talks to try and resolve the situation by making unreasonable demands - one of which was that His Lordship returned Vio's Rune armour set, as well as the two sets that Vio had PKed and lost when WG attacked them. This was done with the clear intention of instigating formal hostilities, and a rivalry was declared on 1 March 2011.

For around two weeks in March 2011, ambushes continued - WG is known to have sent spies into TBK (in violation of their Honour code) so as to hunt TBK on further raids. Despite TBK having reasonable numbers with consistent pulls of 20 or more members, WG's significantly higher levels and experienced resulted in WG winning all of the engagements within the first two weeks, with TBK almost always having to call a retreat immediately after encountering WG.

The rivalry continued outside of the game, spreading to the Zybez fansite where WG would coordinate to "rep bomb" (give a large negative rating to) all of TBK's topics such as recruitment and aftermath posts. However, on some occasions this would work in TBK's favour as other neutral clanners would often condemn WG's actions. WG were supposedly an honourable clan, well-established with an eight-year history, and to be seen in hostilities with a less-than two-month old clan nowhere near their size and strength resulted in a degree of negative public perception.

Relationship with Team Power Rangers

File:Tbk and tpr vs wg.png

TBK and Team Power Rangers force WG to retreat to single, 18 March 2011.

On 18 March, TBK recieved unexpected support from Team Power Rangers - a significantly stronger team aware of the ongoing rivalry. WG had been hunting TBK on during a TBK raid, when the combined force of TBK and TPR managed to force WG to retreat to single for the first time. TPR member Vindicator offered an unofficial alliance (called a "minionship"), in which TPR would provide full support to TBK in dealing with WG. In exchange, TBK would combine forces with TPR for the team's larger fights. Seeing this as an opportunity to hinder the onslaught from WG, Vio accepted the offer.

As a result of the minionship, WG's ability to engage with TBK decreased significantly and hunts occured far less frequently, as TBK almost always had TPR's support. However, the minionship resulted in TBK being obliged to join TPR on almost all of TBK's planned raids, and take part in large-scale fights with much stronger clans such as Generation X and The Alliance - the latter a syndicate comprised of four clans: 'The' Clan, The Gladiatorz, The Mighty Red Dragons and Clan Jaguar. Without taking part in these larger fights, TBK would have been left to face WG on their own.

While some members - Vio included - preferred and enjoyed the large-scale fights, a large portion of the clan preferred the smaller, less-intense PK trips and wars that TBK had previously been involved in prior to the rivalry. As a result, a divide began to form within the clan.

Trivia

• The name "The Blade Keepers" was inspired by a ficticious clan name His Lordship had created several years prior to TBK's opening, though exact details are unknown.
• TBK took a large amount of inspiration from WG - adopting an ARPK policy, referring to PK trips as "raids", using a Team-37 Cape as it was the green version of the Team-17 Cape which WG used during their peak around 2007 and 2007, and even sharing the same font WG used for their media at the time ("Kelt").
• Despite leading hostile clans, Vio and His Lordship maintained their friendship during the rivalry, with Vio even attending one of WG's real life meetings while still leading TBK.