Somerset

Somerset is a nation situated in northern Canada led by Emperor LeftArm0fExodia and Chancellor ChessNut242527 (a.k.a. Smegs), with the vast majority of its towns in the Arctic Archipelago region. The capital of the nation is Falkreath, a large Norse-style city built primarily within a massive keep. Other major cities include Red October and New Germany. Somerset is known for its mass production of high-level enchanted books and is also one of the few major nations to have a large-scale blaze farm.

Since April 4th, 2019, Somerset has been at war with the nation of Niger following a sudden Nigerien attack on a Somerset patrol whilst in the Sahara Desert. The war has mostly sizzled down following a recent Nigerien defeat on the 14th of May, though small skirmishes and proxy battles still continue to this day.

A map of Somerset's territory outlined in red, with town names at their locations.

Towns

As of May 21, 2019, Somerset has ten total towns and 83 total residents. Falkreath is the most populous, making up over half of the population with 48 total residents. Red October and New Germany are the second and third largest towns, with 11 and 10 residents respectively.

The towns are as follows:

Falkreath

Red October

Grise Fiord

The City Center of Falkreath

Ivarstead

Whiterun

New Germany

Riften

Westeros

Winterhold

Nunavut

War with Niger

Since the 4th of April, 2019, Somerset has been embroiled in a long and grueling war with Niger. Relations prior to the war were shaky at best due to Niger's notorious hit-and-run style of combat, but the tipping point was the First Battle of Toshka.

First Battle of Toshka: A group of four Somerset soldiers (LeftArm0fExodia, Chessnut242527, chuck2089, and Lemonlicious) were on a routine patrol to the town of Toshka, a colony founded by users Canuck and Kim_Jong_Nuke, and funded by Somerset under the promise that a small tax of 1G per day would be payed until the debt was settled. Kim_Jong_Nuke, the only resident online at the time, was asked peacefully by the group to pay his dues, at which point he openly refused. After a good ten minutes of back-and-forth debating, Kim made a rash decision and attempted to attack the group. He was hit twice before retreating into claims, after which users skater2323 and watergod appeared at the scene to fight. The battle went on for about 5 minutes before the unprepared Somerset users were forced to flee, with two casualties. Toshka was immediately declared a rogue town and the war with Niger was officially declared mere minutes later. Toshka was relocated further west, presumably to join Niger, under the name of New Toshka.

Second Battle of Toshka: A few days later (the exact date was never recorded), another attack was planned by user Lemonlicious. The new attack group consisted of four Somerset and four Memphis players, who proceded to launch a raid on horseback against the town of New Toshka. User Canuck, the only player in NT online at the time of the attack, hid inside a building for the majority of the raid, tossing diamonds through a window to attempt to coax the raiders. Watergod came online and attacked the raiders after about 30 minutes of doorcamping. Three horses were killed and two players died. The rest retreated to Memphis where the next attack was planned.

'Battle of Alaska': The Battle of Alaska on April 17 was the first and only major proxy battle in the war in which players acted independently, though Somerset was not officially involved. During the Alaskan Civil War, several soldiers from Niger dispatched themselves to the area and attacked players on both sides of the war. This sudden and uncalled-for intervention caused quite a stir in the community, causing many nations that were allied with Niger to drop relations. Many of these nations would then join the Coalition, an ultimately futile attempt to muster a large force against Niger, plannning to beat Niger with quantity over quality.

Battle of Nepal: In the early days of the Nepal Casino, a large area of land was completely open to the public for travel, as no walls existed around the casino at the time. This made the spot very popular for PvPers. On April 19, while Somerset men were engaging in PvP with random challengers, users Nbax (now Nmb12) and Magenet arrived on scene to try and attack them. After about 5 minutes of fighting, both Nbax and Magenet were forced to combat log, despite the latter having the one and only Totem of Undying on-hand. This was the first major Somerset victory and was also the beginning of Totemgate, a brief yet intense conspiracy that both Niger and Somerset had backdoored or hacked in Totems of Undying, when in reality only one existed on the server (to today's knowledge, at least.)

Jacob's Day Battle: Nearly a month after the last major fight between the two nations, on May 15, 2019, Somerset and Niger clashed in what would be known to Somersetians as the "Jacob's Day Battle", due to it occuring on Jacob Awareness Day. This was a major turning point in the conflict, as skater2323 was slain and watergod, renown for his PvP skills, was forced to retreat. The fight was also a massive humiliation for Niger as their two best PvPers were openly defeated by a seemingly inferior enemy.

Current Status: The current state of the war is one of relative stalemate. Mutual raids have become less frequent, and most modern battles consist of either 1v1's in the wilderness or small intervention fights, such as the small Luxembourg Skirmish on May 21, which saw no casualties for either side. Many think that the war may come to an end soon, though most Somersetians do not have high hopes for this, as Niger has announced on several occasions that they will never accept a peace offer. The war continues to make it difficult for individual players of either nation to go out into the world or even travel to other nations, as the constant threat of a sudden assault by either nation is a real danger.