Icedale Guild

''This article is about the "trading guild" based out of the Sylvian glaciers. For the short-lived military order which coordinated the Icedale-Rhett Crusade, see Order of Icedale. For the second state operated by erjan101, see Tsarevets.''

Overview
The Icedale Guild was a mercantile state led by erjan101 in the icebergs to the south of Sylvia and west of Rhett Island. Icedale Guild primarily inhabited a series of cobblestone towers and bridges strung across several icebergs, but owned extensive overseas holdings, including the Icedale Tavern and Dwarf Fortress. It was disbanded when erjan101 returned to the server in the early Repopulation Period.

The Icedale Guild, despite being mercantile in profession, spent much more time building and developing various locations than trading. Many of the structures built by the Guild have been renovated and are still used today such as the Icedale Tavern, renovated by FlyingGMM in May of 2019.

According to erjan101, the Icedale Guild was a branch of a larger trading company that exists outside of the world borders. He claims that the Guild still exists elsewhere and that other nations on the server have been incorrectly claiming that the abandonment of the glacier towers in the southwest was the end of the Guild as a whole, but instead the guild only ended its operations in this region of the world.

Founding Period
Icedale Guild was one of the oldest states on the server, founded within days of the server's first hosting. Given that the icebergs provided very little construction materials, Icedale's first structure was a cottage on Taiga Island to the southwest of the icebergs. From here, it mined cobblestone to make bridges across the icebergs. The tavern was built during this period as well.

Icedale fell into a slight border conflict with The Water Boys upon the foundation of their state in the South Sea to the east of Icedale, as Icedale had largely claimed the entire South Sea. However, this conflict was resolved by giving The Water Boys a relatively small amount of territory surrounding them, sandwiched between Icedale and Rhett. The Water Boys later supplemented their relatively small land claim with holdings throughout the rest of the world's ocean, even as far away as the Sea of Goomlandia.

Middle Period
Icedale Guild took part in half of the conflicts which took place during the Middle Period. It led the Order of Icedale in the Icedale-Rhett Crusade against Rhett, as well as escalated the Montrose-Icedale War from a minor interpersonal diplomatic incident to an open war. The Dwarf Fortress was also constructed by the Guild during this time.

Coalition Period
The Icedale Guild remained neutral between the two global blocs in the Coalition Period, sympathizing with neither the Prosperity League nor the South Sea Coalition.

When the South Sea Coalition dissolved as a result of its constituent states leaving the server, each of them "willed" their lands to the Icedale Guild. As such, Icedale came into the possession of significant amounts of land in Sylvia, the South Sea, and the Sea of Goomlandia. The states surrounding these newly annexed lands, however, (Montrose, HUM, and Rhett) were unhappy with this situation.

Barren Period
During the Barren Period, erjan101 became inactive, along with much of the server. As such, the lands that Icedale had "inherited" from the South Sea Coalition were viewed as effectively unincorporated by the states that wanted them. These states, namely Montrose, HUM, and Rhett, disavowed Icedale's claims to the land for several reasons. First, the states' participation in the Prosperity League had the partial goal of claiming those lands for themselves; second, they viewed Icedale, so far removed from those lands, as having no valid claim to them; and third, Icedale was a single-person state and thus, they felt, had no need for so much land.

The issue of Icedale's land claims was resolved at the Taco Bell Conference held IRL at a Taco Bell, among the leaders of Montrose, HUM, and Rhett. The lands were divided, with Rhett receiving all of The Water Boys' land (along with their extensive amount of fished items) and Montrose and HUM splitting Dark Forest Investment Co.'s previous lands in Sylvia. "Icedale Proper", the lands held by Icedale prior its "inheritance" of South Sea Coalition lands, were left alone.

Repopulation Period
Erjan101 came back to the server in the Repopulation Period, and vehemently disputed the holding of "his" lands by Montrose, HUM, and Rhett. However, given that these states had grown in his absence, and he could enforce very little, he dropped the claims and founded Tsarevets in the southeast of the map. As a result, erjan101 formally disbanded Icedale, and relinquished his holding of the icebergs soon thereafter.

The entirety of Icedale Proper was incorporated into the Sylvian Union on February 24th, 2019, at the Sylvian parliament's passage of the "Sylvian Continental Doctrine" bill. The structures remain mostly intact from when Icedale Guild existed, and have been designated as heritage sites by the International Board of World Heritage.