RAWR

Originally not an acronym, RAWR was a network of alliances that predated colonization of the. Later, it came to stand for "Ruby Alliance and War Regulation." When founded, this network consisted of Silver Dawn, the Looterati, and Nyx's Scions / Widows and Orphans, with the No Homers joining a little later. Each of these flags were intent upon taking control of a specific Ruby island once it opened for colonization.

The original goal of this alliance was for the four member flags to work together in order to seize control of the archipelago as a whole. It was not specifically intended as an imperialistic group; merely an agreement of geographical convenience that existed in order to further the individual agenda of each member flag. In addition, the members themselves viewed their alliance as more than political - it served as an official statement of an unofficial friendship that existed from before RAWR's creation.

Removing the Ambiguity
From those looking at RAWR from without, there has been a great deal of confusion as to exactly what RAWR represents. The so-called "Ruby Alliance," consisting of those four flags who held islands in Ruby for most of the period from October 2004 until July 2005, (Silver Dawn, Looterati, Carpe Noctem, and the Trans-Atlantic Empire) plus possibly the No Homers is an entity created almost entirely within the Piratical Parley and Politics forum. However, at the time that the term "Ruby Alliance" was coined, Carpe Noctem was not allied with either Silver Dawn or the Looterati, and while the flags were friendly, there was no assumption of mutual aid or support.

The founding of Notorious Fandango further confused the issue. Fandango's original mission statement led the four island-holding flags in Ruby to create a separate alliance which they called Ruby Ring. This flag was a mutual defense agreement in the event that Fandango took any aggressive action in the Ruby Archipelago. As such, the No Homers were not part of this agreement, because the island that they held at that time was in the.

In short - there were three different alliance groups in Ruby at once:
 * RAWR, consisting of Silver Dawn, the Looterati, Widows and Orphans, and the No Homers.
 * Ruby Ring, consisting of Silver Dawn, the Looterati, Carpe Noctem, and the Trans-Atlantic Empire.
 * The "Ruby Alliance," a largely perceptual group created by observers in the Parley forums, which may include any or all of the six flags listed above, depending on the individual poster.

Whither RAWR?
RAWR as an alliance is effectively meaningless, and has been for some time, for two main reasons.

First, with the victory of Carpe Noctem at the battle of Luthien I, the No Homers lost their bid for an island in Ruby, and sought elsewhere for a home, eventually settling on in the Emerald Archipelago. This removed the geographic base for the alliance, and while the flags involved still remained allied for reasons of their friendship with each other, the term RAWR became absurd as one of their members had settled elsewhere.

Second, as diplomatic relations improved between the members of RAWR in Ruby and the other flags who had settled there, the alliance network began to grow. This meant that the RAWR alliance was effectively superceded by a different network of alliances, and while RAWR still remains at the core of the so-called "Ruby Alliance," as an individual entity it is relatively obsolete.