Cole Castle

Cole Castle
Aerial render of Castle Cole
Type	Military Town
Coordinates	X 3600, Z -500
Region	Southeastern Forest, New Continent.
Occupied by	Designated No-Man's Land.

Cole Castle or Castle Cole was major location for the UTC in the Southeast that was once an important part of the Company's agendas and mission policy that came to be known as the "Castle Cole Expeditions". Cole Castle was built by Coleey and submitted on the 7th of September, 2012. The first mention of it being in-game was 13th September of the same year. It was placed in the Southeastern forests of the New Continent, the fortress of Cole Castle was and is a very popular bandit spot, owing to its reputation by it being in the way for premiums' favorite eastern routes.

Control of Cole Castle changed hands frequently throughout and every year, with the UNKNOWN [?] Trading Company once trying to claim it as well in 2012-2013. Eventually, everyone could not hold it for so long that it became no-man's land and a designated southern PvP hotspot.

History

Etymology

Cole Castle was named by and after its builder: Coleey, though a sign in the building says Cole Clan Castle implying a group ownership and the full name of the Castle. However, there has been no such clan in MineZ history to be named Cole Clan. There is a real life genealogical celtic family of English origin called the Cole Clan with their own crest, arms and tartan.

Cole is connected to the word "coal", but usually meaning "swarthy" or "coal-black" in color and apperance.

Early Exploration by Banjo Company

Banjo Company arrived in the area sometime around early October after the group was deciding on a regional base. Cole Castle by then had a reputation of a good "town" for its location in the South but never explored it thoroughly before. The group immediately was impressed with the fortress, not just for its loot, but for its sheer size as well. The group however encountered Aspermont in the West sometime later and the discussion shifted in the favor of making the base there instead, but the idea of ruling over Cole Castle was not ruled out.

Early Attempts at Settlement

ToKki's(Caffy/kyleddude007) proposal to send all US Members to hold Cole Castle.

Cole Castle was still an area of interest for the UTC. Once established in Aspermont and gained members, Caffy(kyleddude007) conceived a plan called the "Great Migration of US" to send all available American members to control Cole Castle and operate independently, but the project was beset with problems from the start.

The team was designated as UNKNOWN EAST, to be led by john55223. The expedition was undermanned and poorly prepared in both equipment and training. Banjo Company escorted the volunteers, but as soon as they were left alone, hostile elements constantly drove them out. John55223 complained about lack of alts and fighters and demanded members killahamsta and Caffy be sent to assist in Cole Castle. Differing timezones however did not permit coordination and had little effect on the security of UNKNOWN EAST. Eventually, the Banjo Company members who were sent there were recalled back to Aspermont for lack of activity and idleness and john55223 tagged along and returned with the recalled members, thus disbanding the colony.

When interrogated for deserting his post, john55223 replied:

"We had no men, no alts and there were bandits there. It was impossible to hold it. Without killah and Caffy anyway..."

Irishkaiser and killahamsta did not punish john55223 for his desertion after hearing the report, seeing it was poor planning and preparation that caused the operation to collapse.

Second Attempt at Settlement(Castle Cole Expedition)

After the proper formalization of the UNKNOWN [?] Trading Company, Irishkaiser and killahamsta still showed interest in holding Cole Castle, proclaiming it as a UTC Territory to help cement their claim into the area. More extensive plans were drawn up and more people were placed into this expedition, with an alt being donated by Irishkaiser to assist with storage.

A combined Euro-American force was escorted by Irishkaiser towards Cole Castle. The leader of the expedition was Legenddood, john55223's recruit, who not only took in UTC members, but began expanding by including his friends and recruiting people into what was called Company Abroad. The separate experiences and independent actions of both Company at Home and Company Abroad laid the foundation for the idea of "regiments", the modern basic administrative unit for the Company.

The term "Miller" was a nickname that came about to differentiate Company Members abroad from Company Members in Aspermont, overtime it came to mean the average Company Member, regardless of where they served, because members were being shuffled back and forth between Cole Castle and Aspermont and those that ended up in Aspermont kept the nickname "Miller".

The Castle Cole Expedition also stimulated the need to design a communique for separated members who have not heard about news from each other for weeks. This stimulation resulted in The Empire Newspaper, the UTC's official journal.

With about twice as many members than Company at Home by early 2013, Cole Castle became fully autonomous with the only support from Aspermont as the alt storage owned by Irishkaiser. At this time, Company Abroad began to loosen its connection to Aspermont and started going their own way, becoming Legenddood's clan. This was mainly because the group was more concerned with security than it was with trading - to the point that they began banditing Cole Castle themselves because of the paranoia of constantly fighting off hoppers and raiders. The final blow to the link between Aspermont and Cole Castle was the LopNort Incident, which was a satirized and a parody of what really happened.

Legenddood and his group's banditing had resulted in a friendly fire incident between non-Company friendlies who were friends with both Aspermont and Cole Castle, and relations soon deterioated. In order to save their reputation - Aspermont denounced Cole Castle's actions and Legenddood, in response, to appease his members, resigned from the UTC and went their own way, but gave Irishkaiser's alt back as a token of goodwill and show unwillingness for conflict between them.

Second Expedition and the Final Cole Castle Settlement Attempt

Not all of the UTC was willing to give up Cole Castle so easily and so nehmna was sent it to deal with the mutinous members by trying to protect them from the bandits and show them diplomacy as an option for enemies. The members accepted nehmna, but nehmna was soon shocked and wanted to go back, reporting only negative things about Cole Castle.

Nehmna asked permission to return after getting into another friendly fire incident with Legenddood and his new clan, which was granted. At this point, Irishkaiser saw that further action with Cole Castle was a drain on Company manpower and resources and chose to withdraw. The Company made no further attempts to colonizing Cole Castle for the UTC, renouncing it as a UTC Territory and turning their attention to expanding their influence in the West.

Cole Castle after UTC

Cole Castle was for a time, controlled by Legenddood's clan, who in turn was displaced by another clan, and then another as clans migrated and or beat each other. Overtime, Cole Castle eventually became a no-man's land and after bad MineZ updates, abandoned, but was still hopped on. Other friends of the UTC, such as the Byzantines, who claim a connection or ownership of Cole Castle never even controlled it themselves because of it being a bandit spot.