| |
| Render of Crowmure | |
| Type | Military Port |
| Coordinates | X -1630, Z -3350 |
| Region | Northern Westerlands |
| Occupied by | Unoccupied UTC Territory |
Crowmure is a major port-like city on the North of the Westerlands that the UTC claims as a Company Territory. Built by C0N0R_B and submitted on 23rd July, 2012[1], the build was introduced into the game alongside Arbreton on 29th July of the same year, through an update by BarbaricYawp.[2]
Crowmure is strategically located at the northern end of the Westerlands, sitting by the Sea of Mordor. This makes it a common gateway from the Continent to Byesford and Mordor. Seeing its importance and distance from other Company Territories, the UTC decides to claim the area as part of its territory, but fields no garrison at all, but rather patrols.
Crowmure is a historic UTC town with a designated military purpose and source of iron, chain and tools for the Company. Its military importance stretches more than providing gear to its members as it tolerates and encourages controlled hopping in the area - making it a town that the Company can rely on for a fight that would satiate its members' bloodlust and boredom and at the same time serve as an area for counter-hopping exercises and practice fighting.
Its status as a Company Territory is unique because the UTC prefers to maintain a healthy banditing rate from which the members could benefit in the long-run with controlled fights.
History[]
Etymology[]
Crowmure(pronounced [kɹoʊˌmyo͝or]) was named by C0N0R_B. Like many MineZ builds, its name is inspired or follows patterns of language of Indo-European origins. The word can be syllabicated to CROW and MURE which means Crow(bird) and "In an enclosed space" respectively. The word Crow is taken from the sound the bird species makes which is close to the modern day interpretation of a "caw", while Mure comes from the Old French word murer(to close by a wall) which came from Roman Latin murus(wall). Thus, it can be said that the city's name means "Trapped Crow" or "Crow/Raven's Wall", depending on how you interpret the syntax.
Another nickname of the city in-game was simply calling the town "Crow", in order to save time on typing.
Before Banjo Company[]
Crowmure's far Northern emplacement and proximity to the Far North(Byesford & Mordor) became an important stop or end route in early MineZ. The loot placed there was high level for its time and as such, attracted many people to visit the area in search of gear. Naturally, it became something to fight over and people began to hop the area.
Whenever travelling to Crowmure, fight was expected and it became the "Al Hasa" of the West for the amount of battles it generated.
Post Banjo Company[]
Crowmure had served as a point of interest for Banjo Company but was deemed too hostile to settle or make a base out of. The Company frequented the area anyway for its higher loot level and for some, a desire for a fight. The place became a playground for battle-hungry Company Members so much, that to help ease the fights in Crowmure, the Company devised a city plan for directional advisement whenever in town.
In Crowmure, the UTC learned how to fight in a relative combination of flat, wooded and urban terrain, mastering the tactics of lure and ambush as well as hopping and countering-hopping strategies. The fights in Crowmure however, did not serve to turn the rest of the Company into a PvP-capable clan, rather - it only honed the edge of those who were already adept at PvP.
It was not until frequent contact with hostile premiums in the South did the UTC start to encourage and train their members to become better fighters. The Company felt bold enough to claim Crowmure as a territory, alongside many other bandit clans. The difference being, the UTC accepted and to a certain degree recognized the claim of these clans in Crowmure but did not consider them a threat. Rather, the Company considered them an essential part to the city's function and economy.
The De-Militarization of Crowmure[]
After the January Al Hasa 2013 Updates, the admins began to see the damage inflicted on their MineZ player base after Iron Bandits began rampaging the South. Crowmure, at first was spared, but Majicou set about a wave of of "correcting" the mistakes of the January Al Hasa Updates that only made the problems worse by turning the city of Crowmure and other once high-tiered loot locations into a place that spawned leather and other basic tools that could be found in the South, in an attempt to reduce the amount of irons in the game and making it more valuable[3]. The burgeoning Directory became particularly mad at the incompetent handling and launched a series of public complaints to the administration that fell on deaf ears or were ignored.
The De-Militarization of Crowmure plunged the port city's popularity into an almost abandoned town - only serving as a pit-stop for Hell Tree, Byesford, Adera and other locations in and north of the Sea of Mordor.
Crowmure's demilitarization could not have come at a worse time for the Company. The only serious Company garrison finally authorized to be stationed there was FailedKey's group, that migrated to Aspermont after the reduced amount of fights, poor loot and food sustainability.
Decline of Crowmure and Rise of Lazerville[]
Crowmure was attempted to be revived with another update to bring about better loot, but it still was not enough and players began migrating East to concentrate in the huge fights near Al Hasa. Coupled with the rise of Lazerville, a leftover town from the failed Settlements project, it also served as a way to mitigate Crowmure's popularity by providing a place to fight closer to the South than having to travel all the way North for good gear.
The port city's primary production after that was no longer military weapons, but tools such as cobwebs, hoes and buttons, with very few military chests spawning. The place however, was still bring frequented by the UTC to acquire buttons for their Grey Bow production that were required in Castle Wayvernia.
Majicou's Secret Project Update[]
For two years, Crowmure's importance only lay in its strategic location as a stop point to Byesford and Mordor, but Majicou, eager to revive MineZ from its decreasing popularity, set about redoing every town's loot table and gave Crowmure significant military production again, but not as good as before.
Ironically, the village of Lazerville received a complete change and became a food town that reduced its popularity significantly. In the short boom in popularity MineZ had after the update, Crowmure became a semi common hopping area, although that stopped after MineZ's population fell to what it was previously. In effect, both areas became abandoned and players migrated East. The Secret Project Update however, gave Crowmure viability as a good military town along with tool chests to find buttons to go to Sanctuary of Peace a few hundred blocks south, however Crowmure has been mostly ignored and forgotten by most MineZ players.