Storming of the Bastille! 14th of July

[GM-Pandora]

Pre-Event

A special event will take place tonight (July 14th 2008), around 7 PM server time (EST GMT -5).

Players will be divided into 5 groups, which will play different part in the event, you'll be divided according to.. the hat you wear!

There will be some PVP so prepare gears accordingly, however the hats are mandatory for the whole event (so you can't wear your usual pvp hat).

More details will be given at the time of the event ^_^ See you later!



Post-Event

The heroes who participated in this event were separated into 5 groups, which ultimately ended up in 2 different sides: The Revolution VS The Ancient Regime.

The estates of the realm were the broad divisions of society, usually distinguishing nobility, clergy, and commoners recognized in the Middle Ages, and, later, in some parts of Europe. While various realms inverted the order of the first two, commoners were universally tertiary.


The Clergy: Players who had a Coif[0]/Coif[1], Monk Hat[0]/Monk Hat[1] or Biretta[0]/ Biretta[1] joined this group.




In ancient France, this group was referred to as "The First Estate" and comprised the entire clergy, traditionally divided into "higher" and "lower" clergy. Although there was no formal demarcation between the two categories, the upper clergy were, effectively, clerical nobility, from the families of the Second Estate. In the time of Louis XVI, every bishop in France was a nobleman, at the other extreme, parish priests and many monks were drawn from peasant families and had more in common with the Third Estate.

In principle, the responsibilities of the First Estate included the registration of births, marriages and deaths, they collected the tithe (in France, called the "d?me", usually 10%), they censored books, served as moral police, operated schools and hospitals and distributed relief to the poor. They also owned 10?15% of all the land in France.

During the Revolution, most of the clergy supported the King and consequently the Nobility (Second Estate). The Upper Clergy had wealth and decisional power and had no wish to see France become a republic nor a democracy, which would in turn diminish their power.




The Nobility: Players who had a Nobility Gem (or Barony/County/Duchy/Principality gem) had to join this group.


Under the "ancien r?gime" in France, the nobles were referred to as "The Second Estate" and constituted approximately 1% of France's population. The Second Estate were exempt from the "corv?e royale" (forced labor on the roads) and from most other forms of taxation such as the gabelle (salt tax) and most important, the "taille" (the oldest form of direct taxation).

The French nobility was not a closed class, and many means were available to rich land owners or state office holders for gaining nobility for themselves or their descendants. Noblemen shared honorary privileges such as the prestige right to wear a sword and coat of arms. This helped to reinforce the idea of their natural superiority.

During the French Revolution many nobles were beheaded and/or had to lose their title. Some however had joined the cause of the revolutionaries and were well respected for their forward thinking ideas.


The Guards: Players in this group wore any of the following: Helm[0]/Helm[1], Close Helmet or Goibne's Helm.





The guards worked in the name of the King, and during the Revolution they tried to protect the city of Paris and maintain order, but ultimately they were overthrown by the masses and the revolutionaries.

Many guards were part of the "Third Estate" and some eventually defected and joined the Revolution.


The Revolutionaries: Players had to wear a "National Holiday Hat" to join this group.



They were the activist who brought upon the Revolution. They included quite a few nobles, but mostly educated bourgeois. Writers, Lawyers, Philosophers, Poets, etc. often came together to discuss the future of the kingdom, which they wished to see become a Nation with equal rights for all.




The People: Anyone who didn't have the previously mentioned hat joined this last group, all you had to do was wear the item simply called "hat", the pink one that is sold in most armor shop including the one in Prontera.



The Third Estate (Fr. tiers ?tat) was the generality of people which were not part of the other estates.

The Third Estate comprised all those who were not members of the aristocracy or the clergy, including peasants, working people and the bourgeoisie. In 1789, the Third Estate made up 96% of the population in France. Due in part to a limited franchise, the representatives of the Third Estate actually came from the wealthy upper bourgeoisie.

At the time of the Revolution most of the peasants and workers were starving, bread price was high as was unemployment, many suffered from malnutrition and diseases. This kind of climate was appropriate for revolutionary ideas and an uprising.


The Storming of the Bastille in Paris occurred on 14 July 1789. While the medieval fortress and prison in Paris known as the Bastille contained only seven prisoners (but many weapons), its fall was the flashpoint of the French Revolution, and it subsequently became an icon of the French Republic. In France, Le quatorze juillet (14 July) is a public holiday, formally known as the F?te de la F?d?ration (Federation Holiday). It is usually called Bastille Day in English.

During the reign of Louis XVI, France faced a major financial crisis, triggered by the cost of intervening in the American War of Independence, and exacerbated by an unequal system of taxation. This crisis affected the peasants and workers who were already poor, they had trouble buying simple bread and famine ravaged the country.

On 17 June 1789, the Third Estate, with its representatives drawn from the middle class, or bourgeoisie, reconstituted themselves as the National Assembly, a body whose purpose was the creation of a French constitution. The king initially opposed this development, but was forced to acknowledge the authority of the assembly, which subsequently renamed itself the National Constituent Assembly on 9 July.

Paris, close to insurrection, and, in Fran?ois Mignet's words, "intoxicated with liberty and enthusiasm," showed wide support for the Assembly. The press published the Assembly's debates, political debate spread beyond the Assembly itself into the public squares and halls of the capital.

The storming of the Bastille and the subsequent Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was the third event of this opening stage of the revolution. The middle class had formed the National Guard, sporting tricolor rosettes of blue, white and red; soon to become the symbol of the revolution.

On 4 August 1789 the National Constituent Assembly abolished feudalism, in what is known as the August Decrees, sweeping away both the seigneurial rights of the Second Estate and the tithes gathered by the First Estate. In the course of a few hours, nobles, clergy, towns, provinces, companies, and cities lost their special privileges.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen (French: D?claration des droits de l'Homme et du citoyen) was adopted August 26 or August 27, 1789 by the National Constituent Assembly. It defined a single set of individual and collective rights for all Estates of the realm.

For example, "Men are born and remain free and equal in rights. Social distinctions may be founded only upon the general good." "All the citizens, being equal in [the eyes of the law], are equally admissible to all public dignities, places, and employments, according to their capacity and without distinction other than that of their virtues and of their talents," eliminating the special rights of the nobility and clergy.



The Revolution was a dark period where many atrocities took place on both side, but overall from the outcome a nation emerged.