Alliance of Justice

The Alliance of Justice was a guild founded on the ideal of fighting murderers and thieves in Carlin. Later on, the ideal changed to helping Danubians wherever possible, and during the final years the guild became more of a group of friends looking out for eachother. The guild was first founded around March of the year 2004 but was disbanded shortly after. When the guild was refounded later that year, it existed from November 5 of 2004 to September 16 of 2009.__INDEX__

History
The guild was first founded around march of the year 2004 by good friends Blade User and Gekke Kipkop, who wanted to change the agressive behaviour of their hometown Carlin.

Structure
The structure of the guild has changed several times throughout the course of history. These different structures can roughly be catagorized in two systems:

Vocation based
When Blade User and Gekke Kipkop first founded the Alliance of Justice, the guild was led by a single Leader (Blade User at that time) and four or more Counsellors. The Leader had absolute power within the guild while the Counsellors served as advisors and vice-leaders. The rest of the members were divided over three ranks: the Protectors (knights), the Archers (paladins) and the Magicians (sorcerers & druids). Each of these groups had section leaders, mostly Counsellors or long term members who could be fully trusted. For example, Gekke Kipkop was 'Head of the Magicians'.

After the fall of the first AoJ and the founding of the second, this structure would remain the same.

Additions
Not long after the Battle of Northport, each group got an advanced version. Three new ranks were introduced: the Stronger Protectors, the Golden Archers and the Elder Magicians. Members could be promoted to these ranks once they had achieved something admirable, or when they had proven themselves trustworthy and loyal to the guild.

In January of the year 2005, another rank was introduced: the Apprentices, a rank for new members. The Apprentices had no acces to the guildhall and could only be promoted after they had proven themselves worthy. This rank was created after a series of thefts occured within the guild.

The Avatars


On December 1 of 2005, the Avatar rank was introduced. This rank, partly in honor of Brighter Sky, would consist only of the best warriors the guild had to offer. It was the Avatar's duty to lead their guildmembers on the battlefield, to defend the guild against physical threats and to serve as military advisors to the Leader. To become an Avatar, one had to complete a series of trials to test the member's qualities. These tests were written down in the Book of the Avatar, which was kept safe in the AoJ Archives. When the rank was introduced, it was decided that the Avatars would be under the direct command of the Leader. With time however, the Avatars were granted more power and responsibilities. During the third AoJ year (2007), the Avatars and High Council had equal votes on important matters and discussed almost everything together. Officially though, the final decisions on non-military matters was still in hands of the High Council.

Loyalty based
As the guild evolved, so did its structure. Under Lord Raahl's leadership, the guild went through a reformation. On April 16 of the year 2006, Lord Raahl introduced a new rank system, based on a design by member Archangel of War. In the new system, a member's place would be determined by his/her loyalty and devotion to the guild, rather than by vocation. After the reformation, the rank structure looked like this: As can be seen above, the guild was still led by a Leader, along with his Council and the Avatars. The other members were divided over the other ranks based on their loyalty. The Eternal Guardian rank was a special rank for those members who were loyal members in the past, but had retired. The Apprentice rank still served as a trial period.
 * Leader
 * Council
 * Avatars
 * Protectors
 * Loyal Guards
 * Guards
 * Acolytes
 * Eternal Guardians
 * Apprentices

High Council
In June of 2006, Bringer of Justice united the positions of Leader and Council into one High Council. In this new body of leadership, all leaders were equal and decisions were made through voting within the High Council. On September 1 of that same year, Archangel of War created the AoJ Assembly, a forum only accesable by the High Council and the Avatars. This forum made it much easier for the leaders to communicate and discuss important matters.

Titles
In both structures, gaining a title worked the same way; they had to be earned. Titles were not given away like they meant nothing, and thus only a few individuals in AoJ history were granted one. Titles were given to members after they had accomplished great deeds, or for their ever lasting loyalty to the guild. An example of a well known AoJ title is 'Hero of Northport', which was granted to Brighter Sky after the Battle of Northport.

The AoJ Archives
The AoJ Archives is a collection of books and reports documenting every important event in the history of the Alliance of Justice. It also contains many application letters, documents signed by members of the Alliance of Hope and a few historical items.

History
During their stay in Northport Clanhall (late 2004, early 2005), members of the Alliance of Justice wrote documents and books about topics that interested them, as well as reports on events that occured within their guild. During January of 2005, Bringer of Justice collected some of these documents and put them in chronological order. This was the first form of what would later be known as the AoJ Archives. When the guild moved to the Hill Hideout, a seperate room was reserved for the Archives. From that moment on, when something important happened that affected the guild, the Leader would write a report on it and add it to the collection. Notating all these events made it possible for the guild to learn from their previous mistakes, to document almost their entire history and to look up important information they otherwise might forget. Due to the Archive's value to the guild, initially only the Leader was allowed entrance. Only from late 2006 on, the entire High Council and Avatar ranks were granted acces to the collection.

Date notation
From June 27 of 2005 on, the Alliance of Justice used a specific way of notating the date and year a document was written. They stated that one 'AoJ year' would run from November 5 till November 5 of the next year (the first AoJ year running from November 5, 2004 to November 5, 2005). So if a document was written on June 27 of the year 2005, they would notate it as: 'June 27 of the first year'. In the same manner, a document written on March 23 of 2007 would be dated as: 'March 23 of the third year'.

Current location
After the fall of the second AoJ on September 16 of 2009, Bringer of Justice wrote his last report and put the Archives in his Thais depot. He made one copy of the Archives, which was given to Cathalon who wanted to revive the AoJ in his new guild Faith. Note: only the documentation of AoJ history was copied.

Guild colors
The official colors of the Alliance of Justice were darkred and black. The reason behind this choice is unknown, but these colors were used even in the first AoJ. The typical way to wear the colors was to have a darkred jacket and black pants. The color of shoes and hair was for the members to decide.

In the early history of the guild, wearing the colors was strongly encouraged by leaders, and was even included in the official rules of the guild. Later, it became more of a tradition, mainly used by 'hardcore members' to show their devotion. However, the leaders still encouraged their members to wear the guild colors during battles.