Community:Council of ZU

Council of ZU
Headquarter(s)	Zelda Universe Forums

The ZU Council of the United Wise Men (UWM) (not to be confused with the B.A. Council) was a coalition of Zelda Theorists operating out of Zelda Universe's Theorizing Forum from across a variety of different fan sites. The group emerged during the summer of 2006 at the height of the renown ‘Timeline Wars’ - a dubbed time period of heated debate between Linearists and Splitists that lasted between the releases of The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess- in response to the growing popularity of the Split Timeline. It is rumored, however, that the group had secretly been acting coincide with one another as far back as December of 2005 when people began supporting a popular theory at the time: The Paradox-Loop Timeline Theory – created by silver arrow and LOZ Historian.

The original faction consisted of LOZ Historian, silver arrow, Master of ALttP, ZeldaGamer21 (later known as Sentient), HeroOfTime5, and later Dark Link (currently known as Xeno) and Lex/LionHarted (better known as Seran Aileron or Lex). This group of theorists gathered together to formulate evidence and resources for what is now called the United Wise Men's Timeline. Their theories stood relatively unchanged in terms of game order until the announcement confirming the Split Timeline (also known as the Blue Swamp Incident at ZU).

The unity of the council was maintained upon its members adhering to common beliefs and philosophies over what they considered Zelda Theorizing should be about. Since the group's inception they established a group of junior theorists called the Hylian Knights, and then later, the UWM Allies to instill and mature their values throughout their expanding legions. Amongst the council there were also an unspecified 20+ agents that were rumored to be dispersed between Zelda Dungeon, The Hylia, Desert Colossus, Zelda Legends, Zelda Blog, and a few other fan sites.

First Congress (June 2006 - November 2006)

The Citadel of Linearism.

Wise Men

• LOZ Historian (Group Leader)

• Dark Link
• HeroOfTime5
• Master of ALttP
• Seran Aileron
• Sentient
• silver arrow

Hylian Knights

• Raian (Chief Knight)

• Daphnes
• DarkenZero24
• Dr_Bryan
• Great Gibdo
• Hyrule Pheonix
• Magick-Tech
• MDK
• OmegaDevastator
• Slur.exe (Currently known as Slur)
• Reign & Kirsiro
• TrippleExpresso9
• Uncle Meat
• Vaati
• Vaati 2705

After many veteran theorists retired from their active participation, the Zelda Theorizing Forum were formed to flush out the excessive Theory Threads that were starting to appear across other Zelda sections within Zelda Universe. During this time period, The First Congress of the UWM was founded by LOZ Historian (LOZ H) and silver arrow and co-founded by Master of ALttP (MoALttP). This was the first organization in which theorists bonded together in strife to maintain order over the chaotic nature of Zelda Theorizing.

Besides challenging the Split Timeline’s popularity, the group’s leader made it widely known he was upset with how Zelda Universe and many other websites sponsored Timeline Theories which seemingly catered staffs’ general bias rather than the theorists themselves. A majority of the members were concerned about how the hobby had become a “survival of the fittest”, thus becoming extremely agitated by the lack of guidelines, civility, and debating ethics within the theorizing forums. In response to these concerns, the staff granted the UWM their own Council Sticky Thread; the group seemingly acquiring themselves unofficial moderation over the newly founded forums.

The objectives of the coalition seemed transparent enough at first. The group aimed to develop a system of checks and balances of what to consider canon, and then how to generalize it into specific timeline disciplines. Yet after a time, people began to worry that the council was over stepping debatable boundaries, determining what was or was not absolute fact. Initially MoALttP and HeroOfTime5 visited various Zelda forums to spread their timeline ideas and ethics. Some of the actions of its founder suggested a prejudice stigma against the Split Timeline and its supporters; only later to shed light on these allegations when three Wise Men (Lex, MoALttP and HeroOfTime5) took a group of Hylian Knights and ambushed Zelda Legends’ Legend Alliance (LA) Forums - a board where members primarily favored the Split Timeline.

There was never an official apology for the attack, thus members of LA Forums held a grudge; launching heated debate tactics that flared between ZU and the Zelda Boards of GameFAQs. As their theories became popular and rivalries expanded, the UWM took on what appeared to be a militant policing/crusade operation to ensure their standing at ZU; LOZ H eventually acquiring the nickname: “King of the Linearists”.

After a time, the UWM regained their bearings, continuing to maintain a strong front after fending off their enraged rivals. The members continued to rework ZU’s Timeline Document while proposing other articles as well.

Second Congress (December 2006 – March 2007)

Preserving the Dominion.

Wise Men

• Seran Aileron (Group Leader)
• LOZ Historian (Temporary Group Leader)

• Daphnes
• HeroOfTime5
• Master of ALttP
• Raian
• Sentient
• silver arrow

Hylian Knights

• Uncle Meat (Chief Knight)
• Vaati (Chief Knight)

• DarkenZero24
• Dr_Bryan
• Great Gibdo
• Hyrule Pheonix
• Magick-Tech
• MDK
• OmegaDevastator
• Slur.exe (Currently known as Slur)
• TrippleExpresso9
• Vaati 2705

UWM Allies

Sun Guardian (Currently known as Ranstone) (Unit Leader)

• Daegen
• Butler
• Bingo675
• Pinecove
• Zeldafan1

Note: Five names are missing from this unit.

Due to the sudden leave of the group's founder, Lex was promoted as the leader of the group. A theorist known as Raian (previously known as jhurvid on LA Forums and GameFAQs) was called in to fill the open position in the United "Seven" Wise Men. Prior to this, Raian had been in charge of the The Hylian Knights unit. However, as Lex decided to cut down his time devoted to ZU, his banner was given to Daphnes, who was previously a Hylian Knight, and LOZ Historian reassumed the leadership position to fill the void left by Lex. Dark Link had gone inactive from timeline debating and his banner disappeared. Vaati (who later changed his username numerous times) received his. All the other Wise Men held their banners and made their daily visits to the Timeline Section. With Raian now a Wise Man, Uncle Meat had become the leader of the Knights. Lex announced that he would resume work with the Wise Men on a minimal level; returning briefly to ZU before taking a temporary ZU and IM hiatus for personal reasons.

During the session of the second council, a number of smaller theorist factions began to appear. Some members of the Wise Men’s council began to feel paranoid that Splitists from other websites were invading. When Lex took leave, LOZ Historian’s return reassured the groups’ supremacy. Yet an undisclosed series of events happened between the founder and certain forum mods which changed the coalitions’ relation with the rest of the community. During the first six months of the First UWM Congress ,the Wise Men had provided a force to balance out the opinions between the Linear and Split Timeline bias. However they gradually began to move backwards from what they wished to attain for their sections health. Some members of ZU’s staff were particularly annoyed with the behavior and conduct of the group and hence removed their Council’s Sticky Thread. At that time, the handbook known as the UWM Constitution was created in order to set regulations and promises in which the council would abide by in an effort to stop the so called ‘Timeline Wars’, expand their reach of influence, and regulate Zelda Theorizing with a different attitude in general. The UWM Timeline had also been released to coincide with the handbook, yet went unrecognized by the staff.

The general community was stunned by the groups’ recent course of actions. Those whom did not favor the UWM set forth a number of temporary group uprisings to disgruntle any further operations the council had planned. When these attempts failed, well-known trolls within the ZU community began to tackle into the organization, while former veteran theorists, such as DrZaius1, began breaking down the group’s reputation to nothing more than a “cult full of bigots”.

Due to the UWM’s inconsistent management in regards to adhering to their constitution, a number of complaints began to erupt in other parts of the community following Wise Men’s accounts being banned for undisclosed reasons. The accounts were eventually restored, all the while series of dramatic events unfolded which hindered activity within the Theory Forums for over a month. During this time period it is understood that LOZ H was planning a new direction for the UWM that would allow studies on the Split Timeline Disciplines, but not necessarily allow group supported efforts behind any bias’ of the like. Lex had returned to resume his leadership position once the attacks had stopped.

Rise of the ASE and the Splitists’ Victory (February 2007 – March 2007)

The Splitists' Retaliation.

The UWM’s influence was starting to coax outside of ZU heavier than usual. Since the Second Congress had already been under a lot of tension, some of upper council members refused to let go of their ideals. The grinding pursuit of dominance at ZU was taxing on other theorist participants because the coalition was seemingly on a quest to wipe out ‘Splitism’ at every corner – they had exceeded their goal to match the Split Timeline’s popularity within ZU and other targeted fan sites.

Once again, plans to default the Wise Men’s operations were in order. Well-seasoned Splitists from the Zelda Boards of GameFAQs Forums had arrived at ZU to challenge the UWM supremacy. The name of the first faction was known as the Splitist Clan. Founded and lead by quick_silver20 (now known as quicksilver), the coalition consisted of Riddle of Steel, Mohammedali, Rak, The Predator, and Eralk Fang – all experienced senior theorists that had confronted legions of the UWM council during the first congress’s disputes. The second coalition that arose was known as the Splitist Group - a faction rumored to have been issued forth from LA Forums. The leader of this theorist group was Cloaked Mystery - later known as The Black Knight (TBK for short).

At the peak of the UWM activity, the group inspired the two faction competitors to form The Allied Splitist Elders (ASE). Some people never considered the group to be more than a ego booster for the founder, TBK, whose experience in Zelda theorizing was less than the average members of the theorizing community. During this time, TBK is known to have annoyed many more people than just LOZ Historian, with behavior that has been referred to as childish and melodramatic, with no purpose other than stirring up drama. Nonetheless, TBK was the group’s main coordinator while quicksilver20 stood as the co-founder and main advisor.

Shortly before the union of the ASE, an overlooked December 2006 Eiji Aonuma interview over Twilight Princess’s placement in the timeline had confirmed the Split Timeline Theory to be true. Within a short amount of time the ASE’s membership matched that of the now disgruntled Linearist coalition, mimicking their organizational standards in the process. Naturally, the more experienced theorists tended to be credited by quick_silver20’s methods of recruitment and training, whereas TBK was known to recruit former UWM members, and anyone who he could convince. However most of the UWM members remained loyal to their group and stood by for their founder’s announcement.

LOZ Historian’s theorist memoirs received mixed reactions. Some were not sure if he was being totally serious or not; but whatever the case may be, the piece can best be described as an exhaustive disillusioned response. In his memoirs he professed his secret desires to get even with the ‘Splitist Pro Theorizing Communities’ by launching a culminated UWM attack force upon LA Forums, then the Zelda Boards of Game FAQs. He claimed that their overbearing and arrogant support of the Split Timeline was the initial cause of the ‘Timeline Wars’ – all which hindered debate for sake of keeping popular opinions standardized.

Despite utter defeat and the realization of his hypocrisy, the founder said that Nintendo was wrong for choosing the Split Timeline - for it would hinder any hope for coherent storyline development and canon consistency between the now similar, but different universes. Then he declared that the Splitists did not deserve to win the Timeline Wars because a Split Timeline equaled no timeline. He also claimed that if the staff continued to neglect containing the post-fires of the Timeline Wars, a worse transgression than his would follow beyond their control. In his self-adoring irony of his situation, LOZ H left ZU in a blaze of glory themed with cartoon depictions and theme music. Because his council refused to be disbanded, they continued to exist, grimly moving forward in spite of appalled reactions from the communities.

Third Congress (April 2007 – June 2007)

The Last Battle for Canon.

Wise Men

• Master of ALttP (Group Leader)

• HeroOfTime5
• Raian
• Sentient
• silver arrow
• Uncle Meat
• Vaati

Hylian Knights

• MDK (Chief Knight)
• Pinecove (Chief Knight)

• Daegen
• Butler
• Bingo675
• Hyrule Pheonix
• Magick-Tech
• Slur.exe (Currently known as Slur)
• Zeldafan1
• Zant

UWM Allies

Sun Guardian (Currently known as Ranstone) - Unit Leader

Note: Number of members unknown.

In the wake of the "Blue Swamp” incident, the course of the Wise Men's activity changed drastically, along with a massive overhaul of hierarchy. Lex, along with Raian, Uncle Meat and MDK drifted toward a marginally more neutral position, and most of the rest of the UWM members elected to follow the new 2D Adult Timeline Placement as well as their supporters. Master of ALttP became the UWM leader of its third and final congress.

Starship ZUChat Enters the Fray and The Group's Disbandment (May 2007 – July 2007)

During this period, the ASE faction - or rather TBK because quicksilver had gone inactive - was stirring up a lot of tension in the theory sections. TBK had professed his vendetta against LOZ H and his desires to rid his group from ZU. ZU forum moderator Leminnes was managing The Bombers, a theorizing group that was launched early 2007, shortly after the ‘Blue Swamp’ event, along with a writing competition which most of the UWM took part in - eventually gaining membership. This group was ZU staff's answer to regulating the drama in the theorizing section by having an "official" group that would gradually replace the community-led groups. When the Bombers debuted and UWM gained majority membership over ASE theorists, TBK was quick to assume that the new order was an undermining scheme to take control of the Zelda Theorizing Forum. One of the Bombers’ many aims was to be the ‘mixing pot’ to disband all rivaling factions to the point which the theory boards could return to some sanity and civility. The remnants of the UWM were quick to support the Bomber’s efforts, while TBK directed the ASE efforts to work against this prospect with a secret organization – later known as the ‘Killer Bees’. This secret organization has gone unclassified, yet has been credited with playing a major role in deterring the Bomber's appeal over the ZU theory sections of that time.

In the meantime, a group of IRC-dwellers and forum trolls dubbing themselves Starship ZUChat, which was heavily tied to VGRC, were planning several major operations of their own. In the past, the group had been only known to the theorizing community as trolls and antagonists, as they would frequently plunder the theorizing board during high periods of drama, posting outlandish "theories" and berating the section's inhabitants. When they were called out as trolls, they attempted to legitimize their presence in the boards as another theorizing group, one in which there was no timeline, which resulted in further flame wars and drama, much to the amusement of the Starship.

The group, however, whose members had been around since the early days of ZU, was quickly morphing from an outsider trolling group to a vigilante group with heavy ties to ZU's staff, and gradually shifted the bulk of their trolling operations to driving out the less intelligent sectors of the population that was deemed "innocent" by the staff's strict rulebook. After several major disagreements with the staff over how the forum should be managed, the group decided the time had come for a mass-migration from ZU to VGRC. In a period dubbed by group leader and VGRC webmaster Captain Cornflake as “The Decline of ZU," it was decided that in light of many disagreements with forum staff, then-ZU owner Yusuf, as well as the UWM vs ASE drama emanating from the Zelda Theorizing section, that, despite the group's valiant efforts to purge the forums of the undesirables, ZU was getting nearly unbearable to inhabit, and the group was in the market to seek out or create a new home.

Meanwhile, Leminnes and the Bombers were also dissatisfied with how things operated at ZU. When Lem caught word of the Starship's plans, he was immediately for the idea, and after several secret meetings throughout June 2007 between Starship ZUChat and the Bombers, mediated by Leminnes himself, the two groups allied and the concept for ZeldaInformer, a new home that would be developed in secret and announced as a total surprise after its completion, was born. And as the Bombers escalated in popularity and faith from its followers, (and as their internal focus shifted towards the secret ZeldaInformer project) regular UWM activity, began to dwindle in the passing months.

All the white, members outside the Zelda Theorizing section, unaware of the imminent launch of ZI, began to see history repeat itself in the same ‘war mentality’ invoked before the Blue Swamp incident. Zelda Theorizing was once again becoming more than just theorizing. The UWM Third Congress's efforts to mend, reconcile, and move on beyond Theorist Factions with the ASE - under the Bombers - failed, and thus resulted in TBK attaining enough support to create his own rival group. Lem, who had been using his mod powers to change ASE member's account passwords to read private messages, came across TBK's elaborate plans for this endeavor. These plans called for an end to The Bombers, whom TBK would somehow manage to replace with his own group, The Killer Bees. While he hadn't yet figured out how he was going to gain favor among the staff, he was so certain he could pull it off that he made a secret forum on InvisionFree that would serve as the headquarters for the ASE until his conquest of ZU could take place. Not willing to let the ZI launch be upstaged, and in their neverending quest for lulz, Starship ZUChat, along with several off-site allies, hacked and destroyed his forums. TBK was banned shortly after and hasn't been seen since.

Wrath of the Linearist King (August 2007)

As the group was heavily based on the idea of a single timeline, the "Blue Swamp incident" was a deadly blow to the UWM. While many members of the group, including its leaders, didn't cling on to the theory "religiously" and welcomed the new revelation as a settlement to an argument that had divided the community for years, they felt no reason to go on as a group. The initial intention of the council was to provide a balance to the overly popular split timeline, which at the time could not be proven to be fact just as the single timeline, to maintain debate for the sake of debate. Master of ALttP formally disbanded the group with an additional message from LOZ Historian; all which can be summed up in the same tone as his memoirs, with additional hatred towards TBK’s efforts to repeat history over nothing but, what LOZ Historian saw as, his own pride.

The Historian's Cataclysm.

With the UWM disbandment and slowing activity in the theory sections, the disgruntled and leaderless ASE faction had lost faith from its supporters. The Bombers sub-forum activity came to a standstill as most Zelda Theorists had solidified their general beliefs – split between Child Timeline Placement and Adult Timeline Placement Disciplines. This was a stalling period for new ideas because LA Forum's influence of ‘search-for-objective-truth-only’ ruled out subjective approaches – thus according to them, which hindered the ‘war mentality’ brought to ZU because of its largely diverse community.

In July 2007, ZeldaInformer was deemed complete enough to send live, and the migration was official. This was the time in which the Bombers decided it would be best to move on and work under a new beginning; away from the tainted legacy the Timeline Wars had left them. Amongst these revolutions being made in the Zelda Community, ZU was being hacked by 4chan, also known as Anonymous, which occurred more than once.

Unbeknown to the rest of the community, save several members of the Starship ZUChat trolling group, LOZ Historian was still lurking in the shadows of ZU. When the Bombers officially left ZU, quicksilver had returned - ignorant of all that had transpired since Blue Swamp and not accountable for what TBK had been doing. The enraged Historian took advantage of 4chans threats to hack ZU again, imposing as the two ASE Founders on their boards to fuel the next attack. Shortly after the rest of the communities got word of this, the former ‘Linearist King’ created an alternate account to impose himself as an angered representative of Anonymous. Under the account he sent PMs to all members of the ASE, which convinced most of them to disband; even to the point which a freaked out member posted it on the forums. The conspiracy had worked. Most people had been fooled accordingly when 4chan actually hacked ZU again some time afterward, which then shortly resulted in both ASE founders being banned. Yet when higher ranking members of the ASE still refused to disband, LOZ H created another alternate account to officially disband the remnants of the group.

The Starship, which was closely allied with Anonymous at the time, was infuriated by Historian's actions, as they felt that him using Anon's name was a disgrace to their reputation. Since Anonymous had embedded several backdoors in ZU when it was hacked, a complete record of Historian's private messages, which revealed his actions in telling detail was extracted from the database. This archive was cleaned up and published live to the forums by Captain Cornflake, after which Historian was swiftly banned by the ZU staff. After this, he continued to pursue outposts of the ASE at other websites with resentment over what TBK had done. He disappeared from the internet until late 2008 when gaining admittance as a Bomber under a secret alias known as ‘The Gossip Reaper’. Since his return he has made numerous accounts of apology and statements of reflection and reassessment in the forums - all which can best be summed up in his Bombers Notebook at ZI. Apart from other confrontations with members of the Zelda Theorizing community, quicksilver’s return in early 2009 also addressed the misconstrued times of ASE actions not under his control and has made amends with others accordingly, like LOZ H.

The United Wise Men’s Legacy

Legacy of the UWM.

Forming the group in 2006, LOZ Historian started a trend that can still be seen sweeping the boards of Zelda Universe. People from all kinds of groups and alliances show this by creating custom banners and including them in their signatures. The group can also be seen partly responsible for creating Zelda Theories board on ZU forums and greatly increasing peoples interest in the hobby itself. They were also the driving force behind The Bombers when they first started out, even though the group gradually disbanded in its wake.

Among their more popular theories for their time, certain members of the unit revolutionize the rhetoric behind the defense of the AT Timeline Placement - a number of their discoveries and trends eventually redefining the ‘New Hyrule Concept’ after The Wind Waker - which has now been confirmed by Spirit Tracks.

The UWM, although very controversial, can be seen as the cornerstone for a few different aspects in Zelda Theorizing as well attitude and conduct displayed from varying perspectives of the hobby - and how it should be moderated since then. When the tension of post Blue Swamp dilemmas had all but simmered down by late 2007, most communities had built up a resent towards Zelda Theorists with a bad stereotypes in mind. This eventually left bigger communities, like Zelda Legends, Zelda Universe, ZeldaInformer, and Zelda Dungeon, the main places left to theorize. Since early 2008, an influx of new theorists have grown and instilled new ethics over how to avoid similar tensions of the Timeline Wars from ever surfacing again. LOZ Historian’s recent return shed light on how to help reduce the problems in Zelda Theorizing with the release of his new project, Zelda Historians. This group can be seen as a second testament to achieve what the UWM failed to do under the heated circumstances of their time.