Guardsmen

The Guardsmen are a group founded in May 2020 by HermeticLock, TheDark_Emperor, D_loaded, and Orsond. The primary ideology revolves around a base named The Homeland, which is close to spawn and is protected by the Guardsmen. When a Homeland is damaged beyond repair, it is moved to a nearby location. They also function as a normal group, making other bases and projects.

The Guardsmen historically shared many members with the SpawnMasons, given HermeticLock was the founder of both groups. The Guardsmen was created following a disagreement between HermeticLock and his former group.

The Homeland
The Homeland is the main base of the Guardsmen. The base is situated incredibly close to spawn, with the idea that it will be discovered. When it is found, it will be protected by the Guardsmen to the best of their ability. However, if the base is griefed beyond repair, the base will move to an adjacent biome. Usually the new base area will have a different build theme but still have the same name. The main idea is that as the base areas are griefed, the total area of the base will increase but the active area will usually stay a similar size.

Early history
The Guardsmen were created in early May of 2020. The group was kept a secret up until late May, when the discord became public with the discord vanity URL. Soon after, the Guardsmen announced they would repair Aureus City. After a couple weeks, a decision was made to make the discord private again. After a couple months, another decision was made to create a public discord, which can now be found in the 2b2t Discord Archive. The Guardsmen announced that they would be repairing another base, King's Landing, as means to discover possible candidates, but this project concluded in August of 2020. The group went on to build Adamantium with the Shortbus Caliphate and members of Donfuer.

Mesa Homeland
The Mesa Homeland was the first homelands biome to be chosen and built. Famous builds include the obsidian Arc de Triomphe, and Orsond's library. This biome area was griefed on the 25th of May 2020 by Emperium. In the following months, the Guardsmen would return to the Mesa Homeland to build a giant nomad hut, the Angel of Dignity, and the Statue of Liberty.

Desert Homeland
The Desert Homeland was the second biome of the Homeland. It was destroyed by the group Highland where BigBullet638 obtained the coordinates from screenshots in the private discord. Some notable builds include Orsond's obsidian tower and Yarnamite's Desert Castle. It was griefed on the 2nd of June 2020.

Mountain Homeland
The Mountain Homeland was a homeland with a couple small houses and towers that was near the Mesa Biome. It had a small port and view over the ocean, but was sadly griefed just a couple days after it was built. Later, it was extensively griefed using TNT Bombers.

Obsidian Labyrinth
A giant labyrinth made of obsidian was created 500 blocks east of the Mesa Homeland, and was used for a Fight Club event. It had 5 elder guardians strategically placed around it so that anyone entering would instantly get the Mining Fatigue effect, and would be unable to escape. Additionally, the labyrinth was watercubed to avoid withering and destruction. Later, the 2b2t Youtuber Fit would go on to make a video about the event.

Camp Spooky
On the 11th of October 2020, a new section of the Homeland was created, which was halloween-themed. It went by the name of Camp Spooky, and was led by Guardsmen member Orsond. Special 'spooky' building kits were duped, which included nether brick, different types of wood, and a few spooky-themed blocks and items. This ensured that the block palette could be consistent throughout Camp Spooky would be consistent with the Halloween theme. To get invited to the event, one would simply have to ask for the happy-camper role in the public discord, which meant that it was quite open to the pubic. Many people from other groups, such as Crimson, Shortbus Caliphate, Donfuer, and Teslic were also invited. Camp Spooky was created on a swamp biome, and included some notable builds like Zetrax's Sky House, the Stay Away Sign, a giant slime pit, and the two pumpkins. On the 16th of October, an event was held at the location, and over 10 people participated. Camp Spooky lasted until the 21st of October, when someone uninvited arrived at the base and griefed it.

Adamantium
Adamantium was founded by orsond and Joey_Coconut on 31 December, 2020. It would grow to become a large spawnbase with many members and builds over its several week lifespan. It was griefed on 18 January, 2021. Following the success of Adamantium, Orsond and Hermeticlock encouraged the addition of many Shortbus Caliphate members to the Guardsmen in a bid to keep the activity up. Joey Coconut, Leader of the Shortbus Caliphate, was also made a Distinguished member of the Guardsmen as a result. Many members of the Shortbus Caliphate subsequently became members throughout 2021.

Whistler
Whistler was founded on 16 March, 2021 in an ice spikes biome somewhat near the Homeland. Although the base lasted only a week, many builds were constructed there in a short period.

Mediano
Mediano was founded following the destruction of Whistler, by JSR4, orsond, and Joey_Coconut. The location was selected because of the many ocean monuments in the area, and the base featured many large builds. Franknificant, SilverEyes100, and FrenchEagle would infamously arrive uninvited and build an obsidian church. +It was griefed on 24 April, 2021 by BSB after FrenchDuke accidentally leaked it in a Infinity Incursion voice chat.

Canopy
Following the grief of Mediano, Canopy was founded near the original Homeland. The base grew quickly in size, and was largely underground. It was leaked for the group's 1 year anniversary event.

Bloxico
Bloxico was founded by orsond after the leak of Canopy, and was griefed days later by by several of the guests.

Watchmen Conflict
On June 16, 2021 Bezopasan leaked jared2013's chatlogs with orsond in addition to others and the coordinates to Whitehaven and Block Game Jerusalem after being given them all by jared2013. The leaked chatlogs showed that Orsond had been lying about tracking down Imperator's Base 2, and had also been insiding/intended to inside several groups associated with Guardsmen including the Spawnmasons, DonFuer, and Infinity Incursion. Orsond stepped down from Distinguished and adopted the inactive rank in Guardsmen. He created Pact soon thereafter. A vote was held on July 8, 2021 to restore his membership to the group. This vote narrowly failed, denying him the right to return to the group (such a vote had never been held before to restore an inactive member). In the proceeding weeks, Orsond came into possession of the Watchmen, started his own Revival of the group, and declared a 'Larp War' on the Guardsmen at the Homeland. The Watchmen Revival constructed a 200k+ obsidian structure called the Watchmen Citadel with a statue of Joey_Coconut at the top, which represented 'Larp' culture on 2b2t to them.

Leadership Troubles
The Crypt was founded by Joey_Coconut on 8 August, 2021 as a so-called 'run-down medieval town'. It was griefed about a week later by the Watchmen Revival. Several Guardsmen bases in and around the Homeland had been destroyed by the Watchmen Revival. Despite this Hermeticlock would bring Orsond back to the Guardsmen in late September 2021.

In the weeks following, Orsond added many players from Fifth Column and the then-defunct Watchmen Revival to the group. Tensions in the group built concerning orsond's return, the new guests added to the group, and the increasing involvement of some of the group's members with Copenheimer. Following the (what was later revealed to be fake) grief of jeb_'s private server, a long argument took place that resulted in Joey Coconut's resignation from distinguished. He would leave the group entirely taking over 6 members with him. He posted a lengthy final announcement where he denounced Orsonds return, and some of the members he added. Orsond subsequently griefed Menegroth, and caused the self-grief of Gaza, Halicarnassus, and Astralia - All Joey_Coconut's bases.

Steampunkjax, was made a Distinguished just one day before these events, and was now thrust into the spotlight. He promised to help revive the group. However many of his actions: unnecessary pings, kicking or moving lots of members to inactive, and more, proved unpopular. Orsond began receiving complaints, and a secret group chat was created where members would vent about Steampunk and discuss removing him from leadership. Feeling bad for Steampunk, both D_loaded and Hermeticlock would share this with him,  inadvertently leading to his sudden public resignation. In his resignation Steampunk called out toxicity, and blamed Orsond. Following this Orsond would blame D_loaded, threatening to greif him and his bases if he didn't apologize. Orsond resigned from leadership, leaving D_loaded and Hermeticlock as the only remaining Distinguished Guardsmen.

Cultural Reset
On November 12, 2021, HermeticLock created a new discord for the Guardsmen, stating, "Fresh starts are rare in life, and a pristine, unspoiled discord server is even rarer. Okay, maybe not, but I find it necessary to start from a clean slate every now and then, and essentially have a cultural reset."

Orsond left the group shortly thereafter once the rules were changed to disallow grieifing of fellow guardsmen. Many members were subsequently kicked from the new discord in a large-scale purge. And a new secret base was started.

Despite the 'cultural reset', on January 21, 2022, Hermeticlock announced that he was brining back Orsond and Bezopazan into the Guardsmen to run the group.

HermeticLock officially disbanded The Guardsmen on August 2nd, 2022 after a long period of inactivity.

=Initiation= The initiation ceremony is a private ceremony that is not available to the public. All information is classified to members only, however it is how an approved Guardsmen becomes an official member. The process is similar to the SpawnMason ceremony, although it has a few differences.

Members
Unlike many other groups, The Guardsmen have a singular rank: Guardsman. There is no rank-up system, other than the process of selecting new members for the group. The Guardsmen are invite-only, with candidates being 'vouched' or suggested by a Guardsman. The leaders of the Guardsmen were 'Distinguished Guardsmen'.

Relations
The Guardsman followed the same model as the SpawnMasons of non-interventionism. While a rivalry with the masons does still persist because of the COVID-2147 drama it died down considerably with the two groups sharing many members between them. The group also has strong ties to DonFuer as they share membership and Hermeticlock is a long-time member of DonFuer. The relationship with Shortbus Caliphate was also strong before many of the members left.