The Southlanders

The Southlanders, also known as the Southern Alliance or the Southerners (formerly, the Spyglass Sextet), was an alliance of five players on Southlands in Season Two of 3rd Life (Last Life). The alliance is comprised of Martyn (InTheLittleWoods), Jimmy (Solidarity), Impulse (ImpulseSV), Mumbo (MumboJumbo), and Grian. The group collectively formed around their shared use of the spyglass, as well as their catch-phrase "a-ha!".

The alliance fell apart after all of the members either turned red or betrayed them.

The last former Southlander alive (Martyn) died in the final battle, between Scott (Smajor1995), Ren (Rendog) and Pearl (PearlescentMoon).

A proposed method of communication involved a convoluted smoke-signal setup created by Mumbo involving Morse code, which was later abandoned due to it's complexity and time consumption. The plan was for each member to create a tower around the central mountain, and then they would be joined up by a wall to create a keep. All member except Mumbo (who built a small bunker with a tall antenna) did this, and Grian constructed the wall, originally out of dark oak planks, which was then covered in cobblestone after it was lit on fire.

The chief export of the Southlanders is presumed to be TNT, thanks to Grian nabbing some of the only naturally-spawning sugarcane within the world border, as well as the only known Wandering Trader who also sells sugarcane. As the modified TNT recipe uses paper in place of gunpowder, the Southlanders' potential monopoly on sugarcane and explosives make the alliance not only a very strong and profitable alliance early in the game, but one to be feared as well.

Session 1 - Founding
Grian originally found a location for his base on a mountain in a Dark Oak forest. Here, he built a cobblestone tower to serve as his base. Later, he paid Mumbo five salmon to join the Southlands. The two then met Martyn, Jimmy, Impulse, and Joel (SmallishBeans), and they merged to form a group. They then moved to Grian's base, devised the smoke signal system, and established the locations for the towers.

Session 3 - Fortifications
Grian started by constructing a path to spawn and deforesting the area around the base, for defence. He also built a dark oak wall connecting the towers, but leaving out Mumbo's bunker. During this time, a hidden sugarcane farm was constructed.

Joel briefly entered the base underground, but then left. Scar (GoodTimesWithScar) then arrived as a travelling salesman. Upon his arrival, Grian stole his sugarcane and then he and Mumbo bought ‘soul crystals’, which supposedly guarantee the delivery of a life in the near future, off him in exchange for a potential secret alliance. Mumbo also used Grian's boots to buy a cactus.

Scar offered them free use of the enchanting table as a sign of friendship. Instead, they stole his horse Yellow Snow off him and ran away. They fastened Yellow Snow on a lead above a pit of lava, and lured Scar in. When faced with the prospect of accepting Grian and Mumbo's deal, giving up the enchanting table, or Yellow Snow dying, he retaliated that he stole Yellow Snow of Grian in the first session and so it was not his horse, and left. Yellow Snow fell into the lava.

Session 4 - Loss of Grian
During Session 4 Grian prepared a bunker for himself to respawn in if he was to ever die and reach his last life - foreshadowing the event to occur later in the session. Within this bunker, of which its location is purposefully obscured within the episode to stop any other members from finding it, there was a set of armour, some tools, and a pack of wolves that he had tamed.

Grian opted to help Mumbo build the ghast farm, towering up on the nether roof and building a simple killing platform. After a number of jokes throughout the journey, Mumbo mentioned that "Joel is here", announcing his arrival, which Grian took to be a joke. Joel then shot Grian off the half-finished platform, and he fell to his death, making him the first red name of the Southlanders. Grian realised after the events that he had a boat in his inventory and could've attempted to negate the fall.

Session 5 - Grian is Back
After threatening to spawn-camp Scar, he gave Grian and Joel a life each, and the Southlanders welcomed Grian back.

Session 6 - The Fall of the Southlands
After becoming Boogeyman and killing Bdubs (BdoubleO100), Mumbo was killed by Etho (EthosLab) (also a Boogeyman) and went down to his last life. Jimmy also died to a TnT trap from Lizzie (LDShadowLady). Martyn betrayed them to the castle alliance.

Session 7 - Final Fading
At the beginning of the session, the alliance formally consisted of Martyn, Grian, and Impulse. Then Impulse was killed and taken down to red, and Mumbo and Jimmy were eliminated by Grian. Later, Martyn betrayed Grian as the Boogeyman, though his kill was stolen by Joel. This caused The Deadliest Duo to be reformed. Later, the reds released a Wither in the Snow Castle, which was fought primarily by Bdubs and Etho, and Impulse was eliminated by Scott.

Power/Influence
As of Session 4, the Southlanders were in possession of some of the only sugarcane, as well as a large alliance, with a total of four people. That put them as tied for the largest alliance with B.E.S.T (debatably, as Bdubs had just turned to his red life). Their territory, while large, was well protected. With the towers, Grian's mountain for high ground (although the status of this area's ownership was debatable as Grian had recently become red and been evicted from the alliance), Mumbo's bunker, the world border and their large military, they were well set on defending their territory when the time came. Finally, their territory bordered a river and plains, meaning that without an underground attack, any attacks would be seen and defended against. Indeed. there was only one other territory near enough to the Southlands to perform an effective attack (the Fairy Fort).

Collective Life
At the end of Session 7, the group had three eliminated players (Mumbo, Jimmy, and Impulse), one red life (Grian) and a light green life (Martyn). When the group was still active, lives were not actively shared to members who lost lives/had less.

BdoubleO100
The first Boogeyman, Bdubs was forced to kill someone in the first session. Before Grian became a (founding) member of The Southlanders, he was a convenient person to kill as no "force" had his back, which led to Bdubs killing him. After Grian had declared it, the rest of the Southlanders agreed that Bdubs was "on their list.". Though he wasn't attacked when Southlanders existed, he was later eliminated by Grian after betraying the red alliance that had formed.

SmallishBeans
In session two, Joel was the boogeyman, and attempted to spring a trap on the alliance, which fell through due to Grian going ahead and pressing buttons (as he does best). After realising the attempted murder, he was killed by Mumbo, and was distrusted by the alliance, especially once he ended up on his red life. However, he and Grian later worked together as a red duo on multiple occasions.

Locations

 * An area on the south world border, slightly to the east of center.

Placements

 * 17th (Solidarity)
 * 16th (MumboJumbo)
 * 14th (ImpulseSV)
 * 7th (Grian)
 * 3rd (InTheLittleWood)