Draft:The Barons Duke Conflict of 2024

The Barons Duke conflict began in the early fall, late august of 2024 in the metropolitan city of Rome, eventually widening to encompass areas of Florence, Tuscany, Paris, Germany, and parts of Spain. Three roommates: Chris Mattos, Kevin Matthew, and Trey Phillips, living in the Prati neighborhood of Rome for their semester abroad through Temple University, established contact with their neighbors of whom were from Duke University. This initial stage, known anthropologically as the Proto-Baron era, was marked by good relations between the two households.

Events would escalate tensions, however, as initial diplomatic success was hampered by the “Barons’ Communiqué” of September 11. It was this letter which ended the Proto-Barons era, announcing the household of Apartment 4 comprising of Chris Mattos, Kevin Matthew, Trey Phillips, Ed, Henry, and Nate, would now be known as “The Barons”. The specific contents of this letter were, upon further review, extremely cringe, and it was no wonder it elicited a lack of response from the Duke apartment.

Duke’s silence, coupled with a general feeling of slight from their ghosting, kickstarted the war campaign by the Barons. Action was swift, with immediate moves on the following day September 12 to capture the BVLGARI Hotel in Campo Marzio by an expeditionary force made up of commandos led by Mattos and Phillips. On September 14, Mattos Phillips and Matthew led a 8 hour patrol to reinforce the walls of Rome, fortifying them against an attack from within from the Duke strongholds in Prati. Duke struck back, hitting Paris over the weekend, an event known as the Fall of France resulting in broad devastation to the European continent. However, with Rome secured, The Barons managed to strike Florence the following weekend and take it for themselves.

The makeup of the Barons resembled, at this point, a mixed coalition of forces as opposed to a unified army. The makeup of the home front was of the Barons’ center, Mattos Matthew and Phillips, with their right flank made up of Ed, Henry, and Nate. This right flank was conscripted, not voluntary, and was likely not unaware the war had even started; a likely agent in the soon to erupt Civil War. Assistance was given in the Siege of Florence by the Counts of Via Tacito with Harry and John acting as formal ambassadors.

The Siege of Florence marked a turning point in the conflict, and an eruption of the Baron’s Civil War. An instagram account, titled thing1thing2rome, created under the gmail name of one of the roommates name’s, Ed Cox, was created by a sober man at a Tuscan wine tasting the week before, saw extensive use and revival during this period. The revamping and widespread use of this account, combined with a more focused emphasis on pr aimed at the Davidson branch of the coalition, marked the beginning of the Barons’ Civil War period of the Duke Barons Conflict. It is worth noting that at this point, all communique between the Barons or Duke had been using a fictitious character known as Lebron on the Baron’s side. Described as 6’9” tall dark and handsome, the greatest basketball player of all time, he was the fall man and formal signer on all Baron letters up until this point. Given the total blackout, building internal pressure, and an overstretching of resources, Baron high command considered a number of approaches during this period to reestablish contact with Duke. One was to continue the narrative of Lebron and to deflect blame, another was to go fully mask off and admit Lebron in concept was a gag, the final solution was to fully send the bit and say that Lebron was a former roommate kicked out for SHR violations by the other 6 roommates.

On September 29 2024, it was learned that Germany had fallen to Duke. With losses in the heartland of the European continent now piling up, Baron high command was stunned; a bold move was needed to outmaneuver the enemy. A wikipedia page was created using the same email and naming convention as thing1thing2rome and a wikipedia page was created chronicling the war effort. If the Duke girls win Europe, the Baron boys will win the history books. Chris Mattos won a medal of bravery, heroism, loyalty, and good looks on September 29 for his dedication to this bit, and his continuing efforts to fight that Davidson Confederates.

Escalation

The Plunger Incident of October 2 brought the Civil War to unforeseen heights.