When I began CF and for pretty much the first two years, I hated Nexus, I hated the cabal and how it was dealt with, since these random people would just come after my uncaballed char and gang him down because I was a storm giant and light tipped. (I started playing around Ilix/Cyrn time). Yeah, light was strong because my 0 -50 PK record uncaballed storm giant was wandering around alone exploring- and I always got weak or no justification beyond you're of the light. So I pretty much held to that view for a long time- screw nexus, it's moronic and stupid (in large part because I did not care for the chars in the cabal- not because I really knew much about the cabal).

After about 2 or so years of CF, I created Allysia, primarily to do two things. One was to try a more pk oriented character, the other to experience a cabal I hated but had never played so really did not fully understand.

Having played it, the general arguments people make about everyone should hate nexus are just wrong. Oh, they will inevitably do bad things as defined by the eyes of the fortress so they are evil. Really? That's just such a narrow short sighted view of things. I always loved fort people trying to tell me how when I killed someone it was murder and it was an evil vile thing I was doing, but when they killed an evil it was some righteous holy thing that only proved their virtue. A maran's own actions are more inherently evil than a Nexun's, since a Maran will ALWAYS exterminate an evil or try do, where as in nexus you are never faced with the position of always kill X. To me, having permanent kill on sight orders is more evil than what nexus does. (This is of course a simplified view- but that is what gets posited by the I hate nexus people so why give them anything more than what they use in their own justifications?)

In my time I saw all sorts of power swings. There was fort o'clock, empire happy ganging hour and the roaming village hordes. Yeah, I fought against all of them and generally I noticed two approaches. Some cabals, notably outlander, made a point of hunting me when they saw me and never asking for aid because we downed the spirit a few times. Evils generally used us when they could to even things against fort power swings. Fort pretty much ignored us, though would occassionally take some help from us when they were badly outmanned. In so doing, outlander and fort really only hampered themselves, but that's fine, that's for the char's RP and mortal leaders to decide.

On a char level, some characters held grudges, others were pragmatic in handling us. That's for an individual's RP to decide. However, as Rhyme I pretty much told every Nexun that they could tend the balance however they saw fit. They did not have to PK. They did not have to raid or help retrieve. If light was in power they could run around and help young evils. The only thing you could not do was aid the side that was in power. In my later years (reinduction period) I became far less involved in raiding and fighting anyone that was not in Battle because I had developed personal relationships with people and those actually would be a reason for me to not hit the maran, nightwalker, huntress or whatever. Only when things were heavily swaying would I be forced to get involved, and generally I tried to be apologetic about it.

I suppose it is easier to justify taking aid from someone who has harmed you in the past as an evil than as a goodie. (mainly because goodies are far more black & white in their approach- you are not light means you are bad- sort of stupid if you ask me) Maran were notoriously stubborn, acolytes however you could engage and talk to. They would preach and try to convert. When I got booted, the acolytes all told me to try and become a member of the fort for example. If part of being good is seeing the chance for redemption in all people, that is part of the reason why as a goodie you do not wage war against nexus. Because they have within them the capacity for good or evil, and are motivated by both sides at one time. The narrow view is to see only the capacity for evil (while ignoring the other side of them) and base your entire view off of that. You struck the Maran once, die forever nexus scum! Yeah. That's really great Goodie RP.

If any cabal raids nexus and makes war on them, outside of Fort and to a lesser extent Tribunal, I don't think it is really much of a problem. Those cabals have agendas to follow that Nexus does not mesh well with (but at the same time they see the appeal in having the occassional ally when they are weak- and when they are strong they're not afraid of them so it's a win-win for them) Part of the Fortress idea though is to redeem as well as purge evil. If they take the view anything not goodie must be destroyed, they're just a flip side to empire and that is not really how most people see the cabal. Nexus is not inherently evil, but it takes an open mind to see it I suppose, and some people either can't, or more likely, just don't want to because of their own past experiences with the cabal. Anything can be justified or rationalized after all.

Basically, the nexus haters want CF to be team good vs. team evil, and that is just a bad approach that eliminates a lot of the intresting RP from the game.