A real life associate of Umbrae introduced him to Cyber Nations and told about the political nature of the game. Umbrae started out in the alliance ICON, which later merged into Nordreich. Before the merger happened, Umbrae was expelled from ICON for joining the New Pacific Order. This expulsion had no effect, as Umbrae had already left ICON to join the Order. ICON was disorganized, lacking a government and structure. Umbrae chose the Order as his new home after browsing the Cyber Nations forums, finding it to be, like himself, militaristic.