BSGSamuel wrote:To explain it in one sentence, it was a bit like risk where realms were the territories.
To expand on that (if I remember correctly):
Realms and their build rights would still ultimately belong to their normal owners, but would also be part of a country (basically a big guild) which would take new territory into their country by pouring more credits onto a realm than the number currently 'reinforcing' it. The owners of a country would be able to set a custom tax rate over all realms in their territory (which would apply to all players with their /home set within said territory), and if the tax rate was above minimum the extra credits would be converted into points for the country.
However, when the system was released, the special points gained from taxes had no use, and I don't remember whether any specific plans to add a use for the points were ever announced beyond simply that they would be good for something eventually. At the time mostly all it did was eat money, put extra load on the server and stir up guild crazy, so the majority didn't want to keep it in effect, at least in that incomplete form.