There are two things that make you influential in immland. (And only two.) That is 1. your ability to code and 2. time. Nepenthe was in the second round of immortals (the first being the founders like BT, Jullias etc.) making him the longest running and consistent immortal because Twist and Scarab have done a lot more ducking in and out over the years.
Nep is also a fantastic game builder. No one else understands the impact a given item, area, skill, edge or whatever is going to have on the game like him. No one ever understood the balance of the game as well as Nepenthe. And few can match him for creativity in coding and, really, story-telling and role-play. I mean, absent whatever your balance grievances are so regarding, Silent Tower is a masterwork on any MUD. Nepenthe was so fucking awesome at building the game and so dedicated to keeping it going he was nearly indispensable. He was even more indispensable after Zhulg left.
Thus, one does not cross Nepenthe. Nor does anyone fuck with that which he hath created.
In fact, Nepenthe was so vital to the game many, many transgressions were let slide. Some, minor - like exploiting his knowledge of areas he created, or like when he put in the natural weapon edge for w-elf and switched the material type on a pair of swords to go with it, then using those + a pre-nerf STSF to tool everyone. He also did a lot of sketchy taking advantage of things then nerfing them after so no one else could use them. Hey, whatever. Gray areas...
But there were also some black and white areas. Cabdru comes to mind. Cheat, then lie on top of it, right? He did get a slap on the wrist for that escapade, but eventually anyone who could slap his wrists left.
Then, we got fucking Baerinika - who almost single-handedly drove every good imm out of immland. Someone who never, ever would have made it except for the fact she was attached to Nepenthe. No one agreed with her promotion to 53 and we all knew it was Nep and his willingness to streamline her progs that got her area done so fast. Eventually opposing anything about Baerinika basically meant you were the one in trouble. While I don't feel comfortable naming the names of every imm we lost because of her I can tell you it was a lot. Like, a real lot.
Then we ended up in a world where Nepenthe and Baer ran everything. Together, they drove the MUD into the ground and then left it like thieves in the night. I could overlook all of Nep's cheating for what he brought to the game, because he brought so much. But on balance with Baer, we were better off without him, I think.