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» Guild History |
The following is the 10+ year recorded history of the Mithril Warhammers as told by Kagear Toran.
Table of Contents:
- The Beginning
- Everquest & Dark Age of Camelot
- Shadowbane: Beta
- Shadowbane: Death
- Shadowbane: Corruption
- Shadowbane: Entropy
- Shadowbane: Vindication, Mourning, Brailla (Coming Soon)
- The Dark Ages (Coming Soon)
- World of Warcraft (Coming Soon)
The Beginning:
{Excerpt from Dorgin}
It all started in a little game I doubt many of you heard about, and even less of you played, called The Realm. I was relatively new to Fantasy gaming in general, I played some limited DnD with some friends across the street from where I lived, and grew to love Dwarves. The idea of a game I could play on my computer with other people was too cool to pass up. At the time I didn't even have a credit card so it was hell convincing my parents to let me use it for a game on the internet. I was dissapointed because this game didn't have any races - which meant no dwarves. Officially, anyhow. So I did the next best thing - I made my own dwarf. As short, as broad shouldered, and with the biggest beard allowable by the charcter generator. Went along, enjoying the game and came across this fellow named Durgan. Seemed I was not alone in my desire to be a dwarf, as he also was short, broad shouldered, and had a large beard. In The Realm you see, there were dungeons that you had to stand inline for. It took the server a few seconds (sometimes longer) to create a new instance, so people just formed lines outside until the server would allow a new group to enter. While waiting in line I get this tell from this Durgan fellow. He asks me 'are you a dwarf?' and I was like 'of course!'. He led this band of dwarves and invited me to be a part of it. No way I was going to turn that offer down! Seemed there were a number of people who also played Dwarves in The Realm. It was here that the roots of the guild that you are all now a part of began. There was this fellow named Mardin. And this other fellow named Simeron. Two names I think you guys might find strangely familiar. Our little group, which included other people who are no longer with us - went through a few changes in identity and structure. Odin's hammer Clan at one point. For awhile I led my own Band within the Clan which I caled the Crimson Foe Hammer. As times changed, and Durgan went on to other things, we were soon the first incarnation of The Mithril Warhammers. Led officially by Simeron, these were some of the best moments of my gaming life. In a simple 2d game, with graphics that looked like a Sunday morning cartoon. I would watch as Simeron broke out his dwarven rp skills and would just crack me up - he was that good.
{Excerpt from Mardin}
My first MMO is where I met Dorg and Sim, and some of our long gone comrades like Durgan, Sumaika/Dwinuk, Tuebits, and Gantharla. The Realm had three races you could pick from and I did not like any of them. So I took a human model made it as short and stocky as possible, gave it a beard, and the name Burin. In about 15 minutes of playing, this other short and bearded person walked up to me and asked if I was a dwarf. After responding with a yes, I was invited to join Odin's Hammer Clan.
OHC was broken into warbands, and two of the warband leaders were Dorgin and Simeron; Simeron leading the Mithril Warhammers and Dorgin leading the Crimson Foe Hammer. After a couple months of killing mercs in the Killing Fields, Durgan let me create my own warband, which I named the Shadow Hammer Clan. My basic function was espionage in the OHC. I broke into other guilds message boards and gathered information. After looking back on it I am really not sure why because there was no real way to use that information inside the game. (unlike shadowbane)
{end Excerpt}
The Everquest Days:
{Excerpt from Dorgin}
Time passed and soon there was this game that promised to change everything about online gaming. This game had us all excited beyond explanation. This game, I am sure all of you have played or at least heard of, was named EverQuest. A dwarven city in a mountain? Sign me up! As we anticipated the games release we began to associate with a few other dwarven only guilds. Grimme's Heavy Foot and The Grudge Bearers. Our three guilds combined to create the Mithril Alliance. A never before seen force of dwarven power, we were going to make our presence known. Slowly some of us were granted beta slots to the new game and we were just blown away. It was a dream come true. It was in this game we picked up this strange fellow Thorsen, who turned out to be a pretty O.K. guy. As we leveled up and made our way through the early stages of the game, EverQuest began to slowly remove the RPer in me and replace it with the powergamer. I met other people, some of who you guys play with today, and most notably this big, fat ogre named Rannier. But also people like Kith and keysier and kaboom (wow, all their names start with a K, crazy!) I began to realize that because of the restrictions placed on the races, that the Mithril Warhammers would never become that top end raiding guild that EverQuest had made me desire.
{end Dorgin’s Excerpt}
{Excerpt from Mardin}
The one cool thing that happened during beta was the War of Ro. The MA had made a war pact with a guild called the Skorchers, a bunch of ogres and trolls. On the last day of beta we gathered the "good" races and the skorchers gathered the "dark" races and we met in arms in the desert between the oasis and freeport.
I had managed to break into the skorcher forums a few days earlier, so I had a good idea of what their battle plan was. Basically, they were splitting their forces into a few different groups with a guild of dark elf casters at the rear of the battleline. When the initial engagement was made, I took my warband out into the water to flank the casters unseen and we ended up wiping out all of the inkies and hitting the rest of the forces in the rear.
The battle lasted for half the day and even the GMs got involved playing different Gods on either side of the conflict. Rallos Zek was a giant ogre with a two handed sword, who fell before the might of the dwarves. Ah, many panzy elves, tubby ogres, and smelly trolls fell before my dual mino axes that day. Good times... good times.
After the beta ended, my warband fell to pieces, so I joined the black watch on Mith Marr. MWH also happened to be there. Simeron and Dorgin prodded me every day to quit TBC and join MWH, but they were all like level 10 and I had already hit 20. (Slow asses!!!) At around level 30, TBC fell apart, so I finally caved and joined MWH. Over the next few months people like Lukaz, Thorsen, Glumner, Glindain, and Marccuss (dinky!) showed up. Unfortunately we didn't pvp very much (no one would guild war with us *tear*), but we did do some fun stuff like the dwarven drunken race in Butcherblock
{end excerpt}
Mardin would leave for a time, and return later, a common practice of his. When he returned, he would find MWH defunct. It was at this time, that Mithril Warhammers would loose many key members to other guilds, like Gukaluka, Crimson Twilight, Afterlife, and Cats In Hats. Members like Dorgin, Mardin, and Lukaz, would seek their fortune, in other places. Though they moved on, their hearts belonged to MWH, and they would later return to the family, soon.
With the restrictions of the game, slowly causing eating away at the guild, the competition for boss mobs, becoming more fierce. The guild was faced with hard decisions. Should they remain true to their form, and forsake the endgame of Everquest, or should they merge with another large guild, like most of the major players on the server. The choice was made, a merger was thought to be best. Giving up the family guild, MWH would merge with Clan Skallagrim. This would turn out to be a big mistake. Clan Skallagrim would use MWH as a staging ground for its new members. Given its history of producing strong members, recruits would have to prove themselves in MWH, before moving on to CS, for the endgame. Furthermore, MWH’s reputation would be heavily stained by its association with CS. To the other guilds, CS was nothing more then a lapdog, wanting to play with the big boys, with weak undisciplined members. They would see no respect from the rest of the server, something that MWH had always had. After protests from the officers, Thorsen among the loudest (go figure there), Simeron would cut ties with Clan Skallagrim and MWH would return to its family roots. Though many of its key members would be scattered across other guilds, or out of game all together, they would pull together, as if they had never left, for the games ahead.
Dark Ages of Camelot:
Next on MWH’s plate, would be Dark Ages of Camelot. MWH was invited to join DAoC early on in the beta. Jumping from the drudgery that was EQ, MWH would really enjoy the beginning of the beta. Simeron, Mardin, Lukaz, and Dorgin, with many of the Sammani guild would join up for DAoC. There was fun times leveling up together again, then hitting the battlefield. MWH battled many guilds, Afterlife, FoH and Conquest. The fun times would be short lived, as Mythic’s patches would increase the lag, mess up balance and make the treadmill unbearable. Most of MWH would quit toward the end of beta, Dorgin would even return to EQ. Those that trudged on, would join Rannier’s(Kerney) guild, though most of them quit after the free time ended. The game just wasn’t worth paying for. This game would be the second shortest in the guilds history.
Shadowbane Beta:
Mithril Warhammers(MWH) joined the beta about very early on, with the dwarven alliance known as the Mithril Alliance(MA). Five guilds entered, but only 3 would end up remaining past the first stages. The lack of any lore related material, that Wolfpack had promised, caused many of the MA to head back other games. MWH while disappointed to say the least, maintained a decent presence among the MA. The PvP aspect of Shadowbane, appealed more to MWH then the other MA guilds. Simeron and early parts MA, would first join in on the predecessor of Covenant of Swords, fighting against the Burning Legion. The relationship would strain the patience of Simeron and others, eventually resulting in a breakup. As MA’s membership increase, with additional beta slots, they set out. They would join Purity Council for awhile, before moving out on their own.
{Here is an excerpt from the Shadowbane Beta Journal’s}
As the war between PC and Nex loomed, the Irekei nation and PC were vying with each other to lure the Mithril Alliance (MA) to their cities. For reasons unknown, the MA chose to join the Purity Council and the addition of a legion of dwarves helped to bolster the defenses of the city of Haven. The addition of the Mithril Alliance was timely because not long afterwards, Nex launched their attack. Here is a summary from Simeron of the Mithril Alliance about them joining the city of Haven, and his tale of the Nex attack on Haven.
A Call to Arms
"The Purity Council had contacted the Mithril Alliance and offered an interesting deal. If we would provide dwarven strength for their raid upon the rat-filled city of Nex, we could use their town as a base for our members, all our members. We would have free run of their city in fact, they said, for they know the MA dwarves do not lie. We are bound by codes of honor given to us by Father Thurin himself and not one of our number has been tainted by the Chaos, Void, or Malog.
Once we heard the reasons for the raid, we struck terms and two squads of our members lined up to provide any and all assistance we could. Each of the five guilds had members there. I was given the honor of being appointed to the Inner Council of Haven for the duration of the raid and our time within their walls. And so we began to gather the siege engines together for the long march to the foul city of Nex.
We had three groups, each with an engine of war. The plans had been laid out and details discussed as we crept along. The pace was too slow for my tastes, I prefer fast and hard to slow and ponderous. But, the engines would not move fast and I continually moved to see if any spies were trying to detect us. But, the Nexites were oblivious to the destruction coming to their doorstep.
We formed up outside their walls and destroyed the defending barracks quickly. The guards tried to put up a defense as we moved in, but the dwarves and Havenites destroyed them quickly. As more appeared from the barracks, Flag gave the order to fire, and eight trebs all launched their deadly missiles into the building...it was aflame in seconds...and rubble within a minute.
Outer defenses destroyed, we quickly took out the inner barracks and breached the outer walls. That's when a wave of guards attacked us. Again, we stood our ground and destroyed our foe's troops. After we summoned those fallen back to the battle site, we proceeded to destroy the inner barracks. Nexites attacked through their walls with AoE spells, flyers zoomed into the heavens to attack and disappear back behind walls and their scouts attacked and tried to stealth away when confronted. We gave better than we took and had a defensive guard about our weapons of war that kept them healed and safe from attack by ground forces. The Nexites, Bao, Rion, Lanfear and McNasty: I know they tried their best to attack, but each attack they launched was beaten back literally by hammer and axe, spell and nuke. The inner barracks was aflame, but we had lost a lot of trebs to our members crashing and the AoE spells so it took longer...time and again the captain of the guards attacked...and time and again Raedarr and I stood and stopped him. Our healers healed, the PC magics blew flyers from the air and after a good 15–20 minutes, the barracks fell. We breached the inner wall and began destroying the inner buildings one by one.
The Nex people were throwing themselves at us...sending all the guards they could at us..anything to drive us off. Finally, the combination of massive lag from the AoEs going off, the destruction of our siege engines one by one, and simply the dozens of guards that were thrown at us wore us down and we had to fall back to Haven.
A second wave was launched, but the Nexites have run screaming to the Burning Legion for help. It is well known that they pay tribute to these bandit lords for "protection". And now, they wanted that protection posthaste!
Our second wave was set upon by a group of eight to ten people: some rank 5s and 6s supported by many rank 4s and a few 3s. The second force was not prepared for the attack and was quickly overwhelmed. Then they came for Haven.
I gathered my dwarven brothers to me and drew a line in the earth. "None shall pass this place save we all lay still upon the ground," I said. Each one of my brothers nodded in silent agreement. Gritty, Kinin, Daldolare, Glindain, Barabas, and I were the first line of defence. Mistress Ash and Bark scouted for us as well as Crownest. Then word came the same group that ambushed the second attack wave was coming. We dwarves were but rank 3s and 4s, but we would not falter nor would we run. We meant to fight and that is what we would do.
The enemy was stealthed and watching us our scouts reported...while they formed a plan. Then they came on and a great battle ensued. I saw an old acquaintance of mine...Kirel Redhand...confessor of the Burning Legion...and I closed on him. My hammer smashed him and he was stunned...and I knew he was mine...then time slowed down and that allowed him a reprieve for when next I could move...he had gotten out of my range and fell me with stuns and spells...just as one of my brothers fell him with a censure. We lost the battle, but accomplished our purpose. We stopped them from getting to the gates of Haven.
Thus ends a good night of siege and combat." ~ Simeron Steelhammer
{End Excerpt}
MA would assist PC in many battles, they would help remove the Nex cities near PC’s borders. For this PC would supply a city and MA would begin building its own nation. Over time, the ties between PC and MA would come to an end, PC would loose Haven. For this Crowsnest would hold a grudge against the MA for the remainder of his days. Here it explained in another beta Journal.
{Excerpt Shadowbane Beta Journal}
Oddly enough the Purity Council fell alone, and without its former ally the Mithril Alliance. Thergrim of the MA provided a narrative as to why the MA remained neutral as the city of Haven burned.
"Since the day the Mithril Alliance Dwarves first set foot in the Roofless world, we had a strong desire to be our own nation. But, our first stumbling steps were fraught with danger and we found ourselves ill equipped to function in a strange new world.
At first, we entered into an unlikely truce with the Irekei of the desert. We exchanged our willingness to battle for permission to trespass in the Desert. We helped with several raids on the, now abandoned, city of Enyo. Those were wild and frantic times.
As our exploration of the world widened, we met some kindly Roofless ones on the Mainland, the Purity Council, who willingly took us in and showed us great kindness and generosity. We learned many things and grew strong. We are very grateful to the Purity Council for opening their city and their hearts to us and especially for their friendship.
Along side the Purity Council, we reveled in the fighting and sieging. Taking part in the destruction of Inferno, Nex Meats and Pointy Town. Not caring about the underlying cause for the aggressive action nor worrying about the confabulations of politics. We engrossed ourselves in the call of war and the lust for battle, ignoring all else.
Eventually, there were no more enemies. The neighboring land was cleared of threats and we set to task building a nation with our PC allies. First there was Khazad Nevah, then came Zirek Gathol. And with cities and nations came politics and diplomacy. And the world started to become more complicated.
Now we felt confident. We felt that we knew the workings of the Roofless world. We knew how to destroy and we knew how to build. We sensed a growing confidence within ourselves. And our original dreams of a Sovereign Dwarven nation reemerged. The rumblings for dwarven independence at the Hall of Speakers grew louder and louder with each passing week.
So, finally it came to pass, that we sadly said goodbye to our friends in the Purity Council. We fully intended to strike out on our own and form our dwarvish nation.
In a final act of generosity the Purity Council granted us the city of Zirek Gathol as our new home. We will always look back fondly on our times with the Purity Council. The times when things were simpler. The times when there was no other consideration but how to defeat the enemy.
Those times are past. We have matured in many ways. It is now time for use to leave our first home and make what we can in the wide world.
We have broken old ties. We have forgotten past grudges. We have wiped the slate clean and started afresh. We have built a new city in the far Northwest and called it Zirak Dum (Mithril Hall). From this point on - we are alone once more. One Dwarven Nation beholden to no Roofless. Our wars will be of our own making. And our vengence will be swift and terrible to those who seek to harm the children of the Shaper.
"Mark my words well. I am a Dwarf. I do not lie."
~Thergrim Anvilsplitter, Guildmaster of Mithril Alliance~
Head of State, Aerynthian College Embassy
{End excerpt}
It was about this time, that MWH’s other beta accounts would become active. Being the larger of the five guilds, MWH’s accounts were spread out, while the other guilds, were able to get everyone in on the first batch of accounts. Company of Sammani, a guild originally formed as a sub for MWH’s non-dwarves, join beta at this time. The guild would later regret the addition of Sammani, as this would bring in unsavory members, that we are still stuck with us to this date. Members like: the blood lusting Kithiara, the sexually confused Kerney, the just plain confused Keysier, and the slacking ghoster Kagetora. Most of the rest of Sammani, were tolerable. We would also pick up a few others, some from the remnants of the MA guilds, like Quudorf(Kegbeard), Putzin(we blame Mardin for this), Galin, and the colorful Triven. MA joined in alliance with a nearby nation to our north, Death’s Head Legion. We would join them in attacks against the impregnable city of CoS. With gold healing the way it was, as long as there was someone online who was friended to the tree, walls could be faster then any number of catapults could take it down. It still provided for a lot of fun fights, not to mention running around with a catapult was rather fun, slow but fun. Guys like Shaden Nighthawk would even be nice enough to sneak up for you to fight. The battles were entertaining, if not fruitless. CoS would repay us for our part, by hitting our city with a 3am ninja raid. The raid was most effective, most of the buildings would be destroyed. The Pale Corpse Inn would live to tell the tale, named after all the bodies of Kagetora the guards kept leaving laying about. In the next phase, MWH and members of GHF and GB, would start grappling over control of MA. MWH providing a lion’s share of personnel yet not being included on decisions. In the following phase MA would join Lex Talionis during one phase of beta, this would rub many of MWH wrong. With the addition of Sammani, the disagreements of between MWH and the other remaining leaders of MA, MWH struck out on its own. On what would be the final real beta phase(not counting the open phase), MWH and Sammani, would plant on Ice Island. Notable guilds that planted as well on Ice, House Daenyr, House Lokri, Lords of Death, and a sub of Covenant of Swords. Continuing our war with CoS, MWH would join the other guilds on Ice, in a failed joint attack on the CoS sub city. The attack lasted for some time, but the sub would hold out against us, buying time. CoS would finish their fight with Death’s Head Legion and come to defend. With many ppl bored and afk from a protracted battle against walls, the sudden rush from CoS, would smash down the attack. The nations would reform in MWH’s city, and reattack, but it would be unsuccessful and too late. The next day, LoD would begin attacking the other nations on Ice. Given that they were considered allies, they weren’t challenged when they approached. This betrayal, would begin the war between MWH and LoD that would last for months, well into release, until both moved from the Death server to Corruption. MWH began hitting LoD’s groups, and making forays into their city. MWH would join Lokri and House Daenyr to hit LoD, for a little payback. LoD though had already made a much more dangerous enemy on the forums, the strongest nation in beta, the Rolling 30s(formally the Burning Legion). They would wipe out LoD’s city, ending the dispute on Ice Island. The Phase would finish up with a few more skirmishes, a city destroyed by a bug on Ice, ruining what would have been another great battle with CoS and friends. Things would come to a close, most of MWH would take a rest for the short open phase, getting ready for release.
Shadowbane Death Server:
For the release of Shadowbane, MWH, Sammani, and the remaining MA guilds (Grudgebearers and Grimme’s Heavy Foot) chose to go to Death server. We would add guilds like Alliance of the Exiled, and Fallen Angels, run by Vinadil and Teka respectively. Teka would quit, eventually leaving us the burden of a drunken bird scout named Glarm. Vinadil would bring with him, troublemakers like Gavin, Pfriar, and Elgarond. Also we would pick up recruits, that would stay with us for the fights on ice, some continuing to this day, like Grimnir and Truglin. We would find themselves in familiar company as several other beta guilds would choose this server, for their home. This would make Death unique, in that all other servers, had a single beta nation that would take command early on. On Death, House Lokri, Free Corps, Silent Tribe, the Irekei Virakar, and of course LoD, would all come, professing beta experience. The nations planted in spots they had scouted out in beta, Irekei in the desert, Silent Tribe on Death island, Lokri the northern mainland, Free Corps in the bogs, and LoD and MWH would again fight over Ice Island. LoD would gain the animosity of most the server with its members indiscriminately player killing. With MWH’s city in such close proximity to the LoD capital, we would be the launching board for almost every fight. We would constantly receive calls for summons, either for major engagements or just for a bit of PvP action. MWH and LoD/DOM where fighting on a constant basis anyway, so we didnt mind bringing others in to get a taste of the action. VA was among the most active in the attacks against LoD, having parties on an almost daily basis. Fights between MWH and LoD would ussually begin with one group taking out another at the Oarsman or Afgar spawns. Then the defeated group would gather more and hit back, taking out the group that had killed them. That group would then gather more, and return. Rinse repeat, till we started hitting each others towns, sometimes LoD would end up on top, others MWH. We would continue, exchanging these blows back and forth till we had enough money to put up walls. MWH would be the first to put up walls, LoD having sunk all its funds into a semi-secret open city in the desert. It would earn them tons of money, before VA took it down. Back to MWH’s walls. While our walls were being erected, LoD made a strategic late night hit taking down several structures. Not to be outdone, MWH would launch an attack of their own, beating down several walls of LoDs. Each would manage to sneak up their walls, during the downtime of the other. This would mark a slowing of our attacks on each other, but definitely not the end, for soon we would have banes and siege equipment, then the small battles would turn into a mighty war.
{excerpt from Vinadil} I was Vaxxadil at the time, a Minotaur with 20 points spent in dexterity... so that my armor would not be too bad... again Elg turned me towards MWH saying that they were strong PvP and decent RP, and it might be interesting to try. So, I spent a few days on Ice... ran into these other people called "LOD". Must have been 20+ of them PLing at a few camps. Could not tell who was in charge and who was new recruits. They even killed each other a few times, and then after talking to me for a few minutes began attacking me. That pretty much made my decision to join MWH (if they would have me... as a Mino heh) and kill the LoD punks.
Not long after AoE was subbed (using some wierd Lore dwarf/mino connection heh), and I began my life of farming/PvPing, and running a Spear Shop. I knew right away that I had found a new home. MWH was as cohesive and fun as any guild I had played with AND had the size to actually accomplish things in game. In the early days of SB Death... Mardin and the other leaders did diplomacy unlike anyone I have seen since. I literally laughed outloud some days seeing what other guilds would give/do for MWH, because in reality we were never a server power size-wise. Early Death was all about farming/Leveling/PvPing, and I cannot remember all the names that were around, but QUU (Kegbeard) would call out every 20-30 minutes some new batch of rings available, and I and others would constantly be farming/PVPing LOD.
The bane situations were nuts, and in the end our allies dropped the ball (and paid for it for months to come). Dorgin... what was your character name at that time, cuz I dn't remember it being Dorgin? But, the bane that finally felled KD was probably the 4th or 5th. In the end I blame Mardin's lung for failing... and I think that taught us something about spreading out leadership some too. I had absolutely Zero say in the guild at that point, but I was there to see the tree fall... dead on the ground, but there. Noone believed us when we said that we were the last bulwark holding in the flood of evil... not until KD fell anyway. I swear the best lore/RP/PvP happened in those early days. We truly were the dwarves fighting for our homeland against the great and growing evil that was LOD. We CRUSHED their town one day when we laid waste to some 6 million in walls (which at the time was HUGE), and all with no siege weapons. Then, the miracle happened and LOD Keep was removed from the map. Anyone remember those 6-10 days? We grew like crazy with no LOD presence on the map... until the CSR's gave back LOD keep with full walls, vendors, and a ranked tree...
{end Excerpt}
The first runemasters, began hitting r6, the banes would start rolling out for each nation. They wouldnt slow down, till the openning of corruption, at its peak, their were as much as a dozen banes going off, in a single day. LoD promptly place a bane on MWH’s city, MWH placed banes on two of its closest cities. With the help, of the other nations, MWH’s bane was removed. LoD didnt bother defending the banes against its smaller cities, except during the earlier prep work, so MWH got to have all the fun. The second battle for MWH’s city was the most entertaining for me. LoD would try to cut off, our allies at the runegate, just north of our city. MWH, launched a counter attack with those that had been summoned in. The battle was huge, so much so that, several never got to see it, as their screens locked up, only to startup again, dead. After putting up a huge fight, LoD finally broke. Having MWH’s city, so close, allowed for us to return to the fight, after dying. After the loss at the runegate, LoD would put up a good fight on the SE corner of our city. The SE corner would see the most action, in later days. Including some fighting from citadels. The use of dropping buildings on banes, dropping citadels around the bane, to use to attack. Pretty much every tactic you could think of. LoD would continue baning MWH’s city, till they finally were able to take it down. During this, they would loose many cities, but would maintain their well built capital city, against vastly superior numbers. After the month or so of constant battles, ending with the final loss of our city, MWH was a bit wore out. We had lost many members, that couldnt handle the thought of loosing a city, but our stronger more PvP oriented members hung in there. It was at this time, that the sub-guild Alliance of the Exiled, started to come more to the forefront. While they had always been there during all the fighting, they weren’t involved as much in the leadership. MWH and Sammani, had pretty much made all decisions, they both had been absent for the setting of the final bane. After setting up on the mainland, more discussion was given to decisions, officers in all the sub-guilds were given a voice. War tends to require more streamlined decision making. With the calm of rebuilding, we were able to use the skills of our other leaders, in decisions. Vinadil, the Guildleader of AoE would quickly become a prominent figure, showing his ability. This would lead to his eventually taking control of MWH in the later days of Death, and throughout corruption.
{excerpt Vinadil}
After KD fell we went through a hard time. AoE (which consisted of 2 people) moved to small ice, expecting to use it as a base to move back to Large ice. Months passed though, and the reality of that dream never happened. The grasslands were just not good for the dwarves, and most of them rarely left the Tavern... turning back into the stone they were carved from. After a time building my own town (with the help of Rego/Dia) on small ice I was approached by a high-ranking LOD member and asked to sell it. I was in the mind to refuse, but in the end did not see the point, so I sold it and it became home to a small guild known as the Weapons of Mass Destruction.
That was when I moved back to the MWH home town... Vaxxadil died, and I traded two legs for four. Most of the dwarves were gone by this time, either sleeping or dead. The rest of the server realized the truth of what we had been saying as LOD ran roughshod over nation after nation. And, though the MWH tree never saw a serious bane (more than 40 or so people), it was a city that NONE wanted to attack. It was the ONLY city to be called a fortress by farming alone... in the days before the gold-duped cities ruled the land. Thorsen drove us like slaves to bring in cash for that city... and then one day the grasslands took their toll on him and he had to pass the mantle of leadership as well.
{end excerpt}
Our fierce spirit and tenacity, tempered with a sense of honor, in fights would garner the respect of our enemies, if not our allies.
{except from Death Forums}
Weapons of Mass Destruction
A New War Emerges
Written by: Zarkhan, Herald of Death
August 21, 2003
We Make Dead People
Since the beginning the Lords of Death have considered anyone and everyone not allied to their nation an enemy and enemies of LoD eventually turn up dead. This mentality helped to create multiple enemies for LoD early on in their nation’s development and even helped lay the foundation for an alliance of mainland guilds whose sole purpose was to eradicate LoD from the Death server. The following sums up LoD political views quite nicely:
"LoD has so many enemies on this server because they aggressively create enemies. When you go around attacking everyone under the sun you’re not going to make too many bed fellows." - Findar, Mithril Alliance (Formerly the Mithril Warhammers)
Odds Picture (Caption: LoD faced 3 to 1 odds for weeks.)
This rebellious attitude made LoD a prime target for many nations from the get go. For weeks LoD’s homeland of ice isle was continually attacked by large forces of alliance troops but somehow LoD managed to persevere. The vast numbers of mainlanders coupled with the loss of multiple LoD cities early on was very frustrating to the LoD nation and its leadership. But LoD continued to hold off overwhelming odds of alliance forces poised against them and every time they did so their drive to succeed and dominate would rise. Very slowly the LoD nation was gaining a forward momentum.
LoD used this momentum to strike its first offensive blow against the mighty dwarves of the Mithril Warhammers (Now known as the Mithril Alliance) who also happened to call the icy wastelands of Deceit their home. LoD continually sieged the MWH capital of Karrok Dok in hopes of breaking the dwarf’s spirit. Unfortunately for LoD dwarves don’t know the meaning of the word surrender and they continued to fight until Karrok Dok was nothing more than a smoldering pile of stone and rubble at which point they were forced to relocate to the grassy plains of the mainland {end Excerpt} {Excerpt Death Forum}
Very simply - ST and the server all gathered to attack our Island, and chose the islands main city as the point of its operations. When they got there, they summoned a CCR(Shadowbanes version of a GM) who preceded to remove the Runemaster, making all buildings vulnerable. Eventually a new Runemaster was put back by the CCR, but his protection slots were "bugged", and you were unable to use any gold to heal walls. The bottom line was - A GM "friendly" with the attackers used his powers to essentially screw over the city by making all buildings vulnerable, and the healing of walls impossible for a time. The shocking thing about this situation, isnt the fact that it happened - But the attempted coverup after the fact, and how there is really no argument about the chain of events that led to this. Hell, after it was learned that a CCR had directly and illegally created this situation, our most hated "in-game" enemies(MWH) actually pulled his guild out of the attack, and refused to participate. It was a major act of class on his part, but the simple reality is - It was common knowledge that some serious abuse of powers and exploiting was going on.
{end Excerpt}
Mardin, who had fallen to an imploded lung, would not be able to spend much time during the rebuilding. Binadil who had been running the guild, during the last weeks of Karrok Dok, was exhausted and real life was taking its toll on him. Thorsen would take charge, and drive us like slaves to rebuild. He would spend money, like a 16 year old girl with daddy’s platinum card. Using Kithiara’s design, Binadil would build a fortress of walls. Thorsen would then stick barracks in any crack he could find, and doghouses where he couldn’t fit barracks. In the end, we would have over 200 guards, with a 20mil maintenance bill. Thorsen, so obsessed with guards, could be seen walking around offering to PL all the guards(he was a bit off). The bill would pay off, as no one wanted to even come close to the city, much less attack it. Nothing like having that many guards coming after you. It would be our allies that we would end up fighting more, during this time. While our "allies" "welcomed" us, they wanted us to live on no spawns, and be thankful to them for their help. Well screw them, we earned everything we got, we paid the bill for their PvP on Ice, and we would be there to help them when LoD came knocking on their doors. We would push our way into agreements, threatening and sometimes fighting to get what we wanted. We would get the agreements from our "allies" that would allow our nation to continue and regroup. Undac would join us, as a new recruit during this phase, fitting in well, he is still with us. We would end up sharing spawns with Lokri and FC, though this would become huge problems for all of us in the end. Some of these problems.....
{Excerpt Jun}
My favorite personal moment in SB was one time we were up near ZD and I was on my assassin. Lokri showed up in force to Trolls to ask why an Irekei was there. Thorsen and Binadal came to defend me, and Bin told me to stealth up, "You should stealth." I said, "No way I'm not afraid of these elf pansies" "Consider it you're getting ready for battle." So I stealthed up, and Thorsen pretty much told them to go to hell and that I was, "a sworn man to MWH, and if you mess with him you mess with all of us." It was at that moment I knew I was in the right place.
{end Excerpt}
Not all our time on Death was one to be proud of. We would be tricked into attacking and declaring war upon the small nation of Elba. One of our members would have his account compromised by a member of House Lokri, a relative of the member. He would fake an attack upon his person, which would result in a counter attack upon Elba. After rolling threw all the Elban groups we could find, we moved on to their cities. While rolling any member of Elba we could find, in or out of their city, MWH endured slander and shittalk from Elban members. They would even light up the forum boards, sending all kinds of tripe out, while their leaders tried to bring things to a calm. Goaded, MWH would allow their tempers to get the better of them, we are dwarves after all. We dropped a bane circle on their city, see if that didnt put an end to the talk. After a day of drinking and killing, the next day would find us in more appeasing moods. Thorsen and Kagetora, would negotiate a truce, turning over the bane circle to Elban leaders. The talks would be sorely strained, with a certain Dwarf of Elban, named Surly, living up to his name. With the perseverance of the leader Whitewood, the talks would continue and peace would return. The incident would be a minor stain on our reputation, but would push our patience with Lokri and company.
With our proximity to CoD/Lokri and the sharing of camps, we would continue bumping heads, especially with House Morier and LSD. Several times ending with us sending their groups home the fast way. MWH even declared war against House Morier, wanting nothing more then the permanent removal of any stone they would ever lay down. Morier was a small group, that didn’t put up much fight, but unlike Elba, didn’t earn enough respect from us, to consider a truce. We would only back off, after LSD subbed them and took responsibility for their behavior. The deal was begrudgingly accepted, with LSD begging the need for a unified front against LoD. After awhile, CoD stopped giving us problems and things settled down. This was partly due to LoD finishing off Silent Tribe and turning its sights on CoD (Lokri’s nation) and Salvation, bane circles were now going off all day long, everyday. While before, we could count on having at least a bane a day, maybe as many as 3 or 4 on some days, now up to a dozen a day were going off. The battles were fierce and our side was slowly loosing ground. Silent tribe would bring in Horses of the Apocalypse, to help in their battles for the Commander rune, under CoD claim. This would bring about round of killings from us, after HoA decided to roll into our troll group. Given that the group was ninety percent MWH and one lonely member of Lokri in it, we didn’t listen to Sinbad’s excuses about it being a mistake that they killed MWH. Nor did we take his excuses, when he claimed HOA wasn’t apart of Silent Tribe, we knew about the officer alts in HOA, including Sinbad’s own. MWH hopped on the first summon train to undead island and began cleaning house, we would then move over to the western mainland, where the HOA city was located. We would do a little redecorating and drop a bane, to show our displeasure. In the end, we would accept Silent Tribes bid for a truce, after we had gained the respect due us.
Relations between Grimme’s Heavy Foot and Free Corps would become strained over an incident with a rune. This would escalate when FC attacked and killed both the member of GHF and a member of MWH. Killing a member of MWH, is the quickest way to get our attention, so to speak. For the next 2 days, MWH would make their home in the bogs of Free Corps.
{excerpt Death Forums}
I don't know, and personally I don't care who ganked who over what rune or if it even happened.
Here is what I do know tho.
I know that a GHF member was killed. Immediately after that happened and while I was still getting city chat messages about it, city chat started getting spammed with messages that an FC group had just rolled in and killed a GHF group of experiencers that had a couple of MWH people in it. The MWH people were killed right along with the GHF.
Everyone here knows my stand by now. Kill MWH. Kill GHF. And you get to fight the dwarves.
I do know that an attempt was made to talk with Crow in Campaigns End, because I was there. By the way Crow, if you really want to just talk to someone and are honestly trying to work it out without further blood shed, you dont have them surrounded by twenty of your guild toons .... I know the two GHF members and myself and Leilani are tough, but we aren't that tough.
Crow didn't seem to want to talk, only to sling accusations and his people demand "reparations" ... so I recalled and told my people that as long as FC wants to fight one of the dwarven nations, they can fight us both.
You get two for the price of one.
I am a dwarf. I do not lie.
--------------------
Thorsen Ironheart
Lok Trommi of the Mithril Warhammers
{end Excerpt}
FC would sue for peace after 2 days, while accusing us of being ungrateful snobs. We would stop rolling into the bogs, returning to battling LoD and friends again. We also merged with the remnants of GHF and GB, again taking on the name of Mithril Alliance, for what would be the final time to date. While several of the officers of GHF would be considered officers, MWH was the dominant force, in the merger. In the end, the members would fully merge into MWH, becoming full members of MWH, not just apart of the guild. This would accomplish two things, first we would get some great Rpers like Vardelm(Chasm), Gritty Tearstone, and Kragg. Secondly, it kept Barbaras from going postal on all of us powergamers, by keeping the RP roots of MWH strong, he was getting a bit stressed keeping the path on his own.
It was about this time that we found had a very minor altercation with a group known as Shining Path. This group would quickly become the joke of the server, referred lovingly by everyone as Whining Path. It would start with our minor altercation, so minor it involved only 3 members of MWH, Thorsen, Devatar, and JoeyJoeJoe(Kerney).
In Thorsen’s words,
"Got to do some hilarious fighting (like the time Kerney, I and one other killed most of an entire guild by ourselves and when the guildeader of that guild sent Kerney props, Kerney responded by saying, "Now dont fuck with us anymore or next time we will bring four people"). Good fun."
"He and Kerney did the most damage. I just hit my block increasing skill and healed Dev and Kerney until Dev dropped (yes, I actually healed). They had a couple of R5 warriors on me and they couldnt get through my shield, but were too dumb to go after anyone else. After Dev dropped I nuked down a few of them and Kerney managed to fly out of the area and get me a teleport out of the battlefield before I dropped as well. Final count was something like 15 down on their side and 1 down on ours."
{end Excerpts}
Whining Path would go on to join LoD, at least for awhile. LoD would throw them out for farming, while the nation was defending cities and during major attacks. Shining Path would make a bunch of noise on the forums, jumping into the garbage pit that Silent Tribe had turned into. They would tell everyone of their wonderful prowess on the forums, for everyone’s amusement. They would shortly be laughed off the server, never to show their pathetic faces again.
Despite the frequent distractions, that added a lot of flavor to the game, the main battles remained with LoD. LoD had regained its footing and with the help of nations like WMD and Warrior Nation they were putting a hurting on everyone. Silent Tribe was steadily being decimated. As LoD was ripping down Silent Tribe, it would make several threats against the nations assisting ST’s defense. Thorsen would respond in his classic manner.
{Excerpt from Death Forums}
MA will help anyone who requests our aid and to whom we are on at least a nuetral standing with. So, I guess that means I am saying bring it on.
I know perfectly well that MA can not field the numbers to fight back LoD (who can now put 120+ in the field at any given time). That means I know our cities would be destroyed.
Destroy our cities and find out what reaping what you sow means.
Thorsen Ironheart
Lok Trommi of the Mithril Warhammers
I never make threats. Not in this game, and not in real life. I make promises.
Our nation leader channel and IC board has been talking about our strategy versus LoD for some time now. I have just today taken the agreed upon strategy to our nation's general boards.
Anyone in our nation who wants to continue to level characters once our cities fall is free to join any of the PvE guilds on the shard. The MA is not a PvE guild and its leadership has mandated continuous PvP if our cities do fall to the LoD alliance guilds.
You may consider what I have said as threats, but rest assured, your leadership knows that I don't lie ... just as I have come to respect their word as well.
We, the MA, will continue to assist any nation who asks for our help against LoD with whom we have at least a neutral standing. Since your leadership has publicly stated that this puts us in the crosshairs for city destruction, we have made our plan of action.
Other guilds/nations may fold and run, or they may throw their pride out the window and become an LoD lackey with a NAP, but the MA never will do so. Anyone who is a member of a nation who's leaders take the French approach to conflict may feel free to request to join us via joinmwh@yahoo.com, but understand that we don't accept carebears. You either fight when the nation goes to war or we will point you in the direction of the nearest PvE guild and wish you godspeed.
So, no .... no threats. I don't operate that way.
--------------------
Thorsen Ironheart
Lok Trommi of the Mithril Warhammers
{end Excerpt}
We would not be intimidated into abandoning our allies, even if it meant our the loss of our own cities. We would be there to till the last stone fell, we would be there for all the battles of Salvation, Lokri, and even Free Corps.
During the final battles for Silent Tribes city, a sub guild of Silent tribe would turn traitor and attack silent tribe. A guild lead by the well versed Stump "Die Carebears", death howl, would make a ill planned and poorly timed attack against the defenders of the city. Stump would claim that they were just interested in leaving the nation, that the late attack wasnt ill timed, none would believe him. Stump’s attack would come, at the end of the LoD attack on the city, when LoD’s defeat was already secured. It would be poorly executed, providing a limited and short lived confusion that would result in a quick travel to the nearest errant tree. While the day would definitely belong to the defenders, it was going to be a minor victory at best. LoD would redouble its efforts to remove Silent Tribe from undead island, with the added manpower and the resultant loss of manpower for the defenders, the city would eventually fall. Silent tribe would splinter with a majority of members taking invitation from Salvation to join them. The fall would result in a momentary calm, as LoD would secure their position on undead island. They would tell the alliance that they had no intention of continuing the fight, that they were wanted nothing more then to do to Silent Tribe what it wanted to do to them. No one bought this, which was a good thing since, LoD would quickly begin again, attacking Salvation, spinning a yarn of still fighting the remnants of Silent Tribe.
MWH would make the mistake of taking in a sorry crew from Silent Tribe, called Descendants. They would not only prove to be useless in battle, generally being caught leveling and farming, while the rest of the nation was fighting. They would eventually, attack us while we were engaged with a PK group known as Legion. They pathetic part of this sad group, was that they would accuse us of being carebears after they were removed and hunted down, by the nation. Legion and Descendants would join forces and would last for about a month, before quitting the server, with no real impact.
We then took in a new group, TMS, this went over rather well. This would add Jexel, Jazspinne, Lujan,and Tiny-Tim to our ranks. Tiny still with us today, shows us time again, his massive ability to farm money, as well as the ability to spend every dime of it on giant cities like BoB on Entropy. We would use his talents a lot, not to mention his fighting spirit, in the days to come.
LoD would only make minor attacks on Zirak Dum and our training city on the mainland, dropping only 1 bane on each. They wouldn’t show for the Zirak Dum bane, who would want to fight all them guards anyway. The subguild WMD would take a shot at our training city, but it was really no more then a little PvP fun. It was our allies that would suffer the wrath of the evil LoD from Ice Island. Literally hundreds of banes would be dropped on all sides, LoD would bane most of the Alliance cities, the alliance would bane all of LoD’s cities. It was impossible for each bane to be fought over, many would just be taken down without a fight. The intent was to confuse, to draw attention from the real targets, to pull allies away, to remove their own banes, while LoD would hit another target. Salvation would remain the primary target of LoD for a large portion of the time. Its cities would suffer under midnight prep runs, and several bane battles, miscommunication would cost more damage. This would provide Gav’in a chance to rally the troops, as a bane was coming active, that Salvation had failed to tell MWH leadership about prior to a call to arms. Gav’in would find himself alone, with no other officers to take command, to call the dwarves to battle. He would make the call to arms, the dwarves would recognize his mantel and rally to him for battle. MWH would not let down its allies, that day, as Gav’in would have the troops in place, when before Kagetora and Thorsen could arrive. We would lay waste to LoD’s attack, with our allies, clearing not only the primary bane defense, but snubbing a wiping their primary attack, at a city a short ways away. Stump would die with the usual "Die Carebears". This would always bring a good laugh, as he was always the one dying. LoD would not let up, the victories, much like those at undead island, were little more then a slowing of the tides. LoD would finish off Salvation in due course.
After steadily taking down Salvation, LoD would start on the north, House Morier and LSD would bear the brunt of this. HM would have their city torn to the ground 4 times, only to be loaned what was needed to have it be rebuilt, by the alliance nations. Much like the other servers, ours suffered from the duping of gold, this resulted in monstrous cities being built, it allowed for cities that fell to be rebuilt in short order. Mostly though, it fed the constant war machines on both sides, while making the easily replaced cities poor trophies, it allowed for a constant warring, without interruption of farming gold. While on one hand, I could say that it ruined the economy, it provided an means for constant war on a scale that the other servers could only be jealous about. I personally could remember logging in and fighting or taking down a bane for the entire time I was logged on, only to do this again the next time I logged in. Our finances were taken care of by the sales of traveler runes and an occasional commander rune, that we had wrangled partial control over. House Lokri wasn’t able to maintain control of the commander rune, MWH felt that it was too valuable of an asset to keep loosing to LoD, who was in turn selling it to strengthen their side. With that, Thorsen laid it out for Lokri, MWH would not allow LoD to continue getting the rune, we would take the rune ourselves instead, to prevent this. Lokri conceded, giving up two days a week, in which MWH would farm the rune and be responsible for preventing LoD from taking it. Nothing like having a high value rune, not to mention an easy way to get your enemy to come to you for a little fun. What we didn’t know, was this was the first signs of the end of Lokri on the server. House Lokri’s membership had plummeted, so much so that they had decided to move on, but they would have one final battle at their city. After a successful defense, they deleted their city and said their goodbyes.
It was around this time, that Thorsen would give up lead of the dwarven nation Mithril Alliance. He would discuss with the leadership, about an appropriate replacement to take the helm. Of the elder leaders, only Kagetora and Thorsen remained, Kage was around less and less, in little better shape then Thorsen himself. It would be among the younger leaders, whom we would choose. Of all those to choose from, Vinadil was the most active involved in discussions and in the nation, he showed the strongest sense of nation of any of the other candidates. Though, he may not know why he was chosen, the chose wasn’t a difficult one for us. Like those ahead of him, he would etch a new face on MWH under his leadership, taking it in new directions, strengthening it frequently. One of the first agendas of Vinadil, would be to strengthen or numbers again, to bring in those that would work well with the current members, to maintain our honor and fighting spirit. For this he would bring in The Black Company, an all centaur guild, that had broken from Free Corps. Seems FC were too carebear for TBC, not to mention FC couldn’t get anything done, since they were too busy voting on what color to paint the armor shop. TBC would merge with MA, and the result would be The Black Alliance. The move gave us a whole new strength, we were back to our former strength, at least in relative to the server. It also would give us some members like, Myth(Cherish), Xes, and Vadim, who would large parts in the future of the guild.
{Excerpt Cherish(Myth) former Guildleader of TBC}
I was still the guild leader of TBC when we and MWH teamed up towards the end and eventually ended up forming The Black Alliance. Those were the best times in SB for me, it was such a pleasure to play with some like-minded people. A lot of people hated us since we refused to join in the big carebear alliance, but we got respect for sticking to the style of playing/fighting that we enjoyed and for being pretty good at what we did. I will always remember LOD Keep falling at long last towards the end.
{end Excerpt}
Meanwhile, the battles between the alliance and LoD would continue wearing on all those involved, Stump and his crew, who had turned from ST would diminish to a handful of members. It was at this time that Warrior Nation, a guild that LoD had convinced to come to our server and help them, would jump to the alliance side. They would claim that they couldnt stand being subordinates to LoD, that they were treated as second hand members by the IC of LoD. LoD would in turn accuse WN of duping gold and materials, which of course, they had benefited from at the time, so the rest of the server didnt really listen much to them. It would drag into a whole large mudslinging contest, which would result in the current leader of LoD, Warmonger, getting demoted. This would shift the balance of power over to the alliance again, it would be LoD on the receiving end, but it would be Couls at the helm of LoD again. LoD would not go down easy, while Warmonger was able to do a lot of damage, it was only because the other leaders of LoD had provided him with the means. Couls would show what it meant to be a real leader, as he would make each city the alliance take, a huge undertaking. Every city we took from LoD, would take several attempts, before toppling down. I couldn’t tell you how many engagements we took against a town just west of Zirak Dum, belonging to a subguild they started for fun, forget the name, lots of high def characters. The city had a ton of trebs around it constantly, it was a nightmare to get threw just to get to the city. TBA worked on the city for sometime, before the alliance would help in finally taking down the tree. I would personally miss it, as I frequently went over and sniped anyone trying to knock down Trebs, other cities were a pain to run to.
The alliance would eventually retake the bog, then they would begin their campaign to push LoD off undead island. LoD would not go down without a fight though, the battles would be intense and extremely fun. As LoD’s power waned on undead Island, TBA under the leadership of Vinadil, announced its intention to retake Ice Island on its own. This did not bring about a favorable response from our allies, instead it brought a litany of accusations. We were berated for not helping finish off LoD on undead island, accused of abandoning the alliance for selfish reasons. We knew the reasons, without us, the others didn’t think they could take LoD, while we were confident in our ability to go solo against LoD, so much so, we asked for no help in retaking Ice. We could loose everything, but we wanted a challenge, something the rest of the alliance didn’t seem to want.
THE DWARVEN MARCH
The Horns would sound, the taverns would lay empty, the battlefields would find no dwarven axes swinging this day. Standing like stone monoliths, two columns of dwarves would begin a slow march to its home of old, Ice Island. Flanking the dwarves on both sides, the centaurs of The Black Company and The Black Alliance, would hold a regal pace. Following in tight formation, with uncharacteristic restraint, the mages and rogues of Sammani, protecting the rear flank. The force would march with steady purpose, never straying from its purpose and destination, with unrelenting focus. From Zirak Dum, they would march, northwestern, to the runegate in the grasslands. By cities of allies and neutrals, they would march, distracted by none, challenged by none. Threw the runegate they would march, into the land of ice, once so familiar, once stained with the blood of so many brothers. Though they would all feel the rush of excitement, for home at last they were, none would break ranks, none would show any change of resolve. We were home, but it was the home of our long fought enemy, and he had been making free, while we had been away. We were standing in the heart of our enemies territory, marching to supplant him and retake that which was ours. He would not take kindly to our presence, and we were not hiding in the shadows, but standing for all to see. Marching steadily to the place of our new city, defying our enemy to try and stop us, to make a stand before us, to attempt to slow us in any way. Thus was the resolve of the alliance and the dwarves, we were not to be stopped today, home we had come, home we were to stay. Onward we marched, it seemed such a short distance we marched, for such a long time away. The trees echoed with Vinadil’s command, "Halt". The ground seemed to shake with the final foot falls as the columns came to a sharp stop. Vinadil and Cherish stepped forward, to the spot where the roots of our new home would spring. With silent conviction, the ceremony of planting commenced, with the dwarves standing in stoic poise. With a sudden burst, the ground erupted forth into a tree of such magnificence, that I can not say I have ever seen such a thing of beauty. Vinadil and Cherish, turned to face the columns of dwarves, centaurs and rogues. None had moved an inch, none had broken the silence, all had stood like a forest of mountains, never changing, watching the world around them come and go. Vinadil cut the silence with a cry.... "HAMMERS HIGH!!"
"HAMMERS HIGH!!" cried the columns before him.
"HAMMERS HIGH!!" cried the valleys of ice.
"HAMMERS HIGH!!" cried the trees of the island.
"HAMMERS HIGH!!" cried the waters of the sea.
"HAMMERS HIGH!!" cringed our enemies.
Our return to Ice, though long in the coming, was finally a reality. Overnight, we would be welcomed back to Ice by our old friends, as Warmonger, placed bulwarks all across the city plot, to prevent us from building. This would only be a minor irritation, as the dwarves will hammer away at mountains, bulwarks would make little to do. Thanking LoD for providing us things to do during our off time, TBA began steadily redecorating the closer cities. We would show them just how steadily and patiently, we could beat on a city wall, much like the bulwarks we placed. Days would pass, each seeing our presence at the LoD city. Tired and worried our enemy would become, till in the end, LoD would surrender the city. Standing before the city, beating on the wall, it would suddenly disappear. Then a building close at hand, disappeared, yet not a hammer fell upon it, then another, and another. There was but a lone man running about the city, when challenged, for what he was doing, he exclaimed "I give up. I am tired of fighting with you guys every day, so I am just going to delete the whole stupid town." The PvP over the island, would bring memories back of our initial start on Death, fighting over farm camps, or just hitting groups for the fun. It would be good way to top off a long and interesting time on the server, for Corruption loomed ahead. TBA, like many other servers, had announced its intent to join the server, forsaking Death forever. With the server coming to an end, the PvP, at least to me, felt more relaxed. Banter and discussion with LoD while we were fighting at their cities, were more entertaining, and friendly. One day, we had a bane going live on this city of LoD’s, we were their hours ahead of it going off, beating on the walls. LoD would make several attempts to dislodge us, with only one being successful, only to have us return again for more. The bane would go live and we would continue fighting for a few more hours, progress was slow. Their attacks against our position, would all end up in failure, but they would maintain the walls. We knew that we would be there for many hours to come. After some discourse with Couls, of LoD, Vinadil, presented to us an alternative to hours of sitting at the bane circle. We would abandon the bane for today, letting LoD take it down, then we would move to an open city, not walled that is, and do a little PvP action. Everyone was in favor of the non-bane PvP, which would allow for an early night, as opposed to a long night of beating on the city. We pulled out, moved to a nearby city of LoD’s, and waited. LoD took down the bane in short order, formed up and came to play. After a bit of fighting,
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