Farewell to an old friend ..

Winds of Change ..

I remember the first time I logged on, it was because Fantus, an old IRC buddy invited me over. We had become acquainted in this old chat channel many years ago .. heh .. when I was still relatively a newbie to the internet, and from there it was all downhill. In case you didn't know, she was an incorrigible flirt.
She logged on late at night because she was half a globe away from me. She was just getting to work while I was just about tuckered out enough to sleep for the night.
Our conversations were interrupted at times when she would suddenly put up an away message, the IRC version of AFK. Sometimes she'd even tell us why by putting in the words,
"BOSS IN THE HOUSE!"

One night she disappeared completely and since we had never exchanged email addresses, I had no way of knowing where she went. Then, a few weeks later she reappeared and sent me a private message, "Wanna see something?"
Well, naturally I was intrigued ;)
And moving right along .. she sent me another message telling me to telnet over to the current WOC site at that time. Well, of course I was totally losted :grin:
She had a friend of hers and someone I had spoken to before on IRC called Odwin log onto IRC to coach me how to log on, create a character and ..ta-da.. Blazeman was born!
She helped me equip my character and handed me a King Arthur's Backpack. I was all set and ready to .. ermm ready to ..ready to what? Then she told me where to find the different tutorials for first-timers in the newbie school and I was off .. and promptly killed ;)
She decided I needed a better weapon and enlisted the aid of a mage to enchant a dagger for me. So I met my first official new WoC friend, Talia the Pixie. She has had so many titles, who knows what it could have been that night ;)
But Talia was the first person to welcome me to the world of mudding. Of course there were others after her, including:
An Immortal tells you...

Incidentally, it took a while, but I finally found out that Immortals weren't as scary as people thought they were ;)

I started to log on every time I had a few free moments, attempting to learn as much as I could about this new game. And I was (if it were possible) overly curious. I got killed so many times because I was in an area that was way over my level I called myself,
Blazeman of the many lives.
This led to my association and then friendship to a very cool Explorer named Toran. He was my buddy and when he stopped logging on, WoC lost a good player.
He bugged me for weeks to join the Explorers because that's what I was always doing, exploring. Ayup, I got killed way too much but because of this, I learned where every area was just by walking. Not gating, not using portals, but walking. Shoot, at level 11, I got killed by a Wandering Spirit in the forest and Toran had to rescue me so that I could get my stuff back :grin:
Finally I made the decision to join a clan and naturally, the Explorers became the obvious choice. After all Toran did for me, how could I not join him? That's really just what I did, too. I joined Toran - the Explorers were just an added bonus in the beginning. From there on, though, he and I explored all the time. He even made a new lowbie, grouped with me and up we leveled!

One time we almost crashed the mud trying to kill this annoying, insulting, jabbering mob.
We instantly decided it had to die ;)
Unfortunately, it was a rock so of course it was immune to all our weapons. On top of it all, it couldn't harm us while we couldn't kill it. Toran's other character and I were both high levels by this time and since we were grouped to kill this menace, the major spam battle went on and on and on. The game lagged down big time. He and I were laughing so hard and talking in clan chat about the stupid rock. LadyDaisee was with us scolding-teasingly asking, "Are you two getting into trouble again???" But tis true .. heh .. we were. An Immortal must have snuck in to investigate the situation because the next thing we knew,
an Immortal waves his arms...
and all the fighting ceased. However, Toran apparently did not notice because he attacked the rock and the fighting started all over again! Finally the Immortal transfered the rock out of there and told us to leave it alone if we ever ran into it again. :grin:
It was hilarious!
Toran ol' buddy, I miss ya .. 'nuff said there.
Over time, I met many, many people on WoC. After all, I spent so many years there, how could I not?

Some notable mentions (I will probably forget some, my apologies) are:
Fantus - what can I say here, you brought me to WoC, thank-you. Good times, eh?
Talia, we had some long talks didn't we? I miss our chats.
Vondus - dude, you taught me a lot and we became good buds. Nobody could ever fill your shoes.
Turin - you are a fantastic coder, and you placed the mantle of the Explorers on my shoulders, thanks guy.
Sylvaine / kyl - you were a true explorer, and you created the first eqlist, thanks much, your work was greatly appreciated. You were missed when you stopped logging on.
Electra & Serena (the originals) - heh you always made your mark on things didn't ya.
Watubi - you introduced me to Zmud.
Sly / Qeiuos (the original) - you were hilarious man, and who could forget your weapon The Bloody Q-Tip .. heh .. was sorry to see you go.


***********This is still under construction. To be continued ***********


And what can I say about Ingold who made all this possible? He was a fantastic guy. I knew him as the owner of the game, and as my friend.
Late at night when he had time to himself while he waited for his wife to come home from work, he would log on - sometimes invisible, sometimes not - and talk with me. Well let me amend that, sometimes we would talk in MSN. I still have his nick in my buddy list, I can't bring myself to remove it :shrug:
Anyhow, we would talk for hours sometimes, about the game, about family .. his was very important to him .. about life, religion, and politics, you name it, we talked about it.
Sometimes he and I would make lowbies, group, and go pulverize some mobs just to get rid of stress. It was cool. He was like a big brother to me, and I miss him.
Doug gave many people a place to hang out, a place to work off tension or frustration from life, or just plain ol' a place to play an RPG for free. Family members played here and friends were made, and I know other people made friends here, too.
Ingold - thanks Guy, for caring enough about us to provide WoC. Losing you was like losing a chunk out of our lives. You will never be forgotten.

A tribute can be found here.






Also I should mention Damaris, who created the WoC Addicts homepage and maintained it. Of course, I still see her since she is a relative ;)


A Sample of some WoC who lists:

Antoine of Clan Sentinels
Auyrn the Iron Maiden, Right Hand of Clan Jhereg
Himura Kenshin, the Arena Champion of Aspen Forge
[IMP] Vondus Walks the mist of the forest night of Clan Roam
Xilia, the Mistress of Magic _\*/_ of Clan Raeth
[IMM] Karlof
Fantus fantail dragon of Clan Prophets
Toran Ferndon, Lord of Exploring Cheese of Clan Explorers
Cala Lilly,Darkened Little Soul [NRL] of Clan Explorers
Belgarion need eq?...let's discuss price
Scorn Bringer of Death of Clan Unity
Sly junked a corpse with 31000+ gold in it of Clan Explorers
[GRD] Blazeman il Primo the ancient one of Clan Explorers
[GRD] Melkor's Shadow, Grand Enforcer of the Necromancers
Basso the Dragon Warrior.
Everman the Balancer of Clan Calafia
Kintana the sword pupil of Clan Unity
[GRD] Talia Bear, the Yellow Polka-Dotted Pixie of Sjora
[GRD] Gellor I'm not a giant, but I play one in RL of Sjora
Darian, Lord of Pain, Left Hand of Clan Jhereg(V)
Mad Lilac 7 days of teenage life left of Clan Sentinels
Corwin ... of Clan Prophets
[GRD] Fizzle, Left Hand of Clan Jhereg
[IMP] Ingold the Weary Warlock of Clan Roam

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