Fjant - I remember Fjant. I was killed by him once a couple years ago, although it was by fault of my trigger. I attempted him several times later on, and nearly killed him in Mirkwood once. My personal opinion of Fjant was that he was a fairly smart player with some very good skills - but more often than not he resorted to cheating (using backstab bugs and abusing lawsys bugs) on a fairly regular basis. This seriously taints his history, and many of the kills he claimed to have were newbie kills, most with other characters. I do not consider Fjant the greatest assassin in MUD history by any means, but he was still very good (when not cheating). He was however, the most *feared* assassin of all time.

Dravin - Dravin is one player of the kind you may never see in Arda again. His skill was phenomenal, and he remains one of the most creative and intelligent players to exist on the Two Towers, in my opinion. Players like Dravin (and his typist's later characters) made the MUD more fun to play. His skills were superior to Fjant's in most respects. Dravin did, however, cheat fairly often. He has admitted to it, and while this taints his record somewhat, he never cheated on the scale that Fjant did (Dravin's bug abuse was mostly goldmaking, Fjant's had to do with somewhat more serious bugs). In head-to-head matchups between the two, Dravin nearly always came out on top.

Marthaon - Possibly one of the most feared and hated players of all time (a deadly combo), Marthaon and his various incarnations performed some seriously impressive feats. He is, like Dravin, a player of the kind you will probably not see again in Arda. He remains one of the fastest, smartest and most skilled players in MUD history. His record is tainted by repeated nukings and the siteban. Disregarding the bug abuse and other factors, Marthaon was incredibly skilled - and I firmly believe that him and Dravin share the top of the list of the greatest players in MUD history.

Khazar - Unknown to many of the newer people perhaps, Khazar was the assistant GM/Clanmaster of the KA clan, which later became the BkD. I consider Khazar to be one of the top players in the history of Arda. He was fast, extremely intelligent - a great skilled player all-around. These days fairly inactive and retired, he is still one of my favorite elite players of all time.

Marsellus - Another player whom I think made the MUD a better place. He could indeed be a jerk sometimes, but he added a bit of character and was always fun to mess around with. Skill-wise I don't place him in the top players of Arda. He was smart and very inventive, but in contrast to some of the names that I consider "elite", Marsellus was really not all that great. He was a great guildhall sitter and idler, though.

Valerian - Valerian and Dravin became without question Arda's most infamous duo. Valerian was very good, though I've never believed he was on par with Dravin himself. I was fortunate enough to party with Valerian on a couple occasions early in Ulric's career. Valerian and Dravin were the founding members of KA, which later became the BkD.

Solkan - Solkan is easily one of the best playerkillers in MUD history. The number of kills he made as a wizard are truly staggering. Probably the best Pkilling wizard ever, in my opinion. He was a founding member of the Amarrim clan, and later became a Durmanhoth guildmember where he spent the rest of his days.

Kitiana - Kitiana was a player that I consider to be very overrated. She made a good number of pkills and had decent skills, but she was lacking in a lot of areas. I slew her twice, about a month before she left Arda. She seemed fairly nice, when she didn't hate your guts. :)

Devon - This is a player I was introduced to late in my career. I had never followed him up until this year, and I was very impressed with his skills once I saw him play. He reminded me of a lot of the old style elite players from the get-go. I consider Devon to be currently one of the top players in Arda, and easily on par with the elite players of yesteryear.

Rendor - Rendor is a player that was off my radar in my early career. I never considered him to be that great of a player, to be honest. (I remember him when he was growing up) Later on when I un-retired and returned to Arda in 1999, I heard rumour that he had improved immensely, and was now one of the better players on the MUD. My later run-ins with him did not really show me a whole lot. Rendor seems, to me, at least - to be lacking the skill of a truly elite player. I think he's a good player with a lot to learn. Perhaps he'll get there someday. Perhaps not. I just think he is consistently overrated because of the times we live in, in Arda - Where oftentimes the more mediocre players get the respect once reserved for the truly elite.

Azarael - Another player I happened to watch extensively in his younger days, back when he joined Durmanhoth and afterwards. Again another player I feel to be consistently overrated, in the same vein as Kitiana and Marsellus, Drizzt, Rathmar, et cetera. Until this guy became a guildmaster, he was a player considered by almost everyone I knew at the time as your typical run of the mill, suckier-than-suck Durm. Now, even though he is a more prominent figure in Arda, he continues to show a huge amateurish side and lack of skill. I wish that some of the praise given to players of this kind would be more appropriately given to people like Devon, who actually *deserve* it.

Drizzt - Known, loved & hated by a good portion of the MUD population, Drizzt was another overrated player. He could also possibly be lumped into the same catagory as Rathmar for being one of the biggest jerks in MUD history. He was also extremely immature. His skills were somewhat decent, but he was not elite by any means. Each and every time that he went up against skilled players in his trial by fire, he crumbled. He was known for some borderline cheating and was eventually nuked, but I don't remember the reason for it.