Christmas Contest

[Jeet]

Copied posts from http://www.rodcetnife.org/index.php?topic=1201.0

[twichy]

OOOO I get to be entree number 1! Ok. This one's written on behalf of Hegemony.

Allow me to introduce myself. I have worn many names in my checkered career in that field which we call life. Nowadays, I?m known mostly as Kent (no, really, that?s my name), mild mannered and slightly eccentric College student trying his godawful best to eke out a decent GPA. But for two and a half years up till about May, I was also Twichythumb, the Defender of the Ages, Shadowknight Extraordinaire, and sometime mascot of Hegemony. That?s right. I?m an Everquester, and if I may say so myself, a damn fine one. So, to get right to the point? why am I writing this? Well, aside from the sudden, sporadic urge to create flowing and beautifully crafted prose (which I?m sure played its part) and general Everquest withdraw syndrome (which I?m most definitely experiencing), I put words to paper now because my guild, in which I?ve created so many treasured memories and had the honor to meet some of the most pristinely admirable people I?ve ever encountered, is dying. One kill away from time, Hegemony?s ranks have crumbled from core players retiring (myself included) and, most recently, the leadership moving on to WoW. Even though two expansions have been released that have more advanced content than Planes of Power, Heg?s unstated endgame goal? the shining light at the end of our tunnel, has always been Potime. And so it will come as no surprise to you that, if this composition wins, I will request a Rathe Council kill for the remnants of my Guild. I guess you could call it my belated farewell gift to them. And even if Hegemony never manages to rebuild itself to match its namesake, I would like, just once, for people of Rodecet Nife to /who all heg and see us in time? one last, glorious triumph for a guild in its twilight; one last dance before the sun sets in Camelot; one final monument to the spirit of a band of players who fought together, laughed together, and gave it all we had. Hegemony for life.

What follows is a (not so brief) reminiscence of the history of EQ from the mole?s eye perspective of yours truly, Twichythumb of Hegemony. Two years, a few months, and 76 odd pizzas ago, myself, Bendan (my then college roommate), and Deltas, 3 long time RL friends (better known in our heyday as the Jiberdiks, or the patriarchs of Hegemony?s ?clique?) turned to EQ after a long and tumultuous relationship with Neverwinter Nights and Diablo II, our chief complaints with the former being that, well, the player hosted servers lag so badly that the screen freezes up and mobs either a) don?t fight back or b)outright kill you while you battle with the lag gods and our chief complaints with the latter being that game content becomes a bit repetitive and lacks challenge once you can fill 2-3 accounts worth of inventory up with SoJ?s, Bugged items, and duped Windforces? and ? well cmon? there comes a point in time when even the most ardent D2 fanatic thinks ?if I hear Moo Moo one more time, I?m gonna go into a collective fit of apoplexy?. In any case, Deltas bought his e-bayed lvl 57 character and told us if we?d leave the worldly realm of free online games behind, he?d pl us in they mythical land of Norrath: a world untainted by the lag gods and untouched by Bug and Dupe exploiters that plagued our old online domains. And while I was still slightly skeptical, Bendan bit. The day Bendan?s big platinum EQ lunchbox arrived was a memorable (and laughable) one. After 15 minutes of installation time and 2 hours wandering around hopelessly lost in Felwithe, Bendan?s first character, a female high elf cleric named Shabi (?dumb cunt? in Chinese) finally emerged into Gfay? and promptly got her arse kicked in by some poorly animated giant bat. The screen froze, and poof? we?re back in Felwithe. I laughed, he cursed? and while we?re both thinking ?what a godawful pos game? Bendan refused to admit he?d blown almost a hundred bucks on a new lunchbox and an action figure. So he grinds through the single digit levels with me mocking him every kill of the way. Two days later, Deltas takes him to a place called Paludal Caverns where he joins his first group, and well, I stopped laughing. A week later, my own lunch box and action figure (with the same stupid bent sword) arrives and Twichythumb Happywhacker, level 1 Shadowknight Extraordinaire is born. Note... at first I wanted to be a Paladin (who doesn't want to be the goody two shoes galahad type hero?) but Deltas said they blew major arse and well? I make a general note of not making characters that serve as pincushions for monsters? swords and teeth so I regretfully gave up that idea. So then I wanted to be a warrior (who can NOT envy a muscle bound Arnold in Conan). But...Deltas said wars were a one button class designed for retards or World War II vets who?d lost the majority of their significant digits to barbed wire. Being neither, that sort of ruled out my master swordsman. So like, I asked him what's a good class and he said Druid! they can solo!... and I ?almost? made one (god am I glad I didn't listen to him). In any case, I eventually settled on a shadowknight, since it appealed to my general tastes and didn't "suck" (so can you tell I'm a powergamer? ).

Well, Deltas, my wealthy benefactor, started me off in my EQ journey with the gift of an almost complete set of giant scale mail, a velium longsword, a hero bracer, and a plethora of summoned junk that he?d replace every time I logged in and I thought I was some pretty damn hot stuff? right up to the point some twink I met at orc camp #2 passed me a shissar longsword out of sheer pity for either my destitute or my ignorance. So ya, life goes grinding on as usual for a while. Bendan and I are ninja-recruited into a guild called Acolytes of Oblivion (along with about 400 other noobies) and we experience our first glimpses of guild life: lively guild chat (there were enough acolyte members to blot out the sun) and raiding (the lot of us charge into upper guk, get lost on our way to lower guk, and we?re all picked off one by one by stupid little frogs). Well, a few days pass that way until I can stand being crappy dps anymore and decide to journey deep into velk?s labyrinth cause some guy posted on caster?s realm that swords of pain rot there every minute! So I drag my lvl 14 arse to the great divide, where I get hopelessly lost in no time and /ooc for about 10 minutes for help before some uber Hegemony mage farming faction comes along and helps me back to the pok book, killing me with cliff dives along the way. I forgot exactly who it was, but I?m pretty sure it was either Xile or Jthall? although it might have been Roinin. Whomever it was, I forgave them their oversight of my noobish weakness, collected my corpse, and crawled my way back to Dawnshroud Peaks. Thus was my first contact with hegemony, the guild I would one day join.

So ya, fast forward about half a year or so. Unable to stand all the incredible stuff Deltas (now in Hegemony) keeps on linking me, I quit my casual guild, apped Hegemony, and whaddayaknow? my second raid on the job, some shield that nobody seems to want off a BoT tower boss looks like it?s going to lord rot so Daarksun offers it out to everyone for half price: 1DKP. So ya, my eyes get as big as golf balls and I bid the one DKP that I?d earned the night before. Mere moments later the shield finds its way into my lap, and I was like? all hail Hegemony, where it rains loot every night! I was hooked. Aint nothing was gonna make me app anywhere but Hegemony from there on in. (Unfortunately, I didn?t see my next piece of loot for 3 months or so, which coined the phrase DKP makes the world go round... but that?s another story).

In any case, Bendan apped Heg soon after I did, and we were soon in the swing of things, eagerly awaiting the night?s raids and grinding like mad during the day (not to be egotistical or anything, but I still aver that we ran the best grinds and later on ldon?s in the guild). We settled into our respective roles and habits? Bendan?s a DKP hoarder and somewhat of a spendthrift? I?m more of an impulsive buyer (you know, like how some women just HAVE to have that new pair of shoes? Well I?m like that with swords). Bendan became a regular fixture on CHR, while I made a name for myself by stealing nearly all the killshots (Daark and I were the only SK?s at the time with maxed HT and I?ve always had my suspicion that Daark?s connection was still in the 56k stone age?). So ya, hundreds of AA?s later, we?d pretty much gotten to know the Heg entourage pretty well and even had our own nicknames for the regulars. What follows is a description of our nicknames for more prominent guild members as well as a general caricature of their minor nuances we picked up on (note: even thought almost all these names are derogatory, they were made in the best spirit of camaraderie so don?t take offense. We really do like you all! Note#2: more vulgar nicknames were probably made up by Bendan, who tends to have a greater propensity to use such words as compared to myself)

Deltas: We somehow ended up calling our good friend Delt?s Ass. Just came natural?we never quite looked at him the same after his character lost all his hair overnight. Hair club for mages? Anyone?

Daarksun: We dubbed him Doorksun. Hey, everyone loves to take a jab at authority and it has a ring to it. Bendan even made an alt paladin named Doorksun.

Roinin: We dubbed him Groinin. Again, jab at authority. I made an alt wizzy named Groinin, and the plan was for Groinin and Doorksun to level up to 10 and then commit chain suicides, leaving a bloody heap of Groinin and Doorksun corpses strewn across PoK. But we lost interest before we could hit lvl 10. Oh well.

Dyaan: Became Dyiin. Clerics die a lot. What can I say? One of the only two people I?ve known who actually fell asleep during a raid with her character still active! (that takes some serious skill)

Bigtoxic: renamed Da La Ji (big trash in Chinese? our language skills didn?t translate toxic well) ? We noticed that he has a propensity to turn a signature 360 turn before engaging mobs?which was quite comical if you turn on old graphics (even more funny when he croaks).

Figgil was dubbed "Fecal" cause it sounded funny and we're really juvenile at heart. Plus, in old graphics, he looks like a lil armored turd.

Lantuss: Sorry bro? you became Lant?s Ass? see deltas description.

Kemp: became? ?Hahahahaha? . But other than laughing at you we still called you kemp. Stalwart to a fault but sometimes not all there up in the attic

Honeyblossom: Was dubbed Honey?cock?som after ?cocking? Bendan to x4 for various loots.

Aislynne: Dubbed Aisl?cock?? for the same reason (notice a pattern here?)

Olindo: always said in a broken high pitched voice as if yodeling

And that?s all I can think of right now? if the rest of you really want to know what we called you, I?ll be happy to tell all later

Anyway, on with the tale! Now would be a good time to tip my hat to the Jiberdik squad, or the ?clique? as we came to be called (mainly by the disgruntled few *cough* druids?n?wars *cough* who were having issues getting groups etc etc) The clique originally was Deltas, Bendan, and myself grinding mainly in BoT. We killed stuff, leveled up, and, being the sneaky, low life bastages that we tend to be at times, roamed the land for elusive names to KS from hapless inept grind groups. Later, our clique was solidified a bit more due to nightly Ldon grinds when if first came out. Our group was Me, Deltas, Bendan, Zipity, Plinko, and one random pick up. We took Zipity since he was the only one we ever found that could kite 3 ldon hard mobs while we finished off singles one by one and still make sure they were all slowed. Plinko we dubbed the ?condom?, as he was our ?last resort? tank when I croaked. Never the overly bright one, he was usually meager dps, but he was good at listening to directions and would group heal promptly whenever Bendan called for one and hell, the guy?s funny (often without even trying). So ya? Zip got booted from Heg for training the whole Akheva zone on our gathering raid for ?kicks? (I thought it was pretty damn funny? but I can FD?and I guess the officers were feeling a bit peevish that day). We stopped grouping with Plinko for a while after our Ldon camp needs diverged (God couldn?t drag my arse through more mind-numbing Nro adventures with a cattle prod and a lightning bolt)? and the clique faded into obscurity for a month or so? until we found that we could, with our newfound elemental gear, do hards fairly easily? tanking 2-3 at a time with 2 tanks and mezzing or kiting the rest. Deltas was retired for his bard alt, Mepho (who never once managed to pull a single? but we forgive him ?cause we?re dirty nepotism practitioners). Istole and Chora became regulars in our nightly grinds for uber dps, and very honorable mentions go out to Retrieval, Daarksun, Daewood, Kemp, and Darcc, all of which were regular fixtures in our nightly escapades. We churned out hard adventures at such an amazing rate that I?ll bet that if you bring up the ldon leaderboard and sort by percentage hard wins, Mepho will still be #1 with lots of wins and no losses? that?s right? not one loss. Hat?s off to the clique: accidentally elite.

The other lasting memory from my EQ days, will, of course, be romping in the Arena to win my title. As Da/EiE and Ascent were raiding when the even took place, Time-geared participants were limited to FoT guys for the most part. With an overwhelming prescence, Hegemony, that day dubbed Zergemony, beat down our cowering and hopelessly outnumbered rivals quite easily. Basically, my personal strategy was quite simple: turn skeleton illusion and hide in a pot. He who fights and runs away, lives to run another day. Of course, the GM?s would have none of that and I was forced to participate in the unsightly bloodshed like everyone else. In any case, I managed to keep a low enough profile to escape all but the most zealous opposition (there was some UoP bard who insisted on stripping away all my buffs? so I was forced to? you know? kill him. When the dust cleared, there were only 7 people standing: myself, kemp, Darchammer (played by Lantuss), (either Dulvarian or Kjunspice? can?t remember which), Kirishnu, Bigtoxic, and some FoT war. The poor FoT guy looked around and immediately made a bee-line to Bigt, who was sitting in a corner with 1% life trying his goddamn best to not look so big, fat, noticeable, and, well? trollish. Well, no force on earth could have saved him. And after he and the FoT guy were taken care of, I got a tell from Lant that read: ?bard next?. And whaddaya know, he, kemp, and I made short work of an astonished bard who frankly, didn?t fight back. The next tell I got was ?bstlord next? and the three of us turned on an equally astonished kiri, who must?ve been thinking? ?what the heck??. In any case, I didn?t get anymore tells from good ol? Lant, so I figured he and kemp were gonna have at me next. So? I sent my tell to kemp and convinced him to kill Lantuss? and? after a 7 minute fiasco with a DA hammer, we did. I pretty much raped Kemp like a ?little schoolgirl? (Bendan?s words). He was fully buffed and I was buffless? but no War on earth can beat an equally geared hybrid? and one HT later, I was the defender of the ages. Go me. Of course, that very same day I found myself wishing I had named my character something less ridiculous than Twichythumb?

And those are my most cherished moments in the game. God kills were great, and getting uber gear seemed like the be all end all of my existence back then, but? retired as I am now, it is the simple grinds that I look back upon the most fondly. Kudos to Myself, Bendan, Daark, Deltas (as mepho), Istole, and Retrieval (I think.. might have been a pickup or someone else) for blasting through the 12 (or was it 9?)min Ldon regular mission, Myself, Bendan, and Tiauth for 3-manning an Ldon EC hard after the rest of the crew went LD 2 mobs in, and Me, Bendan, Deltas (as mepho), Darcc, Daark, and Retrieval for finishing numerous 30-40 odd minute Ldon hards mere seconds before server resets (if it was any other group we wouldn?t even have tried em).

There are so many memories that I cherish about Hegemony... but it all comes down to the people. We?ve been through ups and downs together, thick and thin. It has been a pleasure playing with you all, and while some of us may not have always seen eye to eye on many things, I've never harbored anything but respect for the lot of you (with the exception of that app Stinjor Firefighter (sp?) a while ago... you know, the guy who went berserk on Asknar the Lost on the Agnarr raid... holy crap-on-a-kebab was that guy a retard or what?). I speak now to my former guildies, many of whom have probably apped to EiE after Heg?s schism: Did I make time before I quit the game? Nope... to be totally honest, there was a time when I thought we'd never even make elementals. But does that really matter? It didn't to me personally. I didn't play Everquest to beat a game. If I wanted to just beat some game I could've played solitaire or 52-pick up. I didn't play everquest to get uber. If I wanted to be uber I would've just apped Ascent. God knows I was online enough to make all their raids. I didn't even play everquest out of some warped sense of Hegemony superiority. I mean sure, if I wanted to I could tell Outcast Adventurer peeps not to tug on superman's cape, piss in the wind, or screw with Hegemony... not if they're OA anyways... but elitist and jackass as I am, that's never quite been my particular style or brand. In the end, I played everquest and stayed in Hegemony cause I like you guys. Regardless of the fact that I've never met any of you outside of the Jiberdiks, I've found that I enjoy your company. I like watching guild chat. I like small grouping/raiding uber mobs with guildies. I like just hanging out. Hell I even like arguing with u guys and flaming each other on the boards! Our ties to each other are what bind us to this game and to this guild... and perhaps the events that lead to the gradual dissolution of Hegemony have been a result of people losing track of that. So stand up. Recapture that feeling when you first Apped: the wonder, the joy, and the elation of taking down targets together. We were more than just a guild, and what we accomplished was more than just some raids. We were, in essence, an extended family, and our greatest achievement, at least in my view, was the way we banded together to help each other through trials and tribulation, adversity and hardships. We shared a part of our lives with each other, and that, my friends, regardless of where the winds of fortune may carry us, will never be forgotten. So type those words just once more for old time?s sakes. You know you want to. /who all heg

With every last piece of my heart,
Twichythumb
Hegemony

[Faelin Crimsoncloud]

Our post is up on the Rodcet Nife board. Today being the last day and all. I know, I know I prolly shouldn't post here to remind yas, just delete this and pretend I didn't

Faelin da Wizzy
Brew Masters

[Laylina]

When are we doing this?

[Kirishu]

Was just wondering the same thing.

[Meecha143]

When are we doing the rest of this?