Mirella

I joined the guild shortly after it had become firmly established in DAoC. I grouped up with two GKs lowbie killing spiders, and they suggested I join up. I was hesitant, because this was my first MMO and I didn’t know much about what guilds were for. I thought they might brainwash me and steal all my in-game money ;).

As it turned out, it was a great bunch of people and it didn’t take long for me to fit in (although they teased me a lot – I was very naïve about gaming in those days!). I did most of my levelling with a regular GK group: Mephistofelis, Vlad, Rhir, Valial among others.  

The guild always felt more like a family than just a gaming community. I’ve been in several other guilds while I’ve been off on my travels through other games, but it’s never felt the same. I remember many nights when guild chat made me cry with laughter, and other times when we took keeps in Midgard and I was really proud to see our guild banner flying.

One of the highlights was our first RL meeting at Arianna’s house (self-proclaimed Guild Wench). Lots of us turned up with DAoC props and after a suitable amount of alcohol, we went out in the garden to re-enacted scenes for some photos, using a mop for a polearm and a sparkler for my wizard’s staff.

I have fond memories of our guild trips to Dartmoor (we’d take any level; it was fun protecting the lowbies ;)), our nights out in Caer Sidi and our guild rampages through the frontiers. There was usually a good balance between having a laugh and making sure we were sensible and followed instruction. We did what we needed to do, but we didn’t take ourselves too seriously. One of the things people outside the guild used to say to me a lot was: ‘I always see you guys together, do you always do things as a guild?’ Well, pretty much!

Variety has always been one of our guild strengths imo. We’ve always had people who were more ‘hardcore’ PvPers, as well as those who preferred PvE challenges, and all shades in between. We have people who play every day (/whistles) and guildies who only come online every now and again. We have mature young players and young mature players ;).

DAoC eventually waned, and the guild was pulled in different directions. I tried Horizons and Vanguard (not for long!), LoTRO (where we met some new likeminded friends who joined up) and WoW (where I eventually teamed back up with some of the original GK crowd, plus others they had met along the way). In between, I had stints in Midgard and then Hib on the US servers, where I met up with yet more old GKs. Many of us keep in touch in RL, regardless of what game we’re playing.

It seems that a lot of the old GK crew are turning up for WAR. It looks as though it might turn out as a big family reunion! But I hope we can make the guild a welcoming place for new people to join up too.