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The Beginning

I've been on Dereth for a very long time. The events of the past seem like just yesterday. Although many of my companions have re-rolled. I stuck with my original character.

I started out with two of my best friends at college in beta then retail. The 3 of us started out in Nanto East, hunted and then moved to Tou-Tou for a short-time and almost immediately afterwards moved to Arwic because of the Arwic mines and the Old Mines. Arwic was our home-base for the longest time. We meet what would eventually become my longest friend & patron here. More about him later.

At level25 I pledged to Gorgomite, he gave me his mattie-coat and later a bright purple olthoi helm. He took me to Lair of Death (LOD) and introduced me to the Olthoi. It was a very brief introduction, I think the name matches appropriately. I still have both of these items today. They meant a lot to me. When I joined, at first I was cautious, I didn't know what to think. I really didn't want a patron. For the most part I was self-sufficient. One thing that bugged me, was that I never was able to spend anytime with him on quests or hunting. I don't know if it was our playing style differences, perhaps it was our levels. I think he was level38 at the time. Gorgomite was pledged to Thase Skotoso, who was pledged to Lakeon. At one point the Lakeon allegiance was the most powerful Monarch on the server. He controlled Arwic. Any non-Lakeon PK's were killed-on-sight.

Our vassals at the time included Gotmilk, Clayton aka Runemaster (now Elaith), Jagwire, Plus, Artaus, Jetta, Jobu (both of them), Firelyn and Attilabal. Other vassals included Amber Voss and Kyle the Warrior (now Blade of Shadows).

This was I consider the golden age of Asheron's Call. It was the days of Olympus, Conan the Barbarian, Ghede, Swift, Trailrix, and others.

By the time I was 45, the two friends that I had started with -- Redum & Tivoli had left the Dereth, Lakeon had retired and Thase Skotoso was now the most powerful on the server - Rank8 with over 3000 vassals. For a short time I was pledged to directly Thase Skotoso. I found that him being 30 levels above me, just didn't work and that I needed someone that would pay attention to me. So I pledged to what had becomed my longest & closest friend on Dereth -- Aelryinth. Aelryinth became a monarch and we formed our own family called TheSteel. We wanted a system in which our values were upheld -- family, honor and respect.

2nd Age

We grew rapidly, perhaps too rapidly. We lost many friends during this period, mainly due to the forming of xp chains. Soon enough the top core of the family had fallen apart in infighting over xpchains, disagreements between key Council members, until at last Aelryinth himself got tired of it and stepped down as monarch.

We tried making our family to be something more then just a name. There was still something missing from the game without one of us being the name at the top of the screen, and not some xpchain monarch who knew none of us. Eventually, I got tired of being just a cog in the xp machine, and with the support of my vassals, I took on mantle of a monarch.

Today I'm a monarch of this family. Aelryinth is our family Patriarch. Today our family is almost 200 active members and well over 1900 total.

Our family has has it's up and down's. But one thing has keep the core group together -- trust. We respect and honor each other, and we maintain a high level of maturity.

Found Friends

I've done fairly well over the years while on Dereth (it's been almost 4 years now). I've make some good friends, including: D'Mon, Bouncy, Baldric the Chopper, Messer, Jinco Cho, Ashram, Semiramis, Tex, ChinChin, Shadow Menace, Nicola Tesla, Messer, Rage the Titan, Faith No more, Hizzab, Brandish, Damon II, Czarina, Andromeda, Nickolas II, Zen Ronin, Ice Cold, Shock Mage and Thase Skotoso. There are others. I enjoy Dereth and the challenges that Asheron's Call gives.

May Asheron protect us all in the coming darkness.

-StarGrove
phoenix@thesteel.org