The Company of The Vigilant (Writing Contest, Guild History entry)

Discussion in 'The Salty Dog Tavern' started by Pirul, Mar 24, 2017.

  1. Pirul

    Pirul Well-Known Member
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    A Brief History of The Company of The Vigilant

    Many, many years ago, back in the Second Age of Brittania, in another realm, a group of valiant warriors vowed to defend the virtues that the only true King and Lord of the land, Lord British, professed. This group called themselves The Protectors of the Virtues. Among the ranks of the Protectors, a novice mage was starting to show some promising leadership traits. How it tends to be with restless and leading spirits, he did not agree with all of the policies regulating The Protectors, as he felt they left an open door to trouble.

    Elisud decided he would rather form a small group of very likeminded individuals, with a much stricter rule set than what The Protectors of the Virtues had. He decided the Windmere Woods would be a suitable place to start establishing the base for this new group of people. And thus the Fellowship of Windmere was born. Three likeminded souls led by Elisud was all it took. They were often out matched, and out skilled, but never out willed. The desire to do good and protect the innocent fueled this group.

    A little after creation, they bumped into a mysterious individual who seemed to be running from his past. They took him in, and started training him in the art of defending himself and the innocent. Unfortunately, as it seems to always happen, the past caught up. Some of the foes this person was running from infiltrated the clan and started wreaking havoc. Elisud decided the best course of action was to dismantle the guild completely, and redesign the way of recruiting, and vetting new members. As it would so happen, that mysterious individual is your humble author.

    After leaving the Windmere Woods, Elisud and his three friends stumble upon a small plot of land just outside Vesper’s north bridge. Front steps of the small wood and plaster house were literally inside the guard zone. This was the perfect launching point for something none of the four ever envisioned.

    The new guild maintained the core virtues of doing good, protecting the innocent, and helping new comers to get a foothold and be able to reach their goals in Sosaria. Our new name was The Company of the Vigilant. Times were rough. And at one point the only two members in the Guild were Elisud and your humble servant. Serious consideration was given to returning to The Protectors of the Virtues and forget this new venture, but we did not. We persevered. In time the guild prospered and grew. New properties started to be added, and activity began becoming incessant. Evildoers started acknowledging The Company, what it stood for, and how we fought defending it. Otherworldly matters forced Elisud to take a step back as Lord of The Company of the Vigilant and hand over the reins to me.

    I was fortunate enough to have received a guild with extraordinary members, a very strong structure, but most importantly, an unwavering trust between all of us. I would have never been able to run The Company of the Vigilant without the trust of my closest, and highest ranking members, and without being able to trust them completely. As fate would have it, these extraordinary group of members recruited just before, and right after Elisud left helped create one of the largest, and arguably the most active and involved guild during the Second Age. That story, however, is the matter for another book.

    When it was clear the Second Age was dying, and Sosaria was coming into the Renaissance, The Company of the Vigilant had to stay with the times. The core members set out to begin a new history in a new age in our world. True to our principles we were founded. Based out of Barrier Isle, just outside of Trinsic, The Company started to grow. In a very short time, our core values, and commitment to help new comers helped to make The Company of the Vigilant one of the larger and most active groups during the early stages of the Renaissance. Very good new members joined our ranks, and the guild started attracting attention. As it tends to be the case, when you start doing things right, outside people start developing ill feelings and envy. Pretty soon we started fending off direct attacks to our guild. Attempts to infiltrate the guild had to be thwarted.

    Activity was abundant. We had players at all time of day playing together, hunting, running amibs, tmaps, or looking to protect the innocent from PK’s. But mostly, looking out for new players and helping them out in the hope they would one day be decent members of society and join the ranks of The Company. It was during this time that I, Lord Grand Master of The Company of the Vigilant, made a mistake that would ultimately result in the demise of our fine Guild.

    One of our newer members, who was very active, and very engaged in helping new players, was very insistent on being promoted to a higher rank within The Company. This matter had always been a sign of alarm for me, and the biggest indication that a member should NOT be promoted. The Company always prided itself in the by assigning the rank of Counsel to people of the highest character and moral standard, and yet, in this case I decided to promote him. Little did I know what would come ahead.

    And as with every good thing, The Company was bound to come to an end. The end for The Company however, was very jarring and drama filled. First came accusations of offers to purchase goods in Sosaria with currency from another world. At first we thought them outlandish and dismissed them while defending our Counsel. Turns out they were very real. So real such Counsel admitted to them publicly, and even bragged about it.

    After that, said Counsel and one of the members he had recruited and had grown particularly close with determined that a peaceful man who was ridding the dungeons of evil had stayed at his post too long, and decided to attack and kill him, mocking him in the process so that he would leave his post. This is THE first principle of The Company: do not hurt innocents, or cause them to be hurt. Given The Company’s reputation, news spread fast. The biggest problem was that said Counsel was not only unrepentant, but went as far as to have several members switch fealty to him in a clear attempt to take over the guild.

    It was roughly at this same time, another Counsel had run into trouble on another world with the law of the land. The laws he was accused of breaking were very severe, and when it became public, The Company took yet another big hit to its reputation.

    The drama both of these events caused, compiled with a busier domestic life with the arrival of my third offspring resulted in my decision to step down as Lord of The Company of the Vigilant. The rest of the Council decided the guild should be dismantled as it had taken several big reputation hits. It might be best to remove everyone and begin anew. Someday.
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  2. PaddyOBrien

    PaddyOBrien Well-Known Member

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    Great story! I remember walking amongst it's ruins in another realm, before I found myself here as well :)
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  3. Henderson!

    Henderson! Well-Known Member
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    I was briefly a member of the Fellowship of Windmere back in 09. Elisud recommended that I join PoV instead for reasons I do not remember. Then the shenanigans began.
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  4. Pirul

    Pirul Well-Known Member
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    Haha!! The reason was that PoV did not have a strict no nefarious alt policy like FoW. I don't quite remember you in FoW, but I most certainly remember your shennanigans in PoV!!
  5. Henderson!

    Henderson! Well-Known Member
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    There was nothing nefarious early on. I had just joined the server and didn't know anyone. I had a dexxer and vesper was my home base. FoW was around there a lot and I just fell in with them as something to do. Elisud was very nice and I think the reason he directed me to PoV is that he was focusing on new players and I was uninterested in doing that. It wasn't until after I was in PoV I fell into a notorious group of hooligans. Then I was like, I'm in this guild and I think they trust me. What can we do?

    I do specifically remember you and me (Pirul and Pete Wrigley) getting pvp training on test early on. We were like the only two dexxers and both pretty lousy at fighting. I'm guessing you've improved more than I have.

    Anyhow... I enjoyed the story and it intertwines with my very early freeshard experience!
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  6. snap dragon

    snap dragon Well-Known Member

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    The real question here:

    Why has C^V not publicly admitted the guilt of one, Lord Steel Strings (AKA Beverly the Bank Thief), for the crime of having an alt that is not only a thief but a villianous scammer!

    This was reported in the Jan 2014 issue of Misc Photography, but I have yet to see him hang from the UO gallows!? I thought C^V had a strict no thieves or PKs policy! The lady Callista wrote the rules herself!
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  7. Pirul

    Pirul Well-Known Member
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    Hahaha! I distinctly remember those training sessions in test, but I never knew you were Pete Wrigley!! And no, I never improved. I pretty much still suck.
    lol

    (1) Guild matters were always dealt with privately, so what might or might not have happened in terms of reprimand to Steel Strings will always remain of the guild concern only.
    (2) Callista! There's a name from the past! Little known fact: Callista was never in C^V. chumbucket ran her off the server before B-D merged into C^V. The rules were written by Elisud and myself. Other people had input along the way, but it was mostly us.
  8. snap dragon

    snap dragon Well-Known Member

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    No, she simply quit playing UO after her wedding to chum. That was her end-game, nothing left to accomplish after that.


    I also heard that lightshade has a thief alt! Now that I think about it, you might be a vile ruffian as well !! Is there nobody we can trust !?
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  9. Pirul

    Pirul Well-Known Member
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    I most certainly recall chum's unnatural fascination with her.

    That's news to me! Then again I haven't really played with anyone since disbanding C^V those 2-3 years ago.
  10. Pirul

    Pirul Well-Known Member
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    I guess in the end, all we really wanted was for people to feel like they had a positive interaction with C^V. Friends, foes or neutrals. I hope we made UO more interesting and enjoyable for those who we interacted with.

    I know I hold some of our most worthy foes in high regard.
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  11. snap dragon

    snap dragon Well-Known Member

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    Oh they definitely did. I'm just Joshing you Lee. C^V was a great guild on <othershard> and while I haven't really seen them here, I know you're a stand up person who has helped me out a time or two even with real-life things.

    ;)
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  12. EndlessMike

    EndlessMike Member

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    Pete Wrigley?!
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  13. Pirul

    Pirul Well-Known Member
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    That was Henderson! I was Pirul
  14. Henderson!

    Henderson! Well-Known Member
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    Hellstrom!

    Once a dink, always a dink.
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