Ravenloft Guild

The last known Ravenloft guild screenshot. From the left to right, Lumialle, Sixe, Lunakitty, Genestealer, Lenor, Fuyumi.

Guild Leader: Genestealer

Narrative by Genestealer, guild master for Ravenloft.

Thousands of hours ago, before the time of Comodo and Pay-to-Play, there was THE BETA.

It was a time before whispers, where the condor card properly was one of the most elite. With on one to power level us, we toiled endlessly to achieve our second classes. Around the time that I hit assassin, the first of the guilds were showing up. No one was selling emperium though...

So, my closest friend (a VIT 2-handed sword knight) set out to hunt the means by which to make our own guild.

This was a tricky time, because the economy was insane with the coming pay-to-play era. High level characters were throwing their equipment on the ground, and hosting contests for rares that are still valuable today. Not spending time in town meant missing out on great opportunities for items. However, not spending time out of town meant we were missing out on valuable MVP chances to get emperium.

We made a deal; the VIT knight, known as Phen, would gather items in town while I stalked the infamous golden thief bug. With the help of equipment he got, I was finally able to lay my hands on Emperium and form the guild 2 days before the switch out of Beta.

Then, disaster happened.

Gravity brought a heavy hand down upon the game and reset all items to 4 days before the switch. We lost a lot of our valuable equipment, both given to us by high level characters and earned legit. Thankfully, not being an item, the guild remained.

Also, this was the time which I got the glitches goggles/glasses. It seems that at the reset time, I was wearing glassess and a sakkat, but they reset to a time when I was wearing goggles. I didn't own the sakkat that I had before the reset time, but I did have the glasses and goggles, so they fused together to form a unique look. To this day, I've only seen one other person with a similar glitch, and to my knowledge, he quit months ago.

Now came the time of building.

The most popular place at the time was Payon 4; we made this our guild HQ in a way. Phen and I stayed down there for days on end leaving for no more than five minutes to sell our swag. Here we met a very large majority of the guild's core, including a crazy aco named "Lunakitty". We had a terrible need for healers, so Phen and I began tanking her for long periods of time. Of course she refused to be normal, and had to go past job 40 - so this was a long project.

Along the way she introduced us to many other members of the original Ravenloft. It took much convincing, but Luna got me out of Payon 4 and my hunt for Solider Skel cards for just enough time to meet Lenor and Sixe up in front of Geffen dungeon. Best time I ever spent topside ^.^

Eventually, we outgrew Payon 4, and the new HQ was Glast Heim churchyard. The guild was thriving at this time, nearly full, everyone was active, the friendliest environment in iRO.

Then, the hacks started.

Gravity left huge holes in their security and everyone's accounts were compromised. Guild members were hacked. I remember begging a hacker in a guildmate's account not to take his equipment or delete him. It was agony. Reset, after reset, after reset, and the hacks continued. Hunting was pointless, we just lost all our items and experience.

I loved my guild, but I had enough. Gravity was ruining a game I loved, and I wasn't about to keep paying them to do so. In one of the most depressing things I've ever done, I said goodbye to the people I cared about and quit, vowing never to return until Gravity got their act together.

The last thing I remember was seeing Luna and the rest of the gang set up in the Shin Ravenloft guild, saying goodbye to me in the orc fields. I never saw Comodo...