Hmm...this will require a UO novel!
Shalimar, I remember because she found me wandering Ocllo the first time I logged on Siege, as a paladin, pretty fresh to UO. I was waiting at the bank area, for Mac to show up, and was horrified by my mismatched armor that I arrived in. What impressed me was that her outfit was truly a coordinated ensemble from head to toe, and I learned she had this AMAZING power to dye leather armor! Soon I was running around in MATCHING junk startup gear, thanks to her. She did make me a set of leather armor, which I banked for later, having been assured I would soon be relieved of my junk, no matter how junky it was. Alas, I never got to wear that armor...Angelica, my char, was deleted the next day, and Skylark was born a week later after the timer expired.
Ikichet (Uvtha) was the very first person who spoke to me on Siege. She seemed like a very nice lady, for a rat.
Mac who had been kicking around on Siege for about 3 weeks (while I was n00bing up Atlantic) finally found me, and mentioned this great group of people he had met that roleplayed knights, and he wasn't sure he wanted to play on Atlantic anymore, in spite of his riches there. He introduced me to Aeric Horn, who mentioned that he was considering leaving the knights to start a new RP town project. Then I met Severina/Mekare, and Chenonceau (naughty murderer!), and Py Lethius (chasing naughty murderers), while Aeric was showing me the spot he was considering near Minoc to start his town, and explaining his vision. I gave Chen some cookies, and he gave me a mage weapon staff, which he said would help with my training. I never did figure out what I was supposed to do with it back then, but it looked nice with my outfit so I carried it everywhere (until it got swiped).
Those people are the ones who hooked me on Siege (and UO). Atlantic was great fun for the 3 weeks I was there, but it was more like an interactive chat room. Siege, and the people I played with there, were different.
A couple of weeks later, I bumped into this shockingly badly dressed scoundrel at a moongate, named Castor (found out later he had recently claimed his vet reward copper robe - I thought it looked dirty, and shapeless like a potato sack
). I said hi, but he appeared to napping, and didn't respond. I window shopped, while mentally listing his fashion crimes. The nap turned into a power nap, so I also read his very RP-ish profile, and waited some more. Finally, he woke up, and expressed surprise to still be alive after losing conn for so long, with someone standing next to him. He then said ladies should not be wandering alone in those parts, and asked if I needed an escort anywhere. I said I was just on my way to see my RP cousin-knight-in-training's tiny new house he had placed somewhere near Trinsic, and would be OK. I waved goodbye. I recall a couple of minutes later, evil Ozcko of UND killed me (and my horse grrrr) near Trinsic gate, and someone in BFI took my Ginsu made sandals (*sigh* AGAIN).
I ran into that Castor guy again, a couple of weeks later after our town was built, while Sevi and I were admiring the new garden. We invited him to our event - the first UO event I helped coordinate. It was a big picnic and scavenger hunt for our town to introduce it to the shard - I think that was around the 4th of July in 2004. I needed lots of help with the scavenger hunt list because I wasn't familiar with very many items in the game. I met a newbie archer among the guests (Brigette I think it was), a nice friendly lady, but later I spent far more time with her alter egos: Miranda, Hughes of Gray, and Queen Zen. My first house (the house that dragons built) was largely decorated with Miranda made goods.
A blind blacksmith named Blind Otto also eventually wandered into our town, with seeing eye beetle leading the way. And every now and then, his elusive scribe Beatrice Quill would make an appearance. I didn't see them as much as I would have liked because of this strange malady they suffered from called GMT.
There was this sort of psychotic vampire guy that I was convinced had chronic respiratory problems, because he gasped all the time, when he wasn't chasing me, after my blood. Heh, WyRm is WyRm...he certainly makes an impression on a person in game.
Besides the knights, for whom I risked freezing to death every time I visited them in Wintermoor, there was a really nice group of people that had a town near the shores of Gravewater Lake in Malas, but they had an upstart mayor that everyone thought was a n00b. I think his name was Kelmo or something. They were always doing fun stuff, and inviting people to join them.
Another fine group of people had a firmly established town called Wispwood Shire, not far from the Yew gate, which you could find by following the convenient barrel road. There were some forest dwelling elves there, Felinious and others. They had better sense, and more refinement than that crazy Iron Claw Empire elf (who peed on the floor near me as I recall, when I met him. Hmmpfff! I think he confused elf with orc). Took me a while to figure out that some of those fine citizens had alter egos as TAX men. All of them were fun to be around, in whichever role they happened to be in.
Later that year, a really stabby guy killed Castor in the solen tunnels while he was trying to get a pet ball of summoning for me. It seems that maniac left more stuff on Castor's corpse than he started with, though. Little did we know that Wulf was about to take a year long UO break. I only heard about him in passing for that random act of post stabby kindness. I met him later when he started playing again, and resumed his minion recruiting efforts, and he joined the handful of people whom I have enjoyed most in UO.
-Skylark
).
