Memories of towns

[Phantasmagorian]

What are your most treasured memories associated with towns in UO, and what do they mean to you today? I'll share two of mine.

Moonglow
Moonglow is where I had my first experiences when logging on (On Great Lakes, 1998). A mighty mage called Qwerty took me under his wing. I had watched him summon elementals right outside the gate near the bank and was deeply impressed. He was a tank mage, dressed in all black. Outside the East gate, Order and Chaos knights were fighting. I had no idea what was going on. He explained everything to me. He gave me a few sets of armor so I would have something fall back on if I'd lose my current set. Moonglow still feels like home (Although Brit West Bank feels the most like home, due to time I eventually spent there). I go to Moonglow sometimes just to walk down memory lane.

Minoc
Minoc is where I started mining and have fond memories of always being on my toes for PKs, who raided the caves regularly. It was annoying, but also exciting. Someone here recognized my name (I had a char called "Ryz" then as well) and remembered our adventures there. The music in Minoc is sad. When melancholy strikes, I go to Minoc to weep.

 

[Enziet]

Jhelom

Wandering into the pits and making the mistake of not understanding what was going on until it was too late.

 

[Yadd of Legends]

The Old Haven. This was 2007, so I'm not going back as far as some of you. But that's where a young player could walk up for advice and help, at least on Legends at the time. I had no idea what a good template was, so I was a paladin tamer, riding a desert ostard with a soul seeker. I was so disappointed when they replaced Haven with Luna.

 

[drcossack]

Moonglow: Where I started, and back then, a fair amount of people would come here. It was also the site of my first experiences with pvp - some high school classmates got me to play, and the 3 of them would attack me, which pissed me off - I had just started. After it happened a few times, I just left the guild and never played with them again (although I would see one of them MUCH later in a pvp guild)

Britain: THE hangout until the Security Consultant invasion. General chit-chat, buying, selling, afk burning of murder counts. Now nobody goes there unless they need a circle.

Yew Gate: while not technically a town, pvp. Would come here a lot to watch until I went Red, though I did kill a few people who wandered too far from the gate, even as a Blue. When I did go Red, my favorite pastime became recalling in, making a mad dash to the gate, and leaving before all 5 million of the gz-hugging blues managed to gank the hell out of me. I succeeded far more often than I should have, although I will say it's A LOT easier to gate hop when you can't select Tram/Ilshenar/Malas/Tokuno (and now Ter Mur) as destinations.

 

[Tyrath]

Magincia was my home away from home, until they annihilated it and made it the abomination it is today. Since that time I have adopted Zento as my go to town.

 

[GarthGrey]

Minoc, just north of the stables in the first spot for a larger sized home. I think she had Large House with Patio. I dont remember her name, but I remember the sounds of her liches that she had trapped inside her house. This must have been 98 I think. She let me come in and see them, it was awesome. They were trapped behind her tables. She gave me a bag of armor and wpns and sent me on my way. This was on Great Lakes by the way, so that person would surely remember this if they read this.

 

[Zalan]

Willowport on Legends Shard player created and ran town. Willowport had a rares museum and great rp community. I remember having town meetings, events, and hunts.

Serpent Hold- Which became the Kingdom of Serpent Hold and home of the Order of Silver Serpent. Had the experience of a character starting off as a ssquire being sent on a quest. You were sent of with some food and one weapon of normal quality. The only equipment you could use was off of creatures you killed. You had to travel to your chosen Virtue Shrine speak the mantra. Then make it to the end of corresponding Anti-virtue Dungeon. When all the squires completed their quest, there was a Knighting Ceremony.

Delucia- Where fellow knights and me defend Delucia from the Orcs Invasion. While we tried to keep the King alive.

Those are the foundest memories of UO that I have.

 

[MalagAste]

Yew was my first and still my love... I remember first coming there after leaving Haven and being in Awe of the giant Yew trees. Was love at first sight then they turned my beautiful home into a swamp and for years my RP was all about seeking a cure... Bless the elves for finally clearing the swamps and restoring my home.

And Second would be Skara Brae... I remember everytime you would go to the bank there the Highland Guard and all the armed forces even the Royal Knights, the Kilted Police the Yew Militia would stand about at the bank there waiting for the Orcs or Urks to come..... and sure enough they would... demanding "shinnies" from anyone who tried to bank there. Ah the wonderful battles there.


As for RP towns I remember 3... first Whispering Winds just outside of Skara Brae. Lovely town. Then there was Nightwood... north of Yew where you could for a long time find someone to rez your pet. And the only one that still exists is Newcastle township. Which is just west of the wrong mountains. But it's quiet now and has few residents but we still maintain it.

This is on Great Lakes the only shard I've ever claimed as home though I've had houses and characters on many shards and still have homes on Siege... Great Lakes has always been my home.

 

[Angel of Sonoma]

The Yew suburbs ... who remembers the impossible spawn NE of Yew (pre-Trammel)? So many monsters, no push through, and guaranteed death if you got caught up in it.

 

[Amber Witch]

Moonglow, Great Lakes. Born there, killed repeatedly by Wheelie there before I could even learn to walk or talk until someone up the food chain told him to stop.We became good friends over time. He disappeared and after 16-17 years I still think about him. I ended up building a shop called Macy's of Moonglow between the moongate and the south entrance to town. A couple years ago I gave it to one of my first vendors, one of GL's first smiths, Venus, and she is still running it today.

Over the years I met some really fantastic people, spent some entertaining hours while reds hanged around working off their redness, die laughing watching all the blues chasing a red around the shop, watching dead blues running away with reds chasing them. Watching friends herd as many sheep as they could and clog the entrance to town so no one could move through them. It was an effective way to trap reds. Until the server went down because of the 100's of sheep..

Another place that was special to me, can't remember the name of the Island, think we called it Ameba Island, it has the portal to T2A. Mal, you might remember the name. It had all sorts of blessed houses with blessed items from beta. Loved that place. Lots of player events and tavern nights.
Of course, there was the be all, end all, KaZola's that was outside Yew.

Over time all my friends left. GL, for me, had changed. I chanced upon Baja and was met with kindness that reminded me of the old GL. This became my new home. Though I don't have much time to play these days I still get that feeling when I think on it.

*raises a glass and toasts the long lost friends*

 

[Victim of Siege]

Vesper is home, I love the town dearly. It was the first place i went to after Haven, I spent my time on the north side of town killing whatever i could and taking my treasures to the bank. I do have fond memories of Minoc being invaded when i was training up my first crafter there. Not sure which was worse, the Orcs or the PK's.

 

[Dizzy]

East Bank of Britain, where I started. I had read about nonconsensual pvp and guard zones, so my brother and buddy and I would kill hinds and bears and stuff just outside of the guard zone, and run back to the east bank of britain anytime we saw somebody.

We had no idea we were in Trammel.

 

[Cuno]

Vesper. Atlantic. It's where I started my UO adventures and met a famous bank sitter called Bismarck. He was a great advisor and a great guy. He was always dressed in a crimson robe and donned bright blonde hair. He wasn't the sort to give you all sorts of armour but he would open a gate to interesting places and let you figure things out (die) for yourself. Bis was always there and I enjoyed his companionship during my early days of UO. He loved Vesper and if the town mayor options were around back then, he would have been a shoe-in. He's since passed away, but whenever I recall into Vesper, I always think of Bis and I always envision him standing there parked against the bank wall waiting for young adventurers to ask him a question.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Merlin]

Minoc.

I was one of those folks who didn't have a great internet connection way back in the day, so most of my activities revolved around mining and blacksmithing. The mines directly outside Minoc and the surrounding area was my home where I could be found for hours a day... working up my crafting skills, dragging pack horses along with me to hold all the ingots I mined, running away (or atleast attempting to) from the occasional red that would come raid me. I was finally able to purchase a small home with forge and anvil nearby and made friends with some of the neighbors. Those were my quiet days of UO.

 

[Alex"Drake Iron Heart"CS]

I have many fond memories of when I started and having to get the power hours exactly right, for when I was on to play, if not I had to work around me or best mate being awake to maximise gains.

My 1st char was a Miner/Smith, and all I did was Mine in Delucia, Smelt and I would get someone to gate me to Brit Smiths to go sell all the ingots I had got, and I was rinse and repeat for months and months.... Made soo much gold, or at least it seemed loads at the time.

Then I remember with my Swordsman, being in the cementaries, killing skeletons with a Silver/Vanquishing weapons, I remember Silver and Vanquishing weapon where the max/fashionable weapons to have, and I was a proper fresh off Haven newbie and someone came and handed me a few suits and few weapons and asked me to cherish them to later found out, he had given extremely nice gear.

Also remember being in Britain bank and someone dropped a huge pile of gold and I just ran through all the players that were sat next to it but didn't seem to notice and I just put it straight into my bank.
Still to the day of today I say I was very lucky, I dont know if it was intentional or if someone accidentally dropped the cash but anyways it made me very happy!!

Also remember I really wanted a green and red dragon scale suit and someone made me one, and I lost it the day after he made it.......

Also remember very well my 1st Fel gate, someone lied to me and took me into somewhere and just killed me and looted me clean, laughed and left me there!!!
Although someon did see what happened and avenged me and I joined their ranks.... but cant remember their name or tag....

 

[sablestorm]

Yew was the first town I logged into and the very first thing I saw was another player running past me at a full sprint, but they ran out of stamina and halted. In pursuit was a hind who proceed to mow the poor player down. It reminded me of:

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Vesper became my town of choice because I enjoyed hunting the Vesper Graveyard and Vesper Beach when the spawn was more frequent. The Vesper chimes song still sticks in my head today

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[Spartan]

I started in Moonglow on Pac back in 1998. A couple friends from other online games were in the area and were guiding me in getting trained. That peasant hut in the S end was my initial hunting ground. I was so fast that I was whacking rabbits to drive uip sword skills I whacked a peasant .... >flash< "Die, dog!" OooooOo. Had my buddies in stitches. THEN they tell me of pulling the health bar! <shakes head>

Then moved to Skara area and joined up with the old KoP guild ... Hardrider, Aramis, Mistress Vic and others. Had some really fun hunts with that crew ... wiping out the orc fort in Delucia, kill-everything hunts on the Yew Peninsula area. Jeez what spawn! Carpets of corpses when we got done. Mistress Vic got to kill me when I left Pac to Atlantic ... she had sworn she would do it and I let her. <shrug> Excellent crew and good days.

 

[sablestorm]

I started in Moonglow on Pac back in 1998. A couple friends from other online games were in the area and were guiding me in getting trained. That peasant hut in the S end was my initial hunting ground. I was so fast that I was whacking rabbits to drive uip sword skills I whacked a peasant .... >flash< "Die, dog!" OooooOo. Had my buddies in stitches. THEN they tell me of pulling the health bar! <shakes head>

Then moved to Skara area and joined up with the old KoP guild ... Hardrider, Aramis, Mistress Vic and others. Had some really fun hunts with that crew ... wiping out the orc fort in Delucia, kill-everything hunts on the Yew Peninsula area. Jeez what spawn! Carpets of corpses when we got done. Mistress Vic got to kill me when I left Pac to Atlantic ... she had sworn she would do it and I let her. <shrug> Excellent crew and good days.

What did KOP stand for?

 

[Spartan]

You just hadda ask, didn't you?

I think it was Knights of Peace or something like that. It's been more than a few years since I left and frankly I barely remember the abbreviation. They were an RP guild which fitted what I was into heavily in those days.

 

[Dizzy]

My brother and I had a guild called CRS. It stood for "Can't Remember S**t".

People would ask us what it stood for, and we'd say, "ummm... I forgot."

 

[Akalabeth]

Yew: I was born a lumberjack in Yew. I worked my skills up and sold shields to finally buy a boat. I went to Vesper to buy the boat. I put it in the water and went to the bank and someone stole my key. I never sailed that boat. In real life I was in tears (yeah crazy I know). Family said I had to give up this game. Of course I did not and I treasure those memories to this day. Ok so maybe I am a little crazy. I loved the fear and danger that existed in original Fel. I loved that you went gray for killing a dog and someone could kill you. I will never forget the only time that happened to me.

 

[Archnight]

Back in 1999, listening to the UO theme song while lumberjacking in Britain for hours everyday. Then going back in town and seeing people line up at the smithy for their platemail armor orders. I switched to mining in 2000-2001 and that was mainly in Minoc, it was a really quiet town but the bank was close to the mountains. Today most towns are deserted other than Luna lol, but the nostalgic memories still remain