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Catskills History Thread

Gildar

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
See also...
Atlantic History Thread
Chesapeake Unique Areas
Europa Archive News, Holiday and Event History Thread
Lake Austin - Our Events: A History
Lake Superior - Unique to LS


Catskills' History Thread
If you have any information to add, please list it as a reply to this thread. If, after you've listed something, it gets included in one of the two main posts, please delete your reply to keep this thread clean and easy to read for future readers.

Unique Locations (Player Owned)
  • Felucca
    • List more below!
  • Trammel
    • The Aegis - Located SE of the Yew Moongate; Originally home of the Knights of Yew
    • Olympus - The city of the Purple Guardians of Honor; in the area to the North of Trinsic across the lake, on the Edge of the swamps.
    • Shadowmoor - Located NE of the Yew Moongate; Home of the Shadow Rangers; No longer standing
    • List more below!
  • Ilshenar
    • List more below!
  • Malas
    • List more below!
  • Tokuno
    • List more below!

Unique Locations (GM Blessed)
  • Felucca
    • ???, 73o 49'S 157o 59'E
    • (Leif Stonebinder?) Cave Entrance, 67o 14'N 76o 17'E
    • (Leif Stonebinder?) Cave, 5202.2021 (UOAM)
    • Shadowclan Orc Fort, 12o 39'N 48o 30'W
    • Shadowclan Orc Huts, 14o 14'N 50o 3'W
    • Shadowclan Orc Hut, 19o 20'N 49o 17'W
    • Shadowclan's "Da Nekro Hut", 19o 30'N 51o 40'W
    • Grove of the Second Order, 28o 44'N 62o 38'W
    • Failte Seo Celtic Farm, 35o 4'N 64o 41'W
    • Celtic Farm Pens, 37o 37'N 66o 43'W
    • Sgalag Obhair Ithla "Workers Area", 33o 29'N 69o 19'W
    • Undead Keep, City of Necropolis, 24o 57'N 47o 48'W
    • Former "wanted" signs, 64o 30'N 66o 35'W
    • The Yew Forgery, 73o 18'N 70o 31'W (Partially broken by later publishes)
    • Orc... umm... outhouse?, 110o 39'N 144o 29'E
    • Random teleporters, 130o 25'N 151o 18'E
    • Ventryn/Artarion's Lab Entrance (password = Frostflame), 110o 33'S 7o 10'E
    • Ventryn/Artarion's Lab (exit password = Frostflame), 8o 36'N 22o 21'W
    • Mage Tower Front Porch, 45o 5'N 153o 17'W
    • Kinship Village, 56o 36'S 32o 45'W (note that there is stuff off the screen in many directions)
    • Church of the Black Sun Sign, 59o 45'N 133o 11'W
    • Church of the Black Sun, 61o 36'N 132o 29'W (Partially broken by later publishes)
    • Paladin's Hall, 98o 36'S 49o 17'E (Partially broken by later publishes)
    • Paladin Statue, 97o 12'S 46o 37'E (Note there are also other decorations on this island, I'm not sure how much of it is specific to Catskills)
    • Trinsic Meeting Hall, 96o 14'S 40o 51'E
    • Former "wanted" signs, 100o 48'S 38o 6'E
    • Ugly Pink Trashcan, 92o 54'S 41o 20'E
    • Benedict's Lab Entrance (password = Ranatos), 5969.1291 (UOAM)
    • Benedict's Lab (exit password = Ranatos), 4o 55'N 12o 39'E Lost Lands
    • Bones of ???, 5512.822 (UOAM) (Text of the note inside the bones rendered unreadable with a publish)
    • Tent, 122o 36'N 49o 13'E
    • The Home of Duma and Amaro, 100o 32'N 81o 50'E
    • Orc Fort, 82o 31'N 36o 25'E
    • Kent's Last Pint, 68o 1'N 59o 29'W (Partially broken by later publishes; there's a sign inside that is partially unreadable)
    • List more below!
  • Trammel
    • Brigand Hideout Entrance (password = foremast), 14o 14'S 35o 34'W
    • Brigand Hideout, 6001.1519 (UOAM)
    • Royal Guard Barricade, 21o 16'S 12o 5'W
    • Royal Guard Barricade, 39o 33'N 3o 1'E
    • Royal Guard Barricade, 49o 23'S 28o 41'E
    • Royal Guard Office (EM Gustus/William Felspur), 0o 31'N 3o 14'E
    • Royal Guard Office (EM Stone/Cort Malic), 4o 23'S 2o 10'E
    • Royal Guard Meeting Stand, 0o 31'N 4o 34'E
    • Emergency Supplies, 3o 9'N 0o 46'W
    • Royal Guard Sheild/Podium, 0o 31'N 0o 54'E
    • Shattered Crystal, 5o 5'S 18o 59'E
    • Conversion Crystal, 12o 44'N 3o 56'E
    • Conversion Crystal, 69o 14'N 35o 26'W
    • (There are 2 other conversion crystals... I forget where though)
    • Falen's Foundry, 156o 37'S 118o 24'E
    • Falen's Home/Falen's Lab Entrance (password = Solunite), 157o 51'S 121o 30'E
    • Falen's Lab (exit = use the rune), 3o 20'N 12o 26'E
    • Solunite Altars, 120o 50'N 48o 39'E
    • Jonathan Falen's Grave, 122o 52'N 49o 21'E
    • Moongate to Castle British, 2o 22'S 11o 23'W Lost Lands
    • Missing Gate/No-Teleport Zone, 15o 7'N 14o 3'E
    • Plans/No-walk zone, 45o 42'S 54o 12'W
    • Skara Brae Community Center, 45o 42'S 49o 21'W
    • Nujel'm Palace/Wedding Hall, 30o 19'N 166o 17'E
    • a corpse of Malabelle/No Walk zone/Blood spatters, 91o 3'N 141o 53'E
    • Blood splatters, 47o 38'N 142o 57'W
    • gruesome standard, 47o 17'N 141o 3'W
    • Partially sunken boat, 51o 46'N 142o 32'W
    • Boat w/ Ordeal book, 157o 40'S 113o 33'E
    • Polymorph reagents/Escape book, 6058.47 (UOAM)
    • List more below!
  • Ilshenar
    • Runes to Gargoyle City (password = Vhelemi) & Enslaved Gargoyle Camp (password = Chulven), 127o 26'N 29o 19'E
    • Solunite Statue/access to Jonathan Falen's Journal on the Chaos Shrine (password = Solonium), 116o 53'N 26o 26'E
    • Jonathan Falen's Journal on the Chaos Shrine, 122o 10'N 29o 40'E
    • Samuel Johnson's "grave", 105o 49'N 24o 11'W
    • Gargoyle City Wall, 86o 23'N 28o 58'W
    • a gargoyle guard, 83o 24'N 31o 17'W
    • portcullis, 93o 15'N 13o 42'E
    • 3 books, 95o 26'N 13o 21'E
    • Strange moongate, 66o 37'N 23o 12'E
    • A corpse of Quiggly Therian, 63o 59'N 26o 0'E
    • Teleporter out of Lenmir Anfinmotas, 68o 12'N 17o 47'E
    • Beware: Extreme Danger (gate to Lenmir Anfinmotas), 88o 19'N 13o 0'E
    • List more below!
  • Malas
    • List more below!
  • Tokuno
    • Moongate to Castle British, 43o 35'N 72o 50'W
    • Belo Ondariva's Keep/No Walk Zone, 75o 35'N 6o 32'W
    • List more below!

Unique Items
  • List more below!

Noteworthy Guilds
  • The Black Rose Society - A Mercenary Society inspired the the books of the "Black Company" series.
  • The Celts - A guild of scottish, celtic and irish influenced characters based in Yew.
  • The City of Trinsic - (Paladins) This guild actually had a guildstone inside Trinsic. Unfortunately, they had to move it during the Minax Invasions.
  • Covenant of Vampires - a small group of vampires and their human slaves
  • The Crimson Alliance - One of the oldest guilds in Catskills, the Alliance made their home in Necropolis and was home to many evil aligned races and characters, such as drow, vampires and demons.
  • The Dark Rychen Drow - a dark elf/drow group based out of the ruins east of Yew before Ventryn claimed it for his own. This group splintered several times over internal problems and became Qu'ellar Velxundussa and other groups (if you remember the names, post below). They wore Black Chainmail (at the time, only obtainable by purchasing it from NPCs). They spoke the drow language as established by the D&D world.
  • Elves of Adhrael - a group of good elves based out of a glade east of the Shrine of Sacrifice
  • The Emerald Empire - A well-known guild based in Trinsic
  • The GlammerVelt Elves - a group of high elves who had a couple of buildings and a Tower south of Yew in a clearing. This group was primarily at war with the Dark Rychen drow.
  • The Kingdom of Winterfell - While they weren't killing off their own royalty, they were involved with the Lord Ventryn series of quests. Based loosely on the novels of George R.R. Martin.
  • Kinship - Owned and Operated Kinship Hall, a longtime gathering place before Trammel.
  • Knights of Yew - A group of Knights who swore oaths to protect Yew.
  • The Picts - based out of some ruins south east of Yew. This was a group of humans that dressed in animal masks, leather and bone armor. All members had names that started with "Pict", and ended with an animal or monster name (Pict Lich, Pict Bear, Pict Otter, Pict Wisp, etc). They had their own language, similar to the language of Wisps, where all vocals were replaced with the letters x,y or z (with a few exceptions). "Hyl! Lxng lyvz thz Picts!" (if you remember the specific rules, post below).
  • Purple Guardians of Honor - They were involved in quests mostly centered around Trinsic. They were given Protectorship of the City of Trinsic by Lord British himself before he left
  • The Rangers of the Heart - Originally based in the Skara Brae area. The Rangers maintained Que's Tavern, a meeting place for many years.
  • Shadowclan Orcs - the largest, and most well-known group of Orcs in all of UO.
  • Shadow Rangers - A group of rangers who lived in Shadowmoor, a village on the outskirts of Yew.
  • The Undead - Undead Guild from the city of Necropolis.
  • United Pirates - A group of pirates led by Hawkeye Pike.
  • The Veldrin Shyline - They were a moderate Drow guild, with the focus on being manipulative, secretive as opposed to the PvP heaviness of some other Drow guilds.
  • List more below!
 

Gildar

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Noteworthy Events in Chronological Order
  • 1997
    • September
    • October
    • November
    • December
      • Shadowclan moves in from Great Lakes.
  • 1998
    • January
      • The Wrasslin' Knights of Naming - A group of naked wrestlers attacked all players with terrible names outside the city gates of Trinsic. (more)
    • February
      • The Battleteam's First Fighting Contest - The Protectors of Moonglow organize their first public tournament, despite of disruptions by murderers. (more)
    • March
      • The Church of the Black Sun - A strange organization appears on Catskills with the goal to destroy magic weapons and armor for the sake of balance. (more)
      • True Black Dye Tubs are introduced. (more)
      • People demonstrated on Catskills for an European shard. (more)
      • Festival of Pride in Magincia. (more)
    • April
    • May
    • June
      • The United Pirates, the first pirate guild of Sosoria, are founded on Catskills. (more)
    • July
    • August
      • Blackrock appears in Britannia. The conspirer Martoo Saul from the Followers of Armageddon was tracked and taken down. (more)
    • September
      • Festival of the Grape (Uncertain on exact date)
    • October
    • November
      • The Lost Lands (The Second Age) are introduced.
    • December
  • 1999
    • January
      • The Moonglow Mage Tower was built. (more)
    • February

    • March
      • 3rd - Shadowclan has an internal conflict known as the WarBosses War.
      • 9th - Shadowclan's WarBosses War ends.
      • Ghost Pirates invade the beach near Vesper. (more)
    • April

    • May
      • General Valek declared martial law in Trinsic. (more)
    • June

    • July

    • August

    • September

    • October

    • November

    • December
      • 3rd - Water Elemental and Lizardman attacks increase south of the Shrine of Sacrifice, near Virtue Village.
  • 2000
    • January
      • 10th - Ogre-Troll Conflict ends
      • 11th - Ophidians are found in Delucian caves, seemingly lead by a mage.
      • 30th - Gypsy Tatiana uses a rare variation of ginseng to cure a gypsy girl who got ill when traveling near the Delucian caves.
      • Cities all over Britannia are attacked by monsters. (more)
      • A Smuggler's Gate was established at the northern wall of Trinsic. A crack in the city wall allowed secretly entering the city. (more)
    • February
      • Hordes of Undead invade Trinsic, and other cities are overrun by other monsters. Which resulted in Trinsic being under siege and its entrances blocked off by barricades. (more)
      • Juo'nar tries to take Trinsic. The forces of Catskills oppose him and finally bring him down. (more)
    • March
      • Strange structures appear in all the cities, and the gypsy camp (Tatiana's Mystical Arts) is erected outside of Minoc. (more)
      • After Mallabelle had set Trinsic on fire, Lord Dupre lead the citizens through a Death Vortex in Trinsic to liberate their country. (more)
      • Death Vorexes appear at the Shrines of Britannia. (more)
    • April

    • May
      • By their activities, Minax and Nystul shatter the world and divide it into Felucca and Trammel. The magical structures were built by Nystul to help him achieve his goal. (more)
      • 2nd - Benedict's Lab Discovered; learned to have been behind the spreading of poisoned food
      • 9th - Xenthyl is destroyed
    • June

    • July
      • Trammel is opened for housing. A massive land rush begins.
    • August

    • September

    • October

    • November

    • December
      • Faction wars are established.
  • 2001
    • January

    • February
      • The Third Dawn UO Client is introduced. (more)
    • March

    • April

    • May

    • June

    • July

    • August

    • September

    • October

    • November

    • December

  • 2002
    • January

    • February

    • March

    • April

    • May

    • June

    • July

    • August

    • September

    • October

    • November

    • December

  • 2003
    • January

    • February

    • March

    • April

    • May

    • June

    • July

    • August

    • September

    • October

    • November

    • December

  • 2004
    • January

    • February

    • March

    • April

    • May

    • June

    • July

    • August

    • September

    • October

    • November

    • December

  • 2005
    • January

    • February

    • March

    • April

    • May

    • June

    • July

    • August

    • September

    • October

    • November

    • December
      • 6th - Catskills Crane is Born
  • 2006
    • January

    • February

    • March

    • April

    • May

    • June

    • July

    • August

    • September

    • October

    • November

    • December
      • 6th - Catskills Crane's First Birthday
  • 2007
    • January

    • February

    • March

    • April

    • May

    • June

    • July

    • August

    • September

    • October

    • November

    • December
      • 6th - Catskills Crane's Second Birthday
  • 2008
    • January

    • February

    • March
      • Blackrock detector explodes in Moonglow, leaving a rift to a parrallel word. (more...)
    • April

    • May
      • Vanguards attack Britannia, invading Cove. They ride the new Dread Warhorses. (more...)
    • June
      • The Six (among them Myxkion) can be found in several Anti-Virtue-Dungeons of Britannia. They use new spells and drop new gems to the ground. (more...)
    • July
      • The Royal Council is murdered in Lord British's Castle. An investigator sends the players on a tricky and challenging quest which ends with the fight against Melissa. (more...)
    • August

    • September

    • October
      • The first of the recurring Black Market events is hosted by the United Pirates. (more...)
      • The War of Shadows begins! Monsters invade the cities of Britannia, lead by the powerful Crimson Dragons. (more...)
      • Leoric Gathenwale leads the citizens of Britannia on a dangerous quest which includes the combat against Skeletal Liches in graveyards and a fight against the giant spider Sicarii. (more...)
    • November

    • December
      • Acid Slimes begin to appear in certain locations of Sosoria. They produce secretion that allowed the hunters to dye artifacts. (more...)
      • 6th - Catskills Crane's Third Birthday
  • 2009
    • January
      • Lord Casca declares himself the new king of Britannia (more...)
    • February
      • The citizens of Britannia are sent on a mission to rescue their Event Moderator Kasaven from evil.(more...)
      • 9th - Catskills becomes the first shard to have a Silver Steed in both the Felucca and Trammel Moonglow Zoos.
      • 18th - Habu and Urgz'Gurg get married (more)
      • 21st - Traveling Bard's Night at Que's Tavern (more)
      • 22nd - Catskills Militia - Skirmish Warfare (more)
      • 27th - Catskills Felucca Zoo loses it's first Silver Steed
    • March
      • Clainin awakes from unconsciousness and a large group of warriors escorts him into safety. However, the mission goes awry, Clainin is lost and many brave fighters are slain.(more...)
      • Lord Casca leads the warriors of Britannia into a large battle to destroy a Blood Sigil, source of all evil. In the end, the Platinum Dragon appears and kills the Crimson Dragon. Casca behaves like a coward.(more...)
    • April

    • May

    • June
      • Lord Casca announces the Treasures of Tokuno event to distract the population from his dealings with the Shadowlords.(more...)
      • Robert the Royal Guard tries to betray and kill Lord Casca. However, after a big battle in Tokuno, the mission fails and Casca flees.(more...)
      • During the opening of the Catskills Summerfest, Lord Casca arrests Robert during a speech and reveals his true nature. Casca then retreats into Lord Blackthorn's Castle. (more...)
    • July

    • August

List more below!
 
M

Moreeg

Guest
Wow, this all brings me back... I'll have to try and think on this. All I can think of (and I cant think of a date other than "around 2000?"), is when Delucia was being overrun by the spawn from the desert.

Oh, and another no help vaguery... around 2001-2002, wasnt there an event that saw the area around Yew turned into a poison swamp, and we had to work to heal the land??? Geez, its been too long.
 
M

Mustarik

Guest
Hmm, I'll add some guilds that were fairly actively involved in EM plots of the past.

--Kinship. Owned and Operated Kinship Hall, a longtime gathering place before Trammel.
--Purple Guardians of Honor. They were involved in quests mostly centered around Trinsic.
--The City of Trinsic (Paladins). This guild actually had a guildstone inside Trinsic. Unfortunately, they had to move it during the Minax Invasions.
--The Kingdom of Winterfell. While they weren't killing off their own royalty, they were involved with the Lord Ventryn series of quests.
--United Pirates. Hawkeye Pike can tell you more, heh.

I'm sure I'm leaving many, many out.
 
K

katherinepgoh

Guest
I'd also like to add that PGoH currently has an RP town consisting of 23 PGoH owned buildings in a single area, which I think makes us have the largest single guild owned Player run town on Catskills right now, and we are still growing. We were also given Protectorship of the City of Trinsic by Lord British himself before he left.

We still defend Trinsic, run aid to the other cities, and are looking very forward to the new round of EM events. Our website can be found at http://www.thehonorempire.net
And our guild forums specifically at
http://www.thehonorempire.org/forums/index.php?showforum=46

If anyone needs to contact me about History, I've been going over most of PGoH's, so I know a lot of it, but I don't have anything categorized. My ICQ is 431702770. May Honor Guide and Bind You!

And please add us to the Unique Locations, Player Owned, we are located in 'Olympus' Which is the area to the North of Trinsic across the lake, on the Edge of the swamps. Thanks!
 
S

Shioni

Guest
http://www.angelfire.com/rpg/shadowrangers/gallery.htm

Thought you guys might be interested in that.

I used to run a library that got moved to Shadowmoor and then later to the Mage Tower.

I take it from the above that only the front porch of the Mage Tower remains? Did it decay? Anyone know what happened to my library?
Mage tower sank into the ocean and like all blessed housing its contents where burned to ash. Not sure when this event too place but all that remains is the stone extension linking the tower to Moonglow
 

Zuckuss

Order | Chaos
Professional
Alumni
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Did you forget the Festival of the Grape? I think it was September of 98. The battle of Trinsic occurred in late '99. I don't recall if you mentioned the Edinburgh events (Golden Elemantal) which I believe happened in 2003? Please correct if wrong.

Don't forget to mention the Undead Guild of Necropolis. Although they are disbanded now, it's still a part of history.

You might want to mention some of the fallen former blessed areas such as Virtue Village, Boduk (LER territory), the city Edinburgh and many more.
 
C

Corvak

Guest
Ahh back in the day..when OSI would put down player rebellion with bansticks and teargas... :)
 

hawkeye_pike

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
*updates*
If your information is included above (in it's entirety), please delete your reply so we can keep this thread clean (Hawkeye, I still need to grab the images from before 2000 to add links above - so don't get rid of anything for 1998 and 1999 just yet)
Alright. Please don't link those images directly, but rather the associated web pages. I don't want too much traffic on my page that isn't actually caused by users reading that page. (My page is ad-free and non-profit. Traffic costs money.)
 
C

Corvak

Guest
His page doesn't have ads or anything - and his commentary is interesting. He has a lot of his character's history written up there as well.
 

Bob_the_fart_guy

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Oh my...I was wondering when this thread was gonna hit Gildar. Thank you for all the work that went into it. :)
 

Setanta

Adventurer
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Don't forget the savage invasion of the orc forts. Last time I was there, the savages still held the orc fort in the lost lands near the city of the dead.
 
D

Daolin

Guest
It seems there was a long period of time where nothing happened? Or perhaps there were few historians around at the time.
 
C

CatLord

Guest
We could ask each player to post their event pictures... then try to put them in context using their date.
 

hawkeye_pike

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
2008

March
  • Blackrock detector explodes in Moonglow, leaving a rift to a parrallel word. (more...)

May
  • Vanguards attack Britannia, invading Cove. They ride the new Dread Warhorses. (more...)

June
  • The Six (among them Myxkion) can be found in several Anti-Virtue-Dungeons of Britannia. They use new spells and drop new gems to the ground. (more...)

July
  • The Royal Council is murdered in Lord British's Castle. An investigator sends the players on a tricky and challenging quest which ends with the fight against Melissa. (more...)

October
  • The first of the recurring Black Market events is hosted by the United Pirates. (more...)
  • The War of Shadows begins! Monsters invade the cities of Britannia, lead by the powerful Crimson Dragons. (more...)
  • Leoric Gathenwale leads the citizens of Britannia on a dangerous quest which includes the combat against Skeletal Liches in graveyards and a fight against the giant spider Sicarii. (more...)

December
  • Acid Slimes begin to appear in certain locations of Sosoria. They produce secretion that allowed the hunters to dye artifacts. (more...)

2009

January
  • Lord Casca declares himself the new king of Britannia (more...)

Feburary
  • The citizens of Britannia are sent on a mission to rescue their Event Moderator Kasaven from evil.(more...)

March
  • Clainin awakes from unconsciousness and a large group of warriors escorts him into safety. However, the mission goes awry, Clainin is lost and many brave fighters are slain.(more...)
  • Lord Casca leads the warriors of Britannia into a large battle to destroy a Blood Sigil, source of all evil. In the end, the Platinum Dragon appears and kills the Crimson Dragon. Casca behaves like a coward.(more...)

June
  • Lord Casca announces the Treasures of Tokuno event to distract the population from his dealings with the Shadowlords.(more...)
  • Robert the Royal Guard tries to betray and kill Lord Casca. However, after a big battle in Tokuno, the mission fails and Casca flees.(more...)
  • During the opening of the Catskills Summerfest, Lord Casca arrests Robert during a speech and reveals his true nature. Casca then retreats into Lord Blackthorn's Castle. (more...)
 

Gildar

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
It seems there was a long period of time where nothing happened? Or perhaps there were few historians around at the time.
Few people were around that are still around and have enough time to look up dates.
 

Irulia Darkaith

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Well if you want to go right back to the beginning of Catskills, I know a little about the original roleplaying scene (I was part of it from the first day the Catskills shard opened, coming over from Great Lakes like many of the other roleplayers). Keep in mind this goes back awhile so my memory isn't perfect, but hopefully this will jog the memories of some others and they can fill in the gaps.

The ShadowClan orcs are of course well known, the other groups that originally interacted with them and were based on the same concept (i.e. voluntary limitations on equipment, strict no-looting rules, etc) and all the guilds were part of a group known simply as the Catskills Roleplaying circle. It was a bit of an elitist circle of roleplayers that decided what roleplaying groups would be recognized and would interact and the way in which they would interact (i.e. armor restrictions, skills combinations, etc).

The Dark Rychen Drow (Felucca only)- a dark elf/drow group based out of the ruins east of Yew before Ventryn claimed it for his own. This group splintered several times over internal problems (appropriate for the race) and became Qu'ellar Velxundussa, and....can't remember the other names. The original group wore black chainmail (easy to do now, but remember back in the day you couldn't make black armor, you could only buy it from NPC vendors). The group was comprised mostly of "red" roleplayers. i.e They were red because there was no way to have guild fights without getting flagged as murderers. They spoke the drow language as established by the D&D world.

The GlammerVelt elves (Felucca, then Trammel)- a group of high elves who had a couple of buildings and a Tower south of Yew in a clearing. This group was primarily at war with the Dark Rychen drow. It never really splintered off, but a few members (including me) started up a new good elf guild a couple years later called the Elves of Adhrael (based out of a player run glade east of the Shrine of Sacrifice. We were very active for about three years and at one point had a guild village of about 12 houses. We interacted heavily in the RP scene with the ShadowClan, Undead, and others. One building still remains though the guild is completely inactive now.

Covenant of Vampires (Felucca only) - can't remember where they were based, but they were a small group of very well respected roleplayers who, as the name says, played vampires and they had some human slaves.

The Picts (Felucca, and briefly in Trammel) - based out of some ruins south east of Yew , this was a group of humans that dressed in animal masks, leather and bone armor. Some were "reds" (again for roleplaying reasons). They were distinct in that all their characters had the prefix "Pict" and an animal/monster for a secondary name. E.g. Pict Lich, Pict Bear, Pict Otter, Pict Wisp, etc. They even had their own language in game that looked a little like the wisp language. There was a simple code for speaking in "pict" but it's so long I can't remember how the language worked. They were originally living in conflict out of the ruins with the Dark Rychen drow but moved later on and eventually vanished. They briefly resurfaced several years later on the Trammel side.

The Black Rose Society - I don't remember much about this group, but they were quite large and very active for a notable time frame. I think they were based out of Jhelom but don't quote me on that.

There are far more groups that came and went, but these are the ones that I can remember. These groups (with the except of Black Rose Society) were the original member groups of the roleplaying group that was based on the ideas of the Shadow Clan Orcs. They were unique in that for their time frame, they were players that voluntarily gimped themselves by adopting race-related items, spells, outfits etc, at a time when nobody was wearing leather armor, using bandages, etc. Back then most players were running around in full plate mail casting spells (this predates the skill of mediation and the idea of armor interfering with mana regen rates) and then whacking you with their halberds.

Hope that helps fill in the gaps, I'll add more as my memory allows.
 
S

SolaufeinNaerth

Guest
I used to play a character named Solaufein Naerth way back when. Reading all these guild names I used to interact with really brings me back.
I dont play anymore but, I've recently been feeling pretty nostalgic about some of the fun RP I had back then.

If anybody remembers me I'd love to chat it up, and maybe start playing again.
 
H

Hern

Guest
I can recall some of the guilds around 1998 most were light RP and Anti pking not sure if any of you rember GOL or OSS, my guild had an alliance with both those guilds we were the Wolf pack . Ofcourse all good things come to an end and the guild disbanded. I loved this server just for the fact of how hard folks worked at Rping, The shadow clan orks, the undead, all the elves and the town of kinship. Also not sure where this rping group fits but I came back in 2006 and joined the SPQR or Romans and there Rpg group very fun group of folks. Also for some PK history I rember Arch mage sun and his buddy Lobster. When those two showed up in decite people ran for it lol.
 
C

CatLord

Guest
I have the OSS Guildstone and Guild Books.
Let me know if the GM is back.
 

Pandora_CoD

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
How about the famous Dragon's Claw guild (vVv) and its castle? I remember when I first saw them, I made it my goal to launch a rivaling castle that catered to the "unfavorable", my castle was at the heart of Vamp's Lair. I couldn't pin point exact dates for them though...

Also a guild worth noting in history...

- The Undead Lords (UDL), a lich-themed evil RP guild that focused on PvP and ran several tournaments and ladder contests for the PvP community. Very famously known for their pvp skills and often "perma-red" characters. Again, I cannot name the exact dates, but I do still have contacts for some of the old-schoolers like Terror and Zophar and others... I'll see if I can ask them to update this thread.
 
V

Vlaude2

Guest
There was a guild back in Pre-Trammel days that made going to Deceit a death wish called BT and a PK named Lobster (who was in BT). Those were some real villains. I don't remember the year or months though... but maybe someone else does?
 
T

Trasher(BT)

Guest
Hey

BaGooK TriBe were on Catskills from around 98-99, before moving to an European server.

Most of the original people in BT played from same place, an internet cafe located in Denmark, i think we were around 15 to begin with before we invited outsiders.



Trasher-BT
 
V

Vlaude2

Guest
^^^

Yup. Those were the guys I was talking about. Always on top of the bounty boards back then.
 

Soulmancer

Visitor
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
The Yew Crypts were also blessed at one point and the MED guild controlled the region; though the crypts were un-blessed when the factions patch went in and destroyed everything. There may still be a blessed island garden in the Yew courthouse region just off the coast that was linked with the yew crypts.
 

Bob_the_fart_guy

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I wish I had a way of knowing when "this" event hit. It was after a long, long dry spell of nothing happening. I started playing right around the time Samurai Empire expansion hit. I was still very new to the game and had only one toon made at the time when the invasion of Britain took place. I was there near every night fighting generals and getting my butt handed to me. Any way I digress... From what my memory recalls, the event I'm about to refer to was after Britain got invaded and the statue was placed. Suddenly in my journal a message was broadcast to come to the castle immediately, when I got there a flood of event-hungry players filled the throne room of Castle British. We were told of giant rats, and first we went through a gate that took us to Destard, then to a town in Felucca where a huge gigantic rat that was probably the strength of Rikktor and seemingly hundreds of players were shooting arrows and magic at it. After its death we returned to the castle and were told we needed to gather enormous amounts of materials to build something. Even the EM at the time seemed rather shocked at how fast we gathered the materials, thousands and thousands of ore and wood were donated in a room next to the throne room. One particular thing I remember after killing the rats, I saw a book placed on a pedestal, I picked it up and read it. It was back in the day when there wern't many different colored books. This was during my days of thinking that no one was stingy or greedy, I thought to myself, I'll read this book and put it back for others to read. Well...that was my learning experience of how rare items work in Ultima Online. Another player saw the book and quickly snatched it up for his own private collection. Only the EM was able to ask him for the book back just long enough to make a copy into a normal brown book and lock it down at the foot of the steps in the throne room. I wonder where this book is today, it must be one of the most rare books in all of Catskills as there was only one.
Sorry, again I digress... The materials were needed to build the giant telescope in the center of the hedge maze. So, I am sure that not to many players know of why it is there, or where it came from. If my memory serves... I think the rat invasion event thing was somewhere in late 2004 or early 2005. Can anyone else remember the date?

I don't suppose anyone knows the whereabouts of that book?
 

Kamir Sang

Visitor
The guild listed as "Covenant of Vampires" is most likely "Covenant of Blood" (CvB)

Myca Vodyanoy, Serge Vrykolakas, and myself (Kamir Sang) formed CvB when Catskills shard opened its doors, along with the Black Rose Society, our sister(in game lore) guild.
We were mostly active in the Yew area, but had involvement in stories throughout the land.
 

Judas D'arc

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
The guild listed as "Covenant of Vampires" is most likely "Covenant of Blood" (CvB)

Myca Vodyanoy, Serge Vrykolakas, and myself (Kamir Sang) formed CvB when Catskills shard opened its doors, along with the Black Rose Society, our sister(in game lore) guild.
We were mostly active in the Yew area, but had involvement in stories throughout the land.
Hey Kamir , it's nice to see a name from the days long ago. Not sure if you remember me, but this is Judas from the Emerald Empire [EE].

Looking up at this list, you're completely right -- I don't recall any Covenant of Vampires from back in the day, but I definitely remember my first encounters with the CvB d in early to mid-1998 as well as everything else you said. You guys were very active and involved in a lot of fun stuff back in the day. And the Catskills role-playing community is still going (if not as strong as it once was), so if you or anyone else is ever interested in coming back, you should give it a try. I was gone for years but have enjoyed it for the most part since my return.
 

Kamir Sang

Visitor
I definitely remember you Judas, you and EE pillar of the RP community in those days.

I did not get involved as often or as deeply as Myca typically would, but I remember regular interactions with many guilds and groups pre-split days.
Let's see, the primary ones I would visit were...
Undead (Yew necropolis)
Shadowclan
Black Rose Society
Celts
Winterfell
Picts
Darkrychen
Qu'ellar
UP (remember Harrr? )
EE, when I ventured to Trinsic, usually protection for Myca. This was when the Covenant resided in the hedge maze, before our tower.

Ahh, good times.
 

Judas D'arc

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
I definitely remember you Judas, you and EE pillar of the RP community in those days.

I did not get involved as often or as deeply as Myca typically would, but I remember regular interactions with many guilds and groups pre-split days.
Let's see, the primary ones I would visit were...
Undead (Yew necropolis)
Shadowclan
Black Rose Society
Celts
Winterfell
Picts
Darkrychen
Qu'ellar
UP (remember Harrr? )
EE, when I ventured to Trinsic, usually protection for Myca. This was when the Covenant resided in the hedge maze, before our tower.

Ahh, good times.
Those really were fun times, especially before Trammel came along. I really miss all those groups you mentioned. Too bad more won't come back, the game's still a lot of fun we just don't have the people.

And I remember Harrr alright. He and I actually met up once -- we went on a fun little road trip together. Great guy, really fun role-player and someone else I wish I hadn't lost touch with.

I definitely remember that whole incident. John Orthanos of the Royal Army of Britannia had asked for EE's help and it turned into a pretty fun conflict. Judas could be a real ****.

I have to say, I always appreciated how diligent Rahl was in his record-keeping. I still have a lot of old stories and some half-written summaries, there are a lot of lost memories.
 

Damon Singh

Visitor
Wow.. the nostalgia is overwhelming! Really great to see that the RP community is still going so strong. Had no idea, actually. All that history really brings back some memories. Probably not a lot of people remember me since there was just a few of us Fighters of Jhelom but Judas and EE is definitely a name I remember - nice to see you still playing. You probably don't remember me, as I had a few different characters (Damon being the most permanent). But I remember I was involved in one of EE's plotlines as a different character - a ghost from the guild's past. I ran out of time to play and we decided it best to give the "part" to someone else. It was SO long ago and age and two kids have addled memorybut you may remember more. :)

I'm actually installing right now and maybe I can get my ex-Fighter buddies back in as well. Hopefully get to see some of you in-game.
 

Judas D'arc

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
UNLEASHED
Wow.. the nostalgia is overwhelming! Really great to see that the RP community is still going so strong. Had no idea, actually. All that history really brings back some memories. Probably not a lot of people remember me since there was just a few of us Fighters of Jhelom but Judas and EE is definitely a name I remember - nice to see you still playing. You probably don't remember me, as I had a few different characters (Damon being the most permanent). But I remember I was involved in one of EE's plotlines as a different character - a ghost from the guild's past. I ran out of time to play and we decided it best to give the "part" to someone else. It was SO long ago and age and two kids have addled memorybut you may remember more. :)

I'm actually installing right now and maybe I can get my ex-Fighter buddies back in as well. Hopefully get to see some of you in-game.
Hey Damon. I definitely remember you and the Fighters of Jhelom, and I even remember the specific story line you're referring to.

Very happy to hear you're giving UO another go. I was also absent for a number of years but I've been enjoying my return. And more plays is what we definitely need.

If you need any help, feel free to PM me here, or ICQ me at #6082388. There have been a lot of changes and I'm more than happy to get you oriented.
 
Returning player from a long time ago. I moved to Catskills shortly after Siege Perilous launched. Eventually I landed in a player run town called Edinburgh. We were located just south of the Dungeon Wrong. We had a lot of great player run events. I would also eventually take over as the United Blacksmiths of Britannia (UBB) guild on the shard.
 

Elise Shin

Visitor
Stratics Veteran
James Bunnyman and I are the last few (Alyssa Kanath out there?) still playing who were once of Bedlam : House of Takissis based in the small desert near the Yew crossroads before Trammel was created. Not sure when James joined us. The guild evolved into others but currently is The Freehold of Roses.

There was the Solantavo Syndicate that was run by Zendra and Azrael, a vampire guild.

The Village of Aegis and the Knight’s Rest that were Aedon Dureah’s.

The Village of Edinburgh, which was located north of Minoc long ago I believe. I just remember going to festivals there.

There was a drow guild I can’t remember the name of that was based around the Yew Crypts.

The Hand was always fun back in the Yew Bank days.
 

Mozz Hexor

Visitor
Hi all, just now coming back. I started out a few months after the very beginning and played for I believe 8 years or so. I began(on dial up!) with a group called the Unsung Heroes with a rl friend. I then joined a somewhat powerful guild HDA(Holy Disciples of Ammeron) led by a guy with a character named Porthos who we believed to be the first 7xGM on Catskills. Our guild tower was located at the southern most tip of the big peninsula east of Brittania. We managed to trap an Ice Wyrm in the bottom floor of the tower and used it for training purposes. I can still remember walking down the peninsula from the North and getting a lump in my throat when hearing him roar. With one of the patches we lost our wyrm to the new earthquake damages. HDA splintered and I got the tower forming HOS, Scarlet order of Hospitallers and also played with VvV quite a bit. I had two accounts when a blacksmith friend with VvV left granting me his account. My mains were Mozz Hexor(just the grandest old bard of Sosaria), Micajah, Rill Swiftarrow, Hojo Ironfist, Jofa, MinerVvV, Buliwyf. I am hoping somebody may remember Hojo or Miner for their wares! We cranked out a ton and posted up at the Brittania forge for several years. I had an amazing spot in Felucca on Ice Isle right by arguably the best mining cave in the game to go with the tower, a spot in Occlo, fire island and one near the Brittania moongate. I let my son who was probably 10 or so play on my account but on Pacific. One day he decided to build a cottage which triggered all of my Cats houses to decay because of the new one house rule. Of course EA was no help and that destroyed my enthusiasm for the game. I played off and on for a couple more years and also have played on a free shard a little. I just fired up Mozz again for nostalgic reasons so I am kicking the tires around and looking to see if I can recapture 1% of the original magic we had back in the day. I hope to see you all around!
 

Ellie

Seasoned Veteran
Stratics Veteran
I have set up a library of player written books. Senior Citizens Reading Library. It is in Tram north of Compassion desert. 86.44n 33.36e. Some of the books I have copied from the board we had then called The Kinship of where players wrote stories. Clan N'ellean, Sol, Leannaholly Smee, Belladonna, Esa Stewart, Ian to name a few.
 

Dantes

Lore Keeper
Stratics Veteran
Did you forget the Festival of the Grape? I think it was September of 98. The battle of Trinsic occurred in late '99. I don't recall if you mentioned the Edinburgh events (Golden Elemantal) which I believe happened in 2003? Please correct if wrong.

Don't forget to mention the Undead Guild of Necropolis. Although they are disbanded now, it's still a part of history.

You might want to mention some of the fallen former blessed areas such as Virtue Village, Boduk (LER territory), the city Edinburgh and many more.
The Undead guild is still in tact, I still have a character guilded and a couple others logged on a week or two ago.

Not the reason I'm resurrecting this thread though -- back in the day there was a shard wide PvP tournament and I can't seem to remember the year. I think it was around 2006-2008. Anybody have any info on that and the EM items that were created for the winners?
 

Azal

Visitor
I was a co-founder of CoV (Covenant of Vampires). We had a small village as well as account bound runes that took us to a small crypt under a cemetery (in Yew in think?), which the GMs all provided to us after we’d been roleplaying for awhile. We also had all had alts… Hephaestu, Wind, Zagg - any of you old guys still out there? It’s Azal (from UO CoV and later the rogue on Rallos Zek (PVP server in EverQuest). After all that I helped build a site called Myspace.

-Azal (Tom)
 

KugelBlitz

Visitor
The Tavern Of The Eight Virtues, Virtue Village and the United Pirates (1998/1999)

Mostly forgotten these days, but in the very early days of Catskills, when the worlds were still young, there was a tavern in the woods near Vesper called ‘The Tavern of The Eight Virtues,’ run by the ‘Lords of The Eight Virtues.’ It was a guild created around the principles of the Virtues, with one Lord, one knight, and one squire for each virtue. The guild was founded by Lord Rho, Lord of Humility. After his early departure to other worlds, Lord KugelBlitz, Lord of Honor, became the leader of these fine Lords. He had one noteworthy squire named McBykar, who later became a famous pirate called Hawkeye Pike, founder of the United Pirates.

The Tavern opened its doors in May 1998 and was heavily frequented back in those days. Unfortunately, not so honorable folks also frequented the tavern, finding it amusing to steal furniture and harass the guests. Two months of almost daily furniture rebuilding followed, but finally, a mystical man in a green robe showed up and expressed interest in the place. A few visits later, Seer Illuceous brought a skilled carpenter named IronWill (~August '98) to decorate the tavern.

Lords and guests started settling around the Tavern soon after. Sonata the Bard, Lizarda, Sam & Kat, Lofwyr, Lydia, Rochelle, Kyle Duskwalker, Szordrin, and many others whose names I have forgotten. A small village grew naturally around the Tavern, and on October 14th, 1998, the Village stone for Virtue Village was placed by Lady Laurana. It was a good time. People married, celebrated in the tavern, and new houses and towers were built.

South of the woods surrounding the village, there was a bay. Around the time the tavern was blessed, a boat landed, and a group of pirates appeared. After a while, the Jolly Roger Inn was built by Hook and Hawkeye Pike. The bay was named the ‘Red Skull Bay,’ becoming the first headquarters of the mighty United Pirates. The Pirates engaged in many battles against the landlubbers of Virtue Village. Hostages were taken, plunderings, fights … tales of love and war were sung by bards all over Britannia in now long-forgotten songs.

There were two events that led to the decline of that area. First, the European servers came into play. In the early days, the population was mostly European, so when the new servers Drachenfels and Europa were created, there was a significant loss of citizens. Second, Felucca and Trammel - after the worlds split, most inhabitants slowly moved to Trammel. One house after the other decayed, and one day even the Tavern was gone.

When one explores the region today, there are no remnants of the adventures and heroic deeds that once occurred. The battles fought, the conflicts, the blood of pirates and villagers have long been washed away, and the few remaining relics, like bones and corroded weapons, lie buried deep underground. The graves of those pirates and villagers have long vanished. It is possible that someday, archaeologists in a distant future might discover hints of the area's earliest inhabitants.

I am sitting here by a campfire, close to the clearing where the tavern once stood. It's hard to read what I write, and I'm trying my best to remember the happenings from back then when the world was young.

- Paron, servant of the noble KugelBlitz, Lord of Honor

upmap.jpg ViVmap.jpg
 
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