The people that most shaped my early days were:
Mac/Errand
Shalimar
Ginsu
Sevi
Kiera
Chenonceau/Paul Bunyan
Ivan P.
WyRm
Rizarium
Castor
I landed on Siege 3 weeks after I began UO, lured into first the one, then the other, by the evil Mac. The first red I met (Bloodlust or something like that) was when I was wandering barefoot in the wilderness. I was politely advised that the woods were no place for little girls out alone, given directions, which were followed by a warning to be wary of people like him.
I believe Oczko, then of UND, was the first person to actually PK me, 10 steps outside the Trinsic GZ. I held a grudge against "her" for a while, not because she killed me, but because an ettin lurking outside the town killed my horse (1 day away from bonding) while I was getting a res.
My first public event on Siege was the knighting of Rizarium of KSS, which I think took place about a week after I arrived. A very sleepy Shalimar sent a very confused me off through a gate, as the sole representative of NEW. I did not really understand how the private housing worked or about the leave house option, and got "trapped" in the KSS temple until well after it was over, until someone kindly showed me how to leave. Mac had already been on Siege some weeks at that point, and was in ISS. My 2nd week, I left NEW, and joined KIN (the pacifist peasant RP guild created by Aeric Horn/Ginsu, a former KSS member).
I believe it was towards the end of my second week on Siege, I was wandering around the moongate of Britain, where there were some shops nearby (like I could buy anything - still I spent a lot of time looking) when I happened upon an unsavory looking character, in a dirty looking copper robe, named The Murderer Castor. I said hello, but got no response, so I waited a bit. While I waited, I amused myself by reading his profile, which had a lot of stuff in it at the time describing what a magnificent, yet wonderfully fair man he was. When he woke up from his nap, he seemed surprised to have someone standing next to him, and still seeing in color. After a brief chat, I was offered an escort to wherever I was going. I declined, as I was planning to meet up with Mac to go take a peek in the Solen hole (which I was very curious about) and got a "suit yourself my lady". Mekare (Sevi) and I later encountered Castor again one evening in the town of Amity, and had a pleasant chat, but sadly, just a few days later, my "uncle" Errand was the victim of foul murder at the hands of this miscreant who
claimed he was a "fair" killer. So, I took him to task over it on these boards, and he offered to do a penance. For his crime, the mighty warrior received a mount named CookiesNCream, with the stipulation that he not actively try to get it killed, and I ended up with a wonderful friend.
Amity was a town inhabited by pacifists, so Kiera, Paul Bunyan, Otto, Ginsu, and I were volunteer "bait" - the most we ever did was "fling" fruit, and baked goods, at our attackers, and leave bulletin board grafitti, and tamed animal greeting cards for them at their own houses. Early on Kiera, and I learned that WyRm has no appreciation for the finer literary points of good bulletin board grafitti or how to interpret that a tamed-released tropical bird attacking him in his bedroom means "I love you"
. I did think it was fun that he kept his house public - we kept ours public too, for the most part, with just a couple of hidey-holes for refuge, so you never knew who was going to pop out at you in the house or if you were going to make it to safety when you were being chased. Hard to believe, that now so-deserted little part of Minoc was once a hotbed of PvP activity on a daily basis. KSS was really a presence then, patrolling rigorously as a group, and in the faces of the bad guys all the time, with CWS always just a shout away to bring in reinforcements. KSS, CWS, UND, ORC, FOB, KoS, VET, VmP, BFI, & TAX were tags you were certain to see if you hung around there enough. Moonglow was the "sewer of the shard" at the time, but you were sure to find a pet res there if you needed one, and could watch the guard whackings, res killings, and other shenanigans while you waited. C8V always seemed to be out in force doing champs, DTA were usually to be seen in town buying up the faction vendors, and I saw LEX hanging out at the crossroads and moongates on the weekends (they were mostly Euro time - was about the only time I saw them), I sometimes saw VoG, and ran from REV in dungeons when exploring. I think it was just a couple of months after I started, that the XD Pirates landed on the shores of Amity. We had an impromptu party on the roof of the town hall with Pappy & crew. Alas, our relationship with the pirates went sour after they lured innocent Ivan out on the SS Minnow, for a 3-hour tour and then attempted to do him bodily harm.
My first 6 months on Siege has been the high point, some of that I am sure, just because everything was fresh, and new for me in UO. I have had good experiences, and enjoyable times throughout the last 2 years, but there is no question things are different now in my game activities. I am in the same boat as Castor. Although Ivan, and Chen have left UO behind, I still have the "core" of the people around that make it fun for me.
-Skylark
a lain clan tabbard or something, I remember you were in NEW at the time. was NEW supposed to protect from thieving? cant remember.