Palmer Eldritch You two are guildmasters of one of the largest guilds
Palmer Eldritch Actually the largest at the moment, I think
* Rosamar smiles
Rosamar It's like a ping-pong ball
Palmer Eldritch With Ultima Thule?
Rosamar Yes ;)
Rosamar I believe also at one time with ClanUK as well :)
Palmer Eldritch ah yes
Palmer Eldritch Clan UK are great, I haven't heard much from them for a while
Talysman They sort of split but they are still around
Rosamar They are allies of ours.
Palmer Eldritch ah
Palmer Eldritch Can you tell me a bit about the guild? What sort f guild it is and what you do?
Talysman We are a guild of knights, or those who wish to follow the path of the knight
Talysman Our theme is based around the pre-Arthurian knights
Talysman Mostly Celtic concepts with some of the early Christian ideas - but not the later ideas of Chivalry and such
Talysman though members are welcome to interpret and follow their own philosophy if it's more strict than ours
Palmer Eldritch I see
Talysman We are not necessarily warriors, but also craftsmen, healers and mages
Talysman It's the philosophy/ideals of the guild that matters - not the profession
Rosamar Don't forget our priesthood :)
Palmer Eldritch What does the priesthood do?
Rosamar Our Priesthood is based on following the thoughts of druidry and Native American beliefs.
Rosamar They assist in ceremonials, hand-fastings, adoption ceremonies, knightings.
Rosamar They are also responsible for the spiritual well being of our people.
Talysman One priesthood member is assigned to each division of the guild as well
Rosamar So that each Division has a Priest for its own ceremonials etc.
Rosamar The Priesthood is led by the High Priestess, Princess Wolfka Starfire
* Rosamar smiles

Palmer Eldritch How much of this is based on real historical cultures? Have you taken some history and used it as inspiration, or is it all actually based closely on real native American beliefs etc?
Rosamar I would suggest that it is based on real druidic and Native American beliefs.

Palmer Eldritch How many members do you have at the moment in total?
Rosamar We have on our books, a physical presence of 145 players.
Rosamar We don't count alternate characters separately.
Palmer Eldritch Is that all on Europa?
Rosamar No - that is the full guild - Catskills and Europa. For me to get an exact figure - I would have to do a few substractions ;)
Rosamar One moment :)
* palmer_eldritch grins
Rosamar I would take 18 members off that total - those are the ones that do not play on Europa
Palmer Eldritch okay, so it's quite a lot:)
Rosamar Yes ;)
Palmer Eldritch Is every member expected to know the guild's philosophies and play their character as someone who adheres to its code of values?
Rosamar Yes
Rosamar We have a system of ranking, which means that by the time a member reaches the knighthood, they should be *living* according to our Creed as best they can.



Queen Rosamar and King Talysman on the steps of the Shrine of Spirituality on the day of their wedding.
Palmer Eldritch How do you expect them to behave towards other players? Presumably you don't allow PKing?
Rosamar We expect our members to show respect to all other players.
Rosamar Even the *evil* aligned characters.
Talysman I think courtesy, not necessarily respect
Palmer Eldritch could a red character be accepted into the guild?
Rosamar That depends ;)
Palmer Eldritch on what?:)
Rosamar If the player's character became red due to killing notoPKers, then we look at their conduct and the circumstances.
Rosamar The game's justice system has been abused :( Which means that not all red characters are necessarily PKers/Murderers.
Talysman We don't necessarily consider game mechanics to be the deciding factor
* Rosamar nods
Talysman though we avoid having reds just because it looks bad and it makes people nervous
Rosamar But if a murderer came to us, expressing a desire to change his evil ways - then we do have a Purification Ceremony that could wipe out his past.
Rosamar Allowing him/her to start afresh.
Rosamar We believe in allowing a person a second chance :)

Palmer Eldritch Now what about roleplaying. Are all guild members expected to roleplay?
Talysman Yes, but we are not so strict that everyone must speak in Olde English
Talysman Holding to the Knights' Creed is what we expect
Talysman creating something of a story and not discussing non-game related topics in game as well
Palmer Eldritch I see
Rosamar However, we also feel that friendships are more important to the guild than gaming.
* palmer_eldritch nods
Rosamar Therefore, we understand if some members are not strict role players and just want to play the game of UO for fun.
Rosamar We do ask, however, that they respect the role playing of others - and when in game - to do their best to comply.

Palmer Eldritch It has usually been my experience that large guilds have problems. Someone finds someone else they don't like, or people don't know what the guild is meant to stand for, or people sort of stray from the guild and go off and do things that put it in a bad light . . .
Talysman We have a 3 week aspirancy period. Anyone joining the guild is required to find a sponsor - another full member.
Talysman they then take 2 tests, and there is a vote at the end of the 3 weeks
Talysman Then they take a simple oath to the guild delivered by a member of the priesthood
Talysman The next 2 ranks, they progress through automatically, and when they are a squire, they must find themselves a knight who will assign to them a quest
Talysman when they have completed that quest, they are put up for promotion to Knight Errant
Talysman so there is active participation in the guild and we keep a fairly close eye on members
Talysman though a few rogues get through
Talysman they rarely make it past the aspirancy stage
Rosamar If an EKC is reported to be breaking our Knights Creed - then our Royal Guard will investigate.
Talysman and of course, animosities develop between some members, but we are learning how to deal with that and lately these matters have been settled with very little damage
Rosamar If found guilty - they can be demoted or removed from the guild.
Palmer Eldritch So it's pretty tightly controlled in some ways
Talysman I would say so. We don't have many rules - just a creed, and lots of conversation

Palmer Eldritch And you have events for your members sometimes? Like tournaments or quests?
Talysman not as many as we'd like, though things are picking up again
Talysman we had some excellent organisers, but they have left UO or been too busy with RL matters to do much
Rosamar We should be having a Knighting ceremony this weekend.
Talysman but this weekend we have a tournament and adoption ceremony
Talysman and we have regular knighting ceremonies
Rosamar As well as that :)
Palmer Eldritch ah, nice
Talysman we also have a fairly large village/town/city to the east of Wrong. A map can be found at www.canham.demon.co.uk/uo/cs

Palmer Eldritch How much time do the two of you spend on guild affairs?
* Rosamar groans
Rosamar Offline?
Palmer Eldritch At all
Talysman Rosamar manages most of the organisation
Rosamar I would say roughly, that I spend perhaps 4 hours offline work each day.
Rosamar Some days I can get away with an hour.
Palmer Eldritch okay
Talysman I do a little, but mostly I flirt with the ladies and feast on good foods
Palmer Eldritch ah
Palmer Eldritch like me
Rosamar When I come online - then there are people requesting to talk to me - so my actual game playing time is about 2 hours a day if I'm lucky.
Talysman We maintain a fairly comprehensive web page, a tight organization, mailing lists for various parts of the guild and of course the IRC channel
Talysman communication and organisation are the key to our operations

Palmer Eldritch I know the Eternal Knights were involved in the Trinsic thing
Talysman Aye, we enjoyed that, though it was a disappointment in the end
Palmer Eldritch What have you thought of the whole storyline so far?
Talysman I pretty much lost interest after Trinsic
Talysman we get so busy with the guild matters that we tend to lose track of those kinds of things
Rosamar Yes - I think a lot of players were hyped up for the big ending.
Rosamar We all went to Trinsic for a final great battle - all expecting to die.
Rosamar A lot of adrenalin was running at that time.
Talysman now it seems to be going so many different directions and there's always been a certain "clique" that engages in the quests to the exclusion of others - but we have some members still involved
Palmer Eldritch yes
Rosamar When it turned into a damp squib - ruined a lot of players enthusiasm for the storyline.
Palmer Eldritch yes
Rosamar Especially as our guild was involved in a similar plotline on Catskills - and they were reporting back how much better it was being done there - it made us on Europa feel let down by OSI.

Palmer Eldritch To be honest, I could follow the invasion of Trinsic and then Dupre re-taking it, but the rest of the story has been very hard to follow indeed
Palmer Eldritch Presumably it will somehow end up with the opening of new lands
Rosamar Like a lot of players, I still feel they should have left the old lands alone - and opened up the new lands to the PvP element.
Talysman yes, we are upset that we are essentially losing our city
Palmer Eldritch yes
Rosamar They did it with the Lost Lands (T2A) - opened it up as a different area - no housing allowed.
Talysman We supported the other Europa towns in this , and towns from other shards
Rosamar Why couldn't they do that with the new lands - open it for the PvP side - and make the old lands consensual.

Palmer Eldritch In general terms, how do you think OSI's "interest" side, the quests and events side, could be improved?
Talysman it will be good to get an Interest GM - I know they are hiring for one
Rosamar By being more informative and supportive about quests/events.
* Talysman thinks about moving to the UK
Rosamar It seems that there is a select few that seem to know what is going on - whilst the main stream of players never hear a thing.
Rosamar It's all very well saying read stratics or the OSI board - but the way its reported - you don't get the feeling they want you to join in :)
Rosamar its as though its already happening :)
Palmer Eldritch Hmm, well the way things are reported on Strats isn't OSI's fault, or that of their volunteers:)
Rosamar Don't get me wrong ;) The reporting is fair - but its after the event.
Palmer Eldritch Yes
Rosamar You read about events/quests after its all over - and you think, where was the lead up - where was the initial invites to join in.
Rosamar Remember that ERPA trial in Deepwater - some months ago?
Palmer Eldritch um
Rosamar An email was sent out to ERPA guilds - asking for volunteers to step in to act as jury etc. etc.
Palmer Eldritch ah yes I recall
Rosamar That was good.
Rosamar It gave players the opportunity to put their name forward - and plan for that role
Rosamar I'd like to see the OSI plots do the same thing.

Palmer Eldritch It always seems to me that OSI's interest people hide away from the players somewhat
Talysman yes...it does seem that way
Talysman we haven't seen a seer in ages
Talysman I realise it's a matter of finding people, supporting them, and getting them to stay long enough :)

Palmer Eldritch Are you hopeful for the future of UO? New land, factions, and they appear to be expanding the interest team on Europa and Drachs . . ?
Talysman I am. I think it'll be a rough ride for a bit, but in the end it'll be amuch more interesting game

Palmer Eldritch And what about Europa specifically. It seems to me that despite all the arguments, we have a great community here
Rosamar I think Europa has a great future among the role playing community.
Rosamar When I first started playing UO - I started on the Atlantic shard, then moved to Catskills.
Rosamar When Europa opened - we expanded the EKC to Europa - and the *atmosphere* felt different right away to me.
Talysman yes, I like the Europa atmosphere, though Catskills has a good one as well
Palmer Eldritch In what way?
Rosamar For me - Europa seemed more vibrant as a community.
Rosamar The players that started off Europa appeared more interested in role playing first.
* palmer_eldritch nods
Rosamar Whereas Catskills and the other shards had been *ruined* by the PK mentality of the Quake players :)
* palmer_eldritch grins
Rosamar And I think the players on those shards were feeling tired out.
Rosamar But now - unfortunately, Europa is heading the same way.
Talysman Actually, Catskills does pretty well, and the political situation is easier than on Europa
Rosamar So perhaps the new lands will save the day for it - those that want to play UO as a Quake/Diablo game can do so - leaving the role players free to play the game for fun.
Talysman even some of the old PK guilds are getting into the spirit of the game
* Rosamar smiles at Talysman
Talysman I think the serious change to the game will be the combat changes and the removal of the 40 hour long murder count. Now those of us who fight PK and thieves will have a chance to win

Palmer Eldritch Hmm . ..
Palmer Eldritch What I haven't asked you is . . .
Palmer Eldritch what your real names are, where you are both from, and how old you are . . .
Talysman Well, I'm not sure Rosamar wants to say, but I'm 30, name is Cory and I'm from California
Talysman er, 31
Palmer Eldritch Okay . . .
Palmer Eldritch Rosamar?
* Rosamar smiles
Palmer Eldritch Nope?:)
Rosamar I'm from Britain
Rosamar I'm a real female
Rosamar I'm old enough
Palmer Eldritch okies
* Rosamar smiles
Rosamar But you can quote me as the Ancient Briton
* palmer_eldritch grins

Palmer Eldritch What would you like to say that we haven't touched on, either about the guild or about UO in general?
Rosamar UO is the first Ultima game I've played.
Rosamar I came from Sierra's Realm, and my first taste of UO put me off it :)
Rosamar I think I lasted 5 minutes on Atlantic before I was PKed.
Palmer Eldritch ack
Rosamar But Talysman encouraged me to return to UO.
Rosamar So when we both left the Realm - we travelled to UO - and he helped me through the first few months of getting settled on Catskills.
Rosamar I died 6 times in the first week - all to PKers.
Rosamar But gradually, I got used to dying - and started to learn more about the game - and to love it as a tremendous interactive online RPG.
Rosamar I've beta tested Asheron's Call - and enjoyed the 3D effects - but I still liked UO for its crisp, clean graphics.
Rosamar It might only be a 2D game - but its one of the best.

Talysman I'd like to say that anyone who wants to participate at a higher level in UO - such as in politics and events - should join a guild
Talysman and that the EKC hopes to be in UO for a long time to come
Palmer Eldritch Okay
Palmer Eldritch Was that an advert?:)
* Rosamar grins
* Rosamar hands Talysman his crystal ball
Talysman No
Talysman It doens't matter if they join EKC or another guild - I just think guild life is better than going it alone
Talysman and I tend to be a loner :)
Palmer Eldritch okay, fair enough
Palmer Eldritch and I agree
Talysman or, one can get involved in other things - such as stratics reporting
Talysman but there's so much happening you'd never see hanging around at the bank or spawn areas
* palmer_eldritch nods
Talysman But yes, those who wish to follow the path of knighthood and also seek friends and a friendly environment should consider the EKC :)
* palmer_eldritch grins
Talysman Ok. that's my plug
Palmer Eldritch Well
* Rosamar smiles
Palmer Eldritch I want to thank you both very much for coming and speaking with me tonight
Rosamar Thank you for considering us Palmer
Palmer Eldritch I appreciate it a lot and I thought it was an interesting chat
Palmer Eldritch You are very welcome
Talysman we hope to be in contact with you more in the future as we start focusing on our city events for all players
Talysman Thanks again Palmer
* Rosamar smiles
* Rosamar curtsies to Palmer
Rosamar Bye ;)

Damarr How many GMs/IGMs/Counselors/Seers are assigned to the Europa Shard?
Olojin 23 Counselors, including Stormfall and me...
Olojin ...no Elders.
Olojin 3-4 GMs rotate on them. Sometimes one, sometimes two for both together.
Illuceus There are 3 seers per server.

Damarr Is it true that the European shards are the most under-manned, with regards to support out of all the servers?
Olojin I can only speak for the Counselors, in which case it is true. But I'm working hard to increase the amount of Counselors (which is slightly delayed with the implementation of the new abilities), and now have 6 more accepted applications (they have not been informed yet)
Illuceus Seers are not support so I cant say anything about that.
Olojin Most other shards average around 40 Counselors.

Damarr When will more Counselors be assigned to the Europa Shard?
Olojin After the implementation of the new abilities, and continually after that. As fast as my co-SRC and I can process the applications, I would say

Damarr How does one apply to be a counselor?
Olojin There should be a _permanent_ public application up going any day now. The official website will be the place to go.
Olojin I had been sending players who emailed me some Counselor applications to meet the demand on Europa & Drachenfels.

Damarr Can people email you apps?
Olojin Preferably not, or I will end up with a few hundred in my box. :)

Damarr What kind of qualities does a person hoping to become a Counselor have to possess?
Olojin That is an application question..
*grins
*
Olojin In any case, to me, politeness and patience come first. Knowledge is of course important, but having knowledge is quite useless without the way to convey the message in a proper fashion.

Damarr Will everyone get a chance to become a Counselor?
Olojin I am not completely informed of the testing process, but assuming it is going along the same lines, it will be so that Senior Counselors process the application as objectively as they can.
Olojin On Europa and Drachenfels, there are three rounds right now.
Olojin One: the public application [which was done back in November or December]
Olojin Two: a Second Round Application [24 questions]
Olojin Three: a (relatively easy) IRC interview

Damarr What is the role of Senior Conselors?
Olojin Nice one
Olojin First of all, we have the normal Counselor duties
Olojin On top of that, we take care of the "hiring and firing" of the Counselors if you will: we process the applications, and decide if we should let a Counselor go or not.
Olojin Then there is the liaison aspect.
Olojin We make sure our Counselors receive information we receive from the Counselor Coordinator, and we make sure to pass on suggestions/ideas put forward by our Counselors.
Olojin Counselors have to send us detailed weekly reports which allow us to determine how active they have been that past week, and what the major issues are of the players.
Olojin We then pass that information on to the Coordinator.

Damarr How does someone become a Senior Conselor?
Olojin You do a good job at Counseling (at which point you would probably already be an Elder).
Olojin There is no application process. Much like the Seers, you are selected for this.
Olojin Er, correct me if I am wrong, Illuceus. :)
Illuceus Current new seers will come from the Troubadours, who again are chosen through being sponsored by a seer.

Damarr What is the role of Elders?
Olojin That is quite vague. Elders are more focused on helping out new Counselors and new players.

Damarr Can we expect the current increase in Seer Quests to continue?
Illuceus Yes. The seers on the European shards are just warming up right now.

Damarr Currently, it is quite difficult to become really involved in the quests, due to their relative obscurity. I received an e-mail the other day from someone asking me how they could become involved in Kelras quest, as they kept missing the action. How are you planning to make them more "accessable" to the average player? (for example, massive town invasions which last longer, as many players only hear about them once there finished)
Illuceus You have to find the quests. If they were announced in advance there would just be too many people there.

Damarr If people wanted to become Seers, would they be picked from people who would have experience in roleplaying, say a mayor of a player-town?
Illuceus Yes, definitely. Those players are then noticed by a current seer.

Damarr What role does The Ancient Seer play?
Illuceus A little like the SRC for the Counselors, although we are not in command of seers. All major decisions are still made by the GMs.

Damarr Can we expect any surprises with regards to quests in the near future for Europa?
Illuceus You should think so. :)

Damarr Thank you for your time Olojin'ni'ayah and Illuceus.

MarshallDrakan Greetings Ex-Seer Intaria.
Intaria Morning!

MarshallDrakan Lets start of with a cliché question
MarshallDrakan What prior experience did you have in roleplaying before you were a seer?
Intaria I have been in Ultima online since the first day of release, and have characters on many worlds. I even designed a quest to be run on the shard where another seer aided me.
Intaria I also write a great deal, and use conversations, and situations sparked by game happenings.

MarshallDrakan You ran a guild on another shard?
Intaria I still do.
Intaria An old guild, and have a two story and castle there.

MarshallDrakan When did you first come into the seer program?
Intaria In November of 1999 I started training.

MarshallDrakan Through the application on the website?
Intaria Originally, yes. I was a troubadour like many others. After that for a while, they moved me up to seer.

MarshallDrakan You have obviously enjoyed running the gypsy quest on Europa, could you tell me a little of your favourite points in that quest and the players you met?
Intaria I liked doing the tarot readings, and working with lots of different people - EKC and Leedrik, the guardsmen and Luke, Deepwater and Elv'eng and crew, and of course, Spiritwood and Pad. Players? Good grief... there are so many I would fill up the rest of the pages with their names. A lot of wonderful people on Europa. The dragon, Al'Cedra, was a particular favourite, because it got a LOT of people involved. Though it took FOREVER to set up for with all those books.

* MarshallDrakan smiles

MarshallDrakan People have seen you in many different forms through your time as a seer, who have you most enjoyed playing and why?
Intaria I enjoyed each one for different reasons. Rilla always made friends wherever she went. Maia Redhairi was a wild lady, and Kazari and his pirates had great fun. Sardisha had loads of fun with EKC and the guardsmen.. I think all of them. *grin*

MarshallDrakan Some people were a bit confused at some points in the Seer program as to who was actually in 'the show' on Europa, which volunteers actually took part in your quests?
Intaria Well, we worked cross shard with the DF folks, and helped each other out a lot. Elder Belgarion especially was always there for me. Talos' support was always great. I miss them both.
Elders and seers and troubadours worked together. I was the only seer for a long time. Without them, I could not have done much. Kintail was always very supportive too.

MarshallDrakan The seer program seemed to halt out of the blue; did you have any prior warning of your dismissal?
Intaria No. One day we just could not log on.

MarshallDrakan Do you think the program will ever be reinstated?
Intaria I think they had their reasons, I am sure they did. We were unique in the gaming world, now we are not so.
Intaria I can hope it would be. I would not be able to work on Europa though... because I play there now. At least they were the old rules. I have been lured, lovingly coerced and dragged back to be with the folks there. It is hard to give up being with what and whom you love. So I didn't.

MarshallDrakan Did you have any other duties as a Seer other than running quests, did you answer pages at all or work with GMs?
Intaria There is one thing now that I can do that I could not before... write and post. We would help out with testing and with major fiction parts.

MarshallDrakan How difficult do you think the blessing of the player establishments is? Should it be made more strict or looser? Take for example Spiritwood being the major RP Town on Europa and compare it with somewhere like Catskills or Lake Superior and you can see that SW is majorly under blessed..
Intaria When I came the program was in transition. Now I think the focus is to allow players to decorate their own places. That does not allow for outside decor though.. which often makes a place special. They were talking about town stones, perhaps that will be their answer.

MarshallDrakan Did you help Spiritwood to become blessed or was that Talos's department?
Intaria A place had to be seer sponsored, which I had done. Talos did the rest. I cannot say enough good things about him.

MarshallDrakan Talos is a IGM for two shards, he spends equal time on both, is that how it works for the rest of you?
Intaria No, I was seer for Europa only. I occasionally helped out on the other shard, but my main focus was here. So is a part of me, hence the new quest. I am trying it STRICTLY player run, and I am one of the players.

MarshallDrakan Aah yes, the new quest. Could you tell us a bit about what you are doing? It must be hard to create a quest without your seer powers.
Intaria Yes it is. I have done so before though. I have the help and support of others including Misha Andone, Falcore, Angelus Moon, and Kyp Durron... to mention a few. The hardest part is setting up things as a newbie. It takes a lot longer! I am hoping it works and does well. Only time will tell. The Courant has Quest pages up now where the story is laid out, so that is help.

MarshallDrakan A lot of players think of a seer as someone who just spawned a few orcs, how long did it actually take to plan your quests, did you just show a piece of paper to Talos and it was all systems go?
Intaria Everything was approved before hand. Setup of the Al'Cedra quest took between 5 and 7 hours alone. Running the quest for two days took another 8 to 10 hours. There were not even spawns at all sometimes. But a trail of clues to follow. and puzzles to solve. Other than BNN, we were not allowed to post as seers, so I had to depend on players to tell the stories. Pad and Elv'eng and many others helped in that department.

MarshallDrakan When the program shut down it must have been a massive blow to you; did you not think about quitting?
Intaria I still play on another shard, and have many ladies there. The thought briefly passed over me, but I decided that I would stay. Once I get there and start roleplaying... things just happen!Hence... the new quest.I am a storyteller. Many of my stories are up on the web, both uo related and not so.
So it just sort of happens.

MarshallDrakan What do players do if they want to get involved in your new quest? Are there any specific times or dates to remember?

Intaria We will be posting under the news section when the next event is. They can read on the Courant what the history and goals are, then stop by Spiritwood or talk to any of the principals.
* MarshallDrakan nods

MarshallDrakan Well I think that's about everything. Is there a message you want to say to the players?
Intaria Europa players, you are the best! You have stolen part of my heart, and since you will not give it back, here I am again.

MarshallDrakan

Thank you very much Seer Intaria.