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Prelude
In the beginning there was INN. Imagination Network was owned by Sierra Network, an innovative multi player on-line gaming system. You could play cards, board games, golf, Red Baron, trivia and even be tutored in your homework. You could gamble in Las Vegas and hang out at "Lefty's Bar" if you were so inclined. You could role-play in the "Shadows of Yserbius" in several different lands, Yserbius, Cawdor and eventually Twinion.
It was crude graphically by today's standards. Rather than seeing other players moving about the screen, they were a simple name tag and when clicked they would reveal the toon of the player. Yet to us, it was new and exciting, terribly addictive and very expensive. It was not unusual to lose yourself in this game for 150 hours per month at $1.99 an hour. This didn't seem to matter to many, for the friends that were made and the lives that were touched were worth it. It was eventually purchased by AT&T and then AOL. Then it left our lives for ever.
This guild as born on INN and lives today because of it.
Introduction
Within these lands you could be a Barbarian, Knight, Ranger, Thief, Cleric or Wizard. The races were Orc, Elf, Troll, Dwarf, Gnome, Hafling and Gremlin. You could quest and spar, or hang out in the "Tavern" and chat. The quests were intricate and some nearly impossible without the help of a more seasoned questor. Mapping was essential and all quests were level based. Upon completion of each quest you gained experience or attributes.
Newbies had to complete the lower rooms before going onwards. Only those of a certain level had access to the "level 20" and "level 30" doors that held behind them the more difficult quests. You didn't lose experience or items when you were defeated. You simply got tossed back into the tavern to start over again.
Quests had to be completed before others could be started, therefore, there were many goals. There was the Seasons Quest, Gem Quest, Card Quest. There were much sought after items such as the War Hammer of Doom (WoD), the Harvest Horn, Infinite Armor and the Golden Boat. There was a quest that required you to spell out a name that we fondly referred to as "Arnie".
All quests led to the ultimate known as the "Final", to kill En-li-kil and drink from the Fountain of Life, gaining 5,300,000 experience points. With this victory, your character's name was magically put in a book to be viewed by all.
Chapter I - Dragons of Dawn
In the land of Yserbius, there was a guild called the Guardians of Twinion, or GoT. In this guild there were two knights, Elderon and LrdRedWolf who had grown weary of their tyrannical leaders and one explosive night, they left GoT to venture out and start of guild of their own.
This new guild was to be known as the Dragons of Dawn, or DoD, after a particular dragon residing within a dungeon, in the Land of Twinion. The guild grew quickly and soon had many members who called a "host" named Sword Swamp their home.
LrdRedWolf became King and changed his name to DragonFire. Shortly thereafter, he recruited a knight known as Arithon, Over time, Arithon rose in the ranks to become Knight Class Leader and Elderon was made Champion of the Realm.
Recruiting continued and was a game in itself. It was easy to tell someone new to the land and one night a recruiter found a player named Lyric and filled her head with stories of adventure, danger and fun. Lyric was inducted into DoD by Arithon and came to be known as Yira, Squire Knight Class.
Chapter 2 - Dragons of Galatea Gates
The guild continued to grow and spread to a new land called Cawdor. The name was changed to Dragons of Galatea Gates, or DGG, after a host where we gathered. Dragonfire changed his name as well, when he met and married his first Queen, FrostFire. He became FireFrost. The marriage ended when FrostFire left INN for financial reasons, and the King was again alone.
Yira caught the eye of two gents, both wanting her hand in marriage Darth, the OverLord and Arithon, the Prince. A spar was scheduled but never came to be. Arithon left INN due to a billing dispute, and she married Darth. This marriage was short lived and was dissolved by the King when Darth left INN, never to return. Elderon left INN as well.
FireFrost changed his name to JadedHawk and took Cwerdra as his wife and Queen. Sword Swamp was becoming a turbulent and warring host so it was decided to move our peaceful guild to a much quieter place.
Chapter 3 - Dragons of Rivers End
Ranger Retreat was our new and final home. It indeed was peaceful and suited us well. The guild name was changed once again to Dragons of Rivers End, after a room in the Final Quest to defeat En Li Kil.
JadedHawk changed his name to HellKnight. Differences occurred between HellKnight and Queen Cwerdra, she left the guild as well as his side. That night in April of 96, he presented Yira to the membership for a vote to be his new Queen. They did not marry.
The days that followed were filled with joy, sadness, confusion, anger, love and most of all, friendship. Heckler became Prince and presented us with his now famous Masquerade Ball and Dragon Sport. There were questing nights, teaching nights and an attempt at learning how to spar. All was well in Yserbius until some time in the beginning of August.
Chapter 4 - INN Leaves Our Lives
INN mail was sent to all with the news that they had been acquired by AOL and were going off line. Our fantasy world was coming to an end. No one knew what to do, so many lives had been touched over the years. Many real life weddings and relationships had been a result of this "world".
It was chaos. People posted their email addresses and many set up web sites to track their guild members and friends. Many revealed alternate characters they had kept secret for various reasons. The last night was a mix of panic and confusion. Wanting to visit one last time the many places where memories were made and the friends that helped make them was nearly impossible.
System messages counted down the hours and minutes to the very end. With the flip of a switch, INN left us at midnight August 31, 1996.
Chapter 5 - AOL
AOL set up a "Lost INNer" center for the refugees. Somewhere we could go and register our character names so friends could find us and we could find them. Many lost INNers signed on to AOL just for this purpose. Those without AOL went in many directions, lost at first, to be found again hopefully, someday.
Many hours were spent instant messaging each night and chatting in our DRE chat room. Slowly yet surely ten of us collected on AOL. Polgara, Durnik, Barak, Heckler, Tasselhof, LadyKaren, LadyJ, Mike, Radigund and Shia. Our King had long since gone mad and disappeared. Mystara and XelconR were inducted and Arithon, RedFire and Elderon rejoined our ranks.
New on-line multi player games were popping up everywhere and older ones came out of the woodwork. However, none of those available to us seemed to meet our expectations and were mostly text based. There was NWN on AOL, Empiriana was in closed beta testing, as was another game called The Realm. Several friends of our guild had state of the art computers and were able to beta test this game. Windows95 was still new and so were pentiums.
Our friends would visit and tell tales of The Realm, always trying to convince us this was where we should go. They told of seeing other players walking around, placing flowers on doorsteps to friends huts. Finally, several of us upgraded our computers, submitted applications to test, and ventured forth to this new land.
Chapter 6 - A New Beginning
The Realm was perfect. At a meeting on November 3, 1996 it was decided to reform on Realm. Many things needed to be decided. A new name was needed. We could have uniforms in colors of our choice to show unity, so colors had to be chosen and voted upon. We needed a new charter and bylaws for the rules of this game were quite different than INN. We decided to eliminate the Royal Ranks, except for Queen, and create a Council of Regents. All Regents would be equal and keep their previous royal rank as a title.
Heckler was Prince and LadyKaren Princess, Polgara was Queen's Mentat and Durnik Queen's Grand Defender, LadyJ was Overlady and Mike Overlord, Shia had been Kings Mistress. Barak and Tasselhof had not been royalty on INN, but it was decided they should be members of the Council of Regents due to their loyalty throughout. Arithon upon re induction became Grand Advisor. We lost LadyKaren, LadyJ, Radigund, XelconR and Mike when it was decided we would be a Realm only guild.
On INN there were six classes, on Realm only four. It was decided that Clerics would join the Wizards, Rangers and Knights would become Adventurers, Barbarians became Warriors and Thieves remained the same. It was decided that our cowl color would represent the color of the class. Thieves brown, Wizards Teal, Adventurers Green and Warriors Black. The cowl color for the Council of Regents was to be gold.
The names suggested for the new guild were Warriors of the Realm, Phoenix Warriors, Dragons Reborn and Dragons of Mistwraith.
Chapter 7 - Dragons Reborn
On AOL, November 16, 1996 we became The Dragons Reborn.
to be continued..............
If you would like to visit an excellent site and see for yourself the wonders of Yserbius or Twinion and perhaps download the off line version complete with maps and quest details, go to Yserbius.org
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In The Beginning