The Irreverent Ones

By Raltar

Introduction

At the end of the movie "Scorpion King" the heroine of the movie said something like: "All things must eventually come to an end. That is the destiny of all Kingdoms."

To which the hero replied: "Then we will have to make our own destiny!"

Despite the optimism of the hero whenever I remember this scene I think the heroine was correct that all kingdoms eventually fall. In all the years I have been playing MMOs I have seen many guilds collapse for many different reasons. The rarest reason by far is actual warfare. Few guilds are destroyed by another guild. But the most common reason by far is internal problems. Most guilds destroy themselves. Lack of activity, faliure of a game, poor leadership, petty squabbling, drama and other internal problems are all common reasons why so many guilds fail. If a guild has a good leader and a strong core group of members it can survive any one of these problems for a long time. But when several of these problems strike all at once then the chances for survival drop considerably.

In the previous books of the Golden Shields history you have read about how the Golden Shields was destroyed by the failure of Shaodwbane, poor choices by past leaders and massive betrayals from both allies and our own members. Though we fought many battles we survived all of them only to be destroyed by lies, deceit and foolishness.

This is the story of how it almost happened again and the drastic measures which had to be taken to prevent the same disasters from happenening a second time. I hope that other guild leaders and members (inculding the former members of this guild) will read this and gain a better understanding of how their actions and attitudes can effect the ultimate destiny of their guild.

Continue to Chapter I: The Abnormally Blank Slate