The History of the Old Guild

By Raltar
(A.K.A. Alatar)

Introduction

It has taken me a long time to create this history of the old guild. Over a year an a half it seems like. I first started back in mid 2004 when Zion sent me an email with an alternate "version" of these events. His version of our history was mostly obvious lies, complete exaggerations and only a few shreds of truth buried under an avalanche of falsehood.

I was so angry that he could email me something so obviously faulty that I actually started this document out of spite. I wanted to know that I was right and he was wrong. I wanted to see the way I remembered things put into words. So I started this history of the Golden Shields and I feel it is far more accurate than the set of events that Zion would have led you to beleive.

Much of the time I put into this document was not spent actually working on the document itself, but actually spent on research to ensure the document was accurate. I spent hours not only searching my own memory but also reading the old Golden Shields forums, reading the Internet archive and even tracking down the current whereabouts of our old allies and enemies, most of whom did not survive the unholy disaster known as Shadowbane. This research was not easy. The old Golden Shields forums were hosted at Ezboard, a horrible board service which has had many failures over the last year resulting in nearly everything on the old GS boards being deleted. Also, the internet archive is buggy and incomplete, causing many critical documents from the old guild website to be lost forever. Worst of all was when Zion "The Book" Cao Cao, the former leader of the old guild, committed suicide in October 2005 and as a result we have lost any backups of the old websites which he may of had. Not to mention that there were many questions about the old guild and the way that he choose to lead it that will remain unanwsered now.

As you read this history of the old guild, I hope you will not only find it accurate but will also see that even though the old guild ended in failure, that failure was a learning experience for us. The wisdom we gained from that experience will ensure that our new guild will NEVER end the same way.

Go on to the First Chapter: The Founders