As part of our 3rd Anniversary celebrations - on Wednesday 24th June at 18:00GMT, in the Temple Club (Arcadia)

Durendal will be sitting with us around a fireplace to re-tell the story of how 9S was founded and how we came to be a cabal.

This is an OOC event, and all cabal members are very welcome to attend.

See you there!

Alas, I will be out of town that day.

Have a good time everybody!

For those that could not attend ....

[*Durendal]: In the dark days before the dark days that came, there was a forum, called...
[*Durendal]: Dark Days Are Coming!
[*Durendal]: Aaaaaaaaaanyways, yes... for a good few years before the launch of TSW as a game, there were the dark days of ARGs.
[Antanahe]: ARG's?
[*Floryn]: *looks puzzled at Durendal*
[*Durendal]: For a lot of us, in fact those were the best and brightest days, as the community was a very close-knit, inquisitive bunch of people that were all trying to figure out what we were actually waiting for in terms of a future project.
[*Katelin]: ARG: http://wiki.crygaia.com/view/Alternate_reality_game
[*Durendal]: Those Alternate Reality Games started around 2007, and I believe that Kate was almost amongst the first that joined the fray.
[*Floryn]: *takes out smart phone*
[*Katelin]: Yes I was! and I of course started making friends all that way back when... because, I. Like. Talking.
[*Durendal]: Yes, she even talks over MY story of how I'm telling her story.
[*Floryn]: *chuckles*
[*Katelin]: OUR Story!
[*Durendal]: Which basically was the story of Kate being all hyper about this new *big thing* that we might be playing in a few years.
[*Directio]: *perks her ears*
[*Durendal]: Again though an anyways... at the time, I was (still) somewhat happily playing Anarchy Online myself, but had already realized that this might be the game that will stop Kate from playing the game that we met over a few years before.
[*Durendal]: In that time frame, a lot of communities formed, even some of the founding cabals were formed and started recruiting people.
[*Durendal]: We started out as something quite intriguing... DRAGONS!
[*Floryn]: *gasps and looks shocked at Durendal*
[*Durendal]: Kate just corrected me as "Dragon"... but as we were a couple that joined a Dragon cabal, I believe we were Dragons!
[*LizzyLoudmouth]: It can't be!
LizzyLoudmouth facepalms.
[*Durendal]: Oh yes it could.
[*Durendal]: However, to make our way into the nearer past... it was not meant to be.
[*Durendal]: That cabal, which symbolized a snake eating itself, took a ironic twist.
[*Durendal]: After noticing that the community being built wasn't quite according to what we were hoping for, with a lot of "ego" types in charge (well... and us...)
[*Floryn]: *snorts*
[*Durendal]: we ended up deciding that we best go and start our own project rather than spend a huge effort into trying to fix that one.
[*Durendal]: That cabal still prospered for quite a while after launch, until (not extremely surprising) it imploded in drama. The snake did what it was destined to do.
[*Durendal]: We however, in all that chaos, noticed something. And I think that was my first major contribution to Nine Swords.
[*Durendal]: Reflecting on it, I started to wonder... do we really stand for chaos, or do we stand for order?
[*Durendal]: So, given that you all know us for a little while now, might guess... I suggested that we ask our close friends that were part of that cabal about our new project!
[*Durendal]: Basically, Kate and I built a web site, had about six other friends, and started brainstorming. Including our name!
[*Durendal]: This part of our history is when things start getting "traceable" in that they're part of the Nine Swords forum!
[*Durendal]: So at first, we were figuring our name. I believe we had a few great suggestions, like "Sanguine Order".
[*Durendal]: In fact, that being a major contender, our current forum stylesheet is actually still called "sanguine".
[*Floryn]: *mumbles softly* Go Sanguiners. *shakes head*
[*Durendal]: You can thank our democratic voting process that we ended up with the great name that we currently own.
[*Durendal]: However, we kept going from there! After a name (and a .com domain in its name), we kept going!
[*Durendal]: One of the basics with Nine Swords was that we wanted to keep things in nines.
[*Durendal]: So, as we were eight founders... we needed to recruit a 9th. And there we failed.
[*Katelin]: Basically, we had 2 strong contenders for 9th founder.. and we really liked both of them very much
[*Katelin]: So.. we chose 10 Swords as founders.. and just lumped the fact we broke our pledge for doing things in 9s so quickly
[*Durendal]: Other things however we really kept nicely in nines, like our nine divisions!
[*Durendal]: And a great reference for those that like certain card-related pastimes, is our foundation upon the nine worthies.
[*Floryn]: *whispers to Oxara* Could you move over? I can't see Durendal.
[*Katelin]: I thought she just wanted a hug during the story telling.. its nice havign a hug when being told a story *coughs*
[*Durendal]: Aww!
[*Durendal]: So, we now have a group of founders / leaders, a web site, but no game!
[*Floryn]: Oh? This was all before even the beta version?
[*Katelin]: Yes
[*Katelin]: Or at last on the cusp of it
[*Floryn]: But had you seen screenshots or trailers of the game then?
[*LizzyLoudmouth]: But you knew it was coming and about the factions and most of the general premis?
[*Durendal]: Kate and I weren't invited to closed beta until very late into it, there was some concept art out.
[*Katelin]: Oh yes, we devoured every ounce of information we could get our hands on
[*Durendal]: There already was a faction test and stuff, which placed us firmly into Dragon territory... Hence our initial choice.
[*Durendal]: But really, the defining thing was that we had a community way before we had a game. And that was great.
[*LizzyLoudmouth]: Exactly why I asked. How long before it came out was solid info released on it?
[*Durendal]: Depends on how solid... the open beta came I believe about two months at most before launch.
[*Katelin]: I cant remember the time frame at all - I would have to look it up. All I know.. is that in this period, we posted in our forum like we had verbal diarrhoea.
[*Floryn]: *speaks softly to Oxara* Here, have my seat.
[*Durendal]: After we settled in a bit and laid some more foundations, including most of what you already see now as basic structure of recruitment and so on.
LizzyLoudmouth laughs.
[*Durendal]: We started... recruiting!
[*Durendal]: A facebook game came out called "The Secret War" which was a bit of a "spam your friends for clicks" type concept.
[*Durendal]: That made us all network and have a few hundred Facebook "friends" that we never saw in real life.
[*Floryn]: *pets the cat*
[*Oxara]: *whispers to Floryn* How chivalrous!
[*Durendal]: However, it was helpful when it came to actually ramping up our numbers.
[*Floryn]: And those Secret War people were also Secret World people? Or did you have to lure them to the game later?
[*Katelin]: Loads of them then played the game. Some probably didn't - but I am in touch with many of them still via facebook, just because of that game.
[*Durendal]: So after officially announcing our cabal and a few weeks of recruitment, we had a good few people that we could start the game out with together.
[*Floryn]: What did they bring out initially anyway? Solomon Island? Or just Kingsmouth?
[*Durendal]: All eight zones, all dungeons (not all NM yet though) and all PvP zones.
[*Durendal]: The Open Beta was just Kingsmouth.
[*IsiIya]: Sounds like they learned from age of conan
[*Floryn]: All eight! Wow.
[*Oxara]: Impressive...
[*LizzyLoudmouth]: Was it super glitchy?
[*Durendal]: The zones were less filled with quests though, as a bunch of them were made after launch.
[*Durendal]: Not really glitchy, no. If anything, the main thing the launch suffered from was GW2, which came out just weeks after.
[*LizzyLoudmouth]: And Star Wars, I assume.
[*Durendal]: Obviously though, the system requirements were quite high, and a good few people just couldn't play the game. Back then it was sort of industry standard not to require more system specs than WoW.
[*Durendal]: That's the part they haven't learned from ever since AO.
[*Durendal]: The experience wasn't all grand and shiny in its entirety, but even though TSW didn't get the meelions of initial sales it needed, it was a good time.
[*Durendal]: I think one thing we were particularly disappointed as a group was that we weren't chosen to be one of the founding fifty cabals. But hey, that's not going to fit into this story hour.
[*Katelin]: I am best not to get onto that topic. Goes in my no politics, religion.. or founding 50 cabal topics to ever be discussed.
[*IsiIya]: Still better then Age of Conan, that started huge and died in six month of barely any extra content or fixes.
[*Durendal]: Funcom had a pretty big upset after launch with particularly one higher management exec leaving and leaving a financial investigation.
[*Durendal]: So there were about two or three restructures and team moves from Oslo to Montreal to Durham, but in the end, now we're here and not going anywhere.
[*Durendal]: It's about the cabal anyways, so now you have your eight remaining minutes to ask me any questions you never dared to ask. Though I may not answer if I don't dare to answer either.
[Antanahe]: Why "Nine" if you were only Eight founders originaly ?
[*IsiIya]: I am curious if all of the divisions took off well. Some are a bit obscure compared to for exemple the Zweihanders.
[*Durendal]: Because "Eight Swords" wouldn't have been cool. Oh, and this whole nine worthies thing.
[*Katelin]: The main reason was also the link to the tarot card.
[*LizzyLoudmouth]: Nine Swords is a tarrot thing, is it not?
[*Katelin]: No they didnt, Isilya - and some still havent.. but that can still change.
[*Durendal]: Nine of Swords, yes.
[*Floryn]: You are the only founders left. Are there other members that are with Nine Swords from the very beginning or sort of right from the start?
[*Katelin]: Volen has been with us a really really long time
[*LizzyLoudmouth]: What about Abe/
[*Katelin]: Cephas has also been around a long time
[*Floryn]: Cephas?
[*Katelin]: Minariel and Incendia joined really early on
[*Katelin]: and Samcon too
[*Durendal]: Cephas is almost-a-founder. He's just too silly to ever really be given any responsibility. It might be my very last prank on everybody when I ever leave to give him cabal lead.
[*Katelin]: Aberlour joined December 2013
[*Katelin]: If you look in our bestiary, under "Other" you see Cephas.
[*Durendal]: You could also call him something like "our first ever fan" or the likes. After our daughter asked us just tonight if we had fans...

(end of story session)