TK Histroy & Memories

[beibhinn]

Tell me about Templar Knights!?
Preface: For every reign there is a legend that accompanies it. This chronicle is meant to document the legend of the Templar Knights. It is written for anyone who has wondered how Templar Knights came to exist, or whomever simply wishes to reminisce the past. The range of the timeline will be from its originating roots, to the initial setup of Templar Knights.


Originating Roots:

The furthest known root of Templar Knights dates back to summer of 2000. This is the key that eventually set the chain of events leading up to the Templar Knights known today. This event was the opening of the Solclaim server in Asheron's Call on June 1st 2000. This event brought waves of new faces and names looking to start anew, and many people looking to create server dominating monarchies.

Black Soul. That was the name of the monarch who initially took Cattlegod's (Cattle) and Kento's (Kaento) pledge in spring of 2000. This was also the first time that Cattlegod and Kento first met, under their monarch: Black Soul. Black Soul's guiding principle on ruling was one of ultimate benevolence. There were daily gatherings of everyone in the monarchy who would receive all of the precious items Black Soul spent hours upon hours collecting. These meetings were held to promote bonding between guild mates. They eventually led to other events such as various types of contests and several Olympic events. Similar to the Roman Empire, the Black Soul Monarchy was well on its way to becoming the largest and most powerful force in the land.

Cattlegod and Kento went on to take the leading roles in the monarchy's operation and guidance. The monarchy was growing and gaining respect at an astounding rate. The Black Soul monarchy was the type that would halt everything to help one another, no matter how insignificant. This went on for some time and it seemed as if nothing could stop the prosperity. This growth however, unbeknownst to anyone, could not be sustained.

Then one day Black Soul vanished as quickly as he appeared, with no word or sound to anyone… almost anyone. This ultimately led to the fall of the largest monarchy on Solclaim. At this time, the monarchy was too big to have one or two people govern. Cattle and Kaento devised a solution to split it right down the middle, and create a working alliance. They then went on to lead their individual masses separately in their own directions, but together still.

Throughout the time that followed the fall of the Black Soul monarchy, several other key individuals chose to join these factions. One such individual was named Nofx. Nofx and Cattle first met in the tiny town of Q'alabar set in a desolate part of the world. Cattle noticed Nofx across town and decided to inquire what his purpose was for being there. Nofx replied with the information that he just left a monarchy, and was looking for a new home. Cattle left an open invitation to Nofx to join into one of the remaining factions of the original Black Soul monarchy. After some time, Nofx accepted the invitation and decided to join with Cattle. Also in that time, a man named GarrettJax befriended Kaento during a dispute in which GarrettJax took Kaento's side as a simple bystander. GarrettJax also had a friend by the name of Maluk. These new members acquired by both factions would eventually play leading roles that would once again join them.

After a long period of time passed, the truth about the disappearance of Black Soul was revealed. The monarchy grew so much that Black Soul could not continue what he had done in the past. People began to take advantage of him, saying one thing and doing another. He was constantly bombarded with jealous members of the monarchy demanding more than any man was capable to give. He took it upon himself to leave, but he did not leave, he was right next to everyone the whole time… watching, never to reappear as Black Soul again. He retired Black Soul and created Reverence, pledged to Kaento so it would appear he was an ordinary person. He then made Kaento swear to never tell anyone the truth. Kaento upheld his word, until Black Soul gave permission to tell Cattle the real tale. These two factions with Black Soul at their wings continued to work together and uphold the ideals set in the Black Soul monarchy until mid 2001, when a new era was about to dawn. This is the era of the Templar Knights.


A New Dawn:

So it is written that Cattle, Kaento, GarrettJax, Maluk, and Nofx would continue as Cattlegod, Kaento, Kylln, Maluk, and Frec to Dark Age of Camelot. They would restart and form a united guild built on the lessons learned in the history of AC. The formation of the Templar Knights was not an easy one. Everyone decided that Albion would be the realm of choice. That decision led into one of the initial difficulties faced; a guild name. Templar Knights was almost known as "Lords", or simply "Knights". During the search for a name, the Knights Templar was found and identified as a model symbol the guild should strive for. It was then that "Templar Knights" was decided on.

(Some messenger quotes from 10/9/2001)
Kaento: "Okay then lets do Templar Knights. As long as we spent so much time thinking it up. We might as well put it out there for all to see."
Cattle: "templar knights it is then"

Templar Knights was officially formed in October, 2001. Templar Knights server selection for DAoC was fairly straightforward. Lancelot was chosen because it was believed that it would give the Templar knights the largest advantage in PvP situations. This assumption was drawn from the belief that most people who choose Lancelot would probably pick the Albion realm due to the server name.

Early on life was very hard as the Templar Knights were a very small guild at the time with only a few additional members at the guild founding such as Culain and Iubeo(FredBear). The first goal of the Templar Knights was to obtain an emblem. The process used to decide the World of Warcraft emblem was the same one used to design the original Templar Knights emblem. The final decision was Red/White with crossed torches. Purchasing the emblem was the first challenge. Each and every single member of the Templar Knights spent hours sacrificing any personal needs to save up copper to afford the guild emblem. A few all night sessions were pulled on more than one occasion, in order to fill a small amount in the guild coffer. Gold was very hard to come by, and highly sought after. Culain was a tremendous help, at level 26 he was the highest in the guild, and his daily contributions were appreciated. Seeing 300 gold all in one place was staggering. It was a huge amount of money at the time, and seeing it all go to the guild emblem was a proud moment for the Templar Knights. This finally solidified the guild. Templar Knights was one of the first of two guilds to wear an emblem in Albion.


The Foundation of Templar Knights:

Shortly after the Templar Knights was formed, several members of the guild went out to Freybug territory. On their venture, they ran across a small group of people in the same area. Templar Knights approached them to see if they would group together. After several hours of working together, it was evident that this group was different than the rest. They melded well with the Templar Knights. These new friends had informed Templar Knights that their guild had fallen apart, and was no longer functioning. Shortly thereafter, Templar Knights had acquired some new key members Arkkane, Gairloch, and Mordos. There were also some other new additions such as Raiha, Pyke, Smoked, Azuril, and Skyliner, to name a few. Some of whom would go on to take integral rolls on the High Council in defining the Templar Knights known today.

It became evident that in order to advert another collapse seen in Asheron's Call, rock solid governing needed to be established. This is when Templar Knights formed the High Council, identifying that there was no single guild master, rather the council makes the decisions based on a majority vote. Once the foundation was in place Cattlegod posted the following message in February, 2002.

" I was curious today and decided to look at the hierarchical structure of other guilds. To my surprise I noticed that we were one of 3 if I remember correctly that had more than one GM.

This got me thinking a little bit. I noticed that a guild could fail very easily if the GM decided to quit the game. This cannot happen with TK as the power is distributed throughout. Also I made another observation, back in the times of Camelot when kings ruled lands is very similar to how many of the guilds are currently set up. However, rather than a dictatorship we are set as a democracy. This gives us many other advantages such as speed in decisions. As with many other guilds if the GM is not present for a certain decision or a problem to overcome they have to wait until their GM logs in. In TK however, no wait is necessary, there is almost always a GM logged in 24/7. However, our system can only work efficiently so long as the rules that are set up are followed and not bent. We have done a great job thus far, and I’m sure we will continue to do so."

From that point Templar Knights continued to grow, knowing full well that a repeat collapse of the Black Soul monarchy can never repeat.


Memories and words from TK members


Raiha

The defining moment for TK came at a time when Albion was perceived as vastly inferior to the likes of Hibernia or Midgard. The majority of the player base believed Albs could do nothing without the help of superior ‘zerg’ numbers. TK sought to change that stigma. We decided to take our teamwork expertise gained through specialized keep defense, small compact groups, soloing and general game knowledge and apply it to a disciplined group of 8 players. Some TK decided to make new characters which were vital for survival—for instance Frec left his friar behind and decided to create a sorcerer at a time when few to none existed who used their tools wisely. As a result of discipline and a desire to change perception, TK experienced great success and notoriety among friend and foe alike—all while vigorously avoiding ‘zerging’ to prove a point.

Stand

Stex and I were in a guild called >DH< that played QWTF (quake world team fortress). We were pretty terrible, but a fun bunch of people and most of us in middle school or high school (this was about 8-9 years ago). The only guild we didn't lose to by a giant margin was who still beat us but not as badly as the rest and they were good guys. When >DH< broke because of school and other issues of attendance and stupidity (and after I had run the guild for a few months and gave up), the people who remained joined (yes I know I am skipping things Stex you stinky fart). That guild played for awhile with more success, but we still sucked and eventually switched to Counter-Strike where we had minimally more success. KB (KillerBees) who you would eventually know as Paytun was in the guild for the counter-strike portion and as we began to disolve and people played less and less he switched over to DAOC and rolled a hunter on mid/lance. Following suit he convinced stex and I to do the same thing which we did. KB got to lvl 41 while stex and myself got to around lvl 15 I think? And it was hard fought. He decided to quit and after alot of belly aching we switched to alb/lance.
KB bought a lvl 47 hunter named Paytun and began RvRing. All three of us joined Forsaken briefly until I bought a lvl 50 smite cleric named Terror and KB hit lvl 50. When that happened we joined TCO and I almost immediately started RvRing with Phos of all people. Stex got left behind a bit at this point and I'm sorry about that because he has such a cute ass, but TCO didn't last long and while in TCO we met Ubu and pals who eventually left TCO and created Iron Monkey. Stex and myself were very reluctantly invited to join this guild because KB was still our friend, but Ubu hated us. Very little RvR happened while in IM for me because of the aformentioned gayness and while when IM went to midgard to create Virus23 we were both invited to join, but we decided to stay on alb.
Schismic, myself, stex, and a few others formed a guild that lasted about a week called Seventh Seal and during that time (I was playing my minstrel) I ran around with frec a few times in hadrians wall. I don't remember exactly why we were invited to TK, but they helped me level my cabalist to 50 (in barfog which was hilarious and boring) and Stex to get his wizard 50 (which took freaking long enough.) I finished leveling when the first respec went in and I switched from body to matter and then began the keep farming glory that makes up the best memories I have of DAOC. That and our small group runs at uppland which always resulted in hilarity. Bledmeer defenses before the advent of GTAE with stex spam in the hundreds ftw.
Maluk spam healage and raiha assassin slamage to the glory of alb. Dathan running out for instagib and mandatory relogs due to memory leaking garbage... good times good times and fights well fought. <3 TK 4 lyf


Stex

Stands post helped refresh my memories and for how we got invited to TK? For a little recap on the guild thing, I wasn't in Forsaken at the start on my toon, I was in it tho on the scout Kezzerdrix. I didn't do the Seventh Seal thing, I was the last one to leave IM and Nima was whining to me about how everyone left and I was reluctant to leave. I went guildless for awhile and I remember you (stand) being invited to TK and how I don't know, maybe because you ran with Frec and talked about joining them? And then you talked to me and eventually persueded me to join up. I think I was about level 47 on the wiz about this time and epics just came in. When I hit 50 and respeced to ice, I still haven't seen any TK during those levels cept Raiha and Frec who were at CS when I got my invite. Connovor and Maluk were the first ones I established friendly PM's with in the guild.
It was like pulling teeth to get everyone out into Barfog to help me with my 50 epic. As for the first guild memory this one might be it since like I said before I never saw everyone together until now. I was sitting on the road before the encounter and I saw the group of them running down the road to me, pretty cool. When we got down to the encounter I rememeber Frec saying, Ok get started Stex. Everyone else was sitting down at the edge of the encounter and I was like wtf? I thought it was some kind of joke but it turned out it wasn't that bad of an encounter and Frec and I just about did it ourselves with a few heals from Mal and Raiha helped at the start.

Well I wrote more than I wanted to but the thoughts started streaming to me so I kept going so I didn't forget them.

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Templar Knights will go down in my books for being the most enjoyable guild to be in. Not only did this guild break the generalization that the realm of Albion on the Lancelot Server (a server that had nearly 3,000 people on the weekends) was nothing but cattle waiting to be slaughtered, we ushered in a new era for the realm as being the new blade of hope for what a group of coordinated and talented players could achieve. This guild accomplished what many thought as a dream by taking on and defeating the hardest challenges that were in the lands of Realm Verse Realm combat. These challenges came in the form of successful 8 man verse 8 man combat, keep defense against numbers that tripled our size to nearly being 12 times or greater, and keeping a friendship that has lasted over the years.

I came to Dark Age of Camelot about four months after it's release with two friends, Stand and KB. After creating a wizard and stepping out into Campacorentin Forrest for the first time, who knew what friendships, trials, and competition lay ahead for the next few years. After about three months of playing and being in random guilds, the joy of the game took a new turn as I was invited to be a member of Templar Knights. The guild was small but was growing. Everyone I met was nice , enjoyable to be around, and experienced with the game. Templar Knights became notable throughout the server by being able to take keeps in other realms and defend them against large numbers. Over the time in keep defenses the guild and I strengthened our connections with other guilds in the game and player base.

While we spent a large portion of our time PvE'ing and keep defending, 8 man groups were becoming the norm for the enemy realms and fighting in a location called Emain. This was a time where Albion was considered incompetent and were easy kills. One of the guilds members, Frec, created a new character which allowed us to place a new RvR group and show that Albion was able to field a competing 8man group. This was a decision that members helped and supported and turned out to be the best since we became on the most feared groups on the server.

This game and guild left the lasting impression that I was part of a guild that was excellent in all ways. On top of the friendships it was great to be part of a guild that was on the winning side of the battle.


beibhinn

Can you guys believe I'm in TK over 3 yrs? I can't believe it's been so long Smile

I remember hearing so much about TK and reading about TK on VN and how popular they were and how they were doing things no other alb group on the server was doing. I was in ID at the time and after spell crafting came out I leveled this up on my cleric in Camelot. When SI came out there was a mass exodus to Diogel as there was good lvling there and it was a busy little town for crafters of all kinds. It wasn't as spread out as Camelot so everyone hung out there. I remember finding the Lancelot IRC channel and joining and meeting frec. We got on great, everytime I would join and almost every hour after that he would ask "r u a girl?" As ID was a large guild, a lot of people wanted stuff spell crafted, anything from 1 piece to their whole armour. I spent weeks there spell crafting for people and trying to raise my own spell crafting up, I started in Diogel at around 700 or so and made LGM there. TK would start logging on early in the day and roam Hadrian's or Odin's or small man the frontiers all day. Since it was that early frec used to ask me to come cleric. I remember hanging out in Beno or Berk or the mile gates just hanging and chatting. Or browsing VN while "batmanning" at Beno. There was one time at a keep in Hib where ID was there but I was in a TK group, our group held off the hibs charging the keep for what seemed like hours while other groups just seemed to die. I spent most of my time ressing frungy and frec. Frungy because fox kept getting him killed haha and frec because frec would pull some crazy stuff to get off crazy messes on his sorc. Good times Smile

I remember hanging out with TK at Diogel doing their spell crafting for them, I either didn't charge or barely charged cost as these guys got me out of Diogel and rvr'ing. In the few months I ran and hung with TK while still in ID, it was pretty much the only rvr I got and it was good rvr, mainly because of frec and stand and their antics Very Happy Hanging out at Diogel with TK crafters helped me get to know them too Smile P.S. I was in epic until R6 when raiha and stand finally convinced me to SC Laughing

RL for me starting getting a bit crappy, there was a few deaths in the family in a very short time, work was piling up, logging into DAoC was meant to be an escape from all that but such was the demand for spell crafting from a large guild, and being Assistant GM handling guild issues too, it became a chore to log on. After a few weeks I posted my goodbyes to ID and left the guild. I couldn't deal with everyday having RL, work and then ingame issues all day, I needed a break. i had only planned to take a break, a breather for a while but after a couple of days while hanging out in Diogel finishing up some spell crafting I had started before leaving ID, Gairloch (who was skilling up his ...i think it was weapon crafting) invited me to TK. I didn't think twice and I was honoured at the invite. I wanted frec to invite me but it just kinda happened. Even ID were pissed at me because I left ID and joined TK so soon! Gair had invited me straight away as an officer, I was like "ooooo" Very Happy

I remember the reception I got when I joined was so friendly and welcoming, it was very hard to believe that other guilds didnt like TK (including my previous guild ID!) and it was very clear it was only because of the success of TK and how it made large guilds look.

When there was a bit of an exodus to WoW when that came out, there was some stuff that needed attention of a GM, like rent and invites and claiming keeps/towers etc...so Raiha logged on one day and made me a GM and it pretty much went from there Smile

TK is the best guild in the world, not because of success but because of how close we all are and friendship and no matter what happens or has happened, we are always still friends at the end of the day and that's what matters.

Viva TK!

i wrote a book, sorry [face_happy]


Foxflight

i think i had met frec and a few other TKs in irc (as well as ice dragons beibhinn), back when #lancelot was an active channel. eventually i started hanging out in the #tk channel. i was one of the many GMs of the guild Veritas back then, and me (and a few others) tried to organize an alliance between veritas/tk/forsaken/flemish mayhem. it was always pretty shaky but it worked for a while at the the start. inevitably, apathy set in and whenever tk would call people in /as to come retake keeps, i was usually one of the few to show up. the alliance soon fell apart and i got sick of some of the stuff going on in veritas so i went unguilded. i made my way into nima's short-lived iron monkey v.2.0 gank group, which was pretty successful for the few times it ran. i eventually left it and ran around unguilded for a while.

i was about to quit the game at this point. frec invited me to the guild but i said i'd have to think about it, my interest in the game was waning. but tk had started recruiting (or something) a few members to create a stable emain group, including some people i had known for while, like euphoria frungy and lindbergh. this was before lindbergh stole my cot. for a while i was sort of limited to playing second-string and cameo appearances but i got more playtime later on. i went on to make ice dragons declare war on tk.


Xorthill

Its been a few years since I joined TK, but feel it just happend. I ran with Defenders of the Crown after a stint in Firestorm. Dark Valor formed and I ignored and not invited to come along. Ahamade and I had absolutly no relations so he wasn't about to bring me along into his new hardcore pvp guild. I had known Ara and Tahm for a while and ran in groups with them as well as Darkine a bit. I went solo for a while getting random TF, TK, pug groups for a couple of months. A bunch of people in DV tried to bring me back since we had all been in guild together, but I actually wanted to join TF. I somehow discovered not-9 and began following TK a bit. Eventually I realized that the personality of TK was much much more to my liking than TF. I was more than happy to run with them, but the easy going chatter and friendship that people had in TK was much more appealing. One day I was invited on my arms at the APK and brought my mins in which I played a lot soon after, but the event that still sticks out most and I hold dear is about 5 members of TK calling me a *** in guild chat about 5 mins after I joined. I knew everyone had the same sense of humor I did and its been bliss ever since.


Shortayz

Wow, you guys have some great memory... and I am supposed to be the young one who can remember everything =/

I really can't remember when I joined TK, but I think this is how it went...

I was with Firestorm for quite some time having fun with keep defense and staying away from the zerg. I don't remember much since I used to smoke back then, but I do remember TK always being there and staying away from zergs. TK was always there for relic taking and did a good job at the tasks they were assigned (from listening in chat groups). Watching TK keep defend and roam, they seemed to be a great overall well balanced guild, being wherever the fun was. I grouped with TK when they needed a minstrel (who doesnt! lucky me) and enjoyed each members unique personalities.

I somehow joined TK because of my sexy minstrel and my superb skills at playing speed song or power song. I was always online since I skipped most of my classes during senior year of HS and I quickly became confortable in the guild and couldn't imagine leaving. It was great to have some friends from my past guilds join TK.

PS.Frec must have liked me since he didn't have to be the tailor bish any more.


dirt

It's kind of a long weird story how i became a member. I started my daoc career playing mid lance where i had made a hunter to play with my friend terr who is probably better known as the guy that bought boxer and that RM in gimps with a long name. It took me forever and then some to get to 50 because i mostly solod it back when hunters were beyond awful. i was in a couple various lame guilds and then i joined one called The Last Prophecy where i eventually met Carcinogen aka the real Dammekos and Ghaletul when he made a random shaman. Ghale and Carc went back to alb and formed the guild Warder Zerg. Eventually after doing quite well they went their seperate ways due to some RL issues and some of them decided to roll midgard and asked if they could use my spiritmaster to pl. I was going on vacation at the time so i didn't care. When i got back they were all around 45+ and i logged in to find my toons in some guild called Deleted. i didn't really know anyone other than ghale and carc but the rest of them seemed like salty, shady fluffybunnies...so i felt right at home. I ran with them a few times but i had a poop connection and a bad ghosting problem so i stuck to soloing where i eventually got to realm rank 6.

Just prior to TOA being released they decided that they wanted to try an alb comeback tour and i had acquired Phelans level 30 something cabalist and was planning on playing that. We were just finishing the level grind when some of them got sick of it and the whole TOA process kind of put us off. I eventually deleted phels cab even though Beib told me i would regret it and i gave the account to Ruud where he made a skald or something. After that i took a break and then eventually made a hib on lance and joined IHYG's but didn't end up playing there long because my video card died. When i replaced it most of the people i had played with there had quit as well so i was looking for a home. Beib told me that TK and AD were playing on galahad and i found an account on ebay for super cheap for a blademaster and i bought it just to mess around. Caludus ended up inviting me to BF and that was a poop load of fun.

All the while i had been occasionally playing Dammekos when everyone wanted to play on alb. It was around this time that people decided WoW sucked and came back to alb and stand had left to get raped by Europeans so everyone went back to alb. I continued to fill in on Dammekos here and there and in the off times i was messing around in the BG's with Foxflight in one of the greatest duo's in daoc history, Cheesteak and Dirtstache. Fox invited my bg cab to TK and that is where i guess i "officially" joined. After that i basically took over the Dammekos account and i eventually got it from Beib and played it full time.

The fun thing about TK has been that no matter how good or really really really bad we have done since i infiltraited, it has always been fun and the people have always been cool.



Ian

I knew Templar Knights from my father and my brother. I played off and on in TK for the most part of my DAoC career, usually with my father. In WoW the fake TK guild was good we did some raiding with different guilds and then in its waning moments me and groove had tons and tons of fun chasing down people in Alterac Valley. I never had any top notch gear like everyone else but the people in the fake TK guild really made it pleasurable.

The impact of TK is that now i have friends online.


Treya

Well, I've been sitting here trying to think of my very first experiences with TK, and a couple of things occurred to me. One, that I am exceedingly old and have been playing DAoC for far too long, and two, that i really didn't have any contact/communication with TK for the first two years of my daoc existence (although I did know Euphoria vaguely, and I'm fairly certain Stand had called me a few...colorful...things by that time). Granted, I started my DAoC life as a paladin in a guild full of teenagers called ARTHUR'S FURY...only to find myself reforming more or less the same guild a bit later as AD, a guild name I despise only slightly less, although it serves as an excellent reminder that you should never let stoners name anything. In any event, after racing out to rvr on my newly leveled and outfitted paladin a few times, hitting various moving targets for roughly 6 to 10 damage a pop as my level 30 guildies were repeatedly one-shot by…well, pretty much anything…I decided DAoC wasn’t for me anymore, and quit playing for several months.

I first took note of TK when I returned to the game, having rerolled a sorc on a whim…female, which was more or less to make fun of Iceraven’s habit of making female toons because he thought you could get away with more loot…a toon I never thought I’d play other than as an occasional diversion. The first semi-decent rvr groups we began running were mostly Red Cell pugs, and as we got a little more competitive with what was out there on average (not that we were beating KoS or anything of the sort at that point), separating ourselves from the throng standing at the milegate listlessly with Phos more and more, the concept of “8-man rvr” was beginning to crystallize on lance. And in albion, that was because of TK. I didn’t really know any of them, they stood silently in their little space next to the wall at apk from time to time, only to sprint off - with only a single group? Gasp! – and whomp just about everything out there. I was attracted to the way TK played the game…they had their own sense of rules and honor, had clearly worked out a concept of what a “fair” fight was within a game world that made no specific stipulations of how you should play, and on top of that they frequently showed up to help the rest of the mostly disorganized zerg with keep defenses and the like. They seemed closely knit and dedicated to getting better, as a guild, running a more or less set group of people on a daily basis, and that got me interested in DAoC rvr on a whole new level. AD/TF (and basically any albion guild that formed or reformed under the guise of being 8-man/fair-fight oriented on lance from that point on) was very much an attempt to emulate that playstyle and set of principles, as best we could manage. We did not quite have the cohesion or leadership of TK, and obviously not everyone was quite on the same page about how the game should or should not be played (as I’m sure anyone that lived through any of my legendary tantrums during that time would attest to), but we managed to do fairly well and have a good time in the process. For the most part.

Skipping past various bits of drama which I don’t think anyone cares to relive, we come to how I have been more directly involved with TK over the past couple of years…and, oddly enough, it was because of WoW. For some reason an inordinate number of people in AD, TK, TF, and other reasonably proficient rvr guilds became attracted to this cartoon children’s carebear game, and rvr (not to mention the population at large) on lance and elsewhere took an enormous hit. For a while, things were just dead. Bit by bit, those of us who were still around began forming pick-up groups…begrudgingly at first, as there certainly wasn’t any love lost between some of us at the time…we began doing well again, found out that we by and large liked each other (except for that Treya jerk, jesus), and were off in search of side projects, looking for more action. Rerolls on galahad, lamorak, mid/devon resulted in a much closer association between many of us, and the old guild rivalries eventually didn’t matter to anyone anymore. Somehow, people put up with me through those initial stages of getting to know one another (which is something I certainly didn’t make easy), to the point where members of TK, Beibhinn in particular, became something of a counter to my temper, mostly by not putting up with it. I began having fun in the game again for the first time in a long time, and I credit the strength of the personalities and relationships in TK with making that happen.

That, and the one time beibhinn drove the group.

Now that was hilarious.


Darkine

Read TK history many times and how it came to be... guess the only thing I can put down is how I came to be in TK.

When Ifirst started playing DAOC i joined Lancelot for one reason... Old friends from www.heat.net (before it went belly up) started playing there. They formed a guild called Shining force which was dominant back in the days of quake 1 and still goes on today. They told me Lancelot was a good server to play as Albs as mids and hibs seemed to dominate it at the time. My first guild was The Forsaken. I played a lot with them. They were not so much the 8v8 guild structure.. but more of a small guild that primarily PVE'd and did small scale RVR. After a while with them I needed a new challenge... I wanted to shift my focus to another type of RVR which focused on group RVR.

Back in the day until I hit RR9, i was a body specced sorc that mosrtly SOLO'd and could do it quite well taking on full groups majority of the time. I think thats when TK started to take interest in me. People like Tahmurath who would PUG during the day noticed skill in me and tried to convince TK to run with me when their sorc (Willmez) was not available or around. Being the only other sorc at the time that was readily available for TK they gave me a shot and some trial runs.... they were impressed and needed the extra sorc as a backup. Eventually I became a part of their "core" RVR setup. TK never really had a CORE group. we had players we would switch out and our group etup was NEVER the same each run as to provide a challenge and to make the enemy not know our tactics each time we went out.

Since then I have been with TK and can fully say I have never been in a guild that has more respect and loyalty than any guild I have ever been in. Not to mention the frienship and trust gained from each member. I am glad they gave me a chance to prove I was worthy to fight with them and cherish the time I was able to spend with them. Its been approximately 4 years that I have been with TK and have enjoyed every minute.


Edon

When I started playing Lancelot (because of my brother Slavor), a few guilds stood out as the leet guilds of the server. These included TF and TK. I never really interacted with either of them because there was no way to prove myself in rvr. I joined Seraphim which usually only did very very small groups if they ever happened in the first place. So I solo'ed until about rr5. About that time I started getting groups with Dark Valor (tertiary paladin ftw!) probably because of my brother. Ash took a liking to me and I did well when we rvr'ed. Soon I was invited to join them, but had to leave for Europe for a month soon after, while I was in Europe DV broke up and Recoil formed, of which I was not invited to. Ineffable played a role in there somewhere (after Seraphim). Did a little shpeal with Hype (of which I loved owning TK >=>, nah they were great fights). Then when all that fell apart I was extended an invitation to TK towards the end of my career, who I had started playing with on and off for about a year on galahad and lancelot.



Drawme

A couple years ago, I was guildless for about six months and then quit DAoC out of boredom... when I came back Squiddy was a Templar Noob, and he had my necromancer in TK... so when I started back up again, when I was going to just quit the guild, Euphoria told me to check if I could just stay. I was told I could stay, just "don't be gay". I was hardly involved for a long time, but when a lot of TK moved to WoW I became pretty much one of the guild leaders for that group, same in Guild Wars, then when those died out and I came back to DAoC they actually grouped with me!

I missed the absolute most successful time for TK in terms of just dominating everyone, but it has always been fun. People here are awesome and I'd count most of them (except dirt, of course) as friends. I'm looking forward to everyone having a game to play together again.


Euphoria

Well I was in a guild called Veritas with alot of good people but over time more and more people started to leave and quit the game and we made the mistake of accepting too many new people that just didn't work with what the guild was about. TK represented what my current guilld started out as and was meant to be. A lot of good players and friends who at the same time were looking to form capable rvr groups to compete and not roll over like pretty much all the others did. I knew Stand and Arkkane pretty well and Raiha, Azuril and Connovor somewhat. Tahmmurath left veritas and joined shortly before I made the decision to and I was afraid TK would not accept me so soon after taking him in because accepting two many people in a short time can be a bad thing but i glad to say that when it comes to friendships TK didn't worry about that and welcomed me in with open arms. I met alot of great people in TK at first like Beib, Stex, Smoked, Skyliner and even Frec!; and eventually other friends who had left Veritas joined TK as well over the next few months like Linndbergh, Frungya, Foxflight, Tareh and Darkine from Forsaken while other great people joined later like Dirt, Draw, Squid and others.

We have had, over the years, drama and fights and disagreements as most any family would have but thats how I kinda see TK as a family of sorts. Players who would go out of the way to help each other whether it be for getting some uber leet item or another artifact from someone who had most of them already or staying up an extra hour or two late to help a guildie get enough realm points to make their next realm rank. We also strived to put together a balanced and formibale guild rvr group each day to compete with the other realms where the attitudes were that albion couldn't compete. TK not only competeted but often excelled. There would be times were we would take and defend keeps from two to right times our number; Times when we would fight and hold off and defeat a "zerg" of enemies in open field where again we were outnumbered and we also stood up to the most dominant eney guild groups running in 8vs8 rvr at the time and whether we won or not we usually got acknowledged for the fight we put up. TK would also help defend the realm with keep retakes and relic raids and at times we planned and hosted our own successful raids when the other guilds and alliances of our realm were at odds with each other and not working together.

Since joining TK I also have to state how much of a friendship that all of us formed especially by communciating in the IRC channel that members of the guild set up for communicating in and outside the game over not just Dark Age but our real life and everyday activities and the sort.

TK is something i'm very proud at being a member of and I think everyone in the guild feels the same way.


xAustin

i first started daoc becuase of my counter strike friends had just started playing cuz it just came out and they were having fun so i decided to buy it for myself. after playin a few days i find out that a few ppl i know irl were playing as well. we had fun together trying to out level eachother and once i hit about lvl 30 i had quit for some time.

once SI came out and i decided to give it another try. by this time my rl friend that was playing (scorpain) he had been in the guild forsaken. i wanted to be in the guild with him for so long but they wouldnt allow it! i had to start over from grnd zero becuase my last toon was on a different server and moved to lance since scorpain could help me out a bit. i ended up solo leveling a fire wizard, no buffs, no grps, just solo while i explored SI. got to 40ish and then got grps in si place that everyone went to level to 50 (forgot the name!) but i got 50 and messed around in rvr as much as i could. but could only get pugs.

at this time, i had made friends on mid and one just happen to quit and he gave me his account. with only a few days left of play time on it i deleted his lvl 8 skald named Song and made a minstrel with the name. only reason for me rolling a minstrel was becuase all i wanted to do was be able to get rvr groups and at the time, EVERYONE wanted a minstrel in grp! leveled him up and gave it a try.

I went through many different guilds over the years... started out in no name guilds that were nothing. then my first known guild was forsaken. after drama in the guild i went guildless for a long time and icedragons found me!

after pugging one day with tk for a VERY short time, i realized this is what i wanted. a highly skilled rvr based guild. over time i was pugging with mostly DV.TK and TF even invited me from time to time (happened id say 3-4times total)

even though i was in ID still, i would refuse to zerg with them and they didnt like this. after deining a grp invite for zerging, awhile later i grouped with ash and his new guild recoil. at this time, icecrystal and deca kicked me from ID for this, and ash invited me to recoil, my first rvr based guild.

I stayed with recoil for a long time, but when things were gettin slow, ppl quiting daoc, recoil ended up dieing. i went guildless again until i was asked to rvr with TK by beibhinn! after a few days of running with TK, i asked if they would extend an invite to me, being who i was (best misntrel on lance and all) of course i was invited and instantly got along with most, the rest, well... things basicly still stand like they were to this day [face_tongue] it was like imediate friendship with everyone, only real cold shoulder i got was frec (but i guess he's just gay) so i learned to live with it :>

The rvr was booming at this point, never had so much fun playing a game in my life, i was addicted. badly. through my 2years(?) with TK, we have dominated rvr. when we were at least playing every weekend, we were the guild to beat. TK8vs8/TK8vszerg whatever it was, we held up our end; we were THE GUILD to beat. earning respect from many. defending the realm, taking relics, 8v8, pug fun, etc we did it all with great success.

things slowed, got harder and harder to get groups together, RL was setting a burdon on our online lives as well as other games setting us back. we tryed moving servers a few times, all of which turned out to be fun, but we always ended up back on alb/lance.

Quote:
TK is something i'm very proud at being a member of and I think everyone in the guild feels the same way.


couldnt have said it any better then euph! thanks!


Arelania

My TK story is pretty short. Started the guild Resolution with a few friends. At some point Sodie and myself decided to start Endeavor with DMP and a few friends. Resolution had too many and members and alot of drama, with a small interest in rvr. We wanted a guild that would be fun, and one that enjoyed rvr. Endeavor didn't last that long. Funny because the word Endeavor means to strive, guess we were striven downhill.

While in Endeavor, would always hear talk about TK. Talk being that alot of guilds were just jealous of their ability to rvr so well. Would always see TK pulling into the Alb pk in Old Emain after they conquered some Hibs or Mids or both, and was thinking wow, would be nice to be in a guild like that! After being in Endeavor all by my lonesome for a few months, I decided it was time to move on and find someplace I could call home! The first guild that I thought would be really cool to be in, was TK. Luckily I had a good friend named Euphoria. So after talking to Euph about joinig TK, he said, to contact Raiha, who said to talk to Beibhinn. She said join IRC, chat with people, see what they were about. Thankfully I received an invite. Im very glad I didn't go with another guild. After experiencing a TK rvr group in action, you really don't want 2nd best. Everyone is amazing in this guild, you rarely see guilds that are so comfortable with each other, kidding and joking around and who can play so well.

I still feel like a TK newbie in some way, but I am very happy and proud of my guild, can't wait for the fun times ahead!


Groovebot

started running with TK after years of duo'ing with close friends. At the time, this was known in the stealther world as "zerging" despite being constantly outnumbered.

Beibhinn's brand name was actually what brought me to TK. This was built up to immense proportion by a combination of her insatiable appetite for the VN forums and, of course, the fact that she was one of three women who play daoc (this has an interesting effect on gamers much like throwing bloody meat into a shark infested ocean).

I sent her a tell expressing my interest and as luck would have it TK had an awful record of keeping its minstrels active (this curse would of course come to end my career in daoc).

I still remember my few "try out" runs in 8v8 with TK. My first introduction to the dynamics of the guild was when I heard over vent "hey this minstrel doesn’t suck" "yea he's not awful" (compliments of raiha and stand). At that point I knew I was in and I was going to love the guild.

It turned out like I hoped it would. I quickly met one of my best online friends, squid, along with a host of other very talented and witty(forgiving the aggressive use of adjectives referring to ones sexual preference) players.

I think it speaks volumes that many of us don't even play the same games anymore yet we still come back to our homepage to catch up and have a few laughs.

I hart TK


Squid/Eiadwlon

I joined TK about 4 years ago. They were already a small, but fully established guild at that point, but I pointed out a loop in the system and then they HAD to invite me to the guild.
After having solo'd in daoc until i joined TK, it was a nice change to have people that are fun to play with. The grouping was usually a blast. Win some, lose some, etc, but mostly win!.
I loved duoing and trio'ing and stuff! We had some nasty combos. Groovebot and I had a ton of fun killing people. We started duo'ing right about when he joined the guild and had a blast. I had alot of fun with stex and stand too. All of us have 2v8'd several different groups with our duos... what a great feeling!
My favorite video game memory though... is duoing with stex... we were running through albions frontier. A group came over the hill, which happened to be the best enemy group on the server at time but we didnt know it. I mezzed them not long after they came over the hill so they couldn't react. By the time they decided to 'waste group purge on two lowly casters' we had their bard and all but one of their DPS dead (and only two nukes from death). Well they GP'd and insta healed him and ended up beating us. We laughed when we figured out who it was though!
Mostly nowadays we hang out in the #tk chat channel and do internety stuff. Lots talk a bout where they are on guitar hero, and form groups to kill people in Gears of War.
They're the perfect bunch to order a bunch of pizzas, coolers full of beer, and various forms of entertainment and hang out with. Too bad we don't all live closer to one another. Oh yea I got 2nd place in last years poker tourney!...only 1st place got money *sad face*

ilu TK
-squid


Deeshay

OK here goes. (some of this is a bit foggy and I am not even sure on dates)


For those who don't know, I was a member of ID before joining TK, before ID I was in Forsaken, running around emain with girlygirl and yelling at the many smite clerics to plz heal. I actually started DAOC in a guild called Dogs of War, which my cousin (Sirc, AKA Need4SPeed or whatever name he gave himself on this forum) was GM of.

So when I joined ID, I met this sassy Irish lass who went by the name Beibhinn... We became good friends, we both have the dubious honor(dishonor?) of being assistant GM's for ID... I still remember some of the choice drama from those days... I was still sort of in the Diablo 2 mentality back then and thought the best part of the game was carebearing for the best lewts... So, eventually Beib left ID and joined some guild called Templar Knights, She got me to start hanging out in IRC with them, and I realized that they matched my very cude sense of humor and general lack of inhibitions. Around the same time I became a lot more interested in PVP, I had totally burned out on pve from sunning Sidi raids. It was at this time that I realized how horrible ID was at pvp.

I tried several times with a handfull of others to get ID into 8v8, it never happened and they sucked so bad back then I don't think it ever would have been fun anyway.

Beib tried, many times, to get brazen and I to join TK. I'd gotten to know a few of them pretty well and they had vouched for me and approved me joining almost half a year before I actually got around to joining them. I can't remember the exact time but it was after ToA came out, but well before NF arrived. Since then I've had nothing but fun and enjoy every aspect of the group.

Just this past summer I hosted the 1st annual (hopefully) TK BBQ. We had a pretty good turnout and I think everyone had a good time (I know I did).

I can say with confidence that I will be TK as long as there is a TK. It's not really about gaming anymore, it's more of an extended family.

I will be hosting another BBQ this summer and I hope some of you no-shows come along with all the ppl who made it last year!

See you all around!



Burazen

Well, my history is pretty much the same as Deeshay's... since we were pretty much attached at the hip until awhile back. It took a move to another country to perform that surgical procedure though.

I started out playing DAOC shortly after Deeshay, because he came into work one day spouting off glorious praise for this game I've never heard of. I took his word for it and quickly picked it up the following day. Well, needless to say I got hooked and we both got started right away in Dogs of War leveling up. Once we got to 50, we met a shining star named Ghaletul and joined Forbacon, I mean Forsaken... to tour around Emain and cause some general ruckus.

After awhile, we got pulled into the all mighty grind and the want and need for bigger and better items and ended up joining Ice Dragons, who at the time were the biggest and most PvE oriented guild. While it satisifed the craving, it didn't last long and it didn't take long for me to start rubbing people the wrong way and causing trouble wherever I followed. Thus the reason why I was called "brat"... which still sticks. Wink

As a sidenote and probably a little known fact... my father (who passed away of cancer 2 years ago) joined Templar Knights BEFORE me, while it was just getting started. He made good friends with a few members, one which I remember went by the name of Faeder. This small group of players were more PvE oriented and focused on that aspect while in the guild.

When TK started to take more of a PvP direction and started to become well known in the DAOC world, my desire to experience more than PvE grew and grew and after many frustrations, I finally switched out of PvE mode and into straight PvP mode... which was a result of constant prodding from Deeshay and Beibhinn. Actually, it wasn't that much... I just like to be difficult. Wink

So after many months of PvP, trash talking and good old fashion fun... I slowly started to mesh with the members of TK and any who joined along the way.

After DAOC slowly started to slip under in terms of my interest, myself and several other TK members moved on to WoW to start there. It was a time filled with ups and downs and slowly but surely it all started to fall apart because the focus of WoW is MUCH different than DAOC and we just weren't willing to slip back into that PvE mode...

...well most of us, anyways. [face_grin]


Staffsmack

TK was my last, longest, and most enjoyable stay in any DAOC guild. I initially learned the game -- my first MMO, in fact -- on Andred, with my friends from Invictus, before moving to Lancelot with everyone's best friend Mark/Fidelyid/Malev/Maluv.

Mark and I joined some little guild called Protectors of Albion, and a few days later I'd convinced Crennon (her first character was a Merc!) to join us. We went through a couple little guilds, eventually settling on Albion Royal Guard; we levelled into our 40s with ARG until joining Sauvage Guard. Sauvage Guard took all its members to learn the frontier ASAP and even had workshops on realm defense. It didn't take long for the PVP bug to hit me and I was taking every opportunity to defend a keep, or hit Emain, in the worst days of the server-crashing zergs.

I eventually left SG for The Feared and became completely addicted to PVP; the quality of TF members as people left a lot to be desired, so I left for TK a few months after. But it wasn't a desire for easy RPs that led me to TK, it was my friend (and Friar mentor) Faeder who told me about a good group of people who also PVP'd often--a group of people he could invite me to play with! But I was warned I might never get a single group invite in TK, no matter how long I was in the guild. TK had its own widespread venereal disease, with a near 100% infection rate: Ninth Man Syndrome (aka not-9).

Ninth Man Syndrome wasn't enough to scare me off, though, and I'm glad I stuck it out. ALL of the people I met in TK were good people, and treated each other with a deeper respect than appearances would lead one to believe; and, yes, this applies even to Stand.

Strangely enough I was never the Ninth Man in TK, as I was included almost uninterruptedly in PVP from the day I joined until I eventually quit the game. I played through three different incarnations with TK -- Friar, Reaver, and the one I made Mids and Hibs hate the most: Dammekos -- and there always seemed to be room for me.

Templar Knights was by far the best overall guild/clan/team I've been in, and without a doubt the one I'm most proud of being a part of. I love all you guys, and Beibhy, and if I have to prove it by having unprotected sex with you then so be it.

I don't want to get any mushier than that, so I'll close with this:

Frec's beard tickles.


Connovor

I started this game the first weekend it came out. I made an Avalonian Armsman because i had no idea about anything in this game so i just went with it. I leveled through the swamps of the marsh where i ended up meeting Selvin shortly after i joined a guild Sky Knights. From here is where i met Skyliner. We became friends and leveled for a good while until the guild died a month later. From there i went to Northern Cross. Most of my leveling days were spent in this guild and by some weird act i was way beyond a lot of the people in this guild. A few days later Skyliner joined and we continued our leveling routine. It finally came to my mid 40's and i had level in the hell that is lyonesse. So i go sit near the tree/gob camps and wait. Here is where i meet Gairloch. For some odd reason we kept getting in the same groups every day. We started talking and eventually he invites me to Templar Knights. its mid December and I joined the last guild i would ever play for. After the terror that was tree camps we farmed a bit and did "explored" a good while. One day for some reason we end up in Hadrians Wall. The group was fairly decent. We had a Paladin named Raiha, a friar named Frec an Armsman named Connovor and a theurgist named Arkkane. Our ability to mez people was failry non existant and our healing was sub par mainly due to the fact that Frec likeld beating things. From these ventures we met Heez. And he became our minstrel. We were finally on speed 5. Shortly after we got a cleric for healing in Maluk. We even got a sorc out of the deal in Azruil. Athough he was french like Arkkane and barely on he was able to play every know and then. After our rag tag group went through the days our friar decided to make a sorc named Willmez.

After Willmez was created everything fell into place. He hit 50 and the peices fell into place for the group. We still had trouble getting a full 8 on so we did light recruiting in order to fill the spots. We ended up getting an angry cabalist named Stand and a pve junkie Stex who liked to make 3 of the same class because he simply did not have that spec yet. Our group was good but got better when we got Beib. We were able to knock out a a floating spot for a more permant one. We were now running 6 damage dealers a sorc and a cleric. From here we changed what 8v8 RvR was on Lancelot and how the other realms looked at Albion. And for once They had to create multiple groups in order to stop us. 3