The history of the guild goes beyond the guild called the Legends of the Lance and its many incarnations throughout the realms....
It all started with a small little game called Neverwinter Nights hosted on American Online. Based upon the Gold Edition Dungeons and Dragons games created by SSI, it was perhaps one of the first graphical MMORPG, even before that acronym was even used. It was a small role-playing community compared to modern games with only a 500 player capacity at the most on one server.
In April of 1996, a few friends who were avid fans of the Dragonlance books written by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman created a guild called the Lords of Krynn (LOK). In this community, role-playing undead, mechanical cyborgs, and demons was the norm. Where game content was limited, imagination was unlimited here and on the storyboards.
Through trials and tribulations, the guild did not stabilize and prosper until Shirak became its Guildmaster (GM). Friendships grew in the heat of player vs. player battles and in the drunken revelries at the local tavern. This was truly where the roots of the guild and its traditions began.
The world came to an end on July 19, 1997 when AOL disconnected their cash cow following their move to unlimited access. This however, was merely just the launching pad for our journies throughout the myriad realms and worlds.
The next big thing was when the moongates of Britannia brought its first explorers including the Lords of Krynn in October of 1997 under the leadership of Oakbow (Shirak was still overall GM but Oakbow led the Ultima Online contingent). Life was harsh in this larger and grander world filled with adventure and death caused by other players (the infamous PKers). But this "goodie" guild grew in size and power despite the odds.
However.... behind the game, all was not well because of one person's ego and thirst for personal power. Feeling that the guild had strayed from its path due to corruption, politics, and theft... Oakbow, Shirak, and Dor resigned from the Lords of Krynn to found a new guild more to its original premise of Honor, Friendship, and having a Good Ol' Time.
A majority of the old Neverwinter Nights LOKs and loyal friends followed them to this guild that was known as The Legends of Dragonlance (TLD).
As for the Lords of Krynn, it still continues to this day as they to journey from realm to realm albeit with a smaller clan. A power struggle ensued with the person who caused us to leave many years later after we left. He gutted the guild as he actively recruited within LOK to form his own guild the Royal Black Watch.
Life was stress free and fun once again in realms of Britannia until the siren's song of Everquest and Norrath was heard on the horizon. Many UO members followed this song in February of 1999 to establish a new guild called the Legends of the Lance (due to copyright issues) under Lokanload (Loadan).
So what became of Oakbow, Grey, Kaz, and Elrick... the last remaining UO members. Not wanting to taint our goodie guildname and reputation. They formed a new guild named appropriately, the Evil Bastages. Who would wreak havoc in UO for many years, then Shadowbane, and now on World of Warcraft. We maintain ties with them although they are an independent guild.
So thus we began our 5-year love/hate addiction with Everquest. Although Ultima Online was the first, it would be Everquest that would reap the financial rewards with its improved graphics and dangling carrot to always play to get the next big "phat lewt". It was a cultural phenomenon in the online role-playing genre that would bring new meaning to word... camping.
The guild itself was founded under the pretense of being a guild of friends which would be its strength and its major downfall. The guild grew in Everquest as we made new friends and old ones from other realms returned on Cazic-Thule. Fun would be had but there was always that dangling carrot in the corner of your eye.
That dangling carrot would always define the haves and have nots in the game. Thus forming guilds (and popularizing the word "uber") of large numbers to raid a single target and a chance to get some new piece of uber loot. Because of this, the guild would become a revolving door of members always wanting more and moving on to other uber-guilds. We made a lot of friends and acquaintances but casual playing guilds like this one were always in a state of flux. It led to the guild merely existing on paper in about the the third year of its existance until it was rebuilt by a core of players led by Oberonn/Borak. This is the culture that Everquest perpetrated and spread to other online games.
Despite all this, we have always remained true to the three precepts of Honor, Fellowship, and Having a Good ol' Time.
During those years, we were not solely bound to world of Norrath. We made forays into Anarchy Online and for about 9 months flew the Nordic Legends flag in Dark Ages of Camelot as Midgardians on the Palomides server. One or two guildmembers would always go and try the other online games such as City of Heroes and Star Wars Galaxies but never as a guild.
As the two next big games arrived in late 2004, World of Warcraft and Everquest II, the majority of the guild went to the world of Azeroth as the battle of words began as to what was the better game throughout the online community.
To alleviate the problems the guild faced in Everquest, it was decided upon to merge the guild with the Taken, an allied guild from Everquest with two guildmasters Oberonn and Lkhan. Despite never officially naming the guild, the guildname Chosen was picked as a placeholder and it stuck. For months, we progressed through the game together but yet, always somewhat distant from one another. This came to a head when the issue of language came up. Everything was mishandled on both sides of the issue and led to the breakup of the Chosen along former guild allegiance. Those who were Taken took the name Taken Redeux.
As for us, the Legends of the Lance that we always were at heart became fact once again.
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