If you didn't see it in the news on the main page, hopefully you catch it here!

There was a very involved discussion earlier today about our guild, the server, and Destruction in general.  We are up against some very well organized forces in the Order, particularly Mithril Warhammer.  They are a very large guild, extremely organized, and extremely threatening.  Destruction has a number of tight-knit guilds, but none of the large-scale organization needed to counter such forces.  This puts us at a big disadvantage.

We decided to place the focus on our realm as a whole instead of just our guild.  If it were simply a matter of keep takes, or scenarios, it wouldn't be so much of an issue, but we are concerned about Inevitable City.  We think that having a guild that can counter Order guilds such as Mithril Warhammer is of paramount importance at the moment.  If our city is sacked, it reverts to level one and all our work to get it to its current level is destroyed, putting us VERY far behind the forces of the Order.

So with that being said, we're inviting all who wish to move their main characters over to Black Legion.  We will be keeping Stormbringers open for alts, as well as those who don't wish to move over, and of course for our Order folks on Phoenix Throne.  Stormbringers is my long-term home, but at the moment I and many of the others are shifting our focus to defense of the realm, at the very least until we have more people at higher levels.  We think we can do this best as part of Black Legion.  A lot of us have played with the folks from Black Legion, and aside from being good players, they seem like good people too.

As to why we are doing this instead of joining an alliance...there were a few reasons, but the biggest are organization, communication, and cohesion.  Even though alliances generally communicate well, and can be organized, guilds are even moreso, and generally flow and work better as a group.  An alliance is certainly not off the table, but is not the main focus of the moment.

As mentioned before, we are not forcing the move on anyone, but everyone is welcome.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask!  We're expecting to begin the move sometime this week.

Also, if I forgot anything important or misstated something, the officers can jump in and set me straight hehe.  This is simply what I recall.

As most of you know, StormBringers is not the size we had anticipated, given the split between Order and Destruction.  Also, given the game being new and everyone focusing on leveling up, there's not been a lot of guild activities or cohesiveness other than the pockets of players who know each other.  We have a fantastic group of players right now, and don't want to lose any of you for lack of the guild being worth something.

This weekend, the guild officers are getting together to formalize a number of things.  First, we'll be putting some detail around the recruiting process.  It is our belief that for the guild to be truly successful, we will need not less than ~30 players in the guild who are the regulars, plus a dozen or more casual folks.  Beginning either some time this weekend or next week, there will be a significant focus on recruiting for the guild.  I also want to remind everybody, that while we are very interested in growing, we always have and always will, hold quality far and above quantity.  If we simply can not grow to a size large enough to own our own keep for example, we will find another large guild to form an alliance with and support their keep activities.  We are FAR more interested in having a strong core of quality players than shear size.

Activities.  I threw a few items in the guild calendar last night.  Stuff like PQ Night, Scenario Night and Battlefield RvR night.  Our intent is to create a series of guild events like those listed, where all guild members are encouraged (but not required) to group up in whatever Tiers you are in, and work together to knock out questing for XP, RvR for RR points or whatever the topic is.  If you have ideas or feedback, please feel free to bring them up in guild chat while in-game or as a response to this post here on the site.

And a final topic, guild taxes.  Currently the tax rate is 5%.  This is pretty low.  I'd like to take a minute to explain the value of guild taxes for those not familiar with them.  As a traditional MMO guild, there's no reason for to have such a thing.  With WAR (and DAOC and UO previously) guilds have the ability to claim keeps.  We get a large number of bonusses to holding a keep, and some merchants who sell gear that's otherwise not available unless you hold a keep.  Keeps cost money.  Current understanding is upwards of 200G per day.  Granted, that would be for a Tier 4 super keep, but the point is, if we hold a keep, it will cost money.  Without the maintenance costs for a keep, the defenders (PVE Guards, etc.) basically leave their posts and the keep is VERY easy to claim for someone else.  I don't want to talk too much on the topic now, but it's worth getting it out there so everyone can start chewing on the idea, and have an understanding of that aspect of the game.

Also, as an announcement.  Two guild members have been promoted beyond member status.  Warkelly and Phantym both now hold the "Storm Warcaller" title.  This grants them, among other things, the ability to invite new players into the guild at Peon status during their application process.  Thank you both for stepping up and helping out as much as you already have.  You've brought some great folks to the guild, and we look forward to more good times and destruction of the forces of order!

/disoray

In creating Stormbringers and gathering friends together, there was a dilemma- some people only wanted to play Destruction, and some only wanted to play Order!  So we created two chapters of Stormbringers.  The Order chapter is on the Phoenix Throne server and is comprised of the same awesome type of people we have here on Ostermark.  This means we have the best of both worlds- we can each play the side we want, but we still have the option to join the other side and still play with friends, without needing to delete our current characters!

Stormbringers website- Order