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The Reflecting Pool:
Hithlinel & Aquilla
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In celebration of four years together as a kinship, we're looking back at our history. All threads on this page have been moved out of the archives, for bumping, posting, and reminiscing. We invite you to look back with us...
Aquilla
In a message dated January 27th, 2009 Cuchir asked me about the founding of The Sanctuary and it's 'real-world' history. Ever since then, I've gotten really nostalgic. I started playing with a group called "Sanct" in WoW, a PvP/Raiding kinship... But they were also good friends, and kept me interested in WoW about 6-months after I was tired of the gameplay. Then in November of 2005, I found out about LOTRO, and joined the forums. The game wasn't released yet, but there was an active community that seemed divided between hardcore MMORPG gamers and Tolkien lore purists. There were several kinships already started, but I noticed they all seemed to fall in one of those two categories. I talked to the members of my WoW kinship, and they gave their support for me to start a kin of my own under their banner.
I began some forums at what was at the time a kinship portal, www.lotrmmorpg.com and began looking for like-minded individuals on the main LOTRO site. It turns out there were lots of people who were casual gamers, just looking to have a good time. So in November of 2005, we got our "official" start looking for members, sharing ideas, and trying to be general care bears and snuggle bunnies on the official forums, being "unofficial" moderators, trying to be peace-makers and helpers for the moderators. With lotrmmorpg's status gradually degrading, I decided it was time to either get real serious or not. I registered a domain in April 2006 and began working on a website, which was launched the following May.
I've taken so long to level, and played the game such short bursts, that most of my memories ofthis kinship are things that happened outside the game: AG and Shiv running amuck on the forums causing havok and promoting general silliness; playing LotR trivia with people on both sides of the Atlantic via IRC; weekly "raids" on Turbine headquarters for more information about the gaming, wielding our awe-inspiring (read: absurd) "pitchsporks;" getting my alpha testing invitation August 5, 2006, they day before my wedding.
More than anyone else here, I owe the fun I've had playing in Middle-Earth to the people in this kinship. I simply made an off-handed comment in an unrelated thread about the financial struggles of grad school, and my friends in The Sanctuary came together and purchased the game for my wife and I. This effort was lead by Elven Mistress (now known as Treacle), whom I have never met nor even seen in-game, and largely supported by Annatar's Gift, another European I am separated from by a large ocean and separate servers.
In-game memories involve getting reported to the GMs by my own officers, getting Nimmy back by kicking him from the kinship (not remembering he was the founder in-game), getting my founder's benefit horse because Shiv and Cuchir felt sorry for me and threw money at me, probably to alleviate their consciences from when they got me to drink out of the kin keg when I was level 15, and I ended up confused and pantless (IRL and in-game, respectively) in Fornost.
More recently, I have to attribute my actual in-game advancement to Cyanraen & Aegisthalion. They've always seemed to have a toon or two pretty close to my level and ran so many quests with me at-level. It's been great, and the primary reason why I've gained as many levels in the past 6 months as I did in the 2 years before that.
Over the past few years, I've had to say goodbye to several friends I made that I never got a chance to play with. I also saw people that we thought were our take advantage of us and our good nature. But through it all, I remain in awe of how close and friendly we've remained. I enjoy playing LOTRO, but more than that, I love interacting with the people this place attracts.
Hithlinel (view Hithlinel's request to join.)
I can remember when a certain young Sir Shiv AND Annatars Gift both broke their NDAs to let us know they were in beta. It was quite a tense time, everyone involved was so excited and yet weren't supposed to share the info at all
Sanctuary first came into existence on the EU beta server on 13th Sept 2006, and of the first joinees AG is still with us. Beta memories include grouping up with Sancties to brave the Great Barrow - there was a bug that had us all with 100% broken armour and someone had to leave the instance to run to Bree to buy spares for us to continue. Then while Retaking Weathertop, Milgaviel broke the kinship basejumping record (she says the bear pushed her!)
After release one of my highlights was the very first Sanctuary Relay Race. Oh and the Sanctuary Outreach and Assistance Program (SOAP night) went very well. We performed a conga in honour of Bilbo's Birthday. We also formed our first Raid in an attack on the trees of the Old Forest (although we did have to split into fellowships to get the tree-felling deed.)
The introduction of housing saw us all contributing to the kinship house fund, and one of our many hilarious roleplaying events included the loss of the funds. And who could forget our band The Leafettes?
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Here are a few other memorable moments in the short life of The Sanctuary:
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