Celebrating 10 Years! - Share Your Favorite Story or Video!

Hey Everyone,
Now that we are nearing 10 years old. I'd like everyone to think of their favorite moment in Gaiscioch History and write them here in this thread. If I get enough good entries I may turn it into a published book you can all order from a Print-on-Demand source I found. I think this could be a lot of fun. Go ahead and write a story, poem, or draw something if you like you'd like to see in the book. Lets get our First Decade in something we can collect and Enjoy :).

Well I've been off gaming for 7 months now, the exact age of my daughter. So, I might not have any recent memories of Gaiscioch, but I do remember one of my favorite things about "being" a Gaiscioch. The day I signed up I spilled my heart out to Oldroar and Fog about how I was on the verge of quitting Warhammer Online. I surrendered a warband I was running to the lead of Oldroar in T3 dwarven lands and clicked "accept". The next event I logged into Vent said hi to Oldroar and he said, "Who are you?" I cracked up laughing told him I was the long-winded sap from the day before he just said "oh, sorry I don't think I read it, the events are hard to keep up with sometimes." I was already sold on the philosophy Fog and crew hold true. So the next Tuesday comes along, and I get to go on my first Gaiscioch run. I remember the feeling of standing in the middle of a herd of Buffalo. Swaying to and fro, words on the screen start to pick up speed, "LFG". Suddenly the baddest of the cattle huffs in a direction, and the herd is moving, I imagine the rhythmic thunder of cavalry. I'm handed the reigns of my warband, it fills up immediately, more form. For as many of us sway from the pack more fill in until any direction you run you find a Gaiscioch or thirsty follower. Our target becomes visible, the pace increases, the flurry begins. Fireballs and arrows loose like a hurricane, all around me robed figures are stopping and making arcane signs, I'm in too much of a rush to reach that door. The first wave die. I get splashed and learn my lesson, I zone in when Fog says "Focus that oil down!" All around is pure chaos, I gather my thought's take in my surroundings and assume a position closer to the back(can't remember that stupid word for back door). The oil is easily destroyed under our crush of insane bloodthirsty companions, immediately the ram is up and every person has one target, the door. The door buckles and finally collapses. Immediately we ascend the stairs and begin the chore of eliminating the npc residents. As soon as elation sets in, we get the best call. "Destro incoming". "How many?" "All of them I think..." We defend against an endless horde, come out victorious, and move on to the next one. So yeah, my best memory of being a Gaiscioch would be that feeling you get. That feeling when odds are stacked against you but you have tactical advantage in leadership, companions, and respect. When people you've never grouped with before suddenly realize, these guys know what they're doing, and they aren't afraid to show it. Slowly you go from being that "big guild" to a family. Reality sets in and you carry yourself with pride. Reality becomes contagious and people realize we are "the largest gathering of organized adults outside of the PTA. See you in Guild Wars 2. Reclis

» Edited on: 2011-08-26 14:43:18

I was going to try to write something but after reading that mine wouldnt compare. Heh

Please share Shoootin. There are hundreds of stories and we have a 528 page limit. So lets make us a epic book telling the stories of the first 10 years.

My best memory came came from when Ben(aka Foghladha) tells me why don't we try to rebirth the guild but call it a family. We began small in Warhammer, bringing back some older members from DAOC, then we kept growing and growing. Now look where we are at.... My favorite moment was in Warhammer, Destro was defending Spite's Reach and defending it well. We took down the door but could not break onto the second floor (Pre-extra ramp). So we fell back then waited a few minutes. The we charged the keep but we headed toward the destro warcamp. We charged through what became know as the crack and waiting in from of the keep was the Destro defense force and we wiped them out before they could reform to defend the second floor. we then charged the second floor and took out the keep lord before destro could return. Once they did return they began to siege the Keep. We had an Order force of about 3 Warbands when Fog called for 2 WB to go out the Postern door. From the door we headed to the crack from the Destro warcamp side. After pushing through the crack we caught the destro force off guard. Once the 2 WBs from the crack attacked the one WB inside charged out. That ended the clash of Spites Reach. Here is a link to a recap of perhaps my Fvorite Night overall with the Gaiscioch: Goibniu Looks Back On His Final Fight In Tier 2

» Edited on: 2011-08-29 11:48:53

You want just stories? Not video? Might want to change the title. I was all excited about putting the Badlands video of me leading a last minute win against BRUTAL during our warhammer days. Here it is below: I'll never forget that night. It was a helluva night and Oldroar's warband really became my go to warband. Lots of feints, ambushes, and pure destruction all around for both sides. I can write more, but the video is pretty decent. Oh and Reclis, the word of the day is "postern." "Postern" is the door at the rear of the castle. "Postern." :P

» Edited on: 2011-08-30 09:54:06

I hope you don't mind a retelling of my favorite memory. It was the first time my brother had been able to group with me in Rift and it was my first time in the dungeon, back when Foul Cascade seemed fraught with danger and mystery. Afterwards, it became the first time I'd written a real story (short as it was). For behold, it came to pass in the days of tumult following the entrance of the Ascended that there appeared in Scarlet Gorge a great beast. The people, fearing the schemes of Queen Vallnara, did pray to the gods to intervene. The gods had mercy upon the people and sent to them a group of five Ascended. Ltol the Mage, Corvinadea the Cleric, Rayko the Rogue, and Promdawg the Cleric came from the Sanctum of the Guardians to answer the call. As a fresh graduate of Gaiscioch's renowned war college I, Elsimer, led them. While I was a grizzled veteran of many foreign campaigns, this was my first as a leader and I had been tasked by the gods with leading in an unknown land. I trekked up from the porticullum towards the cave entrance known as the Foul Cascades, where the beast and her minions were rumored to be at work plotting the return of Regulos. After dispatching the undead minions littering the dry gulch leading up to the cavern, I prayed to the gods for guidance. Once again they showed their favor and moved my group as a whole towards our destiny and through the scintillating barrier. This day would bring much bloodshed - if all went well most of it would be the dark ichor of unholy minions of the one who called herself a queen. Nevertheless, as the gods will it so shall it be. The first thing we saw was a duo of locals standing on a decaying giant's corpse. They gave us some much-needed intelligence regarding the situation and what they needed from us. They also suggested we head to the right and work our way around the path in order to gain whatever information we might need to thwart Vallnara's plot. After slicing and dicing our way through animated corpses, giants, bats, and demolishing mounds of spider-like creatures we came upon the first lieutenant of Vallnara. Matron Verosa was deep in conversation with her two stooges, the spirit Lesch and the walking corpse of Gurze. Behind her was an altar. Knowing that the altar might contain valuable information, we formulated a battle plan. We would begin with the Matron, bringing her attention to bear solely on me. In her arrogance she would probably send her favorite lackey, Lesch, at us to save herself first. When it became apparent that we were intent on destroying Lesch she would extend her power to Lesch and have her brutish Gurze try his luck before throwing caution to the wind and putting all her resources at us. As we made our final preparations, Rayko's pet razorback mistook the old hag's leg for a new chew toy and leaped at it! The element of surprise was lost, yet our faith would yet see us through! The hag looked down in surprise at the enthusiastic gnawing on her bony femur, which gave me the opportunity at a perfect shot at her cowled head as I charged into battle. After realizing that she faced not a wayward beast and his master but many Ascended, the hag sent Lesch against us and concentrated her demonic powers on making herself invulnerable. I leapt once again to the aid of my fellows and the rest of us moved into the melee, preventing the vengeful spirit from using her most debilitating abilities at range. Even Ltol, more comfortable casting his powerful fireballs from the back ranks, encased himself in fiery hands and moved to the attack! Of course, in retrospect perhaps I should not have been surprised - one should NEVER underestimate the ferocity (nor overestimate the sanity) of a man who is manly enough to wear a dress! Within moments, Lesch was desperately clawing away in vain at the wolf pack carving out her ghostly heels. Seeing her non-corporeal minion flailing about in vain, the Matron sent Gurze after us in hopes that his brawn would triumph where Lesch's spells had not. She desperately extended her resources to cover Lesch in an invulnerable globe as well. Seeing this new threat I leapt to carve a smile on Gurze's misshapen face. My compatriots, seeing that the Matron's protection thwarted their attacks yet also kept Lesch from attacking us, dispersed and joined me in a more conventional assault on the gangly corpse. Our daggers, sword, shield, and spells all moved in harmony with one another as I blocked and parried blows meant to decapitate myself. Gurze's large scythe was met with firm shield and returned by fiery sword, whilst the combined healing powers of Corvinadea and Promdawg continued to maintain my vigor. As Gurze's blows became less frequent and puss began to ooze from the wounds of his reanimated body, I saw fury grow in the Matron's eyes. She withdrew her protection from Lesch, and Lesch's fury was returned on us. Furious at seeing her "brother" so effectively handled, Lesch turned her attention on those sworn to act in the name of the Gods above all else. Promdawg and Corvinadea fell almost before they knew what hit them. Disaster! Ltol crumpled before my eyes, and Rayko cried with anguish at his fallen brothers. Gurze turned for but a moment, but a moment is all it took to fell poor Rayko. To this day, I do not know if it was Gurze’s scythe or Lesch’s spell that took me at the last – it might have been both. In anguish, my soul cried out – I had failed my god! My family! I must be avenged! The gods heard my Ascended prayer and my body was reconstituted around my soul. Moments later, the remainder of my band had similarly been reconstituted. All but one, that is. Poor Ltol, his robes in ribbons and his body smashed and slashed beyond repair. We mourned his passing and the passing of so much knowledge from our midst. He had been a righteous soul and our hearts were consoled somewhat in knowing he had been destroyed in the manner of his choosing – fires blazing in the cause of righteousness on a mission to save our world from Regulos. We retreated with the hag’s triumphant cackles still ringing in our ears and Ltol’s broken corpse carried in our hands. We blessed his body and commended his spirit to the gods whom he had served so diligently. In gratitude for his years of service to them, the gods took his body in a shimmering light up to the heavens. When our eyes cleared and the pillar of light had diminished, there stood a figure among us – a being with a ferocious mask upon his head swathed in shadow! He introduced himself as Mythgarr and the joy in our hearts swept away the grief of defeat with the speed of a dwarf left alone with a pint of good mead. I see your eyes glazing over a bit, friend. I'm afraid I don't have a bard's gift for telling tales. I'll cut to the point as a thief's dagger to a heavy purse. We gained victory that day. After pressing forward yet again, this time with pet’s leash firmly in hand and surprise thus ensured, we beat the haggardly Matron. On her altar we discovered (quite by accident, I admit) the means of disguising myself as the Matron. We found out the plans of the spider Vallnara, who calls herself Queen. We went on to defeat Vallnara’s plot to weaken and perhaps free Regulos, disguising one of us as the puppet that lay defeated at our feet at each section. In time, we defeated Vallnara herself as we defiled her nest and the eggs within it with much dancing and song. Our joy was increased when we found that Ltol had been returned to us and yet roamed this plane of existence, albeit it seems to me with a slight limp on rainy occasions.

My favorite Gaiscioch event was the night we took Thunder Mountain with a bunch of T3s. For the rifters, Warhammer had tiered Open RvR: T1 1-10, T2 10-20, T3 20-30, T4 30-40. T4 also had all of the endgame players so similar in power progression to the prestige ranks in rift. Imagine if you will trying to take a horde of 20-30 level characters and battling a large group of max level characters. There was a lot of, "are we really doing this?" and "I can't believe it, this will be awesome!". I think we were all expecting to be slaughtered wholesale but it was a rush just trying something new. After making the long ride to Thunder Mountain, we decided to come to the aid of a keep that was being seiged by the enemy. What ended up happening was glorious indeed. See, no one had ever really tried to do it before. So when 3 warbands came round the bend and started piling into their rear, the enemy paniced. I think if they had realized what was happening the story would have been different, but instead of fighting back most of them tried to run. A fleeing enemy is a dead enemy. A pretty large percentage of our forces were still killed, but in the end the siege was broken. I remember well the elation and hilarity that was going on in vent. I even won a gold bag! To me, that's what Gaiscioch is all about. Trying the unexpected and making what seems impossible happen by smart strategy and selfless team work. As an addendum: the forum posts the next day from ashamed foes and exultant friends were like the cherry on top.

I remember you guys doing that too. The cheers and laughter over vent were priceless. Us T4 guys, that were in another zone at the time, were just shocked and amazed.

I can remember quite a few fun times in the Warhammer events. To be honest I can't remember how exactly I wound up pulling my guild into the family, but I did it to give us yet another way to work with people for opportunities outside our own little alliance. I really enjoyed it and got involved to the point Fog had me as one of the warband leaders as needed. Most days I had the patience to heard cats, but I think communication and how we did it is what kept massive insanity of, many times 120 people in 5 warbands, working together. Some crazy things I remember. Finding hiding spots and cramming a whole warband in the spot and actually getting people not to use /say or /emote that could be "heard" if not understood by the enemy. One of the fun spots in T2 was in Troll Country up by Greystone Manor. Our keep defense tactics that when organized correctly could beat crazy odds. Crazy Nekkid PQ Raid nights. Stoats and his crew should remember these. I went on a few. It was more for laughs and craziness, which I can say I needed at times. Wasn't during one of our raid nights but I remember being with my buddy Clanorton and a friend on her elf alt (can't remember the name). We are in Badlands standing on the little wall outside the interior door of the keep in Black Fire Pass. One of the objectives is called Bugmen's, a dwarf house of ale. Well, the three of us got RPing our chars in /say with plenty of short jokes and needing to get Clan a drink. At the time, Destro comes along and takes Bugmen's. We are still at the keep defending until we could repair the inner door from a defense. Well, the three of us on our bad in character jokes get on this roll about needing to save the beer. Clan runs off to do that with us on his heals. Next thing we know, most of those at the keep come right along having joined in or at least laughed at our RP. We wiped Destro out of the zone because they figured we would be happy little turtles in the keep until the defense timer ended. HA, were they wrong! We still got back for the defense tick, to boot. Of course, I don't suggest doing this if in anything really organized. We were in a loose PUG crew at the time, so it didn't ruffle the leader's feathers and actually made more people join and stick around to see what would happen next. So I have no truly outstanding moment, just lots of fun mayhem rolled into one long saga that made Warhammer worth playing for the 10 or so months I was associated with Gaiscioch in some way.

About a year ago (mid-late 2010), I stumbled upon the Gaiscioch website. Seeing the Battle for the Badlands videos blew me away. These were actual armies of Order and Destruction in epic battle, not some advertisement from the game developer. In fact, the Gaiscioch videos looked better than any ads I had ever seen. Within the hour, I had resubscribed to Warhammer Online and set out to join Gaiscioch. That first Tuesday night, I logged in on my level 20 Rune Priest and joined in the battle for the Tier 2 keeps. Since it had been a year since I had last played, I didn't remember the names of anything -- keeps, flight points, anything. To my relief, the leaders were all very good about directing the warbands, (and I wasn't running around like some headless chicken). :) During the course of the night, we marched from keep to keep. We reinforced our allies, often arriving just in time to turn the tide of battle. Though a few times, we arrived just in time to provide a nice welcome mat for the Destro forces as they marched up to our keep lord. ;) We stormed their keeps, overwhelming the enemy with a force one hundred strong. After defeating their keep lord, we split up. Some marched on to conquer another keep, and two warbands stayed to defend the High Elf keep we had just captured. Then, the Destro forces arrived. At first they threw a warband or two at us, but we held the keep with ease. More Destro forces moved in, the battle grew more intense. Orders went out over vent for warbands to come reinforce our position. We gradually began losing defenses and Destro was moving in. Status reports were flying over vent, calls for assistance became more frequent as healers went down, and then reinforcements arrived! Some snuck in through the postern to help defeat the invading hoards, the others were ordered to attack the enemy's rear/flank. This bought us the time we needed to quickly regroup inside the keep and then together, turn and crush the invading Destro forces. Towards the end of the night, we were defending yet another keep. We had held off several advances by the enemy, luring them in the front door and then unleashing AoE attacks on them. As the enemy advanced, I began to heal my assigned target and then... I couldn't cast anything! I looked frantically to see what had happened as allies began dropping. Suddenly, I realized that my character's avatar no longer showed his face, but that of a chicken!* And that was the only time I was ever disappointed about leveling up. * When you hit a certain level in WAR's RvR, in order to eliminate griefing, you were turned into a chicken. P.S. Thanks to Vamp for "postern." ;)

» Edited on: 2011-08-31 21:10:29

My thought. Gaiscioch is historic. Such a milestone in gaming history. Makes me want to sing. Epic stuff. Like this..

man i rember that brise that was so funny

Hey war crew remember this? or T3 in T4?

» Edited on: 2011-09-02 11:36:27

Appologies for the coming wordy post, but I've been getting nostalgic of late for Warhammer. ;) I remember alot of RvR frustration in the early days of Warhammer. Lots of closed off guilds who were loathe to allow outsiders into their Warbands (Raids) or co-operate with other Warbands in the field, even though the mechanics of RvR campaign demanded it for success. As my tiny little guild could barely scrounge 3-4 players together at the same time, I spent the majority of my RvR with random “Pick up Groups”, often leading PuG Warbands myself, and it was a supreme effort trying to communicate and co-ordinate with other Warbands in the field. Then, after transferring from the Ostermark server to Phoenix Throne, I started bumping into these Gaiscioch events called Trinity Raids, and all that frustration melted away in an instant - three PuG Warbands with a unified leadership all united in purpose towards the overall RvR campaign. It was all so simple and obvious, and yet Gaiscioch were the only Guild I ever heard about in the entire history of Warhammer that ever did it. Other campaigns were almost always ego-driven campaigns that revolved around an overall leader doing his best to shout where assistance was needed (and no control over where that assistance came from). I made a point of finding out whenever the Trinity Raids would be in the field from that moment on, and ran alongside Gaiscioch ever since, eventually joining the Tuatha extended Gaiscioch Family with the move to Badlands. Of favourite Gaiscioch memories in Warhammer there are many. The one mentioned by Caemlyss in Thunder Mountain was magnificent. If I recall correctly, because we were all such low level, it was an epic ride from the Capital City Aldorf, out the back to Reikwald, porting to Kadrin Valley and riding through its full length, just to reach the Keep in Thunder Mountain in the first place. Under normal circumstances we shouldn’t have stood a chance, even though we outnumbered them at least 2-1, but the enemy forces were just caught completely unawares by such a huge force arriving completely out of thin air into their rear at the last minute before they were just about to take down the door to the keep and storm the castle. The combination of surprise and panic allowed us to wipe them out before they even realized how pitifully low a level our forces were. Another great memory was the finale of another Battle for Badlands event, where we stormed the enemy Warcamp in Fangbreaka Swamp for the laughs (and to give the enemy forces hiding there the scare of their life). I loved the sheer lunacy of the act, and we managed to hold out for a surprisingly long period of time. And a dear memory to my heart was us coming to the aid of the besieged T2 Dwarf Keep in Blackfire Pass, and rather than immediately piling into the enemy rear, Ben decided to play a bit of psychological warfare and had us all form a huge line down the hill in the inner courtyard in full view of the enemy. I can only imagine what was happening in the enemy chat as they gradually, one by one, started to notice the huge opposing force stretching across the entire length of the courtyard down the hill behind them, silently standing there, especially when a few dared to venture close enough to take potshots and we managed enough discipline to hold our ranks. Best Gaiscioch Warhammer memory would have to be one of the first times we applied the “Pandora’s Box” defense in Stonetroll Keep in the Tier 2 Empire Zone. We were relatively new to the Badlands server, and recent changes to the layout of Keeps had fostered the mentality that once the door was broken down, Keeps simply couldn’t be successfully defended against a force of superior numbers. Ben (Foghladha) was one of a very few people who defied that mentality and devised a strategy for overcoming the shortcomings of the new Keep design – the result was the Pandora’s Box, a strategy that filtered the enemy forces into the keep in manageable doses and at the same time separated them from their heals and resurrection… We had used the Pandora’s Box defense successfully 3-4 times by this point, so those participating from Gaiscioch and the Tuatha had seen it work, provided everyone followed instructions, but the majority of random players who were participating were convinced the Keep couldn’t be defended, particularly as the enemy forces outnumbered us almost 3-1. We spent half an hour preparing for the enemy forces to make their way to our keep, instructing everyone on their roles in the defense and convincing them to follow Ben’s instructions. The end result was the first of many truly epic keep defenses, and the first time we had put the Pandora’s Box defense up against such overwhelming odds. Everyone co-operated and played their part and the enemy forces were left completely dumbfounded as they tried (unsuccessfully) to figure out a way to break through our defense. It was a monumental victory and the best memory was watching all the negative naysayers in chat who became complete converts by the end of that siege (I think I even recall Ben mentioning Gaiscioch earned a dozen new members almost immediately afterwards). Just a few thoughts…