Z Guild

VampireZ

The Z organization was created seemingly overnight back in 1995 in a small text-based game called Mirkwood MUD. This online roleplaying game consisted of a few hundred active players in a sandbox environment where politics and intrigue were as much of the game as fighting monsters and casting spells. Mirkwood, at the time, had three good and one neutrally aligned group. Pure evil had been eradicated from the lands, that was, until VampireZ was formed. The story goes as such:

As the sun rays set over the western plains of Elacia, from the darkness arose Him. Feeding upon the cattle and forest creatures by night and cowering in the darkness by the day, he was the only of his kind, avoiding conflict with the other sapians of Elacia. Corpses of animals littered the landscape and the citizens of Elacia were displeased. They formed a mob to hunt this creature of the night. Using his keen eyesight and the night to his advantage, he took out each of his adversaries one by one, draining them of blood and life as he once did to lower beings of the earth.

Each citizen he drained rose again in the night but this time to fight for Him. He was given no name but has been referred to by his kind as the Unknown Vampire Lord. When his army was great and forces were large, he disappeared into the darkness never to be seen again. Some say he died, while others say he still watches over his tribe, but no one really knows.

Of the ranks remaining, a great warrior arose to take the lead. Using persuasion and power he led the Army of Darkness to great victories. Once again peace settled over Elacia and the Army of Darkness rests. But the Vampire are still recruiting troops for peace never lasts Forever! Those wishing to Join the Army of Darkness, Vampire must pass three tests.

Behold, our leader was known as OneEye Ivoryfang, Lord of the VampireZ. You know him better as Sprawl. OneEye was the first child of the Unknown Vampire Lord, and the spawn of evil within Mirkwood's Elacia. Our world was very much different than what those a part of Z have come to be used to, but our roots were in darkness and while we have broken free of the vampire curse, we have much to thank these creatures for. They are our history, our ancestors.

The VampireZ clan started small, but like a plague it enveloped Mirkwood MUD and in less than a year the curse of Vampireism had spread to over half of the game's playerbase. The VampireZ clan had been recognized as an official tribe, which meant ingame support was added for the group. The VampireZ were known for their dedication to a unified roleplaying storyline and lead an assault on the Empire of Crete that is still spoken about is hushed whispers to this very day.

If you visit Mirkwood MUD today, the VampireZ organization still exists, although the entire text-based gaming genre has more or less died.

Asheron's Call

Around the end of 1999 and the beginning of 2000, Turbine Entertainment and Microsoft opened the very first online MMO that stayed true to the MUD backgrounds, while adding 3D graphics and the like. At this time, Ultima and Everquest were the other two market players, and Asheron's Call remained relatively small by comparison. Two guys, Albert and Stephen, better known as Zuizide and Sprawl today, worked in a small computer shop in northern Virginia. Stephen at the time played Everquest, but wasn't happy with it. When Asheron's Call was released, he raced out and got a copy for them both. At around level 10, Stephen rerolled his character, named Zero Bullseye at the time, and swore to Zuizide. This paved the way for the largest monarchy on Frostfell a mere few years later.

But we are getting ahead of ourselves, first Zero would have to be sold and Sprawl would have to be created. It wasn't until Stephen took on the persona Sprawl that the Z organization really took off in Asheron's Call. With the creation of a public XP chain, Clan Z attracted over 13,000 members making it the largest monarchy on Asheron's Call Frostfell server. At the peak, the XP Chain had over 350 active "chainers" working together to earn large amounts of in-game experience points. Despite the large chain, Clan Z also managed to run a full-sized family monarchy for many types of players, many of which not the least bit interested in the XP Chain. One of these people is named Ayla. She joined Z sometime around 2003 and has been an instrumental part in contributing to the guild. She played the role of Mistress of Ceremonies for much of her time in Asheron's Call, which put her in charge of clan events and de facto guild mother.

It was during this time that Sprawl's Scrawl was created in 2004 as fan fiction for IGN's AC Vault. The exploits of Sprawl and Ayla were chronicled in a series of roleplaying storylines followed by in-game quest events that included serverwide gatherings with 100's of participants.

Clan Z disbanded in Asheron's Call in early 2005 as a number of the key players moved to World of Warcraft. Zuizide still leads a small band of rebels, however, that terrorize Dereth.

World of Warcraft

When Clan Z moved to World of Warcraft, Ayla and Sprawl established the guild as a Friends and Family group and as officers appointed Axes of Evil, a former officer from the Asheron's Call monarchy, as Guild Master. After a few months, he stepped down. While only a short break, Sprawl was thankful for the assistance and time away from leading the guild. From here on out Sprawl would remain as head of the organization, but would often appoint interim GMs to assist with leading the guild. As such, Z Guild has had numerous leaders over the years, including but not limited to the great Silven, Revrend, and Dryden.

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