Being Uber

Ferrel arrived on the Brell server with nothing. To many of you that probably sounds like it isn’t that big of an issue considering how easy gear is to come by these days. In EverQuest being nude was devastating. I had less gear than a level 1 character and that was scary. To add some insult to being naked and destitute some player who never played again had the name Ferrel so I had to be Ferrell. In all the years I played there I never saw Ferrel and that just ticked me off! Thankfully my friends on Brell and some players that didn’t even know me took good care to get me back up to above basic gear in a hurry.

I had no intention of applying to Silent Redemption until I was 60. I was not going to fall into the same trap I had with Blades of Wrath and be unable to level since we constantly raided. This was a smart decision but it set me at odds immediately with one of the guild’s “old guard” clerics. She was hyper competitive with other clerics and prior to my applying was already trying to set me up as “not as good as her.” I didn’t let it bother me though and just kept grinding away. I had some help from Vaellen, Arralen and some others. My last level or two though were ground out with a member of one of SR’s competitor guilds. His name was McBash and he was quite a good guy.

Once I hit max level I applied to Silent Redemption officially and Vaellen was made my sponsor. To say SR had a complex recruitment system would be polite. SR’s recruitment system was designed to ensure virtually everyone failed. It was long and required over 30 members to sign off on you. To make matters worse if you pissed someone off and they gave you negative reviews that would undo several positives and require you to get even more positives. It really isn’t practical to try to get to know and please that many people and they certainly couldn’t an eye on you in raids. As a result your chance of success was as largely dependent on your sponsor as it was on you.

My recruitment continued to drag on as I continued to make 100% attendance and accept only the scraps from raiding. The loot council was not kind in general and most certainly not to recruits. This was compounded with the fact that in those days Vaellen and I were not that close yet and he was not able to make the greatest of efforts for me. He was fairly new himself and that put him at a disadvantage as a sponsor. Old members didn’t listen to new members (yet) and he didn’t have the clout to make them. I eventually gave up and took a break. In retrospect this is likely when I went to play Dark Age of Camelot. The timing still feels wrong but it would be the logical conclusion.

I returned to EverQuest after a short sabbatical to, I assume, play DAoC or just bum around. I was told by Vaellen that my chances of success were not likely given my failed first attempt. I wasn’t going to be denied this time and took a new sponsor based on Vaellen and Arralen’s recommendation. He was a shadow knight and a good guy. His name was Azerinn (and I might be misspelling his character name. It has been a long time. His name is Jon). Az took to me immediately and started putting in some serious lobby time with members to earn sponsorships. I also had the support of Vaellen and Arralen and that helped since both were growing in power since the first trial.

My recruitment period took months. In the past I’ve quoted something to the effect of 11 months but I don’t think that is mathematically possible at this point or again I’ve put DAoC in the wrong place. Suffice to say my recruitment took longer than three months. It was probably well into the range of six to eight. The duration was long enough for me and Az to become good enough friends for him to come down and stay with me and my family for a weekend. This was back when that just wasn’t done. I very much remember being a full member before Shadows of Luclin came out and I know, for a fact, that I received my guild tag in North Temple of Veeshan while Az was visiting. I got my guild tag and just stood up and hugged him. It had been a long time coming.

In Silent Redemption once you were tagged you were made. The old guard might not treat you the same but as far as the rules went you couldn’t be touched. That is why I immediately went into the business of trying to make changes. I was going to be sure that nobody went through what I did if I could…

Check out part one of the story: A history of Ferrel
Check out part two of the story: Ferrel, the formative years
Check out part three of the story: Ferrel, the plan
Check out part four of the story: Ferrel in the big league