Much News from Great Lakes!  We had an amazing gathering for our ceremonies last Thursday after a brief but exciting fight night, and many noteworthy happenings occurred! Let me just say to all of you that were able to make it, never have I seen such a crowd! I was so impressed and so proud! We also had the honor of having our good friends Colban and Medic as guests for the ceremonies, so it was a sweet gathering indeed. All the ceremonies have been noted in the Gallery section, so stop by there for lovely portraits of what happened.

We kicked off the ceremonies by welcoming Nephalia as an Initiate. Nephalia is one of the people who joined myself, Sir Ed and itaP on our quest to the underworld some months ago. She is an old acquaintance of many of us, and a welcomed addition to the ranks indeed!

Our next ceremony saw Ryu taking his Oath as an Adept of the Orders. He chose An Tuath a'Mhonadh as his sponsoring House, and has already shown a great spirit of participation. Congratulations to Ryu!!

We turned then to the long-overdue matter of elevating Gradeki to the ranks of the Adepts. He has chosen House Valentino as his sponsor. His contributions to date (particularly in Norrath) have been substantial, and it was a real pleasure to witness his promotion.

We finished up the evening with the highlight ceremony of Wei Lao Wei becoming Squire to Lady Sir Kyna. I deeply apologize for not catching the log of his return oath to Sir Kyna (I have no idea why my text log suddenly quit on me), but I did get a copy of Kyna's oath. Both were outstanding and heartfelt. It was a very touching exchange indeed. Congratulations to Kyna and Wei!!!

After the ceremonies, Sir EdGuArDo and myself sorta dropped something of a bomb on the assembly by asking for His Grace's permission to marry, with the blessing of the Cross. His Grace granted us leave and his blessing. We will be posting information on when that ceremony will happen, and we hope that many of you will attend. We hope the news brings you gladness, and that the joy we share in our friendship with each other and with you all will enjoy a happy expression in such an event. We'll do our very best to make it a truly epic party :)

Respectfully submitted--Daedin, Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

Ceremony Announcement from Lady Sir Kyna!

Thursday 10:30 pm CST Thursday, Adept Wei Lao Wei and I will be taking the oath of bondship between squire and knight. All are invited to attend. Please meet at the dorm at 10:15ish for gates to the tower. Reception afterwards will be held at Kazola's. I hope the notice isn't too short and we will see all your shining faces there.

In service to the cross,

Sir Lady Kyna Ravenlock

Hope to see many of you there! - Daedin, Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

Reunion Information:  Ryu passed along some information on a gathering he is planning in his area coming up very soon. Here are some details from his posting on the message board:

InConJunction Convention, Indianapolis June 30th - July 2nd

The Sci-fi / Medieval / Fantasy convention is called InConJunction (or InCon for short), if you happen to live in the Indianapolis area (kinda late for hotel reservations for this year, sorry). It is located at the Marriott Hotel on 31st Street and Shadeland Avenue. The Indianapolis Marriott is located on the Indianapolis east side, near the junction of I-70 and Shadeland Avenue.

Directions: From the Indianapolis International Airport - Take the Airport Expressway East to I-70. Go East approximately 15 miles to the Shadeland Avenue Exit (Exit 89). Turn right (South) at the light. Turn left (East) onto 21st Street. The Marriott is about one block East of Shadeland Avenue, on the North side of the 21st Street. And if all goes well this year, Maybe we can have a larger gathering next year (as I kinda spurred this together at the last moment) I am now awaiting information on next year's Convention.

I strongly encourage anyone who can make this gathering to contact Ryu right away for details on when the Guild and friends are planning to meet at the Convention. His ICQ is 58328285. Email is tigerknt@k-inc.com  I'll post any more details I get from him as well. If you can make it, I can only say that every real life meeting I've had with the Guild has been outstanding and well worth the efforts to get together!

Daedin, Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

Recap from the Guild Wide Meeting:  Thank you very much to the many of you that made time to attend the meeting last night! Here are some highlights from the meeting:

UO News:  Sir EdGuArDo reported that nine people have now been chosen to represent the forces of Good as Dragon Knights of Virtue in the ongoing quest on Great Lakes. He will keep us posted on how the Dragon Knights fare against the forces of Darkness (including, hopefully, some screen shots!). Ryu reported that Theo, our good friend and the Mayor of Trinsic has resigned his post. Nadia is acting as mayor while elections are being held. As we have a vested interest in Trinsic, Defenders with opinions on leadership there are encouraged to participate in the elections. OSI is postponing the house placement schedule another week, with placement tentatively slated for next Friday, June 23rd.  Attendance at recent fight nights has been falling off, and GL Defenders are encouraged to participate in weekly gatherings. Folks should not feel compelled to wait until Thursday nights to hunt in groups. Feel free to message out to your fellows any time you are in the hunting mood and see if we can't spend a bit more time in group activities while we wait for the housing placement. We might try to tweak the regular schedule of activities on GL, and Daedin will be gathering up folks to talk about that as soon as housing placement has happened.

EQ News:  His Grace reports that the Veeshan Alliance has heard alot of recent rumblings about inactivity, but he reports that we are enjoying some fine interaction with other Alliance guild members, particularly our friends in LOA. As some of the Alliance guilds are disbanded or in some disarray, he expects a call may go out soon for more guilds to join the Alliance. Sir Gamanin is our liaison to the Alliance, and he is getting hooked up on the Alliance mailing list. Please use him as a resource for information regarding Alliance activities. His Grace has scheduled a hunt to MistMoor next Saturday (June 24th) and Guild members are heartily encouraged to participate.

General Comment:  Sir Elbryan is soliciting ideas for creating an HCD "World". He has posted a message on the board with details, and all interested members are strongly encouraged to post ideas and thoughts to him on his project. Ryu is hoping to gather up Guild members for a real life reunion at a SciFi Con in his area (sorry...I missed the fine details on that). He is going to post details on the message board so interested people can get the scoop.

Upcoming Schedule:  Next Knight's Council is slated for June 18th, then we'll be skipping the next one for the holiday. The next Guild Wide Meeting is July 20th. We'll follow that with Knight's Council on July 30th.

Sir Marco's Wedding! If you are interested in attending Sir Marco's (Jeremy's) real life wedding to his lovely Lady Jennifer and aren't sure if he has your address, please contact him. The date is August 12th, in the greater Seattle area. His email is marcovln@earthlink.net

UO Housing Placement Schedule Released (update):  Looks like house placement has been moved back to start on June 16th. The start times for the various stages is as follows:

Housing placement on Great Lakes/Trammel will commence on Friday, June 16th at 9pm Central for Stage One (Castle placement only).

Stage Two (large houses/buildings) will begin two hours later, Friday June 16th at 11pm Central. This stage includes three room bricks, villas, large patios, log cabins, large towers and the like, so this is our target time (You can also place castles, but you can bet the spots will be filled).

Stage Three will begin 24 hours later, Saturday, June 17th at 11pm Central, for small houses or anything bigger that will fit.

Apparently, Origin has changed it's original plan of blocking placement in Felucca during the land grab. The website says that any house can be placed at any time on Felucca during the staged placement on Trammel.

The notice concerning the postponement of placing is on the UO home site at  http://update.uo.com/fyi.html

Full details of the schedule can be found at the UO home site at http://update.uo.com/housing.html

Daedin, Preceptress UO

Roster Updates!  His Grace has sent along quite a few roster updates for the Teutonic Knights branch of the Guild, including the addition of some Initiates to our roster. Sorry for the delay in posting your names, my friends, but a hearty welcome and congratulations to you all! Some promotions have also been listed. Good work to those who have progressed! Please let me know if you notice any errors!

Daedin, Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

Sir Ed becomes a Dragon Knight!  As part of the ongoing battle against dark forces on Great Lakes, Sir Ed has been chosen as one of the Eight Dragon Knights of Virtue who will test their skills against eight others chosen by the dark side. Ed faced a stiff test on Friday evening of having to rescue Sabriel Knight, the adopted daughter of Elwynn of Krista's Ranger Station from the bottom level of Hythloth. Part of his test was to lead a team which included many fine warriors including our own Haplo, BlackAngel, and Randal, as well as Winter Sinclair, Mithrandil, Digex, Tristam, Helper, Chobin, RedDevil and Kaelyn. Reports are the quest was exciting, deadly, action-packed and ultimately successful. An excellent recap can be found at the Ranger Station home page at http://rangerstation.org/   Congratulations to Sir Ed, and many thanks to those who assisted him with his trial! May the Protection of the Most Holy Cross see him and the other brave Dragon Knights through their quest!

Daedin, Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

Knight's Council This Sunday!  Council will convene at Midnight Central time (June 4) in our IRC chat room! I hope to see many of you lovely knights there!

Daedin (slacker Herald who is appalled that she hasn't posted any news in so long! Mia culpa!)

Gamanin takes his Vow as Knight Defender:  After tonight's Guild Wide meeting, the Defenders stood witness to the elevation of Gamanin to Knight Defender of the Holy Cross!! Congratulations and well deserved, Gamanin! *I should have a text of the ceremony available Sunday, and I'll link it here*

Zhu Chao becomes an Adept!  Another highlight of tonight's meeting was the elevation of Zhu Chao to an Adept Defender under the sponsorship of An Tuath a'Mhonadh. Welcome and congratulations, Zhu! The roster has been updated with both these changes!

Guild Wide Meeting recap:  The business portion of tonight's meeting was short and sweet. Lord Aethelstan reports that there has been little activity with the Alliance of late, but has hopes things will pick up soon. Sir Daedin also reported that Ultima has been quiet in anticipation of the housing rush (still no date set for that). In hopes of further coordinating our efforts on house placement, she has invited all UO Defenders that hope to place large structures in Trammel to meet with her on Wednesday of next week (lets say 9pm Central) at the Dorm to discuss plans.

Respectfully submitted - Daedin, Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

Gamanin's Knighting! Guild Wide Meeting! Join your brothers and sisters as we gather to witness the elevation of Squire Gamanin to Knighthood!! We'll be starting the Guild wide business meeting at 9pm Central this Thursday, May 18th in our IRC chat room, followed by his Ceremony of Elevation! We dont have much business, so it shouldn't take long for us to jump into the festivites. See you then!

Daedin - Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

Some excellent pictures from Everquest!  Lord Athelstan sent me some new pictures for the Gallery from Veeshan today! They are up and posted (three shots under "More Excellent EQ pics.."). Enjoy! Thank you Athelstan!

Daedin, Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

Initiation and Elevation!  Last night the Defenders gathered to witness the Initiation of Ryu as our newest Defender! Welcome Ryu and thanks for your patience. This gathering also saw the elevation of Sagan to Adept Defender! Congratulations Sagan! The Defenders then headed over to the Sandlewood Tavern where we met up its proprietor Ryak, our friend XTerra and several other lovely people. A fine ending to a great evening! The roster has been updated, and pictures have been posted in the Gallery.

Daedin - Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

Disturbing Message from Squire Bane:  Joan (the housekeeper) sent along this message, recently discovered in the Dormitory on Great Lakes:

Defenders, I write this letter in grave urgency as I know not when he will return, my time is short. As I left the festivities at Kazola's last night I wandered over to the Yew crypts. After battling a few zombies and such I found myself deep inside the crypts, looking for a way out as it grew dark and late. In a green mist I saw what appeared to be a capsule, I approached with sword drawn. As I poked the capsule it burst with a flash of light, the next thing I could recall was awaking in the burning sun looking straight up at a large serpent towering over the large sea ship I am held captive on. Then he appeared over me. I reached for my sword but found it not to be there. He carefully laid out his plans to me, he holds me here using this statue to drain me of my energy. He seems to grow stronger by the hour and I weaker. He seems to come and go, though where he goes I know not. I have tried to escape but mine legs can barely support myself. PLEASE, I beg you find us, and Beware, I know not of his power.

--Bane, Squire to Sir Zedd

P.S.- Let my Knight know that I had left him a powerful weapon that I intended to give him in mine house in a small barrel. Shur...(There is a large bloodstain covering the remainer of this message)

We will try to keep you all posted as more information comes to us. Stay tuned to the message board for updates!

Daedin, Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

Early Morning News from Great Lakes!  Last night, the Great Lakes Defenders and many honored guests bore witness to an evening of much ceremony! To kick things off, the HCD is joined by Thor Okinshield who took the sash of an Initiate. Congratulations and welcome, Thor! We moved our attention to the long-anticipated ceremony which marked EdGuArDo's entry into the Order of the Chivalry. This event was truly outstanding, as so very many of Ed's friends made the long trek to our tower, and more Defenders than the Cross could hold bore witness! A full text (with pictures) is in the Gallery section. The night finished off with Ed and BlackAngel exchanging oaths as Knight and Squire. Unfortunately, my hearing failed me, so I missed much of the exchange of oaths, but word is it was very touching and meaningful indeed. Congratulations Ed and BA! And to everyone who made the time to come along, a heartfelt thank you for making it such a very special night. Woo!  All three events were captured on canvas and are viewable in the Gallery section.

Gamanin's Vigil is Tomorrow! Join us tomorrow (Thursday, May 4) at 9pm Central in the IRC chat room as we witness Gamanin's vigil as a Knight Candidate! It should be lots of fun and a great chance for us to get together. I hope to see you there!

Daedin - Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

News from Knight's Council:  Don't forget! EdGuArDo's knighting is tomorrow at 10:30pm Central, UO Great Lakes in the Tower. We'll start gates at 10pm Central from the Dorm (don't be late!). Also, Gamanin's Vigil is Thursday at 9pm Central in the IRC chat room! Here's an early reminder that the next Knight's council is May 14th at midnight Central, IRC chat room and the Guild Wide Meeting is the 18th at 9pm Central in the IRC chat room

Roster Update!  News from Lord Athelstan that Filana has joined the Teutonic Knights of Everquest as an Initiate! Congratulations and welcome Filana! The EQ roster has been updated.

Daedin - Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

Late Notice for Knight's Council tonight!  Sorry...forgot to post this before I left town for the weekend. Tonight at midnight Central, Knight's council in the IRC chat room! Hope you can make it!

Daedin - Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

Gamanin's Vigil Announced!  I'm delighted to announce Gamanin's vigil as a Knight Candidate a week from Thursday (May 4) at 9pm Central time in the IRC chat room! I hope many of you can attend his question/answer session...it should be alot of fun! See you then!

Daedin - Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

EdGuArDo's Ceremony Rescheduled:  Well, thanks to everyone who *tried* to make it to Ed's ceremony...thanks to the new patch and all the headaches its given us, the server was taken down just in time to screw up our cunning plan. So...we are going to try again next Tuesday (May 2) at 10:30pm, with gates into the Courtyard starting at 10pm (both times Central). Hopefully a week will give OSI time to get things straightened out...yeah...right!! Again, thanks to everyone who tried to make it, we'll see you next Tuesday!

Daedin - Thwarted Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

EdGuArDo's Ceremony Tomorrow!  We'll be gathering tomorrow (Tuesday) at 10:30pm Central at the Tower on Great Lakes to witness Ed's elevation to Knighthood! We have about 20 or so guests coming, so we'll be running gates out of the Dorm and small smithy starting at about 10pm. Anyone willing to help with gates should try to be at the Dorm just a bit before then. It should be alot of fun, and I hope to see you there! Contact me or Ed if you have questions.

Daedin - Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

From tonight's Guild Wide Meeting:  First, forgive my last minute bail-out on the meeting, and thanks very much to Squire Gamanin for forwarding his log of the meeting to me! Also, thanks to all of you who made time to attend!

From UO:  We spoke briefly about calling a truce between the main guild stone and the war stone and any other stones so we can conform to the upcoming party/guild system.  As we understand it, not being at war will allow us to continue our doctrine of helping anyone who asks. Any changes made will be made note of here. Also, with the very near release of UO: Ren, the housing craze is on. Anyone (and I know that there are lots of you) planning to place in the area of the new lands that corresponds to our current holdings should contact Daedin right away. We're doing some house ownership transfers now to free people up to get new houses. As a side note, I as preceptress have no immediate plans to change any of the current guild holdings (i.e. the dorm, tower, private smithy, training hut or any of the courtyard houses). Once the house placement in the new area is over, we can have further discussions on if we want to make any changes to those holdings. We've already transferred ownership of Elby's house over to Daedin II, and Ed's alternate will be taking over Bane's office in the courtyard very soon. This means the buildings will be re-keyed and their friends lists will get dumped, so contact Daedin to get re-friended.

From EQ:  The Veeshan Alliance is going very well. Squire Gamanin has been designated our guild rep to the Alliance business meetings, and he'll be posting stuff on Alliance events on the message board and perhaps here. For now, the regular outings are on Saturdays. Contact Gam or Lord Aethelstan for details, times and places.

General News:  His Grace has entered Squire Gamanin into the very elite Order of the Holy Sepulcher to honor the consistent bodily sacrifice that Gamanin has made for the greater glory and benefit of the Guild! Congratulations Gamanin!

The meeting was then adjourned. Thanks again for attending, and thanks again to Gamanin for the use of his meeting log. (Hope I didn't miss anything!)

Respectfully submitted - Daedin, Herald of the Cross

Housing Tests, UO:Ren  I've been doing some placement testing on the Sonoma Test shard for housing when the release comes. I've only done a little, hopefully more in the next day or two, but the results are posted in the Gallery. The pictures are basically full screen, so expect some load times. Let me know if you have any questions. Also, send me a message letting me know what houses if any you are hoping to place so we can try to create a community and leave space for everyone. Thanks!

Avatar Thor/Triton/Mjollnir's Vigil Slated!  The Squire of Many Names is holding his Vigil as a Knight Candidate on Thursday, April 20 at 5pm Central in the IRC Chat room! I apologize for the late posting here...my fault entirely, not the the fault of the Squire of Many Names :)  We hope to see many of you there!

Daedin - Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

EdGuArDo's Knighting Slated:  Ed's Knighting is slated for a week from Tuesday (April 25th) at 10:30pm Central at the Tower on Great Lakes (UO).  We are expecting many guests, so we'll be running gates out of the Dorm area starting at about 10pm. We're only going to be gating from secured areas, so no random gates, please. So get your fancy clothes on and come along next    tuesday!!

Gamanin goes on Vigil!  Squire Gamanin was offered his Vigil as a Knight Candidate last night, watch here and on the message board for word of when it will be held. Congratulations, Gamanin!!

Guild Wide Meeting this Thursday:  Make plans now to attend our Guild wide meeting this Thursday, 9pm Central in IRC chat. Much to discuss and an excellent opportunity to hang out with your guildsmen! Hope to see you there!

Daedin - Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

New Initiate Created!  With great gladness we welcomed our good friend Sagan into the Guild on UO as an Initiate! Another excellent addition and a real recruiting score, if I do say so! Thanks very much to everyone who attended on such short notice, and a very glad welcome and congratulations to Sagan! The roster and gallery have been updated!

Daedin - Herald of the Cross (WebChick)

UO Guild Hunts are back on!  Since things have quieted down somewhat on Great Lakes, we're bringing back Thursday night guild hunt nights. We'll muster at the Dorm at 9pm Central. Please join us, and come prepared with your keys stowed, and stocked up with reagents and equipment. Hunt nights are always great fun, so lets make a good showing! Any questions can be directed to EdGuArDo or Daedin.

Knight's Council This Sunday!  All the knights are encouraged to attend our council at Midnight Central in IRC chat! Hope to see you there!

Daedin, Herald of the Cross (Web Chick)

EdGuArDo's Vigil is Wednesday:  Don't forget to make plans to attend Knight Candidate Ed's vigil in IRC this Wednesday at 9pm Central. It should be interesting and a lot of fun! If you haven't used our IRC chat room, I recommend you load in mIRC (a very nice IRC client) from the links page, install it, and contact me for information on how to get up and running. Our server is uo.netc.com, the room name is #HCD.

Elevations on UO!  Last night, the Great Lakes Defenders bore witness to the elevation of Wei Lao Wei as an Adept of An Tuath a'Mhonadh, and to the taking of Sir Elbryan of itaP as his Squire! Pictoral renderings of both events have been added to the Gallery, and the UO roster has been updated. Congratulations, Wei, Elbryan and itaP! Thanks to everyone who stood as witnesses too!

Daedin - Herald of the Cross (WebChick)