My RO History I

Though it’s probably too late, 56k warning!

This is story about friends and rivals, a story about the loved and the hated, a story without an end. This is a tale of the many triumphs of a single RO player, but also a tale of his many sufferings. Joy and sadness, hope and despair, dreams that have yet to be realized and nightmares that have scarred the world. My name is Temp, and this is my story.

 To be continued…

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Year 0 – The Genesis

It was mid-July 2004 when I first even heard of Ragnarok Online. I had just come out of a slump from playing Gunbound the previous year or so. Before I proceed, let me explain that Gunbound was my first journey into an MMO type of game setting. It’s where I actually learned what “lol” or “wtf” meant. But as most games, getting bored is one thing that seemed unavoidable. And I got bored.

I did quite a bit of studying on various online MMORPGs because I was attracted to the type of community they possess. One game that really caught my eye was Ragnarok Online. RO has a naturally large player-base and the graphics are likeable. Even the website oozed of innovation (aka popping the poring). After doing a bit of research on the classes and how to play, I decided to become a sage, downloaded the client (which took me 10 hours back then), and created my account. The very next day, I made a novice and named it after my Gunbound character name, TemplarDraco.

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Year 1 – The Sage

In many senses, randomness is a wonderful feeling. Have you ever opened a stack of OBBs or OPBs and reveled at all the little goodies you’ve suddenly became the owner of? How about that time your first OCA gave you a GR Card (I wish)? Hocus Pocus emulates that feeling entirely and a Hocus Pocus Sage was what I waned to be.

However, luck, and maybe my slightly weird personality, had other plans for me. Unfortunately for fate, I was not about to conform.

The Novice Test was a lot simpler back then. You talk to NPCs, kill a few fabres, and simply walk to the personality test. My first time through the personality test, they thought me best as an archer and I was sent to the middle of a lush green forest (which I now know is the other side of Archer Village). Dissatisfied with the thought of having to be an archer (and after wandering around with no clue where I was), I deleted this failed Novice and made another one. Went through the Novice Test again (during which time I became an expert of how to move my character…not like its that hard to begin with)  and during the personality test, forced myself to the Mage path. So I was sent to Geffen.

I’ll admit that I’m a cold, melancholic person now that I’ve been through the ups and downs of RO, but for a time, back then, I was in relative bliss. The west Geffen field was where I spent most of my hours as a novice killing fabres and the like. People pass by occasionally and I was excited at everything. “A swordsman doing 200 damage to a Pupa when my highest melee attack did 5 damage!” “Holy shit, that wizard guy just did 3k to a Fabre?!” “Lord of Vermillion? oh my God!!!” Everything is amazing when you’re a novice. I had the good fortune of being given a Poring Egg by a very generous (or particularly deviant) knight. Upon using a pet incubator, I found the Poring was starving. With little knowledge on how to obtain apple juice, it died. It was free though, so nothing of value was lost.

So when I finally got to Job 10, I went to the Mage Guild. Unaware of where Payon or Morroc were (let alone the NPCs), I saved up enough zeny to buy a solution from one of the many merchants selling them inside the building. After failing the test once, I finally passed and became a Mage! 

Of course, I didn’t go through my Novice days alone. Through my earlier days I met an amazing amount of people. There was another Mage who was also becoming a Sage. When I first met her as a Novice, she was on the ground and appeared to be dead. Pretty soon, a small crowd gathered around her corpse. One Novice though she was using Play Dead. I for one thought the same…until she respawned. We leveled together for much of our earlier Mage levels in the areas East of Geffen. At one point, she even gave me 1000 zeny (1k was a lot of zeny to me) for an apple I offered her when she was low on health. I later learned that she had an archer as well. As the days went by the time she spent online became shorter and shorter until I never saw her again. If I ever had a chance, I would thank her for helping me get through that crucial first month.

It was sometime in the second week that Draco started playing. His knight-wannabe was made on my account since we didn’t have the means to pay for his own account yet. A couple months in, he finally had his own account. His initial and second knights were named DracoX2, after his Gunbound character name.

As a new player, I felt obliged to explore Geffen and the surrounding areas. I eventually got to the point where I was wandering 4 maps away from Geffen at a time. In this way, I stumbled into a map far different than what I have ever seen. In a sense, I discovered Glast Heim. Of course, the moment I stepped into the map, I immediately stepped back out. Hell if I was going to stay more than a minute in a map that reeks of death. Along with Glast Heim, I discovered a map even more important than any other map I’ve been to, Prontera! I now had a walking route between Geffen and Prontera. My first steps through Prontera were in total awe. The amount of shops up, simply amazing. Even South Pront maintained Prontera’s image of a bustling merchant city.  

As a mage, my greatest strength came from the ability to solo with little pot usage. I spent a good time firebolting snakes 4 maps south of Prontera. It was after a couple days or so of non-stop snakes that a mage friend of mine invited me to come join him in Payon Caves. Way back then, Payon Cave was the leveling spot for classes of all kinds. Packed with the fast hitting Soul Strike and low level Firebolts, our party tore the monsters to shreds. Even though sp problems plagued me on my mage, I stuck to Payon Cave for my leveling needs.

In time, I earned enough zeny to replace my NPC headgears (pink hat, sunnies, and flu mask) with a Bongun Hat. That same Bongun Hat has been with me for 2 years. Sadly, I sold it off in the wake of slot enchanting. There is however one other item that I bought that I still have today. With a meager amount of zeny and an assortment of random items, I managed to obtain a Munak Egg. I named it Munaku and begun the meticulous process of maintaining her. Today, Munaku is still in my possession, but is and has been in its egg for a long time. This brings us to my first screenshot, when Munaku became loyal:

By this time, I had developed a rather unhealthy trading habit. As a mage, I knew I needed a Heal Clip and a Tele Clip. So to get them, I would trade massive amounts of junk for them hoping that one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. It payed off as I did manage to get both clips, but I was left with pretty much nothing else. It was easy enough to get back up once I had the clips though.

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Year 1 – The Guilds

It was also around this time that I seriously looked into joining a guild. I had been in many parties before, but never a guild, it was a new concept to me. So I went to south pront, threw up a chat room and waited. The first person to enter was the guild leader of a guild named Hellions. A few minutes later, I was in! There were a few people in the guild, but the ones that were active were friendly indeed. There was the guild leader: Lord Alph, who later made a knight named “Rage.”, and Ozzie Osborn, a priest who regretfully quit late in 2005. 

It was here in this guild where I met one of my longest standing friends in RO: TwinDragon. At the time, he was a 6x agi bard, but his contribution to the guild was a large one. He was something like a coleader, but he was also the guild’s mentor in a way. He would never hesitate to help a fellow member in need, and asked nothing in return.

With Twin’s help, I found the ideal leveling spot: geos. Back then, there were very few maps with geos. I started at the map two maps north of alde and gradually moved to south of Juno. Being in Juno gave my goal to become a sage some physical meaning, as I was in the city where it would happen. I grinded hours on end in geos, marveling at the “amazing exp” that they gave. When I was job49, I went to clocks. Again, “amazing exp”. So it was in this manner that I became a sage.

After turning into a sage, I frequented clocks a lot. Hellions eventually disbanded as do all small guilds. In the resulting chain of events, I decided to follow Alph and Twin to Peacemakers, a now defunct guild led by someone I’ve since forgotten by now. Twin and I used to party together quite a bit, hence the TD’s party (TwinDragon = TD, TemplarDraco = TD. get it? haha…ha -_-).

Monks are cooler aren’t they?

Peacemakers and its sister guild (which was incidentally also named Peacemakers) merged to form what was once known as Ethereal under the leadership of Hikaru Hinoto and co-led by Kaiboshi.

It was under Ethereal where I formed the strongest bonds with people in the game. Many of the people I knew in Ethereal are now well-known players in Loki today. Some of them chose rather to stay isolated from the world though they still exist on Loki today. Others have just plain out quit, which is a fair shame seeing how close we were back then.

Along with Hikaru Hinoto and Kaiboshi, there were other more prominent members in Ethereal’s ranks as well. This included ChrisR, Iko` (who for that time period played a male knight), Neeharika, Sumikiru, Twin, Poorthos (who later played on a female account), Cyrus Weatherbee, Necros Mage, MilkySoft, DarkDragon., and Sirid.

As to their whereabouts now, I can pretty much guess where they all are. ChrisR, Poorthos, and Sirid continued their life together in the new payon, but as of February 2008, they seem to have vanished off the face of the earth.

Iko` went on to become a member of Insurrection, but plagued by leveling woes, legend says he went on an upgrading binge in an all-or-nothing attempt and failed miserably, thus quitting.

Neeharika was banned from coming on RO due to some real life drama that involved RO (which is never good). Sightings rise up every 3 months or so since that event, but she never stays on for long.

Sumikiru and Cyrus Weatherbee have flat out quit, but Sumikiru went on to play for a while longer with Sirid before breaking up with him /pat.

DarkDragon sightings are very rare, but every once in a blue moon, I suddenly see his name flash across the chat window. Its gone as soon as it appears though, like a gust of wind. Rumored to have quit.

Necros Mage and MilkySoft both went on to become successful members of Unity and as far as I know still play. Necros became an instant millionaire after he won Incubus Horns from that one hide-and-seek GM event. Lucky bastard /pif.

Twin on the other hand stayed with me through thick and thin. At times he’d disappear from the radar only to suddenly resurface months later. If I were to describe my relation with Twin on RO, it would be very much like brothers. After I broke away from HolyEXE in November 2007, he vanished into the mist again. Who knows when he’ll come out of hiding once again.

Though our paths have split since the months in Ethereal, the bond that held us together is as strong as ever. Well, not really. The bond that held us together was the little skill known as Hocus Pocus…

To Be Continued…