Guild History

History

The Order of the Rose-Croix was started one frantic night in October 2001 in the online MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot on the Kay server in the realm of Albion. Four friends, at the time working for the same employer, followed by some arm twisting of a fifth (poor Bragwane!) put the guild on the map. This group led by Acuas as the instigator (some say culprit) with Wivelrod, Denzilot, Inkerman; formed the idea for the guild and started recruiting.

The guild expanded quite rapidly in the beginning but due to our preference for ensuring that we recruit quality players rather than just trying to build a large guild, we closed our doors to recruitment to solidify the current player base. Over the following months we entrenched our position as a small, but well respected guild within the community, forging strong relationships with other guilds, in particular with Clan Wulf who we have a firm bond of friendship with and continue to have even beyond Dark Age of Camelot.

As a large part of the guild is formed of casual players, DAoC became fairly wearing for a lot of the original members at higher levels and many of them started to drift away from DAoC, waiting for the Next Big Thing. In tribute to the strength of the guild, many of the early members still continue as active members of the guild on the forums and in other games that the guild has spread to.

The leadership of ORC in DAoC changed hands from Acuas to Kantrell/Konnor (just K to most people as you never know which one he will use!) and Eltharion, more often known as Bride or Rockmaster to many of the players still playing DAoC. Although the guild is still going strong today on the Kay server, it has now broken away from the main ORC guild and operates as an independent guild even though it continues with the name.

During those middle and late DAoC years, the guild had its ups and downs, but through all of this it continues to survive mainly due to the quality of the membership and the friendships formed between members, even though many of the members haven't met in real life.

As the first members started to leave DAoC for pastures new, many sought a new game with which to form a new ORC offshoot. Asheron's Call 2 was one of the first games that the guild was formed upon with Wivelrod (the member that is often seen running) as the guild leader. While fairly successful as a small guild, the longevity of the game itself was in question due to numerous technical issues, plus a lack of population eventually killing off the guild. Although disappointing, it allowed many of the original members to get together again outside of DAoC as well as introducing a few new members, namely Demeju's brother and friends who have become valued members of the ORC community.

At this point, members are starting to scatter about onto various games such as Anarchy Online, Planetside, Neocron, Neverwinter Nights, Eve, World War 2 Online (still going) and various others. While not offering that elusive Next Big Thing, it did offer some escapism for many members with Planetside catching the guilds attention in a game longer than most at this period in the guilds history.

During this period, Star Wars Galaxies was seen as the Next Big Thing by the guild and the guild "Campaign Engine" lumbered into action on recruitment and working out structure for the guild when it is released. Although SWG was delayed, several of the members got into the beta program but found that the game still needed a lot of work. Despite this, at release time, the guild was formed (loosely via a public chat channel) and ORC had found a new home (despite several members copies of the game couriered from the USA to the UK via Botswana!).

Due to the many bugs, technical problems and game mechanics issues with SWG, the guild continued doggedly while reaching two major milestones in the game that were mighty achievements: the formation of the guild with the GM spending every waking hour working on his crafting skills in order to craft a building for the guild plus achieving city status with a place on the in-game map. At the time, many guild members pulled together, whether they were still actively playing or not (those with active accounts but dormant characters at any rate) and helped to raise ORC Town to city status. This was the guilds crowning achievement in SWG and soon after, the guild slowly dissipated, moving onto other games.

Some other members around this time were getting into Final Fantasy XI, a game that wasn't really on the radar of the guild, yet the members that tried the game were pleasantly surprised by how thorough, polished and intricate the game was. While it didn't appeal to many members, it was a game that allowed some to plug the gap waiting for the Next Big Thing.

Moving into the vacuum of gaming with members waiting to see whether Everquest 2 and World of Warcraft will be the Next Big Thing, some started to try City of Heroes and found that it was a game that offered much of what other games only promise, along with a truly groundbreaking feature called "Sidekick" and a slick engine that enables the game to run on a lower specification machine that the SWG's of this world would crush. This game continues to show strong support within the guild.

WoW came, and the guild under Wivelrod guild mastery grew beyond expectations. It's fair to say the guild has had it's fair share of trials in WoW, but it has survived with many new and loyal members. Wivelrod gave up the GM role eventually and passed this role onto Denac and Savrukk and their team of merry officers. With in an game alliance with our old friends Clan Wulf and new friends Reprisals Call called CROW, ORC began raiding end-game content regularly.

Today, ORC maintains a strong presence in WoW, and is successfully maintaining a successful balance between a friendly and social gaming environment, and end-game content raiding. Its members also dabble in other MMO's, and pretty much every major release sees our members at least giving it a go. And outside of MMO's, we have a good sizes STEAM community group.

History of the Name

The guild name is based on an alternative name of the Rosicrucians and the ranks are based on a Knights Templar hierarchy. Although not in the same historical period as Dark Age of Camelot, it nevertheless is more indicative of what everyone believes of knights during the romantic period of Arthur and Camelot and was felt to be an appropriate name in the spirit of the game.

The Knights Templar introduced strict order and hierarchy within their regime and had many chapters across Europe. They were seen as Holy Warriors and wore a red eight-pointed cross on a white background as their emblem. The Rosicrucians were fabled to have been involved in alchemy and the occult.

The Templars were seen as a secret society and in the 14th century were suppressed in France, with the arrest of many thousands and the execution of the Grand Master. The arrest of the Templars occurred on Friday, 13th of October, 1307 but some managed to escape the arrests. This gave birth to the popular saying 'Friday the 13th, unlucky for some'. Popular theory at this point states that the Freemasons were born of the knights fleeing to Scotland. Another theory states that the Rosicrucians were founded from the suppression of the Templars.

This guild fuses the two cults into one to provide an interesting historical backdrop for the members. It also provides the basis of the structure and hierarchy which the early days of the guild were built upon.

Acuas Templar
Founder and Grand Master of Order of the Rose-Croix

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