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Old 02-01-2006, 06:02   #1
Nineveh
Retired
 
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 206
Default History of Raging Fury

Below follows a brief historical overview of not only Raging Fury, but also of Antonius Bayle. This summary was originally written by Nineveh for applicants of Raging Fury as a first introduction to the guild, but upon request it has now been made available to everyone, though with certain modifications.

Raging Fury was created on "The Rathe" server in February 2001, albeit none of the founding members still reside within the guild as I am writing this summary. I personally did not join the guild until the move to Antonius Bayle took place, thus I will primarily focus on the events that occurred on the European server.

SoV/SoL

Immediately after the launch of Antonius Bayle, it became blatantly evident that this server would be one of the most congested. The player base consisted more or less solely of level 60 players with thorough raiding experience, something which was proven on the first night when more than 300 players found themselves lagging within the “Temple of Veeshan”.

Two guilds initially made a lasting impression, namely Darkwind and what was to become Mortalis. Darkwind had moved in unison from Ayonae Ro where they had already cleared the endgame raiding zone, though through moving to Antonius Bayle, thus avoiding the competition from Eternal Wrath, they hoped to secure the top spot on the new server. Oddly enough Mortalis was created merely through random invitations, which is further testimony to the amount of high quality players which relished the opportunity to play and hopefully raid end game content on a European based server. After going through several temporary names such as Europa Tribes and Northern Lights , Mortalis was finally chosen and became Darkwind’s main competition during the Velious and Luclin era.

The remaining guilds that fought for supremacy in the second tier were Innit, Justice Divine and Raging Fury. Both Darkwind and Mortalis had killed Vulak’Aerr within two weeks of the server opening, while the second tier guilds had barely begun exploring the northern parts of Veeshan’s temple, merely to illustrate the gap between the different guilds at this stage. Innit quickly fell apart due to internal problems, and Justice Divine became known for their trains and abusive language. Those of you who were not playing on Antonius Bayle at this stage might compare Justice Divine with Evolutia, who made a brief visit on Antonius Bayle prior to moving to Stromm. Justice Divine later decided to movelog to the French server, Sebilis, in the middle of the Planes of Power era.

Through the introduction of alternate advancement points, devoted players now had the opportunity to dramatically increase the power of their characters. Mortalis seemed to thrive during this expansion and widened the gap between themselves and Darkwind when they became the only guild on Antonius Bayle capable of defeating the Emperor of Ssra temple. Fearing they might lose their competitive edge, Darkwind suggested an alliance with Raging Fury, which became known as DWaRF. The alliance easily dissipated the emperor a few times, then dissolved as the need of such collaboration was no longer necessary.

Raging Fury managed to defeat the encounter in solitude a few weeks after, and just one week prior to the release of the Planes of Power expansion, Aten Ha Ra fell within Vex Thal, marking the completion of all available content to that date.

PoP

The Planes of Power expansion introduced five new levels, along with an abundance of much awaited raiding content. Darkwind became the first guild to obtain access to the elemental planes, much aided by a rather shady method of completing the Rallos Zek encounter. Mortalis completed the event a few weeks later.

Some months later, Mortalis lost the core of their leadership, and hoping to locate new potential recruits, they decided to movelog to the English server, Venril Sathir. The decision to move was highly controversial however, and many of their members decided to remain on Antonius Bayle, which set the guild back significantly.

As a result Darkwind had the elemental planes all to themselves, and strengthened their position as the now undisputed number one guild on Antonius Bayle. Raging Fury became the first tier two guild to obtain elemental access, and knowing that progress in the Plane of Time was highly dependent on gear, elemental armour farming became the primary objective for the guild, ignoring the allure of the elemental gods. Another guild was at this stage starting to display noteworthy progression, namely Shadows of Doom, who was merely lacking a Rallos Zek victory to secure access to the elemental planes.

Perpetual armour farming seemed somewhat tedious at times, and rumours of Raging Fury being on the brink of disbanding due to not being capable of entering the Plane of Time was all over Antonius Bayle. As soon as the armour farm was halted though, every elemental god was defeated with ease, and Raging Fury entered the Plane of Time.

Darkwind had just defeated Quarm for the first time as Raging Fury commenced their exploration of the endgame zone. With highly improved gear, Raging Fury literally obliterated the zone, going from Phase 1 to killing Quarm in less than three weeks. With six to eight months left until the release of the next expansion, Raging Fury was for once amply prepared for the upcoming challenges.

GoD

The Gates of Discord expansion was released in February 2004, and Darkwind initially progressed 1-2 weeks ahead of Raging Fury in Uqua. Many high end guilds, Afterlife perhaps the most noteworthy, left the game due to the amount of incomplete content released with this expansion. However both guilds finished Inktu’ta within one day of each other, sparking competition anew.

Raging Fury became the first guild to progress somewhat within Txevu, completing the Sandgarden event as the first guild on Antonius Bayle, and later the second guild serverwide to defeat High Priest Nkosi Bakari. Arch Overseers was at this stage the trailblazing guild serverwide, having long since entered Tacvi, which was to become a bane for many a raiding guild.

Darkwind leaped ahead once more by defeating Zun’Muram Tkarish Zyk aproximately one week before Raging Fury, but their progression halted at Pixtt Xxeric Kex.

Tacvi became one of the most memorable raiding zones for Raging Fury as every single named encounter was defeated first on Antonius Bayle. The Gates of Discord expansion was originally intended for players at level 65, which made the latter portions of the raiding zone all but impossible, though Raging Fury finished the expansion as the first guild on Antonius Bayle, and the fifth guild serverwide, finally residing in the position as the leading guild on the server.

OoW

The battle continued in the Omens of War expansion, and Raging Fury obtained access to the Citadel of Anguish merely 30 minutes earlier than Darkwind. A lot of animosity was displayed at this stage as both guilds accused the other of using their tactics. Guild relations had deteriorated a lot during the Gates of Discord expansion, and were only intensified through the intense competitive feeling between the guilds.

Once within Anguish however, the release of World of Warcraft and Everquest 2 severely impaired the guild. More than half of the old member base had apparently planned to migrate to World of Warcraft upon release, though they never felt the need to inform anyone of their decision. As a result practically all rading activity ceased, merely two days after Raging Fury became one of the first guilds to defeat Keldovan the Harrier.

Guild leadership and administration was at this stage replaced, and an intense recruitment period followed, which eventually brought new blood into the guild. Players coming from two European guilds on American servers, Divine Grace and Forsaken Realm, made it possible to continue raiding, and post a swift reflagging round, Anguish was attacked anew.

The coordination and efficiency of the “new” Raging Fury was unprecedented and the remaining portion of Anguish up to Overlord Mata Muram was cleared with ease. Through the completion of the Omens of War expansion, and through defeating Overlord Mata Muram as the first guild on Antonius Bayle, fifth serverwide, Raging Fury reinstated their position as the front running guild on Antonius Bayle.

DoN

Dragons of Norrath was released in the middle of the Omens of War expansion, and offered few challenges with the exception of Vishimtar the Fallen. Darkwind became the first guild serverwide to complete this encounter, while Raging Fury completed the event less than a day after. Somewhat disappointed the guild vowed to show that this was merely happenstance, a goal it achieved through defeating Overlord Mata Muram.

DoDH

Having seen what the guild was capable of, many members of Raging Fury had high expectations in regards to what they could accomplish in the Depths of Darkhollow expansion. Sendaii the Hive Queen and Master Vule were the two guardians of Mayong’s Demi Plane, and several guilds entered the new endgame zone around the same time.

Towards the end of the Omens of War expansion, all the European servers merged with Antonius Bayle, adding another guild that had defeated Overlord Mata Muram to the server roster, namely Tide. Merely 8 guilds had at this stage completed the Omens of War expansion, and three of those resided on Antonius Bayle, further evidence of the competitive level of the European server.

Darkwind were once again swift in the initial progression stages of the endgame zone, becoming the first guild to complete the first Tier of the Demi Plane, followed closely by Assent and Raging Fury. Cestus Dei seemed to be virtually untouchable in the last expansion, but now struggled to maintain supremacy on their own server, fiercely challenged by Township Rebellion.

The second tier of the Demi Plane, particularly the Performer encounter, ultimately became the barrier that separated the competing guilds. An event demanding the epitome of coordination and a highly DPS centered raid force was commented by the developers to be unbeatable in its current state. Raging Fury managed to best it however, and became the first guild serverwide to reveal the true identity of the endgame boss, Mayong Mismoore.

Inspired by their recent victory and the unique opportunity to be the first guild to finish the expansion, Raging Fury devoted themselves to learning the endgame encounter, and finally became the first guild to defeat Mayong Mistmoore, not only strengthening their position on Antonius Bayle, but also besting all the serverwide competition.

(as the end of DoDH also meant the retirement of our fearless leader Nineveh the Onerous, the remaining write-up will be done by Dalrek)

Last edited by Dalrek; 23-10-2007 at 13:47.
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