What is your earliest memory of Istaria?

[Amarie Ancalimon]

The topic says it all really. What is your first real memory of Istaria? Whether it is from back in the days of beta, or something much more recent, tell us your story of your first days in Istaria.

[Sigi]

I had bought the game, not knowing it was a mmo. Never played one so I was a bit scared to begin but with the first month free play I thought I would give it a try (this was a few months after it came alive in Europe).
Really weird setting my first steps in a new world, Ice it was, not knowing what or how. Are there other people? do they see me? how to interact? What is the purpose?
My first contact with another player was near the vaultkeeper at New Vasserak. He or she gave me some armorpeaces. And because I had not figured out yet how to "talk" to others I had to accept in silence, while trying to find "how to" in the manual. I was very relieved when I found out how to interact with all the very nice people I have met since.
Needless to say that after that first free month I was hooked

[Takora Drakan]

Ohhh I have one!

When I got my beta key and after started horizons I went straight to the dragon creation room. I made a adorable Takora and was all the time going "uuhhh" "ahh" and "coool"!

Then I spawned on the NT pad. I went out exploring and running around. On a road there where t1 trees spawning along it and suddenly i saw my first biped! It was cutting the trees down and I just standed there stunned and watched him. After more hours of running around i found the dragon trainers! Yay! They where so huuuge! But then I had to log out and went to bed because it was really late! haha

[LOVWYRM]

A friend, with whom we used to play other mmo`s brought us to HZ.

I never was much interested in that, but knowing that I loved dragons all life long, he said "come and try and I show you dragons".

So I created that little purple hatchie and came to NT.
We played there for some hours, than he (kinsakh) told me he want`s to introduce me to someone.

I could see her from far away, I did not believe my eyes, I was speechless:

there she was: the (adorable^^) big golden Dragoness.

She was my first impression - impressive

[Sindala]

My first memory was back in the early days.

Created my first char and went to New Brommel, where upon i was met by 5 gnomes all in their underwear.

That was a sight thats been burned in my memory ever since

[Nayuaka]

The first thing I remember was the loading screen from the Halloween even over three years ago. I remember thinking wow that's pretty and gosh that music is beautiful. I remember making my dragon and remaking it over and over till I got her perfect and I remember stepping into the world and hearing the story of the gifted the first time on the old training isles no one ever sees anymore. I also remember running into the water to swim across the river and proceding to walk across the bottom.

I was so excited when I first started playing...this was my first mmo and everything was so new. Almost everything is a fond memory... From the first time I made a BOOM spell to the first time I saw the dragon statues over the waterfall in my home island of New Vassarak.

[Justa Mirage]

My first memories are from day 1 retail:

"Dragons are cool, but I can create a white bengal tiger (which I love) and Justa was born"

"Trying to get into the game and seeing 'server is full' or 'heavy' "

"Watching the frame... frame... frame... of 100's of players in New K"

"Having been given a cargo disk, and was concerned that someone could steal my disk or the stuff inside if I park it somewhere."

"Running away from the 11th level winter wolves (before they became 50th level after the merge)"

[Vaz]

A golden hatchling's butt, on Skalkaar Island. I have no memory of how I found the game. x)

[LaughingOtter]

Hmm, let's see... here are a few from beta:

Being up on the Kion volcano getting my backside kicked by slate golems, then watching a 50-ish Dragon Spiritist use flame, claw, and lifedrains to lay waste to those same golems.

Scneelindwurm! - The barking dragon himself. Scneel was one of the most frequently seen WMs during beta. Favorite memory: going hunting with a guildie, Nisse, in Golem Alley in Dralk (now it's the road with all the gems, cobalt, & platinum) and running into Scneel. Scneel joined us for a bit of fun, but had to go AFK suddenly. Nisse got killed and had to recall. Scneel returned about a minute later and I explained what happened.

"Scneelindwurm does not have to wait," he announced, and *POOF*, Nisse just appears next to us.

>>Nisse: "OMG WTF happened!?!"
>>Scneelindwurm: "Hehehe"

Running out to the Forbidden Zone - It took around half an hour of walking underwater to get to the edge of the world and fall off of it. Then another hour & a half of running through a whole lot of nothing to get there...

The Forbidden Zone

GIMMEQUEST - Now that's a great NPC name...

Unfortunatly, I only took a few screenies before catching sight of a monster I'd never seen before. "Guys, there's something here called the Avatar of Pain. Looks really cool..." Famous last words...

Other fun memories: Lag harvesting! "Hey, I've been mining nonstop for 20 minutes and the first few ores finally dropped into inventory! Can I make it to the smelter before the rest hits?"

Trade overload! As long as you had some room left in inventory, you could accept a trade of any size! Who needs a cargo disk when you can 'leapfrog' 40,000 bulk worth of uncut gems across the Aughundell mines to the gem cutter? Need to port some construction supplies in the days before Tarbash disks? Get a few friends to shuffle loads around and have one person port with 300 keystones in inventory!

New Brommel, first week of live: There were so many people in the ore field, the default graphics settings wouldn't display them all, resulting in constant arguments over who was working what node first. Making a pile of money selling social clothes to people who hated the starting tunic. Group spider hunts and hoard-crafting parties at Lower Iron. Heading to the essence field near Nuthala and running into the Spider Huntress - and the two Marrows who were following her around...

Good times!

[rizo/nawkia]

my earliest memory is about 4 years ago

i had just went to walmart an say the picture of a draogn on the cover and i bought it unaware that it was an mmo..i didnt even know what mmos were lol

anyway after 3 days of begging my parents for their credit card i finally got in an went straight for the dragons making a blue one with a round head and green decals and i called myself redball fireball...i was on life which was soon to become chaos and it was the time of the vielo

i started in new brommel and kinda just explored for a while and started asking a bunch of questions and pretty much did everything that your average new player would do but back then i was also a brat the wanted everything done now lol im not that way anymore thank goodness>.>

the earliest guilds that i remember were Forsaken, (Someting) of the Twin moons, the ancients , and ...some other one the escapes my memory but anora was the guild leader and Humble, mikeles, and another were in there an they were my first friends

[Arietna]

getting bored of 4 years in EQ (or so), and looking around for alternatives. Had seen Horizons in the shop a week earlier and couldn't get it out of my mind. Playable DRAGONS!!!
Badgered my husband until he let me buy a copy (didn't really take much!).. and installed it. This was a week before CHristmas iirc very soon after it had come out, and waiting SOOO impatiently for it to finish installing. I got to the character generation screen, generated a dragon.. then looked at the other characters and fell in love with the Saris.. and so Ariadne was born .. (on ICE).

Started in New Brommel, and I was amazed by the number of people around, the sheer quality of the graphics, which DO still stand up to "modern" games, and the music. I have been hooked ever since.

My memory of the early days - those Imperial taskmasters in their purple wizard type robes, standing close to the consigner in New Brommel.. the sheer difference of the player community (even in those days) to EQ.. I knew I'd found a home.

[Justa Mirage]

Oh yea... forgot about the "trade overflow" of the crafting servers going bonkers.... it was fun seeing how many resources you could harvest and running to a processing machine before the server caught up and dumped the harvested stuff in your pack.

Oh... and "Nuthala" didn't exist 1 week after release I owned a plot in what is now known as Nuthala, they had this naming contest for the regions that had no names... "South Parsinia" didn't win :P

[rizo/nawkia]

i did that once i was gathering an it wasnt showin up so i relogged an i had over 3k sandstone in my pack X.X and i was 10m from the machine..

[Arcat]

My first memory was that I got a Quest at New Trismus (Wind shard) to obtain "Cedar Logs" right after starting the game for the first time. Unaware of the crafting system, which would suck me in completely for the following 3 years just a few hours later, I expected to kill a monster or something and hence asked another player of "it's" whereabouts.

Needless to point out my shocking surprise after I've been told I'm standing in a forest of cedar trees and SHOULD OPEN MY BLOODY EYES.

I was so embarrassed by this that I deleted that character to wipe out my past and started over with Arcat


best,
Arcat

[Krystine]

My early memories are of the ore field on New Trismus. Folks were making tools for each other as we got forms. Much time was wasted running up and down the hills just for the sheer joy of climbing.

[peladon]

Ah... my first memory of the land... and one that still glows for all those tides made turned since then...

Some few candles have burned, aye and wax melted like a river, since my first waking. But still I remember whole and well... and it is indeed my first memory.

For there came a tide that I woke... and I found me on a road. A thing of feet, for no wind would bear me then. And while mine avatar had pondered much on my being while the land had grown.. that one had paid little heed to the manner of waking.

And a road it was, and a land it was.. and the sun shone, and the land was new... but I knew not one single thing. And down that road I stepped me, aye and stepped in sooth. For I was young to this land and new to this form.. and I knew not if any Foe or evil thing was near or would greet me. Likely? Small chance? I knew not... and one foot I stepped, and then another... and then I would wait.. and be as sure as may be that none of ill were near... then another foot...

Heh... mayhap a half candle mark I stepped so... and a thing I saw. Sure indeed now I know any shrine I see... but this? This then was new.. and about it I stepped... stepped slow and sure to mark no ill or surprise... marked it this and so, and pondered long ere I set my spirit to its binding. And then again, that foot stepped, thus and so.. the care, the tight and beating heart... and each step a victory in itself . Till elder Ryerson Stormbringer came to view... and the land's long tale begain its unfold.

Thus it was, and thus it is. For still my memory is strong... and still that small and lackwit youngling steps those steps upon the Long Road's beginning...

No few candles few candles have burned, aye and wax melted like a river, since my first waking. But still I remember whole and well... and it is indeed my first memory.


Sephiranoth, called by some ShadowSeeker
Nobody and Nothing ever, save The Five do Feast
A Fool that walks among the Wise

[C`gan]

Let's see. Tagath was first at it. Three of our gaming group and my sister ALL got in early on the beta. Within the first day of it, they were badgering him to get into beta, only a few slots left! Well, with being on dialup on a P100 computer (yes, that's a Pentium 1, 100 MHz processor computer), he didn't meet specs. All the better when the computer itself went through a thermonuclear meltdown a week or so later. So it was a wild ride getting new computer components, putting them together, having another person double check why it wouldn't start up (and reconfiguring about 3/4 of the jumpers) and, well, still didn't make it into beta. Brokenhearted, Tagath chalked it up that he'd never make it in.

Day after Christmas, 2003, one of our gaming group had gotten him Horizons: Empire of Istaria for Christmas. He installed right away and made the Tagath everyone nearly knows now, starting out in New Trismus.

Right away, he wanted a guild. Fists of the Midnight Moon it was to be called. *ALERT* unacceptable due to profanity (Midnight). Yes, that's right, Midnight was somehow in the profanity list for guild names.Ok, so we'll change that. Fists of the Moon. *ALERT* unacceptable due to profanity (Moon). Ummm hello? That big rocky satellite in the sky is profane? Why do we have one? Hmmm, bug report after bug report and no good answer why these words are profane. So, to get around it, let's go LATIN! *BUZZ* too long. GRRR! Ok, to shorten it up, we'll just use Luna Mediae Noctis (Midnight Moon). And thus was the starting guild of Tagath, Bolar, and Edge on Dawn shard. After a couple weeks and no growth, they all merged with Obsidian Order.

About a month later, when Tagath got his craft levels high enough, he went and offered his services to a group of people doing building. What do you mean that dragons can't harvest logs? You push over the bloody tree and get on with it. NOPE. And biped construction? Please. Dragons can't do that. So, dejectedly, Tagath saw his dreams of being a master builder slip away until he decided that he knew what he had to do: have a rider. Guess what! Here I am!

Took me a quick race with a couple of our guildmates (Imayo and Joal) but I ended up beating them out with all five construction classes and was given the official title of Architect.

[AmonGwareth]

Driving up to the Artifact entertainment offices in Mesa for my interview. Being asked to sit in the lobby and seeing these massive wall posters of the races and thinking "WOW!".

Then two weeks later getting into the game and seeing the beta tutorial structure for the first time and Ryson and really feeling blown away at the graphics and atmosphere.

Venturing south from Kion and reaching the edge of the forest and being afraid to enter because there was a mummy mage and skeletons and mylocs (I think). I died there many times.

[Kumu Honua]

Miracle Build.

[Kulamata]

In early beta 3 arriving on the New Trismus pad and seeing the sign "Dragon Trainers" pointing to the lairs there at the bottom of the hill; and then a dragon appeared on the pad and trotted over to the trainer; a chill went up my spine.

Very early, not having good control yet over the camera, going up the Kion volcano, to hunt golems. Many views "under" the mountain, as terrain was still pretty unstable. The size!! of the golems!

The very pretty little area that had a shrine and ruxus at the two pools on LA.

The original terrain, with the crevasses, in front of the Blight Fortress, now known as the Wedge, with the hidden passage up to the Fort . That whole area had not been populated, but I imagined a mighty army fighting its way up the defile to face the defiled at the Fort. And exploring the Fort, and hopping over the back wall to explore the little strip between it and the End of the World.

And many very happy memories of the Lower Ironworks above Kion and Parsinia. That multi-tier meeting ground was the source of many guild recruits, and where I saw my first adult dragon.

The Kion connie, filled with so many players that you could barely squeeze in the door. And my first visit to Crankenspanks; and the strange Blight Fountain (Shrine?) in New Trismus.

Many, many memories.