In 2001 the Soul
Assassins were officially formed in the game Throne of Darkness. The
guild was formed by OblivionSA and two other people after a brief
stint with another guild of lesser quality. The guild was founded on
a premise of fanatical loyalty to the guild and each other, and the
overall quest for power at any cost.
We took on a Lawful-Neutral Evil stance on most decisions and did
not hesitate to destroy anyone who opposed us.
After a few months, the personal fame of OblivionSA and the fame of
the guild grew dramatically. With that growth in fame came an
increase in numbers. Within a few months, the guild membership had
jumped from about 20 up to more than 50 active dedicated members.
The guild was restructured to accomodate these new numbers and was
subdivided into 5 divisions consisting of 4 "soldier" units and a
"leadership" unit. The leadership unit acted as somewhat of a
council of close advisors. To this point, the rule of SA was still
strictly in the hands of OblivionSA and he did indeed rule with an iron fist.
As time went on, about 6-7 months after the formation, the guild
membership topped 100 and we were the most powerful and feared guild
in the game. Even the Korean (alot
of them played this game) guilds with twice our numbers cowered in
fear. By this time OblivionSA was the most powerful single player in
the game and his closest advisors weren't far behind. With this
power we acted as a veritable monarchy within the game, judging
trials and dealing in the trade of super rare items.
During this time there were a few rogue members who had been
stealing from the guild and misrepresenting us in matters of
diplomacy. They were essentially extorting lesser members in my name
for their own benefit. This caused what I shall call the
"kin-strife" wherein about 10 members of the guild were expelled and
blacklisted. The next month or so were spent gathering intelligence
on those members and following them from place to place on order of
death. Once those behind the betrayal were discovered, and all
parties concerned were proved, all those responsible were officially
blacklisted and hunted to no end. In total, 11 members were expelled
and 27 people stopped playing the game for fear of being killed
every 5 seconds.
After about a year, the guild membership
reached its peak at 143. By this time there were 10 divisions and
seperate hierarchies for each division, all being ruled by a few
close advisors. Many guilds came and went but all felt our
influence. There were a few "wars" between rival guilds, but none
were worth mentioning here. SA continued to dominate the game until
approximately 2 years after the formation.
At this point, the guild was officially handed over to one of the
council members and OblivionSA receded into the shadows to become merely a
whisper and a legend. He wandered around keeping up general relations
and offering advice to the newly appointed leader, and after about 2
months of such a life, He decided to take his leave of the game.
There was a massive meeting in which he said goodbye to the people
he
had become so close to. A few of the members actually admitted to
crying when I left.
After only 6 months of this new leadership the guild crumbled
under the pressures of internal strife and betrayal. The
OblivionSA the only thing left to do was to hunt those responsible
and disband the guild.
In February of 2004 the Guild was to officially reform on the Middle-earth Online forum. Taking key members from a guild known as Liquid Evil, OblivionSA, Amonereb, Gilthanor, Kierrkian, Loar of Ephel Duath and a few others founded what we now know as the Soul Assassins. Great deeds were done on the forums of MEO. Roleplayed attacks on other kinships and guilds built our reputation as the only corrupt kinship worth note. Being partly responsible for the downfall of a number of kinships through our influencial network of informants, our power grew. Eventually we boosted our ranks by taking over a number of key members from the Safe Havens of Arda.
Our antics culminated in November of 2004 when Amonereb led the kinship on an attack of the Elves of Imladris, our long-time adversaries. The Soul Assassins changed the look of the Elves website to reflect their own black and red colours and removed all the forums except one. In this forum, and on the main MEO forums the Soul Assassins held Lotheani to ransom and demanded that the Elves bow to our greatness. You can read up on this at warcry who covered it for us.
Over the months the Soul Assassins have been involved in a number of community events including various competitions from fansites such as www.lotrosource.com We even visited Turbine Nation in Providence en-force and provided the dev's with fun and attics. The Happy Spoon of Keeper was stolen and Amonereb won a drinking contest in the Trinity Basement Quest.
The game MEO has been long in coming and so the Soul Assassins have been playing various other games in the meantime. Most notably World of Warcraft where our guild rose to about 40 members strong. Unfortunately WoW is not a game for a guild like ours has become and so many members left. A rolecall of all the members from that time who left can be found on the download page.
In 2005 MEO was renamed Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) and some major changes to the game were announced. Most notably the lack of PvP and the disbandment of the alignment system. This caused the Soul Assassins to rethink their position in LOTRO. It was with great pride that we announced the creation of Daesigil (Shadow Dagger), our new LOTRO chapter.
LOTRO turned out to be nothing like our expectations and it wasn't long before the guild split into those who wanted to play, those who didn't and those whose lives had changed and couldn't commit to the guild like they used to. Notably the Guild Leadership was hit by this.
As so the Guild went into slumber with just a handful keeping the spirit alive within LOTRO and Guild Wars
In late 2007 Amonereb, decided it was time to either reinvent or end all and it is so with vigor and intent that he brings the guild to his age old home of Warhammer.
Copyright Soul Assassins 2007