Being a member of the guild "Arcane Order" I met some great people that felt like family. I've forgotten most of them today. I recall Salin--a high elf who was the guildmaster for "Arcane Order". Others include Kbel, Meagey (gnome magician and real-life friend of Zack Graham). A close companion was the dark elf necromancer Syndor. He would be a central influence on me, my best friend, and he later became my roommate in real life, traveling all the way from Oklahoma to live with me in Ocean City, MD.

My necromancer Volmort (left) and best bud Syndor (right) and my halfling rogue Tacky

One of my other best buddies was a dark elf cleric named Vaelelil, also a member of "Arcane Order." Then there was the charming guy named Kibano, who added "itooo" to every name and various words. People in the guild affectionately adopted his mannerism and called him Kibanoritooo. My main character from roughly late 2000 on was a dark elf necromancer named Volmort. (Wasn't a fan of Harry Potter, but I liked the name Voldemort so I truncated it for a cool alternate character name). My second main character was a halfling rogue named Tacky Ticky. Then there was my dark elf warrior named Deadfall. In trying to dig up traces of this 1999-2002 era on the Xegony server, I found a few threads on reddit and the Project 1999 EQ forums, but not much to go on. Nobody has chimed in that I recognize because my Xegony days were confined to 1999-2002. My memory has eroded so much and naturally a single server might have 1000-1500 active players, all at different levels and across many guilds.

My screenshot of some kind of event in Rathe Mountains. My necro Volmort Plaguebearer from Arcane Order guild can be seen on bottom left in the purple robes.

In trying to dig up traces of this 1999-2002 era on the Xegony server, I found a few threads on the Project 1999 EQ forums, but not much to go on. My memory has eroded so much and a single server might have 1000-1500 active players, all at different levels and across many guilds. Someone named Tass Underfoot loaded hundreds of screenshots from the year 2000. Sadly, as I scroll through I don't remember any of these people, just fleeting recognitions of guilds (Havenlight and Inner Circle) and perhaps people I did cross paths with. I wish I could recall more names of folks who 25 years ago were dear friends. There is one guy I found in this screenshot dump: Kibano, my old friend, was captured in a few of them. Yet I seem to remember his race was troll or perhaps he used illusion items to change his appearance. It's him alright. Just seeing his name is like finding an old photo of a buddy I haven't seen in decades. In the screenshot with dead ogre in foreground, there's a dark elf cleric in the background and member of Arcane Order.

Joining random groups in EQ led to some longterm friendships and eventual joining of guilds. Before joining Arcane Order, I made my own guild which had several members called Har'oloth's Keepers. It might have been a Magic the Gathering reference. Many of my character names were drawn from MTG lore in the 90s: Talruum, my barbarian shaman, for example. I wanted to name my first character Volrath (I believe it was already claimed by a High Elf cleric who used this name for a year or two at launch). I remember some days of signing in and checking my friends list to send dozens of PMs or "tells" to my roster of buddies. For a shut-in like myself who was basically homeschooled in high school, friends weren't taken for granted.

Below are screenshots I've recovered from files I kept on backup floppy disks that I recently scrounged up. Remarkably, almost all the files on 30 floppy disks containing EQ images were intact and not corrupt. Here are the images I found from my time on Xegony. I still have potentially hundreds of screenshots to find that live on an old computer I haven't used in 20 years. Hoping it'll boot up and I can salvage what I can soon.

Somebody captured me with the updated Shadows of Luclin character models applied. I never opted in for this update so I guess someone sent me these images.

Not sure if this is mine or shared by somebody else from Arcane Order. I suspect it's me because a guildmember saying not to take a screenshot and me doing so was very much my humor back then. Vaelelil, Vikki, Meier, Relicate all referenced in the text. That must be Vikki sitting there too.

My halfling rogue. I don't even remember if (Itoo) was a legit guild or what. It's definitely derived from an in-joke guild reference from Arcane Order on the Xegony server. One player, Kibano, popularized a way of speaking in which we added "itooo" to a lot of words. Don't ask where this came from. It was like our version of "Ba ba booey" or "all your base are belong to us."

A real screenshot taken by me. Wow! I selected it for some reason to preserve on a floppy disk.

Another real screenshot saved in low jpg quality unfortunately. This is my from my dark elf warrior, Deadfall on Xegony.

A couple screenshots taken by my friend Vaelelil Darkheart on Xegony. Apart from Vaelelilitoo fighting a giant bipedal lizard, I see a few familiar names in the guild chat: Ripon and Snoopy. Also Leadar.

I believe this is Vaelelil's alt, Sallar Norezforu (ha).

Meagey's screenshot. He was a great friend of mine on Xegony and we talked a lot. He was actually a friend of a real-life friend of my childhood. Never met him in person but got to know him a great deal in EQ. In the top 5 of best friends. We had so much fun and he was one of those buddies I loved to send random tells and talk shit or make him laugh with silly quips.

Another screenshot of Meagey. Not sure who Thorne is, so Meagey must have been sent the screenshot and he forwarded it to me. The text log is humorous. Sgs = Sand giants.

Website banner I made for a small guild I created before joining Arcane Order: Har'oloth's Keepers.

Below are screenshots I've recovered from Tass Underfoot's page: