…join ’em!

After much deliberation and discussion (and the promise of weekly good loot for 25 wPVP kills), The Grim has decided to faction change to the blue side, and change its name to <The Cheerful>.

“After seeing ourselves as Alliance in the Battle for Dazar’alor raid, we decided we liked how we looked,” said Awatu, The Grim’s The Cheerful’s leader.

“Yeah, I really like doing flippy elf jumps!” That was from Syreenna, whose raid troll gets changed to a night elf in the raid.

On Monday night, The Grim held its annual Hallow’s End Costume Contest.

The hostess was Captain Shadowblade (aka Syreenna).  Vashni and Duskheron helped judge the contest.

Argh, me mateys!

The winner of the contest was an agent of the Firelord (aka Mirathendia).  The prize was 10,000 gold pieces.

Agent of the Firelord

Mirathendia rode up onto the stage on a fiery corehound.

“Don’t burn the stage down!” Qharim advised.

“Or do,” Qabian said mildly.  “It’ll add to the ambience.”

“I am,” Mirathendia announced,  “as the human pointed out earlier, an agent of the Firelord.”

Second place, and the winner of 5,000 gold pieces, was Malygos (aka Qabian).

Malygos

“My name is Malygos, Lord of Magic,” Qabian said. “I tried to destroy you all for the crime of being absolutely miserable failures and using magic to be the greatest failures you could possibly be.  But I proved to be the greater failure still, as all my sister had to do was find a ragtag group of nobodies to take me down once and for all.”  He paused to yank on the whelpling’s chain.

“This is my equally worthless son, Kalecgos. He’s an absolute moron and he’s somehow not dead yet, but there’s hope. All of you should get to work on that.

” Though I can’t exactly show you my true power, anymore, being dead and all, I can at least show you…” At this point, Qabian turned into a blue dragon.  “The face of my daughter.”

He shimmered back into his normal form.  “I’m sure there’s a lesson in all that about family,” he concluded with a smirk.

Other contestants, in order of appearance…….

Farmer Farmyare

Fanyare walked up unannounced onto the stage.

Qharim whispered, “She has a turnip?!”

Fanyare. in a drawl voice, like a dwarf that’s been hit on the head, said “I’m Farmer Farmyare, and I grow turnips and Humans in the sludge fields” She bowed down graciously, and then she walked back off just as silently as she walked up.

High Exarch Turalyon

“Behold the power of the Light!” Awatu called out.  “I am High Exarch Turalyon!  I have lived inexplicably long for a Human!  Forsooth, I have acquired an elven maiden as my bride, despite their general distaste for my kind!  I am a Champion of the Draenei, despite them living much longer than I or even my people have existed for!  Yes, the Naaru have chosen ME, a HUMAN, because of the LIGHT.  Which is amazing, you should all try it.  The LIGHT!”

Awatu threw around a golden light colored magic, and then he continued on.  “Despite being a heretical blasphemy in nothing more than an elemental power…it is MORE POWERFUL THAN WHATEVER IT IS YOU DO!   For I am….HIGH EXARCH TURALYON!”

Blades of Light!

“Ahem…” Umbral started. “What lttle I remember of my life before uh… a few months ago… I recall spending time in Tirisfal Glades. Occasionally I’d hear a fanatical devotion to a particular fighting style emenating from that Scarlet Cathedral… The sound of screaming that came after it was amazing!

“It went something like… Blades…” Umbral spun around, spinning blades around in a circle.  “OF LIGHT!”

“An attempt was made.” ~Awatu

“I have glowing peppers, and am hastily undressed,” Qharim said as he stood on the stage.  “A cage for a hat.  Terror for a pet.”

“He knows we aren’t all blind, right?” Umbral asked.

“Bah!  I am bad at this!” Qharim flailed off the stage.

“What are you?” Umbral asked.

“A hot caged elf,” Qharim answered.

But Qabian had another idea. “A nightmare,” he suggested.

“Guess who?”

Jorlkal arrived then.  She walked directly to Umbralheart and said “Guess whoo?”

Then she “moo’d” at Awatu.  “Part of my costume, Commander!” Jorlkal added quickly.

“A freebie for the holiday,” Awatu acknowledged with a nod.

Happy Hallow’s End!

Brill after the Battle for Lordaeron

By now, everyone has surely heard about the Battle of Lordaeron.  The Alliance forces overtook the place, swarming through the ruins like rats scurrying through a tomb.  The Warchief had no choice but to call for her Horde forces to retreat.

When Baine sounded the retreat, the Commander of The Grim gave the order for his members to fall back to the Grim’s halls in Brill to defend their base there.   They broke off from the rest of the Horde and headed for where the Gallow’s End Tavern once stood. The town was already in ruin, and the secret entrance to the Grim’s headquarters was exposed.  After the Mandate’s followers were inside, the door was sealed with magic and stone.

Some Alliance, namely the Twilight Empire, saw The Grim breaking off the main group of Horde and pursued.  It did not take them long to break through the barriers at the entrance of the guildhall, and soon members bearing the colors of Twilight Empire clashed with those of The Grim just inside the entrance.

Meanwhile, other Grim were deeper in the catacombs, retrieving documents and artifacts and other important items.  Eventually, knowing they were outnumbered with all the Alliance outside, Awatu, the Grim Commander, gave the order for the Grim to abandon their guildhall of many years and find their way to safety. Most of the Grim exited the halls through portals, summons, and back exits.  A few remained to stall the Alliance intruders for a few more precious moments, sacrificing themselves so the others could get out.

Grim who spoke about the whole incident had varying emotions.  Some were angry, some were indifferent.

“It was… not unexpected, considering the result of the Ashenvale offensive,” Commander Awatu Stonespire of The Grim said.  “While effective, the Warchief continues to make… questionable tactical decisions. As for the loss of the Halls, they are simply rooms and corridors. We can rebuild and rejoin the war effort. We lost a battle, but a war still needs to be fought.”   Commander Stonespire has since called for the search of a suitable location for a new Grim guildhall.

High Inquisitor Qabian Grimfire had a bit more than that to say on the subject.  “Our guild hall was a stuffy, gloomy place that wasn’t worth spending any more time in than absolutely necessary, but it was useful enough with its history and its use as a gathering point that it was frequently absolutely necessary. Gathering points are easy enough to replace, but the history we built is gone.

“Perhaps on some level it was inevitable that Stormwind would try to reclaim Lordaeron from the people who paid the price of their very lives to remain in their own homeland,” Qabian continued. “Humans have always been idiotic on the basest of levels, prone to taking things that don’t belong to them. However, I for one am convinced that they never would have had the courage to march through Tirisfal and ruin the lives we’d built if it weren’t for the things I’m hearing about the reappearance of a Menethil.

“The individuals who chased us through and ransacked the place we had made ours, on the other hand,” Qabian went on some more, “I believe did so for deeply personal reasons, because they took offense to the various effects the Mandate had on their lives. That also has an edge of inevitability. The Mandate is not in the business of diplomacy or goodwill. We will always make the kind of enemies who would gladly end our lives with their own hands, and if they are given the opportunity to exploit any weaknesses we may suffer, as the Battle for Undercity provided them, they will never hesitate to strike. Never doubt that for a moment. Therein lies the importance of seeing the Mandate through to its ultimate goal. Should we fail, our survival, as individuals, as a collective, as nations, as the Horde itself, all of it is on the line.”

Aureilya Raindawn, Keeper of Grim scrolls and documents, scowled when asked about it.  “It matters not,” she said. “Let them have the blight infested land, it’s worthless to them anyway. It doesn’t matter to the Mandate what location we hold. The loss of the guildhall changes nothing. Our numbers continue to grow, even now. Let their blood soak the earth of whatever new location we procure.”

A flash of rage passed through Gavril Nikolaev’s eyes when asked about it, but the Grim warlock quickly regained his composure.  “We lost the guild hall. We lost the Undercity. I pray we recovered enough from our archives and vaults that the loss cuts none too deep. Sentimentality favors us not, but the fact of the matter is that we are at a severe tactical disadvantage.

“We Forsaken are not well-loved by the other members of the Horde,” Gavril continued. “The loss of the Undercity is not something about which most orcs, trolls, Tauren or elves will think twice. The burning of Teldrassil, however … Will either galvanize the Alliance, or burn away at their faith … We need a new guild hall, or our enemies will chip away at us and eventually destroy us. We are nomads. Homeless. Exposed to the elements. This must needs be rectified before anything else.”

“The battle was a mess,” commented Umbra Longheart, warrior of The Grim.  “The Alliance caught us with our pants down, nobody suspected they would stoop to our level when they flattened Brill. It’s not the first battle I’ve been on the losing side of, though some could have saved themselves some grief by following Awatu’s orders clearly. In the heat of battle, a clear chain of command needs to be adhered to, even a bad plan can succeed with everyone working in lock step.”

Umbra went on to add, “I never spent much time there as i never felt entirely… safe… I’ve done a bit of leg work finding some nice out of the way, forgotten by time locations throughout Lordaeron that would be suitable for modification, I’ve already handed the list off to Qabian though I’m sure he’s forgotten about it if he even had time to read it while beating the war drum.”

Aquizit Shadesoul, Seeker of The Grim, did not seem too concerned when asked about the loss of the guildhall.  “It’s a shame, solely for the fact of needing to find somewhere else to store and house the things and people who need it.  I think, as a whole, it is insignificant. This organization does not suffer those who can’t take care of themselves, and the Mandate is enduring beyond paper, parchment, or records.  It’s good to have a hall, for presence’s sake alone, to tell the world we exist, and that we endure. But for one individual hall? It’s just a symbol, not the heart.”

Aderlee said “I tink de Grim fought well.  We ‘ad very liddle casualties and we kept de Alliance away for a good while.  De wards were strong but not strong enough.  Dat was a weakness I ‘ad found last year at Khorvis’ request, but I don’t know if anyting was done ta make dem stronger.  Da guild hall itself was fine, but it’s a loss dat we can replace.  Losing Brill and Lordaeron exposed dat it was not in a strong position.  We can do better.  We got de important bits and artifacts and Grims out.  Dat’s more important den stone and dirt.”

Lord Pincus Dorian, longtime warlock of The Grim, gave only three words in comment:  “Unfortunate, but necessary.”

======================================================================

The Grim and Twilight Empire

OOC~

Before the storyline kicked off, The Grim and Twilight Empire met to have some fun PVP skirmishes outside of Brill.  This was The Grim’s last event on Twisting Nether/Ravenholdt servers.  Thank you, Twilight Empire, for being a part of it!

Nearly thirteen years ago, on September 16, 2005, the Necromancer, Maledictus, began writing what would later become known as the Mandate. Wishing to see the destruction of the races of the Alliance, The Grim formed under the tenant – Peace Through Annihilation. The founding members of The Grim were: Ayabba the Forsaken Warlock, Grainger the Steward, Laughingcrow the Tauren Hunter, Pincus the Forsaken Warlock, Snowfeather the Tauren Druid, and four others whose name and deeds have been lost to history.

Since those very early days of the Twisting Nether server, The Grim have remained a heavy RP guild, IC determined to see the complete destruction of the Alliance and any other enemies of the Horde. Our echoed cries of “Peace through annihilation!” rang throughout every corner of Azeroth (“like a damn wolf pack” according to one person). We’ve also done our share of world PVP and battlegrounds, and we’ve managed to obtain every AotC achievement this expansion while still keeping a casual feel to our raid team.

One of the earliest events that was popular on the server, so popular, in fact, that it crashed the server, was the King of Rats storyline. King Varian Wrynn was once found in the sewers of Alcaz Island, and The Grim made a storyline about discovering him and using him as a lab rat for plague experiments. When we came back to check on the results, we were accompanied by other Horde. An Alliance force, led by the Ironforge Regiment, was there to meet us. The battle was short-lived; apparently the servers back then couldn’t handle two full raid groups of Horde fighting against four full raid groups of the Alliance.

Cristok’s Challenge was a popular event that started in Burning Crusades. A formal dueling tournament among Horde members, the purpose of the Challenge was to both prepare the heroes of the Horde to fight the forces of the Alliance and as a show of force. Also during this time, The Grim began weekly assaults on the fortress of Theramore. Fabled Order, an Alliance group of Paladins, stood as the main defense for the last living citizens of the kingdom of Lordaeron.

During the Wrath of the Lich King, we led a massive assault, later known as The Drums of War, which raged across the capitals of the people of Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms. Despite the threats from the Lich King in Northrend, the heroes of the Horde and the Alliance finally faced each other in open conflict. In the end, the Horde was successful in a coordinated attack on the Exodar, Ironforge, Darnassus, and Stormwind – seeing to the defeat of both hero and civilian alike. Arguably, the Drums of War was the start of the downward spiral of Alliance heroes until the discovery of Pandaria.

During Cataclysm, Cristok and Leyujin led Onslaughts–various RPPvP storylines and events. One was “The Doom of Stormwind.” In an attempt to destroy Stormwind from afar, The Grim had developed a plan to use Ragnaros’s energies, contained within a cannon shell, to be fired from Bilgewater Harbor against the White City. The plan was derailed due to the efforts of the Praetorian Guard, a highly trained Alliance military outfit that struck several successful raids against Grim depots that housed the materials needed for the superweapon.

During Warlords of Draenor, members of The Grim participated in large storylines led by other members of the Twisting Nether & Ravenholdt community, such as Eclipse, Quorum, and Hollow, just to name a few. There was also the informal war between The Grim and Sanctuary.

Unfortunately, since the launch of Legion, the server community population has greatly declined, or at least gone mostly absent from the game. RP guilds have disappeared, whether to leaving the game, disbanding, transferring to other servers, or just becoming less active in-game. For The Grim, Legion has been an expansion of struggles to find people to play with. Roleplay in-game has been scarce, attendance at Grim planned events was a mere handful of people, we often had to struggle to find a sufficient number of people to raid, and our Rated Battleground Team disintegrated with the loss of a few people, because there was nobody to replace them. Recruiting has been extremely painful due to the lack of population remaining here on the server.

After a very long period of consideration, and trying to come up with other ideas, The Grim has made the difficult decision to move to a more active server where, hopefully, we can once again be part of an active roleplaying community in the game.  On Sunday, July 29, 2018, The Grim has transferred to Wyrmrest Accord.

Farewell, Twisting Nether. We hope you have lots of fun and success in BfA.

“I can’t stop now. The War demands much of us all, and this is no time to falter.”
– Cristok, former Hand of the Mandate.