My avalon career started over in firstage, but I was hooked on avalon before I ever went through the character creation process

I was about... 12 years old at the time, and my mother had just started making friends in her new C++ programming classes. Older players from firstage might remember them as Jentar and Oberon (or some such spelling). They got my mom hooked and she started playing at home, sometimes for hours on end, all the while i would sit beside her completely enthralled at the idea of a fantasy world filled with evil necromancers and dashing (if often foul mouthed) knights.

It was watching her play, being attacked by the Evil Panadaios and Nazgul, learning how to use magic (she was a mage) to defend herself when I realy started champing at the bit, wanting to play a character of my own.

It was right around this time that they started a 'free to play' promotion in firstage, and I was able to jump in with both feet. For the first few months or so, I played a Cavalier. Learning the basics of combat... And frankly doing poorly at it, with very little support as thakria was made up of a few elite fighters and nobody looking out for use newbies. But i never cared in the slightest, i was having a blast, running around watching battles between titans like Sundonak Skaman, Borris and Ashmael,

while gods like Cornelius and Lycoris did battle for the souls of the mortals.

But, I young and fickle, wanting to try something new. To be... unique. So i started a new character and joined the smallest most exclusive guild in the game, The Bards.

At that time, the entire guild was made up of a the guildmaster Dax, and Myself. To me, this will always be remembered as the golden age of the bards. It had been years since there was a bard fighter, and there wasn't a single trigger cure to be found, as nobody had a single idea what the hell afflictions I was using on them. Many a much superior fighter then I would be screaming at their computer not understanding this odd 'song of peace' that little bard was singing at them, making them unable to

attack.

It's been well over 15 years since my first character logged into avalon, 13 or more of my jangling on my lyre as a bard, and I wouldn't trade those memories for any sort of social life I might have had if i pulled my nose away from the screen

Written by my hand on the 18th of Springflower, in the year 1327.