User:Tharius

Tharius started playing the Realms of Despair around 1997 in the post-clan era, and joined the Guild of Rangers almost immediately. The member who handled his application was Ganymede and the guild master was Linda. I recall being suitably impressed when Ganymede helped me kill Neptune to get a Trident, quite the accomplishment at the time. A rl friend whose character was Daltorak introduced me to the game, and we also were in communication with another BBS acquaintance, Darrek.

I recall wanting to join the Newbie Council, but was advised by then heads Julie and Stoney that becoming an avatar was a bigger priority. I recall it taking a long time for me to av, I think I was around 150 years before getting there. Primarily I enjoyed exploring and mapping then as now, as just enjoyed playing the game instead of driving to the fastest av ever.

Shortly after reaching avatar I was advised that I had chosen wrong and that I needed to level a thief if I wanted to participate in any runs. It's beyond obvious to state that I thought that was frustrating. Today's Realms is better, but still suffers this stark problem. Today's correct answer is probably vampire thanks to prestige, but at least there is some variety with new builds actually being viable. Thavius, a character that has long since autodeleted, was my entry to the Guild of Thieves which was run at that time by Fademan with Dumaka being a first, or second supporting him.

A short time later, thanks to Darrek I was introduced to the Order of Dragonslayer and inducted by Hawpch. The leader at that time was Dirca. Once in Dragonslayer I finally started going on a fair number of runs and building a small army of characters.

I played and bumped around, but then as now, there were not a lot of organized activities so I learned to do as much as I could solo. I ended up joining NC and then later simultaneously joined The Symposium, having obtained special permission to be on both councils from then council head Edmond.

For a very short time around 1999/2000 I was an immortal, but I confess that I was ill prepared and ill suited for it. I wanted to code and build but I struggled with fitting in and not seeing other points of view as challenges.

I was aware of the work being done on the Shattering, though at that time it was just called "6k" in reference to the port number. Through my friendship with Julie I was able to write some of the descriptions of the soldiers in Barren Peaks of Tahjliera. I also contributed both under Julie and after her rl death, under Sarah and Raltaris in Newbie Council to some of the changes being made there like class specific names for items from the cage mobs, etc. I recall Sarah snail mailing me the notes after she left the game so it could keep going.

Following that period I adventured with the Guild of Druids playing alongside players like Aurale, Zistrosk, Shingo, Xopus, Viracocha, and many others. This was the same time period when Ascendere was formed and the joint DS/ASC runs in the Tower of Despair were happening. I would lead GoD runs to Danbala, which many considered to be "order runs", not "guild runs".

The Shattering occured in 2002, and we lost a lot of active players who did not want to totally relearn the game. It was an era before rodPedia, when run notes were highly guarded secrets. I was promoted within Dragonslayer to second but retired from the game around 2003.

I returned around 2013 and immediately rejoined Dragonslayer under the leadership team of Joe, and Sophie but found friends within Arete under Raveyn, Jax, and Alex and moved there. While a member of Arete I became the inaugural leader of the Guild of Origin as Lareawan, and assisted in building the Guild of Spirit. I returned to Dragonslayer under Gagnon and Sophie, eventually leaving to adventure independently. I was pleased to be asked by Akael to contribute paintings to Darkhaven Art Gallery, the Archway in the Mists and Chevre Paradis are the results. I have occasionally been a member of The Symposium under Romani.

I presently lead the Guild of Origin and am first of Ringbearers, administer realmsofdespair.info, and share scripting advice on Discord.