Wendor: The Guild City



Well, if you're at this page, I assume you're a Windor newbie who would like to know more about the colorful history of the place where you're now roleplaying. (Don't ya just love assumptions? For all I know, you could have no idea what roleplaying is, let alone Windor...) Anyway, here's a little bit about how things were and how they connect to today. The majority of the stuff here is questions and answers from an interview I had with Aywren/Westwind/Blue Planet/etc. about Wendor awhile back.



Before Wendor was ever built, there was a place at members.tripod.com/~Opalfire/ called the Final Fantasy Fan Guilds. The Guilds were founded by Master Golbez (well, I always called her Guildmaster...I feel like Kain, calling someone Master Golbez...) and Silverlining. Golbez was the leader of all Wendor, while Silv, Commander of the Silver Knights, was second-in-command. The elf Deric, SK Captain, was third.



Marrah: Hmm...well, this first question is more of a personal interest than anything...but I've always wondered who exactly Opalfire was and how you ended up using her directory for the Guilds. ^^;

Aywren: Okay... Well, when I first was on the net, I used to chat at WBS. There, Opalfire was my character, and my very FIRST character, I might say. So when I signed up for a Tripod page, probably before the idea of the Guilds, I used her name. But, along the course of Opalfire's history she managed to get herself married off to another character in WBS. He wasn't a real big FF fan, so I knew he would probably not stick around the guilds. I didn't want that string attached to me character-wise, so I ended up dropping the Opalfire character all together.



A popular injoke at the time of Wendor was the fact that although the character Master Golbez was male, his player, Ayrwen, was female--and many people didn't know this. To this day there are still a few unenlightened ones whom I've heard refer to her as a he. ^_^



M: Also, how did that misconception about you being a guy (^_^) come about? Did you encourage it for roleplaying purposes, or did people just assume that you were male since you were using a male name?

A: Hehehe... good question. Actually, it became a rather embarassing situation for me before everything was done. I didn't think about it when I chose the name Golbez (funny that I shouldn't), and it was never really much of a secret that I was in fact a girl (if you had asked, I'd not have denied!) But as time went on, it became more and more useful to pose as a guy. It seemed that when I did need to take action (breaking up fights, setting things right, etc.) people dared not to cross me, and it got things done. It was also priceless to see the shock that ran across the chat room when somene else found out I was in fact a girl. You can bet those who knew the "secret" were laughing their heads off at those who did not. ^_^

M: What was your original "vision" for the FF Guilds? Did you see it becoming something as large and popular as Wendor, or did that just spontaneously occur to you later on?

A: The original guilds happened rather quickly for me in the making but took months to build up. I just thought it would be soooo cool to have a place where FF fans could get together and make friends. There just seemed to be so many places on the net where you are completely ignored if you are a newbie to the chat. I hated that. I wanted a place where everyone could feel like they were at home. The Guilds were slightly popular in their time, but it wasn't until two months later that everything began to get hectic. It began with the opening of the city Wendor. I will say right off, though some people accuse the guilds of copying other places, that is not the truth. I remember Silver and I sitting on my bed for hours jotting down lists of ideas we could make to help keep the guilds fun. It was hard work, and I was on the net nearly 24-7 (which I could NEVER do now...). Wendor and the guilds were no doubt my whole life at that time.

M: How did the characters of Golbez (well, your version...you know)--and also Silv, if you could get her to answer that--come about? Did you create them for the Guilds, or were they around beforehand?

The original Golbez came from a story I wrote six years ago, which is now what I have touched up and put on the net as Final Fantasy: Coming of the Darkstar. He was always a character I loved, though since Square didn't give him much of a character, I pretty much did that myself. He is in a way a huge reflection of me, his many sides, childlike ways, and terrible temper. I could see no one better to play.
Silverlining was Jessie's WBS character, originally the sister to Opalfire. Silver modeled her character exactly after herself, and had a ball doing it. Just about everything Silver did was true to life to the maker. In fact, she is so attached to the character, she still uses the name today.

M: So the real Silver is just as crazy as the virtual one? ^_^

A: Yep... true true... Actually, I guess I should take that back about Silver keeping her name. She has finally gotten into the role of a new character whom is much like Silver but not... (Note from Marrah: Silv now sometimes goes by the handle of Ashura, but can still be found in the Darkstar area under her old name...)

M: What were your earliest members like? Nice, helpful, creative with their characters,...weird? ^_^

Many of them were impatient. There were not enough people there to keep interest. And that was a big problem. Then we happened to meet a certain elf named Deric... and it turned everything around for us. Silver and Deric were closest of friends from the start, and were just about ALWAYS in chat. Since there was always someone in the chat, people slowly kept coming in, and things built from there.
Then there was the infamous Nik. I will say I hated that terribly. I didn't hate NIK, I hated the fact that I felt that everytime I stepped in my chat that I would have a huge fight aimed at me. I guess that was the price to pay for taking the name Golbez.
We had some like Tenchi and his brother Waturo that were there in the start... they liked to keep coming into chat under strange names... everything from President Clinton to Boogerman. That was funny at the time.
Then there was Deathwing... another character that was there in the beginning. He was always so dark and silent, but I always made it a point to speak with the guy about his favorite game in the whole wide world, Wild ARMs. As time passed, I genuinely began to like him.
Those were some of the earilest characters that I remember. That's not ALL of them, of course, just the ones that strike my mind.

M: Could you elaborate on the NIK-Nikky-etc. thing if possible? That was somewhat before my time...

A: Err... that's a hard one. Gonna have to stretch my memory. There were originally two characters played by NIK, that went by the names of Nikky and Mogus. Both were very much loved by both Silver and I. One day, so I've guessed, Nikky decided he wanted to spice things up, make a real RPG experience. So, NIK was born. I was never quite certain of the relationship of the trio of the characters, though there were some. I remember Mogus sacrificing himself in order to gain the people of the Guilds more time against NIK. NIK was a ruthless and cold creature. And pretty much impossible (heck, you could almost call him a Power Gamer except that he did it all with such style) to kill. He was always surrounded by at least 100 fiends that he sent to fight before he came. He wielded the axe named Goliath (I think) and by using that, he could not be attacked by any magical means... not to metion he regenerated his life back when attacked by any normal means of battle. Regular weapons could not touch him. All in all, first and foremost, he used to be someone I really cared about. I will not speak of what he did to me in the end.

M: When and how do you think it was that Wendor started to decline? Or do you think it went out at the height of its popularity? (Personally, that's what I think, but I suppose chats spoke more of its popularity than MBs, as it was in the old Kingdom of Windor...)

A: Yes, you are very right. It was at the height of the popluarity. There were just too many people to deal with. Quality of interactions between people were going rapidly down the gutter. It was, to say truthfully, too much for just [Silver and I] to handle. I started to lay down rule ater rule... which I know now was not the answer (which is another reason [the old Kingdom] had only TWO specific rules laid down to follow). I desperately needed support and backup... but even with the elected council, I got no help. The major problem with the guilds was politics. Too many people fighting for rank and power. That's why it didn't work, and that's why there was no real "government" for the second Windor.



In the original Final Fantasy Fan Guilds, a starting character had the choice of several guilds (factions, if you will, of people who share a profession in common) to belong to. There was a Magic Users Guild, Figaro's Finest (for elite warriors), the Guild of Darkness for the bad guys, the Treasure Hunters' (a.k.a. thieves') Guild, the Bards Guild...the list goes on. I don't remember them all, but I believe there were several more. There were also "non-guilds" like the Silver Knights organization, and simple fan clubs-within-a-club (Silver's Cid Highwind fan club comes to mind ^_^).



M: How in the world did Silv end up going from a Treasure Hunter's Guild member to Commander of the Silver Knights?

A: Ah.. well... the Silver Knights were my invention. I wanted a group that could help set the example to other members, a group of people we trusted to back us no matter what. And an ultimate "rank" to obtain by being "well mannered". Silver was just the natural choice to be put in the position as leader, after all, she was pretty much working directly under me. All in all, for Silver, being the Commander was a double-edged sword. She enjoyed the obvious spotlight that it put upon her... but so did everyone enjoy a rank. But in time she found it quite constricting, and began to highly dislike her position. After all, she is a flighty person by nature, and in a way, she too had to set the example for all to follow. As well as feel the duty of watching over chats. She used to complain that she was unable to truly play the character she wanted because she was bound by the honor of a Silver Knight. Above all, I'd say, she fit being a member of the Treasure Hunter's Guild better...but she did one hell of a job as a leader.



I don't remember many of the villains of Windor...mainly because there weren't many during the time I was around. The sorceress Shara Namersac (Namserac? I could never spell her last name) and the Shaded One come to mind, as well as my own creation, the Dark Knight Kyme von Muir.



M: Who were some of what you'd call the major 'villains' of the Guilds and Wendor?

A: Crap... hard to remember... There was of course NIK. And quite a few others that I can't remember off the top of my head.... Yet, it was always hard to believe that the REAL enemies of Wendor turned out to be the people Silver and I trusted the most, and were closest to. I think that is something that has hurt both of us deeply.

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