With the entire group finally seated, Alpha slowly nods, and as he turns to face the group they can see a sad tint has entered into his eyes. It is obviously depressing to think that they shall have to fight against not only the evil of the Exiles, but also those who are supposed to be the good guys! Inwardly though, there is another reason: the only way to say this is through a speech, and he hates speeches. But it had to be done.

Using a quiet yet firm voice, so as to not attract attention, he begins:

"Of all of us gathered here, I believe I am the oldest adventurer – not in terms of age, but in experience traveling throughout this realm of Hyrule. Information about the times before we all arrived has slowly accumulated in my brain," he says as he taps his forehead.

"Several years back, during the days of the REF, there existed other groups...like ours. People with common ideals and goals would meet together, fight together, and help people, together. Then the Treaty of 1979 was established, ending the war between the remnants of Ganon’s followers and those who fought for the kingdom of Hyrule.

"Following the guidelines of the treaty, the REF was disbanded as a gesture of peace and trust. In the time that followed, many of the groups also separated, each member going their separate ways...few are the ones who, to this day, can still be found within the realm of Hyrule. Many of vanished into the folds of time, completely forgotten by those who remain.

"But the envisioned peace has not yet arrived – no, the opposite has happened. As was foretold by Sage Artorius himself, "...the ever present whispers of evil carry on the wind. Adventurers shall carve out their fates in this land, and monsters shall spread the plague of death in tandem." As he predicted, the peace that each one of us has treasured, and even had a hand in creating, is about to be shattered.

"The Exiles are on the move again, threatening to destroy this great land of ours and the people that have built their lives here. Worse yet, the Knights charged with defending Hyrule have forsaken its inhabitants, turning on them in order to protect a single family: that of King Harkinian II. The people of Rauru and Ruto have been forcibly removed from their homes and lives, and have either been forced to fight or thrown into the bowels of the North Castle Dungeon.

"Now is the time to remember the force that originally fought for their own ideals, the time to rebuild the groups that existed and balanced out the constantly tipping scale of peace." Alpha looks around the table, at all those who have come. "We have all gathered here because we cannot stand with either of the sides. None of us would side with the Exiles, but now we have discovered that the Knights are not a good choice of ally either.

"Some of us have opposed what the Knights stand for from the beginning, seeing through the shroud of 'logic' that they placed over their intentions." The Sheikah glances in the direction of Blank, the Nomad, and Tayro, the young Hylian mage, who had both made the stand against 'Order' early on.

"Some of us have been trying to avoid the conflict, but have found that to be impossible." His eyes turn to face first Alex, and then Rose, the Rangers who are the most recent to oppose both Knights and Exiles, as they had spent most of their time trying to remove themselves from the struggle.

"And others…others of us have chosen to be a part of the battle from the beginning, but are still fighting the battle within themselves to discover the best way to accomplish that." He looks to Dogura, also a Ranger, who had lost family members in past wars and had originally chosen to fight with the Knights to prevent that from happening to anyone else. And then...his eyes drop to his own form. The Sheikah mage had vowed to protect the innocent, and had joined the Knights in order to try and keep this vow...but his expectations had been so far from the truth that he had chosen to leave them almost as quickly as he had joined.

"It is up to those of us with no ties – the Neutral aligned – to form a third faction in this struggle. We have the same ideals – the innocent should be protected at all costs, for they cannot protect themselves – and the same goals – to protect them. And so I propose that we be the ones to revive those legendary groups that stood strong before, with no ties to any one side, but only to each other.

"We shall revive the Guilds."


OOC: In HA1, Guilds were MAJOR parts of the RPing experience. A while back, I had long discussions with several of the veterans from the original game. Nogare's Event, along with a talk I had with ZV a week ago, prompted me to ask MG if we could bring back Guilds, an idea which he has agreed to with even more enthusiasm than I have.

At this point, both ZV and HNS have agreed to join the guild, which is currently to be named the Twilight Guardians, though that is subject to change if anyone who joins dislikes it. It will be comprised entirely of Neutral aligned people that we deem to be good RPers - that's a major requirement as far as I'm concerned.

I can explain further if you all wish; just ask (IC or OOC).

Dogura was now standing, balling his fists. He had become a knight at one time. But only for the sake of the common people, who could not defend themselves, like Alpha previously stated. "Alright. Iy sounds good to me. The Royal Family has been selfish of their own, and have committed hanus crimes. The samurai suddenly felt it in his heart to free all of those chained civilians. He had a sudden courage building up inside of him, greater than before.

"Like Alpha said. A neutral Party to stop violence on the sides of justice and Hate. It could greatly benefit those caught in the crossfire. We of the neutral party, are warriors of the highest caliber. Not only in physical strength, but mentaly." Dogura smiled a smile of confidence. "Now lets put this plan into action. I suggest we first rescue those innocent civilians in the dungeon." He waited for a responce, negetive, or supporting.

OOC: I think the name is great! here is how Alpha described it to me. Twilight is the realm between good and bad. And thats what we are. The fine line. If anyone has ideas, that would be great! I guess this is where you agree to join the guild as well. Im going to speak to Alpha about Guild benefits, such as stat boosts when fighting on certain terrain, or with a certain member. I think that would be great!

OOC: Uh! Uh! Uh! pick me pick me, I wanna be a Twilight Guardian, does it include a badge ?
IC:The last speech had brought Alex back to reality, it touched his heart, it reminded him of why he had never sworn loyalty to any group, his family was destroyed in the middle of a conflict beetwen the major groups, they were back then, the ones who could not defend themselves.
'I'm not allowing any of this happens to another one'.
"Why doesn't dad come back from the war mom?"
"He'll come back soon Kalex don't worry, but promise me you'll take care and be strong for your sister no matter what happens"
"I'm gonna be strong mom, and I'm gonna take care of Miyu!"
"Let's defend the inocente, then let's be the Guilds!"
He stood up, and straighten up, right his eye could set a candle on fire, they were burning hot with his passion. Now his goal was more clear in his mind than ever.
'Miyu, this is for you'

OOC: Ahem, sorry I was gone. I had went home for the weekend, and my dad had hidden the ethernet cable I was using to connect to the Internet over the summer. And the computer that's for the children of the household is a piece of crap. Anyway, let's just say Rose was too busy eating up to the point of Alpha's speech.

Oh, and Twilight Guardians is a good name. I still prefer one of the ones I mentioned to you over IM, Alpha.

Yeah, does it include a badge?

IC:
Rose pushed her plate away in time to listen to Alpha give his speech. When him, Dogura, and Alex had their say, she piped in. "I've gotten a bit rusty," Rose admits, rather ashamed at doing so. "I've been so used to keeping myself alive these days. But give me a while, and I'm sure I can formulate plans where we all come out alive."

OOC: Good to have you back! And I thing rather than a badge, we should all get a cool tattoo! lol! Like how the gorons have that tattoo on their arm. We could have a cool tattoo as well, however Dogura has a curse seal on his shoulder. I used the name from naruto, basicly because its the best name for it. It looks like a tattoo, but its the only thing that keeps Dogura's senses about him. But yes, a badge, or a nice tattoo, waddays think MG?

OOC: Eh, I don't really like the thought of getting a tattoo, and I think Rose would feel the same way. She doesn't even have any earrings. Actually, the only piece of jewelry she has is her wedding ring, which she wears on a chain around her neck.

OOC: A tattoo sound better than a badge, but Alex already has his family emblem in the left shoulder, what about the right shoulder?
EDIT: Hmm... although a ring is more cool, but I just can't decide!!
But if we do, it should be a real misc.item or a group in the forums !!

Blank stared at his own drink, watching the many bubbles rising to the top to meet the fateful climax of bursting. His eyes seemed to drift away from the speech Alpha was making, but in truth he was intently listening to each sentence, word and syllable. Hearing the brief history lesson did little for the nomad - he had heard all of this many times before - but he nodded respectfully as Alpha carried on. Leave it to the scholars to get their homework done he thought.

The final word caused his head to perk up slightly. Or at least, that is what he told people afterwards. As Alpha boldly spoke the final five-word statement, Blank stopped in mid gulp to gasp in shock. Doing so, of course, caused him to spurt his entire mouthful back into his flask at an almost rocket style rate. A fine brown mist dropped to the table in front of his as he shook his head and wiped his face off.

Although Blank had not been in Hyrule at the time of the treaty in 1979, he was all too familiar with the events that took place. All sorts of terms flocked to the front of his mind - Exiles, Knights, Royal Expeditionary Force, Guilds. Blank knew of only one guild remaining since the time of the war: The Seven Maidens Guild. He recalled a time in which he accompanied Denning, Waddles and their guild towards Fort Damon and a gruelling defeat at the hands of Deoxolips.

"... A guild, eh? Well... sign this nomad up!"

OOC: I'm going to let Tayro reply before I actually do another IC post, but I felt like joining the OOC conversation, so...

I hadn't considered doing anything like a badge or tattoo (Alpha doesn't have any liking to those either, HNS...), but if someone here can do some sort of banner to put in our signatures, that might work. I might spend some time tonight working on that...after I get done with the paper that's due tomorrow...procrastination. You gotta love it...and later, you gotta hate it.

HNS wrote:Oh, and Twilight Guardians is a good name. I still prefer one of the ones I mentioned to you over IM, Alpha.

Sorry, Hi No, but I don't feel like naming us the Hillmound Guild. And no, it's not because I dislike Rose's transformation powers.

Anyways, I suppose I probably could have actually gone into explaining what a guild is all about way up there. But I felt like doing more of a historical thing. But you all deserve to know what guilds were like in HA1. I've already shown this to half of you guys, but if the other half react the same way y'all did...they'll go crazy. Literally.

So, this is how MG once described an HA1 Guild to me:

MG wrote:You had the guild leader who initially created the guild. I'll use the Gilded Ruby as an example. It was created by Ronin, so he had the mod powers for the entire guild. These leaders created rules, goals, and other such. This guild was for people who were greedy, loved money, and weren't schizophrenic (seriously). One of the rules was that Ronin was entitled to a portion of all spoils won by said guild. So they were essentially a loose band of people who had similar goals or opinions. What was nice was that the guilds ended up creating alliances and nemesi (? *shrugs* sounds cool). At the end, we had one that was really revolutionary (Circle of the Triforce) It was run by Red Fury, Jack Half a Prayer, and I who each were the head of a different Triforce part. We had a system where our members took trials in all three categories to advance in rank, and earn rewards and all that good stuff.

OOC: I was thinking more of the Hylian's Foot Guild or the Sniper Squirrel Guild, but the Hillmound Guild still would've been nice. XD

And I am (or was by the time some of you all will read this) talking to ZV over IM, and I suggested a forum for us. Actually, it was a forum for people in general who didn't spam all over the boards on TDC and people had to be invited to join. But ZV was the one who volunteered to create one for the guild; I'll let him talk about it. *checks AIM window* Yeah, that's pretty much how it went. ZV can say something about the forums when he next posts.

OOC:so this is also a guild for those opposing spam in every form (this is not spam I swear). But will this be also a formal group like the Goro-goro Cartel? That's the part I didn't get clear. Also, though I know the twilight is somehow the middle of something, it sounds too cliche like "The Twilight Brigade" from .hack//roots (anime fan over here -_-'), but I'm fine with the name, at least it means something, but we could also be the Wow Pow Smashy Guild.
But for the first time I feel I'm doing something important in HA2, Alpha was right about kicking myself later.

OOC: Well, I didn't really say that this guild was against spam, but we probably will be OOC. I was talking to ZV about starting a forum where you had to be invited to join; this would keep out spammers. ZV was the one who started a forum for us. Again, I'll let him talk about it.

OOC: I did in fact create a forum, however, this is for everyone at HA2. But here's the catch. I'm making an invisible board that requires a password to log into. Ill give you all the password when i figure everything out, but that's where we'll speak in private, as a group. By the way, here is the link.
http://ha2talk.proboards98.com/index.cgi
tell me what you think.

OK, so it seems that most of this has been pretty much addressed, so I guess I can start by answering questions:

Yes, you will get you own forum, and it will be hidden to all but the admins and the guild members. A guild entitled the group to an inn on the corresponding main forum, which would be the forum in Parapa where FoG VI took place, with a separate forum for all of you, linked there. Each guild was entitled a special weapon(which will now probably be accessory since there are weapons restrictions you can still have a weapon, if that's what your group wants though), such examples were the Regal Blade in Rugger's Soldiers For Hyrule, Zoran S Blade in Wyndisis' Dark Acolytes, and the Spear of Deep Darkness in Dekou's Eternal Darkness. You have total freedom for the appearance, ability and name, as long as an admin approves it. Outside of this, you can make a banner(as long as it doesn't interfere with the forum) to put in your sig, but there won't be badges(officially, if you wanna RP it, that's up to you). And considering tattoos are appearance, that'd but RP-based too...

Anyway, if you want to know any more about guilds, I'll be here, that's what jumps out at me now...

OoC: Sorry for the delay, guys. -_-

IC:

Tayro let out a sigh as Alpha began his speech. As the Sheikah began citing the events that happened in the previous war, the Hylian remembered the great amount of books he had read on that subject. The images portrayed were just... unbelievable, and unexplainable, that led the boy into a series of nightmares following the event. Also, the writing was just so... filled with sorrow and hate, like it had been painted with blood itself. It was an event that was soon going to happen once again, it seemed. The mage apprentice silently sighed once more, trying to shove those thoughts out of his head and concentrate on Alpha's speech.

As Alpha quoted the Great Mage Artorious' prophecy, the boy could only think of how remarkably the mage had said that quote - so filled with vivid emotions, like said by a great prophet himself. True, Alpha posessed great qualaties, like everyone else here, but the boy had no knowledge that giving speeches was one of them. The Hylian could only lean his back on the chair, and be driven by the Sheikah's words of knowledge. ...the ever present whispers of evil carry on the wind. Adventurers shall carve out their fates in this land, and monsters shall spread the plague of death in tandem... it's just like the Grand Mage had said, both parties have been spreading their malice quite far. We have to be the ones to stop this enemy without form. -he thought, his words echoing through his mind. Alpha's words after that did nothing more to confirm Tayro's desire, affirming his thoughts.

That's when he recalled something he had thought about previously... they all had great qualities, and unique skills... but what about him? All he could do with magic Alpha could do as well - only better, and about his qualities everyone else could mirror them as well... so what was the reason to be here? A dead weight? All he could ddo he would be surpassed by the others, and most adventurers of each faction... he would only hold his friends back on this cause, and he truly desired them to suceed. He felt a bit of darkness embracing him, not truly knowing what he should do. Maybe trhe best would be for him to retreat this place and try his best alone, although he did not have many hopes fr his casue to suceed. He was too weak for something of this kind of scale... What's wrong? Why are you acting like this, Tayro? You ARE strong, and the power and skill is not the reason you're here! Get a hold of yourself already! - a voice said, seeming like it had come from the corner of his own heart, its small light defeating the darkness that had temporarily settled in his body. That's when Alpha's final part of the speech reached his mind. That's right! That's not why I'm here... not because of skills or qualities, but it's because of our friendship and goals that we're united! We have to protect the inocent from this mindless slaughter called war! Finally regaining his own trust back, he got up excited, and simply told them with a new smile upon his face: "Let's do it!"

He recalled what he had read about the Guilds, important groups who posessed the same ideals and goals, and fought together for their own cause. Alpha was right - their case was preety similar, and agreed with their awakening. He was also glad to be able to be one who revived such an important mark of Hyrule History, and he would give his best at that. Together, they would do it!


In the meanwhile, in a place filled with shadows and darkness, its particular form incomprehensible, an annoyed voice is heard, the two simple words echoing through the 'room'. "I failed."