Wow. Well, it's finally over. The most fun I've ever had with a character on CF, hands down. That was quite a long haul... I don't play the same hours per day that I did when I was younger, so Ulthur lasted somewhere around 8 months. There were a few times in there that my playing became sparse, so I'm certain that contributed. Anyway, my first ever age-death. My first paladin hero, as well. My last paladin was at the end of the second age, and he only got to level 44. I loved playing Ulthur right to the end... once I started the "old giant" roleplay, I was amazed. So many people showed respect to an old Maran, that it fit in perfectly. I loved seeing people call me "sir" and "lord" and treat him with a slight sense of awe... since thats the way I would see people addressing an old priest crusader if things were real. I tried to play the way I thought a holy paladin would... I gave away a LOT of gear in my life, including twice my entire set. I could talk about this character for hours, but I'll save most of it unless people have specific questions about stuff I did or said.

My essences were faith and fortitude, and I was a two-handed dedicant. Two handers have the potential to do AMAZING amounts of damage. It was also nice being a rare two-hander, surrounded by shield dedicants. I very much miss being able to tank like a beast though. It's a good trade off, really. In all the times I fought along side shield dedicants, I outdamaged them by probably double. There were times in pks where I still threw on a shield and used wrath, since the two-round lag on the strikes makes chasing people somewhat impractical. The lagging attack rarely works. I do feel that the strikes missed more than they should have though.

I hadn't played in more than a year when I rolled Ulthur. If I had known storm paladins were all the rage, I might have rolled something else. But as it is, I enjoyed it immensely. Without a doubt this has been one of my favorite characters, and I like the paladin class a lot. It's very hard to actually finish kills, without any way to (effectively) lag anyone, so that contributed to my pk ratio, I'm certain, combined with the fact that Ulthur only participated in gangs during raids, or against liches. PKing has never been my strongsuit, I'm much more into the roleplaying aspect of a pk character, if that makes sense. Originally Ulthur was NOT meant to be a Maran. When I decided to get back into CF, I wanted to do a role that I enjoyed, so I decided to play a Knight, with or without the cabal, so I rolled a sphere honor storm pally. My intention was to see how far the immortals would let me go following the Knight path... I was hoping for a title involving "Knight of Thera". I didn't do a lot of ranking alone, I wish I'd known that it was possible to make a character learning alone get experience as if he were a group of three... at the time I never even thought about it, and there was no way I was going to hero a storm paladin solo, especially after not playing in a year. Thats where I added the part about undead, so I could justify ranking in Shadar... basically he believed their very existance was an affront to the gods, and they needed to be destroyed. See my role and my farewells for more detail on how I ended up in Maran instead... I love the honor roleplay, I've played more Knight characters than I can count, and had Cador's tattoo with a goodie post-Knights, and I'm sure I'll be playing another one eventually. Now that Vynmylak and Kastellyn took it up, it will be a lot easier, although their beliefs in honor tend to be a lot different than the old Knight/Cador beliefs that I like playing. Ulthur's views on Honor changed a LOT over the course of his life, especially as being a Maran began to influence him more and more, which was very much intentional on my part.

The best part about this character, hands down, was the people I interacted with. My role largely precluded me from speaking with evil characters, as many of the people I interviewd and spoke with certainly know, so my interactions on that end are few and far between. I'll post my role as well, for those of you who are interested. My role, and my character, focused around key interactions with key people in Ulthur's life. Read it, you might be in it

On to some farewells, along with the usual "I'll probably forget some. I'm sorry." disclaimer. I'll make ammends as it comes up.

Scion - Well, over 8 months I experienced every sort of Scion horde. When I heroed, Dullameh was in power, and the goodies were mostly being stomped. Then after Dullameh and his crew were gone, there was close to 250 hours where I didn't die once, and rarely had anyone to fight. Then Urden came, and things picked back up. It's been up and down a lot recently. Urden was largely the only character that ever killed me from start-to-finish by himself. Roktalken got me once, when he waited for Karhon and I at our recall point after we fled from getting beat up at a raid. I died to rotting a few times, and Farnsworth got me twice at the end I think, with his guards and shackles. Damn those things. Every other death was to groups of two or more... you get used to it though. Storm paladins are easy as cake to re-equip, combined with being able to make weapons. Having started my Cf career as a Knight during Shadows prime, I got over the "I-got-pked-rage" really quickly. I didn't feel the least bit bad about playing a Maran while good was in power. I'm a Team Good-er for life... never been able to play an evil above level 34, and only once a neutral. I had good fights with a lot of you, but there's a few I'll mention in particular.

Urden - Said it above... you were a bad-ass invoker. Paladins have little defense against smart, prepared invokers, I've found. Great job.

Jhaleryna - Do you have some aversion to fighting? I never saw you with the groups of Scion, even when they were coming to retrieve the Scepter or something.

Zarukian - My god man. Quit your f-ing whining! All you did was whine about my essences! The last time we battled you did REALLY good.. it was down to the wire, before I drove you off. If Abthalok hadn't been nearby to heal me after you fled, I would have died anyway. I was just commenting on the cb about how you put up an excellent fight and almost got me, then you had to start bitching AGAIN. Yeesh.

Amora - You rocked. I got essence of faith right about the time you turned evil, and it gave me a HUGE advantage over the other goodies that fought you. We had SO many fights... most of them ended in one or the other of us running away. Everything that needs to has been said about your character already.

Nexus - The mini-scion! Ulthur absolutely detested Nexans. When Dullameh was in power, no Nexan ever offered to help him with anything. When Scion was in power, all he did was fight Nexans that were aiding the Scion. Besides the fact that the goals of our two cabals do not work together at ALL. I'll save that for an IC conversation though.

Tribunal - Didn't know too many of you. I started out Ulthur with the intent of obeying the laws, but you guys make it almost impossible.

Uelveyye - Said most of it under your thread. Ulthur liked you, then hated you after you attacked Abthalok in Shokai's shrine. Not sure how an elf can justify that one, by any stretch of the lawful imagination.

Kaebe - Man, I thought for sure you were going to drop Tribunal and come over to Maran. Then you went away for a bit, and came back without any interest in it. Oh well... we had a few good travels together.

Noldruk - Where's your area, already?!

Battle - I never knew any of you closely. I liked the way the relationship went though - tentative allies against the Scion, and thats it. I don't know that I ever grouped with any of you, but we shared info, and sometimes showed up to raid at the same time. I fought a few of the evil Ragers, but in general I didn't go hunting for them. It was kind of a warrior-to-warrior respect relationship.

Warlock - Had some good travells with some of you, but I didn't get to know too many of you. With one exception...

Lardovian - You suck. You're in my role too Again, I already said everything in your farewells. One of Ulthur's best friends, ever since you saved me and my group ranking on trolls way back when.

Caysh - I wasn't going to say anything, but I just saw your deletion thread below mine on the graveyard. I really hope you were roleplaying a prideful hot-head. If so, you're damn good at it. I can't believe you threatened to name me an enemy of the Light. I just had this picture of a mage standing infront of a priest with a Phoenix tattoo and a Maran leader weapon, calling him an enemy of the light. I'm glad you backed down.

Sylvan - Ulthur's favorite cabal, outside of Maran. Though it never really became necesary, Ulthur would have done a LOT for this cabal had there been need. The Sylvan-Warlock stuff was just getting interesting too.

Alysrith - Since our random meeting on the battlefield while gathering ruby collars, you were one of Ulthur's favorite people. You started the relationship with the Grove, that carried on through his entire life. I'm glad you immorted, and I wish you luck!

Blimbali - We picked up right where Alysrith left off... even though you were both neutral, Ulthur would have done just about anything for you two.

Gwimdorf - Well. Without a doubt, hands down, Ulthur's best friend in the latter half of his life. There were a few times that I almost fell out of my chair laughing at the things we had going back and forth. Beautifully well done. Kick some ass as an immortal!

Sassmi - Good job fruity! Ulthur liked you.

Now on to the Fortress.
Dawn/Acolyte - Didn't know too many of you well untill the Fortress merged, but it was always nice to have a few of you in the woodwork somewhere, to show up unexpectedly to defend.

Elrys - Ulthur's best surviving friend! I'm thrilled you got Cardinal, you're a great roleplayer, and you'll do great with the Fortress. Thanks for the key!

Coraelm - Hows it feel to be on the first Council? Didn't really get to know you much, but it was fun working beside you for a little bit.

Masaryk - You were a beast. Should have been a Maran.

Maran - Well, home sweet home. I love playing in the Fortress. Fewer people than any other cabal, but everyone I met in there had roleplaying standards a notch above. The only people I addressed as "brother" or "sister"... other storm giants were "cousin". While paladins rock, the Maran did suffer from a lack of diversity. Four paladins have little chance against any four different classes of Scion together, simply due to the tactics at their disposal. Someone make more non-paladin Marans. Things are getting a lot better with the recent Fortress changes. I'm sorry to everyone I didn't get to interview... I was conciously slowing way, way down on interviews. I knew there would be a rush of people wanting to get in, and its important that the Fortress keeps its same standards, since that was always the best part. I'll be back, ya hear?

If there's anyone I forget, it'll probably be out of this bunch, since there were so many of note. I'll do my best. Feel free to remind me, too.

Shokai - I'm baaack! I don't know exactly how many times I've had your tattoo, but it should be double-digets by now. When you transfered Ulthur into the Knight's castle to chat, and let me read the library... that was one of the coolest moments I can think of on CF. My favorite religion to roleplay, without a doubt. Heck, even after I got into Maran, I NEVER intended to seek your tattoo. It was awesome when I got it... the only time any of my characters ever got a tattoo that they weren't even after! Never mind the fact that I wasn't under one of your spheres... I may try to diversify my tattoo holdings a little more, but rest assured I'll be back. Thank you very much for letting me be the first Captain... I was afraid Ulthur was too old to get a spot, so I wasn't going to hold my breath. I still would have been disappointed to not get one though. I hope I helped start the Fortress in the direction you want for it. Thanks for everything this time around.

Vynmylak - I was skeptical about a character that was in Dawn when my last hero was a Maran, but you rocked. I was glad to see you open a religion with Honor as a sphere, although it didn't come till long after I was a hero. My 'who sphere' went from seeing maybe one other person a WEEK, to seeing two or three every DAY. You do a superb job with supporting the Maran, those little occasional appearances work wonders. All my future characters are going to have to get used to calling you "Lord" instead of "Sir", now that you've gained a few ranks and a religion. Oddly enough, your religion would have fit my character near perfectly, I think.

Karhon, Abthalok - My storm giant buddies. Had some awesome times. That time when Karhon and Abthalok both died in a raid defense, and then with nothing but basic weapons and a few potions I had on hand, we ran and snatched the hammer back under the Scion noses... that was great. Did you guys coordinate the no-emotion thing?

Tynnyn - My fellow Talon! I wish you were around more...

Alnallander - My god man, are you ALWAYS on? I was glad to see you imm'd, otherwise you would have age died before me!

Zardik - So how's that ##### sailing working out for you? Er...

Sabrian - Wasn't sure how Ulthur would react to a thief Maran... but man, we had some fun toward the end. Too bad you weren't around before I was old and decrepit.

Alghorval - I wish you had been around after I ended up in the Fortress... we had some fun in our younger years.

Hazkal - You were part of the fun early crew, when your link wasn't dead. Good job, and I hope you found a better connection!

Faotaebul - One of the most promising Squires I inducted, no doubt. Your interview left me floored. Good job.

And now a few others -

Tarnyxil - You suck! Figured that one out right away in the Coral Palace. *wink*

Wasarbre - That ice-drake stuff was fun, and I always liked running around with you. Come back to Team Good.

Astarcio - I'm sorry about the lion mix up. Honest.

Shaitarak - One of Ulthur's best friends, and the longest-lasting We sure had some fun together, and you even made an addendum into my role. Ulthur had a lot of little scars from those ###### darts...

Aislynn - Wow, what can I say. You're a superb roleplayer... you really raised the bar on what I consider good roleplaying, I think. I really, really wish we'd had more time to do stuff. If Ulthur hadn't been as old as he was when we met, I would have found a way to work you into my role as well. Please accept an honorable mention Stick around, so my next character can rank up and get to know you.

Gorach - The finalle. This character had more influence on Ulthur than any other single thing, as you'll see from my role. Yes, that lock of red hair in my description was from you. I looked forward to seeing you on more than anyone else, and Ulthur's outlook would have been pretty bleak after you died if it hadn't been for getting into Maran, I think. I roleplayed a long period of depression after you died... I even set my client to gag 'smile', 'laugh', and a few other similar socials, incase I forgot and tried to enter them. I guess you could say you were the "love of his life" It wasn't really THAT way though, since I didn't figure a storm giant would develop those kinds of feelings for an elf. More like a ... sister, maybe. I dunno. That and I've never had ANY desire to roleplay "relationships" with any of my characters. Keep up the fun characters, you fat ass.


Ok, I knew this would be long, but I think I've run out of everything I can think of off the top of my head. If I come up with more, or get reminded or asked of more, I'll post 'em. I'll post some logs too, for those who are interested. I can be reached at ulthur88@yahoo.com, if anyone wants. I like hearing from the people I interacted with.

- Ulthur the Avenger of the Righteous
- Ulthur the Maran, Holy Knight of the Phoenix
- Ulthur the Blessed Knight, Holy Talon of the Phoenix
- Ulthur the Holy Talon of the Phoenix, Captain of the Brigade

... previously known as

- Jaldean the Seeker of Knowledge, Arbiter Lord
- Delyn Darksbane, Avatar of the Phoenix, Marshall-Knight of Thera

... and sometimes known as Jeff.

"Don't worry cutsy buttons. Tonight, dyin's not on the menu!"

- Strong Bad as Dangeresque