Ok, so I'm going to try to keep this short and sweet. First some ground rules. You can follow up to ask questions. You can follow up to comment nicely. Do not follow up to make accusations about specific characters (active or not).

This post is purely about my observations. I don't claim that it's the end-all-be-all. But it's "inside info" on the Hell/Tiamat groups from someone who was most definitely not part of any OOC ring.

Major Finding: The general gist is - no rule was broken.

Edited to add this part that I forgot: Ulthrok was IMMEDIATELY accepted by every Imperial, once he proved he was worth accepting. By that I mean...it's hard to know if that level 25 fire giant warrior is going to stick it out when he gets wrathed down by a paladin while a thief is tripping him or whatever. Same as in any cabal. But once you prove you're perhaps a veteran, people start to take notice. If you are leveling up without major problems, not whining over CB, have solid donation amounts, etc. you move up pretty quick. Once I was in hero levels, everyone else in that range (heroes or near heroes) was very willing to level me up, get gear, etc. This was my first thing I wanted to look for - would I be an "outsider" to some OOC cheat ring, or would I be included on Tiamat trips and so on. I was always included. Resoundingly. I imagine if I had screwed stuff up for everyone, that might have changed, but hey that's fair.

Perhaps some of the players who are/were part of the group(s) that took down Tiamat and went through the Inferno know each other IC. Quite possibly. Everything I was a part of, however, was coordinated IC. Notes from various people to schedule times to take down Tiamat etc. were the norm, and largely seemed to depend on times that various very important support characters could make it. You aren't taking down Tiamat without a healer, for instance.

Shady-looking-logins. I can only comment on one particular one, because it directly involved me. I'd been fending off Adesoka at the Council for a while (got my first solo kill on him by hiding, hiding, cowering, and then finally chasing him down to finish when he pushed too hard).

He rested inside, of course, and so I did the same thing. Then Milonuthial came to help him, and I knew I was in trouble. I'd sent a lower level Imperial to buy me more holy waters, but I was pretty sure I was going to die or have to flee. I decided to try to focus on the healer.

And then Sindrir logged in. Right at the Council. He didn't react as quickly as I'd have liked, to be honest, but he reacted way quicker than I would have in similar circumstances. Does that make sense? Anyways, I'll post the log of it later.

Let me be perfectly clear. I do not know who plays Sindrir. I did not contact an OOC buddy and tell him "Dood logon and be ready to pinz00rz!"

However, from Adesoka/Milonuthial's point of view? I'd be peeved, and think that was HELLA fishy.

Regarding "perma groups". Every single character that was part of the party that killed Tiamat (and, later, that I went to the Inferno with) was on at some point when it was just them and Ulthrok. For extended periods of time.

I know that folks in general are thinking that maybe there isn't any OOC communication other than "We should play Empire next. I'll do (insert class/race combo) and you do (other race/class combo)." Maybe there is that going on. But that is not technically against the rules.

If there were anything I might say about the whole experience, I'd say that maybe the Imperials were a bit too chummy in general. Cross-sect cooperation wasn't really tense at all (Ulthrok got promoted to Elite Blade by the High Priest (though to be fair I did save his life from Liantae at the cost of my own, and then we killed Liantae later together)), stuff like that. But I think that's a player trait (that I share) of wanting competant allies and not wanting to annoy your fellow players.

So, that's my story. Again, follow up if you like, but no character assassination, speculation, that sort of thing. If you feel a rage face that Twist is SO WRONG about this, feel free to shoot me an email or whatever, but I don't want this thread to start a flame-war.

Thanks.