Thormmstein was created during the reign of Ahinu and Llovris, with Thamuuk and Amriith as the Fortress leaders. What a wild ride this has been. In truth, I changed jobs and had a lull in the June of last year, so I decided to visit Thera once again. How glad I am that I made that choice!

Slightly before that time, grand ole Jhyrbian was tearing it up with Niekofet. It was really exciting talking to such a great dude with a long and storied CF history and hearing his thoughts on how storm champs worked. Now the thing about me is, for some reason, I really always liked pikes as fantasy weapons. In fact, my first hero in CF was Carrock, a human pole/hth Scion warrior. I rolled him in 2001 and I remember thinking how both HTH and Pole should be much more formidable specs (and they did improve massively since that time). I sucked hard, but I was a noob. Things have only marginally improved over the last 20 years. I take long breaks between characters so I never develop veteran instincts, plus I'll never be as good as Jhyrb -- but one thing that endured is desire to try out another pike melee build. Thus I rolled Thormmstein. Side note: funny that after 20 odd years of being a pike afficionado, I'd run into another one -- the unforgettable Mojabosombo Sticks

Paladins are a great class. With the right dedication and virtues, you can be very sturdy. God knows I appreciated this sturdiness, because it let this perennial noob survive a lot of encounters that I had no right surviving. Also, you really are somewhat of a PvE demi-God. I do feel that thematically, some things don't make sense, but I do appreciate that it is very hard to balance all the combos and make it interesting at hero level. The chief danger of a champion is boredom in PK, especially on hero levels, where foes have a large pool of HP and protections. This cuts two ways: either you can't get DPS and/or lag going to nail most people or you just can't do anything and sit there with nothing to do as they whittle you down. Of course, Champions excel at group combat, but I really disliked ganging. The few times that I had multiple foes on me were very, very good for me. Until everyone learns the trick.

I do wish to thank Panmorne for the thrill of empowerment. This was a first empowered char I ever rolled and I felt excitement just from the act of empowerment that I didn't think I'd ever feel... it was like being a kid again I fully understand why we never got to talk again, but I am sad as I hoped against hope that I'd get another chance.

I do wish to apologize to Baerinika for me refusing maranation a few times. I knew you lost patience with me the last time, so I didn't want to push the envelope. I just wanted to get some solo kills, but alas, most people would walk away

Thank you to the countless people who made it fun, with only one over all this time, not respecting the need to log off.

Fortress characters - I really do regret not spending more hours over entire life of Thormmstein with you. It is absolutely impossible to list everyone over the last 14 months, but all of you really are a great group of people and I enjoyed the adventures immensely.

Outlander - Mojabosombo and Rinn. Absolutely lovely.

Empire - deadly, great, so many chars.

Undead - all classy.

Special shout out to all the Orcs. All of you lads were much nicer than you should have been - and we started with Gekargit.

Praise goes to people who crank out 600 hour characters in 3 months. I am glad I got to ride alongside you, though I recognize this amount of time is just not in the deck of cards for me.

In the end, it is so great to see that CF is going strong, after such a long time. Thank you Imms for infusing the world with a sense of magic, running quests, adding areas, role-playing, fixing bugs. It really is a treasure to have something like this in our lives. Only you know how much effort you put into this.

Apologies to anyone if they felt slighted. I really did try to respect everyone's time and character.

Pikes high!

- Carrock