Souls of the Dämned

It's been a long time since any news post was really necessary, but I thought I'd put down a few words today. The WotLK transition patch has dropped. People are levelling inscription and making their glyphs. People are trying their new levelling specs. And people are cleaning out personal/guild banks across the realms to make room for the inevitable flood of new Wrath goods (read: junk). What does this mean for Souls?

We're an institution of WoW at this point (or should be institutionalized). While so many "raiding focused" guilds have come and gone thanks to arrogance and loot whoring, Souls remains still. Oh we've taken our hits from the whole raiding thing, and we've suffered dearly for it. We have been pushed right to the edge of surviving on Rexxar. But the few of us committed to Souls have remained true. Souls will soon be 4 years old come February. That's quite an achievement in this turbulent and fickle game world.

And now we look to the future. Death knights. Inscription. New 10-man raids across the board. An entire pvp-based territory. A huge continent to play in with our myriad alts. And more importantly, we have each other. We've stepped on each other's toes and pissed each other off many times. But like any family, we keep bringing it back together like people do when they really care.

The officers are discussing how things will go in Souls post-Wrath. New raiding rules that will be etched in stone are being discussed. Recruitment is being discussed, as our numbers are really rather low. And best of all, a few old-timers are slinking back from the shadows to rejoin the family once more.

I foresee a bright future for our family. Thanks Souls for being who you are, where you are, and a place I have called home for so long.

Patrick / Malkus

Souls of the Damned has seen a lot of turmoil over the last 3 months or so. To be very honest, Souls has seen much strife ever since large-scale raiding was introduced to the guild during the summer of 2006. But the turmoil of recent months has been the worst by far, and required a radical solution. And that ultimate solution was for the raiders of the guild to depart. Souls has scaled it's operations back and now rarely raids 10-man content, and has phased out 25-man content altogether. The guild has been re-focused on old tenets that were put in place when the guild was created in February of 2005. Those tenets are:

-to have fun

-to enjoy each other's company, for it's own sake, without the need to actually *do* anything

-to never allow progression or raiding to destroy our atmosphere or philosophies

-to severely limit who gains admission to the guild, especially children and asshats, and to kick anyone from these two groups should their true colors shine

-to maintain a small roster, so that each person can feel special, and needed, and so that members can know each other better without getting lost in a sea of guildies

-to try and find out how much alcohol can be consumed before typing becomes an epic fail

Each one of these beliefs was firmly in place when I joined the guild in the summer of 2005. As time moved forward, and the desire to raid and see more content took over, we became lax on these beliefs. The door to what we found was "acceptable behavior and practices" became ever-wider, in order to grow our roster to facilitate raiding. It was such a gradual thing, that most of us, myself included, did not notice it right away. But in the here and now, it is painfully obvious that Souls must return to these old ways in order to continue as one of the oldest original guilds in the game. We may, one day, resume regular raiding. But when and if that happens, it will more than likely be reserved to weekends only in order to preserve the integrity of the guild.

Thank you for your attention.

Malkus

Gratz Souls! Thanks for the pic, Grid.

Grats Souls
Edit by Dukk