The history of Spiritwalker, Alania Willowdancer, and Froakah Sternenstaub

By: Froakah Sternenstaub

I started playing Everquest April 4, 2001. Alania, a Wood Elf Ranger, was the first character ever made and the only one character that I had for a LONG time. Shortly after I started playing and making friends rapidly. One of these friends convinced to join this little family guild . It was nice having the friendly chatter and the people to group with, give advice to me when I asked, and help should the occasion arise that I needed it. Unfortunately shortly there after this small guild disbanded. The leader was a young man whom had parents *gasp* that thought he spent to much time on the computer. *faint* I missed having a guild though and couldn't find one that fit what I was looking for. So, on May 25, 2001, after much deliberation and countless hours of talking with friends and finally being convinced I'd make at least a decent guild leader, Spiritwalker was born!

It wasn't quiet that easy, the hardest part was trying to decide on a name. The name Spiritwalker came from a very dear friend of mine. His Native American name is Spirit Walker. While talking to him one night he offered to let me use his name. I fell in love with it right away. The hardest part was over. Although I'll admit trying to get 10 people I knew online and in the chat room and then in Qeynos Hills at the same time to start the guild was quiet a challenge.

Very quickly we became known as the biggest 'noob' guild on the server. We raided Blackborrow! Wiped in Kael's arena.... lol I miss those days so very much! It was so fun. We allowed anyone and everyone to join and created our own rules and guidelines as we went along, growing with the needs and wants of our players. Being a 'noob' myself I didn't know what in creation I was doing! I lead our family though, and in 18 months we were raiding NToV! DRAGONS, OH MY! We were so proud of where we were and how we'd gotten there as a family and together. But... it got boring after a while, doing the same things all the time and I had NO clue where to take us from there. Since we were a 'noob' guild, no one knew where to go or how to get there from where we were. We didn't know zones, strategies, mobs, pulling techniques... or where to get them from. We did good to surround a mob and position it, and waiting for the attack call? What attack call....So, I did what any other good leader would have done in my shoes... I PANICKED! People were wanting to advance and weren't so they were LEAVING! *OMG!* They didn't have the patients for me to learn from my 'bigger' friends in 'higher' guilds! I was trying hard but it just wasn't enough, I learned that we didn't have class balance and that without class balance we couldn't do much over what we'd already done and that they were surprised we'd gotten that far. I had to rework the guild, without hurting it more and try to recruit ONLY specific classes to strengthen our weak areas.

It wasn't happening, more people were unhappy, more had given up, more had moved on. I didn't understand at the time that all guilds are basically stepping stones at the time, even the top guilds.

I was approached by other guild leaders that had gotten word of our 'distress' and they wanted us to MERGE! *gasp* I couldn't imagine not flying the Spiritwalker tag!!! I turned them all down, and they were slowly gutting our members with 'better offers' and 'promises' of gear and advancement.

One day I was approached by someone I felt was very nice and had our best interest in view and that sincerely wanted to help us. They offered to let us raid with them, as ally guilds. The offer was just too good to be true. We started raiding with them and our members were happy again, getting new gear, and advancing.

A few weeks pass and this guild leader offered us a merger. I put it out for a guild vote and 98% of Spiritwalker voted for the merger. So, after discussing details, making plans, and bargaining, we merged. Things ended up not being as we were promised and I didn't like that. Many Spiritwalker were happy though so I didn't make a fuss about it publicly as I didn't want to make everyone miserable or start a civil war. I tried fixing things on my own but they only got worse, tried speaking with the leader and other officers and was basically told I'm in their guild now and do things how they want and if I didn't like it to leave. So I did. I didn't go back to Spiritwalker because I had disband it when we merged and I didn't want to cause problems among friends. Friends who remained in that guild, and new friends found there... The old Spiritwalker members were loyal to me and I knew they would follow me if went back and that was not what I agreed too so I left it as it was. *sadness*

I went guildless for a couple months, until some friends of mine convinced me to join Valon. Valon was THE TOP guild on Terris - Thule (where Spiritwalker originated). I wasn't sure it was something I wanted to do. Mandatory raiding, hard core players, and a BUNCH of perverts. lol I went though, and when I dinged 65 (in January 2003) I got my tag. It was in the PoP era, and Valon was trying to kill Rallos Zek still. I remember dinging 65 43 times in 3 hours that night!! When we were the first to kill him and make it to PoTime it was all worth it.

My life took a turn,as life often does and I had very little time left for EQ, I could only raid 1-3 times a week maximum. I got removed from Valon due to a lack of play time. It added insult to injury. I quit EQ. (August 2003) For those long 3 months I was gone, I got e-mails from friends every day! I decided to come back. Not as Alania though, I was burnt out from playing her after the Valon trip. It was November 2003 when I came back to EQ and started Froakah and Zhaztie as the killer 2 boxing pair hehe Shortly after that I petitioned for the Spiritwalker tag back. Once they returned it to me I started recruiting, most of it was from my reputation, the rest was of curiosity and word of mouth.

I made a mistake (one that I'm so familiar with making) in trusting people to much. There was a couple old 'friends' that wanted to rejoin SW from the 'other' guild, ones that I met while being in that 'other' guild. I allowed them, and one I didn't know was an officer from the 'other' guild at that time. Over a couple months I promoted these 'friends' that were knowledgeable about the game to officers.

It ended up being Spiritwalker's undoing. I had to move, and in moving I wasn't online for 2 weeks, between these 3 'friends' Spiritwalker lost over 130 members. We were doing PoP progression fast, but that put a QUICK halt on things. Some people were kicked with lies of me saying it should be done and lies told about me. Some were kicked without explanation. Some were recruited to that 'other' guild with empty promises and bribes. Some left because friends left or were kicked. When I was able to get back online after moving I came back to find most people wouldn't even talk to me, but eventually I talked to enough people to be told what happened. I was very distressing and discouraging but I buckled down and started recruiting again.

Then EQ2 and WoW came out and what was left went on to the new games. Rebuilding was impossible, there just wasn't enough people left on Terris-Thule. Even many of the top guilds and Valon, the top guild, had disbanded from lack of members! I don't quit when I have my set to something though. I knew it was a matter of time before Sony started merging servers so I waited it out. Sure enough, I had to wait a year, but the servers merged and Terris-Thule became Prexus. At which point I considered trying to rebuild again, since the server had people on it but since I had an international move coming soon, it was decided best to retire Spiritwalker for a while, except for alt's and friends.

In July 2005 I moved to Germany from Tennessee. What could possess me to do such a thing? Family of course! I was not sure what kind of players or how many would actually be playing on European times. (American day times) So, after deliberation, we (my husband and I) joined a Euro guild with 1 character on each account; however all of our toons are in Spiritwalker now where they belong.

My husband and I both have 2 accounts each. 4 accounts in total and 4 computers sitting on a corner desk. We play side by side!

In August 2006, we decided it was time Spiritwalker came back out of retirement. We discussed how to do it, and what it would be, what we would raid, and how we would get there. Now we have a great group of very nice people and adding to them still. We are very excited about what lies ahead of us and look forward to you being a part of it!

-Froakah Sternenstaub