I was a Seer, from Monday, February 1, 2000, until Wednesday, May 9, 2001, when I read on Lum the Mad's site that all Ultima Online's Volunteers (save Companions) were dismissed. I verified this with EA's official FYI blurb, and later on when I found my Volunteer game account was blocked.

Although it became obvious that our mass dismissal was not a rumor or hoax--and some e-mails have been sent between us ex-Volunteers to help confirm it all--even now I have not received any official notice or e-mail from the company. This is disappointing, even if it is “in character” for OSI/EA. But, let’s move on; I’ve some important things to mention.

I played as Seer Sannio on Chesapeake. Before that I was a Troubadour, and Counselor PapaMan on Napa Valley before that. As a Seer, I met quite a few players while I walked around on my "constitutionals," to Corwyn, Aryslan, PaxLair, Humility Village, Gehenna, Mythndale, etc.

Some of you may have also seen me around as Wixim the Mad, wielder of a staff "carved with the head of a snake" and summoner of serpents. I was also Lord Hughert, master of the Jhelom Dueling Pit in Trammel. Most recently I was Korryn, brother of the cursed Saben and one of the key characters in the plot surrounding the dire wolfs plaguing Corywn. I have also played Dupre, each of the few times he appeared on Chesapeake during my time as a Seer. I was Joye, Minax’ patsy in the Trinsic invasion. There were also, of course, a scattering of characters and monsters that I also played.

My proudest moment as a Volunteer: was my first day as a Troubadour. A huge group of us were "baptized" into Troubadourism by turning us loose in Trinsic as Harpies. As newbies-in-harpy-form, we had no stats, skills, or weapons of value, except our abnormally high health. Our mission: attack people. One specific victim of mine wasn’t fighting back and stopped running away. He emoted *runs away* just as I wondered "what’s with this guy?" and I figured he must be super-lagged and, by gum, that emote was good enough for me. I counted him as "defeated" and flew away from him and his personal battle with the lag monster.

My worst moment as a Seer: could be the incident about two weeks ago. I entered an area with one or two players, started my "introduction dialogue" for the night's event, and was told by a player "be gone" and "go away." Talk about your depressing acts of foreshadowing....

My first appearance as a Seer in Robed form: was when I accidentally revealed myself in front of PaxLair's "Ladies of the Lair", after which I engaged in light conversation with some of the locals. *grins*

My first appearance as Wixim the Mad: was in Humility Village, on Friday, June 16, 2000. Malkov was the first player of Wixim’s dice game, and beat Wixim’s roll to win 100 gold. I overheard him afterward, saying "The coolest thing origin has ever done" and "he is the coolest little guy i have ever seen on UO." Malkov, I want to thank you for what you said. You totally made my year when you typed those words.

My favorite type of player interactions: were chatting with players who play as children. I've mentioned this to a few people, but it bears repeating. The "children" I've met in UO have all been well-defined and enjoyable. They've had their own voices, their own elaborate mannerisms, interesting backstories...I want to virtually shake the hands of all the "children of UO." Echo, Annele, great job. Runners-up would be those players who don’t have any backstory, don’t have any special “voice,” or don’t even type that well, but they clearly like to play. Orc, pirate, innkeeper, adventurer, paladin (hi, Articus!)...doesn’t matter, I salute you players, too.

My favorite unrealized player concept on Chesapeake: is undoubtedly the tomb of the ancient Paladin in Mythndale. There's something exceptionally intriguing about two guards (player vendors) standing together, in uniform and weapons in hand, outside a small tower that holds a set of bones and a suit of platemail armor.

My favorite realized player concept on Chesapeake: are the streets in Corwyn. How do you know which one you're on? Read the house signs, of course! They've named the streets and numbered the houses there, and this was a simple, subtle bit of community development that I greatly appreciated.

Memorable recent moment: Wixim meeting Harmort (a player’s character), in PaxLair. Harmort is a kindred spirit to Wixim, as he is also quite mad. I was very impressed with the tight concept of Harmort’s madness and how quickly he made it understood. His madness was such genius that I was immediately inspired to have Wixim consider him his only friend, and incorporate some of Harmort’s “teachings” as appropriate. If you see Harmort around, make sure you give him some dragon hides, so he can cover all your roofs and keep the meteors out.

Chesapeake was great. I liked the players, I liked the Interest Volunteers, I liked the Counselors. I wish to go through the traditional "thank yous" here, if you'll kindly indulge me a moment longer.

Thank you, Ancient Seer Kristos. Your spelling was bad but your heart was good. *chuckles* I'm glad that you agreed to put Galen into the world one last time, in perhaps the best place for him to be seen last: the Moonglow telescope.

Thank you, Ancient Seer Moebius. The perfect amount of wit and mild sarcasm. We should have done a "road show" while still en-Robed, we would have made milllions. (Millions in gold? Millions of people sick from bad jokes? What's the difference! *grins*)

Thank you, Elder Nym. You were always eager and passionate about your work, and about trying to deliver the best possible events to your players. I have to admit that more than a few times I was jealous of your fire, and strove to use some of your concepts as models for my own personal storytelling improvements.

Thank you, Seer Athenee. Your enthusiasm for delivering events was too big for your original Robe of Elder, and it was an honor to play Korryn and be such a significant part of your first major plot.

Thank you, syrthiss. I was glad that you, our last Troubadour were able to come back, but I'm sorry we weren't given enough time to play out the Winter Elemental plot that you inspired.

Thank you, Counselor Falcon_East, or whatever you called yourself in-game. *grins* It was always good to chat with you in IRC, and I was always impressed that you were always, always paying attention to your IRC channel.

Thank you, Ancient Seers Euforia and Thayer, both of Baja, for sponsoring me as an Interest Volunteer. (Someday you'll have to tell me what you saw in me that compelled you to offer me the Volunteer position. *grins*)

Thank you, everyone else who helped me become better at what I did, or expressed enjoyment at any of the events or activities I was a part of while serving as a so-called Volunteer. If I was in any way good at what I did as a Seer, it was because of the people that surrounded and supported me.

To quote Isaac Newton: "If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants."

ex-Seer Sannio

return to index