World of Warcraft®

((Warning, multiple posts. For the OOC stuff, skip to post #4))

Norish "Morning" Juntland had been a mercenary since shortly after his fifteenth birthday, which had come only months after he'd left his parents' farm in Westfall. Now, in his mid 20's, he was a veteran of various adventures and even some real battles; as strenuously as he'd tried to avoid them. He preferred the sort of jobs that weren't as dangerous as being on a battlefield. Debt collecting, intimidating the competition for a shop keeper, escorting a minor crime boss somewhere mildly dangerous. Battlefields were where mercenaries were made into corpses.

He was tall enough to call himself six feet tall without anyone questioning it. He was broad enough to be intimidating. He was almost as handsome as he thought he was. He had a decent nest egg saved up with a bank in Stormwind. He wasn't stupid enough to have invested his money in Booty Bay; where he got most of his work.

If you'd asked him yesterday whether he thought he was successful. He'd have said yes. Then he'd gotten drunk last night and killed the son of a local crime lord in a tavern brawl. Now he was a hunted man, and in Booty Bay turning yourself in to the authorities wasn't an option.

He'd sobered up quickly when he'd felt the goblin's larynx collapse beneath his fingers. He knew what killing a man felt like and he knew what the cartel that ran Booty Bay did to people who killed its prominent citizens or their children.

"Damned goblins," he swore to himself. "No one else thinks they're worth anything. Why do they think they're such a big, screaming deal?" After he'd fled the tavern, he'd packed up whatever he could cram into a pack and decided to get out of town. The authorities in Booty Bay had different ideas.
Norish hadn't managed to get out the city gates. Getting to the docks had seemed like a good idea until he'd gotten close enough to see how many armed men were there. They weren't just goblins, either. Norish knew some of the men who were now looking for what must have been an impressive bounty on his head.

Hiding behind a stack of barrels where the shadows kept him from being too easy to spot, Norish pondered his next move. There was a ship within easy reach, if there hadn't been a dozen armed mercenaries between him and it.

The ship gave Norish pause. Its flag was black. Not an uncommon color in Booty Bay, rife as it was with pirate vessels. But this was no pirate vessel. It looked new, and that was uncommon in the goblin city. Nor was it a trading vessel. It was quite plainly a fighting ship with its sleek lines and narrow hull. The men that Norish could see aboard it looked like fighting men all, even the ones that were doing the normal upkeep that occupied sailors aboard any vessel. Norish didn't know what the ship's name "Uffernau" meant, and for some reason that bothered him too.

Still, it was the closest ship. But without knowing who owned it, he could end up running right into the arms of the same crime lord he was trying to avoid even if he did get aboard. So he stayed in place, prayed to any gods that might be listening that no one spotted him, and tried to figure out who owned that ship.

They had a plank down, and before Norish had enough time to get truly desperate, half a dozen men made their way down it to the dock. One and all, they were dressed in black. Two were human. A gnome in black wizard robes followed them. The last three were a pair of orcs and a pale elf. Norish wondered if maybe it was a Venture Company vessel. Maybe Argent Crusade...no, they didn't wear black.

There was an emblem on the tabards that all six men wore. Norish swore under his breath when he saw it. It was a dark blue eye. Without seeing more than that, Norish knew that these were Lluchduu Ocheliad, the personal guard and army of a robber baron from the lands north of Khaz Modan.

Imperon Showdah. He was a wizard, rumored to be a disgraced mage of the Kirin Tor and absolutely known to be as crazy as a fel orc. He reportedly believed that he was immortal. His soldiers were almost as crazy as he was.

The first time Norish had found himself in a true battle, the Ocheliad had been on the other side. Norish's side had been hired by a mining consortium out of Khaz Modan that had wanted Imperon Showdah and a few other robber barons who'd been harassing their mines to be dealt with. So they'd hired mercenaries and sent them into the trackless mountains that separated Dun Morogh from the Wildhammer Highlands and the northern coast.

Things had gone well enough, until Norish found himself facing the Ocheliad. The mercenary army Norish was with had been cut to pieces. To this day, Norish considered himself lucky to have escaped the slaughter. The things he'd seen that day had convinced him to stick to collecting debts on a freelance basis. He'd never wanted to see that black armor and blue eye again.

Until today. Imperon Showdah made it publicly known that he'd accept anyone into the ranks of his Ocheliad who would swear loyalty to him. He also protected his Ocheliad from any...enemies they might have had. Norish had known a man who'd accepted a contract to go after an Ocheliad recruit for something or other. The man's head was later found in his bedroom. It was found by his wife when she'd woken up in the morning. The man who'd hired him hadn't ever been found.

That was crazy Norish had always tried to avoid. Until today. Today Norish found himself with manh powerful enemies and six men who might be able to help him were coming towards him.

Of course, it also meant working with orcs, trolls and others like that. Norish tried to avoid that, too. His family was from Lordaeron and his father had always told him stories about the Orcish Horde during the Second War. He'd fought them. His stories were why Norish became a mercenary in the first place.

Working with orcs, or being tortured to death by goblins. The choice wasn't as easy for Norish as it should have been. But having seen a few public executions in Booty Bay before, Norish found the idea of working with - or even taking orders from - orcs to be not quite so awful as it had been earlier.

Waiting for just a few more minutes was as torturous as the previous half hour had been. With each step the six men took along the docks, towards his hiding place, Norish expected someone else to spot him. But no one did.

Finally he stepped out in the soldier's paths. Even as he opened his mouth to speak, each of the other men held a weapon in his hands. Except the gnome, who threw up his hands in exasperation as he nearly walked into the legs of the human in front of himself.

"Um, excuse me," Norish said, finding talking hard now that there was the tip of a sword very near his eyes. "I'm looking to join up with you gentlemen. My name's Norish Juntland, but my friends call me 'Morning' because they're jerks and because I carry this." Slowly, not wanting to tempt these men to kill him then and there - what an irony that would be - Norish patted the morning star that hung from his belt.

"Norish, huh," the man in front of him said. "Would that be the same Norish the locals are in such a tizzy over?"

"Absolutely not," Norish said with a straight face. "I'm a very law abiding man who's never had any trouble with the law in his life." The other human snorted derisively.

"That's him!" Norish winced. He'd been noticed. It felt like an army was descending on him, but in reality it couldn't have been more than the nearest twenty or so men on the docks. Norish had seen the sketch of himself on a wanted poster already. The people after him weren't wasting time. It wasn't the best sketch of him, he didn't think. But it was plainly good enough.

"So," he said carefully as he found himself and the six Ocheliad surrounded. "Are we going ot be turning me over, or....?" He didn't finish the question. Part of Norish' mind marveled at just how calm his voice sounded.

"The boss sent us to recruit, not make money," the gnome loudly declared. Norish got the idea it was more for the benefit of the nearby mercenaries and other bounty hunters than for Norish.

"Indeed he did," the elf - Norish could now see he was a quel'dorei whose mouth looked trapped in a perpetual frown - "and that's what we're here to do." The elf pushed past the other Ocheliad and glared at Norish. "Get down on one knee. Now."

Norish wasn't sure what the man wanted, but anything that kept him out of the hands of bounty hunters was a good thing. He just hoped that it didn't mean...

"Norish Juntland, you have expressed a desire to enter service to Lord Imperon Showdah by becoming one of his Lluchduu Ocheliad. Do you repeat this desire now, in front of witnesses?"
Witnesses? Norish grinned. The elf meant the bounty hunters.

"Um, yes, yes I do. I fervently want to become one of Imperon's Ocheliad." The elf frowned, which was an amazing thing to see because Norish had been sure he'd already been frowning; yet somehow he managed it. "Um, I mean Lord Imperon Showdah, of course."

"You can't do that! He's worth money!" A burly tauren stepped towards Norish, a mace in each hand. He dropped the maces and fled for the sea when he suddenly burst into flame.

"Anyone else wanna tell us what we can't do?" The gnome held his hand out and it burst into flame as well. Unlike the tauren he didn't seem overly worried about it. No one spoke up.

"Then, Norish Juntland, I welcome you as a recruit of the Lluchduu Ocheliad. Your past is over, your life is now just beginning."

((OOC part starts here))

The Lluchduu Ocheliad is the oldest guild on Cenarion Circle and to my knowledge, the oldest guild in WoW. We've been role playing from day one and with the permanent connection between Cenarion Circle and Sisters of Elune we've decided to expand in a direction we've not been able to before...into the Horde.

ICly the Ocheliad has always taken in anyone, from any background and regardless of what their race is. That means an orc is as welcome as a human. But now we have a Lluchduu Ocheliad hordeside on SoE to complement the Lluchduu Ocheliad Allianceside on CC.

Both guilds are recruiting. Getting into the Allianceside outfit is a bit harder than the Hordeside. Right now, in order to help establish the Hordeside Ocheliad, we're just asking for new recruits to have an OOC chat with the guildmaster (me). The Allianceside recruitment is a bit more involved.

If you're interested in joining us, our website is an invaluable tool for getting to know the Ocheliad and deciding if what we do sounds like something you want to be involved in. Our website is ocheliad.shivtr.com and it has everything you'll want to know about us, and a lot more besides.

In short, Imperon Showdah is a robber baron who took advantage of the chaos following the second war to set himself up as an independent lord out in the mountains that are between Dun Morogh and the kingdom of Stromgarde. When I was working on the guild concept prior to WoW's release, I based the placement on various maps from Warcraft 2 and 3, which generally disagreed with one another about even such major geographical features as what the territory around Ironforge looked like. I decided that perhaps cartographers in Azeroth haven't ever properly mapped a lot of those mountains and invented some territory that's sparsely populated and, since the second war, controlled by robber barons like Imperon.

He cares little for the wars between the Horde and Alliance, so he's just as happy to recruit an orc as a dwarf. Characters joining the Ocheliad need to have some capable to work with individuals of all races, although plenty of Ocheliad dislike this or that race due to their own back story.

As Imperon is a robber baron, plenty of the people who decide to serve him have their own reasons for doing so. Norish was trying to avoid a very painful death. Others want power, or hope that the Ocheliad can help them get revenge on someone who's wronged them. Plenty of others just want adventure or a sense of belonging.

OOCly, we're all adults in the Ocheliad. Our OOC chat and our expectations reflect this. We've been a part of CC's community for almost ten years now and while we're making it easier to get into our Hordeside branch right now to encourage its growth we do expert our members to conduct themselves as responsible adults OOCly no matter what sort of character you play ICly.

If you'd like to know more, our website is a great place to visit and you can always hunt down one of our officers and ask any questions you like. If I'm online (Imperon Allianceside on CC, Wayward Hordeside on SoE) then I am always happy to chat.

For any villainous guilds on SoE, I hope we can forge OOC friendships as well as IC friendships and rivalries. For any do gooder guilds on SoE...you've never met a guild quite like the Ocheliad and we are going to have fun finding out who the new opposition is. May our servers' connection prove to be prosperous for us all!