So, it all started some years ago. 1997 to be more (or less) exact.

Starting Out
I got out a book from a library titled "Muds", I read, and tried it out but didn't find a mud populated with any body so soon went back to yahoo chat rooms. A few months later, I was browsing 'free games' on Tucows and found a download for a game called "Realms of Despair." The creators were smart and put a free client that could connect only to their game on a very popular download site.

Realms of Despair - still open
Realms of Despair is Smaug based and has typically 200+ people online, so this time, I was not alone. I had fun. It was a hack-n-slash style game and I made a few friends. One of these, Ryoga, bugged and bugged me to try out a new game... but I was happy on RoD so I refused.. until one day it was down and he convinced me to log on my first roleplaying mud, Eternal Struggle. My character on RoD was called Clarimonde, after a fictional vampire in ancient text, which is interesting considering what she became much later on.

Eternal Struggle - closed
This was also Smaug based so the commands were similar. It was new, and I think I must of been the only female player on back then. I got a lot of attention, and a lot of help. My first character, Clarimonde, reached level 50 (the max) in less than a week. The staff were friendly (Radagast, Vir, etc) and I had fun. I learned what an emote was, and I learned how to type. And then touch-type. I loved the whole story writing aspect and back then my spelling was horrendous.. well maybe it is still pretty bad but I have a few spell checkers to help me out now.

Eventually, I was made a staff member and went by the name of Jaeela. Playing a game from a staffing point of view takes on a whole new perspective. It is different and not everyone can handle it. When you become a staff member, the game loses some of the mystery. But on the other hand, you get the chance to shape a world. Back then, to balance it out, I tried roleplaying on other muds occasionally (so I could still experience some of the mystery) and staffing on Eternal Struggle. 

Eventually, all of the original staff on ES moved on, and a new group took over. I found them not to my liking, and I disliked how many of them treated the players. It was a power trip for most, and when I heard them refer to the players in a 'staff' meeting as scavenging dogs that was a turning point. I left and others who also had issues with the staff came with me and Shadow Siege was born.

My characters on ES included: Clarimonde, Sira, Dana, Tevia, Jashika, Lilikia and Venice.


Eternal Visions - closed
Before I talk about Shadow Siege, I want to briefly mention Eternal Visions. This is one of the muds I played on the side whilst staffing on Shadow Siege. I had some of my best roleplay here, despite the game having a lot of OOC elements. There was a lot of strife and the staff got involved with the players and for me, that was a first. It was also my first real 'bad-guy' or rather 'bad-girl'. A particularly memorable scene was when she (Lilikia) and her very evil partner, entered a talent show under the pretence of a magic show. She got an Orc up from the audience, intending to 'saw him in half'. The audience thought it was just trick, not realising that his screams were in fact real, as was the blood. When the reality sunk in, there was quite a chase across town trying to avoid getting caught.

Another memorable moment from this mud came when I slayed a staff member. He bet that I couldn't do it, I got out my rune-stick and used my most poweful spell. He died. 

Shadow Siege - still open
I started up Shadow Siege with my then-partner and a few friends from Eternal Struggle. My staff character was Mina (yes, I do tend to have a leaning towards names with an 'a' on the end). I think things went well at the start, we had a great mythos for a base. I was getting into coding so could really effect the world. We put in our own unique characters and our own spin on things but again things, I think, were not quite right. Eventually, I split from my partner and decided it was time to go it alone, so with his agreement, we used the same mythos we had come up with as a base for my final mud, Dark Isles.

My characters on SS included: Sira, Venice, Zarika, Lien.

Dark Isles - open
Which is where I am now. It has been over a year now in development. It has a mythos that has roots in Shadow Siege but we are putting our own twist on things. It is set in a different part of the world, an island theme and a lot of the races have been adjusted for this new setting. I am happy to have a really REALLY amazing group of staff who have helped me create a friendly community. That bit, 'friendly' is really important to me. I know a lot of muds have power-hungry staff who are less than nice to the players, and I intend to do everything possible to make sure Dark Isles is not like that. That's not to say trouble makers won't be dealt with firmly, break the rules and there will be an associated punishment.

The other bit that is important is roleplay. It should be fun. And you should have adequate documentation to play your character. You shouldn't certainly not be penalised for not knowing something that isn't written up anywhere. To that end, if you want to join us in helping to provide more information to other players, let me know. Help files are editable by players through the website.

There's still a long way to go with Dark Isles. Still a lot of things that need to go in. Still documentation that needs writing up, areas that need building, systems put in place, but I certainly think we're on the right track.

If you are interested in becoming a part of Dark Isles development, then I welcome you. Whether it be just to roleplay and become a personality within the world, or directly involved through building, writing documentation, and helping us come up with ideas on how things work, or through donations to help pay for hosting and other costs associated with running Dark Isles.

My characters on DI include: Sira. There are a couple of others, but I'll keep them to myself. Sira is a long standing character for me, my second oldest.. over 10 years old now. That's quite a while, am quite proud of her history across 3 muds.

Other Muds/Muxs
Other muds/muxs I have played on and enjoyed: 

• Harshlands - still open
• Ancient Realms - closed
• Akashat - still open