A history of the Undead

A small candle lights the room as a dark figure dips a quill in a well of ink slowly. His bones crack and rub against each other grinding each other to dust as the touch. Slowly the shrouded figure leans forward and puts quill to parchment; no writing begins for a long period of time. "I as one of the eldest of the current undead believe that a slight correction in the history is in order. In the years to come people will wonder and not understand what we were what some of us want to be. Years ago a young human and a young elven archer befriended a tribe of wild orcs. These two mortals worked hard and learned to fight strongly from the orcs, in time another human came, he was well versed in the ways of the mace and could rip the scales off a dragon with his teeth, or so he said. The human, Boz, the elf Jobe, and the new human, Kracus formed a group of the first non-orc worshipers of the Guardian. In time after they were wanted by every servant of Lord British and Lord Blackthorn, they destroyed and killed with the orcs, and soon were visited by the Guardian and proclaimed them servants of the Orcish Elders to protect all orcs until time ended. In more time, more humans came to join these Guardian Servants, and soon all of the new followers were wanted by British as well. After many years of unquestioned servant, the leader of this group, Boz was visited by the Guardian in a dream, and was told to take his life, at first he feared this not knowing why, thinking he did something wrong. After long deliberation he choose to follow his Lord no matter where it left him, and the next night spilled his blood in ceremony and died. The followers were in dismay for the next month and did not know what was going on. The next full moon at an Orcish ceremony, Boz re-appeared halberd in hand, shrouded in dark robes. When he looked up the followers gasped in horror at what they saw, a human skull, with small flames for eyes and skin still rotting and falling from every bone. In a low whisper the thing spoke "I am the Lich Bozzzzz, your new leader, you who believe will follow me in the Guardiansss way proclaimed hisss and only hissss ssservantsss we have been in ceremony take your livesss we will and reborn you will be we are the Undead now...Jobe shall be firssst.... Then Kracusssss." This was a revelation and Kracus and Jobe did not know what to think, Kracus being the more brave of the two begged that he might become first, and Jobe agreed to be third still not sure of what he was agreeing to. In time Kracus was sacrificed and reborn, then Jobe. Together these three alone killed off many of the forces of good and in time the Guardian visited the three again, he

Spoke of only destroying those who wish to be destroyed, and by that he meant only those who attacked them, or their allies the orcs. These three formed a force that was feared throughout the land of humans, joined by others who wished to serve the guardian every day. Soon their numbers had grown to an outrageous amount, so much that a council was formed and a city was built. The first home of the Undead was a small tower given to them by an evil human who had decided he did not wish to live there anymore. Eventually after all was sorted out in the tower, a large keep was bought to accommodate the growing numbers. In time, they bought houses and every building in sight of the keep forming what was soon to be called The Necropolis. During all this time very few of the Undead had what it took to be considered an important part of their development, of course there were the first three, Boz, Kracus and Jobe, but other names soon to be made famous turned about too, Necro Sanct, Whorrid, Sanction, Sephiroth, Aku, along with the others these servants of the Guardian formed an incredible ally, or foe for the more unfortunate. As the numbers strengthened and the money and power piled high, the three got older, wiser, and slowly lost influence. They saw it was time to stand down and pass the legacy on to the new breed of Undead, stronger, faster, and more involved with the armies. They appointed new Ancient Ones and stood back, Kracus and Jobe set their weapons of death aside and choose to appoint new guards to the Ancient Ones while Boz simply sat and watched, and listened and learned. He kept a firm grasp on the Undead always knowing what would occur next. The three stayed for quite awhile, but eventually both Jobe and Kracus choose to leave for what they called "The search for the eternal question of life and death." In their Undead youth, they never cared to think of what the guardians teachings meant, or what they really believed, besides the Guardian was all powerful. In time they will return, and with the help of the new leaders of what was once called the Undead, restore power to the name of the Guardian, and rule the Undead legions as they were meant to be." The shrouded figure slowely leans back in his spot of writeing and puts the quill down. Slowely he binds the book and in time as the sun starts to peek through the small cracks of the stronghold he sets the book down in a red pentagram of blood similar to that on the roof of the stronghold and slowely starts a prayer to the Guardian, blessing the book.

In the beginning there was an orc fort. It was occupied by orcs, red orcs, dread lords as they were called back then. They fought as a group, they had numbers. Back then, a character with about 70 magery could successfully res. Back then there was no stat loss for murderers. There was no trammel, there was only a bunch of savage evil creatures in an orc fort, defending it because they claimed the land and defended it. The fort attracted many people, many wishing to fight these evil beasts. It was under a constant siege. This situation also gave rise to the Undead. Boz being one of the first "non-orc" creatures being allowed into the orc fort. They tolerated the Undead (well most of the time), and the guild grew I remember Whorrid became an Undead when she was a complete new character, 50 archery, 50 tactics. (oh there were no skill locks back then either)... Whorrid went "red" the first day she was Undead. She died about 5 times average per day.

The strangest thing was though, everyone kept role playing, the orcs did, the undead did. I remember Dark Rychen Drow and Picts also coming to the fort, also defending the orcs like we did (and thus taking murder counts). Various new guilds came to life, Dark Dwarves, Savages, they all went red... They all put their own life at risk CONSTANTLY because they all played a ROLE.

How can you claim to be role playing when you are more concerned about your weapons or supplies than you are concerned about what being an undead is really about ? Being an Undead is about inflicting pain, death, destruction upon the living. Being Undead is NOT about gaining skills, or becoming the wealthiest char in UO existence. Being Undead is not about winning a 1 versus 1 fight with someone during a "duel". Undead are vile, evil piles of bones, they have no emotions, they care for nothing but reaping more souls. It does not matter HOW, only the end result matters. It does not matter getting shattered for an Undead, because they are immortal and will rise again in due time. They will always rise again, it is their destiny.