Artalis is me. It's the handle I've used since the early days of the internet. In the 'real' world I'm Geoff a 42 year old IT pro living in Reno, Nevada in the U.S.
My relationship with TSW is long and twisty.
I was a member of The 7th Legion, one of the launch cabals, long before even the Beta was available.
I was the High Warden (basically 2nd in command) by the time the game was actually launched, and when the cabal's Grandmaster decided that the game was not for him after a few months, I took over and did what I could to keep it running.
Recruiting to replenish people that were leaving the game and the drama that goes with leading really took a lot out of me and eventually we decided to close down the Cabal to allow those few who still wanted to play and go after things that the 7th could no longer provide(nightmares and raiding), an easy road to do so.
For a long time I couldn't even play Maer. There was a lot of baggage that went along with that character. I love her and her story, but it was very hard to let go of the 7th and all the emotions that went with it. As an attempt to start anew I made a lumie Chicken-Little and joined Pax Agnitio which later became Agnitio. Drama split the cabal and I stepped away, not wanting to take sides in the resulting drama.
Chihaya had never been anything but nice to me, but then Spider-Baby and Simon Daedalus were also friends. There was no winning there.
By then, enough time had passed that I was able to start playing Maer again without too much angst and I got back into the game more fully, trying to finish out some accomplishments (Lair & Rare Jackets)on her and get her properly geared.
I joined a couple cabals in the process but never really felt like anyone cared if I was there or not.
After a while running Cabal-less and mostly just hanging out in Sanctuary, Pyre took some time to chat with me on a couple of occasions and suggested I give ODO a shot.
And here I am.
So, as you can see. It is all Pyre's fault.