I miss this sometimes!

people forget sometimes that it's not the gear you have, but the people you're with. They make the adventure.

So sad. I want share my story with you all too. I apologize in advance for the cheesiness.

I started playing about 9 months ago, I was a craaaazy Final Fantasy freak and thought I new everything there was to know before I even began..... boy was I wrong. I figured out real quick, Final Fantasy XI isn't your average Final Fantasy. It's for people who want to game and work hard at it. I wanted to find a friend fast but I was shy. So I just went outside as a little taru thf. I didn't even know that I had been given an onion knife by the game. I just went outside and started punching mandys. Then when I explored a little more I saw the knife, and I got excited as shit. I thought it would be like other Final Fantasy's and when you kill you earn gil. So I had it all planned out. And then I saw no gil dropping from monsters... and then I thought, oh crap. This is just like Final Fantasy XII. I go into town and I see somebody with their pt seeking flag up. So I decided to get the courage and ask him to join me in doing our first Windurst mission. I'll never forget his name, Grug. He was my first ffxi friend. I remember we went out to do a mission in the inner horutoto ruins and ran into a bomb. He was a little taru whm and i was a thf still. We tried to fight the bomb but it killed me while I was trying to get it away from Grug. When I died he said "Why did you save me? You lose exp when you die ya know." And as i got up from my reraise I said, "Because in Final Fantasy, the whm protects the party. Well I know that as long as your okay I'll be okay too. :]" He just walked over to me and /blush.

Sadly, we eventually grew apart. He started moving on to Jeuno when I was still in Windurst. I went to Tahrongi Canyon one day because I was getting too strong for Sarutabaruta. I was no longer the little taru thf. I was now a taru rdm. While I was getting my ass kicked by a Rarab, I received an invite from a mithra named Remion. I accepted quick and she and her friend Gwydion came and sang that mandy to his death. I immediately said thank you and asked what job they were. I was jealous of their singing. They told me an extra job bard. And explained to me so much about the game. They explained extra jobs, sub jobs, expansions, af armor. They basically gave me a crash course. Then I'll never forget the conversation they had. As we all got our ass kicked by a Killer Bee, Gwydion said to Remion "If you want you can switch to another job, I know how much you hate brd." Remion immediately said, "No! I said we were going to level this job together as friends and that's what we're gonna do!" Gwydion just replied with a "<3". I got jealous again. I thought, when am I going to make a friend like that? Little did I know, that would be sooner than I thought.

That was the last time I saw Gwydion. Well I see him around but we dont say hi to each other. Remion gets on rarely but when she does, we talk. Now this is where things get amazing for me. Thanks to Remion's help I made it all the way to Gusgen mines. I was a lvl18 rdm now but I was so bored in Gusgen, that I just left. I walked all the way to Valkurm Dunes but I had no clue what monsters aggrod and which ones didn't. So boom. Killed by a gobby. I was about to homepoint when someone started casting Raise on me. She was with a friend, and these two people would change FFXI for me from here on out. I looked at the chatlog and saw "Sierralen starts casting Raise on Clasko" I thought, "oh! a helpful stranger!" I got up and immediately kneeled before the awesome lvl90 whm that just saved my life. She examined me and then invited me to her pt. She said "<Hello!> We're going to get your subjob." and then the person she was with said "Yay! Another new person!". I'll never forget him. He's is somebody who has had the biggest impact on me playing FFXI. His name was Tenagi. We did everything together, we made our first trip to Jeuno, got our subjobs, did all out limit breaks together. If Tenagi was doing something. Clasko was always there. A little while after I got my subjob unlocked Sierralen invited me to her LS. My first LS ever, and I still have the pearl. I'll never ever get rid of it. I don't remember what the message was back then but if I log on now, I know I'll see

MajesticRose: Sierralen
Shoot for the moon! Even if you miss you'll land amongst the stars!

Her and her husband Ayfa we're the leaders of that LS. They really didnt do events like we do. Is what just more of a, "Hey what are you doing? ooooo! I'm coming stay there!" ls. And it worked for us! We had about 15 members, my favorite people being Ayfa, Sierralen, Tenagi, Imahumelol, and Duckky. (I still talk to Duckky every now and then) The cool thing was Ayfa and Len were married and Tenagi was Ayfa's little brother. It was my first time in FFXI seeing a family play like that. So I thought it was pretty special.

Tenagi, was an amazing person. We went to do some CoP missions together and I kept dieing. I was a rdm/thf he was a drg/whm. It was around this time that I started to dislike rdm, so I lvld blm instead. We went to do a CoP fight (the one with the three guys i dont remember the name) and I got one down to half health and then died. Tenagi took on all 3 and came out on top. Of course I didn't feel good after that. I remember the whole conversation, word for word.

Tenagi: "we did it!"
Me: "You did it. I died. quickly."
Tenagi: "No, WE did it. I couldn't have beat all three if you didnt weaken them with your spells."
Me: "I'm pretty sure you could have."
Tenagi: "I don't think so, we support each other so much I can't imagine winning any major fights without you."

His words hit me. I knew that this was the friend I was looking for. The one that I would play with for as long as possible. But it wasn't enough for me. I wanted to protect him, and then I said these words to him. "I have to get stronger." He said. "I understand. You go lvl or unlock a job or do what you have to do until you feel better. I'll do no limit breaks, I wont lvl my highest job, and I wont do any missions without you." And that was when I went to unlock drk after much job testing and lvlng. And I'm glad I did. Tenagi the dragoon and Clasko the Dark Knight were so unbeatable. We were the perfect duo! Nobody could stop us.... except my service fee. I hadnt had any money in a while so I couldn't pay it. When i finally payed it and logged on I got into the LS. And I saw a message that broke my heart. "no applicable entries". The LS was empty, gone. My home was bare. Tenagi logged on that day and I asked him where his brother and Len were. He said he didnt know, they just hadn't played in a while. He was excited to give me something and I was excited to have it, whatever it was. He said "here! This is our ls!"

BraveVyria

We were the only two in there. And that was good enough for me. He told me "One day, we'll be the greatest LS in all of Ragnarok!" And I still believe those words. Sadly, shortly after that he started playing less and less until one day he just stopped. I remember the last time I saw him, he logged on for like 15 mins. I sent him a bunch of /tell to see how he had been. (This was about 2 weeks after I received my FellowTravelers pearl from Mari ^_^) He said "Wow. You're lvl 80 now, that's great. Sorry I haven't been on, I just haven't felt like theres anything to do." I told him "Well, we'll find something to do! The dynamic Drg and Drk will claim glory once again!" He said, "Yeah! One day! I'm gonna log for now, but I might be back later!" I just waved goodbye.

He didn't log on later. Or the next day. Or the next week. Or the next month. I'm still waiting for him to log back on so I can catch him up with me, and we can claim glory once again. just like the old days. or maybe those days will never come back. Don't get me wrong, I love each and every one of my FellowTravelers! Without you guys I wouldn't even have fun with this game. But everyday when I log on, immediately check my friends list, to see if that name Tenagi is online. And I'll probably continue to do so everyday. He made this game fun for me. And I'll keep those pearls forever. MajesticRose and BraveVyria. I go back to MajesticRose now and then and I'll see one friend on. And we'll talk about how we're waiting for everyone to return one day. If you see my pearl change to a lite aqua blue. Then you know I'm checking MajesticRose. If I keep it up for a while, then you know I'm talking to that friend. I hope that one day my wish comes true and MajesticRose and Tenagi will be there for me once again.

Thank you for listening to my story. :]

That's an awesome story Clasko!

Something I have always valued more than anything else in this game is Loyalty. I don't care if you're a galka whm/pld, if you're loyal and an overall good person you have my respect. Perhaps one day your friend will return, and maybe if they're not wanting to lead a LS again they could join us.

Just so you're not the only cheesy one I'll share my story too!

I started way back in Feb of 2004. My boyfriend (now husband) saw FFXI on the shelf in a local gamestop, and knowing how much I loved everquest (But not the fact I had to share an account with my brother) as well as my love for Final Fantasy he picked it up for me. At first I almost didn't play it because I was 18, and a freshman in college without a job. But no, he was determined to give me something to play that I'd enjoy so he offered to pay for it.

So I was on my way! I'd been a druid on Everquest so I tired to choose a job that sounded the closest to that I could, which ended up being Red Mage. Luckily I'd used Allahkazam for EQ so I knew where to go for game info. While the game was installing I read everything I could about the controls, spell lists, where to get things and missions (bf even got me that terrible strat guide). So by the time I got online I felt I knew the basics pretty well. I was outside windy killing bees in no time!

My major downfall with any MMO had been my shyness. I was terrified of talking to anyone. I didn't want to appear stupid so I just kept on killing my bees. All of the sudden this hume war named Alkaroth starts running circles around me and send me a tell "Want to party?" Somehow I mustered up the courage to say yes and we killed bees, and bunnies and even crawlers that night! The next night we moved on to Tahrongi canyon, and the night after by the time I'd logged in he was already in an alliance party in the maze (yeah they did alliance parties back then on diabolos! Though not for long lol). I was still too shy for that sort of thing so I just continued to kill things around the craig that night.

The next night I was introduced to my first Linkshell. Alkraoth had met a nice gay couple that ran a shell by the name of the Gullwings. It ended up just being the four of us in there, but they taught us a lot about the game in the few weeks the shell was around. They told us that since we were level 15 that we needed to get on the boat in Mhara to party in the dunes. Man, was that scary! They told us under no circumstances were we to go upstairs during the boat ride, and by the end of the trip I knew why! When we docked in Selbina there was an entire group of higher levels dead on the docks (I remember thinking 'WOW they must be awesome because they're wearing AF!').

Our next big hurdle was walking to bastok and Sandy for maps and such. Alkaroth and I met a nice taru that was willing to escort us. Along the way the taru gave us a neat history lesson on the history of the game, which I later found out was sort of made up on his part... but ended up being true in the end when they released WoG YEARS later! I guess that's why it stuck in my head. "Back when it was only japanese play this game there was a huge war where if enough players didn't band together to fight the beastmen they would invade the cities!"

Finally, after several weeks of play the two of us made it to Jeuno. This was when Alkaroth and I split off in regards to Linkshells. He found one called RagingChaos I believe, which I felt at the time just didn't fit with me. So I joined one called WarriorsOfDarkness run by a guy named Zeos (who would end up being a major part of my FFXI life as well as my real life later on down the road). We were ok with that though, we were still best friends and did nearly everything together. I met a lot of good people in that shell.

One day Alkaroth and I were riding chocobos somewhere and he started asking me about linkshells, and if we were to ever lead one ourselves what would it be. I'd just watched an episode of 'Love Hina' where all of the characters went through a role playing game-like dream identifying themselves as "The Fellow Travelers!" so my answer was of course "FellowTravelers! With a Pink pearl!" (being completely not serious since I had no interest in such things).

Several days later Alk would send me a tell "Seal! Come to bastok I have a Surprise for you!" and when I got there he was wearing a bublegum pink pearl. He traded me, and in my trade window popped up a linkshell "FellowTravelers." I told him I didn't know the first thing about leading, recruiting or anything like that even as an officer (since he was the shellholder). He said "Don't worry, I'll take care of all that." And sure enough several days later we had at least ten members. Some of them would be some of my greatest friends, and even though none of them play anymore I still have ways to contact most of them if I need to. Nahks, Asherah, Bellfast, and Hirayu being held closest to my heart. Nahks and his wife Asherah are still on my facebook. Alkaroth made a website that was nothing more than a bunch of screenshots of each character, and if you clicked on them each one of us had created our own roleplaying backstory for our character. Alk and I were "Alkaroth and Sealdorie Alkoz" we were so close we were going to get married in game (nothing actually romantic irl, just best friends you know). I still use the last name Alkoz when a game calls for one (and when the LS briefly went to FF14 most of us chose Alkoz as the last name to show to everyone that we were a family).

That was april of 2004. It would be shortly after that when Alkaroth would come to me with the news that he was changing schools, and his course load wouldn't allow him to play for long periods of time. I didn't know what to do. I had these people that meant so much to me, and the shell holder was leaving. So, on his last day on the game I created a shell of my own "FellowTraveler." This time with a teal pearl because I hadn't been serious about the pink to begin with lol.

Alkaroth and I are still friends, he's on my facebook and every now and again we'll share a text message or two.

I had no idea what I was doing, but Hirayu and nahks stepped up to be my first sackholders to help. That's how we got Koromer. Hirayu recruited him in some shouting match in the dunes with a rl friend of koros. We brainstormed together on the best ways to create the best linkshell we could. We gained people, and lost people to the end game scene but never gave up. I met Mari (his original name was Mariq, not Mareck) in a crawlers nest party while leveling my ninja. He was originally only a part time member, but we won him over! Along the way we also picked up Bluejinn, Canotto, and Skyruler. It would be 2006 when koromer was voted by popular vote of the LS to become a sackholder, and I asked Mari to step up as one too. From then on it was the three of us (there were a few others such as poth and Dizzi, but none have stood by me like Kor and Mari have)

Eventually after CoP came out were known as one of the best Social shells on Diabolos. We were the first social shell on that server to have members in Sea.

At the very beginning of 2008 (January 3rd of that year to be exact) my real life turned upside down and I was forced to quit. It wouldn't be until March of that year that I was able to come back, and on the server of Caitsith. Imagine my surprise (and many tears of gratitude) when I found Mari, Koro, canotto, Bellfast, ureii, bluejinn and jynx there with me too. I never intended to become as big as we once were, but we were happy being together. Since then we've played ffxi (on bismarck where I co-led an end game shell with a guy named Tontocat), aion, ff14 and rift together only to end up back here in June of 2011. At this point we had Yuzoh and Edkerr with us too.

It would be in August or so that I decided to open recruitment again. I wanted to find new players that needed a good home to call their own, or returning players that needed a better look at the game than maybe they'd experienced. Man have we had a lot of people come in and out since then! But without all the comings and goings I never would have found my new friends that have become constants in my life.

I won't ever tell you that I plan for us to be the greatest linkshell on Ragnarok, but I will tell you that if you ever need me I'll be there. I'll tell you that I'll keep this pearl on until I'm the only person logged in, and even then I'll keep it on in hopes that someone I love will come back.

Sometimes it might seem like we have a lot of new faces come in and out, but remember the constants, and remember that some of those new faces will become constants; new friends to share our adventures with.

I love that story sealie! <3
It just goes to show. This game just makes invaluable connections with people that you will never forget for the rest of your life. I used to get mad about dieing all the time but now, as long as I'm with a friend, I laugh my ass off when I go to Taru Heaven.