It is rather long but for those of you who have some interest in remembering Egypt of the past and how things were and have the patience for a longer read, you might enjoy it.
(Late May 2003)
The evening of Year 0, Akhet III-9, ten new immigrants arrived in central VOK. The welcome banner they arrived at was located just south east of the guild Clan of Tahp-Ra-Mahn. These new immigrants were Starscream, Hyp, Rageslc, Untor, Melk, Shitus, BillPullman, Steve, Iceflow, and LilAmyRae. Most of these immigrants came from the same place outside of Egypt and knew each other from there. There was no mentor present but that didn't bother them. They figured they had enough people and could try to figure it out themselves. As these immigrants were learning how to get their first skills and techs, they stumbled across the Clan of Tahp-Ra-Mahn camp. For the newbies, this camp was a huge impressive site to see. The next step was to pick a place to setup their own camp. After some debate it was decided that camp should be just on the other side of the mountain range that bordered the NW side of Clan of Tahp-Ra-Mahn. It was a spot that was fairly close to the schools and universities where they had obtained their first skills. The location had silt, water, and clay all very close. There was a guild located just down river from this location. One of the members of this guild happened to be in Egypt at the time, Kalar. Kalar helped the newbies by giving them some better flax seeds, some jugs, and advice on how to do things. This made things a lot smoother on their first night in Egypt.
After just a few days, Shitus, BillPullman, and LilAmyRae left Egypt. The group was down to seven people. The camp started to form with the most basic buildings now up. The main goal at this time was to build a guild hall capable of holding up to 10 members. As work toward this goal was happening, a flaw became apparent with the current camp location: not enough trees. There was heated debate over a new camp location, as they didn't like the idea of having to rebuild their current buildings and there were public buildings nearby that Kalar had shown them. However, the first camp was uprooted and moved a few hundred coordinates west where there were more trees. Shortly after this move, the group lost two more people, Melk and Steve, and were down to five. Steve had been a good trader for the group in the brief time he was with them.
The new camp was located in a grassy valley bordered by some hills, a road, a row of trees, and a small lake (duck lake). Soon the guild hall was put up and the Sheldeen Empire was born. However, there was an established guild right on the other side of the row of trees named LIX. LIX was none too happy that the newbies set up their camp so close. At this time the Sheldeen members had not been in Egypt long enough to really understand what would be considered too close to an established guild. Fairly early warnings were sent from LIX to not come any closer. The next thing the Sheldeen Empire needed was mines. Luckily, iron turned out to be right in the new camp, and thus mines were put up. LIX was very angry, the new mines would pollute the trees. The situation escalated into a shouting, yelling, name calling situation between Sheldeen members and LIX members (Kiloman, Staze, AnubusCockBlocker, Loreleilee). Sheldeen had a meeting about the incident and decided that they did not want to fight with their neighbors every day. The iron mines were torn down and LIX shared one of their iron mines with Sheldeen. Certain members of Sheldeen were encouraged not to talk to any LIX members until they could control themselves better. Soon it was discovered that the iron in Sheldeen was actually the cap of a copper vein. Copper mines were built and the fighting started all over again. The fighting ended quickly this second time though. Sheldeen and LIX again reached a truce. Both guilds worked together to populate the entire copper vein with mines to prevent other guilds from getting it and polluting the trees. An agreement was made not to work or use any of the mines except the two farthest away from the trees. This permanently ended the fighting between Sheldeen and LIX, but they were definitely not friends. Sheldeen's main goal at this time was to see what buildings and things LIX had and build them in the Sheldeen camp. The real goal of course was to eventually get new buildings up before LIX did. The first success toward that goal was getting a wine tasting table up before LIX had one.
In these early days, Sheldeen had to establish trade contacts and find experienced players to rely on for advice. Kalar continued to be an invaluable trade partner, and helper to the new guild. Some guilds just a bit to the north near the central VOK x-roads area also helped, among their members were Dexterhate and Darthbobo. House of Bes and Amira were farther to the NE but they turned out to be very important as well. Amira was a great person to talk to about how things worked and had very newbie friendly trade list. The first therms, camel meat, milk, and tin were obtained from Amira. One of their nearest neighbors to the north, Somebob, became the main petro supplier as well as giving mushrooms for the very first Sheldeen endurance and carry foods. To the south of the camp, a public camp was discovered and the dual charcoal ovens there were especially useful. One of the builders of the public camp, Warmerdam, was also very nice and traded Aluminum to the guild. Sheldeen lost another member, Iceflow, but gained three new members. Melkbot was the previous member Melk's cousin and he was with Sheldeen for awhile and was a great helper. Anknub was another newbie that joined the guild, although his time was relatively short. He refused to read any information regarding Egypt and how it worked, wanting to discover it on his own. He soon left Egypt in frustration. Los, joined and quit as well. You might say Los joined at a poor time. Members of Sheldeen were still so new to Egypt themselves that they probably were not the best people to guide new citizens. Los got fairly immediately burned out helping with the aforementioned wine tasting table. He spent a lot of time giving people TUG wins to allow them to gain the skill to detect the marble, and working the quarry with no endurance food available.
One day a very nice person come to the Sheldeen camp, Rendell. He taught a number of acro facets to the guild members. He was able to teach Starscream eight different facets, which at that time was a lot. He was great to chat with and came back to visit the guild a couple different times. He had a microphone and could broadcast all over Egypt. Starscream liked Rendell a lot and listened to his radio channel and chatted him often. Rendell, even talked to Pharaoh and helped get the acrobat test changed to become more doable and fun. One day out of the blue, Starscream heard a rumor that Rendell was quitting. When he talked to Rendell about it, Rendell said that naming a flower Hatch's bud and hiding it in the desert was a slap in the face and the last straw. Rendell quit and said "Thanks for all the fish". Sheldeen Empire was shocked at the news but does get one of Rendell's former silver mines which was a metal type they didn't have good access too yet. Starscream's chats with Rendell were his first experience with flowers in Egypt.
(early-mid June 2003) Kalar, was sad because his guild had all quit. It was the second time that had happened to him. So Sheldeen Empire extended an offer for Kalar to join the guild as he had been a good friend since day one. Also since the feud with LIX has long been over, Lorelielee has become friends with Untor and Starscream, and invited them to join BPOC. BPOC is a meta guild, led by Somebob, which at this time was a trade/chat/joint work channel between central VOK guilds: LIX (Lorelielee, Kiloman, AnubusCB) Waterthread (Somebob, Modesitt, Slyfeind-Hotep), Extopol, Oasis (Hodhr, Servant, Hoth), Dead Pirates (Zomboe, Rivenchan) and now newly added Sheldeen Empire. One of the first things that happened after joining BPOC was the salvaging of Dead Pirates camp by Somebob. Since only Rivenchan and Zomboe were left in the guild, and neither of them were playing much, the camp was removed, though under some protest as no one is happy to see their camp taken down. Meanwhile, the Sheldeen camp had added an industrial park expansion a couple hundred coordinates to the west of the main camp. Untor, Rageslc, and Hyp worked hard to get a series of ore infernos, set up a series automated mines on three copper/iron veins, and finally build a deep well mine out there. After a while Rageslc had pretty much stopped coming to Egypt. The remaining active guild members started to feel the burnout of pushing so hard to get the camp "caught up" with the other top camps in the region.
(early-mid July 2003) Starscream at this point was tired of building the camp, and decided to move on and try the art discipline. Hyp continued to get the most enjoyment out of building things and went the Architecture route. Kalar picked conflict as his main interest, and did very well at TUG. As a result of Kalar's TUG performance, Sheldeen became one of the most marble rich guilds in the area. Untor choose no discipline, worked on acro a little bit, and played far less than he used to. Starscream, in his art phase, choose to build an opticon just a bit north of camp up by the central VOK x-roads. As he worked on his opticon design day after day, a newbie moved right into that area and built a camp there. The newbie told Starscream that he wanted to study food properties, and asked if he would help eat food for data points. While it was a fairly odd request, Starscream agreed to help Quizzical get these food data points. Quzzical of course would go on to publish a lot of information regarding how food works, especially regarding food bases. Now initially Sheldeen Empire did not like Quizzical. He came across as a very spammy know-it-all newbie that kicked their butts in conflict games. In addition, BPOC, who Sheldeen is part of, did not get along with Quizzical. Somebob and Quizzical were fairly publicly feuding over land boundaries, forum posts, and other things. However, over time any resentment toward Quizzical evaporated and Quizzical became a strong ally of Sheldeen Empire. In addition to assisting Quizzical with his food studies, Starscream and Quizzical jointly started a fishing guild in central VOK. As a close by northern neighbor, Quizzical has been one of the top trade, chat, and work partners Sheldeen Empire has had to date. At one point based on how much daily chatting, trading, and working with Quizzical happened, there was an open debate as to whether an invitation should be extended to him to merge with Sheldeen. However, forum posts by Quizzical indicating that he had a strong opinion about being a soloer were the deciding factor, that even if an invitation was extended he would refuse it. BPOC has over time mended their fences with Quizzical too but it was a slower process.
One day Pharaoh was working on a judging system for a newer test called pyrotechnics. So Pharaoh called for volunteers to help test out the new judging system, and Starscream was one of the first people there. So he was all ready to help try it out but he couldn't get it to work at all and kept telling Pharaoh "it won't work", "it won't work". Pharaoh at first did not understand, but then realized that Starscream has not signed up for a the pyrotechnics test at the University of Art yet. So just like that Pharaoh created a brand new University of Art out of thin air right there for Starscream to go sign up for the test of pyrotechnics. Then Starscream was able to participate in testing the new judging system. Starscream is a apparently a slow learner, as this will not be the last time he forgets to sign up for a test before attempting to do it.
(mid July 2003) A very historic day in the Sheldeen Empire was the day that hardwood obelisks opened up. Members of the Sheldeen Empire always read the about the latest techs, buildings, and tests that were discovered in Egypt, but never were an active participant. Sheldeen Empire had been a newbie camp with just basic buildings for most of its existence. Over time it had become bigger and had been catching up. The very day hardwood obelisks opened, Starscream, Kalar, and Untor all built one and passed that test (Hyp had passed stone obelisk earlier). Sheldeen had a brand new wood treatment tank, a building that had just opened a week or so before, and had the supplies to take action when the tech opened up. Sheldeen was officially no longer a newbie camp, and was caught up with the current tech cycle of Egypt. However, the happy moment would not last as one of Sheldeen's most active members, Untor, called it quits soon after this.
Starscream's attention shifted from art toward festivals. He spent most of his time working on wine flavors, fruit trees, and beer recipes. Kalar dabbled a bit in various things, but still pursued conflict tests as his main goal. Hyp was still doing arch tests and working on the few high end buildings the camp did not have. BPOC changed. LIX, Waterthread, and Dead Pirates no longer existed as independent guilds, because too many of their members had quit. For the remaining members (Lorelielee, Somebob, Slyfeind, Zomboe, Modesitt) BPOC became their primary guild. Most of the old guild buildings were either torn down and rebuilt as BPOC or were transferred to BPOC. Sheldeen and Oasis continued to be independent guilds that were part of BPOC, but it was clear that BPOC was no longer just a chat/trade channel between guilds.
(late July 2003) One day Starscream and Kalar were standing in the camp and a newbie came into the camp named Asrael. Asrael had a bunch of questions and her mentors Asarel and Asarelah were not available that day, so Starscream helped answer what he could. Over the next weeks Starscream and Asrael talked back and forth often. Starscream wanted Asrael to join Sheldeen Empire, but she wouldn't. Asrael built her own camp right across the waterway from Kalar's former camp and the original spot that Starscream and Hyp had started their first camp. Coincidentally, Starscream began to work with one of her mentors, Asarelah, a quite a bit at this time. Asarelah was a big time festival coordinator and supply distributor. Starscream, who had been working a lot on wine and beer flavors, became a good partner for her goals.
(mid September 2003) Sometime after that, a new technology, clear cutting, came out and turned Egypt upside down for a week. A number of people were very angry because their trees were clear cut. Somebob, for some reason, chose to clear cut the trees right through the heart of NVOK's Theopolis guild, one of the largest most active guilds in the game. The backlash against Somebob was severe. He had a lot of name recognition as a forum moderator and had with his clear cutting attacked a very large and active group. Somebob became the scapegoat for all clear cutting evils. The Egyptian backlash combined with some outside of Egypt problems that Somebob was experiencing drove BPOC's leader to leave Egypt. Sheldeen had for the most part been fairly dependent on Somebob first for petro, and later for things like thermometers and nut's essence. Well as the camp building had become more and more complete some of the focus shifted toward obtaining the high level skills. Around this time Sheldeen made the push to get at least one member to have Bot Id 2, Lab Con 2, and Salvage 4.
Somebob returned to Egypt about a week or two after he quit. After the massive clearcutting, Slyfeind feared guild-wide retribution, so he fled to take up exile in a small camp in Seven Lakes. Sly having starting his own smaller camp began to prefer a simpler life rather than the power guild that BPOC had become. At this time Sly actually completely resigned from BPOC and Waterthread.
(late Sept-October 2003) Kalar decided to leave Egypt at this point, and Sheldeen was down to only Starscream and Hyp. There was a disagreement about what to do. Starscream thought the guild should fold, and they should make BPOC their primary guild just like LIX, Waterthread and Dead Pirates had. Hyp still found the most enjoyment and fun in building his own camp, pretty much by himself. So there was a difference in philosophy, Starscream did not want to build things, but wanted to use things that had already been built. Hyp wanted to build things, even things that have no practical use. Hyp did not see a full merge with BPOC as beneficial towards his goal of building everything for Sheldeen. So the full merge did not happen. Instead, Starscream tried his hand at mentoring and recruiting newbies for the guild. He finally got the aforementioned newbie Asrael to join Sheldeen, and convinced another newbie, Dyrathe, to join. Neither newbie worked out quite as planned. Asrael was very nice and helpful, but she soon packed up her solo camp and joined Iyr Ari'el, to be with her mentors, Asarel and Asarelah. Dyrathe was probably a combination of Starscream not adequately mentoring him and him just not being a good Egyptian. He built his own mini camp just outside of the Sheldeen camp, using Sheldeen resources. Then he whined about how hard it was to build a pyramid and that no one was helping him enough and then left. Another newbie, Madmanxtra asked to join the guild and was let in. He seemed very nice and eager to work with the other members of Sheldeen. He helped a lot on a venery project with Starscream and Hyp. He started having other problems outside of Egypt and eventually quit coming to Egypt, which was too bad. Slyfeind in the meantime had re-joined BPOC but still lived in 7L.
(early October 2003) Hyp had taken the opticon that Starscream originally built right near Quizzical's camp. He had his own design put up and was having some difficulty getting judges to come down and vote on it. All that was solved one day when some traders from Africa arrived in Egypt. These traders setup carts in all the regions of Egypt, and they just happened to setup their VOK cart right next to the opticon. Many people traveled to see and trade with the trader and came right to Hyp's opticon. As a result Hyp easily picked up the judging votes he needed and his opticon passes that Art test.
(flower phase was mostly late November 2003 - early February 2004, formal garden actually passed in March 2004) Starscream now entered his flower phase. All Starscream did at this time was plant flowers, make fertilizer, fertilize flowers and breed them. Most of Starscream's in game time was spent chatting about flowers and their genetics with people like Qetesh, Tickle, Zanix, Sigil, Rana, Blizzard and many others. Flowers were the most fun activity Starscream had experienced in Egypt, especially the genetics to get different sizes. Sheldeen Empire was the proud home to Egypt's very first dwarf x2 lily, giant sandbloom, and giant x2 sandbloom. Starscream was also able reproduce flowers that others discovered, like giant x2 roses, dwarf x2 roses, and dwarf giants. The end result of the flower phase was a formal garden dedicated to the unique sized flowers of Egypt. The formal garden also featured a pond, painstakingly laid out with upside down tadpoles. The formal garden was a hit and Starscream passed that test, the score of the gazebo stayed in the 490s even up to 30 judges. The other positive outcome of the flower phase was that Starscream remains good friends with many of the people he started to get to know and chat with about flowers. During this time, Starscream proposed to Asrael, and she said "maybe". Over time Asrael and Starscream's paths had somewhat separated. Though she was still a member of Sheldeen, she has spent almost all of her time in her own guild and with those guildmates. She said she was not sure she wanted to be married at all, or if she did get married maybe it would be to someone in her own guild.
(November 2003) A little bit later, Kalar returned to Egypt. Kalar took the place of Madmanxtra on the venery design and helped complete that project. The C07 contest happened and Kalar did a good job and won a microphone, AFK. Starscream used this microphone to interview as many venery owners about their courses as possible. Eventually a big race contest was held one weekend at Sheldeen Empire venery course. The winner of the contest was Brightshadow of Theopolis. The Sheldeen Empire course got great reviews and passed the test (Jan 2004). Another event that happened shortly after Kalar's return was the VOK mega site getting built a mere 6-7 minutes NE of the Sheldeen Empire camp. Kalar, Starscream, and Hyp participated in building this structure. Kalar was even in charge of coordinating the bricks for the project. When it was completed, Hyp was tied with Ravious to be Egypt's very first Master of Architecture. Considering his love of building things, and the fact that he was the primary builder of the entire Sheldeen camp, this was a great honor for him. At around this time Asarelah, good friend of Sheldeen, left Egypt.
(January 2004) Aoife, a person Starscream first met in Qetesh's flower guild, led a VOK pilgrimage group that had Starscream, Hyp, and Kalar in it. This pilgrimage sees the return of Rageslc to Sheldeen briefly to assist Hyp in the pilgrimage, because the real Hyp is unable to make it himself. Rageslc and Aoife are opposites. Rage being very science and logic, and Aoife being into literature, poetry and writing, and in fact working in an English department for a school. So they argue a lot during the pilgrimage. At some point in their arguing Aoife says "Oh yeah! Why don't you come down to my office and say that." So RageSLC of course stated that he does not know where her office is, but soon it is revealed that in fact he attends that very same school that she works for, and actually does know where this office is. After a few moments of stunned silence regarding the revelation that they are very close to each other outside of Egypt, their arguing pretty much came to a complete stop. One of the most funny moments in all of Egypt. Around this time BPOC lost Modesitt, one of Waterthread's original founders.
(March 2004) Somebob was having more problems outside of Egypt and was losing purpose inside of it, so he left for the second time. One day there is news in Egypt that Somebob had died of SOTS poisoning. This was very odd since Somebob had always been very anti-SOTS usage. Bob fought and debated with Teppy regarding the death of Somebob. About five or so of BPOC's members would have had access to poison Somebob if they so chose (including Starscream), but there was no motive for them to do so. In fact, these five people had been in strong contact with Bob to not leave Egypt in the first place, and were hopeful that someday he would return. Eventually, Teppy did bring Somebob back to life on the grounds that someone illegally accessed and poisoned him. The scape goat was Hoth, a former member of Oasis and BPOC, as the probable person who did the evil act. Many in Oasis and BPOC did not believe it was Hoth, as he had left Egypt a long time before and had always been on good terms with Somebob. Anyway, Somebob was back and the resurrection apparently revitalized him, as he resumed his active leadership role in BPOC.
Hyp, probably as a result of some combination of: the Sheldeen camp being mostly finished, himself becoming busier outside of Egypt, the constant talk of this telling of Egypt coming to an end soon, and the lack of new arch tests he was really interested in entered a mostly dormant state. He visited Egypt and worked on things only every once in awhile. Starscream had not given up on wanting to someday marry Asrael, after all she had told him "maybe" to his earlier proposal. Their relationship in Egypt had gone in streaks, there were times they chatted and did things together quite regularly, and times they were busy with their own guilds and projects and were not in contact with each other. Starscream asked again and Asrael finally said yes, she would marry Starscream. Kalar left Egypt for the second time, saying he would be back for the end of the telling.
(April 2004) The Starscream and Asrael wedding date finally happened. Starscream uprooted most of the flowers that were in the gazebo and used them to decorate the altar for the wedding. The wedding was great. Hyp was able to make into Egypt for the occasion. It was a triple wedding with Aoife-Olofath, and Sesostrus-Uret also getting married. Hobbes officiated the wedding and conducted the ceremonies. The wedding marked a merger between Sheldeen Empire and the Iyr Ari'el guild (Hobbes, Cassie, Asrael, Waav, Infracat, Jaxun). This was not the only merger the Iyr Ari'el guild experienced at this time. Really, the Iyr Ari'el guild was founded and run by Asarel and Asarelah. Over time, new members joined and other guilds merged in. The Iyr Ari'el of today was part of a mix of various guilds, buildings, and people spread throughout central and southern VOK. So Iyr Ari'el (along with the other guilds that were part of it) is to be salvaged, and centrally relocated and merged as Piso Ilios. Kalar had returned to Egypt much quicker than expected, which was good news. Kalar was even able to attend the after wedding festivities. Kalar's return was quickly marked with one very high note. He became Egypt's first Oracle of Conflict. By alas this great honor would not last, it turned out that Egypt's office of Conflict had some faulty record keeping. Once the records were straighten out, Kalar actually became the second Egyptian to wear the title Sage of Conflict. Kalar hopes to soon become Egypt's first Oracle of Conflict again.
(May 2004) The history of Sheldeen would not be complete without a slight deeper mention regarding on of BPOCs more interesting members, Zomboe. Zomboe, is one of the oldest citizens Egypt has. He has been living in Egypt since a time period called Beta 1, and has survived Beta 2, Beta 3 and now Telling 1. Zomeboe, has built enough camps and buildings that he has no desire left to participate in that aspect of Egypt. He does however visit Egypt fairly regularly and specializes in gem cutting. Zomboe was responsible for many of gems cut for Sheldeen Empire's various projects mentioned above including the venery, set's ladder, VOK mega, and opticons. The day that Khenemetra's ship came to Egypt and was offering Egyptian's bags of zircon gems to cut for a contest, Starscream hurried right down to get a bag for Zomboe, who was not in Egypt right at that time. Sure enough as expected from someone who does nothing but cut gems night after night, Zomeboe finished among the top cutters in the contest. There he, along with the other top cutters, got to pick a prize for all Egypt, which of course was the cheaper arsenic we have today. Also in the end May another good friend of Sheldeen Empire and fellow BPOC guild member Hodhr decided to quit coming to Egypt. Hodhr's greatest achievement coming just a few weeks earlier when he completed the Distant Plains pyramid project he lead near (0,0) in the center of Egypt.
(late May 2004 - June 2004) So Sheldeen sits mostly empty, at least compared to what it once was. Hyp, checks in about once or twice a week to see how things are going. Though we may see more of Sheldeen's Master Architect again as the end of telling starts. Kalar, still regularly comes to Egypt though far less active and often than he used to. He will get his wind chimes up and continue to play conflict games. Starscream has become the fifth person in Egypt with the title of Master of Thought. He only has a couple thought tests he is working on as personal goals yet. Starscream has been so busy working on things all the time, that he has felt so many people have helped him, and he has had no time to help others. So he hopes to use some of the remaining time helping people with their projects, like his new wife Asrael, guildmate Kalar, and some of his long-time friends in BPOC. Even though Sheldeen is mostly empty these days there is still plenty to do. Starscream and Kalar chat and do things with on a daily basis, the BPOC crew: Somebob, Loreleilee, Slyfeind, Zomboe, the new Piso Ilios guild: Asrael, Hobbes, Cassie, Waav, Jaxun, Infracat, plus others they have met along the way, Qetesh, Aoife, and many more. Starscream is in a way enjoying the game as much now as ever with fewer hardcore projects, and more time to chat and play around.