Guildguru
03-22-2007, 12:31 PM
Many have been asking and therefore it begins. The History project has begun. We have a wide gap with which to fill and I will be working monthly to complete this adventure to present date.
I'll link the template we plan to use for our history page. For now the results will be posted in this thread.
Note: During the period of 2002-2005 we had several Marduke scientists work on the project titled "AwaKen". More on what this is below in the history.
Look Below - The Marduke History Begins
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Guildguru
03-22-2007, 12:32 PM
History of Marduke - long version
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Written by Mits, Marduke Founding Father (assistance by Sacrafix, Unknown_Hero & Xena, Marduke Founding Mother)
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The birth of Marduke:
Back in 1996, early internet gaming stemmed from a game called Diablo through Battle.net. This was the first multi-player game which also supported chat features allowing communication with others on the internet during game play. The Marduke Empire originally formed with a group of honoured Diablo warriors and they called themselves the Knights of Marmaduke. These knights took on numerous other clans and attracted many new members. With the momentum of growth, the group chose to rename themselves simply as Marduke.
It would appear poor leadership lead to divisions into other lands with the main original leaders heading into the world of Britannia while the rest remained in Tristam. In a matter of months the Britannia front grew from 3 members to a hundred!
Soon there were more divided issues with new games like Half-Life and Settlers 3. New sections were created to host the members but neither stood the test of time due to uprisings and squabbling between and within sections. All remained quiet for a period of time.
Eventually, the original leader, Arislan, decided to revamp the empire in 2001 using a Dynasty theme and expanding into new games by inviting groups of players to form separate divisions within the Marduke Empire at Marduke.com. The main focus empire remained on Battle.net.
It was at this time that 21 members left the KFJ Clan which specialized in the Real Time Strategy game, Age of Empires Series. Arislan negotiated a fair and agreeable arrangement for the group looking for an immediate home. Eventually a total of 32 members from the KFJ Clan came forth when they realized the owner was slightly deranged and power hungry.
To learn where these 32 members came from, read on….
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In another realm in a galaxy far, far away.
Three friends have a discussion on the MS Zone. It was the first month of the new Millenium.
Dark_Jedi says "We should get a game of Age of Kings going"
BronzeAce says "I want to be King"
Kavil says "We play a lot, maybe we should do a clan, I wonder how u make one?"
Next day..... the three friends get together.
BronzeAce says "I found out how to make a clan so I made one and it's called KFJ (Knights of Final Justice) and I want you two to join it right now.
Dark_Jedi and Kavil message each other in confusion and wonder how that name came about. Then they are horrified to discover that BronzeAce is the owner (and self appointed leader) of the clan.
A new moon passes and the clan is no bigger than the fingers on one hand! However, the 3 friends are playing together and find they are playing these two guys on a regular basis, Mits and Toando.
BronzeAce "Hey Mits, you and Toando should join our clan"
Mits "I'm not sure, we'll think about it, because we were asked to join Xx Empire."
BronzeAce "Come on, we need a webmaster and you and Toando know how to make web pages"
Mits "Ok, we'll think about it" Bronze was persistent.
Soon, Toando is gone out of town to work for a two week period! BronzeAce continues to ask Mits to join their games as an ally.
During the game, BronzeAce says "So when are you guys gonna join?"
Mits replies "Not sure, we are both better than you guys so we don't have much to gain by joining"
BronzeAce "But you guys can run the website, I've found a host site but there's nothing there, not even a homepage, I need your help"
Mits finally agrees after being constantly asked (pestered).
Another moon passes and on March 14, 2000 Mits joins the ranks of KFJ. He immediately becomes one of the leaders with BronzeAce and Toando. After a ferious battle on March 25th, Timur Leng1 and Fud007 join the clan, Fud007 brings in Timosaby on April 13th.
We take the membership from 5 to over 100 in six short months! During this time period Mits recruits Dane the IV better known as Sacrafix (May 15th). On June 21st Xena and her husband Chimera are recruited by Skirmisher (June 6th).
Other significant dates to point out are:
Prncss July 16th
Light July 22nd
Radiskull Aug 1st
King (Bloodyvilly) Sept 7th
Morph Oct 20th
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Knights of Final Justice loses too many Leaders
Soon, a couple of leaders leave and form their own short lived clan. Then a couple more leaders leave and join another clan. Each and every leader that leaves are angry and upset. All of them at the clan owner, BronzeAce. In 11 months of existence, KFJ lost over 11 leaders! It was unreal. There isn't enough good leaders to keep a clan going.
Xena and I had read the writing on the wall and had tried our best to end the problem while remaining in KFJ. We did voice our concerns and pleaded with the owner to step down but he refused. His appetite for power was too strong. Other leaders, Sacrafix, Radiskull and Dark Jedi all wanted to leave and get a new fresh start. They came to Xena and I and pleaded that we depart. Finally, when Arislan from Marduke.com came in search of an AoE clan to join his Dynasty the timing was ripe.
Finally, a date was set. Our exodus and deliverance from the wrath of power was forged for Jan 1, 2001. Anxious departees spread good word of the exodus but one misguided loyal foretold of the events and betrayed us, Judas! It became an ugly toil of battered words, tossed back and forth and around. Xena stood up on a mountain top and shouted... "Go forth now before the time Dec 29th, 2000 and we shall seek shelter". And it was so, we travelled across the way and found our home at Marduke.com. Lost souls with no home for privacy, we were sorely lost until Radiskull brought forth a new home, pub44.ezboard.com/ftheaok...ID=2.topic . From this day, we have grown and flourished.
Approximately 20 had left on the day of the Exodus. Another 10 followed at a later date. In the moons that followed, KFJ lost more and more leaders, at a rate of 2 a month now! Even Judas (the betrayer) had seen the truth and left, regretting his poor judgement. Less than 3 weeks after we left, one leader left in such anger, he even deleted their website and locked out the forum and placed the anger and problems for all the public to view. pub22.ezboard.com/fkfjcla...=233.topic
Immediate loyal followers from KFJ
Xena
Mits
Dark Jedi
Radiskull
Sacrafix
Prncss
Mayhem
Morph
Jasc (new)
Alterman (new)
Skirmisher
Bay
Goldenfig
Hercules
Stermon
Timosaby
Timur_Leng1
Fud007
Goku
Indrahar
Warpig & Fujin (KFJ_Iffaca)
The late comers from KFJ
King (KFJ_BloodyVilly)
Escaflowne
Crazy Priest
Barek (KFJ_Hogan)
Black Skull (KFJ_Thor)
Night Mare (KFJ_Whiteknight)
light
Nighthawk
Xdethangel
EmpAndy (KFJ_Emperor_Andy)
Overcat
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Why join an existing clan - Marduke.com?
Our reasoning for joining an existing clan was simple. Marduke.com was an established clan on BattleNet for 5 years. They were looking at expanding into other realms. This was exactly what the AoE Leaders had in mind as well. We wanted to convert to a multi-gaming clan. However, with such a small break away group we didn't have the resources to start a new clan and make it multi-gaming. Arislan offered us a home with an established clan and website. Xena and I had previously scouted the clan and were very uneasy about what we had seen in Marduke.com's forum. It wasn't even setup properly as their Private forum wasn't password protected! There were no Moderators to maintain order. We seen numerous instances of foul language and dissing of others. We had decided that this was still the better alternative and chose not to tell the others of the negative attitudes we had seen displayed in the forums. We had always maintained that if worse came to worst we could break away and start our own clan. Part of our mandate of joining them was to have our own forum. Each day that went by without a forum was like a month! We had 20 members that had no place to vent their feelings following the Exodus. We finally decided that we had to get our own Private forum started to keep our members from wandering back to the KFJ forums and stirring up bad feelings.
Our welcome to Marduke.com was short lived.
We were permitted to maintain our rating system as it was based on skills in Age of Kings. However, Marduke.com had rating systems based on Administration and Length of Service. Immediately there was discontent among existing Marduke.com members: this was of course understandable. The problems came when we tried to resolve them. Our Advisors were all permitted to be on the High Council of Marduke. In that forum, the discussions to that point were petty ones regarding whom they should ban from their forums and from the clan! An issue/problem we rarely had to deal with. Then we discovered their average age was around 15 and some had been members since they were 12! This posed a serious generation gap between 'us' and 'them'. Our ages ranged from 25 to 40 with only Radiskull at 15 but he was a genuis and mature far beyond his age. We were never able to come to conclusions that satisfied all parties concerned. There were members in High Council that were no long active! To say the least, we were not impressed. To make matters worse, Arislan the clan Diety and owner rarely made an appearance and never kept up with the forums. It would appear that he only showed up if someone had contacted him about the troubles on the waters.
We became frustrated at trying to work things out with them and had decided to just focus on our own AoE Division. If any previouse Marduke.com member wanted to join our division and play we gladly helped them and welcomed them to the MS Zone. Unfortunately when our members tried to reciprocate, they were not always welcomed as we had done. For some reason BattleNet was kaos, the main form of instant messaging was IRC and the channel was not moderated properly or when it was it was abused. Those AoE players that ventured to play on BattleNet eventually got so upset and rejected that they quit the clan completely!
The saga continues .. 2002 A.D. The second quarter nears the end and the Empire splits....
For the eight months prior to April 2002, there has been nothing but childish bickering between members of the AoE Division (later to become Marduke.NET) and the BattleNet Division (past & present Marduke.com) in the forums at Marduke.com. This commenced in October, 2001 when the Leader of Marduke.com was absent for most of the time in question.
We had more AoE members quit due to the bickering on the forums! Thankfully, Xena and Mits had formed and maintained a Leader's forum we called "Advisors" which initially consisted of Radiskull, Prncss and Sacrafix. Through time the Advisors changed with Mythology, Morph and Anenigma stepping in when Radiskull and Prncss left. Finally UncleLe took Anenigma's place. It is Xena's and Mits's philosophy to guide as a team, than to rule alone. In April 2002, we converted our Advisors Forum to our own Imperial Court and gave each of the Advisors the title of Shogun.
Enough was enough, we were tired of losing members for frivolous reasons. We used the unanimous vote we held in October 2001 by all our AoE members as our green light to leave when the negotiated fix failed.
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The Negotiated Fix - October 17, 2001
The 11th hour solution to keeping the AoE Division in Marduke.com in October, 2001 was to forum a new higher level committee to replace the Diety (Arislan) in his absence and to make decisions in the his best interest: this new committee would be called the Imperial Court. Also, the direct replacement for the Diety would be Anenigma and a new position was created, "Empress". The Empress had final say in the absence of the Diety but she relied on the Imperial Court for advice and opinions and decisons.
The members of the new powerful Imperial Court were, Anenigma, Xena, Mits, Strykir and Cloud. Due to the numerous clan problems and issues we had posted over 300 posts a week! We had resolved many issues and posted our weekly progress; however, again there was nothing but dissention, jealously and untrust among the High Council Members. High Council consisted of all the leaders of the other divisions and long term clan members.
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The Diety of M.com vetos the Imperial Court
One of the tasks the Imperial Court (I.C.) handled was discipline, as the Diety was never around and never took disciplinary actions. A long lengthy discussion in regards to removing a distruptive member from the clan ensued and all alternatives were investigated. A decision was finally made after a long week and countless hours of debate: the member in question was to be asked to leave; by far not an easy decision as the person was a 3 year veteran.
Without a single word of warning or discussion among the Imperial Court. Arislan, the Diety walks in and reverses the decision of the Imperial Court! It was unbelievable. In one single swift act, he totally killed the credibility and authority of the Imperial Court, and the Empress.
He finally agreed to letting us continue with our decision provided 20 members of the clan had posted they wanted this member booted! This meant that 20 people had to step out and identify themselves and say "I want you to boot him". This was absurb that the general membership had to put themselves in that position! (Why we could not use a poll, I don't know.)
Due to the fact this person was causing more harm than good to the clan at the time, we went along with the Diety's request and after a couple days succeeded in getting the 20 posts.
This was when we knew we had to start making serious plans to leave, as the Imperial Court no longer had the trust of the Diety and the Diety obviously did not trust our judgement!
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Splitting of Marduke.com
The splitting of Maruke.com came in an ICQ chat with the Diety, Arislan: he wanted to stop us from leaving. His last ditch effort was to "Give us Marduke.com", he was going to relinquish the whole clan to Xena and I. We were surprised and honoured that he asked but after a brief discussion in a private window we declined his offer and said it would be best if we parted friendly instead. We never gained the respect of the exisiting M.com members and we likely wouldn't, even if we were given full ownership of the clan. At this time we asked Arislan's permission to maintain the clan name as we were going to purchase a Marduke.NET domain. Arislan gave us his blessing and said "Go forth and represent Marduke proudly"
From that day March 23, 2002 we have become our own identity. Marduke.NET was born.
Formation of Marduke.NET
We were prepared. Mythology had purchased the Domain Name, www.Marduke.net (http://www.marduke.net/) , Morph had provided a Web Server to host our website. We had expanded our forums and we quietly departed from Marduke.com. Most of us did not even post a goodbye and hence never looked back.
We were busy, our first year solo has succeeded beyond our expectations. January 1, 2003 has marked the 2nd Year Anniversary of our formation as Marduke.xxx
A new year is a time to reflect on the past year and to resolve for a prosperous new year. Here at Marduke.NET we have had our share of trials and triumphs, please take a moment and read the Year in Review, you'll be amazed.
2002 - Year in Review - The Awakening
April - The Age of Conquerors Division parted company with Marduke.com to form Marduke.net
April - Myth purchased the Marduke.net domain name! Morph provided a free web server (at his expense) for Marduke.net Mits expanded the once private forum to include a Public forum, SWGB, EE and AoM forum as well as a New Games forum. Imperial Court was formed.
April - Morph, UncleLe and Darkluke provided donations to keep our Forums AdFREE (prior to their donation, Myth and Xena had paid for 6 months)
April - Word Association Game in the forum commenced and it is STILL being played!
June - Myth redesigned web site and a Dream Team was formed.
June - New Divisions - Ultima Online, Dungeon Siege and Jedi Knight 2
July - Puzzle designs a Marduke Logo and web page template for Marduke.net, Myth and Mits fill in the templates as fast as possible.
August - Skirmisher converts and updates the Member Listing on the web site
August - When Morph moved to a new city we lost our web server, Myth and UncleLe came to the rescue and provided Marduke.net with 70 MB of web space! Our official backup site was formed, www.marduke.tk (http://www.marduke.tk/) This has remained our main site ever since, (trials on Morph's server were to commence this month, we hope soon), after which we hope to maintain two sites simultaneously. One current site and the second one as a test or future flash site!
August - New Divisions - Medal of Honor & WarCraft III. Also the Game Console Division gains momentum as more
members buy XBox or PS2.
October - Forum gets a face lift want new stunning wallpaper thanks to Sacrafix's suggestion. Unknown Hero replaces Skirmisher maintaining the Member List
October - Myth designs and makes some amazing new professional looking web pages for Real Time Strategy, First Person Shooter, Games Galore and Game Console. You must see these, I could not believe how much Myth has learned during the past 10 months. Myth even helped his twin brother UncleLe learn how as UncleLe made a page or two as well.
November - Age of Mythology has arrived and Myth has again come through with an incredible new web page for it. Each time he creates something, he still manages to out do himself. Myth's creativity is unsurpassed, his ability to piece together numerous graphics, text, images, colours and be able to create a web page is really in my mind like art. A talent I hope he pursues.
November - New Division - Battlefield 1942, Medal of Honor-Spearhead and Games Galore now includes MFO Games!
December - UncleLe purchased a membership at MFO and has provided Marduke.net a game upload forum.
December - Decision to use MSN Instant Messenger as the main method of online communication. More details below.
Year in summary, we left M.com and started our very own clan, keeping the name Marduke. Money was invested by members to buy the domain name, provide a web server, and keep the forum ad free! We have as a clan played numerous games from our core game of Age of Conquerors to Star Wars Galactic Battleground, Empire Earth, Ultima Online, Dungeon Siege, Jedi Knight 2, Medal of Honor, Warcraft III, Battlefield 1942, Medal of Honor-Spearhead, MFO Games and finally Age of Mythology! We have played as a clan 11 online games in less than a year! That is incredible, it really is. This doesn't include all the other games we have heard members playing like Counter Strike, Unreal Tournament 2003 and Morrowind nor does it include the whole Game Console Division, an area that has grown in strength and heavy gaming!
Guildguru
02-02-2008, 02:03 PM
Reserved for 2007
War is never over
The battle-worn Commander Stinky Jedi found himself again overcome with disarray as his army of brothers were scattered across the baron land of Marduke. Once a formidable presence on the battlefield just 6 months prior, his army was now depleted on other campaigns and some on leave to tend to their families. Will they return? Every year he asks this question as he realizes his own fears and doubts. His patience is tried, time and time again as he wages war alone on the remains of a great battlefield. However, it turns out he knows that even if less comrades return he will always accept the call to once again to lead his brothers in upcoming battle...the one they will call "Northern Strike."
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Sarge and Charlie
Key characters help fill the calm before the storm. One such individual was Damien Mephisto. He brought comedy from the news and shared a talented side of himself that his brothers of Marduke respected.
Many miles away above the commander's tent, a modern day warrior sits in his quarters on the Titan Marduke and writes of his exerts in the form of a story. He knows his adventures need to be documented for his sanity sake and for his family in case he doesn't make it. They need to know the sacrifices he had to make for their freedom.
His short story is titled Marduke: Minsk and here is a sample of what he wrote from the day's events...
"A small jeep of three soldiers was speeding down the road at him, and his NetBat identified them as hostile. Charlie began to panic, wondering where Sargeant Copenhagen and the rest of the soldiers from the Marduke were if all these enemy troops were coming from where they were all supposed to be. Charlie lay down on the ground and aimed carefully at the speeding buggy as it rocketed towards him, and he swore he could see the driver's face with a huge, maniacal grin. He's gonna run me over, Charlie thought, and fired as the Jeep was no more than twenty feet in front of him. The Pilum round struck the right-front wheel, shattering the front axle and causing the buggy's front end to slam into the ground. The driver was thrown out of the front window, landing less than five feet from where Charlie lay. The buggy then flipped into the air, over Charlie and the driver, and landed on its backside.
He was horrified. Charlie could barely move. So close to death, he thought over and over, I came so close to death. He heard the voice of his commanding officer in his head, repeating the words first wave, first wave and for some reason he thought about the Sergeant's tobacco-stained smile, the can in his hand, offering Charlie his first taste. Why hadn't he at least tried it? Now he would never know how it-"
The hand moved. The driver's hand. It moved. He heard a groan from the bloody man, who opened his eyes to look at Charlie. Charlie's eyes widened at the same time as the driver's, and a new thought came into his mind. You WILL know what Copenhagen tastes like. You MUST know! A fury started building in Charlie like never before, and his wild thoughts continued. You will live to try it and you will smile and thank the Sarge for giving you some even if it makes you puke all you have to do is kill this one last time and then-
Charlie screamed, pulling out his combat knife and stabbing it deep into the man's eye. Blood poured from the socket and the man screamed in pain, but Charlie's screams of fear and triumph and primal rage were almost twice as loud. He stabbed the man again and again, each time his feral screams seemed to get louder and louder.
Out of the corner of his eye, Charlie spotted movement from the crashed Speed-Buggy. A man was crawling out, wounded from the crash. "You!!!" Charlie screamed, and the man quickly turned over to see him, bloody and with a maniacal face that only wanted to kill or die. "You will NOT keep me from Copenhagen!" Charlie screamed. The man turned back and tried to crawl quicker away from Charlie, yelling that he didn't want any Copenhagen and to please not kill him, but it wasn't fast enough. Charlie leapt on top of the man, stabbing his neck and back. Charlie stabbed him again and again, until the meat of his back probably felt like a Koosh ball. That's it, Charlie thought. That's it. Now I can go find the Sarge and-
"Hey, kid."
Charlie whipped around, knife in hand and ready for anything except for the Sarge. He was alone, and Charlie almost thought that he was starting to hallucinate.
"So..." Sarge said uncomfortably, "I guess you changed your mind on that dip after all, huh?" Charlie didn't realize it, but the Sergeant was genuinely afraid of him after watching what he had done to the injured man who had crawled from the buggy, and after glancing at the driver. Charlie looked shame-faced at the Sarge, and answered.
"Yeah, uh...do you mind?" His sanity was returning, and he got up and walked towards his new friend.
"Not at all," Sarge said, "Not at all."
That's it for tonight, he thought. His mind is constantly haunted by war but temporary he has found relief by sealing his thoughts with ink on paper, his reward is a few hours of sleep.
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H A M M E R O F D A W N
In another time and place the “Stranded” continue to be overrun by the increasingly powerful Locust Horde. The sheer numbers of this menace has broken the people’s willpower. There is only a few that remain to fight and everyday they continue to ask themselves, who can save us? A few Mardukes latch on to this call for help and begin a campaign that will forever alter the future of Marduke in online gameplay. The Xbox360 platform begins its GEARS OF WAR and cracks the PC foundation.
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Northern Strike
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WTF?! Are we in a Cartoon?
After not using AwaKen for several months we received a call from an uncharted parallel universe. Two squads followed and found themselves altered into a cartoon style. The Brotherhood composed of Darkness_Surrounding, Isometric, Marvel, Opsteel, Web Gear...the 360Legion was aided by Guildguru, Marvel, MasterChef and our newly allied friends MWC clan. More on the Legion's successes around the corner in 2008.
The history shall continue...
Guildguru
02-02-2008, 02:03 PM
Reserved for 2008
Mardukes were transported to many periods in our history and future. After many battles for the first time since the Project "AwaKen" was started Mardukes were worn and tired from time jumps.
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Spartan 117
How could one man fight against impossible odds and provide hope for so many? The stakes are high again as the trilogy continues with the future of the Galaxy in the hands of humanity. Marduke's 360Legion have been asked to join forces with the Elite as the Legendary MasterChief leads us to Victory by putting an end to the Prophets conspiracy. We defied the odds with a small crew; those involved were AllaXul999, Bogart, Guildguru, Marvel, MasterChef, Nightwings, Opsteel and a new member Briggz Country.
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Hotspots: Terrosist Threat HIGH
After successfully waging war in space and disabling the Halos the 360Legion was taken to a familar era of combat. It has been several years since the crew fought in a 21st Century battle and rusty we were. We called apon another guild to help us as we allied with the MWC (www.mwcgamers.com (http://www.mwcgamers.com)) clan. Mardukes were reminded how simple the weapons were and how close death would hover over us without our space-age armor on. We had only a handful of soldiers that survived to assist in the Call of Duty. They were Bogart, Briggz Country, Guildguru, Marvel, MasterChef and a new member SakiWest. Bogart & SakiWest were our highest decorated soliders of the Modern Warfare.
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Army of 2 & Vegas 2 stories coming soon...
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