My Linkshells

I don't know how others determine their timeline in FFXi, but I do mine by Linkshells.

I don't remember the very first linkshell I belonged too. I don't remember when I learned to appreciate linkshells, what they meant and what I could do with them. When I started to play I didn't expect to make real friends, I didn't expect the need to feel like you belong to a group.

Until I met Tiska.

Linkshell: DisciplesOfLucifer

Tiska gave me a pearl to DoL. It was in the dunes when I was levelling my WAR. I was still pretty clueless, but she started to talk to me and help me out. She was somewhat new too, but she understood the game a lot better than me. She was my first friend. She gave me a pearl to DoL where I met a bunch of people. Eldariel was her crush, the leader was Fabio and he was never on. Hwang was the smart one who knew everything. Azzuro was the funny one. My husband started a new character, Pascale, and he joined too. Together we had a lot of laughs in that linkshell. I learned about Advanced Jobs, I learned about Chocobos, about exploring, about gear and about belonging. We'd party together, we'd help each other out. Hwang helped me get PLD unlocked. He taught me the basics of PLD and what to look forward too. Unfortunatly he didn't last very long in the game, and quit before I could make my mentor proud.

Then Tiska introduced me to Arucardo. He quickly became a very reliable friend and we SP'd WAR & PLD from 50 up. It was the good old times, Arucardo Tiska Eldariel and I would do a lot of things together. The old school impossible quests of breaking the level 50 limit, 55 limit, 60 limit, 65 limit. Before I could break 65, our schedules started to clash. Work, School, Time zones - we weren't able to do everything we wanted to. We met higher level people who told us about End Game, explained the importance of Zilart, and what we have to look forward too. Zubis (75RDM) helped Arucardo and I get our artifiact gear and would tell us stories of Gods and much better gear.

After awhile, DoL broke.

I don't remember the LS' after DoL, until I met Natont. He told me about his LS leader, how kind she was and how his LS was growing quickly and was promising.

Linkshell: EclipticShields

Bshame accepted me into her HNMLS. My first ever HNMLS. I was PLD69 and I hadn't beat Maat yet. I was pretty confident in my ability to do my job but I was getting very tired of being a PLD. I knew it wasn't a preferred job and being a Mithra I didn't have a big asset on my side. That got me discouraged a lot, but Bshame was always there to reassure me. I became very fond of her. She was experienced and smart, she was always trying to help people in the LS, she was always prepared for a fight. She has a lot of jobs and I admired her. I brought Tiska into the LS, and Arucardo was promised a position when he returned from his absence. Bshame was there when I beat Maat, and she was there to reward me for getting Level 73 with the Koenig gear I couldn't even dream of affording. I still have and cherish each piece. She introduced me to TeamSpeak where I was able to speak to other member of the LS. I remember staying up very late talking to Natont and waking my husband up. I remember giggling at Bshame's Texan accent and making her talk more on TS for my own secret pleasure.

Thanks to EC, I was able to unlock Sky and complete most Zilart Missions. I was able to level in our close knit group. We took down big, scary monsters like Behemoth and Lumber Jack and Roc. I still have some screenshots somewhere. Tiska met her soulmate, Xratedkilla. Which meant for me I often needed to find other levelling partners because Xrated did not favor PLDs. I didn't blame him, but I felt rejected. That's when I started to level my favorite job: Bard.

Unfortunatly, great things never last. Bshame was ill and her 2nd hand became a snot nosed whore and took the spirt out of Bshame. With Bshame went EC. Some people didn't put much effort into keeping EC alive when Bshame wasn't around. It was very difficult to keep people together when there is 1 or 2 that are very uncooperative. I found it discouraging and sad, really. EC had a great group of people, but it just wasn't enough for some.

Eventually Bshame left the game. It was terrible sad and in a fit of anger (towards a stupid red head) I threw away my EC pearl.

The upside was that I was able to focus levelling my BRD. I lost all motivation for PLD. It was locked up with my Koenig gear with my Moogle in Windurst.

I met quite a few people in my parties as BRD. One in particular was a player I had known under a different name. He had been friends with Arucardo and known me through aquaintance. We re-met in Bibiki Bay on his NIN. Xhrta became a good friend of mine.

Linkshell: TheHopefull

Hellio was the leader. I found him silly and funny and interesting because he was from Greece. I would ask him a lot of questions about his area and everything. Because of where he lives, he would schedule events very early in my day. I loved that, I didn't have a job at the time and it suited me very well. I met some more people and made more friends. Slowly my pain from EC was subdued and I enjoyed myself a lot. Arucardo came back and so did all my motivation for FFXi. We partied a lot on my BRD with others from the LS. The most memorable was when Arucardo, Silarious, Neeble, Hellio, Xhrta and I think Lillian... we tried to EXP in Ulegarand Range while talking over TS & Skype and drinking. Anyone who knew Aru knew his love of Jack Daniels, and on some Friday & Saturday nights, we would drink and EXP and die more than level, and pee our pants laughing (Okay maybe that was just me). I found a lot more adventures on PLD and I loved the feeling of being a needed, preferred job. With TheHopefull I was killing gods in Sky, farming against other hardcore LS', joining in the pathetic drama and having a blast.

I made some very dear friends. Mowgul, Xhrta, Neeble,Lillian, Hellio, Nihi - they stick out in my mind. Arucardo and I were playing a lot together again and I was having so much fun.

We focused on Sea here. Arucardo and I would try to SP our COP missions. One of my most fondest memory of Arucardo is staying up late (like 4am!) on Skype while doing COP missions with Nihi and this very bad french summoner. I guess I had a bad case of the giggles cuz Aru would have me laughing so hard that night.

Of course, all good things come to an end. I don't remember exactly how, but Hellio broke the LS. Some of us went our separate ways. Mowgul couldn't play for months and I kept in touch wit him through E-mails.

Being a 75Bard, I got a lot of attention and invites to LS'. I used that to my advantage and applied to a big-name end-game LS.

Linkshell: DynamisLordsHNMLS

The leader to this LS always stood in Port Jeuno, on the stairs from the mog house. Lydya was the first (or one of?) 75SMN on the Cerberus server, and the first NA to recieve a Dalmatica (A.Body). He was part of the old school end game LS', a time where I was levelling war/rdm in the jungle he was always up in the sky doing the hardest bosses of the game.

The basis of DL was Dynamis, obviously. I hadn't many wins when I first joined, but I got lucky. They were on the city cycle so I was able to grab all the wins to unlock the Northlands dynamis. It was scary fun for me, I really enjoyed it. Most of the members were only there for dynamis, but there was some that stayed in full time. I became full time because I didn't have anywhere else to go. It was a great group, I quickly learned. On the days off Dynamis, we would still go into Sky and do some farming, and a lot of the people were so incredibly helpful in getting members Sea access. That's where I finished my sea missions. Lydya was the most helpful in my group, and I think I just got lucky with that. Lydya and I spoke a lot and I found him really fun and down to earth. He was a good leader and had many loyal people. I stayed in this LS for a very, very long time. I made quite a few friends and my first real enemy. /shakes head.

I stayed in this LS the longest, I think, because of the "family" atmosphere. It was Lydya's most loyal members that created that atmosphere. So many inside jokes were created, and people all seemed to have the same ideal for what the LS was improving towards. I SP'd my WHM with Lydya's BLM.

Bshame came back to the game and I was able to get her into the LS. It ended up not being for her, but it was a really great time to play with DL and her at the same time.

After 8-9 months, after a really big blow out with Oravis, I had to leave DL. I didn't want to, but the drama was so thick I didn't like logging in. I joined PaiMei, a different kind of end-game LS. Mowgul was my friend there, staying in touch with him he helped me get in. I stayed there for about 1 month before I just gave up completely. I left the game. During the summer, Mowgul would keep in touch with me through e-mails but I had a job and I joined in different activities.

Mowgul informed me that DL was breaking, Lydya was leaving the game. I never really got to say good bye to that group. Turns out I didn't really need to. When I returned to the game, Nary found me. Then he pearled me.

Linkshell: Thunder

In my opinon, the best part of DL formed Thunder. Shefki was leader and a whiz at everything computers and FFXi's SMN. Pascale was able to follow me here, which made it even better. Arunna, Eugene, Lillie, Thelan, Mogknight, Nary, Talmor, so many great great great players. I had so much fun here. It was certaintly one of my most favored times and fondest memories. We accomplished so much in such a little group. I was proud of our group. Shefki made me interested in SMN, so I started to level that. I completed COP here.

Lillie and Thelan got married in the game in Thunder, and I was they're chaperone. They made a promise then, that they stuck to. I witnessed their wedding, they witnessed me and Pascale's wedding. Only, Pascale and I got married in real life (much later).

Shefki got tired real fast. There was a lot of responsibility and drama that really just sucks the life energy out of you. I saw that in Lydya and I saw it in Shefki. I made the choice to leave, because I was getting bored and wanted to move on. Pascale and I left and went to Mowgul's LS.

Linkshell: TheAftermath

Another end-game LS. AM was from PM, which I had been a part of for about a month before my absence. They had spilt into 2 different groups. Since Mowgul was in here, he helped us get in. Pascale and I were able to witness and experience a lot of great things here. It was a more fast paced LS and I appreciated that. I wasn't bored very often (until we went into sky haha) and it was quite dyanmic. I somehow was able to recieve a lot of gear from here. For awhile I was the only 75 BRD (main) that was actively playing so most of my AF came from AM. I got lucky, I have to admit. I didn't let that go to my head, though, I played my best and learned how to improve my skills.

I made some good friends in here. Lillian and I became close because we chatted on the AM forums every day for weeks and weeks. We made silly signatures for each other.

The thing about AM was the drama. There was some gEmo people in there that made it difficult sometimes. There was some bad players in there that made it even harder. The leaders, Raviont and Saryon, were awesome awesome people but played late late at night when I needed to go. They missed a lot of events so when things went down they weren't there to experience it, but they heard from their sackholders. Some of the sackholders were really great - Chistik was probably my favorite. And Dankknight.. he was very cool. He was on my side a lot of the time with Geno.

Mowgul, Ihlly and I did a lot of ENMs there. We'd try to team up and merit and do things together. Ihlly was mad funny and sweet, I liked her alot.

When drama got too thick, and after someone kicked me from LS for something really gay, I just lost interest. I have the screenshot for that too, somewhere.

I was done with stupid end-game drama. I was more interested in levelling SMN and doing the slower paced things. There was only 1 place for me to do that in.


Linkshell: DownRightFierce

After Shefki left and Thunder broke, Mogknight took on the responsibility. I was accepted in and I was so happy. Oftentimes I wondered why the hell I didn't leave AM earlier for DRF. It was that family atmosphere again, stronger than before. It was everyone I had loved back in action. It was a sky only LS, which got boring very quickly but it was the people that made it worthwhile. We got in some very talented players and made a very soild base foundation for a Great LS.

I made so many close friends in there. It's difficult to talk about the ending, but I knew I needed to get out. I needed to travel, meet other people and see other things.

If there is anything I've learned about myself through Nya is that I need to keep moving. I need to keep busy. If I'm idol too long I'll lose interest. FFXi is just like that for me. It's partially true in my real life, too. I need to keep busy or I'm bored. When I'm bored, I'll find something else to motivate me.

I found that in FFXi.


Linkshell: WhirlingWind

I'm having fun in WW at the moment. It does have a small group of people who are like family to each other, and that's nice to witness. I'm happy being the outsider, the invisible. WW and I are getting along, people agree with my skill as a player overall and they haven't kicked me yet. They've kicked several others, which I'm happy for, (SO LONG VIRTUE) but I'm safe for now.

I'm part of a Salvage group. Neera/Zokiki, Ciaran, Wolftamer, Mowgul, Soraan, Marisela, Sacryd (who they all call James but I'm not on a first name basis yet). It's late on weekdays but it's a lot of fun so far. I've already gotten a Lv.15 piece for a pair of Marduk Hands. I'm learning a lot and seeing how WW does things as opposed to other LS'. They're less dramatical, but more harsh and to the point. At first I wasn't sure if that was a good thing but now I find I really like it. Thats the way it should be. Enough tip toeing about hurting people's feelings - the bottom line is to boost your skill and be quicker/faster/better for the improvement of the GROUP.

I like that and I'm looking forward to it a lot.

I'm also having a tremendous time with Nya's friend Mowgul. Since TheHopefull we've been great pals but Nya and Mowgul do a lot of things together. Namely ENMs and anything else crazy we can try. We duo just about anything we need to, from Aura Statues to exp to WS points. My next goal is to have us duo Despot. Rawr!

That's a huge wall of text and if you're still reading, I owe you a Wizard's Cookie.