Remaeus wrote:This timeline is open to review, and I'm always looking for people to fill me in on things I've missed. What I'm looking for right now is anyone who remembers the occurrences in Char31 (I think that's what it was?) and TuxedoMask, and any significant wars there. Feel free to PM me or post here to add resources, and I'll edit them into the main topic.
Tuxedo Mask was my favorite chat at one time. Although they had their own server, many roleplayers from Tuxedo Mask were also affiliated with the roleplayers from Charmander31's chat, and also with the roleplayers of the many Multicity chats. Multicity is where I began, and I shall tell you this story almost as if it's a legend.
Multicity was my mother, Comicity was my father, I usually say. Multicity was my birth-place as a roleplayer, and it was in Multicity that I became familiar with real-time chats, and speed-based textual combat. I started roleplaying in 1998 back when Dragon Ball Z was popular. Auto was the common noob-style back then, which had existed ever since Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was invented. The intermediate style was Advanced Auto (AA), invented by Brian Morgan (CWRias) in 1998 for the purpose of eliminating Auto by adding a word-limit and hit-points. The typical AA standard was 4-words to attack, 4-words to connect an attack, and 4-words to dodge or counter. 20-hits to win the match.
Because of its simplicity, many intermediate roleplayers started using AA to train for the even more advanced popular style of T2, which had been brought to Multicity by the edenites. T2 was invented by Blake Hardman (a friend of Kellindil) in 1998, around the same time as AA but with harder rules. I usually say Kellindil invented T1, though really it was Jessica Mulligan who started the idea. The basic T2 rules were 7-words to attack, 10-words to connect, 7-words to block or dodge, and 12-words to counter an attack with your own. Because of the popularity and structure of T2, it became the style of masters in Multicity before anyone heard of TRBS.
I learned the 3 methods (Auto, AA, T2) from Dark Saiya-jin Vegetto at Kad'S DBZ/GT RPG Battle Chat in Multicity, and made a name for myself as Judah Avious (Juvious), the noob who fights amongst the oldies. The two popular races of that time were saiyans and maijins, but I always played the role of a human being, and that is how I got my reputation. People started hearing rumors about this human who fights amongst the saiyans, refusing to use energy attacks, and so people started looking for me and challenging me to duels. Back then I had a 85-wpm average, which was pretty good at the time. On a good day I could type 90-wpm, so I beat most of the competition. Even though the saiyans could fly, teleport, and use energy, I faired just fine as a human being simply because of my overall typing speed. I could beat people down before they even had a chance to fight back, and that made me popular.
It was in the year 1999 that the Saiyan-Maijin War took place. The saiyans tested their ki-energy against the maijins magick to see who was the better race. My character was married to Queen Serenity at this time, who was the ruler of Tuxedo Mask and another Multicity chat called Usagi & Mamoru's (U&M). Those two chats were in turn linked to the Castle of Dragons (CoD) ruled by Queen Thalia, through a mutual alliance. All of them were protected by the Mavericks of the Falling Mists, led by one Keiyin Mitshuura-ken who was Dark Saiya-jin Vegetto's friend. Thus, through diplomatic alliances and friendships I became involved in the Saiyan-Maijin War of 1999.
This multi-chat conflict took place on many different servers, extending all the way from AOL to MSN, and lasted almost the entire year. The saiyans were victorious, as the last maijin leader (Maijin Buu) was soundly defeated at Chars-31 during the summer. At last there was an era of peace, but not for long, since two other clans had started to rise. This time it was the Yakuzan Zaibatsu and their Chinese counterpart (The Triads), who terrorized Multicity by killing everyone and claiming to be the best. The Triads were led by Cloaked Warrior Rias (CWRias), the founder of AA. The Yakuza were led by Legendary Scias (Max Cook), the founder of T3. Dark Saiya-jin Vegetto joined the Yakuza, along with many others, who felt it would be better to serve them rather than try and fight them.
One of the ideas Scias had in mind was popularizing T3, and forcing everyone in Multicity to learn that style. I refused to conform to their rules, and left Dark Saiya-jin Vegetto to find a different master. I continued my T2 training under Keiyin Mitshuura-ken at the Castle of Dragons, and made some new alliances. That's around the time I met Eric Kane (Seraphim) and many others, and we began to train in freestyle (freeform). Queen Serenity sent a messenger named Melkor (Matt Bell) telling Queen Thalia (Alex) that U&M (Usagi Mamorus) and T&M (Tuxedo Mask) was under attack, so Keiyin (Jason) and his girlfriend Watcher (Sarah) gathered the knights we had and led them into battle. The conflict known as Y2K took place in the year 2000, and was the greatest battle in Multicity.
The War of 2000 can be considered like a conflict between the east and west. On the one side, you had all of these Asian characters with their martial arts and Anime personalities. On the other side, you had us Viking characters with our heavy weapons and D&D personalities. It was a great battle, and I miss it. After defeating Titus, Scias, Rias, Amas, and the leaders of the eastern clans at U&M, Multicity converted into a pay-service and roleplaying declined. Hundreds of roleplayers were split up and scattered, while many alliances were broken, and the golden age was lost.
I continued to roleplay at the Castle of Dragons (CoD) up until the year 2001, when people started to abandon Queen Thalia and join Shin Gouki Z (Eric Kane) at his new Castle of Blackfyre (CoB). There, we continued the tradition of the Z-senshi by using shin-freestyle. That's when Hidoshi Nobunaga (Mark) invited me to Metawerx along with several others. This is where most people know me from, as the freestylist who never followed the TRBS rules. I had by that time already given up word-limits and written guide-lines, and started practicing freeform textual combat. I was training with the RPG veteran §hin Gouki Ž (Kenshiro Maruyama) of Comicity, not to be confused with Shin Gouki Z (Eric Kane) of Multicity, who was his mortal enemy. To differentiate between these two characters and their styles, I spell §hin Gouki Ž's name the same way Kenshiro spelled it in Comicity's IRC room. I also call his style freeform, as opposed to Eric's shin-freestyle. Although it is true that I did train with both of these characters, I was more in conflict with Shin Gouki Z (Eric) and more in alliance with §hin Gouki Ž (Ken).
§hin Gouki Ž was one of the original founders of the legendary Ž-senshi from Comicity chat, the Elite fighters who protected their chat from outsiders through a very old tradition that can be traced back to Jarkko Oikarinen himself. §hin Gouki Ž was a friend and follower of Dai Kiaou §hin (Andy Oedo), who came on the scene in IRC and distinguished himself as a legendary character. Andy was one of the first freeformists, and possibly the person who brought Freeform to AOL from IRC back in 1995. There is very little distinction between Auto and Freeform apart from their tradition. Both styles can be traced back to the beginning of chat-based textual combat, but Auto is generally considered a noob-style whereas Freeform is considered the elite-style.
Auto does not use a word-limit, and neither does Freeform, but autoers (noobs) generally use 2-3 words while freeformers (elites) use anywhere from 5-15 words per action. Autoers also do not generally use indicators, or asterisks to show their actions. Freeformers always indicate their actions by using dashes or asterisks. Now here's the tricky part that confuses most people. Both styles use auto-connects (autoing), which is different from every other form of textual combat. Most styles such as AA, T1, T2, T3, T4, T5, TRBS label autoing as an illegal form of cheating. But this is not true with Freeform or Auto, as you will learn. Auto gets its name from autoing, and to me is a cheap way to fight. Freeform, however, requires that a defender must protect against autoing attacks. For example:
Most Speed-Based Styles:Thrall Ryne: *brings his blade in an upward slash towards Blake's exposed shoulder*
(proper attack)Blake Hardman: *steps beside Thrall to avoid having his arm sliced open*
(proper dodge)Thrall Ryne: *watches as the cold steel slices through Blake's arm like warm butter*
(void late response)Blake Hardman: *sends his elbow straight out in a sharp blow aiming for Thrall's ribcage*
(proper attack)Comicity Freeform:Dai Kiaou §hin: -slices Gouki's shoulder open with the edge of his blade-
(proper autoing)§hin Gouki Ž: -steps beside Kiaou to avoid having his arm sliced open-
(proper dodge)Dai Kiaou §hin: -turns and stabs Gouki in the stomach with his sword-
(proper autoing)§hin Gouki Ž: -spins around Kiaou's sword and kicks him in the spine-
(proper counter)Auto Noob Style:Noob: *punches Char
(improper autoing)Char: blocks
(lame)Noob: *stabs Char
(improper autoing)Noob: *does so
(lamer)Char: dies
(lamest)Now you see the difference. Freeform traces its origins all the way back to Dai Kiaou §hin (Andy Oedo) who won the Mortal Kombat tourny on IRC in 1994, before winning the King Of Fighters tourny on AOL in 1996, and eventually settling in Comicity chat where Street Fighter was popular. Dai Kiaou §hin and §hin Gouki Ž (Kenshiro Maruyama) met in 1997 and founded the Ž-senshi, Comicity's elite dedicated to preserving freeform textual combat. Only seven people were ever admitted into the Ž-senshi, and Eric Kane was not one of them. I was the last person to be inducted into the Ž-senshi by Kenshiro Maruyama in 2003, and I have not initiated anyone since. My elite name was Kanretsu Ž. My friend Kao Vegeta (Eric Clow) is also from Comicity, he can verify this information. Kao Vegeta was a long time rival of §hin Gouki Ž, but he is known as Ryu No Ansatsuken here on the Roleplay Gateway forums. Anyway, I know I kind of got off topic with this post but hopefully this helped somewhat with your interest in Chars31 and Tuxedo Mask. I also want to thank you Ramaeus for taking an interest in RPhistory and allowing me to share what I know. Take care and God bless.
The Human Being who died to become
The Immortal God.
- Dionysus