Guild History

The Order of Illuminatius gaming community has a history that spans four years and five games. The guild is currently established in Star Wars Galaxies, World of War Craft, and Vanguard.

Beginning
The Order of Illuminatius had beginnings in the online game Final Fantasy XI in 2004. Izatea, Illustrial, Eronoel and Sintax all started playing FFXI when was released in 2003 and had joined a linkshell (guild) together. When the guild they were in fell apart, these four real life friends decided to form their own guild. After many brainstorming sessions, the name of the guild was chosen “Silver Illuminati.” Izatea took the lead as the leader for this linkshell. And after a while, the guild became a moderate size with a lively chat. The main guild was based out of The Federation of Windurst, but citizens from all over the world were welcome to join the ranks of the Silver Illuminati. Thus, the seed for what is today OI was planted. There were no official officers, besides Izatea as leader, but active members took it into their hands to organize events. One of the most popular events proved to be Fishing Event, in which everyone crowded onto the boat and fished, danced, chatted, and had an all around good time. The guild also rallied together to help members farm hard to get items for quests providing entertainment during those long boring hours waiting for that specific item to drop. The guild also joined forces with other guilds to try and claim territory for The Federation of Windurst.

However, unfortunately after a few months, one by one the four founders lost interest in the game and started exploring other options for their online gaming experience. Izatea was the last to go finally forcing the guild to disband because of in game mechanics that did not allow the guild leader position to be transferred between people.

Starting Over
The four founders discussed their gaming options reviewing all of the currently available games. Taking into account each person’s playing style, the friends decided to try Star Wars Galaxies (SWG). In April 2004, Izatea, Illustiral, Eronoel, and Sintax all started to play SWG. Unfortunately, despite urging other members of the “Silver Illuminati” to switch with them to SWG, no one joined the crew in their switch. Other real life friends of this foursome, recommended they start playing with them on the Kauri Server. The first day Eronoel and Sintax were introduced to the Star Wars Galaxy world through Cecily and Lorelie (the two real life friends of the four) and shuttled to the town of Caerbannog, where they joined Cecily and Lorelie’s small guild.

After playing for a few weeks in Cecily and Lorelie’s guild and getting to know the other inhabitants of the town – the Knights Who Say Ni. The four founders were restless again to start their own guild and expand their power throughout the universe! They borrowed the money for a guild hall and after finding a fifth member, Aarok, created the guild named “Caerbannog Intelligance Agency” or the CIA. The guild, although technically in a neutral city, decided to be defenders of freedom and a pure rebel guild. After establishing themselves and growing to a smallish size, the guild realized they were being mistaken for the several other CIA guilds on Kauri, including an infamous Imperial Guild. After much debating and brainstorming, the guildies voted to rename themselves the “Order of Illuminatus” or OI.

Early guild life in SWG was quiet because the guild was quite small. Every new member was given a small house and some starting goods. A weapon hut was set up so people could freely share and exchange weapons and armor. During these early days, equipment and goods were shared and traded for the betterment of building up the guild. The guild started to participate in small events such as animal hunts and small rebel missions.

In this early OI, Sintax offered to be leader and the five founders acted as officers. Sintax or a fellow officer interviewed each new member to see if he/she was a right match for the guild. The interviews took place in “person” in the guildhall located at the end of the mall of Caerbannog. Because of a very personal approach to recruiting, the guild grew slowly. In order to establish a community outside of game, Sintax created the first “Free Forums” for OI. These boards helped establish the community as a stronger force outside the game.

Eventually, Izatea, Illustrial, Eronoel and Sintax decided to take a small four month break from SWG. During this time, Sintax passed the leadership to Caspien. Under Caspien’s leadership the guild changed bringing in new members and providing a different OI experience. By the time that the four founders came back to the guild, it was once again in need of leadership, because Caspien had left SWG for World of Warcraft (WOW). Because no one was really willing to pick up the reigns of guild leader, Sintax once again stood up to the task. He also encouraged a core of officers to be voted in to help support him in his endeavor. Illustrial, Izatea, Basnom, and Matvi took up positions as officers.

OI Branches Out
While Sintax was working in SWG, Caspien founded a guild in WOW and asked to be part of the OI community. Caspien’s new guild was named “Elf Slappers” and was a horde based guild, which was united by its dislike for Elves. The new WOW guild brought in a new group of people to the forums and the SWG folk and the WOW had two very strong forum sections.

Eventually, Sintax left the SWG guild for WOW and the SWG guild leadership was passed to [Matvi?]. The SWG guild stood strong and participated in a number of community events, joined forces to fight the imperials, made alliances across the universe, and helped their members learn to weld the power of the force. The number of OI jedi grew and the guild was prospering. The Combat Upgrade (CU) implemented by Sony Online Entertainment slowly wore down the membership of all guilds on Kauri. OI, like other guilds, suffered great player losses. Still, the guild did not fold and was instead picked up and carried forth by Istoriss. This quiet guild still remains active and alive today despite all the changes that SOE has enforced in the game.

In the WOW section, things were no going well. Differences between the OI philosophy and the Elf Slapper philosophy began to arise and conflicts began to tear the officer core apart. The original founders, Illustrial, Izatea, Eronoel, and Sintax along with a number of other dissatisfied members decided to start the real OI on WOW. In November 2005, Illustrial, Izatea, Eronoel, Sintax, Bedevere, Matvi, Grythandius, Moriena, Awiog, Basnom, and Xodius all joined forces and created the Order of Illuminatus on Draka. Since then the guild has grown and changed and remains strong.

In 2007, after the release of Vanguard, a number of guildies including officers Sintax, Bedevere, and Arundel founded the Order of Illuminatus in the land of Telon. Their numbers have grown quickly and new officers were added to the core. This branch of OI, although new, has a bright future ahead of itself.

Failures
Throughout the years that OI has been around there have been a number of off-shoots that did not survive in other games. A guild has been founded twice in Guild Wars, but failed both times because the game is not contusive to the nature of OI sociality. Also, a guild was also founded in EVE, but lacked a large enough membership base to really establish itself.