History of the Black Helm Gang

It was March 2006 when the Black Helm Gang's elder sibling guild, The Black Hand Gang (BHG), finally realised that their ranks were full. Every new application was causing the leader Sofi heartache as she searched through the list of members trying to realistically assess who wasn't coming back to play again, so she could revoke their membership to squeeze in the new person.

Amongst those missing the longest were the guild's founding members, people overseas serving their country, real life friends of people who were active in the guild... Deciding who was "in" and who was "out" was no-where near as easy as Heidi Klum made it appear to be on the TV show Project Runway.

Desperate to relieve Sofi of this stress, options to deal with the full membership listing were being frantically batted around the officers lounge for discussion. It was a relatively emotional time when a poll was taken and the officers decided that the most attractive option available to them in the long term, was to create another branch of the BHG - a sister guild.

Sofi didn't want to control both guilds. She thought it would be best if the sister guild could be instituted with it's own leader, hall, officers, etc, and be referred to as an equal, sharing the same values and Code of Conduct as the original guild, rather than just being thought of as either a lesser offshoot of the BHG, or a dumping ground for the BHG's innactive members.

BHG officers were asked who'd be willing to take on the role of leading the new guild, and those names were then put to the BHG membership in an open poll, along with breaking the news of the new guild, and the assurance that current members would be welcome in either (or both, if they held more than one account).

At the same time, the officers and Sofi were once again deep in discussion in the officers lounge (and people think it's just a social club in there!) sorting out prospective new officers for either guild. BHG would need to replace at least one officer as they departed to take on the new challenge, and BHeG would be able to offer founding officer spots to those deemed worthy by their officer peers.

At close of polling Erinya Gallowdawn was elected to lead the new group, and since she had already been giving some thought to such matters of name, guild hall isle and whom she would like to offer the position of officership to amongst those proposed, she and Sofi set to work that very day establishing the new Guild.

The Black Helm Gang, with its inverse of the BHG colours, and warrior like demeanour (ok - we're allowed to dream aren't we?) was set up on the Isle of Meditation, and became the fourth guild to join the Alliance of One, headed by Piper Ravenheart of the Bloodwarriors. Erinya's player had good relationships with, and the support of, Piper herself, and Z and Gryphon who were joint leaders of the Knights of Gryphon.

Furthermore (as did all BHG officers) Erinya had always worked closely with Sofi in supporting and fostering the philosophy that made the BHG such a fun friendly group to play with, so the guild really felt more like "family" than any of the other allied guilds.

The founding officers were Perpetual Salvation and Blade Seven, joined not long after by the already established BHG officer Saint of Beasts, who transferred guilds in an effort to bring even closer unity between the two.

By August 2006 BHeG membership had already passed 20 members (a fifth of the way to being full itself!), and a fourth officer was promoted from the ranks... Ursula Caligari. The second account of BHG Guild Leader Sofi!

The two guilds are today still firmly united by friendship and a feeling of being a big virtual family, even as they remain largely autonomous.

-Erinya Gallowdawn

**Please note** We have reconsolidated BHeG into BHG until the time comes again where we need more room. The BHG leader's second account holds this guild for us.