The Sword's Edge

Issue 14: February 9th, 2017 - In Ferro Veritas

Welcome to the first issue of The Sword's Edge for 2017. It has been an exciting year so far, not really because we are doing anything any different to normal - but because we have had such an influx of activity that I cannot keep the smile from my face!! It is so fantastic to log in and always be welcomed by friendly greetings - it is definitely a goal of ours to continue this trend and do all we can to match this activity also in our US and AU timezones. You can read a bit about this in the Recruitment overview from Helixia. With so many new active members, there have also been lots of idea and suggestion sharing, as well as people stepping up to take on new roles. I think change will be a common theme over the coming months for our cabal - and from where I am standing, it is all looking incredibly positive!!

I'm very much looking forward to a lot of fun in 2017 for Nine Swords - right now though, take a break from whatever you are doing in-game, grab a cuppa and a chocolate digestive - and get stuck into Issue 14 of The Sword's Edge!

9S Leadership Team!

We kicked off the year with 2 new promotions into our leadership team. Sharing the workload is better for the sanity of all our leaders - so making it stronger and even more active is a goal we are always working towards.

Our first promotion of the year was Ishco. Ishco joins our leadership team and has taken on the joint leadership of Estoc our Public Relations division with Katelin (though watch out for more changes in this area soon!!) The main role Estoc carries out within Nine Swords is communication. This newsletter is a prime example of that - though it is also done via news Posts, Facebook & Twitter updates, articles and events announcements. Ishco took over the 9S Twitter account as one of her roles - if you don't follow it yet, it is not to late to do so @Nine_Swords.

Closely following Ishco's promotion, was the much deserved promotion of Helixia to our leadership team. He has taken on joint leadership of Hook Swords, our Recruitment division, alongside Aberlour. Helixia only joined Nine Swords at the end of November 2016.. but since joining has had more than one bee in his bonnet and a drive like no-other I have witnessed before to get us more members!! We definitely owe a lot the strengthening of our member base to Helixia's recruitment drive and the support of all our recruiters and leaders with the amount of new applications we have all worked hard to process to a high standard!

Our 9S leadership team is always on the look out for people within our cabal who want to step up and help us carry the "work" that running a successful cabal entails. All our divisions need energy, enthusiasm and a drive from our members to ensure we have lots of fun things happening. If you are interested in joining one of our divisions, or taking on any tasks within the cabal - do not stay quiet. Get in touch with our leadership team, or just pop along to the next Sharpening the Blades at the end of February and we will be happy to answer any questions you have, or discuss ideas you want to share!

Interview with ...

The Sword's Edge interview this month is with Durendal and Katelin. Helixia and Ischo sat down with them both to ask questions about the past, the present and the future!

Is there a story behind your character names?

Durendal: My name turned out as a brilliant spur of the moment thing after we had finally settled upon Nine Swords as a cabal name. My first / forum name was simply what I carried forward from our previous MMO, Anarchy Online. The nickname is obviously the name of a legendary sword, which is also related to my real life first name. Durendal is the sword of the knight Roland. And the last name was quite easy, as Kate had already settled on being a Hunter, as she’s my wife I simply went along with it.
Katelin: I decided to keep the character name that I had in Anarchy Online – which was very coincidentally Katelin. It was actually randomly generated, and I hadn’t chosen that.. but as Kate is my real name, it stuck – as has the shortened form of “Kate”. Hunter as a surname was newly chosen for The Secret World, and simply chosen because I really really enjoy hunting. Which likely explains why I schedule so many 10k runs!! Elizabeth just sounded like a good English name to me.

What is your favorite thing to do when away from the computer?

Durendal: I’m ever away from the computer?!? I suppose I like going on beach vacations, walks and occasionally swimming with our daughter.
Katelin: My favourite thing for Durendal to do when he isn’t at the computer is for him to make Spaghetti Bolognese. Seriously, that is the way to my heart. It is delicious and his home made pasta is to die for. I have lots of things I like to do when I am not at the computer! I love reading (especially anything by Neil Gaiman), I enjoy going on vacations, trips and walks with Durendal, I really love going shopping and doing girly things together with our daughter and I enjoy Zumba.

What made you choose Templar?

Durendal: That’s a trip down the storyline of how Nine Swords came into existence. Before launch, we started our involvement with the community as Dragons in one of the very first cabals on the pre-launch forums. That initial decision came from an ARG survey which made you go through a questionnaire, and then gave you the fitting secret society. We both ended up as Dragon. After some disagreements and personality mismatches, Kate and I decided to move on and do our own thing. We then talked over what *really* was matching our personality. And as it turns out, we’re both very structured and try to get an order into things. So we decided to make that new project a Templar cabal. At that point a few of our friends were happy to join us, and the rest of the story can be seen in the initial few threads on our forum.
Katelin: Also, red is definitely my colour. Much better than green.

Was Nine Swords the first cabal you ever been a part of in TSW or were others before it? What made you decide to establish it?

Durendal: Oops sorry, I answered most of that above!
Katelin: Establishing Nine Swords turned out to be one of the best things we ever decided to do. What made it even more amazing, was the fact that we were not just the 2 of us – we had an amazing founding group of 10 people (we actually planned for 9.. but we ended up 10, and that was just how it had to be!!). Nine Swords has always been about the whole, right from the start. It has never, to my feeling, been cliquey or made to fulfil just one persons goals. The founding group was so driven to create something that was welcoming, with good reasons, and most importantly with fun!

Nine Swords, nine divisions. You invented the name first then established the structure or was it the other way around?

Durendal: We discussed the name first here: https://www.nine-swords.com/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2
Katelin: After the name, as you will read in the link above .. we got a little carried away with structuring around the name, and to be honest – was a great idea. Hehe. It really helped to give us a focus, and to keep us on a good track.

Was Nine Swords envisioned as a single faction cabal from the start or did you ever consider going multi-faction?

Durendal: We never were interested in dealing with the organizational headaches that coordinating three in game cabals would involve, especially as there weren’t any chat bots available for TSW that could help.
Katelin: I really like that we are Templar. There are a lot of multi-faction cabals – it helps us be a bit different!

What is your favorite TSW memory?

Durendal: TSW’s pre-launch day and all of us actually getting formed up after we spent almost a year setting everything up for the cabal to get going on the first day.
Katelin: It was pretty special to meet up in game. I have to say, after all these years – there are lots (understatement) of great memories. My favourite though, to be predictable with my answer, has to be Cabal Pride!! Doing something as a cabal to bring the wider community together continues to give me a huge buzz. Cannot wait for the next one at the end of Summer 2017!

What is your favorite in-game activity?

Durendal: Lair raiding!
Katelin: Yep me too, I really enjoy the different pace of Lairs. I also really enjoy our 10k runs we do as a cabal.

Nine Swords is 5 years old this year! When is the anniversary and anything we should expect?

Durendal: Well, technically speaking we did start the project that would turn into Nine Swords in July 2011 already, but given that we tend to celebrate our in-game formation, that tends to be around the TSW anniversary events.
Katelin: Expect?? You both – Helixia and Ishco, can expect to be dragged into helping!!! Hahah.

Is there anything you would like to see happening more often in the Cabal?

Durendal: Members getting involved in running the cabal, from small things like scheduling a team run, to being an active recruiter or even bringing completely new projects into the scope of the cabal that we can all get working on together. It’s membership involvement that makes us a great community to have fun in.
Katelin: I have to say ditto!

What do you think Nine Sword's calling card could be?

Katelin: We actually already have a tag line .. quite sure I am the only one that uses it though. We chose it following a competition to come up with a 9S Tag line and it is “In Ferro Veritas” which means ”In the Sword is Truth”.

Do you have something to say to new people that are joining Nine Swords?

Durendal: Welcome to Nine Swords! Be sure to enjoy our facilities, and be sure to check out the coffee in our bar: https://www.nine-swords.com/viewforum.php?f=8&start=50
Katelin: To any new person joining us – when you join Nine Swords, you are part of a team. You aren’t the new person – you are just newer than the rest of the cabal. So get stuck in and have fun!

TSW in the Real World

For this issues TSW in the Real World - Ishco has been taking photos while out and about in Europe!

You want to be a Templar AND stylish? In Paris, it's possible! I've spotted for you this very glittery jacket in a Parisian designer shop near the Seine! Of course, the cross is so visible it's an excellent target for any Illuminati or Dragon to spot you from miles away, but being classy is worth every sacrifice, right?

If you want some jewellery to go with your fantastic glittery Templar jacket - you just have to travel to Rome to find these somewhat tacky rings, that will leave no doubts about which faction is your favourite! As you can see, they come in different colours, but are all the same price! It's a bargain!

What's your name?

Why the name Kalel "Sups" Clark?

First of all, I am a huge Superman fan. Kalel, being Superman's "Alien name," and Clark from his secret identity; Clark Kent. "Sups," (Pronounced as short for 'Supers', not 'what's up(s)') is a nickname which Superman has gone by.. not to mention that it just sounds like an awesome name.

Why the name Demitrius Strigas, aka “Strigas”?

I hope that you are all ready for an epic tale full of drama, intrigue, action, and of course the all important; romance! If so, then you may just want to browse a different section of the Swords Edge because this story has none of the above, instead, you get to hear my origin story. But for those of you with a deep moral conviction against reading such a long-winded saga I will include a short version; Beyond simply looking alike, my character and I happen to share a name.

Now for the longer version for those of you who stuck around to hear the rest! The spelling of my character's first name is actually correct despite the original spelling of the name being Demetrius. My family has made the e-i switch so many generations back that I couldn't even begin to tell you the actual reason behind it, despite all the exaggerated family fables I've heard. On top of that Demetrius is actually just the Greek version of James in most Greek communities (James/Jimmy/Jim ~ Demetrius/Demetri/Demi). So when I was with the Greek half of my family that is the name they used.

As for the name both my character and myself usually go by; Strigas, that is my last name. I grew up in a military family and a large portion of my friends either have similar backgrounds or served/are serving in the U.S. Military. So calling people by their last name was simply so common-place that it tended to happen even in normal everyday activities, and with so many people sharing the names Nick/James my last name is what most people would call out simply so they would get my attention rather than the other half-dozen Nicks around. When I started gaming I used a completely different name like most people tend to do, but eventually gave into my friends and changed it to Strigas simply to avoid the confusion when they called me by my real name in-game. So, although it may not be the epic yarn that goes into so many character names but it's the history.

Thank you very much Sups and Strigas! We are looking forward to hearing the naming reasons from more of our members in the next issue!

9S is Recruiting!

There has been a good end of the year - beginning of 2017 for 9S Hook Swords Division. We were lucky to have a lot of wonderful people join us and having fun with us together, be it Elite dungeon runs for hastening the encounter with the nice Yellow Dude of Death, raiding with us, doing scenarios or NM's, or simply socializing with us in cabal chat. We genuinely hope that those that went through our recruitment process found themselves at home with us, and we are looking forward to do a lot more fun things together.

This does not mean that our recruitment drive will slow down, we are committed to the mission to make Nine Swords expand continuously and be involved in as many activities as possible. And this cannot be done by any single person alone, this is a common effort for all of us to participate in, old or new members of Nine Swords. Each and every member has the ability to ask or offer help and to have his voice heard, because only together we can accomplish our goals.

So, if you are willing to help building our community, you are strongly encouraged to do so, by expressing your interest either on forums or in-game to one of our leaders. Our cabal is based on principles of teamwork and community, and every single thing that upholds those principles is a thing that we will support wholeheartedly. And remember our prime directive, always have fun!!!