What is House Paladin?
From House Paladin Wiki
To understand what House Paladin is, we first need to understand what House Paladin is not.
House Paladin is not a guild. Although we do play games mainly and we form alliances or guilds within those games, the concept of House Paladin has evolved from the simplistic definition of a guild to an online community that has grown since we first started as guild. House Paladin guilds might disband, fail or have great success in some games, but even so, it is still here, looking forward to the next game.
The online community that rotates around House Paladin is what keeps House Paladin alive, the commitment of few people willing to share their friendship with people they don’t know in real life, willing to have fun with those people while playing and have the opportunity to not lose contact with them has brought House Paladin where it is now.
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Guilds versus Online Communities
One of the most frustrating things in online games is that they have a big social power that few people actually use. The possibilities that such games give us are outstanding:
- We are able to play with people that otherwise we would not have met ever
- We can enjoy and hate them
- And people can exchange experiences and points of view from other countries, other cultures and learn from this.
While people can accuse games to being one of the causes of social discrimination, at the same time such games give us the tools to socialize better with people that we will never meet giving us the opportunity to actually think to go meet them. It’s the individual that makes the difference, not the games, nor the company's strategies. It’s you, the single, which decides what to do: just play or more.
House Paladin is here for the “more”. While Guilds by themselves are born and die at some point, many people play and go at some point and you never see them again, few actually stay, socialize, make friendships and enjoy the fruits of being part of an online community. It’s a choice, it’s how your personality fits a game or an online community, and it’s about you, not a game, nor a guild. Everyone is free to do whatever they want, for the ones that choose to develop better their online relationships, then House Paladin is here to help them.
This doesn’t mean House Paladin is a dating agency… :-P.
Online communities last longer and help more people over time than just a simple guild. A simple guild by itself has the days counted since it’s created, because the day the game closes, it’s over. Online communities can last longer, because the day the people that founded House Paladin and developed the community will not be here, there will still be people and they will take care of themselves by keeping up the old tradition. A free, volunteer online community has the potential to live until the human kind exists because it doesn’t depend on games or guilds, it depends on people.
So What is House Paladin in short?
House Paladin is an online community of people that have similar interests in online gaming where people are encouraged to develop their relationships, find new friends, learn new things and pass that knowledge on. It is a global community composed of people from every corner of the world and many cultures.
Who started up House Paladin and why?
Much is lost to the ravages of time and memory, but we were first the “Paladins of Asheron” in the original release of Asheron's Call (1999). Ba'aar, our founder, was a great leader and taught many of us the ways of Dereth in the open beta test of that game. This first crew grew naturally as an extension of Ba'aar's ability to attract players who not only were seeking to learn, but who also had it in them to help others whenever they were able. Thus, from the very beginning, the Monarchy (as it was called in AC) was buit around a core of individuals with a sense of adventure and duty.
As the cataclysm that ended the first world of Dereth brought a close to the beta test, we agreed to reform again when the game released and formally come together in one of the first Monarchies on the Morningthaw server. After some debate via e-mail and online, we choose the name Paladins of Asheron after the ideals espoused by true paladins and the Knights Templar. Ba'aar himself is a Native American (Ba'aar means 'bear' in his people's language) but what influenced him greatly in our discussions about choosing a name was the honor code of the knights of yore. One version of which is from Sir Thomas Mallory's Aurthurian Legends:
* To never do outrage nor murder * Always to flee treason * To by no means be cruel but to give mercy unto him who asks for mercy * To always do ladies, gentlewomen and widows succor * To never force ladies, gentlewomen or widows * Not to take up battles in wrongful quarrels for love or worldly goods
The Paladins of Asheron were formed to provide cameraderie with others seeking to explore, adventure, quest and enjoy the social aspects of Asheron's Call - which included aiding those less knowledgable as a core purpose. This has evolved to our modern code of: Honor, Valor, Philanthropy. (A later monarch, Jachrya, gave us that succinct code which stays with us to this day.)
Find Diogenes' Recollection here.
When did House Paladin become an Online Community?
The day we started to move from server to server in Asheron’s Call we started to step into that direction, when people began to move to other games and people didn’t want to leave the ties of friendship developed at that time, we made another step toward the online community. Day, by day, game by game, we are moving towards this direction. There’s still a lot to do! And everyone is welcome to join the “core” people of House Paladin to help out! We have many ideas and many dreams, any new ideas and dreams are very welcome!
