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The powerful Sho warrior Austin had assembled a large band by the end of beta, and we were eager to learn his leadership strategies. We accosted him on the road, where he was attended by several of his paladins. Though in haste to seek the Sword of Lost Light as a reward for a loyal captain, he generously took time to answer the following questions.
Tell us a bit about your character. What did you hope to get from your allegiance?
I started Austin as a Sho; basic skills were Unarmed and Archery. My allegiance rank was 5, and for Sho that's a Shi-Chueh. I was hoping to get the satisfaction of having players join my monarchy and find good friends and build a good team cohesion base, so that others would join just because we are known as good people . . . a family!
Do you have any magic items that can only be wielded by characters of a certain rank?
I happened to be given a wand in the later part of beta that required the bearer be of Allegiance rank 5. It was an Item Magic Mastery Self III wand and I happened to pick up Item Magic along the way, so even if I died, I could still portal around Dereth with my prized wand!
How many total followers did you have in your allegiance? Do you have the tree mapped out?
I ended beta with about 209 followers. I have a scribe that has been working on the family tree.
How long have you been building your allegiance? Does your allegiance have a history in any other games?
I started my Monarch on a fluke. In Beta 0 I had a good friend (Didysis); we were basically inseparable. So when Beta 1 came along, I actually got a head start on my character development, and he just jokingly said one day he should swear to me 'cause I was helping him so much to build his lower-level character up. So he swore to me, and that's how it started.
How do you recruit members to your allegiance? What works best?
Basically I talk to them. I don't offer them anything but a family and a good group of people to play with.
Who are your major lieutenants?
My key leaders are Didysis, Ezari, Mystikal, and Nezeroth, a.k.a. the former Skycruiser, Vacas Relic, and Woof the Deadly.
Do you have an allegiance contract? If so, where can it be found?
My Allegiance Contract is defined in the History portion of the Monarchy's Web site. My incentives are like helping proven leaders gain the Sword of Lost Light and other unique quest items. I never bribe anyone in the Following; it is not kosher to me!
Is your allegiance centered in a certain geographical area?
I would like to think we as a monarchy have several areas. Since I have a large following, we sort of have to be spread out to accommodate all the levels within the monarchy.
What do you perceive to be the strengths and weaknesses of the allegiance system?
The strengths are clearly the numbers and the chance to meet new people! The weakness is still the communications resources. Currently the way Turbine has the game, you cannot really communicate to your sub-vassals under your primary leaders. I wish there was some sort of tree tool, where you could actually view everyone in the entire monarchy!
How often do people leave your allegiance? Have you had any major defections? Has anyone leaving your allegiance tried to return, and if so, did you welcome the person back?
I've had a few loose ends, but sometimes as you grow, you make mistakes and you learn from them. I found out early in the monarchy that communication was a big thing. If I'm gone just for a day, people can get upset, but as I grew, I developed a Web site, e-mail chain mail, and ICQ messaging. Since I have implemented those ways of communicating, I haven't had any serious problems. And as far as welcoming people back, it's an honor to have their presence, unless they bad-mouthed the monarchy for no reason!
How much maintenance do you think it takes to keep people from leaving?
A lot?. You need to have a good key leadership chain developed. Your leaders are your backbone; they can handle situations at a lower level. In my opinion, a monarch only needs to be honest, sincere, and pro-active with his or her followers. The rest his or her key leaders can take care of!
How often do you team up with members of your allegiance to go on adventures?
I tried to make every effort to make a monarchy-based quest each week. But I'm playing with three to four of my followers all the time.
Do you have any alliances or feuds with other allegiances?
I had a few run-ins with a certain villain, but I've had no problem with followers.
Do you ever see your allegiance going PK?
I may implement a section within the monarchy just for getting rid of nasty pk'ers and teaching them lessons. I like to think we are a Neutral-Aligned Monarchy.
Do you have any comments you'd like to add?
All I can say is that we have always been true to each other, and we strive to be the best monarch family out there. We are not into numbers; we'd rather have four solid, dedicated followers than 100 slack-offs who don't care about the monarchy and only want a patron for items! Feel free to contact any of my key leaders within the game: Didysis, Ezari, Mystikal, Vacas Relic, Nezeroth, and Woof the Deadly. Or @tell me, Austin. I'd be more than happy to talk to you about our monarchy.
--Austin
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