Deepwater
From MoongatesWiki
| Part of the Ultima Online series on Europa  |
|
Notable towns and villages Role-playing Associations |
Deepwater (map) was the first major player-run town on the Europa shard of Ultima Online. For a while, it was extremely successful. The town had strong links with the Europa Role Player's Association.
Deepwater was founded as a result of a public meeting organised by the player of the character Dardan Brook during the earliest days of the Europa shard.
It was based in the bay around the Justice shrine, to the east of Yew.
Contents |
Founding of Deepwater
In early November 1998 Dardan Brook posted the following in-character announcements on messageboards used by the role-playing community:
"Hear ye, hear ye ! A settlement shall spring forth on the fair land of Sosaria. There is much to be decided and much that needs to be discussed. Come one, come all to a meeting that is held in the Nujelm Palace. Bring yer friends and participate in this day of rejoicing when forces of good plans on joining together in the struggle against the darker masses in the land. A grand feast shall be held to celebrate the gathering of good Sosarians."
"The meeting shall result in a decision upon where to begin building this settlement. If 'tis possible we might even visit some of the alternatives to judge whether they are worthy or not. If ye wants to be a part of the future in Sosaria feel free to join. The time approaches and the place is to be decided upon."
Later that month, a meeting was held at the Palace of Nujel'm, attended by a large number of role-players. The meeting, held in character, approved plans for the settlement and decided on the location. The name of the village was decided as a result of a poll on the ERPA messageboards. The choices offered to ERPA members were: Northam, Sarason Bay, Beor's Bay, Andune, Deepwater and Hail Flunk. Deepwater was the clear winner.
The first building to be placed was a smithy, which also doubled as a tavern, on November 16 1998. As Europa was still a young shard, and the Ultima Online economy was still such that acquiring enough gold to buy a large building was difficult, this represented a major achievement by the players who had donated money to buy the building. Within a week, a second building had been added. This took over the role of tavern, and was also the village's town hall. It was named The Owl's Eye.
Unlike many player-run towns, Deepwater was not formed by a single guild. It was designed as a place where people from different guilds, or who were not members of any, could meet and socialise, take part in events or simply find fellow role-players. Initially, Deepwater was run by a council consisting of Dardan Brook, Raen Tarrel and Arwin Riverwind. In December 1998 Dardan Brook was formally elected the Mayor of Deepwater and Quinn Mordam was elected as an ambassador.
Palmer Eldritch soon joined as treasurer. He also ran the Deepwater website at that time. Other prominent people in the village in the early days included Flora Riboflavin, who was landlady of The Owl's Eye, the most popular building in the village.
By December 23 1998, Deepwater consisted of the following buildings: Owls Eye Tavern and Town Hall, Smithy, Rangers' Den, two tailors, Arts Centre, Bakery, Fighting school/guard house, Noble tower, Public market, Neverwinter Trading Company, Naval base, Navy office in central area. Some of these buildings were later to fall into disuse, and new buildings were added over time.
Visit by Lord British
Deepwater received a major boost in December 1998 when it was visited by Lord British. In Ultima Online fiction, Lord British was the King of Britannia. In reality, he was the character of Richard Garriot, the creator of the Ultima series of games. A visit by Lord British was seen as a highly prestigious event for any player-run town.
Lord British was accompanied by his "sage", Xavia, and Lady Laura, one of his order guards. It is not known whether their roles were played by Origin-employees or by player volunteers known as seers.
This is how his visit was reported on the Deepwater website:
"British praised our achievements. The crowd listened – even including a troupe of orcs, although they made it clear they did not accept British's authority.
After the short speech, British expressed a desire to see inside the tavern. Once inside the Owl's Eye, Lord British complimented the citizens of Deepwater on building such a fine tavern. After admiring the decor, he bid the council follow him into the reading room for a more intimate conversation, and they duly followed.
British's first words were that he was proud of the crowd outside. He was proud of the people of Deepwater, and admired their pioneering spirit. The council replied they were honoured by his presence. Lord British then said that he had heard of Deepwater and our work. The council was stunned, but British replied that Sage Xavia kept him informed of events in the realm.
British had certainly noticed the orcs gathered outside, and asked to be told more of them. The council replied that an agreement of sorts had been reached, and were congratulated on their success.
At that point British asked of worries for the future. The council replied that the major worry was not the orcs, but the anit-social human element of the realm. The reply was that the community of Deepwater was strong and could overcome adversity. His Lordship reminded the council that his visit had to be short. He apologised for having to leave. The council replied that it had been an honour."
Festivals
| Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/home/1/m/moongates/www/sub/wiki.moongates.org/images/e/ec/Festival.jpg': No such file or directory. |
Deepwater held a number of festivals which were well-attended, attracting roleplayers with no links to the town as well as its own citizens. The first, in December 1998, featured a feast, a wrestling match and a horse race. Later festivals included events such as jousting, a feast, a poetry competition and no-holds-barred fighting tournaments.
| Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/home/1/m/moongates/www/sub/wiki.moongates.org/images/8/8a/Palmercured.jpg': No such file or directory. |
In 1999 a festival was held jointly with the town of Spiritwood, to celebrate the anniversaries of both settlements.
Quests
Deepwater was the scene of a number of quests and storylines. One of the first involved a character called Palmer Eldritch, who was transformed into a vampire by the evil Julian Tremere.
Characters including Dardan Brook, Bronco and Lady Greyanna led players through a series of quests to find a cure for his condition.
Other storylines focused on interaction with the Severed Heads Orcs, a role-playing guild based in the orc fort near Yew who emerged as Deepwater's arch-enemies, and the Undead Lords.
Controversies
Deepwater was involved in a number of controversies, particularly in its earliest days.
Lack of Accountability
Many player-run towns were formed by guilds, and had a clear leadership and hierarchy which corresponded to the leadership of the guild. Deepwater, however, contained people from a number of different guilds, which were entirely independent from the town. This meant that the town's leadership did not claim any authority over their actions outside the town.
Arguments and complaints about the way characters behaved were fairly common across the Europa role-playing community, as they are in many roleplaying communities. The accepted means for dealing with complaints about any character was to speak to the leader of their guild about the issue, and ask them to deal with it.
However, complaints about people associated with Deepwater were sometimes referred to the Deepwater leadership, rather than the guildmaster of the player concerned. Deepwater was unable to deal with these issues, which sometimes led to bad feeling from players who felt their concerns were being ignored.
In-Character Conflict
In Deepwater's earliest days, it was seen as the natural home of many "good" characters within the Europa role-playing community. This made it the natural enemy, in fictional terms, of "evil" guilds such as the Severed Heads Orcs. Because the orcs took part in "player vs player" conflict, among many other activities, it was natural that on occasion they would attack Deepwater. However, many of the players involved in Deepwater were uninterested in player vs player conflict, and objected to these attacks.
The Deepwater leadership made an out of character request to the orcs to stop attacking, but this led for a time to a feeling that Deepwater was preventing the Severed Heads Orcs from playing their proper role in the Europa role-playing community.
These problems were eventually resolved as better relationships developed between senior figures in the Severed Heads Orcs and some of the Deepwater leaders.
Relationships with Player Killers
Deepwater was founded at a time when player vs player combat was permitted with few restrictions in all parts of the Ultima Online world except for the official cities, which were patrolled by NPC guards. Players known as "player killers" or PKs would regularly attack and kill other players, either to loot their possessions or just for fun. PKs would sometimes deliberately attack player-run towns in order to target role-players.
Deepwater was founded on the basis that it was a settlement open to all players, as long as they did not behave in an anti-social manner within the town's borders. Although they were not role-players, some PKs started to visit Deepwater because they saw it as a fun place to go. While there, they would generally play along with the role-players and not cause trouble.
The Deepwater Fighting School became a favourite place for PKs to socialise. Furthermore, Deepwater leaders such as Palmer Eldritch pursued a deliberate strategy of building up good relationships with some of the server's most active PKs. This benefited Deepwater because it allowed it to become a safe place for role-players to gather. It meant events such as festivals could be advertised with little chance or PKs arriving to ruin it. If they came, it would probably be to join in.
However, it caused resentment among some other sections of the Europa role-playing community, who argued that Deepwater was providing a safe haven for people who harassed them elsewhere. It also led to complaints that Deepwater was compromising its mission to be a home for roleplayers by welcoming "doods", or people who did not role-play.
