Formed by Chance Nifield in November of 1994 in a text based game called MajorMud, the Knights of Terror have always been a force to be reckoned with. From the start KoT was a purely evil PK guild based on mass destruction. They hunted down and slayed any player character that was not affiliated with them, be it for gold, items, or merely for satisfaction.
The foundation for the Knights of Terror was built on real-life friendships that grew into online chaos. Lord Sandraxys Blackfire, the first ever member of the KoT, was a co-founder and to this day one of Chance Nifield’s closest friends. Unfortunately Sandraxys had not been part of the KoT online organization since the days of MajorMud back in 1995. He returned to battlefield as a KoT General in Dark Age of Camelot.
From MajorMud the KoT moved to circle muds, and then on to Diablo where they hassled, killed, and thieved from other players that had no knowledge of how terrible KoT could be. A number of months passed in Diablo and day after day, people like Gotham Grock, Braylor Hawkes, and Saradon Warchild were spreading fear throughout the land and making one hell of a name for the Knights of Terror. To this day KoT members names can be found on wanted lists from Diablo1.
In 1997 things took a big turn for the Knights of Terror as Ultima Online was introduced to the gaming community. On release of this new more global scaled world, the KoT worked hard and dedicated a lot of time into learning how to use this new playing field to their advantage. They finally settled on one of the northern islands of the Ultima Online world, and met some of the most loyal members they ever would come by. Shotcaller, Shade, Naf, and Red Talon, were some of these new KoT eager to spill blood and make sure no one felt safe on what we called “KoT Island”. Stockpiling boats and boat keys, armor and weapons, we built a legacy on that island. As the months went on more and more people came to fight us, and more and more people died. Eventually as members tired of the game and stopped playing, the KoT were chased from their home and forced to relocate. In the relocation/rebuilding process the KoT picked up two of their most trusted members in Bob and Doug Mckenzie. These two, eager to become part of our famed guild went on killing sprees larger then life breathing new life into the dormant guild. Some members spurred by the two new members came back and once again the Knights of Terror were a force to be reckoned with. Based out of the dungeon “Wrong” they continued their lifestyle of slaughtering players, looting houses, and causing mahem to lord british’s events. But yet again, players lost interest, and slowly the guild turned to a dorment state once again.
The summer of 1998 brought a new element to the guild as they organized their first real life meeting in Pomona, California. Chance Nifield and Gotham Grock travelled many miles from British Columbia, Canada and had a blast partying with our southwestern KoT brothers. We then also attended a UO Napa Valley gathering, and succeeded to be the only ones to be hung over at 10am in the morning. Although hung over, members still had enough energy to make fun of and disturb the function at least once.
The KoT showed sparks again when in March of 1999 Everquest was released. This new game was quite a bit different from what the KoT was used to. More so based on leveling and spending time killing monsters, the KoT were not as affective as in previous games. Members were so spread out in level range, and geographic location that it was hard for them to be very affective as a group. Still the KoT pked, looted and annoyed other players as much as they could, but EverQuest producers started tweaking the game so the whiney role playing power gamers would get their way. This led to less interest in the game, and then finally to people quitting the game completely. In the months after Braylor Hawkes another one of KoT’s finest, led the guild for a short time in an inspirational come back.
In the summer of 2000 the KoT had a real life BBQ with members from around North America. On entry all members were required to do a shot called a Rocky Mountain Bear Fucker which was made up of 1/3 tequila, 1/3 jack daniels, and 1/3 151 proof rum. Once into the BBQ kegs were tapped and many drinks were hoisted in a truly awesome 3 day party. These parties seperate a real pk from the roleplaying wannabe’s that we kill.
At the time of writing it is late 2001. Other then sparks in games like Diablo 2, Anarchy Online, and Asherons Call, KoT again has layen dorment waiting for another game where we all can ride once more and cause unmatchable chaos and complete destruction. I believe that game is upon us… we rally our troops now and fire breathes from our horses snouts. Watch for us looting your town next, in Dark Age of Camelot. -As recalled by Lord Chance Nifield, Leader of the Knights of Terror. 10/9/01
In October of 2001 the Knights of Terror arrived on scene in full force led by Chance Nifield, Sangdraxys Blackfire, Saradon Warchild, Cholvun, and Segal Exconvictus. Armed with drugs, alcohol and a will to win these sleepless warriors forged the guild into one of the strongest and most notable guilds to grace bedeveres albion faction in early days. The Knights of Terror also saw leadership from General Zaelthus, Lithrien, Turamir, Incubus, and Doula Doom in these early days. Being one of the first guilds to level 50 KoT sent regular patrols to the frontiers, Daxx Deathstrike was often leading them. Shortly after hitting level 50 most KoT lost interest due to the fact that frontiers combat was based on zerg vs zerg and had little to no reward as realm points meant nothing at the time. KoT yet again waited for another chance to spill blood.
In 2002 Mythic breathed new life into Dark Age of Camelot with the release of FFA PVP servers, Mordred and Andred. This was exactly the boost KoT needed, and we rose again camping bindspots and horse routes and lynch mobbing anyone that came across us. Vowing to level only by PVP. At this time the KoT anual BBQ was born, spurred by earlier events the Knights of Terror decided to get together atleast once a year to put faces to voices and drink all that they could.
With short visits in KoT in MajorMUD and Everquest, Krypts Blacshire finally came into his own as one of the front running leaders of the Knights of Terror on Andred. Together with Chance Nifield and new leaders Vvash, Queq, Sloburn, and Bonnin, they accumulated over 50 million realm points on the andred server before having to start from scratch again when mythic entertainment offered character transfers from the andred server to the mordred server with no compensation or thought to the transferring guilds. Little did we know at the time, this server would be our home for many years to come.
In March of 2003 a new flash in the pan came yet again with the release of Shadowbane. Some knights suited up, and others did not, but our forces were as blood thirsty as always. We raped and pillaged all that we could handle, but shortly after release Chance Nifield left abrubtly as the point and click controls and sub par graphics were not enough for him… others followed. Incubus continued to manage our first city, Metus Arcus, in his absence but only to see our first city razed and demolished. Doula Doom took the helm and began anew the city of Tyrannus Eversor, and with the help of a handful of knights, created a broad kingdom and became a instrumental in all server politics, attending banes frequently and maintaining a war with several guilds participating for several months leading up to the server wipe and deletion. Faced with the idea of rebuilding a kingdom, the KoT moved on to other games.
In the meantime, Chance Nifield had returned to Mordred and continued to spread fear with the help of long time member and now officer Guldan, and future hell raisers Renesis and Spineblade.
And then there was World of Warcraft in 2004, the hype was extraurdinary and everyone was excited to try out the new Blizzard MMO. KoT all flocked to the servers some joining the order side, while the majority joined Horde. Franticly doing quests and trying to level up it soon became apparent that this game was more geared towards questing and leveling than it was geared towards PVP. So again, a vast number of KoT fell away and disappeared. Some others again returned to DAoC’s Mordred, for yet another stand.
After world of warcraft, Incubus returned to shadowbane to find the world had been totally shattered yet again. He joined the redemption server where he found Scarface, Irish, and others looking to destroy the vast Chinese Nation alliance. Though UBI produced a bomb of an engine, some KoTs would stay playing this game for years to come.
Between the years of 2004 and 2006 KoT enjoyed PKing on Mordred, as well as a short stint with an arena based PVP game called Guild Wars. But that didnt last as the PVP was setup in arenas and was expected and didnt have the thrill of being spontaneous. EverQuest 2 brought out a PVP server that saw some interest for KoT but again after about a month of playing most tired of it and left. Doula and Dilly stayed as long as they could trying to fight for KoTs to return but in the end our membership would not be interested by it. On two seperate occasions throughout this time frame the Knights of Terror travelled to Las Vegas for all out debauchery in sin city.
In early 2007 Knights again answered the call to arms in a PVP based game called Vanguard. This game seemed to be everything we were looking for, with great open field free for all PVP with very nice graphics and excellent game play. But again we hit a snag with the developers of the game being too overburdened with an early launch and a ton of bugs they couldnt possibly catch up with before people got fed up and left. Krypts and Queq tried to tough it out with low populations but in the end the game was dieing and they agreed they were beating a dead horse.
Early 2008 would be the last the KoT would play of Mordred, as Mythic entertainment would run the game into the ground all but forgetting about it and ignoring its player base as they worked on future game Warhammer Online. The games population would drop from 500, to 250, and then under 100 before finally KoT gave up on it and left the server for good. To this day the server is still running with around 20 players actively playing on it, sadly mythic entertainment killed one of the best pvp servers ever to grace our computers.
In May 2008 Age of Conan was launched with amazing results and people signing up in droves to play this graphicly pleasing masterpiece! KoT started immediately with a large number of members powering through the levels and enjoying the mentoring system that allowed for lower level members to group with higher level members. This allowed for the guild to play together as a whole with no segregation. I believe this was one of the reasons KoTs stuck with this game until end game, but again we ran into a hardchip that was out of our control. Funcom had made the game too easy to level up and within the first month our higher level players had started to reach end game. What was worse was that funcom had very little content for end game players and the available content they did have was very buggy. KoT tolerated this for a while but after broken promise after broken promise we finally again lost interest and left one by one.
Warhammer Online released in September of 2008, Chance Nifield was dead against giving Mythic Entertainment any business after what they had done with the mordred server and how they treated dark age of camelot players as a whole. After much discussion and server bickering at launch, KoT finally decided to switch servers and agree on a faction. Due to a large number of KoT players enjoying the game, Nifield finally gave in and joined his fellow knights in warhammer online. He played until level 40 only to leave uninterested in the game. Incubus picked up the reigns and carefully selected new officers to the KoT such as Origin, Baheera, and Kalypto to name a few. The guild thrived under these leaders and became quite a force to be reckoned with. The KoT army was once again on the march. The KoT attracted many new members and numbers at peak exceeded 100. Everyone wanted in on KoT warbands because they utterly destroyed and dominated Order enemies on the Praag server everytime they took to the field in battle. Mythic entertainment in record time destroyed the game with the Land of the dead expansion, pvp on Praag was dead.
2009 birthed two new games with KoT forces in the hundreds, one being Darkfall Online, where Chance Nifield and Sith Soulstealer led the guild on the european server to much blood and loot. Upon north american release of Darkfall Chance Nifield enlisted the help of Yzarc Crazy, Dorf Dorf, Voden Grimbeard, Tripstongue TheAmphibian and Incubus Blackheart to spur the growth of the guild and ensure lasting success there. The KoT were part of one of the strongest alliances in Darkfall, The Red Army, and flourished holding the city of Tiquiya for over a year, even after the Red Army alliance broke up and KoT stood alone with no alliances for some time. Eventually the city of Tiquiya fell due to diminishing numbers in our ranks, and those left were forced to live out of many other cities in the end days of Darkfall.
While KoT was thriving in Darkfall, Other KoTs took up the reigns upon the release of Aion. Origin assumed command of this chapter of KoT with Kalypto, Hardened, Baheera, Bonnin, and Vvash at his side. KoT forces dwindled over time due to the grind and many other factors, and finally KoT Aion ceased to exist.
KoT Darkfall had numbers for well over 2 years before the empty promises made by Aventurine finally were just too much, and the last of our membership abandoned them.
In March of 2011, a new game titled Rift was launched, and again KoT members flooded the servers in droves. The game mechanics of this particular game drove wedges between membership and led to an actual rift between long term members Triryn and Incubus eventually ending with both members leaving the guild.
In July of 2011 some members took up the reigns yet again when Age of Conan launched their new Blood and Glory FFA PVP server, but unfortunately this was too little too late, as the population of the server never took on respectable numbers. The KoT stayed strong on this server until the population became unbearable. One of the few bright points of this run, was acquiring new member and friend Eirs.
In December of 2011 some members flocked to Star Wars the old Republic, Led by Krypts, Vvash, Queq and others. But it was another game that served to be a flash in the pan, and not after long all but a handful remained.
August 2012 looked promising as yet again KoT showed bolstered numbers, and most were returning members from previous games, with the launch of Guild Wars 2. The game was so different, it was night and day compared to games like Rift, in this game our membership flourished due to the fact that any player of any level could group with any other player and still have opportunity to gain due to their sliding level system. This encouraged all members of all levels to group with one another, and not be alienated by being lower levels. But soon enough, members started topping out their characters, and got sick and tired of the same nameless and pointless PVP. With no tangible progression to strive for, the membership dwindled again.
At time of writing, the Knights of Terror are quietly gearing up for Darkfall Unholy Wars. Our forces assimilate in the shadows, and are ready to unleash hell on 12/12/12.
-As recalled by Lord Chance Nifield, Leader of the Knights of Terror. 12/8/2012
3 responses to “History”
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Great story. It sure did bring back a few memories on Mordred. The nights you would call me at 3 in the morning my time to start PFont again!!! Those were the days!
LOL at my brother being in the history and not me!!
fuckers!!
Hay it’s mee.
mee