Pre 1098 - The Time of the Void.

Carrying a bow was a dangerous pastime, archers were often left to fend for themselves, even by their own groups. This is because the needs and the skills of an archer differ so from the sword-wielding warriors that were so numerous. There was total lack of coherent information or support from the Factions.
No wonder there were so few archers around, they tended to be quite short-lived characters.

Gathering 1098 - The Dragons Incident.

Despite the problems archers had faced in previous years the numbers seemed to be growing, even though the skill required much discipline to learn and the archers tools were expensive and easily damaged or lost.

There was a lack of space for archers to practice their skills where they wouldn't endanger passers-by, and there seemed little for archers to achieve at such large gatherings of the people of the Heartlands. These two factors resulted in something that the Factions were quite unprepared for.

It all started when a small group of players were having a quiet practice session with their archer. An arrow, however, missed its target and hit a passer by. This individual did not take kindly to being a target, picked up the arrow and snapped it in half. The archer and his friends complained to their superiors but there wasn't anything they could do, so this little band of not so merry men went looking for the criminal.

They knew which faction he was with so before they made their way to the faction gates they collected more archers. For about two hours we went all round the market place and by the time we were ready the group was about 80 to 100 strong. The main reason archers from all the other factions came was because every archer wanted the factions to sit up and take note that we were not being taken seriously, it was time to take a stand and make our feelings known.

By the time we left the Market Place we were quite a force and attracted a large crowd of followers. We massed in front of the faction gates, three rows deep and twenty men abreast. All we wanted was to be admitted so that we could talk to the arrow breaker and get both an apology and a replacement arrow. Instead the faction hurriedly mustered the few groups that were home and a good mosh was had by all.

In the aftermath, most of the archers returned to their factions but there was a small group of us that wandered back amazed at what had just happened, wondering whether the players could be brought together again for a common cause to iron out all the problems that we faced. Could we do a better job of organising them than the factions?

Gathering 1099 - The taking of names.

It was decided that a list of names should be taken at the event to see if a separate guild for archers would work. At the same time I was trying to contact people to do the same thing. Somewhere in all this Rowan Battan was also involved.

The Guild tent for the Gathering was a long marquee with the Bards at one end and a corridor running up the middle with Guild rooms off to each side. We were given a table in the Armourers room which we had to share with the short lived Mercs Guild. We were told that this year we would still be under the government of the Armourers and if we had enough interest we could petition the Guilds next year for autonomy. Over the course of the weekend we had hundreds of signatures and an adventure was run to gain possession of Herne's Arrow. I could not join the adventurers as on my way to the Gathering I had badly injured my right shoulder so I sat at the desk and take names (and it never changed).

Gathering 1100 - The year of probation.

This was the year that Rowan Battan, Geddon Dowr and myself took command of the guild. This was the first time I had attended all four summer events and my job was to take names and try to form an easy-to-use records system, while Geddon dealt with safety and logistics while Rowan dealt with… well… I'm not entirely sure. All I saw from behind the desk was him floating through the Guild tent visiting every Guild desk but ours. I think it was at the time of the second Moot that Johannes Wolfe joined us.

Gathering 1101 - The Guild is born.

And the rest is history.

By Talon Mayard, Archers Guild Commander 1099 - 1101