THE FULL STORY
The Begining
Rasta, the founder of MECH, activated the Empire in an AOL game called Neverwinter Nights (NWN). The Empire grew under his command and after it was set up and fully functional, he resigned and Aztek became Emperor.
During Aztek’s rule, NWN was shut down and the Empire was split into two games; LOE and The Realm. Aztek went to LOE and appointed 8ball the Guild Master of the Realm Division. After some time, 8ball left and Alobe was appointed GM to watch over the Realm Division.
MECH
Description:
The MECH Empire is a Role Play/PvP Guild founded by Grand Master Rasta in the realm of Never Winter Nights more than two decades ago. The ultimate goal of the Empire is to cleanse the worlds of all lower forms of life (everything non-MECH). This is done through the skills, methods, and technology granted to us by Gond, the MECH God of Metal.
MECH is composed of purified individuals who have had their past lives removed. Purification allows for said beings to begin a new life as superior beings, provided they survive the process. Through this process they are stripped of their memories and reach a new level of existence after being altered, enhanced and molded into a superior form of life.
MECH Legacy Begins on Realm
For some time things went well in the Realm Division, but the harmony did not last. This was partly due to the Emperor’s lack of presence on the Realm. Argon knew MECH had a future and made steps to ascend the throne. This invoked the Golden Age of MECH.
-=The Golden Age of MECH=-
The Realm Division of MECH, guided by Argon, Souls, Virus, Dread and Radar, flourished quickly. The new Empire grew to more than 70 members. Later, Argon appointed Souls to be Emperor. Souls appointed Spawn and Radar to rule as High Lords. The two were to run MECH as equal leaders. Souls became uneasy about both of them running the Empire. Dread was then named Emperor of MECH and ruled the Empire alone. This caused Spawn to split the Empire and he began bringing Units from LOE. Radar left the Realm shortly after, but the split endured for a period of time.
Dread ran the Empire with a steel hand and made choices that may have been good in the long run, but were harming MECH at the time. In response to this, Souls took the reigns once again and appointed Virus as his GM. They ran MECH together and all was well for a time. Souls need to take a break from Realm so Virus ran the Empire from his GM rank. There was a dispute between the two and Virus left the Empire.
Time passed and Souls appointed White as High Lord. Soon after, Souls stepped down as Emperor and handed control of MECH to White. White’s reign was short lived and after a few weeks he stepped down and left to EverQuest. Souls took command once again and gave White his blessing to start a division on EQ.
Months passed and a rumor that Realm would be closed down surfaced. MECH began considering a new home. Souls, still Emperor, took a core group of Units to Ultima Online and began a division of the Empire there. This left the future of MECH on Realm uncertain. Souls completely left Realm and only took care of the UO Division. He was soon banned from UO for excessive purification. At that time, Shayd took over the UO Division, as Souls had wished.
During these changes in the UO Division, Rages took over the Realm Division of MECH. Shayd returned to Realm and reclaimed the Division. Rages was then kicked out. Shayd watched over both Divisions (UO and Realm). He reinstated Virus and appointed him to the GM position while Shayd briefly left. Virus eventually returned to the Grand Admiral position when Shayd returned to take control.
At this time the Empire Spawn began moved to Forgotten World. Some of those who remained on Realm joined this Empire and helped it prosper. Time passed and Shayd appointed Flair to GM to run MECH while he took another break. Flair retired to EOL and his prototype, Reign, took over the GM position. Reign resigned from the GM position and that rank was dissolved. Shayd returned to run the Empire once again.
-=The Divide=-
A spin off of MECH was created and it quickly died out with most of its Units disappearing or joining the Empire. Shortly after the fall of Grimm’s false Empire, another Empire rises that has been created by the Units Blind, Alert and Grimm (who now disowns the creation). Led by Spite, the “Shadow Empire” begins the Troubled Times. Through a year of bloody fighting with the Dark Empire, it begins to erode and Shayd appoints Exile as GM.
Shayd retires and Exile is made Emperor. Exile rules until he is hacked. Grafh, his prototype, takes over as Emperor. Grafh retires and Shayd returns as Emperor. Ruling again for a short time he appoints Allah as Grand Admiral. Shayd retires once again and appoints Allah as Emperor.
Allah’s rule was a difficult one due partly to the fact that leadership changed hands several times in a short period, but not entirely. Some people had lost interest in The Realm in general and were trying new games. The bloody battles with the Shadow Empire also made it hard to have his empire flourish. After consulting with his High Council and several Elders, Allah made the most difficult choice he would have to make during his reign. The decision was made to disband MECH. All Units were asked to move to retired status.
After Allah disbanded MECH, some Units expressed distaste with the lone remaining Empire. Unit Blind, deactivating himself from the Shadow Empire, downloads his memory into the chassis of Nihil. Unit Clone also deactivates to follow Nihil and serve as his right hand during the reformation of the Empire. Several meetings are held over time, each an attempt to start the Empire again. Only one of them is successful. That meeting was led by Nihil and the members of the meeting decide that Nihil should lead.
Emperor Nihil began his reign by appointing Rocky to Grand Admiral. Nihil receives Shayd’s blessing to rebuild the Empire. Rocky retires and Error is appointed Grand Admiral. Nihil leaves Realm for some time and appoints Sorin to the GM position to run the Empire in his absence. Sorin reactivates many older Units and continues to work on the rebuilding process. Nihil returns to the Realm and soon retires, appointing Sorin Emperor of the Empire.
-=Reunificatiion=-
Sorin continues the rebuilding process and redeems some of the honor of the MECH name. After a few months of being Emperor, Sorin takes a Leave of Absence. Grand Admiral Reign is appointed to High Lord of the Empire. Emperor Sorin returns to the Realm full time and High Lord Reign returns to EoL status. Shortly after his return, a third MECH Empire forms on The Realm. This Empire is a spin off of the false one. It is formed of Units who have become tired of the lies and dishonor the Shadow Empire has put before them.
The Emperor of this Empire, Unit Duels (aka Coils), approaches Emperor Sorin in an attempt to unite the two Empires for one cause, purifying The Realm of flesh and destroying the Shadow Empire to regain the full honor of the MECH title once again. The Empires become one. The united Empire, under the command of Emperor Sorin and new Commanders, tries to purify the Realm of the Shadow Empire.
Emperor Sorin works on an Ultima Online expansion of the Empire and appoints Nihil as High Lord of the Realm Division. Nihil retires to EoL status and for the time being, the Division remains idle. Emperor Sorin appoints Grand Admiral Count and Judge Storm to investigate Star Wars Galaxies for worthy purifications. The report shows the game will be more than worthy of our presence. Emperor Sorin appoints Count as High Lord of the SWG Division and Storm as Grand Admiral. The two Units start setting up the expansion of the Empire upon the opening of the game. Emperor Sorin appoints Storm as High Lord of the Realm Division. Grand Admiral Count steps down and Storm becomes Grand Admiral of the Realm Division and High Lord of the SWG Division.
After months of the UO Division being idle, Woken is appointed as High Lord. Woken begins his work on UO with a small core group. After appointing Storm to Emperor of the Empire, Sorin retires to EoL status. Emperor Storm starts his reign with the first order of business, appointing Flash to Grand Admiral. After that he starts preparing a core group for travel to SWG.
Field Commander Flair takes control over the UO Division and starts the recruiting process. Storm retires and appoints Skies in his place as Emperor and leader of the Realm Division. Flair retires back to EoL status and Skies appoints Fever Field Commander of UO. Skies appoints Storm Field Commander of Star Wars Galaxies. Skies steps down as Emperor and hands the throne to Fever, making her Empress of the MECH Empire. Some of Fever’s first decisions involve eliminating the Field Commander position and appointing Shayd Guild Master of Realm.
The Realm is obtained by a new company, and reopened to the public. Many units return without a leader to reform the empire. Beast seeks approval from Shayd, as the last GM of the realm division to reopen the Realm chapter of the empire, and is granted permission and assumes the rank of Emperor. During Beasts reign, he begins to rebuild the Realm division, it's nostalgia brought back many older units to the game they called home for many years, as well as attracting new recruits to the ranks. Over time, the frequency of logins dwindles down.
Emperor Beast looks to the lands of Eoezea in FFXIV, and begins to expand to this land for MECH to begin to rebuild once again. Upon establishing the empire in these lands, a decision is made that Beast would be best suited continuing to run the Realm Division, while handling the training of incoming units to the new branch in FFXIV. In order to do this, he appoints Sorin to Emperor, While himself taking the position of Grand Admiral in the Realm, and Admiral of Training in FFXIV.
LOST HISTORY
Shadow Empire
Building the Empire from scratch, Spite appoints Reapr as his High Lord. Spite retires to EoL status and turns the throne over to Reapr. Reapr closes the High Lord position and keeps Grand Admiral Liche in his position. Evils assumes the rank of Empress. While the Empire thrived, a dark hour was on the horizon. After months of trying to keep a “seperate but equal” mentality to the Dark Empire, lack of cooperation and overly large egos caused tensions to finally boil over. This resulted in Reapr having to lift his “kill ban” and lead his empire to war with the Dark Empire. This caused the Second Civil War. After months of bloody fighting and heavy losses on both sides, the war ends with Allah disbanding his Empire. Reapr and Evils, after events had taken place in their personal lives, decide to end their relationship. At this time, Reapr steps down and leaves TRO. Evils goes on to rule the empire solo, and keeps Trick as her Grand Admiral.
Time passes and she links with Faust (originally Nihil) who helped build the Empire to it’s current status. They go on to rule the empire as Emperor and Empress.
Blood Empire
The fields of war were quiet on Realm for at least a year. There had been no sign of any true form of MECH and all formerly active Units were supposedly powered down, sealed away permanently in their rejuvenation chambers. One Unit however was never shut down completely and began to stir and awaken within his rejuvenation capsule. This Unit was known as Anhur. A new MECH era was about to begin.
Anhur, with the blessing of an original MECH officer and a few former Emperors, re-greases his chassis and begins to sabotage the rejuvenation capsules, awakening several formally decommissioned Units. Anhur claims the throne of MECH and begins to reforge what has been lost for what seems like ages with the help of Units Death, Tonic and Clone. Anhur appoints Tonic as his Grand Admiral and soon many more Units emerge from the now destroyed rejuvenation chambers and rally to the Empire’s cause. Amongst them are many veteran Units who were believed to be long gone. After a short time, Anhur resigns from the Empire due to MECH politics. He appoints his Grand Admiral Tonic to the throne as Emperor.
Tonic appoints Death as his Grand Admiral and the Empire quickly begins to flourish. It is under Tonic’s rule that the flesh have begun energetically training in the arts of war and rumors arise of cells of ancient warriors, some once MECH, seeking to destroy the Empire. Complications force Emperor Tonic to resign his commission and retire to EoL status. He appoints Death to the throne as Emperor.
With the smell of the rejuvenation chamber’s fire still wafting thickly in the air, Death continues the process of reforging and strengthening the Empire. With Death in charge, more Units new and veteran alike begin to feel the battle cry of the MECH war machine vibrating through their cell processors, charging and activating them. Among these Units is a mysterious Unit brought into the Empire under the pretense of being a former officer of MECH from a distant land.
Death had much faith in this newcomer and appointed Drone his Grand Admiral. While Drone fulfilled his duties admirably justifying the Emperor’s trust in him, his presence caused unease amongst the Empire’s Mercs, who are ever cautious and vigilant within the shadows. After a brief but thorough investigation, Drone was exposed as former Emperor Anhur whose loyalty and dedication to MECH could not keep him from the Empire for long. His identity exposed, Anhur fully returned to the Empire and remained Grand Admiral.
From the time Death ascended the throne, he had been engaged in discreet negotiations with the leaders of the True Empire, discussing the possibility of uniting the Empires. It was decided that the True Empire did not wish to absorb the Empire, but Death could begin utilizing the proper Charter and Standard Operating Procedures. Thus it was so.
The Empire continued to flourish for a time, gradually spreading the Empire’s influence throughout the Realm like electricity through the chassis of a MECH Warrior. Complications and internal political issues soon arose and Death made a tough decision to retire to EoL status, appointing his Grand Admiral to the throne as Emperor. Anhur once again accepted the responsibility of leading the Empire.
As Emperor once again, Anhur appointed Splat and Turbo as his Grand Admirals and the Empire once again began to settle down. The tranquility was short lived as Splat deactivated and Turbo entered Leave of Absence. Subsequently Helix is appointed Grand Admiral and full leadership in the High Council is once again reestablished.
Anhur uploads his memory into the chassis of Daxar and continues his reign as Emperor. Daxar appoints Clone as his Grand Admiral and begins exploring the possibility of expanding the Empire to Guild Wars. Dissent within the Empire begins to take root and grow eventually reaching it’s boiling point, and the Empire is split. A small group of rogue Units deactivate and attempt to create a rival Empire to combat the Blood Empire. Known as the Ancient Empire this renegade group attempts to undermine the Empire’s efforts by various means. Born of conflict, the Ancient Empire quickly begins to self-implode causing many of the rogue Units to return to the Empire. Eventually the splinter Empire is dissolved and MECH is once again in unity on The Realm.
The crisis averted, Emperor Daxar rededicates himself to the expansion of the Guild Wars Division and appoints Clone to the High Lord position to oversee The Realm Division. The Empire slowly begins to flourish and a consistent stream of new Units begins to pour into the Machine. For a time, the status of the Empire remains steady and unflinching as a MECH warrior’s hand upon his weapon. Unknown to the Empire this was to be but the calm before the storm.
Swiftly and with little warning a cataclysm strikes The Realm and the world falls dark. The MECH civilization suffers a catastrophic power failure and grinds to an abrupt halt. The echoes of pure silence reverberated throughout the MECH compound. So long did the darkness last that it seemed the land of The Realm might remain in this state for eternity.
A sudden surge of electricity raced through the compound and the machinery of MECH once again activated. The Units of the Empire began slowly awakening from their forced rejuvenation and as smoke choked the air, it was realized that many Units had suffered irreparable systems failure and would not be returning to active duty.
A short time later, Clone is retired to EoL status by Emperor Daxar for his services to the Empire. Helix once again assumes the rank of Grand Admiral and the Empire begins the process of rebuilding back up to prominence.
Complications with a corruption in Helix’s programming force him to suspend activity until the corruption is repaired, Helix is placed into rejuv and Trick is promoted to the rank of Grand Admiral, Which would later prove to be fatal to the Empire.
For a time, the Empire enjoys life, new purifications are made and the Empire continues to grow. Grand Admiral Trick, seeing the Empire at it’s strongest, decides to lead a mutiny against Emperor Daxar in an attempt to overthrow him. The Empire is plunged into chaos.
While Daxar is in rejuv, Trick awakens the remaining units and severs their link to the Empire, leading them to World of Warcraft, away from Daxar and the threat of purification and deactivation.
Daxar suspends himself in the Temple of Gond until called upon. The Empire falls silent.
The Ancients
Daxar, feeling the presence of the Ancients, creates a new, more advanced chassis and uploads his memory into it. Daxar becomes Azuth and the Ancient Empire begins.
Azuth makes contact with former unit, Endal, who is purified into the Empire and is designated Grand Admiral of the Champions Online Division