February 2007

From BNN:

The sounds of hammers and bellows won’t be the only thing interrupting picnickers in the small field west of the Second Defense Armory much longer. The Mages’ Guild of Moonglow has just broken ground for their revolutionary blackrock detecting machine, to be assembled over the coming weeks.

Kronos, Director of Alchemical Studies and the driving force behind the experiment, was accompanied by a small group of fellow mages and curious onlookers for the simple ceremony. When asked by the BNN exactly how the machine would operate, the eccentric mage explained that the key was an ancient family heirloom, and a piece of blackrock itself.

When asked further about his family treasure, Kronos only vaguely replied that no one in the family had quite remembered what it was for until now, but he assured us it was the key to a centuries old secret, of some sort.

From Lionel Alazraham:

Hail one and all!

I now have the cause an opportunity to announce that the Hansonian Institute has opened another exhibit for all patrons across Sosaria: The Music exhibit!

The exhibit includes works from most of Britannia's history, most of which you can listen to and hear for yourself. We invite you to come and visit The Hansonian Institute!

Safe Travels,
Lionel Alazraham
http://ds180.net/hansonian

From Newcastle Township:

This Saturday (Feb. 24th) at 8 PM CST/9 PM EST, a memorial service will be held for the former Grand Marshall, Ren the Conjuror. Services will carried out at the Newcastle Town Hall. Gates wil be provided to the Town Hall from the Skara Brae Bank. Those who remember him well will perform eulogys in remembrance. Once the ceremony is over there will be a walk to the Abbey.

After many attempts to ressurect the Templar, the Knights finally had to accept that their former leader will never return from the void. This is a great blow to the Knights, but one they have already been living with for quite some time. Those who served Britannia or Newcastle will surely miss his calming force. The Newcastle Abbey will be the final resting place of the great hero of the Knights of Redemption and Britannia.

Remembering the former Grand Marshall's Life:

• Named Templar of the Knights of Redemption. Regrouped and honed the Knights into a well oiled unit of the Britannian Armed Forces.
  
  
• Was promoted to the rank of Field Marshall under Grand Marshall Jakob Covenant. During this time the Royal Knights took on some of the more secret jobs of the Britannian Armed Forces.
  
  
• With the resignation of Jakob Covenant, Ren was elected to the rank of Grand Marshall of Britannia. His time spent as Grand Marshall is considered by many to be the greatest height of Britannian power with all Enemies of State fleeing for their lives.
  
  
• Oversaw the creation of the United Sosarian Council. During its infancy, he was the steadying hand in its survival.

Services:

Building: Newcastle Town Hall

Location: 88o 20'N, 28o 11'E

Time: Saturday 8 PM CST/9 PM EST

Summary: Memorial Service for Ren the Conjuror. You are suggested to arrive early to find proper arrangements. Those who knew him are encouraged to speak. Once the memorial is ended, those who wish to continue will walk with the Knights as they move Ren's remains to the Abbey, his final resting place.











Building: Newcastle Abbey

Location:107o 25'N, 32o 16'E

Time: Saturday following the Memoiral Service

Summary: Ren's body will be buried here in its final resting place. The Abbey is a short walk from the Town Hall and just a stone's thorw from Castle Redemption, where Nikki operated the close knit Knights.

Let not the appearance of the Power Fist frighten you. Its return does not signal the return of the Thunderdome. As Nick stated in his mission statement for the return of the Herald, we aren't here to play sides, and a return of the Thunderdome would definitely lead to a feeling of playing sides. So instead, we've decided to change the focus of it towards... well, we'll get to that in a moment.

Where are you reading this article? Do you look up and see the Daily Herald web layout or the Tomes layout? You'll notice very quickly that it doesn't really matter anymore. Unparalleled cooperation when it comes to out of game news distribution between both the Tomes and the Herald is responsible for this. Not only does it limit fruitless searching of many sites for information, it brings the community closer together. I won't say its perfect, but its great step forward. There are kinks in the system, as the Herald has an agreement to be able to post Stratics news to the Herald, but its fuzzy over if that agreement allows us to do it on the Tomes. As always, time will tell.

This cooperation has allowed the Herald staff to use the current community forums setup by the Tomes to further involvement. That is where the Power Fist comes in. From now on, its primary focus will be towards trying to get discussion going on topics that pop up on the Springboard, Roleplay 101, or General Discussion boards. The key is encouraging community involvement. In the eye of this writer, there hasn't been much community invovlement in great topics that could have spurred some awesome plots if just nurtured a bit.

There is a lot of enthusiasm swirling in the community. Recently plot lines have begun to spring up and unlike a few months ago when we all seemed wary of who to work with and all kinds of other unsettling bull, they are sticking and people are joining in. Everyday, more and more people are coming back. Hopefully we can take this jumpstart and move forward in it!

Just this week, fugitive and suspected accomplice to the murders of Chancellor Jerred Ghyss and Redlow Winksi, Fredrick Corvair was caught. Royal Knights on patrol in Britain spotted a man that fit the description of the current warrant and brought him in for questioning. After just a few hours, his identity was confirmed and the appropiate parties were notified.

Fredrick pleads that he is innocent in the face of any charges brought against him. Officials with the Govenor's office in Britain have said that as of this moment, Govenor Locke has no statement, but noted that it is being investigated and word should come soon. They kindly reminded us that all subjects are innocent until tried in the Court of Truth.

Grand Marshall Polynikes and members of the Yew Militia oversaw the transfer of the accomplice from Royal Knight custody. It has been reported that both Relk the Waiter, the main suspect, and Fredrick have been transferred to a more remote venue. To explain this tactic, the Britannian Armed Forces said that it would be easier to fend off escape in the deeper forests.

The sun set a few hours ago here in the City of the Spider but the heat is still high as the Fourth Tournament of the Dragons concludes. In what undoubtedly was a fine exposition of weaponplay and magik studies, competition was fierce as ever as several fights evolved into instant classics. It was an all star event as several popular figures such as Ladies Kazola and Silverbrook could be seen ring side.

This reporter chose to stay down in the rowdy cheap seats where many uniformed men and women from the Militia, the Knights, and Silver Serpents could be heard cheering their own on. It was a tough crowd for the Mondainites as they were constantly heckled even in the Empire's arena. That didn't stop them as they had a strong showing into the later rounds, with Fearun being eliminated in no doubt was the most exciting match of the night.

More of that later, lets get you a list of the winners.

First Place: Mackenzie
Guild: Yew Militia
Summary: The legend of the Widow Maker grows as Mackenzie wins her second straight tournament, the first to do so. Aptly dispensing of most of the challengers, the question starts as to who will be the one to knock her off?



Second Place: Mist
Guild: Chicken Fight Club
Summary: Hard fought effort that carried her to the finals in a showdown with Mackenzie. Her orcish brute kept many running most of the night.



Third Place: Garret
Guild: Blue Lotus
Summary: The Cinderella Story. A string of strong showings and well timed upsets landed this Blue Lotus member in the top three.



Fourth Place: Polynikes
Guild: Yew Militia
Summary: The wiley old Grand Marshall used experience combined with well timed poisons to fight his way into the top four and a strong showing.



Without question the fight of the night went to Fearun of the Temple of Mondain and Garret of the Blue Lotus. The fighters had the fans on the edge of their seats as each came so close to inflicting the killing blow. Poison and paralization fields, even meteor swarms rained down onto the two combantants, neither falling. It was only after two daemons entered the fray was Fearun finally brought down, with Garret himself barely alive.

This reporter certainly looks forward to the next tournament!

From Anderson the Scribe via BNN:

Not to be mistaken for the more benign Wisps found throughout Britannia, this darker breed of extra-dimensional entities has taken stronger hold within the depths of our forests and dungeons. Numerous reports of sightings have pegged the “dark wisps” with previously unseen abilities and aggression.

Travelers should be advised that the dark wisps have been seen entering a special shielded state within which they can rapidly heal themselves. During this time weapons and spells seem to have no effect; however, it’s possible to flee the engagement entirely while the wisp is frozen. Our readers may note that this is the first resurgence of dark wisp activity since the days of the Followers of Armageddon.

Yep, that's right, now you can receive the delicious Britannian goodness of the Herald right in your very own e-mail box!

All you've got to do is add your e-mail address to the box at the left near the bottom, and hit subscribe. It's that simple.

You'll get the text of the Herald, minus any pictures. Great for those of you on the go!

Try it today!

Wednesday last, at the behest of Magincian Philanthropist Lady Silverbrook, poets from throughout the globe congregated at the Magincia Library.

The setting draped in pink, each poet in turn performed one of their own works. The subject on everyone's mind? Love!

The event drew such dignataries as Chancellor Ra'Dian Fl'Gith, Grand Marshall Polynikes, Kazola, and famous sketch artist Carde of Skara Brae.

Also a participant was Beauvina, the young woman who threatened the city of Yew with an army of cows some weeks ago. She offered a poem about the love of cows.

Cash prizes were on hand for the most eloquent recitals, but when all was said and done, everyone came away a winner. Each participant came away with at least 100,000 gold in consolation money, and the audience got to see a great performance.

Lady Silverbrook's poetry contests are something of a smash hit, and occur monthly. Keep your eyes on the Herald for details about the next poetry event, coming soon!

Welcome readers, to the return of The Daily Herald on Great Lakes! Welcome back, old friends!

What's the same?

The Herald is committed to bringing you RP news and news of particular interest to the RP community. This is the core purpose of the Herald since the beginning.

As always, the Herald is not about bickering, or fighting, or getting into the middle of disputes between different players. We don't believe in "war" between news services. We all want to strengthen the UO community.

The Herald site is designed to be easily interpreted by a variety of browsers. It probably isn't w3c compliant, but when your most advsnced code is tables, it probably doesn't matter that much. As a result, the Herald is a fast load, even on dialup connections. It's not memory or processor intensive, and you can run it side-by-side with UO on even the most modest computer.

Finally, the Herald is vehemently opposed to outside advertisement of any kind. You wont find popups or banners anywhere on the site.. at all, ever, for all time.

What's Different?

Times have changed since the Herald's former glory. The RP community is smaller now, but the RP community has congealed. The main site for Great Lakes roleplay is over at Tomes of Sosaria. The Herald supports the community and Tomes of Sosaria. In the future, you'll see the Herald becoming more and more plugged into the community, as well as plugged into the Tomes of Sosaria site itself.

If you haven't yet, get over to Tomes of Sosaria and sign up ASAP! Lots of things are happening over there!

Herald by mail is currently not working. It broke while the Herald slept and I haven't been able to figure out what's wrong with it yet. If it's possible, Herald by mail will eventually return.

The Herald Link Exchange is discontinued, and won't be coming back, but it's been repaired so that if your site has it, it won't have a broken picture anymore.

The Herald forums will not be returning, but the Herald's article discussion functions and other features previously associated with the boards will be over at Tomes of Sosaria.

For Newer Visitors

The Herald works on contributions from you, the community. Something noteworthy happen? Write up an article and sent it along to us! Got an event you want to promote? That's what we're here for! Wedding announcement? Guild story? No problem!

Alongside your contributions, The Herald does its own investigative reporting, and pulls reports from other sources as well. It keeps you, your guild, and your community updated with the latest in what is going on in the community!

Final Notes

Helping around around the Herald, I have two partners, Kazola and Jeremiah Cruz. If you'd like to help out too, send a me a message at admin@ds180.net.

Some housecleaning still needs doing what with the hiatus and all. Some images might look goofy until I get some time to fix them. The community links are as accurate as I know how to make them. If I forgot to mention your group, it's only because I missed you when I was looking or active groups. Drop me a line and I'll be glad to add you in!

Here's to a prosperous restart, and good fortune for us all!

Nicholas Seafort
Editor in Chief

Soon, the Daily Herald will return to full news service! Keep your eye on this space for the return!

Note that only the news and community links part of the Herald is returning. Herald E-mail news may return in the future.

The Forums system and Link Exchange will not be returning.

We look forward to seeing you soon!