The Cairdeas Story
As originally told by Quolo and edited more recently by Grimmnar

In the pre-Cairdeas era (the dark ages), there were a few different cells of friends in a few different organizations across a few different games (phew); the birth of Cairdeas proper can be traced to the game Asheron's Call on the Leafcull server. Cairdeas was initially a monarchy called the Crimson Exaltation, founded by a handful of players that wanted something more from a guild than we seemed to be able to find. We wanted a guild that achieved success through friendship. We had a vision that if you built an environment in which everyone focused on altruism and on group play, that not only would we all get more from the game, in the long run we would be competitive with the l33t guilds about which we had soured.

Sowing the Seeds of Love
The founding members of The Crimson Exaltation were Crimson dux Ducis (Dea in DAoC), Diosue dux Peniculus (Quolo), Omnedon (Warrybar in SWG and Aura's RL brother), Domina dux Militis and Aidan dux Arcus (Eventin in the flesh). Crimson herself, as appointed royalty, was played at various times by one of the organizers. Some of the early members were Echephron dux Astel (Schmoogly), Aura dux Luxuria (Aura the DAoC GM), Vrulle dux Fortis (Ythos in DAoC and Vrulle in AC2). Crimson was our monarch. Here is a nostalgic link to our monarchy tree from the Crimson Exaltation. Most of the names have a Latin meaning, except for the silly ones like Duck dux Goose.

We merged with another guild towards the end of our stay in AC that shared many of our ideals and some of our members - the Order of the Obsidian Dragon (OOD). Many of The Crimson Exaltation had or was an alt of an OOD member; the unification of what was a newer, smaller Crimson Exaltation with a matured, enormous OOD brought some old and new friends into play.

Cairdeas goes Arthurian
When DAoC opened, we formed a chapter of the Order of the Obsidian Dragon in Hibernia on the Bedevere server. As our guild progressed in the game, we realized we needed our own identity under Eventin, our chosen top dog, and we reformed the guild, this time called "Cairdeas", which means "friendship" or "fellowship" or "let's hang out" in Gaelic. The guild prospered and grew into one of the more powerful and successful guilds on our server, and along with a few other strong guilds helped to found one of the top alliances on the server. The DAoC contingent of Cairdeas continuted to run strong with the ubiquitous, hallowed, and ever-elegant Aura at the helm.

Back to the Cairdean
A small contingent set out to form a chapter on RK-1 in Anarchy Online, which faded for some time, but experienced a rebirth with the bug fixes and expansions that game enjoyed. Mindery (Silencio from DAoC and Sbrblade from AC2), with his mannish good looks and curiously hirsute armpits, headed that chapter in the end.

Cairdeas Keeps it Real
When AC2 came into being, it seemed a natural decision for many to return to the next generation of the game that gave Cairdeas its first footing, and in true neo-classical fashion, Eventin resumed his top cheese role. After an active few months, the game's quality began to take its toll and, after a quality stint of leadership from Rowan the White (Whitey to his friends, all 3 of 'em), the AC2 chapter of Cairdeas was declared dormant.

May the Cairdeas be with you...
The launch of Star Wars Galaxies attracted a vibrant mix of Cairdeans, where Whitey (Catharr in SWG) resumed his leadership role to restore Cairdeas to a three-game organization. As the first ever Cairdeas City was established and grew to be a metropolis, Deorc succumbed to copious amounts of peer pressure and took over the reigns. As the newness of the game waned in favor of bugstration, the chapter slowly dwindled, slowly enjoying a modest rebirth. Aluri, darling of all that is accountable, ran a vibrant, tangy, and utterly satisfying Cairdeas chapter.

Even Huey Lewis has the News
In the latter part of 2003, a Cairdeas Council was formed of current and old GM's and other guidance counselor types. With hundreds of active members, this body makes sure the Cairdeosity stays in Cairdeas and that the organization as a whole doesn't topple over from the weight of all that joviality and pomp. And circumstance. Circumstance gets really heavy with time.

What happened to 'I' through 'X'?
With the launch of Final Fantasy XI Online, once again, an intrepid group of Cairdeas strongarms set forth to colonize the joint, this time with the spork-like Ciaran at the bow. True to form, the FFXIians showd dignity and form with moderate numbers.

Cairdeas gets Mad Props .. WOW !
In March of 2004, recognizing the class and contribution of Cairdeas, Blizzard invited a representation from Cairdeas to assist in the early beta of World of Warcraft. Cairdeas went on to experience honors and accomplishments in the community, but it continued to be the manner in which went about our business that we feel defines the community - the very serious business of having fun.

By Crom by Golly!
The middle portion of 2008 drew a large number of Cairdeans of all shapes and sizes to once again join together for set of adventures and travels. Alas, the visit to Age of Conan was a short lived one, the game itself was beautifully rendered, yet had little substance in the end.

WWWAAAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!!
The drums of Warhammer Online were to hard to resist in the Fall of 2008. Once again the family that is Cairdeas has forged into a new world and it is WAR! Led yet again by the Saint known as Eventin, Cairdeas was originally one of the larger forces for Order on the Azazel Server. As our player base transitioned into a smaller core, and destruction stopped playing, transfers opened up and we made Volkmar server our home. There is still a few folks playing in the Fall 09' however most Cairdeans have moved along, the game just didnt have the long term interest for the majority of our members

Well, Who'd a Thunk It !! ??
After the disappointment from AoC and WAR, members playing in the same game seems to have dwindled while waiting for the next big game. We currently have members playing in a variety of games. Aion an existing game from Korea (?) has recently come to North America and has a group of members. WoW still has a small contingent of dedicated Cairdeans and amazingly, DDO has recently started a 'free to play' model, and has a very consistent group of players hitting it's imaginary world.


From Here to Cairdeasity
Cairdeas has really become an entity less dependent on any one game and more dependent on the people behind the avatars. Now, years into it, Cairdeas boasts a message board membership over 500. (and that's after a few boards that have gone belly up) Members are still playing the games in which Cairdeas has an official chapter, others are playing standalone games or a really great MMOG called "life", but once a Cairdean (unless you really screw up) always a Cairdean. Almost everyone takes a leave of absence from a Cairdeas chapter, and almost everyone returns. Like globules of some bizarre protozoan, you can scoot yourself over to one side of the microscope slide, but eventually the glob will swallow you up again, which leads me to believe "Cairdeas" is actually Celtic for "Globule".

See how we started as cells of friends and ended up a glob? That's poetic. No really, it is.