The Raven Council

As Lorei sits behind the table she mutters in her head: "Ink, paper, feather...It's all there. Let's see if I still got it."
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Greetings everyone. For those reading, I hope you're one of those that love reading long application (as I do) as I've always like creating them (as it was almost standard in the early days). Either way, have fun reading...


I'm best known as Lorei, the level 80 night elf warrior. I've been around the server for some time now (since August 2006), so some might recognize me from my old rogue ("rouge") character, Shelandra.

I'm applying with Lorei, but also with my alt Edrigar on which I've been active mostly lately, so I'll post both profiles with the standard info first.

Name: Lorei
RP name: Lorei Silverhawk
Race: Night elf (F)
Level: 80
Class: Warrior
Current spec (dual): Fury (preferred) + Prot
(Armory link)

Name: Edrigar
RP name: Edrigar Ulfarson
Race: Human (M)
Level: 50
Class: Warrior
Current spec: Fury
(Armory link)


What are you looking for in a guild? (raiding, PvP, RP events etc..?)

The most important thing for me is community.

I've had a very good time in a former guild of mine <The Naughty Chefs> (a guild of which your former member Espia was GM of), but sadly it broke up. I've tried forming my own guild, which was to be more focused on community, but all level 80 characters left to try out the WotLK endgame content with other guilds.

At this moment I've seen almost all my former buddies leaving the game. I hardly push myself to try out all the new content Blizzard adds with each patch as I'd rather just enjoy slow leveling while chatting with other players.

Currently I'm in a small and nice guild, but most players are a bit too young for me, and only a small portion of the members are very talkative. I've notified them of leaving, even though I'm officer there, but I don't feel like withering away from WoW (and eventually quit) yet.


Why <The Raven Council> and not any other guild?

As I've tried searching for a new guild I looked at the realm forums at the guild list. Basically what I were looking for was one of the "bigger", stable guilds, with a more casual view on the game, preferably enforcing RP policy (I can get nostalgic about the old Defias RP, even though never actively have taken part of it).

I've seen players of <The Raven Council> around for a long while, thus marking it for me as a guild that has survived all achievement-seeking-guild-leavers through a strong community. Recently (well, recent?) I've also noticed my former GM (Espia) joining here. She has quite similar ideas about the game as me, as I've noticed in my role as officer in her (and her boyfriends') guild.

Another little plus is that Sandalf (an ex-Chef) is also a member here, although I've only noticed that from looking at applications just yet.


What do you expect from <The Raven Council>?

I expect the Raven Council to be the guild as I've interpreted it from what I've seen so far: A social guild, enforcing realm RP policy.

It might be the spark that gets me raiding again, though I'll doubt it at the moment. It'll probably start with me boosting members (helping, not out of begging) or to fill a spot in instances/heroics first. At the moment I'm mostly having fun leveling another warrior again.

I also hope to find a healthy balance between male and female players as I've noticed that it adds a lot to the social environment. Next to that I expect the guild chat to be focused on endgame mostly, but not overly obsessed about it.


What I can offer myself is non-raiding member, maybe a bit silent at first until I get to know some people, but hoping to be an addition to the guild community. Willing to help out alts most of the time. Sometimes willing to help fill a spot in instances.

And don't get me wrong on the boosting part. I still find boosts a great way to get to know the boosted/boosting player(s).


Where (or from whom) did you hear about <The Raven Council>?

As I said before, I've seen it around for a long while, I've seen a similar-minded ex-guildie join it and I've seen the short description on the realm forums.


Who are you? (please tell us a little about the real life you)

In real life I am a 23 year old Dutch ICT student from the Netherlands. I live on my own, thus when I'm not going out with friends in the evening I enjoy the company of people on WoW while having some fun playing the game.

I love music; My musical taste varies from metal, rock (especially post-hardcore) to bigbeat, punk, (older) hip-hop, ska and more classical music. As a hobby I play guitar, not the fancy licks, but still, I have fun suddenly playing on it as I always have music in my head in some way.

I'm not overly active in the game. Mostly I'm online during the evening/night, when I'm trying to have fun in the short time online.
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From here I just post some extra information for those interested


My raiding experience in the Burning Crusade consists of Karazhan (with The Vanguard, Farahlon Reclamation on my rogue and later with The Naughty Chefs on my warrior) and ZA (with The Naughty Chefs).

In WotLK I've only raided 25-man instances so far. I've done OS twice and I've done Naxx once up to some boss with the slimes. (roughly 3/4th of the instance).


I'm quite the altoholic. I've got all 10 spots filled with characters. Next to Lorei and Edrigar the only real alt of notice is Shelandra, my level 70 rogue. Most are inactive, but still have usefull professions.


I've never actively participated in any heavy roleplaying chain. I do enjoy a bit of roleplaying from time to time though. Almost all my characters have a vague profile from which I play them. I try to stick to the lore a bit, unless it gets in the way of my "artistic freedom" too much. Rather an interesting RP story than a 100% WoW-lore correct story.
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That's about it. You can wake up now....

I hope to hear of a reaction soon, and maybe what people to contact if this application gets approved.

Hi there, that was indeed a nice application! we will get back to you asap.

Thank you for applying to The Raven Council

*munches on an apple*

*looks around*

*continues munching/waiting*

^^

*sees the huge pile of apple cores on the ground infront of Lorei*

'Been here a while, huh?'



Please speak to an officer ingame at your nearest convenience!

*blushes* It's the squirrels I tell you! "Honestly!"

Don't know if I'll be online tonight, FYI. I'm in no hurry.

*Notices that there are more apples left*

"Hm...watermelons. Ooh, horde trespassers!" *Ptooie* "Bullseye!...Uh oh, angry bull."


I've got some busy evenings planned for the coming week. I might only be online for short moments. My vacation hasn't started yet. You are free to contact me when online.

Ahem, I don't think you've quite understood the part where we are supposed to actually be able to evaluate you during your initiateship instead of just seeing your name on the roster and nothing else. It might be better that you join the ranks after the vacation season then so that you actually spend time online.

So, as I understand, the evaluation is done strictly in instances and raids, where I intend to join as a non-raiding, mostly non-instancing member. Is that correct?

no it isnt.

No, it's done based on what kind of presence we detect oozing from you over whereever you are (guild chat, forums being primary channels) over longer period of time, generally a few months.

Only thing we might care about you in instances/raids is whether how you respond to any criticism since it's behavior. Your performance/gear affect acceptance to progression raids, but your overall behavior determines your acceptance to *guild*.

If you are invited and make zero impression to anyone since you are not going to actively play for a while, I wouldn't count on getting past initiate status. After we actually know who you are and are promoted to full membership, playing less is quite all right (we have a few individuals who have been on year-long hiatus now), but having people no one knows too well on the roster is not in our interests.

(And the above should have been pretty obvious from the recruitment page though).

That was my initial thought until Zarhan's reply got me confused.

I still stand by the application, with the notice that (like last weekend) RL activities come first and (like the coming 4 days) work comes first if it takes up to midnight, after which I usually still play an hour or two.

The notices in my replies where more meant FYI when trying to contact me about this application.

I think there was a slight misunderstanding here. With 'vacation' you meant the holidays? I'm dutch too, so I can understand if you use 'vakantie' freely for simply 'being free' instead of 'going away to some foreign place'. Vacation generally means that you go away to a foreign place, so Zarhan interpreted that as you being 'not online' for a longer period of time, hence having you as initiate during this time not being worth it until you come back.

As I understand it, you are only going to be busy the coming week (due to work) and one of the next few weeks your holidays will start, at which time you'll have plenty time to play? Or are you really going on 'vacation' right away?

Please clarify.

As said - we are evaluating initiates behavior. And we can't do that if the said initiates are mostly offline. RL of course comes first but you know, we need to have *some* basis for making the eventual decision. It doesn't mean you have to join for long raids or anything like that, but would be nice if you could at least stop by to chat every now and then..

Basically, if we toss a /ginvite, and next time we check on you roster says "Offline for 16 days" and no one remembers ever seeing you it's not exactly good...

Oh and yeah, sorry if I have misunderstood things in the fashion Khila outlined above.

Khila indeed described how I meant to use the word 'vacation', where it stands for the holidays, not for inactivity due to going away. I haven't planned anything taking longer than a 4-day music festival.

I will be online often enough throughout the initiation to make a fair judgement about my general participation.

Great then

You're a difficult man to find - whisper one of the officers if you want that invite