I was gone this weekend and during our Monday morning meeting, I got some bad news: An Achaean player named Covenant Stormcrow, who had been a very prominent member of the community for years, had drowned on a family vacation. Covenant (or Carl as he was known outside of Achaea), wasn’t the founder of the Sentinels (both a class and a guild oriented on combining strength of arms with druidic skills), but he served as its leader, known as the Heart of the Forest, for a record 100 in-game years (over four real years), which is quite a singular achievement given the acrimonious politics that have often surrounded the forest guilds. Strong-willed, a natural leader, and a principled player, Covenant stands in the foremost rank of players in Achaea’s ten-year history to my mind. He is survived by his wife, whom he met on Achaea, and his young son.
Farewell Carl. We’ll miss you. 
4 comments
Comments feed for this article
July 18th, 2006 at 5:28 pm
blachawk
Any premature death is tragic for those involved. God knows I’ve seen enough of that in the past year serving as a casualty evacuation corpsman in Iraq.
Still, the jerk that hides deep down (well, maybe not that deep) inside of me finds it slightly humorous that a recently deceased person will be best remembered as The Heart of the Forest in Achaea. I’m sure he had some real life accomplishments of which he was proud, fatherhood in and of itself being a big one.
I guess the same goes for actors. Who cares if a multi-millionaire playboy falls of his horse and breaks his neck after a long life of privilege and wealth? Change ‘multi-millionaire playboy’ to ‘Superman’ and the masses are weeping.
In any event I know the two posts on the front page are well-intentioned, but comparing the loss of The Heart of the Forest to a real life tragedy just seems… I don’t know, tacky? If I were to die tomorrow, I would like to be remembered for what I accomplished in the real world. My ideal tombstone would say ‘C.G. Lieutenant, USN -Iraq- -Iran- -North Korea-’ not ‘Sabien RR11 Infiltrator, DAoC -Emain- -Yggdra- -Penine-’.
July 18th, 2006 at 5:31 pm
Matt
Sure, I understand what you’re saying, but to us, he was Covenant more than Carl. I’m sure he’ll be remembered by people closer to him in his personal life for his real-life self, but we mainly knew his in-game self.
July 18th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
blachawk
Are you going to enact a story arc or some sort of in-game lore that retires / kills off Covenant?
July 18th, 2006 at 5:48 pm
Matt
No, I don’t think so. He’s already got a permanent statue of himself that was erected to honour him, and Covenant-the-character hadn’t actually played regularly for awhile, though he still popped in occasionally.