A New World
‘But what about the poor creature handlers? Well, they might have to consider themselves among the most shafted of player segments in MMO history’
- Miguel Lopez, 8. November/2005, Gamespy, Star Wars Galaxies: A New Hope?
Later in 2004 I decided to give SWG another go, this time I decided to play on a European server instead of a US server that I had started on.
I picked Chimaera and my new character Rylec was born. Rylec still exists and I still play him occationally although I have little time for him these days.
As with all my SWG characters (back then) Rylec also became a creature handler and rifleman - and he was also a rare pet hunter!
After playing the lone wolf game for some time I read that the guild BEAST that Tivo had co-founded was opening up chapters on any server that was able to find sufficient numbers to start the guild there. As I really respected Tivo for his contributions on the Creature Handler forum I decided that I might eventually try to establish his guild on Chimaera.
I was however beaten to the deed by Tor’Dallen - which probably wasn’t a bad thing *grins*
Tor’Dallen was a Bothan, a dog like race. Surprisingly fast he managed to get the necessary players to form the guild and build a small settlement called ‘BEAST Haven’ on Lok that we creature handlers would call home.
I remained in BEAST for the rest of my (then) SWG career and was probably the guild’s most devoted rare pet hunter, always trying to ‘convert’ any of the new BEAST members to join my ‘craft’ *grins*.
Tor’Dallen was a good guild leader and he did manage to arrange a few events. Sadly the guild imploded when the creature handler profession was removed from the game and most of us left the game. In the memory of his lost friends he named statues in their honours and put them in a special memorial museum in remembrance of the profession.
Although Tor’Dallen suddenly found himself all alone in the BEAST chapter he did not disband the guild. Instead he put it into hibernation.
Today Tor’Dallen can be found on the server Naritus where he is exploring the world of the beast master - the recently added but heavily watered down versions of the old creature handler and bioengineer professions.
But he still talks about the day when the creature handlers will return to the Chimaera and he can restore BEAST to its former glory…