Part of why I have focused on Antica is because I simply don't have much experience with other worlds or knowledge of what went on other servers. For Nova I had no plans at the time to start over on what I felt was an inferior world; one that lacked rares. Despite many of my close friends joining that world and making a home there, I never did more than making a character there to chat and find the occasional GM to summon them to Antica.
For Premia, which went live on April 3rd, 2002, I did have the desire to start a new character and though it didn't have rares, it offered something unique in that you had to be a Premium player to even log in. This made the world a much better place free from much of the PKs and other headaches from the other servers. Unfortunately, as we can still see today, this meant that very few people played on that world. I had decided at its launch that I wanted to try to be the best player there and devoted an outrageous amount of time to power level up my new character Morak who would be a Paladin, which felt different than my Knight, Karr Chaos. My Good friend Flamehead started his own character, Nomak, who also be a Paladin. We formed a guild, Chaotic Blaze, and quickly became one of the leading guilds on the server, experiencing all the benefits of being a top guild in the early days of the world. I played from early April to around mid-June and managed to obtain mid 40s which was very good for the effort I put in.
Starting a new character from scratch on a new world meant that you to gain everything yourself and had nothing to help you in your journey other than friends. You couldn't buy a character, trade TC for money, or even buy better equipment. As is the case now the first to the punch is the one who gets the best reward, thus it was paramount that you maintain your standing as first to the punch. Generating enough experience to keep or improve your position in the high score is critical as you get to hunt the best spots sooner and sell the first few pieces of good equipment for a high price which funds your fast leveling. You also have can't afford to lag in your skills as poor skills could mean slowing down your leveling speed as you took more damage and delt less damage. Levels didn't offer much for damage reduction or dealing as level 40 was considered a high level. Balancing both is very difficult and requires dedication to the game that is very hard to maintain. Though I spent a huge amount of time leveling I still only ever managed to hover around second and third highest level, trading the spot with my friend Nomak. No matter how much I pushed Doombringer, who was the top high level he always gained more and took the spot back immediately. There is always someone who will come from behind you and put more time into the game and do things better then you did no matter how much you push. I knew that I could never sustain this pace but the summer was still young.
As is the case with high level guilds vying for server supremacy, we ended up in war with another guild, the 13th legion. This guild, led by Sinth Ka'gar was notoriously famous on Premia for absolute massive PKing which was considered destructive behavior (before skull system and PKing limit). Their own leader bragged that he kept a record of his kills which filled up both sides of a piece of paper and that their hardcore PKing resulted in the online count of Premia decreasing from 120 to 50 average players in a span of 3 weeks. I disliked their guild and if I recall they had killed some of our members which we were not happy with. We engaged in a small war which I really wasn't a big part of and Nomak was basically trying to solo them on his own without much help.
CIP had been watching the online numbers of Premia and hearing the loud complaints by the playerbase. They decided that the guild had to be made an example of and deleted the entire guild on July 24th, 2002; one of the very few guilds to be deleted. Though many would praise the decision, some of us felt that CIP had gone too far, and I believe this is one of the last cases were they deleted guilds for destructive behavior.
The Premia server had launched just a few months before the Darashia update so players had some time to build up their levels and it was fun being one of the first on a server to explore an area and find new equipment no one had. Due to the difficulty of finding some pieces of equipment I ended up looting a Royal Helmet, which was newly implemented, before I could find the very rare Warrior Helmet. With mostly GS hunting I had built up a little bit of cash before the launch of Darashia.
I was having fun in Tibia again on this new world, and my luck was only just starting to change. With the launch of Darashia on June 14th, 2002 we now had a whole new area to explore which all of us eagerly wanted to do but the area was huge. Nomak was away that weekend so as one of the leading guilds we didn't get to explore it in greater detail before server save.
Two days later on June 16th, 2002, a special CIP quest was launched exclusive to Premia to celebrate the server and new island. This would be the last time CIP would do an event as they underestimated how weak we were and how long their helpers would have to remain online for. Players were very excited about the event and nothing was known about what the reward might be.
In the early hours of the day, a broadcast went out that somewhere in Darashia was a Demon and those who defeated the powerful foe would gain a worthwhile reward. As one of the highest-level players on the server I wanted to be one of those victors and so I gather players in Darashia to try to find this Demon. The players I remember coming were Akitra, Sinner, Ishy kubaba, Ugraal, Xyldrael, Rauko Gurth, Mega Phobia, Vicotnic, Domsan, Gragner, Dalith, Sinth Ka'agar, Kusutoko Yomuro, Dizzy IV, Galarian, Hihual, and Vawaz.
Most of us had just been in war with each other, fighting or as rivals on the new world. We set aside those feeling in a way that few players today could do so we could work together to solve this quest. Greed has always been a powerful motivator and players have always been willing to go to extraordinary lengths to for the chance of a significant reward.
At this point very few of us had had any experience with the new island so we really didn't know where anything was. Most had already explored the easy parts to the north, but the far west of the island was largely unexplored, so we started there.
Without much to go on we found the broken-down Lighthouse and thought this might be a good place to park a Demon. We climbed up the tower but found nothing. It had taken a couple of hours to get this far after spending a great deal of time organizing and arguing so some players left, having obligations outside of the game. I was very close friends with GM Rebel who was known as GM Lyin Eyes on Premia. I pestered her to give hints to where the Demon might be located and received some vague clues that the monster was below the surface. After arguing some more, the remaining group which was maybe 15 people according to Sinth, headed to the largest building in the area and worked our way down to the pentagon room below, but first we ended up in a few wrong spots, finding the Vampire and Necromancer spawns first.
The pentagon room was the last place we checked and there was thankfully only one rope up spot so one of our groups junk chars was elected to first go up and immediately was obliterated. This confirmed that the Demon was there, but this room was also filled with Necromancers, Priestess, DS, and other nasties but also a very powerful Demon. Slaying a modern demon at level 40 is hellish work but the volume of monsters made this task impossible.
We only had two mages who were avaialble for the quest, Vicotnic and Akirtra, who could UE, so we decided that they would go up and UE to kill off the massive creatures. Other players would go up to soak up the damage to give them some protection, though the risks were real as anyone who went up was destroyed in moments. The mages took out some of the monsters with their double UE but there was a problem. Some of the monsters would run at low health and the UEs were not powerful enough to fully kill everything. Worse yet the spawn rate was very fast so monsters would respawn while more fluids were brought in to fill up the mage's mana.
We argued again on how to proceed, trying everything from a mass kamikaze rush to a more skilled killing. Each strategy was met with the same inevitable defeat. Time dragged on and our large group slowly dwindled down to smaller numbers. Knightmare who was on his GM Lawbringer char was tasked with running the quest, but he was nearing exhaustion having been online for far more than 12 hours already. He maintained spirit by issuing cheaky broadcasts, perhaps hoping for more players to join (the server was very low population). I had burnt through most of my stored money buying fluids for the quest and had died several times and others were similarly taxed. I refused to give up and those who remained with me also wished to see this through.
Vicotnic who I was mortal enemies with the day before, was now a close friend today after the trying day, and as one of the two UE mages. While sacrificing himself he had made a startling discovery. The quest rewards were not in the Demon but sitting on top of the coffins. We didn't need to kill the Demon, only distract it enough to loot the items. Even with this knowledge the task was more possible but extremely hard.
Serve save was less than 30 minutes away and KM announced that there would be no second day. It was now or never as it took a lot of time to walk back to the spot. With the respawn rate slowing down we made one final push. Vic broadcast that he would give some rewards to anyone who ran up with junk chars. We all went up and I died one final time as I saw Vic near the coffin. I relogged back in and waited patiently to see what the result was.
A few tense moments later Vic messaged me "I got them!" and what a joy this was. It was at this point that Vic could have walked away with the three items which were the Thunder Hammer, E-Plate, and Golden Legs – all ultra-rare items. With the trouble between us before I expected he might just do so, but we had grown close during the quest, and he was willing to give over the items provided he get to keep the armor. I argued with KM, pleading for more items or a way to divide the spoils, but these would be all the rewards we got and any solution to splitting rested firmly on us. Server save came and we were all forced to log out.
Upon return we were back in the depot and Vic passed over the Golden Legs and Thunder Hammer. I had wanted the Hammer the entire time and decided that I would keep it and sell it, giving over the proceeds to others who helped. Sir Baltar had done this for his rare during the Ferumbras quest some time before, so I wanted to emulate his good gesture. The legs I gave to Akirtra as he was the other main mage who risked his levels for us by UEing for hours.
Domsan had listened to Vic's broadcast and felt that he should have an item as did Juggalo Monoxide who sacrificed himself on the final push. Domsan was a close friend of mine but didn't want to wait for a split. After arguing in the wee hours of the morning I tossed the hammer on his depot in a fit of rage, but he handed it back. It would not be him who would betray trust.
Over the next weeks I showed off the hammer in depot. It was the most powerful weapon available at the time and it was monstrous. During this whole time, I had to deal with participants complaining that they were owned a reward and only the hammer would do. These complaints grew to threats which angered me, and it was not isolated to a single person but many.
When I started receiving bids, I soon realized that the weapon was worth far more then I imagined. The final bid was worth about 3million which was crazy expensive. The below is the actual items I got.
Antica: HotS, E-Plate, 2 GS, Steel Boots, 150k, 4 DS, 4 K-arm, 3 K-leg, 3 WH, 1 P-amulet, 1 bh-shield, 1 FS, 26bp's with Hmm's, 2154 Burst's
Premia: 50k, 10bp's with sd's
This was enough that I could split the reward very generously to all who helped but it was also enough to achieve another dream I had left behind. The amount of value from the sale was enough to buy an entire rare set, the dream I had given up on while on Antica. Why not take this offer and return to Antica, leaving Premia behind?
I initially struggled with this decision more than anyone would believe and likely more than anyone at the event ever would have. In the end I decided to flip the bird to Premia and resume my journey on Antica a couple of months after the quest. I never regrated the decision to take the hammer and run, though I did feel that a few deserved something, and I was able to pass on a few items for their support though that like a weak responce for their help. Those who were angry at me before I did anything deserved nothing and would never have been satisfied, so why even try?
What I underestimated was how long that anger at me would last and many years later, even long even after reputation no longer mattered in Tibia. Players would go out of their way to post an angry reply at me anywhere I posted or make new topics out of the blue about the incident. Even decades later people are still angry at the events like their life were irreparably ruined. I've never regrated my decision; it wasn't the moral choice but if you are looking for a holy avatar, you won't find it in this game, and certainly wont find it at my door.
