Legion of Freedom
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
Contents |
History of the Legion of Freedom
Early LoF history from Snipe's own words...
quote: I am SnipeFu. Been using this name for about 5 years through UT and some other games. I started playing about May or June of last year [2004 - editor].
I created Legion of Freedom. Originally I created an SG called The Defenders of Zion, I met Dr. Flo in IP, and kept me alive, way back in the day and so I invited her to the SG. She joined but was weary of the religious undertone of the name of the SG. So we came up with Legion of Freedom. MsKnight joined shortly afterward, we met him in Talos, hunting on the islands way out there.
We had a nice little SG forming and Dr. Flo MsKnight and I bumped into this troller on a mission, named Unknown Blaze. Well we noticed he was SGless and scooped him up right quick. Hallucard was also in there quite early, he is a BS/Regen scrapper and back before people knew what Regen scrappers were capable of he was figuring it out and shredding stuff in Bricks while the rest of us tagged along like little wannabes.
The SG grew to a decent size and like most other SGs, once WoW and EQ2 came out, combined with the fact the our mains were hitting 50 and were playing alts and SG communication and global communication wasn't around yet, the SG kinda got quiet.
Until, MsKnight made 1 little post on the blaster forum....Then we blew up over night. It was exhilerating at first, we were so excited to have such veteran players and famous forum posters and what not to get on board with us.
The Great Blaster Migration
In early 2005, the Legion of Freedom was struggling. Players left for other games. The veteran players who remained were scattered on unknown alts and had semi-retired their level 50 characters. The Legion was in active negotiations to join the Virtue Honor Guard. If the proposed merger was finalized, the Legion would have ended.
In early May of 2005, MsKnight (aka EnergyStar) made a post on the blaster forum to come to Virtue server and play with the Legion. It was an open invitation to any player that wanted a friendly environment for their AT. Several blaster forum regulars heeded MsKnight's call to action and joined the Legion of Freedom on the Virtue server with new characters. Among those that joined are a number of prominent members that are with us today: Rainbow Avenger (current LoF leader) and Faou (LoF forum moderator). A few other members, including Kindle, Karma Cop, Freedom Fury, and Kurse Darkstone joined prior to what is now known as the Great Blaster Migration of 2005. The migration attracted a broad cross section of the prominent forum posters of the time, including Cornan, Torakage, Ohms, Gigaton, Iron Vixen, Wintercat, Black December and Cinderblaze.
Almost overnight, the Legion of Freedom exploded from a small SG with a couple of dozen players to a large one containing well over a hundred members. Snipe, MsKnight and Unknown Blaze, the LoF leaders organized these new heroes into four SGs: Legion of Freedom, The Legion of Freedom (with the 'The'), Legion of Freedom - Reserves. Black December founded Legion of Freedom - Delta (for PvP and RP player - yes, both!). Legion of Freedom - Delta was relaunched in response to the SG and Prestige changes in late 2005 and is now the Legion of Freedom - Special Operations. The LoF Universal chat channel unifies them.
"Blasters are Heroes Too", the Blaster Forum Coup and CuppaJo
For the longest time, the blaster AT was considered the ignored AT within the City of Heroes. Tremendous offensive capabilities without the ability to mitigate incoming damage and status effects left many blaster players in a perpetual state of perma-debt. Many blasters recounted how they stayed at the debt cap throughout their entire hero career.
To help combat negativity, Freedom Fury asked that all blaster forum regulars should adopt a forum avatar containing the phrase "Blasters are Heroes Too". FF never thought it would catch on. However, with the help of Faou and other blaster regulars, many blasters began to adopt the avatar and the phrase. There are still forum posters with the avatar this very day. However, this small event was a mere tremor for the great events that were to unfold soon thereafter.
On May 31, 2005, the Legion of Freedom led an assault on the City of Heroes Blaster forum. Sickened by the tremendous amount of negativity within the forum, the prominent blasters regulars posted the following message:
I, [state your name], Love My Blaster Because...
Well over a hundred posts dominated the forum for the entire day. The complete domination of the forum with "I Love My Blaster" posts made news, and was widely reported in several MMO and gaming websites. It also got the attention of the development team to look at issues with the blaster AT. The great pouring of positive feelings into the forum purged it of the negativity that had haunted it for so long. LoF members monitored the forum for the entire day reading posts and answering questions to ensure that the forum continued to function despite the upheaval.
Due to these events, CuppaJo, the COH forum moderator, joined the Legion of Freedom in game for a SG meeting, where she was made an honorary LoFer.
The Unseen Hand
With the advent of the City of Villains, the Legion of Freedom decided to make a presence in the Rogue Isles. Kurse Darkstone and a number of outsiders formed the Unseen Hand, the VG that was to form the backstory for the Dominion. This group eventually led to the founding of the Moirai and it's sister group, the Fallen Legion.
- From Kindle:
Thanks to Synergy One, we have a new City of Villains SG. The Moirai (link courtesy of Ohms).
The Moirai will share recruitment, behavior, and other policies with the Legion of Freedom. It will be composed entirely of LoF members at the start, and any new members added must follow the same policy and procedure as new members of LoF. It will, in most ways, be a mirror image of LoF.
Freedom Diversification
Because if CoX can do it so can we! As with any SG, people come and go. As our community grew in depth and breadth we were unwilling to lose the company of old friends merely because they were playing a different game. In the winter of 2006 we expanded our forum to welcome discussion from Legion members who were playing games in addition to CoX. Today our website is also the home of Night Requiem, our sister guild in World of Warcraft. Night Requiem is still led by SnipeFu, who remains our esteemed founder and leader emeritus.
Leadership
In July of 2005 Snipefu passed active leadership to Fathom, who instituted our ancient and honourable tradition of e-spanking for minor infractions. On his departure for (what Faou called) Farglefantasyhobbitland the mantle of leadership descended upon Rainbow Avenger who has been trying to chew a hole through it ever since.
Today
The Legion of Freedom is, in the words of our house poet Torakage, "The Seinfeld of SGs - not "about" anything." LoF remains a diverse collection of power gamers, PvPers, role players, forum whores and everything in between. We are among the most recognized supergroups on the Virtue servers and have undertaken events that have drawn notice, praise, admiration and threats of mass forum bans.
The Legion of Freedom lives at lof.guildportal.com [1]
Written by Freedom Fury. With edits and updates by Rainbow Avenger, Synergy One, Karma Cop and Fathom.
Legion of Freedom Chapters
The main groups within The Legion, they are The Legion of Freedom (COH) and The Moirai (COV). Except for leaders, you may only have one main in either group.
Special Operation (SpecOps) (COH) and Fallen Legion (COV) is for alts. Currently, there are no limits as to how many alts you may have.
The Legion of Freedom - Hero of the City is for characters that have achieved level 50 and is no longer an active main. It is a mark of honor to be accepted into the LoF HotC.
Conduct
While The Legion has many prominent blaster players, it does not have any limitation on what AT, level or origin we accept. The golden rules are: no griefing, no kill stealing and log onto your characters every 15 days (can be longer if you give notice). Break these rules repeatedly and you will be kicked from the group. We also look for players with a sense of humor, players that can play well with others and those that share knowledge and information.
Website Moderation
Rosters
The Legion of Freedom (CoH)
- EnergyStar - Leader
- Kurse Darkstone - Leader
- Rainbow Avenger - Leader/Webmaster
- Canadian Shade - Officer/Recruiting
- BeowulfinIA - Officer/Recruiting
The Moirai (CoV)
- Manes - Leader
- Synergy One - Leader
