I found this textfile from the ancient year of 1999 in an old archive; it was written shortly before the MUD staff went their separate ways, and now that we may be "getting the band back together" nearly 20 years later, I thought it would be fun to present this document in more-or-less its original form. Wrathmolten put this newsletter together. Below you will find the inaugural issue; no other issues have survived in my archives.

Covenant Immortal's Newsletter (Issue 1.1)

Wed, 17 Nov 1999 14:29:28 PST

Hello, and welcome to the first ever Covenant Immortal's Newsletter, brought to you by the Tierceron Star! The first thing you'll notice is that the name of this newsletter sucks. So, if you have any ideas, let me know. My goal is to print this newsletter every couple of weeks. I'd like to include updates on every immortals area, as well as general improvements and such that Shamus has been working on.

This first issue will be exclusively devoted to introducing our immortal staff. We've got a bit of info from many of our immortals (never heard back from Krogon, Dulrik, or Lancelord). Enjoy getting to know each other, and visit often!

--Wrathmolten

And Now a Word From Our Builders

Gladstone

What attracted you to Covenant?: When I was helping, it was the idea we could create a mud unlike any other.
How long have you been playing muds?: Off and on for about 4 years I think, maybe only 3.
Have you ever been an implementor before?: No.
What is your favorite mud?: Covenant (previously it was Shadowdale).
What do you like the best about Covenant? The least?: Everything, each time I visit (which is very often right now) a new thing impresses me. I do not dislike anything about Covenant.
What area(s) are you currently building?: None, but I plan on try to be more involved again, once school settles down.
What is your current level of education?: Finishing my B.S.
What are your hobbies?: Sports (playing and fantasy).
Where do you live?: Northwestern United States.
Any other personal information you'd like to share with the group?: I enjoy playing games like magic, AD&D, and other role playing games with my friends and family (My brother and Dad). As a matter of fact, my father got me into role playing in the early '80s. Special note: Wrathmolten and I play brothers on the mud, But we do not in real life—we are best friends.

Blaine

What attracted you to Covenant?: First and foremost, the fact that Covenant isn't imbued with all the usual trite themes such as elves, fairies, swords, and Midgaard attracted me here.
How long have you been playing MUDs? Have you ever been an implementor before? What is your favorite mud?: I've been mudding for close to five years now and I've built and implemented on several of the MUDs I've played over the years. My favorite "MUD" is a MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) called Dragonrealms.
What do you like the best about Covenant? The least?: What I like best about Cove is the great attention to little details that contribute so much to the game atmosphere (for example, constellations). My least favorite aspect is that we still have a long way to go (we're getting there, though)!
What area(s) are you currently building? What would you like to share with the group about this area?: I'm currently working on the area known as Hueterni Forest. It includes three hunting areas (bobcats, lynx, and wolves), a treetop town called Cobalt, and a shrine to Venatus.
What is your current level of education?: I'm currently a Senior in High School (almost out!). Next year, I'll be going to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (go Tarheels!).
What are your hobbies?: My favorite things to do are playing soccer, volunteering at the local hospital, writing, and watching "Charmed."
Where do you live?: Charlotte, NC
Any other personal information you'd like to share with the group?: I'm originally from Manchester in jolly ole England but moved here when I was only three years old (you'll notice I used favorite instead of favourite). I've usually got a cheery disposition and love helping out where I can.

Duithal

What attracted you to Covenant?: Wrathmolten bullied me into helping out and I didn't read the fine print.
How long have you been playing muds?: For almost 3 years.
Have you ever been an implementor before?: I'm a level 52 on SD.
What is your favorite mud?: Shadowdale for now, maybe that will change soon. :)
What do you like the best about Covenant? The least?: Best: The team working on it; the infinite possibilities to shape the environment any way we want. Worst: The howl of the winds when I'm the only one online.
What area(s) are you currently building? What would you like to share with the group about this area?: Working here and there in the city. I have the slums outside the city to get going. Also coming up with mudprogs, mini-quests, skills and an endless amount of ideas. In short, anything I can stick my nose into.
What is your current level of education?: Masters degree in business, bachelors in engineering.
What are your hobbies?: Friends, coding (is that an oxymoron?), music, soccer, sailing, muds, movies, parmesan cheese.
Where do you live?: Orange County, CA.
Any other personal information you'd like to share with the group?: I have a pool table now, so I may add that to the list of hobbies above. And you're invited to come play anytime over a few beers.

Gailyana

What attracted you to Covenant?: I was invited to work on Covenant by my irl brother, Shamus.
How long have you been playing muds?: Since December, 1995.
Have you ever been an implementor before?: No, on ShadowDale I was known as the "perpetual chump".
What is your favorite mud?: I'm really excited about what Covenant could become. I'm faithful to my first mud, ShadowDale. I also like pure role-playing muds, but they take a lot of time and effort.
What do you like the best about Covenant? The least?: Best - that so much thought goes into it and that we are writing areas from scratch, not just re-naming stock areas. Worst - I didn't realize how much work goes into the creating of a mud.
What area(s) are you currently building?: My own area is Ranier, "The Maple Syrup Captial of the Covenant".
What would you like to share with the group about this area?: I'm writing it as a parody of Canadian life, sort of a northern lumber town like Kenora (for those familiar with Ontario).
What is your current level of education?: I will be graduating with my degree in Early Childhood Education in April 2000,with hopes of continuing on to get my B.Ed. (primary).
What are your hobbies?: Music, writing, drawing, computers (Mac!), a little bit of HTML, and children.
Where do you live?: London, Ontario, Canada.
Any other personal information you'd like to share with the group?: Wanna know a bit about me: visit my home page at: http://members.tripod.com/~Gailyana/me.html (editors note: sadly, many Tripod member pages are excluded from the Internet Archives. Gail's old site is lost to the aether...) or follow my .sig to my index page. I also have a section on mudding that is geared at helping the newbie.

Wrathmolten

What attracted you to Covenant?: Shamus, Gladstone and I happened to meet up one day on Shadowdale. I'm not really sure why, but Shamus accepted us under his wing. We were brand new newbies. I mean really new. Shadowdale was only my 2nd mud and Shadowdale was Gladstone's first. (He and I are best friends IRL.) Anyway, Shamus showed us around and helped out getting equipment and such. We got to talking and all came to the agreement there simply weren't enough good aligned characters (and at that time, it was VERY hard to be a good aligned character in Shadowdale). To make a long story short, we formed a group known as Lux Aeterna. One of the many things we did in this group was explore. I'd say we had some of the most knowledgeable folks in the realm in our group. One day it struck me, "What are we going to do with all this knowledge?" Shamus had made it clear that our way of thinking wasn't very popular with other immortals at Shadowdale. So I suggested to Shamus that we create our own realm. And as they say, "The rest is history!"
How long have you been playing muds?: I've been mudding for, hmmm...I guess about 4 years? I started on a stupid little mud that was local to my ISP. I then discovered Shadowdale about six months later.
Have you ever been an implementor before?: Nope.
What is your favorite mud?: Shadowdale is really the only mud I've ever played for more than a couple of days. (Aside from my first mud but it hardly qualifies.) Covenant is such a project, I doubt I'll ever have time to play too awfully much.
What do you like the best about Covenant? The least?: Best: The fact that Shamus agreed to be in charge. Without his knowledge, dedication, and leadership this project would have sunk long ago. Least: It takes so damn long to do everything right!
What area(s) are you currently building?: I'm building an area I call Stonewall Keep on the build port. I also fill in room descriptions here and there within the city of Tierceron. I'm responsible for the Temple of the Crystal Orb, The Cloisters, Slim's Stables, Eastside Watchhouse, and a slew of other shops. I also did a good chunk of street descriptions.
What would you like to share with the group about this area?: Stonewall Keep has evolved over the years to become a full-blown castle complete with a town outside its castle walls. The "theme" of my area consists of an invading army outside the castle's walls. This army is from Cuendar and it is evident through some exploring that the invaders are preparing for a long siege. Stonewall Castle will consist of a small community within the castle walls complete with its own army on the battlements and castle walls. The keep itself is currently 13 stories high, and quite extensive.
What is your current level of education?: I've got a B.S. in Inner-Disciplinary Studies (huh?) and I've been working (slowly) on my M.S. in Computer Science.
What are your hobbies?: Ooh, you just had to ask that didn't you! Role-playing games (AD&D, Lejendary Adventures, Top Secret), my Sega Dreamcast, Taekwon-do, reading, writing, Magic, and Covenant. (Those are in no particular order!)
Where do you live?: Portland, Oregon, USA.
Any other personal information you'd like to share with the group?: I've been married for 8 or so years to my wife Janine. We met in college where we were both music majors. We had our first child, Shayden, who just had his first birthday about a week ago. I work at a bank in Portland as a project manager (boring!) and I'm trying (desperately) to change careers. Ive had 4 interviews in the past 45 days, and so far nothing has worked out.

Shamus

What attracted you to Covenant?: Wrathmolten told me I could be in charge. Without that simple and highly important bit of information, I'd have been skeptical about the entire venture.
How long have you been playing muds? Have you ever been an implementor before? What is your favorite mud?: As long as I've had 'net access, which is a heck of a long time. Just don't even ask. :) Since "implementor" is generally taken to mean a very high-level immort, I'd have to say no. I did have an immortal elsewhere, but she was brutally stifled by an oppressive bureaucracy and consequently wasn't able to contribute in any meaningful way. I no longer play, and really no longer have a favourite (note the 'u') MUD, although there are a few about who do some things really well and other things not so well. Those would include Shadowdale, Aarinfel, and Discworld.
What do you like the best about Covenant? The least?: Can I answer those with the same answer? The high standards. ;) I *like* the high standards, and I like the way things turn out as a result. I couldn't possibly accept anything less of my own work. At the same time, it's always SOOO tempting to just take the easy way out. So far, we've managed to beat that one...
What area(s) are you currently building? What would you like to share with the group about this area?: I'm primarily getting the City of Tierceron finished, at which point I will turn my attention to the University of Tierceron, and then the Tierceron Regional Art and Historical Museum, which is a lot more work than you probably think it is.
What is your current level of education?: BMus., MMus. (Comp.), PhD (in progress).
What are your hobbies?: Ha. Who has time for hobbies? I'm doing a PhD and have absolutely NO spare time. I guess you could say the MUD is my hobby, although I'm frequently logged in AND doing academic work at the same time. But then most high-level immortals idle a lot, wherever you go. It's practically a job requirement.
Where do you live?: Buffalo, NY. Your sympathies are appreciated. (Not to mention mandatory.) I am from London, Ontario originally.
Any other personal information you'd like to share with the group?: Well, I have developed this sort of, I guess it's kind of this, I don't know, like a rash or something...Oh, wait. Is that TOO personal?

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