Hello World!

It’s always customary to introduce yourself with a Hello World. So here we go.

An introduction. My name is Xalmat. At least in EverQuest circles. My real name is a secret…though not a really well kept secret, you won’t have a hard time figuring it out. I’m 24 human years old (going on 25), currently an Equipment Technician in the Semiconductor Industry, and working to go back to school to earn a software engineering degree. I live in Glendale, Arizona, USA. Glendale is about a 5 minute drive from the Phoenix border. The whole area is urban anyway, so you can’t even tell you enter one city and leave another).

I’ve been playing MMOs for damn near six years, starting with the original EverQuest way back in November 2001. I played a Male Human Magician (an oddity) by the name of…you guessed it, Xalmat, all the way up to level 69. It was around September 2004 that I received an invite to the EverQuest II beta. I was skeptical at first, but it took all of five minutes of play to convince me that EQ2 was the type of game I wanted to play.

More than three years since then, I’m still playing EQ2. That’s even longer than I lasted on EQ1!

I used to be a forum moderator, then site admin for EQSummoners.com (formerly The Mage Compendium) and its two forums The Magician’s Tower, and The Summoner’s Tower. By and large, visiting and reading The Magician’s Tower is why I enjoyed EverQuest as long as I did, they have a wonderful community, filled with some of the brightest minds in all of MMO gaming.

Presently, I play two primary characters, and a miniature alt army, though nowhere near as extensive as some people.

Sess - 70 Conjuror, 70 Tailor, aspiring Tinkerer. Female Dark Elf. My first character created once EQ2 went Live (created November 2004, despite what the EQ2Players page says). A departure for me, as I’ve always made male characters. However, I insisted on being a Dark Elf Conjuror–which required some significant effort back in 2004–and I couldn’t stand the appearance of male dark elves. So, female it is. Besides, if I’m going to play a character, and get emotionally attached to it, it might as well be something I enjoy looking at day in and day out

Adamantite - 58 Berserker, 61 Alchemist, aspiring Transmuter. Female Fae. Pronounced A-da-man-tite (kinda like Wolverine’s Adamantium skeleton). I’ve had many alts prior to her, but I consider her my second main, and a radical departure from playing a caster. Created her about a week after Echoes of Faydwer came out; I mean, c’mon, the wings and dark elf illusion alone sell the character!

So what am I going to do with this blog thingy? What else is there to do, besides random musings and stuff? There’s certainly a lot to talk about, that’s for sure, especially with the Rise of Kunark expansion just under a month away.