Skullsplitters, The

=Basic Information=
Skullsplitters is a roleplay-oriented guild in the online game Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.
As a roleplaying guild, our story will evolve as the characters, and the guild evolves, in real time with the game. At launch, the Skullsplitters will begin as a roaming Mercenary Brigade, broken from their former glory by the treachery of their former Brigade Chief Hedj Iretey. No home to speak of, but a functioning, efficient group of mercenaries. As our characters progress in the game, we will establish a village, where we will stake our claim in the Hyborian lands, and rebuild the Skullsplitters to their former power. From there our story will evolve as our characters, and our guild evolves within the game. That means that nothing is written in stone about the guild. It truly will be an evolving, and living roleplaying experience within Age of Conan. Although the guild is a roleplaying guild, the role-playing aspect is optional and no level of roleplaying skill is required. With respect to gameplay you are given the freedom to decide for yourself how often you want to say, By Mitra. The guild will take roleplaying seriously, but not fanatically. As well, all aspects of gameplay are supported within the guild, including an equal focus on crafting, PvE, PvP, Questing, city maintenance and daily routine.
Although the "Guild" will always be operated by Vexen and Duthos, the roleplaying of the "Brigade's" leadership (IE: Brigade Chief) will be dynamic through the Challenge of Conquest. It is Important to understand the difference. I will operate the guild, which will be the real life operations of the guild. The Brigade is what the guild will be called inside the game, and will detail everything that is involved in the guild from a roleplaying perspective. For a detailed description of Brigade ranks please see the Ranks Page
The Skullsplitters are made of ranks from all races, and all classes. Other than the Challenge of Conquest there is no ceremony, forced religion, or politics within the Brigade. Although there is a ranking system, and structured hierarchy, it is strictly for organizational purposes, and is not a political arena. This means that if a Lokhagos feels that a Soldat has been insubordinate, he will deal with it as he sees fit. There are no tribunals. Each rank of the hierarchy is to obey the rank above it without question. The Brigade is meant to function as an efficient army and many aspects of the brigade have military structure. The primary difference between a king's army and a mercenary army like the Skullsplitters is that our allegiance is paid for and when the money runs out there is no loyalty. We fight for the love of battle and for money/power. It should be noted that the Brigade doesn't expect loyalty from it's ranks. Conformity and compliance with the leadership's wishes will be bought, beyond that it may be enforced with a sword, but there is no illusions of loyalty or "glory for the Brigade" in the Skullsplitters. Realism, egotism, and hedonism may be traits likely to be found in a Skullsplitter, but generally speaking we don't act selflessly for others or for honour. From a roleplaying aspect all Skullsplitters should share this ideology, or have a sensible reason why they would be a mercenary if they don't. Economy inherently stands beside a desire for power, and so there will be a home for crafters, as well as warriors, with emphasis divided equally between both types. Above all we don't want to enforce a certain way of gaming or type of character suitable for the guild, and so we're very accommodating of any character traits so long as they make sense within the confines of the game itself. No matter what your interest in the game it can be accommodated in this guild.
In roleplay, the Skullsplitters will aid in PvP on the side of the highest bidder. We cannot be persuaded to a side based on anything more than who has more money to offer, this is the most basic tenet that the Brigade was re-founded on after the overthrow of Hedj Iretey. It is important to note that the roleplaying of this ideology is separate from the gaming ideology. The Skullsplitters guild does plan to have friends in this game, and we do not consider the guild a separate entity from everyone else in the game. In fact the Skullsplitters are founding members of the Hyborian Accord. The Skullsplitters guild is very good at separating roleplaying from gameplay and expects to have very friendly relationships with other gamers, even when our brigade has been hired this week to siege their city. Although animosity for the guild will certainly exist, we hope that most players will see the Skullsplitters as a sword devoid of sentience and not as the fighter wielding it. With all this in mind, the story of the Skullsplitters evolves with the game, and who knows what may come with the different Brigade Chiefs?
The guild will play on the North American Cimmeria RPvP server along with the Hyborian Accord. Skullsplitters EU will play on an EU server along with the Hyobiran Coalition. The Skullsplitters are currently accepting only age 18 or over players, who are mature, imaginative, and a good sense of humor. Petty bickering, out-of-character trash talk, and immaturity won't be tolerated and are grounds for dismissal from the guild. The Skullsplitters will have a reputation for having members that know the difference between roleplaying insults and out-of-character flames. This is important, telling a player he's a "savage hill-bred cur" is completely different than telling him to meet you at a coffee shop so you can kick his ass.
The heirarchy of the Skullsplitters Brigade is a unique, anarchy inspired military structure that relies on every other level of the structure tree. There is no micro-management within the structure, but it is a very well organized and "pecking order" respected structure. A Skullsplitters member must be savvy enough to use the structure to his advantage enough, but social enough to ensure that he has the support of his brethren, as any Skullsplitter without such support is a floating Tiro member, and is considered guildless even though he may be associated with the Skullsplitters.
- Brigade Chief
=Why Join the Skullsplitters?=
*Roleplay
Lots of roleplaying for those that want it, and the option to abstain for those that don't. The forum and the rest of the website support tags for roleplay text so it's easy to see at a glance what's roleplay and what's out of character.
*PvP
Plenty of content for the PvP oriented gamer. While the Skullsplitters roleplay, we are not pantywaists. Competitive Player Vs. Player combat is a passion.
[edit] Balanced gameplay
Balanced gameplay including RP, PvP, PvE, Crafting, City Management, and Social Community are all focuses for Skullsplitters. Regardless of your preferred playstyle there is a home for you.
*Community
The guild is a community of mostly 20 something gamers, etc. Skullsplitters is one of the founding guilds of the Hyborian accord
Website
The website is the central organization and communication tool for the guild. It does more than just organize events and allow members to communicate, it's a rich roleplay environment that offers the chance for members to put their creative skills to use outside the game. The site is powered by MediaWiki, which lets members edit pages and upload images. Add character backstories and other writing to the library, or help create the site itself.
*A guild for the creative gamer
Artwork, illustration and Creative writing is a big part of the site. Any member can upload their artwork, and even embed it into stories and pages throughout the site. The barbarian's atelier has Discussion forums, inspiration, and tutorials, because we know for a lot of people drawing and writing about the game environment is as much fun as playing the game.