History 29: Maclimara

Over the years, Mercia has seen many players. Some have rose to the very top and etched their name into History and others are still trying to find their way on the List. Some found fame in the darkness of the Fourth Age and others in the Renaissance of the 2nd. Maclimara, though, shined in the Third. Maclimara has been mentioned many times throughout the Histories and for good reason. While building is the Meta in this Age, Skilling and Business were the Meta in the 2nd and 3rd. While Maclimara was the #2 Ranked skiller in the 2nd Age, It can be said that no player has ever achieved the dominance that Browns Construction had in the Third. Nevertheless, this story needs a beginning, so we'll start in the First. Maclimara, born near the end of the First Age, was never in the fabled group of Heroes that carved out Mercias original worlds. He was, however, around during the world just before this one. In that World, he was no more than an average player, completing Quests and trying to reach the shores of IKE, the capital city. He was but one Quest away from achieving this before the world became corrupted.

While most players were upset because of the corruption, Maclimara saw it as an opportunity to become the best player in the World. When the new world was opened, and he was able to join, he was the first player to make it off High Rock and into the City of Mercia. Upon touching ground, he started ranking his skills up. Combat and Farming were the things that peaked his interest the most, so he began collecting seeds to plant and questing to gain armour. Coming out of the Artisans Cave, he was equipped and ready to slay mobs. I won't go through the redundancy of his everyday life, but I will say he quickly rose to the top. Controversy has always followed Maclimara, and he found a way to exploit the Skill System. Noticing that players were uninterested in Farming, he began using other players patches to grow Cactus and Wheat, gaining loads of experience in the process. He would then sell the now experience free items to the shop. Something to note is that, similar to the y steaks, there were other y items. These y items were named so that they couldn't be used to gain experience again. Since Anvils were unavailable to players, they couldn't rename an item and cheat the system. What Maclimara found, though, was that stores had regular items instead of y items. He would sell his y items, which went for half price, and buy as many cactus as he could to place in his skill chest. This went on for so long that, before anyone realized he was doing it, he had achieved Max Level. He was the first player in Mercias History to do so. Following this, all Skill Items sold in stores were now named y. His next highest skill was Combat at level 90. He achieved this spending tens of hours in the Molestown Cave battling Zombies.

Maclimara, though, isn't known much for his 2nd Age accomplishments. So on we go to talk about Maclimara in the Third Age. As you know, all of Mercias Ages continue on the same world, so Maclimaras items and properties were kept. He sold off the remaining skill items and bought an office space in the Shade Tower. It was from there he began collecting materials in Mercias Mining Guild to stock up on while his Permits were still processing. He bought wood from other players and began making deals for property within the city. Once he was approved, he built his first house for sale and it sold for $2,000 to KelseyChloride. Using this money, he bought the remaining properties in Rimmington, the district in which he lived, to expand upon his own house and build an even grander home to sell. This went on for a while, simply buying up unused property and profiting from the free market. He was earning a killing before the Taxes and regulations were eventually put in place. He now had to build a 3 block deep foundation which cut out the basements of his homes, making them cost more to build and sell for less. He had to pay for plumbing to be connected from the home to the main sewer, which players didn't want to pay more for. Along with the steep property and business taxes he had to pay. So while he wasn't earning as much as he was, he was still pulling in a paltry amount of Gold. However, Maclimara wasn't the only one paying Taxes, and players started to believe that Maclimara wasn't actually paying his. They were being burned under the taxes while, on the surface, he was flourishing. It wasn't long before other players began questioning his wealth and if he was truly buying or mining the Materials. This went on over the course of several days with the players anger cultivating in Mercias first court case, discussed in another History. He was forced to pay the difference that he couldn't explain. He realized that after this, Construction wasn't the way to go.

Despite being offered the new Apartment Complex deal from then President KelseyChloride, he sold off what materials and property he had, other than his own home, to build a Tavern. He built this just outside of Molestown, where the Train stopped for the Island. He named his Business The Tap & Tack and began selling his now famous Southern Comfort. The Tap & Tack stands to this day. Unfortunately, between the Heavy Economy run Mercia and it's burying Taxes, most players had left for good. This left Maclimara alone in his Tavern for many weeks, waiting for someone to stop in. The only patron he ever got was MariaStorm, who rented one of his rooms. Seeing this, Maclimara traveled one last time to the place he called home for so many years. It wasn't until a year later that a new game day started and he logged in. Some of the older players had logged on and it seemed like Mercia was to pick back up. The day was October 20th, 2019, the day the Wither Spawned in Mercia City.

Maclimara helped repel the demon and eventually, along with others, ended his destruction before it got too bad. What felt like minutes later, Wall Street had exploded and it's bomb had effected the City Square. Despite the City remaining in fixable condition, hell broke loose. Theft, Murder, and Griefing were everywhere. He watched from the bottom of High Rock as the Shade Tower was put to the torch. He was watching his city being torn down. Destroyed by the very people who helped build it. The city he spent years building. He realized that eventually this would reach his district and they would raid his house, robbing him of the fond memories he had formed there. In that moment, Maclimara decided that if anyone was to destroy his city, it should be him. He ran to the top of High Rock and broke through the walls of the Defence Department. With a heavy heart, he reached the button. He realized what pressing this meant. It meant that Skills, Quests, the Hightower, the church of Thatyx, Mr. Miragaychis General Store, Ballator Steel, Gnome Lane along with all the other businesses and buildings since the 2nd Age would be destroyed. He looked back one more time to see the city, before launching the Nuke. The Nuke was so devastating that it knocked him out of the World. Rather than see what it had caused, he let that be his final memory of Mercia, and so is the Tale of Maclimara.