History of IgorMUD

History of Igor’s Gods & ArchWizards

Igor’s History

In the Beginning…

As told by Hardwark …who was there…

In the beginning was Lisaii, reborn of Lisa, the mother of Satan, after the horrible death of severe boredom at Genesis. She (he/it/whocares) started to play around with a MUD of her own on one of the fileservers (Kappa) at Mechanical Engineering (ME) at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden. Her intent was to make a more 'open' MUD, a MUD that wasn't fixed at a certain time period or in a certain theme.

1990/07

Lisaii created Igor/TT MUD on Kappa. It's intended name was “Time Traveller’s Mud,” and the basic idea was that the MUD shouldn't be set in a certain time and wizards should be allowed to create freely. Zellski was probably the first one to show up, followed by Hegron, Groo, Guran, Astaroth and some more. I would guess that Koala showed up somewhere in the beginning too, since it was running from his account :)

1990/09

The mud moved to Iota42. That was, in a way, one of the most important dates in Igor/TT's history - the date when Hardwark (me :) was employed at MDC (ME's computer center). I was too lazy (and busy at Genesis) to wiz so I just edited my savefile and sent it to Lisaii, asking for her permission afterwards. After the move to Iota42, Koala and I managed to get it “half official” - it was accepted by the system administrators (there were four of us) but we didn't tell our boss. :)

Soon later the MUD opened up for real and we suddenly had real players. I don't remember who the first playing wizards were, but Mort is a good guess, closely followed by Eureka. Then there was Carlsson, and Faston, Rincewind, Polgara and some others that I can't remember. Then someone (it remains in mystery for both me and Lisaii) renamed the wandering “Harry” to “Igor” (in an attempt to make it look less like Genesis), however even then the name “IgorMUD” didn't really stick, it was still “TimeTraveller's.”

Then Lisaii left for her (his/its/whocares) military service (the 7 to 12 months of severe boredom that all Swedish men are required to go thru). Unfortunately, showing up every fortnight isn't a good way to handle a MUD, so Lisaii decided to get some help and appointed Hegron as “deputy god.”

1990/10

A new (hardly, it was an old sucker) machine arrived at the MDC, and a complete and running VAX 11/785 was designated for spare parts for the MDC’s last remaining VAX, Gamma. Therefore, since Alpha, the parts machine, would no longer be running production, we got permission to run the MUD “officially” from it. (As you may have guessed, all our machines were named from Greek letters).

1990/12

Lisaii came home for Christmas break. And she wasn't very pleased with Hegron’s way of running the game - not pleased at all. She began to 'balance' the game on her own, tweaking the controls just a bit (in her eyes), though stampeding around the MUD and stomping on as many feet as possible (in many wizard’s eyes).

Thus began the very first riot on Igor/TT. The wizards didn't like having their code manipulated and began closing their castles as a protest. Lisaii decided to blow the whole thing up and begin something new when she was done with her military service (and could get a machine of her own to run it on). Since the MUD was “official” now and both Koala and I wanted to keep it, we managed to calm Lisaii enough to not erase the MUD.

1991/01 The Anarcho Syndicalistic Era.

Lisaii returned to her service of both king and country.

The MUD was without any god; Hegron was still away as a protest to the changes, and neither Koala nor I had the time to act as god. That period is known in the annals as the “anarcho syndicalistic era.”

Somewhere in this chaotic time, the player On makes wizard and the first future Law Bringer is born.

After a while I managed to make a deal with Hegron so he would return to the MUD - he would be Supreme Ruler of the MUD, doing anything he liked with it as long as he didn’t give it a bad name or scare away all the wizards, and I promised not to interfere in any with his actions. I reserved for myself only the power to appoint gods as “World Keepers” (and, incidentally, the power to fire Hegron). The A.S. era subsided.

1991/02 - The Reign of Hegron the Hotelkeeper.

Hegron decided to remove all usual arches and create a new breed of arches with a special “field” or “focus” of work. The first was the Source Master, which was me, Hardwark. This was a bit tricky since I was both his employer at the MDC, and now his “employee” on the MUD. :) He then also created the Arch of Quality Control, which was Groo.

1991/03

Soon we discovered the need for some kind of law on the MUD, and it was at this time that Hegron appointed the first of the Law Bringers, the wizard On, to be Igor's first Law Arch.

Next, Hegron created the department of Balance and Iggy was appointed its Arch. ("We will call you Cygnus, the god of balance you shall be" - Neal Peart/Rush from Hemispheres.) (I just couldn't resist it :) ) Iggy had been on Hegron's back for a long time, and this lift to archhood was his way of getting Iggy to shut up :)

1991/06 - Murphy’s Law.

A card in Gamma's (the 'real' VAX) CPU cabinet broke and Gamma was put back on its feet with the “spare part” machine, Alpha - the MUD was down! A frenzied hunt for a new card or someone who could fix the broken card began in order to rescue Alpha and the MUD within it. Then things got worse when we all had to leave work for vacation. We couldn’t find anything to fix it and we couldn’t get money to buy a new one.

1991/08

Glory to CMA, the local used DEC dealers! We managed to get a new CPU kit for the VAX and our boss returned from vacation and he paid the bill for the kit! Igor was finally up and running again!

Then, a new problem – Hegron had a new job and no longer had a toll free phone line to the MUD anymore. This meant that he couldn't spend as much time tending the MUD, and had to leave more control to the Arches.

1991/10

Time came to move the MUD again. Igor had grown too big for the poor VAX (too big to share it with a Diku at least) and I managed to move it over to our PC server. Thus began its days on Epsilon (Sun 3/60).

1991/11 - It was Inevitable.

Our more or less hysterical “snail” hunt to speed up Igor, and our attempts to balance the game during a close down for mortals put some stress on the management. Hegron wasn't active enough to really understand much of the situation, which made him step on many toes when he altered the decisions of the Arches.

Hegron wanted to fire some of the arches and almost all of the arches wanted to leave if Hegron wasn't fired as god. After some debate Hegron asked me if I wanted him to resign and I said yes. *That* was neither a funny nor easy decision, but I had to keep the MUD running, and frankly – the MUD was working as it was (IMnsHO). (“Never touch a working system...”, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it…”, etc.) So..

1991/12 - The Gang of Four Reigned.

The four Arch Wizards and their Assistants began their rule of the MUD, and I retreated to my lofty position as Larch. It all worked almost the same as before, except with the “god” position removed - the Arches ruled and I gave advice or took actions only when asked.

1992 - Murphy’s Law Struck Again.

Some madman cracked Alpha and destroyed great parts of the MUD. Reconstruction and balancing was done, and finally the Igor MUD was again almost what Igor had been before.

To Be Continued…

History of Igor’s Gods & ArchWizards

The Old Gods & Goddesses

Lisaii (Spix), Hegron, Eureka

The WorldKeepers

Koala, Hardwark, Utel

The Early Powers & Great Inventors

Lars (the Implementer of LpMud and God at Genesis), Electra, Bod, Anarchrist, Strider, Carlsson, Dworkin (DGD's creator), Groo (Part Owner, CTO of Algonet AB), On (the Lawbringer), Mort (Most Idle Person Ever), Raylend (Decommissioned Avatar Arch), Aedil (MudMail Creator), Adiana (Retired Avatar/Guild Coordinator), Francis (Retired Avatar Coordinator), Velvet, Zellski, Ior (Retired Demigoddess), Gnort (Confused Ambassador God of Diku)

The Larches

Hardwark, Anarchrist, Strider, Trickster, Zellski

The Head ArchWizards

Source

Hardwark, Strider, Dworkin, Groo, Aedil, Dark, Zellski, Nino, Nails, Arythyn, Zot, Damien

Quality

Groo, Lazuli, Aemar, Squibbage, Dactylos, Arythyn, Mukie, Gipper, Lazarus, Exodus

Law

On, Xyppe, Velvet, Elara, Anarchus, Lazarus, Lazuli

Balance

Iggy, Electra, Mort, Elara, Arythyn, Patricus, Zot, Whisper, Kador

Written by Hardwark, Carlyle

Last Updated: January 2004