NaLyd first awoke around Feb 15, 2007 (Deoch 65). He was a sibling of Dylanlan, who had awoken around March 31, 2005 (Deoch 51) (There were rumours of an even earlier Dylanlan Aisling, but they had gotten Purged, and no images of their existence exists).
NaLyd was intended to be a “stronker” Aisling than Dylanlan, who had himself struggled to kill vicious monsters on his own. He also had a hilarious and sarcastic Aisling friend named CurethEevil, who happened to be a Pure Priest.
If NaLyd were to become a Pure Summoner, then the duo could surely defeat any and all monsters in Temuair, right?! The ability to generate mana from health with NaLyd. The ability to generate health from mana with Cureth. A limitless cycle with neverending opportunities!
Together, would they DESTROY ALL MONSTERS IN TEMUAIR?!! Well, not quite. But they sure did a lot of destruction in Nobis over the Deochs.
Here are some scattered memories of NaLyd’s first awakening!
Pre Master
The earliest screenshot that exists of NaLyd is from February 15, 2007 at 10:47pm MT.
Poisoned, skulled, and recently revived - hah! How appropriate! I will create an entire album of NaLyd dying, one day.
NaLyd was destined to control the elements, and immediately began training powerful water spells in the wasteland. Long before any dojo ever existed!
He had to make sure he was always fully awake, or else he might end up in Temuair Jail. NaLyd was quite a goody-goody in regards to the law.
He apparently had a fae pet early on! I unfortunately forget its name..
Karlopos was always a great place for experience, and here’s a mediocre screenshot of the place!
He apparently hunted with a warrior who wanted to wield a mighty sword, and who also wanted to look cool rather than be safe. Neat!
This was the day that NaLyd would never be able to worship Deoch ever again, when he became a Necromancer! Woops!
I guess the ability to raise the dead always comes with strings attached..
It sure was cool to be able to spawn helpful minions and skeletons, however.
Double cool swords! Wow!!
Here is the moment that NaLyd reached level 99. March 22, 2007, at 9:49pm MT
He was very excited to become a Master Aisling, and start experiencing the rest of the game.
Master
I was apparently too excited to save screenshots of becoming a Master (woops!), but here was my earliest memory afterwards!
Such cool wings. They would keep him safe from Sgrios time and time and time and time and time again!
I would like to re-iterate: countless scars, pain, and misery have been prevented on NaLyd. From just this simple dinky “wings” spell, which he had learned around March 23, 2007, at 12:18am MT
And he also learned a “punch-yourself-in-the-face” spell called fas spiorad, which would grant the caster full mana, at the cost of significant health. Trade-offs and decisions are fun!
He had immediately wanted to become a Summoner - to be able to gift mana to others.
So it was time to kill some Creants. Starting with Tauren!
But NaLyd got confused - was he seeing double?!
And then Medusa was next! NaLyd still wasn’t used to using his new powerful “pian na dion” spell (pnd) yet.
But it would become second nature to him in only a short while. He always wanted moar of it!
And then Shamensyth - that trickster!
NaLyd would often sit at only 100 health points far too often than he probably should have!
Careful NaLyd, you don’t want to tempt Sgrios with your carelessnes!!
Woops. I tried to warn you…
This was NaLyd’s first time skulling as a Master Aisling, and paying a visit to Sgrios.
Welp. Lessons learned! (surely)
Always be careful when entering a new room in Nobis, kids, and try to be invincible (dioned) when possible!
The fourth and final Creant!
But NaLyd, you really ought to be more careful! Didn’t you learn anything about safety yet??
Being that close to a Creant, with only 100hp and no dion is basically directly whispering Sgrios to ask for a Scar!
Eh, whatever. Now that NaLyd was a full Grand Master, it was time to max his Intelligence!
And hunt even more Nobis Skeletons, for more experience!
NaLyd finally realizes that, although the Skeletons are behind a wall, they can still cast a damaging Light Spell on him.
A “remote meeting” with Sgrios, if you will (I WILL NOT!).
Be more careful, silly!
Here was NaLyd’s final goodbye to an amazing pair of Greaves, which will soon be permanently destroyed when he becomes a Summoner.
Acceptable trade-off, for the ability to adventure in Medenia, he thought!
And perhaps one day, he would be able to acquire even more powerful gear, that would render his at-the-time amazing gear obsolete!
(Spoiler alert: he would have to wait until Ability 90 or 99, but it did happen! Unlike those poor pure priests…)
Summoner
The first screenshot of NaLyd as a Summoner, while… hunting Nobis….. how predictable.
NaLyd discovered a new, exciting area that he could hunt in: Noam Plains!
Upon becoming a Summoner, he could now acquire new types of levels, called Ability.
And similar to Insight Levels of the non-Mastered Aislings, higher Abilities would grant him stronker gear and spells!
NaLyd was really interested in learning powerful fire spells, for they are the most cool of all!
Here is when NaLyd had learned and practiced his first powerful fire spell: Torch!
What a cool dragon that got summoned!
NaLyd finally learned the powerful spell that he had been waiting for, since a young Aisling child.
Lyliac Plant (also called: Flower)
This was a core spell of his identity - the ability to gift his mana pool to another Aisling.
It would end up being a supremely powerful spell, capable of replenishing the mana of critical group members at critical moments.
For example, when the group’s health was low, and the designated healer was out of mana!
NaLyd would heroically punch himself in the face, and gift some mana to the healer, so that everyone could be healed.
Thanks, NaLyd!
This request-for-mana was so common, that group members would often request it with just a single letter: “f”
(Note: at the time…., only Pure summoners could learn the flower spell, which had made it an attractive choice. Nowadays, any summoner can learn it. So if given a modern choice, NaLyd probably would’ve chosen “Priz” (Priest -> Wizard sub) instead, which is an arguably overpowered class)
Welp, that’s a good spot to stop for now.
Primary goal accomplished: NaLyd was now able to F himself!
(Coming soon: more ancient memories of NaLyd?! Will he ever stop getting scarred?!)
He took a “temporary” break from Temuair around Deoch 95, but returned with a vengeance of optimism around Deoch 200, along with the final release of the “end of the game”, with Ability 99.
You can read all about it: here