On Feb. 1st, 2024, one of my guildmates sadly passed away. My guild is on Area-52 Horde. We started this raid tier like any other. At the start of the season, we had to PUG spots into our raid group like many other guilds. We required Discord so people could hear calls and such. This is where we met our friend Malevor a Night Elf Demon Hunter from Moonguard. Each week that passed and each boss that was downed we started hitting roadblocks in our prog. Like right now we are on Heroic Fyrakk. All our friends and Pug friends started to lose moral, but the group pushed forward. Malevor even though we hasnāt a tank he did swap role when we needed it. Our guild made fun of him for the whole Moonguard RP thing and stereotype, but it was just poking fun. Unlike most he never lost moral or hope for our run. Even though he wasnāt formally in the guild he was an honorary member until the next xpac when cross realm/faction will be allowed to join while staying on Moonguard. Last night before our Weekly raid time was due to being we received a message from his brother on our discord. Before that moment, we had not met his IRL brother.
The new hit each one of our guild members in different ways. So, after getting in touch with his brother/family we decided to hold a ceremony in honor of him and his memory. So we started to choose a location that would be suitable for the moment and to hold memories for us to remember him by years from now. The main place I wanted to hold it was in Elewyn Forest at the Inn that is synonymous with the Moonguard server for a host of reason to which I wonāt elaborate on at this time. However, the problem that arose from that location was we would have to kill all NPC, all the while having to deal with respawning adds and guards which wouldnāt pose a problem, but it would detract from the significance of the ceremony and moment. So, I checked a few other places such as Bastion on Heros Rest, but it was not a good fit. Then I thought since Malevor was a Night Elf and he started raiding with us in Amirdrassil. To which Amirdrassil had become the Night Elf City so we all met up there at the base near where Tyrande and Malfurion are standing at a pavilion that was big and nice.
We all gathered there together to speak to his determination, will, honesty, humor, and just all around a great person. His brother came to the ceremony to honor Malevor. We all took turns speaking of the amazing fun we all had and the things we loved and will miss. After everyone had spoken Malevorās brother begin to speak about his brother and his love of the game, friends, and our raiding experiences together. I good chunk of us was in tears. This is the first time in my 19 years playing that I lost a friend, even more so with me being Raid Leader.
I do wish there was a way to place something in the world that would be permanent to some degree for us to be able to go back to that spot in remembrance. So many guild members, raiders, pvpāers, and just outright friends take it for granted that we are promised tomorrow. Truth is we are not promised tomorrow, next week, next patch, next tier, or even next expansion. So, if you are still reading this tell your family and friends and guild members you love them because you could not see them again. We did make a promise to kill Fyrakk for him. We also downed Tswift for the first time on our Heroic Prog last night we have been proging him for a couple of weeks now. It felt weird without him however, at the same time it felt like he was there to help us down Tswift because after the 1st pull it became cake. So we dedicated Tswiftyās kill to him and the Fyrakk when we down him. I just wanted other people to know that today the world is less bright without you brother. We will carry on and try to be like you. You are and will be missed God Speed!
