Key Games: Neverwinter Nights, Darksun Online, and Ultima Online
In 1995, Lord Hades, a name that still makes virtual heroes quake, summoned the Lords of the Dead (LotD) into existence amidst the carnage of Neverwinter Nights. But it was Darksun Online where these fiends truly sharpened their blades.
By ’96, LotD ruled the PvP wastelands like unholy tyrants, extorting weaker guilds for access to prime loot zones. Pay up with gold, grovel with worship, offer a blood sacrifice—or face annihilation. Many bowed, only to be slaughtered anyway, just because LotD felt like it. The forces of good rallied, hurling themselves against LotD’s dark might, but every battle ended the same: righteous corpses at the feet of the victorious.
After two years of bathing in Darksun’s blood, LotD craved fresh prey.
When Ultima Online launched in ’97, they stormed the Baja server, joining the Player Killer Circle (PKC) alliance and painting the land red. The Anti-PK army, a coalition of do-gooders, waged a desperate war to stop them, but LotD ground their foes to dust, leaving a trail of broken dreams and looted corpses. In a blaze of infamy, they sacked Avalon, the server’s first player-built city, reducing it to a smoldering ruin.
LotD’s ruthless organization caught the eye of the Stratics Network, a major fansite, leading to the creation of Hades Hall of Warfare. This PvP hub for Ultima Online became a dark scripture, chronicling strategies and slaughter for the two years LotD terrorized the game.
Key Games: Asheron’s Call, EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot, Shadowbane, Star Wars Galaxies
With their early conquests etched in blood, LotD’s dark lords hungered for new realms to conquer. They made a brief but brutal stop in Asheron’s Call while awaiting a new game, Shadowbane, to launch.
When Shadowbane’s release was delayed, Lord Hades and his lieutenants turned AC’s Morningthaw server into their personal slaughterhouse, forging a monarchy of nearly 1,700 followers—among the top five allegiances. They crushed rivals, choking server politics with their sheer numbers and cunning until they abandoned the game in 2001 for bloodier pastures.
In EverQuest, LotD joined the Dark Coalition on Sullon Zek, a top-three PvP juggernaut that left enemies groveling for mercy.
By 2001, Dark Age of Camelot trembled under their wrath on Merlin and Gareth servers, where LotD’s surgical precision earned them top-10 and top-50 ranks.
But it was Shadowbane that truly unleashed their inner fury. On the Scorn server, LotD joined the Rolling 30’s, a nation of elite, old-school guilds feared across the land. Tensions flared, and when Rolling 30’s faltered under internal strife, LotD spat on their former allies and forged the LAPD alliance with three other guilds.
What followed was a masterclass in evil: LotD led a relentless, 24/7 campaign of attacks and sieges, orchestrating the Rolling 30’s utter destruction. Their battle plan was a symphony of chaos, with LotD’s dark generals commanding the frontlines, reducing their enemies to ash and cementing LAPD’s dominance.
The galactic battlegrounds of Star Wars Galaxies, launched on June 26, 2003, became LotD’s new hunting ground on the Flurry server. They founded, defended, and controlled the first PvP city on the server, a testament to their relentless dominance in squad-level PvP skirmishes. Yet, the game’s flawed mechanics, coupled with unpopular updates from the developers and a lack of worthy adversaries, drained their thirst for conquest, driving LotD to seek bloodier pastures with a sharper PvP focus.
Key Games: Guild Wars, City of Villains, World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, Fury, Warhammer Online, Aion
LotD’s reign of terror burned brightest, their claws ripping through worlds. In Guild Wars, LotD stormed alpha and beta versions, clawing into top-10, top-20, and top-40 rankings, a reign that continued through the first six months of retail. For nearly a year and a half (beta plus retail), they competed at the highest levels, seizing several Halls of Heroes victories, their dark banners a terror among thousands of ranked guilds. By mid-2006, sated with conquest, LotD moved to new bloodier pastures, only to return in 2007 for a six-month encore, slashing back into the top 100 before departing again. Ranking among the elite in a sea of guilds was a bloody badge of their supremacy.
City of Villains’ Freedom server was their dark paradise, hoarding top influence, ruling zones, and crushing base raids. LotD fielded a large contingent of villains for this game, was a top influence earner on the Freedom Server, and had a fully equipped guild base. LotD became known for its skill at zone control, winning guild vs guild base raids, and later competed in multi-server organized PVP tournaments. Their exploits earned them a 2006 PvP Guild of the Year nomination and top-5 arena ranking.
World of Warcraft’s Mug’thol saw LotD as #8 Alliance guild pre-2.4 Sunwell, top 5% U.S. despite casual raiding. Arena exploits dulled their PvP thirst, so they raided until a Wrath of the Lich King return, hitting #1 Mug’thol, #8 U.S., #16 worldwide in 10-man raids by August 2009.
In Fury, LotD dominated, claiming #1 in Vortex Team Matches and Elimination, members flooding top-30 ladders. Fury’s top rankings held until its 2011 demise, LotD’s PvP mastery crushing all in Vortex Team Matches and Elimination.
Warhammer Online trembled under LotD’s wrath. On Azazel’s core ruleset server, LotD’s Order faction claimed #1 guild rank, leading all until the server’s February 2009 shutdown, and ranked #3 in renown points, amassed through player kills and capturing PvP objectives like fortresses and keeps. Founding the Law and Order Alliance, they united quality Order guilds to annihilate the initial wave of Destruction guilds, then crushed a secondary wave of in-transfer guilds from 27 servers. When Azazel lay in ruins, LotD switched to Dark Crag’s open PvP server as Destruction, forming two alliances to transform the defeated Destruction faction into a war machine, launching 20 City Invasion attacks over four months. Achieving Guild Rank 40—one of fewer than 20 guilds among 300,000+ subscribers—and amassing over 110 million renown points on Dark Crag (225 million total career), LotD ended as #10 world and #4 server ranked guild among 24,000+, in the top 1%, their dominance a bloody monument
But Age of Conan is where LotD became gods of war. On the Deathwhisper FFA server, they played a vicious game of thrones, turning enemy guilds against each other, then striking fatal blows while chaos reigned. LotD won the world’s first siege and built the server’s first tier-3 city, their infamy plastered across MMO Gamer Magazine. They locked down high-level PvP and PvE zones at will, burned prominent guild’s Battlekeeps to cinders in relentless sieges, and never ever losing a defensive siege while active. Offensive sieges? Almost always a bloodbath in LotD’s favor. Their strategies were a masterclass in PvP, manipulating alliances and sowing discord to ensure no rival stood a chance
In Aion’s Marachutan server, LotD’s Asmodians unleashed hell. They leveled at breakneck speed and launched a massive PvP raid on the Elyos faction, bathing the skies in blood. As the first guild to capture the entire Lower Abyss PvP zone, controlling all forts and objectives, LotD cemented their legend. They remained fiercely competitive in the Upper Abyss, their claws never far from victory. Despite Aion’s promising faction-based RvR, mechanics turned servers into ghost towns after eight months. Still, LotD’s reign shone: consistently top-10 server guild, top-5 Asmodian faction, top 2% world guild rank, and top 1% world faction rank, their dominance a nightmare for Elyos fools.
Key Games: Black Desert Online, Archeage: Unchained, Ark, Albion, Crowfall, Conquerors Blade
Black Desert Online (2016) saw LotD rise as merciless overlords in the war-torn lands of Calpheon, Mediah, and Valencia. Launching in North America and Europe on March 3, 2016, BDO became LotD’s new hunting ground, where they claimed a server-first by simultaneously holding Mediah and Valencia territories. They dominated open-world combat, contesting popular grind spots and resources, leaving bloodied corpses of rival guilds in their wake. LotD thrived amidst the chaos of guild politics, where friend quickly turned to foe. Their mastery of Node Wars and Sieges earned them a spot among the top 5 guilds with the most wins in North America during BDO’s first launch year, a testament to their unyielding dominance.
In Conqueror’s Blade (2019), LotD’s Jade Empire Alliance with Ming and Bastion carved a bloody path to supremacy in their NA server section, led by Gwhorg and Iseng. They captured the Imperial Capital of Liangyun in a fierce siege, declaring their dominance over the realm. LotD defended key regions like Maoyang against relentless assaults, holding their ground with ruthless precision, and later seized Ostaria, further expanding their empire. Their campaign saw them crush foes in battles across Daicheng, Yanle, and Longting, leaving a trail of shattered armies. Through cunning sieges and masterful scheming, LotD rose to #1 in their NA server section, their banner a symbol of terror as they claimed victory after victory in the war-torn lands.
When ArcheAge: Unchained launched on October 15, 2019, LotD returned exploiting the new buy-to-play model and fresh servers to reassert their dominance. With no pay-to-win mechanics to contend with, they plundered anew, leveraging their mastery of naval combat and trade route piracy to crush new rivals, their pirate swagger a terror to all who dared sail the seas of Erenor.
