My fellow BoCians,
Those of you who attended Sunday's parade and subsequent events will know that the Imperial Covian Army has alas been disbanded and a mercenary company formed by it's remnants. That may indeed be a bit of a shock to many of you so on behalf of the Command Team I will try to explain the reasoning behind such a bold move.
The Company...Over the years we've seen the simple soldiers of the Cove Militia expand into a Grand Army that has boasted Grenadiers, Scouts, Dragoons, Highlanders, Marines and Arcanists but alas with the current climate being what it is in UO and truth be told for a couple of years now, it has been impossible to sustain this concept with UO's dwindling playerbase to draw members from.
This being the case, it was ludicrous to RP a Grand Army when it simply wasn't so and hence The Company was born. An elite unit of freedom fighters made up from the remnants of the disbanded army. It wouldn't have made much sense to regress the Covian Army back into a Militia or even a Town Watch. The army was a professional fighting force and thus we now have a company of highly disciplined warriors ready to protect Cove and fight evil and tyranny wherever they made be needed.
Additionally individual Company members can be hired to perform specific roles whether it be acting as bodyguard to wealthy nobles and burghers, collecting bounties on criminals or those poor souls wanted by the Church and for those shadier characters I'm sure they'll always be work to be found, but woe betide you if you are caught.
A Changing Cove...We hope that this and other changes that may be implemented in the future will enhance the playing experience of our members and offer a less linear and more freeform or 'sandbox' style of gameplay in BoC, without totally going away from a structured approach that some people prefer. We are trying to re-establish a Covian community where each element is reliant upon the other...
The Company rely on the townsfolk for goods, services and work. The townsfolk rely on the mercenaries for trade, protection and their services. The criminals prey on the townsfolk and the Church tries to 'save' us all.
To further strive towards this goal we have a new Memorial Square located between Cove Town and the Baronship Household buildings as a hub for BoC roleplay. Somewhere that Covians can head to when they log on and where spontaneous roleplay can be found when no events are planned.
In Closing...As always during times of change there are going to be teething problems and moments of uncertainty and scepticism and we hope you will bear with us through this initial period as we strive to bring you our members and the Europa RP community as a whole the long standing vision of BoC which is to offer the roleplayer the most diverse, intriguing and exciting RP guild in the lands.
Afterall Cove is a hardened coastal settlement whose inhabitants have never shied away from a challenge. We've survived guild mergers, periods of inactivity, dramatic drops in membership but we're still here after more than four years of battling the odds! And why? Because we're bloody Covians that's why!
It's time to roll our sleeves up, accept the challenge and roleplay the inhabitants of Cove and have some fun while doing it!
~ Raiden.
If anyone has any concerns they would like to raise feel free to PM or ICQ me or any member of the Command Team.
Author