A Beginner's Guide To Our Site

Welcome to Ulthuan.net, the largest and best high elf resource on the internet.  This site is devoted to the games of Games Workshop, and most specifically the High Elf race of the Warhammer Fantasy Battles game.  The site features a gallery of pictures, a database of articles submitted by members, basic introductions into the ways of the High Elves, and at its core - the forums of Asur.org.  This introduction is provided to explain not only the sections and features of the site, but to give you some background on the history of Asur.org and its various traditions.

Site History

This site has known a few names in its past incarnations - Ulthuan.com, Ulthuan.org, Asur.org and even a simple IP address to view the site and despite an attack by a hacker in early spring of 2004, the community has continued to show a great amount of growth at our permanent home that you see now.  This website began back in 1999 as Ulthuan.com and was founded by the webmaster Taaveti. The site then featured many areas you can find here today (The Library of Hoeth, Tavern of Endanal, etc.) and of course had the main feature of its forums.  As it progressed and grew the site had over 3,000 registered users. To help manage the site, Taaveti employed others to assist him as site admins, known by the name of their title: Loremaster.  The first Loremaster was Imrik, and then included Ruerl Khan and Elmoth.  Others have come and gone as Loremasters, but the history of that group will be described later on.

Starting in 2002, the site encountered some technical problems.  The first came when the domain name ulthuan.com was taken by a webmaster in Taipei before Taaveti could renew his subscription, and the site therefore had to move to ulthuan.org.  A series of issues with the server left ulthuan.org down for days at a time in frequent intervals, decreasing the traffic to the site and marking the beginning of a slow but significant decrease in activity on ulthuan.org.  It finally led to the shut down of the site when a hacker gained access to the server and used it to send massive amounts of spam email.   TimmyMWD used an old mothballed forum as a temporary 'lifeboat' site in response, beginning the transition to Asur.org.  The lifeboat site (still accessible at http://elvesrs.board.dk3.com) lasted for a month and a half until the host for that board experienced a temporary shutdown.  Knowing it was time to leave, the Loremasters established a new site and layout on the server of the Conclave of Light Alliance site - it was to be yet another temporary home until their own server space was created.  Within a month TimmyMWD purchased the server space and the database was transferred over - leaving the users and all content intact. In the latter half of 2007 the site outgrew its host, one.com and was forced to seek a new home. 

Now back in the Ulthuan naming scheme as Ulthuan.net the site is pushing on to even greater heights with a new host and a new complement of loremasters.  With nearly 6000 members and counting, the site continues to flourish despite its travels around the internet domain.

The Loremasters and Heralds

The name of the site administrators at Ulthuan.net.  We do not have any moderators that regulate over a specific forum on the Asur.org board, but rather we have a group of Loremasters that are all included in a group called the Loremaster Congress - the decision making body of the site.  You will see them posting around the site, and are always willing to answer any questions or address any concerns you have.  There have been a great collection of individuals who have served as Lores in the various incarnations of the site, and the current Congress is formed of those who decided to put forth a major amount of time and involvement in the new site.  Each Loremaster is included for their dedication, but also offer a special quality to the group. There are also a few moderators, known as Heralds, whose responsibility is to oversee certain functions and forums of the site. They do not have full administrative access, but are more than willing and capable of helping you out with many different things.

Eldacar: Eldacar is currently the "jack-of-all-trades" on the Council, and serves as the "fluff-know-it-all" in the wake of Calarion's departure from the ranks of the Council. In addition to this and his normal Loremaster duties, Eldacar is one of the most active members of Asur.org, and can be seen almost anywhere around the site.

Voodoomaster: As Ulthuan.com had Ruerl Khan as the resident Dark Elf Loremaster, so does Asur.org now have Voodoomaster. Voodoomaster is Anarion's assistant coder for the online campaigns.

VictorK: One of the more recent appointments to the ranks of the loremasters is VictorK, but he's not new to the site. He is well known as a resident Imperial and has contributed heavily in story and fluff writing aspects of the online campaigns and many other ways as well. He's also a notable contributor in the Off Topic forum.

Burning Sun: The move from Asur.org to Ulthuan.net required a person with some technical experience, and with the loremasters with that experience having retired, the remaining loremasters called on a friend to assist with the transition, setup and maintenance of the new site. Burning Sun is primarily a technical lore, but may dabble in all other areas as he wishes.

Ediblespread: The heralds are the site moderators and take care of much of the forum moderation. Ediblespread is one of these. In addition, he takes care of updating and maintaining the Library of Hoeth section.

Giladis: Like Ediblespread, Giladis is a long time active member of the site who has been appointed to a moderating position as a herald. He and Ediblespread are the maintainers of order in the name of the Loremasters.

- The Library of Hoeth: This features articles submitted by members of the site.  It has many various sections including tactics, successful army lists, stories, and much more.  It also includes the Book of Images, a gallery of picture submitted by members.

- Concerning the Asur is a series of pages explaining the various provinces, warriors, religions, and the culture of the High Elves.  They offer a brief introduction to the world of the High Elves from a fluff perspective.

-By Members For Members features site content that has been developed primarily by the Members rather than the Loremasters.  It includes the Ulthuan.net Member Awards.  The Member Awards give the community a chance to nominate the best of their own in various categories (such as most helpful, best tactician, etc.) and honor those they feel make Ulthuan.net a great site.  The Albion (Tavern of Endanal) chat is an IRC chat feature that allows you to chat with other members, not only from this site, but many others as well.   Finally, the Citizen Levy is Ulthuan.net's e-zine (known as the Chronicle on Ulthuan.org) that is run by Firehearth and staffed by members who volunteer their free time.  It is currently returning from a hiatus.

The Traditions of Ulthuan.net

Ulthuan.net has a few traditions that has made it famous.  First and foremost, it is the leading High Elf site on the internet.  But beyond the tactics and general Warhammer discussion, what has made it most famous is its storytelling and role playing.  Asur.org has many proficient writers and poets who post their compositions on the site, and are also very willing to critique and help other members and their work if they are asked.  Many members of other sites visit Ulthuan.net for the stories, and we hope that everyone will contribute to the vast depository of stories that we have.  At the pinnacle of our writing traditions is the Scriveners Contest - where members submit their best work for a chance to win the coveted Master Scrivener title.  The contest allows for two to three months for people to write their works (usually 3,000 words in length), and then another month is spent judging the entries.  It is a contest known on other warhammer forums beyond our own.

Online campaigns - One thing truly unique to Ulthuan.net are the online campaigns. Unlike those campaigns hosted by Games Workshop or other sites, these campaigns are fought out using a turn-based system designed by originally TimmyMWD and expanded by Anarion. Two years ago now, the Sundering was fought once more. Malekith was the victor this time, and this was followed by the War of the Beard, though set in this alternate version of Warhammer history. This second campaign was won by the dwarves. The third installment of the alternate timeline series is the Hour of the Wolf campaign, which was an even loftier design worked out by Anarion, Voodoomaster and Tsanqar to name just a few. This campaign was played out during February and March 2007.

Titles - Another tradition of Ulthuan.net.  Some forums have ranks - where after so many posts a new rank is listed underneath their name in the forum.  We don't have those ranks, but instead release special titles to members for contests, outstanding deeds, etc.  Titles are a way of rewarding members who have showed devotion to the Ulthuan.net community, have been friendly and helpful, etc.  It is completely up to the discretion of the Loremaster Congress to issue Titles, and only at their discretion.  We ask that you strive to earn them rather than ask for them.  Trust us, if you have contributed enough or have met some other criteria for a title, the Lores will know without you having to request a title.

Off Topic - Off Topic is a forum on this site which has had quite the turbulent history. Off topic is a place where members are free talk about anything they want and just have a fun time. There are no censors, no word bannings - only a few obvious rules (such as no racism, pornography, etc.).  It is our belief that you should be able to speak your mind and talk about whatever as long as it does not disrupt the forum or violate the basic rules, and is done in a mature fashion. Off Topic is unique to the large Warhammer sites on the internet (such as Warhammer-Empire, Druchii.net, Bugmans Brewery and the like), because we encourage everyone to speak their mind as long as they operate within the small guidelines the Loremasters have imposed.

And that would be the basics of our site.  Stay awhile and post - be sure to ignore the resident smart asses (such as EricJ), their bark is worse than their bite!  Good luck and happy gaming.

Best Regards,

The Loremasters of Ulthuan.net