Liberty Lives! #2 - Castel Gandolfo

Standing proudly on the top of a mountain overlooking the desert is Castel Gandolfo.

The Mayor Weil with the two villagers Janpawelxxiii and Szotak warmly welcomed us and shared some of their stories.








Mayor Weil:



“I played on global, then I used to play on Wyvern and when the server died I came here.

“I spawned in Haven, so I didn’t travel much before settling down. I choose the direction to go randomly.

“I liked the view here and the fact that it lay on a crossroad.



“On global we always built our villages in inaccessible places i.e. mountain peaks so I thought it would be nice to have a place that people would visit for once, plus there was a cool deed nearby called Camellia Valley.

“It got disbanded meanwhile.



“I wasn’t really sure if I was going to stay here, especially because Wyvern died. This seemed to be the largest wu server.

“I actually thought that wurm unlimited was also going to die but I changed my mind when I discovered Sklotopolis.



“We have three players here but only two of us are active on a daily basis, me and Janpawelxxiii.

“He played on global but didn’t like it there but he fell in love with wurm on Sklotopolis.

“The other guy Szkotak logs in sometimes mainly to talk to us, we are friends.



“Our village lies on a peak of a rather small mountain, we’re going to build a castle here, we have a project but I’m not sure if this qualifies.

“Camellia Valley is nearby, I think I mentioned that already, and a huge forest is on the east side.



“I'm into building and hate grinding. I develop skills only if I can utilise them in any way.

“I love designing buildings in deed planner and hate building them, ha-ha.”



Elfin: “I fall asleep if I have to grind.”



Weil: “ Ha-ha, I thought it’s somewhat rare among wurm players to dislike grinding.”



Elfin: “How long have you been a wurm player?”



Weil: “I don’t remember exactly now, but I think it was right after they opened Celebration server on global. Then we moved to Exodus and then finally to Independence where other people I was playing at the time had their previous village.

“Those were dark times, we only had single story houses back then and everyone looked like the Legend of Zelda main character.

“But even back then the game offered so much that I decided to stay. It also started to evolve, they finally introduced multi-storied housing and other great improvements.



“I got addicted.



“I used to play only from time-to-time though, so playing on global wasn’t for me.



“I like it so much better here where I don’t have to worry about things like upkeep and there is so much more to do.

“You have events all the time, it wasn’t so on global, at least when I played there.

“The events here are different for on global there were only player-organised events.

“We even held one dragon slaying on xanadu where we used to have our alt-deed.



“We love it here, the friendly community, we even got invited into an alliance, I think that Sarz, who by-the-way helped us multiple times (e.g the observation tower) is the one responsible for it.

“We didn’t participate in many events to be honest so we had no chance to meet many people.”

“I hope that your initiative will reanimate Liberty a bit.”


Elfin: “ Is there anything you would change about your deed?


Weil: “ So many things, but our time is limited ha-ha.

“First of all we need to build everything we’re planning to build. There are, like 10 projects waiting to be implemented.

“Yeah, we would like to have a proper stronghold here.”

“I think it would be a good idea for you to revisit every interviewed village in a year to show the progress, in a year we will be much more ready to be interviewed. “


Elfin: “I like that idea too.”

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Janpawelxxiii Villager:



“A couple of months ago, my friend Weil showed me this server and told me that there is potential to do something here.

“He bugged me for months to play this game, he even bought me a copy of wurm unlimited to make me play.

“I can’t remember which portal I came through my first impression was that there were a lot of buildings and pretty impressive deeds here.

“Then we found Camellia Valley and settled here.



“Weil is my best buddy for years now.

“A few weeks ago a deed nearby us was just about to fall apart, walls had like 97 damage and we were hunting for stuff inside it after it falls apart. We spend many hours online to be sure that no one snatches our prize. Suddenly someone came to us and started to wait with us.

“Hours.................. Days..................... irl Days..............................passed and the building didn’t fall apart it turned out that one of the mods was making fun of us.

“He intentionally made the wall not fall apart so we had to spend more time on it.

“Frustrating but also kinda funny.”



Elfin: “I love your sense humour, I probably would have thrown a hissy fit”. “So it finally did fall and you got your prizes?”


Janpawelxxiii: “Thanks. It did fall and we even got some dragon scale armour that was in one of the boxes, some gems and very good tools.


Elfin: “That was some adventure. What keeps you logging into wurm?”


Janpawelxxiii: “Well mostly our building projects. We have some impressive and very big plans on our deed.

“I love to spend time with my friends since we don’t meet in real life and have contact only over the internet.

“There is something really nice to have around you, people with the same hobby.


Elfin: “Do you find it hard to play a game where only English is spoken?”



Janpawelxxiii: “Not really, I don’t mind using English as I feel I am quite proficient with it. Sure I still make many mistakes but it’s not like I struggle with anything. But I think that it would be beneficial for the community to have different language versions to attract new players.

“I like all the events that are going on, I have not won any raffles yet I am still waiting for my big break through.

“I like the community here.

“I have never met anyone who would be unhelpful or mean.

“I like Camellia Valley a really beautiful piece of land I tell you.”

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Szotak Villager:



Szotak: “My friend Weil told me to join here. It’s my first server. I only play here. When I first arrived here I felt completely lost to be honest. That was my first launch of wurm so that is probably why. Weil told me what to do, he really helped me then.”



Elfin: “Did you get your free horse?”



Szotak: “To be honest, I don’t know, but I don’t think so.”



Elfin: “Well you can always get one. Just click on the Free Horse sign at the starter town next time you are there.



Szotak: “Thanks, I didn’t know about that.

“Weil took me to his deed.

“I don’t have a favourite thing here, I just simply do what they want me to do.

“I just do nothing, to be honest, I just talk with Weil and Janpawelxxiii.

“The game is really huge, I mean it’s expanded and takes a lot of time but it’s fun.

“I learn how to play for the whole time. I now know the basics.”

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________



Please note: English is not the first language of these very warm and welcoming players.



and now...






The Beautiful Stables



Tomservo: “The wooden fence looks great with the sandstone.”






After a short look around we waited in the Tavern sampling the hospitality.
(Always a favorite place for Tomservo to visit)





We had started to snooze when the trio arrived, Weil, Janpawelxxiii and Szotak.

After an introduction, the tour began.


Weil “Our village right now is one big construction site, sorry for that.

“This is our main square. We built that obelisk yesterday. 

“This is also the oldest place in our village.”





Janpawelxxiii: “These were the first buildings in our village”.
 “A small altar space. This used to be our forge. We are in process of moving it.





Elfin: “How did you get the name of your deed.”



Janpawelxxiii: “Well..................”



Weil: “As I said earlier, there are many papal references in here .”



Janpawelxxiii: “It's is a long tradition to have a ‘pope-ish’ theme in our buildings.”



Weil: “Castel Gandolfo is a place where popes are spending their holidays usually.”



Weil: “Lets move to the inn.”



Janpawelxxiii: “Yes.”





Weil: “That’s a five storey building, two storeys are under the level of this square.”


Elfin: “Wow!!
This is amazing Tom.”



Tomservo: “ Yeah”. “Very cool idea, a basement.”


Janpawelxxiii: “First storey is our magazine.”




Janpawelxxiii: “It used to be a huge hole in the ground, let’s go down.”



Weil: “Yeah, we decided to create a basement here.”
“And it’s connected to our mine system.”





Janpawelxxiii: “Second storey please.

“Here is a part of the inn, we were inspired by Baldur's Gate theme.



Tomservo: “A common room?”



Janpawelxxiii: “Yes indeed.”





Janpawelxxiii: “The chairs are a little bit wobbly. 

“Szkotak is not allowed to sit with us guys.”



Weil: “Sorry for that but we believe in a feudal system.”



Szkotak:





Elfin: “So that side is for drinking and this side is culture?”



Weil: 


Janpawelxxiii: “You got us. We deal books under the counter. It's a library.”




The rooms upstairs looked very cozy and welcoming






Moving outside...

Weil: “Ok so we started building this today. We’re going to have a castle here.”



Janpawelxxiii: “This was one of the biggest terraforming projects”.







Janpawelxxiii: “If you please come to the edge.

“Here lies our domain, it will be filled with buildings, a village.




Weil: “Come down to see our toilets.”



Janpawelxxiii: “This is our toilet, Roman style.”


Weil: “You know what, I’ll take some stools and well try to sit here.”

Elfin closes her eyes.





Five minutes later...




Our intrepid reported finally regained her composure and continued on with the tour...


Janpawelxxiii: “This was quite challenging to terraform this land. We tried to maintain natural shape of land.”





Janpawelxxiii: “This is our Masonic lodge building, Freirmaureloge.”






Weil: “There are some mysteries hidden in this building. Beware!!.

“Completed last week, not furnished yet .”



Tomservo: “Ooh, mysteries?”



Elfin: “Can you tell of one mystery?”



Weil: “Well we are going to hide some secret messages in this building but I’m not going to reveal now what they’re going to be”. 




Weil: “This castle (Kaenstien) is named in memory of our great friend whose nickname was Kaen. He passed away last year.”



Janpawelxxiii:


Weil: “It’s really just a plan at this moment, we can show you the cornerstone.”



Elfin: Clearly the guys were very emotional about the loss of their friend and the castle is a beautiful tribute to their friendship.



Weil allowed us to show you the plan for the castle.





Janpawelxxiii: “So the castle now is still a work in progress.”




Weil: “It’s going to be pretty high.”




Our dedicated hosts demonstrate their superior construction skills for us...





Janpawelxxiii: “This will be first part of defence for the castle. Unfortunately the game doesn’t allow us to build moats.

“Our bridge will do just fine, we have great view here.”



Weil: “We’ve completed that bridge yesterday.”






Janpawelxxiii: “Okay, so the last thing is our terrace fields modelled according to Inca technology.
“This is my domain as I am gardener “.

“It’s a bit, er, underdeveloped for now.”



Weil: “We’re going to do something about it! This is where we brew alcohol.”


Weil gains Tomservo's full attention at the mention of alcohol...







Weil: “Let’s go to the monastery.

“We’re going to build a marketplace.”


Janpawelxxiii: “Very important place.”


Weil: “Here we have the main entrance and that’s everything we have here at the moment.”





Weil: “Yeah and the only completed part of the monastery, very open since the monastery is literally just a plan.”



Janpawelxxiii: “But it will be built for sure.”








Janpawelxxiii: “The last part is our lookout tower. That has been marked on the sklotopolis map.”





Weil: “We built it six months ago but had so much work in the main part of the village that we abandoned it for the moment.

“By the way, Sarz from Spearhead alliance helped us much with the tower.”


A massive Brown Bear emerged from the forest and moved in to attack us, but Weil leaped in front of us and executed the beast with extreme medieval prejudice...



Elfin enjoys the view as our hosts look on...



Elfin: “What has been your most funny moment in the game?”



Janpawelxxiii: “Most funny moment?

“Maybe not funny, but I really liked when Camellia Valley inn got destroyed and we looted a lot from it



Weil: “I hated that, it’s a shame it decayed, I think places like that should be preserved.”


The tour was nearing the end and Weil showed us the view of Camellia Valley, a truly beautiful place...



All too soon it was time to leave this wonderful place they have created. We learned a lot from this tour and really enjoyed our time there. Our hosts wave goodbye as we mount up and prepare to leave...