The Golden Age · Sources
How we know
Who wrote each account, which side they spoke for, and what this Chronicle will not use. Every claim on these pages links back to an entry here.
Labels
Four evidence labels
Every claim block and timeline entry carries one of these, plus the sides of the sources behind it. Where accounts conflict, the page says so and gives both.
- Original-era evidence
- Written during the golden era, 1999 – 2004: official notices, developer chats and the players’ own histories of the time. Contemporary is not the same as neutral.
- Later evolution
- Documented changes after the golden era, from 2004 to the closure in 2017.
- Player recollection
- Accounts written years later by people who were there. Valuable, and labelled as memory.
- Our reading
- AC: Novus interpretation of the record. Never a source for a fact.
Official
The developers and the publisher
Notices, developer chats, Q&A and lore from Microsoft’s Zone and from Turbine. Most survive as community transcriptions; we trust their wording and still read them as secondary.
Developer letter · 10 March 2004
The Future of PvP
Turbine, letter to players (transcribed on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Developer chat · 16 August 2000
Developer Chat, 16 August 2000
Microsoft Zone chat with the developers (transcribed on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Developer Q&A · 31 October 2000
Turbine Games Q&A: Balance
Turbine (transcribed on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Developer Q&A · 8 November 2000
Turbine Games Q&A: Allegiances
Turbine (transcribed on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Lore article · May 2000
Heroes’ Respite: Solclaim, PY 11 (May 2000)
Official lore article, transcribed on Lore’s Raat
Developer diary in the press · January 2001
Asheron’s Call: Developer Diary V
GameSpy (archived)
Read through the Internet Archive.
Official notice · 18 January 2002
Announcements, January 2002: Flesh and Blood
Microsoft Zone notice (transcribed on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Official notice · 17 September 2002
The Defense of the Cisterns
Microsoft Zone news and events (transcribed on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Official notice · 23 January 2004
Thursday Evening Darktide Crash and Results
Turbine notice (transcribed on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Official notice · September 2005
Announcements, September 2005: Under Cover of Night
Turbine (transcribed on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Official notice · October 2006
Announcements, October 2006: Dance of the Dead
Turbine (transcribed on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Developer chat · 16 March 2007
Developer Chat, 16 March 2007
WarCry chat with Turbine (transcribed on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Official notice · May 2015
Announcements, May 2015 Patch
Turbine (transcribed on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Official forum thread · 15–16 June 2016
Request for allegiance chat on Darktide
Asheron’s Call official forums, players and staff (archived)
Read through the Internet Archive.
Official handbook · Undated, probably 1999–2000
Asheron’s Call Handbook: Trying Out the Player-Killer Lifestyle
Microsoft Zone handbook (transcribed on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Patch and lore · May 2000
Heroes’ Respite; A Brief History for Travelers: Heroes’ Respite
Patch summary, in-game text and Microsoft Zone lore (transcribed on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Patch summary · June 2000
The Paths of Destruction
Patch summary (on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Patch summary · September 2000
Twilight’s Gleaming; Shadow Spire
Patch summary and in-game text (on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Developer Q&A · 11 December 2000
Turbine Games Q&A: Landscape (AB portal on Darktide)
Turbine (transcribed on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Official notice · 8 May 2002
Upcoming Changes to Aerlinthe
Microsoft Zone news (transcribed on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Developer article · About January 2003
Rebuilding Arwic
Turbine featured article (transcribed on the AC Community Wiki)
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Blood-side
The Blood side
The history kept by the guild that founded Blood. Close to the events, proud and partisan.
Allegiance history · Narrative to 2004
History
Keepers of Chaos, the guild that founded the Blood monarchy
The Blood side in its own words. Partisan, and blunt in its language.
Black Rose-side
The Black Rose side
A memoir and a photo report from the anti-PK guilds that fought Blood. Close to the events, and partisan the other way.
Player memoir · 2001, with a 2013 postscript
Darktide’s Past
Schattenkind, founder of the Shadow Warriors
Written from the side of Black Rose and the anti-PK guilds. Partisan.
Player photo report · December 2000
Shadow Warriors vs. Bael’Zharon
Schattenkind, founder of the Shadow Warriors
Outsider
Outsiders and later recollection
Retrospectives and forum threads written years later by players who were there, belonging to neither founding camp.
Retrospective · 17 August 2015
Asheron’s Call: PVP SRS BSNS – Part 1
Mylex, Gamers Decrypted
Retrospective · 2015
Asheron’s Call Part 2: Carebears
Mylex, Gamers Decrypted
Forum recollection · December 2007 – March 2008
Asheron’s Call Darktide: Amazing
MMORPG.com forums
Forum recollection · August – October 2007
(Darktide) Who was the person you hated the most in PVP?, page 2
MMORPG.com forums
Forum recollection · 6 November 2018
Community Driven “laws”
Pantheon forums
Retrospective · Undated
Play 2 Crush: History of PvP in MMO PC, Part 5: Asheron’s Call
AlteredGamer
Reference
Reference works and press
Encyclopedia and community wiki pages, and news of the closure.
Encyclopedia · Consulted October 2026
Asheron’s Call
Wikipedia
Community wiki · Consulted October 2026
Darktide
AC Community Wiki, mirrored on Lore’s Raat
Community wiki · Undated late-era list
Darktide/Allegiances
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · With a period image
Bael’Zharon’s Rampage
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · Consulted October 2026
Servers
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · Consulted October 2026
Player Versus Player; Player Killer
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · Consulted October 2026
Death Penalty
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · Consulted October 2026
Common Derethian Abbreviations
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · Consulted October 2026
Housing; Dark Majesty
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · Consulted October 2026
Allegiance Experience; The Madness of Men; Mirror, Mirror; Apology Token
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · Consulted October 2026
Land Control; Olthoi Play; Derethian Combat Arena; Lesser Battle Dungeon
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · Consulted October 2026
Noteworthy Players; Trading
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · Consulted October 2026
Hollow Weapons; To Raise a Banner of Flame
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · Consulted October 2026
Character Creation
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · Late-era page
Ayan Baqur; Festival Stone of Darktide
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · Late-era pages
Aerlinthe; Aerlinthe Record; Tenkarrdun; Relic Town; From the Darkness Born
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · Late-era pages
Kara; Linvak Mountain Range
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · With update history, 2000 – 2002
Black Spawn Den
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · Late-era pages
Arwic; Lytelthorpe; Fort Tethana (town pages)
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
Community wiki · Late-era pages
Adventurer’s Haven; Black Hills
AC Community Wiki
Cited by title; search the wiki for it.
News · 20 December 2016
Asheron’s Call and its sequel will sunset as part of the Turbine/Standing Stone split
Massively Overpowered (archived)
By policy
What we do not use
- Private conversations reposted by one side about another, in whole or in part.
- Pages that publish people’s contact details.
- Claims linking a player’s handle to the person behind it.
- Verdicts on named players or groups about fair play. We describe what happened to the game, never who was to blame.
- Head counts as facts. Every membership figure here is a claim, said to be one.
If you were there and the record is wrong, we want to hear it. Corrections keep their history: the page will say what changed and why.