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History of Redeemed |
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This page details the history of Redeemed, from its origins in 1998
as a Jedi Knight gaming clan on the Internet Gaming Zone, to the present day.
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In the beginning... |
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The earliest version of Redeemed was known as Christian Lords of the Saber
and was founded sometime in February of 1998. The exact date is uncertain,
but our earliest records suggest that it was early February when CLS was
founded. This clan started when two players, CLS_Jarsofclay and CLS_WWJD777,
broke away from the Guardian Saberist clan in order to found a clan based
on Christian fellowship.
The orignial creed of the clan was that all members had equal standing.
However, CLS_Jarsofclay soon became the de facto leader as it became
obvious that somebody was needed to take care of the day-to-day business of
the group and nobody else was really willing or able to do it.
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The First Golden Age: Defenders of the Cross |
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CLS continued in this manner until it was decided that the inclusion of the
term "Lords" in the title might seem presumptuous to some, diverting
attention from the true Lord. At that time, a vote was taken as to what
the name of the clan should be, and "Defenders of the Cross" was chosen by
a vote over the nearest competitor, "Fellowship of Christian Soldiers".
The name change took place somewhere around March or April of 1998.
The clan existed as Defenders of the Cross until August of 1999. This period
is widely seen as the Golden Age of the clan; Jedi Knight was at its peak,
membership was active, and many people were participating in many different
ways.
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The Fall and Redemption of DC |
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By August of 1999, the membership of DC had declined in activity and its
rolls were filled with inactive members. In order to create a change and
force a new start for the group, three of the key members, DC_JarsofClay,
DC_Newsy, and DC_PKid, decided to break from DC and start anew. They
created a new name for the clan, Redeemed, and created new
identities: R|Drachemorder, R|Verraten, and R|AuBenseiter, and
officially launched the "new" clan on August 27, 1999.
Several members of the old group were invited to join the new one automatically.
Others were invited to apply for membership via a newly revised membership
system.
When the three founding members of Redeemed "left" DC, that created a
void which a few of the DC members tried to fill in order to keep the
group going. The Redeemed founders made their plans in secret and built the
new site for the clan in secret. When all was ready, they revealed themselves
to the remaining DC members. Although there was some reluctance,
the active members of DC were quickly persuaded to defect to Redeemed.
This caused the remnants of the old group to collapse, and Drachemorder
quickly moved to assimilate the old web page and make it into the page for
Redeemed. Thus the division was healed and the two groups were once again
made one, a continuation of DC under a new name and new set of rules....
and a new form of leadership in which the three founding members were given
equal authority.
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The Outsider Wars |
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It soon became apparent that the new form of leadership would not be
functional. Two of the three leaders had drastically differing
views on the nature and purpose of the group.
Drachemorder saw the group as primarily a ministry to the Christian
community, whose emphasis should be on God first and the game second.
He viewed the group as DC renamed --- a clan whose core goals and values
were the same as they had been all along. AuBenseiter saw the group
as a gaming clan, bred to be the best of the best. The members would all be
Christians, but the clan would be focused on skill at Jedi Knight.
In AuBenseiter's eyes, Redeemed was a completely new group with a
completely new and different purpose.
This difference in philosophy led to a large amount of infighting.
Most of the members sided with one of the two varying perspectives,
but a few --- including the key tiebreaking vote of Verraten ---
remained neutral. The fight was long and bitter as both sides tried
to work within the rule system to eliminate the other, with Verraten
remaining infuriatingly neutral the entire time. His tiebreaking
vote could have ended the entire fight at any point, but taking one
side would have surely alienated the leader of the other faction.
Verraten did not want to do this, since he considered both Drachemorder
and AuBenseiter close friends. Eventually, AuBenseiter decided
that his vision of a thoroughly skill-based clan could never be
accomplished in that atmosphere, and he resigned from the group
leaving Drachemorder and Verraten as joint leaders.
One or two of his closest supporters left at this time as well,
but others either remained uncommitted or stayed in the group for
their own reasons. Although it would seem that this would be the
end of the battle, it was not quite so simple. It is not that
easy to break ties completely, and the former members remained
active in personal contact with members and on the message board.
In addition, the ongoing battle had caused a high degree of
mistrust and hard feelings, and that type of injury is always slow
to heal.
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The End of the Outsider Wars and their Aftermath |
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It was during this period at the end of the Outsider Wars that
JBWithers appeared. He provided a new web host and heavy moral
support to the group, eventually making the decision to formally
join. His ideas and leadership provided a major boost to the group
when it was most in need.
Also during this time, the first Council of Redeemed was formed, primariy for
the purpose of advising the leaders and acting as a tiebreaking vote
if they were to disagree. Members of the Council also took the
responsibility of certain subsections of the clan duties, such as editing.
Since the resignation of AuBenseiter, the infighting died down,
although occasionally something occurred to cause old feelings to resurface.
AuBenseiter remained active on the message board and in contact with
a few members for a time, but he and his key supporters were banned as the
result of a particularly nasty fight on the message board. This marks the
end of his direct involvement in the clan, although some have said that
he was still working behind the scenes to undermine and tear down Redeemed,
sulking in bitter contempt for the group which he perceived as having
exiled him. These rumors, however, could not be substantiated,
and for the most part the clan functioned smoothly.
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The Time of Darkness |
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Over the course of a few months after this, interest in Jedi Knight began
to wane and excitement started to grow over the impending release of
Obi-Wan, which most people believed would supplant Jedi Knight as the game
of choice in this genre. Redeemed saw an extensive period of serious
inactivity over the summer and fall of 2000, during which many members
simply forgot about the group entirely. Many people felt that Redeemed
was dead, and indeed it seemed to be so. Another Christian JK clan, the
Jesus Freak Army, had arisen on the Zone and was enjoying phenomenal success.
It seemed that the time of Redeemed was over. However, Drachemorder was
unwilling to allow Redeemed to die, and continued to maintain the clan to
the best of his ability.
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The Rebuilding |
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However, things changed yet again. At the end of November 2000, it
was announced that the Obi-Wan project for the PC had been cancelled,
which was a huge blow to the plans of several members to rebuild Redeemed
around the new game. Mostly due to this announcement by LucasArts,
Drachemorder determined to become more active himself and begin to
rebuild the group with those members who were still active, as well
as a few new ones. So, on Tuesday, December 5, 2000, the first
game in Redeemed in several months was played. In the following days,
a few of the old members were contacted and a few new members were
introduced, and Redeemed was once again revitalized to face a bright
future. The last of the old Aubenseiter supporters vanished at this time,
but a few remnants of his influence remained in the leadership structure
of the clan. This made things somewhat difficult, but the clan managed to
endure, though not at its former strength. The clan trudged onward
through 2001, with neither great victories nor great struggles.
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Jedi Outcast and the Second Golden Age |
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The clan continued under a dual-leader system until March 2002.
This marks the point at which Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast was
released. A decision was made to reorganize the clan completely
in order to fully take advantage of the opportunities offered
by the new game. The dual-leader system was replaced by one in
which there is a single Commander whose power is balanced by
a Council of Officers. This swept away the last remnants of
the system created when DC was transitioned to R and put a
final end to that chapter of our history. Unencumbered by the
past, Redeemed grew and became active. New members joined, old members
returned to activity, and the clan enjoyed another period of growth
and activity as the only significant Christian Jedi Outcast clan.
There were, and still are, a few other Christian clans, but none of them
really adopted Jedi Outcast with any enthusiasm.
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The Great Betrayal and the False Fellowship |
One of the most dire crises in the history of Redeemed began in the spring
of 2003. A number of members, led by an extremely liberal Christian who had
managed to gain significant influence in the clan, plotted to form a non-
Christian clan in secret and seduce Redeemed members into abandoning
Redeemed to join them. This betrayal led a few key members astray and caused
a number of hurt feelings which have not entirely faded to this day.
Friendships were broken and loyalties tested. There are many reasons why
this betrayal succeeded the way it did. One is that the leadership had
become somewhat withdrawn and seemed unresponsive to the average members.
Another is that it had become complacent and somewhat overbearing.
A third reason is that there was a major disagreement within the clan over
the nature of its competition with secular clans; one side saw it as a
battle against evil, to be won at any cost; the other saw it merely as
friendly competition and participation in the mainstream Jedi Outcast
community. (It must be admitted here that both sides had their flaws in this
disagreement.) And, too, many of the treasonous members were simply
uncomfortable with the conservative nature of the clan and its emphasis on
high moral standards.
This incident, painful as it was, still had its beneficial effects on
Redeemed. Number one, it tested the loyalties of the members, whether they
preferred to be part of a Christian community, or a mainstream gaming clan,
and rid the clan of excessive liberal influence. Number two, it encouraged
the leadership to reform its own attitudes and practices and become more
responsive to the membership at large. Number three, it began a period of
reform in the government structure of Redeemed that encouraged many more
members to participate.
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Jedi Academy and the New Era |
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Several different forms of election-based government were tried during the
period between the Great Betrayal and the release of Jedi Academy. They
were generally effective, but somewhat cumbersome as they tied down all
decision-making in debate and voting. After Jedi Academy was released,
and proved to be something of a letdown to many members, a number of
decisions were made. The first was to expand the clan to additional games,
instead of just the Jedi Knight series. The second was to consolidate the
leadership under the authority of the Commander and Subcommander, eliminating
council votes entirely. The third was to divide membership into three
levels: one for casual members, one for gaming members, and one for
leadership. Finally, Redeemed was redefined as being a Christian gaming
community rather than a gaming clan. In practice, this simply means that
members who wish to join simply for fellowship and participation in a
Christian community may do so, while gamers can continue to play games as
before.
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Toward the Future |
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This is where we stand. Our history is not without its problems,
yet we are not defeated. Before us there was no other. While others
rose and fell, we have stood unmoved. We have been, and shall always be,
a body of believers devoted to God above all else, and our strength
comes from Him and Him alone. Our light shines as strong as ever.
May it ever be so!
Our goal is to give Christian players a safe, friendly environment of
other Christians, a refuge from the profane and vulgar nature of the
gaming community. We exist to strengthen them in their struggles
against the prince of this world, and to be a light to those living in darkness.
This is from God and not from us.
We are the salt of the earth.
We are the city on a hill.
We are more than conquerors.
We are Redeemed.
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