Lovely thread Unwillingly. :)
Back in the Aegis days of 2011…I played a Gordon Freeman-esque scientist in an orange hazmat suit called Telinir. He did all kinds of bologna—a true master of shenanigans. The Great Lore Breaker. He researched redstone magics, netherrack (to uncover the secrets behind the Undead scourge of Aegis), and invented his own soulstone-based (/msg) communication technology! What a lad, he was quite busy, no? I carved out massive sections of the underground to create research labs (marked LAB-08) and farmed crops, mobs, and whatever else you could farm in MC at the time to help feed my little village of Talamh.
To this day I am surprised I got through that time without being utterly banished, though not surprised, as I was quiet and RP'd just with my small group of friends I made on LoTC. Part of me misses those carefree everything-goes days…but, the other part of me is glad we've passed that age of total anarchy.
* Credits to Doom321 & Defy for the lovely artwork.
But for a while, I've wanted to recant Farmer Billy Bob's humble history too! He was born not that long after really—just at the end of 2012, I clued up on the RP-scene and what LoTC was all about by then, he was a character borne out of need. A man of service. Billy Bob lived to serve the newbies, as back in 2012 we had a team called the Guide Team (my first team on LoTC!). Around that time I had been making dozens (over 30) guides on how to play various characters across this server…be it the mighty warrior, the light-footed thief, a tender maiden, or a mystical wizard. Ultimately, I fell in love with the idea of guiding new players onto the server so I devised a humble, feeble-minded farmer with a heart of gold.
Farmer Billy Bob is not the sharpest tool in the shed, no. He is far from book-smart. He can't read! He loves crops and has a soft heart—as far as evil goes he couldn't hurt a spoon. Over the years, I've had a chance to roleplay with hundreds of people on this character—he's evolved in some miraculous ways. He cares deeply for animals and humans alike, but when it comes down to mealtime he's vegetarian. His accent is incredibly thick, and he has a special liking to potatoes.
But…why?
Well, Farmer Billy was conceived in Elysium. The map after Asulon but before Kalos and Anthos. I had no special perms at the time and I we did not have monkbread or any other sources of free food. New players were on their own—and I took notice to this. Billy carved up the hillsides near spawn and made himself a musty, dirty, but homey little cabin. In the roof he grew his favourite mushrooms—right at his bedside. On the main floor you could occasionally make out the wooden floorboards underneath the layers of soil and grime. Picture a single table and a small chest to store food.
Around this time, a new update came out which added potatoes and carrots to Minecraft. Everybody knew wheat…it was common and boring! So Billy became a farmer of carrots and taters. Potatoes were also plentiful and easy to farm and filling when baked—so it was a natural choice. As LoTC is often home to many different accents, Billy had an especially thick accent! New players acclimating to the server would be greeted with a goofy and toothy smile from one, grimy mud-crusted farmer who didn't speak a lick of regular tongue. He certainly believed he spoke common…but anybody close enough to smell or hear him might disagree.
I remember fondly that Billy got along closely with The Order of the White Rose. Hilariously, a group of zealous xenophobes bent on human supremacy was perfectly happy to invite this crusty farmer into their abode—and he often visited their headquarters with delicious baked goods.
Over the years Billy has amassed quite an arsenal of foods, if you meet him you might get to try his steamy `moshrum soop`.
…
So how exactly did Farmer Billy Bob become known as a aengudaemon of harvest? Veteran scholars across the continents hotly debate this…as many have met the Bob Himself™ and felt no special qualities from this otherwise unimpressive room-temperature IQ fellow. Others recounted with bated breath their eyewitness testimony to Billy's quirky and 'otherworldly' tendencies. Which of them is right? You wouldn't find these answers in any books…
One thing is known for sure…the old farmer has trouble juggling his trusty wood hoe in one hand and bag o' taters 'round his back. Although many have seen him spill his bag of taters, not once has anybody seen those taters hit the ground. Billy isn't ever quite sure why he's missing his taters, but he bakes plenty more. Farmer Billy Bob makes sure anybody he meets will have a taste of his delicious, famous baked taters.
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On a side note, did anybody ever read any of the Dragonlance Chronicles? I remember the burning of an inn of one Otik and his famous spiced dish. ;)