MERICA’s pledge Eden (not to be confused with the garden) is a mixing pot of levels and relations. They have a mother and son and a father and son (her boyfriend). They have people who are 48+ and people who are just gaining their titles. They have people from Spain, Canada, Alaska, San Antonio, Texas…sounds like a Disney ride, eh? So how is it that such a mixed and different group, made up of children and grandparents, those pushing fifty (and I’m not talking level) and those still in grade school can function as a good and not to mention full pledge?

Nightly pledge hunts in Fire Valley, Dragon Valley, the Wasteland and the Desert help pledge bonding a bit. “The [pledge] members look forward to being together,” MERICA comments. They trust each other not only in the hunt but in the inventory as well, sharing enough items that their storage dwarf could be quite a good hunter if he could equip all of their pledge storage items!

Besides from pledge hunts, the pledgies set up their own meetings, the stronger members helping the weaker, taking them to better hunting spots and keeping them alive. For a pledge that has only been around since September, this is quite an accomplishment!

The really important thing about Eden is not that its mentioned in the bible, not that their leaders share tender moments at out-of-the-way cafes as well as sieges, not that they are willing to let others use what they don’t, at that moment, need. It’s the fact that they are such different people and yet such good friends. Perhaps all of Lineage could learn a little something from the utopia Eden creates…it is, in all truth, the pledge of paradise, even if it doesn’t have a tree of all knowledge and talking snakes.