Otori

Origins

The name Otori was borrowed from a series of novels by Lian Hearn titled 'Tales of the Otori'. Set in Feudal Japan this series culminated with its fifth and final instalment 'Heaven's Net is Wide', in August 2007. The series brings to life an era where a strong leadership and traits such as honour, loyalty, revenge and humility are highly respected. -- ashamalee (#89522) most certainly recommends a read of the first instalment; 'Across the Nightingale Floor'.

It is to this series ashamalee turned when in need of a clan name come August 24 2004 as he departed Unholy Slayers and formed his own clan with real life friends Leon_Necredor and Segafreak1999 (both whom have since retired from the game). Several members of Unholy Slayers followed ashamalee down his chosen path including Resiliang (#183270) who would play an important role in the initial growth of the clan.

Today

Otori has grown up from the baby clan it once was and can now be decribed as one of the major clans of KoL. The clan attracts a diverse range of players with different in-game goals. Some run through hardcore and softcore ascensions, others are powerlevelling, trophy-hunting, playing the mall or basementing. Some brave souls even dabble in the world of Bad Moon.

Whatever their personal goals, one of the most important aspects of the clan is the activity of its members, and as such Otori requires that all its members be active in chat and on the clan forums. Following this approach, the ranking system is based predominantly on activity and karma is seen as largely irrelevant. Whilst this may sound a bit dictatorial it has proved successful in the past, meaning that projects of some sort are running pretty much continuously, helping clan members to get to know one another really well, and allowing new members to be quickly assimilated.

For several years Otori has been heavily involved in clan warfare, with the aim being to land a successful hit every three hours without fail. The mechanics of the clan warfare system mean that once a clan has built up a sizeable lead and lands their own hits with regularity it can take trailing clans months or even years to chip away at it. Faced with a seemingly unassailable lead to make up, Otori continued to attack clans daily in a display of stubborn, supposedly futile bloody-mindedness. On 24th July 2007 a long and brutally efficient clan attack drive came to fruition when Otori passed Head Clan to claim top spot in the Most Clan Warfare Wins - a feat which, it had been reckoned, could have taken until 2009 to complete.

Aside from clan warfare and its buffbots, Otori is probably best known for running regular contests throughout the year, as well Otori Week - an annual series of games, contests and giveaways lasting seven days in commemoration of the clan's formation. In-game contests have proved particularly popular in the past, including "Iron Chef" where players were given an account with only cooking skills and a few basic familiar and had to find, assemble and describe a themed meal in-game, and the "Hardcore Familiar Roundup" where players in a hardcore ascension had a limitted amount of time to collect as many familiar hatchlings as possible. These are just two of many, and you can be sure that there will be more to come in the future.

Although Otori might variously be described as a philanthropic, powergaming or war clan, its members prefer to regard themselves as a warm, friendly and active community who also happen to do some cool things.

History

ashamalee formed Otori on 24th August 2004, after consultation with RL friends (segafreak1999 and Leon_Necredor) both of whom have since left KoL. The first in-game member to join the ranks was Moless, who was found lurking in /villa only hours after the clan was created. Following him, several members from Unholy Slayers found their way over, including ResiLiang. ResiLiang was the most active member, and continuously worked hard acquiring new members, with an ideal size of 100 members in sight. However, many of these new faces soon became inactive, as a large percentage of new members always seem to do. Booting came into play and numbers were cut back. However, those that stayed active and stuck around formed a very worthy core of this new clan. Recruiting continued, under such long-time KoLers as PumpkinEve and Rutabega. After a while, ResiLiang found a new game (Maple Story) and spent most of his time there for a number of months. He has recently returned to KoL, and has rejoined Otori.

An impressive army was built up using funds donated mostly by ashamalee and Leon. After a short period of time, they built up a force to be reckoned with and soon hit the leader board, quickly attaining 4th place for "Most clan warfare wins". Otori was, for a long time, prevented from improving on the fourth position they obtained in this way. More recently, however, Monty Python's Quest for the Holy Grail stopped taking clan warfare so seriously and Otori moved up into third place. Soon afterwards, Ubiquitous Toad Lickers reached 3000 wins and stopped taking part in clan warfare - this left the field clear for Otori to reach second place. Unfortunately, until head clan cease their efforts in the arena of clan warfare (or until the clan warfare mechanics are changed), there is no way for Otori to hit the top of this leaderboard. Nevertheless, they continue to carry out their battles, eight times daily, every day.

After the changes made towards the end of 2004 (in which clans with less than five members were kicked off the leaderboards), the members of Otori realised that they were only a short whisker away from the power leaderboard. Much shore-whoring followed, with the eventual result that Otori rose to the bottom of the leaderboard in mid-February. The drive didn't stop there, though - they had to maintain their position! It is worth noting that, although there used to be a minimum power requirement to be able to join, it was dropped in late February 2005. Despite this, Otori could be found on the power leaderboard in 12th-15th position, until ascension was implemented. Then they, along with most of the rest of the Kingdom, succumbed to temptation and stepped through the gash. However, they have fared similarly well in this endeavour and can now be found on the ascendingest board in approximately 11th position.

One thing which Otori has always been famous for were its philanthropic buffbots. In April 2005, Tagliatelle contacted holatuwol (of KoLmafia fame), to ask if he would create a buffbot engine that would do what was necessary. It took a whole month to iron out all the problems but, once this was done, the Otori buffbots (sneaksie the Accordion Thief, DragonSlayersAnon the Turtle Tamer and leethal the Sauceror) were stable and running almost 24/7. Once ascension was implemented, they had an even grander vision: a buffbot which could give all of the possible buffs. Testudinata was born. Badmojo and Slashor did most of the work of putting her through her 30 ascensions (starting in June), and she finally went public in early November 2005. At the time, she was capable of providing all Accordion Thief, Turtle Tamer and Sauceror buffs and is on a neverending quest to lower prices by levelling up. However, the recent additions to the Accordion Thief skillset mean that she is no longer the all-singing all-dancing buffbot. However, she is still by far the cheapest buffbot in the Kingdom for those buffs which she does offer.

However, the one thing that most players know Otori for is Otori Week. This was held from 24-31 August 2005, in celebration of the clan's first birthday, and was a week of contests and philanthropy. Otori is not a rich clan - there are not even any truly super-rich members, unlike other old-time clans - but every member dug deep and they collectively gave away hundreds of millions of meat, both in the form of meat and of items. In recognition of this achievement, Jick designed a custom item for them to give away, the Otorian Battle Scar, and the winners of each contest received one of these unique items, in addition to the other prizes.

In early January 2006, ashamalee finally retired as leader of Otori, citing increased real life time pressures. He passed the mantle onto Tagliatelle but continued to advise on all matters for a while. However, ashamalee later moved out into a new clan, Terayama, due to lack of time for KoL.

Later, as the clan's second birthday approached, their thoughts turned to holding another philanthropic celebration. After a large amount of planning and trading (special thanks go out to babyslave for the trading), Otori Week II: The Rise of the Machines took place from 24th-31st August 2006. Several contests were in a style which hadn't been seen before in the Kingdom (particularly the Reverse Riddle contest and the Player Name Scavenger Hunt) - these took a longer to judge but were fun for all concerned. With a few refinements, we may be seeing more of these in the future.

As a part of these celebrations, the buffbot sneaksie was finally retired and was replaced with a newer one, Binary. The idea was to finally have a buffbot who could offer any buff in the Kingdom - and also, one which would not get as backlogged as Testudinata. However, the introduction of Spookyraven Manor and its associated skills meant that Binary had one missing: Scarysauce. Still, he continues to run and provides a higher-priced but faster service than Test.

Members, past and present

ashamalee was the clan's founder.

PimpingWolfwood is the current clan leader, and is assisted by Breckenrouge, ChillyDragon, Deathless Assassin, Mrjingjing, Nikademus, and Psyko

For a long time, Innocent Bystander and JizmacTheAttentionLovingNinja were members of the clan. IB is the multi of Chrono Mage and Crazy Tourist - Otori has, as a result, enjoyed close ties with Iocaine Powder. Jizmac was the shared multi of Crapstorm and PumpkinEve and was used by them to duck into clan chat after they left the clan. The clan whitelist feature rendered these multis obsolete, and they have since moved on.

Membership info updated May 16th, 2008 Current members :Aeann, Aerin Frost, Aesi, Alhanna, allie, AmishRebel, Ashamalee, Badmojo, Bank of Kol, BigdoG, BlackJackkol, Bob the Tea, Bulletproof, C Murda, ChillyDragon, Darth_Noodle, Deathless Assassin, Fysk, hockeymax19, Ice_Nine, iMon, Ivalice, Jellyman, JotaJota, Kerallyn, Lord_Lagger, mastermoon, Mrjingjing, neko chan, Nikademus, Pastaroni, PhoenixFireRising, Pimpingwolfwood, Psyko, ResiLiang, Rosella, scheijan, Snave, Spazmatic, Stickly_Man, Stormhead, Suryc, Suzlka, Tichondrius, Topolino, and Toric.

Past members: aaNii, acidsoul, agent57, Akirasan, Arkohn, l337_mo7ha, Ben San Arizona, Bob the Tea, calamityjane, Capn, Capn Gnarly, cnutt, Cartman69130, Covante, Crovax1234, deedlee, Demius devilon, Eggwhite, electricsushi, Faerador, Frazzlehoon, Freak Nasty, Gamma_Ray, Gorblax, hedgyman3, Hekatchu, H4nn3s, issarocks, Kyle89, lil_stabby, Macbeth417, MarinaraMario, MaryOfDoom, MasterNick, Matt the Fish, mech_monkey, mosm, NevilDenJacobi, Nic, Nyarlathotep, Moless, Octavia The Barber, Papa Zito, piff133, Riddick09, Rutabega, sage36, SeBulba, Slashor, SpaceMonky, spcaemaggot, SPNirology, stile58, tomkitty, Tudlow, Trigger, Volksen, Wiggin, Xarous, Xenos_in_a_hat, and YaYaMcG.

External Links:

Clan Otori's Home Page
Clan Otori's Forums (Public Access)

See Also

• Clans
• Otorian Battle Scar