Narag Shathur is an Alliance guild on the European Darkmoon Faire Realm with a side-guild on Horde on Steamwheedle Cartel Realm. The information below relates to Alliance guild on Darkmoon Faire. The Horde guild on Steamwheedle Cartel is only for our Alliance members (no other invites), and is meant as a side-activity. Since some of our members already have Horde characters on Darkmoon Faire, and more will probably appear once Cataclysm is out, we are considering creating a Horde-side guild on Darkmoon Faire as well.

The name "Narag Shathur" means "Dark Cloud" in Khuzdul (the language of dwarves from J.R.R. Tolkien's books). The guild was originally thought to be dwarf-only, but with time the concept changed, and the guild became open to everyone interested.

The guild is a "virtual family". It was never intended, and never will become a hardcore raiding guild, an RP guild, or any other "formal" type of a guild found on WoW. This does not however mean that we do not raid or RP — we just don't do it on as regular basis, as specialized guilds do, and participation is voluntary. The main focus is on members to know and help one another, and (if interested) take part in mutually-agreed events. What we want is to make a family atmosphere. We want all members to trust one another, and absolutely avoid any conflicts.

All recruits must be evaluated by the guild master/creator and opinionated by guild exalted (officers) in order to see, whether the potential member fits the guild profile. Since the guild is rarely advertised, it bases its recruitment primarily on personal preference of its members. Access to the bank (promotion) is granted after an undefined amount of time, when the guild master feels the new member deserves his trust, but this is usually only a couple of days, if the new member is involved in the guild (i.e. involved by visiting the forum regularly, helping others, chatting, etc.). This access involves one tab only. Due to recent account break-ins and guild vault losses, access to remaining tabs is granted after a much longer time, and only for those who have the Blizzard Authenticator or Battle.net Mobile Authenticator.

There are no formal requirements, such as level, equipment, experience, play-time, etc. Many players in the guild are new to the game, and have been playing only for a couple of months, or less. There are also no fees whatsoever, no obligations, but all members (players) must meet the following "human" requirements:

• Maturity: this is the key aspect of a Narag Shathur member. It does not mean age, you can be young, and still be mature. It means behaving properly, in an adult fashion, and being friendly to other members. It is also expected, that you display this maturity outside of the guild, e.g. behave yourself on the Trade channel and such. Due to bad experiences with younger players, the guild admits only those above the age of 18 as declared to the guild master. Rare exceptions are possible, if your application is clearly mature.
• Long-term interest: we're not searching for members, who want to join, level with our help, and then leave for a raiding guild. When you become part of the family, you become a part of the family. We don't want members who switch guilds constantly, go away to another one and then come back to ours. We're not looking for players who are interested just in quick leveling and then regular raiding — this guild would not be the right place for them.
• Mutual help and participation: since the guild is based on mutual trust and friendship, it is expected of all members to be helpful to one another, when asked, and when possible of course. We don't want people who expect only to receive something from the guild or other members, and are not willing to equally help others out via information, activity, or just simply keeping company.
• Respecting the rules and other people: we want people who respect game rules, respect RP rules on Darkmoon Faire (i.e. don't speak or yell out-of-character), and who respect others: no matter what guild, level, class, race, or faction (i.e. respect people who are playing, not only their characters in-game). People who get satisfaction by making the game more difficult for others are not going to feel welcome in this guild (ganking in public areas i.e. not in battlegrounds is forbidden and may lead to being expelled from the guild).

The only situations, when members may be removed from the guild is if they encourage conflicts within the guild, display excessively annoying behavior, or simply take and not give anything back. The guild master reserves the right to make such decisions with help of guild exalted (officers), but these are very rare cases. The guild has been active since May 2009, and only two members in total were removed from the guild for misbehavior. We also have a very high retention level (above 95 percent), less than 5 members leaving to play horde or joining raiding guilds (but in most cases they leave their alts in Narag Shathur, and are treated just as if they were still in the guild — i.e. stay on the forum, chat regularly, participate in guild events).

The guild is primarily English-speaking (all the announcements, the forum, etc. are in English), and partly Polish-speaking (the founding member is Polish), and consists of some game-friends and real-life-friends. All nationalities are equally welcome, but the chats are available only in those two languages. The main guild channel is English, whilst the Officer channel (accessible to everyone in the guild, but may be hidden by non-Polish members using the Chat configuration window) is Polish. However, Polish members should have basic English proficiency in order to be able to communicate with others and read announcements.

This website (forum, gallery, chat etc.) is open only to current guild members to protect their privacy. Therefore, when you join, you will see much more content on this website (including some very useful articles).

Why join

With a large number of social guilds on the Darkmoon Faire realm, you may be wondering, why would Narag Shathur become one of your choice? Obviously, reasons are usually of a personal nature, but here are some benefits you might find interesting.

1. Narag Shathur is managed by active players, and all guild invites are co-ordinated by the guild master with help and support of guild exalted i.e. officers. This is unlike many social guilds, where absolutely anyone can join. Anyone meaning: people you would not feel good with, you couldn't talk to, who would intimidate you and make you want to leave the guild you joined. Not here. Since all invites are screened, no such people are allowed, and if some are invited by mistake, they are out very quickly.
2. The guild master is one of the most active members of the guild. And that means, the guild is alive and managed. Unlike many guilds, where the guild master does absolutely nothing, this guild master tries hard (and hopefully doesn't fail... much...) to satisfy every guild member, to make them feel at home, to make them feel needed, wanted, and appreciated.
3. The guild is focused on mutual help and support. And that means that if you're new to the game (or not that new, but still need some information), others can often help you immediately on the guild channel, or a bit later via the forum (but please remember to seek information yourself first, e.g. using Wowwiki or Wowhead).
4. Guild members vary in their activities. Some raid and know heroics very well. Others like to level many alts, so are well acquainted with various classes. Others like doing achievements, and can help you with doing them due to their experiences. Altogether, this is a place where you will be asking questions first, before going to the Trade channel (where you won't be getting much help anyways in most cases).
5. Despite the guild not being a raiding guild or an RP guild, there are such events organized. We often do 5-man dungeons together, we do weekly raids together. Participation in those events is not compulsory, therefore if you'd rather not participate you will not be forced to. However it's a very good way to get to know one another better.
6. The guild is very talkative. The guild chat channel is very active, rarely silent. People know one another quite well and topics outside of WoW are often the case. We also have our own Ventrilo (voice chat) server, which enables us to voice-chat to one another, and helps in case of dungeon or raid events.

If this appeals to you, this might just be the place you're looking for, no matter if you began playing WoW just a short while ago, or if you're an experienced raider, who simply has enough of pressure and wants a place where you can chat to people and focus on other activities.

Here are some of our most active members:

Tom (Poland)	Ewa (Poland)	Panos (Greece)	Al (UK)	Samuel (Finland)
Berns (Germany)	Sarah+Rich (UK)	Neil (UK)	Martyn (UK)	Marek (Poland)

In conclusion, if you're interested in becoming a part of Narag Shathur, please fill in the application form (link in top menu). When filling in the application in the last field type the following codeword: Hychsohn (this is to prove that you actually read this guild description).

Tom AKA tonid (Guild Master)