For almost everything this one writes, there is a Khajiit behind the journal.
There are jokes, sweet rolls, questionable financial decisions, political headaches, wars, adventures and far too many uses of the words “this one.”
But for just a moment, I want to break character.
No Binya. No Khajiit. Just me.
Thank you.
Genuinely, thank you to everyone who has made this past year what it has been.
When I joined WarEra after seeing a post on Reddit, I thought I had found a fun little game to try. I could never have imagined the friendships that would come from it, not only with people from South Africa, but with people from all over the world.
And when I think about this year, it isn’t only the wars, elections, governments or things that happened inside the game that I remember.
It’s everything around it.
The late-night calls that went on much longer than they were supposed to.
The quizzes.
The games.
The ridiculous conversations.
The celebrations when things went our way and the times we sat together when they didn’t.
The people who have joined in with whatever strange idea we decided sounded fun that week.
And now, a year later, somehow we’re spending October hunting little Boos around Discord, changing names and profile pictures, solving riddles, looking for secrets and generally causing absolute chaos with Spooktober.
Watching people actually participate in something as silly as Spooktober has meant more to me than I probably say. The same goes for every quiz night, game night, call, event and random conversation over the past year.
Those things aren’t really WarEra mechanics.
They’re things we made together.
I’ve met people here I never would have had the opportunity to meet otherwise. Some live on the other side of South Africa. Some live on the other side of the world. Yet somehow a little browser game managed to put us in the same place.
So whether you’ve been here for almost the entire journey, only recently became part of it, fought beside me, fought against me, joined a quiz, sat in a call, hunted a Boo, read one of my increasingly ridiculous articles, or simply made me laugh somewhere along the way:
Thank you.
Thank you for the friendships.
Thank you for the memories.
Thank you for the late nights, the victories, the disappointments and the absolute nonsense.
And thank you for turning something I joined because “oh, this looks fun and interesting” into something I am sitting here writing about one year later.
Right.
That was enough sincerity.
Khajiit would like his journal back.
This one has been informed that the human occupying this one’s body has finished being emotional.
How embarrassing.
There are wars to fight, articles to write, Boos to catch, governmental headaches to acquire and, apparently, another year of questionable decisions ahead.
Binya_Elsweyr
This one came for the game.
This one stayed for the people.