Ebon Gate

A History of the Ebon Gate Festival

I have been to every Ebon Gate festival so far. The first one was held in October 1998. Not only was it the first EG, it was the first ticketed festival ever held in GemStone. Prior to that the only event that had tickets sold for it was the Black Swan Quest. Because it was a new thing we didn't really know what to expect. Ebon Gate was advertised as a roleplaying festival primarily with merchants as a secondary offering. The number of tickets sold to that first one was limited. I can't remember for sure how many, I think it was somewhere around 350-450 tickets.

A lot of players made fun of the idea on the boards, wondering why anyone would pay $25 for a roleplay festival and stating that the entire concept was stupid. However, many of us thought it sounded like a really unique opportunity for roleplaying and bought tickets, eagerly looking forward to the festival. The tickets had almost sold out when it was announced that there would be an Auction at Ebon Gate. The few remaining tickets sold right away and there was a hue and cry on the message boards from the very people who had spurned the idea suddenly demanding that more tickets be made available. Those of us who already had our tickets for the "stupid RP restival" smugly sat back and watched the unfolding furor. No more tickets were added.

For the second year I think tickets were still limited but a higher number were made available. I believe it was the third year of the festival when it changed to the current paradigm of tickets being unlimited.

In 2005 the Wavedancer had run a few times in the spring and I think there was also another ticketed event that year. GMs had promised there would also be a big free event. In order to make good on that promise and with limited time available to make a new festival, it was announced that Ebon Gate would be free to anyone wanting to attend that year. There was a small section that was open prior to the official Ebon Gate available to those who had attended Simucon that year and there was also a small Premium only area. The main festival was open to everyone for free.

In 2006 the Ebon Gate festival underwent a drastic change. It was moved to a brand new location, the town of Velathae. Velathae is sort of an Elanthian Brigadoon, a ghostly village that only appears to the living once a year near the Eve of the Reunion. This has been met with mixed feelings. Having a new area to explore is always fun and the town is well laid out and there are a lot of fun new features and games offered. However, with the location and background of Velathae being so specific the event itself feels much more restricted and the atmosphere is one of visiting a village of merchants, not attending a festival.

The original festival grounds and how the merchants were scattered around very much provided a carnival type of atmosphere. Also, the design of the area and the room painting supported the reason for the festival to even exist, that being the celebration of the Eve of the Reunion where people can be reunited with their dead loved ones. The carnival atmosphere and the Eve of the Reunion celebration have been mostly lost with the transfer to Velathae.

The 2006 Ebon Gate also hosted an auction, only the second to be held at the event. That time the auction tickets were sold as an extra add on for around $100 and included entrance to both the main festival and the auction area. The tickets were limited to around 200 I think and sold out almost immediately. The normal festival tickets were unlimited and closer to the usual price.

For the 2008 Ebon Gate a new ticket feature was offered for the first time to any event in GemStone, and that was the ability to pay a bit more in order to allow extra characters on the same account to attend the festival. Tickets were sold for single characters (the normal price), two characters, three characters, and four characters.

	Puppet Shows & Digging For a Tavern - '08
	The Singing Diggers - '08
	Dance Contest - '04