I was late to the scene. I didn't start playing FFXI until June 2004, and I started on PS2. I started in a linkshell with some RL friends called "ZevaComm". My rl stepbrother's character name was "Zeva" and he was the leader. There were only 4 people total in that LS and we all knew eachother irl. We never did much as a group we just used it for socializing.
I was passionate about PLD right when I hit WAR30 and unlocked the job. I studied everything about the jobs online, and decided PLD was what I wanted. I had a ton of fun playing that job. I joined an LS called "KnightsJourney" when I was in my 40s as PLD. We had to do strange role playing trials and a ceremony in Northern Sandoria cathedral afterwards. We would do all PLD events through places like Castle Oztroja where we would clear the zone and get people AF stuff. You can imagine a group of all PLDs whacking away at stuff lol...takes a loooong time and got boring fast. PLD is a damn tanking job not a job to annihalate a zone. That LS got very strange and I didn't like the events we did. I left the LS at around level 52.
My friend Athel got me into her LS "KentuckyFriedChocobo" which was confused with the JPN KFC LS. I would get examined and get tells from people like "wtf are you doing in KFC?". I actually posted a thread on CKD forums explaining we had a different KFC LS lol. It was mostly people in their 50s-60s at first. I had a lot of fun in that LS because I was the only PLD and we did a lot of fun events. I always got to main tank everything. It helped me perfect my skills of tanking stuff in an alliance with higher level melee smacking away at shit and giving me a challenge. Athel, Ambroise, and myself ended up having drama with that LS leader Mynara and we formed our own LS "Exilium" which is still kicking today (led by Ambroise).
I wanted to join CKD. I always read these forums, I was very interested in all the events they did, and I liked Yarr's personality. He was an asshole to people lol, but I like certain assholes. Yarr also seemed like a great leader and was very dedicated to making the best NA LS even better. I signed up for a Dynamis run (would have been my first) with CKD when I was a 70PLD but I had to back out due to something irl. I don't know why I never signed up wih CKD again, but I didn't. PLD wasn't an in demand job at all. CKD had more than enough of them so I never bothered applying for the shell. I knew I wouldn't get in.
Athel started doing Dynamis with Monarchy right when I got to 75 PLD (march 2005), so I joined them for Dynamis. I felt like I was going the other way because CKD hated Monarchy with a passion. I went in with an open mind and gave it a try before judging them. Aiame was very nice to me from the start, but made me co-main-tank in their Dynamis right away lol. I did everything I was told and everybody was very nice to me. I got tells from people saying I did an excellent job. I ended up sticking with them for Dynamis after that, since I made friends in Monarchy and they were all nice to me.
I was so loyal to the people in Exilium I couldn't bring myself to leave for an HNM LS. I had a rep as a very good tank to everybody that played with me. That made me want to join an HNM LS even more, so I could take on more big game. I felt like I was going nowhere with Exilum, and I was having lots of issues irl because I played so much. I didn't want to spend so much time on a game I couldn't go anywhere with, so I deleted Kluya in May 2005.
I got my shit straight irl and got the FFXI cravings again. I took over my irl best friend/roommate's character Ephit in August 2005. It was a 71 BLM. I didn't know a damn thing about BLM lol. I was in Exilium and did stuff with them as BLM to figure out the job. Then I started level grinding and I dropped the shell. I went right back to Dynamis with Monarchy and applied for their shell since Athel was in it. That was the first and only time I've applied to an HNM LS. I got in and stayed with them until I quit in October 06. Even though Monarchy didn't accomplish much compared to other LSes, I was still very happy in the shell. I loved the people, loved the teamwork, and always had fun with them. Even though like 90% of the shell quit or is joining other LS like Atariii, I would still be in Monarchy today if I played helping my friends in the shell make it better.
Fuuuuck it took me an hour to type this lol. I have to get back to work
