Alas Poor Eonwe

It's funny how people we never will actually meet can affect our lives. Our personal heroes as kids, in some cases sports figures, or people we only will ever meet online. In this case it's more of a disturbing story because of the details that were finally revealed in the past two days.

Eonwe and I were in the same Everquest guild for about two months. Truthfully, I hated the elitism and the way those in the guld treated all the other players in the game with contempt and then left to float back down to my own level of enjoyment.

Eonwe was always a kind person though, despite my somewhat rabid hatred of his guild. He'd always stop what he was doing if you'd asked him for help, always kept a good sense of humor about him. It's a trait I later realized was important to myself and has helped me hang on to what threads of sanity I have remaining.

It came as a shock to hear someone broke into his house and murdered him two years ago. The event even made national news. I didn't quite know how to react to this one, as I'm told his real life was somewhat like his game life. What did surprise me was how young he was. Eonwe exhibited a level of maturity that few adults exhibit. In some ways his only flaw was that he let his individual identity be subsumed underneath groupthink.

Now, two years later more of the story came out. It seems his brother was involved in the murder of Eonwe and Eonwe's mother. He fled and was later picked up by police. I can understand the guilt he must have felt, and I can understand the anger that might lead you to this course of action. What I cannot understand is actually acting on it. It's been at least a good eight years since I last had my hands around my brother's throat. We may not get along, but even then I couldn't see murder entering the picture. Not only that it appears his brother occaionally played the character.

In fact, the only time I can see any sort of violence that might lead to death of any family member was in the last months of my mother's life. That wasn't anger. It was a serious mental illness and she would have believed she was acting out of self-defense. (On the other hand, I was still living at home and what amounts to the first time of my life slept with my door locked and kept a cell phone in my room in case things got out of hand.) I can't comprehend this with a sane mind that's only been pushed over the edge slightly by anger.

Well, Kevin, you knew me only as Lenadayna Stardew, the overzealous EZboard moderator and then Laralanla Tacita, the bard who sang her way through the EQ zones. I hope you're in a better place than here. Until we meet again.