Prelude of Prelude - Allegro

The italic text is from Pao’s diary “Chapters from the drunk brewmaster”

"My fondest memories are from Pandaria. Its when I decided I would go completely in on the monk, the new class, and I would tank for the guild.
I wasn’t really prepared for the experience when it came to questing in Pandaria, but those are my most joyous moments in the game.

I had experienced awe in scenery for the first time when I staggered into Stranglethorn Vale for the first time in Classic, but I had no idea how rich the world was until I met my good friend Chen Stormstout and little Lili. Lili was just like me, adventurous and a borne explorer. I fell completely in love with the story or the Stormstout Brewery and the Valley of the Four Winds. It was completely incredible how much I fell in love with the story, and the characters captured my emersion as a brewmaster tank. I was on the quest, to salvage the sacred brew that would save us all. It was such an adventure.

I had such an incredible time living this story with my guild, and I think the experienced surprised us all."

"When it came to raiding, we did phenomenal in the expansion. We conquered dungeon after dungeon and when it came time to take care of Garrosh, we didn’t back down from the challenge.

There were system changes during the raid that might have skewed our efforts, but it didn’t matter – Garrosh would not take the thrown. The Heroes of Prelude did not stand idly by to the injustice that was going on in the horde, and we didn’t not back down. All the way to the Thunder king we went, never giving in to temptation of the horde or Garrosh promises. We were steadfast in our goal.

It’s good to think back on things and wonder if your steadfast commitments are true and trust, and we did so before we engaged the Thunder King himself. Never where we more confident in our team spirit, unity and bond. And that is what brought us victory – not only over the Thunder King, but for the people of Pandaria. The Sha that had clouded our minds had not room to fester our thoughts any longer – we were unity – we were Prelude."

New friends joined us during our journey in Pandaria and Draenor: Pollon, Smalahove, Wallywest, Mirko, Clea, Brusli, Raikage, Mozz, Mileva, Themasternic, Tyron, Reisha, Louisse and Howi, Spreadem, Nordicbear, Datguy, Skaw and his "nicer" brother Zelina, Varalith, Beremeverman, Carlsberg, Aggripa, Conantheserb, Drunkadin, Flepser, Dagda, Tomas, Artemis, Ballou, Mirgo, Mikeman, Corneater, Scyjow, Stormslayer, Memphis and his brother Hellgar  https://discourse.prelude-guild.info/c/recruitment/applications-accepted/
(scroll down to see old applications)

During the first summer in Pandaria we had our amazing 3 years celebration party, a fantastic night with games, music and dead gnomes!
Sadly our video production stopped since our cameraman transitioned from DPS to Healer and it's impossible to heal without the interface (you can't see shit!)

Blizzard introduced a lot of new features, so the guild was very active experiencing all of them: from World bosses to 3 people Scenarios, from Proving Grounds to Brawler's Guild, mini events like the nice Beach Party, tons and tons of dailies that progressed the expansion story arc, and all the activities required to get the first massive legendary avalaible to all players.
It was again Wrathion who guided us through all the steps that lasted more than one year: we even had to do pvp!
We enjoyed it a little, up to our 4th birthday celebration: a grand Arena Tournament organized by our bloodthirsty officer Wallywest. The pvp division was a lot smaller than the pve one but we all had a lot of fun

We kept the tradition of Summer Tours, but we expanded our source of mounts not only from new and old raids but also from pvp or prizes from our 2nd transmog contest
We also wondered if we had to change the name of the guild into Petlude, as a group of our players went crazy into Battle Pet collections and Pet Battles.
At some point we had 4 Prelude guildies into the top 10 of realm collectors! Sfendourax achieved realm 1st pet collector and we did interview him

The officers crew changed a bit during this expansion: at different times Wally, Pollon and Mirko (the great kicker of turtles!) stepped up to help with the management of the guild and P.R, with Pao and Carling as Raid Leaders.

"Then Draenor came. We step back in time and we have to save the future. We were completely alone and isolated, and only our prophet Velen and our trusty archmage Khadgar could guide us on our travel. We stepped though the dark portal into Draenor, not knowing what would await us. Afraid, scattered but brave and vigilant we went through, and it all came crumbling down.

As we established our foothold in our Garrisons and prepared to venture into the raid, the world was waiting. We stepped into Shadowmoon Valley, but this was not our Shadowmoon Vale from Burning Crusade memories... this was different. The lush and gorgeous forest and flora that awaited us was surprising.

We ventured through, establishing our bases as we went, getting increasingly more capable of taking on this horde of the past.
It was surprising what awaited us in Highmaul. Kargath Bladefist, who had been our biggest threat until now, was slain without problems as the first boss. To our surprise this raid was not a challenge.

With bolster and to much self-assurance, we continued to the Blackrock Foundry, and we found out we were not prepared. Hardship and difficulty awaited us as we entered and we were naïve to think we were ready. The minions of Blackhand taught us lessons we had forgotten. It was only though team spirit and dedication to win that brought us through these hard times. Too many times we missed the train, even with our trusty train caller Carling. We didn’t let that stop us. Even with the tortuous Maidens we did endure, making it to the final boss of Blackhand in the Foundry.
I will not lie. This was trying times for Prelude. Things were hard and it didn’t look good. Again it was only to the true team spirit and perseverance of the players that we actually made it through. Blackhand fell, but it took us time to recover after this."

Many people consider Warlords of Draenor the worst expansion of WoW, and Prelude struggled mid expansion, but in the end we endured through it, and some of the features, like Timewalking (and Reforging?) were actually cool.
Fleur's dream is that someday we will get a Guild House, and she hopes that the Garrison would be recognized as the first seed for it.
It was the time we were the closest to miss the Ahead of the Curve achievement: we will never forget the frustration of Operator Thogar, Iron Maidens and Blackhand fights, but we got it last minute and we learned our lesson, starting to manage the raiding roster in a different way.

Blizzard kept the mechanism for the massive legendary: all players had to level their ring all along the expansion until it became powerful in time for the last tier.
They also implemented the first iteration of mythic dungeon mode, keeping them relevant for the whole expansion. Some of our Friday FunRuns™ became dungeon nights with more than two groups challenging each other to finish them faster.

"The fight is never done, and when your feel you are behind, you fight to get to the front. When the dangers of Tanaan Jungle presented themselves to the Alliance, Prelude did not sit on the sidelines.
After taking a beating in the foundry, the Alliance heroes were more determined then ever to be on the front lines. As we ventured into Hellfire Citadel, we had an unwavering desire to prove ourselves.
And we did – boss after boss, minion after minion fell, and as we approached the top of hellfire, Gul Dan, who had been the main villain so far, managed to escape us as we defeated Archimonde and sent him back to the Twisting Nether …. Where an unknown ally would pick up the warglave and return to the good fight with us."

To be continued...