What is the name of your allegiance and how many members do you currently have?
At the moment we do not really have a particular title that we call our family. I suggested Ayume's Harem for the name since there are so many men in the family, but they seem to object. =) As my last count in my screen, there are about 63 followers.

What is your current rank?
I am a Shi-Chueh(rank 4)

About how long have you been playing Asheron's Call?
Actively, I would say since retail. I played in beta a tad bit, but I was playing in other online RPGs that I did not play that much then.

What world is your allegiance on?
We reside in the Thistledown server.

Are any (or all) of your allegiance player killers?
As to my knowledge, we do not have any player killers in the family.

Is it female only or co-ed? Do you have a variety of player types or are you limited to one or two types (like an all-mage allegiance)?
There both females and males. We have pretty much every player types, except for spear, dagger, and staff users.

Do you allow mules to pledge in your allegiance?
I am pretty much flexible when it comes to that. I did it to my mule so that the family members actually notice when I am on in case they need me for anything.

What do you offer your vassals and what do you expect from them?
I try to be around as much as I can. Naturally, I do give out equipments and search for they things that they need, but that is only a little part of it. There are times that I had to run halfway across Dereth just because a family member died in a hard place and could not retrieve his corpse. In return, the family members do that for each other as well. I only expect that they know and get along with each other, as I try to introduce them to each other as much as I can. I don't enjoy having people who only join an allegiance because they want to be pampered with equipments, because it is not what this family is all about.

Do you organize your followers according to an allegiance tree or just allow them to join and recruit at will?
As far as I know it, if I organize it according to the tree, I would be rank 6 by now. =) No, I don't, I would rather not force them to recruit if they do not feel comfortable with it. Some members like to recruit, but I have other members who are borderline ronins. =)

Does your allegiance have a history in any other games?
No, we all met in retail. There is only one member that I knew from EQ.

Were you ever a part of another allegiance? If so, why did you choose to leave them and start your own?
I was never part of any other allegiance.

Do you recruit new members or just wait til people ask to join? If you recruit, how do you go about it?
I never really actively recruit. In the beginning, I would ask my new found hunting partners if they are interested in forming an allegiance, but lately, I have never recruited.

Do you have an allegiance contract?
We do. I think our primer is a pretty common one. I only expect that they maintain our sense of family. The primer can be found at http://www.topcities.com/Computers/hashigiayume/contract.html

Do you have a town that you consider your headquarters?
Yes, we do. Shoushi is our main gathering place. A lot of our members have a mule or two in the tower near the blacksmith and jeweller.

Do you primarily adventure in one geographical area or do you cover the world?
I personally try to hunt in different places. Sometimes a family member would suggest a hunting trip, and when possible, I would join them.

How much maintainence do you do in order to prevent your vassals from becoming unhappy and leaving? What do you do to keep their loyalty?
I think most our members stay because they are comfortable with each other. As I mention, we focus on our sense of family, and the most loyal family members are usually the ones that are socially active with the other members. I usually ask them to say hi and talk to me if they see that I am on, and would go to certain hunting trips to replace their lost equipments or fulfill their wish lists if possible. A lot of the family member have mentioned they like the fact that they actually see their monarch once in a while, have a nice conversation, and even periodically hunt with them.

Do members of your allegiance regularly team up to go adventuring, especially to do some of the more difficult quests?
I think almost every night I would hear that a group of our family go on a hunting trip. They usually try to tackle harder dungeons, or places they have never been in. Right now, I am in the middle of organizing better hunting trip events, with our new allegiance web site and all, and a member already suggested some hunting trips and quests that seem pretty interesting. So, in the very near future we will have more organized trips.

Would you like to see allegiance wars implemented in the game? If so, how do you think they would affect the game and how would they make it better?
I think as in the social part of real life, we are always going to have people that we do not really like. It is no different in AC, I suppose. I think that the reason why a lot of allegiances/guilds are hesitant about starting a war is that they have lower level members that might not be able to hold in a fight, and they would fail to see the fun in those wars. Allegiance wars would be interesting, but I think they should have a level cap/limit in which high level players cannot fight much lover level members and vice versa. That would even out the war a lot, I think.

Are there any allegiances that you currently have feuds with?
Not to my knowledge.

Do you have any minimum rank-required type items that you use?
Well, I use some rank 3+ equipments, like my basinet.

What do you think is the best thing about the allegiance system?
The best part is that it actually requires a lot of trust in your patron/monarch. However you want to put it, you are giving them an experience bonus. That is why it is very important to be with an allegiance that you are comfortable with. I have seen so many good people who are not satisfied with their patron/monarch. I think of allegiance as more of a close family that we can rely upon, and if a person does not feel that with his allegiance, I think they are missing the best part of being a part of an allegiance.

What would you change about the system if you could?
I don't really have any complains about the allegiance system. I really do think it is a strong advantage of AC.

Are there any in-game tools that you would like implemented in order to help you manage your allegiance?
It would really make things easier if we can notice a family member in the radar with a distinct colored dot. Because of the recent influx of new members coming, it is more difficult to organize the family. I would also like a last follower reply command in chat, so I can reply to my vassals' vassals and vassals' vassals' vassals without typing @tell all the time since they can just type @m to talk to me. =)

Do you think men and women monarchs differ? If so, in what way?
To tell you the truth, I have only met male monarchs in the server. I think the way their allegiances are structured and organized are not so much gender based. It is more of leadership style.

Do you think men and women differ in their playing style? If so, in what way?
Forgive me if I seem sexist, but I really do think men tend to be a little rash in hunting, especially the close combat fighters. They would just rush into a dungeon they barely know about and often times get overwhelmed by the monsters hunting them down. Women are a little more careful I think, although sometimes I would just rush in for the fun of it. =)

Would you ever consider putting together a female-only monarchy? What do you think the pros and cons of it would be?
I do not really enjoy a restricted allegiance. Limited fighting types, and even restricted gender monarchy are not something that I would consider. The fact that we have a good variety of people in the family is why I think we came to need each other and enjoy each other's company.

Does your allegiance have a website?
Yes, we do. It is still rather new, though, but I expect more submissions from the members as time goes on. It can be found at http://www.topcities.com/Computers/hashigiayume