Eleven odd years roughly since the online incarnation of the Dragon Guild went silent. 

 

A long time for the dust to gather and Light to fade. 

 

I am Weaver, once known to Guildies as Dreamweaver back in the day when the original founder, Peter Person, ran the online group. 

 

The ideal was simple … revolving as it did around a single statement:

 

A Dragon flies to render Aid. 

 

We tried our very amateur best to be there for those who found our little corner of the Web, but there was only so much as could be accomplished solely online at the turn of the millennia. 

 

Eventually, Life got busy for some, downright complicated for others and human nature itself worked against us. 

 

As in any group, there were the die hards who did the work and then the masses who reaped the rewards. When the masses don’t carry their weight it is inevitable that the die hards burn out and become disillusioned. This is what happened to my dear friend Peter and it began affecting his well-being. 

 

When he had to stop and the group was shut down, I was the one that argued that his vision should not be abandoned. Due to my refusal to let go, I was entrusted with both the URL ownership and the dream.  

 

Life went on and most of us drifted away, but I’ve renewed the domain for over a decade in the hopes that I could find a way to make it fly again. 

 

Well, I’ve gone and done it. 

I’m embracing my crazy and taking that blind leap. 

 

For good or ill, my wife and I have signed a 5 year lease and we’re bringing Dragon Guild to brick and mortar here in Chilliwack in the form of a Bazaar that aims at the disposable incomes of geeks, nerds and witchy folk like us. 

 

While it will have a retail element (I still need to feed the family and keep rooves over heads, lights on and grandkids clothed), my plans are farther reaching. 

 

Jys and I are building both a geek game room and experience where the emphasis will be on inclusion. From the ground up, we’re aiming to make it a safe space for indigenous, queer and neurodivergent folk of all ages A place to come and play and be safe to be themselves. 

 

Where folk of all kinds (newbies and TTRPG OG alike) are welcome to come and indulge their geek in peaceful camaraderie. The way Gaming should be done in a place were whimsy rules. 

 

But, in order to do honour to the vision that won my heart all those years ago and to satisfy a  very powerful conscience that I have to live with, I must do better still. 

 

I must make a real difference in actual lives. 

 

As such, Jys and I have set up a separate business account with the bank. We’re calling it the Hoard and we’re going to be putting a percentage of our annual profits into it to be gifted at the end of the year to a local organization that works with the street entrenched. 

 

The homeless situation in British Columbia is beyond epidemic and we got one heck of an education in it between this summer and now.  While city halls court the million dollar investors, we have communities of folk living in campers at every highway rest stop and if you look hard enough you’ll see them in tents (if they are lucky) on the verges both between and on the sides between Hope and Vancouver - I mean, it’s everywhere but I can only start local and hope we grow. 

 

When the agoraphobe’s sense of outraged conscience overrules her terror leading her to build an agora … things are well wrong in the world. Safe spaces are going to be needed by all and the most vulnerable just experienced a brutal time of it over the yuletide.

If we are going to call ourselves Dragon Guild then we need to model the change we want to see. 

 

We also have a raft of ideas to help grow the hoard so we can do more good; such as an adopt a mimic program 

 

This is the tiniest tip of the iceberg of the whole story. But I felt this incarnation of the Dragon Guild needs to acknowledge its origins.