With the coming of a new year and the inevitable want to get last year back, Ascendance wondered where it would go.  The Burning Crusade on the brink of release, where would the guild go?  The answer that was reached in December was nowhere, not until everything that twitched in Naxxramas was dead.

Yes, that includes Dinkl.

With the four Horsemen dead and approximately three weeks until the expansion comes out, we certainly had our work cut out for us.  Flying bony dragons that dropped huge ice turds and a frosty, legless lich were marked for jihad.  (No, we are not terrorist, but we do kick puppies.  Very, very hard.) 

We brought out all the stops.  All the infidels and suicide bombers came out of their caves to engage in chemical warfare against these two bosses and we came out ahead.  On Saturday, our bony friend flew into the proverbial glass house and didn't seem to wake up.  BAM!

This is all fine and dandy, aside from Sapphiron not having enough meat on its bones to feed a raid.  Ascendance clawed away that night on Kel'thuzad, reigning terror on some fatties, rustling up some banshees and toying with some skeletons.  Only we didn't know that Sunday, the next day, would be the day that we'd kill Kel'thuzad.

Kel'thuzad dying marks a particular time for Ascendance.  The game is done for us.  Yet, thankfully, the princess is in another castle, so to speak.  The Burning Crusade comes to us with all of us knowing we've done something that no one else on the Uther server has done yet and knowing that we have managed to complete all encounters before more content is released.

Ascendance, simply put, makes me proud.  As leader for seemingly forever, the guild lies in my heart as the incarnation that people are willing to band together to support a cause - even if its in a video game.  Work on a weekend to do some crappy farming just to hear everyone scream on Ventrilo once a boss drops, to be able send tells to friends inside and outside the guild right after a first kill and to shed an invisible tear in front of your screen because you knew you could do it -- and be part of it.

Perhaps this is a good time to note that there are a ton of unsung heroes that have helped pave the way through Naxxramas.  I could cite a list of each members' accomplishments but let's keep it simple.  To the officers for picking up the slack, not because they needed to, but because it was the right thing to do.  Your hearts are all in the right place.  To all the members and initiates for believing the leadership and each other even when the going got rough.  To all the ones who farmed their asses off to get that extra point of stamina and help avoid that 1% wipe. 

Someone outside Ascendance messaged me shortly after Kel'thuzad died and said "You're the best leader!"  I must wholly say that is a lie.  This is the best guild on the server and no one else is to take credit over another because every person is there for a reason.  I am nothing without thirty-nine others in a raid and I am nothing without the help of those who know that we are still all in this to have fun. 

We are all in this together, and we have acted like it since the beginning.  Thank you Ascendance.  For everything little thing is never forgotten.

For the sake of someone calling us out with the obligatory "screenshots or it didn't happen":

Lastly, the man behind the man behind the man, finagling Kel'thuzad, who has never been in a kill shot yet been with us since day one.  The Dulahey (along with a tree showing what's up to Kel'thuzad's ball).