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AFW - Inner Circle - Description

The "Inner Circle" ("IC") of AFW is a group of people who have been posting quality "warlords" to AFW. These people are also known as ickies.

Members of the IC are all bound by the "Warlord Code of Honor": Code of Honor.

The very essence of this code says that "even if a signature contains a Bart Simpson, 3-d juggling, a RUSH quote, a Vicki Robinson virus, a bicyclist, a Warlord's sword, an AMIGA check, a map of Australia, a Kibo number, the Southern Cross and a silly border - if it's within McQ limit then we won't warlord it."

From time to time the IC awards the Butt Chese Medal for good posts to AFW. The story behind this medal was written down by Dean Engelhardt:

"Long, long ago in the mists of a now mercifully forgotten era, the mighty conqueror Warlord didst call together nine of his most trusted and valiant followers to make up the noble court which came to be known as the Inner Circle. Their mission was clear: each had earned his or her seat at the Feynmann-shaped table purely through great warlording talent and expertise, and as such their goal was to foster such greatness in others -- to wield the mighty Sword of ASCII and to cleave the honourable warlorders from the dishonourable, the curd from the whey, the Sonny from the Cher.

In time new members came to the court of the Inner Circle, all earning their place even as the original nine had earned theirs. Two members departed, to seek out enlightenment elsewhere (and about them terrible tales are told). Eventually, seating arrangements at the Feynmann table became stable, and, once the dust had cleared, it was seen that the ranks of Warlord's Knights Supreme (no anchovies) numbered sixteen.

With Warlord gone, departed on the Quest from which he has yet to coherently return, the court of the Inner Circle found itself quickly descending into a directionless turmoil. This, thought the sixteen, was good. This, thought the sixteen, was what lifeless bozos could best hope for in life. And so the court of Warlord's Knights drank copiously from the Chalice of ButtChese, bathed in the pool of Mazola, and ... uh ... used the magical Zuke that had been left unto them. Truthfully did they lead what they determined to be the good life.

But then amid the drunken revelry did a vision come to Lady Jessica and Lord Richard. In their minds did suddenly appear the very presence of Warlord himself and he did say "Oi! You! Have you people forgotten the shining purpose I did bring thee together for? Getst thee up off your idle arses and actually *do* something to clean up my fangroup. Or I'll give you all wedgies!"

Once the two who had received this mystical message had shared it with the rest of the group, the Inner Circle looked out at the barren wastes of alt.fan.warlord and said in unison "Eeew!" Where once had stood a bastion of good humour and satirical irreverance now stood a morass of boring pathetic- wankerdom. But there was hope ... even as the sixteen did watch the mundane landscape, they did escry a scant few with the virtuous properties posessed by the great knights of old. As one, the Inner Circle did sit and ponder awhile and finally did conclude "Wouldn't it be a k()()l idea to encourage those who still do warlords that are actually *funny* -- to reward their efforts in some way". And thus was seeded the notion of what eventually came to be known as the Inner Circle Zucchini and Chese Medal for Meritous Warlording.

And from afar, the spirit of Warlord did cast an eye on this medal, and he saw that it was good."

The so-called ickies are connected via a secret mailing lists which resides somewhere on the Internet. And the motto of this group is: "Remember: You might not know who we are - but we know who *you* are!"

The members of the IC really do exist, even though some of them are assumed to be AI perl scripts running amok on a news host. There are a few Heathers and Davids and noone really has figured out the difference between them, but this does not really matter. [hehe]

They feed on signature snails, they consume silly amounts of coke and pizza, and on things like, chese [sic!], mangos, zucchini, mazola oil, curry, and some stuff which is too yucky to be mentioned.

Many ickies ride the bike or at least intend to buy a new one after a crash. So TheMeach and Rheal set off on Usenet with their "tandem sig":

The Inner Circle Bike

                         __________  __o __o
                       __________   -\<,-\<,
                        ..........(_)/---/(_)..
         The Rhealist and The Meach . . . off to conquer new worlds!
 But which is who, and who is which?  [Is it Rhealive, or is it Meachmorex?]
                meachem@bnr.ca  -=*=-  nadeau@acsu.buffalo.edu
                        Boys and Girls Together - Rush

The tandem soon evolved into the "IC bike":

The Inner Circle Bike

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I                   But which is whom, and who is which?               940630 |
W __  __o __o __o __o __o __o __o __o __o __o __o __o __o __o __o __o __o __o |
A__  -\<,-\<,-\<,-\<,-\<,-\<,-\<,-\<,-\<,-\<,-\<,-\<,-\<,-\<,-\<,-\<,-\<,-\<, M
N* (_)/---/---/---/---/---/---/---/---/---/---/---/---/---/---/---/---/---/(_)O
T^keith   dean    heather jess    karen   neil    paul    rheal   ruth    tim T
T     dave    dvae    james   jo      matt    nick    rachel  rich    sven    T
ORIDEMYBICYCLEIWANTTORIDEMYBIKEIWANTTORIDEMYBICYCLEIWANTTORIDEITWHEREILIKEFATBO

The favourite pastime of the ickies however is their mailing list which was born on 921105 (Nov 5th 1992) and has since seen over 24,000 mails [951105] and several ickie quotes.

From time to time the ickies meet at an IC conference (IC CON) where they think up new ways to overthrow the governments with the help of little green men and lots of sauerkraut. The recipes for preparing a good IC CON meal are hidden somewhere in Kibos signature and you simply have to find them yourself.

Due to the large volume each member receives a trophy for every thousandths mail. The small version looks like this:

Inner Circle Trophy

<( )>
 `v'
 _I_
trophy

Here is the real thing: The IC GPA Trophy as awarded by Dean Engelhardt to Karen Cooper on 960117.

Several signatures show the "ickie crossword":
[TODO; add ickie crossword]
If you are into crosswords (eww, gross) then you may enjoy filling it with these words: DavidSweeney, DeanEngelhardt, DavidVanHorn, EddieSaxe, HeatherBean, JamesCherry, JessicaRaine, JosephineMeachem, KeithLim, MattWelsh, NeilBowers, NickLeverton, PaulTomblin, RachelPerkins, RhealNadeau, RichHolmes, RuthKneale, SvenGuckes, TimODonoghue, ButtChese, Mazola, Zuke.
The logo of the Inner Circle is a big "W" including three rings of stars (each is representing a member) and the triangles (representing the Holy Spirit of Warlording):

The old IC logo (for 18 members):

               ----------------------------------------
               \/\/\/\/\   * *    /\    * *   /\/\/\/\/
                \/\/\/\/\ *   *  /  \  *   * /\/\/\/\/
                 \/\/\/\/\ * *  /    \  * * /\/\/\/\/
                  \/\/\/\/\    /  **  \    /\/\/\/\/
                   \/\/\/\/\  /  *  *  \  /\/\/\/\/
                    \/\/\/\/\/    **    \/\/\/\/\/
                     \/\/\/\/            \/\/\/\/
                      \/\/\/   THE INNER  \/\/\/
                       \/\/ --  CIRCLE  -- \/\/
                        \/                  \/
                         --------------------
The new IC logo (for 21 members):
                _________________________________________
                \/\/\/\   INNER   /\|/\   CIRCLE  /\/\/\/
                 \/\/\/\   * *   /\/|\/\   * *   /\/\/\/
                  \/\/\/\ * * * /\/\|/\/\ * * * /\/\/\/
                   \/\/\/\ * * /\/\/|\/\/\ * * /\/\/\/
                    \/\/\/\   /\/\/\|/\/\/\   /\/\/\/
                     \/\/\/\./\/\/\/|\/\/\/\./\/\/\/
                      \/\/\/|\/\/\/   \/\/\/|\/\/\/
                       \/\/\|/\/\/ * * \/\/\|/\/\/
                        \/\/|\/\/ * * * \/\/|\/\/
                         \/\|/\/   * *   \/\|/\/
                          \/_\/___________\/_\/

Yes, there are more folks in the IC now than there are stars, but it did work out at some time in the past. ;-)


Sven Guckes <afw@guckes.net>
www.guckes.net/afw/
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