I did come back, a year or so later, and logging in to see the ruins of my deed saddened me, but I resolved to do better this time. This time, I was going to join a village.
The village I ended up joining was Hilltop Hideout, which was just a skip and a hop over the bay west of where Sakura Grove used to be. Upon joining, I was given a small plot of land and was told I could basically do what I wanted to do, just don't taunt the champion critters in the center of town that the mayor (Frontier, I think was his name?) liked to collect. My first house was made of wood so I decided that I wanted to grind my masonry to make a stone this time so I remember helping out a village mate with the wall until I got to 30, then hopped back to my plot to make my house. But after that, I didn't have much of a purpose, so I disappeared again.
When I came back, the village was still there, but had changed hands. The critters in the center of town were gone and the area was repurposed to player houses. My house was gone but the new mayor let me rejoin and build a new one. I stuck around for a few months, working on my mining and my blacksmithing skills, but again, I disappeared. This seemed to be a theme I had at that that time in my life.
Wurm has its way of pulling me back in though so after some time, I did return. I came back to see Hilltop decaying and no one who once lived there logged in again. So, I 'borrowed' one of the rowboats and left the land, again in search for a village to join. This time, I happened to discover a village called Freetown, located far from Sakura Grove, far from Hilltop. This deed was located near the Dragon Fang Mountain. I enjoyed the 'come and go as you wanted, no village invite needed' mentality, so I made my house again there and helped my neighbors with terraforming and gathering materials. By this point, the techniques I had been using were 'becoming obsolete' so I started to learn how to use level and flatten, much to my 'back in my day' mentality. ;) As always, eventually, I got bored again and disappeared. But the next time I logged in, I never left.
After logging in to see the ruins of Freetown, I resolved that this time, I wouldn't lose my resolve. After asking in GL-Freedom, I met Wolfey, who encouraged me to leave Independence and join his deed in Xanadu. At first, I was going to refuse, as I've never left my server before, but I knew I needed a challenge. I wanted to do this. So, using the ruins of Freetown as my starting point, I gathered what resources I could find and over the next week, I had myself a little base of operations set up so that I could build a boat in safety. From there, I followed maps and rowed myself away from Indy and into a new land.
My first impression of Xanadu was how mountainous the southern side of it was and after a loong, slow journey, I finally made it to Eletha, home of Wolfey. His deed, no offense to him if he reads this, was a mess. Items everywhere, disorganized, disarrayed. It was then that I found my calling. I helped him fix up his deed. I designed a stable for him, I made my blacksmithing workshop, reorganized the public workshop, cleaned up the items, and built a decorative church for him. Our friendship developed and still lasts to this day. We've had villagers come and go quickly, with a few sticking around the area for awhile.
I had decided that, after a year of being on Eletha and helping Wolfey out with his ship-making that it was time to make my own deed again. I didn't want to leave Eletha though, so I took my alt that I had brought over from Epic and moved into a neighboring land that was once a village called Costa del Sol, then a skilling deed owned by Raventhefaith, then abandoned again. I founded Relto and with it, the Alliance of Vynora Bay was formed.
My deed may now be complete, but I think I've finally found my purpose. More on that later.
''To be continued....''