Last evening, the Overlord High Council of the TTL Gunslingers convened in a pregame lobby for Halo 3 on Xbox Live.

“Overlords?” you say, “There are no Overlords in Halo 3.” While this may be true in theory, it is still a role that we practice in our community. Bungie taught us how to form into clans with their sophomore offering. It was up to us to carry those lessons into other games. Having successfully migrated the Gunslingers to the upgraded battlefields of Halo 3, the job of an Overlord is still very much the same.

“Who are these people?” you ask. They are a cadre of 8 gamers, no different than you. Over two years ago, they formed an alliance to fight the good fight in a good game. Since then, they have presided over the induction of every gamer who has worn the ceremonial gunbelts that signify membership in the official clan of Tied the Leader. Some of these Gunslingers have come and gone. Most of them have remained since their first game. At the time of posting this article, there were 119 Gunslingers in the Katet.

By and large, the ranks of the council are very much the same as that first night when they started a clan using the tools built into Halo 2. One of them was added since then, and appointed as the recruitment lead. There are others – wayward, fallen, or retired Overlords. One, we do not speak of… The other, we speak to every day. On this night, the 8 serving Overlords set aside questions about clan politics, and united for a day of fun!

First, we warmed up with a race. Gunslingers love a good race. In a race, everyone is a VIP. If anyone cares, Pachango won this bout. It doesn’t count though, because the map has to be fixed in Forge before we can use it as a track for a tournament.

Then, we sortied ourselves into Big Team Battle. Having exactly 8 Overlords makes Big Team Battle perfect for refreshing the bond that has kept us on each other’s Friends Lists through years of good and bad games. The only problem is that, sometimes, Big Team Battle splits a big team into two smaller teams.

This is what happened to Dweezle in a match of Team Slayer “Covies”. Seeing as though we are all friends, we called a “Turkey Shoot” on his ass, designating him as our primary target. Nothing communicates the warm feelings of friendship like ganging up on someone.

The problem is… Dweezle is deceptively skilled at the controls of a Ghost, and he happily led us on a chase. His teammates stopped fighting and jeered at him, saying things like “Awwww, dog! You so dead!!!”

Then, one of Dweezle’s [temporary] teammates invited him to drive past his Wraith. We were all really surprised when we rounded a corner and were fed a volley of hot plasma.

We thought he might get away, but all good chases must come to an end, especially when Wheels steps out from behind cover and shoots you in the back of your head.

To finish off the night, we all changed into our secret super hero outfits. They are striking similar to our regular outfits, just more colorful. Then, we performed a ritual of dark magic to summon all of the souls of the Gunslingers who had disappeared from our active roster. That is from where an Overlord draws his power.

Once the ritual is complete, we can fly. Being able to fly is the best part of being an Overlord at Tied the Leader. Sometimes, we will spend hours upon hours just flying around a map and waving to each other. Oh, how we laugh!

Posted by XerxdeeJ