For those of you who don't know me, I'm the founder of Iron Realms and
until now I've also been its leader. I've got a big announcement though
and I'm just going to come out with it: Many of you know that we (Iron
Realms) started a new company called Sparkplay Media
(http://www.sparkplaymedia.com). The work there has been overwhelming me
and so I've decided that it's time for someone else to take over as head
of Iron Realms. That person is Jeremy Saunders, whom I've promoted to
President of Iron Realms. He's effectively going to replace me in Iron
Realms.

Jeremy started out with IRE here on Achaea, first as a player (Valor)
and then as a God (Sartan). We then gave him a shot at producing the
creation of a new Iron Realms MUD - Imperian - and lately he's been
running Aetolia and working on a lot of back-end systems for Iron
Realms. I have zero doubt that Jeremy is going to do a fantastic job
taking over from me, particularly as I simply haven't had enough time to
spend on Iron Realms due to my involvement with Sparkplay Media.

I look back now and kind of laugh really. When I launched Achaea (I was
the only paid person at the time), it was so unfinished and broken that
if you got paralysed, you had to wait for a God to log on and cure you!
I was just tired of working on it without anyone to enjoy it. Hopefully
everyone that plays it feels it's a little further along now, over a
decade later. 😉

I certainly had no idea that 11 years later there'd be four text MUDs
with two more in development and that we'd attract so many players. I
remember when we first hit 30 people online in Achaea. It felt like a
massive achievement!

In any case, this isn't goodbye. I'm largest shareholder in Iron Realms
and I'm not going anywhere. However, from now on, Jeremy Saunders will
be taking over the remaining duties that are mine in Iron Realms. I have
the fullest confidence in him and I hope that he finds running IRE as
gratifying as I have. If not, well, that's what whips are for. *cracks
it over Jeremy's head*.

The last 11 years or so of my life have been spent running Iron Realms
and it has been the best 11 years of my life (seriously). There are far
too many people to thank to list them individually but I want to say
thank you to everyone whom we've been lucky enough to employ over the
years, the hundreds of awesome volunteers who have given so much back to
the community, and of course, most of all, I want to thank all the
players who have made it worth getting out of bed every day to give them
something they can get pleasure from. Thank you.

Penned by My hand on the 3rd of Mayan, in the year 469 AF.