The History of Ballad
A clan can have many lives. Like a penny living out life as a temporary fuse, a part in an electrical experiment, then becoming the nose in a snowman only to be traded in when spring comes for cheap kiddy candy, then hoarded in a jar intended to be spent on a second-hand guitar but eventually traded for an armful of roses for your sweetie.
This clan has been around the block a bit. We came crashing out of the Renegades of Funk all full of spit and vinegar. Tearing up the games channel and blasting out of that other radio station, a candle burning far too brightly. Sisterclan to The Garden of Earthly Delights, bickering siblings one day, greatest allies the next but always bound together by loe. The water flows and times change. Different games and different gamers. Radio tubes flicker and are replaced by newer, fancier gadgets. Girlfriends and boyfriends and job changes, fatherhood and motherhood and sickness and loss, but lots of laughing and friendship along the way.
And like a penny, a clan can never really be spent. It can change hands, change jobs, change location but in the end Abe’s still there, looking out at you. Waiting for what comes next.
Knightnwhytesatin gives us this slightly fictionalized version of who we are:
It has been surmised by many that the Ballad of Fallen Angels clan is tied directly to either the Knights Templar or the Illuminati. Neither of these claims has been proven thus far, but there are similarities in the way the clan operates. Notice their philanthropic nature and their desire to help other players even though those players may have many more months of experience. Note also the manner in which these efforts often take place: in the form of games, trivia contests and other fun ways. It is this philanthropy which has led some scholars to believe that Ballad of Fallen Angels is actually a front for one or more sinister conspiracies, which may or may not include plots to overthrow the government, plots to take over the Starbucks Corporation and a deeply sinister plot allegedly hatched by DonnaMatrix, to hook the entire world on Pocky, thereby seizing ultimate world domination through the use of sugar coated cookie sticks.
It is further surmised that other members of the clan, notably one Foos Bobaganoosh and someone who calls him/herself The Big Dutch O (and here it must be noted that some scholars have wondered about the sexual predilections of this person) have set themselves up as providers of information for use in these trivia and other games perpetrated by the clan.
The clan is run in a very democratic manner. There is a council, called the Angels of Reckoning, made of up members in good standing who can be trusted to keep the secrets of the clan. These members are also responsible for selecting new members and for setting out the trials these new members will need to pass before they can be admitted in to the clan. Records show that massages, whipped cream and certain unnamed purple objects are often preferred in these trials. Exactly what is done with them is unknown, though the clan's reputation has led researchers to theorize that it is something called "de-innocentizing". Only one member of the clan has ever been admitted without having to undergo these trials. Unfortunately, none of her descendants could be reached and so that line of research has dried up.
Other members of the clan have at times taken to the airwaves, utilizing not old-style radio but the power of the then infant Internet (the forerunner to the subspace comm net we use today) to broadcast propaganda in the guise of musical entertainment. Known perpetrators include Bluespacething, Kattawyn, Sorsha, daisybell and DonnaMatrix herself. Other clan members have been involved in this scheme, though their names are lost to the mists of time.
Other activities included an extremely active chat community frequented not only by the clan leaders and Angels of Reckoning, but also by the other, lesser ranked member. It was here that these members found a voice for themselves. It was here that the most nefarious plans were hatched. It was here the great Pocky scheme was originally hatched.
Little is known about the history of Ballad of Fallen Angels in the time since the Third World War. It is assumed, and this has been verified to some degree though not conclusively, that the descendants of this group found their way in to government and business and have slowly done what their forebears could not. Namely, rule the world and large parts of the known galaxy.
-- Excerpted from the book "Angels Among Us" by Roland L. Smith. Published in 2457 by Harper, Rowe, Bantam, Doubleday and Dell Publishers, Mars.