20 years. Almost two-thirds of my life, that's how long I've been playing this game. I still remember those early years-- pouring all my pure into the plushie collection, getting the reward for each tier, just to sink it right back in. Then the trading cards. I remember the captchas for each purchase, and trying to claw my way through the dial-up days to restock.

I remember when Quests were much more hit and miss. No guarantee of a wizard token for helping the old man out. Back when Saggi turned up, only needing above 700k to do his quests. No quest points. Battle quests were a godsend when they finally arrived, but they had a 30 minute limit. Didn't matter if you beat the opponent if that time had elapsed, you got nothing. I remember throwing everything I had at Saggitarius and coming up victorious at last, just to be told I was too late.

I remember when we could face Maleria for real. Kilroy was never remotely strong enough to do that, before she was phased out. I remember burning two Extremely Emo Sporks trying to beat one of the Morostide opponents just once, the big worm with 800 hp. I remember when it was eventually revealed that Rouland was waiting all along, trapped in his diminished form.

I remember when it was such a big deal to crack the safe, and the most expensive item in my account was the phalen, listed for 500k in the user shops, that I received. Then later the Death Turtle Plushie then valued around 2 million or so.

I remember when we had the account value page on our account page setting, and my entire collections and vault etc valued 2 billion.

I remember when the most pure I ever pulled together was only about 36mil, enough to buy a merged legendary, Mist.

I remember a few years ago, when I sold so much in my shops that I could buy a Natasha, and then The Ether.

I remember the hours and hours spent grinding against the Hydragellos war after war, until at last earning the maniacal core.

I remember the grueling matches with Meatslab just to earn a Baal.

I remember when I finally put together all of the bobbleheads, earning my Trident of the Blessed One, just for the tier system to be implemented that very day, and Kilroy only ending up at T7 or so.

I remember when a small pet could obliterate much stronger pets as long as they had the right equipment and scroll set. The tiers ended that, by and large.

I remember when the battle shop was finally made, and when opponents were finally given experience and loot past 10 wins.

I remember when I kept taking hiatuses to recharge, and last May, when I meant to retire for good. Emptying out the 9000+ items in my wardrobe into the donation center. Placing my beloved battle pets with two trusted friends( ) alongside my entire armory and scrolls, and offering the remaining chibis and experiments to the adoption center, clearing out my galleries and shops and vault, even my accumulated speciality points by and large.

I remember the amazing user run contests, putting together over 15000 HA's over the years(counting the in-progress ones haha), and gradually whittling it down to about 2000 saved designs as of now.

And then I returned on the 2nd, and opted to give the game another shot. In the last 4 days, I've put together my old Jack Sparrow HA, and raised a new battle pet from creation to almost T9.

And thanks to my dear friends kindness, Kilroy is home again and I have that impossible-to-replace armory at my disposal once more.

In closing, I never imagined I would be here, 20 years on, when I first saw the site on a little used message board over on that gaming site in 2005. It's been one heck of a journey.

I would like to take a moment to shine the light on the expedition plot a while back, and the Blake Steele vs Saggi teams. I joined Steele, as did , and she reached out to me for advice and help with battles. We became close friends. We worked on avatars together, loaned out equipment back and forth, and just caught up on life. Eventually, about two years ago, I learned that she had passed. I still miss you, old friend. May the stars keep guiding your journey.

The custom star I'm wearing now is one of a precious few commissioned for those of us in the Steele team, and I'm wearing it today to remember Arixen and those good memories.

Below is one of the last HA's we worked on together, a leprechaun design, as updated across that time.

by Elysium

In closing, I have made amazing memories, amazing friends, met wonderful people here and in the discord recently. I am grateful to be back. Thank you to Keith and everyone who has kept Subeta going all of these years.

This was such a beautiful post. We are so, so tremendously fortunate to have had you with us for so many wonderful years! ;_; 2 decades is an achievement and then some - congratulations! ♥️

I’m also so very sorry to hear of your lovely friend. I hope that is at peace now, and may her memory be a blessing here for years to come. <3 i’m so happy she touched your first years here in such a positive way. I have made friends here that have touched my own life in much the same way, so i can very much relate!

Here’s to another decade! ♥️

What a lovely tribute!

But one big event that I think deserves a shout out was the great invasion from another site when they find it about the wearable item involving a cat of extraordinary lengths ;) those were wild times!