Spring Cleaning

A hunter's stables are never stable. No matter how solid they seem to be, inevitably there will come a time for reevaluation and change.

Over the years the bulk of my pets have developed into a steady core. The majority have reached a status of permanence, but there will always be some that can shift and make room for new additions, or simply bonds that don't forge as strongly.

I never forget a pet once I've had it with me for any length of time. There are many that don't end up sticking around, but I still consider them by their names when I'm browsing the beast list on Petopia. Sometimes I go back and retame one of these past companions to see if my attachment grew, or if I'm just having feelings of nostalgia.

In any case, it's never an easy task, and I've found it upon me once again. Here are the choices I've managed to make so far in preparation for the new expansion.

Almagest was...difficult. This was an extremely hard decision for me, and it took me days to settle on it. I still can't say if it was the right choice.

 I knew I was going to have to let one of my scorpids go. I didn't like having two Madexxes before, when I had Asmodeus, and I had fallen into the same problem again. Though there's nothing wrong with duplicate pets, I've never liked having them if I can help it. I knew I didn't need both of my scorpids, I just had to figure out which one was meant to be with Veph.

That's where it got messy. See, Almagest had the aspect of fate on his side. He was the first Madexx I found while flying in Uldum one night. He seemed destined for me, and I always had trouble letting go of ideas like that. Almagest also had an established personality, history, and the perfect name. I even had a friend roll his lucky dice for me and it chose Almagest over Agamand. I also found green Madexx on my alt hunter and tamed him, almost like it was saying 'You can have the green on this character instead.'. 

Agamand, on the other hand, hadn't really had a chance to grow into his own character yet. In fact, I've been in the midst of picking out new names for him recently since Agamand wasn't quite fitting. I'll refer to him as Agamand in this post though so as not to get confusing.

The funny thing was...despite all signs pointing to keeping Almagest, I would pull out Agamand and there was just this powerful draw towards him. He suited Veph in a way that Almagest never had, and despite the fact that I myself felt more attached to Almagest, Agamand was the scorpid that belonged with Vephriel the character.

So in the end I released Almagest within the ruins in Uldum where he can continue his studies. I know he'll always be out there, and though I miss him sorely at times (like right now as I write this entry), I feel that Agamand was the one who had to stay.

Phew. I was planning on this entry being much longer, but I actually feel exhausted after reliving that decision again, so I'll continue with the other pet releases in a following post.