A very heartfelt thank you to GM Glenthaine..

(Apologies in advance for the wall of text, heh.)

Hello. I'm a humble Tauren Priest who's steadily plugging away at guild rep and reaching level 85.

My awesome guild, Imminent Rueage, had another Tauren Priest who beat me to 85. It's totally cool; I worked on other toons in the meantime and intentionally let him because he was my very best friend, and he loved the Tauren race with all his heart... though his main was a Tauren Druid with scads of achievements under her belt, his holy cow was his pet project and he loved her. He really wanted to be the one to contribute the Tauren Priest race/class combo to our "Stay Classy" achievement.

If he didn't have a demanding IRL job and many group commitments on his main, I daresay he would've made an honest bid to complete our guild's "Classy Tauren" achievement all by himself, heh.

Thing is....... he just passed away, very young and completely unexpectedly, when his Priest was a mere 1k or so guild rep from Honored. So while he *was* the first level 85 Tauren Priest, he never got credit for it in the achievement's mind.

There is so much sorrow in my guild right now... but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else, because we all have a great support system here.

I had the idea to contact the general GM help line and ask if there was any way for them to adjust my friend's guild rep, since he was unable to work on it himself anymore and I really, REALLY didn't want to get credit for being the first Tauren Priest to actually contribute to our guild's achievement, given the circumstances.

To be honest, I didn't even know if that was *possible* or, even if it was, if it was something they would so much as consider... it's not a huge, game-breaking issue and we all know the GMs are busy as all get-out at any given time. But I just wanted to ask, because I'd feel like a heel if I couldn't say I at least tried.

My email just happened to fall into the hands of the GM called Glenthaine. And I was stunned, I was absolutely FLOORED I tell you, to see the great lengths he was willing to go in order to grant my unusual request.

Apparently it takes more work than I thought (mechanics-wise) to adjust a character's reputations, but he was more than willing to tinker at it for as long as it took. More importantly, he was willing to do what it took to get permission to do it... he told me the first manager he asked gave him a flat-out no, so he just kept doggedly working his way up the chain of command until he found someone who had both the power and the understanding to grant permission.

It took a very long time... I'm pretty sure I was talking to him for about two hours altogether (I'm sure he was juggling other stuff too though; don't want anyone to think "WHY R GMS WASTIGN THAT LONG ON THIS DUM CRAP WHEN MY ACCOUNT HACKED RESTORE NEEDS AAARRGGGHHH!!!", heh). But he just kept plugging away, he was SO DETERMINED to make this happen for us, he was constantly keeping me updated on the current status of the request, apologizing for the delays, mentioning that he was keeping his fingers crossed, offering his condolences and understanding.......

So, yeah. TL;DR and all that. But even though I am not 85 or Honored yet, our guild now has our level 85 and Honored holy cow, through the perseverance of one amazing GM who simply refused to let a few indifferent corporate types nonchalantly squash our guild's tiny, grieving hope. I honestly can't express just how much this act meant to me... all I can say is, the world recently lost one great man with an absolute heart of gold, but it's at least very comforting to know that there are still others out there.

I thank you from the very bottom of my broken heart, Glenthaine. Imminent Rueage thanks you. And I'm sure our favorite boomchicken who moonlights as a blessed bovine... wherever he is now... thanks you as well.