A brief history of the guild

When a group of former Diablo 2 hardcore players had played more than their fair share of D2 (over 1.5 years), they decided it would be nice to find a new game in which to continue playing with the now familiar bunch. Dark Age of Camelot was one of the alternatives, although not everyone was interested (some because of the monthly charges), part of the group went ahead and switched to DAOC. To form a guild of our own was the plan in the first place, but due to a limited amount of players we weren't able to form the guild without new players "from the outside". After about a month's time of playing in the realm of Midgard on the Excalibur server we finally founded the guild and decided to name it Karelia. A brief history of the origins of the guild's name will follow as well as a short summary of the actual Karelia's history. Also a link to the homepage of the Diablo 2 hc community can be found in the links section, if you're more interested in that part of the guild's origins.

Where the name Karelia comes from

The name Karelia comes from the area of land located on the eastern border of Finland, that now belongs to Russia (and thus formerly to the Soviet Union). It is also (and more commonly) known in the finnish language as Karjala. This piece of land has been fought over and divided by different powers for tens of times over the last seven hundred years. Usually by the influential powers of their days, like Sweden and Russia, but also in the recent history (world war II) by the Soviet Union and Finland. I will only give a very brief summary of some of the main points in Karelia's history. If anyone is interested in finding out more about this region, the links section of this site has some links to informative websites dealing with Karelia and it's history in a much more thorough way. Most of the following summary's information is collected from mr. Mauri Rastas's website (which can be also be found in the links section).

Karelia's history summarised in a few points

• 8000 B.C. The oldest finnish archeological findings of human settlement in the area
• 700-1600 A.D. Time of the ancient Karelia
• 1100-1300 A.D. Mostly swedish influences, including three "crusades" to christen the population and to build a fortification (Viaborg)
• 1323 A.D. First split of the Karelia by the two major powers, Russia & Sweden (the treaty of Pähkinäsaari)
• 1300-1700 A.D. Several wars are fought over Karelia by Sweden and Russia
• 1617 A.D. Sweden takes control of Karelia
• 1721 A.D. Russia takes control of Karelia, also occupies Finland, Peter the Great builds St. Petersburg
• 1808-1809 A.D. Sweden loses the entire Finland to Russia in the Napoleonic Wars and Finland becomes a Grand Duchy of Russia.
• 1811 A.D. Karelia is included into the Finnish Grand Duchy
• 1823 A.D.The finnish national epic Kalevala was first published by Elias Lönnrot, who collected the folk songs and stories from different areas in eastern Finland, including East-Karelia and Ingernland
• 1890's A.D. Karelia and the Kalevala were sources of great inspiration for the finnish artists (like Akseli Gallen-Kallela and Jean Sibelius) and the educated class
• 1917 A.D. Finland (including the Finnish Karelia) gains it's independance from Russia, but East-karelia remained under Russian rule
• 1939-1945 A.D. World War II caused the last split of Karelia. The Soviet Union attacked Finland in 1939 and caused the Winter War. A (temporary) peace treaty was signed in Moscow in 1940. But in 1941 Finland tried to regain it's losses in the Continuation War. Despite initial gains, the 1944 peace treaty was very much the same as in 1940 (and stayed that way in the final Paris peace treaty signed in 1947): Finland lost most of the Finnish Karelia

A few maps and symbols of Karelia

The above picture shows Karelia's location near the eastern border of Finland, when wiewed on a european scale.

Some other maps depicting Karelia, one medieveal map from the year 1539, two from the year 1695 and one current.

Some symbols / emblems of Karelia from different times.