Magnafire19 (Magna)

The following page is for information regarding the VPCer Magnafire19.

Biography
Magnafire19 or Magna as he later became known as joined the VPC in late-2007 during the run-up to the RoDS plot (Return of Doctor Sloth). He was unsure at first on how to approach the board but over time gravitated more toward the Anti-Sloth side of the VPC and unlike most users at the time he had only one primary account. His primary backup was Magnas19 though he created a few others just in case. Two other accounts, Shadowlord and Darklord existed purely to be spies. Not that either saw any real use.

' There's an awful lot of evil around here' - Magna's first post on the VPC that set the ball rolling

Overwhelmed by how active the VPC was would be an understatement but Magnafire's first thread on the board, 'There's an awful lot of evil around here' set the ball rolling. It is here, he met Phear_35 and Sorakey. Two people who would become good friends in the days to come. Magnafire would then create the Resq Rangers HQ, inspired by Phear's signature. After reaching out to through neomail. She agreed to join, and become his official second in command with Sorakey being third in command. The guild quickly climbed to ten members in this time and was public until a significant breach of security while Magnafire was away on holiday led to him making the guild private.

Magnafire became an active poster on a particular thread involving members of the Confederacy of the Separation of Neopia (CSN) and Empire of Eternal Darkness (EED). He exchanged numerous neomails with another user Evilgeneralgrievious, who alongside his ally xx_court_dancer_xx would try and encourage surrender. But Magnafire's stubborn nature refused to budge. When Magnafire and the General clashed one final time in the Battledome, the CSN was also under pressure from an outside force known as the Neopian Fiery Guardians. Due to their intervention, the CSN later collapsed.

After this Magnafire became a more active member of the VPC and those that spoke to him referred to him first as Manga. Not knowing what Manga was at that period in his life he had to constantly correct people until eventually he was referred to as Magna. Though a minor player on the VPC compared to many, this didn't deter Magna and he became a regular of the VPC and in its later years would be one of the last to depart the board.

Resq Rangers/Armed Anti-Sloth Union
After a string of failed guilds, Magna finally had some success with the Resq Rangers HQ. The guild was relatively small but grew over time. It would have moments of rising and falling during the four years it remained active on the VPC. At it's height the guild had over fifty members. Not too long after the RoDS, the guild name was changed to the Armed Anti Sloth Union due to some VPCers mocking the Resq name. Despite its longevity, it would never reach the status of similarly aligned guilds like the Neopian Fiery Guardians. But that was never Magna's goal in the grand scheme. He never expected the guild to last or become the Armed Anti-Sloth Union, so was grateful to those that stuck with him. And despite being its leader, the running of the guild was mostly handled by his more experienced council members. The most notable of these would be, Phear, followed by Goodship and Flame that both joined in early-2009. Though that didn't mean he wasn't consulted on most activities. It's just that he preferred a back seat role since being frozen on Neopets was often a death knell for many guilds. And he learned this quite quickly when the Neopian Fiery Guardians leader, Jamesuk was frozen and would never return. Prior to this and not too long after RESQ's first war on the VPC with the CSN, the NFG leader had offered Magna and his guild a place in the Guardians but Magna had declined on account of not being sure if he could trust James as the offer to join the NFG came with a fair few benefits. It was this hesitation that would make the Resq Rangers HQ a permanent fixture on the VPC.

Magna's Guiding Flame
As both a new player and new to the Virtupet Chat, Magna relied on the advice of those with experience. In the early days of the Resq Rangers existence, this would be Flamechampion93/Flame. Flame would be the HQ's go-to for negotiating with minions and was responsible for the formation of the Heroic Delian Legion. Flame would join the main triumvirate of Magna's council alongside Goodship even after he formally stepped down as leader. It was also Flame's unique relationship with Wiz that kept the Resq Rangers out of the United Sloth Loyalists crosshairs early on.

That One Bad Decision
Magna's most notable failure and one he came to deeply regret was trusting the user mentioned above Wiz. Wiz had already established himself as incredibly capable during the Resq-DC war but he would come into his own when it came to the Resq Rangers HQ and his determined obsession with the guild. By relying on Magna's easily trusting nature to get a seat on the council Wiz was able to get onto the council and committed an act that would kill most guilds. Where he failed with the Dark Corporation he succeeded in nearly crippling the Resq Rangers HQ. This act would have destroyed the guild but much to his surprise, the Resq Rangers returned to former strength quite quickly and even saw an increase in members. After that Magna became more hesitant around Wiz and others of his disposition. Though over the years he did find himself in an odd rivalry with Wiz over time. And the two came to respect each other in their own way.

The RESQ/AASU Webpages
Like most VPC Guilds/Alliances in order to discuss outside Neopet's chat-based restrictions, two websites would be made using Freewebs. Unfortunately due to Freewebs becoming Webs.com, the Resq site is frozen. However, the AASU site still exists and features threads discussing the period after Magna stepped down as leader. Goodship had taken charge at this point but she had also had her account frozen. This led to much suspicion on who was responsible with two neo users, Ash and Wiz being highly suspect. Possibly because those two had an aura of mystery to them and often acted shrewdly. The AASU site also displays Magna's first real attempt to document the VPC's history.

The Resq Rangers site has a little more substance to it. At first, it was periodically visited mainly by the Resq council, Flame, Goody, Phear and Sorakey. As well as anyone else they trusted. The discussions here usually involved the at the time conflicts with the remains of the CSN, Wiz, Dark Corporation and Ed. It's unknown how the site was discovered but it didn't take long for Wiz and a few others to disrupt this secret meeting place forcing them back to discussing things in the guild.

The Elements War
One of the AASU's main activities christened in during Magna's leadership was the Elements War roleplay. This activity would see the guild find an outlet in creative writing while later incarnations introduced a tournament that involved the Battledome and other activities that scored points. The guild would be split into three teams, with Magna's team being the Burnt Legion.

The Virtupet Legacy
After the AASU fell into inactivity. Magna and Goodship, two of the last remaining active members together formed the Virtupet Legacy guild as a place for returning VPCers. Beyond that Magna set into motion the Legacy Project. On the 20 December 2013, Magna created the Virtupet Legacy wiki and using the compiled History on AASU and Order petpages chartered some of the VPC's history from 2007 onwards. Magna also found references to the VPC dating back to 2003/4 though despite determined digging found few references covering the periods between 2004 and 2007. It was Egon's RP site for old VPCers that gave him some early insight into what occurred in 2003. A few LiveJournal still also hold a record of events involving notable VPCers such as Trauwyn and Francis. Magna has so far penned two blog posts describing his time on the VPC and despite some editorial oversight (I plan on writing a more clean and up to date version okay, cut me some slack!) Both posts explore how the VPC changed yet fundamentally remained unchanged. Magna would also create a discord server as a way for VPCers to reconnect.

For six years, Magna put the project on hold until early in 2020, he, Ash, Potential Ruler, Flame and Goody reignited it with a return to Neopets. Through a lead from an Acer that also occupied the VPC during the AC offseason, Magna was able to get in contact with Ignorantia. The wiki is an ongoing archive and stands as one of the few places on the web to document the interesting community that once occupied the now nonexistent board.

Trivia

 * Magna only ever had one main account that aside for a glitch where he was silenced. He had never been frozen during his time on the VPC. He did have a few accounts that he used to either run lower guilds in the AASU hierarchy or placed them in allied guilds. He also had two spy accounts and even his alter ego Maelstrom19. Mael was his belated attempt to bring entertainment back to the VPC.
 * One of Magna's earliest nicknames was Manga, until he corrected everyone long enough that Magna became set in stone.
 * Known side accounts - Darklord66, Shadowlord_10, Maelstrom19, Flamemaster91, Magnas19


 * He was the founder/leader of the Resq Rangers turned Armed Anti Sloth Union from 2007 - 2009. Goodship would take the reigns from him following elections.