According to a post on the Aion Web site, French legion Origine is the first legion in North America and Europe to lay claim to a fortress in the Abyss. "Siel's Western Fortress on [FRA] Suthran is now under Elysean dominion!" Ayase said. "Origine has a challenging task ahead of itself: keeping the fortress secure. To remain kings of the hill, the Legion will need to avoid another title that is as equally feared as its current title is coveted: 'First Legion to Have Lost a Fortress.' "

Ayase got the chance to interview Gwarf, the Centurion of Origine, to discuss the group's accomplishment. You can read the full interview after the jump.

Ayase: Hey Gwarf!

 

Congratulations on the recent accomplishment! You were the first Legion in North America and Europe to take down a fortress on our servers.

 Could you tell me a bit about the challenges in planning an event of this magnitude? Was this your first attempt?

 

Gwarf: After a few months of preparations to collect pieces of information in Chinese and Korean websites and servers, we finally tested our first fortress siege. Because of timers, we chose Sulfur fortress, which is the easiest fortress for a first siege.

 

We used Sulfur fortress as training for out true target, Siel’s Western Fortress, which could be captured two hours later. Preparing ourselves for this challenge was a major effort to our players, but we’ve been amply rewarded with the pleasure we’ve had during the fight.

 

Ayase: How long did it take from start to end?

 

Gwarf: We had taken 20 minutes for the artifact control (which is absolutely crucial for the success of this event) and placing sentinels to prevent enemy attack. By the way, some Asmodians were on one of our artifacts. That attack was repelled, but it was a good try for them.

 

From the door of the fortress to the kill of the boss, it took us 1 hour and 15 minutes. That is a bit long, but it took us longer due to the level difference between the boss and our raid (level 25 compared to level 35).

It was really a battle of endurance against the door. After that, we just had to be attentive and our efforts were rewarded.

 

Ayase: What part was the most challenging one in your eyes?

 

Gwarf: For this first fortress siege, the biggest difficulty was the level of our raid. Our templars, level 34, 31, and 30, had to tank enemies level 40. As a consequence, we had to equip them with accuracy manastones and special equipment crafted specifically for this event.

Aggro resets, monster respawns due to the length of the fight, teams to protect and activate the artifacts, and the area effect attack of the boss were very interesting dimensions of the fight. The most intensive aspect was during the last half of the boss’s health, when he takes a random target and instantly kills it while still attacking with his area effect attack.

 

Ayase: Any lessons learned?

 

Gwarf: This fortress siege isn’t a truly difficult, however it requires good preparation for anyone who wants to try it with a level 35 raid. We had to count on the good equipment of the tanks, because the boss may hide some surprises.

 

This fortress siege opens access to a dungeon, which after being cleared by one of our teams, was really lucrative for XP.

 

Ayase: Thanks for taking time to answer these questions. I hope to see more spectacular accomplishments by Origine in the future! Any last words to your rival Legions out there?

 

Gwarf: Thanks to you Ayase. We’ve demonstrated that Suthran, a French server, has a top-notch European Legion. We hope that a lot of Legions will join us on this server to challenge us because we’ll continue to accomplish other great events, which anyone can follow in our forum and WebTV where the movie of our siege is already released.

This fight wasn’t live on our WebTV, but we’ll do all we can to do it in the future.