Some of you remember Kutem, the troll warrior, and son of Krual. His name was William Batliner. On Sunday night, he lost control of his car, hit a tree, and died. He was 20 years old.
When he first joined Revelry and Honor, he was 13. In the years that followed, I enjoyed hearing about his success in school, as well as his moments of glory on the soccer field. He would always talk about his history classes with me, since I was teaching it at the time, and he'd challenge me to try to stump him with history questions. As the years went by, his playtime diminished, but he always caught me up on school, sports, and sometimes even girls.
But I especially loved hearing the stories about his basketball team, because I got to hear both the player's perspective (his) as well as the coach's perspective (his dad's). What I appreciated the most was that his dad loved just being able to share a common interest with his son. He was proud of the success they had on the court, but he was prouder of watching Will develop into a good sport as well as a fine player.
In game, Kutem relished the role of guild jester. He never missed an opportunity to make someone laugh. No one played a double shrunk-SoW'd troll warrior better than Kutem, although he was sorely missing that shrink after getting stuck in a door in Dalnir during a guild event. The guild laughed about that one for days.
And it was Kutem who brightened up RnH's last evening by having a rap duel with me. I can't tell you how many times I'd be on the verge of stressing out trying to lead a raid, when all of a sudden my chat window would be full of purple text from Kutem, who was quoting the latest rap song to me. I don't think he had any idea that his rap-spam was the reality slap I needed to remind me that a fun raid is a successful raid.
I got to met him and his dad at a gathering of some of the RnH Virginia Beach members. I was surprised at how tall he was (I guess I expected a double shrunk fat troll), but I was even more surprised at how grown up he was. He carried himself with more maturity than most adults, and I was impressed at how he took time to play with Takair and Harkas' young daughter, since most teenagers never have the time or patience for little children unless they're being paid to babysit. When he smiled, you knew that the sky was the limit for him.
As a relatively new parent, I can't imagine the pain of experiencing the death of your child. Having it happen on Christmas Eve makes it even more painful. But I think what's worst is knowing that such a great kid is gone, and that his parents, who raised him well, loved him so much, and did everything right, are now grieving his loss.
My prayers are with the Batliner family right now.
If I can find any information on where to send stuff I'll update and post it here.
Here's the link to the old RnH video that Bobnob made. Kutem is in there several times:
Revelry and Honor
When he first joined Revelry and Honor, he was 13. In the years that followed, I enjoyed hearing about his success in school, as well as his moments of glory on the soccer field. He would always talk about his history classes with me, since I was teaching it at the time, and he'd challenge me to try to stump him with history questions. As the years went by, his playtime diminished, but he always caught me up on school, sports, and sometimes even girls.
But I especially loved hearing the stories about his basketball team, because I got to hear both the player's perspective (his) as well as the coach's perspective (his dad's). What I appreciated the most was that his dad loved just being able to share a common interest with his son. He was proud of the success they had on the court, but he was prouder of watching Will develop into a good sport as well as a fine player.
In game, Kutem relished the role of guild jester. He never missed an opportunity to make someone laugh. No one played a double shrunk-SoW'd troll warrior better than Kutem, although he was sorely missing that shrink after getting stuck in a door in Dalnir during a guild event. The guild laughed about that one for days.
And it was Kutem who brightened up RnH's last evening by having a rap duel with me. I can't tell you how many times I'd be on the verge of stressing out trying to lead a raid, when all of a sudden my chat window would be full of purple text from Kutem, who was quoting the latest rap song to me. I don't think he had any idea that his rap-spam was the reality slap I needed to remind me that a fun raid is a successful raid.
I got to met him and his dad at a gathering of some of the RnH Virginia Beach members. I was surprised at how tall he was (I guess I expected a double shrunk fat troll), but I was even more surprised at how grown up he was. He carried himself with more maturity than most adults, and I was impressed at how he took time to play with Takair and Harkas' young daughter, since most teenagers never have the time or patience for little children unless they're being paid to babysit. When he smiled, you knew that the sky was the limit for him.
As a relatively new parent, I can't imagine the pain of experiencing the death of your child. Having it happen on Christmas Eve makes it even more painful. But I think what's worst is knowing that such a great kid is gone, and that his parents, who raised him well, loved him so much, and did everything right, are now grieving his loss.
My prayers are with the Batliner family right now.
If I can find any information on where to send stuff I'll update and post it here.
Here's the link to the old RnH video that Bobnob made. Kutem is in there several times:
Revelry and Honor
