The Ghost Bear

It's strange the small things, how they sneak up on you.  The Ghost Bear snuck up on us, those of us in beta.  We would be mining, or running...and suddenly a bear would roar.  And this was no small roar.  It was a BIG roar, just behind your left ear.  The first time you heard it, you about jumped out of your chair, and whirled your character around, looking for the attack of a monster bear. 

But there was no bear. 

So you went on.  And perhaps the next day, or perhaps the next hour...maybe it was the Lone Lands or maybe it was right there in the Prancing Pony in the middle of Bree.  The bear would roar.  For awhile we all looked round, and maybe there was a lore-master's bear in the Pony, or maybe some bear on the horizon, so we shrugged and went on. 
But then one day, we would be out on some lonely road, nowhere near any bear or any creature at all, running along some place thinking of the next quest, the next stablemaster, the next ore node...and the bear would roar in our ear.  If it was three am and you were playing alone in some darkened room, let me tell you, you about jumped out of your skin.

People would ask about it in chat.  "What's with the bear roar?"  After a while it was just, "Oh that's the random bear growl," "Random bear growl FTW!" We didn't jump so much.  A few people complained, the usual suspects who complain about everything. The bear kept roaring, out there on desolate Weathertop, under the full moon, or in the Green Hills of the Shire.  Singing a harsh song of the wild to us, while the land began to fill with hobbits and men and elves and dwarves. 

A couple of nights ago, I was running alone, a level 15 in the North Downs where a level 15 has no business being--where even a single bobcat swipe could take me down--and as I ran the empty road, the bear roared in my ear.  I just smiled and kept running, glad of the company...

But today, starting today, there is no roar.  It's gone.  "Fixed."  Patches fix bugs, and the roar was...was the Ghost Bear.  But a hobbit of Landroval has made him a song...

Lamentation for the Ghost Bear
((to the tune of Ghost Rider by Rush))

Pack up all your honey
Shoulder that invisible load
Hobbits are spawning North and West
Building on the wilderness road
Of the ghost bear

Dwarves are stealing boar skins
Hobbits are stealing your honey
Elves should be heading to the West
Last week this world was empty
Except the ghost bear

Keep on roaring North and West
Then circle South and East
Why won't they leave there is no peace
For the ghost bear

There's a hobbit on the road behind
There's a hobbit on the road ahead
Nothing can stop you now

Roaring on the road behind
Roaring on the road ahead
Nothing can stop you now

Scaring dwarves and hobbits
Just when they think they're safe for sure
Sneaking up behind them
You let out your frightening roar
Like a ghost bear

Sunrise in the looking glass
There used to be no one here
Riding on a nameless quest
To scare them back to Everquest
Like a ghost bear

Just a homicidal artist
Racing against Turbine
A wandering faceless roar
Running out of time

Hobbits on the road behind
Hobbits on the road ahead
Only devs can stop you now
Devs will stop you now

__________________
Yunkor the Hard Headed, dorf
Yunkgar Songsmythe, hobbit of peculiar particulars

So that's who the Ghost Bear was.  Perhaps if he never scared you out of your wits this seems a silly thing to honor.  But now in his memory there is a newly-born member of Windriders, a big brown-eyed rough-haired ranger who goes by the name of Ghostbear.

Long live the Ghost Bear.