TimberWolf is a banned member of the Sprite Wars community. He has gone by many usernames over the years: Spike, James Callahan, Mad Cat, pyroMercenary, and FKR. He prefers TimberWolf or TW. Some veterans recall that he was a problematic member of the community who was quick to anger, but his past and modern exploits have resulted in the creation of numerous sprites, factions and campaign concepts that have helped shape the fabric of SW.
Sadly, in June of 2020, TimberWolf was permanently banned without possibility of appeal for multiple rule violations of both the Discord server and the Forums.
History
First Discovery
TimberWolf, who went by the name "Spike" at the time, discovered Sprite Wars while at the Metal Slug Database by looking through the list of affiliates. Shortly after his first ban from MSBD, he joined Sprite Wars. TW set the record for shortest time between joining and being banned on the original forum. He barely knew anyone at SW and forgot about it for a couple of years.
Second Coming
During the two-year gap, TimberWolf still hung around the MSDB website. He looked through the sprites and animations, saving any he thought were cool. When MSDB went down, Timber left it but joyously returned a few months later when it went back up. Boredom crept up on him and he joined Sprite Wars again.
Due to the original affiliate location no longer existing, Timber had to Google it. He joined up again, possibly believing that no-one would match him with his old profile, Spike. He registered as TimberWolf and was a decent member. Some attest that he had a temper and chose to berate people for their poor choice of grammar, rendering unto him the term "grammar Nazi". He butted heads with various members and staff, including Mike Murdock, Commander Evil, Wingwolf, and his "rival", MD. This resulted in a gigantic flame war with MD, and Timber received a permanent ban.
Later details are sketchy. (Aside from TW: Seriously guys, I can't remember jack shit about my many chances at SW, mind helping me? Try to keep things as unbiased as possible, please.)
During this time, Timber had many chances to improve his behavior, but found himself in conflict with staff and members such as MD, esreveR, Kane and Commander Cool. He took part in three campaigns, (one Eastern and two Grand campaigns) but never really did anything of note.
James Callahan
Following his permanent ban, Timber wandered the internet, still keeping in touch with MSN friends such as Storm Spotter Fox and Commander Evil. He blamed the staff and Mike in particular for "wasting" his chances. At least one account alleges that he never stopped to think about what he could have done better, and ranted that the rules should have been bent for him.
After Sprite Wars switched domains and upgraded, TimberWolf dodged his ban by joining as James Callahan, a name he developed for a role-playing character. He maintained membership for a decent amount of time, even running a Gundam RP before it died. Following a shoutbox joke regarding TimberWolf being dead, Callahan was immediately banned by Player1.
Mad Cat
A year passed and Timber became restless. Sprite Wars had done away with guest-viewing, and recent news from CommanderEvil indicated the site stagnated. There were too few newbies, too many veterans, boring campaigns, and the active user list became smaller each month. Timber created another account by the name Mad Cat, knowing that the many BattleTech fans on SW would be able to connect the dots and realise that it was him. He puttered around the forum, and was a good member.
Mad Cat was outed from the shoutbox by Vas, with orders from the staff to keep it secret "for the lulz". Mad Cat stuck around, trying to be useful and proving that his behavior had improved. Everything went South during the Halloween of '09. Mad Cat had been attempting to log onto SW all day, but constantly received 404 errors. Then he had to go outside in heavy wind conditions to sell poppies for his local Canadian Legion branch as part of a pre-Remembrance Day fundraising Drive.
Tired and annoyed at the server not working earlier, Mad finally got back in and was not in the mood for dealing with anyone's ignorance or stupidity, no matter how slight. Lo and behold, he found both in the form of Ivo. Ivo was the secret judge in a Halloween sprite costume contest in SW. Mad Cat submitted one of his re-tooled Canadian Forces COs dressed as Commander Evil, but put the short form for Evil's name (CE) in the description.
Ivo gave Timber a rating of 7.8/10.
Mad Cat delivered a temper-fueled "Serious? You don't know who COMMANDER EVIL is? Where the FUCK have you been?" which resulted in his being banned the next day by RFZ and Timber went emo and jumped off the High Level Bridge, discovering that two people he believed to be his friends, Wingwolf and RFZ, were faking it the entire time. This caused Timber to become wrapped in a "shitload of angst" for a week afterward, which disappeared after a chance random IP change. (Or something, has happened before, lol. ~ TW)
This allowed him to discover his original TimberWolf account was not actually banned. He then proceeded to "gloat-spam" the shoutbox and act like an "utter tool". He did not consult Mike Murdock, whom he had become friends with following Mad Cat's ban. He believed that the post that got him banned wasn't even worth a warn.
Apparently, all he did was piss Wingwolf off and look like an asshole.
MSDB and the Appeal
TimberWolf hung around MSDB, befriending Commander Cool and Sarge. He learnt through Mike that there had been a vote following the Mad Cat ban, on whether or not the post was a ban-able offense. Only three people, the Founding Fathers of SW, Mike, Storm, and Draco voted for him. CommanderEvil did not vote, and everyone else voted in favor of the ban.
Timber began mellowing out following the vote, supporting CE's proposals for redesigning SW to be more guest-friendly. He finally discovered the truth behind esreveR, whom he attempted to become friends with after joining MSDB. (What was the truth behind esreveR? - Dhalo)
He was eventually banned from MSDB by a staff member, Dan, for no apparent reason. (Seriously, he didn't give any! ~ TW)
Timber took to watching Sprite Wars, keeping close friendships with CE, Mike, Merku, and Spartan, and still hopes to finish an It's Personal campaign he started with Spartan.
He was surprised when he learned, through Sarge, that the staff reset all ban appeals. This allowed Timber to have a true ban appeal, and was allowed to take place after RFZ admitted he had been trigger-happy when he banned the Mad Cat account. CE and Kalash had left the staff, but Timber was still confident, because he was friends with Mike and Sarge, and Storm and Draco had voted on his side before.
It was a resounding loss. While RFZ, Mike and Merku voted in Timber's favor, Storm and Draco switched sides on the issue, for seemingly no reason. Storm was unable to get onto MSN. Timber, with assistance from Mike, talked with Storm and apologised for going around his back as Mad Cat, but was not able to ask Storm what his reasoning was.
He was, however, able to obtain Draco's MSN and speak with him. Draco falsely believed that Timber had been banned another time after the Mad Cat incident. Timber delivered a minor lecture on common sense and paying attention to the goings-on at the forum, received a promise from Draco, and then left him alone.
FKR
Time passed, and Timber received news of a chance in SW's ban appeals. Everyone got a full reset. He seized the moment, and, recalling an incident of the same type from the old Mystical Forest Zone forums in years past, tried to come back into SW under a new name. This time, he had help from staff members.
He chose the name "FKR" named after his NationStates nation "Free Kanadian Refugees". (It was a shortened version of the "FucKeR" thing, but only after Meiji mentioned it. The FKR was deleted because the NS mods suck. ~ TW)
He approached Mike and Sarge, two staff members he trusted, who knew what FKR was. FKR also received promises of support from Spartan117 and CE, who likewise knew what it meant. He created an account which Mike validated, and Timbers returned to Sprite Wars.
Almost as soon as FKR began posting, Kalash screamed up and down that it was Timber. With help from Merku, Spartan, and later on RFZ, Timber kept himself hidden for quite a while. FKR slowly gained more hidden support, and CE informed him about and apologised for the shoutbox incident. Soon all of the Watchmen, including newly-promoted Watchmen Briano and Nexu, and even the once-hated Watchmen Leader Wingwolf, were on his side. Mike and Draco continued their support.
Despite this and TW's improved behavior, excluding his clashes with Kalash which brought Kalash to leave SW, the Watchmen and other allies insisted he keep it under wraps, because there was not much point in "revealing" himself. Unfortunately, a minor slip-up caused Mandemon to say, (paraphrased) "FKR is TW?" and before Timber, Sarge, or RFZ could put a lid on it, MJP piped up with a nice, insulting, "My God, and Spartan said I was slow figuring it out."
With the lid busted wide open, TW decided to make the reveal official and the rest is history.
2013: The Resurgence
Almost two years after his ban in May 2011, a new user joined Sprite Wars under the name "TheCrazed". This user held a dark secret in that he was, in fact, TimberWolf. The first thing he did was post a short story in the Writer's Guild Topic entitled "Egy Elveszett És Megtört Farkas" ("A Lost And Broken Wolf" in Hungarian), which was supposedly based on a dream he had. He proceeded to join a discussion in the shoutbox wherein members of Sprite Wars pondered who could be considered the "original" members after a newbie wondered how many of them were still active. TheCrazed started off by saying he thought he was one of the first members, and proceeded to introduce himself as TimberWolf. "Historians" believe he should have waited another year or so before rejoining, because he was banned again shortly after the reveal.
TimberWolf/FKR has matured considerably in recent years and is currently regarded as a decent fellow.
2016: Back Again
TimberWolf returned to Sprite Wars with a new account called "Redemption" in late June, 2016. Past issues were largely laid to rest and he has slowly worked to rebuild his spriting career.
2019
While Timber has not taken part in any campaigns in a considerable amount of time, he remains a source of knowledge, criticism, opinions, spriting tips, humour and insults for members old and new. He has recently been seen working on SPACE CANADIENZ.
Project Terra
While most Sprite Wars campaigns are set with the date being 20XX, Timber was interested in the concept of a world with pre-built factions and a timeline with dates set in stone, that kept inspiration from some of SW's oldest campaigns. Instead of causing headaches by trying to shoehorn this into a pre-existing campaign, Timber created Project Terra.
2020
On 6th June, 2020, TimberWolf was permanently banned without ability to appeal for several different offenses against SpriteWars and users from SpriteWars. Reasons included:
- Rule 1: Sexual harassment of a user
- Rule 1: Sexual harassment of an UNDERAGE user
- Rule 1: Support of terrorism
- Rule 4: Grandstanding/Attempting to call for social justice
- Rule 5: Politics on the Discord Server
- Rule 6: Flaming users
- Rule 7: Cyberbullying staff and users
- Rule 13: Terroristic threats
- Rule 14: Causing a massive dramatic situation
Factions
Canadians. Lots'a Canadians. Space Canadians.
Technically all of the factions in Project Terra.