The History Of Indy Gear Part 2

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Michael French's  history of "IndyGear", a website and organization that's partly responsible for bringing fedora's and the Spirit of Adventure back into the Mainstream of Popular Culture, inspired by the Indiana Jones movies. Part II, "The Rise of NIM"...

“Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis, and the rise of Club Obi-Wan, there was an age undreamed of. And unto this, came Indiana Jones, destined to wear the rumpled fedora of Herbert Johnson upon a troubled brow. It is I, his Chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga. Let me tell you of the days of high adventure!”

The skies above Indyfan grew dark.  The gods of Wested and the gods of Flightsuits had driven a rift between the people of Indygear.  In the midst of this unrest, when unity was at its weakest, there came what would become known as “the NIM.”  For the Nim, chaos reigned.  Theirs was a life of senseless messages, maniacal laughter, and the hijacking of other people’s questions and threads.
 
The NIM worshipped a malignant deity known as “Indiana Jack,” a creation that spawned from the minds of these Morlock-like forum hijackers.  Jack’s clown-like, painted visage became the calling card of the NIM, their elite soldier in the war against coherence.  No one was spared the invasive cyber-terrorism of Indiana Jack, including I, your chronicler who watched a serious question crumble into bedlam as Indiana Jack ripped into my thread.   

At this very moment in Indygear history, Lee Keppler was offering his now famous belts and holsters.  MK and Patterson were working closely with Flightsuits and Peter Bros., in the hopes that from these craftsmen and women would come the ultimate Raiders jacket and fedora.  MK created the now legendary “regularguy” pages that contained the secrets of the first Flightsuits jackets and the then-controversial acetone aging therapy for leather.

Indy Gear's population was torn in all directions.  Federation fans squared off against Peter Bros. loyalists, heated battles were waged between Wested wearers and Flightsuits fans.  Many decried the use of acetone, and their voices cried out in terror.  In this moment of disunity and weakness, the NIM struck, swooping down with a multitude of their non-important messages.  Even had the IndyGear citizens tried to settle their differences at Indyfan, it was nigh impossible in the midst of the non-important message barrage.  As London suffered under the Luftwaffe in 1940, so did Indyfan suffer regular blitzes under the NIM.

In all conflicts, there rise heroes on both sides.  These heroes inevitably square off in epic conflict.  As Arthur and Mordred eventually came to blows, so too did members of IndyGear find themselves in gritty, personal struggles with the elite members of what had officially become “The Great NIM Rebellion.”  The moderators and webmasters were unable to stop the slaughter, the tension, and the mayhem.  In some circles, the personal battles reached an apex of treachery and deceit I did not think possible. When the smoke cleared, an era had ended and Indyfan was a desolate battlefield akin to Verdun or Gettysburg.

Neither side could go back.  The fields had been burned, the villages razed.  The two factions parted ways in the lingering smoke of war.  From there, phoenixes would rise from the ashes, as new nations were born, new fortresses built.  In the aftermath of conflict, a golden age was on the verge of fruition that would bring all of IndyGear together and seed the great cyber-civilization we enjoy today.  

And what became of the NIM, you ask?  They too survived and subsist to this day.  Their world is not difficult to locate for the diligent, and even now there remain those who can still cross between these worlds in peace, as they often do, maintaining a subtle and quiet link with those who once sat beside us at Indyfan.

Next:  The History of IndyGear: Part III – Inn of the Sixth Happiness: Club Obi-Wan