Noblesse Oblige (clan website) is an exclusive community-oriented clan with a long history in the Kingdom of Loathing. Using many of the players from an older clan called Philanthropists, Bashy, its new leader, formed Noblesse Oblige in December of 2004 after a month of massive restructuring. In June 2008, the official leadership and decision-making capacity passed to Hellion, although Bashy's account remained "officially" in charge of the clan for quite some time - mainly to allow the actual leader to clan-hop. In June of 2011, Hellion passed the leadership position off to Zair.
The clan prides itself on excellent communication skills, a high level of philanthropy, and a strong measure of participation and aptitude both in the game and the surrounding community; its members include several forum and chat mods, several past and present Radio DJs, and some of the game's most eminent powergamers, philanthropists, /newbie-channel helpers, speed-ascenders, hardcore ascenders, major chat and forum presences, at least one Ascension tester and other members of the development team. Despite all this, however, they try to maintain a firm connection with the average player.
Past memorable clan events include the "Week of Drunken Loving," an original week of generosity and events for the public which lasted from March 14th to March 20th, 2005. As a result of its massive success, each clan member was awarded a custom item, the N. O. Beer, the first tradable clan-specific item. Each member of the clan (34 at the time) was given one, but each was given away to deserving players others outside the clan. This highly successful event was later followed up, by similar events in every March - usually on the same dates of 14th-20th - from 2007 to 2012: although no more N.O. Beers were given out on these occasions, a lot of other goodies, often of donation-item quality, were given out philanthropically or as competition prizes. Also, the clan maintains a tradition of taking over the Drunkenness and Hangover boards to mark the end of the festival. (Unfortunately 2006 was missed out, mainly because most active players were busy ascending and not enough people were out of hardcore or ronin to do much in the way of giveaways.)
Other Noblesse-related projects have involved numerous giveaways, Insane Steve's famous riddle contests, Chubbles' (now retired) clan histories, I Stab People and Ultimationismist's (also retired) Syphilis magazine, The Noblesse Oblige Kingdom Calendar, The N.O. Hardcore Ascension contest (which was granted an in-game leaderboard for its duration), Oxbarn's Ascension Database, Feast of Boris cakebot giveaways, an "Even Worse Moon" competition, various individual recognition projects, and aid to the projects of other clans. More recently there has been a mighty Trivia Contest, and an alliance with Otori for annual Crimbo Celebrations since 2009.
The Noblesse Oblige buffbot is also one of the best-known resources in-game, providing its services to all and sundry while attempting to maintain its status as the highest-level character in the game. (As of October 1, 2009, it had achieved level 223, but been overtaken by SoCal as the highest-level.) At the time of its debut, it was the only buffbot to offer every castable buff in the game from a single source. This is no longer true since the addition of "Scarysauce" and the five Hobopolis Accordion Thief buffs, since the bot stands to lose too much by ascending to gain those skills.
As of this moment, Noblesse Oblige is in the ranks of the top five clans both for Ascendingest and Hardcore-Ascendingest, with a handful of players occupying many slots on the various leaderboards. Some memorable names include Bashy, Kaaewen, Almighty Tallest (a.k.a. Reducto, who achieved the first three-day hardcore ascension), Zair, SyrinxLui, Wilder, Ricket, Lukifer, Montoya, Prima Vera Angelhair (also known as PVA, and the owner of the Stupid University Diploma), ADeadHeart (also known as ADH), JLE, Hellion, and Mr Bill. They have also been heavily involved in clan dungeons in the Clan Basement, holding the current speed record for Hobopolis in particular.
Despite all this gameplay success, Noblesse Oblige's roots are firmly in philanthropy and community enrichment, whether through material generosity or simply trying to be a good, nice group of people. Some have said that what they succeed at best is "being a decent group of jackasses".