@Selenity Let's see if I can explain this... I had been studying the accent for a while, reading books that used it. It was making me want to have a Scottish character of my own. And then when I realized Serenwilde had some Gaelic roots, I thought it might be an opportunity to play such a character. It was also a little bit of a challenge to see if I could do it.
I'm using my healing powers to resurrect a long dead thread. Arise!
I had a burning question for our playerbase: what is your favorite piece of lore in the game and why? This is something I think about a lot as a builder, and it helps to know what stories have resonated with players the most.
As a follow-up, what lore are you interested in learning more about?
Avatar by Sam Smith. You can follow her on Twitter here.
There's too much awesome lore in the game for me to pinpoint my favorite right now, but I'll update if I think of something!
What I'd love more of would be the Vernal Wars. I know there are a bunch of texts in-game that I haven't found yet, but what little I've found has always been great, and I just want to know more! More about vernal gods we don't yet know about, or to further flesh out the ones we do, but also especially more about the big ones - I love the bits and pieces I know about Kiakoda and want more.
Amazing beautiful stunning avatar by Gurashi! ~ A gentle breeze ruffles your wings and whispers in your ears, as if for you alone, "Dragonfly's words shine... seeds, sown and tended, inspire... a forest harvest." ~ Maylea reaches out, Her fingers poised in midair. "Now you are of Me, even more than you were before." Her golden and azure eyes glitter. "Walk well, Eldin. Shed glory in My name, and bring life to the lifeless."
I'm using my healing powers to resurrect a long dead thread. Arise!
I had a burning question for our playerbase: what is your favorite piece of lore in the game and why? This is something I think about a lot as a builder, and it helps to know what stories have resonated with players the most.
As a follow-up, what lore are you interested in learning more about?
I really like the Icewynd lore and other moments like that show the Soulless may not be completely mindless and just want to destroy all things. Ones that show persons the Vernals were the bad guys for how they went about trapping the poor Soulless. While I understand it probably would never happen - I would love to see someone take up a lesser Soulless that doesn't want to consume things but would be happy being worshipped.
(Lore-points I would like to see, that may or may not be helpful for a builder):
The Lore I like is more in a worldbuilding sense rather than story. Things like where someplace is at (I'm still super confused on where exactly a lot of these Edifice of Power places were or why they changed their names to what they are now). Having an actual full map of how the Basin, Icewynd, Dio, Lirangsha (and any other landmasses) are laid out would be great...
Or the big picture why, I don't really care so much about the farmers that are trying to poison each other, but why are they where they are at. Why haven't they been found before now (this is a big one. There is zero reason why any place within the basin should really be able to hide from us with the dozen or so ways we have to see over mountains,etc.).
I'm probably in the minority here - but a lot of areas I just find just are there and don't really connect with the rest of the world, and this is partly from the idea of every area having to have some quest that involves requiring our help. I would love for a simple boring place that has no real story. Just some simple NPCs living their lives and nothing is wrong that needs help. It is the questions like 'how did these people get along before being found? Why do they need our help now?' that I find don't really get answered and we are just suppose to go along with it.
Perhaps this is really just things going over my head - but I don't see why we can't make Edifices of Power anymore (or something like it). Or even on a smaller scale, there is a lot of org lore of lost knowledge and stuff. Being able to reclaim the seemingly ways of old when a org was 'more powerful' seems like something we should be able to do from an IC standpoint.
I'm using my healing powers to resurrect a long dead thread. Arise!
I had a burning question for our playerbase: what is your favorite piece of lore in the game and why? This is something I think about a lot as a builder, and it helps to know what stories have resonated with players the most.
As a follow-up, what lore are you interested in learning more about?
Everything about the noble Magnagoran families and all the lore right before and after the Taint in Magnagora I love, it's fun to connect it the areas/NPC's that have meaning to my character. I also really like seeing all the corrupt sketchy things the Holy Celestine Empire did and their horribly doomed projects.
I'm using my healing powers to resurrect a long dead thread. Arise!
I had a burning question for our playerbase: what is your favorite piece of lore in the game and why? This is something I think about a lot as a builder, and it helps to know what stories have resonated with players the most.
As a follow-up, what lore are you interested in learning more about?
Baalphegar because he was shady af even pre-Taint. The Emanations in general. I LOVED the Lovers event for bringing them to life somewhat.
I would love to see more about what makes up the 'Imperial culture' of Celest because it's something that comes up a lot but I feel like it's poorly conveyed in roleplay. Other orgs seem to have a stronger handle on what their culture actually is. Off the top of my head Magnagora seems to be the best developed in the sense of having a theme that's easily identifiable in the sense that they're clockpunk, sort of victorian bustle skirts and gas lamps, etc. I would utterly adore getting a more developed since going in Celest too.
I'm using my healing powers to resurrect a long dead thread. Arise!
I had a burning question for our playerbase: what is your favorite piece of lore in the game and why? This is something I think about a lot as a builder, and it helps to know what stories have resonated with players the most.
As a follow-up, what lore are you interested in learning more about?
IRL, I tend to be super anti-religion. So it surprises me that one of my favorite pieces of lore, generally speaking, is how the gods -used- to be. You see rivalries now, or gods who just stay away from each other, but you find out they used to snuggle or be best friends in the past. When you ask a god about another god, I know some of them have to go check notes or ask the rest of the Havens, but it's worth it to connect the dots and see the roleplay unfold.
The other day, I had the extreme pleasure of roleplaying with Terentia, and managed to get Her to speak about Czixi. That short bit of time was some of the best divine RP I've had in a very long time, and I look forward to more of it in the future.
Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
Another thing that interests me is getting lore from things that happened before Estarra showed up. You hear about this or that city that the Soulless devoured, or something that just -happened-, like apparently there was a huge Taurian stampede one time, and it killed a lot of people, so the Celestine Empire banned groups of taurians over a certain amount.
Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
I think my favorite bit of lore is [redacted for order secrets] so far! But learning more about... fae. All the fae knowledge. And Lothwen Darkeye's story.
I think the raising of Diomanus and how that is viewed through Tamthys is one of my favorite pieces of lore. Things that give out old documents or diaries are my favorite since we get such insights into specific events, and then you can copy those and have great references for later.
Lore I'd be down for learning more about is the kelpie Awakener and Sirenalai. Kelpies kelpies kelpies!
Lore I'd be down for learning more about is the kelpie Awakener and Sirenalai. Kelpies kelpies kelpies!
Yes, absolutely! This is one of my favorite quests, and I wish we had more information on it.
I kinda wish giving Jeitara the fork had some sort of effect on the area over giving it to Lanikai instead >.>
Everiine said: The reason population is low isn't because there are too many orgs. It's because so many facets of the game are outright broken and protected by those who benefit from it being that way. An overabundance of gimmicks (including game-breaking ones), artifacts that destroy any concept of balance, blatant pay-to-win features, and an obsession with convenience that makes few things actually worthwhile all contribute to the game's sad decline.
Did he gets raised as a Vernal because he figured out how to hide the loboshigaru from the soulless, or was he only able to hide the loboshigaru because he was a Vernal? Did he die? How? What was the edifice that raised him? Did he come to an independent understanding of Kata or did the Kephera teach him (please let it be the former)?
Outside @Lantra's great question about hearing what players like about game lore for building purposes, I am wondering, in order to think about org roleplay: What is one thing that irks you about your org's lore? What is one thing that you love about it? This isn't a question about what you would change, by the way. Simply, I want to know what are the pressure points.
Outside @Lantra's great question about hearing what players like about game lore for building purposes, I am wondering, in order to think about org roleplay: What is one thing that irks you about your org's lore? What is one thing that you love about it? This isn't a question about what you would change, by the way. Simply, I want to know what are the pressure points.
I'm disappointed in how the caste system was used in Hallifax. Early on after Hallifax was released, it was used to keep warriors/merchants from getting favors for defense or other things aside from making art, even preventing some players from advancing past CR4 if they weren't part of a special clique. There's a perfectly good way to rp the caste system being a way to make sure people understand that all parts of Hallifax are needed to make the city function, but it wasn't presented this way at first.
Her voice firm and commanding, Terentia, the Even Bladed says to you, "You have kept your oath to Me, Parhelion. You have sworn to maintain Justice in these troubled times."
Yet if a boon be granted me, unworthy as I am, let it be for a steady hand with a clear eye and a fury most inflaming.
Outside @Lantra's great question about hearing what players like about game lore for building purposes, I am wondering, in order to think about org roleplay: What is one thing that irks you about your org's lore? What is one thing that you love about it? This isn't a question about what you would change, by the way. Simply, I want to know what are the pressure points.
Celest's culture being used as semi-justification for not helping people out because they should always work everything out for themselves. I've played in every org, and Celest is the only one where I have consistently come up against the concept that people should be forced to accomplish everything without help, because it 'cheapens' it somehow if it's not a struggle.
That's not to say there aren't people around who are deeply comitted to helping build that community sense, but I feel like it CAN be a bit harder to get into the org because there's often not a lot of roleplay explanation to people about why that is.
As for what I love- I don't really have an answer yet. I'm working on learning more, but I have to find people to bother to teach me more!
Outside @Lantra's great question about hearing what players like about game lore for building purposes, I am wondering, in order to think about org roleplay: What is one thing that irks you about your org's lore? What is one thing that you love about it? This isn't a question about what you would change, by the way. Simply, I want to know what are the pressure points.
I'm disappointed in how the caste system was used in Hallifax. Early on after Hallifax was released, it was used to keep warriors/merchants from getting favors for defense or other things aside from making art, even preventing some players from advancing past CR4 if they weren't part of a special clique. There's a perfectly good way to rp the caste system being a way to make sure people understand that all parts of Hallifax are needed to make the city function, but it wasn't presented this way at first.
Personally, I see the issue of CR being tied to influence skills. I think that way of caste system could have worked out great if influence skills weren't tied to rank (and instead could be tied to influence directly and specific skills you learn at novice, master, and trans (or whatever levels is appropriate). I understand why it was done the way it was, but sadly, it just didn't work out.
Outside @Lantra's great question about hearing what players like about game lore for building purposes, I am wondering, in order to think about org roleplay: What is one thing that irks you about your org's lore? What is one thing that you love about it? This isn't a question about what you would change, by the way. Simply, I want to know what are the pressure points.
With Gaudiguch, my biggest issue is the lack of outlined depth. There's very little to be said of liberty aside from 'we liberate people sometimes because good', and Enlightenment has been historically lorded over by gatekeepers who really had nothing of value behind the curtain of FAINTSMILE and madlibs strung together. With our cosmic plane just being a squelching mess with no figureheads, there's nothing to really aspire to as an embodiment of the org beyond the often flimsy 'For Freedom!' rallying cry.
Even Hallifax, who shares our lack of mobs to emulate on the cosmic level, has embraced the Higher Emotions as a very successful teaching tool. While some would say (and I agree, to a point) that part of Gaudiguch's charm is revelling in that chaos, the lack of a mold, and blazing your own trail, it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of how to appropriately build a character around the love for their org. 'I do what I want and also I drink a lot' just doesn't float my goat, you know? Everyone should love their own people, everyone should love doing their org's version of the Right Thing, but what's beyond that?
There's a lot of really good tidbits lying around, but I've yet to see someone who can bring them together into something that truly is and is of Gaudiguch, at least not without heavy reliance on divine-specific roleplay.
Crumkane, Lord of Epicurean Delights says, "WAS IT INDEED ON FIRE, ERITHEYL."
-
With a deep reverb, Contemptible Sutekh says, "CEASE YOUR INFERNAL ENERGY, ERITHEYL."
The caste system in Hallifax is my eternal frustration. There's absolutely no reason Alexandria should be Chair if we were actually sticking to it. She's mostly a merchant and an occasional combatant, which puts her at either mid-level dabbling in the lower, or vice versa. It was an idea that was intended to make Hallifax different, and it certainly has - but I think that mostly it is mostly just confusing and adds a level of tedious frustration to all of the paperwork side of the city.
As for lore, I got really, really, really involved in Czixi things for a long while there. Everything that led to learning more about Her and those who featured in Her past was fascinating. Even now, an entire year and some later, I can still work up some strong enthusiasm for people wanting to learn more/be more involved. It even got me to read the Elder Wars (which I hadn't read because I had read the previous histories multiple times before that and didn't have the willpower to start over again).
On previous characters in the past, finding out more about how Serenwilde or Celest used to run was always good. Events that linked to how things are in the now were always the best, because it gave you fixed points to work with both for differences and continuity. Glom never really had it in the same way when I've been there, and Gaudiguch is definitely more freeform, which makes it hard to get involved in the older stuff.
Czixi, the Welkin murmurs, "Fight on, My Effervescent Sylph. I will be with you as you do."
Aian Lerit'r, Lead Schematicist exclaims to you, "A *paperwork* emergency, Chairman!
I love Magnagoran lore - the Demon Lords, the nobility, the embracing of this huge catastrophic event and holding their head high despite everyone else hating them is something I really enjoy. There's so many threads to tug and so many possibilities on what sort of character to be and evolve to become, all still fitting well into theme.
I really love most of all the Elder Wars as far as histories go. Anything to do with the gods before returning is fascinating and awesome and I always love learning more.
Outside @Lantra's great question about hearing what players like about game lore for building purposes, I am wondering, in order to think about org roleplay: What is one thing that irks you about your org's lore? What is one thing that you love about it? This isn't a question about what you would change, by the way. Simply, I want to know what are the pressure points.
Celest's culture being used as semi-justification for not helping people out because they should always work everything out for themselves. I've played in every org, and Celest is the only one where I have consistently come up against the concept that people should be forced to accomplish everything without help, because it 'cheapens' it somehow if it's not a struggle.
That's not to say there aren't people around who are deeply comitted to helping build that community sense, but I feel like it CAN be a bit harder to get into the org because there's often not a lot of roleplay explanation to people about why that is.
As for what I love- I don't really have an answer yet. I'm working on learning more, but I have to find people to bother to teach me more!
Yeah, not to harp too hard on this, but there is/was also a rather heavy clique-y feeling to Celest that ties to this in part, since if you hadn't worked it out for yourself that also meant you weren't part of the 'in' crowd who had.
There were shades of this in early Hallifax but that mostly got quietly redacted after being loudly knocked off. Nowadays there's only THE SECRET left in Halli that's any kind of that.
But speaking of, Hallifax's strenuous focus on orderliness and the 'higher emotions' does leave a bit of a gap when it comes to THE SECRET. Once one learns it they're left in an awkward position where it sometimes feels like the only options forward are character-breaking, unless one's character is already the type to feel that it was justified. Every time Luce gives 'the talk' he has to go on sabbatical for weeks before he can calm down enough to be a proper Hallifaxian again, and he HATES it. Especially since he's very much a believer in the idea that just because something is necessary, that does not make it right. He's just also a firm believer in the idea that one's obligations to office outweigh one's moral callings since that's what his mentors taught him.
For the more positive side though, I love how engaged the admin in Hallifax have always been, and how willing to say "Yep, that thing you made up has totally always been a thing, you're only just now finding evidence." Daraius having a good time playing up lobo lore in Halli? Have some vassal packs. Luce doing a research project to document rare phenotypes for furrikin and loboshigaru? Have an NPC to explicitly confirm something new for both. Someone pointing out how many tae'dae are in Hallifax? Welcome to Irshaw Heights, a former colony full of them. Timequakes wreaking havoc on the Basin? Better believe Hallifax got some input on how the event played out and got a chance to delay it by knowing enough time magic to BS our way throughcome up with a creative solution to the issue. I even love that our new guilds still have long, pretentious official names even if everyone just uses the short form in casual conversation outside of Hallifax. You in the Aerie? No, I'm a Cygnine Composer for the Grand Aerie of Harmonious Refinement, thank you. (And I just noticed that I'm a Patrician, so I've got to practice my eyebrow lift, and my sucking silence.) And I'm a fan of the unspoken agreement everyone has to not talk about The Secret OOC even if we're helping with quests related to it so as to preserve the punch for people who don't know yet.
With Gaudiguch, my biggest issue is the lack of outlined depth. There's very little to be said of liberty aside from 'we liberate people sometimes because good', and Enlightenment has been historically lorded over by gatekeepers who really had nothing of value behind the curtain of FAINTSMILE and madlibs strung together. With our cosmic plane just being a squelching mess with no figureheads, there's nothing to really aspire to as an embodiment of the org beyond the often flimsy 'For Freedom!' rallying cry.
Even Hallifax, who shares our lack of mobs to emulate on the cosmic level, has embraced the Higher Emotions as a very successful teaching tool. While some would say (and I agree, to a point) that part of Gaudiguch's charm is revelling in that chaos, the lack of a mold, and blazing your own trail, it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of how to appropriately build a character around the love for their org. 'I do what I want and also I drink a lot' just doesn't float my goat, you know? Everyone should love their own people, everyone should love doing their org's version of the Right Thing, but what's beyond that?
There's a lot of really good tidbits lying around, but I've yet to see someone who can bring them together into something that truly is and is of Gaudiguch, at least not without heavy reliance on divine-specific roleplay.
I think Gaudiguch's biggest hindrance is that so much hinges on secrets. One of my most memorable Lusternia experiences is still maneuvering around with Alaksanteri and Dys to extract added Xeeth lore as surreptitiously as possible (I still have massive respect for the admin that was just kind of making it up with us as we went). The manuscript is out there somewhere, but you'd need to know where to look for it, and the political controversy around anything Xeeth means you can't really reliably talk about it with anyone. When you get to share those secrets with some select people, you make it really special for them, but everyone else out of the loop just wind up with the sadly distorted view of party-central. There's definitely other things in Gaudiguch that would often leave me going "Hmm!" and I just never got answers for them, or knew where to look or who to ask.
Hallifax has this issue as well, but I guess their epic quest secret is at least more shareable since anyone finishing the epic will have it placed in their lap. It's a pretty solid vehicle for encouraging sharing of that knowledge. But as a counterpoint - Plaxios Lowlands. This is like an even more extreme version of the Xeeth Labs, wherein we had a quest chain introduced that was apparently so controversial, no one ever got to work out all the bugs with it. So far as I know, the quests here have never been completed and are too broken to manage, and the difficulty in trying to get them done surreptitiously likewise foiled many attempts to properly document and bug them. If there's any hidden lore at the end of that rabbit hole, I doubt it's to be found.
This sort of stuff can be nice for now-and-again, but when a huge part of an org's identity hinges on it, well... yeah.
I despise Raziela and feel like she kneecaps New Celest, since all anyone ever interprets her teaching as is 'you have to do no harm because love'. I also lowkey dislike that the org is New Celest instead of having an original name. It always feels like as a result of the naming convention the org is constantly on the apology for whatever happened in the past, and it feels like everything is a memorial as a result. Every time we get a new memorial or preservation garden or statue to the dead I quietly cry a little inside. I don't want to live in a graveyard
What I do love though are the Saints! I hope we continue to get more information on them and better insight into Unification and what that entails for someone who has achieved it. I also really enjoy the Tide Lords/Ladies (especially Sarye), but wish they had a little more personality overall. I feel like sadly all of the elemental entities kind of all into this category? It feels like they originally had big ideas attached to them that never came to fruition?
I also lowkey dislike that the org is New Celest instead of having an original name. It always feels like as a result of the naming convention the org is constantly on the apology for whatever happened in the past, and it feels like everything is a memorial as a result. Every time we get a new memorial or preservation garden or statue to the dead I quietly cry a little inside. I don't want to live in a graveyard
If it's any consolation, I think Serenwilde suffers a similar fate in this regard. And I don't just mean by the presence of spirits and cairns, mind! There are entire chains of storyline dedicated to Serenwilde's failures and one in particular where the whole of that storyline was amnesia dust'd away because it was apparently too awful/shameful to remember? And then, of course, that whole forgetting of the business just comes back to bite Serenwilde in the ass later.
I despise Raziela and feel like she kneecaps New Celest, since all anyone ever interprets her teaching as is 'you have to do no harm because love'. I also lowkey dislike that the org is New Celest instead of having an original name. It always feels like as a result of the naming convention the org is constantly on the apology for whatever happened in the past, and it feels like everything is a memorial as a result. Every time we get a new memorial or preservation garden or statue to the dead I quietly cry a little inside. I don't want to live in a graveyard
What I do love though are the Saints! I hope we continue to get more information on them and better insight into Unification and what that entails for someone who has achieved it. I also really enjoy the Tide Lords/Ladies (especially Sarye), but wish they had a little more personality overall. I feel like sadly all of the elemental entities kind of all into this category? It feels like they originally had big ideas attached to them that never came to fruition?
For me, as someone on the outside looking in, New Celest being named New Celest is what occasionally makes me consider rolling an alt there! Not because of the guilt - I'd want to play someone leaning hard into the imperialism, who's like "Yeah, we made a mistake once and it was pretty bad but look at all our glorious history!" Someone who's like, "All you other cities are rebelling against your protectorate but that's okay, one day we'll welcome you back to the empire where you belong." (So uh, I guess y'all will know who my alt is if someone comes in with that mindset).
I can definitely see how the guilt angle would get old, though - in Serenwilde, we've got all this history too, and we don't ever feel guilty for anything (even abandoning the innocents of Celest!)
Amazing beautiful stunning avatar by Gurashi! ~ A gentle breeze ruffles your wings and whispers in your ears, as if for you alone, "Dragonfly's words shine... seeds, sown and tended, inspire... a forest harvest." ~ Maylea reaches out, Her fingers poised in midair. "Now you are of Me, even more than you were before." Her golden and azure eyes glitter. "Walk well, Eldin. Shed glory in My name, and bring life to the lifeless."
Don't actually live in the forests so not really my org's roleplay (and I assume this is more a Serenwilde thing than a Glomdoring thing), but one lore thing that bothers me is that the fae generally seem to lean much more heavily on the silly whimsical side - at least from what I've seen. I would love to see them a bit closer to the real life stories that have inspired them. Amoral while not necessarily being malevolent, its just don't really care if their pranks happen to hurt people along the way, but with a love for deals and trickery.
Don't actually live in the forests so not really my org's roleplay (and I assume this is more a Serenwilde thing than a Glomdoring thing), but one lore thing that bothers me is that the fae generally seem to lean much more heavily on the silly whimsical side - at least from what I've seen. I would love to see them a bit closer to the real life stories that have inspired them. Amoral while not not necessarily being malevolent, its just don't really care if their pranks happen to hurt people along the way, but with a love for deals and trickery.
Definitely agree there. It might seem like there's more obviously a place for trickery in Glomdoring, but we've got plenty of room for something a shade darker in Serenwilde as well imagery-wise, with how the moon is constantly shifting her face.
Amazing beautiful stunning avatar by Gurashi! ~ A gentle breeze ruffles your wings and whispers in your ears, as if for you alone, "Dragonfly's words shine... seeds, sown and tended, inspire... a forest harvest." ~ Maylea reaches out, Her fingers poised in midair. "Now you are of Me, even more than you were before." Her golden and azure eyes glitter. "Walk well, Eldin. Shed glory in My name, and bring life to the lifeless."
Don't actually live in the forests so not really my org's roleplay (and I assume this is more a Serenwilde thing than a Glomdoring thing), but one lore thing that bothers me is that the fae generally seem to lean much more heavily on the silly whimsical side - at least from what I've seen. I would love to see them a bit closer to the real life stories that have inspired them. Amoral while not not necessarily being malevolent, its just don't really care if their pranks happen to hurt people along the way, but with a love for deals and trickery.
Definitely agree there. It might seem like there's more obviously a place for trickery in Glomdoring, but we've got plenty of room for something a shade darker in Serenwilde as well imagery-wise, with how the moon is constantly shifting her face.
I think this is just part of the struggle of trying to leave enough room for things to be "wyrden" as well, which I am sure is a difficult area for admin to grapple with between the forests and how fae are dealt with.
Time Dame Kesisha's diary and the krokani Elder (Aurelia Serrano?)'s diary are both my favorite reads in Lusternia. They paint such an awesome picture, a peek into the past about Vernal Gods and the danger no one anticipated in the Goloths, as well as the infighting therein. Furthermore, it gives depth to the Soulless. We knew that Zenos at this point had no problem making Faustian deals with trill in Icewynd, creating Ice Angels. We didn't know that Crazen took it a step further and made an empire of godlike krokani to conquer the world for him. It not only ties Vernal War history, but also the Book of Krokano in a fantastic way. The writing is just so well done.
EDIT: My friend Ayisdra, the resident expert on Ice Angels has corrected me. Apparently the creation of Ice Angels is an entirely different story, but still an interesting one nonetheless. Won't spoil it here!
Comments
Blood Magic, spreading the history of the forest, hating on the cities for totally valid reasons (tm)*. It's all good to me
*Even in the preliminary stuff we've written it's more refined than that sounds.
I had a burning question for our playerbase: what is your favorite piece of lore in the game and why? This is something I think about a lot as a builder, and it helps to know what stories have resonated with players the most.
As a follow-up, what lore are you interested in learning more about?
What I'd love more of would be the Vernal Wars. I know there are a bunch of texts in-game that I haven't found yet, but what little I've found has always been great, and I just want to know more! More about vernal gods we don't yet know about, or to further flesh out the ones we do, but also especially more about the big ones - I love the bits and pieces I know about Kiakoda and want more.
~
A gentle breeze ruffles your wings and whispers in your ears, as if for you alone, "Dragonfly's words shine... seeds, sown and tended, inspire... a forest harvest."
~
Maylea reaches out, Her fingers poised in midair. "Now you are of Me, even more than you were before." Her golden and azure eyes glitter. "Walk well, Eldin. Shed glory in My name, and bring life to the lifeless."
I would love to see more about what makes up the 'Imperial culture' of Celest because it's something that comes up a lot but I feel like it's poorly conveyed in roleplay. Other orgs seem to have a stronger handle on what their culture actually is. Off the top of my head Magnagora seems to be the best developed in the sense of having a theme that's easily identifiable in the sense that they're clockpunk, sort of victorian bustle skirts and gas lamps, etc. I would utterly adore getting a more developed since going in Celest too.
IRL, I tend to be super anti-religion. So it surprises me that one of my favorite pieces of lore, generally speaking, is how the gods -used- to be. You see rivalries now, or gods who just stay away from each other, but you find out they used to snuggle or be best friends in the past. When you ask a god about another god, I know some of them have to go check notes or ask the rest of the Havens, but it's worth it to connect the dots and see the roleplay unfold.
The other day, I had the extreme pleasure of roleplaying with Terentia, and managed to get Her to speak about Czixi. That short bit of time was some of the best divine RP I've had in a very long time, and I look forward to more of it in the future.
Yes, absolutely! This is one of my favorite quests, and I wish we had more information on it.
I kinda wish giving Jeitara the fork had some sort of effect on the area over giving it to Lanikai instead >.>
Did he gets raised as a Vernal because he figured out how to hide the loboshigaru from the soulless, or was he only able to hide the loboshigaru because he was a Vernal? Did he die? How? What was the edifice that raised him? Did he come to an independent understanding of Kata or did the Kephera teach him (please let it be the former)?
Estarra the Eternal says, "Give Shevat the floor please."
I'm disappointed in how the caste system was used in Hallifax. Early on after Hallifax was released, it was used to keep warriors/merchants from getting favors for defense or other things aside from making art, even preventing some players from advancing past CR4 if they weren't part of a special clique. There's a perfectly good way to rp the caste system being a way to make sure people understand that all parts of Hallifax are needed to make the city function, but it wasn't presented this way at first.
Celest's culture being used as semi-justification for not helping people out because they should always work everything out for themselves. I've played in every org, and Celest is the only one where I have consistently come up against the concept that people should be forced to accomplish everything without help, because it 'cheapens' it somehow if it's not a struggle.
That's not to say there aren't people around who are deeply comitted to helping build that community sense, but I feel like it CAN be a bit harder to get into the org because there's often not a lot of roleplay explanation to people about why that is.
As for what I love- I don't really have an answer yet. I'm working on learning more, but I have to find people to bother to teach me more!
Personally, I see the issue of CR being tied to influence skills. I think that way of caste system could have worked out great if influence skills weren't tied to rank (and instead could be tied to influence directly and specific skills you learn at novice, master, and trans (or whatever levels is appropriate). I understand why it was done the way it was, but sadly, it just didn't work out.
Even Hallifax, who shares our lack of mobs to emulate on the cosmic level, has embraced the Higher Emotions as a very successful teaching tool. While some would say (and I agree, to a point) that part of Gaudiguch's charm is revelling in that chaos, the lack of a mold, and blazing your own trail, it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of how to appropriately build a character around the love for their org. 'I do what I want and also I drink a lot' just doesn't float my goat, you know? Everyone should love their own people, everyone should love doing their org's version of the Right Thing, but what's beyond that?
There's a lot of really good tidbits lying around, but I've yet to see someone who can bring them together into something that truly is and is of Gaudiguch, at least not without heavy reliance on divine-specific roleplay.
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As for lore, I got really, really, really involved in Czixi things for a long while there. Everything that led to learning more about Her and those who featured in Her past was fascinating. Even now, an entire year and some later, I can still work up some strong enthusiasm for people wanting to learn more/be more involved. It even got me to read the Elder Wars (which I hadn't read because I had read the previous histories multiple times before that and didn't have the willpower to start over again).
On previous characters in the past, finding out more about how Serenwilde or Celest used to run was always good. Events that linked to how things are in the now were always the best, because it gave you fixed points to work with both for differences and continuity. Glom never really had it in the same way when I've been there, and Gaudiguch is definitely more freeform, which makes it hard to get involved in the older stuff.
Czixi, the Welkin murmurs, "Fight on, My Effervescent Sylph. I will be with you as you do."
Aian Lerit'r, Lead Schematicist exclaims to you, "A *paperwork* emergency, Chairman!
I really love most of all the Elder Wars as far as histories go. Anything to do with the gods before returning is fascinating and awesome and I always love learning more.
Yeah, not to harp too hard on this, but there is/was also a rather heavy clique-y feeling to Celest that ties to this in part, since if you hadn't worked it out for yourself that also meant you weren't part of the 'in' crowd who had.
Hallifax has this issue as well, but I guess their epic quest secret is at least more shareable since anyone finishing the epic will have it placed in their lap. It's a pretty solid vehicle for encouraging sharing of that knowledge. But as a counterpoint - Plaxios Lowlands. This is like an even more extreme version of the Xeeth Labs, wherein we had a quest chain introduced that was apparently so controversial, no one ever got to work out all the bugs with it. So far as I know, the quests here have never been completed and are too broken to manage, and the difficulty in trying to get them done surreptitiously likewise foiled many attempts to properly document and bug them. If there's any hidden lore at the end of that rabbit hole, I doubt it's to be found.
This sort of stuff can be nice for now-and-again, but when a huge part of an org's identity hinges on it, well... yeah.
Serenwilde historically feels very impotent.
I can definitely see how the guilt angle would get old, though - in Serenwilde, we've got all this history too, and we don't ever feel guilty for anything (even abandoning the innocents of Celest!)
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A gentle breeze ruffles your wings and whispers in your ears, as if for you alone, "Dragonfly's words shine... seeds, sown and tended, inspire... a forest harvest."
~
Maylea reaches out, Her fingers poised in midair. "Now you are of Me, even more than you were before." Her golden and azure eyes glitter. "Walk well, Eldin. Shed glory in My name, and bring life to the lifeless."
~
A gentle breeze ruffles your wings and whispers in your ears, as if for you alone, "Dragonfly's words shine... seeds, sown and tended, inspire... a forest harvest."
~
Maylea reaches out, Her fingers poised in midair. "Now you are of Me, even more than you were before." Her golden and azure eyes glitter. "Walk well, Eldin. Shed glory in My name, and bring life to the lifeless."