The Trickster stuff is, as Eventru said, based on quotes from Viravain. Crow as the Master of Death comes from Nyir's "Sermon on Crow and Death" which is in turn based on Emar's "Brother Crow: His Teachings". Which quotes Viravain heavily.
I can't exactly waltz around Celest to check, but doesn't it have a 'merian quarter' and a 'non-merian quarter', plus a slum? It's not a utopia by any means, even before you get into the player politics.
Magnagora's ideals are very similar to those of the Traitors during the Elder Wars, unsurprisingly. They were using the essence of the Soulless Gods to empower themselves. It worked (they turned the tides of the war), but had the side-effect of making them psychologically (and physiologically) unstable. Magnagora has a very similar stance on the Taint. We don't want Kethuru all up in our heads, but there's this lovely source of power and change we can tap, which has already changed our Planes to 'improved' versions. We just want to spread the love (and subjugate the Basin, but everyone wants that).
And yes, everyone does want that. None of the orgs are, in the long term, "we want to be left alone" (player politics can make them play at being Switzerland for a while). Ackleberry was, but Serenwilde still wants to enforce their own idea of right and wrong onto the rest of the world.
I can't exactly waltz around Celest to check, but doesn't it have a 'merian quarter' and a 'non-merian quarter', plus a slum? It's not a utopia by any means, even before you get into the player politics.
Magnagora's ideals are very similar to those of the Traitors during the Elder Wars, unsurprisingly. They were using the essence of the Soulless Gods to empower themselves. It worked (they turned the tides of the war), but had the side-effect of making them psychologically (and physiologically) unstable. Magnagora has a very similar stance on the Taint. We don't want Kethuru all up in our heads, but there's this lovely source of power and change we can tap, which has already changed our Planes to 'improved' versions. We just want to spread the love (and subjugate the Basin, but everyone wants that).
And yes, everyone does want that. None of the orgs are, in the long term, "we want to be left alone" (player politics can make them play at being Switzerland for a while). Ackleberry was, but Serenwilde still wants to enforce their own idea of right and wrong onto the rest of the world.
As I mentioned, there is a sense of being the superior race and self-imposed isolation among Merian. During the empire, Merian alone were allowed to join the Imperial Guilds, until Krokani proved their worth and were allowed to join the Paladins. Doesn't make it less utopian ("the Republic" describes a utopia that is restrictive and devalues the perception of an individual's rights based on their ability to serve the Republic).
And I don't think Ackleberry was as isolationist as you suggest. The communes, while xenophobic, certainly weren't uninvolved.
I think when Aky used the word "utopia", he was referring to the idea of moral paradise (sugar, spice and everything nice) in the more conventional sense.
Plato's "the Republic" is a "paradise" of sorts, but in the sense of perfect governance and citizenship rather than sweet angels playing on harps, but that idea of a place that can be perfectly idealised has been appropriated and spread until the word "utopia" now takes on the meaning of an actual paradise.
Akyaevin is right when he says that Celest is no utopia - it's certainly not a good place to be in if you're viscanti. (You won't be in there in the first place, but I digress). As for whether Celest's policies are utopian in the Plato sense, well, it probably is, for merians who believe in the system. But so is every other cities' policies for their own proponents.
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Cyndarinused Flamethrower! It was super effective.
Cyndarinused Flamethrower! It was super effective.
The Great Spirit of Trying Really Really Hard.
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EveriineWise Old Swordsbird / BrontaurIndianapolis, IN, USA
Fits with Serenwilde's mentality, though. They aren't the kind of Forest to risk it all, going down in a blaze of glory for the slim chance that something epic will result. Heck no--get the heck out of there, hunker down, wait for everyone else to die, then come back and out clean up the mess. It's the survival instinct ingrained into Serenwilde--the most important thing they can do is survive, even if that means everyone else goes down. If they go down, all is lost. They don't have to win--they just have to not lose it all.
Everiine is a man, and is very manly. This MAN before you is so manly you might as well just gender bend right now, cause he's the manliest man that you ever did see. His manly shape has spurned many women and girlyer men to boughs of fainting. He stands before you in a manly manerific typical man-like outfit which is covered in his manly motto: "I am a man!"
Daraius said: You gotta risk it for the biscuit.
Pony power all the way, yo. The more Brontaurs the better.
Comments
Some day he will live up to this reputation.
I can hope, right?
Then a few months later he came back to life.
That's the only thing I remember Him ever doing. It was cool though.
And I don't think Ackleberry was as isolationist as you suggest. The communes, while xenophobic, certainly weren't uninvolved.
Plato's "the Republic" is a "paradise" of sorts, but in the sense of perfect governance and citizenship rather than sweet angels playing on harps, but that idea of a place that can be perfectly idealised has been appropriated and spread until the word "utopia" now takes on the meaning of an actual paradise.
Akyaevin is right when he says that Celest is no utopia - it's certainly not a good place to be in if you're viscanti. (You won't be in there in the first place, but I digress). As for whether Celest's policies are utopian in the Plato sense, well, it probably is, for merians who believe in the system. But so is every other cities' policies for their own proponents.
I really do wish he wouldn't get impaled/kidnapped/beaten up in every event he's involved in.
The divine voice of Avechna, the Avenger reverberates powerfully, "Congratulations, Morkarion, you are the Bringer of Death indeed."
You see Estarra the Eternal shout, "Morkarion is no more! Mourn the mortal! But welcome True Ascendant Karlach, of the Realm of Death!
Or maybe they cower together under a pile of leaves.
One is perhaps slightly more impressive than the other.
8-X
The Great Spirit of Trying Really Really Hard.