Lusternian Divine AMA
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Comments
1. What was it about the role that made you decide to pick it?
2. Do you have a favorite easter egg that you can share (could be a description, mob response, etc)?
F'ai Glomdoring.
Because the effort expended to kill the tortoise to consume it would be more effort that could be better spent maintaining my temperature. Allow the sun to cook it and pierce its shell with my hairpin before drinking its innards.
1. Malmydia is a role that has filled the game with a sense of wonder for a long time, in my personal opinion. She is certainly my favourite Elder, however biased that statement may be. I thought it was high time we got a chance to see her back in the story, and I am sure that it will be a wonderful one that we tell.
1. It was 100% <spoiler redacted> that made me pick up the role. It's such a cool idea.
2. Not that I can share yet.
Curiosity.
2. I have so many favorite easter eggs, but unfortunately, none that I can share. There's so much excellent writing and so many fun little secrets everywhere in the game though. Some NPCs will have reactions built in for surprising questions or phrases!
Survival of the fittest.
2. When she isn't fully manifested somewhere, Lisaera's voice is gossamer - light, insubstantial, soft, ethereal, etc. Easy to mistake for the wind, or for a spirit.
3. Nothing comes to mind! I would have liked my particular ephemeral call to have happened a month or two later than it did maybe, but I can't say I have any regrets at all. Maybe not winning Beauty?
1. Who do you think would do the best job pretending to be You?
2. What 'tell' gives away the game to Your (dis)Order?
3. What trophy do You take from Your doppelganger?
Unrelated to that scenario,
4. What's your favorite room/mob/item description that you've seen?
5. Was there a quest or area whose documentation you saw after taking on the Godrole that made you go "Oh, that makes more sense now."? (no need to say which if its spoilers, but I'm also asking about quests where the solution makes more sense now, or if there was a connection that we can see that you didn't know about beforehand.)
6. If You were given a monument, idol, or gift by Your Order, what would it be?
1. What is it you enjoy most about being godadmin? Ie, what got you through ephhood/keeps you logging in still?
2. What's something you've found unexpectedly difficult (could be behind the scenes in general, transitioning to ephhood from mortal, or transition from eph to godmin)?
3. Maybe too close to Ayisdra's question but what's something that really caught you off guard but couldn't help but laugh about (that you're allowed to share). I'm thinking along the lines of weird bugs, events going off rails, etc.
4. I just love Sparrow Longfellow, the Sowers guild tutor. I also really love the newest rooms recently introduced to Serenwilde.
5. I wasn't huge into questing as a player, so I don't have any quests that made more sense after coming up. There are some really neat tricks to tracking and organizing quests, though, that make the general structure of our quests make a whole lot more sense!
6. The hearts of twelve very particular gods. It wouldn't kill them, I'm pretty sure. Not forever.
1. Seeing player reactions to the things that I've created, both in character and out of character!
2. Related to the above, it's a little hard sometimes to not be able to point at something and say 'I made that!'
3. Besides the surprise you always feel when something that has been perfectly tested, for some reason you cannot fathom, decides to not work when it's live - I'm not sure I can think of anything that's caught me off guard in a negative way. I'm always VERY pleasantly surprised when players opt not to spam the thing I had anticipated them spamming, but roleplay instead. It can sometimes catch me off guard and require some quick thinking and maybe quick building on my feet, but don't be discouraged if you're roleplaying something we'd initially planned to be simpler interactions and are getting a few long pauses - we're probably flying to adjust our plans because we love it!
Maiden answers 1, Mother answers 2, Crone absolutely answers 3.
2.) A voice? Terentia's voice? Terentia's voice is always described as "firm yet feminine," and I think of it almost as if she was very cross.
3.) I think maybe invest more in whatever family my mortal was in? I think I mentioned before my roleplay style as a mortal was always like I was playing a single-player campaign in a multiplayer game, so I would have liked to have actually participated more in the family that I joined.
4) I think for both: the amount of story/lore/plot that is and is not revealed.
1.) I think Aelish would likely be the obvious choice, but I am going to go with Frai. If Frai's role is "aloof," that I think plays into the steeliness that Terentia portrays in a clearer way than a sort of parental figure that Aelish has.
2.) I imagine Frai would be a bit too conniving than Terentia; her idea of strategies would be plots rather than tactics.
3.) Terentia's helm, which would be the titular "hood" of the "Hooded One."
4.) Room: "A stone bridge" in Glomdoring. Not because it is the most beautifully written room, but because of the kind of history that it evokes. Mob: "A saltwater weird," which only a slim few got to see. Item: This is hard, because there are just so many item descriptions... and this might be a cop-out since it is a Celest item, but I really do love "a tarnished scabbard of gilded dolphins."
5.) Honestly, I don't think there are many quests or areas that elicit that response for me anymore.
6.) One of those giant topiary statue like things (think the "porcelain vase" from the Met Gala's "China: Through the Looking Glass"), but a sword made out of daffodils.
1.) The ability to collaborate with really excellent people whose writing skills surpass my own. There is something about watching someone in the Havens team just suddenly whip up a description or a line for something that is so beautifully crafted that is truly spectacular.
2.) More "in general" and also less "unexpectedly," but managing the feelings about whether or not you are investing enough or not. Specifically regarding being a "god" or patroning things.
3) I think the only honest answer is some of the conclusions everyone draws related to things--either OOC through Discord or IC through thinking.
Terentia, 3. Me, 1.
2. Anything brewed out of love and worship (of her, to be clear), especially beverages that are infused with various things she herself likes to manipulate or surround herself with. Especially when offered as a libation.
- Violence is always an acceptable option: choice one.
The sheer drama of the moment when Malmydia's sibling relations were revealed was only met by seeing Drocilla lift away the curtain in-character during my release event and seeing it all come together. The lore nerds in the audience were rapt with attention and reacted exactly as I hoped they would when learning Malmydia/Ein/Mugowumpois were crechmates. *chefskiss*
1. What song is playing?
2. How do you show up to resolve the situation?
3. Did you bring allies?
4. What was the situation?
2. Trembling. Or quivering perhaps. I don't get to use these quite as often as I'd like.
3. Nothing. I did everything I set out as a personal goal.
4. The biggest surprise I had when I first came up is how nice and helpful everybody is in the Havens; I truly expected them all to be the Baba Yaga given textual flesh, and nobody came close. There is plenty that still surprises me, but the one thing I will point to is how much that still exists that I don't know about, or knew about at one point and just forgot - there's been an insane amount of content released for Lusternia, not all of it obvious, and it is very easy to miss a lot of it. An easy example to point to is Grand Junction, a room whose description I only read for the first time last night: the verbose (long) description of the room is quite enlightening as to the original intention for the purpose of the room, and in the almost 18 years Lusternia has existed I cannot recall a time I have ever seen or heard of it being used for this purpose, and please do correct me if I am missing something.
4. It's hard to pick one, but if I had to do so, it would probably be Bandrui, Serenwilde's executioner. Mugwumps have long since been my favorite Lusternian race and Bandrui is an exquisite example of one done well and evocatively.
6. Roleplay hooks. Trauma, ideally.
1. There are two answers to this: it's an outlet, and we're fairly close-knit as a group. I work a very stressful and mentally-draining job outside of Lusternia that, these days, requires less creativity and more analysis and management, so being able to write and roleplay here gives me an outlet to create. As well, and I'm sure it's no surprise to hear this, a lot of us in the Havens are friends with each other and do form the friendships in ephhood and beyond, to the point that we even share some non-Lusternia hobbies, and this is a really lovely and valuable connection to have.
2. The paradigm shift from mortal to ephemeral/godhood was the big one for me. As a mortal, my question was always "what sounds cool?" and "what will leave the biggest impression?". This immediately had to shift as an ephemeral to "how does this interact with the story?" and "what place does it have in the world?" Both my writing and acting backgrounds are in improvisation, so this was a difficult shift for me.
3. I will not give specifics here, but nothing ever goes right no matter how much you test it ahead of time. Sometimes this is because we know how it works and can't think to test every option, and others it is purely because you all, as Terentia, Lisaera, and Malmydia have pointed out, talk amongst yourselves and end up drawing conclusions through games of telephone that skip left field and seem to just spawn in from thin air. As frustrating as it can be, it is also very fun to watch and something I enjoy.
Ask Socucius Ergalla why he is making me fill out a Buzzfeed personality quiz on my census form when I have a dead general to mantle and a god to kill, then go steal the platter on the shelf to my right for spending money.
1. The moment when a player figured out the secret.
2. Probably water.
1. <redacted>
2. Hope.
3. No. Two left feet.
4. Who's asking?
5. Nothing. I don't lose.
This one has probably been asked before (and likely on like...that last page), but I'm extremely lazy so I'm not going to check. Do any of you have a favorite specific ambient message? Bonus points if no one can guess where/what the heck it's from.
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