Lusternian Divine AMA

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  • TerentiaTerentia
    Parhelion said:
    #AllGods:

    A. What mount would you release for your order today if there were no real restrictions?

    ^Feel free to skip this if you have something in the works and don't want to leak it, or maybe answer something different if you had a second idea that you won't be using.

    B: Do any parts of your IRL personality leak over into your persona's personality? Bad habits?

    A. Gosh, this is a hard question. I am currently playing around with two ideas: one more fantastical than the other, but the latter is one I immediately gravitate toward. If there were no real restrictions (and to be fair, I don't really think there are any restrictions), I think I would have chosen griffins because I like the imagery of them, the heraldry of it all.  Of course, the Wayfaire already sold "gryphons," so any other kind of "griff" would be pretty redundant. But that might be in my favour and force me to think different ideas. 

    B. I don't know if any of my IRL personality comes through in Terentia. IRL, I am very disorganised and I feel like Terentia isn't or at least She doesn't want to be. When Terentia tries to feel like a "hard-ass," it is very difficult to me to do. Because I desperately don't want to be, haha. 

    Uzriel said:
    I'll add in a question here. Is there something that you particularly enjoy watching the playerbase do (eg, trying to figure out quests, popping in to watch pk, randomly thinking/emoting to themselves with nobody around, etc)?
    I don't really watch PK or anything, but I do peek in when I catch that people are in my realm or temple. Just to see what's going on. :D
    Forum avatar by @Gurashi!
  • EveEve
    Maybe I'll ask some here. Y'all made me think this afternoon, so hopefully these make you think too!

    1. For those of you who whom took up a God or Goddess that had been previously held, what was the biggest attribute about them that made you nervous? How did you overcome it?
    2. Whenever I read logs, its kind of second nature to read how Evette would read into a situation. Do you catch yourselves doing this with your previous versions of yourselves still, or did that change overtime?
    3. What would you consider your biggest accomplishments as a divine and what sets them apart from others?


  • ParhelionParhelion
    Terentia said:
    Eve said:
    Maybe I'll ask some here. Y'all made me think this afternoon, so hopefully these make you think too!

    1. For those of you who whom took up a God or Goddess that had been previously held, what was the biggest attribute about them that made you nervous? How did you overcome it?
    2. Whenever I read logs, its kind of second nature to read how Evette would read into a situation. Do you catch yourselves doing this with your previous versions of yourselves still, or did that change overtime?
    3. What would you consider your biggest accomplishments as a divine and what sets them apart from others?


    1. The previous Terentia was very zap-happy, which sort of gave her this reputation of being kind of aggressive, I think. I don't really like playing aggressive types (so what does that mean being a Warrior?!), so I looked at a bunch of notes and tried to reason out why Terentia might have acted like that from a story perspective. I think in contrast, my Terentia is a lot more calm and collected? She is less concerned with going to war and more about strengthening her team. At least for me, there are narrative reasons for that, especially when we take into consideration what it means to "go into the Void." I think I am still filling out her armour, so to speak, so who knows whether I have, in fact, overcome anything! 



    Can absolutely confirm. OldTerentia liked to show up silently in a room, and then if you didn't notice her, would zap you until you noticed. She was heavily Second Circle, and the first divine in Lusternia that I ever interacted with. She was extremely anti-Fain, so much so that her ritual to promote you to middle circle had (if I'm remembering this correctly)  you answer his name to a question, and then a prog instantly killed you upon saying his name. Beyond any other Traitor, she despised him. 

    Even though she hated the traitors, she wouldn't put up with mortals being rude to them, or other divine. 

    If I wanted to explain her personality, she was that drill sergeant that would absolutely run you ragged making sure of your worth, but had your back if anyone opposed you. 


    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.
  • AeldraAeldra , using cake powered flight
    One thing, that I think I asked a long time ago, but am curious for the answer of todays divine is

    1. how do you see prayers and how do you feel like they should be used?

    Also a new, seperate question:

    2. What's your favorite pet-peeve with us mere mortals? :)
    Avatar / Picture done by the lovely Gurashi.
  • ParhelionParhelion
    I can understand the impatience thing, but I think a lot of people talk to mobs and don't think the mob will talk back to them. I mean, we don't -expect- a god to just jump into the role and start chatting with us, either. There are times I chat up Terentia's orderrealm mobs just to roleplay with myself, and she doesn't respond, and that's fine. Sometimes she does respond, and that's great, but I don't know ahead of time if she will.
    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.
  • SapphiraSapphira
    edited November 2020
    Related question! How do you and or your divine view prayers versus letters?

    Edit: Another question I've been wondering about - how would you best recommend non-org members approach your divine? I see from logs there's plenty of cross-org interaction, but coming from the city everyone loves to hate I feel it's a little harder to just turn up and say hi without lots of side-eyeing and suspicion so I've been mulling it a lot. Any general ideas and tips?
  • AyisdraAyisdra
    Shall the title of Quizmaster be taken? Maybe not to today, but there will be questions still.

    1) How do you deal with inconsistencies in the game-world when they don't match with real world facts - Do you ever find yourself just assuming something works in lustenria the way it does in the real world only to find out much later it doesn't because Magic? for example how moondancers basically have full control over the actual game moon, and yet this control doesn't seem to have advise effects on the planet and how the average person probably wouldn't think 'oh, the moon just moves freely because wiccans'
    2) What do you think of those of us that want to learn very exact and precise details about the world - Do you think the level of detail some of us hope for is too much? The type of questions of applying science to this fantasy world, like 'how big is Lusternia really.', 'how far away is the moon'. 'Why does the tidal forces change with all this moon-magic'
    3) What do you think of most major inventions/discoveries being made by NPCs rather than PCs? Over the years many of have us have asked for X thing and told no, only for some NPC do it instead sometime later.

    Less serious questions:
    4) What area do you hate the most and why?
    5) If you could snap your fingers and it would be so, what game mechanic would you change (and to what) or create?
    6) Assume it is possible and say your godrole loses its soul and becomes some sort of soullless-lite type of being that isn't completely about consuming. How does this change them and their views?
  • SaranSaran
    edited November 2020
    Ayisdra said:
    Shall the title of Quizmaster be taken? Maybe not to today, but there will be questions still.

    1) How do you deal with inconsistencies in the game-world when they don't match with real world facts - Do you ever find yourself just assuming something works in lustenria the way it does in the real world only to find out much later it doesn't because Magic? for example how moondancers basically have full control over the actual game moon, and yet this control doesn't seem to have advise effects on the planet and how the average person probably wouldn't think 'oh, the moon just moves freely because wiccans'

    Wait what?
  • AyisdraAyisdra
    Saran said:
    Ayisdra said:
    Shall the title of Quizmaster be taken? Maybe not to today, but there will be questions still.

    1) How do you deal with inconsistencies in the game-world when they don't match with real world facts - Do you ever find yourself just assuming something works in lustenria the way it does in the real world only to find out much later it doesn't because Magic? for example how moondancers basically have full control over the actual game moon, and yet this control doesn't seem to have advise effects on the planet and how the average person probably wouldn't think 'oh, the moon just moves freely because wiccans'

    Wait what?

    Some of the skill messages (Rage is the one that came up a few months ago and how they can turn the moon red on command) suggest the moondancers influence the actual moon with how it is worded.
  • RaezonRaezon
    Ayisdra said:
    Shall the title of Quizmaster be taken? Maybe not to today, but there will be questions still.

    1) How do you deal with inconsistencies in the game-world when they don't match with real world facts - Do you ever find yourself just assuming something works in lustenria the way it does in the real world only to find out much later it doesn't because Magic? for example how moondancers basically have full control over the actual game moon, and yet this control doesn't seem to have advise effects on the planet and how the average person probably wouldn't think 'oh, the moon just moves freely because wiccans'
    2) What do you think of those of us that want to learn very exact and precise details about the world - Do you think the level of detail some of us hope for is too much? The type of questions of applying science to this fantasy world, like 'how big is Lusternia really.', 'how far away is the moon'. 'Why does the tidal forces change with all this moon-magic'
    3) What do you think of most major inventions/discoveries being made by NPCs rather than PCs? Over the years many of have us have asked for X thing and told no, only for some NPC do it instead sometime later.

    Less serious questions:
    4) What area do you hate the most and why?
    5) If you could snap your fingers and it would be so, what game mechanic would you change (and to what) or create?
    6) Assume it is possible and say your godrole loses its soul and becomes some sort of soullless-lite type of being that isn't completely about consuming. How does this change them and their views?
    1) The game world doesn't need to match up with real world facts. It has its own physics, its own energies and forces. Any comparison to the real world is generally a writing device to make things easier to understand.
    2) There's two problems you're going to have to overcome with that kind of goal: "the unreliable narrator", and "how can this be achieved with the technology mortals have?" Not all lore is written as fact - a lot of it is written from the point of view of somebody who lived it. This makes learning exact/precise details difficult. As well, a lot of these scientific questions can't really be answered with the current technology of mortals, and even if they can, you need somebody interested in that question to really develop the lore and answer them, which can be difficult as not every aspect of the lore interests everybody.
    3) The thing with this comes down to telling a story. It is difficult to work with PCs at times. A lot of it comes down to people not being around at the times we need, people not really working at the level we need them to to make them a major part of the discovery (which isn't a criticism of the players as much as saying it's something we have to train every ephemeral for for months on end, and if we tried to do that with players, they'd burn out, we'd burn out, and there'd be no game), and very often we'd have to lore dump on the player to make this possible which nobody enjoys and has a lot of room for error. We love player ideas, and we love implementing them, but sometimes we just need to make sure they get implemented correctly, and that requires bringing in an NPC.
    4) I don't really have an answer to this. Every area in Lusternia was crafted with love and has meaning. If I had to pick something, it would probably be the Inner Sea and Sea of Despair, and it's not hate as much as "There is a lot more that could be done with them to make them interesting and not just hundreds of rooms with similar descriptions."
    5) If I could snap my fingers to do it and didn't have to work on it? Probably game balance or economy. If I had to actually work on it, neither of those things. Probably making quests and mob progs easier to write (which Ianir has been doing for the last 4 years almost nonstop.)
    6) I can't answer this question in case it actually does happen at some point.
  • TerentiaTerentia
    edited November 2020
    Ayisdra said:
    Shall the title of Quizmaster be taken? Maybe not to today, but there will be questions still.

    1) How do you deal with inconsistencies in the game-world when they don't match with real world facts - Do you ever find yourself just assuming something works in lustenria the way it does in the real world only to find out much later it doesn't because Magic? for example how moondancers basically have full control over the actual game moon, and yet this control doesn't seem to have advise effects on the planet and how the average person probably wouldn't think 'oh, the moon just moves freely because wiccans'
    2) What do you think of those of us that want to learn very exact and precise details about the world - Do you think the level of detail some of us hope for is too much? The type of questions of applying science to this fantasy world, like 'how big is Lusternia really.', 'how far away is the moon'. 'Why does the tidal forces change with all this moon-magic'
    3) What do you think of most major inventions/discoveries being made by NPCs rather than PCs? Over the years many of have us have asked for X thing and told no, only for some NPC do it instead sometime later.

    Less serious questions:
    4) What area do you hate the most and why?
    5) If you could snap your fingers and it would be so, what game mechanic would you change (and to what) or create?
    6) Assume it is possible and say your godrole loses its soul and becomes some sort of soullless-lite type of being that isn't completely about consuming. How does this change them and their views?
    1-3) I actually don't know if I find these inconsistencies, honestly. At least for me, I start from the premise that Lusternia--the game world--is not ours, and in the cases where there might be clear similarities (e.g. certain physical principles like, I don't know, gravity?) that is incidental. Do other games or media provide in-depth rationale for phenomenon in them? Not all the time. Even in some roleplaying games, when like the nature or mechanics of the planes are described, they might have only a small section of material compared to other issues like history or societal customs (I'm thinking here of the 5e D&D DM's Handbook that barely references the planes). I think, in a similar manner to many players who suspend disbelief between game mechanics and game atmosphere (e.g. the number of firefly squid that you can actually GET SQUID vs. the ones that might exist within the ecosystem), I suspend disbelief that I can presume to know what Lusternia's reality is meant to be. I do think we get the luxury, being a fantasy game, to say that magic solves our problem. Why do the tides not go wild when the moon acts up? Well, because Mother Moon has control over all aspects of the lunar cycle, which implies that She can prevent tidal destruction. Maybe to say this another way, I think I am readily willing to allow mystery to remain, ambiguity, incompleteness rather than desire full and complete details. I think it is a balancing act between being a worldbuilder (which I actually believe I lean more toward) and a storyteller (because as many of us may be aware, novels, short stories, novellas, etc. don't always spell out every detail of world to us). 

    Does this mean that players who want to know the mechanics of the world are wrong or bad or should give up on that quest? I don't think so. Do I think we might need to reevaluate we want out of this game? Perhaps. I think (and to stress here, this is my perspective, not any other Godmin and definitely not our Producers!) that we are being challenged with are the limits of player agency. This, I think, ties into your third question too. What gets to be known as an answer to a question; what can be verified as an answer to a question; and who gets to answer the question. I think Lusternia is constantly trying to negotiate that, for good or for ill. Because of the makeup of the Havens--including Producers, Godmin, and Ephemerals--we might end up in a sort of stalled or more conservative understanding of what that agency might be (and this is likely because we have a host of folks who have different ideas on how lore is shared). 

    For the third question especially, it might be able to think with an example rather than a general "we want X; you said no; but then NPC comes with x." Mainly because thought experiments aren't really that useful in thinking with. 

    I don't know this response answers your questions, but this is the response it elicits. 

    4) This is actually a hard question, haha, because the area was someone's work that they may have done for months! I actually won't say an area, because I don't really dislike any; however, I will say that I am not the biggest fan of what we call "pockets" (which are the little micro-areas that often have quests attached). This is mainly because I think that often, unless they have some sort of amazing reward, that people will forget about them, and therefore, they are better off as events.

    5) I have no game mechanics that I would change, and what I would create isn't really something major for Lusternia as a whole. I would probably try to create some sort of "church" system so that there could be an actual effect between worshipping Supernals and Celest in some way.

    6) Whatever grief that Terentia currently possesses would simply magnify. The Soulless represent a particular kind of pain for her, re: Meridian, Amberle, others. I think Terentia would become someone who is utterly self-loathing. 
    Forum avatar by @Gurashi!
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