New Org.

Asmodron

Let's have some fun.

Let's say a new city/org was to be built, and you can come up with its concept.What would it represent? What would it look like? What core ideals would it follow? Would it gift players with any special mechanics (such as devotion, necromancy etc.)? What houses would be within it? What would its description be?

I'll start.

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New City: Darkenwood becomes a new forestral haven.

Description: Nestled within the far reaches of the North lies the mysterious and foreboding Darkenwood. Within its shadowy boughs are a group of like-minded individuals drawn to its sacred beauty and mysterious nature. As strange as the forest they reside in, residents preach of a greater aspect of Nature that is the power of Darkenwood, of an evolved strength than the "lesser nature form". Drawing their powers from shadows and darkness these dark believers walk the lands bringing their touch and strange ways to the world and preaching of a stronger natural power. Fighting against the "Natural" and weak ways of Eleusis, they seek to transform all Nature to the ways of the Darkenwood and bring to the world a dark beauty the likes none have seen.

Mechanincs: Druids and Sylvans joining Darkenwood would no longer channel sunlight but instead shadows and moonlight. Their groves will accumulate shadows over time and they would be able to EVOKE SHADOWS rather than sunlight (of course for them only at nighttime). Their ability messages that involve sunlight would be modified with moonlight and  shadowy versions.

Core Ideals: To live in unity with the dark forest and slay all non-believers. They have an almost divine outlook upon the spider queen inhabiting the Darkenwood and preach to her daily. They wish to convert all nature to the powers of the dark forest as it once was (events news for more info) and believe beings such as the Eleusians are the barrier standing in their way of such a goal.

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P.S: As you know there is a chance that a new City of Good may be built, if you like design your own version of how that would look and be as well! Attempt to not make it dull and unflavored :P.

Katzchen

Something to divide up the powerhouse that is Ashtan.

Katzchen

I can see it now... Ashtan splits into two new cities. The City of Chaos, and the City of Freedom/lolpk

Blujixapug

Core themes/ideals: Science (mad and other), progress, alchemy, innovation, industrialisation, manufacturing, refinement of the natural world into something greater through mortal artifice.

Geography: The city is built into the cliff walls of the enormous canyon which cuts into mid-eastern Meropis, south of the Daoric Plains. Enormous bridges criss-cross the expanse, traversed by citizens moving through the networks of caverns and open-air regions comprising the city. Winged gliders, pulley-operated lifts, zip-lines for the daring, and tame zelahias also serve as transport. Twin plumes of belching smog are constantly emitted by great chimneys emerging from the flat earth above, venting gases caused by furnaces which perpetually burn in the city's underbelly. Cascades of toxic runoff spill from drainage pipes into the river far below, eventually washing out into the eastern ocean.

Citizens: The city's residents range from alchemists, scientists (mad and other), philosophers, astronomers, and geomancers, to soldiers and seafaring privateers, to farmers tilling the Daoric, lowerclassfolk manning the foundries, and miners.

Miners under the supervision of geomancers plumb the uncharted depths of Meropis for rare ores and gemstones, ever in pursuit of the greatest prize: lodestones. Magnetism is a highly coveted property, but the manufacture of magnets or lodestones eludes the city's geomancers and artificers. Any miner who lucks upon a lodestone deposit will enjoy an instant promotion, among other rich rewards, and many of the city's officials well-to-do came from lowly beginnings. The efforts of miners are hindered by the occasional intrusions of others down below - evil dwarves, goblins, rockworms, mole people, and other things, horrible things, things without names.

Who they hate: The interference of Chaos wreaks havoc on the fine studies of the city's practising philosophers, and one of the city's primary pursuits is always to exert control over reality and rid the multiverse of the intrusive influence of Chaos. Recognising Occultists as unrelenting fanatics, they are committed to killing them all, and wield crystal constructs that - on a good day, if they're working properly and not malfunctioning - can somewhat nullify the powers of Chaos and entities from the Chaos Plane.

Their wanton pollution of the lands is sacrilege to Eleusians. At the same time, agriculture is extremely important in feeding their citizens, and their scientific advances greatly accelerate the growth cycle of their crops (in ways that Eleusians also totally hate).

They have no innate grounds to oppose or be opposed by Mhaldor or Shallam - but to ally with one would of course gain the enmity of the other, for as long as such an alliance lasted.

Things could be interesting with Cyrene because of mining/industry and Phaestus, and with Hashan because of alchemy/astronomy and Twilight/Ourania.

Gods and stuff: The city's patron is Lucretius. They define His realm not as the cerebral science of reason and rational thought, knowledge, and existential conundrums - they are not kawhe-house dwellers idly contemplating who might be a brain in a jar, or whether what you see as blue is what I see as blue. Rather, "Philosophy" is their name for the means by which transcendent understanding and applied reason - with the assistance of scientific constructs - can affect the fabric of the multiverse (at least in small ways). Their leaders in this field are the city's alchemist organisation, and manipulation of the ether is the primary way in which that group exercises Philosophy.

Maybe if Lorielan ever came back from the crystal realm she'd like this city too, which would piss off Shallam. Oh and as long as we're making stuff up, Aeon is also one of their patrons. And Raclawice patrons their pirate guild. Sup.

Houses: 1) alchemist. 2) pirate. 3) mage (geomancer spec).

That's enough for now!

Sylvance

New House: The Council of Quills

Concept: Art has the power to upbuild, to rejuvenate, to express.  But it also has the power to crush, demean and destroy.  From its tenebrous manor in Delos, the Council of Quills exercises a subtle influence over Sapience.  Destroying its political foes with ego-destroying satire, rewriting both current events and history to its own agenda and slowly infusing its poisonous ideals into each of Sapience's cities, the Council slowly and quietly increases its power towards myriad hidden agendas. 

The existence of the Council is a 'poorly kept secret', whilst the identity of its membership is as closely guarded as the combination to Lord Prospero's personal vault.  Many hopefuls who reckon themselves to be Sapience's manipulators, wheel-greasers and confidence tricksters make their way to Delos in hopes of attracting the attention of the Council.  Many of them do so, and many of these wish they had not.  Of the handful who are invited to attempt to join, the harrowing things that they must suffer is beyond the imaginings of most folks. Those few elite who are accepted into the ranks of the Council find are rarely seen or heard from again.  

Mechanics: A 'secret' House that is not open to newbies and has a very high standard of roleplay.  Characters who meet the required standards may petition the House for membership, carry out a series of trials, and then are 'reborn' (*cough* Namechange *cough*) as a novice of the Council.  Those who appear to be fleeing past crimes (such as organisational theft, omni-enemying etc) are unlikely to be accepted.  House is primarily for Jesters and Bards, and is supposed to feel like something of a 'dark mirror' of Ty Beirdd and CIJ.

Core Ideals: Secrecy, manipulation-for-manipulation's-sake.

Skills: Characters who join the Council lose their 3rd skillset (Harmonics and whatever-Jesters-have) and have it replaced by Masquerade, the Council's specialised tertiary skill.

Masquerade is a skillset that mixes the concepts of Art and misdirection.  First skills include things such as Ventriloquism, hiding health level/bleeding levels.  Their signature skill is the crafting of a Mask that completely disguises the wearer's identity, switching it for a Persona (so when Bob puts it on, everyone sees him as Loquacious Harlequin - idea being that he has to have earned that Persona in-House and then have the Mask customised by the Patron, much like Fullplate).  Then things get interesting. The Mask can be infused with shadows (think kai/Shindo, but perhaps this is doled out by the House Head rather than earned mechanically?) which are stored up and used for the more esoteric skills.

Ideas for skills are things like - Imbuing a letter with shadows so that whoever reads it picks up a mental affliction; Whispering mental afflictions at a target; draining Willpower from people by using the Mask to sap their will by telling them that they cannot win this fight etc.  Instead of Chorale, some kind of group skill that allows them to imbue paintings with shadows which make the room they are hung in regen Willpower - this is supposed to be the Achaeanised version of the House being Art critics etc and able to use their cajoling to sway public opinion on what is good art.

Instakill is achieved by stacking 5 different mental affs on a target and then utterly destroying them psychologically with a few well-chosen Mask-imbued words:

Savouring Sylvance's mental torment, you step forward and whisper shadowed poison into her ears.  As your words destroy the last of her ego, you hand her a dagger, warmly assuring her that the world will be a far greater place once she has ended her life.  Gazing into your eyes, she nods acceptance before thrusting the dagger resolutely into her heart.

Deathsight: Unable to bear the Loquatious Harlequin's torment any longer, Sylvance has willingly ended her life.

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Yes, I know this post is something of a wet dream and is never going to happen. But I can wish, eh?

Jamethiel

My dear friend, @Sylvance, posting about us on these forums will be punishable by unending death. Now, let me remember the right Mask-imbued words...

Vansittart

Blujixapug said:

[a bunch of fun stuff]

The slightly frustrating thing is that Cyrene already has so much potential to do all of that.  Historic conflict with Nature - check.  An affinity with Industry - check.  Hatred of Chaos - check.  Although it does read like a Cyrene/Hashan merger city.  Imagine the politics!

What I would like to see well done is a genuinely secret society.  Bilderberg with magic.  A bit like a player version of the Conclave.  It's do-able if you get the right people involved, but also very tricky because one mis-step and you get "CLT Lol, got asked to b in secret society, lemme c+p their newsboards to you for lulz".  Done well, it'd be amazeballs tho.

Sylvance

Vansittart said:

Blujixapug said:

[a bunch of fun stuff]

The slightly frustrating thing is that Cyrene already has so much potential to do all of that.  Historic conflict with Nature - check.  An affinity with Industry - check.  Hatred of Chaos - check.  Although it does read like a Cyrene/Hashan merger city.  Imagine the politics!

What I would like to see well done is a genuinely secret society.  Bilderberg with magic.  A bit like a player version of the Conclave.  It's do-able if you get the right people involved, but also very tricky because one mis-step and you get "CLT Lol, got asked to b in secret society, lemme c+p their newsboards to you for lulz".  Done well, it'd be amazeballs tho.

I think that the forums would kill it as quickly as poor player etiquette would.

Blujixapug

Sylvance said:

Loquacious Harlequin

I'm getting a vibe that's half Fools' Guild from Discworld, and half the Tzaddikim from The Quantum Thief. Which is pretty awesome.

Vansittart

Blujixapug said:

Sylvance said:

Loquacious Harlequin

I'm getting a vibe that's half Fools' Guild from Discworld, and half the Tzaddikim from The Quantum Thief. Which is pretty awesome.

Oh god, I love the Quantum Thief so much.  <3 Bluj.

Idelisa

A Forestal House that accepts all three Forestal classes.  I think it's downright silly that they are split up except for in Sents where Druids and Sents can both be.

Lodi

Katzchen said:

Something to divide up the powerhouse that is Ashtan.

Thats already happened once before. The new city was called Mhaldor. :)

One of the best ages of Achaea was when cities and guilds where popping up left right and center. Everything felt so alive and exciting back then. There's just not the player base to support that happening again though. Which is a shame really.

Beya

@Sylvance said:

New House: The Council of Quills

Concept: Art has the power to upbuild, to rejuvenate, to express.  But it also has the power to crush, demean and destroy.  From its tenebrous manor in Delos, the Council of Quills exercises a subtle influence over Sapience.  Destroying its political foes with ego-destroying satire, rewriting both current events and history to its own agenda and slowly infusing its poisonous ideals into each of Sapience's cities, the Council slowly and quietly increases its power towards myriad hidden agendas. 

The existence of the Council is a 'poorly kept secret', whilst the identity of its membership is as closely guarded as the combination to Lord Prospero's personal vault.  Many hopefuls who reckon themselves to be Sapience's manipulators, wheel-greasers and confidence tricksters make their way to Delos in hopes of attracting the attention of the Council.  Many of them do so, and many of these wish they had not.  Of the handful who are invited to attempt to join, the harrowing things that they must suffer is beyond the imaginings of most folks. Those few elite who are accepted into the ranks of the Council find are rarely seen or heard from again.  

Mechanics: A 'secret' House that is not open to newbies and has a very high standard of roleplay.  Characters who meet the required standards may petition the House for membership, carry out a series of trials, and then are 'reborn' (*cough* Namechange *cough*) as a novice of the Council.  Those who appear to be fleeing past crimes (such as organisational theft, omni-enemying etc) are unlikely to be accepted.  House is primarily for Jesters and Bards, and is supposed to feel like something of a 'dark mirror' of Ty Beirdd and CIJ.

Core Ideals: Secrecy, manipulation-for-manipulation's-sake.

Up until the skills, this clan already exists, and it's doing very, very well for itself. Thoroughly enjoyed your shadows idea. It was a pleasure to read.

Katzchen

Lodi said:

Katzchen said:

Something to divide up the powerhouse that is Ashtan.

Thats already happened once before. The new city was called Mhaldor. :)

One of the best ages of Achaea was when cities and guilds where popping up left right and center. Everything felt so alive and exciting back then. There's just not the player base to support that happening again though. Which is a shame really.

And the outcome was awesome that time. :P

Sylvance

@Sylvance said:

New House: The Council of Quills

Concept: Art has the power to upbuild, to rejuvenate, to express.  But it also has the power to crush, demean and destroy.  From its tenebrous manor in Delos, the Council of Quills exercises a subtle influence over Sapience.  Destroying its political foes with ego-destroying satire, rewriting both current events and history to its own agenda and slowly infusing its poisonous ideals into each of Sapience's cities, the Council slowly and quietly increases its power towards myriad hidden agendas. 

The existence of the Council is a 'poorly kept secret', whilst the identity of its membership is as closely guarded as the combination to Lord Prospero's personal vault.  Many hopefuls who reckon themselves to be Sapience's manipulators, wheel-greasers and confidence tricksters make their way to Delos in hopes of attracting the attention of the Council.  Many of them do so, and many of these wish they had not.  Of the handful who are invited to attempt to join, the harrowing things that they must suffer is beyond the imaginings of most folks. Those few elite who are accepted into the ranks of the Council find are rarely seen or heard from again.  

Mechanics: A 'secret' House that is not open to newbies and has a very high standard of roleplay.  Characters who meet the required standards may petition the House for membership, carry out a series of trials, and then are 'reborn' (*cough* Namechange *cough*) as a novice of the Council.  Those who appear to be fleeing past crimes (such as organisational theft, omni-enemying etc) are unlikely to be accepted.  House is primarily for Jesters and Bards, and is supposed to feel like something of a 'dark mirror' of Ty Beirdd and CIJ.

Core Ideals: Secrecy, manipulation-for-manipulation's-sake.

Up until the skills, this clan already exists, and it's doing very, very well for itself. Thoroughly enjoyed your shadows idea. It was a pleasure to read.

That being the case, mad props to its members.

Xith

Mhun will return to Moghedu, yo.

Thaumas

Just like Mexicans will return to Mexico.

Sylvance

Well, as the Masquerade suggestion seems to have gone down well, I've done a bit more concept work on it.  Just a few points that might not be obvious from the brief information below - Many of the bastard moves are designed to only work at night time, hence they should be a bit more powerful than expected as they cannot be used 50% of the time - This skill is not intended to look, feel or work like 'Vampires'; just thought I'd head that one off at the pass! - I'd make it so that it's impossible to either don or remove a TrueMask if another player is in the room - The FalseMask ability is explicitly designed to make a mask that is indiscernible from a TrueMask and can be placed in another player's inventory via Shaded Gestures; either type of Mask would fall out of a player's inventory when they QQ, the idea is to constantly cause speculation over who might be part of the secret House - Skills with an * can only be used whilst wearing a TrueMask.

Anyway, hopefully you'll enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

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The following skills exist in this ability:

Ventriloquism Make your voice come from an object
FalseMask Create a piece of incriminating evidence
Veil of Meekness Reduce your might before prying eyes
Child of Shadows Accept the protection of the night
Shaded Gesture Act beneath a cloak of secrecy
Poisoned Pen Infuse your letters with dormant derangement
TrueMask Create a Persona more real than your own
*Night's Cloak Be hidden by night's embrace
*Voice of Horror Afray your foes with a well-chosen word
*Veil of Health Hide your wounds from prying eyes
Adept Ventriloquist Make your voice come from another location
*Shadowed Hallways Speedily traverse the world at night
*Night's Footsteps Step as lightly as the shadows themselves
*Dark Whispers Draw forth their dormant madness
*Voice of Allure Entice your foe with a well-chosen word
*My Foe's Foe Improve your relations with a village
*Lord of Shadows Become one with the night
*Veil of Wounds Appear to be knocking at death's door
*Distracting Gaze Draw your foe's gaze away from your blows
*Shaded Strike Hide your attacks from onlookers
Master Ventriloquist Make your voice come from another adventure
*Sap Resolve Drain the will of your enemies
*Voice of Mastery Instruct your foe with a well-chosen word
*Stage Death Appear dead to the eyes of your foes
*Silent as Shade Interrupt telepathic communications
*Anointed of Shadows Become the incarnation of the night
*Voice of Derision Belittle your foe with a well-chosen word
*Modus Vivendi Damage another's reputation
*Shadowed Chorus Harry your foe with multiple Voices
*Darkest Feast Make a meal of your enemy's madness
*Voice of Reason Remove your maladies with a well-chosen word
*False Friend End the suffering of one burdened with shadows

Favonius

@Sylvance that sounds epic with a capital Awesome. I love everything about that (and would be sorely tempted to find a good RP reason to give up my Grove to do all that stuff!)

Katzchen

Interesting. It says far more 'mesmer' to me than vampire, other than the night thing.

Talonia

Looks great - it's a pity that between alts and spies, the identities of the members would likely be revealed to the gossiping public quite quickly.

Asmodron

I want it D:.

Beya

@Talonia Actually, there are existing game mechanics which reduce the chance of this happening and allow for secrecy within clans.

Letters also help with this, as would the mask abilities as laid out in @Sylvance's post.

Really great work, Sylv. I like the idea that you can only do some of these actions at night, causing you to time your actions well and watch the time of day. It'd be interesting if being inside affected these skills too.

My concern would be the level of maturity required for being able to take another person's voice and identity. Is this really something you'd trust the Achaean playerbase with?

My suggestion would be to make the mask of your player a one-time choice (like a blademaster sword, requiring a lot of effort to change), and only to be names which don't currently exist. In addition, ventriloquism shouldn't replicate the accent or voice of the player.

Jacen

Beya said:

My suggestion would be to make the mask of your player a one-time choice (like a blademaster sword, requiring a lot of effort to change), and only to be names which don't currently exist. 

This. This would be awesome.

Xith

@Sylvance Actually an interesting take. I'm going to try and combine that to help complete a performance-style class I was struggling with. This skillset is a nice complement.

Sylvance

@Xith - Sounds sweet!

@Sena - Imagine a class with Masquerade tert, and your spirit-weapon skill as primary. *gasms*

@Beya - Yeah, maturity would be my main concern also.  I know that elitist skills/classes/Houses/Orders are often complained about but I don't see how it would work any other way.

Tvistor

I don't even care if the class would work, I'd kill for a chance to just see if it would.

Only one way to find out, etc, etc. It would just be too amazing to pass up on. I wouldn't even care if admin didn't run any events for 6 months while they coded it.

Nizaris

EDIT: I doubt, very much, that this will be implemented, as it would require code changes at a very fundamental, and likely wide-reaching level. Still, fun to play with.

As for secrecy, what about a mechanic like this, as long as we are dreaming. Goal is to provide an obfuscation layer between the name and the character, using the mask theme.

Interior name (soul name), and exterior (mask name).

Mask names can be changed, along with the mask, with perhaps considerable effort. When you attack someone of this class, or enemy them, or whatever form of interaction with them, you do so with the mask name. Under no circumstance would organization logs contain a log like "So and so, and enemy of your organization, has namechanged to x". When you look through, say, CITY/HOUSE/ORDER/(HIGH)CLAN CHARGES HISTORY for a particular mask name, you see whatever actions they have done under any mask name the character has used. In places where a name is provided in charges history, the only name displayed is the mask name entered on the command line. Illustrative example:

Bob has mask name of Sam.

As mask name Sam, he raids Mhaldor. Is enemied and charged.

Bob adopts mask name of Tony.

As Tony, he defiles a shrine to Sartan. Still enemied because of actions under Sam. Is charged.

Bob changes class, and loses access to masks, so he's just "Bob" now. He tries to join Mhaldor, and the standard background check is run of checking his charges history.

CITY CHARGES HISTORY SAM

Raiding (displays name of Sam any time name is called)

Defiling (displays name of Sam)

CITY CHARGES HISTORY TONY

Raiding (displays name of Tony)

Defiling (displays name of Tony)

CITY CHARGES HISTORY BOB

Raiding (displays name of Bob)

Defiling (displays name of Bob)

Goal is to retain a record, albeit obfuscated, of past actions. And also, to still make it possible to determine that two separate mask names are indeed the same character, but requires some detective work.

Interior name (soul name). This is basically only the name that the player uses to log in with, before assuming the persona of their current mask name. Should the character ever change class, this is the name that they would revert back to.

Sylvance

@Nizaris - just to be clear, the 'Bob Charges' would not contain either Sam's or Tony's?

Sena

Sylvance said:

@Nizaris - just to be clear, the 'Bob Charges' would not contain either Sam's or Tony's?

It looks like they would, which makes matching identities much too easy, even if there's a rule against setting fake or frivolous charges (the rule would just mean they'd have to actually do something against the city in order for the fake identities to be near-useless).

Nizaris

Sylvance said:

@Nizaris - just to be clear, the 'Bob Charges' would not contain either Sam's or Tony's?

@Sylvance: No.

Bob's charges would display any charges "earned" while wearing Sam or Tony masks. However, the name displayed (if any is displayed) would be Bob, instead of Sam or Tony. Same with Sam or Tony -- Sam's charges would include anything done while Tony, and vice versa.

So:

CITY CHARGES HISTORY SAM

Sam is charged with defiling. Charge ID: 68972

Sam is charged with raiding. Charge ID: 68973

CITY CHARGES HISTORY TONY

Tony is charged with defiling. Charge ID: 68972

Tony is charged with raiding. Charge ID: 68973

CITY CHARGES HISTORY BOB

Bob is charged with defiling. Charge ID: 68972

Bob is charged with raiding. Charge ID: 68973

If you had a suspicion of who it was, you could cross check the charges history of the other mask names, and if the charge ID's matched, then you have your culprit. But, that could be difficult to keep track of.

CITY ENEMIES would show: Bob, Tony, and Sam.

It's really just meant so that if someone in the Masquerader's house were to leak their name, then they can still maintain some semblance of secrecy by changing their mask name. If they think that someone outside the house has put it together, they can change their mask name (paying whatever cost is involved). It adds flavour to a class based on masks and different identities, but still keeps tracking things like crimes, sentence terms, fines, and combat possible.

Fun little addition: maybe for the cost of a mask name change, the Masquerader could make a FalseMask of their old identity that they could secret to some unlucky sap. This could result in a chameleon tattoo effect, changing the victim's name in QWHO to the Masquerader's old mask name. So, anyone hunting the Masquerader goes to the location of the victim.

Oh, the possibilities!