Perhaps there should be some divine enlightenment on the subject of fighting on behalf of a Triton city state.

Scyrian fights Lothian ends up being Nerei fighting any player that fights a triton. (Nerei are defending all tritons?)

How can the war between the sky lord and the sea prince be kept out of the war between triton cities as it applies to players? Maybe there isn't meant to be and one divine may back one triton city while another backs a separate triton city?

All of this is essentially in-game fodder.

(P.S. It's "Nerai")

The Nerai aren't tritons, kthxbai.

I agree on the majority of it but there is one problem.

Lets say for the sake of argument a Triton from Scyros hires me to kill a triton from Lothos. Then I'm attacked by a Nerai claiming all tritons are under their protection without any official ruling? How can anyone claim to protect multiple sides of any conflict?

Its like someone saying they will defend Shallam and Mhaldor both because both hold humans and they plan to protect all humans. Neither city would actually allow that.

What the hell? Are you counting PK on mobs?

He's upset because he can't kill denizens from either side without a Nerai attacking him.

Pretty much. Because I was told otherwise. If they can attack for both sides thats fine just got mislead

Bash something else.

Next stupid thread, please.

So the nerai are defending mobs who oppose their divine?

Just because Tritons fight each other doesn't mean Neraeos or the Nerai should be happy to see outsiders coming in to slaughter one side or the other. Besides, if it bothers you, make a fuss about it in-game.

basically... Yep!

Because you can trust everything said on the forums!

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This question has been resolved in-game, I do believe. The relationship between the meric and tritonic city-states and the Nerai is extremely complex, not advertised to outsiders (and yet not hidden; I simply dislike my order tooting its own horn), and is itself ever-changing. The additional factor of the Nerai being largely a landwalker Order, considered but one cult of Neraeos among many denizen cults, makes the role of the Nerai very unique and very interesting to me.

Tritonic religion is pervasive, yet exists somewhat outside of their largely secular society. Examine the factors. Nearly all city-states are at war with one another, but the various priesthoods (not all of whom are cults of Neraeos) move fluidly between them, usually attempting, as priesthoods tend to do, to maintain a status quo and keep the world from ending. Other cults seek the exact opposite.

When dealing with tritons, keep in mind that there are many cities, and that these cities are not static entities. Even though adventurers can only reach Lothos at the moment, the other cities are still entities that can field armies and exert their power and influence in other ways. These cities have existed since 2003 or so, though until recently only in continually updated status sheets and in denizens attached to these sheets. They each have a considerable amount of history attached to them, and they each have distinctive denizens with their own agendas, though they share a relatively common culture. When you see strings of triton-related deathsights involving armies and navies, this is representing shifts in territory, army strength, and overall influence that is being tracked by myself, the Garden and likely several paranoid and/or perceptive players.

When you deal with a Lothian triton, for example, you are not dealing with a representative of a triton race. This triton could be Nereian, or it could be Ouranian, Shayatin, a Darkwalker or a Pandoran. This triton might be a peasant or a merchant, a soldier or a noble, and will probably have no idea what other tritonic cities are up to unless it is his job to know such things. The most significant variables attached to a triton would be its city and its profession, rather than its religion or its race.

A careful examination of the latest events posts will enable you to understand some of their mindframe, and the deviousness of some of their leaders. For instance, a secular general from Scyros, whose task was to expand Scyrian influence in the northwest of his empire's domain, wished to sack Lothos - not take it over, but simply sack it to show his power and increase his prestige in Scyros. He used the religious war that existed between the Vastarians and the Nerai/tritonic militant priesthoods as a way to trick the Arcadians into attacking Lothos. He had previously overwhelmed the eastern Lothian border army, as was shown in several deathsights, and declared that his army would spend the day (1 real hour) in funeral games. So it was that 1.5 hours later, the Scyrian army was in Lothos - so it may have been predicted that the Scyrians would arrive, if it happened to be that those who follow the deathsights religiously happened to also be in the armada that sailed on Lothos. In the end, Lothos was sacked, but still stood, which fit the general's goals - he couldn't hold Lothos with just his legion, but he brought considerable loot back to Scyros and won the prestige of victory. He shattered the Lothian army, and revealed the city to landwalkers, which means the Lothians now have to deal with yet another threat. Removing the primary northwestern enemy of Scyros will allow it to defend its border with a smaller army, and move its attention and resources to other directions.

As an aside, it should be noted that the Scyrian general could have been killed in that battle. That he was not killed means that he was alive to receive his honours, and has become significantly more influential in his homeland, for good or for ill. Scyrian politics in particular tends to be governed by natural selection, which began in 2004/5 when the influential Senator Aeolos was killed by a sea spirit during a mini-event in Hashan; the death of the strongest pro-landwalker senator left no opposition for the remaining anti-landwalker senators, and so the previously benign Scyros started to become a more sinister and militarized power. The balance of power on this issue has shifted several times over the past few real-life years, which is reflected by the presence (or absence) of a Scyrian army in Riparium that attacks (or ignores) bashers.

I hope this short explanation helps you folks that were curious as to how this works. Ordinarily I would leave this to you all to find out yourselves, but tritonic ways have been rather suddenly jolted into a more mainstream venue, so this quick explanation shouldn't hurt. Anything deeper will have to be found in-game.

Cheers,
Neraeos

Thank you

Wow. Well done, and well-thought-out. Cheers to you, Lord Neraeos, for straightening things out.

Nereian lore has been one of the greatest kept "secrets" of Achaea, in my not-so-unbiased opinion. Now that the underwater world has become more popular (i.e. beyond the fandom of the Nerai), I wanted to vouch for how long it's been around and engaged in Achaea's story, that it isn't something new but has been part of in-game cultures for several real-life years now. I am somewhat excited, but hope that we don't have to keep coming to the forums for answers. Let's make things fun.

I fully agree! Though it was a best kept 'secret' because there was no real physical access to oceans in the past beyond the Rip, thus no driving force for people to want any knowledge of anything to do with the ocean (Exception being the Nerai of course) Now with the ocean being an entirely new very large aspect of Achaea things are going to need a slight iron here or there. The ocean has filled the forums in all sorts of ways since its conception. The Nerai are treading on an attempt to be the Oakstone of the ocean. (for lack of a better example) This is going to lead to a lot of forum fodder as sailing grows in popularity which its doing in leaps and bounds everyday. If everyone gets a basic understanding of how these HUGE oceans that are currently the single largest part of Achaea landscape are going to be handled we can avoid the snowball down the mountain effect in the forums. Even a Nerai as devoted and intelligent as you Asara should be able to see that when one order says they will protect the entire largest current area of Achaea is going to run into some walls that will need to be looked at both IC and OOC as well.

I thank Neraeos for taking the time to look at the situation and give a basic overview with some slight inclination as to 'one cult of Neraeos among many denizen cults' and 'various priesthoods having multiple Triton city mobility (not all of whom are cults of Neraeos)' without giving away anything an average person couldn't find out on their own with a bit of digging. Its a sure sight better then 'We defend anything with a dorsal fin no matter what' response.

EDIT: when I say -the ocean being an entirely new very large aspect of Achaea- Know I mean the actual physical ocean access at it applies to sailing (I realize the ocean has always been out there)

Definitely. I don't blame people for wanting to know since it's kind of like jumping in on page 1000 of a 10,000 page book. What I was hoping, though, was that this sort of knowledge could be perpetuated in the game (complete with misunderstandings formed by the recipient/teller, thus ripe for conflict). Actually, the Nerai have been introducing it to those who wanted to engage that part of Achaea for a long while now. However, now with the bigger scale, wanting to keep it all in-game is probably too idealistic an idea to continue.

What I want to do now, though, is squash any notion that Nerai are the "Oakstone of the Ocean" before it becomes a commonplace idea and because it was mentioned OOCly in a Neraeos-involved thread. A lot of what you've mentioned, about what Zulah understands the Nerai are doing, not doing, or "supposed" to be doing, is part of what will make things interesting and something I will try my best to avoid clarifying further for the sake of roleplay. I don't want to have to spell out for everyone how to become "informed" in the game - that is, to me, a huge part of playing, and will of course differ with who your character is and what role you and your organisations play.

Otherwise: Enjoy!

I agree with everything you said. But this comment here did actually roll over from an IC conversation. I did not coin this phrase someone else used and several people ran with it causing it to stick in my head, I did not intend to cause it to perpetuate further from an OOC median though. Its not my personally view point so for that comparison: Sorry.

Yep, no worries. It was not meant to be accusatory or anything - I really did just want to quash that idea before it became commonplace. There's nothing inherently wrong with that comparison either - it's just not how it is.

I'm always torn when the Nerai come up. I've always wanted to play Aerek as a wayward sort of Priest, not actually a member of any order, but I've always been a quiet fanboy of the Sea culture and storylines that lie beneath it. The fact that the Nerai don't advertise everything that happens to them is truly excellent in my opinion, but that does make it rather difficult for an outsider like myself to be affiliated or in any way involved.

It's also always fun to get a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Achaea's storylines like this. (Take that, 'RP is dead' crowd!) It's very satisfying to know that there is a rhyme and reason to just about everything that goes down, and that there's often (if not always) things going down that we can't or don't see as well.

All that said, I won't be able to shake the image of Neraeos playing Achaea in one window and 'Age of Empires: The Tritonic Legions' in another any time soon.

Haven't had a real close look at the place yet, albeit the Lothians (?) at first glance do appear to worship Caspian, rather than Neraeos.

Have a proper look around.

Darkwalker propaganda on the forums?

Heh far from it, don't believe in Forum propaganda, certain things belong in game after all. Just when I go to a new place the first couple of times, I tend to merely speed read the descriptions, and just have a look around to get a feel of the place, rather than do a thorough examination of it, depending on how fascinating I then find it, I eventually get around to looking more closely at the place.

Sidenote: Was I the only one tempted to make a comment about Caspian, when Neraeos mentioned not liking His order to toot its own horn?