Answer my questions, win an imaginary cookie

Vansittart

Hello!

So I don't really play any more, but I like to dabble.  Sometimes though I get curious about stuff because I still Achaea with all my heart, and yes I could just log in and put in the hours so I can have these questions answered but consider this: (i) Warlords of Draenor just came out, and I am super enjoying sitting in a queue for three hours while watching Arrested Development, (ii) I have no willpower and I'll just get addicted again and then have to like run all of your organisations and ascend and no-one wants that, and (iii) I am offering an IMAGINARY COOKIE for answers!

My questions are fourfold:

• Lorielan came back.  OMFG, that is so exciting.  Is She evil now (like evil with a small e not a seven truthsy Evil with a capital)?  Is She part of any orgs?  Is everyone like shunning her and stuff?  Does She seem to have a plan of some kind?  Please don't tell me about crystal realm stuff because that never made any sense to me.  Just the basics.
• Did @Silas leave Targ?  Has he just like quit?  If so, where does he get nudes of barely legal teens?  Has he joined another org?  Does he still love me?
• Is @Thoth dormant now?  I think I read that somewhere.
• What are the current god alliances/Garden dynamics from an IC perspective?

Don't delay, win a cookie today!

Ernam

1) Yes, but she may as well be a new God.  New player, new RP, new attitude, no affiliation with anything that she used to have.

2) No, but yes.  He only plays forums.

3) No, he's back (or at least was, recently?).

4) Everything is pretty much org-defined now, unfortunately, with a few minor exceptions.  Loreilan might be the only significant & active god that isn't either officially or unofficially (see: Phaestus) linked to a specific city.

Vansittart

I am prepared to offer half a cookie for those answers.  Follow up question: @Phaestus - dormant?

The @Lorielan stuff though is really missing the point.  The whole thing of Her return is, I presume, that She was playing a long game all this time (or underwent a massive change of heart for some interesting reasons).  Have we had any steer on those things?  I love the idea that She's staying unaligned for now - She's cool enough to be Her own damn faction. 

Melodie

Phaestus is dormant, I'm afraid.

From what I understand of Lorielan's return, she is wholly focused on Knowledge and overcoming any obstacles to it, such as emotion. She seems quite cold. I would not say she's evil, and as far as I know she does not currently have any involvement with any orgs. Everyone with her so far has been on a quiet scale, mostly within her own followers (or to be followers) and occasionally with Targossas (she and Daeir had a bit of a face off, from my understanding).

Edit:

Vansittart said:

• Lorielan came back.  OMFG, that is so exciting.  Is She evil now (like evil with a small e not a seven truthsy Evil with a capital)?  Is She part of any orgs?  Is everyone like shunning her and stuff?  Does She seem to have a plan of some kind?  Please don't tell me about crystal realm stuff because that never made any sense to me.  Just the basics.
• Did @Silas leave Targ?  Has he just like quit?  If so, where does he get nudes of barely legal teens?  Has he joined another org?  Does he still love me?
• Is @Thoth dormant now?  I think I read that somewhere.
• What are the current god alliances/Garden dynamics from an IC perspective?

Don't delay, win a cookie today!

Going a bit more in depth, Silas is just dormant because he decided to have a life. He's still Targossian. Aurora's peacock would never leave.

Thoth... I don't think he's dormant, but I don't think he plays on the world stage in any form, in any way, at all, ever. I question the validity of his activity, but I'll leave some room for doubt.

Current alliances is very factional-heavy. Most of the active Gods have a strong presence in the cities - Lorielan is the exception to this, though I uncertain how "strong" of a force she is just this moment. Cyrene is very quiet in terms of Gods right now (Scarlatti seems busy), Eleusis has Gaia, Hashan has Ourania and Twilight (and Valnurana on a more quiet scale), Ashtan has Vastar and apparently Babel? this remains somewhat unconfirmed. Targossas has mostly Aurora with some Deucalion. Sartan is around and being his Bad-ass self. Pandora I believe is around but is Pandora.

I would say Cyrene could use a bit more active God(s) right now, and in general the world could use a few more neutral(ish) Gods. Overall you don't hear the Gods talking a whole lot, so the world stage is somewhat quiet, but I suspect that's because of all the things going on behind the scenes right now. We're apparently due some RP events, big ones, at some point (and in fact Mhaldor is in the middle of dealing with the end of theirs, which is why I didn't respond right away when I saw your post).

Ernam

Melodie said:
Pandora I believe is around but is Pandora.

chuckled.  I heart Pandora.

She's a citizen of Ashtan btw.

Melodie

I actually like Pandora, she used to visit Cyrene while I was still there. She's adorable. She's just definitely not (usually) a God who is going to shake things up as far as the gameworld goes.

Usually being the keyword here!

Vansittart

Cookies for Melodie

Babel is a ? because he's gone really quiet?  Maybe dormantish?  Also @Valnurana is back in Hashan properly?  Looks like an interesting set-up, but would be nice to see the Gods a *bit* separate from the cities/orgs or I think you're missing out on some factional angles there.  But if that's the price that needs to be paid to have the orgs performing their narrative roles I guess it's a price worth paying.

Also: Pandora  

Melodie

Vansittart said:

Cookies for Melodie

Babel is a ? because he's gone really quiet?  Maybe dormantish?  Also @Valnurana is back in Hashan properly?  Looks like an interesting set-up, but would be nice to see the Gods a *bit* separate from the cities/orgs or I think you're missing out on some factional angles there.  But if that's the price that needs to be paid to have the orgs performing their narrative roles I guess it's a price worth paying.

Also: Pandora  

Cookies!

Babel went fully dormant for a long while, but there's been a recent stir where a "thing" in the lake/whatever in the caverns of ewhatevertheheckitis slipped out and killed someone, and Dunn is posting to public about Babel's return. There's otherwise not been anything as far as world-scale goes, so it remains a ? for the moment.

Valnurana is indeed back in Hashan fully, though she's mostly in the background and leaves things to Twilight and Ourania, so I don't think there's much being missed - she mostly focuses on her Order, from what I'm given to understand (someone else is free to clarify here, I don't keep up with Valnurana happenings very closely).

Ernam

Vansittart said:

Cookies for Melodie

Babel is a ? because he's gone really quiet?  Maybe dormantish?  Also @Valnurana is back in Hashan properly?  Looks like an interesting set-up, but would be nice to see the Gods a *bit* separate from the cities/orgs or I think you're missing out on some factional angles there.  But if that's the price that needs to be paid to have the orgs performing their narrative roles I guess it's a price worth paying.

Also: Pandora  

Well, a major portion of the playerbase (myself included) have the opinion that Gods having an active role in city leadership/ideology makes things a lot more fun, and there are only so many active gods to go around.

Tharvis

Melodie said:

Vansittart said:

<snip>

<snip>
Valnurana is indeed back in Hashan fully, though she's mostly in the background and leaves things to Twilight and Ourania, so I don't think there's much being missed - she mostly focuses on her Order, from what I'm given to understand (someone else is free to clarify here, I don't keep up with Valnurana happenings very closely).

not sure about this one, to be honest. I don't think Valn returned to hashan after the trial (i.e. after her willing departure from the city) though I could be wrong.

Melodie

I remember seeing some kind of event and some of the people I was chatting with going "Oh neat, the whole Triune is back together, that's interesting". To be fair that was a while ago, and I have not taken great notice of what she's been doing other than the occasional public stuff about the Dream realm.

Vansittart

For a bonus cookie, I just read the news and the Serpentlords have left Hashan?  What gives?  Paging @Vayne, paging @Vayne

Vayne

Well, this of course is only my side of the story, but basically we got tired of their hijinks and kicked and enemied their leadership after the final straw with them throwing their support behind one of their members who had been branded a traitor. Things went downhill quickly, shrines were removed, shops were seized, worm hubs were canceled, icons attacked. 

In the end it seems the remnant was made into a high clan with Valnurana's help.

Vayne

Valnurana has only had very limited involvement taking over the SL after they turned on Ourania. I would not say she sorta our is involved with Hashan's well being like the other two. She has only been patron of the Hashan problem children merchants and SL.

Silas

Lorielan hasn't made any hugely public waves so far, though the response against her is sadly lacking. Individual people in Targ have come out against her, and been zapped etc. for it, but the response from the city as a whole is kind of disappointing since we're taking something of a prayerful watch and wait stance. Will be interesting to see (from the sidelines) how that plays out.

I'm still Targossian, but I don't login much because I have neither the time to commit nor the willpower to resist taking My city back and using it again as a personal plaything. There's rants every few days about Targossas itself, so it's piss-easy to keep up on what's happening at every level.

You are still my one true love (after *rho).

Thoth is dormant, Babel just returned as far as I can make out, though nothing public beyond a vague threat from Dunn (I think). Current Garden dynamics are much as they were when everything was split up. Triad in Hashan (not sure how active Val is, but Ourania and Twilight are both active and pushing things forward) are a little insular, perhaps, but they have a lot to do to turn around Hashan's fortunes, so that's to be expected.

Deucora in Targ are as awesome as ever, though Deuc has a mini-Deuc now so his time is limited.

Ashtan has become really boring from an outside perspective on the world stage since Babel left and Vastar didn't really take up that mantle. They're just a strong military force with no real direction, and have begun to resemble bored college boys looking for trouble on a Friday night.

Mhaldor is really on the up with the currently highly active Sartan and the tightly knit in-game leadership. Not my cup of tea, since a lot of them seem like sugared up 12 year olds on Red Bull, but they do what they do well, and they have the backing of people like Xinna (Terra) and Herenicus, so everything from the west looks positive.

Gaia in Eleusis struggled for ages, but things have quietened down so I can only assume they're finally doing the sensible thing and shutting up so they can do whatever she says, since everything I've seen from her indicates that she's still awesome and exactly what Eleusis needs.

Cyrene is Cyrene.

Re: alliances: Hashan is trying to set up on its own out of the shadow of Ashtan, which is a positive step for them, and are (were?) pursuing something with Eleusis, who finally took the plunge and switched Speakers from Ravien to Alrena. Likewise, Eleusis is distancing itself from Targossas, who are happily matching their aloof, distant aggression, and Cyrene and Targossas are now heavily estranged. There's still the increasingly farcical Diaspora, but I think that's just a permanent fixture now and can be ignored since the admins show no inclination to allow Targ to force things with Cyrene to take away devo. It's a shame, but such is life.

There's possible room for more temporary alliances in the future, for things such as the Conclave event, but nobody is biting on teaming up to fight Ashtan because the only reason to fight Ashtan is because they want to fight.

All in all, the future looks very bright. Whether it will meet its potential is of course another matter, though. Still a lot of gaps in leadership that people are struggling to fill across the board. Nobody can ever replace me, of course, and there'll obviously never be another Saltaern in Hashan. Rangor is a constant in Eleusis, though Alrena is taking time to bed in, and I've covered Mhaldor's leadership already. Cyrene has Verrucht, who is a stellar and steady influence who allows them to keep to themselves. Jhui and Dunn are alright, but even together they're not Tanris, and have never been able to match his relentless drive and (ho ho) clarity of vision.

So we'll see.

Dunn

Who wants to try and be Tanris? I like outside.

Ernam

Vansittart said:

For a bonus cookie, I just read the news and the Serpentlords have left Hashan?  What gives?  Paging @Vayne, paging @Vayne

When I raid the news post about them bailing on Hashan, I read it as:

"We acknowledge how much Hashan sucks and that we're getting dragged down, and simultaneously don't want our House to get deleted in its Renaissance like all the other serpent houses (RIP), so we're bailing to gtfo while we still can."

IMO it's 100% badass, if that's really how it played out.  I wish more Houses had done the same, instead of just flushing everything down the toilet.

Bluef

Vayne said:

Valnurana has only had very limited involvement taking over the SL after they turned on Ourania. I would not say she sorta our is involved with Hashan's well being like the other two. She has only been patron of the Hashan problem children merchants and SL.

Another perspective is to suggest that she was very much involved in Hashan's well being when the SL were there. Just stepping into that situation and filling the role of their patron was looking out for Hashan's best interest. Where you might see her as a super nanny though, others recognize her fulfilling her natural role as a protector and healer in the game. She takes things that have been broken or injured and mends them, helps them aspire to who they want to become again.

[Note: That last statement is not to imply that the SL or its difficulties originated with them, ie. that they broke themselves. I just don't want to re-hash what happened to their House just prior to Valnurana's emergence as their patron. I think most people already know this story.]

By the way, Valnurana recently created a whole new altar room in Hashan with some pretty amazing dream-related reactions from the crystal bowl found there. She also attended Hashan's masquerade (even though they practically gave the other two divine a throne to sit on and she was left standing about). 

I do agree that she has very limited involvement in Hashan's governance and while I don't aim to speak for her directly, as that would be foolish and rude, my IC understanding is that Triune is not back together. Valnurana seems to maintain an interest in Hashan as an age-long protector. I thinks he cleared this up on another thread here on the forums herself not too terribly long ago, actually.

Edit: I knew Thoth was dormant a bit ago (the last time the Curia saw him was early this RL year, I think), but perhaps some of Antreus' stirrings on the forums are having an impact because the last time I checked he was being played by an adventurer again. 

Herenicus

Silas said:

Not my cup of tea, since a lot of them seem like sugared up 12 year olds on Red Bull.

In fairness, it takes a lot of sugar to sustain the fast-twitch reflexes needed to make it past Sartan's biennial Truth Five audits.  

Silas

How on earth are Vayne's posts abuse?

Mishgul

Lethargy is illegal in Hashan is the only -bry excuse I could think of.

Vayne

@Bluef‌, that's fine. Additionally, I know she has other responsibilities  as an admin too, but in taking patronage of both the merchants and Serpentlords no resolution was found for the city, just the houses. She has been virtually silent towards the city and its concerns. If she was forthright with that being her intention that would be different, but there has been no indication there of. Perhaps that is because of the parties involved but if she wants to play the mediator than again why wouldn't she say anything?

Vansittart

Good Lord, people really have no shame with the abuse flag do they.

@Silas, that's exactly what I was after. Smooches.  Bit disappointed that Hashan is still so riven with internal discord they needed to boot a House, but it's been obvious that the only way to fix it for a while was for someone with some balls to burn it down, and win a total victory even at the cost of some temporary trouble and population decrease.  I'm guessing the patrons are on board if the SL have been dumped so that's all gravy.

God, I wish people would never take a prayerful watch and wait approach with anything, let alone something so potentially awesome as the Lorielan Situation.  Why don't people have balls?  I miss leaders with balls.

Nice to see Mhaldor on the up again, but Ashtan really does need a plan or a purpose or something.  I mean, I know it's purpose is to be purposeless while attracting as many PKers as possible but man, that's boring.  I really don't understand why the people who join Ashtan to make it more Ashtany don't go somewhere else.  Players with power have so many more fun options.

Ah well, there we go.

Bluef

Vayne said:

@Bluef‌, that's fine. Additionally, I know she has other responsibilities  as an admin too, but in taking patronage of both the merchants and Serpentlords no resolution was found for the city, just the houses. She has been virtually silent towards the city and its concerns. If she was forthright with that being her intention that would be different, but there has been no indication there of. Perhaps that is because of the parties involved but if she wants to play the mediator than again why wouldn't she say anything?

I really can't speak to that. It's something she'd need to respond to. Not that any divine really needs to explain their actions or inactions to any mortal or city though.

There was a mess left behind and she stepped in and helped clean it up, tended to the wounded, and helped them achieve their dreams. That's the RP basis as I understand it. In the end, her work helped the SL and by helping them to aspire and achieve their goals she helped Hashan indirectly.

To clarify, I'm not sure I saw her as a mediator in that regard. My original response didn't intend to indicate that she was. Gods can do things to help a city along indirectly after all. Hashan has benefited from her assistance in recent days was the main point of it.

Addama

Other games have the same problem.  EVE Online is in a rut because the people who own Supercapitals (like the name implies, big ships) flock to one of the three or four coalitions that will actually use them and can actually protect them.  So there's three or four groups with huge blobs of Supercapitals and dozens of smaller ones with like zero.

Just imagine instead of Supercapitals, it's relics and Jhui.

Naverre

Addama said:

Other games have the same problem.  EVE Online is in a rut because the people who own Supercapitals (like the name implies, big ships) flock to one of the three or four coalitions that will actually use them and can actually protect them.  So there's three or four groups with huge blobs of Supercapitals and dozens of smaller ones with like zero.

Just imagine instead of Supercapitals, it's relics and Jhui.

Actually, EVE's rut is quickly disappearing. Force projecting got seriously gutted, so the ability to control vast swathes of null-sec is going away. There's a massive "solar system" in W-space opening up that you can't even use supercaps with, and a bunch of other really, really nice things coming soon, now that they're on shorter update cycles.

... Have to defend my internet spaceships. <.<

Addama

Getting into a House in Achaea:

Me: "Hey, I'd like to join your House!"
Aide: "Okay.  Why do you want to join?"
Me: "Because you guys are combat-oriented."
Aide: "Correct!  You win membership!"
Me: "Yay!"

Getting into a corporation in EVE online:

Recruiter: "You will need to go to this website and fill out the three-page application in its entirety.  We will need your full API and the names of three contacts from your prior corporations to confirm your story.  We will need the names of all of your alts and their API as well.  After you have done all of this, we will bullshit on our forum for about two weeks about how your Triage Archon fit was sort of funny, or that nobody uses Vagabonds for solo anymore.  We will scour your killboard and find a Tengu loss from 2011 in which you fit a salvager, which will automatically disqualify you from being in our corporation."
Me: "What if I -"
Recruiter: "Kill yourself."

Vayne

Bluef said:

Vayne said:

@Bluef‌, that's fine. Additionally, I know she has other responsibilities  as an admin too, but in taking patronage of both the merchants and Serpentlords no resolution was found for the city, just the houses. She has been virtually silent towards the city and its concerns. If she was forthright with that being her intention that would be different, but there has been no indication there of. Perhaps that is because of the parties involved but if she wants to play the mediator than again why wouldn't she say anything?

I really can't speak to that. It's something she'd need to respond to. Not that any divine really needs to explain their actions or inactions to any mortal or city though.

There was a mess left behind and she stepped in and helped clean it up, tended to the wounded, and helped them achieve their dreams. That's the RP basis as I understand it. In the end, her work helped the SL and by helping them to aspire and achieve their goals she helped Hashan indirectly.

To clarify, I'm not sure I saw her as a mediator in that regard. My original response didn't intend to indicate that she was. Gods can do things to help a city along indirectly after all. Hashan has benefited from her assistance in recent days was the main point of it.

Once again I agree that might have been Her intention and that she has no prerogative to divulge her work to mortals, but consequently neither can you assume that to we should be aware and calculate that potential intent with little to no indication  of it IC or OOC.

Silas

I don't want to alarm you, Vayne, but you're arguing with Bluef right now.

Bluef

Vayne said:

Bluef said:

Vayne said:

@Bluef‌, that's fine. Additionally, I know she has other responsibilities  as an admin too, but in taking patronage of both the merchants and Serpentlords no resolution was found for the city, just the houses. She has been virtually silent towards the city and its concerns. If she was forthright with that being her intention that would be different, but there has been no indication there of. Perhaps that is because of the parties involved but if she wants to play the mediator than again why wouldn't she say anything?

I really can't speak to that. It's something she'd need to respond to. Not that any divine really needs to explain their actions or inactions to any mortal or city though.

There was a mess left behind and she stepped in and helped clean it up, tended to the wounded, and helped them achieve their dreams. That's the RP basis as I understand it. In the end, her work helped the SL and by helping them to aspire and achieve their goals she helped Hashan indirectly.

To clarify, I'm not sure I saw her as a mediator in that regard. My original response didn't intend to indicate that she was. Gods can do things to help a city along indirectly after all. Hashan has benefited from her assistance in recent days was the main point of it.

Once again I agree that might have been Her intention and that she has no prerogative to divulge her work to mortals, but consequently neither can you assume that to we should be aware and calculate that potential intent with little to no indication  of it IC or OOC.

I'm really not following you anymore. She just revised a room in Hashan with cool reactions and whatnot, attended some events there, etc. I'm not sure why Hashan would assume she had anything other than its best interests at heart. I think y'all are just taking this veiled in obscurity thing a bit too far.

Jukilian

Ernam said:

Vansittart said:

For a bonus cookie, I just read the news and the Serpentlords have left Hashan?  What gives?  Paging @Vayne, paging @Vayne

When I raid the news post about them bailing on Hashan, I read it as:

"We acknowledge how much Hashan sucks and that we're getting dragged down, and simultaneously don't want our House to get deleted in its Renaissance like all the other serpent houses (RIP), so we're bailing to gtfo while we still can."

IMO it's 100% badass, if that's really how it played out.  I wish more Houses had done the same, instead of just flushing everything down the toilet.

You're almost there, except it's more the other way around.

The Serpent Lords were dragging Hashan down so Hashan gave them an ultimatum and kicked them out as a result of it.