The Bal'met event

Talonia

Favonius said:

I get the feeling that where this is going for Shallam is unification of the Good ideology under a single God, maybe Lorielan, but more likely a blast from the past - Aurora? Dunamis/Deucalion?

From an outsider's perspective this is a good thing - the Te'Serra often presented a confusing and divided face for Good.

That said, I feel for the players who have put time and effort into building Orders and advancing their rank in them, and hope they'll be justly rewarded once everything has shaken out.

From a Nature perspective, killing off Melantha was a big shock and I didn't see it coming. After Gaia and Demeter, Nature goddess seems to be a dangerous profession. Once again it's left an ideological hole in the Nature faction and a lot of players in mourning - but I'm prepared to see how it works out in the end.

I'm not surprised Melantha got killed off, especially given that Artemis is still around - most of the gods who have shunned direct conflict or were a little too neutrally aligned are going.  IMO that's for the better.    

Favonius

Tvistor said:

I thought Nature ideology was 'moar trees is better trees'?

Forestal ideologies (lazy version):

Melantha = this

Artemis = this, plus frequent killing sprees of forest enemies

Lupus = we can't hear you, we're compulsively hunting everything that moves

Sidebar: some stronger links between Lupus and the Forestal community would be nice. I've never interacted with the God and had limited interaction with the Order. That's kind of telling for someone who's played a Forestal for three years.

Mannimar

I wonder what Sartan will do when he realizes that marriage has inched its way back in with Evil.

Oceana

Mass divorce?

Iocun

Favonius said:

Tvistor said:

I thought Nature ideology was 'moar trees is better trees'?

Forestal ideologies (lazy version):

Melantha = this

Artemis = this, plus frequent killing sprees of forest enemies

Lupus = we can't hear you, we're compulsively hunting everything that moves

Sidebar: some stronger links between Lupus and the Forestal community would be nice. I've never interacted with the God and had limited interaction with the Order. That's kind of telling for someone who's played a Forestal for three years.

Gonna snipe you with voyria for forgetting Kastalia.

Delphinus

Iocun said:

Gonna snipe you with voyria for forgetting Kastalia.

Can't be summarised as easily. Paths, outer balance and inner balance, nature, fate, destiny vs. choice, etc.

Kas's religion was probably the most philosophically complex of the four, though I don't mean that as a slight against the others.

Vayne

Pericles has been reborn as Janus Bifrons, Keeper of the Doors! All hail the holder of the keys!

Vasool

Mannimar said:

I wonder what Sartan will do when he realizes that marriage has inched its way back in with Evil.

Although traditionally against marriage, Lord Sartan was known to allow it for certain individuals that proved themselves first.

Tvistor

Whenever a subordinate engaged, I order them to call it off unless Shaitan had personally said 'No, this is good.'

Marriage makes very, very little sense in Mhaldor. Even the most Evil of individuals have extremely flimsy reasoning backing marriages.

Draekar

Yen said:

I have a sneaking suspicion Lorielan will go poof, right when we finish re-shrining the city.

Lorielan is an elder god, has a pretty awesome realm and has one of the orders that I respect most in Achaea.

That said in recent years she was, lets say, the - least - loved in Shallam. And her realm, while a much needed addition to Good as a whole would be absolutely terrible to unify Good behind.

What would be awesome though is if Lori returns from the Crystal plane with an army of Kx'Khrah to lay waste to some Daemons and redeems herself, but then she will either has to die or join a neutral faction to build libraries and whatnot.  )

Beya

Draekar said:

What would be awesome though is if Lori returns from the Crystal plane with an army of Kx'Khrah to lay waste to some Daemons and redeems herself, but then she will either has to die or join a neutral faction to build libraries and whatnot.  )

Not actually a bad idea.

Aerek

I always felt it odd that the Goddess of Knowledge, which sounds like such a neutral realm, was Good-aligned. I honestly felt that they did that as a sort of "proof" that she was redeemed after betraying the Gods as part of the Triumvirate, not because it made sense for her realm.

Daslin

@Synbios I want to just hug you. That was the BEST new God ever. I need to log in, and IDEA Pericles, God of Doors

Nakari

Tvistor said:

Marriage makes very, very little sense in Mhaldor. Even the most Evil of individuals have extremely flimsy reasoning backing marriages.

I don't know exactly how fair this is. While I can certainly agree that marriage in the traditional sense has no place in Mhaldor, I feel like there's probably some way to interpret it. Perhaps taking it as two people partnering to help address each other's short comings and make each other stronger in the service of evil? 

I don't know, I'm not going to claim that's a good way to look at it, but to say that there is no way to spin any sort of partnership between two individuals within the context of evil a bit too much like a blanket generalization. 

Delphinus

Tvistor said:

Marriage makes very, very little sense in Mhaldor. Even the most Evil of individuals have extremely flimsy reasoning backing marriages.

Couldn't they just make it out to be a dynastic/political thing? Strengthening the bonds between the old families of Mhaldor?

Lucine

I think that debating which Gods are better to be killed off, is really in bad taste.  I'm fine with it happening, I understand it needs to. But the act of saying "Your God wasn't worth it to keep on, even though you worshiped them for RL years, through thick and thin" is kind of like kicking a dog when it's down.

Kinilan

You're confusing IC devotion with OOC  opinion.

Daslin

@Lucine but it's fun when that dog squeals

merely joking, I'm serious about this part. I do NOT condone kicking animals, ever. Even metaphorical ones. Except cats. Eff cats.

Honest, though, I wouldn't be surprised if Talonia's idea was right, neutral idealized Gods being off'd like Opie on SoA. SPOILER ALERT!

Ephram

Lucine said:

I think that debating which Gods are better to be killed off, is really in bad taste.  I'm fine with it happening, I understand it needs to. But the act of saying "Your God wasn't worth it to keep on, even though you worshiped them for RL years, through thick and thin" is kind of like kicking a dog when it's down.

QFT.

Even the more neutral Divine sometimes had Orders that explored the realms involved and found ways to relate those realms into every day Achaean life, as @Delphinus said earlier. Yes, this all makes sense to a degree but man, don't kick order members when they're already down.

Kinilan

Daslin said:

Honest, though, I wouldn't be surprised if Talonia's idea was right, neutral idealized Gods being off'd like Opie on SoA. SPOILER ALERT!

Why you gotta bring that up? Too soon man, too soon.

Iocun

Kinilan said:

You're confusing IC devotion with OOC  opinion.

I guess very few people would have their characters devoted to a god IC if they found the god irrelevant to the Achaean world on an OOC level. We have our characters following them because it provides us with fun OOC. So yes, saying "god X and his realm were stupid anyways and shouldn't have been in Achaea in the first place" is actually dismissive to players, not just characters.

Wynedere

There should only be four Pantheon gods total: good, evil, chaos, and nature. Those combined with the Creators are plenty. All the rest can be killed off, removing the neutral gods that are kinda silly to begin with.

Delphinus

I agree, roshambo is the pinnacle of gaming achievement.

Jacen

I don't think any of the 32 gods were silly. All catered to a specific type of gameplay, and all made the game more fun for players. I can see raising a Good, Evil, Chaos, Nature, Dark, and...whatever Cyrene's faction would be, to a higher level. But killing off the rest? You're taking a lot of fun fron a lot of players.

Bonko

Don't really see how lakes and rivers catered to a specific type of gameplay unless you were playing a fish that couldn't swim in the sea.

Kinilan

Iocun said:

Kinilan said:

You're confusing IC devotion with OOC  opinion.

I guess very few people would have their characters devoted to a god IC if they found the god irrelevant to the Achaean world on an OOC level. We have our characters following them because it provides us with fun OOC. So yes, saying "god X and his realm were stupid anyways and shouldn't have been in Achaea in the first place" is actually dismissive to players, not just characters.

Just because some people say something makes sense doesn't mean others should change their opinions to match. Being offended doesn't mean you're right.

Iocun

I'm not right because I'm offended, I'm right because I'm always right.

Wynedere

None of the following make much sense to me and serve no real purpose in Achaea. Most are rather silly.

Goddess of Vengeance (Killed Mhaldor until the event rekindled it)

the Enlightened (Bad realm. Nothing to do with good at all)

Wild God of the Beasts (Bashers rejoice!)

God of the Sea (Neraeos is cool and all, but the sea is a pitiful realm)

God of Peace (Peace...in Achaea)

Goddess of the Moon (All hail mover of the tides!)

Goddess of Mischief (Maybe for the Jesters?)

the Smith (Forgers now have a guru)

the God of Wealth (Merchants unite!)

the Great Bard (I can maybe see this one for the writers, maybe)

Goddess of Sleep and Dreams (WTF?!)

the Skylord (I have nothing here)

Vayne

The only one I can sort of agree with is Oneiros...beyond that your trite synopses do not do any of those realms credit nor the the part most have played in Achaean lore. The dead Gods are not getting the ax because they have not contributed to the game and have no value, it is not that at all. They are just limiting the scope of the game to be more workable IC and OOC. Too few Gods, four as you mentioned, would be terrible since the moderating team would be incredibly short handed.

Bonko

@Lorielan should replace @Babel as patron of the Occultists, being enlightened and all.