The Bal'met event

Synbios

Ellodin said:

maybe the royal shallamese navy can go diving in the ruins

Shallamese U-boats. Sinking merchant ships and cutting off comm supplies. Would do artisanals over and over for a U-boat.

Ellodin

i had a post written out about an achaean timeskip where we suddenly had aircraft carriers and submarines and all city-states were on separate islands but weren't self-sufficient, so everyone had to fight over islands with limited resources.

Jurixe

Blujixapug said:

Templars breed horse-sized tigers 

Will convert for this.

The huge Garden battle blew me away, but Shallam getting blown up was just...well, I was just completely blindsided. It's like one of those things where people go 'sure would be nice if they'd blow up Shallam' and you go 'yeah, sure, but it's never going to happen'. Kind of like people talking about Pauldrons of Shrugging or Anklets of Evasion.

...and then it really happened.

At first I was thinking, oh, cool, maybe Shallam will get blasted into rubble and they'll have to rebuild from the ruins, but then I saw the part where it sank into the ocean and went O_O. It's literally gone. I mean the Houses and stuff still exist as clans, but...yeah. Wow. I've pretty much given up trying to speculate on what will happen next, because every time I just get so completely thrown off guard. Which means you guys are doing a great job, so props once again!

I thought the sword might be used to revive Pentharian somehow, as he was really the only god I could see fitting Shallam after everything, but Deucalion coming back is pretty amazing. I'm really happy for Shallam in this respect, I'm sure a lot of people must be pretty excited at the moment. I'm almost envious in a way, because you guys will get to build something literally from the ground up now, and it should be really exciting. I think it would've been nice to be true refugees for a while longer, but maybe the admin are trying to speed up the event a little bit, which is also good.

Good luck to the ex-Shallamese players in building their new city. I hope you guys will really make use of this chance, though I think you might need to be a little ruthless in really deciding what you want your new direction to be. As someone said earlier, once the foundations are set they're really hard to remove, and it would be disappointing if all the problems that plagued the old Shallam just carried over to the new. 

I have faith in you though! Looking forward to seeing what comes of it. 

(please don't make pauldrons of shrugging or anklets of evade)

Lothien

You can still be refugees if you have a place to stay -- it's called a refugee camp! Shallamese are still refugees at this point -- RL refugees don't wander the hillside indefinitely, they set up a temporary place to stay until things work out.

Cooper

I'm really impressed that the admin had the balls to do this.

I'm also impressed by Shallam not bitching or crying at all about it.

Asmodron

Cooper said:

I'm really impressed that the admin had the balls to do this.

I'm also impressed by Shallam not bitching or crying at all about it.

Wait until the troll-raids on the camp >.>

Rangor

Since Shallam isn't a city, it's ok to go bashing there for me. Right? @Ravien

Prythe

Sylvance said:

Genuine question here; I wasn't awake for the event and haven't had a chance to properly catch up yet:

1) Where has the knowledge that the Shallamese are getting a new City come from?

And, now, a not-so-genuine question:

2) Why would it take the wholesale destruction of Shallam for folks to start deciding how to fix Shallam?

Displaced people have choices. 

They can stay disbursed. What are the odds of that?

They can move to other cities. There will be class problems, enmity problems, "not enough room for these foreigners who are taking our jobs" problems. Could be interesting, but not likely. 

They can rebuild. Realistically it would not be everybody, some would choose the first two options. Also, I wonder how a destroyed City would rebuild. "Houses" first? Or the city itself. In the days of Guilds it would have made more sense for the Guilds to rebuild and then perhaps work to create a city together. Not sure that makes the same type of sense with the house system.

My favorite part of all this in terms of possible scenarios for this being more than an event with an end is that wherever/however the displaced Shallamese rebuild, they are most likely going to have to destroy Nature in order to do so. So there will be forestals working to stop them, as well as their historic enemies from Mhaldor.  There are a lot of intriguing and interesting possibilities on the horizon. I hope these opportunities are not wasted by going with a simpler resolution. 

Prythe remembers what other cities (and Shallam itself) have done to the lands of Nature in the past. She has long preached true neutrality, noting that neither 'evil' nor 'good' is a natural enemy _nor_ ally to Nature.  Objectively (including in game events) this has always been so, regardless of how some have fashioned their own RP choices. It would be nice if that which already exists in fact could become more obvious. 

Good/Evil/Nature provides many more opportunities than Good/Evil/Huh?

Tvistor

Ashtan is already 'huh' outside of the Occultists though. We have the best of both worlds.

Thaumas

For new Shallam I want this or this.

Synbios

Thaumas said:

For new Shallam I want this or this.

I want it to be floating high in the sky as well, with teleporter elevators and crystal-tech(Tenwat had a broken teleportation device in it, used by old Church Inquisitors). 

Reason being that if someone blew up Neo-Shallam again, we can at least drop the city on whoever blew us up.

Aktillum

You guys are all wrong. We're moving to Arcadia and they're buffing our new guardian, Chenubis.

Arador

Maybe a little civil war between the refugees. The militants build a Whitecloak style city and the snugglers can....oh who cares. As long as they do not stay in said city.

Nicia

Just a thought, but maybe the "new" Shallam will be on Meropis and there will be more plane to plane travel. That would be an interesting angle. I still wish that Delos was some cool rogue player run city with no houses, buuuut...

Darklyre

Calling it now: Shallam settles Zanzibaar after the island's king finds enlightenment in the fire-bright purity of Deucalion. Templars breed horse-sized tigers and ride them into battle. Dawnstriders eschew serpenthood and adopt mongoose companions, training them specifically to kill death adders, rattlesnakes, cobras, and vipers. Crystalline Circle employs a complex new enchantment to bind turtle steeds with air elementals. Sentaari, on a mission to Judgment Mountain, rediscover the long-lost tiger stance. Empyreal Assembley get some bitchin' henna tats. Eradicating the eastern seas of pirates, and waging such fervent war on the barbaric tritons of the region that they are sued for armistice, this reborn city of the south-east seas now casts its mighty fleet westwards, flying flags of retribution as they sail upon Mhaldor.

It's the obvious next step. If this doesn't happen, I will upload footage of myself eating a hat to youtube, so literal is my incomprehension of how events could unfold in any other way.

"We sail on Mhaldor!"

"Isn't that on the other side of the continent?"

"So?"

"We'd have to go around either the Notic Ocean or the Borean Ocean to get there. It'd take forever."


"...we sail on Tasur'ke! And then we WALK on Mhaldor!"

Arador

Or make Meropis the non pvp continent.

Thaumas

Don't old Meropis PK rules now extend to the whole game except full PK areas?

Darroth

Panpardus said:

I guess now is a perfect opportunity to build New Shallam? (insert new city name) up to exactly how people have wanted it for some time.

For me (yes its only my opinion) they should run it exactly like Mhaldor, make it a righteous city where their are certain things expected.

You want a truffle -- GTFO - Join elsewhere

Want to be a care bear - GTFO - Join elsewhere

You don't want to defend the ideals of the city - GTFO - Join elsewhere

You get the point.

Start with the houses, if you want to join new city blah then this is what is going to happen, what you dont want to follow that, sure Oneiros can build you a new house estate in the desert or whereever.  

The first house leader is told what is to be done, not what they want to do, 

For those that dont want to be part of a new city they have a choice, join Cyrene a neutral good orientation which is similar to what Shallam was or just go rogue.

It will be interesting to actually see what happens.

I don't really see Shallam taking a new path since all the same old crappy players will most likely be joining. It will be easy to fall back into the old status quo if no one smacks the **** out of those players. It seem's they've translated the current leadership to the new)?) one  which is not good. I just hope Deucalion's a boss and will actively enforce a better standard. 

That said. Citadel is gone, Te'serra is gone, Primary is gone. Yay. 

Sohl

Aktillum said:

You guys are all wrong. We're moving to Arcadia and they're buffing our new guardian, Chenubis.

Chenubis is already quite a bit stronger than any city guardian.

Chryenth

Darklyre said:

-Blux's prediction-

"We sail on Mhaldor!"

"Isn't that on the other side of the continent?"

"So?"

"We'd have to go around either the Notic Ocean or the Borean Ocean to get there. It'd take forever."


"...we sail on Tasur'ke! And then we WALK on Mhaldor!"

One does not simply walk into Mhaldor.

Siena

Thaumas said:

For new Shallam I want this or this.

You know, this reminds me of the town in guild wars 2. The one where if you choose a human toon you go to this huge circular city. I haven't played guild wars 2 in ages so I forgot the name.

As for shallam getting destroyed, I had a feeling they were going to do it. I'm upset that the navy clan and sentaari house are gone. (I miss Fish street, the firepit on Ramparts and the archway ) I'm very meh about it generally surprisingly.

Kinilan

Siena said:

 I'm upset that the navy clan and sentaari house are gone.

RSN became irrelevant when its members started to pay PoM protection money.

Wilhelmina

@Siena Divinity's Reach. I love the design of that place, even though it's a bit cliche.

Thaumas

Every design which is not postmodern architecture can be perceived as "cliche".

Synbios

Daeir said:

Shallamese refuges have to move up to Istarion to live with the Tsol, and end up becoming Life worshipping treehuggers.

"Hey Mhaldor, let's fight!"

"Oh yeah, you and what army?"

"Me...my friends...AND MY BROOD OF SHALLAMESE SWORD-SPIDERS"

Jarrod

As long as they don't bring whisper spiders down I'm not worried.

Vansittart

Darroth said:

Panpardus said:

I guess now is a perfect opportunity to build New Shallam? (insert new city name) up to exactly how people have wanted it for some time.

For me (yes its only my opinion) they should run it exactly like Mhaldor, make it a righteous city where their are certain things expected.

You want a truffle -- GTFO - Join elsewhere

Want to be a care bear - GTFO - Join elsewhere

You don't want to defend the ideals of the city - GTFO - Join elsewhere

You get the point.

Start with the houses, if you want to join new city blah then this is what is going to happen, what you dont want to follow that, sure Oneiros can build you a new house estate in the desert or whereever.  

The first house leader is told what is to be done, not what they want to do, 

For those that dont want to be part of a new city they have a choice, join Cyrene a neutral good orientation which is similar to what Shallam was or just go rogue.

It will be interesting to actually see what happens.

I don't really see Shallam taking a new path since all the same old crappy players will most likely be joining. It will be easy to fall back into the old status quo if no one smacks the **** out of those players. It seem's they've translated the current leadership to the new)?) one  which is not good. I just hope Deucalion's a boss and will actively enforce a better standard. 

That said. Citadel is gone, Te'serra is gone, Primary is gone. Yay. 

You know - this attitude is actually a huge problem.  If this is the way you expect it to be, if this is the way you approach the game and the new situation then all you are doing is creating the future that you're so worried about.  This is a huge opportunity, and there is nothing - no change - that a focused minority of organised players backed up by a like-minded Divine cannot achieve.  Not only has Shallam been blown up which, let's remember, was a key suggestion of the "militant Shallam, boot trufflers to Cyrene" faction but Deucalion has come back as the GOD OF RIGHTEOUS FIRE whose first statements are an absolute command to beat the living hell out of everyone.  This could not have started better (IMO, of course), the opportunity couldn't be clearer and it's entirely incumbent on people like you to make whatever replaces Shallam be what Shallam always should have been.

There will be people who want to rebuild Shallam exactly as it was, of course there will, but the narrative is (finally!) being led in the right direction, and it is much much harder to fight the admin-inspired narrative than it is to go with it.

There will be no whinging.  There will be no "hilarious" forum complaints about how Veldrin belongs in Cyrene.  There will be no dissent.  THERE WILL BE RIGHTEOUS FIRE, and that is all.

Kresslack

Militant Shallam? Because that's what Sapience needs, another overbearing fanatical attempt at fascism. 

Vansittart

Yes, and fascism is bad in a fantasy game because it results in the persecution of minorities in the real world    because fascism is wrong, and you shouldn't put wrong things in a fantasy universe  it will encourage people to be fascist and vote Republican ...

Oh wait, it isn't.  Shut up Kresslack.

Asmodron

Drum-roll  for Ashtan countdown please!


(for those that dont know, Ormyrr surrounding Ashtan).