New RP City to join

Vasool

Tvistor said:

I wish being tagged in a quote wouldn't send me notices.

@Tvistor  Is it becoming a large problem?

Arador

Vasool said:

Tvistor said:

I wish being tagged in a quote wouldn't send me notices.

@Tvistor  Is it becoming a large problem?

Poor guy, doing that on purpose is mean!

Tvistor

Oh my god, you communists.

Wysteria

Tvistor said:

Oh my god, you communists.

There's a way to turn of notifications, FYI — yes I'm setting off your notifications by doing this.

• Click your name
• EDIT PROFILE < -- top right hand side
• NOTIFICATION PREFERENCES < --- in left column
• Select accordingly.
• SAVE

I believe this should stop the popups and such.

Tvistor

I love Wysteria and hate the rest of you.

Arador

Tvistor said:

I love Wysteria and hate the rest of you.

We are just trying to keep the suffering going. Hail Quotor!

Synbios

Tvistor said:

I love Wysteria and hate the rest of you.

@Tvistor: It is often said by the masses that hate is the opposite of love. That is a falsehood. To hate someone with as much ardour as love means that you have devoted much of your attention - and emotion - towards that person. 

Nay, the true opposite of love and hate is apathy. 

-Synbios Hagane, "Treatise on Griefing"

Tvistor

I hate all of you, and this topic seems to have run its course. Also I disabled my notifications.

-Tvistor Wintermourne, "Die, die, die"

Iocun

Synbios said:

Daeir said:

And always salute. If you bow to @Tvistor after he's warned you about it twice, you get your throat cut. Not a pleasant experience. So salute.

Such is the martial way. Bowing means you take your eyes off a potential opponent, leaving your guard down for a split-second. A split second that can cost you your life. A salute tells your opponent "I respect you, but do not mistake my respect for weakness. Ambush me at your peril."

If you must bow before combat, keep your eyes on your opponent while doing so, and keep your weapons at the ready. 

-From the Lectures of Templar Combat Etiquette, Sir Synbios Hagane, Y611

There is but one exception to this rule: The act of bowing is acceptable, even desirable, when you are approaching an unsuspecting Cyrenian with the intention of slaying her or him. Bow, and the Cyrenian will feel compelled to mimic your action, as not to be found lacking in respect. Grab this opportunity to thrust your skull forward and execute him with a perfect headslam.

- From the Annotations to Sir Synbios' Lectures of Templar Combat Etiquette, Iocun, Y611

Melodie

Daeir said:

Xith said:

Ashtan = greyfaced combat people
Mhaldor = roleplay
Cyrene = the other kind of roleplay
Shallam = light-worshipping holier-than-thou combat people
Eleusis = forest people who occasionally are part of stuff
Hashan = greyfaced commerce people with open gates

 

Cyrene, roleplay? What?


Hmph.

Perhaps you should try roleplaying with some of us before casting off a judgment! I've not had any complaints after I (Melodie) scowl viciously at the heathens.

Vayne

It's ok @Melodie, some people just form their opinions off limited experience and ignorance. Others are just troll who want people to click the button at the bottom of their posts.

Velyse

Cyrene does have a lot of roleplay, but it's not based on 'Cyrene' as a concept. The thing about Mhaldor is that everything is rolled up neatly into a little package, in terms of RP. The House, city, and Orders are all effectively the same entity. They are all devoted to the same goal. This makes getting into RP on a daily basis fairly easy, because you have a common theme with just about everyone. All roads lead to Evil, essentially.

Cyrene is different in that there is no overall goal that unites all the houses and Orders of the city and drives them to work together. Instead, most of the RP comes from individuals rather than organizations. You can see it reflected every so often when you view them as a member of an organization, rather than as an individual. Examples: When members of the Lumeni scowl at the heathens, or when the bardic house puts on their performances, or when various members of certain Orders do their ordery things. You might say, 'But that's not Cyrenian RP!', to which I say, it's RP by Cyrenians happening in Cyrene. It may not be dedicated toward some centralized concept like Mhaldor, but it's still Cyrenian RP.

Edit: The letter S is hard

Velyse

Being young seems to be far, far less of a mitigating factor in Cyrene than Mhaldor in my experience. In Mhaldor the 'Old Guard' is quite entrenched and detaches itself from novices pretty severely, where as in Cyrene I had the 'Old Guard' RPing with me right out of the flame. It could just be luck and class choice, but my experiences are far different than yours.

I will admit that if you're not fortunate enough to make a few connections, Cyrene can be hard to RP in. It has groups that are incredibly, incredibly cliqueish. I've gone up to other Cyrenians RPing in public and literally had my emotes ignored on more than one occasion. However, it has never been my experience that it's the Nerai, Phaestians, or Scarlattans who tend to do that, and certainly not the established ones. I've found that those are the people who are the most open to making connections and RPing, so long as you express interest.

If the complaint is that much of Cyrene's RP is based around Phaestus, Neraeos, or Scarlatti, I don't think that's a fair one. All cities have Divine that tend to represent that city more, and thus tend to have a greater representation within that city's populace as consequence. To act as if Mhaldor is some sort of an exception is absurd. Mhaldor embodies your criticism of this facet of Cyrenian RP more than anyone else. The only difference is that they make you work with the Mhaldor Divine's Orders. As I said before, it's all rolled up into a neat little package and then handed to you.

Jiraishin

To the people talking about bowing (I hate quotes on here):

Jiraishin bows a lot. Not generally to Tvistor, though, because it's much more fun to walk up behind Tvistor without giving him any warning. His expressions are hilarious.

Aepas

Velyse said:

Cyrene does have a lot of roleplay, but it's not based on 'Cyrene' as a concept. The thing about Mhaldor is that everything is rolled up neatly into a little package, in terms of RP. The House, city, and Orders are all effectively the same entity. They are all devoted to the same goal. This makes getting into RP on a daily basis fairly easy, because you have a common theme with just about everyone. All roads lead to Evil, essentially.

Cyrene is different in that there is no overall goal that unites all the houses and Orders of the city and drives them to work together. Instead, most of the RP comes from individuals rather than organizations. You can see it reflected every so often when you view them as a member of an organization, rather than as an individual. Examples: When members of the Lumeni scowl at the heathens, or when the bardic house puts on their performances, or when various members of certain Orders do their ordery things. You might say, 'But that's not Cyrenian RP!', to which I say, it's RP by Cyrenians happening in Cyrene. It may not be dedicated toward some centralized concept like Mhaldor, but it's still Cyrenian RP.

Edit: The letter S is hard

This is kind of a contradiction. You're saying Cyrene has RP, but at the same time, it has no RP. you say that people RP in cyrene, so it is cyrenian RP. That is also not true, because it is dependant on the person/order/org. For instance, anyone that knows Aepas will know that he has his own form of RP, which is his disconnect with reality in thinking that he is a hydra. This is not Mhaldorian RP. This is Aepas RP, but it happens in Mhaldor, with Mhaldorians.

RP does happen in Cyrene, but for a younger player which is what this post is about, there will not be  a lot of RP found without having to search and prod specific individuals to make it happen

Tagg

You can find RP anywhere. RP will not always find you anywhere. It's easiest to sit back and let RP come to you as a midbie and lower in Mhaldor, due to the higher ups likely breathing down your neck about advancement (as they should), which is why I think a lot of people get the impression that more RP happens in Mhaldor.

For instance, I sit isolated in Ashtan with CT off and I approach nobody. Shockingly, this doesn't lead to much RP. Some people would take this as a time to lament the lack of RP in Ashtan, when all that would mean is that I'm a terrible person who hasn't a clue.

Stupid people exist everywhere that you don't want to RP with. Great people exist everywhere that are worth RPing with. You have to be the one to be active and search them out, not expect it to come to you. So no need to be all judgmental about certain places because you had a singular bad experience.

Velyse

Aepas said:

Velyse said:

Cyrene does have a lot of roleplay, but it's not based on 'Cyrene' as a concept. The thing about Mhaldor is that everything is rolled up neatly into a little package, in terms of RP. The House, city, and Orders are all effectively the same entity. They are all devoted to the same goal. This makes getting into RP on a daily basis fairly easy, because you have a common theme with just about everyone. All roads lead to Evil, essentially.

Cyrene is different in that there is no overall goal that unites all the houses and Orders of the city and drives them to work together. Instead, most of the RP comes from individuals rather than organizations. You can see it reflected every so often when you view them as a member of an organization, rather than as an individual. Examples: When members of the Lumeni scowl at the heathens, or when the bardic house puts on their performances, or when various members of certain Orders do their ordery things. You might say, 'But that's not Cyrenian RP!', to which I say, it's RP by Cyrenians happening in Cyrene. It may not be dedicated toward some centralized concept like Mhaldor, but it's still Cyrenian RP.

Edit: The letter S is hard

This is kind of a contradiction. You're saying Cyrene has RP, but at the same time, it has no RP. you say that people RP in cyrene, so it is cyrenian RP. That is also not true, because it is dependant on the person/order/org. For instance, anyone that knows Aepas will know that he has his own form of RP, which is his disconnect with reality in thinking that he is a hydra. This is not Mhaldorian RP. This is Aepas RP, but it happens in Mhaldor, with Mhaldorians.

RP does happen in Cyrene, but for a younger player which is what this post is about, there will not be  a lot of RP found without having to search and prod specific individuals to make it happen

I never said "Cyrene has no RP" so I'm not sure why you're claiming that. I said that Cyrene has no centralized goal that all of the Houses and Orders within actively work toward in the same way that Mhaldor does. Cyrene has RP, but it's based on the entities which make up Cyrene, and not 'Cyrene' as a concept. Let me try and explain using a real life parallel.

Take the military, for example. When you join the military you're sorted and placed, and expected to fulfill a very specific role. This is because the military, as a whole, is a top-down organization with a goal that they want to accomplish above all. This creates a very specific culture within the military, as a whole entity. The Army, the Marines, the Navy, and the Air Force all have their own cultures because their goals are slightly different, but they share the same 'Master Goal' with the military. Mhaldor is analogous to the military, and its houses are the branches, in this regard. It is the established culture that you are role-playing, and in this case, it is top-down with a centralized goal.

Contrast this with, say, New York. When you move to New York, the mayor does not demand you fill any specific role within the city. You're left to your own devices, by and large. Wall Street, the Yankees, big law firms, and Broadway are not all cooperating toward a specific goal. They're individual groups with their own specific aims, and they have their own individual cultures in this regard, not unlike how the branches of military have their own cultures. However, to suggest that New York has no culture or shared identity because it lacks a specific goal that all New Yorkers work toward would be absurd. The individual organizations and aspects of New York, separate as they may be, are what define the city. In this example, New York is Cyrene, and the mentioned organizations are like the Houses. They all contribute to the overall culture, feel, and environment of the parent city.

You're suggesting that Cyrene has no RP because you are stripping each of the individual parts of what Cyrene is and are saying that they don't count. Scarlatti, Phaestus, Neraeos, the Lumeni, the various houses, etc. are all as Cyrenian as Sartan, Evil, the Twin Lords, Keresis and Indrani, the various houses, etc. are Mhaldorian. If you strip Cyrene's defining features away, then yes, Cyrene has no RP -- but the same is true for Mhaldor, and every other city in the game. Mhaldorian RP relies just as much on the Divine, their Orders, the Houses, and the individuals within the city as Cyrene does. They just have a centralized, unifying focus, while Cyrenian Orders and houses do not.

Edit: For clarity! I wish we had a preview button.

Tvistor

All I know is that spying on Cyrene yields a much higher rate of people talking about pie and doing stupid emotes than some other cities. Hashan is still worse if you go to the Crossroads though.

That is not to say Cyrene is different from Mhaldor in this respect. People are silly everywhere. It is just hidden better in Mhaldor because we execute you for it. Like, what was that thing with someone asking for an 'Opossum roll' when making announcements a while ago? If you are exposed to that kind of thing instead of players like @Melodie and @Iocun , it is easy to see why someone would think Cyrene is totally purposeless and should all be hailing Lord Sartan.

Synbios

Jiraishin said:

To the people talking about bowing (I hate quotes on here):

Jiraishin bows a lot. Not generally to Tvistor, though, because it's much more fun to walk up behind Tvistor without giving him any warning. His expressions are hilarious.

You can't fool me. I saw what's hiding under your hat - eyes on the top of your head. That's why you can bow with impunity. 

Synbios

Aepas said:

RP does happen in Cyrene, but for a younger player which is what this post is about, there will not be  a lot of RP found without having to search and prod specific individuals to make it happen

To echo with Tagg: isn't that kind of the point?

Jiraishin

@Synbios goddamn. Caught.

Melodie

Okay. I brought up the forums on this laptop with about a gig of memory, just so I could fully express myself. Lets see here.

@Tagg made a very good generalized post that I agree 100% with. Thank you, Tagg.

For @Daeir and @Aepas, the fact remains that just because Cyrene has its problems (something we've internally been addressing more and more), doesn't make we "don't have RP". No, we're not going to come right up to you and give you everything on a silver platter. But there is quite a bit to be found in Cyrene. Each House has their own interesting culture, the Wardens and Bards especially. Even if you don't join a House, the rogue culture is actually very interesting IF you're okay with putting your effort into -something-. The city does events, we have meetings, we do this and that, but what drives most of the citizens are going to be Houses, the Divine, or the Lumeni (most of whom have one or both of the former).

You don't have to join Phaestus or Scarlatti's Order to even hear them, more often than not. Both speak on CT quite a bit. Phaestus attends several of the meetings, and sometimes Scarlatti pops in as well. Get yourself involved with RP and get to know people at an early age. Verrucht, myself, Inara, Trilliana are all people who actively help and are apart of the government. Once you've gotten yourself established and gotten a lot of the newbie things out of the way, you can work at becoming an aide by 23 or so. We've loosened up a lot of our aidehood rules, so you can do multiple ministries without a wait. Find a ministry you like, do it -well-, become head aide, become a Minister down the road. This is a great set-up to becoming a Senator. If you don't want to get that far, fine. We're at a point in Achaea where anyone willing to put forth the effort is going to be appreciated, and I know damn well I'm more willing to give up my time (which is fairly chopped up as is) to people who put in the effort.

Now, to be fair, of the four Houses, the Kindred is the most excluded from Cyrene's general culture because of how the House operates. It focuses inwards a -lot-, and because of that tends to just ignore the city as that "thing you have be apart of". That's not true for all Kindred, but the vast majority, certainly. If you want to get involved with the city as a focus while in the House, I highly suggest the Wardens, whose central theme is the protection of the city. They are a great bunch, and I know several, and more often than not, those Wardens can connect you with several other non-Wardens in the city.

I can't tell you how hard I work to try and make anyone I get involved with in the city feel as welcome as possible, while still remaining in-character. Some of the things we discuss is newbie retention. We smack down baked goods talk the moment we hear it on CT, and I'll often do the same at CC, even when it upsets others. The fact is, our Ambassador and MoCA are basically the hardest-working publically-viewed ministries in the city, because it involves the citizens, both new and old, and we take it seriously. We want everyone to have a good time, and to fit in.

tl;dr Cyrene has plenty of opportunities to do whatever you wish, but you're going to have to dip your nose in. Find what you're interested in, figure out who in the city is involved with that, and just dig into it and have fun. This goes for any city, but definitely for Cyrene.

Edit: Sorry the above post kind of skips back and forth on various topics. I blame @Phaestus popping in suddenly to chat and distracting me. This is okay.

Tvistor

Tagg made serious post, world collapsing, does not compute.

Synbios

Jiraishin said:

@Synbios goddamn. Caught.

And now we uncover @Jiraishin 's TRUE FORM! 

Mannimar

It really depends on who you're trying to RP with, what they know, what you know, and if they're interested in interacting with you. You don't have to be in an order to meet and interact with Divine, especially some of the fun ones when they actually did interact with you (R.I.P. @Hermes, and gotta love Lady O's random appearances). RPing doesn't simply mean doing rituals, world events, lectures. Sometimes they're simple and one on one.

Like the one time I took a Serpent Lord novice to @Scarlatti's temple to play with the theatre because she had a marionette, and I thought she'd like it. Besides, puppet's are fun. Then Scarlatti showed up and taught us how to play his organ... and I'm not going to change how I said that because it's more fun to count the perverts in the audience today.

Sherazad

One time, I RP'd exploring Cyrene on an alt, and a dude RP'd offering to join me in the bath house.

Jurixe

Mannimar said:

Then Scarlatti showed up and taught us how to play his organ... 

I really thought of the instrument first before the second part of your sentence, I swear.

I have had long-term characters in Cyrene and Mhaldor. While Cyrene is a great place to start off while you're a newbie and confused by pretty much everything, as you grow older there is a very strong sense of the city as a whole lacking a greater purpose, some sort of relevance in the bigger scheme of the world if you're not part of organisations like the Lumeni, which, in my opinion, is itself given that legitimacy by their relationship with Shallam. 

My view is going to be unpopular, but in my eyes certain skills should ideally be faction-specific - for instance Occultism with Ashtan, Necromancy with Mhaldor, and Devotion with Shallam. The fact that Cyrene is the lone exception at the moment re: devotion certainly opens that up for a lot of interesting RP potential, but that as a whole doesn't give the city a place on the axis of conflict. Apart from the Lumeni, I guess perhaps Cyrene styles itself as the centre for arts, which is great - but for characters that want to feel like their actions actually matter on a world level, like they're fighting and sacrificing themselves for a particular cause, they usually end up moving to one of the other cities.

There's nothing wrong with this, of course, especially since Cyrene was intended as a refuge from conflict. Just depends on what kind of roleplay experience you want to have, and what kind of roleplay you like.

I'd originally come to Mhaldor out of pure curiosity, because it was always that dark shadowland that everyone told you to stay away from but nobody really knew what it was like. Everything terrified me at first. The reason why I have stayed, however, is because I felt like I was actually contributing to the city, another soldier, another body for the great cause of Evil. Helping kill people in raids, espionage tasks that furthered some other purpose like raids, there was a point to all this work and it showed. It won't be for everyone, either, but I really enjoy the roleplay in Mhaldor. It's just one of those things you have to experience to find out whether you like it or not, though.

Can't offer any advice on the other cities, but good luck!

Synbios

@Jurixe: Now you suddenly made me imagine a Cyrene faction-specific skill:

Glamours

Hiding death within the play of colour and light, practitioners of the art of Glamours can twist the very nature of light, harming enemies either by afflicting them with ailments of the mind, or by physically hurting them with painful bursts of colour and illusory constructs that are as beautiful as they are deadly. They can twist perceptions, tricking them into going in one direction, only to end up in another, going as far as to entrap them in prismatic mazes formed of false visions. Masters of the art can even manipulate the 'primordial colours' of living beings themselves, slaying them by tearing and scattering the unseen colours that compose their very being.

Melodie

I'd hit that.

Synbios

@Melodie: With a frying pan or a whip of love?