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Comments
Hashan's science and industry lacks that motivator, and that's sort of the crux of its identity problems I think.
Personally, I agree with those who hold that Darkness is too ethereal a theme for a city. It seems to value secrecy, misdirection, whispers in the dark, and yet at the same time it tries to be the overt mainstay of a city. I think its not too terribly surprising people balk. People want to be all 'in' so to speak, but with an ideology like that, not everyone can be 'in'. In fact, usually the people who can't be in are more than the people who can. And those people will always revolt.
Its a problem that no other ideology has, or at least not in such a peculiar way. Eleusis comes close, but the issue with Eleusis is one born of historical happenings and mistrust and festered wounds than plain not being in or out with a certain crowd.
And you won't understand the cause of your grief...
...But you'll always follow the voices beneath.
I'm more than happy to listen to opinions and ideas though, even if from outside sources because I'm only 1 person and shit, you all are smarter than me.
I honestly am at a loss on how to 'fix' Hashan. Like what possibly is there to be done, other than embracing an actual ethos? Hashan doesn't want to embrace Twilight, fine. But what else is there left to embrace? Every archetype is kind of taken.
And I honestly can't imagine it'd be desirable for the darkies to drop that either. So yeah, solutions 'r hard.
And you won't understand the cause of your grief...
...But you'll always follow the voices beneath.
I'm not knowledgeable enough about Hashan to claim any real opinion on it, but I feel like there'd be more milage in defining "night" into something meaningful and accessible, rather then trying to bend the most secretive group in the game into a far more public religion. And I do think that science/civilization/progress could be a part of that. It's true that most cities are civilization with alchemists and stuff, but when nearly every city in the game is a theocracy or near theocracy, I feel there's room to push for a "truer" pursuit of rationality.
I think the most interesting part of Hashan's identity is actually its ties to the Merchant's Guild. I used to think Cyrene was the best place to shop, until I discovered Hashan. Holy crap you guys are so good at undercutting everyone else, and the shops are always so well stocked. Plus that mini-bazaar in Tasurke you did recently was really fun.
Personally I think it'd be really cool if Hashan made this a bigger part of its identity, and becomes some kind of shadowy underworld hub for free trade, information brokering, and the buying and selling of rare, valuable, possibly illicit goods and services. Sort of like an Achaean Silk Road...you guys can put Dr. Kortoxian out of business.
Ashtan was created to follow Chaos (Oblivion came much, much later).
Maybe its time they just accept Darkness fits more as a cult than as the city religion and look elsewhere.
And you won't understand the cause of your grief...
...But you'll always follow the voices beneath.
Essentially, the Darkness wants to bring the world under something called the One Mind. Cutting through all the religious propaganda, it's basically The World According to Twilight.
The difference between this and other similar ideologies (like Good and Evil) is that you don't explicitly have to be a part of Hashan to advocate this Great Work. That's why you can have Darkwalkers in Ashtan or in Cyrene or whatever.
Understandably, of course, those cities might not be too keen on the whole Darkness schtick, so the Darkwalkers resort to secrecy.
In my opinion, though, the Secrecy deal doesn't have to cover all of the Darkness faction -- only the ones undercover in other cities. If you're Hashani, then you can openly say you're a proud kiddo of Big T. It's still workable as a theme for a city to rally behind, in addition to the Moon theme of change and cycles (like the Darkie theme of making-remaking).
I think the biggest problem I have with Hashan results from the Sundering. It sounds neat, sure, and it provides me with a great place to hunt right now, but it really eliminated the tension between Eleusis and Hashan--a driving source of roleplay. I'd like to see Hashan become more aggressive with its civilization-building progress to spark that conflict again. It's true that all the cities but Cyrene have a civilization-building ethos, but Hashan could distinguish itself by devoting itself to Progress At Any Cost--think Industrial Revolution Britain and America for an example of what I'm talking about. Or just play Sunless Sea--Fallen London is exactly what Hashan should be like, I think.
To a certain extent, this is somewhat limited by the limitations on technological progress in Achaea. I'm not advocating for us to go steampunk, but there's a certain aesthetic of steam engines and stripmining that's hard to duplicate. In any event, "taming the wilds and bringing civilization to the savages" would be a good focus for the city, in my opinion, and Scientific Revolution Hashan would be able to have its own ethos. It could even be a foil for artistic, libertine Cyrene.
tl;dr turn Hashan into Imperial Britain. Order and Progress. For King and Country!
If Hashan began expanding past the Sunderlands, you could conceivably respark that tension. But as long as the Sunderlands serve as an effective barrier, there's not much to squabble over. Unless Eleusis grows a spine and starts demanding the destruction of Hashan entire again.
It's in a book, probably has a copy in the Citadel library. I obviously can't check...
I understand that there's the whole "Great Work," but by its nature it's very vague. What sort of actions should be taken towards this great work? Why is this Great Work a good idea? How can an individual citizen make this a part of their identity? Factions work by laying out clear actions that can be taken, goals that the faction is aiming for, and reasoning for those goals. Darkness has always been the antithesis of that - while the ideal worlds that Evil, Darkness, Chaos, and Nature all seek are pretty clear, can anyone seriously spell out what "The world according to Twilight" would look like?
And you won't understand the cause of your grief...
...But you'll always follow the voices beneath.
Back when Hashan was initially being formed, people wanted "more" from city life. Hashan began to expand, both cutting out swathes of the Ithmia for room as well as harvesting lumber. Nature would protest but Hashan only saw them as savages trying to halt progress.
This eventually spread into widespresd conflict with the Seneschal of Hashan (or high ranking indiviual..cant recall) being declared the first enemy of nature, further cementing the conflict.
Eventually Hashan was assaulted by werewolves and the forces of nature. The fighting going back and forth eventually ended with an agreement:
http://wiki.achaea.com/Expansion_of_Hashan
The entire affair had a sort of lord of the rings feel with Hashan choosing to focus on cultivating itself by sacrificing nature.
Hashan still continued its ideas of Civilization, even introducing the first official laws of any city.
While the determination of expansion waned with time, we still see elements of progress with science. However, Hashan is no longer a leading force in civilization vs nature.
----
As for ritualism..while all orgs have some variety...nothing can compare to Hashan. Hashan is itself a giantic ritual circle (part of Twilight's plan of course). If ever they actually decided to tap into it, they could inadvertently cause a cataclysmic event.
targ/mhaldor/ashtan also all outdo hashan on the ritual front by a lot. Even Eleusis does. Saying Hashan is somehow a special ritual place is meaningless if Hashan does little with it.
Sadly with their dissolution it is much less prevalent. You'll find the occasional darkwalker ritual or a citizen attempting something..but it is pretty obscure.
The potential is there, but people are too busy squabbling over politics to care.
Same issue with the Wellspring, honestly. It's all well and good to say "we're going to study this thing," but if nothing ever comes of your navelgazing, you end up like Cyrene--cut off from the rest of the world.
1) What is the World According To Twilight?
Peaceful, harmonious, everyone's friends and we're all nice people because we're all mind-controlled by Darkness.
2) What do we do to accomplish this goal?
Whatever we have to do - it's the Great Work. We do science experiments to mind-control people. We write stuff to convince people (and mind-control them). We make pretty things to seduce people (and mind-control them). We kill them if they resist (...to mind-control them).
3) What can I do for the Great Work?
One of the above. There's not one way to contribute to the Great Work -- as long as it makes people interested in the Darkness, you're good to go buddy.
4) What about non-Hashani?
Well you're in luck. Rise to prominence in your city. Then bait-and-switch their ass and declare your eternal love for Twiguy and they should be in love, too.