Refugees of Shallam, how are you coping?

Tanris

Builds character, so I hear.

Dethea

I know, I -KNOW- this is totally irrelevant (to most of the posts in this thread), but I just have to say:

When Mhaldor split from Ashtan the *first* time, something I (Dethea as Tyrannus) initiated by dissolving that ridiculous mutual anti-theft treaty (and dissolving the anti-hostilities with Cyrene, because wtf really?) and then attacking them immediately, things were absolutely great. That split needed to happen, and it boosted Mhaldor considerably. Then, for some reason, Mhaldor decided to bff with Ashtan again, and everything went downhill from there.

A key point in all of this though, was the militaristic-mentality of Mhaldor at the time, which had something to do with what Silas suggested earlier in the thread.

Or something. I don't want to derail any more than I already have (and I rightly have no input for Shallam's politics or what they should be doing).

On topic, I have admiration for all of the refugees. If I had an (active) character in Shallam, I would be acting like a much bigger baby than most of you.

Yarantan

I just logged in to check stuff as I do every so often

Landed on Fish St. Then suddenly, at cave. Everything is weird, walk down prelatorian, Shallam is missing.
If there's one thing that might coax me back, it's if this gets cooler. I will be watching.

Tesha

I have had a very enjoyable experience, although I did not really experience much of the previous Shallam so I do not really have as much to compare it to. I have had a lot of support whenever I needed it ( @Cooper gave Tesha money and encouragement when she was feeling down without even knowing she was a little sad, and also arenawatched or something and scared the heck out of me by responding to a little self-rp I did after winning a really hard fight) and the community is really great. 

@Aurora and @Deucalion are extraordinarily talented, the way they phrase things is always really top-notch. Every interaction with them is very epic (please don't kill them). @Silas and @Halos have been amazing at guiding me along what a 'Good' character is like in this game (something I was unsure about, since it does not seem like the typical 'good') and I'm really excited for my character's future.

Synbios

Tesha said:

I have had a very enjoyable experience, although I did not really experience much of the previous Shallam so I do not really have as much to compare it to. I have had a lot of support whenever I needed it ( @Cooper gave Tesha money and encouragement when she was feeling down without even knowing she was a little sad, and also arenawatched or something and scared the heck out of me by responding to a little self-rp I did after winning a really hard fight) and the community is really great. 

@Aurora and @Deucalion are extraordinarily talented, the way they phrase things is always really top-notch. Every interaction with them is very epic (please don't kill them). @Silas and @Halos have been amazing at guiding me along what a 'Good' character is like in this game (something I was unsure about, since it does not seem like the typical 'good') and I'm really excited for my character's future.

Just always keep this in mind: Good is not always nice. Except probably to their own. And only probably after they can run 100 laps around the shark infested obstacle course. Without waterwalking boots. And the sharks are dragons. Laser-breathing Dragonsharks...yeah that'd be cool.

What were we talking about again? Oh yeah. Good: Not Always Nice(G:NAN).

Shine

I came back to check on if the classleads I submitted (by proxy, grr) were addressed for Alchemists. Nope. 

And also uh, the very city my character was part of is now gone.

I, uh, guess I'll set a reminder to come back in another 3 months?

Aerek

Take care, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Jacen

In Shine's defense, *Shallam is pretty boring now. Everyone is either defending if there's a raid, or afk in the saferoom. 

Asmodron

Aerek said:

Take care, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

Ahem, im sure what Aerek is trying to say is that a very large event took place that resulted in the destruction of the city, however from it spouted more and new avenues the path of Good can take in terms of RP and environment. Currently all ex-citizens are now refugees, the last force of Good in Sapience wiped out clean by the God of Evil and His machinations. With the Te'Serra (gods of Shallam and Good) slain, the city destroyed, and the faith sundered, the shallamese find themselves upon the brink of oblivion (that one's for you @Babel ). Holding strong to their beliefs and resolve, the scattered few unite in hope and faith, fighting off their enemies as they establish themselves once again. Guided by the newly returned and first true Gods of Light, they stand beneath their radiant gaze, armed in their faith and wielding their retribution as they prepare to march forth upon Sapience and enact righteous justice upon the corrupt, finally putting the ghosts of sunken Shallam to rest in peace.

@Shine hope you like it and consider Achaea again .

Aktillum

It's been a boring past few days. Still no glimpses of a new city, and I don't want Aurora and Deucalion to feel pressured into sacrificing quality. 

I am a little annoyed that the longer time goes on, the more it seems like a new city is going to drop out of the sky on a silver platter. I wish we could roleplay building it from the ground up, starting with simple huts and poorly equipped guards for a few years.

Also, defending New Hope is a pain in the ass because of how far the area extends, but I haven't seen an Ashtani raid party in New Hope in a few days, not necessarily a bad thing because it's kind of noticeable that some of our people aren't logging in / playing alts until we get a new city.

Tanaar

@Aktillum, I couldn't agree more regarding a slowly-built city

Asmodron

oooh Imagine it had a giant pyramid in the center ^.^.

Lyr

A plopped-down city... means a floating city!! ?

I've found a lot to do, myself, but mostly that involves my involvement with Order stuff. It's depressing to see slow but steady "X has quit the clan" messages.

Lenneth

:S Imagine being an alchemist in the Refugees. No lab and no homunculus. I think we have it worse than the magis.

Tael

Is it wrong that one of the reasons I'm hoping this all works to create something cool is so I can say "I told you so"?

Synbios

@Tael: Told who so?

Tael

Before I left, I was (alongside others - I'm certainly not saying that I was the only person) engaged in a long (way too long) discussion about how blowing up Shallam was a good solution to the problems it was facing.

The majority of the people participating said it was a terrible idea.

TL;DR: Mostly unjustified ego stroking.

Synbios

Looking at it from another point of view, I doubt the detractors will have much say in this when the boom happened, since 'unblowing up Shallam' would be a rather pointless attempt at backpedaling. 

Lenneth

I think it will be fine when we have a new city. It's just the waiting for being able to use my skills normally is frustrating. Thankfully, I'm busy with RL. I I would like  to switch to priest but I haven't earned credits for a class change yet and there might not be enough alchemists in the Fugees to supply the new city. 

Asmodron

Lyr said:

A plopped-down city... means a floating city!! ?

I've found a lot to do, myself, but mostly that involves my involvement with Order stuff. It's depressing to see slow but steady "X has quit the clan" messages.

I dont get why they quit the clan...They can go out and join cyrene if they want a city so bad and still be part of the clan. All it does is take up a clan slot .

Tesha

I disagree that people can join Cyrene while staying in the refugee clan. This is a process and if they are not willing to go through the difficult part, why should they get to suddenly come back for the awesome part? It would upset me if people flopped back and forth with no loss or anything, but I do not think our leadership would let people who fled to Cyrene come back without some difficulty.

Lenneth

Tesha said:

I disagree that people can join Cyrene while staying in the refugee clan. This is a process and if they are not willing to go through the difficult part, why should they get to suddenly come back for the awesome part? It would upset me if people flopped back and forth with no loss or anything, but I do not think our leadership would let people who fled to Cyrene come back without some difficulty.

I agree with what Tesha posted. My friend bugs me into going Cyrenian so I can have a lab and stuff to which I declined. While it can be very challenging to stay around with the Refugees without a city and many abilities for some classes, it's part of the filtering process the group has to undergo to see who would be committed enough to go with its new direction. 

Lyr

@Lenneth It's nice that you're thinking of the (future) city with regards to your class choice.

But in my head I'm thinking: 'Please go priest, please go priest.'

Silas

I like the slow falling away. I actually hope they're taking their time on the new city on purpose to facilitate this.

I do totally agree that it'd be awesome if we could actually roleplay building the city, but I feel like that's just an unrealistic expectation in terms of the sheer amount of time the Garden would have to spend on just *shallam.

Chryenth

Could you not just RP without Divine backing? Scout around potential locations, seek out resources? You don't need a definite plan, really - just stockpile resources and make ready for when the Divine Light points you to your promised land? 

Iocun

Chryenth said:

Could you not just RP without Divine backing? Scout around potential locations, seek out resources? You don't need a definite plan, really - just stockpile resources and make ready for when the Divine Light points you to your promised land? 

One can do that, and some refugees may even have done so, but you can only get so far with that. You can scout and plan, perhaps even RP gathering some resources, but without admin support you can't very well build a hut, negotiate with neighboring villages, clear a forest, divert a river, employ denizen workers, etc.

There's also the issue that behind the scenes, there probably are concrete plans, so chances are that whatever time you spend on planning something will end up "wasted" in the end. I guess you can still call it not wasted if you had fun with the planning, but I doubt that would be the case with many. Planning is fun when something concrete actually comes out of it.

Chryenth

Fair enough, I suppose. Although I had imagined something on the order of one of *shallam's leaders going to Eleusis to ask permission to deforest and area, or to Cyrene to seek out map. because I always imagined Cyrene had a load of maps someplace. I don'y know why.

Either way, I'm sure the admin have things in hand behind the scenes. I certainly wouldn't be leaving, if I was in *shallam right now.

Tanaar

@Chyrenth we did all that back in December. About a dozen locations were scouted out, only one or two of which make any practical sense. Negotiations were conducted with villages for architects, engineers, and labor. As for behind the scenes concrete plans, they gave us an IC year to submit letters to Deucora with proposals on location, names, city government, forestal vs alchemist, House charters, and more. We're not nearly so amateur as to have sat on our hands waiting to be spoon-fed. Problem is that with all that done, we really are out of options, except for the continued development of the two Orders. We're stuck, at least until we get a site confirmed, at which point we can start RPing construction again to our hearts' content.

Chryenth

Again, I'll point out that I have no IC knowledge - not even an alt. So I wouldn't know what you'd done or not done, and I wasn't accusing you of being amateurish. 

Since I have nothing more constructive to add: Power to the refugees. Hope you get your new city started soon.

Tanaar

No offense taken. It was just a little off-putting to be told "Why don't you do this?" When we did it three weeks ago. It's been discussed in this thread, too.