Best Of

I thought I'd cringe a lot more going back and rereading this thread. Certainly, there is plenty of cringe, but I think just having some record of how far I've come far outweighs it! I was so proud of myself when I reached HR5, and now I'm a house leader! Been a HL now for about two or three weeks and I love it. I've been part of a lot of orgs where I always felt like the leaders never engaged me, or encouraged me. So I've been doing my damnest to be there for all my house mates. I'm the head of house novices too, and I have a great team of aides and am really happy with how we have been able to ensure novices get the attention they need. One of the first things I did was write a guide for each testing rank for my aides to follow. I empathized that it's important to have conversations with our novices, and not just go through a checklist with them.

One thing I did cringe at though is how upset I got with the costs of playing Achaea. I'm not thrilled looking back how much I've spent here but a realization set in; a lot of hobbies cost a bullshit amount of money. And now that NFTs are a thing at least I can say I haven't paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for a picture of an ape or some nonsense. Finally the staff of Achaea needs to eat, pay bills, and fuel their own game addictions. Ya'll deserve it, but offer to slip a celani a pizza for their work from time to time, yeah?

Although I won't recant my statement that I hope Matt (Sarapis) uses some of the money I spent to buy a double-ended dildo staff to bring with him to Burning Man. Not out of spite or anything, but just because I think if designed right it could be really trippy. Imagine there you are at Burning Man, a skull full of acid and you see a super hunky guy spinning around a staff painted gold with two light up purple dildos on either end? Pretty cool if you ask me. That's the sort of content you're all here for right, double ended dildo staffs?

I forgot they decided to replace the quiz with riddles in the next games. I'm -awful- with riddles, but I think I may have come up with a way to help me improve. We'll see.

And Styx still fucking sucks.

Yeah, I still wonder about that myself. Mhaldor is a great city, and I had a lot of fun there. The roleplaying was the best I've ever experienced in Achaea, and getting out of slave rank there still feels like one of the most significant moments in my Achaea career. Hashan is my forever home now though, it's where I've been happiest during my Achaea career.

And we're back!

So in my boredom, I've mucked around a bit with Achaea's months, constellations, and Tarot.

Tarot, in real life, was given a lot of esoteric correspondences, most notably by the Golden Dawn (Arthur Waite, Aleister Crowley, Samuel Mathers, etc.).

So, what if we tried that same esoteric approach of tying Tarot symbolism, numerology, etc. to Achaean lore?

Real life Tarot has 78 cards: 22 Major Arcana, and 56 Minor Arcana. In Achaea, there are only 21 Tarot cards, and they are not "numbered", unless we assign numbers to them based on AB TAROT.

Here's what I came up with:

Tarot

In the Beginning - Creation, the Triumvirate

1: Sun (Ayar, Proteus, Sarapis)

(Corresponds to: 13: Creator, and 18: The Universe)

Numerologically, 13 (The Creator) is 1+3=4, which corresponds with Lorielan (4, Priestess), Who was loved by Proteus. The Universe as 18 (1+8=9) also corresponds with The Lovers.

• 4 (Priestess) + 9 (Lovers) = 13 (Creator)
• 13 (Creator) + Priestess (4) = 17 (Lust)
• 17 (Lust) + 1 (Sun) = 18 (Universe)
• 13 (Creator) + 18 (Universe) = 31 (3+1) = 4 (Priestess)

--The Triumvirate--

2: Emperor (Khalas, the Wanderer)

3: Magician (Agatheis, God of Elements)

4: Priestess (Lorielan, Goddess of Knowledge)

Here we see the Triumvirate as below the Creator (Ayar), who split himself into Proteus, then later merged to become Sarapis.

------

The Mortal Journey:

5: Fool = Mortalkind itself, as we embark upon our adventures. The Fool is like a newborn adventurer, full of wonderment and potential. Yet we are not Gods, and those who seek to challenge the Gods will 

Of interesting note, Khalas foolishly challenged The Creator. Khalas’ statue was discovered in the year 175AF (1+7+5 = 13, The Creator), as a reminder of the folly of challenging The Creator. These numbers (175) bear some significance:

1 (The Sun, the Creator) - 7 (The Hermit, Death) - 5 (Fool). Interpreted literally, the number 175 reminds us that Fools who challenge The Creator shall meet their Death.

6: Chariot: Our journey through life itself, the Fool behind the reigns.

7: Hermit: The end of our mortal life, when we meet Death. The Hermit is a symbol of the recluse, as Lord Thoth, the God of Death is reclusive in His realm. The Vulture is our 33rd constellation in the sky. 

33, the 3rd Card of the Mortal Journey, x 3.

7 x 3 = 21 (Death).

-----------------------------------

That's about as far as I got, because dear god, real life mystics spent their entire lives coming up with this stuff. But I think this blueprint would be a fun roleplaying device if anyone wanted to take it and run with it.

I had a lot of fun reading through this thread and it made me realize how grateful I am that Augtavian is still around in the Krymenian Academy. It makes me wonder how different things could have been if he had stayed a Mhaldorian.

Faffing about, experimenting and sciencing aggressively, resulting in an explosion and unfortunate release of rat golems:

A resounding boom echoes from the subdivision as a pillar of multi-coloured flame erupts from the premises of Ashaela & Darke, followed by a column of thick black smoke.

A rising chittering precedes an especially loud crack through the air as a horde of rats escape from the Ashaela & Darke compound, congealing into massive humanoid shapes that lumber away towards the sewers.

Suddenly..

A chorus of deafening squeaks echoes from the sewer grates, followed by the unsettling sucking sound of dozens of giant leeches feasting on hapless masses of rats.

Not sure who it was, but thank you for joining in the fun.

P.S. Since the golems were devoured by leeches, we are not in any way responsible thank you. Any complaints can be forwarded to our legal department.

Pandora called me mediocre IC so now I need to prove her wrong. See ya in 902 Lady P!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vimZj8HW0Kg

Decided it was finally time to do something different, so I left Cyrene after 42 years.

Thank you to @Keorin, @Pani, and many others for always being down to get into combat (mostly when I was more active) and always having fun with it.

@Stefana & @Thaisen are my family forever, but were supportive of my decision if it makes me wake up more <3

Many others who made Cyrene a blast over the years. Unsure what is next, but I am definitely looking forward to doing something different for awhile.