Best Of

Having not been around for the end of the Full One or the emergence of Lexadhra, I woke up this morning and logged in to a very, very different atmosphere in game. Something I don't recall feeling from the game for a long, long time. Not since the first Dreikathi invasion at least. The 'revelation' has left so many things up in the air. Even as a player whose character hasn't had much of a horse in the race re: the 'Varian' question up until now, New-uri's revelation has ultimately created more questions than it has answered and I am really digging this air of tension that seems to be permeating the game as we wait for further developments.

So to echo @Nipsy, we're in a weird but exciting place. Hats off to everyone who has had a hand in creating this narrative.

In relation to the other commentary about the Divine, I'm also in the camp of untethering Divine and worship of those Divine. Whilst I'm not saying that every Divine in the pantheon should be a shade of grey, I also don't necessarily think that they should all be in one camp or another. Since Bamathis' inception, I've always been of the mind that he would have been a much more intriguing character if he'd been properly neutral, rather than allocated as a 'Shadow' god. The 'greater good' angle is a great way to get people to work together cross-tether. All it would take is a minor change in personality and policy. Let his followers then discuss how he is best served (ala conversion or genocide) or whatever.

I feel that Lexadhra is another Divine who, at first glance, appeals to both camps whilst sitting firmly in neither. It does seem a bit of shame that she's now been labelled a 'spirit' Divine. It would make for an extremely interesting political landscape between Divine if their stances towards one another were not based on tether but purely on their relationships. The recent drama between Omei and Damariel would have potentially had a much greater scope for conflict or diplomatic RP if the safety net of 'but we're both Spirit Orders, we shouldn't fight' had been taken away.

I'm also a strong supporter of larger consequences for those that defy Divine (or any creature that is a million times stronger than your character). Admittedly, the worst offenders are usually those who wouldn't engage in RP consequences and it's difficult to know what to do there beyond zapping. However, the Full One had a fairly creative and amusing way of handling that. I also think that the Pools know who is likely to lean into an RP punishment and who is not. Making Elene eat a whole whale or giving Nisavi a ducks beak were some pretty funny RP punishments. I'd like to see more of such things levied against players or even their orgs.

I feel really bad, because at this point, Bamathis is being conceptually piled on not only by those on Spirit, but also those on Shadow. It feels like the revelation of Varian (even if it might be told by Niuri-turned-Lexadhra with her own agenda?) really damns the realm of the god.

How do you roleplay supporting a Divine who was wrought to preserve Sapience and ward against Creation's enemies, especially if it turns out that the Creator himself could be this very enemy at world's end, not simply the Albedi gods?

Nonetheless, it'll be interesting to see how all the Divines in their roles will choose to react to this, because this is definitely a twist in the overarching story. Live for the moment, and struggle like a firefly until the last? I'm invested in seeing how our mindsets will all shift, and how the story of Aetolia will move on from here!

While She aligns Herself with Spirit, Her tastes and interests are vast...

Can we clear up what this actually means? Because, if I'm being honest, the vibe over in shadow tether right now is pretty gutted. And while, in my heart I want to believe that this borderline throwaway sentence is a signal for us to start fudging with the tether RP lines, and that the real vibe of this god is to be a shift to a more goal/objective-oriented Aetolia (which is why she's shoehorned into Spirit; Shadow has Bamathis and Ivoln on it), if that was the intention of this god/character, this can't be the way it's communicated. You gotta blaze that thing in the sky in bright neon letters, sign it with fire, declare it from the mountaintops. This is way too subtle.

Because the reality of the situation, right now, is that "Lexadhra is a Spirit god" god immediately piped IC, all of Shadow immediately started digging in their heels, labeling her the enemy, and have dropped all intent to engage with her on that level. And you can't really blame them--we've never been given, in years, any indication that this is the way things can or will be. That when something is labeled "spirit," they're wholecloth the enemy. No matter what you put in a help file, no matter what line you tag on the end of an Announce, the immediate reaction, and probably a longlasting one, is going to be the one that's presently happening.

In my heart of hearts, I want my first paragraph to be correct, that that was the intention of this new god. I feel this way for a lot of reasons. One is that Shadow's pantheon is just kinda thin on the ground right now. Several of them are old concepts that show their age--most of them aren't piloted by an active player. So of course I'm going to be huffing the copium of "wow I hope this isn't how everyone seems to think it is, because that would really suck."

It'd really suck for Spirit to have a monopoly on "hey, you know what, Varian sucks!" too, which they kinda do at the moment**.

I've been disappointed by things in the past few months that turned out to be unfounded, but the level of faith it requires for me to be like "It's cool, guys, she's Spirit but she's gonna be down with smoking cigarettes and stuff" to people is just way too high at this moment, especially since the heels are already dug in deep, and loosening them from RP, just because she was already stated to be a Spirit god, is going to be a massive uphill battle (if that was even the intention).

**edit: I can't emphasize enough how concerning this is, and some of us are a little concerned that "spirit/shadow" is going to be dumped for Varian/AntiVarian and BL/Spines is gonna get shoehorned into that, which, plz don't, I beg of you.