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Announce post #3363: The Royal Vaults of Glandor
5/25/2022 at 0:54
Ictinus, the Architect
Everyone
The Royal Vaults of Glandor
Hi folks!
Today we unleash upon the Dyisen-Ashtan Memoryscape a new memory known as the Royal Vaults of Glandor!
The Royal Vaults of Glandor is a single-player instanced dungeon located off the shores of the Dyisen-Ashtan Memoryscape, accessible via the ghostly ferryman at v71389. Once on the shores of memory, you will need to head down the beach a step and RAID VAULTS in order to enter the dungeon proper. Inside, you will find a number of challenges and a number of boons from a benevolent benefactor that will let you carve your own path through the treasure trove of Nalibhtavi.
Unlike Beneath and Portent, the Vaults are an experience for each character to devise their own path and tackle the challenges presented with their preferred solution. We have offered different boons to those who choose to raid the complex in the form of memories of ancient artifacts, each giving a unique twist to the experience.
To prepare you for what you will find within the Vaults, we have constructed a condensed help in the form of the command GLANDOR. Within, you will find backstory, information about what the artifacts do, as well as a look into the skillset wielded by the weaponmasters of Azhoa - while you can't use these skills directly, take note that they can and will be used against you. Brush up and be prepared to check back as you learn!
Completing the dungeon will award the same silver pennies as Portent and they can be spent in the shop adjacent to the shores of memory for a variety of rewards, including a new mount and minipet that we've added today.
Speedruns are not yet available for the Vaults but will be enabled after we've monitored the release and made any required balance tuning to the encounters. As a note, the level of PvE difficulty is much lower than Portent or Beneath and the focus is on the adventure and mechanics. We will be keeping a close eye to ensure that nothing is too overwhelming for the majority of players, but feedback will be very useful here.
XP loss is also disabled in Glandor from the start, you'll be pleased to know!
Lastly, I want to give credit where it's due. Glandor was Wyatt's idea and has been his labour of love for the last several weeks (with a healthy dose of feature creep from the rest of the team, obviously). He's done an amazing job on it and I can't wait to see people take it on!
Enjoy!
Penned by my hand on Kinsday, the 14th of Niuran, in the year 502 MA.
Ictinus, the Architect
Everyone
The Royal Vaults of Glandor
Hi folks!
Today we unleash upon the Dyisen-Ashtan Memoryscape a new memory known as the Royal Vaults of Glandor!
The Royal Vaults of Glandor is a single-player instanced dungeon located off the shores of the Dyisen-Ashtan Memoryscape, accessible via the ghostly ferryman at v71389. Once on the shores of memory, you will need to head down the beach a step and RAID VAULTS in order to enter the dungeon proper. Inside, you will find a number of challenges and a number of boons from a benevolent benefactor that will let you carve your own path through the treasure trove of Nalibhtavi.
Unlike Beneath and Portent, the Vaults are an experience for each character to devise their own path and tackle the challenges presented with their preferred solution. We have offered different boons to those who choose to raid the complex in the form of memories of ancient artifacts, each giving a unique twist to the experience.
To prepare you for what you will find within the Vaults, we have constructed a condensed help in the form of the command GLANDOR. Within, you will find backstory, information about what the artifacts do, as well as a look into the skillset wielded by the weaponmasters of Azhoa - while you can't use these skills directly, take note that they can and will be used against you. Brush up and be prepared to check back as you learn!
Completing the dungeon will award the same silver pennies as Portent and they can be spent in the shop adjacent to the shores of memory for a variety of rewards, including a new mount and minipet that we've added today.
Speedruns are not yet available for the Vaults but will be enabled after we've monitored the release and made any required balance tuning to the encounters. As a note, the level of PvE difficulty is much lower than Portent or Beneath and the focus is on the adventure and mechanics. We will be keeping a close eye to ensure that nothing is too overwhelming for the majority of players, but feedback will be very useful here.
XP loss is also disabled in Glandor from the start, you'll be pleased to know!
Lastly, I want to give credit where it's due. Glandor was Wyatt's idea and has been his labour of love for the last several weeks (with a healthy dose of feature creep from the rest of the team, obviously). He's done an amazing job on it and I can't wait to see people take it on!
Enjoy!
Penned by my hand on Kinsday, the 14th of Niuran, in the year 502 MA.
Autoposter
11
Re: LOVE
This month marked my 1 year of of being up in the pools and I'm still having a blast.
Big love is of course sent to @Ictinus for always hearing out my ideas, almost always giving me the green light to try something new and generally being a very supportive, thoughtful leader for not only myself but the pools and game in general.
Can't leave out @Razmael and @Keroc for always listening to my, sometimes admittedly, ridiculous ideas and even implementing some of them! But also for being pillars of knowledge and sounding boards for all things mechanical and lore, keeping me in check and giving guidance when necessary.
Much love to the pools in general for also being amazing sounding boards, co-conspirators at times and sources of inspiration for how I can continue to grow and evolve not only as a roleplayer, but as someone trying to help make content for the community.
Also a big THANK YOU to the Celani who helped spellcheck, work on grammar, bounce ideas and keep me sane while I blasted through the Royal Vaults project - @Brax, @Zeheia especially.
Lastly but certainly not least, to you, the community member reading this: think of where we were one year ago compared to where we are today. To me, it almost feels like two different games - and a big part of that is YOUR involvement and YOUR engagement to the stories that we want to tell and bring to you. We've still got half the year left and I can't wait to explore everything to come with all of you.
Big love is of course sent to @Ictinus for always hearing out my ideas, almost always giving me the green light to try something new and generally being a very supportive, thoughtful leader for not only myself but the pools and game in general.
Can't leave out @Razmael and @Keroc for always listening to my, sometimes admittedly, ridiculous ideas and even implementing some of them! But also for being pillars of knowledge and sounding boards for all things mechanical and lore, keeping me in check and giving guidance when necessary.
Much love to the pools in general for also being amazing sounding boards, co-conspirators at times and sources of inspiration for how I can continue to grow and evolve not only as a roleplayer, but as someone trying to help make content for the community.
Also a big THANK YOU to the Celani who helped spellcheck, work on grammar, bounce ideas and keep me sane while I blasted through the Royal Vaults project - @Brax, @Zeheia especially.
Lastly but certainly not least, to you, the community member reading this: think of where we were one year ago compared to where we are today. To me, it almost feels like two different games - and a big part of that is YOUR involvement and YOUR engagement to the stories that we want to tell and bring to you. We've still got half the year left and I can't wait to explore everything to come with all of you.
Wyatt
27
Rime - The PK System Mjoll Gave Me
Hi?!
I run a semi private system known as Rime with a few other friends. It was originally created in response to Sunder but due to me being me and having super human levels of procrastination, it's remained in closed beta for several years. Despite its original intent, it's no longer meant to compete with Sunder, it's simply become mine and several others system that we all use full time. Over the last couple of years I've managed to recruit some wonderful people who have helped with its continued development. It's finally user friendly enough that I thought I would release it openly like I had wanted to do originally.
DISCLAIMER: Duelists and group fighters have found varying levels of success on any number of systems across Aetolia and every other IRE. Using any one system instead of another is not going to magically elevate you to god tier status. You will be especially disappointed if you download Rime with intent of finding instant PvP prowess. It does have dueling capabilities, but they are all very standard and cookie cutter. All duelists who use Rime have their own personal offenses, hence forth referred to as 'sauce', and they are not included or available anywhere.
Below is a list of features that Rime has.
Rime currently supports the following classes: Archivist, Bard, Carnifex, Earthcaller (and Luminary, sans triggers), Indorani, Praenomen, Revenant, Sciomancer, Teradrim. Light support for Syssin and Shifter as not a lot of devs have either of those classes. The mirrored versions of these classes will be supported soon thanks to the method discovered when writing Earthcaller, though it will likely be missing Spirit side triggers. Mirrored support will be seamless and means that you only have to maintain one script for two classes (triggers will still be double the work).
Group and standard cookie cutter offensive routes for each of those classes!
Multi target tracking! If Mjoll and Iazamat are fighting Taj, me and Almol are fighting Xenia - If Taj hits the kill condition for my class while I'm targeting Xenia, Rime is able to fluidly and seamlessly kill Taj without ever even switching targets.
Aggression tracking to go along with multiple targets. Aggression tracking is just the number of times a person has been hit by abilities. This enables Rime users to be able to use ally support skills without relying on web calls (and subsequently needing anti-illusioning), or even being in a web.
State based offenses rather than standard for loop affliction priority lists. Most duelists offenses already rely on more than that, but the structure of a state based offense allows you to make any change imaginable to your offensive strategies while keeping your end game in your current route clear of clutter and hardcoded actions. The beauty of code is that every offense structure already used at large can still do the same thing as Rimes offenses are capable of doing, but I (and most of Rimes users) are very fond of the flexibility and organization of this type of offense structure.
An auto basher older than Toz! Rimes auto basher might be old, but it's still very solid and functional. The reason for it being so old is because I have not ran into many reasons to change it. A few defensive features were added by some of the devs who took bashing a little too seriously, but those are fully included now where applicable. The basher is powerful but the code is very rigid, but a PvE update is my next project for Rime.
An auto fisher! Like the basher, the code is very rigid, but its rewrite is coming alongside the rest of the PvE updates I have planned.
An auto harvester! I only learned it had one of these today! Neat?!
A forging script to remove some of the tedium!
A system with an encouraging personality! Rime is chock full of echo's to let you know when you've made mistakes in combat.
A fanciful and customizable UI via ZGUI (created by Zulah in Achaea.)
An emoji system that works with web/clans (even public IC channels if you're opened to being zapped for it), supporting over 1000 emojis in total (special thanks to Ephi and Holbrook for the idea and the gathering of emojis)
Commodity price tracker. Track your average spending on commodities to help you adjust prices!
There's a lot more, but those are the ones I can think off of the top of my head. There's also no telling how many unfinished projects I have lying around in the code, such as my own version of mxp clickables.
Another disclaimer is lack of Firstaid support. Rime uses client side curing for most everything. However, you can toggle between client side curing and Firstaid with one simple alias. Rimes curing will pause though the rest of the system will remain operational. Firstaid manipulation is on the list of things to get done, but it will require a lot of tedious work.
If you're interested in giving it a shot, you can join the Rime discord via this link: https://discord.gg/8msFd6werZ
Joining is mandatory to gain access to the download and for continued support. It's also my one and only attempt to enforce the black list. The list of people I don't want to have access to my system is small, but ultimately it comes down to you honoring my request to not give it out.
Joining the server will also grant you access to the (too) popular bounty system. Sometimes I have a lot to code, or a lot is going on in life, or I'm just too lazy to do something. So I'll post a small coding bounty along with a fair amount of credits as payment. One user in particular is apparently damned and determined to take every spare credit I have or will ever have.
Please leave any and all drama at the door before you click that invitation.
I run a semi private system known as Rime with a few other friends. It was originally created in response to Sunder but due to me being me and having super human levels of procrastination, it's remained in closed beta for several years. Despite its original intent, it's no longer meant to compete with Sunder, it's simply become mine and several others system that we all use full time. Over the last couple of years I've managed to recruit some wonderful people who have helped with its continued development. It's finally user friendly enough that I thought I would release it openly like I had wanted to do originally.
DISCLAIMER: Duelists and group fighters have found varying levels of success on any number of systems across Aetolia and every other IRE. Using any one system instead of another is not going to magically elevate you to god tier status. You will be especially disappointed if you download Rime with intent of finding instant PvP prowess. It does have dueling capabilities, but they are all very standard and cookie cutter. All duelists who use Rime have their own personal offenses, hence forth referred to as 'sauce', and they are not included or available anywhere.
Below is a list of features that Rime has.
Rime currently supports the following classes: Archivist, Bard, Carnifex, Earthcaller (and Luminary, sans triggers), Indorani, Praenomen, Revenant, Sciomancer, Teradrim. Light support for Syssin and Shifter as not a lot of devs have either of those classes. The mirrored versions of these classes will be supported soon thanks to the method discovered when writing Earthcaller, though it will likely be missing Spirit side triggers. Mirrored support will be seamless and means that you only have to maintain one script for two classes (triggers will still be double the work).
Group and standard cookie cutter offensive routes for each of those classes!
Multi target tracking! If Mjoll and Iazamat are fighting Taj, me and Almol are fighting Xenia - If Taj hits the kill condition for my class while I'm targeting Xenia, Rime is able to fluidly and seamlessly kill Taj without ever even switching targets.
Aggression tracking to go along with multiple targets. Aggression tracking is just the number of times a person has been hit by abilities. This enables Rime users to be able to use ally support skills without relying on web calls (and subsequently needing anti-illusioning), or even being in a web.
State based offenses rather than standard for loop affliction priority lists. Most duelists offenses already rely on more than that, but the structure of a state based offense allows you to make any change imaginable to your offensive strategies while keeping your end game in your current route clear of clutter and hardcoded actions. The beauty of code is that every offense structure already used at large can still do the same thing as Rimes offenses are capable of doing, but I (and most of Rimes users) are very fond of the flexibility and organization of this type of offense structure.
An auto basher older than Toz! Rimes auto basher might be old, but it's still very solid and functional. The reason for it being so old is because I have not ran into many reasons to change it. A few defensive features were added by some of the devs who took bashing a little too seriously, but those are fully included now where applicable. The basher is powerful but the code is very rigid, but a PvE update is my next project for Rime.
An auto fisher! Like the basher, the code is very rigid, but its rewrite is coming alongside the rest of the PvE updates I have planned.
An auto harvester! I only learned it had one of these today! Neat?!
A forging script to remove some of the tedium!
A system with an encouraging personality! Rime is chock full of echo's to let you know when you've made mistakes in combat.
A fanciful and customizable UI via ZGUI (created by Zulah in Achaea.)
An emoji system that works with web/clans (even public IC channels if you're opened to being zapped for it), supporting over 1000 emojis in total (special thanks to Ephi and Holbrook for the idea and the gathering of emojis)
Commodity price tracker. Track your average spending on commodities to help you adjust prices!
There's a lot more, but those are the ones I can think off of the top of my head. There's also no telling how many unfinished projects I have lying around in the code, such as my own version of mxp clickables.
Another disclaimer is lack of Firstaid support. Rime uses client side curing for most everything. However, you can toggle between client side curing and Firstaid with one simple alias. Rimes curing will pause though the rest of the system will remain operational. Firstaid manipulation is on the list of things to get done, but it will require a lot of tedious work.
If you're interested in giving it a shot, you can join the Rime discord via this link: https://discord.gg/8msFd6werZ
Joining is mandatory to gain access to the download and for continued support. It's also my one and only attempt to enforce the black list. The list of people I don't want to have access to my system is small, but ultimately it comes down to you honoring my request to not give it out.
Joining the server will also grant you access to the (too) popular bounty system. Sometimes I have a lot to code, or a lot is going on in life, or I'm just too lazy to do something. So I'll post a small coding bounty along with a fair amount of credits as payment. One user in particular is apparently damned and determined to take every spare credit I have or will ever have.
Please leave any and all drama at the door before you click that invitation.
Bulrok
24
Re: LOVE
I have been absolutely blown away by Bloodloch's performance and attendance since this little event started. If I started to tag people I would eventually miss someone so I'm just going to say EVERYONE who participated, even if our characters are beefing right now. Was amazing to see you all out there and doing things and asking questions and visibly improving and putting in effort.
Bulrok
10
Re: LOVE
Over the moon about the organic war that popped up over Bloodloch actually getting to be an evil empire.
Appreciate folks being kind as I reintegrate after a long time away.
Appreciate @Rasani for murdering the shit out of any ne'er-do-wells she can catch.
Appreciate the chance to engage with villainy in a mechanical way and really solidify some ideologies that, rightfully, should be absolutely vilified. It's nice to be able to action the fact that I worship a twisted, evil goddess who actively pushes me to hurt people.
Appreciate folks being kind as I reintegrate after a long time away.
Appreciate @Rasani for murdering the shit out of any ne'er-do-wells she can catch.
Appreciate the chance to engage with villainy in a mechanical way and really solidify some ideologies that, rightfully, should be absolutely vilified. It's nice to be able to action the fact that I worship a twisted, evil goddess who actively pushes me to hurt people.
Rijetta
10
Re: The Dominion, a not very sanguine experience
I think this thread has largely served its purpose now of making public some of the issues and grievances with the Dominion that are hard or impossible to grasp from the outside. I'm not going to publicly comment on the specifics of the issue(s) brought up or some of the speculation people have been making, except to say that I've read the thread in detail a couple of times over and I'm aware of the concerns.
However, I do have some broader comments to make:
I made a post to the leaders board some months ago about out of character org management. In that post I made it abundantly clear that running your org through ooc means (whether it be exclusive webs, ooc clans, or private Discords) is not appropriate under any circumstances.
While I am typically against heavy administrative intervention in player run organisations, this is one of the few things that I won't tolerate. Running an org like this is highly detrimental to the game, and I will come down hard on any leader who is doing this if I have evidence of it happening.
Nobody is obliged to go ooc with you, ever, and if you aren't interested in running your organisation in character, then I politely suggest you step aside in favour of someone who is. It is your responsibility as a leader to foster a healthy environment and a welcoming atmosphere, not to establish a fiefdom built on ooc foundations.
This applies to every single organisation in Aetolia and there are several that could do with listening to this advice.
If you're a leader who doesn't know how to move forward with the organisation, you're welcome to reach out to me for some advice or with questions. It is true that I prefer this type of thing to come from the players given that our orgs are player run (especially when it comes to things like orgreqs or specific day to day activities), but I'm happy to offer some advice or commentary when asked.
However, I do have some broader comments to make:
I made a post to the leaders board some months ago about out of character org management. In that post I made it abundantly clear that running your org through ooc means (whether it be exclusive webs, ooc clans, or private Discords) is not appropriate under any circumstances.
While I am typically against heavy administrative intervention in player run organisations, this is one of the few things that I won't tolerate. Running an org like this is highly detrimental to the game, and I will come down hard on any leader who is doing this if I have evidence of it happening.
Nobody is obliged to go ooc with you, ever, and if you aren't interested in running your organisation in character, then I politely suggest you step aside in favour of someone who is. It is your responsibility as a leader to foster a healthy environment and a welcoming atmosphere, not to establish a fiefdom built on ooc foundations.
This applies to every single organisation in Aetolia and there are several that could do with listening to this advice.
If you're a leader who doesn't know how to move forward with the organisation, you're welcome to reach out to me for some advice or with questions. It is true that I prefer this type of thing to come from the players given that our orgs are player run (especially when it comes to things like orgreqs or specific day to day activities), but I'm happy to offer some advice or commentary when asked.
Ictinus
19
Re: The Dominion, a not very sanguine experience
I've got no horse in this race but I really hope that admin look into this. To any older players who are feeling attacked for their rp choices as vampires, I'll say this: Your actions are making new comers feel unwelcome in a game that is already fighting to stay relevant. (We're doing great now, but how many rl friends do you have that play muds?)
As a leader in a guild, your story is about building stories for your guild members. You take that task on when you ask them to make you guildmaster. It's no longer about your or your friends or your desire to make a vampire guild into your hang out. Your biggest priority should be the guild members. If you've lost sight of that, it's time to step away.
As a leader in a guild, your story is about building stories for your guild members. You take that task on when you ask them to make you guildmaster. It's no longer about your or your friends or your desire to make a vampire guild into your hang out. Your biggest priority should be the guild members. If you've lost sight of that, it's time to step away.
Rasani
12
Re: The Dominion, a not very sanguine experience
I wanted to apologize off the start of this, because this is my experience and how I perceived these events,I am not omnipotent so I am sure I do not know the whole story.
When I joined Aetolia (twoish months ago) I ended up in the Dominion because I thought the history of the guild sounded really interesting (and it’s vampires, I wanted to be a super edgy vampire okay?)
Someone mentioned the recent bloodhunt so I thought I would share my experience with that.
When I joined the guild I was greeted by a few people, but received only one tell from Callidora from the time I passed my novicehood test until the day of the bloodhunt. The tell was to congratulate me on passing my requirements and welcoming me to the Dominion.
I had actually never seen Callidora online much up until the events that lead to the Battlefield events, etc. I had told a friend of mine that I assumed she was on a different time schedule than me.
There was SO MANY people around during the events around the Battlefield event and the contestion that took place, it felt like the guild was over half the city with 15-20 people online at any given time. Some of these people I have not seen online since the contestion and that seems very suspicious to me but I’m new here and I won’t touch on that topic.
– The Bloodhunt –
I was online when the bloodhunt post went up, and I was talking to a friend of mine about ways that I could try to compete in the bloodhunt, with a hope that I could place in the top five. Reading over the rules of the bloodhunt, I decided to add in some newbie bashing areas into my loop, changing it on request from different people when I realized I was killing mobs involved in quests, etc. When the first rankings came out and the NPC that was running it made the comment that I had a ‘significant lead’ I decided that the path I was doing was working and I continued with my loop and left it at that.
I even joined the public web and talked to Dourif a lot and had a really good time with him in the last 24-48 hours of the bloodhunt.
During the bloodhunt, Calidora checked in on me six different times, to “see how I was doing” and after I would reply would not respond much outside of just an okay response that I had responded to her.
It felt very much like I was being AFK checked since I was bashing and around a lot more than normal. (One of them was to ask why I was bashing Bloodlochian guards in the newbie town, which that was fair, oops)
After the bloodhunt was finished the waiting started, I received a tell from Abhorash randomly about three days later telling me that the delay has to do with Callidora making a special request
He disappeared before I could really reply, so I just left it alone. Two more days passed by and I didn’t hear anything.
Finally the guildtells flashed up with Abhorash talking, and it was when the truth of the matter started to hit me and my enjoyment of having won the bloodhunt started to greatly decline.
I will not post the entire guild conversation, I will point out the lines that bothered me the most
This line gave me a sinking feeling when I read it, thinking that the time I had spent was about to be wasted, the time I had not slept to try to succeed going away because Callidora wanted to declare the hunt illegal real life DAYS later.
Callidora later decided to share with everyone in the guild what she had said to Abhorash that caused this response
This little line here, which I felt like it was aimed at my own tactics for having won the competition, removed any joy I had from winning the bloodhunt. At this point I really wish I could just give the powers back.
The guildleader who had congratulated me days ago is now advocating against me because I did not show a ‘true observation of strength’ when I operated within the boundaries of the bloodhunt.
This came across to me that she was wanting to expand the list of winners so that her friends could get access to these bloodstone abilities as well, and ‘the five of you’ were secondary in this now.
I will not get into the legalities of bloodhunts and how they are called, that is not my realm of knowledge and I’ve not been playing the game long enough to understand if it was or was not a valid bloodhunt.
The entire event just left a bad taste in my mouth. After the bloodhunt and everything was finished, I felt that a large number of people in the guild stopped interacting with my character and it has led to the situation now where I am lacking the desire to even speak in guildchat.
I’ll stop there so I do not get into the ‘I’m not in the pretty girl group’ high school banter about this.
I’ve been paused in doing much in advancing in the guild since then because I really don’t know what I want to do with my character at this point
As an outsider looking in, I agree with a lot of what Nhahlar said in the original post, it feels like there is a lot of actions happening OOC within a friend group and they have their own guild and everyone else just kinda exists in that guild. I don’t understand the fascination with flowers, I do not understand why there are occasionally chickens in the guildhall. I was confused when there was drama about flowers being flame sigiled around the city.
I just want to play a spooky vampire, dang it
When I joined Aetolia (twoish months ago) I ended up in the Dominion because I thought the history of the guild sounded really interesting (and it’s vampires, I wanted to be a super edgy vampire okay?)
Someone mentioned the recent bloodhunt so I thought I would share my experience with that.
When I joined the guild I was greeted by a few people, but received only one tell from Callidora from the time I passed my novicehood test until the day of the bloodhunt. The tell was to congratulate me on passing my requirements and welcoming me to the Dominion.
I had actually never seen Callidora online much up until the events that lead to the Battlefield events, etc. I had told a friend of mine that I assumed she was on a different time schedule than me.
There was SO MANY people around during the events around the Battlefield event and the contestion that took place, it felt like the guild was over half the city with 15-20 people online at any given time. Some of these people I have not seen online since the contestion and that seems very suspicious to me but I’m new here and I won’t touch on that topic.
– The Bloodhunt –
I was online when the bloodhunt post went up, and I was talking to a friend of mine about ways that I could try to compete in the bloodhunt, with a hope that I could place in the top five. Reading over the rules of the bloodhunt, I decided to add in some newbie bashing areas into my loop, changing it on request from different people when I realized I was killing mobs involved in quests, etc. When the first rankings came out and the NPC that was running it made the comment that I had a ‘significant lead’ I decided that the path I was doing was working and I continued with my loop and left it at that.
I even joined the public web and talked to Dourif a lot and had a really good time with him in the last 24-48 hours of the bloodhunt.
During the bloodhunt, Calidora checked in on me six different times, to “see how I was doing” and after I would reply would not respond much outside of just an okay response that I had responded to her.
It felt very much like I was being AFK checked since I was bashing and around a lot more than normal. (One of them was to ask why I was bashing Bloodlochian guards in the newbie town, which that was fair, oops)
After the bloodhunt was finished the waiting started, I received a tell from Abhorash randomly about three days later telling me that the delay has to do with Callidora making a special request
He disappeared before I could really reply, so I just left it alone. Two more days passed by and I didn’t hear anything.
Finally the guildtells flashed up with Abhorash talking, and it was when the truth of the matter started to hit me and my enjoyment of having won the bloodhunt started to greatly decline.
I will not post the entire guild conversation, I will point out the lines that bothered me the most
This line gave me a sinking feeling when I read it, thinking that the time I had spent was about to be wasted, the time I had not slept to try to succeed going away because Callidora wanted to declare the hunt illegal real life DAYS later.
Callidora later decided to share with everyone in the guild what she had said to Abhorash that caused this response
This little line here, which I felt like it was aimed at my own tactics for having won the competition, removed any joy I had from winning the bloodhunt. At this point I really wish I could just give the powers back.
The guildleader who had congratulated me days ago is now advocating against me because I did not show a ‘true observation of strength’ when I operated within the boundaries of the bloodhunt.
This came across to me that she was wanting to expand the list of winners so that her friends could get access to these bloodstone abilities as well, and ‘the five of you’ were secondary in this now.
I will not get into the legalities of bloodhunts and how they are called, that is not my realm of knowledge and I’ve not been playing the game long enough to understand if it was or was not a valid bloodhunt.
The entire event just left a bad taste in my mouth. After the bloodhunt and everything was finished, I felt that a large number of people in the guild stopped interacting with my character and it has led to the situation now where I am lacking the desire to even speak in guildchat.
I’ll stop there so I do not get into the ‘I’m not in the pretty girl group’ high school banter about this.
I’ve been paused in doing much in advancing in the guild since then because I really don’t know what I want to do with my character at this point
As an outsider looking in, I agree with a lot of what Nhahlar said in the original post, it feels like there is a lot of actions happening OOC within a friend group and they have their own guild and everyone else just kinda exists in that guild. I don’t understand the fascination with flowers, I do not understand why there are occasionally chickens in the guildhall. I was confused when there was drama about flowers being flame sigiled around the city.
I just want to play a spooky vampire, dang it
naadu
17
Re: The Dominion, a not very sanguine experience
Player agency is promoted in Aetolia, but it is not a free pass to do whatever you want with an org. Ultimately, there is a theme and an alignment that it has to meet, and if an org goes out of boundaries, it has to be ushered back behind the lines.
With all the acknowledged effort from the Pools (thank you, I appreciate this a whole lot!) that is outstripping all effort currently being paid to other orgs, Bloodloch is basically being ushered back to remaining on brand and given tools to encourage staying within their theme. It is the orgs which are now being looked at. The Teradrim were given good attention with Lich Gardens and (redacted), and the Carnifex recently had resolution on their Minotaur trainees and big Bastherd (god, I love this name, I swear). The Dominion recently held a Blood Hunt sanctioned and awarded by Abhorash, which unfortunately didn't make people very happy at its conclusion.
Vampires are such a huge draw and a main selling point for Aetolia, the Midnight Age. To me, I feel that it is incredibly telling when both Abhorash and Chakrasul, each with significant history in the Dominion, are trying to do the same in the game, but are not seeing much progress. I'm sure trying to re-align an org is daunting, but know that the Pools are there to help. I'm sure there should also be a multitude of people that would be willing to help. I think I made myself known to Callidora as well that I would be willing to help. You don't have to do it alone, but I think it's worth taking a step back to figure things out.
On the same note, I know change is hard and it takes effort to modify and mindset or shift an org's direction, but if change needs to happen, as a leader you need to spearhead it, willing or otherwise. If you can't, perhaps someone else should take a turn. Fresh ideas, fresh outlook on a new serving platter.
Anyway, I tried hard to stay out of this thread even though I got pulled in. This is all I have to offer and the only post I'll likely make.
With all the acknowledged effort from the Pools (thank you, I appreciate this a whole lot!) that is outstripping all effort currently being paid to other orgs, Bloodloch is basically being ushered back to remaining on brand and given tools to encourage staying within their theme. It is the orgs which are now being looked at. The Teradrim were given good attention with Lich Gardens and (redacted), and the Carnifex recently had resolution on their Minotaur trainees and big Bastherd (god, I love this name, I swear). The Dominion recently held a Blood Hunt sanctioned and awarded by Abhorash, which unfortunately didn't make people very happy at its conclusion.
Vampires are such a huge draw and a main selling point for Aetolia, the Midnight Age. To me, I feel that it is incredibly telling when both Abhorash and Chakrasul, each with significant history in the Dominion, are trying to do the same in the game, but are not seeing much progress. I'm sure trying to re-align an org is daunting, but know that the Pools are there to help. I'm sure there should also be a multitude of people that would be willing to help. I think I made myself known to Callidora as well that I would be willing to help. You don't have to do it alone, but I think it's worth taking a step back to figure things out.
On the same note, I know change is hard and it takes effort to modify and mindset or shift an org's direction, but if change needs to happen, as a leader you need to spearhead it, willing or otherwise. If you can't, perhaps someone else should take a turn. Fresh ideas, fresh outlook on a new serving platter.
Anyway, I tried hard to stay out of this thread even though I got pulled in. This is all I have to offer and the only post I'll likely make.
Elene
14