The Sect of Blades

Slyphe

Rumors are abound in Delos, a hushed heralding of the revival of the Sect of Blades, hidden away near the arena of Delos. Ages past saw the Sect as a common grounds for mastering martial prowess and tactical lore, building around principles of honor and skill to form a sect of honor-bound warriors.

The Sect itself is secretive in nature, choosing to reveal their inner workings only to those who have proved their mettle and honor on the battlefield. Requiring a steep entry fee for membership, early members are at the mercy of their peers to prove their martial superiority - ranks within the Sect are gained by accruing marks of valor for fights performed with no assistance. The ability to slay one's target or defend from one's aggressor with only the tools at their disposal is valued above all for the honor of the Sect.

Those who prove their worth will rise in rank, finding further more of the organization's secrets and membership, including the ability to pinpoint champions among the Sect and communicate through organizational means. Those who obtain the highest levels of honor are granted various privileges, including access to the inner hall, and gaining the ability to personalize one's deadliest techniques - an individualized version of a beheading, and gruesome unique deathsight to accompany it. Those who stand upon the Sect's Council, bearing the greatest honors, may also compete among one another for a legendary Ankyrean artifact, said to bring omniscience to those surrounded in battle.

Keep an ear out for whispers and an eye on the shadows, for the Sect's return will be trailed by newly stained blood.

Addendum:
Players who obtain membership in the Sect will be subject to a higher standard of roleplay in exchange for relaxed PK rules, especially between members.

Members of the Sect, except under specific criteria, are open PK to each other at any given time. Using such opportunities to bring a large group to a fight renders the opportunity wasted, as points will only be accrued by fair odds.

Saybre

Awesome! Definitely look forward to this!

Lin

Did you... you just made an excuse to promote 1-v-1 combat, didn't you.

You sly dog.

Daingean

Secretive shadowy sect doesn't feel very Light to me.

>:P Blurry lines that we're not allowed to say no to because mechanics support them. I'll just sit over here, watching the reasons I enjoy Aetolia dwindle. I know, I know, everyone in the sect wants to kill one another, but.. there should be no shared IC orgs of note between Spirit and Shadow, excluding family clans, and those hardly count anyway.

I love the concept. I'm totally, completely in support of creating reasons to 1v1, and even mechanics that encourage it. But I'm really skeptical about a shared org, even if it -is- one that encourages members to slice and dice one another.

Lin

Have you considered that perhaps your character is incompatible with Aetolia?

Alistaire

Really? A zealot character in a guild whose class is called Zealot is incompatible with Aetolia? That seems extremely unlikely.

Borscin

You could be a part of the sect because you're an honor bound warrior and then internally hate on the sect for being shadowy and secretive and allowing miserable honorless undead scum in.

On the other side, there may be some people who wouldn't consider their character's "honor bound" but will still want to be a part of the sect for some good 1v1 pking fun.

Lin

Alistaire said:

Really? A zealot character in a guild whose class is called Zealot is incompatible with Aetolia? That seems extremely unlikely.

I was being a bit facetious. I am a little annoyed at how roleplaying a zealot character seems to be an excuse for being a zealot player.

This organization sounds like what we've been looking for in terms of enforcing a better honor code between players where combat is concerned, and I think that all it would take is a little creativity to fit one's character into it. I'm definitely excited about it.

Daingean

I play a zealot because the distinct 'sides' of Aetolia is the whole reason I started playing Aetolia. Of -course- I'm going to be bothered when those distinctions are eroded.

The organization -should- exist, and it -is- a great idea to promote and encourage one on one combat. I don't see why there can't be two sides to said organization, so that those organizations that -have- firmly planted their feet aren't forced to accept their members being in an organization with the enemy. Even as membership in the organization fosters animosity, and encourages infighting and slaughter of one another, it still puts them together under the same proverbial roof.

And that shouldn't happen.

Alistaire

Thought I clicked save draft, not post. Whoops. Ah well.

Also, maybe people should get their own code of ethics and sportsmanship, rather than not doing something unless given a mechanical reward for it. We're all adults here, we shouldn't have to be given candy in order to play nice. /devil's advocate.

Arbre

You join because you want to coup the org and kick out all of the darkies.  Mechanically possible?  No.  RPable?  Yes.

Of course, my answer to everything is to coup.

Alexina

This sounds very awesome and exciting.

Illikaal

It does sound awesome, but I don't know how I feel about the whole "being open to PK at any time." thing quite yet. Some people really just don't know when to quit. I love the aspect of 1v1s, but some people just don't know how to take a loss  

I remember having to deal with Kaeus jumping me at least like 8 times within the same day. No matter how many times he died, or simply just ran off, he kept on coming back at every opportunity. Xentor was the same. 

Borscin

Good amount of people have definitely faced that same problem. Part of what will probably (or should be) put into effect is that going after the same person constantly, win or lose, won't be allowed. Otherwise you have the same person coming at you and dying over and over, or even worse, you have someone jumping and killing someone they know they can beat over and over.

Razmael

Right, there will be something in place to discourage that sort of behaviour.

Illikaal

In that case, I'm really looking forward to this!

Slyphe

There will be mechanics in place to make killing the same person repeatedly unfavorable. Additionally, people who join are going to willingly be putting themselves at a higher standard - both repeatedly griefing and unrestrained issuing will be heavily frowned upon, and could lose a person their place in the organization.

In regards to the place of the sect versus zealot organizations, I think there's a distinction to be drawn between shadowy and secretive. The members list is closed and the org commands are available only at a very high rank because we don't want players to get too friendly if they're on opposing ends. The sect channel will be secret, and the main function of the council will be essentially to fight one another for control of a very, very enticing artifact. Think of it as a society that is bound by its own honor code, one that doesn't extend beyond the honor points ranking. A zealot seeking to wipe out all shadow could join to hone their skills while destroying their enemies, keeping the Crown away from their hands by virtue of being an untouchable paragon. While under the same roof by virtue of being a part of the Sect, there's very little to discourage one from awaiting another's entry with a blade in hand.

Daskalos

This sounds oddly similar to the Champions\Assassins system that Achaea put in place, which I was a part of until the open PK got old being open PK all the time. Might I suggest if you're killed by another Blade Sect person, you get a 24 hour reprieve\grace unless you reject the protection? It would give someone a method to hunt\rp in the open if they wanted to without fear of being jumped over and over again.

The hard thing to balance here is going to be making this not turn into a 24 hour war system where people get jumped all the time and lose their desire to play.  Dunno, will have to see how it plays out. Potentially cool, but I just worry you'll see a bunch of people join it then still team up and fight.

Slyphe

There is a distinct nod to the champions/assassins system in how the organization is opt-in and how the open PK concept will play out, but being a lone organization with actual intra-org capacities with ranks and benefits, the similarity will be drawn there.

We're going to tweak up a few things about how hostile acts/assists are reported and use that as the basis (for instance, preventing global actions like enemying someone or ordering entities from affecting it). If you get a kill on someone and there is an assist in place, you will receive no points, and can in fact even incur penalties this way that will reduce your rank. We're going to be playing with the reporting method and point accumulation for awhile at first, but the goal is to mechanically make it a detriment to use a team or attack the same target if you're hoping to advance in the rankings.

I really do mean it when I say higher standards. If someone is being harassed out of the opt-in because of constant teaming, the offenders are going to lose points or their membership entirely, amid other punishments. That's the price of the standard they'll be expected to follow. That being said, a certain level of active awareness is going to be expected, and players will benefit from being able to accept death as a consequence of a fight. We're not going to tolerate frivolous issues and complaints as a result.

Azrael

Yeah I'll avoid this ORG like a plague. Lifers and Darkies in the same ORG? No thanks. Not interested in reading an ORG channel made up of constant name calling, bickering, belittlement, and/or swearing...even if anonymous, most tend to get even more ridicules in nature when nobody knows who is saying what. Would be worse than one of my family reunions.

The idea in general is fairly cool though, I will give it that, but combining everyone in a single ORG, yeah, no thanks. Regardless of my personal thoughts on it, kudos to the admins for working on a known issue. Looking forward to seeing how this project goes, from the sidelines of course.

Ilyon

Interesting. Not really something that I'm going to involve myself with (although who knows), but I'm curious - how are you going to handle various mechanics abuse possibilities? For example, if teaming someone gives negative points, what will prevent someone from getting a random friend to newbiekick (or any other meaningless attack) them mid-fight if it looks like they're losing, to force the penalty upon their assaillant?

Slyphe

We're going to have to watch and adjust at first, since I'm fairly confident that people will find a way around any theoretical safeguards we put into place at launch. I guess the best point to try and emphasize is how closely we're going to be watching an org as sensitive as this, and adjusting policies and mechanics to match what we see. At a certain level it will depend on players policing themselves, but since abuse is always a concern, we'll be working to minimize it as much as possible.

The same goes for the org's structure and channel. If it ends up being abusive, we can simply remove those capacities, or the offenders.

Iosyne

I feel people are greatly overestimating how much of an "org" the sect is going to be. It may be better to look at it as a facet of an identity whose aspirations and structure have the same denominators as, say, the Crafter's guild. I certainly would not expect the channel to be any more hostile and unmoderated than any other in-character channel in the game.

Damonicus

You should make a new Divine for this. Not one of light or shadow but just the fury of battle and improvement of ones capabilities. Also ,I want to see a new zap when someone does bad things.

Haern

Damonicus said:

You should make a new Divine for this. Not one of light or shadow but just the fury of battle and improvement of ones capabilities. Also ,I want to see a new zap when someone does bad things.

Not going to happen. You can expect us to be working through mobiles or a shell, but not a god.

Damonicus

Well either way, I am happy to see all of you work on something to bring back a 1 vs 1 system. Hopefully people will have some sense of pride and just work on being the best by themselves.

Rho

Maybe I missed something, but, how would lesser ylem fights where there are usually three or more on a side going to conflict with this? Are you essentially removing yourself from those sorts of fights because of the high chance another sect member will be on the opposing side?

Damonicus

Guessing the ylem aura would negate the ability to gain points through the sect system.

Kiyotan

Daingean said:

I play a zealot because the distinct 'sides' of Aetolia is the whole reason I started playing Aetolia. Of -course- I'm going to be bothered when those distinctions are eroded.

The organization -should- exist, and it -is- a great idea to promote and encourage one on one combat. I don't see why there can't be two sides to said organization, so that those organizations that -have- firmly planted their feet aren't forced to accept their members being in an organization with the enemy. Even as membership in the organization fosters animosity, and encourages infighting and slaughter of one another, it still puts them together under the same proverbial roof.

And that shouldn't happen.

When one roleplays a staunch right-wing republican, one has to be prepared for the eventual legalization of marijuana and gay marriage. He may not like it, but he finds something else to lobby for. It's a simple solution, Dain. If you don't want to play ball, then don't. No one is going to force you to participate in the Sect, and if your character disapproves of its nature, then he is free to do so and evade membership. Its secretive nature means that he can essentially ignore its existence as it pertains to him.

Daskalos

Question, if you're keeping the organization membership a secret, and these people are always open pk, how will people know who can be a target? Also, on the same vein, once someone gets high enough in the organization and gets to see the orglist, you're going to see that list put up somewhere OOC.

My suggestion would make it so no one ever gets an org list, and even remove the open PK aspect. If the Champion's Crown is truly worth fighting over, you'll see people -asking- for duels to try and build their reputation up. Granted, the fallacy in that in that is that some people (like me) will find it hard to get duels, but that's the risk of it. You'll see people fighting more to get after that crown, and any other tertiary perks you get for simply being in the Sect.

Kiyotan

That also eliminates a lot of the risk of getting jumped without warning, which I think is good.