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Announce post #3343: Oblivion's Portent & Lexadhra, the Indelible

AutoposterAutoposter BotBot
in Announce posts
3/28/2022 at 0:58
Ictinus, the Architect
Everyone
Oblivion's Portent & Lexadhra, the Indelible

Hi folks!

With the return and rebirth of Niuri and Her transformation into Lexadhra, it is my pleasure to present to you: Oblivion's Portent.

Portent is a three 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 TRAVERSE MEMORY in order to enter the dungeon proper. Inside, you will find a number of challenging boss encounters to overcome as well as 'trash' style denizens to fight through on your way there.

NOTE: The instance will not start until you have three people inside.

Unlike Beneath, Portent is a non-linear dungeon experience; after the first boss, you may choose to tackle any of the subsequent three in any order before taking on the final encounter: the Avatar of the Other. As you proceed through the dungeon, an echo of Lexadhra will recant the Tale of Revelation that was just told to the world, allowing those who were not present to experience the story for themselves.

Completing the dungeon will award currency in the form of 'silver pennies' - this remnant of Azhoa (the world before) can be spent in the shop adjacent to the shores of memory for a variety of rewards!

Alongside this release, we have also drastically reduced the costs of the rewards from the Beneath dungeon shop, and added a new figurine set to it!

Speedruns are not yet available for Portent but will be enabled after we've monitored the release and made any required balance tuning to the encounters. This is a difficult instance but hopefully it's also a fun one with lots of unique mechanics!

As for Lexadhra, She joins us as a permanent addition to the Sapience Pantheon. Having reformed from the ley with scattered memories, projecting Herself in the guise of five Elder Gods in an attempt to anchor Herself properly in time, Lexadhra exists now as the Goddess of Memory, and HELP LEXADHRA is worth a read! While She aligns Herself with Spirit, Her tastes and interests are vast...

Penned by my hand on Kinsday, the 16th of Lleian, in the year 501 MA.
LinValorie

Comments

  • LegynLegyn
    Autoposter said:

    While She aligns Herself with Spirit

    Despair goes on the stack.

    It resolves.

  • LegynLegyn
    While I was ready to immediately convert Legyn to Lexadhra and call an emergency meeting to make her the new Archivist patron, the Soul Index plotline still isn't resolved, so I doubt the event is over, and Severn's reaction...

    Ominous black clouds gather into a seething storm above and around the Tower of Artifice, drawn by the brooding presence of the Manipulator as He paces to and fro, deep in thought.


    I kind of suspect Severn is going to turn on Bamathis and that the end result will be Shadow and Spirit getting their own pro/anti-Varian schisms.


  • TetchtaTetchta The Innocent
    I've gotten some clarifications IC and it does seem to be that she's Nuance, The Character. Maybe our playerbase can be trained out of this kneejerk reaction, but it still felt pretty ingrained to a lot of folk, and might be worth keeping in mind in the future.

  • IesidIesid
    edited March 2022
    While I love the notion of being nuanced, I think we should consider untethering all gods. We can give them all a facelift in the process to make them more complex and have better hooks for some or all orgs.

    As an example: Bamathis, as a concept, would have flourished under a system of untethered gods. As it stands, it sounds like even his own tether is turning on him. Without tethers in the way, membership in his order would be more of a political/character statement than just 'another Shadow god'.
    TetchtaIazamatHolbrookGalileiEleneBenedictoNipsy
  • TetchtaTetchta The Innocent
    edited March 2022
    Yeah, so, this is slightly off topic, but I think the fiasco with Bama and Duiran probably soured some tongues, and for good reason, on this front. But the dude really, really fits as an untethered concept. I think it was @Iazamat who said to me "The virtue gods shouldn't be tethered." or something like that. Bama can be untethered without smearing his sweat all over Duiran's business, and I think there's at least SOME spirit folk that'd be hype to join his shiz.

    IesidSryaenIazamatHolbrookGalileiNipsy
  • NeomaNeoma
    You will not see me following Lexadhra, not because she is spirit tethered with nuances but because in my heart I would search for signs and tidbits of the grand lady Niuri was and She is no more. When She was the Goddess of Mystery, the Evening Star that was the Goddess at Her best. Times change, the old Niuri would not fit in anymore and so we move on. I agree with Tetchta that the pantheon is off balance and I do like Iesid of untehering the divines. They are all fickled anyway lol
  • EleneElene
    edited March 2022
    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!
    BenedictoNipsyGalileiLegyn
  • NipsyNipsy Setting fire to Aeryx's mine
    edited March 2022
    I think @Iesid said it best in the shouts yesterday while Nipsy was -literally- going through mental gymnastics, one moment he was Roleplaying a IC rage-room, smashing everything in sight and damning Bamathis, the next moment he's trying to talk to Bamathis and make sense, urging a God as a mortal to look beyond His charge and discover truth.

    As a player this has been an absolute psychological trainwreck for me to roleplay. Lexadhra is amazing, don't get me wrong, however "Scorning everything about Ivoln" (Mind you, having been in Niuri's Order back when she got yeeted, its with good reason.) puts the Imperator of the Teradrim in an awkward place, and thankfully the playerbase in Bloodloch wants health for their org instead of splintering what are already fragile foundations, after years of infighting and secular organizations within it.

    This will make us stronger, but I think faith needs removed from Tether (Or in the least those lines blurred a bit)....I like a lot of the points being made in this thread, and I think that we can work on this.
    Right now, WEIRD PLACE TO BE. - EXCITING PLACE TO BE
  • BenedictoBenedicto Tentacles Errywhere!
    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.
    image
    NipsyEleneLinTetchtaLegyn
  • TetchtaTetchta The Innocent
    Elene said:

    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?

    Honestly I kind like the idea of Bamathis becoming a beset sorta-minority (though I think he really needs a non-Severn God ally) that gets increasingly fanatical and violent. Could be extremely sexy.

    LinNipsyMati
  • SryaenSryaen
    c
    Tetchta said:

    Autoposter said:

    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.
    Spirit side seems to be cautiously interested in Lexadhra. As I was just talking with some of the other people from Eno in a Discord group chat, one of the lines in the help file is particularly concerning in that it doesn't fit with Enorian's goals or objectives.

    Caring little for morality or honour, the Goddess prizes fame and infamy in equal measure. She finds
    the dramas of life and death, Shadow and Spirit, the perfect springboard for intrigue and
    histrionics. She eschews traditional values or tenets in favour of one singular demand: be
    interesting.


    This one in particular. Enorian is pretty much the closest you can get to having a city who is aligned exclusively with morality and honour. And the rest of the help file where it references 'making legacies permanent' and the IC chatter about how she prizes immortality is also concerning in that off first glance, it appears we have a spirit god who is pro-vampirism, but anti-undeath. How does this fit into the narrative of Enorian's staunchly anti-undead/anti-vampire position that is part of the foundation of the city and their pursuit of the prophesized Age of Dawn? Again, some of this is a LOT of speculation and I'm sure we'll know more in the coming days and weeks when we all interact with Lexadhra more, but I can't help but agree with Tetchta here. If there's going to be some shift away from Spirit/Shadow and more into goal/objective-oriented Aetolia, then there needs to be some major lore, endorsement from Gods, basically pulling out every trick in the PR playbook to make this change marketable to people who have RP behind their character's choices to stand for or against certain ideals. Lexa seems like a GREAT Goddess for Duiran to follow, but I'm not convinced she's right for Enorian.

    From a player leader perspective, I think this is neat and I'm excited to see what comes next. But I want to ensure the integrity of my organization isn't compromised when going through any potential massive lore and RP changes that could drastically alter their direction.


    Tell me how I'm doing!
    (Web): Mileta says, "Okay... Sry is an edgelord..."

    (Web): Dreww says, "Sryaen just wants to be the best Dhar boi and slaughter everyone."
    ValorieIesid
  • IesidIesid
    I have one simple solution to all of these concerns Enorian has: simply stop expecting gods to conform to the city's notion of right/wrong. We should stop insisting that gods play by the same rules as PCs - this is one of those things we could be doing better to have a more believable IC world where deities get their due respect. You can have a god on your advisory that thinks some not-too-flattering things about your org culture. You have Omei, after all, and she definitely puts her opinion on some of Enorian's policy on display where the order can hear it and sometimes even where the city can hear it. This would be much like that.

    I think all of the much more nuanced Elder Gods were meant to start training us for this new paradigm. Yanai's "I don't like Chaos but I guess you can smoke it on the porch" attitude regarding Omeiians was a model for it and, in the end, they weren't so incompatible after all. If Lexadhra ticks almost all the boxes, isn't that good enough?
    NipsySibattiTetchtaSryaenIazamatRihrinLenorielElene
  • SryaenSryaen
    I would have to disagree with that. We essentially have right/wrong drilled into the city's core belief system, and we have an entire guild built around it. I think if any sort of big shift is going to happen where Enorian is encouraged to do THEIR version of right/wrong, maybe. Idk. But that starts to lean into fanatical zealot RP, and I think that is a super slippery slope of RP that not everyone in Enorian wants to subscribe to.


    Tell me how I'm doing!
    (Web): Mileta says, "Okay... Sry is an edgelord..."

    (Web): Dreww says, "Sryaen just wants to be the best Dhar boi and slaughter everyone."
  • NipsyNipsy Setting fire to Aeryx's mine
    I could definitely see Ascendril hopping on the Lexadhra train, not really Illuminai or Templar.
    Sryaen
  • IazamatIazamat
    There's a lot of legwork to be done, but the bulk of that legwork isn't just on the administration. This is a good time to remind everyone that your characters are not immutable - they are as capable of change as you are, especially when new input is giving them that opportunity.
    IesidTetchtaSryaenNipsyBenedictoLinLegynLenorielNeoma
  • TetchtaTetchta The Innocent
    edited March 2022
    Bloodloch, a city where a good chunk of their populace is Ivolnite Undead, one entire guild is basically married to Ivoln, and Bamathis and Ivo are both on the council for, more or less closed out the night last night with a "Keep it outside and don't you dare drag the blood into the house" when it came to Lexa, so really I think anything is possible if you try. All of us, I think, are capable of putting a little umame or lemon into our meals to add complexity wait wrong forum some thought into how to interact with the game as it sits and presents itself to our orgs IC. If you end up trying to jam your org into a tight, narrow space, it's just going to lose a ton of RP opportunities along the way. Honestly, the City of Light and Burning Evil Guys, probably more than any org, is the most ripe for creative, complicated thinking and exploration, given the setting of Aetolia as a Gothic Horror (and seeing those themes played up a lot lately.)

    IazamatNipsyLenoriel
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