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Announce post #3405: The Akkari Class + Ascended Duamvi Subrace!
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9/9/2022 at 1:57
Ictinus, the Architect
Everyone
The Akkari Class + Ascended Duamvi Subrace!
Following the sacred communion with the Angelic Triad, the intervention of Ael'mael, the ascension of the Exarchs, and their subsequent transformation from duamvi into ascended duamvi, the Akkari class is now available as part of the Templars Guild!
Akkari is a mirror of the Praenomen class, and, before I get into the specifics of the class skills and such, I have a few important points to make.
Vampires are one of the core parts of Aetolia and have some of the most intricate mechanics. While we have worked hard to come up with suitably thematic mirror equivalents for all of the various different aspects of vampire gameplay, there are some minor changes that were necessary in order to preserve the theme. This will be reflected as you go through the AB files and start figuring the class out.
With that in mind:
- The mirror of the vampire subrace is an ascended duamvi. HELP DUAMVI STATS has been updated to reflect this.
- Akkari are ascended duamvi, and thus you must be a duamvi to become an Akkari.
- The Akkari equivalent of nightstalkers are ASPIRANTS and Aaranu is able to make someone into an Aspirant. (ASK AARANU BECOME ASPIRANT
* NOTE: For lore reasons, you will still need to first become a duamvi before you can ascend in full.
- Akkari, like vampires, do have to still manage and spend blood (to clarify a lore point, blood and spirit are heavily intertwined); use of the DELIVER and EXORCISM abilities will be of interest here.
- Upon death, instead of assuming a mistform, ascended duamvi revert to a state of ascended consciousness.
* Instead of earthmelding, they must anchor themselves back to the Prime by INHUMEing in the earth until the light provides them a new body.
* DIFFUSE MIST becomes APPEAL TO SANCTUARY for ascended duamvi.
- In place of bloodlines, Akkari have chains of command; these mechanically obey the same rules and ability-access as bloodlines.
* This hierarchy is only for the branch of duamvi on Prime under command of the Templars. The native duamvi have a separate hierarchy of their own.
- In place of a Primus, the head of the Akkari hierarchy is known as the Grand Crusader.
* This is a separately elected guild position within the Templars.
* To elect the first Grand Crusader, CONTEST VACANCY AS GRANDCRUSADER OF TEMPLARS. Subsequent contests can be done using the current position holder's name.
* Only ascended duamvi can hold this position.
- Sires become Superiors, and Childer become Subordinates.
- Direct Superiors or direct Subordinates are always the next 'link' in the hierarchy chain.
- Superiors and Subordinates may also be used to refer to anyone in that chain.
- For Akkari, blood rituals are now PRAYERS, and can be carried out before the pyre of the faithful at v73479.
- Instead of sunlight damage, ascended duamvi suffer physical pain and maladies from the dark star, and only at night.
* Like vampires, this is negated if your blood level is high enough.
* The Illumination Blaze and Subterfuge Light skills can also negate this, as well as the Light artifact power.
- Where vampires gain special proficiency in scythes, Akkari may now use the twin-bladed manta.
* These are now available to make in Forging.
- In place of coffins, Akkari use holy icons to sanctify a location as a sacred bunker. These icons can be made by jewelcrafters.
- Akkari do not raise minions from the dead but enlist living sentient beings as squires in their holy crusades.
* This is only possible in certain 'good-associated' areas, details of which can be found in AB DISCIPLINE RECRUIT.
- Similar to how Praenomen works, if you are not an ascended duamvi while holding the class, your skill ranks will be capped at Skilled for Ascendance/Dictum and Inept for Discipline. You are effectively considered an Aspirant again.
Some lore points:
- Native duamvi from Spirit are more heavily in tune with spirit in terms of body make-up than Primal duamvi. This is why native duamvi are susceptible to the dark star while Primal duamvi are not. It is also why natuve duamvi can use Akkari abilities but Primal duamvi cannot.
- Becoming ascended for a Primal duamvi gives them a greater font of spirit, allowing them to properly utilise Akkari abilities, but also leaving them susceptible to the dark star if their spirit falls too low.
** New characters selecting Akkari as their class upon creation will be made into duamvi. Much like vampires, you will need to be properly evangelised (embraced) in order to become an ascended duamvi in full. **
Lastly before I move on, is this: THERE IS CURRENTLY NO 'CURE' FOR BEING AN ASCENDED DUAMVI. THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE CHOOSING TO BECOME ONE SINCE BECOMING AN ASCENDED DUAMVI CAN HAVE ROLEPLAY IMPLICATIONS DUE TO THEIR ABUNDANCE OF SPIRIT.
- - -
With the skills of Ascendance, Dictum, and Discipline, Akkari are soldiers in the grand armee of the light, zealous warriors of spirit capable of wielding the holy light to supplement their incredible martial and mental prowess. In battle, Akkari dictate afflictions into the minds of their enemies while wielding the twin-bladed manta and enacting incredible miracles using their own spiritual lifeforce.
The skills translate in the following ways:
Ascendance - Corpus
Dictum - Mentis
Discipline - Sanguis
Nianvi at v11390 is currently the only denizen tutor available for Akkari skills. Learning from players is unrestricted.
HELP AKKARI RP and HELP AKKARI HIERARCHY are available for your perusal, as are HELP files for each of the three skills, and learning messages which may be of interest!
While some abilities are directly shared between the native class and this mirror, most (particularly in Ascendance and Discipline) are entirely distinct and a significant departure from the original theme. I'd encourage reading all the helps and the AB files in order to get a full grasp of what we're aiming for with it!
Sharing the class, particularly with veteran players, can be done via the EVANGELISM ability in Discipline. This will make an existing duamvi into an ascended duamvi and grant them the class in the process. There are no limits on how many people you can evangelise.
Artifacts for Akkari will be available in the next few minutes for your enjoyment:
- a radiant ingot (hunt_akkari1-3); for hunting
- a holy icon of the sacred flame (artifact_holyicon); mirror of artifact_coffin
- a banner of the Dauntless Host (spirit_bind); mirror of blood_thin (NOTE: This power and its mirror will work mechanically with either class, the difference is purely flavour.)
- a book of holy scripture (swift_sect1-3); mirror of quick_path
- an amulet of the dawn (nightbane); mirror of sunbane
- a holy ciborium (spirit_preserve**); mirror (sort of) of corpse_store
** The spirit_preserve power has some different functionality to reflect the differences in how minions (squires) are raised (recruited). See the AP INFO for details!
As always, while we've done a lot of testing behind the scenes, please report any bugs or typos right away through BUG or TYPO respectively.
The release of mirror ???? is underway and will be concluding tomorrow!
As a final note, the number of maximum class slots has now been increased to 16 following this release. These are the same cost of 500 credits to obtain as other slots beyond the 10th.
Enjoy!
Penned by my hand on Quensday, the 5th of Haernos, in the year 504 MA.
Ictinus, the Architect
Everyone
The Akkari Class + Ascended Duamvi Subrace!
Following the sacred communion with the Angelic Triad, the intervention of Ael'mael, the ascension of the Exarchs, and their subsequent transformation from duamvi into ascended duamvi, the Akkari class is now available as part of the Templars Guild!
Akkari is a mirror of the Praenomen class, and, before I get into the specifics of the class skills and such, I have a few important points to make.
Vampires are one of the core parts of Aetolia and have some of the most intricate mechanics. While we have worked hard to come up with suitably thematic mirror equivalents for all of the various different aspects of vampire gameplay, there are some minor changes that were necessary in order to preserve the theme. This will be reflected as you go through the AB files and start figuring the class out.
With that in mind:
- The mirror of the vampire subrace is an ascended duamvi. HELP DUAMVI STATS has been updated to reflect this.
- Akkari are ascended duamvi, and thus you must be a duamvi to become an Akkari.
- The Akkari equivalent of nightstalkers are ASPIRANTS and Aaranu is able to make someone into an Aspirant. (ASK AARANU BECOME ASPIRANT
* NOTE: For lore reasons, you will still need to first become a duamvi before you can ascend in full.
- Akkari, like vampires, do have to still manage and spend blood (to clarify a lore point, blood and spirit are heavily intertwined); use of the DELIVER and EXORCISM abilities will be of interest here.
- Upon death, instead of assuming a mistform, ascended duamvi revert to a state of ascended consciousness.
* Instead of earthmelding, they must anchor themselves back to the Prime by INHUMEing in the earth until the light provides them a new body.
* DIFFUSE MIST becomes APPEAL TO SANCTUARY for ascended duamvi.
- In place of bloodlines, Akkari have chains of command; these mechanically obey the same rules and ability-access as bloodlines.
* This hierarchy is only for the branch of duamvi on Prime under command of the Templars. The native duamvi have a separate hierarchy of their own.
- In place of a Primus, the head of the Akkari hierarchy is known as the Grand Crusader.
* This is a separately elected guild position within the Templars.
* To elect the first Grand Crusader, CONTEST VACANCY AS GRANDCRUSADER OF TEMPLARS. Subsequent contests can be done using the current position holder's name.
* Only ascended duamvi can hold this position.
- Sires become Superiors, and Childer become Subordinates.
- Direct Superiors or direct Subordinates are always the next 'link' in the hierarchy chain.
- Superiors and Subordinates may also be used to refer to anyone in that chain.
- For Akkari, blood rituals are now PRAYERS, and can be carried out before the pyre of the faithful at v73479.
- Instead of sunlight damage, ascended duamvi suffer physical pain and maladies from the dark star, and only at night.
* Like vampires, this is negated if your blood level is high enough.
* The Illumination Blaze and Subterfuge Light skills can also negate this, as well as the Light artifact power.
- Where vampires gain special proficiency in scythes, Akkari may now use the twin-bladed manta.
* These are now available to make in Forging.
- In place of coffins, Akkari use holy icons to sanctify a location as a sacred bunker. These icons can be made by jewelcrafters.
- Akkari do not raise minions from the dead but enlist living sentient beings as squires in their holy crusades.
* This is only possible in certain 'good-associated' areas, details of which can be found in AB DISCIPLINE RECRUIT.
- Similar to how Praenomen works, if you are not an ascended duamvi while holding the class, your skill ranks will be capped at Skilled for Ascendance/Dictum and Inept for Discipline. You are effectively considered an Aspirant again.
Some lore points:
- Native duamvi from Spirit are more heavily in tune with spirit in terms of body make-up than Primal duamvi. This is why native duamvi are susceptible to the dark star while Primal duamvi are not. It is also why natuve duamvi can use Akkari abilities but Primal duamvi cannot.
- Becoming ascended for a Primal duamvi gives them a greater font of spirit, allowing them to properly utilise Akkari abilities, but also leaving them susceptible to the dark star if their spirit falls too low.
** New characters selecting Akkari as their class upon creation will be made into duamvi. Much like vampires, you will need to be properly evangelised (embraced) in order to become an ascended duamvi in full. **
Lastly before I move on, is this: THERE IS CURRENTLY NO 'CURE' FOR BEING AN ASCENDED DUAMVI. THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE CHOOSING TO BECOME ONE SINCE BECOMING AN ASCENDED DUAMVI CAN HAVE ROLEPLAY IMPLICATIONS DUE TO THEIR ABUNDANCE OF SPIRIT.
- - -
With the skills of Ascendance, Dictum, and Discipline, Akkari are soldiers in the grand armee of the light, zealous warriors of spirit capable of wielding the holy light to supplement their incredible martial and mental prowess. In battle, Akkari dictate afflictions into the minds of their enemies while wielding the twin-bladed manta and enacting incredible miracles using their own spiritual lifeforce.
The skills translate in the following ways:
Ascendance - Corpus
Dictum - Mentis
Discipline - Sanguis
Nianvi at v11390 is currently the only denizen tutor available for Akkari skills. Learning from players is unrestricted.
HELP AKKARI RP and HELP AKKARI HIERARCHY are available for your perusal, as are HELP files for each of the three skills, and learning messages which may be of interest!
While some abilities are directly shared between the native class and this mirror, most (particularly in Ascendance and Discipline) are entirely distinct and a significant departure from the original theme. I'd encourage reading all the helps and the AB files in order to get a full grasp of what we're aiming for with it!
Sharing the class, particularly with veteran players, can be done via the EVANGELISM ability in Discipline. This will make an existing duamvi into an ascended duamvi and grant them the class in the process. There are no limits on how many people you can evangelise.
Artifacts for Akkari will be available in the next few minutes for your enjoyment:
- a radiant ingot (hunt_akkari1-3); for hunting
- a holy icon of the sacred flame (artifact_holyicon); mirror of artifact_coffin
- a banner of the Dauntless Host (spirit_bind); mirror of blood_thin (NOTE: This power and its mirror will work mechanically with either class, the difference is purely flavour.)
- a book of holy scripture (swift_sect1-3); mirror of quick_path
- an amulet of the dawn (nightbane); mirror of sunbane
- a holy ciborium (spirit_preserve**); mirror (sort of) of corpse_store
** The spirit_preserve power has some different functionality to reflect the differences in how minions (squires) are raised (recruited). See the AP INFO for details!
As always, while we've done a lot of testing behind the scenes, please report any bugs or typos right away through BUG or TYPO respectively.
The release of mirror ???? is underway and will be concluding tomorrow!
As a final note, the number of maximum class slots has now been increased to 16 following this release. These are the same cost of 500 credits to obtain as other slots beyond the 10th.
Enjoy!
Penned by my hand on Quensday, the 5th of Haernos, in the year 504 MA.
10
Comments
Akkari is an amazing design/flavor, probably the best I've seen so far, but it is too exclusive.
Akkari and Duamvi being shunned away IC heavily by Duiran NPCs/Ambiances/Gods make it really awkward if not impossible for players in Duiran to play and utilize the class. That's against the core premise of the mirrors, which is accessibility and balance. With the obvious end-goal that is to shake off the tether ties, you are putting Duirani players at an awkward place with this release in the long term. I don't think we've hit a similar spot with any other mirror release so far, and I hope we won't in the future.
Akkari: Not allowed in Duiran.
But I also think it's worth pointing out that Prenomen was always going to be a special case. It's a weird class tied to a subrace. There's been attempts (they have all failed, for good or ill) to separate them, but this is clearly not something the admin envision, or want to go through the work to do (not said as a slight, it's a tall ask with tons of rp and rewrites required). This is probably the only class that's gonna be like this, and I think you're gonna just have to get over it with Bennet Foddy.
In fact, one Spirean guild had explicitly outlawed Vampirism in relatively recent history (see: Ati). Pretty sure that isn't a law now, but it has happened in the past.
@Tetchta
Me: Duiran will be playing 1 less class than everyone else in the game.
You: Just go to Enorian.
Me: How will that effect standalone combat events?
You: Sucks to suck.
I don't disagree with what you elaborated by the way, in a RP game not every class's flavor for every character. But that is hardly related to my feedback, which was: "Mechanical accessibility for every org is possible, and the roleplay could have accomodated that better."
Your response after 2 memes was:
"Roleplay shouldn't need to."
You are looking at what I am saying from a fully immersed, second-life roleplay game angle, whereas I am talking about completely mechanical objective advantages. So we are honestly, not really set to discuss this more constructively. To finalize my thoughts in your perspective, technically Akkari is still a Spirit class, and mechanically it is still available to Duiran players. So as far fetched as it is, maybe in 900 game years, RP will lead for the class to not be borderline taboo, who knows.
I didn't know that, thanks. But yeah, I do know Spines has people that can actively use Praenomen at the moment. So how that RP goes for them is their business. But mechanically they still utilize the class. So maybe we will see Akkari represented in Duiran in similar scale, then. As an unwelcome minority. That's my entire point.
All that said the player in me is slightly disappointed that I couldn't the ultimate Reclamation partner class, but I'm still fully okay with Duiran having the individual identity that is has, and that the other cities are also developing them. I'm also okay with the roleplay attached to the class that will prevent me from ever having it, regardless of me wanting it.
I personally feel this was all a long time coming. Even back from when we only had the subrace duamvi, there were hints that Dendara wasn't a huge fan BUT it was overshadowed by the fact that the Plane was massively askew on a cosmic level and thus, Shadow was far more of a threat/problem - i.e. it was much more likely that any further influx of Shadow could snowball it into a point of no return. At this point, Spirit was the lesser evil, and could even be viewed as a prescription/counter-agent to the 'too much Shadow' problem.
That is the RP answer, but I am also firmly of the belief that Dendara was left this way from a storytelling standpoint to prop up the tether-based mindset of being Spirit aligned. With Varian correcting this imbalance, and placing the Plane of Life where it should have been all along (centrally balanced on the Spiral), it - among with an array of other, smaller storytelling hooks - effectively removes this.
As a long-time Duiran player, I've watched it struggle with maintaining an identity that doesn't have the baggage of "well, we can't do X because what would Enorian think" automatically appended. I've seen countless characters join Duiran for reasons like the following:
It's like Enorian, but with trees
I'm Spirit tether, but Enorian won't have me
It has less obnoxious laws and more freedom than Enorian
... and so on.
None of those reasons are inherently bad, but they definitely aren't as meaningful from the perspective of joining Duiran for what it stands for, what it means, or what its cultural identity is. The comparison isn't perfect, but that's how you get things like a subfaction in Bloodloch trying to push for being anti-slavery when it's clearly not a sustainable path for that city.
Does it mean that Duiran and Enorian now have to hate each other? Of course not. What it DOES do is unshackle them from each other, and enable more nuanced and dynamic storytelling/roleplay. Personally, I would be over the moon if this meant the Diplomacy system would get more actual use out of it - there hasn't been much of a need for it when everyone assumes Duinorian will automatically link up, or Spines/BL will always be on the same team.
We're seeing more rifts between all four cities, NOT because we're all supposed to hate each other all of a sudden, but because every city should have a reason for existing beyond being "the feral cousins of Enorian who have drugs" or "the science nerds who help Bloodloch with math".
I think we are all very used to fudging the RP a bit in order to prop up mechanics that otherwise wouldn't make a whole lot of sense, so it's going to be uncomfortable a bit for some. It's going to mean fewer absolutes and more intricately-woven stories, and I'm here for it.
Personally a huge fan, though I can understand why it's hard for others.
But if I never have to hear the term "association laws" ever again, it will be too soon.
I do not think a 'low vampire population in Spinesreach' forgives the clear asymmetry here in what was meant to be a symmetrical system (mirrors), because I will eventually have to fight one of the other 2 orgs that have access to +1 class than I do even if Spinesreach chooses for some reason to not utilize Prae.
In the end, I think I prefer to have Duiran's themes be more clear and independent, but I'd also like to feel like we're not the only one who has to deal with this specific type of downside of taking RP stance. It does not really mean much to me that one of three guilds in Spinesreach 'outlaws vampirism' because it isn't set in stone like it is for us. They can choose to walk away from that stance at any time. We cannot unless we want to go join another city.
EDIT: More directly - what was mirrored here is everything, including class-defining lore of being outside the Cycle. The thing is, that detail doesn't mean anything except to Duiran. We're the only ones who do not get to play Praekkari unless Spinesreach is given a reason to care - and then I still have to worry about class access if I fight BL or Eno. It will eventually make the difference, because they have access to strategies we do not (after all, Enorian can still play Shaman, so they have a strictly better Reclaim setup than the Shaman 'home team') - and in exchange, we do not really get anything mechanical that those 3 orgs don't have access to as well.
Even all that aside, if nothing changes I'll still be overall content with how things are. Just save this receipt in the future if I end up crying about getting steamrolled by Eno's Shaman/Senti/Akkari reclaim combo should war happen, and should they utilize it.
That would end up making both Enorian AND Duiran -1 to class access, which makes it somewhat 'fair' between them - but again, there is nothing really comparable for Spinesreach and Bloodloch.
disrepair. A wholly organic limitation to citizen access (let's call it what it is; nobody is being denied Akkari; people are being denied Duiran citizenship if they are Duamvi. Kind of a difference) that's driven by already extant organizational themes and lore is kinda awesome and is the definition of good Roleplay. Trying to frame it around the idea that not every city has a -1 class or something is just kinda having the wrong conversation to me.I think the asymmetry is also being quite a bit overblown. I find it difficult to believe that someone who wants to be an Akkari that badly would wanna stick around in an org that hates their guts, anyway.
RP-wise I agree with it (obviously, I wrote like a novel about it all a few posts ago) but as a player it's never going to feel good to tell your city that they can't play with the full toolkit that could otherwise be available to them. Whether you agree with it or not doesn't matter, and I am not going to discount the very real experience people are currently encountering.
Open to the discussion and ideas, as ever - but it is definitely not as simple as it's being made out to be.
I love it. I love the RP that we've gained as a result. I love the class. I love the messages. I love the theme.
I have no complaints.