The perpetrator of this crime was a leader in a guild since she was a teenager, a guild whose first line of their help file says they are bestowed with the gift of guile and deception. She was a leader in that guild for over 10 years. She was a Senator of Spinesreach for over 14 years.
How long was this individual a citizen of Enorian before she was made an Enorian minister? I know it was less than two IC months, it might have even been after 4 real days.
Which citizen of Enorian, before she ever left Spinesreach, was attempting to convert her, the wife of the General? Thus leaving themselves wide open, IC. When you play with the devil you are opening yourself up to consequences. Is Atarah the RL person a bad person? Absolutely not. There was absolutely no excuse, in the heat of the moment or any other time, for the OOC messages she received in the game.
All of this came about in less than two IC years, closer to just one year. Enorian can shift the blame to the Syssin, because they were roleplaying what they are. But they are at fault here too. They took a known enemy of theirs into their arms without any caution at all.
Also - even if Atarah is not a bad person OOC, she did a thing which had a severe and disproportionately OOC impact, far in excess of any supposed offense on our part. It disproportionately impacted people who had nothing to do with the decisions to trust her and give her power.
While you can dispute the amount of trust we showed, and how quickly we showed it, that feels like a deflection from the fact that no matter how reasonably we dealt with Atarah, we were still going to get robbed. That's the part that sucks about it - knowing that, short of ruining a potentially solid player's game experience, there was nothing that we could have done to stop this from happening.
The most concerning thing is the response from the administration. A precedent was set that basically says, "You do anything dark, evil, or subversive; we're just going to curse you down to where you have zero abilities." Four curses left every Syssin, including novices, with a long line of inept abilities. Most having zero clue IC or OOC to what was going on. The Syssin were told that until the commodities were returned, the entire guild would stay cursed for 100 RL days. Instead of allowing this to play out, give one curse, maybe two, allowing the Syssin to still be able to have some combat abilities and leverage, the administrators made the choice and set the tone for what this game is. The admin did not even allow the players any form of RP or in character resolution. No player base creativity allowed, no facilitating the roleplay, just zap.... "You give back the comms or you and your guild are non-effective." Well, you've now made the best RP guild in the game non-effective. I do hope that is what you wanted.I'm going to give you the same bad advice you're trying to give us-
In fact, Kalak, Duiran -did- show support, and Enorian -did- pull together. The only reason we got stuff back is because someone on the inside saw how shitty this was and wanted to fix it.Many such things can be found, through donations, through player effort and yes, there is clear handholding in this case. I have never seen such a silly thing as disfavoring an entire guild for 100 RL days. Rendering them ineffective because they played their role.
This isn't just 'so build up your comms'. We're a city almost constantly beng raided, so the sigils would be gone. Makes that a lot easier. Without steel, nobody can afford to make weapons, we can't fight anymore. You're so -bent- on 'oh well it was hand holding' that you aren't seeing that, by trying to make conflict, they nearly made it impossible for us to engage in the conflict they wanted to create. And you know what? if admin had just bailed us out, they would've bitched about that too.
I'm consistently impressed you manage to show up on the wrong side of every argument you touch.Dude anyone who thinks 100 RL days disfavor is okay must be a bit mixing OOC and IC stuff in the game. It is unreasonable. It is childish. It shows the lack of restraint on Divine/Admin side and they handle player created crises very poorly.
They robbed a theocracy, and are arguing actions have consequences. The 100 RL day hex is entirely IC and matching with the style of play they chose to pursue- replacing those stolen comms ICly would take longer than 100 days in time alone, let alone gold.
Your version of conflict, and theirs, and Imperians apparently, is not compatible with a MUD. Which is probably why Imperian is dying out at the rate that it is, with leadership retiring regularly.
There was an appalling lack of restraint and trying to warp themselves into the victims is a new low - a record topped in under 24 hours.