At the headwaters of the River Azial, there is a small lake, virtually
unknown to the wider Serin world. On the shores of this lake there is a
tiny village, populated by five or six human families. It is this tiny,
nameless village, from which Fenlorn Lostlake hails.
A tiny village on the shores of a pristine lake, deep in the forest may
sound idyllic, but the reality for the denizens there is far from it. Being
such a tiny village in a dense forest, there is no hope of farming.
Instead, all the villagers must learn to be incredibly close to the nature
that surrounds them. In fact, it's not uncommon for the villagers to become
too close, and loose themselves in the process, becoming the wild-men of the
woods. There is also the unfortunate location of this village. Being
situated in somewhat of a central location, this little village frequently
finds itself stuck in the middle of conflicts. Whether it be overzealous
law-bringers from Solace looking to impose order, or emissaries from the
Armageddon Sanctuary striking out at those they deem heretics, there always
seems to be one group or another attempting to force their will on the
people of the area.
This is the life that Fenlorn came to know. As long as he can remember, it
was common occurrence that some party or another would discover the village
and attempt to subjugate it. They would nearly always lose interest or be
called away to higher profile dealings, as the village is simply too small
to be worth much effort. However, the villagers always suffered in the
interim.
Throughout Fenlorn's 16th year, things became particularly challenging.
Just after his birthday, a troop of Valourians arrived in the village and
roughly scoured it in search of what they deemed "Anathema." Though nobody
was killed, several of the huts were badly damaged and much food was lost
during the overzealous search. Then, a month or so later, some Solacers
came in search of a fugitive and interrogated the entire village for nearly
a week. After three months had passed Fenlorn began to think things may
return to normal, only to witness a band of Darkhaveners approaching. They
sacked the village for the pure thrill, then demanded payment for
'Protection' from it happening again. All of this was incomprehensible to
Fenlorn, for no peer of his had ever expressed any sort of desire to carry
out acts such as he had endured.
Fenlorn, brash teenager that he was, became determined to understand these
events. He requested a pouch of sacred herbs from the village elders, and
disappeared into the forest. For many nights he imbibed the herbs and
sought to expand his mind to understand why these things were happening. On
the sixteenth night, after many vivid though confused visions, he once again
imbibed the herbs and was immediately overcome by a feeling of all-
encompassing calm. He became perfectly still and he saw an endless void
before him. Almost immediately, or perhaps after many hours, he could not
tell, a grey point of light appeared in the void. Steadily it grew larger
until Fenlorn recognized the figure of a man walking towards him.
Clad in a simple grey toga, the man approached and gazed at Fenlorn for a
while, before gesturing down to a lever and fulcrum that had just appeared
before them. On either end of the lever, small intricate arrangements of
stones began to appear. They formed beautiful patterns, but Fenlorn noticed
that whichever pattern he looked at began to expand faster than the other,
quickly sending the lever crashing down and scattering both patterns. Three
times this happened and he began to become frustrated, for he was certain
that the patterns were the answer. He tried quickly shifting his attention
from one side to the other, but he couldn't keep up and again they crashed
and scattered. At a loss, he looked back up at the man, who gave him a wan
smile and gestured back to the apparatus. Fenlorn followed the man's
indication and found himself staring directly at the fulcrum. As he did so,
the stone patterns began to simultaneously build themselves, quickly at
first, but steadily slowing to a steady crawl. Finally the patterns
completed themselves, a bright light washed over him and he opened his eyes
to a beautiful sunrise.
Filled with a sudden and inexplicable sense of purpose, Fenlorn knew he must
leave the village and seek out the Altar of Virgil. Only there would he be
able to find his true path. The elders agreed, but directed him first to
Laucoon of the Ranger's guild, for there he would be given another vision
and a gift only few of the village were allowed.
Description (commended):
You see before you what appears to be a rugged-looking human. He stands
roughly as tall as two halflings, with long legs and a broad chest. He
seems powerfully built, but not bulky. Rather, he gives the impression
that his muscles are toned from constant use, as opposed to cultivated
through training.
The man's face is round, with a very thin mouth set on a strong jaw.
His black hair has a few thin streaks of grey, but he does not seem to be
very old. His skin is light, though weathered and deeply tanned, and with
small dirt smudges here and there. His eyes are difficult to see, as they
are kept narrowed in a perpetual glaring squint. What glimpses of the iris
you can see reflect a bluish grey color back at you.
The armor he wears has a sort-of lived in quality, as though he rarely
takes it off to sleep. He moves comfortably in it, reinforcing the
perception that it is rarely removed. There are grass and mud stains in
places, and bits of lashing holding together areas that have broken or worn
out.
This *player* is highly regarded elite-calibre player who has played several other characters of extraordinary significance and importance to the game's legacy. The contributions they make/made to AR are absolutely worth the highest praise, and they make them all the time.. some of those fell here. this *character* was 200 hours played over 3 years, that's an average of, what, 5 hrs a month, that is a kind of longevity in itself that is probably worthy of questioning. Like, where was that time mostly concentrated (maybe in levelling, training and getting gear?), would that be a hockey stick shape that declined rapidly at some point of lost interest, what is it about the game that causes a player who lost most their interest to keep the character anyway (investment? feeling of obligation?), and what changed now all of a sudden (I think I know that answer but we'd all like to hear it from them unless they wanted a quiet delete).
I interacted with Fenlorn very little. My memories as follows. I remember finding Fenlorn, Serra, and one other person, whom I can't remember who the third person was, but pretty sure they got away. I remember Serra made a huge effort to save them, and I killed her for it, they were past the void and I trapped them with blindness and other spells. Fenlorn came back to try to save Serra, right as I finished Serra, thus trapping himself too. Later on, I remember trying to fight/kill Fenlorn many times. I would see him log in, and immediately start looking. Initially he would just vanish before I found him, so eventually I took to invading the cabal everytime he logged in. I remember, he would always run to cabal guardian and cabal sit, and then be gone again shortly after when whatever character I happened to be playing couldn' seal the deal. Then he got wanted/bountied, and at the time I had a dwarf prot pally Justice, and I was winning (There's a log), until suddenly I wasn't and ended up getting killed myself and mostly looted. Don't think I saw Fenlorn a single time after that encounter.
Problem is, we were enemies 99.99% of the time, and Fenlorn didn't really engage me back. The exception to that was when I had a keeper, very briefly. We spent a decent bit of time together trying to talk about the keeper/warlord potential merger. I remember Szrevan ruining those talks pretty much, when it could have been negotiated to work. Anyway, I would be curious to hear the story here behind Fenlorn as well. Even if the player in questions posts as Fenlorn so as not to out who they were.
First, some backstory or motivations on the character. After coming back in 2020 as many did I had a char or two to get back into the swing of things. After regaining my footing, or so I felt, I decided I wanted to make an effort to improve my PK skills, which in all my years playing I never felt were very good. At the same time I wanted to play a class I'd never played before (at least not seriously) and also join a cabal I never had. In hindsight that's probably too many new things all at once.
I chose Keepers for a couple reasons. One, I wanted to try and help revive what appeared to be a dead cabal. Two, I have a distinct memory of someone suggesting it as a good place to learn PK. This could not be further from the truth, but I'll post those thoughts on the forum thread.
Anyway, it should come as a surprise to no one that I struggled immensely with this character. Pretty soon after hitting 50 I was pressed into conflict with Rhoa frequently. The logs are there for anyone to review, but the fights were very one sided. I did try to soldier on and improve, but I felt like I'd be down to 1/3 hp in about two rounds so it was tough to try and pull anything off. That and Rhoa of course was the most dominant PK'ers in the game. It felt like an amateur boxer going up against Mike Tyson to try and learn how to land a jab. To Rhoa's credit she wouldn't full loot me, but that didn't matter much since all my Keeper gear would crumble on death anyway. I gave up on keeper gear entirely after a while, but that left me at an even greater disadvantage. That's just the skinny against Rhoa, but most other fights (Hraozen, Dogran, Glorbag, Szrevan, and Kryton come to mind) went the same way.
Regarding playtime/activity. Even though WFH afforded me a bit more time to play, it was still pretty limited. There was generally one good block of time on Monday mornings that I could make work, but other time was hard to come by. Still I was managing 20 hours a month or so. However, as I was already struggling with the character I was publicly lambasted by a staff member as "not able to fight out of a wet paper bag" among other dispersions. I would freely admit that the fights were not going well for me, but this public derision effectively kneecapped my motivation to play. The Keeper/Warlord discussions revitalized things somewhat, but when those fell through and I was again publicly slandered the last bits of drive evaporated. I held out hope for some time that I'd find the desire to renew my efforts, but that never really came. This was exacerbated by a lack of Implementor support to address particular pain points for Keepers. So I eventually decided to pull the plug here.
Dogran, my memory of our fights is different. Typically you'd log in towards the end of my play window so I felt it was more appropriate to log out instead of starting a fight that I'd need to leave in the middle of. Now I appreciate that from your point of view it'd look like I was just avoiding you, but that wasn't my intent. All my fights against Rhoa should demonstrate that I wasn't in the habit of quitting out to avoid a difficult fight. You did take to invading to keep me on, which I don't blame you for at all. I do take issue with the assertion that I cabal sat however. I've always been very aware of that and made efforts to avoid doing so. If you weren't actively invading or on the path I'd leave and recuperate elsewhere. At times I did try to confine you when you were invading since you're very good at getting distance to heal up. That's my point of view, people can draw their own conclusions. Oh, and the pali your sanc just fell at the wrong moment and I got a lucky murder+full round combo.
On a positive note, I really enjoyed my interactions with Tearea. Through each of our duels I learned a lot and the RP interactions regarding the Merger were great. That last talk was great, each of us knowing that even though we respected and (I assume) liked each other, the next meeting would be as enemies.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on the character. I'm not trying to stir the pot with anything here, just reflecting on it all. Take it for what you will.
Ozaru
1 , 0 , 2 .
I have been waiting for this delete for ages. Being bad in pk is different than completely shirking cabal responsibilities and going completely inactive. Also you weren't terrible either, its not like every fight was a complete stomp. You rarely made attempts at fighting threats and you seemed to log on and log off at your own leisure without even a single word or attempt at RP. I had the same experience as Nadrin where I would just invade on you with a few different characters and you avoided most fights or just seemed to wait for the invade to try and gain an advantage. The fact that you remained the keeper leader is/was a tragedy. From my Tiram post I am shocked you actually landed 3 kills and what is even more shocking that Beia were actually on the same side and we got along. You are really leaving out important details of your explanation. You got called out by Davairus because it was true, shit or get off the pot and you did neither. You had two hungry active players in your cabal and then you tried to act like you were running shit.
I had nothing but good interactions with your character, being in the same cabal. You were humble and understanding, definitely someone I would enjoy playing with again! See ya next time.
I didn't know Fenlorn and know nothing about keeper abilities or cabal warfare. I'm only popping in to voice the (probably unpopular) opinion that low play time, long enduring characters in established cotories or cabals have value. I never liked how much derision was thrown Fenlorn's way with that as a central premise. I can understand the complaint when vets come in hungry that they want leadership handed off quickly. But for non-vets, having a backbone of low rate established players is a big boon. The heads of the Consortium branches were all low rate players when 4 of us young uns joined it and our experience and retention would not have been the same without them. I know cabals are different than cotories. But if there is a lesson to be learned from Fenlorn, maybe it is down those lines? How can a low rate player be acceptable in a cabal without scorn while also having the high rate player flow undisturbed?
Ozaru
1 , 0 , 1 .
Savanti probably had the same amount of skill, the difference is Savanti didn't compromise his values as a Knight. Fenlorn just straight acted like he didn't have cabal duties.
Davairus
0 , 0 , 0 .
Trillian you identified the issue in your own post. There needs to be an active leader. It could be an immortal or mortal leader, as long as someone is doing it. Deletes, like deaths and retirements IRL, serve an important function of making room for something new to grow. When its time to pass the torch, if you don't see it, eventually other people are going to start nudging you and then if you don't get the hint, it will come more bluntly.
I had no bad interactions with you. Probably should have deleted a long time a go instead of putting the char on the back burner for the last year or two. We've all had chars we hold onto, hoping to get back to them full swing one day.
Maybe there should be an Emeritas option for cabal leaders? Then when somebody new comes in hot if you're not putting up hours you can hand off and become <Leader> Emeritas, keep rank 4, and if they delete in two months you can grumpily retake the reins.
Or maybe I'm trying to solve a problem most people don't care about... but I could definitely see myself as a High Herald Emeritas someday if that station existed. Do you you would have used such an option if it had existed?
[reply to Xenyar]
[reply to Dogran]
[reply to Davairus]
[reply to Ashlyn]
Problem is, we were enemies 99.99% of the time, and Fenlorn didn't really engage me back. The exception to that was when I had a keeper, very briefly. We spent a decent bit of time together trying to talk about the keeper/warlord potential merger. I remember Szrevan ruining those talks pretty much, when it could have been negotiated to work. Anyway, I would be curious to hear the story here behind Fenlorn as well. Even if the player in questions posts as Fenlorn so as not to out who they were.
[reply to Dogran]
First, some backstory or motivations on the character. After coming back in 2020 as many did I had a char or two to get back into the swing of things. After regaining my footing, or so I felt, I decided I wanted to make an effort to improve my PK skills, which in all my years playing I never felt were very good. At the same time I wanted to play a class I'd never played before (at least not seriously) and also join a cabal I never had. In hindsight that's probably too many new things all at once.
I chose Keepers for a couple reasons. One, I wanted to try and help revive what appeared to be a dead cabal. Two, I have a distinct memory of someone suggesting it as a good place to learn PK. This could not be further from the truth, but I'll post those thoughts on the forum thread.
Anyway, it should come as a surprise to no one that I struggled immensely with this character. Pretty soon after hitting 50 I was pressed into conflict with Rhoa frequently. The logs are there for anyone to review, but the fights were very one sided. I did try to soldier on and improve, but I felt like I'd be down to 1/3 hp in about two rounds so it was tough to try and pull anything off. That and Rhoa of course was the most dominant PK'ers in the game. It felt like an amateur boxer going up against Mike Tyson to try and learn how to land a jab. To Rhoa's credit she wouldn't full loot me, but that didn't matter much since all my Keeper gear would crumble on death anyway. I gave up on keeper gear entirely after a while, but that left me at an even greater disadvantage. That's just the skinny against Rhoa, but most other fights (Hraozen, Dogran, Glorbag, Szrevan, and Kryton come to mind) went the same way.
Regarding playtime/activity. Even though WFH afforded me a bit more time to play, it was still pretty limited. There was generally one good block of time on Monday mornings that I could make work, but other time was hard to come by. Still I was managing 20 hours a month or so. However, as I was already struggling with the character I was publicly lambasted by a staff member as "not able to fight out of a wet paper bag" among other dispersions. I would freely admit that the fights were not going well for me, but this public derision effectively kneecapped my motivation to play. The Keeper/Warlord discussions revitalized things somewhat, but when those fell through and I was again publicly slandered the last bits of drive evaporated. I held out hope for some time that I'd find the desire to renew my efforts, but that never really came. This was exacerbated by a lack of Implementor support to address particular pain points for Keepers. So I eventually decided to pull the plug here.
Dogran, my memory of our fights is different. Typically you'd log in towards the end of my play window so I felt it was more appropriate to log out instead of starting a fight that I'd need to leave in the middle of. Now I appreciate that from your point of view it'd look like I was just avoiding you, but that wasn't my intent. All my fights against Rhoa should demonstrate that I wasn't in the habit of quitting out to avoid a difficult fight. You did take to invading to keep me on, which I don't blame you for at all. I do take issue with the assertion that I cabal sat however. I've always been very aware of that and made efforts to avoid doing so. If you weren't actively invading or on the path I'd leave and recuperate elsewhere. At times I did try to confine you when you were invading since you're very good at getting distance to heal up. That's my point of view, people can draw their own conclusions. Oh, and the pali your sanc just fell at the wrong moment and I got a lucky murder+full round combo.
On a positive note, I really enjoyed my interactions with Tearea. Through each of our duels I learned a lot and the RP interactions regarding the Merger were great. That last talk was great, each of us knowing that even though we respected and (I assume) liked each other, the next meeting would be as enemies.
Anyway, those are my thoughts on the character. I'm not trying to stir the pot with anything here, just reflecting on it all. Take it for what you will.
Ozaru 
1 , 0 , 2 . I have been waiting for this delete for ages. Being bad in pk is different than completely shirking cabal responsibilities and going completely inactive. Also you weren't terrible either, its not like every fight was a complete stomp. You rarely made attempts at fighting threats and you seemed to log on and log off at your own leisure without even a single word or attempt at RP. I had the same experience as Nadrin where I would just invade on you with a few different characters and you avoided most fights or just seemed to wait for the invade to try and gain an advantage. The fact that you remained the keeper leader is/was a tragedy. From my Tiram post I am shocked you actually landed 3 kills and what is even more shocking that Beia were actually on the same side and we got along. You are really leaving out important details of your explanation. You got called out by Davairus because it was true, shit or get off the pot and you did neither. You had two hungry active players in your cabal and then you tried to act like you were running shit.
[reply to Xerties][reply to beia]
Ozaru 
1 , 0 , 1 . Savanti probably had the same amount of skill, the difference is Savanti didn't compromise his values as a Knight. Fenlorn just straight acted like he didn't have cabal duties. Davairus 0 , 0 , 0 . Trillian you identified the issue in your own post. There needs to be an active leader. It could be an immortal or mortal leader, as long as someone is doing it. Deletes, like deaths and retirements IRL, serve an important function of making room for something new to grow. When its time to pass the torch, if you don't see it, eventually other people are going to start nudging you and then if you don't get the hint, it will come more bluntly.
[reply to Trillian]Trillian 0 , 0 , 0 . Maybe there should be an Emeritas option for cabal leaders? Then when somebody new comes in hot if you're not putting up hours you can hand off and become <Leader> Emeritas, keep rank 4, and if they delete in two months you can grumpily retake the reins.
[reply to Xenyar]Or maybe I'm trying to solve a problem most people don't care about... but I could definitely see myself as a High Herald Emeritas someday if that station existed. Do you you would have used such an option if it had existed?