Mother and son walk hand-in-hand through the grand city of Seringale.
The woman is clearly elven, probably a noble according to her attire and her
son appears to be half-drow, on account of his dark complexion and features.
The woman appears quite distressed and frantic, peering about herself
anxiously as she winds through the market square and heads south, taking
pause at the south square.
The boy peers up at her worriedly, obviously feeding off of her anxious
energy and looking for assurance.
Crouching down, the woman leans toward the child and pleads with him:
"Sweetheart, your mother has lost something very dear to her and you're the
only one small enough to retrieve it. Be a dear and go grab it for mommy,
won't you?"
The tears in her eyes had properly conveyed this item's importance and the
boy reluctantly agrees, nodding and peering worriedly into the dark sewers
below.
"I'll lower you down, ok? It's just right down there, you can't miss it."
As the boy is lowered into the darkness, his soft snivels are heard in the
immediate vicinity.
"Mommy? Where? Mommy? Mommy!?"
The woman takes one last glance down the sewer grate and appears to lean in
to respond to his screams for help, but thinks better of it and restrains
herself.
Backing away from the sewer grate, she hesitates briefly once more, the
boy's screams becoming more and more panic-stricken.
The cityguards, having been alerted by the child's screams begin urgently
scanning the area. The labryinth of tunnels that is the Seringale sewer
system did well to confuse them, as the sound of the child's screams
surfaced in multiple areas of the city.
Noticing the distraught mother, one of the cityguards approaches her to
assist.
"Miss, where was your son last seen!? Miss!"
With tear-stained eyes, she promptly responds with a pained shriek, "You'll
never understand!" Before pushing her way through the concerned crowd and
disappearing beyond the outskirts.
Somewhere deep in the dwarven forest, a mother becomes lost in the barren
highlands, tears in her eyes as the realization sinks in: He is lost. He is
betrayed. He is alone... He is probably dead... Just like the stillborn
baby in her stomach.
And they made her do it. They are all guilty of it. They all must pay for
her suffering, and they will...
Description:
A swirling cloud of shadowy darkness covers the figure deep within it,
embracing it. It briefly reveals a slender female, close to six feet in
height with a rather pale skin. Frost-touched hair seemed to be well-kept
at one point despite an obvious hard upbringing, but it falls now over her
face as if through some sad attempt she could hide her demonic visage from
the world. Once pale blue eyes have now become tarnished with bright red
cracks of energy, turning them into a fractured mirror of power... A lack
of sleep apparent from the heavy sags growing beneath her eyes. Her face a
volcano of emotion, a haunted soul that stares inward and has now exploded
with anger onto the world. A translucent, ghostly, shadowy form of a baby
flies and circles within the dark fog, appearing and disappearing here and
there. Giggling and laughter, like a distant echo of some tiny silver bell,
accompanies manifestations of the being. Sometimes, a woeful womans cry
pierces the area, and a ghostly image of a beautiful elven maiden flashes
and dissolves like a forgotten dream.
It'd be nice if Ozaru did play a DK... he would be right at home there.
There is a misconception that any DK is worthless trash when they seem to be going with a pure trash RP in their early days.. that's not necessarily the case. They are not just powerful evil versions of paladins without the rules and taking huge damage from wraths. There's more to them than that.
What makes a paladin especially distinct from a dark-knight is they are supposed to have a strong sense of compassion. This means paladins would at least try to look past differences between themselves and evils, find common ground and try to bring you back. That is because they ultimately are motivated to try to save your soul and guide you to the light, after you have paid for your sins. In a sense the dark-knights are pretty much totally misguided versions of paladins. When paladins dont bother take any initiative to rescue a DK from their dark path, or when the DK is completely dug in and not willing to even tease the turn anyway, those are scenarios where RP opportunity is getting completely stepped over for fragging
This character had great RP. Really enjoyed our brief interaction. I expected the rivalry between Shadow and Fire to play out for much longer. The circumstances around this delete seem very suspicious. I get the sense we're not getting the whole story here.
Yes I also was hoping to play out the whole story.
It was an elven noble, shunned by her society by having a half-breed child. To preserve her nobility and status in society she was forced to kill off the kid. She did leave the kid to seringale sewers and walked away, only to make it to the Eastern road, get lost in dwarf forest and take her life in Barrens. Now through some dark stuff she came back to return her suffering upon society. She was role-playing as a wailing spectre. Thus the desc.
Background never got approved so that's a very shitty sum at the above.
Reasons for deletion were pretty sad. Let's just say that it seems that you can't play a character with completely different rp and objectives along with another char that may have conflict of interest from dk kills? I was just mad when I logged on and found a note about me trash killing
..
I killed oohbuh because at lower level Verien wanted his crown of might, oohbuh told me off and I did the typical evil threat. Took a week til I saw him again and we were both higher level with him outleveling me.
Also I don't think anyone even reads backgrounds anymore unless you're caballed and they are must to approve. So I don't think any imms actually read my desf or background or paid any mind to all the ecasts and emotes and just figured it's another shitty trash dk trash pking off competition for his other char shrug. Reality is that I made this char for rp first pk second.
I can understand part of Verien's frustration... Though one thing worth noting is that *in theory* the Consortium (Heralds, Mystics, and Scholars) reads and either approves entries or asks people to make changes if needed.
Which brings me to another point: the Consortium seems to be largely inactive. Ever since Serra stopped showing up, background entries have been slower to process (if they even get approved)... And it sometimes feels like the Consortium members don't know what they're doing or aren't producing highly visible results. The last Mystique issue came out in March, and the one prior was in December of last year, so in theory there could (and maybe even SHOULD) be another one out now. There have also been no Consortium-run events in a while... Not even letting out the gremlins for a surge every once in a while. I'm not sure what the status is of the Serin Race either... Seems like forever since somebody ran it. I'm not sure if the creature lore is actively being created or edited any more either... More could be said but that's plenty.
But, as Vanisse said a long time ago, the Heralds thrive when there is activity... The Consortium was a merging of two organizations due to the fact that the Heralds used to do what the new Mystics did anyway, and this encouraged collaboration. It hasn't solved the overall problem of low activity in AR, however, and maybe the low playerbase is why they're also largely inactive.
Kalist19
0 , 0 , 0 .
Verien, created on the 20th of July. 8 days lifetime. When was the background written? Day 1? Day 5? Day 7?
Widow please remember that just as the Immortals, consortium members are real people with real lives. Some people are able to play more than others. I wish I could spend all day on AR but that’s not the case. Descriptions and background approvals aren’t instantaneous. They don’t carry pagers in real life that go off to alert them that someone posted a background in game.
Things like the mystique and events take a tremendous amount of work. Work that goes without great fanfare and praise from the majority of the populace. I’m glad for their hard work and try to engage in the events whenever I am able.
There are likely less total hours played in the summer due to vacations/camping/etc. I think our actual player numbers aren’t bad - it’s just hard to mud out in the sun.
BW if you have a problem with the speed of publication, roll up a herald and get writing yourself. It's ridiculous to claim that Mystiques "should" be published at a certain rate. In fact, the last one was published with the shortest duration between volumes since 2014, I'd call that a fast pace. And it's actually my call to make.
Secondly, the poetry contest was held just last month. What "more could be said" except shut your lying mouth? This slander is getting out of hand.
Hey guys dont get me wrong, I am not mad at all for not getting backgrounds approved. I simply explained my story 101 here, I did not expect/assume or felt entitled to get backgrounds approved before someone has free time. This is TOTALLY fine. Only explained the story to explain that I was NOT trash pking.
I deleted because I was being labeled as trash by a certain immortal, killing people to fit agenda of my other char. Which is far from truth. I want to avoid further "conflict of interest" even if it costs me a beloved char.
Please dont underappreciate immortals/heralds/mystics/scholars, they are doing an excellent job still whenever they have time!
Ashlyn
1 , 0 , 0 .
New goal accepted: Usurp leadership of the consortium to turn public opinion against random people and see hilarity ensue.
Verien, ignore the noise. Doesn't matter how deep your roleplay is, people are going to feel some sort of way when you kill them. That feeling gets multiplied 100 times when they get looted. I had a character I did things I felt really good about and put a ton of hours and effort into and fleshed out roleplay etc. that got labelled something I didn't like or agree with by different people, got called out by an immortal for something that wasnt even close to reality, etc. It really bothered me so I rolled another character and just went full trash idiot to establish a baseline to demonstrate the difference. Honestly I felt the trash character got more respect for what I thought was totally uninspired behavior (minimal though legitimate rp, aggressive pk) than the character I really valued and put a ton of effort into.
I decided to just play in the style that gives me the most enjoyment and when I stop enjoying it ill stop. While having the validation of the pbase/imms would be nice, someone is going to get their feelings hurt when pk/looting is involved.
Good point Ashlyn, seems there's really no baseline anymore and it's all a subject to personal preference by whichever immortal you happen to piss off/please at a right moment lol.
To me, heavy RP chars seem dead, because nobody seems to give a fuck. So I stop trying.
Davairus
0 , 0 , 1 .
This sorta frustration is reserved for people who just deleted a level 50 Legion, not some DK they played less than 30 hrs on. You twerp.
Sorry, I didn't mean to threadjack. I'll check on your backgrounds next time I log in. Sounds like you had a great story to tell and I'm excited to read it.
(removed) 0 , 0 , 0 . THIS COMMENT HAS BEEN REMOVED.
[reply to Verien]Oohbuh 0 , 0 , 0 . Bye bye, poo poo
[reply to twerpalina][reply to Zeedijk]
There is a misconception that any DK is worthless trash when they seem to be going with a pure trash RP in their early days.. that's not necessarily the case. They are not just powerful evil versions of paladins without the rules and taking huge damage from wraths. There's more to them than that.
What makes a paladin especially distinct from a dark-knight is they are supposed to have a strong sense of compassion. This means paladins would at least try to look past differences between themselves and evils, find common ground and try to bring you back. That is because they ultimately are motivated to try to save your soul and guide you to the light, after you have paid for your sins. In a sense the dark-knights are pretty much totally misguided versions of paladins. When paladins dont bother take any initiative to rescue a DK from their dark path, or when the DK is completely dug in and not willing to even tease the turn anyway, those are scenarios where RP opportunity is getting completely stepped over for fragging
[reply to Davairus]
Verien 0 , 0 , 1 . Yes I also was hoping to play out the whole story.
Verien 0 , 0 , 1 . Also I don't think anyone even reads backgrounds anymore unless you're caballed and they are must to approve. So I don't think any imms actually read my desf or background or paid any mind to all the ecasts and emotes and just figured it's another shitty trash dk trash pking off competition for his other char shrug. Reality is that I made this char for rp first pk second. Davairus 1 , 0 , 0 . haha you sound so angry and frustrated Verien 0 , 0 , 0 . perhaps slightly yea
[reply to Viktus]It was an elven noble, shunned by her society by having a half-breed child. To preserve her nobility and status in society she was forced to kill off the kid. She did leave the kid to seringale sewers and walked away, only to make it to the Eastern road, get lost in dwarf forest and take her life in Barrens. Now through some dark stuff she came back to return her suffering upon society. She was role-playing as a wailing spectre. Thus the desc.
Background never got approved so that's a very shitty sum at the above.
Reasons for deletion were pretty sad. Let's just say that it seems that you can't play a character with completely different rp and objectives along with another char that may have conflict of interest from dk kills? I was just mad when I logged on and found a note about me trash killing
..
I killed oohbuh because at lower level Verien wanted his crown of might, oohbuh told me off and I did the typical evil threat. Took a week til I saw him again and we were both higher level with him outleveling me.
Which brings me to another point: the Consortium seems to be largely inactive. Ever since Serra stopped showing up, background entries have been slower to process (if they even get approved)... And it sometimes feels like the Consortium members don't know what they're doing or aren't producing highly visible results. The last Mystique issue came out in March, and the one prior was in December of last year, so in theory there could (and maybe even SHOULD) be another one out now. There have also been no Consortium-run events in a while... Not even letting out the gremlins for a surge every once in a while. I'm not sure what the status is of the Serin Race either... Seems like forever since somebody ran it. I'm not sure if the creature lore is actively being created or edited any more either... More could be said but that's plenty.
But, as Vanisse said a long time ago, the Heralds thrive when there is activity... The Consortium was a merging of two organizations due to the fact that the Heralds used to do what the new Mystics did anyway, and this encouraged collaboration. It hasn't solved the overall problem of low activity in AR, however, and maybe the low playerbase is why they're also largely inactive.
Kalist19 
0 , 0 , 0 . Verien, created on the 20th of July. 8 days lifetime. When was the background written? Day 1? Day 5? Day 7?
Ilromie 1 , 0 , 0 . BW if you have a problem with the speed of publication, roll up a herald and get writing yourself. It's ridiculous to claim that Mystiques "should" be published at a certain rate. In fact, the last one was published with the shortest duration between volumes since 2014, I'd call that a fast pace. And it's actually my call to make.
Verien 0 , 0 , 0 . Hey guys dont get me wrong, I am not mad at all for not getting backgrounds approved. I simply explained my story 101 here, I did not expect/assume or felt entitled to get backgrounds approved before someone has free time. This is TOTALLY fine. Only explained the story to explain that I was NOT trash pking.
Ashlyn 
1 , 0 , 0 . New goal accepted: Usurp leadership of the consortium to turn public opinion against random people and see hilarity ensue.
Verien 1 , 0 , 0 . Good point Ashlyn, seems there's really no baseline anymore and it's all a subject to personal preference by whichever immortal you happen to piss off/please at a right moment lol.
Davairus 0 , 0 , 1 . This sorta frustration is reserved for people who just deleted a level 50 Legion, not some DK they played less than 30 hrs on. You twerp. Ilromie 0 , 0 , 0 . Sorry, I didn't mean to threadjack. I'll check on your backgrounds next time I log in. Sounds like you had a great story to tell and I'm excited to read it. Verien 1 , 0 , 0 . no dont worry about it, I only managed to post 1st entry, I had 2. and 3. ready but I was waiting for a proper moment to align with ingame events.
[reply to BlackWidow]Widow please remember that just as the Immortals, consortium members are real people with real lives. Some people are able to play more than others. I wish I could spend all day on AR but that’s not the case. Descriptions and background approvals aren’t instantaneous. They don’t carry pagers in real life that go off to alert them that someone posted a background in game.
Things like the mystique and events take a tremendous amount of work. Work that goes without great fanfare and praise from the majority of the populace. I’m glad for their hard work and try to engage in the events whenever I am able.
There are likely less total hours played in the summer due to vacations/camping/etc. I think our actual player numbers aren’t bad - it’s just hard to mud out in the sun.
Secondly, the poetry contest was held just last month. What "more could be said" except shut your lying mouth? This slander is getting out of hand.
I deleted because I was being labeled as trash by a certain immortal, killing people to fit agenda of my other char. Which is far from truth. I want to avoid further "conflict of interest" even if it costs me a beloved char.
Please dont underappreciate immortals/heralds/mystics/scholars, they are doing an excellent job still whenever they have time!
Verien, ignore the noise. Doesn't matter how deep your roleplay is, people are going to feel some sort of way when you kill them. That feeling gets multiplied 100 times when they get looted. I had a character I did things I felt really good about and put a ton of hours and effort into and fleshed out roleplay etc. that got labelled something I didn't like or agree with by different people, got called out by an immortal for something that wasnt even close to reality, etc. It really bothered me so I rolled another character and just went full trash idiot to establish a baseline to demonstrate the difference. Honestly I felt the trash character got more respect for what I thought was totally uninspired behavior (minimal though legitimate rp, aggressive pk) than the character I really valued and put a ton of effort into.
I decided to just play in the style that gives me the most enjoyment and when I stop enjoying it ill stop. While having the validation of the pbase/imms would be nice, someone is going to get their feelings hurt when pk/looting is involved.
/end tangent
To me, heavy RP chars seem dead, because nobody seems to give a fuck. So I stop trying.