Haelun'or, High Elves and Feedback

[Ankan 2875]

 

Haelun’or is in ruin. With almost 6 years of ‘nation status’, the Silver State was one of the most persevering settlements and communities we have had on Lord of the Craft. Haelun’or began as a community project in late Aegis, taking form in early Asulon thanks to intelligent, mature and hard-working High Elves. The lore and culture they created forged an extremely strong foundation for future generations of High Elves to build their version of Haelun’or on. This is a thank you to the High Elven vanguardists creating the lore and building the first Silver City. This is also a thank you to the High Elves who successfully built and kept Haelun’or alive the following 8 (!!!) maps.

 

It is however very obvious that Haelun’or lost its sparkle down the path. Issues with stability and activity has long existed (which is true for all nations and settlements), but it’s downfall has somehow always been able to be saved by nostalgic and passionate High Elves. This time, it didn’t work.
 

There are many threads truly worth giving a read for a feeling of High Elven RP, but no thread more than our beloved (dead) Tradition and Silver thread. Hopefully it will be updated soon (!).

Tradition and Silver

 

---

 

What happens next? The death of the nation Haelun’or is a fact. We have lost nation status and our plot. For many High Elves, this was for the better. Like I said above, Haelun’or had for long lost its sparkle and a proper restart would perhaps be beneficial. I personally think the pugsy-ing of the nation was a bit too far, but being put in this situation forces us to re-think, re-structure and improve some inefficient parts of the settlement. Haelun'or is gone, but High Elven RP is not.

 

Before anything else is announced or started, we have some thinking to do. Many of you have certainly come into contact with High Elven RP and from you, I ask for genuine feedback on what we have had going. We have had many discussions internally, but I think we need additional inputs from other sources. I welcome responses on the thread, but also discussion and inputs over Discord (Ankan#7215).

 

How can High Elven RP be made more interesting and unique, while still not having too high of a threshold for new players to engage in it?

How do you think High Elven RP should be structured in the future? Guild? Freebuild settlement? Part of another nation?

 

Maehr’sae hiylun’ehya.

[Treshure 5817]

I’ve had several cultural concepts and ideas whilst playing the high elves a while ago. If you add me on Discord I can give you the ideas.

 

Bottom line is that traditional high elven culture is dead in the water. You need something new and fresh. It’s been a good run, but it’s time for something new.

 

Edit: As for settlement size, your numbers don’t justify more than the equivalent to a human county. Consider vassalization under some entity. Again, high elven superiority is long gone and wouldn’t integrate with that concept, so something new.

[ScreamingDingo 20568]

High elven RP is dead, let you guys get subjugated and wiped to clear the subrace. Assimilate into other cultures because if the current high elves stay together, the same stagnation will occur. 

[thesaintjaleel 792]

5 minutes ago, GrimReaper98 said:

High elven RP is dead, let you guys get subjugated and wiped to clear the subrace. Assimilate into other cultures because if the current high elves stay together, the same stagnation will occur. 

I legitimately think that compared to Snow Elves, High Elven RP serves a purpose. I've always seen them as an equivalent to the drow of DND.

[Ducklingator 795]

high elves have had ups and downs and the ups have been "5 kinda active players plus that one new guy". its been that way for as long as i can remember. haelunor doesnt need to exist on account of there being other, already active places that high elves can go to.

[Ankan 2875]

6 minutes ago, SuperDuckyGamer said:

high elves have had ups and downs and the ups have been "5 kinda active players plus that one new guy". its been that way for as long as i can remember. haelunor doesnt need to exist on account of there being other, already active places that high elves can go to.

 

I always saw it as if the High Elves should have filled a unique niche of Lord of the Craft RP. The feeling of rationality and an age of reason/enlightenment hasn't properly been conveyed in High Elven RP for long though, so I don't blame you for seeing it like that. 

 

29 minutes ago, Treshure said:

I’ve had several cultural concepts and ideas whilst playing the high elves a while ago. If you add me on Discord I can give you the ideas.

 

Bottom line is that traditional high elven culture is dead in the water. You need something new and fresh. It’s been a good run, but it’s time for something new.

 

Edit: As for settlement size, your numbers don’t justify more than the equivalent to a human county. Consider vassalization under some entity. Again, high elven superiority is long gone and wouldn’t integrate with that concept, so something new.

 

MRGH... We all remember that High Elven Summit still. I will add you and we can have a chat.

[Ankan 2875]

2 minutes ago, Jaeden said:

I played a High Elf back in.....

 

 

I argued the same thing in Axios when we had OOC discussions on reforming the culture. If the idea of purity was softened, or the culture was watered out to attract a larger audience, you lose what was so unique with High Elven RP, and instead I suggested MORE culture and MORE purity. We took many bad decisions with the direction of Haelun'or, I personally see the primary one as how we failed to make High Elven RP offer something unique, even with the good framework there is for it.

 

I don't think High Elven RP or culture warrants a major settlement slot again, but as one of three (four if you want to count the filthy Snow Elves) properly fleshed out Elven cultures, I hope to make sure it doesn't go extinct.

[The Elder Eye 101]

Lord of the Craft struggles with unification of the playerbases. Ever since Athera, the maps have been getting larger and more grandiose, while the playerbase comfortably and consistently sat at the same number of people. Even back then roleplay steadily grew harder and harder to upkeep, as you'd only ever find 10 or so people in one city at a time, and a majority were engaged in their own 'private' roleplay. Keeping in mind, this was back when all of the cities were linked by a SINGULAR road. Nowadays, nobody wishes to invest the time in running half-way across the world just to have to wait at a gate that may or may not actually open. Playing a High Elf was easier when what they did was centralized between all of the other nations, but they clearly began to falter as they were introduced to solitude.

There are a number of aspects which have made these racial communities die, but I don't think it is a lack of interest, in fact, I can tell you a few good things that the prior maps had better than these more recent ones.

Athera: The cities were smaller, and more reasonable, without the expense of actual utility or housing. The territories were smaller, and despite feeling more 'cramped', as people might say, you didn't have to resort to running several- literal- kilometers around the map in order to search for more things to do. Not to mention, there was a distinctly lower number of non-official settlements that people could choose from, making it so cliques *triggered* couldn't hide out in the middle of the wilderness unless they had good reason (E.g. Necromancers). Not to mention, there was a massive amount of effort placed into trying to make the subraces united, like how the old Elven city there was designed for all THREE Elven races, and not just one per. Harder to manage now, but maybe needed with how much empty space we have.
Vailor: This was the point in which LotC should have stuck and not looked back... Or forward. While the fast-travel system at the Cloud Temple Docks may have caused a few isolated incidences, you would struggle to find any notably large groups who would reasonably protest their use unless it involved the non-roleplay aspects of the server, like warclaims. The Nexus system I believe at this point was abandoned (thankfully), and the cities that were granted were a bit larger, and one could definitely feel the disproportionate amount of space compared to players, but it wasn't always so bad. If you wanted to go someplace to look for roleplay, you could just teleport there and look around- And then just leave if it was empty. No soulstone cooldowns, no 15-20 minute runs across the world while your hunger drains into a desiccated husk.
Axios: I wasn't here for Axios, so I can't quite be the judge of it.

Honestly, it dissolves into the cycle that has been going on for years now. Things that the players want are given to them, but liberties that are too important are taken away in return. You can't be expected to cater to every single player and give them their own region, but that doesn't make it a bad thing. Strictly enforcing regions in the prior maps were the only thing that kept stuff like this happening. But that's just a theory.

[NotEvilAtAll 10906]

11 minutes ago, Aythyinae said:

 

I argued the same thing in Axios when we had OOC discussions on reforming the culture. If the idea of purity was softened, or the culture was watered out to attract a larger audience, you lose what was so unique with High Elven RP, and instead I suggested MORE culture and MORE purity. We took many bad decisions with the direction of Haelun'or, I personally see the primary one as how we failed to make High Elven RP offer something unique, even with the good framework there is for it.

 

I don't think High Elven RP or culture warrants a major settlement slot again, but as one of three (four if you want to count the filthy Snow Elves) properly fleshed out Elven cultures, I hope to make sure it doesn't go extinct.

As a player who has lived in a niche race group (halflings) for almost all of my time on LOTC, I think you High Elves should be able to rebuild what you've lost. I've seen the halflings go completely dead in all their villages yet still manage to rebuild everything. Historically, singular halflings have even been able to revive the entire race out of inactivity. If a bunch of pacifistic midgets can bounce back so consistently, I don't think it's all that unreasonable to assume you High Elves will be able to bounce back as well.

 

Now, let me pitch you some ideas:

-Downsize your next settlement to centralize Rp.

-Run more events so that people always have something to look forwards to and a reason to be online.

-Try to get the High Elves living outside of whatever new settlement you form into your new settlement by providing better High Elf RP.

etc.

 

If you need any more advice on how to revive a community, feel free to ping me on discord. It has been done before and is never impossible to pull off.

[Narthok 10416]

For one your settlements are way too ******* big. For one of the consistently smallest and least active groups on lotc for the last year+ the metropolis the high elves had this map was an absolute gong banger of an idea. I also think you suffered massively from the lack of a real leader. Not to offend but the old guard of the helves are gone and with them the majority of the quality leadership. Most of the leaders now are literal whos who have no charisma or following to generate activity, unify a faction or administrate a city. They just sit on random elvish titles in their random empty city allowing the playerbase to further stagnate. 

 

One of the coolest things about High Elves is their purity, what everyone else is saying is retarded and should be ignored. The cultural cornerstone of high elves is what makes them interesting and engaging. Yet it seems high elves are just an albino variant of druids when it comes to execution and playstyle. A super pacifist race prone to sipping tea and min maxing magic. High elves should be out genociding wood elves and whipping around their master race status rather than locking themselves away. Hell one of the coolest things i've ever seen. Was when the high elves went balls to the wall in Athera. They literally melted the Emperor of humanity alive when humans tried to flex on them. Because the High Elves would not tolerate being governed by an 'inferior race'. Even if it meant their destruction. 

 

I think the high elf community and especially the high elf leaders need to acknowledge that they have failed rather than blaming it on the culture or the map. Reach out to the old guard and look for a competent leader. If you can't find one there look elsewhere, you need someone with proven credentials rather than some randoms who are barely capable of leading a barons guard force. Also, rebuild from the ground up and earn your expansions. The Halflings did it and Norland did it. Y'all need to take your refugee status to heart and rp the **** out of it instead of entirely ignoring the fact that you got absolute dicked down by a literal tree god. Assimilate into the dominion if you must but start building your fresh identity on the fact that you are A: A self identitfied master race and B: A superior people with no home. Go around and rply find all the diaspora high elves and rp with them rather than bitching at them over discord. Reunify through the quality of rp and the narrative of the high elf race. TLDR make the helves great again. 

[Blundermore 2741]

If the only thing that kept the High Elves going was a city then it was doomed to fail regardless. 

RP groups aren't defined by buildings or places but by the people who rp in that group. 

[Ankan 2875]

4 minutes ago, Narthok said:

For one your settlements are way too ******* big. For one of the consistently smallest and least active groups on lotc for the last year+ the metropolis the high elves had this map was an absolute gong banger of an idea. I also think you suffered massively from the lack of a real leader. Not to offend but the old guard of the helves are gone and with them the majority of the quality leadership. Most of the leaders now are literal whos who have no charisma or following to generate activity, unify a faction or administrate a city. They just sit on random elvish titles in their random empty city allowing the playerbase to further stagnate. 

 

One of the coolest things about High Elves is their purity, what everyone else is saying is retarded and should be ignored. The cultural cornerstone of high elves is what makes them interesting and engaging. Yet it seems high elves are just an albino variant of druids when it comes to execution and playstyle. A super pacifist race prone to sipping tea and min maxing magic. High elves should be out genociding wood elves and whipping around their master race status rather than locking themselves away. Hell one of the coolest things i've ever seen. Was when the high elves went balls to the wall in Athera. They literally melted the Emperor of humanity alive when humans tried to flex on them. Because the High Elves would not tolerate being governed by an 'inferior race'. Even if it meant their destruction. 

 

 I think the high elf community and especially the high elf leaders need to acknowledge that they have failed rather than blaming it on the culture or the map. Reach out to the old guard and look for a competent leader. If you can't find one there look elsewhere, you need someone with proven credentials rather than some randoms who are barely capable of leading a barons guard force. Also, rebuild from the ground up and earn your expansions. The Halflings did it and Norland did it. Y'all need to take your refugee status to heart and rp the **** out of it instead of entirely ignoring the fact that you got absolute dicked down by a literal tree god. Assimilate into the dominion if you must but start building your fresh identity on the fact that you are A: A self identitfied master race and B: A superior people with no home. Go around and rply find all the diaspora high elves and rp with them rather than bitching at them over discord. Reunify through the quality of rp and the narrative of the high elf race. TLDR make the helves great again. 

 

Thanks for the long response, Narthok. I think you have very well described how I feel as well. After DustyDune left we wanted to address some of those issues too, especially the issue with our settlement. We began working on a rebuild -- an Okarn'thilln 2.0, which would be much better suitable for the size had and culture that we were trying to embrace. Talias had an EXCELLENT build of a centralised small island with a smaller amount of houses. It is true eye candy. When Talias and I lost the election after DustyDune left, Aviers and Countessem had a different vision of the rebuild and we ended up with what we have now. Should you wish so, I would love to share the screenshots of our proposed build in private.

 

I always found hardline purity super fun to RP myself, but it is, like Jaeden pointed out above, it forces characters to exclude themselves from a lot of other RP and a lot of other RP hubs. Athera was great. I truly miss my boy VL and our struggles against the Orenian pigs.

 

Make the helves great again, I agree.

[Monkee 7369]

If you want my honest opinion, integrate into an existing active nation/settlement and gain status as a district or something. Really don't care who, but High Elven rp is too small to survive on its own, and if anything further unification of Elven rp could do the server some good.

[bickando 3967]

2 hours ago, Licorish said:

I legitimately think that compared to Snow Elves, High Elven RP serves a purpose. I've always seen them as an equivalent to the drow of DND.

hey! some of us really like the snow!

[Monkee 7369]

2 hours ago, Licorish said:

I legitimately think that compared to Snow Elves, High Elven RP serves a purpose. I've always seen them as an equivalent to the drow of DND.

so b/c snow elves aren't a dnd or tolkienesque ripoff, they serve no purpose? hm interesting