Vysii

{!} Hot from the printing presses of Beznov, Adria, Ahren would submit this essay for peer review by the Vale of Nevaehlen's Greenblades and any other allies involved in the Vale's defence. {!} On the defence of the Vale Part One: Countering the Chosen Preface My name is Ahren Jaeger, a siege engineer from Adria. I set foot in the Vale of Nevaehlen a while back along with Cathan ahead of an upcoming siege by the Harrower. I have absolutely no connection to Nevaehlen, nor do I know any of its inhabitants on a personal level. But I’m going out of my way to help ensure the good people of the Vale win this battle anyway. My reasons why aren’t very complex. Long-story-short: Darkspawn tore down the walls of my hometown and ate my mother. And today, they continue to threaten Descendantkind’s freedom to prosper peacefully on this continent. So I made it my life’s mission to exterminate Darkspawn from this world. The Harrower, with the literal and figurative shadow he is casting across the continent, is one such blight. So GOD Willing, I shall see to it that the Harrower and his legion of darkness are driven off this island (or die trying). Although, I will admit that I am not much of a fighter. I don’t have the strength of an uruk, mastery over the Void, or the blessing of a god. Nearly all of my weapons are completely mundane in nature. And neither am I particularly proficient in using them compared to the average Adrian. My presence on the front lines as a combatant won’t matter much at all. But what I can do is lend my knowledge and writing ability (or lack thereof) as a scholar. Even just a bit of knowledge sharing should go a long way towards turning the Vale into a great bulwark against the encroaching darkness. I spent months intensively surveying Nevaehlen’s urban and natural terrain to assess the Vale’s defensibility. I walked along the city’s walls, climbed its towers, descended into caves and sinkholes, and clambered into the ruins of the civilisation that preceded the Vale. I also sought insights from the local townspeople, who kindly took the time to show me the important places around town. My conclusion is not optimistic. The fortifications Nevaehlen inherited from the civilisation before it aren’t very defensible, and the entire Vale could be overrun by one serious assault by any vaguely competent and determined attacker — and that’s without even considering the teleportation and shadow magics possessed by the Harrower’s forces. Nevaehlen’s defences need some serious overhauling if it is to hold off a siege without extreme difficulty. Everyone in the Vale needs to mobilise and act together to improve on their home's defences, or else barely anything will get done by the time the Harrower launches his first big assault. This isn’t a burden that just a tiny few individuals can shoulder on their own. This essay constitutes ‘Part One’ of a short series of essays suggesting how to make the Vale easier to defend against the shadowy forces of the Harrower. It is addressed to Nevaehlen’s Greenblades along with any other allies they enlisted in the Vale’s defence. It will compile as many ideas as I can personally recall being brought up throughout the various small discussions between the Vale’s defending forces. I sincerely hope it helps. And any feedback is appreciated. Countering the Chosen The successful defence of Nevaehlen hinges on many factors, with one of the most important being how well the Vale’s defenders can restrict the teleportation capabilities of the Harrower’s Chosen. To recap, based on information kindly provided by Anatoliy Ilya Silveira of Kaethul in the 'War on Ailmere' missive and Liriel Alhanavir of Nevaehlen in the recent moot on defence against the Harrower, the ‘Chosen’ are an elite group of warriors who can use dark shadow magic to teleport between shadows, replicate themselves as ‘shadow clones’, and even turn into shadows themselves. Their abilities make them exceptionally good infiltrators and saboteurs; they are likely to be deployed ahead of large-scale Thrall assaults, creating vulnerabilities in the defence that the more mundane main force can exploit to great effect. They are very, very dangerous opponents whose capabilities need to be specifically planned around. The Chosen can undermine the security of any fort or city with minimal effort. This is not particularly because of the rare metal weapons they wield, the heavy armour they wear, or their skill in combat; their most dangerous aspect by far is their ability to teleport between shadows and to other individuals branded with the Harrower’s Mark. Their teleportation capabilities might even surpass those of Aevos’ greatest Translocation mages as the Chosen can teleport great distances and might not even need a clear line of sight to their destinations in order to do so. Defenders must acknowledge that every square metre of unlit ground or rooftop permitted to exist is a potential teleportation gateway for the Chosen, and that the Harrower can exploit this in all sorts of creative ways. For example: A single Chosen infiltrator can appear in an obscure dark spot anywhere in the Vale, sneak into a strategically important area that is actually very well-lit, and let other Chosen teleport into that area en-masse using their Mark as a teleportation beacon (just as Descendants can translocate to bound soul pillars with their soulstones). Once in position, Chosen can then aid the rest of their legion by lowering ladders, opening gates, and undermining walls so much larger numbers of ordinary Thralls can flood into the city proper. They could also covertly sabotage the defence by burning food supplies, releasing pests, poisoning wells, spiking artillery equipment, starting fires, blowing up gunpowder caches, collapsing entire sections of the Vale by making sinkholes from the underground caverns and sewers, and so on. Though they have the equipment and skills to fight, they do not need to engage in combat at all in order to doom a defence; their most effective use would be paving the way for larger-scale assaults by the Harrower's main force of Thralls. The Chosens' potential to undermine the Vale’s defences (literally and figuratively) from the inside is virtually limitless. The defenders of the Vale must undertake extensive preparations to restrict the Chosens’ ability to teleport. If they fail to adequately prepare for this security risk, it doesn’t matter how strongly Nevaehlen’s walls are built up, how wide a moat its people dig, or how many cannons they can bring to bear; the Chosen can render even the strongest and most elaborate fortifications meaningless if they are permitted free reign to teleport whereever they please. The Chosens’ teleportation capabilities probably can not be completely nullified, but they can at least be mitigated to manageable levels. From various discussions about the defence of the Vale, the three most practical ideas for preventative measures that have emerged thus far appear to be as follows: Dividing the Vale into multiple fortified holdout positions or defensive zones, Lighting up the Vale so the Chosen have fewer places to teleport to, and Introducing mandatory checks for the Harrower’s Mark on everyone entering the Vale. If at least these three ideas are put into practice, even if in small ways on the individual level, it will be a lot harder for the Chosen to infiltrate Nevaehlen and totally undermine its security, and the Vale will be a lot safer for it. The peace of mind everyone will get from not having to worry too much about getting stabbed in the back at any given moment should be well worth the effort. Defensive Zones To avoid spreading Nevaehlen’s forces and resources too thin, Cathan proposed pulling out of areas the Vale likely lacks the time, resources, and manpower to thoroughly light up and defend. These areas included most of the isle beyond Nevaehlen’s walls, the farmlands, and the northern walls and northeastern quadrant of the Vale. By shrinking the area defenders have to protect, the Vale’s resources may be concentrated more densely on just the important areas where the denizens of the Vale live, work, and socialise. These areas would thus become much safer from the threat of Chosen infiltrators. To further mitigate the threat of Chosen infiltrators, Cathan also proposed dividing the Vale’s city sectors into fortified and self-reliant sections or ‘forts’. This way, if the Chosen suddenly appear in one part of the Vale and overwhelm the defenders responding to the breach, the rest of Vale won’t immediately follow because then the Chosens’ advance would be blocked by even more fortifications. This would also give defenders the freedom to wrestle for control of the Vale block by block rather than as one big zone all at once. The above map divides Nevaehlen into multiple defensible zones based on their importance and how easily their local urban and natural terrain features can be integrated and built upon for fortification. The map is meant to help coordinate the construction of defences, but this essay will focus on how it specifically pertains to mitigating the threat of Chosen. The zones marked in Red are the most critical areas to defend. They should be defenders’ first and foremost priorities for fortification and lighting resources. They include: 1) The Campitol district. This will be Nevaehlen’s main defensive line against any attacks coming from the West and South. It will also be the likely location of the defenders’ main military headquarters and artillery batteries. It will likely be hit the hardest by the brunt of the Harrowers' forces. It is crucial to protect this zone because it prevents the Harrower from threatening the interior of the city with his main force. 2) Nevaehlen's Town Square. This is the social and economic hub of Nevaehlen, where its denizens congregate most of the time — essentially, it is the Vale’s beating heart. It would be a devastating blow to the defenders’ morale if their main place to gather and relax was occupied and razed by the Harrower. Therefore, this zone must also get a high priority for fortification. The zones marked in Orange are important buffer zones that, if even lightly fortified and garrisoned, limit the Harrower’s ability to directly threaten Nevaehlen's Campitol district and Town Square. The main Orange zones (which are designated on the map as ‘Forts’) includes groupings of houses that the Vale’s builders should easily be able to convert into defensible self-contained ‘forts’. Some ruined walls and floors would be repaired. Ground-floor windows that would grant attackers an easy means of entry into the fort would be barricaded. Barricades and roadblocks would be set up on the streets. Roof-level walkways and platforms would give archers a safe means to shoot directly down at street-level enemies. Each fort would also be given their own distinct alarm bell so that the rest of the Vale can know when they come under attack. Fortifying the residential districts should give their residents a fighting chance to defend their homes should Chosen appear nearby. The people living in here should be especially invested in lighting up their homes and the streets just outside their doors, as it would prevent Chosen from simply teleporting inside and slitting their throats in their sleep. Other orange zones includes a series of moats, trenches, and other defensive outworks beyond the Western and Southern walls of the Campitol district. It is expected that the outworks would fall early on (as they are mainly meant to delay enemy forces from reaching the Vale’s main walls), so only just enough lighting resources should be invested to prevent Chosen from just completely taking over the outworks and planting explosives at the base of the walls within the first few minutes of an assault. A few Orange zones not included on the map would be the sewers and caverns running just underneath Nevaehlen. It is important that these areas, or at least the entrances to them, are well-lit and constantly monitored so that Chosen infiltrators can not easily bring down the Vale from beneath its defenders’ feet. The zones marked in Yellow are places that can not be so easily converted into self-contained forts but are still worth lighting up with lanterns, torches, bonfires, braziers, bioluminescent plants, luminosity pots and so on. It would greatly help the defence if Chosen are unable to just casually teleport into these areas. These areas include: 1) The Intersection(s) at the centre of the Vale connecting the Campitol, Town Square, and the various Forts together. This place is strategically important as it lets the defenders of the Vale easily move around to wherever they need to go at street level. If it is occupied and blocked off by Chosen infiltrators, they can splits up and isolate the city’s defenders and create a staging area from which the Harrower’s forces can threaten nearly every part of the Vale at the once. 2) The (Western) Bridgehead. It is important to light this area up to deny Chosen infiltrators a potential stepping stone for teleportation jumps into the Town Centre. To put this idea into practice, even without the effort of extensive fortification work: the residents of each residential district should at least get organised and form a ‘neighbourhood watch’ of sorts. Just as many cities, armies, and wilderness rangers maintain fire lookouts to prevent fires from destroying large areas, all denizens of the Vale should act as watchmen, stay vigilant for signs of Chosen activity, and report anything that seems out of the ordinary. The battle is not just being fought at the ramparts, but also in and around their own homes. ((OOC: In case Nevaehlen's builders RPly set up these fortifications but don't have the time to actually place them down on the map before the start of an event involving one, the ST can still try to represent them. I would recommend containing events within individual defensive zones and, should players lose control of one, give players the chance to retake them in future events. If the front lines can change gradually to reflect back-and-forth battles over city blocks, then Nevaehlen's players can develop a more natural sense of progression as the event line goes on.)) Lighting It is important that the Vale, or at least the sectors most crucial to its defence, is thoroughly well-lit. Upgrading its lighting infrastructure by placing down torches, lanterns, braziers, luminescent plants, luminosity lanterns, and faery fire everywhere practical would heavily limit where Chosen can appear and wreak havoc. The less places they can appear from, the easier their movements are to anticipate, the more easily they can be planned around and countered. The Vale is a massive place so it’s practically impossible to light up literally every square metre. Instead, defenders should strategically position their limited lighting resources in important locations. For example: around the Campitol and Town Square districts, along high-traffic pathways, and around other places the people of the Vale really, really do not want Chosen to suddenly surprise-attack them from. If there are enough lighting resources, the sewer and cavern systems beneath the Vale should also be thoroughly lit up to prevent the Harrower from exploiting them. Defenders must be acutely aware of the locations of any left-over dark spots, and make plans that let them effectively respond to and contain any Chosen infiltrators that teleport to them. In lighting up the Vale, it is recommended to make liberal use of faery fire; luminosity potions or lanterns; bardmancer amphitheatres; and other magical, holy, and deific light sources. This is because the Harrower can summon a fog of darkness capable of ‘snuffing out mundane light sources to dim flickers of flame’. He already did this to much of Aevos's northern tundra, and at some point he might try to do the same to other places his forces attack. Normal means of lighting, like conventional torches and oil lanterns, would be rendered impotent. By making heavy use of non-mundane light sources, a fog of darkness, with all the potential teleportation locations it creates for Chosen, would not be as dangerous to the city’s security. It should also be acknowledged that there are some areas that can not be lit. An example would be the Starlily in the cavern on the southeastern corner of the Vale, which thrives in darkness. To protect the Starlily without compromising the security of the Vale, it would be recommended to enclose the Starlily in a dark box with breathing holes on the top side. The box should be big enough to let the plant live without giving space for Chosen to teleport into. The surrounding area outside the box can then be lit up to safe standards. With this, the Starlily can survive without the whole cave becoming a massive security vulnerability. Meanwhile, for Nevaehlen denizens who do not have the building permits or construction skills to add new lighting installations around the Vale, they can at least stockpile and carry around luminosity potions or produce faery fire lanterns wherever they go. They can also help maintain light sources by patrolling around, refuelling them, and ensuring they don’t flicker out. The defence of the Vale is one big team effort, and this is one simple way anyone can take part in. The more manpower Nevaehlen's fighters can dedicate to holding off the hordes of Thralls battering against its walls, rather than constantly watching or patrolling areas Chosen may or may not appear in the end, the better. Maintaining good lighting infrastructure for Nevaehlen is just as important as maintaining its walls. Manipulation and exploitation of shadow is crucial to the Harrower's military strategy, and ensuring there is as few possible shadows for him to weaponise will do a lot towards levelling the playing field. ((OOC: If a creeper can feasibly spawn on a block, so can a Chosen. If we do have to mechanically light up the Vale like we’re playing Minecraft Survival, anywhere we really, really don’t want Chosen to suddenly show up should be illuminated to at least light level 8. However, it's not guaranteed that we can organise mechanically lighting up most of the Vale before the next event is scheduled. While we could procure the necessary amounts of lighting items and faery fire for it, putting all of that onto the RP map and doing a good job of it could take A LOT of time out of people’s schedules. And then there is the issue of handing out build perms to new volunteers and the hurdle of coordinating the construction of lighting infrastructure OOC. Alternatively, the ST can just use this post as a reason to not have the Harrower’s Chosen pull a ‘*teleports behind you* "nothing personnel kid"’ on the Vale’s defenders during the event line while the Vale's lighting infrastructure is still intact. At least this would give STs a good excuse to put more spotlight on mundane Thralls and their siege tactics.)) Mandatory Mark Checks Greenblades must inspect everyone who enters the Vale for the Harrower’s Mark as a matter of routine. According to the missive ‘The War on Ailmere’ by Silveira, the Mark is a curse that essentially turns its victims into spies for the Harrower, teleportation gateways for Chosen, and potential saboteurs. Allowing even just one person with the Mark inside the Vale is a massive security vulnerability that lets the Harrower casually bypass every other defensive measure the Vale may set up. It is imperative that a small station be built after the front gate where gate guards can thoroughly inspect people for the Mark before allowing them into the city proper. The Mark used to be identified by a marking on a person’s back depicting an open palm with an eye in the centre, but more recent Marks are invisible to the naked eye and can only be detected through Arcana Flow goggles as a ‘constant, ominous aura that clings under [a Marked individual’s] clothing.’ This necessitates more thorough vetting than just eyeballing a prospective entrant from the usual guard window at the gate. This additional layer of entrant processing can simply be called the ‘Mark Inspection Station’. It should at least have 1) three processing rooms or tents where guards can conduct inspections in private and 2) a surrounding wall with a gate that lets guards immediately seal off the Mark Inspection Station area should a Marked individual actually show up and Chosen teleport inside. Inside the processing rooms, guards should ask prospective entrants to remove any clothing items or armour pieces that could be concealing a Mark. Many people will not be comfortable with the idea of being vetted by the opposite gender. With this in mind, there should be two guards – one male and one female – available to conduct inspections. There should also be at least three processing rooms: one exclusively for men, one exclusively for women, and another gender-neutral room for people who identify as neither and also to increase the station’s processing capacity. A Mark Inspection Station would be just as important for the Vale’s defence as any of its walls. The Greenblades should not neglect constructing and running one if they don’t want the Harrower’s elites teleporting in and decapitating them from behind. ((OOC: For the sake of conserving time and effort, and to keep safely in line with LOTC’s rules on Prohibited Roleplay (as effective Mark inspections may realistically involve strip searching people), nobody should have to actually go through the time-consuming process of fully RPing out strip searches on every single person who wants to enter the city for a bit. It should be sufficient for the gate guard to stay at the usual window at the gate, post one short emote basically saying they would thoroughly inspect the entering person at the Mark Inspection Station with Arcana Flow goggles, get the player’s OOC assurance that they don’t have the Mark, and then let them into the city as normal. The ST could also represent this by having Marked NPCs be unable enter the city proper via the front gate without getting stopped by the guards, so the Harrower’s forces would probably have to consider alternative ways to infiltrate the Vale where their agents would have a higher chance of success.)) Conclusion The Chosen pose a grave threat to the security of the Vale, but at the very least they are a threat that can be mitigated. And unlike constructing and manning fortifications, countering the Chosen is something anyone can easily get involved in. No engineering degree, fancy magics, or flashy swordsmanship required. For the average civilian, this could be as easy as staying vigilant of one’s surroundings, volunteering to patrol the streets, relighting lanterns when they start to dim and flicker out, and ringing alarm bells when the enemy is spotted. Those with the mina or technical know-how can also procure luminosity potions and produce faery fire. And guards can be a bit more thorough in their vetting of strangers who enter through the front gate. With at least some basic idea of what the Chosen can do, people can probably think of countless other ways to deal with the threat of infiltrators. Doing these things makes it a much, much harder and riskier task for Chosen to infiltrate the Vale and undermine its defence from the inside. If Nevaehlen's streets are at least monitored, patrolled, and well-lit enough, the Harrower may just decide that infiltration via teleport jump is too dangerous and failure-prone an operation to send some of his most valuable assets on. Each Chosen, given their elite capabilities, is probably the product of thousands of man-hours of indoctrination, training, education, and combat experience. The equipment they use is made of rare and valuable materials. And there are probably not too many of them to throw around to begin with. The loss of even one Chosen would be a terrible blow to the Harrower's forces. So the Harrower, as an entity who is arguably capable of intelligent and rational thought, would probably be far more reserved in putting his Chosen at risk than he would be with his rank-and-file cannon fodder Thralls. If the people of the Vale can work together on measures that will make the Harrower think twice about deploying Chosen on infiltration missions, the Vale can be assured a level of security far surpassing that bestowed by any wall or cannon. None of the ideas compiled in this essay — which basically boil down to 'limit the areas the Chosen can feasibly teleport into and strike ' — is some genius game-changing revelation. Everyone in Nevaehlen has an important role to play in protecting their home. Everyone can contribute. Everyone matters.

• Remove CRP Lock inside settlements but keep it in the wilderness • Extend CRP Lock timer in the wilderness to 30 minutes • Remove post-Lock invisibility Towns and cities actually become the places of relative safety they are meant to be. Guards are no longer pointless and actually get a decent chance to react to threats as they realistically should. People will feel safer logging on and actually sticking around to RP, especially in non-peak hours, increasing overall RP and server activity. People's IRL time and commitments get more respect. RP spaces are still usable when fights happen. Nobody has to deal with the jarring situation of watching their buddies get jumped right in the middle of the town square in broad daylight and pretending to not notice or be bothered by it at all. The RP and commerce block of cities closing their gates is much less of an annoyance. CRP can still happen. Bandits and raiders just need to consider that there are obvious risks to attacking people in what are supposed to be populated and defended areas. Lessening the CRP Lock is a compromise that benefits and is supported by the majority of players. And its benefits way, way outweigh any drawbacks. This should not be that hard of a decision.