Zarsies

Defeated and bound to a new master, the Biting Bat Draz-Kulzattar disincorporates into a swarm of whirling black bats and spills from the fortress' mouth. They fly far in search of new slaves, a new cabal, and a new future.

Sage advice.

Kids these days man

This is why I stan you.

The lost soul of a once-herald roils in the deep. Heed the call, brother. Rise, Judge.

polygamist lore :*

Discord: Zarsies#6396 Bid: $10 Skin Name: Swamp witch

Circulated by way of cheap couriers and wanted boards in public spaces is a reproduced parchment printed in the utmost frugal manner bar a sketch. It depicts a hooved feminine form in peasantish attire, a bovine tail, black claws, a noseless and monstrous face, and a curling mantle of horns.

[As per its nature, only characters with an application allowing for the scrying of prophecies such as Seer, Vivication, Naztherak, and so on can observe the contents of this post IC] The vision came to those who sought - Those who peered in mirrors, in brass vessels - it came in the number sticks, and in the waters of shallow pools; It came in crystal balls and in scrying dreams. It bled and danced vividly from those who searched for truth amidst a sconce of flames; A song. Old, melodious. Tragic as it was beautiful. A song of old days. Of dead days. It came amidst the broken image of elves with skin like porcelain and voices like gold, about a great, towering black tree. It came from the voices of great stone halls. From temples with great names, that lurch the hearts of faithful men. A great hawk plummeted with a thousand voices as its screams and was torn apieces, And then it stopped. And all was black. Then a flame flickered - illuminated a sea of shadows. A single candle, amidst the coming dark. The flame danced and wavered. Its form swung back and forth, widened and split. And there stood a great, burning eye. It watched and it knew. It seized and it saw. It bared the soul and it spoke; “W H A T D O Y O U S E E ?” And all was black. Not the black of sleep, but the long dark, the likes of which beheld when a child first contemplates what it means to be dead. And then the smell of the World returned; the breeze of the wind. The cobbles at ones feet. The fires of the hearth. The light that split from a great crystal ball. The reflection of a mirror, of brass, and of water. One woke - dreading the dark, and musing the words of the eye that illuminated when all was pitch and shadow.

A diverse lot of good and strong takes. I appreciate the engagement and deconstruction, it's more than I had when the idea was conjured.

I must preface this is a stray 6am coffee-fueled thought and I do not have a deeply developed thought process on the following topic, merely a stance. Simply put, wouldn't the state and health of player content (magics, feats, creatures, all lore targeting play) be better if it were more accessible? In the days of yore we had magics that took 6 months to master, harsh requirements to attain teacher applications, and no concept of modern injection or lore surgery (let alone amendments, god bless). Things weren't great. I'm of the philosophy magics should be quick to master - those I've most recently written, seer and blood magic, are mastered in 3 months - and relatively easily attained or easy to interact with - seer has an open feat and leans towards non-seer interaction and blood magic's many items can be used by most non-blood mages. My conception of why boils down to: player content should be easy to get into so it's easy to let go. I want everyone to permakill their characters. I think having a PK (or otherwise ultimate shelving, you get me, sunsetting is cool too) as an option in the background of your mind for a character is good and healthy. When it comes to the state of RP I consider people being open and willing to PK to be a sign of good health; when you aren't covetous, protective, and defensive about a character you are avoiding a font of many agonies. Thus the timesink of learning magic and the rarity of player content leads to OOCly motivated behavior: unrealistic defensiveness and foresight, subtle metagaming and/or powergaming, and ultimately a resistance to PKing and avoiding or kneecapping conflict. I find that clinging to be a sort of pain and, pardon my French, a sort of RP-immaturity. I don't mean to shame those who don't PK, obviously LotC has a deeply ingrained mechanic to allow characters to endure between monk resurrection and no enforced aging, but in the end I believe it to be good to allow yourself to experience it and always expect or be open to it. There's catharsis and great satisfaction in conclusions. This leads me to the topic of this thread: avenues to player content. What are your thoughts on a system where self teaching and grandfathering are more open? For example, say a player has had a TA in a magic and fully taught 3 players across - I don't know, 1 year? - and has received 0 infractions in that time. Therein lies an implication of trust. I propose we may give such a player a sort of pass, whenever they wish once their TA-having character PKs or is otherwise ultimately shelved, to self-teach and/or be grandfathered into the given player content as they wish. A successful reigning lich with 6 total students, 1.5 years playtime, and 0 infractions has their phylactery crushed in some cool tense betrayal RP. They of course PK. In 3 months they apply to self-teach necromancy on a new character. A fire evocationist plays for 2 years, proliferates the magic like wildfire (hah), the ST has 0 problems with them or their students over that time, and ultimately they choose to shelf their character by sailing away with their spouse. 6 months later the player wants to try a new style of caster, perhaps a farfolk dancer in a South Hub settlement, and they want to capture the firedancer aesthetic instead of the wizard they just played. They apply to self-teach fire evocation. The system would need checks and brakes of course but as a general concept what do you think of this? I'm very much a believer that factions and tribalism are the death of player content and the more people involved, playing, and having fun the merrier. Someone getting a toy to play with you also have is not a detriment to the whole. Let's spread lore.