Lago

Could also add them to Nexus as unable to deal damage, invunerable to anything but gold weaponary and don't need to eat.

(We talking Aeriel here or is it just a similar name?)

(Temporary map until we have a nicer one) THE TRAVELLER’S GUIDE TO ATHERA The Cloud Peninsula In every land to which the Descendants have travelled there has been a Cloud Temple. Either the secretive Cloud Order that looks after the Descendant Races is either always one step ahead of the mortal races or the world truly is littered with empty sandstone monasteries waiting for mortal monks to move in. As is the case with all of the Cloud Temples, violence is both forbidden by law and magically prohibited within the sanctuary’s bounds. The Abyss A pit of unfathomable depth and size, the Abyss is clearly no natural phenomenon. The fabric of the world itself seems torn there, with magical energies defying the laws of nature. At the edge of the Abyss islands float on nothing and water forever plunges into the depths without ever filling the Abyss or draining the seas. The Abyss seems impossible, yet there it is, its yawning depths visible to all who travel too far to the west. The Shards These colossal burned spikes of land jut out over the Great Abyss towards the west of Athera. Nothing grows upon these jagged fragments of whatever was there before the Abyss was formed. Most Atheran historians believe the shards to be the result of a cataclysm involving magics beyond the capabilities of mortal magi, although so far no indication has been found of how old the Shards, and by extension the Abyss, are. Above the shards, upon a floating isle lies what looks like an abandoned city, but it floats too high to be reached by explorers. Godfrey’s Peaks This mountain range is named for Godfrey Horen I, the first Emperor of Mankind, the man who conquered the splinter kingdoms and reunited the shattered nation of Oren into the first Empire of Man, the ideals of which endure to this day. The human capital lies in the shadow of the peaks, shielded from invaders by the mountain to the north and by the river to the south. So far the mountains to not appear to have any remarkable properties beyond their stony resilience but as home of the human nation it is inevitable they will find their place in history. Kazadrin Mountains The gargantuan mountain range in the centre of Athera, the Kazadrin Mountains and the forests on its lower slopes are snowy and bitter cold in spite of the temperate forests, warm seas, hot savannahs and humid jungles that surround the mountain. The dwarves that live on the upper slopes of Mount Kazadrin (known as Mount Thahn in ancient texts) know exactly what this means: beneath the mountains are rich deposits of the powerful yet dangerous magical stone known as thanhium. Thanhic ore absorbs heat, storing it as a raw magical energy that can be coaxed out and used by enchanters and dwarven runesmiths, but the ore has its dangers: it is poisonous to both body and mind, causing frostbite, debilitating fever and magically induced insanity. It is rumoured the depths below the mountain also hides ruins of the ancients who inhabited this land long before the six races came here, and many dwarves are said to have been lost in the deepest caverns in search of prehistoric treasure. Fiandria The tranquil forests of Fiandria are home to the elven races. Unlike the hostile jungle of Primora and the eerie twilight of Adrallan and the sinister darkness of Embermoor, Fiandria, meaning “new hope” in the elven tongue, Fiandria is an easy new home for the elves to settle into. While a few dangerous predators stalk beneath the canopy, the elves have learned to be one with nature or, in the case of the High Elves, to effectively tame it or wall it out. As welcoming as the forest seems, it is not without its secrets. Deep in the forest there are believed to be ancient elven relics holding secrets and powers lost to the elves since time immemorial, and for the long lived elven people, that is a very long time indeed... Embermoor Embermoor is a place where the immaterial boundary between our world and the others is at its thinnest. Ruins suggest it was the site of an ancient catastrophe of the dark arts and the swamp has since been a place where magic is both strong and dangerous. Elemental spirits can take physical form, and seemingly demonic creatures skitter between the trees. It is the one place in Athera where just about any eldritch horror can appear, stalking beneath the swampy canopy. Wisps of fiery magical energy float lazily through the air, giving the area its name. In Embermoor, ghosts find they have the ability to physically interact in a way they cannot in the rest of the land. They can touch the world for Embermoor is not entirely part of our plane. However, it is no paradise for them: Embermoor is a beyond dangerous place where none should linger for long. Ankulos Peninsula The peninsula to the south borders the seas and is the gateway to the (at the time of writing) uncharted southern wildlands. While there is some hostile wildlife the peninsula is not particularly dangerous provided one stays on land. Venturing towards the sea however takes one dangerously close to the hunting ground of the Great Kraken that inhabits the South Sea. It is unknown how many shipwrecks litter the sea floor, but few have ever seen the Kraken and lived. Deus Proditor The sandy mountains of Deus Proditor were not always this way. The sand is ash, and the ruins of a destroyed civilisation litter the blasted island. Something terrible happened here, a whole people annihilated by a power beyond that ever wielded by mortalkind. It is said the reanimated carcasses of those killed in the massacre still stalk the ruins of their civilisation. The most notable thing about Deus Proditor’s annhilated civilisation is that there seems to be only one: whatever wiped them out is likely still out there... The Silver Marsh Named for the silverly stone outcroppings jutting out of the bog, the Silver Marsh is one of the westmost areas of Athera. Towards the west the Shards come into view, to the south lies the savage Primora Jungle and to the north are the mushroom forests and mountain peaks that lie before the Eruthos canyon. The Marsh is said to be the main breeding ground for Rock Lice, the small grey insects that consume poorly constructed or garishly out of place buildings. Some theorise the silvery outcroppings are a sign of precious materials below the marsh, but the boggy ground makes mining prohibitively difficult. Primora Jungle Past the orcish savannah is the Primora Jungle. Within the jungle the flora is as dangerous as a fauna, with carnivorous plants proving as dangerous as the feline predators, giant spiders, carnivorous apelike creatures and parasitic wasps that infest the floor and canopy. Even the orcs are wary of venturing into Primora alone. Those who venture into the jungle unprepared (and even those who are) often do not come back, and those who do often return changed. Canyon of Eruthos The crimson-orange ridge known as the Canyon of Eruthos is the clear boundary between Athera and the wildlands. Very little grows in the canyon, and the journey across it to the wildlands is a perilous one. Like all places in Athera the canyon has its secrets, although it is so vast they may prove difficult to find. Forest of Adrallan The southeastern forest of Adrallan seems innocous at first, but dangerous magics hang over its trees. The forest is always eerily silent. There is clearly life there, but no birdsong tweets through the trees, there is no rustle of animals and the trickle of water from the brooks and streams always seems somewhat... muted. Despite the apparent tranquility, one is always slightly uncomfortable beneath its canopy. The longer one stays in the forest, the longer one feels their memory slipping, their identity fading away. Why did I come here? Who am I? People can be found wandering the forest in confusion or sitting vacant faced on rocks. Even more disturbing are the skeletons, sitting on rocks in the exact same positions. The forest tugs at the mind, fades memories and washes away identity, and those of weak will can easily find themselves lost to it forever. UPDATED 31/08/2014 - Changed the ancient dwarven "Mount Thahn" to the modern dwarven "Mount Kazadrin"

If you want to abandon your snow elf characters in Thales that's your right. There will be no OOC enforcement, however.

The problem there is the problem we've always had: players lore moderating for the sake of it.

I don't know (Jistuma probably does) but bear in mind you'd have to get one first.

If nobody complains who exactly is going to stop you?

You'd be surprised. However, even large amounts of popular support can be overridden if there's a genuine problem.

But it does not get implemented in the face of overwhelming opposition. You don't need lore to be insane. Where did you get that idea? You'd need lore to force other players to be insane against their will (and we wouldn't implement that anyway without good cause), but RPing a crazed character? Of course you wouldn't need lore for that. Just... why?

A phrase is coming to mind involving kettles and pots. This statement is based on? Lore is denied for many, many reasons, often due to overwhelming negative community response. Never out of personal dislike though. That incorrectly assumes the community response on these threads isn't taken into account. Let's be honest, in practice it isn't "deal with it in RP," because when someone's making a load of powergamed nonsense up as they go along and amping it up and up the closer they get to losing (and believe me this happens) you can't deal with it in RP because RP is collaborative, and if one person is concerned only with personal advancement and enjoyment RP breaks down. You can't force someone to stop powergaming with RP. It's "deal with it with PvP," which is really not ideal. PvP ends up not as a combat system but a sword based veto for RP. Currently we have freedom of RP with a few basic restrictions to keep things sane. You very rarely need to write lore unless you're trying to do something very outlandish needing approval or trying to power yourself up.

Actually, they tend to complain on the forums that their RP is being restricted.

Allow me to clarify then. Weird anime-inspired animal-human hybrid half-furries that exist for the sake of it out of the blue do not fit Mech Standard because they're A: new races and B: don't fit LotC in the slightest. If you personally go by anime-inspired stuff doesn't fit mech, you should be fine. Look on the bright side: that's saving you a lot of stress and pain, because if we did let you play an animal-human hybrid half-furry that exists for the sake of it out of the blue (or if you found an IC route to becoming one which would not need lore) then three out of the six races would actively hunt you down and exterminate you as a dangerous abomination because they're roleplaying the attitudes of medieval people who live in a world as harsh as LotC correctly. Remember what happened to the person who had a demon baby with the corrupted, genocidal ash wraiths actively attempting to wipe out all mortal civilisation? Then we've got a whole variety of undead, almost all of which want to kill you and make your corpse into a flesh puppet. We've got the Dread Knights who want to kill you or, if you're nice to them, bind your soul in place for a few years while your body rots to dust and you become one of them. Spectral creatures include Gravens, which will try to kill you, and Apparitions, which will kill you. Even the Kharajyr used to eat dead humans and elves. Even the seemingly harmless stone golems can develop a flaw that leads to the deliberate misinterpretation of commands with a view to causing grievous bodily harm to their masters. The first golem of Aegis became an undead minion. The supernatural is dangerous. If you randomly turn up with cat ears and six tails, don't expect the people of Thales to treat you as an everyday citizen.

That depends on what you're doing. I can only vaguely respond to vagueness. In addition, Cyndikate, if you're going to anonymise your forum profile please move that Dalek348 quote to the top of your post. I mistook you for Dalek.

Um... http://www.lordofthecraft.net/topic/101743-the-lore-mechanical-standard/ You're almost a year late to the party. We did this, what, last summer? We brought it in very soon after PvP default gave us a the best regulation method we could ask for. The lore team actively discourages making lore for stuff, instead directing players to work within the rules and game mechanics to just go ahead and do it. The irony is a month back we had a load of threads demanding we go back to fairly strict LM control, except on top of that remove the ability of players to write lore altogether. So rather than "No, you gotta write lore" it's "No. Not happening. Ever." We get stuff occasionally, but all too often it's either yet another magic or it's tailored to the benefit of the player rather than the server. Frequently both. The ET leader can bypass the lore team in the interests of getting stuff done without having to go through a million staff votes and stuff.

I'm not entirely sure what this does. Lots of backstory, not as much explicit information on function, which should be the focus when designing what's essentially a set of roleplay mechanics.

((It's still Gravens on top, ghosts on bottom. I'd just scrap the chronology entirely and rank based on seniority.))

To progress from one to two up your rank structure would require a player to RP longer than the lifespan of the server so far, and that's the small jump.