Esterlen

Moon Guard US for WoW and Tarnished Coast for GW2. Haven't played in years for both of them, though, I always think about going back but never end up doing it!

Welcome, my friend! I too am a former WoW and GW2 RPer. The communities are very different over there, but I still like them all the same. What are you planning on roleplaying?

Shut it down, Tahmas! They know!

“Alright, I’m charged up.” -Jesse Niccum, c. 2015 Before we begin, I want to say this: If you want us to stop making these protest threads, then stop giving us matters to protest over. I don't like having to write these any more than you like having to read them. There was no communication, no explanation, and no justification for this. Tahmas, don't tell me you're oblivious, because nobody can possibly be that stupid and out-of-touch. You must know there’s a rapidly growing chunk of players who are quickly growing increasingly disgruntled by your performance, attitude and decisions, and you had to know this was only going to make that worse. Now to begin, As it so happens, I’ve just been informed of the removal Thepyrodude from the GM team for the accusations of having a poor ‘general demeanour towards players’ as well as ‘general abrasiveness’, punctuated by ambiguous and as yet unclarified charges of ‘past complaints’ and ‘staff misconduct’. I’m getting deja vu from the time they dismissed me from the Wiki Team, without warning, for the ambiguous claim of ‘bias’, and didn’t provide a single screenshot of evidence to back it up. As it so happens, I’ve learned recently that the ‘bias’ was an excuse - I was actually removed for privately denigrating the powers-that-be. And now we’re seeing that kind of admin megalomania all over again. Bet you’re feeling prescient now, Kincaid. I want to be perfectly clear with you all: this is not a just or fair removal. This is a coup. It is the start of a systematic effort to remove from OOC relevance anybody who expresses an opinion or sentiment contrary to the wishes of the Administration Team. For these people (who believe the server is heading in the complete wrong direction under the current admins), Pyro was a figurehead, culminating in his post entitled ‘Admin Intervention in RP’ two weeks ago. https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/153534-admin-intervention-in-rp/ Firstly: where’s the evidence? The answer is that there’s none, because Pyro hasn’t actually done anything tangibly against the rules. Indeed, he’s done everything expected of him as a GM except for the most important thing in the eyes of an echo chamber Admin Team - complete and total compliance. Here is the official statement from GM manager Josh regarding why Pyro was removed from the GM team. We first want to point out that there is no evidence to back up these claims. They are unspecific accusations at best, with no specification on where, when and how these alleged crimes happened, who was involved, and so on. Most importantly, there’s a complete lack of screenshot proof of any of this happening. When asked for evidence, the following reply was given: Here’s a translation from the flowery language of the tried-and-tested staff elite: ‘We don’t actually have any evidence, we’re just removing you because you’ve been spreading all this dissent in the community and that makes us look bad.’ Now, to explain why this is completely unreasonable. This is a Minecraft roleplaying server, not the federal justice system with a witness protection agency. If Pyro is being punished for something, he deserves to see all the evidence against him and have as much a chance to refute it and provide counter-evidence as the prosecutor has to do the opposite. By keeping his prosecutor private, you are literally only listening to one side, and choosing only to see HALF of the evidence before making a final verdict. That is the very definition of a weighted, unfair system. I understand that the reporter is kept anonymous to prevent potential harassment, but the complete one-sided, bias, unfairness of a system where the defendant is never shown the evidence against him or allowed to defend himself outweighs that. Besides, you can easily punish anyone who does harass the reporter. With that out the way, let's go back to Josh’s official statement and break it down. 1) Unprecedented toxicity Ah yes, the return of ski_king3’s favourite buzzword, an appellation used to denigrate just about anyone who does something the staff don’t like. ‘Toxicity’ is an unquantifiable and unmeasurable concept, and without proper screenshot evidence the accusation of this holds no weight. 2) MCly running from RP I’m severely disappointed in this charge, because GMs are once again going against established precedent. And this time it’s literally written in the rules: Anyone is allowed to MCly run from RP. The pursuers must simply give chase and down the runner mechanically to then resume RP. Not only this is plainly written in the rules, several GMs, including GM manager Beast720 have enforced this as a viable tactic in the past when players got disgruntled about people bolting from them MCly. Are GMs suddenly held to a different ruleset than regular players now? Or is this just admins manipulating unwritten expectations to justify removing someone who wasn’t part of the echo chamber? 3) Metagaming Again, it’s very hard to make a defense when we’ve yet to be shown any solid screenshot evidence. But, assuming the metagaming took place during these alleged assassination attempts, I’ve managed to do some detective work so I can draw some conclusions of my own. The Imperial Palace is, in RP, swarming with guards. Why the f*ck wouldn’t it be? It’s one of the most busy areas of Johannesburg. It’s also an established precedent (even if admins seem to be ignoring those a lot lately) that when a conflict is happening in a major RP hub, it really isn’t metagaming for guards to generally gravitate towards that area. Even if they were asked to log on for the fight (which again, is also allowed). Do you expect to assault the emperor in the middle of the palace gardens and not draw any sort of attention to yourself? 4) Powergaming We weren’t shown any evidence or explanation of this either (starting to notice a trend here?) so once again it’s hard to make a defense against empty air. I do wish to make some assumptions based on my extensive experience with RP fighting, though. 90% of blatant, undisputable powergaming cases come from new players who don’t know the ropes yet. Any cases between veteran players is usually highly subjective, embroiled with minute details (and usually involves some sort of magic related argument). I highly doubt Pyro blatantly power-gamed, and instead the GM managers and Tahmas (who are clearly beacons of professionalism and objective, neutral judgement) put his emotes under a magnifying glass until they could find the vague subjective details to justify his emotes as powergaming. You could literally do that with anyone. I could do it with Tahmas. 5) OOCly banning people from Oren I can justify this in one sentence. If someone is plotting against you, purely OOCly, without RPing it out whatsoever, then what can you do to defend yourself other than with OOC? The only people who I can think of as ‘OOCly blacklisted’ from Oren are people who have fought against, undermined, and tried to destroy Oren on a chain of multiple characters (Narthok, Vegetarianism, Malgonious, etc). It’s a very hard list to get on, actually. If you’ll notice, a good chunk of Orenian leadership (and former emperors) is made up of people who have at one point been an enemy of Oren: Zhulik, Cracker, Leowarrior, Niccum, etc. Being OOCly ‘blacklisted’ means that you, the ‘blacklistee’, have transcended your status as an enemy of Oren from RP to OOC. That’s not something that’s easy to do, especially without actively trying. Now, these people who are ‘OOCly blacklisted’ more often than not play characters who are more or less innocent and harmless (yet inconspicuously show up on the enemy side at every warclaim Oren is involved in). They can do this because they do all their anti-Oren plotting in OOC. In their TS and Skype chats. Thus, they can integrate and infiltrate into Oren’s regions and playerbases despite being an active OOC enemy of the Empire, and we can’t do a single thing about it since all of their plotting is done via Skype, and not through actual roleplay. So, once again, I ask you this: If someone is actively plotting to destroy your playerbase, but does it all OOCly and refuses to RP it out, what can you do to defend yourself but to block that person from your playerbase OOCly? Biased decision makers: Don’t even get me started on the cabal of GM managers who made this decision, as well. You have Josh, a leader of the group Pyro’s nation is actively warring against at the moment, Tahmas, an inveterately corrupt admin whose ostensible goal (though he’d never admit to it) is to wipe ‘big bad Oren’ off the map through a plethora of OOC regulations on RP and war, and Beast720, who… Well, that speaks for itself. I could make another whole damned thread about how out-of-his-depth a simpleton like Beast must be while running the GM team as manager, but I digress. Even taking out active, conscious bias from this ill-advised committee, subconscious bias is clearly rife and prevalent. Competent and fair-minded GMs, when having a conflict of interest in these matters, would recuse themselves from handling this sort of complaint and let somebody who the community knows is unbiased and reasonable (Ever?) handle it. Unfortunately, in dealing with the staff elite, we’re not dealing with people who possess even a modicum of competency or reason, and so we’ve gotten the result we have. Just the other day, Lego_XBOX told our community that we couldn’t defend our own land, and he would ‘ban us all’ if we tried. Yes, he actually said that - you can read more about that situation in Lyon’s thread on precedent that I linked earlier. He completely and utterly mishandled his supervision of a raid, showing clear and obvious bias, ignoring past precedent and totally disregarding the rules he is supposed to enforce. He even admitted afterwards that he was totally wrong, and then he went back and forth on it, vacillating with vaguely Bill Clintonesque phrases like ‘determined in another way that had been originally thought’. I did not have sexual relations with that woman either, Lego_XBOX. Now a person prone to misjudgements like that shouldn’t be on the staff team, and despite numerous calls for him to resign or be dismissed, nothing has happened. The lesson we learnt from that? Abuse is only abuse when people who question the admins are even suspected of it, and those people tend to be part of the Orenian community. Assuming Pyro has even done anything wrong, and I’m of the firm belief he hasn’t, what he’s accused of is small potatoes compared to the countless infringements inept and prejudiced staff like Lego_XBOX have been able to get away with. But of course, they get a free pass, because they’re a part of the clique of revolving-door staff elite who govern LotC. And a complaint from a complainant who probably has an explicit political agenda in making that complaint, being motivated not by a genuine issue but rather the intent to hinder the leader of an RP faction opposed to their own RP faction, is considered wholly legitimate so long as it's against the right staff member. I know Pyro to be a fair-minded and thoroughly decent GM who espouses the cause of dynamic, developed roleplay with minimal staff control and intervention. I know that he has always and will always advocate for the rich tapestry of roleplay which weaves together to become the multitude of stories we share on this server. Of course, this doesn’t and will never suit the narrative of the grasping, venal staff elite, who want total and incontrovertible control over all roleplay. If it doesn’t go their way, they void and amend it. Forget any hope for dynamic RP. Pyro resisted the likes of Tahmas and represented an immense portion of the community in an increasingly unrepresentative staff team which has proven time and time again that its interests are completely divergent from those of the players. Using florid language to distract from the issues at hand, a cabal of reactionary admins dismissed all the problems in the server he brought up, intent on sticking to their ways and preserving the status quo and echo chamber alike. I don’t know if we’ll ever evolve beyond this point, but I hope for the community that I love and consider myself a member of that we do, and undergo some fundamental change. I’ve got a very simple message for Tahmas in response to this: Resign now. You are the single worst, most corrupt, most incompetent and most malicious admin we have ever had, as far back as I can remember, since 2011. You are probably worse than ski_king3, and that’s saying a lot coming from me. Your agenda is completely and totally separate from the well-being of this community, and the vast majority of old players can see right through the illusion you put up. Your attempt to silence the dissent that’s come from this incredibly poor decision (Getting the Orwellian FMs on red hot alert to shut up anybody criticizing this? Screeching in an effort to keep leaks from the removal chat silent so there’s minimal public outcry?) is pathetic and demonstrates to me how much of a megalomaniac you really are. Pyro undertook the gravest crime possible of questioning you, of making a thread that hurt your PR and exposed that your agenda was one to maximize staff control and kill any hopes of anyone winning a conflict that upset the status quo, and you privately swore retribution from that moment. This baseless removal of somebody who acts as a challenge and rival to the stagnant, inviolable roleplay world you want to create through OOC regulation and intervention, is the culmination of that retribution. To the Administration Team: We don’t trust you. We don’t trust you to make the right decisions, and we don’t trust you to lead us. You were chosen through clique mentality and oligarchy as opposed to a genuine belief that you would represent community interests. A few of you also need to go, but I think most of your errors pale in comparison to those I’ve already mentioned. If we want to change this server, expanding and improving it, we need new leadership in control, not the same old tried-and-tested members of the staff elite who come in and out of the positions like a revolving door, seemingly becoming robotic and totally disconnected from the community they were once a part of upon their ascension to the red tag. But I know the voluntary subordination of your own ambitions and authority in exchange for the community’s well-being might be too much to ask for from people like you, so I’ll keep this short and sweet - put Pyro back on the team. A GM like him represents the interests and ideals of the people who are actually on the ground, the players who are role-playing, an aspect of the server that you are all incredibly removed from and direly need representation for on your team. Otherwise, the echo chamber will be continued indefinitely.

Revised as of 7th of the Amber Cold, 1590, accounting for the birth of Prince John Godwin of Alstion and his creation to the title of Prince of Alstion, as well as for the inclusion of Caius Horen, son of the Baron of Senntisten.

If only they knew how accurate this is.

"It is now."

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.” John the First, after the Siege of Rhewengrad, 1537 16th of Malin’s Welcome, 1590 Johannesburg, capital city of the Holy Orenian Empire. The relative peace of another day in Johannesburg was broken suddenly by the sound of armored boots on stone. The dwarves marched into the city, running through the streets, hunting out those they could. Most of the Legion was not within the city, out on patrol. Those few there fought valiantly, retreating to within their barracks. The Urguanites had not brought any falconers with them, and before long, birds flew from the fortress, summoning those out of the city. Before long, they came marching back, even as the Dwedmar pushed out of the city, holing up in a fortress behind the city. Those that would defend their empire rallied in the square, pulling on armor and sharpening blades quickly. Knights mixed with common foot soldiers, the uniforms of the Westerlands company blending with that of the 1st Brigade of the Legion. And mixed in were splashes of color, the tabards of the Kovachev bannerman, and a lone Brawm. The gathered company of men and women marched down the road, swords held at the ready, dust rising from their march. They formed up outside the gates, arbalesters trading shot with the Dwedmar marksman atop their walls. Arrows fell on both sides. Ser Mattington Ironsword looked out from the visor of his helmet at the fortress. The only way into the gatehouse was to kick in the door. Decurion Fletcher braced himself up, kicking at the door and loosening the latch, but failing to put the full force of the kick necessary to kick it in. Legate Ironsword waved back one of the Footmen, Zilas and stepped up himself. He’d lead from the front. He kicked out, the latch rattling just a bit, and then kicked again, the bolts shearing from the wall and the door swinging inwards. Savoyards had joined the defenders, and forwards into that breach surged a few of them. The Duke Renault and Decurion Fletcher ascended the ladder, swearing as they find the ladder too short to allow them up onto the walls. Ser Ironsword engaged the counterweight, raising the gates. The dwarves, expecting a charge, unleashed their explosive arrows and their alchemist fire, all of it detonating ineffectually. The damage done by these powerful weapons was minimal. Fletcher took over the gatehouse, manning the gate and allowing protected volleys for the men and allowing his Legate to join the defending party and coordinate the defense. From there, he directed the coordinated fire of the arbalesters into the breach. As the quivers emptied on both sides, he yelled one command. “Get ready, lads!” Ser Rakim waited beyond the gate. The former squire of Ser Leopold, he grinned wolfishly at Caius, the two brothers in all but blood. Both had been raised to some degree by Ser Leopold, and now both were in the crowd now, trading blows with the dwarves. He’d waited for the crossbowmen to trade their shots and yelled at Caius, “You ready to fight, you little ****?” The Orenians began to shift, like dogs on a chain waiting to be unleashed. And then came the command they were waiting for. Ironsword yelled loudly, “Now!” The men surged forwards, shields in the front taking the initial blows as the fighting devolved into chaos, into hacking and grunting. Rakim growled as he took a hit on the chainmail of his arm. There’d be a bruise there tomorrow, but with a sharp combo of punches that took the Dwedmar by surprise, he beat the dwarf into the ground. No one expected someone to bring fists to a sword fight, but he had, his axe having been given to one of the Legion’s lads. He caught a flash of Ironsword cutting one of them down, arterial spray hanging in the air even as another dwarf cut down the legionnaire at his side. The Legate pivoted and thrust his sword out, catching the dwarf before he could make sure his victim was truly dead, and then being saved in turn by one of the Kovachevs. And then he had no time to do anything but react. One of the snow elves charged him, the seasoned warrior catching him under the armpit and throwing him before bringing a hobnailed boot down on the head of the elf. There was a crunch and then he was fighting once more. Henrik Kovachev looked down on the Legionnaires from his steed, trotting alongside the other cavalrymen from Turov. He returned the friendly nod from one of them before reining in his steed at the order of Andrei, the Kovachev leader having conferred with Ironsword and deciding that the mobility of his unit would be best suited to securing the perimeter. The horsemen galloped off, circling the fort. The Dwedmar took potshots at them, one of the arrows clanging off the helmet of the Vallberg woman in front of him. She tucked lower into her horse as they scouted the fortress, searching for a way in and coming up empty. Andrei steered his steed with his knees, in the way of the Steppe people, bringing up a bow and loosing an arrow at a dwarf poking his head over the wall. He only succeeded in forcing the Dwedmar to duck, but that was one less archer firing at the Orenians. The cavalry company circled around the fortress to rally alongside the other defenders. He watched as the alchemist fire burst, the air in the archway shimmering as it did, scorching the stones. The Doomforged that had thrown it had misgauged the discipline of the Orenians. They’d had harsher training since the last time dwarves had seen the men of Oren fight, and they held the line rather than charging as they had. Henrik tucked himself against the barding of his horse, his cavalry sword held ready. When the order came, he surged forwards, his horse trampling one of the dwarves under it’s hooves as charged forwards. He saw another of the cavalrymen go down as one of the more ingenious dwarves cut the forelimbs of his mount, sending it down and launching the Kovachev bannerman forwards, and killing him as he hit the stone with all of his continued momentum. A snow elf raised a pike to take down his horse in the same way and was met by Henrik’s sword, the flesh of his neck and face parting under the sharp blade, the dwarf belatedly dying as he gripped his wound, staggering before falling as his mind and body caught up to reality. The remaining mounted fighters turned their mounts, prepared to surge back into the lines as it became chaos, some taken down by pikes, other by clever cuts to the legs. The raiders weren’t stupid, at least not entirely so. They were stubborn, they were aggressive, but they knew when they were going to lose, and they wagered that it’d be best for them to live to fight another day, either picking off the lone soldiers as they returned home, or simply by preserving the gear they’d carried with them. They did not break ranks, instead forming into small groups and pushing to the gate, before running together. They would not die alone, were Yemekar or the Creator, or whoever they worshipped, decided to call them to join him. They’d die swinging amongst each other. Henrik could respect that, even as he turned his horse to bear down on a trio of Raiders, the Doomforged who had wielded the alchemist fire amongst them. Andrei cut down the Doomforged as he turned to meet the advancing Orenians, the Doomforged falling to the ground, mortally wounded. He went to rise on his pike, determined to fight to the end and then being beheaded by Kaisa. Henrik cut down one of the snow elves that had been supporting the dwarves, the tall, pale figure raising his weapon to try and parry the blow and being speared on the cavalry sword of the Kovachev. The successful defenders marched back to Johannesburg, longswords sheathed now, bloody armor and tabards adorning weary soldiers. They marched alongside one another, the bodies of their dead brothers carried on their shields or between each other. There was a muted sense of victory. They’d drink to their dead, celebrate their victory, and sharpen their swords for the next battle. ((Credits to Warmarcher for the RP post.))

"They misunderestimated me." -Emperor John the First, after the Battle of White Mountain, c. 1536

"Well, if it is, it's a mystery to me and all of his doctors. Frequently, not frequently - rarely, but on more than one occasion, over the last many many years, the same sort of thing's happened to him when he just got severely dehydrated. He's worked like a demon, as you know, as GM, and as GM manager." -ski_king3, in an exclusive interview about Tahmas, the admin.

"Because it's f*cking RP? Lmao." -Tahmas, Lord of the Craft Administrator, on a circumstance that is most assuredly not RP.

((I, Esterlen, hereby acknowledge and give my consent to the OOC rule that should my character be found guilty of High Treason within the Empire, the Emperor personally (and only the Emperor) has the right to execute permanently my character. I accept this condition and make it entirely upon my free will.)) “I swear to be true to our Lord, our Imperial Liege, and His realm, to not be silent in the face of true evil that conspires against our homeland. I swear to raise my blade against any foe, righteous or wrong, against our Lord and our Imperial Liege, to not stand idle in the face of danger. I swear to cast off any traitor be it friend or foe in honour of our Lord and our Imperial Liege. I swear this before God and men. I bid farewell to my former life and grace my newest with my shield and blade; stalwart and ever vigilant for our Imperial Liege. On this, I kiss the cross.”

"This is done under absolutely no legal grounds for excommunication. A piteous power play by wretched clergymen," comments the ecclesiastical scholar, Charles Macdonough, upon reading the writ.

"The cast and producers of Warhawkes Ride, which I hear is highly overrated, should immediately apologize to Ereinion Taloha for their terrible behavior," announces Hermann von Locklear und Stahl, the show being premiered on his eighty-ninth birthday celebration.

"My belief is, we will, in fact be greeted as liberators." -The Director, c. 1582, upon the annexation of the Province of Haelun'or.

Completely agree with this. This is why I've always opposed pre-made staff-built roads - to avoid these roads leading to nowhere, they have to originate organically from actual demand and be built by players between settlements that need them. All through the world there's an abundance of gravel highways which go to literally nowhere, and in my opinion we need to can them.

Revised as of 20th of the Deep Cold, 1585, accounting for the death of John IV, the succession and subsequent abdication of the Duke of Marna as Robert II, and the succession of the Duke of Corazon as Philip I.

Revised as of 18th of the Sun's Smile, 1585, accounting for the death of John III and the succession of the Prince of Alstion to the throne as John IV.

Hail, friendo! If you ever need any information about anything in terms of the roleplay world, feel free to hit me up!

Trump, but I wish they would bring Sarah back, she was the gem of the GOP.

Hahaha this went really well for you in the long run didn't it!

I will say it was the truth because it was the truth. If you'd like me to dissect it word by word and cite everything I can, I'll happily do so, but this really isn't the forum to be doing so (Not to deflect or anything, I want to put this issue to bed not try and obfuscate it). I chose the wordings that a professional Wiki article quite feasibly could have used. Everything mentioned in that article was, sadly, fact. Was I involved in the events it describes? Absolutely. Does that mean my opinion of the events therein are liable to be biased? Of course. Does that make the article biased? Not necessarily. It regales a series of facts and quotations from others and is written in a neutral connotation, not a negative one. The wording was perfectly neutral and written from a detached perspective, and anything that was not was clearly identified as quotations from others. See this professional and public Wikipedia article on Michael Dukakis: (Click to zoom) Is this paragraph, then, biased against Michael Dukakis because it establishes certain facts that aren't favorable to him, writing about him in what you'd call a 'negative connotation'? If the answer is no: would the knowledge that George H. W. Bush wrote this article (He didn't actually, obviously) influence your opinion about it being biased? Refer also to this excerpt from Dan Quayle's Wikipedia article: Same deal there. This is not to mention that I was doing twenty times the work of your average WT member. Croleo was clearly looking for a reason to get rid of somebody who not only rivaled him, but surpassed him in capability.