Zezimus

Mogroka has had probably one of the biggest influences on the server's lore, in particular with regard to orcish and human history. I think he'd make a great addition to the LM team. + 1

Taking a raven feathered quill and a pot of ink, Edgar Sarkozic, Chancellor of Adria, signs his brother's name at the bottom of the scroll on the Duke's behalf. "His Lordship, John of House Sarkozic, Duke of Adria, Baron of Dormont, Protector of the Midlands."

========================================= Name of the Treaty: Union of Crow and Ram ========================================= Type of Treaty: Alliance ========================================= [Nation / Freebuild] [Name: ] Duchy of Adria [Nation / Freebuild] [Name: ] March of Ostmark ========================================= Date of Signing: 1663 ========================================= It was not a large assembly. Banner guards, carrying the banners of Crow and Ram, posted outside the cathedral of Saint Emma. The tavern across the street boomed noise, a few drunken Adrian peasants stumbling out to peer on the noble marriage. Eimar var Burgundar embraced his soon-to-be son-in-law with the love of a father. The young duke, John, waited up at the altar as a quiet and timid bride, not one of many words, walked up the aisle. No, it was not a marriage of love; political intellectuals would remark, though, it was one of familial necessity. Amelia var Burgundar and John Sarkozic’s arms were wrapped in the banner of House Sarkoz. The priest spoke the hymns and ceremonies with effortless remembrance, though a spark of joy in his voice when the name of Sarkozic passed off his lips. The ceremony was not one of pomp, rather quick. With the marriage kiss, the Crows and Rams rose in cheer, which drowned out even the din of the tavernites. Like the two families joined in marriage, so too did the church-goers and the drinkers of the newly erected tavern. Out poured the Sarkozics, out poured the Burgundars, out poured the priest and the Vladovics and Ivanoviches, out poured the guards and down fell the flags. Merriment rang on through the night, as the celebratory groom became rowdily drunk. Though, his timid bride sat there with a content smile, glad in her new home of happy people and loud songs. The sun rose over the town of Belvitz, come early morning a town crier announced to the rising peasants. Our duke is married! Amelia var Burgundar, now Amelia Sarkoz, is our Duchess! ---------------------------- Signed, His Lordship, John of House Sarkozic, Duke of Adria, Baron of Dormont, Protector of the Midlands His Lordship Eimar of House var Burgundar, Margrave of Ostmark, Count of Götha, Baron of Geatea, Cyrilsburg, Riga, Aleksandria, Westmark, Eastmark, Royal Knight, Protector of the Southlands and Master of the Hunt

I've been on both ends of war role play, the faction about to be destroyed and the one doing the attacking. In neither case has my opinion on the matter changed. It's a nice idea that the PvP orientated nations would simply reserve themselves to their own corner of the server. However, how often can we honestly say that two factions have willingly gone to war? It's almost never. Usually, there has to be someone performing the aggression, at least at the conflict's inception. I would imagine that if most factions could be asked whether they wished to participate in a war, they would say yes if they thought they could win and no, if they were more likely to lose. Ideally, RP and PvP shouldn't be opposites, but they should work in tandem with one another to create the most immersive experience of nation interaction possible. My point is not that any minor faction should be able to be attacked without appropriate CBs. It is that the current CBs are so strict and inflexible that they risk eliminating war from the server entirely. Like it or not, war has had an important part in shaping the server in the seven years of its existence and I think it'd be a great loss to us all if we were to forsake it completely.

The current conflict aside, my issue with the CB system is not necessarily that it deprives a nation of the ability to be expansionist, which has in the past been a perfectly legitimate reason to go to war, but that it stifles political role play between nations. If a nation knows it only has to work around a narrow set of CB terms in order to have any warclaim against it denied, it is able to act on the full knowledge that whatever it does, it is protected by some kind of external OOC force. This leads to courses of action that are, if considered in the context of role play alone, quite frankly irrational; an easy case in point is sending military or even material aid to another's enemy, with full knowledge that nothing can be done in retribution for this action. A political meeting seeking to achieve concessions from another faction would be heavily impeded in this scenario; in RP alone, a larger army obviously means that you have leverage over other factions to act in your interests. However, in OOC, this leverage disappears and you are forced to strain logic to justify in role play why you would not hold this particular edge over a political foe. The question then becomes, what is the point in role playing with other factions at all if so little of this interaction is governed by your nation's position in role play? One of the great things about LotC has always been its unpredictability, acting within the knowledge that it is always best to keep a nation active and on its toes in order for it to survive when faced against threat. Were this not the case, we would be left with a map full of empty cities, owned by small groups of players bent only on finding protective loopholes to prevent others from taking away what they own. I understand that the stringent nature of the casus belli system has been designed to safeguard certain groups and protect their RP at a micro level. As I have explained here, the counter effect of this system is that you are driving a stake through RP at the macro, through the meetings and political interactions between nations' governments. I think the solution is a simple one; we all need to accept and drive forward a mentality that sometimes our role play concepts will be lost and destroyed, others will reemerge and transition into something entirely new later on. If a character or nation does not have the power to protect what they own, they have to find compromise with the aggressor, or RP out the results of this fragmentation appropriately. Human conflict in the real world is often nonsensical and waged over seemingly worthless causes, even within states. War itself is merely a material projection of this conflict when diplomacy and discussions fail. So too, we must accept that this is often the case in Lord of the Craft. We are not role playing robots, acting on a specific set of protocols designed to govern our every action; RP has to be adaptable to every character's personality or otherwise we cease to be the RP server we claim to be.

In-Game Name: Zezimus Request: Change of name from Duchy of Blackmarsh to Duchy of Adria Link to relevant forum sections: https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/forum/895-duchy-of-blackmarsh/ RP to confirm:

A big + 1 for Jackster from me. He's a mature guy, active in game and on the forum and has the required work ethic to make an excellent member of the FM team.

In short, I agree with everything Zhulik has said here. It seems this current casus belli system has been set up, largely in the interests of protecting particular playerbases from being warclaimed, even when there is plenty of RP reasoning to do so. Not only are these hurdles entirely ahistorical when considered in the context of real world state behaviour, of which much of the server is based, it is quite frankly detrimental to free-flowing role play, and brings us one step further toward being a typical faction server. This also brings up another problem; how do we decide what nations are worth saving and which we are better without? Nobody can possibly suggest that every single nation ever created in LotC has needed to be protected at all costs - We would completely forsake to be the dynamic RP server we have always been. Even the slightest and unintended element of partiality towards a particular group could completely alter the staff's approach. How can that possibly be right? If this server hadn't had nations that at times divided or had their playerbases scattered, it would never have evolved, role play would never have been allowed to progress and we would be stuck with the same Oren/Urguan/Malinor/Krugmar combination we had in Aegis. It is precisely this changing nature of the server that has allowed it to thrive and remain enjoyable for so many years.

Big + 1 from me, Ds is perhaps one of the most resourceful and proficient guys I know, and he always has the best interests of the community at heart. He'd make an excellent GM.

BASIC INFORMATION OOC MC Username: Zezimus Discord Username: Zezimus#7214 Have you joined the Renatus Discord server?: Yes. How active are you?: Fairly active. IC Name: Edgar Surname: Sarkozic Title: Squire, Man-at-arms, Chancellor of Adria Liege Lord: John Sarkozic, Duke of Adria Gender: Male Date of Birth: 12th of Sun's Smile, 1644 Race: Human Subrace: Highlander - Raevir Culture: Renatian - Adrian  PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION Height: 6’0 Weight: 190 lbs Eye Color: Green Skin Color: White Hair Color: Black Markings: Stubble PERSONAL INFORMATION  Residence: Belvitz, Sarkozic Manor in Senntisten Occupation: Squire, Chancellor of Adria CITIZEN’S OATH OF LOYALTY I, Edgar Sarkozic, hereby swear my loyalty to the King of the Crown of Renatus-Marna, and to uphold and obey the laws of the Crown as its loyal citizen. I understand the penalties and punishments that shall be incurred should I violate these laws.

The Duke's brother, Edgar Sarkozic, stands before the gathered mass of common folk and nobles alike, his eyes squinting down at the familiar faces who had restored his house to its rightful seat. The lives of those who had long passed in the atrocities committed during the Dukes' War would not be restored but in their name, the banners of Adria would fly proudly across the field of battle once more. He unsheathes his blade, raising it high into the air as John's speech concludes. "Long live Adria! Long live the House of Sarkozic!"

Role-play: The irony that Adria would be restored with the quelling of a rebellion was not lost on John Sarkozic. It had been over a century since the church in Brelus had been burnt by Savoyard Imperialists, the generals of fire and cold steel laying waste to the once fertile plains that overflowed around it. Its wooden walls lay broken in a forgotten land, far away from the town known as Belvitz. John looked upon a map from the royal court in Senntisten, down at the label and illustration of a hamlet near the Cloud Temple. This is mine. Promised and Bestowed, this land is mine. There was but one hitch: the deluded keepers of Belvitz refused to return to his Majesty’s court. The deluded group of stragglers from a once prominent group dug into the dirt before the promise of prosperity for Adria, and laid their trenches in its way. The rebels, led by a southeron who was in reality of little importance, defied his Majesty. In another life, Brelus stood in a similar position. However, today those stragglers blocked his way. Belvitz’s way. Today, John would bring with him the grandsons of Brelus, of Adria. They would march forth, and from Senntisten they would bring the fire, the cold steel. No church would burn to the ground, but the ashes of those walls would serve as the fertilizer for plentiful fields not yet sowed. CBs: Rebellion. Side A: Renatus. Side B: Rebels. Proposed Date & Time: Sunday 29th April, 4 EST, 9 GMT. Proposed Rules: No allies. Location: (Provide a screenshot of the area being warclaimed from the dynmap.) https://gyazo.com/8c24a4a6533a5a70e9706ca120d07164 Belvitz (Including the tavern) Discord: Grool#6871 Zezimus#7214

I've known Bampow since Aegis, 2011 and can vouch he's one of the chillest, most mature guys around. He never lets anything get to his head and is always very invested in the RP in which he's involved. If he's decided now he'd like to put himself to use as an event actor, I believe he'd make a perfect addition to the team. Good luck, Bampow. +1

Wulfgar scratches at his beard as he reads over the list of potential names. "City of order... I loike t'e sound of that." "Kal'Dormir."