Xarkly

i thought of this really good one: Were there ever any big "inflection points" during your time on here? Moments that you can look back to and say "if I had does this differently, then things would be way different from how they are now"

Hope you're keeping well fella <3 I was pretty lucky in how NL timed up with real-life -- in 2021-2022, I was doing my Masters degree in Law, and if you know much about Law studies, it's that it's extremely low-contact hours (in other words, less classes than a lot of other fields, with you being expected to fill the other time with research and reading). For most of the 2021-2022 academic year, I only had maybe six-ten hours of classes per week, so it left me with tonnes of time to focus on NL too. I prefer to study/work in bursts rather than steadily throughout the year (which is not the ideal way to do it), so when exams/essays came around, I just took a small break from the Craft to sink heavy hours into getting my exams done. If I had been in a different course of study or working like I am now, it definitely wouldn't have been possible, so I'm grateful the stars aligned.

Hoooooooooooooooooooooooooh that's a toughie. I think that moment where we did one of the first Scyfling events on Athera, when they pretty much appeared for the first time and how we worked together to make the experience, without knowing what it would become down the line, is really cute to look back on. As for RP itself, I think that last interaction between Sigismund and Adrian was quite cool. Though in isolation it mightn't have seemed like a great deal, I think there was a lot of weight to that interaction about the "answer" and "understanding" (if you remember what we were talking about ;) ) from both me and you as people who have seen and been through a lot on this server and with the Haense community specifically that transcended the characters themselves. The Cactus Green drug bust also deserves an honourable mention .......... Hmm. I'd probably say being part of people's lives and vice versa. Like I said when answering an early question, it's genuinely astonishing to me how some people have been able to make amazing friendships that will last long beyond the time they spend on this server. I think a lot of the world, especially our parent's generation, wouldn't understand that whatsoever and even people on this server think there should be a genuine line between your real-world relations and your online ones. Of course, you always need to be careful and exercise caution, but even doing so, I think it's indisputable the connections you forge on this platform are real and meaningful, and you shouldn't relegate them to some kind of secondary tier of friendship. Human connections is what makes life worth living for most people, and I've made some really special ones here. This is a difficult one because at certain points it becomes hard to distinguish between the rose-tinted lens of nostalgia and genuine loss. I definitely loved the sense of wonder and adventure that I experienced as a lil 15-16 y/o Conor wandering the earlier maps like Athera and Axios and finding all sorts of builds and places, and hearing about all sorts of heroic lords and characters that felt like they actually were from some fantasy epic. That sort of things loses it shine over time, as all things do. When you don't know everything in the world, the world seems so much more mysterious and exciting. As for something or someone I genuinely miss .... You know what it's like yourself to have stuck around here for a long time and seen people come and go (and then usually come and go again for a second or third time), but overall from my 6ish years actively playing, one person I used to have a lot of fun with was NJBB, both in Haense and other stuff. One of my funner times on the server was when he set me up with a Dreadknight character and we used to raid Sutica in Axios, and use it's really long bridge as a bottle-neck. Did we ever find that post again? A galapagos turtle. Obviously. Probably that one arc where Aleksandr helped Katerina escape Haense from Heinrik. It was a pretty big moment in terms of my character's development and his hatred towards Heinrik, and his whole sort of vibe of trying to be this white knight who couldn't really get anything to go his way and didn't have the courage to do anything really drastic, so to him it felt like he was finally making a difference by helping Katerina escape, but that feeling of futility grew worse for him when Katerina ended up returning to Haense, which made for some cool evolution of the character. comin' down on a sunny day? #ShearThoseEars is trending again. :J I suppose in the context of nation leading and especially between you and me, I think I'd have to say the Haeseni withdrawal in the 2nd stage of the war. I'm sure you can imagine, but it was genuinely a very difficult decision to make about whether to stay involved in the war at a potentially disastrous cost while getting pretty good deals to back out of it. Without a doubt, I'm sure the server and recent history might look very different if a different decision had been made at the time and Haense had left the war. @UnBaedtake the capybara's knee-caps.

Probably when I PK'd my King of Haense. Seems a bit weird to say that for ending a character, but the RP itself was just really nice and moving. I more or less spent the whole day RPing goodbyes with people as the character was on his deathbed, and it was a really touching culmination of everything he'd done in his life and the friends I'd RPed with. To see it all come full circle and to end the story in a way that was meaningful to create a finished, cohesive story for a character was genuinely just such a fun and rewarding experience that I don't think any individual RP moment could top it. Whole point of any writing is to make you feel things, and it was one of the few occasions where I've gotten teary in my time. Probably the Banner Saga trilogy. It's one I've come back to over the years that's just ticked every box for me -- it's got a great world/setting, meaningful dialogue choices, fleshed out characters with intriguing storylines and development, engaging combat, awesome art and music, and a fascinating overall-plot. I wouldn't say the game is S-tier in any of those categories, but it's one of the few - if not the only - game I've played that hits an A tier in all those categories so consistently. Thanks man appreciate you saying so. I like to think I'm not overly influenced by anything, but I do have a couple of different pieces of media that definitely inspire me on certain narrative aspects, for example: - Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time books are probably the main inspiration and one of the main things I read growing up (which quite literally lasted for my teenage life, since the book series is 14 volumes). It's undoubtedly been the foundation for my writing style and I don't think I could change that even if I wanted to. - Attack on Titan really inspired me, but probably not in the way it does for most people; rather, I came to really love the depth of strategy that went into a lot of AoT. I know it's probably not what everyone looks for in entertainment, but the way AoT drew attention to the various strategies at play in battle and what the characters needed to achieve always added a lot of realistic weigh and excitement to the series for me. I think the best example of this is the showdown in Season 3 Part 2 where there's a lot of different tactics and plans at play, which just totally engrossed me at the time and made the character's choices and actions feel a lot more grounded. Actions making sense is really important to me, and so I just enjoyed that aspect of the series a lot. As a result, I've always tried to include that depth in my writing so that there was sense and logic in the narratives and not railroading circumstances for the plot. - Vinland Saga has some absolutely fantastic character interactions, and it represents one of the best ways an author has managed to communicate core philosophical ideas and themes without it seeming out of place or boring. think I'm gonna need to see a pic

I wrote and rewrote this paragraph maybe three or four times before realising there's a couple of important lessons I'd leave behind. 1. Like pretty much anything in life, the value of this server is making great friends and sharing great moments with them. None of us (hopefully, at least ...) are going to stick around here forever, but what makes this server truly impactful on us are the memories and friendships that will outlive almost anything. I know I speak for a lot of people when I say that people genuinely do make incredibly strong friendships here that will probably last a very long time into the future, and that's just really cool. Any time you spend on the server should ultimately be devoted to the memories you'll take with -- because of that, it's important to pick your battles and try to make your time here as amicable as possible. When you're sitting in some VC as a boomer chatting shit, it'll be your friends and the funny/cool/historic moments you experienced together that you'll talk about, not the time you had a falling-out or argument with X about Y. 2. As part of the above, I don't think you can do much of anything - whether with friendships, RP, or Staff - without being patient and empathetic. Our server has a really broad demographic of players, including lots of young teens and people with various real-world problems (chiefly mental health issues) that find comfort and escapism in the server (which is great). As a result, we're not always dealing with rational actors and people who share our experiences and viewpoints, so it's inevitable that disagreements sometimes arise, some justified and others not. Just try remember the range of different people from all walks of life on our server and try see why they think/act the way they do before going off on someone. 3. The number-one killer of things on this server - from staff to nations - is lethargy and a lack of love. If you don't innovate and exhibit passion in your position, you shouldn't have that position. Whether it's a passion problem or you don't have time, I think people need to be more inclined to pass-off their role if they aren't living up to the potential and the trust placed in them to do a good job. While we have a lot of immediate problems on the server, I think a lack of passion in leadership roles is undoubtedly one of the biggest long-term issues we have. I don't actually play all that much at the moment. What does keep me around in any capacity, and what's always kept me around before though, is my friendships with people here. Like I said above, it's really touching how some of us make profound connections and relationships over the medium of Minecraft RP (of all things), and I'm no exception. I've made some really, really great friends (mainly in the Haense community), and they're the reason I find myself still hoovering around, even if I'm not always active. As for providing, I'm not entirely sure, I guess I've just always been a 0 or 100-type of person. I find it difficult to do something without giving it my all or pouring a lot of time and energy into it (which isn't always a good thing), so that goes hand-in-hand with enjoying telling stories and making characters on this server. On top of that, I generally just tended to enjoy things like ET, NL, etc. These days she's too busy drawing Ilaria playing guitar hero I'm starting to get a bit old (not @JuliusAakerlund-old though), so in a year or two I'd probably prefer to have another creative outlet. If we're talking an ideal world, I'd love to be writing on some kind of professional level at some point in the future. We all have that one dream from childhood of the perfect job we'd like to have, and a writer with a livable salary is mine. Over the next year or so, I'd really love to try my hand at less-traditional fields of writing, too, like video essays and things like DnD campaigns. That's the creative side of me, though. In the next year or two, I'd probably see myself finishing training to be qualified as a lawyer. One of my big personal issues is that I've always struggled to figure out exactly what I want to do in life (in the short-term) or where to go, so I tend to just play things by ear at my current age, but I can definitely see that being an inevitability. I really really love doing DM/event stuff, just feels really rewarding to craft a storyline that people genuinely engage in and to get creative with all sorts of mechanics. Probably one of the best examples of this is one of the naval battles in the Scyfling invasion -- for context, naval battles with more than one ship are extremely difficult to pull off when the ships are moving in different directions and with the player crews doing different things (which had fucked up some of my previous naval events), all on top of the usual event challenges like keeping track of emotes etc. This one, though - I think it's called the Battle of the Shoals - went off pretty well and made for a really fun and rewarding experience, topped off with things like CartographyKing's character having a duel to the death and PKing with one of the Scyfling captains. As for least fun, I'll refer to a particular moment. I think it was 2016, and I was a pretty young and naive Mod during the Greyspine Rebellion. Rules weren't so fleshed out back in that day, and part of this war we sanctioned the anti-Courland rebels to try coup one of the castles because one of them had keys. There were no coup rules, though, and so I played the situation entirely on the fly and it went horribly. I ultimately had to make a call as to who won the coup when the Courlanders had the rebels (most of whom were my friends) pinned in a throne room that they couldn't access, and I gave victory to the Courlanders. A lot of my friends from the rebel side were upset with me, which is to be expected in the best conflict-of-interest situations, but both sides were displeased by the way it was handled, and rightfully so. To this day, that's probably my least favourite moment on the server, and it weighed on my mind for days afterwards. isn't that Ben's alt

thanks man I think the most stressful part of NL was dealing with internal issues, which thankfully wasn't very common. I mean mostly OOC issues, where like one person of your community is at loggerheads with another over something only the NL can resolve. For instance, there was a point around the halfway mark of my time when there was an OOC issue about the inheritance of one of the noble houses. I was still learning a lot about how to do NL at the time, and I got caught up in trying to please both sides/reach a compromise when it probably would have been better to just make a decision and stick to it. That was definitely probably one of the most 'stressful' moments looking back, because as NL of a community-centric faction with a lot of veterans and people who've poured blood sweat and tears into the place, it's very hard not to feel an immense pressure to live up to the trust people have placed in you. Ironically, there's just situations where that won't be possible, and that's a tough and stressful reality to grasp.

https://gyazo.com/961c2dc041cb0c7970e0a0afbeec349b As for favourite or best RP moments, obviously a lot of factors go into what makes something memorable, from moments that mark a personal achievement, to something you were just happy to share with friends. For me, I think what was probably my favourite moments was wrapping up the Scyfling eventline, since it had had months of build-up and there was always so many moving parts and different events with different sub-plots, so finally wrapping up a story with a decently cohesive ending in a way that people were happy with was definitely super super rewarding. also you're short

It doesn't get much better than 1,000 posts on minecraft roleplay forums. I figured it would be a little anticlimatic for my 1000th post to probably be some memey shitpost, so I suppose this is a decent way to do something fun with the occassion. From nation leading, to ET, to real-life, feel free to ask whatever, just don't do that one where people are like "opinions of me? :DDD" because that's awkward and weird and I'll send @UnBaed to take your knee-caps.

SONG OF THE BLACK CHAPTER VIII: DULES BESIEGED A Lord of the Craft novella set in ancient Ruskan lore. Previous Chapters: Chapter I: Osyenia Chapter II: Lahy Chapter III: Mejen Chapter IV: Soul & Sword Chapter V: The Eyes of Ruska Chapter VI: The Shadow of Dules Chapter VII: A Pact of Glass Josef Tideborn and Dragan Skullsplitter, the mercenary captains in charge of the defence of the Trade City of Dules - the most vital city in Ruska - are left scrambling when the impossible happens after the armies of Vladrik Nzechovich and the Karovic Princes, both of whom are competing to control the realm, strike a temporary peace to attack the city together. After a naval assault on the city's harbour, in which Ratibor Skysent fells scores of the city's defenders, Josef Tideborn realises that the city won't hold under these circumstances, but it becomes clear the bickering Electors of Dules, most of whom are merchants and not soldiers, lack the foresight and grit to do what needs to be done. Music - Play & Loop All The three Stagbreakers attacked at once. Ratibor’s sword descended in a blur of steel, slicing through the shoulder of the first Stagbreaker as he raised his axe to swing, and he went down as Ratibor pulled his blade back to clang against the warhammer coming from his left. His sword parried the hammer cleanly aside, leaving the attacker open to a clean riposte through the neck. Ratibor slammed his shoulder into the hammerwoman to shove her off his sword just in time to intercept the spearman charging down the deck; his sword clashed into the spearhead to deflect it away from his chest, and he moved his blade into the path of the spearman’s neck. Blood sprayed onto Ratibor as the Stagbreaker stumbled forward, and fell with a gurgle. “IS THAT ALL?!” he bellowed to the deck of the ship littered with dead and dying, both his fellow Karovic soldiers and Stagbreaker mercenaries alike. “HAS ANYONE ELSE THE BALLS TO CHALLENGE RATIBOR SKYSENT!?” “I - I don’t think anyone else can hear you, my lord,” came a faint voice behind him. “No, I don’t suppose they can,” Ratibor sighed in agreement. He stood on one of many Karovic carve ships that congested at the walled harbour of the Trade City of Dules, where the mercenaries of the Stagbreaker Company, hired to defend the city, had been fighting off Karovic naval advances for days -- today was the fourth assault. All around him, soldiers fought and died on other ships, but his was pitifully empty. “You know, Vlasta, usually squires help their Bogatyrs. Fighting three at once is a challenge, even for me.” He turned behind him, where his squire squatted over a Karovic soldier with a stomach wound pumping blood slumped against the ship’s mast. It was true that Vlasta of Osyenia had saved the Karovic Princes from a ruinous defeat at the Battle of Mejen, but since Prince Kosav had assigned the girl to train as Ratibor’s squire, he had his doubts about whether the girl was cut out to be a Bogatyr. For one, her combat training was minimal, and she certainly lacked the stomach for battle and bloodshed that most warriors took years to develop. Despite her scale-mail and helmet, from which strands of her dark hair stuck out, she did not look at all like a warrior with her wide eyes, pale face, and the trembling fingers with which she was trying to tie a makeshift bandage around the soldier. “I - I’m sorry, my lord,” she stammered as he tried to knot the bandage. “I - I just - Zedov got cut in the stomach, and I -” “Zedov looks like he’s got a slashed gut, Vlasta,” Ratibor explained calmly as the sounds of battle continued to ring out all around them. “You can’t just stop to treat the wounded in the middle of battle. Prince Kosav wouldn’t be pleased with me if you died on my watch. His Highness seems rather fond of you.” “I-I know.” Vlasta’s movements did not stop, though. Blood trickled from Zedov’s mouth, and his twitching lips were the only sign that the fellow was still alive. “But if I can just … if I can just finish …” Ratibor sighed as he approached. In one swift motion, he raised his sword, and thrust into Zedov’s heart. With a faint breath, the soldier went still, and Vlasta gasped as she recoiled backwards. “There, problem solved. He’ll be rewarded in the Skies, and we’ll be joining him soon if you don’t keep your wits about you, Vlasta.” If the girl had been distracted before, now she was on the verge of a panic attack as she sucked in rapid breaths. Clicking his tongue irritably, Ratibor offered her a hand, and when she did not take it he grabbed her by the wrist to hoist her upright. “Are you having second thoughts about this squire business already?” “I … just wasn’t expecting …” “The blood? The bodies? The smell?” Ratibor flicked the blood off his sword as he looked back over his shoulder. Volleys of arrows fired freely overhead from Karovic ships further back in the fleet, keeping the artillerymen on the harbour’s walls pinned down. “Well, for what it’s worth, most people say the same thing. It’s what separates the weak from the strong. The weak let it rattle them too much -- they lose their nerve, they get sloppy, and they get killed. The strong find some way to take it in their stride, and they live to the battle where it gets a little easier, until they’ve seen enough battles where it doesn’t bother them at all.” “S-some way to take it in my stride, my lord? Like what?” she asked as she picked up her shield from beside Zedov’s body. Ratibor frowned as he watched the sail of a nearby ship catch fire. “Well, everyone has their own method.” He gave her a flat look. “It’s not too late for you to go back to the command ship, and I’m not saying that to discourage you -- it’s for your own sake. I’ve seen enough prissy children of nobles who don’t know what it really means to be a Bogatyr, and they die because of it. If I can spare you from that, I will. There’s a reason the songs don’t sing about the blood, the bodies, and the smell.” Instead of answering, Vlasta ran to the edge of the ship, and vomited overboard. “Well,” Ratibor grumbled, “I guess that’s that, then. I’ll help you find Stanislaw and get you out -” Vlasta turned back to him, and despite the fact her face was pale as snow, her eyes had a ragged, determined look as she fastened helmet back on. “J-just had to get that out of my system, my lord. I-I’m with you. I promise, I-I can do this.” For a moment, Ratibor only watched her. Maybe I misjudged her. He had seen that look in her eye in others before, and he knew that the girl was smart enough to know that real battle wasn’t like the stories. Hmph. I wonder if it’s like the others I’ve seen with that look. She’d rather risk enduring this than return to whatever life she had before. Well, I suppose I can’t say no to that. “Come on, then,” he said at last. “Our crew is dead and the ships nearby aren’t faring as well as us. Stick close, and try to stab something so you can get used to it.” Without waiting for her, Ratibor took off at a run. He kicked off from the gunnel of the ship, and leaped over the gap of rushing, bloody water to the neighbouring ship. Here, Karovic soldiers in chainmail vests and red-black colours clashed against Stagbreaker mercenaries in mismatched armour - except for their broken-antler pendants - and ranged from dark-skinned Tarcharmen to pale Waldenians. The fighting paused as the combatants looked to Ratibor in surprise at his sudden arrival. “If you do not believe in the one true God,” Ratibor began as he brandished his blade, “now would be an excellent opportunity to start before I send you to him.” One of the Stagbreakers spat through his helmet, and Ratibor leapt into action. He glided forward, snaking his sword past an axeman’s guard and into his forehead. The Karovic soldiers pressed the attack with him, but most of the Stagbreakers fell to his sword. His usual technique of striking vitals - the armpits, neck, and, if they were not heavily armoured, the heart - when a foe raised their heavier weapons to swing worked as well as ever, and it was not long before his sword was caked red once more. Everyone has their own method. His own words echoed in his head as his sword struck true time and time again. While the Stagbreakers may have been a mix of many different races, they all looked the same to Ratibor when he went for the kill. In his mind, their faces blurred, forming the broad and scarred face of the first man that Ratibor had ever killed -- the man on which his moniker, and his fame, was built. Each time he struck, he imagined the accursed face of Burgov Godsbane, and with that image came the raw reminder of that man’s evil. With that fixed in Ratibor’s mind, he never faltered. He finished off the last Stagbreaker with a kick that sent them reeling overboard, and the Karovic soldiers let out a cheer. Ratibor, inhaling sharply, turned to find Vlasta hunkered behind her shield with a dry sword, but he supposed that was to be expected. The girl will learn with time. Better she just survives for now. “Bless you, Skysent!” boomed a man with a bloodstained beard sticking out from the winged helmet that marked him as an officer. “We were getting a little overwhelmed just then!” Ratibor recognised the beard and the husky voice. “God will not let mere sellswords defeat us, Egriev,” he replied matter-of-factly as his eyes scanned the chaotic sprawl of Stagbreaker and Karovic ships congested side-by-side at the mouth of the walled harbour. “Have you received any orders from Stanislaw or the command ship? Things seem to have gotten out of hand.” “No, lord.” Egriev shook his head. “We -” The ship suddenly heaved violently, throwing Ratibor and the others to the deck, as wooden splinters shot out. When Ratibor looked up, he found the shaft of a six-foot ballista bolt skewered into the deck near the bow, and the ship began to tilt sideways. “A ballista?! Damn it, the archers were supposed to be keeping their artillery pinned!” As he grappled to his feet, he squinted up at the harbour walls where Stagbreakers rushed back and forth between. Those walls were fitted with scorpions and even ballistae that could sink a ship with just a few shots, but Karovic archers were meant to keep them under constant fire so that the ships could advance. The volleys had stopped, though, and now artillery crews were busy reloading the ballistae. “So much for that plan,” Ratibor grumbled. “One of the Stagbreaker ships must have reached our archers. If we don’t disengage soon, they’ll sink us all. Egriev, I - …” He trailed off as his eyes caught one figure on the walls who was not running about, but instead observing the battle with crossed-arms. Ratibor recognised the fellow with his thinning pale hair and the silver-worked breastplate. That’s the Stagbreaker captain! That’s Tideborn! Ratibor had vaguely heard that name before, but he had heard it a thousand times over since they had begun their siege of Dules. Josef Tideborn, the cunning behind the Stagbreaker mercenaries and one of the leaders of Dules’d defence. If I can reach him … “M-my lord?!” Egriv called over the sound of fighting as he grappled with the mast to stand. “Take my squire and fall back to the command ship, Egriev,” Ratibor said through a grin. “I’m going to go take a trophy.” Ratibor Skysent “A clean hit, boss!” “Good!” Josef Tideborn called over the sound of battle as he stood atop the harbour walls of Dules, watching the ships clash in the water below. “Free-fire at any Karovic ship until it sinks! Utwulf, have the scorpions crewed! Andolf, send out the reserve ship!” “Yes, boss!” Grunts of assent echoed as his Stagbreakers on the wall carried ammunition and cranked the steel limbs of the ballistae back to reload. Until a few minutes ago, the Karovic archers had kept them pinned, but now that Josef’s sailors had boarded their ships, he was free to rain death from the walls. Same as the other three times. Like clockwork. This was the fourth Karovic attack Josef had repelled from the harbour since the Princes had made their little agreement with the Nzechovich a week ago, but it was getting more taxing with each assault. We’ve been doing well in the circumstances, but we won’t hold out for more than a few weeks with this rate of attacks, he thought wistfully as someone yelled ‘FIRE!’ and a ballista bolt sundered another Karovic ship. It’s just a question of how long the Karovic and Nzechovich can stay friends. When Josef and his Stagbreaker Company had been hired to defend Dules, he had hoped the civil war between the Karovic and Nzechovich would weaken whichever side eventually attacked the city. Given their bad blood, he had assumed any kind of cooperation between them was impossible, and now he was paying dearly for that mistake: while the Karovic fleet attacked the harbour, his co-captain of the Stagbreakers - Dragan Skullsplitter - fought off Vladrik Nzechovich’s enormous army land assault on the city gates. What to do, what to do … He had hoped this would be his last war, and the treasures the Electors of Dules paid him with would be enough for him to retire into luxury, but now the alliance between the Karovic and Nzechovich was really making him work for his pay. Maybe it will still be my last war, just not in the good way. As another volley of ballistae bolts fired, Josef spotted a Karovic soldier in a feathered helmet leap from one sinking ship to another, cutting down two Stagbreakers without barely breaking his stride, before jumping to yet another ship. What do we have here? The warrior vaulted onto the ship closest to the harbour wall, nearly directly beneath Josef, and began to climb the rigging to the crow’s nest at the top of the mast. What on earth is he doing? His impressed smile widened as the soldier, ignorant to the bolts flying, reached the crow’s nest that placed him nearly on the same height as the harbour ramparts, and the fellow locked eyes directly with Josef. A second later, the Karovic swung himself over the crow’s nest, and began to run along the beam of the sails before he jumped. The Stagbreakers operating the ballistae and scorpions stopped their reloading in surprise as the Karovic landed with a roll atop the walls, a mere dozen feet from Josef. Josef whistled as the man came to his feet with his sword at the ready. His Stagbreakers had drawn their weapons, too, and began to slowly surround the Ruskan before Josef raised a forestalling hand. “That was quite remarkable, friend. Did you come all this way to see me?” The fellow grinned under his faceguard, and levelled his bloody sword towards Josef. “It’s Tideborn, right?” Josef smiled and spread his arms. “The one and only! What is your name, warrior?” Despite his smile, his mind raced. He jumped right into the middle of a dozen Stagbreakers on his own… While hundreds of Josef’s mercenaries fought on the water below, he kept only a mere handful with him on the wall - he had not exactly anticipated an attack like this. Blood dripped from the other man’s sword. “I am Ratibor Skysent, warrior of God, and blade of Prince Barbov! Surrender this harbour to me, Josef Tideborn, or I will kill you and give your next-in-command the same options!” “Skysent, eh? I’ve heard of you. You’re the holy warrior that killed Burgov Godsbane all those years ago, right? Canonist priests never shut up about you.” That was nothing to scoff at -- Burgov Godsbane had been one of the most terrifying and cruel raiders of his day. Even Dragan had wanted to stay clear of that man’s territory. Hm. He must be good, then. “But you might need a hand from God for this one. You’re alone, surrounded by twelve of my men.” “That just evens the odds a bit for you, Tideborn. Besides, every minute your men spend away from the ballistae is another minute our ships will push into the harbour.” Josef’s eyes slid back to the water, where ships continued to sink and burn as his Stagbreakers clashed with the Karovic attackers. “Hm. You’re not wrong about that.” His ballistae had already sunk a few Karovic carves, but if he did not keep supporting his own ship from the walls, there was a good chance the Karovic would breach the harbour’s mouth. “You’re strong, famous, and sharp, Skysent! You must be a real catch.” The Bogatyr’s smirk widened. “I have my vices. Are you prepared to fight, Tideborn?” “I am. Utwulf, continue firing on the ships. Leave Skysent here to me.” His troops nodded hesitantly and resumed their posts as Josef drew his own sword, clean and polished. I only need to hold him off for a minute or two. With the ballistae firing, the Karovic will have no choice but to retreat. Skysent here will either have to jump back to his ship, and get left behind and surrounded. Like Ratibor, he levelled his sword at his opponent, and the midday light shimmered on its edge. In his decades as a mercenary, Josef was an adept fighter himself, but he suspected that might count for little against a Bogatyr as renowned as Ratibor Skysent. With that, Ratibor advanced at full charge. Josef caught the Bogatyr’s swing on his own blade, but the sheer impact sent him five steps backwards. Ratibor followed-up immediately, and Josef’s arms ached from the vibrations as he barely managed to turn the follow-up thrust at his neck aside before hopping backwards again. A minute or two?! Damnit, I’ll be lucky if I hold out thirty seconds! Ratibor still grinned under his faceguard as he began to close the distance at a slow walk. “I think you might be a little too old to still be on the battlefield, Tideborn.” Josef managed a smile of his own through clenched teeth. “I think you may be right.” They clashed again in a shower of steel sparks. Josef’s sword creaked as he parried one, then two, then three successive strikes at his shoulder. Wait - he’s only going for my vitals. He’s not trying to wear me down or bleed me. He stepped back a split second before the tip of Ratibor’s sword almost scored his throat. He’s so confident in his ability that he just goes straight for the kill. Maybe I can use that. “Tell me, Skysent,” Josef began as he heaved for breath. “What was it like to fight Burgov Godsbane?” “That was a long time ago.” Ratibor’s voice abruptly lost the amusement it held just moments ago as the Bogatyr shifted into an attack stance. “I’ve sent plenty of others to the Skies since then.” Not much longer. The ballistae fired again, sending wood flying into the air as they drilled into the ships below. Any second now, and the Karovic will be forced to retreat. “Bugrov was one of the greatest warriors of his day,” Josef went on. Maybe I can indulge him. Get him to gloat. Something to buy time. “You must have been barely past boyhood when you slew him, right? How -” His plan had the opposite effect. With a suddenly straight face, Ratibor shot forward and swung horizontally at his neck. The blade shaved off some of Josef’s hair as he ducked under the blow, and sent Ratibor back with a kick. “Woah, woah!” Josef called. “What, you don’t like talking about it or something? I thought that’s the reason you were famous! Ratibor Skysent, blessed by God to strike down the pagan warlord Burgov Godsbane, terror of western Ruska!” Ratibor’s expression had gone still. What’s up with him? He was all guts and bravado just a minute ago. Instead of answering, he shifted his footing to prepare to charge again, and Josef braced himself. Whatever about the man’s reaction to Burgov Godsbane’s name, Josef would not last more than a few more clinches with the Bogatyr. Before Ratibor attacked again, though, a warhorn peeled out from the ships below, and Josef almost laughed with relief. Frantic shouts fellowed as Karovic soldiers tried to secure their ships and row backwards, out of the blockade and back to safety. “You going to join them, Skysent? You could stay to try kill me, but you’ll get left behind.” Ratibor’s smile returned, though weary and begrudging. “I was a little too slow, it seems. Let’s finish this next time, Tideborn, ai?” “Next time.” Next time, I’ll make sure I have fifty reserves at my back so you can’t come near me, you madman. “It’s a date, Skysent.” For a moment, it looked like Ratibor might try get one last blow it, but as the echo of a drumbeat sounded on the ships - meant to coordinate rowers - he grit his teeth. The Bogatyr turned, and leapt from the wall back onto the beam of the ship he had jumped off. He almost lost his balance, before he jumped from the beam to the rigging, and then slid back down the ship as if it were nothing. “**** me,” Josef glowered. “Five pounds of silver if anyone can hit that man!” His crew took the challenge eagerly; they hounded Ratibor with bolts from scorpions and ballistae alike, but none caught him. Leaving a trail of sundered and sinking ships in his wake, Ratibor disappeared into the mass of retreating Karovic, and just minutes later, all their ships had pulled back out of range. Laughter and a chant of victory from his Stagbreakers followed, but Josef dropped his sword and leaned against his knee with a deep breath. “Now that,” he said to himself under his breath, “was a little too close for my liking.” Josef Tideborn Thirty-four. Dragan Skullsplitter stared down at his open palm, at the chips and scars accumulated from years of battle. Thirty-four more dead today alone. Dead at my hands. The sun had begun to set over Dules, and so the Trade City was bathed in a burnt orange light as Dragan and Josef trudged through the courtyard of the Elector’s Palace in the heart of the city, surrounded by pale walls and onion-domed towers with tiles of every colour of the rainbow. Members of the Dulen Guard, in their blue-gold jackets and breastplates, clutched their halberds with visible tension as they watched Dragan and Josef move across the massive mosaic of blue and gold tiles in the middle of the courtyard, and no courtiers had ventured far from their apartments since the start of the siege. As if the Nzech or the Karovic will be skulking around the courtyard while the wall still stands. Pfft. These people know nothing about war. Dragan, on the other hand, knew too much. His eyes drifted back to his hand again, which he had scrubbed clean after defeating the Nzechovich assault on the city gates earlier that day. I killed thirty-four Nzechovich today. That adds on to the total of seventy-eight from the past three days, so … “Hey, Josef,” he rumbled as the two of them neared the steps of the Palace proper. “What’s thirty-four plus seventy eight?” “What?” grunted a distracted Josef, before he knit his brow. “Uh, one-hundred-and-twelve. Why?” “... No reason.” Dragan’s frown deepened as he stared at his palm. I’ve had to kill one-hundred-and-twelve of the little Nzech’s warriors in just four days. How many more days to go? As they started up the steps, he glanced back to Josef, who kept scratching his neck under his cloak. “Something bothering you?” “A couple of things,” Josef grumbled. His eyes were narrowed in that way they always were when his mind had hit a brick wall. That seldom boded well. “Some damn Bogatyr near took my head off today at the harbour, for one. Ratibor Skysent -- you heard of him?” “Rings a bell. Can’t remember where I heard it.” “Ah, he’s some holy warrior. Canonists adore him, they say he performed a miracle by killing Burgov Godsbane with nothing but a knife.” Dragan blinked. “He’s the one who killed Godsbane?” That was no meagre feat -- ten or fifteen years ago, Burgov Godsbane had been a pagan raider that had terrified western Ruska. From all Dragan knew, he was a daemon in battle, and a daemon in actions. “And he killed him with a knife?” Josef shrugged. “So they say, only he went all cagey when I brought it up. Either way, point is that the attacks on the harbour are getting dicey. Our artillery is whittling down their ships, but they still almost got in today. It’s becoming a battle of attrition.” The pair of them stepped through the massive arched doorways into the Palace’s grandiose entry hall, all sparkling white marble with gilt and silverwork on nearly every object. A fountain sat in the hall’s centre - an indoor fountain! - mounted with the marble likeliness of some long-dead Elector, while, from every inch of wallspace, the portraits of other rich, pompous Ruskans stared down at Dragan. As a sellsword, he appreciated wealth more than most men, but this … it was all too much. “Master Dragan! Master Josef!” piped up an officer of the Dulen Guard, marked with a feathered helmet as if he was a real soldier, who stood waiting in the entry hall with an escort of halberdiers. “Welcome, sirs. Please, the Electors are --” “Well, the gate’s held up fine so far,” Dragan went on. The officer almost threw himself aside with a yelp to make way for Dragan as he continued without pause. “I can send Cardolf and Voli’s units to reinforce you at the harbour.” Josef pursed his lips, then shook his head. “No -- I suspect Vladrik is holding back in his attacks. He’s hoping the Karovic will put in the leg-work at the harbour, and we’ll send reinforcements there just as you’re suggesting. Once the gate’s defences are lowered, he’ll hit us with everything he has.” “It’s … possible.” Dragan had held the city gates for four days now with relative ease -- for an army of thirty-thousand, Vladrik Nzechovich had not put up much of a fight. With the Dulen Guard awkwardly trailing behind them, the two of them continued down the lavish hallway, at the end of which stood the imposing doorway to the Elector’s Chambers. “So … we can’t win a battle of attrition, and we can’t win an open confrontation against their numbers. What’s the plan, then, Josef? How do we win?” Josef’s face was a thundercloud as they reached the doors. “I’m working on it.” More Dulen Guard - only this lot had the rims and edges of their mail gilded - stood by the doors with their salets lowered. After sharing a look, and glancing behind Dragan and Josef to their defunct escort, each pressed a hand to the huge doors, and began to push them open. The burnt light of the sunset, admitted through massive windows from the Chamber, accompanied the sound of arguing voices in the room beyond. Still pointedly ignoring the Dulen Guard, Dragan sucked in a bracing breath. He truly wished that Josef would handle all the talking with the Electors, but Josef insisted that Dragan always come along. He did not need to elaborate -- people always behaved differently when there was a seven-foot tall Waldenian warrior in the room. That point was well proven as the two Stagbreakers stepped past the door, and the voices grew quiet. The Elector’s Chamber was a round room of mostly gold-and-white colours, with a domed ceiling that stretched dozens of feet overhead. Vistas had been painted on the ceiling tiles, and so a scene of a sprawling and bloody battle around a golden-walled city stared down at Dragan. Although the most impressive painting, it was but one of many that coloured the walls with their enormous windows. The evening set flooded the marble floor, on which sat the polished semi-circular tables around which the Electors gathered. Dragan made no secret for his disdain for the Electors - or most of them, at least. From his own minimal understanding, and what Josef had explained, historically Dules had been ruled by a Prince, but not a hereditary one; the heads of the city’s wealthiest families held the esteemed office of Electors, who voted on who would ascend to become the Prince of Dules. For generations, the Electors had competed and plotted among themselves to place their favoured puppet on the throne, but that had all ended when some Nzehcovich king - one of the Nestors, Dragan thought - finally brought Dules under the Ruskan crown. Since then, it had been unbroken tradition that the Electors elected each Ruskan king to the title of Prince of Dules, while governance of the city was left to the Electors themselves. Unbroken tradition, until now. Now, as the Electors have endured several succession wars that had impacted their precious trade, they were trying to break away from the control of the Ruskan Crown by taking advantage of the chaos in the realm. Only, none of them have actually agreed who should be Prince. That was the least of their worries, anyway -- their carefully-hedged bets and exorbitant spending on mercenaries were now crumbling in front of them. Reluctantly, Dragan followed Josef’s lead as he bowed his head to the eight people spread around the table, some standing, some sitting; some young, some old; some calm, some agitated. None of their eyes regarded Dragan or Josef with much fondness, though Dragan did not quite understand - on one hand, the Dulen seemed to lavish in the fact they could pay an army of mercenaries to do their fighting from then, but then other times they seemed unhappy with their dependency on them. “My lords, ladies,” Josef drawled smoothly, and his voice carried through the massive room. “Pardon our interruption. We were told to come straight in to give our daily report.” “ … Yes, well,” an aged Elector in a puffy navy coat who somehow managed to make his wispy patch of silver hair look regal broke the silence as he eased back into his seat, “has anything much changed?” “The trajectory of the siege remains the same,” Josef went on in that same unflappable voice. “We -” “Save predictions and ‘trajectories’ for now, Tideborn,” cut in a slender woman with glossy black hair who Dragan thought was far too young for her cold, authoritative voice. “Facts will suffice.” “Facts,” Josef repeated, just a touch tightly. “As my lady wishes, then. We currently have fourteen of our squadrons defending the south and eastern gates, under the command of our co-captain Dragan. The steeper terrain has deterred any attacks on the north gate so far, and in any case, we’d see one coming well in advance, so we have two reserve squadrons …” Dragan tuned out as Josef bleated out the same numbers of soldiers, of garrison placements, and enemy attack patterns as he had every evening since the siege began. The Electors wanted to hear the same things every time, and thus far, they had done nothing about Josef’s warnings, which he, as usual, tacked on at the end of his report. “I know you did not ask for conjecture, my lords, but as your military advisor, I must once again stress that at the current rate of attacks, the combined Nzechovich and Karovic attacks will break through sooner or later.” Mouths opened and eyes hardened around the table, but it was another young woman - this one with short brown curls and cheeks that still looked like they held a trace of baby fat - who spoke. “I think it is high-time we listened and acted on that part, my lords.” Dragan was not much for names, and he had little regard for these pompous merchant lords, but he had a begrudging respect for that young woman -- Yaina, if he recalled. Even at their earlier meetings, before the Nzech-Karovic assault began, she had always exhibited the most sense out of her lordly counterparts. Granted, the bar is not set very high. She had been the one to help give Josef and Dragan complete control of the outer defences, and she had unsuccessfully petitioned her fellows to send the Dulen Guard to reinforce those defences. “Hmph. Are you going to propose we place the Dulen Guard under the authority of sellswords again, Lady Yaina?” sniffed Wispy-Hair. “It’s about time we did something with them,” Yaina quipped back. “We’re under siege, and we just keep them standing around the inner city doing nothing.” “They are on standby in case the city itself is breached!” retorted Wispy, and some of the other Electors rumbled their agreement. As if they would make any difference in that case, Dragan groaned silently. If the walls are breached, then it’s over for these fools anyway. As it had at every other meeting, the disagreement spread into a chaotic argument among the Electors, leaving Josef and Dragan simply standing there. “I’m not sure how much more of this I can take, Josef,” he sighed quietly to his partner. “If this is our last war, it’s not nearly as much fun as I hoped.” A part of that was a lie -- Dragan no longer found any war fun. Yet still, he wanted to leave the legacy of the Stagbreakers on a high note, not the doomed defence of Dules at the whim of merchants playing at kings. “Me neither, old friend. But I think I might be coming close to an answer,” Josef whispered back. “An answer?” “To your question before we arrived. How are we going to win?” “That so?” his eyes trailed across the room, across the arguing Electors, as the light of sunset began to grow dimmer and dimmer. “What are you thinking?” “Nothing particular,” Josef murmured innocently, “only that a good mercenary has a tendency to end up on the winning side.”

what do you get out of being a mod these days

SONG OF THE BLACK CHAPTER VII: A PACT OF GLASS A Lord of the Craft novella set in ancient Ruskan lore. Previous Chapters: Chapter I: Osyenia Chapter II: Lahy Chapter III: Mejen Chapter IV: Soul & Sword Chapter V: The Eyes of Ruska Chapter VI: The Shadow of Dules With a daring plan crafted by the cunning Prince Kosav, the Karovic rebels, on the foot of their victory at the Battle of Mejen, march into the belly of the beast -- they sail north to the Trade City of Dules, where Vladrik Nzechovich has the Trade City under siege with an army three-times larger than the Karovic. After learning that the Electors of Dules want independence, and will submit to neither Karovic nor Nzechovich kings, the Princes meet with Vladrik Nzechovich, and strike a very dangerous agreement that neither side wants, but knows is essential if they hope to win the throne of Ruska. Music - Play & Loop All So many people in one place and yet there was silence. Of course, there was not complete silence: overhead, tides of black-red Karovic and green-red Nzechovich banners flapped ceaselessly in the westward wind; the nearby waters of the Lower Huns River lapped noisily against the creaking hulls of the fleet of Karovic carves moored near the bank; and creaking leather and clinking metal marked the anxious shifting of warriors. And yet, to Stanislaw Horselegs, the oppressive, heavy tension in the air could only be described as silence, as if the thousands gathered here held back shouts, screams, and the drawing of weapons. Stanislaw shared their anxiety. He did not like this plan one bit. He stood astride his fellow Bogatyr, Ratibor and Slavomir, in a pavilion atop a small bluff some three miles south of the Trade City of Dules, besieged by Nzechovich forces. The pavilion had been erected halfway between the Nzechovich encirclement of the city, and the hastily-erected fortifications on the riverbank where the Karovic had moored their modest fleet. Stanislaw glared under his helmet at the Nzechovich elites on the opposite side of the pavilion, who glared right back through their silver-winged faceguards. “This is madness,” Ratibor Skysent hissed at Stanislaw’s side. Though absent any signs of nerves, the holy Bogatyr looked irate with that fiery look in his eye, one hand tapping the pommel of his sheathed sword impatiently, and the other gripping the Hussariyan Cross around his neck. “We should have just crossed the Huns and carved a bloody path to Lahy.” Stanislaw did not disagree -- with thirty-thousand Nzechovich busy besieging Dules, it made perfect sense for the smaller Karovic army to attack the undefended royal court at Lahy. And yet … after hearing Prince Kosav analyse the situation at the war council in Mejen, he could bring himself to agree with Ratibor’s assessment either. “It’s … like what the Younger Prince said, Ratibor,” he whispered back. “If we let the Nzechovich take Dules, it’ll give them enough wealth and resources to eventually overwhelm us, even if we did retake Lahy.” Ratibor’s grip tightened around his Cross. “I am not breaking bread with Nzech pagans.” “You will if the Prince orders you to,” came a nearby mutter, and both Stanislaw and Ratibor’s narrowed eyes snapped to the rugged-faced man on Stanislaw’s right. Slavomir the Drowned seemed to be one of the few people present who showed no outward signs of nerves or disdain. Instead, the weathered face of the serf-turned-Bogatyr wore the same idle nonchalance as always. Stanislaw had always found that infuriating. “Was that a threat, Mutt?” Ratibor hissed. While Stanislaw held Slavomir in equal disdain for his low birth, at that moment, a small voice in his head had to admit he envied the other Bogatyr his unwavering calm at moments like this. While Slavomir was aloof and Ratibor agitated, Stansilaw was nervous - though he was a Bogatyr who had seen his fair share of battles and blood, this was not a battle. They had sailed from Mejen to Dules to make a gamble, a gamble that had to be made if the Karovic Princes were to retain any chance at reclaiming Ruska. Stanislaw saw the need for the gamble, but it did not make him feel any better about it. “Of course not,” Slavomir answered indifferently. “Just an affirmation of my loyalty to the Princes.” Ratibor clenched his jaw, and he opened his mouth to retort, but cut off when Stanislaw laid a hand on his shoulder. “Not now, Ratibor. Not here.” Ratibor looked between Stanislaw and Slavomir, and then shut his mouth with an audible click of teeth. Stanislaw released a shaky sigh -- Ratibor was far from the only one with frayed nerves. Behind them, rows of Karovic soldiers stood in formation outside the Karovic side of the pavilion, nervously waiting under black-red standards for any sign of trouble. On the other side of the pavilion, a much larger force of Nzech soldiers were arrayed in waiting lines. They haven’t attacked yet, though. The gamble is working so far. We just need a little more luck. With that, he steeled his resolve, and turned his eyes back to those in the middle of the pavilion. Sat on a plain stool on the Karovic side, the Elder Prince Barbov’s black curls whipped around his broad shoulders in the wind, and the rightful King of Ruska’s face was set in an icy scowl. The Younger Prince Kosav stood beside the stool, and shared his brother’s hair and hawk-like eyes, but he was far gaunter than his broad-built brother. It was Prince Kosav’s plan that had brought their small army to Dules to confront the much-larger Nzechovich army -- Kosav was Stanislaw’s milk-brother and oldest friend, and while Stanislaw could not comprehend what the Younger Prince was thinking with this plan, he was prepared to trust him. Until the very end … which may be rather soon. The two Karovic Princes had their eyes coldly set on a man with a neat crop of hair on an otherwise-shaved head slouched on a high-backed chair, with one leg crossed on the other. Every ounce of Vladrik Nzechovich oozed confidence and comfort, with his chainmail vest unlaced at the neck, the way he waved about his silver winecup that was kept periodically refilled by a comely young woman at his side whose dress was fine enough for a Bogatyr’s daughter, and the constant wry smirk he wore on his chiselled face. Like Barbov, he too had an advisor at his side -- a young man who looked a good deal like Vladrik, except his jaw was squarer, his head was completely shaved, and he wore a scowl darker than even Ratibor. Stanislaw did not know that one’s name, but he certainly recognized him. He was one of the Nzechovich at the Battle of Mejen. Their commander, I think. “You’re really serious about this?” Vladrik looked as if he was holding back a laugh. “You want a truce?” Stanislaw could not help but glare as the Nzechovich spoke. He had not really known Vladrik outside of polite greetings at feasts and tourneys before the Nzechovich Coup of Lahy, but the young man was well-known and respected for his performance at jousts and as a warrior for fighting raiders on the Carnatian border. Stanislaw had never had cause to hate the man, until now, and even in spite of his family’s betrayal at the Coup, something about his demeanour made Stanislaw want to stab him every time he spoke. “A temporary truce,” Barbov corrected through a tight jaw. The Elder Prince had not been enthusiastic about his younger brother’s plan either, but like the rest of them, he could see no other option that would not lead to their eventual defeat. “Oh, come on, Barbov. You can’t be serious!” Vladrik’s sly smile blossomed into a brazen grin. “You roll up to my army, outnumbered three-to-one, and say you want to be friends? You’ve just put the apple in your mouth and climbed onto the platter like a hog at a feast! And you even have the right physique for that role, too.” Laughter rippled through the Nzechovich soldiers, but it lasted only a second before the hiss of Karovic blades leaving their sheaths echoed through the tent at the insult, Stanislaw’s included, and the Nzech were quick to bare their weapons in return. Before anyone moved, though, Prince Kosav raised a forestalling hand and called, “Stop! Weapons away! We are here to talk of peace, not spill blood!” Gritting his teeth, Stanislaw obliged, and gave Ratibor an urgent look to prompt him to do the same. Prince Barbov sat perfectly still on his stool, as if any movement would cause him to draw his own weapon. “Easy, easy!” Vladrik cooed. “I didn’t know the Karovic hated jokes so much. Though, then again, I do think this peace of yours is a joke.” “Temporary peace,” Barbov growled through grit teeth. “Yes, well, as much as I can admire a last-ditch act of desperation to save your hides,” Vladrik began as he held out his cup from the woman to refill, “it lacks a certain … symbiosis. To be honest, I thought you came up here to die fighting at the hands of a great warrior.” He flashed his smile. Kosav and Barbov exchanged looks, and then nodded as if communicating silently. It was Kosav who answered. “It’s true that you have the advantage by far, Lord Vladrik. You have thirty-thousand troops, and we have just under ten thousand. It would be an overwhelming victory if you attacked us here. But we’re not here to die.” “Really, now?” Vladrik arched an eyebrow. “Because I might -” “If you choose to fight us now,” Kosav cut him off hastily, “you’ll never take Dules.” The smile slid off Vladrik’s face. For all his posturing, it was obvious to Stanislaw that the Nzechovich general was well aware of that fact. So, he’s not too stupid to see it. Good. Kosav’s plan hinged on Vladrik not being too arrogant or ignorant to prioritise his objectives, and Stanislaw had not been the only person who doubted him. Vladrik reclined in his chair with a more sombre expression now. “And what makes you say that, little Prince?” Kosav visibly swallowed a lump in his throat and answered, “the situation in Dules is plain to see now. The Electors won’t open the gates for either you or us. The city is seizing this chance to establish independence from the throne of Ruska, and they’ve hired many mercenaries to bolster the Dulen Guard. Without the wealth, resources, and influence of Dules, many other lords and holdings in Ruska will defy the rule of Nzechovich and Karovic alike.” “Be that as it may,” Vladrik said with a distasteful twist of his lips, “I can still win this siege with -” “With your current force, yes.” It was Barbov who interrupted this time, and Vladrik glowered. “If you fight us here, though, we will bleed you, Vladrik. You’ll win, but at the cost of some of your force -- enough to cripple you in any attack against Dules. You can defeat the Karovic here, but it will cost you Dules, and that will cost you control of Ruska.” The first throw of the dice. The tense silence returned as Vladrik pondered the equation, and the Nzech behind him shared doubtful looks. Although the Karovic were in open rebellion against the Nzechovich puppet who had been placed on Barbov’s rightful throne during the Coup of Lahy, their current army was only a thorn in the side of the Nzechovich. Everyone with an ounce of sense knew that the wealth of Dules was key to winning an actual war. Stanislaw sucked in a calming breath as he waited for the dice to stop spinning. The silence shattered as Vladrik abruptly laughed and slapped a knee, but there was a darkness to his eyes now. This arrogance is all an act. He sees the situation clearly. That’s good, at least. “You have a funny way of seeing things through those funny eyes, Princes. Humour me, then -- if I agreed to stay your execution until Dules’ treachery is dealt with, what will you do? Stand back and cheer for me? Run away and hide?” “Neither,” retorted Barbov. “We’ll attack the city, too. Help you, even.” The Elder Prince looked physically pained to say those words, but it was all part of the gamble, and so Stanislaw was grateful he was keeping a level head. “We’ll leave you to continue your assault on the walls, and my fleet will assault the harbour.” “Help me?” “Perhaps ‘help’ is a little strong,” Kosav intoned. “The reality is that we both want the Trade City, and it’s in neither of our interests to fight each other before that happens. So, we’ll both attack the city and stay out of each other’s way until Dules has fallen.” Surprised murmurs rippled through the onlookers. “And then what? We’ll remain friends? Forget about the Coup of Lahy? We’ll split Dules between us? Share Ruska?” His smile was mirthless now. “Then we can fight,” said Barbov. “ … You are joking, now, right?” There followed another rich laugh as Vladrik leaned on his knees, splashing wine over the rim of his cup. “Okay, okay -- let me get this straight. You want to call a truce so that both of us can attack Dules, and once the city falls, then we’ll fight for control of the city between us?” “Something you don’t understand about that, Nzech?” Barbov grunted. “I just … I don’t …” he said between bursts of snickers. “My force still outnumbers three-to-one. How do you …?” he trailed off, and the shaved-headed Nzech beside him whispered something inaudible, to which Vladrik gave a dismissive wave and seemed to murmur ‘I know’. His eyes flit back to Barbov. “What is it, then?” “What is what?” “Your plan. Why else would you agree to something so disadvantageous and that seems to benefit only me?” Barbov’s sudden smile was as cold as his eyes. “Canonism teaches us to help all those in need.” Vladrik barked another hearty laugh. “Well, if your false god is so inclined to help me, then it’d be rude to decline. I think we might have a deal, Karovic.” The man with the shaved head at Vladrik’s side coughed for attention, and shared a look with Vladrik, who rolled his eyes. “Oh, that’s right. One more thing, Princes. My cousin, Mylah … she fought in that disaster at Mejen,” he shot a sidelong look at the man with the shaved head again, who clenched his jaw. “Did you capture her? Is she still alive?” “Not for lack of trying …” Ratibor whispered under his breath to Stanislaw. The Nzechovich girl that had very nearly ruined them at the Battle of Mejen had kept her tongue still in most attempts to interrogate her, and when they left Mejen Kosav ordered her to be kept chained in one of the cargo ships to be used as a hostage, despite Barbov’s insistence she be hanged, or worse. “She’ll definitely stay alive now,” Stanislaw muttered back. “The fact that they brought her up first means she’s valuable to them.” Only, it didn’t seem like Mylah was valuable to Vladrik - he seemed to ask out of some begrudged obligation rather than genuine concern. The same did not seem to be true for the man with the shaved head, though; as soon as Mylah was brought up, intent and anxiety were etched into his face. He wants her rescued. Not Vladrik. There had been silence for a moment as the Princes considered the question, before Kosav answered, “She is. Would you like her released?” Instant relief flooded the standing man’s voice, but Vladrik only tapped the armrest of his chair impatiently. “Get on with it. What do you want for her?” Kosav pursed his lips, as if to make it look like he was thinking it over and he had not rehearsed this interaction a dozen times. “Your faith will suffice. If you abide by our truce, we will release her once Dules has fallen -- before our battle.” “You’re leveraging her to make sure I keep my word? ” Vladrik snorted. “Insulting my honour, now, are you?” Kosav opened his mouth, but Barbov beat him to it. “Your honour?” A cold fire roiled in the Elder Prince’s voice. “After what the Nzechovich did at Lahy … less than a day after the death of my father, after you killed us in our sleep and drove us out of our home, you dare to even use that word?” Vladrik pushed off his seat, throwing his wine cup to the floor. He was not smiling this time. “And what if I do, Barbov? Hm? What if I say it was an honour to cut down your swines? What would you do about it?” Barbov leapt up from his stool, and within the blink of an eye, both Vladrik and the Elder Prince were squared up with each other with their hands on their weapons, and the rest of the pavilion reaching for theirs, too. Stanislaw blinked in disbelief. What caused Vladrik to snap like that? The man was not teasing or mocking with that smirk like he had before -- he seemed rattled. “Barbov,” Kosav hissed as he pulled at his brother’s shoulders to no avail. “Barbov.” Vladrik’s taunts did not stop, though. “Go ahead, Barbov. Let your little brother do the talking. Better bow down and listen.” “Barbov, we can’t,” Kosav insisted, and Stanislaw only watched as every soldier gathered waited for the signal to act. Barbov’s fist was clenched around the hilt of his sword, and the metal rattled in its sheath. Come on, your Highness, he urged silently. Back down, just this once. We bide our time, and we’ll kill them later. Please, Highness. He sighed in relief, and Ratibor seemed to grunt in disappointment, when Barbov turned, kicked over the stool, and stormed out of the pavilion. Immediately, a crowd of footmen - Slavomir included - folded around him as he began to march back to the Karovic encampments on the banks of the Lower Huns. Left in the pavilion, a pale-faced Kosav panned back to Vladrik, who watched Barbov retreat bitterly. “You know, Kosav, you really should have been the one to be King,” Vladrik snorted. “We might never have been in this situation.” Kosav only firmed his jaw and asked, “Does our agreement stand?” “Oh, it does.” Vladrik seemed to regress into his composure as he turned back towards his own troops. “But once Dules has fallen, every last one of you who remain here will be cut down. I don’t care whatever clever plan you think have it -- it won’t save you.” He made a gesture to the shaved-headed man, who looked anxiously out towards the Karovic ships before falling in behind Vladrik. The rest of the Nzechovich lines followed suit behind them, leaving Kosav and the remainder of the Karovic forces standing in the pavilion as the wind flapped the canvas. “Well … we won the first roll of the dice, at least,” Kosav sighed. Suddenly, his composure and calmness deflated out of him, and he leaned forward on his knees, as if exhausted. “We have our pact.” “We do, Highness,” Stanislaw answered cautiously as he watched the retreating backs of the Nzechovich. “But it’s a pact of glass.” “If your hands are all you have, your hands are all you have,” Kosav muttered the old Ruskan phrase, and Stanislaw smiled weakly. Whatever else happens, we’re alive for now. That brought little comfort, though. They had won the first roll of the dice, but the second phase of Kosav’s plan was the hard part. Kosav Karovic ___________ Szitibor spared one last glance for the pavilion on the hill, and then mounted his horse behind Vladrik. They had picketed their mounts on a copse of trees near the bluff, and a war trumpet cried out the signal for the Nzechovich warriors that had escorted Vladrik to the negotiation to return to their encampment. As he trot just behind Vladrik with the rest of his immediate retinue - which entirely consisted of sycophantic nobles whose company he kept for prestige - he could not help but frown at his cousin’s back. Mylah is alive. They said so. She’s alive. The question of whether his sister was alive after the Battle of Mejen had kept him awake nearly every night since he arrived at Vladrik’s camp, but now that he knew she was not dead and waiting to be rescued, he barely felt any different at all. I’m not done yet. I still have to actually save her. To hear the Karovic say it back in the pavilion, though, he had nothing to worry about -- once the Trade City had been taken, they would release her, so long as the Nzechovich observed the truce. But … why? Vladrik had pointed out what everyone had been thinking -- this truce the Karovic offered was simply too good to be true. They’re not going to fight us, help us attack the city, release Mylah, and agree to fight us with far fewer numbers after Dules has fallen? It doesn’t make any sense. It was an unsettling analysis. Something important was missing. He urged his horse to ride at Vladrik’s side. “This plan of theirs -- do you have any idea of what it might be?” he asked in a quiet voice over the sound of marching soldiers. Vladrik wore an unusual pensive expression as his eyes stared at nothing, lost in thought. “A few,” he murmured after a moment. “Nothing solid, though. The most likely seems to be that they’ll try to ally with Dules behind our backs, but that doesn’t make a lot of sense either if Dules wants to be independent.” “Maybe Dules intends to use them to defeat us, and then turn on them to secure their independence.” “Maybe … but then why didn’t Dules open the harbour and let the Karovic in from the start?” Szitibor opened his mouth, but no answer came to mind, and he closed it again with a frown. They rode in silence for a few moments, and the knot in Szitibor’s stomach that he thought would undo itself once he learned Mylah was safe seemed to only grow tighter. “Are … you alright, cousin?” he found himself asking. “What? What do you mean?” “Just … at the end of that meeting, you seemed … different when Barbov brought up honour.” “Did I? Hmph. Didn’t notice.” “Vladrik -” “Just drop it, Szitty. We have a lot of work to do back at camp.” Szitibor watched his cousin’s stiff expression, absent the usual wry and lazy smile it normally wore, before he acquiesced. The din of the siege encampment grew louder as they approached the ocean of tents, beyond which the pale walls of Dules dominated the horizon. They did not get much further, however, before Vladrik suddenly spoke up again. “I know all you care about is saving Mylah, Szitty … but you know what we’re doing is best for Ruska too, don’t you?” Szitibor blinked at the question. It was not at all unlike what Mylah had said to him back in Mejen, before the battle had gone so horribly wrong. For Ruska. “... I do. Barbov would make a terrible king, and Kosav is too subservient to his brother to do what needs to be done.” “Exactly. I … know that, too. We all have our own ambitions, but they’re unified in creating a prosperous Ruska under the Nzechovich. It’s just …” He closed his eyes, and sighed. “I wish there had been a better way.” Szitibor furrowed his brow. For as long as he had known him, his cousin had been all flash and pomp without any ounce of self-reflection, so this Vladrik was new to him. “Better how?” “Barbov was right. We don’t have any honour for what we did at the Coup of Lahy.” The glazing of his eyes seemed to behold something unseen and unpleasant. Szitibor had not been present for the Coup - he and Mylah had been among the Nzechovich nobles called to the capital after the takeover - but he knew Vladrik had fought there. “We … had to kill people in their sleep, people without weapons, people … people who begged for mercy.” He coughed to clear his hoarse throat. “I … still believe it’s what had to be done to stop the Karovic from destroying Ruska, I just … wish there had been a better way. That’s all.” It took Szitibor a moment to realise that Vladrik was not asking him something, but confiding in him for his own sake. How … long has had this bottled up? Before Szitibor arrived at Dules, Vladrik had already been besieging the city for weeks, and he had had no shortage of company, from Nzechovich Bogatyr, to Boyars, to their noble children. And yet, when Szitibor had arrived, it was he that Vladrik wanted to take on as an advisor, and now it was him that Vladrik seemed to share his trauma with. He … doesn’t have anyone to talk to. But why choose me? Szitibor knew he was not likely to get an answer for that, but it at least bode well. He had only come to Dules to beg for Vladrik’s help to save Mylah, but now he might really be able to help his cousin - and the Nzechovich - in return. Since the defeat at Mejen, Szitibor had scorned any notion that he might be able to help make Ruska a better place … but now, he was not so sure. From atop the walls of Dules, the wind beat at Josef Tideborn’s cloak and thinning hair. Through his eyeglass, he had watched the Nzech and the Karovic convene on a hill in the southern hills, where they seemed to have spoken for the better part of an hour before parting. Parting, with no signs of bloodshed. Clicking his tongue irritably, he lowered the spyglass, and handed it to the much taller, and broader, man at his side. “Seems our job just got a little harder, old friend.” Dragan Skullsplitter sighed, and twisted the haft of the axe resting on his shoulder.

CT should not be a spot for RP, it should be a place that sets the scene for the map in terms of lore and story and serve to captivate players as their literal first step into the world and in some cases first glimpse of the server. See the CT section of my post for more: https://www.lordofthecraft.net/forums/topic/216732-asharren-fan-made-map-design/?tab=comments#comment-1936990

who's the painter

a. epic b. why did 4 people write 1 paragraph

@The60th @Llir Cheers for leaving your thoughts, really appreciate the engagement. The nutshell and main thing I wanted to push for was improvements to our server in a lot of different ways. As I said in the post and Kowa seems to affirm, the server, as is, doesn't seem to make enough money to fund all the improvements that could really push LotC's quality (like lore/history video series, promotional art, etc.), so a Patreon seems like the natural solution. Then, since we have a lot of people on the server capable of producing high-quality content (again, namely art and code), it makes sense that we should invest and utilise our own while also improving the server. And yeah I get the whole thing of keeping LotC a volunteer passion project. I'm not proposing that we try to become for-profit or anything, but I, like everyone, would love to see our server improve with things like a better media presence. That, however, means acknowledging that pure volunteerism won't always take us the distance. It's great that we do have people who make us free videos and plugins, but there's a reason so much of our content is inconsistent and infrequent. LotC, through it's ten years of history, has so much potential for stuff like art and video series that would undoubtedly promote the server and increase recruitment, but I think some kind of Patreon initiative is necessary to get us there.

I had a few people mention that this seems like it should be handled 'internally', but a look at Tythus Ltd.'s company filings suggests that the server (in the last two years, at least) doesn't have the resources for that. Now, like I said in the post, we don't have the full story of finances and can just go off what the financial statements tell us, which isn't a lot, but it seems like enough to conclude that - at an initial glance - the server doesn't have a lot of resources to provide monetary incentives to our creators. As for professional services, I don't think we can really brush aside coding and go "well, aside from this" when this is a major point of a Patreon that seek to enable the players of our server to reward people who dedicate their skills that have real-world value to improving the server. Outside of that, though, you're right in that other professional services are inconsistent in frequency and quality, but that's sort of what this hopes to change - a lot of artists, video-makers, etc. could be incentivised to help produce much higher-quality content for the server (see the list in the post). Obviously, you or I aren't in a position to give a mandate of projects we'd like to see funded. We're not Admins, nor any kind of staff. All we can do, at this point, is just spitball and point to the various benefits that could be possible, which is what this thread ultimately aims to do. It's meant to be a discussion, and none of us bar Admins could really ever provide anything beyond "ill-defined" by way of example.

Afaik EULA relates to direct in-game purchased benefits, which Patreon perks don't pertain to, they're strictly out-of-server benefits (except for tags, which are EULA-safe).

The Patreon Petition howdy do So, most of you will be familiar with the Patreon platform, which, in a nutshell, is a website that facilitates content-creators producing exclusive content to fans who donate (called Patrons) via monthly commitments/pledges (usually, it's very small, like 1-5 dollars per month for the basic package). In pretty much every case, creators use Patreon to build on a pre-existing platform and allow particularly devoted fans to give extra support in exchange for some exclusive benefits. For example, a YouTuber could receive additional support on Patreon from some of their best fans in exchange for exclusive videos, early access to videos that will be uploaded to their YouTube later, or let their Patrons vote for what kind of videos they will produce next. In a lot of cases, the main draw of Patreon isn't always these exclusive benefits -- rather, it's an extra mile fans can go for their favourite creators. Okay, so what does this have to do with LotC? To some of you, the 'LotC Patreon' discussion isn't new (and it most certainly isn't my idea), but it's been something variously mentioned in Discord from year to year without a serious discussion ever being had about it (in public, at least). The gist of this idea is that our server would operate a Patreon to generate additional revenue (more on the details of this below) in exchange for some additional (and mostly minor) perks. As I'll stress a bit later in this thread, the driving force behind an LotC Patreon wouldn't be exclusive perks (which are ultimately much better incorporated into VIP packages), but rather to enable members of our community to offer a small monthly pledge that has the potential to drastically improve our sever and its content. Now, we're talking real money, so specifics are going to be important. Throughout this thread, I'll touch on what I think are the most important aspects of this discussion: Does LotC need a Patron? -- The Financial Context How would we invest our Patreon proceeds? What Patreon benefits could we offer (in contrast with VIP)? How would we regulate our Patreon? I DOES LOTC NEED A PATREON -- THE FINANCIAL CONTEXT Money has always been an interesting and obscure topic for our server. Most of you will have heard all sorts of claims, from the server going bankrupt and closing down imminently, to various players offering staggering sums to purchase the server. As only our Admins (and ex-Admins, I guess) have an actual indication of what the real day-to-day server finances are like, it's naturally very difficult for us, as average players, to discuss it. We can glean a basic understanding of what kind of figures the server operates on via the company reports of Tythus Ltd., who is the legal entity operating the server and is owned by the server's illusive creator, Tythus. You can look up this information yourself (I won't share the source directly - though it's not doxxing since the information is publicly available, I'll err on the side of courtesy), but, to tell a long story short, Tythus Ltd. seems to operate within relatively unremarkable financial margins. It's hard to contextualise its assets and liabilities absent a specific insight into how much the server generates and spends (since this isn't specified on company reports), and Tythus Ltd. does not include profit-and-loss-statements in its reports. What we can conclude is that Tythus Ltd. has filed its financial statements with 300-2,000 pounds in equity, but it's impossible to say if that's from pure revenue generated by the server or otherwise supplemented. Okay, so those two paragraphs said a lot of financial jargon without actually saying a lot, but it does let us conclude with relative certainty that, through one means or another, LotC (or Tythus Ltd., at least) pays for itself and, unless Tythus is personally investing fairly substantial sums (in excess of 7k in 2021), that it makes some money. So, on that basis, it does not appear as if LotC needs a Patreon. So why are we having this conversation, then? As the old addage goes, there's always room for improvement. Although the running of our server is exclusively done via volunteering, we make use of a lot of professional services. The most notable of these is, of course, coding and plugin development -- as a lot of you will no doubt know, any qualified coder can expect a starting salary 50-100% higher than their peers in other industries (take it from me -- despite graduating 2nd in my law undergrad and having a masters, two of my best friends who did computer science earn over double my current salary). Although coding is the most lucrative and critical example of our reliance on volunteer professional services, it's definitely not the only one: art (in all forms), video production, editing, community management, music compositions, voice-acting, social media management, and recruitment are all examples of services that can and do have real monetary value. While we'll discuss where Patreon money could go in more detail in the next section, the point here is that we can both encourage professional services provided to our server and reinvest in our community with monetary incentive/reward. Important to note here is that I'm not saying we should start individually commissioning freelancers to do work our necessarily pay full prices, but rather that we should, where we can, pay homage to our own players who, out of passion, invest their professional skills into improving the quality of our server while they could be using said skill to make real money. II HOW WOULD WE INVEST PATREON PROCEEDS? Irrespective of the amount we'd incur through Patreon, a big question is how we go about investing it back into the server. I mentioned some of the professional talents our server enjoys for free from its passionate players in the previous section, so here I want to go into a bit more detail as to how we could use Patreon revenue to both reward good-faith professional contributions to our server, and encourage higher-quality contributions. I want to flag here, and I'll echo it later, that I absolutely would never want to see Patreon proceeds claimed by upper Staff/Admins for their role of running and managing the overall server. All proceeds should specifically go to rewarding established professional contributions (such as coding, art, etc.). With that said, here are some basic examples of what Patreon proceeds could go towards: Coding & Plugins: As I've said, tech-based contributions are effectively the poster-boy of any Patreon initiative on the server. As skilled people with very high real-world earning potentials, and as an area that most people are not proficient in whatsoever, coders are very important to the functioning and improvement of our server. We've seen a lot of cool plugins in the last year (big props to the60th), but plugins are usually very and tedious to make, especially on a volunteer basis. Offering a financial reward as a "thank you" to our coders could go a long way in terms of helping coders justifying spending time on server development (a lot of you will no doubt remember how, in the past, proficient coders simply could not justify doing free work). Art: Obviously, art can take many forms (from traditional artwork, to graphics, to skinning), and consequently art has a lot of promotional value. I've always thought it would be incredibly cool to promote LotC via artworks celebrating and advertising various events on the server, from massive eventlines like the Inferi or the Scyfling Invasion, to even bigger inter-player conflicts, like the War of the Two Emperors or the Sinner's War. Picture how cool it would be to make a post on our various social medias with a movie-tier-looking poster promoting some upcoming/ongoing event, generating hype and interest from current, returning, and prospective players alike. Building off this, it could even feed into official LotC merchandise (an entirely new source of revenue) whereby artists could produce super high-quality server pieces that could be purchased things like posters. Some smart YouTubers have started doing this for some of their flagship series -- see the below example of YouTuber 'Swampletics' producing a movie poster for the finale of one of his RuneScape YouTube series: Videos: We've had a couple of media content produced over the years - like the Nation Spotlights, and the Damnable Horde & Outer Nether eventline trailers - but they've been really inconsistent in both frequency and quality. A financial-backing to rectify both these issues to create an active video presence across all of our social media platforms. While we should continue spotlight videos for nations and trailers, I feel like a massive missed opportunity for our server is the lack of lore videos we should be making VaatiVidya-style to explore, simplify, and theatrically portray our server's rich lore and history. 'Videos' in this regard is an umbrella term for shooting, editing, and voice-acting, all of which are deserving of some kind of remuneration. Server Costs/Upgrades: This is a bit different from the others, and an exception to the idea that we should be reinvesting in server talent, but the idea is that, should it ever be required, Patreon funds could be used to offset some server expenses and facilitate upgrades, such as the box/server/hosting, and this could be an especially pertinent consideration if it is indeed the case that there are any personal funds from Tythus being invested in the server. Like I detailed in the first section, these four aren't the only possible investment opportunities by a longshot, they're just the easiest to explain and lend themselves to a distinct final 'product' that could be rewarded upon completion. I think they perfectly make the point I'm trying to make in this section, it's just important to remember there's a lot more we could do with Patreon proceeds such as community management, social media management (though this ties in very strongly with videos), original soundtracks (which would be perfect for videos), recruitment, and writing. Okay, but how do we actually decide who gets paid what? Right, this is an extremely important question for putting this debate into perspective - we've established some of the various overall initiatives we can invest in, but how do we determine what funds are allocated where? I think there are three main options: Patreon-Manager Discretion: Simply put, it would be the responsibility of the staff managing the LotC Patreon to distribute proceeds at their discretion. I think this is a bad idea, for the reasons I'll expand upon in Part IV, but include a lack of oversight and transperancy that risk undermining the integrity of the Patreon as a whole. I just think it's worth acknowledging it's a general option, albeit not a good one. Proportion Poll: The idea here would be that Patrons vote (via Patreon itself, see the next section) in advance as to what projects they'd like to fund, based either on a monthly basis or project basis. This could have a few different variations, from Patrons choosing where their monthly commitment goes to (i.e., coding) to Patreon Polls listing various ongoing projects (such as a (a) a plugin, (b) a video project, (c) an original soundtrack, or (d) an official artwork. I think this sytsem works best if a larger approximation of proceeds are given to the project with the most votes, while a smaller approximation to the runner-up, etc. I think this idea works fine? -- it's just that it invites some nitty-gritty questions like how to divvy out proceeds in a project with multiple workers (such as videos if you have one person recording, one person scripting, one person editing, and one person voice-acting), but I think this could just be figured out down the line. 'Thank You' Model: Again in the form of a Patreon Poll, the difference with this from the Proportion Poll is that Patreons vote how to distribute a month's Patreon income retroactively. For example, at the end of a month, a Patreon Poll is put up listing the various projects done by the server that month. For example's sake, let's again say this consists of (a) a completed plugin, (b) a completed video project, (c) a completed original soundtrack, or (d) an official artpiece. With these projects completed and Patrons able to view/enjoy them, they can vote on that basis as to which project should be given remuneration (again via proportion of votes, but I think the scale should be a bit different here to give every project something if possible). The same concerns of disbursement within projects apply. III WHAT PATREON BENEFITS COULD WE OFFER? Instrumental to remember is that any LotC Patreon project (more than likely) would be driven by players' desire to support our projects rather than solely for benefits which is the case with most content-creator Patreons. That said, this doesn't mean that we can't provide some benefits to Patreons. Before we discuss that, though, let's draw a line in the sand between Patreon perks and VIP perks. VIP perks, in contrast with Patreon perks, are actually intended to be perks in exchange for fairly substantial once-off payments (with upper VIP packages costing hundreds, though most are purchased during holiday sales). These perks range from the tag colours, aesthetic effects, rename tags, to soulbind slots, but the point is that their selling point is the perks. That seems a bit redundant to say, but it sort of makes sense when we contrast it with Patreon perks, whose primary purpose is to support the server and any actual perks are just small incentives. It's also important to bear in mind that Patreon payments are monthly -- i.e., you sign-up for a monthly subscription of a few dollars, whereas the VIP packages are once-off expensive purchases. So, with that in mind, the goal of Patreon payments aren't to replace VIP perks, though the status and value of VIP packages are worthy of a debate of their own another day. This contextualises how we should go about Patreon benefits, as their inherently meant to be fairly minor, not only by design, but also by necessity so that the value of VIP packages aren't further undermined. Here are some of the various minor perks we could include for Patrons: Patreon Tag: Much like VIP packages, we could have a unique in-game/forum/Discord tag for active Patrons. The discussion of how this tag ranks in comparison to VIP ones is a valid, if mostly inconsequential one, and one that certainly doesn't need to be settled now. If you were to ask me, I would probably say that we should have a few different tags, such as a 1-month Patron tag, 3-months, 6-months, 1 year, etc. I believe we have five unused Minecraft colours left on the server, those being yellow, light red, dark blue, dark aqua, and black, and we can double this to 10 colours if we include bolding these tags (bear in mind dark blue and black are very hard to see). Patreon Polls: As discussed in the previous section, Patrons could access Patreon Polls that direct how their Patreon donations are distributed. These Polls could be expanded to include stuff like voting on which plugins (out of a list of several the techs are actually interested in making) are developed or artworks produced/commissioned. Patreon Raffles: While it would be unrealistic to try reward every Patron this way, we could do raffles where Patreons have a chance to win prizes that could range from Steam games to art commissions. Patreon Skins: Every month, a unique skin could be released for Patreon use. While a non-tailored skin might seem strange, I think it would be cool to passively hand out skins produced by server artists (who could be in turn given remuneration via these Patreon donations) that are inspired by various factions throughout server history, such as a skin replicating the armour used by characters in various periods of LotC lore - for example, one month could feature an armour skin based on Horenic soldiers in the 30 Year War, while another month could imitate the robes supposedly worn by the earliest followers of Larihei. All-in-all, it's essential to remember that Patreon pledges are ultimately driven by a desire to support the server and those who volunteer professional services, so any perks (and the above list should be far from exhaustive) are not intended to be overly compelling in their own right, but it obviously doesn't hurt to give some incentive where we can. IV HOW WOULD WE REGULATE OUR PATREON? Now, this one is a bit complicated. Who controls/manages the funds received on Patreon, and who even runs the account itself? While the natural answer is the Admins, again I think it's important to contextualise things a bit before we get into more detail. First of all, LotC is owned/operated by Tythus Ltd., like I said in Part I. Despite Telanir/Llir's tags on the forums/Discord, Tythus Ltd. only has one registered employee - Tythus himself (unless there's some kind of legal arrangement we're unaware of, but this seems unlikely since early LotC did actually have Admins serve as company directors). While this again depends on the specificities of the relationship and any legal agreements between Tythus and the server Admins, a basic reading of the server's Terms of Service and Tythus Ltd. company information lends to the understanding that only Tythus himself has any legal rights to the LotC server, its actions, and any revenue generated, whether through VIP or Patreon. Issue is, this obviously isn't the case as management of the server is delegated to volunteer Admins who are not employees of Tythus Ltd., this relationship is a bit murky and it's impossible to understand how it works. We could simply say that the financial management/diligence aspect ought to be handled in the same way as revenue from VIP/crown purchases, however that is (though it is very important to note the added complication that the Patreon project involves funds actually being reinvested into players). Despite the above paragraph being complex and inconclusive, I felt it nonetheless worthwhile to touch on some of the legal elements at play here so that we have some minimal insight into the technical aspects that may affect a Patreon project. Ultimately, it is a complex technical question that can't really be given a good-faith answer without Tythus or the senior admins (namely Telanir and Llir, who seemingly purport to be Tythus' direct agents but are not employees or directors of Tythus Ltd. and therefore seemingly have no actual rights or legal responsibilities), but I felt that because "well, who's going to manage the Patreon and distribute the actual real-world money?" is such an important question, it was necessary to break it down like this. At the end of the day, failing legal specifications, transparancy should be king. Monthly posts that break-down the distribution of Patreon assets would be great in this regard, but it's important to acknowledge this question is just difficult to answer because our lack of information about how financial aspects of the server have been handled in the past. Good to bear this in mind for the sake of our discussion, and it feel like if the idea did gain traction among senior Admins it could be handled down the line. So that's that! As a final remark, I think that a Patreon and the revenue it could bring via passionate players who just want to donate a small monthly sum (as low as $1, even) to support the server could go a long way to incentivizing and rewarding the seriously impressive and legitimately valuable services that people provide for this server, such as coding and artwork. Please comment with your own thoughts and suggestions, and have a nice day.

she draws like really good pictures

Whoever you guys are, it's pretty obvious you know what you're talking about and your takes are fairly accurate. I especially agree with the Recruitment/Media stuff - it's actually unbelievable how shit our recruitment is. Did you post this on an alt because of how Staff would react?

Were it not for the girl with the crab, the sword would have shaken in his hand. Were it for not for the woman with that heart, the Crown would have crushed his head. Were it not for the Queen that she was, the struggle would have never been worthwhile. But of course, he was not there to tell her that. He knew she remembered, though. ___________________________

Oh yeah this is probably just a result of me not figuring out Inkarnate had way more grass brushes until I was like 70% done (which is where I started putting more detail on grasslands in the south). I know Mapdev Team has said they're planning to include more verticality in 9.0, so that's great, and I feel like a plateau is great way to do that too. This was one of two areas I took inspiration from Shotbow's MineZ (a 2013 map, of all things), take a look: https://gyazo.com/17642dd5f7e888a635bc6aec0a5cdc1f Obviously it shows its age, but I remember when traversing this area (I loved this map), there was a very tangible feel of verticality between wandering around at the bottom than the top, and finding ways up/down was a cool objective. Yeah to be honest, I left the Scars until the very end because I struggled with the concept a bit. I know what I wanted to do in theory, but wasn't sure how to go about it. The idea was (and this ties in with your next point about the ST) it would be a semi-sufficient event location, wherein the event itself was trying to descend into these treacherous ravines and explore whatever was down there. 'If done right' is pretty much the caveat for all these regions, but it definitely applies to places like the Scars, the Plumes, and the Rykenwall, as these regions completely lose their point (event/exploration) if not done right. Obviously you're right, but as I talk about in the introduction, we generally just don't have the resources for the ST or within the ST to pull that off. Sure, they can keep doing what their doing, but I tried to design a lot of this map with environmental storytelling and in-built engagement -- so, like with the Scars, that comes with the puzzles involved in descending down these massive ravines and maybe learning lore/secrets from eventsites there, or the Plumes which is meant to be a gauntlet of environmental challenges - withering effect caused by smoke putting players on a timer, and scaling the lava to the Forge of Ashka, or the same theory for the Rykenwalls with potential PvE mobs. All this serves to make these specific regions an engaging challenge and a sort of event in and of itself without the need for constant ST involvement. That's probably my bad for the insufficient description, but the idea is that the area would have had some eventsites relating to the namesake plague. I totally get what you mean, though, in that it's not like the other 3 road regions that could have some interest to nations. Maybe that one could be tailored to be smaller, but I definitely see your point. Lastly, I noticed this a little bit before posting, so I mentioned in the introduction that readers should assume the nation sites to be all be relatively equal in size, just because I didn't pay enough attention when sizing Yaksha's Table in comparison to, say, the Vale of Aargad. If I were to adjust it, I'd just expand it down into the northern part of the Plumes before the volcanoes actually start.

In particular, I hope they don't continue the previous policy of secrecy, as if the details of the next map need to be kept mostly hidden for the purposes of hype or something. Mapdev Team has said they plan on doing a lot more Your Views, so that's good as long as they stick to that. From what I hear, there's a current draft that's been painted, so I hope we get some community input before Mapdev Team decides to stick with a particular design.

To be honest, I have no concept of physical map sizes, otherwise I would have included something. I can't remember how big Almaris is or any previous maps. To give some kind of idea, though, I think it should be a good bit smaller than Almaris. We don't need fringe regions like the Rimeveld, mountains behind Norland, and basically most of the border areas down south since no one uses them, they don't look great, and they're massive, making the map look big and feel empty.

A Fan-Made Map Design ASHARREN View my other mapdev posts here: Map Narratives | Region Design _____________________________________ Hello! Most of you will know that our server's next map - and it's next big step - is being developed after two years, and I think that, in this formative phase of creating 9.0, community input and discussion is really important. As 9.0 is a map for the community at large, not only should this communal consensus be a foundation of the new map's design, but it should also feature a lot of ideas and things that we want to see. And so, that's more or less the point of this post -- unlike my previous two posts, linked above, it's not so much a suggestion per se as it is a demonstration of the region design philosophy discussed in my last post, and also a general creative project that I've enjoyed chipping away at over the last two weeks. OK, so a few quick notes before we get into the meat and potatoes of this post. What actually is this post?: This is creative project of a fan-made map, but in design only (I didn't actually build a Minecraft map). You can see the image above the map in full, but the rest of this post is devoted to breaking down the design philosophy for each individual region. Like I set out in my Region Design Post, I think one of the biggest things 9.0 Mapdev needs to focus on is intent when designing regions (i.e., is a given region intended for nation settlement, events, travel, etc.) instead of just creating regions to fill up the map that inevitably ends up in an abundance of dead space, like on Almaris. So, in the rest of this post, I discuss the design for each individual region named in the above map. The Ringroad Design: A few of you might see from the map itself, proposed nation placements are set out in distinct ring around Cloud Temple. I think the old fashioned ringroad - i.e., a singular main road that connects all nations/major regions in a circle - is a huge step back in the right direction in terms of reducing dead space. It also think it just shapes the map really nicely, in terms of it revolving around this ringroad connecting nations, and keeps nations equidistant to reduce the need to **** around with hubs etc. Hubs Are Bad: In relation to the above, I disagree with the use of Hubs, because I think they're indicative of poor map design. Your map becomes fractured with 4 travel nexuses instead of 1 (Cloud Temple), and so the space between these becomes dead space (like it has on Almaris). If your map is too difficult to travel, then that is a problem that should be addressed in mapdev, and therefore I just think Hubs are a bandaid solution and an open admission to poorly-thought out region design and nation placement. Lore/Backstory: As you'll see below, I briefly divulge some backstory for the regions. This is purely demonstrative - I think that, when designing regions for a map, it's important that they're relatively informed by the history of the area, and the map as a whole. This helps give each region a sense of character and uniqueness - an idea that there's something to see/learn/experience in this region rather than just another generic real-world region, and, like I explain below, it's a massive boon for environmental storytelling. So, throughout the rest of this thread, I use a demonstrative backstory to give these regions some of these bonuses. Key word is demonstrative. Environmental Storytelling: The reality is that we don't have enough ET staff to always give various regions the life they're meant to have. We can design a region to be dangerous and chock-full of monsters, but in practicality, this is never going to be the case if a group of players wander into the region and see none of this. So, not only can be design regions to tell a story unto themselves through specific design - like remains of a battlefield with various visual clues as to some great war that transpired here, for example - but we can also take this a step further an utilise Minecraft mechanics like effects or even mobs to help afford regions certain characteristics. Obviously, this needs to be done within reason and certain limitations, like only where it makes sense and with ample warnings for players so as not to obstruct RP. For example, you'll get a warning if you wander into a dangerous regions with an ambient message like: "You hear the howl of hunting wolves growing closer ... [[This region contains hostile PvE mobs.]]. I know concepts like this can be a turn-off to some RP purists, but I think, if you consider that we use Minecraft mechanics all the time to enhance the player experience (farming, crafting, etc.) then I fail to see how ideas like this fall outside of our established norms. Tiles: Just as a quick note, it should be assumed that this map uses a tile system and that each of the regions labelled on the map are made up of several tiles. Space/Size: The space and size of my map here isn't exact. For example, both the Vale and Aargad and Yaksha's Table are meant to be nation sites, but they don't look equal in size. This is just a consequence of how I drew the map, and you should assume that all nation spots should be relatively equal in size. Fantasy Regions: As part of LotC's identity as a fantasy server, I always thought it was a shame that we model our map nearly entirely off generic real-world regions without much to alleviate the boringness or engage players and prompt them to explore. I include a lot more 'fantastical' touches in this map design, but this also works in tandem with region backstories to help give each region a unique identity and characteristics that make it worth exploring. Cradle of Souls THE CLOUD TEMPLE Pilgrim's Rest LAKE VARRIA The North Road RAEDWULF'S FRONTIER The East Road THE ARCHWOOD OF BELESIS The South Road THE CLOUD PILGRIMAGE The West Road THE PLAGUED PATH The Silverlands THE VALE OF AARGAD The Astral Peninsula MOONFALL HEAD Brigandsmarch THE FELLWINDS The Last Bastion THE RYKENWALL The Eternal Autumn THE AMBERWOOD Belesis' Shame THE STUMPS The Wild God's Slumber KRANNA'S VIGIL The Garden of Oni THE ISLES OF OKARIA Conqueror's Plateau YAKSHA'S TABLE The Infernal Sands ROKAR'S TOMB The Hammer's Ascent THE PLUMES The Deep Gate THE SCARS The Ruin-Yard THE SCHOLARS' STEPPE The Tyranny of the Sky THE AETHER IMPERIA