The King Of The Moon

A Comoaran fact-checker screams in horror as he watches Sylvia conduct the heinous act. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! JUST COPYING THE RECIPE DOESN'T EQUAL OWNERSHIP! THIS IS THEFT! I PAID 4,000,000 MINAE TO GET MY NAME ON THAT HOU-ZI WITH GLASSES!"

Amidst the confusion of various dead bodies, calligraphy kits and deeds of dubious validity being issued, the auctioneer would clarify that the current bid is tied at 13,000 minae. Responses are issued to the two tied bidders, clarifying that one must outbid the other to proceed on account of the identical sums offered.@Undubitably @Slorbin

Fearing the extents to which this might spiral out of control, with feverish visions of being handed the Iron Uzg of Krugmar or starting a war between the people of Du Loc and Haense, the Prince would issue an amendment to the bidders: "This auction shall be henceforth restricted to liquid currency only. No material asset will be accepted as a valid bid."

An appraiser is sent to Du Loc, conducting a valuation of the Lordship's material value. After some time evaluating the scale of the realm, it's climate, the fertility of its soils, the flammability of the bank and the productivity of its people (albeit whilst foolishly neglecting the value of the Lordship's gravel), a figure is produced: "The Lordship of Du Loc is valued at 12,999 minae. This does not exceed the current highest bid of 13,000 minae."

[!] Letters are sent to the great leaders of Men across the continent of Almaris, whilst additional copies would be circulated to nondescript traders and caravans throughout the realm. Respectively, each would read: To His High Holiness, the Pontiff; @Pureimp10 To His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Oren; @Nectorist To His Majesty, the King of Haense; @Xarkly To His Highness, the Prince of Savoy; @Publius To His Lordship, the Lord of Du Loc @Shorsand Finally, after decades of experimentation beggining with my late uncle - the Marquis of Izvoroshu - the alchemists of my princely court have produced an elixir of righteous purpose. Unique and unrivalled by the tonics of any wiseman or healer, we have successfully synthesised a medicine capable of curing vampirism. Able to restore an afflicted creature back to their mortal state, freed from the taint of Iblees' parasitic ways. A feat achieved without sponsorship nor support from those beyond our small realm, the value of the work we have done for the betterment of all of mankind and the potential it holds to stamp out the vampire plagues of the recent years is not lost on us. Therefore, respecting my Principality's historic neutrality toward all other realms, the recipe shall be offered via auction. Starting at the bid of 3,000 minae, the highest bidder shall be given exclusive insight into the recipe for this cure, to administer throughout their respective domain as they see fit. The auction shall proceed for 24 Saint's Hours following the arrival of these letters, and bids shall be circulated consistently to all who have been outbid to ensure fair competition. Please note that this is an open auction, and will not be restricted to the addressees of this letter. Signed, Lothar II of House Coțofana, Prince of Comoară, Duke of Freeport in Abeyance [!] An amendment was soon after submitted to the bidders: This auction shall be restricted to liquid currency only. No material asset or deed to land will be accepted as a valid bid. [!] A second amendment was made public by the auctioneers thereafter: In response to concerns that this recipe may be some form of hoax, His Highness has taken the liberty of providing a copy of the recipe to those interested in purchasing in, so as to showcase the potential of their transaction: Saltwater (Base) Aether - Purity x3 Aether - Clarity x4 Blood (of the vampire's initial descendant race) x1 count PLEASE NOTE this is simply a copy of the recipe, and not the original recipe itself which is of intrinsically far higher value. Copying this recipe does not equate ownership of it, and will be punished as theft in the microstate of Comoară. True ownership of the recipe will be accredited in a catalogue of alchemists kept by the Prince himself, known as the 'Brew Chain'. ((Please comment bids below))

“May the Basridi be rejoined in blood, just as the wayward lines of Ashford do stand aligned beneath our Prince de Savoie. For it is we, the children of reclaimers and the fathers of conquerors, that are duty bound to restore such friendships in our age of baited breaths.” Proclaimed the Count of Niseep upon hearing the news, welcoming his new Rhenyri brethren to the Savoyard flock.

Speaking from experience as the former PRO of Freeport when it was at its most active, the marine niche is very very hard to capitalise on for the longterm due to how painfully under-represented ships are in minecraft as a medium. Whilst I fully support the culture you're going for, I think you're going to find the feat of promoting anything longterm even more herculean if you stick with the location you've currently selected. A big problem with Freeport (being in one of the tiles you selected) was that due to the terrain and road layout of the southern continent (very clearly an afterthought for the WT when designing this map) as well as its distance from the southhub fast travel, our community was CONSTANTLY doomed to tread water when not saturated with events to keep activity numbers up. Even when we had enough activity to consider progressing to nation status this fact was glaring enough to deter us, and eventually was the main reason for abandoning the settlement. The reality is that a 5~ minute walk required to access a lair/ settlement/ nation will always doom its activity, especially with a niche like maritime RP that is often unsustainable. In light of that I'd strongly recommend you look to place your lair elsewhere if you have any plans for building activity and expanding into a proper settlement in future. My personal recommendation would be in some of the tiles surrounding westhub, which since being released from Elvenesse are now prime real estate. I'd also like to wish you the best of luck with your project!

After mulling it over I'd say no on the essential basis that if thick leather and furs are (with this amendment) not sufficient to be worn atop someone's skin to make rokodra viable, creatures who's skin is thick leather and fur would actually have one less layer of separation and would still be subject to the numbing cold after sufficient exposure.

Sounds like something a hacker would say...

Read the post you ******* rodent this will have no impact on your roleplay

Undead creatures do not feel cold, usually due to a lack of functioning nerves. Siliti are also explicitly written to be resistant to cold and able to use rokodra in their own separate lore. Mystics however (not Wights) that are descendants will no longer be able to wear rokodra armour. A big part of the point behind this amendment as stated above is to keep the associations of a quite literally demonic metal with occult users, and not your average billy-joe inkeeper who wants to dress in fireproof armour without much regard for the behind such. The idea being if someone is seen running around in armour made from a metal known to be from Hell, your immediate association can and should be 'they're an inhuman monster' and not 'they're a fireman'.

Foreword: Due to the relatively small scale of these ammendments and length of this piece, this submission will not be obeying any specific format. It is to serve predominantly as a short list of changes to be edited into the pre-existing Infernal Alchemy lore, this post itself to be discarded, hidden or otherwise forgotten upon its acceptance. Rokodra I wish to amend the following line from currently accepted Infernal Alchemy lore, reading: "It is bizarrely chilled to the touch and can even cause skin to go numb if held or touched for longer than a minute for non-inferis; mortals who wear rokodra armor often layer leather beneath" And the associated from currently accepted Infernal Alchemy lore, reading: "Rokodra will numb skin to the point of uselessness after one minute of physical touch. In this regard Rokodra is useless without sufficient protection of leather or thicker materials between it and skin." The intent behind the 'leather or thicker materials' used as a layer of separation between the skin-numbing metal and the wearer was carried over from Rokodra's first mention in lore - the Gifts of the Red Prince piece from 2018 - with the intent of adding a whimsical, niche and cumbersome means for select Naztherak to use a metal otherwise written as 'forbidden' to descendants thanks to its demonic origin. Unfortunately, due to the most-effective-tactics-available (META) mindset of many players, the intent behind this caveat has been long since forgotten with the wide spread of Infernal Alchemy. It is soon to be a reality in the server that everyone with the minas to buy a suit of rokodra armour described as having a leather interior lining has already or soon will become completely and totally immune to fire, without much thought for the moral implications of wearing a metal solely forged by sacrificing people and animals to demonic overlords. An issue further compounded by the reality that the likes of Fire Evokers, Alchemical Explosives, Heralds of Azdromoth and Azdrazi are effectively made inert against anyone and everyone with the foresight to carry a named MC item. Therefore, I would propose the following line be edited to replace the aforementioned effects quotation: "It is bizarrely chilled to the touch and can even cause skin to go numb if held or touched for longer than a minute for all but Inferi and Naztherak (T3 and up), to whom their native metal feels blood-warm and comforting to hold, alongside any creatures with an inborn immunity or resistance to extreme cold. This is only circumvented by the likes of wooden boards backing shields, or wooden grips on Rokodra blades which - whilst still always cold to the touch - will suffice in thwarting the numbing effects of this cursed metal." Therefore, I would propose the following line be edited to replace the aforementioned redline quotation: "Rokodra will numb descendant skin to the point of uselessness after one minute of physical touch. In this regard Rokodra is useless without a degree of seperation from wood or other solid materials, making it far too restrictive to be worn as armour." Siegsmund's Candles I wish to omit any mention or requirement for "Witchwax" and/or "Witchtallow" from the creation process of Siegsmund's/ Sigismund's Candles, using "Lard" as a substitute. As helpfully highlighted to me by @Zhulik a few weeks ago in a voice chat, thanks to their re-write into Infernal Alchemy from their original lore - Siegsmund's Incence/ Siegsmund's Candles in 2019 - the origin of the piece (as well as my personally intended usage of it) became muddled with the new addition of Witchtallow to the recipe. To state plainly, the candles - invented by canonist priests and marked men from days of yore, intended to be burned in churches and other hallowed places to ward away evil spirits - have since lost their place in any moral applications since the recipe was changed. And consequentially the item has all but vanished from roleplay usage since this change. The main reason for this being that what was once intended as a strange, ritualistic recipe involving descendant remains and a myriad of herbs now explicitly requires users to paint a pentagram in blood, decorate it with demonic symols and perform human or animal sacrifices to obtain one of its key components. Given the already limited actual uses for Siegsmund's Candles, this requirement casting aside the moral implications also renders the item not worth the work. Something which coupled with the occultist methods required of the new recipe and the subsequent lack of 'narrative worth' has crippled the recipe, and I would like to see rectified.

So a Draugar's lifeforce... is... mana?

Yes.

Explanation The spectral condition is an arduous one; to linger in the Elysian Wastes, rejecting the call of the soulstream and Fate, the common phantom's interactions with the world depend largely on their force of will. Formed of ectoplasm - the unnatural fusion of lifeforce and mana conjured by either the tampering of mystics or acts of wild magic - the unhallowed presence is not one meant for the living realm. It is for such reasons that a ghost spends the majority of its time unseen by the non-clairvoyant living, treading across the Elysian Wastes as a spectator, until such a time they feel compelled to exert their will upon the mortal plane itself, becoming visible and more capable of influencing temporal affairs. This act of anchoring - a triumph, that makes the common ghost distinct from the weaker geists and stagnant souls of the Wastes - requires a decidedly well calculated adjustment of one's limited ectoplasm, when contrasted with the greater behemoths of phantomkind (such as Wights, Apparitions and the like). To redefine their forms as belonging to the physical makeup of the living world - beyond the comfort of the spiritual Elysian shroud - a ghost is forced to assume the risks involved with the bondage of sight, rendering oneself perceivable to mortalkind is to tether one's ectoplasm to the whims of living perception. The more direct consequence of this is an inability for ghosts to return to the Wastes' safety whilst remaining apparent to a living observer. That is to say: once made visible, a ghost must escape the view of any mortal spectator before beggining the process of redefining their ectoplasm to reassume an invisible state. This adjustment accounts only for the living, in a similar manner to a geist's exertion of will upon mortals, and a spectre would have no difficulty beginning the process of reversion when perceived only by the undead, or otherwise unliving constructs. Further: an exception to this clause is found amongst those with true sight, who are themselves able to peer into the Elysian Wastes - as clairvoyants that perceive such in their entirety, and mystics that can locate such potent sources of ectoplasm where stagnant souls would otherwise allude their sight - as well as the Witnesses of Vaasek. In the case of the latter, the all-seeing and ever curious will fixate upon a ghost once it has been made visible to mortalkind, and even if permitted to reassume its invisibility by escaping the direct gaze of the living, a Witness - and the subsequent Seer it is aligned to - will keep track of the once-seen spectre until its departure. Redlines -A ghost that has been made visible to living descendants will find itself incapable of assuming invisibility again so long as it remains within line of sight of the aforementioned; in this regard a ghost can not begin the emote count of their 'Invisibility' spell whilst being watched, and said emote count will reset if they are looked at by any living descendant. A span of three consecutive emotes of being unseen by if not hidden from any living spectators is required to transition into invisibility. -This notably has no bearing on animals, undead or construct CA races, nor beings with true sight that would be able to perceive the ghost regardless, IE vivification and mysticism. With the exception of animals, this is notably something a ghost can not fully comprehend nor understand, and attempts to purpose these exceptions as a means of identifying individuals from the aforementioned examples would be considered metagaming. (IE a Ghost acknowledging their ability to turn invisible in front of a disguised figure that happens to be a Lich, and from that identifying them as a Lich would be considered exceptionally poor roleplay and punished accordingly). -Whilst Seers of Vaasek lack True Sight and the subsequent ability to see invisible ghosts, once a ghost has been made visible they will remain so to the Seer, even if able to hide away for the aforementioned three emotes to become invisible again to most people. This remains until the ghost has exited the range of #shout, at which point and thereafter if coming back into range the ghost will be once more invisible to the Seer. Further, only slotted MA Seers are able to benefit from this; users of the feat alone will interact with ghost invisible in the same manner as all other living descendants. Purpose Though I would hope the overall point of this amendment speaks for itself, I believe this adjustment to the way in which users of the ghost CA must approach 'disappearing' in roleplay is an essential change for the continued existence of the open CA. Due to innumerable misuses and overall shoddy caused by abuse of phantom invisibility, and the unquestionably problematic nature of the invisibility spell both in the current iteration of ghost lore and in previous - where time and again ghosts have used the ability to vanish from an encounter the moment it goes sour with them, effectively unhindered by experiments with emote counts given their ability to negate most forms of physical harm that might disrupt such alongside the sad reality of dodge and kite emotes - this amendment is intended to level the playing field by giving ghosts a bare minimum requirement of escaping/ hiding away (or simply remaining unseen) before being a free pass to exit an encounter that may not benefit the ghost player's goals, which I believe in turn will encourage a far more sensible, cautious and overall better thought out experience for those ghosts interact with; negating past examples of recklessness that ghosts have been infamous for, by adding the potential for a modicum of consequence to their actions. This amendment is only intended to effect ghosts, and will have no impact on similar abilities used by other magics and creatures.

The scorned soul of Matorak, The Toad, last of the Uluamirzgai, smiles at the thought of his life spent attempting to liberate his people from the shackles of the Spirits... Whilst burning in the High Hells.

Aviary > Druid GPS

LORD ADMIRAL DARIUS SARE STARTS CHOKING

A message is circulated across Almaris. Maddened scrawlings carved into the faces of walls of alleys, the faces of rocks and the barks of trees by a myriad of oft unseen spectral critters. To most, the script and whatever meaning it held would be an unsolvable anomaly. To others, however: an invitation.

The Count of Izvoroshu commends the fine work of the scientist, being sure to pass on such findings in the field of zoology to his peers.

Sir Vulpe Hazmezul does and says nothing in response for he is not one of the lucky few privy to such information.

Time for some bogey man RP

Speaking from the perspective of having written the Material Alphabet singlehandedly, and the current Alchemy lore with additional input and support from others, I personally feel this is an unnecessary change that causes far more problems than it solves. At the extreme opposites of the scale alchemy and void magic should be incompatible, yes, which is why I wrote such for Afflicted. For the core potions though it's just drastic overkill and a misinterpretation of larger scale clashes in lore being applied to the surface level. I wrestled with this exact concept when I was writing the current Alchemy, on the back of the concepts set out with the Material Alphabet, and decided against it in the first place for two main reasons. Firstly, I came to the conclusion that not only would the lore argument that 'alchemy and the void cancel eachother out completely' be a pretty big stretch due to both the five or more years of precedent set with old alchemy, but it would also invalidate the existence of one of the five elements of alchemy - Aether - which represents mana and most if not all things 'magical' in existence. The existence of which, established in some older lore by Phil, being a direct consequence of the void's corruption on the material plane. Secondly, and perhaps most importantly, I realised that in doing so I would have been actively weaponising my own OOC distaste for the RP of most void mages and their attitudes to alchemy, as well as my own IC-based beliefs about who 'should' and 'shouldn't' use alchemy, to invalidate the RP of others. Something I think - subconsciously, I hope - this amendment will also bring bring about. Yes, the esoteric high-brow minority of alchemists might vocally want this change, and to some extent so do I. I understand it's difficult to grapple with seeing the lore you care about most on the server - and oftentimes, lore you yourself wrote - be misused, or poorly represented by a community of 'quirky' anime elves that brag about walking on the surface of the void whenever they're not ERPing, I really do. Though we ultimately need to take into account that that is the vocal minority on the other side of the spectrum, and what this amendment strives for will hurt a far larger portion of the community in a very misguided way. I believe the real solution to the 'lore' arguments for the material and immaterial clashes brought about by void magic and alchemy should be building on what we already have at the extremeties of each area of lore. For instance, when Hexe and I rewrote Affliction, I came to the conclusion that as beings who inherently understand the world through the laws of equivalent exchange and the material alphabet, afflicted individuals should in turn be unable to comprehend the void, if not actively discomforted by it and the material alphabet's antithesis - moonspeak. I also came to conclude that Red Oil, as the fuel for Smoggers and a manifestation of the material's raw energy potential, should in turn be subject to volatility in the presence of voidal connections. Therefore, I personally would love to see amendments made on the other end of the spectrum with voidal extremes. Some offhanded suggestions might be Atronachs being incapable of learning alchemy, or practitioners of certain voidal feats being incapable of learning further alchemy. You get the idea. In light of the aforementioned, I wholeheartedly feel this sort of blanket destruction of alchemic creations that is being added in this amendment is not only grossly inconsistent with the years of RP precedent, but it is also - in my opinion, and I'm not trying to hurt anyone's feelings here - a perversion of my own lore in stretching one concept to bring a mostly IC ideological divide into the OOC realm of lore factionalism and group gatekeeping. This is all without going into the semantics this lore suggests about CRP, wherein there's no real reason mages won't be given immunity to alchemy, and realistically no logical way in which you could balance this to just be the intended 'no mages carrying potions for combat' without them also being fully protected against potions in combat. You simply could not explain away such niche caveats with lore and this would ultimately serve better as an OOC rule than a piece of LoTC canon. Again, this is all without taking into account the existence of Aether as a concept in alchemy, as well as potions intentionally designed to work in a certain way with magic such as Auric Oil or, as a historic example, Ruibrium. I'm also somewhat disturbed about the anti-minmaxing argument. Whilst I know for a fact there are plenty of min-maxy mages I'd prefer stayed away from Alchemy, the problem of potions being used to minmax CRP extends far beyond voidal RP. In fact, I'd argue the amount of problem players when it comes to alchemy are underrepresented amongst the voidal playerbase. Void Mages are really the tip of the iceberg and this amendment does nothing to address the main problem that's arisen from 'technicalities' in magic slots and CA loopholes. We all know, to the extent I don't have to name names, the real minmaxers are Chi, Kani or Necromancy wielding Heralds of Azdromoth with Affliction or other mutations, carrying around a stockade of blood magic items, armour made from bullshit supermetal #23 atop being alchemists desperately trying to get their hands on Tawkin, Golemancy, Animii Crafting and other slotless intricacies, who carry around every combat potion and every event item they can get their hands on at all times. I am speaking from experience as I've fallen into one or more of these categories before. These are the true manifestations of minmaxing, that avoid void magic like the plague because they want to do their big muscles RP, and this amendment will do nothing but empower them more when contrasted with the magic playerbase.

What have I done

OOC ((MC Name: Mordu)) ((Discord: Mordu#6495)) ((Timezone: GMT)) IN-CHARACTER What is your name? Sir Vulpe Hazmezul, Vode Izvoroshu Why seek membership to the Mages Guild? Looking to deepen both my and the guild's understandings of the material and immaterial. What arts, if any, do you currently practice? I am a master of Cigam Udrom and Alchemy, and an apprentice Transfigurationist What position do you desire to attain upon acceptance? Practicus When should you be contacted for an interview? Now.