squakhawk

Blackbirds circles around the north of Azuras in number untold. The sounds of nature that once filled with birdsong and the cry of natural life was overwhelmed by the sound of winged murders. Incessant crowing and cawing, almost like a mocking laughter upon the wind as tens to hundreds lined city walls, looking upon the denizens below with brazen finding. A cerulean blue aurora cascaded over the north from The Blistergrove, to Skjolvindr, to Rimeglen as the skies flit with lux. The following is only available to those able to witness [Prophecy]. Your son and daughter have left the nest, venturing off unto a land foreign and far. They write, often and frequent. But it is now they call upon you. And you do not answer. - Why is that? Why do you not answer? You know where they went. You know the danger they took on. You know what was waiting there. And what of Him? Who will keep eyes upon He? How do you know their letters are true, and not yet silent song? Their cries grow more and more desperate. And you keep your watch. Paralyzed. You look over the corpse of yourself, bloodied spear in hand as it impaled the encrimsoned snow at both your feet. You felt indifferent. Looking over the horizon as cold wind blew over the snowdrifts near and far. The land was idyllic. Quiet. And yet the incessant cawing of crows drowned out whatever piece you tried at. Laughing at you. Mocking you. Watching you. Your eyes flit down oncemore to your pale corpse, enshrined in furs in the unforgiving cold. Even now it nipped at your skin. What exactly had you hoped to achieve?

what if u just didn’t pick up the pk ca instead of taking the only thing the ca does away from it

you can’t have a metagame sign over someone’s head (and i don’t want to justify “i know you have an app” through lore) i don’t see how this fixes it if they don’t start doing differently accordingly still - until they are told they just realistically have no idea irp. Not much we could (or should) do about this given it will encourage metagaming either way. the exceptions of warnings we’ve given is for people who DO know and still aren’t. also pill ur not ready for, taking on voidal poisoning or failing to vent should realistically dc someone from scion given it is about so desperately maintaining an extremely fine limited balance of voidal connection that breaking that at any point would essentially open the floodgates this is just my intent as the guy who wrote the lore, and all the other lore scion venting may interface with

Approved.

"But what have emissaries of the skies brought but misery and woe..?" Questioned Lady Johanna.

an issue with the heavier enforcement argument is that to begin with these issues aren't reported, which means we have to go digging into them - digging into them already has the perception of people being 'targetted' or 'singled out', not to mention with the mass of what we'd already found being so extensive a lot of people with ooc ov probably thought or accepted it as norm. There was a path to keep it in which we dish out a mountain of infractions, ta/ma revokes, and have to deal with the huge backlog of this abuse (which would probably require some kind of statute of limitations, or getting rid of a system which borderline encourages the behavior. This doesn't take into account we'd be requiring discord searches for lessons which I dont think people, at large, would want or trust another to do (not to mention how easy they'd be to fabricate or misrepresent) More than just the actual abuse there's the cultural issue I think it's helped fester which I talk about in the paragraph above which already would've been enough in my eyes to can it past its point of necessity. It could always be reintroduced in the future but I think requiring some kind of trackable quality control would be utterly necessary. If it takes an extra week or two (or more even) to learn a magic with your teacher, so be it - i hardly find 16 weeks a difficult challenge to meet up for, at minimum, four separate meets for your tier progression. If you spend a bit more time, your character isn't hyper optimized - that's fine. Journey before destination, roleplaying a bit longer as not being a master of your art is something completely acceptable.

Hello meows. I wanted to give you guys an update on something management and I have been ruminating on for a while. Explanation is below, if you'd like to skip straight to the changes, see the section titled "No More Oversight". Magic Progression Self teach and learning times have always been a point of contention - can't make everybody happy with any system. There's a careful balance between character development, weight in a magic, a player's willingness, and the burden of effort both on player and ST that may be involved for it. Back in 2020, magic was indeed on the up and coming - but far from widespread, or even mainstream. It was a day where you could say "air evocation is gatekept" and only half the people in the room would look at you like you were insane. It was a problem, particularly a personal pain point for me, that magic was such a fun system and lore was such a sideplot to the server, that it felt like it had been mistreated for every year I hadn't been on the server and somehow that was acceptable (even though nobody was happy about it in any stance - it just was that way by the years of mistreatment and neglect.). I made it a sort of personal mission of mine to make magic more accessible and widespread. A noble goal, but one that would take a while. I pitched the idea of Self Teach Altars, Teaching Guides, Lore Guides, OOC Oversight, Book Teaching, True Self Teaching, and TA-Without-MA Teaching back in 2020 with minimal success. After the admin at the time was obliterated for being capital w Weird, Rift (blessings be upon him) gave a lot more leniency to me and the other managers at the time, so I was able to implement the above (although TA-Without-MA wouldn't come until 2022, if I recall correctly). Self Teach Altars were kind of a disaster. It was frustrating because it became a way to spam dungeon crawl event requests that we'd have to answer and wasn't very fun for ET (or specialized LT) to do. Book Teaching was extremely limited in scope, and with the release of Housemagic, it worked for that specific instance which has only seen spread to Bardmancy since. True Self Teaching was shot down due to (in relation to self teach altar students being a complete failure) disasterous understanding rates and the extremely high incidence of lorebreaking, and a double-edged-sword effect where new players flocked straight to these methods in comparison to the traditional method and often quit the server due to just noob-y-ness, even with the help of lore guides. Magic progression was shortened more and more until it landed where its at now, at about sixteen weeks. Lore Guides were decent initially but often loathed, and often became a subject of just copy pasting a lorepiece but slapping on emote counts. This kind of defeated their purpose of actually giving examples and teaching the magic, but it seems most writers and people on LT just disagreed that this was necessary to establish a magic standard of expectations- and was removed last year. OOC Oversight however, was a remarkable success. Unprecedented did we see the amount of apps we'd ever seen prior since the release of OOC Oversight. While it was initially intended to be more of an ease of scheduling, it often turned into a way to just obfuscate (maliciously or not) lessons and learning, and was seen as a faster track to the top with the active enforcement of spell learning in relation to magic tier timing. While with mixed results, I'd say alongside the extremely hard work of the LT between its very reformative years of 2020-2023, the server changed for the better when lore became a common, every-day-every-player type thing that regardless of proficiency, is utilized. It's increased the immersion substantially, and is something both achievable and attainable by everyone on the server fairly and frequently. However since then, I feel like I have noticed a trend. A drop in quality is expected when the pool of "total people who know a magic" on the server expands from a half dozen or so to a hundred, but there has been an attitude that has troubled me a lot. From my view, while there are standard cases of OOC Oversight, a lot of the cases I/The LT looked into were entirely just noncompliant with the requirements - no lessons, no screenshots, often no communication with the teacher past the connection (which, while required, is often skipped). This is entirely anecdotal, but it bothered me quite a bit to see the lore being used in such a way. Of course, bad actors over a system, but I feel it festered a bit further than that. Right now, although it is far from a new mindset, I find it prevalent that magic is seen as a sort of toolset or object to a character, and it is frustrating that while it is fun to think about and fantasize a secret personal minmax or interaction, annoying that people often blitz through as many shortcuts to learn a magic and disconnect from any tethering to a community (such as a teacher) as quickly as possible. Even as short as they are now people call for shorter and shorter learning timers, the most prevalent argument I hear for so being 'It will make people less attached to their characters' - be honest with yourself and ask how many characters you or any other person on the server goes through in one year. If the person isn't open to letting go of something to begin with, how is shaving off a couple weeks of a magic going to make it any easier? Conversely, where is the brevity in becoming a master, top-of-the-line mage in a few weeks? Even considering that the bulk of spells used or utilized in CRP are all in tiers 2-3 - which are attained incredibly quick. Teaching is an important part of not only learning a magic and understanding it, but for roleplay and interaction with people. Be creative, have fun, have whimsy, be courteous and be kind. The theoretical and fictional crps are just that - do things by and for your character, for your group or community. Take your time and have fun. The point of the server, and of lore especially, is to stop and smell the roses. Take your time and accept not being so hyper-optimized, and enjoy the imperfect nature of roleplay. Enjoy yourself. While dated, I'll link the Teaching guide I wrote with @Malaise a long while back. It is a bit rough around the edges in modern expectations, but it's still a worthy three-minute read for those who have it to spare. No More Oversight After careful consideration on the potential rammifications, we are modifying self teaching as below. The lorepiece has been changed to reflect this (and updated on other spots as well.). -Teacher Guidance (OOC Oversight) teaching has been removed for all magics. -Future alternatives for Self Teaching are being considered and thought about, but are just very low priority at this time. -Apps posted on or before 5/2/26 with OOC Oversight are still valid until lessons are completed, a student is dropped, or up to 15 weeks from posting (8/16/26)

HAHAHAHA MAD MAD MAD ANOTHER WINGSTOP 20$ BONELESS MEAL DEAL FOR ME

This Lore has been accepted. Moved to Implemented Lore, it will be sorted to it's appropriate category soon. Please note that if this is playable lore, such as a magic or CA, you will need to write a guide for this piece. You will be contacted regarding the guide (or implementation if it isn’t needed) shortly.

Lore has been shelved and moved to the appropriate subforum. If you have questions about why this specific lore has been shelved, please contact an ST Manager or the ST Administrator.

walking everywhere and asking for quests from people is fun

The Dame Johanna Magdalene Enswerp swears her sword to the brave expedition! "Not one step back, only one march forward!"

Dame Johanna Magdelene flipped through her books, assorting through the pages. Her hair fell beside her as the candlelit flit in her small room in Rethel. The winds blew from the warm seas as salt filled the air as a sigh left her breath. She looked over the pages, reading the achievements of better men again and again. Augustus. Aurelius. Godfrey. Did Hadrian belong among these annals? She thought. He met the make of many. Conqueror. Faithful. Honorable. Loved. Feared. She considered the position her was in. She thought of what she may do. She thought of how she could even relate, with what little she truthfully could. She rubbed her head, knowing what would come next. Knowing what she would see, what would fall, what would rise and burn up again and again. A cycle of strife, as the apex now lay dead. The Dragon no longer soared; it would take time for the legitimacy of the new imperial to establish. Would he be up to the task? . . . . . . She shut the book, rubbing her grey eyes. She shadows beneath them darkened her countenance, the scars of war superficial. She thought not of the innocents, the honorable, the mothers and fathers - she thought of how it would all be remembered. How would she be remembered? Would her place among the texts be recalled fondly, when she laid low the elves who practiced foul sorceries? The prideful dwarves who sent out their meek to meet her flail? The orcs who bowed before her blade. Perhaps the texts would say, she thought. But did she earn it? Was she who she would read herself to be, in the times to come? She looked back to the book then, canted upon her desk as if it asked her the question. Were any of these men who she read them to be?

years i been saying this is moderations top guy and only now is it a reality. He’s been a great mod, a great manager, and i know he’ll be a good admin. There were other qualified candidates but i’m confident mr duck will be fantastic in this role. The F1 during admin meets will be cinema and there will be a direct correlation of how well the admin meet goes depending on how good verstappen and antonelli perform

Dame Johanna Magdalene Enswerp stood before the massacrefield as dwarven men and women, combatants and not, wiping away another flit of Urguan's blood off her blade. The war was won, but was she any stronger for it? Any greater? Any more a hero? Another wipe of the bloody rag swiped down her dirtied blade, another imperial soldier tossed a dwarven corpse to the side. She considered the thoughts in her head - though it was easier to not think about such matters, what was the price of loyalty? She pondered for some time as she stared into the face of a hammerer, the soldier's face in anguish as his final moments were spent sliced and cut by blade and mace alike. The latter had caved in his pauldron, shattering bones that pierced his innards. His breastplate was remarkably clean - how fruitless. She remembered then who she fought to protect, and what she stood for. She considered if she'd killed him - she could hardly recall in the fervour of battle, anyway. She couldn't quite recall. The crushing blow wasn't hers, but neither was the blade she'd finished the battle with. Hardly a price to protect the integrity of man. Hardly a price to pay to display the superiority of man, she thought. Yet one nagged at her. Had they swallowed their own pride - could this have not been avoided? She wiped the last lick of blood off the silvery steel, it's dull sheen glimmering in the faint torchlight as another corpse was added to the pile. She placed the sword against the pile, leaned up upon the urguani legion who it may have once belonged to. She had no further business here. Perhaps that was the price of pride.

Application accepted. You will be contacted by staff on next steps.

Approved.

Approved.

Approved.