squakhawk

lair apps are open now with realm apps but anything remotely associated with you im going to deny purely because im vindictive and evil xox

Hello meows. I wanted to go over a quick roadmap of the next two weeks (ideally) with you guys just for transparency, and a curt-generalized moderation update. WAR ━━━━━━━━━━━━━ War is something thats kinda been in limbo for months now, and something that has had an outcry from players (and staff) alike to have done after being stuck in admin-hell. War Rules are something over the last week Moderation discussed and shopped rules on, and have overhauled and added some important clarifications, niche-rules, numbers changes, and a new section entirely on the spirit of war. Some may ask, based on the Where Are The War Rules post, why it was not as simple as a numbers change. During the discussions, we came upon pain-points that were glossed over some by admins, some by mods alike, that may be future points of contention. We've corrected those and clarified some niche circumstances, as well as adjusted the numbers and raising bonuses for pillaging-type warclaims. The only large grandstanding change was sent for thoughts to Realm Leaders, who in vast majority voted alongside moderation in the proposed revision, regarding how many warclaims are done per-tile, and the defender having choice in how they fight for those tiles. War rules I would say are likely to be approved by Administration and posted this week. Ideally, war is up and online by Friday. As for the mechanical aspects of war, there's two things I want to be touched on - The War Server, and Item-costs. As for The War Server itself, we are going to be running a stress test of the war server this Saturday, February 7th, at 3pm EST. We will be providing free kits and non transferrable gear in/out of the server with test factions and a new battleground to play with. Item costs are something that have long since launch been a pain point by players, and have continued to be an issue even after the merging of nodes to nation mines and halving of costs to some gearpieces. Even still, fights are being stalled or avoided and players vent frustration into the sheer unengaging grind from getting some gear. Ultimately, this is not something moderation itself has the purview to change, but it is something that we are opening discussion with Tech team about adjusting in the near future. Warzones, Naval Battles ━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Warzones and Naval Battles are two projects which were promised some time ago, but for one reason or another fell off the truck. I talked with mods briefly on the latter, and Naval battles are a heavy maybe (Particularly a low-importance thing now given the totally land-centric nature of our map), but are something I want to start getting to shop on. More dominantly, Warzones are something I want to explore after our Warclaim test is marked successful. Warzones are something mods shopped up some rules for but couldn't really do and didnt have the perms (or ruleset) for, and did not quite seem to move upward admin-wise. I'm going to prioritize these in neartime, likely with just some basic rules and parameters where the presiding mod manager/warmod can set up something fun to do for an afternoon. I'm toying with the idea of limited-time warzones to encourage players to hop on in a specific boundary of time, or maybe doing an event timed once a day/week where players are encouraged to perform in a certain way to get mild bonuses or benefits, like a stack of leather or something. Entirely speculative, nothing set in stone, nothing put to paper other than the old draft which hasn't been looked at yet seriously by me or the team (Though likely will). Once War is properly started, Warzones will be the next focus by me/the next mod admin. Moderation Roster & Recruitment ━━━━━━━━━━━━━ The Moderation Roster has been a little bit woeful for some time with a lot of people in training for very extended periods and apps taking quite some time. Managers right now have worked together to start sending out verdicts early this week to start getting our onboarding process onboard. I want to stress some key factors we're looking into is activity, temperament, critical thinking, and judgement. Something else we are talking about too is how we want to prioritize problem solving and conflict resolution from a more agreeable scale rather than how common it can be to weaponize mods, mod rulings, or be obstinant to yourself, others, or moderations in some scenarios. Ultimately doing the right thing is the right thing, and that involves leaving everybody happy as much as it does making sure everyone is playing fair. We'll be sending out app responses and beginning the onboarding process this week. Some apps will be denied otherwise, others may be held as we watch for any change that's preventing us from adding someone on now. I'll be shopping up an admin package as I continue to monitor internally who the leaders and top performers are on the team and who follows the above mentioned criteria as well as they do demonstrate it and endorse it to others. We got some strong players, I think we're going to get mod to be stronger than it ever was before in soontime.

Tʜᴇ Eʟᴅᴇʀ Sɪꜱᴛᴇʀ Oʀɪɢɪɴꜱ Whilst Dragaar were shaped one by one among the mountains of Aos, Seraphire was shaped among the earlier sons and daughters of Dragur. Following proudly in his image, Seraphire took keenly to the studious arts of Knowledge, following in his path to fulfill her lexicon with wisdom both known and unknown. Pioneering early discovery, Seraphire was often not only a student, but a mentor to her own kin. Sharing her wisdom among even the most prideful of her kind, she held no reservation in withholding what she knew. In days of early discovery when the world was still yet young, she had held no desire to. No need to. It was until Dragur’s Desecration that Seraphire pioneered into the forbidden and forgotten. An action that left her enfuried, yet powerless. Whilst Aengudaemons cowered from the shadow of the Dragaar altogether, let alone the great and unmatched wing of Drauchvozsas (now known as Azdromoth), they would never meet them in battle. Though they soared above clouds, no Dragonkin could quite reach the heights that the angels and demons above toiled in heaven over. And though Dragur’s fate was unwitnessed by his spawn, the fury and fear it instilled into Dragonkin was met with little response. Whilst some cowered beneath the clutch of other Aengudaemons, many remained strong, few united. In an act of spite and arrogance, Seraphire refused to scurry to hiding as other Dragaar had. Despite her boldness in so, Seraphire was well welcomed and held in high regard by her kin she continued to hold in contact and visit. Among her kin, Neridraza was likely the most well knowing. Whilst not so physically imposing as Seraphire, she had far exceeded her capability in both knowledge and understanding of the world that surrounded them. Together, they had again delved into sciences both undiscovered and forbidden - charting what they knew and sharing so too. Though the good times were long, they were not forever; and The First War would usher in an era of change and darkness alike. It was then that something would change within her, driving a knife between dragonkin as lines of flame were drawn in the scars left behind. Tʜᴇ Sᴛᴀʀᴄʜᴀꜱᴇʀ Lᴀᴅʏ Sᴇʀʏɴ Pʏʀᴀᴜʟᴛ The Betrayal of Azdromoth, paragon of their kind, left her both disgusted and furied. Seraphire’s wrath was one known well to her kind - although she was kind, a fire burned within her that bestowed her the respect of a warrior among Dragonkin. And during The First War, she was no stranger to battle. Although in the retrospect of the modern day, most conflict-oriented Dragonkin either fell to Drakaar corruption or perished, Seraphire was (although not alone), an exception to this trend. Seraphire, everstrong, held alongside her kin as The Thirty Years War raged on. And whilst the corpses of undead and corrupted dragonkin lay beneath the shadow of her pale wings, it was not a war so easily declared as won. Even when the undead were driven to the corners of the earth, even when Iblees returned to the nether after his defeat, Seraphire found no joy as her kin celebrated. Many of her brothers and sisters massacred, turned to stone, or worse, still in the arms of the enemy. The world had become, even in peace, a more hostile place. The world that descendants and immortals found was no longer as light as it was before The First War. Although Seraphire was never knowing as a loving Dragaar, she particular gruesomeness of draconic corruption both disgusted her, and mortified her. How easily it was to turn a once magnificent and unique creation as a Dragaar into Drakaar. Despite it’s horror known in Azdromoth’s moment, she would never think any of her kin would seek such an awful thing, no matter the bid. It was with so she devoted her research no longer into the world, the forbidden, and the forgotten - but too, the unknown that was a cure. Lady Seryn Pyrault was a noblewoman whose stature, appearance, and location changed frequently in the millenia she roamed Aos and Eos alike. In search of a cure for her fallen kin who still yet lived, or better yet something to prevent so, she travelled the world. Learning of medicines, myths, legends, and techniques both alchemical, mundane, and magickal that all had lead to only failure. Frequently among her travels she was pursued by Orsathiael - the Daemon of Rulership and Control. Whispers and promises of honeyed words which offered all she had wished for and more. Despite it’s enticing matter, Seraphire recalled her kin which held beneath Aengudaemons, and their miserable fates. Taynei’hiylu a kept pet within The Aspect’s cage of branches and leaves, Sordran the attendant of two brothers to be their proxy and wetworker. Despite breakthrough again and again into arts and sciences known and unknown, Seraphire forever chased that which always just eluded her grasp. Results and treatments which were promising initially, but scarcely, if ever, had completed what she wished. Although she was brazen in her uncompromising nature to continue to roam the surfaceworld, the terror that was Xan, Aengul of Order, was one which indeed did cause her to respect his might. Where the sun shined and heavens looked freely upon the earth, Seraphire would take time to experiment and study as her crafted persona within mansions and caverns. During so, she’d become quite acclimated to contact with The Mori’Quessir. Acquisition of goods from across the edges of the world were made easy with their aide, and by so, was her research empowered even under threat from the golden skies above. And though she continued to learn, study, and discover, it took only one mistake which would forever bring The Revenant to haunt Aos and Eos alike. Cɪʀᴄᴜɪᴛɪᴏɴ Aɴ Iᴍᴘᴇʀꜰᴇᴄᴛ Oᴄᴜʟᴜꜱ As The Starchaser studied once again beneath the mountains of Aevos, The Mori’Quessir offered her an artifact of curious make. Magic and sorcery behind it that she could not make sense of - an energy faintly familiar, immensely powerful, and yet unknown. Perhaps one of her father’s legacies, she’d thought. Excitement nipped at the fringes of her mind, yet an everstudious caution held her expectations at bay. Thousands of times she’d tried for a cure, and this time would likely lead to the same failure as all those leading to this moment. An alignment occurred as The Oculus shifted and aligned, a glimmering light - that indeed of what appeared to be Dragur’s very essence that shone like radiant moonlight. A smile crept upon her face as the ancient device shifted and turned, meeting perfect alignment as all pieces met within their place. A magnificence, a boundless joy as that which would bless their kind in perpetuity was found. And then the oculus shifted. And no longer was it aligned. Worse, a trepidation as fear and uncertainty crawled at her fastbeating heart. A black essence, a boiling malevolence, a burgeoning despair. A corruptive essence, a remainder taint of some terror long forgotten, had invaded her open soul; a scream as she severed the connection, a glimmering moonlight that sunburst throughout the chamber and destroyed the device, and everything around it. The Mori’Quessir and her celebrants who studied beneath and beside her obliterated in an instant as she lashed out to stop what had already occurred. A fury, an unending and cataclysmic rage that would hush whispers and names amongst all dragonkind eternally. A singular scream roared outward, as The Cursefury was born. A Drakaar who knew only boundless and ineffable rage, bringing annhilation to wherever it was she went. And went she did, as The Cursefury drew lines amongst Eos and Aos alike where all life would be obliterated beneath the shadow of her lavender wings. Dragonflame cursed the earth as the once noble warrior-dragaar smattered lands far and wide with earth burnt and cursed. Many a time had she deliberately sought out other dragonkin, not for aide, but for conflict. Perhaps an elaborate attempt to bring an end to her suffering, or instead perhaps mindless violence. Conflict she met was many a time, and each time though she would stand victorious gnawing on the bones and sinew of her once-kin, she bore no pride or glory in so. Only brief, intermittent and disconnected thoughts of the next. This singular rampage etched itself into legend amongst many cultures, where The Cursefury brought her doom to wherever she’d went. With each travel, a bit less of her as scales were cut and stricken, wings torn and beaten, teeth broken and bitten. It was uncertain when, or why her era of terror woul cease exactly, but one day it simply had. Perhaps she was not victorious in her slaughter, for once. Be it by a brave dragon soul, a mere mortal, or even accident. Seraphire, The Cursefury, was no more. But The Revenant is not something that is understood until it is made. Seraphire awoke again, as if from a dream before the very shattered pieces of the artifact she’d destroyed in her final moments of coherency. Fury flooded within her veins as the brief moment of clairvoyance ended, and once again The Cursefury took to the skies. Again and again would this cycle occur as she was stricken down by exhaustion, wear, or war, only to revive and relive the same nightmare repeatedly. It was in a moment of break that a singular piece of her - thought by many to be her very soul, was found within the heart of the mountain Stormwatch of Aevos. As Mori’Quessir scarred themselves in futile attempt to tame it’s power, they were slain and scattered by the Nephilim of Tor’Praeth and Mul’naar, as their father sought to claim what little of his rival sister remained. And so he consumed, drinking deeply of what little she had left to give. Pʀᴇꜱᴇɴᴛ Dᴀʏ Tʜᴇ Rᴇᴠᴇɴᴀɴᴛ Despite the devouring of her spirit, The Revenant remains. Seen at the climax of Aevos as Orsathiael battled Sordran and Aruzond, Seraphire was seen once again in the skies as the shadowy lavender wings took to the skies and battled her once brothers. Narrowly avoiding the curse which had brought her so low, she was slain after a prolonged battle with Sordran, severely wounding him and narrowly turning him to darkness. Whilst her body rests once again, the huskless flesh and bone that make up what little of Seraphire remains will gather once again. A cycle of infinite loop as her suffering never is made to end. A Dragaar could only hope for peace, for wherever her soul lays. · · ─ ·✶· ─ · · [ ᴘᴜʀᴘᴏꜱᴇ ] Seraphire is a different type of greater dragon I’d wished to see on LOTC for some time. She breaks a lot of grounds and moulds of the ones designed, most prominently in my opinion one of them being a warriorlike greater dragon that was not unnamed or dead. Although she is more complex than this, as the character was stewed in my thoughts I came up with something pretty complex, and a reflection of regrets and ambition that I think many people on the server (myself included) come to face. Seraphire’s characterization in her current form reflects an emotion many feel, and most move on from, but she is unable to by forces beyond her control. What is left I think is a metaphor I think people can appreciate, at least to some degree I hope. While she was used and extensively roleplayed during 9.0, I never could get around to publishing a frontfacing lorepiece for her. With this, I hope that her history is both known and understood, and in the future of her use (which is both planned and intended), only more is to come. [ Credits ] Squakhawk - Writer Werew0lf - Emotional Support Pallodium - Formatting

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.

Story Team Processes What is it the ST Sects do exactly? In an effort to increase transparency on the functioning of staff teams, along with providing some insight into how various things work on Story Team, we’ve decided to provide the following to give an overview of the general processes ST and its various subteams carry out when performing their work on the server. This is by no means exhaustive, and prone to slight shifting as needs arise, but should still provide a good idea of how our teams function. The sects go as listed below. Story Lore (Lore Team, LT) - Primary duties of Lore Voting, MArts, Amendments, Sreqs, Lairs, Lore Enforcement, and Lore Applications. Story Event (Event Team, ET) - Primary duty of conducting and acting in Events. Some ET may specialize into single-roles of lore sub-teams or builder. Story Build (Build team, SB) - Primary duty in build requests set up by the story team, story admin, other staff teams, autonomously, or by the player base (under specific circumstances). Loremasters (LM) - Advisors to The Story Admin and Story Management regarding large implications in upcoming lore or events. Story Administrator (Story Admin) - A representative of Story Management to the administration. The Lore Team The Lore Team, commonly referred to as LT, generally handle a number of tasks which range quite a bit. There are: Reviewing and voting on lore Handling lore applications Handling story team tickets (/sreq’s) Investigating issues pertaining to lore enforcement Each will be described in greater detail below: Lore Reviews and Voting: Almost any time lore is submitted, it goes through the following process. It is given a very quick look by an acting Lore Manager to ensure that it is not something which falls under the umbrella of ‘Bad Lore’ - concepts that are deemed inherently difficult to implement in a way that results in fun and interactivity for everyone involved, hinges on things that are very difficult to balance around fairly and consistently in our Minecraft medium, or is otherwise ill-suited for lore being related to it. It is not that these are uninteresting or lame ideas, just things that cannot be done well on the server in current times. See Some pieces, such as Creatures, are automatically passed with certain guidelines. Others, such as lorepieces submitted which dont quite fit in the LOTC universe or are written far below modern lore standards, are denied with some pointers and explanation given to the writer. After this initial look, a submission is then categorized as either an amendment (smaller / minor things, like a single adjustment to a single spell in a larger piece) or something worthy of a full review and voting. Amendments are posted in a channel specifically dedicated to them, where LT who review them can take a look and give either their approval or disapproval of said amendment, with any open discussion about them being done in another channel. Once a sufficient amount of votes have been cast, the amendment is then either implemented into the main lore post it was submitted for or denied. This is aimed to get done relatively quickly. For lore which is deemed to necessitate a full review and vote, it is added to a “loremag”. The way loremags function is as follows: When a previous mag has been completed, a new mag will be posted. These mags will generally contain 4-7 lore submissions that LT are asked to review and vote on. These reviews are intended to ensure the following (where applicable): There is some form of in-universe lore backing for how this lore exists / functions The things offered by a lore are balanced properly, fair, and sufficiently clear in mechanics and function There are no other apparent issues present Reviews are able to vote on each lore submission within a mag, their potential votes being: Y - good as is, ready for implementation on the server Y + !!! - good, but has some edits that should be made before implementation !!! - indifferent, not necessarily bad, but definitely needing some changes to it N+!!! - ill-fit for implementation, requires some serious changes, rebalancing, or reworking before it can be considered N - No, bad fit, inherently flawed, or not done well enough to justify further consideration A - Abstain, biased. Usually for people who have some vested interest in the lore submission itself or related submissions (ex: the writer of one cleric submission cannot cast a vote on a different cleric submission), but still wish to provide feedback. They can help point things out regarding background, balance, etc., but their vote does not impact the acceptance or denial of a lore C2A - Call to action. Reserved for rare cases where, despite potential issues with a submission, for the good of the community it may be advisable to push it forwards anyways Other - exactly as it sounds. Other, if for whatever reason a vote does not properly fall into any of the above vote types Once enough reviews and votes are collected, a Lore Manager reads the piece themselves, goes through the reviews, and compiles the feedback into a single document along with the votes received. This compilation is then sent to the individual(s) who made the submission, with instructions on what should then be done (usually making edits based on LT feedback, sometimes doing that and resubmitting for another review, etc). LT are unable to vote on any lorepiece they’ve previously proofread, worked on, or may stand to benefit from. Further, an LT who may have a vested interest in a lorepiece not passing for any non-objective grounds is unable to vote. Should an LT who pass by both these criteria find themselves biased still, they may still submit feedback with an A vote. Should a manager find an LT’s review to be heavily biased or nonobjective, their letter vote may be changed to an A vote. This feedback is only available to the lore writer, and is an amalgam of the general consensus of LT feedback. If LT feedback was misconstrued, misread, solved in another place in the lorepiece, or otherwise invalid/unnotable, it is not included in the compiling draft. Once an entire mag has been completed, a new one comes in, and the process is repeated. This happens ideally within 1-2 weeks. Some things to note: MArts go through a process much the same as normal lore submissions, though are handled by fewer individuals and are evaluated on slightly different criteria, namely: How well the MArt fits within the themes of the magics/lore being used for its creation, if there are any balancing concerns, and any other concerns or feedback that MArt reviewers may have. MArts are compiled and sent to their submittors in the same way normal lore submissions are. Members of LT cannot vote on their own submissions should they submit any lore. This also extends to contributing to lore submitted by other individuals in most capacities. Most lore is not submitted by LT - in general, few LT actually do much lore writing. They just work to ensure that the lore which is submitted and made active is held to a standard, is balanced, and fits properly on the server - not much lore is written internally with express staff support. That said, there is some lore which is handled and written internally. These pieces generally concern larger backend things such as deities, world lore, or relate to planned wide-impacting eventlines. Tickets: LT handles the majority of story requests made, as most of them relate to the signing of items or structures, updating of MAs/CAs/TAs, or are asking questions about the lore. Some tickets may take longer than others depending on the request or question, but most tickets are able to be handled by most LT, though often members will allow LT who are better versed in a lore area than they may be to answer questions or handle tickets from it. Enforcement: When lore issues are reported (powergaming, redline breaking, etc.), LT on enforcement will note the issue in a channel, collect both evidence provided and evidence able to be found, and go about doing whatever other work may be necessary to determine the facts behind the issue. This is an impartial process, though nuances are considered when and where appropriate, as issues can range widely. Due to such a range, there is no one singular ‘process’ by which issues are handled aside from collection of evidence and deliberation about what should be done. Unlike moderation, there is no single sheet of infractions and related punishments on a scale due to the complexity and nuance of lore, and how severity can range from harmless to catastrophic. When a conclusion is reached, parties involved will be reached out to as necessary to inform them of the issue and whatever the consequences of it may be. Lair Reviews and Voting: Lairs are submitted by the Story Administrator or a Lore Manager to be voted on by a team of voters for lairs. Players who may have a special interest in a lair (member, adjunct player, or of any "oppositional faction", are discounted from lair votes and removed from the chat. Lair approval requires 2/3rds of voter majority and story administrator approval. Lairs are submitted and within three to seven days have voting closed; voters must provide feedback as to why they are voting to accept or deny a lair or their vote is discounted. Feedback is open discourse in the chat, which is logged and wiped with lair votes which may have ST with special interest before they are re-added to the chat. Lairs are judged on a variety of factors, though most heavily based on their application criteria (See Lair Rules and the Application for more information). Primarly after this, lairs are judged based on whether they already are/have a cohesive group (in essence, to prevent putting the cart before the horse on a settlement before a group is even roleplaying), if the group has not attempted to / cannot get land under a nation, if the lair members are a part of other groups/lairs, and if the group's purpose requires it to have an independent stature of land. Lairs as well have build requirements, although fairly lax, to ensure a solid build is prepared or in vision to make sure the group fits into the world well upon establishment. In total, lairs are meant to be a base of operations of last resort - a group that requires a base of somekind and cannot by any means acquire land elsewhere, or is culturally distinct enough to require its own place of settlement. Lairs however in this regard, strictly do not function as micro-settlements - lairs are designed to be not a tier down from nations, but a separate entity entirely. Groups which hold no claim to hide, actively promote as a settlement, and function similarly to a nation rather than a guild or order are unlikely to be accepted. Event Team Event team (ET), as the name suggests, handles ST events on the server. The process by which events come about is relatively simple. Smaller events or one off occurrences are generally free game for any ET member to do. Oftentimes these are just for fun type things, and will provide either a neat trophy item or item of extremely limited mechanical use as a potential reward. Larger events or longer eventlines require ET to submit a form detailing an outline of their event, what groups will be involved with said event, and request approvals for any ST materials to be handed out in the event. Additionally, character artefacts (CArts) which may be rewarded must go through a round of submission, review, and approval before they can be given to characters in an event. These CArt submissions are done internally by management. Further Management and/or ST Administration Approval may be required for eventlines involving or affecting large amounts of lore, such as events concerning deities or world lore. Oftentimes events which do such are prepared by management and ST administration internally rather than being left open to all of ET. Sometimes when there may be a large world event, some ET may retract from running events proactively, and may act instead as Actors within these larger events. Conversely, when events such as the Map Antag or Midmap Antag occur, ET may be barred from running unrelated events. On occasion, ET may forego utilizing ST Build requests and may build their own event locations. On occasion, ET may receive approval from management to commission skins from the playerbase for mina paid out by ST Management. ET are unrestricted in their capacity to run events so long as they are run by managers for quick approval. This includes what playerbases an ET may cater their events towards. However, should an ET be found highly impartial, or extremely giving to one playerbase they may stand to benefit from, they are reprimanded accordingly. ET do have some mild restrictions on what they may do events about specifically, strictly for quality control purposes. Build Team Build Team, or Story Builders, provide a number of different services to the server. They primarily handle making builds for use by Event Team members in their events, which can range in size from small creatures to entire settings and set pieces. In addition to this, they sometimes may assist with cleaning up the world (landscar removal, terrain improvements, road building etc), or sometimes handling tickets from players who are engaging in something requiring changes to be made to the world (area of effect rituals, for example). Rarely, they may be tasked to focus on improving areas of the world, or overhauling areas to better align with world lore or events. As well, Build Team is a critical role in the development of new maps for the server, providing the groundwork for the fine detailing of new environments. The general process Story Builders do their work is as follows: An Event Team member will post a request in a staff channel detailing what they need built, when they would like it built by, references for the build, and other useful information. A Story Builder will react to the request to indicate they are Accepting it and will work on it. Once completed, the Story Builder will react to the request again to indicate it has been completed. After completion, roughly every month the Build manager (Or Story Admin) will payout mina costs based on an aggregate of effort, time taken, complexity, and player presentation. Additionally, it is possible that Story Builders may find their own work in the form of the aforementioned matters of landscar cleanup, terrain improvement, and similar things, and denote their work in this channel as well. Intermittently or entirely solo, there may be a request by build management to build certain assets such as dungeon tiles, beasts, buildings, and so on for further use. A build team member may provide these assets autonomously and log them as well. Loremaster Loremasters are a subsect of ST that answer directly to the Story Admin itself, though hold no factual or written process. Loremasters function as both spiritual and literal guides for the team, functioning to help in defining higher end or older lore which may be incomplete, unknown, or insufficient. Loremasters do not interfere with lore or events without approval from either ET management or The Story Admin, though they may guide their own eventlines or write their own lorepieces if it betters or clarifies server lore. Loremasters hold no sway over the passing or denial of lorepieces, and serve explicitly and single handedly as an advisory role on lore or events with large implications. The Story Administrator The Story Admin, more or less, is a representative of Story Management acting on their behalf to the administration. Story Team, unlike most other teams, functions very collectively in its roles - often team members intermingling with other subsects as they get better at their tasks, or their passions change. A Story Admin, outside of maintaining a vested interest in the server vision and story team’s vision first, too is beholden to Admin Approval. Amended in January 2026, Admin Approval is a process that occurs in which the Story Admin must submit certain items or actions for approval before actioning them. With some changes from the administration, this mostly occurs with large, sweeping changes to the map, to lore, or how either may affect players. Such is listed below.

This lore has been denied. Contacted over discord.

what if mods are super slow and cant do the warclaim idk we'll just chat as staff and if players decide to move it takes a single message to let mods know there isnt gonna be a warclaim and nothing will happen and yes, if they buy the tile, and then warclaim then, they can make the lair go away - this is not new nor has this been an issue in the past, and worst comes to worst a lair moves if they get declared on. It's equally unfun if a lair is a forever-scab giant castle in the middle of a nations territory which they cant interact with or remove but can be freely terrorized by it

lairs have always been able to be warclaimed they just have to be on a realm owned tile and known about the lair rules have a clause that they can leave/move if they choose not to fight and get a new lair location of their choice Also they cannot be evicted by PROs? ? They have to be warclaimed to be gotten rid of. This has not/never changed since their inception

i fully agree while we've taken under the policy of giving st support (gradually), there faces an issue that fundamentally there is a part of the server that can very optionally engage with these people and conflicts, and ultimately can't do much harm. i think maybe with some more rulesets (or more freeformity in vandalism, raiding, looting, etc.) we could see some of this stuff come to fruition, but akin to how theres a world war ongoing (but no actual war), you dont really have to engage with these people, and other than CRP that inconveniences you they're harmless. I've talked about it a little over the years but fundamentally the server has a very anti-dark bias, and i dont mean like ppl shitting on bad guys, i mean that its systematically disadvantaging you to be an antagonistic player. Further clarifying, that isn't to say theres a problem in being a hero, or everyone wanting to be a hero (i believe more people are inherently wanting escapism in roleplay TO be a hero and good than otherwise), its a problem in that bad guys cant do much other than declare war on you or inconvenience you with CRP you may not want which ultimately comes to no harm if you die, because you just respawn. its a really nuanced problem and im meandering when i talk in the above statement but its a big multifaceted thing that i dont think really can be tackled. A lot of people see issues like this and get disillusioned and say we have to restart, but as im extremely familiar (in my aformentioned comment) with how total restarts/rewrites do not fix problems, they only move them somewhere else and often create new ones. I think ultimately ST support is good, but its a new step in a direction we're still extremely cautious in, mostly because people at large shit their pants and scream whenever a staff team does something for or against them, and the ST left holding the bag kind of vows to never help people again because it changed how people viewed them. I think more rulesets that dont require staff teams is a great solution, I think rulesets that allow more give and take roleplay to be a good starting step. Im shocked that still raids are fundamentally, on this roleplay server thats been around for over a decade, walk to X place and pussyfoot for half an hour and take some kits. Something I always liked the idea of was raiding depots, burning places down, destroying fortifications, looting villages. Would people still shit themselves and scream? absolutely, I think people do this already, but it'd probably be amplified, at least for a couple months. But without even scratching the skim off that surface, we have what we have now; an incredibly sterile environment where roleplay more or less has to be enforced by staff to have any sort of lasting effect or consequence, or take two people "in charge" to make some agreement come to life. Its lame and inorganic, and its what the server wants, even if they don't say it so. I dont think this should stop us by any means whatsoever, and is why we still do the ST support stuff, we're just (to my admittance) still a bit on the too-cautious side. On the contrary of ST support for antagonists, there mirrors an issue where it becomes less about player conflict, and more about interacting with certain events and lore figures which becomes really lame and sucks the life out of an antagonistic force when its no longer player driven or interacted; there's only really one major conflict i can describe as having gone down this path, and while its no longer ongoing, its set a firm ruling internally about how we do ST support particularly. Everyone wants to be important, and that's okay. Everyone is their own main character, and that's okay. Antagonism on the server will never flourish until we establish a culture in which there is no permanency, and there is no OOC protections for IRP actions or consequences. We're trending toward that, albeit extremely slowly, but we are trending. I don't believe my proposed solutions or thoughts are flawless, or even ideal. But I'd like to at least recognize there is a problem, and make suggestions on how to tackle it. Otherwise, sterility, which is how the server's been but I suppose that's just fine. Ultimately nothing changes until administration becomes anything of an grown up adult conversating team, and I fear for how long now thats been going on, things are going to continue to just keep going on how they've been. A state of could be, would be, should be, might be, but won't be until just a few things move forward on their own time. I don't know what the endgame is. I just hope that changes.

there are five groups who each think another one has control of the entire lorepiece and somehow this doesn’t seem to reflect in roleplay as the lords beefing but instead tweaking over amendments that change spelling errors and being mad the biggest magic on the server doesn’t have enough also should shelve it cause idk also any shelf yappers will be shot in the head they grow up in a privileged era of not having total lore rewrites for small changes every 3 months that introduce more problems than they fix (It will be right this time i promise) magic is ok community could do better being an organized antagonistic force born to make rokodra and feat stack for 1,000,000 years

Johanna continued to study Imperial Armaments: A Treatise on Faith, Steel, and Blackpowder as she continued ponder upon cannons. The defenses of the hermit-kingdom were built to withstand bodies, not steel, after all.

i am thankful for all my meows (you know who you are) there is genuinely so many people i could and should ping here. people who still play, people who don’t, people who are on staff and who aren’t, people i talk to every week and people i don’t talk to anymore. if you know me, you probably know me well. and you have played an extremely important part in my life, and i hope ive impacted you positively in some way. even if just presence, or advice, or teamwork, i hope i have positively affected your life in some possible way to pay back how you have mine. This server would be nothing without the connections we make and the friends we keep, and i’ve made so many friends on my time here I still smile at the thought of how many people I know on a daily basis. There’s always a chat, always a game, always someone there. and i am extremely grateful for all you guys had done and do. Thank you guys for giving me a purpose as a friend, a mentor, and a roleplayer. I hope the future is well and all continues to go well. I love you meows. You know who you are. Here’s to another year. I hope I can do even better for you as a friend than the last. ❤️

im thankful for u too bro

Johanna Magdalene checks the name once... then twice... "Wait, I know him! That's my friend!" She then furrowed her brows as she scrutinized the missive closer. Her eyesight was never the best. "Bernard, though..? Perhaps ..... Bernie."

i don’t think anyone who doesn’t have it wants to interact with it, the metagame aspect of it has just been so lame each time it’s been enforced because it’s anti fun, anti consequence, anti rp - one guy knows vaguely where a tear was created and has rp reasoning to effectively just metagame it and destroy it without issue, taking away any of the actual trouble all the people who put work into making a tear put into it. When that aspect of it is removed (that everyone on the server has to adhere to this one random feat lore), and no longer enforced, the main attractor for a lot of people went with it because metagame radar was its core aspect i was against it personally from the beginning because i foresaw the above being a problem and it inevitably became a problem, particularly when it’s free, consequenceless, and so easy to get with zero upkeep or notice that you really even have it.

fire

Hello meows. Making a quick update that Vaults have been completed fully without any hitch or bugs. Though most of you have received them by now, you can type the following two commands if you haven't already. I also have information when vaults close, I'd get your stuff as soon as possible, because- 💥 just log on and get them in. /Restorebook /Restorenote /Restoremap /Vault The rest of this post will be dedicated to data I collected during vaults. Some of the stats are Objective and tracked, others are Subjective and may have some mild discrepancy. Objective data will be unmarked, Subjective data will be marked with a * General Stats There were 1282 vaults submitted, which were reviewed by myself alone in a 3 day period from 11/4->11/6. This number is changed from last vaults which was 1225 total, taking 13 days previously. Of these vaults, ~90 or 7% of vaults were from players who had not logged into the new map*. The top 5 most confiscated items were (in order) 1. Excess-limit potions (not breaking down individual at this datapoint) 2. Null Arcana items 3. Paladin items not resigned after the redescription offer 4. Inappropriately signed items (mostly random team/staff signatures on items without descriptions*) 5. Excess-limit event items (mostly from antag finale*) 1195/1282, or 93.2% of vaults contained an ST signed item. (up from 1108/1225, or 90.4% last vaults!) 200/1282, or 15.6% of vaults had at least 1 item confiscated. (down from 677/1225, or 55.2% last vaults!) Of 1282 vaults, 0 errors were made, with an error ratio of 0.00% (down from 6/1225, or .48% from last vaults!) The average review time for a vault was ~37* seconds. This is up from last vaults 35 seconds. The first vault reviewed was from @Yukigoth. The last vault reviewed was from myself. The top 5 most commonly brought over items* are; 1. Alcohol/Drugs (thats the spirit) 2. Mass-market shop items (Swords, crossbows, jewelry, food) 3. Sentimental items such as notes, wedding rings, pictures, etc. 4. Alchemical items 5. Messages/items signed by friends of other players (friend cookies, friend potatoes, nicely written OOC notes/letters, etc.) Of 209 Accepted MArts, excluding MArt characters/non-items/destroyed MArts, 72 unique MArts were transferred over. The most prevalent of these was 133, The Onyx Oculi, with 12/13 oculi being present. This is up from last vault's 143 total, 53 transferred. The oldest MArt was MArt 2, closely behind is MArt 4 (Hanging on still!). The newest was MArt 202. The top 5 letters from the start of names most likely to have items taken from vaults were: 1. C (18 players) 2/3. M (14 players) 2/3. T (14 players) 4. K (13 players) 5. A, B, R (3 way tie!) (12 players) The top 5 letters from the start of names least likely to have items taken from vaults were: 1. Q (0 players) (Reigning Champ) 2. Names beginning with numbers (1 player) 3/4/5. U, X, Y (3 way tie!) (2 players) 0 Illegal Athera/Nexus items were discovered and taken. (Down from 7 last vaults) The race with the most cultural/national artefacts* stored is again Humanity, albeit in comparison, followed closely behind by druids. I saw a concerning amount of children being smuggled through vaults Two player signed items broke lore (a player signed boomsteel vest and a player signed verdantium wristwatch) Two (confirmed) duped items were located through vaults and removed. Players were respectively notified. A few people put vault vouchers from the last set of vaults, and three people left behind a note for whoever would review their vault during transition. I started this vaults listening to Death Grips is Online, and finished vaults listening to Washing Machine Heart. The average amount of items* in a vault was 47 out of 54 total slots (Down from 48). Only two vaults were denied, which were from players who were permabanned from the period of vaults storing to vaults receiving. The 5 most common ST Event Items (from their respective eventlines) in vaults were: 1. 9.0 - The Mountain 2. Apotheosis 3. The Veiled Reliquary 4. The Underdark 5. Forged in Blood I'm on this list three times ;( Lore Stats The top 5 most common Enchantments* were: 1. Voidal Enchantments Of these, the most common 5 in order* were: -Fire Evocation -Translocation -Water Evocation -Air Evocation -Earth Evocation 2. Bloodmagic Enchantments (Closely behind voidal enchantments with ensorcellments alone) 3. Housemagery (Living Dolls, which made me very happy) 4. Naztherak items (of any variety) 5. Mysticism (Geists/Hexes) The most common ST materials were (in order, and in comparison to last vaults) 121 Lightstones (down from 141) 78 Lunarite Ingots (same as last vaults at 78!) 47 Dracanium (not measured in prior vaults) Of this dracanium, the most common two variants in order were Lost Dracanium and Remnant of Dii'Fahdon. Azhl Ore (41, up from 39) Shadegrain (40, not measured in prior vaults) Frost Salts (38, down from 58) Lunarite Ore (35, down from 69) Argentum Ore (32, up from 3) Azhl Ingot (30, up from 26) Thanhium Ore (26, down from 51) Du-Locian Wowj Gravel (20) Argentum Ingots (20, not measured in prior vaults) Dracanium Ingots (20, not measured in prior vaults) Thanhium Ingots (18, up from 16) Volatite Ore (15, down from 45) Boomsteel Ingots (of varying density, 12, same as last vaults!) Carbarum Ingot (11, up from 5) Bluesteel Ingot (5, down from 7) Warped Ruibrium (4, down from 8) Carbarum Ore (2, down from 6) The most common* alchemy potions brought over were (in order) 1. Epistle Smog 2. Auric Oil 3. Blasting Potions 4. Arctic Mists 5. Hound's Howl The most common limb replacement items were (in order) 1. Animii Limbs 2. Golemancy Limbs 3. Atronach Limbs 4. Druidic Limbs The most common ST-Material* weapons were (in very narrow order) 1. Lunarite 2. Azhl 3. Boomsteel (High density) 4. Argentum 5. Thanhic Steel The magic playerbases possessing the most cultural/magical relics and artefacts were: 1. Druids 2. Azdrazi 3. Mystics Observations -The raw amount of Rokodra and Bloodmagic signatures on random items leads me to believes these items are effectively costless materially/morally and don't contribute significantly to the server. -I saw a frightening amount of Rokodra items, Naztherak grimoires, and Bloodmagic items. At least two of these three were present in any random sampling of ten vaults, and often in multiples. -The "/edit date" signature is getting phenomenal use! I am very happy to see if being used so widely and so commonly. -Most lightstones were in the possession of non-paladins -I found 1 Enaction of Yeu item (crazy that i didnt get this last time) -I found 3 alchemy potions from Arcas which have since had their st signature requirements removed, having made it through last vaults. -The REAL sword of horen is out there. -The REAL falchion of malin is out there. -2 Anthroparion items made it through (though now repo'd), i miss that lore a lil bit (damn you tawkin) -Right after someone said "It would be cool if someone killed a bunch of naz and collected their grimoires like trophies" we found 3 people who were doing exactly that -Not all, but most, CArts made it through the map. Ballpark is 9/10ths of them. -I have continued to see a defined archetype of mage or alchemist with no real intermixing outside of weapon collectors -I saw extremely few low density boomsteel items. -The amount of Naz Grimoires was genuinely nuts to me considering I consider that a fairly small (~20-30 active players) playerbase, but I must be way off and there must be more -All things considered regarding materials, I see they are exceptionally well spread with over half the vaults (Likely closer to 3/4ths) posessing some form of ST material item. The bulkers who sit on big caches of materials numbered less than ten players in total. -Unrelated to above $100 big bounty on @FlemishSupremacy -With known duping having happened last map, the amount of Carbarum/Argentum items in proportion to the ore tracked to be given out and carried over from last map is totally uncorrelated -(Copy pasted from last vaults) Most players with ST Materials in their vaults had multiple, and not just one, although most lighstones were in batches of 1-2 alone with no other materials. This made me a little depressed going from a vault full of memories, mementos, and nice notes/letters, v.s. someone with just combat enchants, the same 5 epic metal swords, and 2 of each material. Have some soul :( -Lore team has done an exceptionally good job in moderating their signatures and item quality. I found no items where I questioned "Why did they sign this". -In tandem to above, players have done an exceptionally good job in writing down redlines and clarifications of what lore is being used in their item. The exception to this is Naztherak Grimoires, of which a majority did not have any denotation they were grimoires. -Event Items are extremely well distributed, paired with magic/material/alchemical items being present in a vast bulk of vaults. Lore continues to be evermore popular and utilized :) -I saw no fox testicles or wonk caviar (thank god) -I saw a lot of aviary notes with death threats on them -I found my mother in Honourary's vault -It feels like there is significantly less st-signature-bait items of like a trophy tooth on an iron sword compared to before, and most people seem to keep trophies for what they are. I saw a lot of sentimental event items which was very nice. -I found Hatsune Miku in 2 vaults (i let her through, the world is hers after all) -No (illegal) athera, nexus, or duped items have continued to show. If any come present it would be through staff abuse. -Many of the cultural relics that were lost to time that I started to hand out to players are starting to filter throughout the playerbases, and I'm extremely happy to see nearly all of them made it through that I gave out last map. I'll continue that project this map, albeit, I am a bit frustrated that some specific players (of a certain playerbase) hang onto their artefacts with a death grip and defeat the purpose of cultural relics rather than pixel clout chasing. I still have yet to distribute fully the artefacts of nearly all playerbases, so there is more to come which is nice. -I did not find any illegal thievery/botany items (i think they were made incompatible? no way everyone followed instructions on that one) -There were at least THREE service pistols in the hands of CIVILIANS (repo'd) -I was surprised to see this many more CT Event items, which is nice to see that they last to people, and shows we should continue doing them -I was disheartened to see a lot of clearly nepo items signed by staff - not of any value, but like, a full set of armor that's mod signed. I don't mind the sentimental stuff or joke items (like "garbvel" st signed by lockages) but a full kit or random meaningless items with no real changes is just lame. -As always the amount of player signed items that I have seen from last map or had a hand in personally making myself makes me smile to see they're still in circulation and playing a part in somebody elses story. It is desensitizing to see everyones items, but its nice to remember that often these small pixels mean a lot to people and its nto necessarily the pixel value, but the memories and sentimental value behind them. Remember that next time someone tells you a story about an item they have :) -1 letter of TOP SECRET ST COMMUNICATION was LEAKED through vaults. Do not believe anyone who claims to have the original. There is no secret st communications (top secret) in ba-sing-se. -3 Gift-Wrapped items were found in players vaults. I had a tough time figuring out what I should do with these because I didnt want to ruin the item by opening it and taking the players things, but I also didnt know if they worked and had items in them. I figured out how to dupe the items and keep the item data, and found the items did not ferry over any illegal things. I was shocked this plugin still worked. -The coolest item was this one, which two people had. I was shocked people still had them, and its not like the most epic blade or anything, its just from a niche and cool eventline from a cool time on the server. Im glad to see it still around. Hope you guys didn't feel like it was too long of a wait. If you do not log in in time to claim vaults (no determined close date), they will dump into your itemcache when the plugin closes. Let me know in the comments if you want any stats I may not have posted that I can collect from the data I do have or any observations. Have a great one! A thank you to the various members of staff discord for observing my vaults streams and humoring my jokes.