Thedeadoor

[Written in an old, worn journal] = Entry 1 = As I write, I do not yet know who I write for, I do not know why, other than the dream I had this night before. I've dreamed of my words, set on paper, my thoughts and my wonders. This dream, this vision, I've come to realize was given to me by the All Father, the great and powerful, the savior of my soul. Perhaps these words will be for none but me, perhaps these words are simply the way the All Father has guided me to my reflection. Let them be found by none or by many, for I do not question when such visions are presented to me. Who am I to ignore this? Less than that of the All Father, that I know to be true. As I sit and I think deeply on which words to place and for what purpose, it comes to me, that of my salvation. When young, I had little, I had few. When I look upon those who have many, I know this to be true, I could see at a young age, my misfortune. Though with the little that I had, my mother, my sister, and not much more...what I had was mine and I was glad to have it. I am a highlander, as was my mother, my sister, my father before me, and his father. Our blood had been cursed it had seemed with little mina, no steady home. My home was among the trees many times, found in tents, in caves, on top the hills. Our food was not obtained from farms, it did not come from taverns, or delivered to us on silver plates, with a kneeling servant and a ******* crown placed upon our heads. It came from blood, sweat, suspicious trades, from taking the few we needed, from those who did have the many. We all survive in this world, in the ways that we know, though I think it is few, those who have survived the ways that my family and I have. To many in these times, survival looks like hoarding, it looks like deception in political pursuits, and cunning minds of business folk. This is important for all that I am. My lowly place in this land, the struggles I've had before me, these have shaped my hands and my heart. Where once my heart was full of youth and awe of but a simple butterfly, now, this heart is hardened like stone and cold like the ice. Though coldness and hardness are nothing compared to the rage within my blood, the anger that days onward, will continue to threaten to consume me. This I know to be true, it is what I am. My mother and my sister did not leave me silently, they left me screaming and bleeding, it was the same day my eye was taken from me. Many moons ago this has happened and yet as I write, I can not write the details. The little I had before me, was taken from me. The day the warmth left my body, as if I had died once already and now live as something else. I am Brandr but not the same Brandr once known by those I once loved. See now, this anger, this rage, this need for vengeance and blood that had nearly corrupted me, was the strongest and most intimidating foe I have met. For this corruption to be one with me, to know me deeper than I know myself, to strike at all the parts I am weak, in a violent silence, it nearly guided me down a path far from that of the flame. "Suffer not the unworthy" In this corruption, I had been unworthy. Though through all of the darkness, through the blackest of nights, the flame of the All Father guided me home. I have asked to myself, to the All Father even, when in isolation 'Why did I have no home? Why have I never known this?' and to that, I received an answer. My home is no structure, it can not be contained within walls, for it is too grand, too powerful, my home is with the Red Faith, my home is in my duty to spread the flame, it is in purpose where I find my place, the greatest purpose to stand against the Long Dark. And so I write with this entry, through a path of thorns and corruption, one can still find the Faith and one can still be saved. To Elle - The Justiciar, I say, for those who deny this truth, for those who dare stand unworthy and say to me "There is no way", let my hands guide them to the flame and let them find peace through the burning of their corrupted flesh.

I'll be honest, I know very very little about recent bans or what many of these people even are accused of doing. I've heard a story here and there, so I don't have any place to speak as if I know what I'm talking about when it comes to the individuals and I won't attempt to. However, I do have general opinions on these topics. I've been part of LOTC for a long time, with long breaks in between my active periods and one reason I consider never returning is toxicity. Aka doxxing, ooc political bs, so on. I get it my my dude, this is a block game but I'm here, when I'm here, for enjoyment, for story, for roleplay, that's why we should all be here. Toxicity ruins roleplay communities. It should be punished. Now, when it comes to doxxing or doing things that target the literal person behind the screen, not their character or actions within the community, I will never feel bad for anyone who's permanently banned for that. It's disgusting and needless. When you have to resort to those things, you aren't cool, you aren't edgy, you didn't win, you're the loser. Hot take? Shouldn't be. Certain actions should receive not only harsh but swift punishment with no remorse. I saw some posts talking about "leaders were banned, that's bad" in short. In theory, yes, leaders being banned is bad for the community they lead but if it's leaders who not just break rules but break serious rules and target people behind the screen, they should 100% be handled roughly. Even if a leader is an RP role, it usually ends up being an OOC role as well. You are an example, you run how things are done (generally), you guide a sub-community within LOTC. If you are the one, as a leader, being overly toxic, doxxing, being racist, whatever, you are then setting a theme in your sub-community and now you are doing greater harm. If there are leaders who genuinely did some bad shit, got banned, I don't see how their actions that got them banned can defended because they are a leader? The ban should be /supported/ because they are a leader. Again, there is literally not one individual I'm targeting with this because like I said, I know very little about the specific details. I also want to say, staff can 100% do too much. I've been in many communities where staff have guidelines for how rules should be handled and because of ooc cliques or general bias, those rule guidelines are thrown out of a window and people are banned when they should have gotten warnings if anything at all. There are always questionable staff decisions in every rp community I've been in and it's very clear that staff can be humans like the rest of us, all the bad and good that comes with that. Though just because one staff decision was bad in your eyes, or one community member did something from this group, doesn't mean a blanket should be put over many people. I'm sure there's been many staff decisions over the years that people disagree with, many bans, rule changes, whatever it may be. Though again, as someone who often considers if it's worth being here because of all the toxicity I hear about, I'm damnnnnnn sure that there's many people who deserve their bans, leader or not. I also agree that probably regardless of the action, people should be contacted and communicated with once/before banned. I saw that issue come up here. Something that really sucks is being banned without any knowledge of why or any chance to defend. Everyone should have the opportunity to defend themselves at the least.

== Updated with an employment section ==

+1

This letter is hitting kinda different

==================== Change of ownership ==================== Following the death of Hakon Erling and his son, Nokah Erling, being of proper age, The Erling Company is hereby transferred in full ownership to Nokah Erling.

Upon possible re-reading of the document, while the company started in Helena, it’s interests are throughout the whole of the Empire. This allows for much land use of potential future taverns.

======== The Erling Company ======== [A Josephite organization] Brief history: The Erling Company was founded by Hakon Erling, the previous Head of the Golden Skulls Company and ex-Sheriff of Oren. When Erling was Head of the Golden Skulls, a contracting company, a lot of his work was based around protection, bounties, and other alike services. He was much more used to jobs needing muscle, however, after Imperial law put a quick stop to the Skulls and he stepped down as Sheriff, Erling realized he needed to think outside of what he was used to, to support his growing and already large family. Living now in Helena, surrounded by an ocean of businesses such as the Carrington & Co., it was clear where he needed to bring his efforts, into business. With his already existing Erling Foundation, where he strives to give to the poor and children of Oren, it only made sense to create as many businesses and jobs for those poor as he could. This is when he got the idea to create a holding company, known as The Erling Company. This would allow him to create various businesses and venues securely, all the while giving work to those in need of it and supporting his family. What is The Erling Company: The Erling Company is a holding company, meaning by itself, it does not produce any good or services, rather, it holds ownership or shared ownership in various good or service producing businesses. The Erling Company will be looking to acquire all types of businesses from taverns, theaters, storefronts, any anything in between. Jobs: The company will offer a variety of jobs, putting people to work who need it. Many of the jobs will consist of good, reasonable work, rather than hard physical labor. Jobs can include - Tavern work - Security - Theater work - Art - Tailoring - Shop keeping - And much more Pledge to Charity: A pledge of The Erling Company is to send a good amount of it’s profits to The Erling Foundation, where those profits will then go towards charity work and grants, for the poor and children of the lands. The Erling Company will also support other charities with it’s future businesses. Erling finds this to be one of the vital parts of the company, to source income for a greater cause, giving back to his people. All businesses, all profit, will go towards charity work, no exception. Current assets: Relations/Employment:

I just think there are better arguments for the tech lock. Even for things like this, I don’t mind some terraforming to shape the world/add cool places. Tor has an awesome look to it. Given, this is quite extreme terraforming, so I understand your point.

I understand this is a pro gun argument at the bottom line and I’m very neutral on that topic. However, I can’t stand this argument. LoTC is a medieval /fantasy/ rp server. Magic, orcs, elves, obviously that’s not medieval because that’s fantasy. We have our medieval themes in things such as tech, building style, so on. Medieval themes are constantly explored, as are fantasy ones. Fantasy doesn’t exclude medieval and medieval doesn’t exclude fantasy.

I think it mainly comes down to “flintlocks are cool and not that advanced tech wise” as to why people want them.

Ok so my response is largely in part to the OP and the whole topic, though Esterlen makes a point here I’d like to address. First, I think one of the biggest concerns on this topic is flintlocks being added and being used unfairly and being used in “cringe” ways. We already have instances where people emote bows in such ways. I don’t think anybody wants to be rping their character walking down a road when “Billy ‘F*ck you’ Johnson” the bandit comes along to emote shooting your character for being an Imperial, or worse, an elf. As to address Esterlen’s point more specifically, at least the one part, in which he says “there is no one solid theme of LOTC”, I see that point but I disagree in this argument. The levels of fantasy and realism are mixed in a very unique way but I think it’s very reasonable to say we have unspoken lines at the least. Will LOTC ever have cars and trains? Gatling guns? Well I hope not, that’s clearly not the era we have established and I don’t believe it’s the kind of RP that’s expected here. While technically, we could lead LOTC in that direction, I don’t believe many want to. I could be wrong but that’s from my experience. With that, I think another big fear is just that, where flintlocks and/or muskets would then lead to. Would we see votes eventually for even more advanced tech? Better guns and so on? With the argument of “Well, we have flintlocks already, so”. Flintlocks are a step into a new tech level, where as right now, we are fantasy and medieval, magic and swords. So where I stand is, sure, add flintlocks and/or muskets if the community wants them but I’d only want to see them under certain terms: 1: They must be used in a strict manner and not let up to freedom of the user. There is a response in this thread with how rolling could work with them, which seems well thought out and fair 2: We have a line of tech we don’t cross in LOTC. I don’t really wish to see LOTC turn more modern than flintlocks tech wise. There could be some exceptions for things perhaps but weaponry is pretty significant. Would it hurt LOTC though if someone invents some magical toaster? I mean, not really. Cars, planes, trains, fully automatic weapons, these are things that would dramatically change the RP of LoTC, obviously and these are the things I wouldn’t want to see ever. Flintlocks are a step into

Yes. Yes. And Yes.

True. Not worth the mina, since Curon is being rebuilt, not a big deal friend.

The Skulls were given the tents after the Nottinghams were labeled as terrorists and removed by Curon.