Lapidary

Florian had passed the cell on occasion, watching the imprisoned writhe as he struggled to fight off the influences so graciously given to him. Each time, with the lightest chuckle. "He'll come to thrive, in it all. . ." A murmur passed beneath his breath as that final visit drew closer. "Soon."

Naztherak are descendants, with fluid human emotions that are malleable and subject to influence and change. Removing an emotional experience entirely from a character removes so much from their overall psychology, and it feels very wrong. This removes so many avenues for grief and tragedy, just think of Shakespearian romantic tragedies? There are so many avenues for fantastic storywriting that involve romantic connections. "Romance" as an emotion isn't what so many people consider "evil bad Romance roleplay", but even then this doesn't feel like a solution. Even if this gets passed, why is it so immediate? Why not let yourself experience a slow progressive descent into madness? So many existing Naztherak already do this, because it's how they feel about their characters personally, but there's already a point of progression for Naztherak in which they lose that. Which is a choice they can make later on, that makes sense. Why push everyone else's characters into the same avenue that you feel personally? I am going to miss the demonic romantic tragedy storylines, that's for sure. -1 I don't think this adds anything to roleplay, or fixes any 'problems' that are claimed to exist. Choose who you want in your community, build it with people you like and trust. Don't try and force other people's character psychology to work how you want. Other people are making different villains, and that's good. The diversity adds fantastic flavor for good story-building. Villains should not be shells of people, they should have better reasoning than 'my magic made me crazy bad'.

Good rp is usually rewarded. If you put forth effort in your banditry to be interesting, I've seen players even un-soulbind items to give as rewards for well-done crp and enjoyable encounters. Focus on what makes the other player happy, treat yourself (as a bandit) like an event for the player you're taking things from. Don't stack yourself to win every time, don't expect to get a kill, be OOCly respectful too and players will be much more likely to give up their items. :)

I feel like I have waited long enough to give my personal take on this topic. I have been a player on LOTC for going on 5 years now, and ever since my first character on LOTC the personas I have created have all been queer in some form or another. Either by flagrant or different expression, actively seeking partners of the same gender, not conforming to gender expectations etc. I have been at this for years, I understand what the experience is like. When I first attempted to outwardly express and pursue the storyline of "gay character, homophobic state" it was something that I found exhilarating. I was something interesting, in a place that would not accept me, and I thought it would make for an interesting story line- well I can tell you flat out from my experience it was not fun. My rp consisted of being flung from my home and rp community, character lied about and called all sorts of things icly and oocly, and had their entire personality and legacy and everything destroyed with no chance for reparation because of that simple fact: they were gay. I lost my rp community and everything I had spent months on, in half a second, because of the homophobia which at the time I was fine with but I realized shortly after just the toll it had taken on me. It's the sort of thing that makes you feel guilty out of character. If the rp is not enjoyable at all OOC, what's the point? After their exposure I lost all motivation to even play the character, and if this experience sounds false I'm sure @erictafoyaremembers just how quickly I vanished off the server after this experience. I was off LOTC for about 6 months, after how jarring it was. I have tried again, and again, with the motivation to have a character of mine experience true happiness while allowing that to be a part of themselves. I have migrated from place to place on the server over the years, and it has reached such a point that I no longer have the energy to play characters who are human, as the experience of the church's homophobia has been so destructive to any character paths and external stories that I almost never play humans anymore. These past few years I have spent on that path in the hopes that one of these times, I would get to play a character in that realm peacefully and with some semblance of normality. This has not been the case, even after seeking groups that were specifically queer-friendly there had always remained burning homophobia pressured by outside prejudice. I should say, the final decision as to whether or not irp homophobia is outright admin banned is not something I am hard-pressed upon. I have been dealing with this for years, and as much as it continues to sting I will continue dealing with it anyways. I thought, though, my experiences could serve as an example for what constant irp homophobia does to a character and also to a player. It becomes so immediately disheartening to be removed from what you have, the people you care about, the work you were doing all because of something so small. It really just breaks my heart each time. Homophobia is fine when you have your first dose, at least for a little while, but you begin to feel restricted and tired and limited to a section of the server just to play a character that doesn't fit a specific mold. It's draining, demotivating and rapidly becomes so exhausting to keep reliving. If not outright banned, I think the irp harassment should at least be toned down. The church could remove their ban, the storyline of characters who have been slowly fighting for their rights beneath it is one I have been a part of and participated in for years. I've wrote in-character essays on the topic. It has been so many years of work in the making, and I'd like to see something done, instead of the accusations that it was "all OOC" and "Planned discord talk" Because I can share with you my essays, the writings, the secret wedding screenshots and the government talks. It has been happening, even if you haven't seen it- that's the nature of 'hiding it' irp right? I hope everyone on this thread chooses kindness. I appreciate everyone's constructive discussion, and I would like to see it kept that way. I've been in this for so long, it would be nice to see the years of rp amount to something, even if not admin-side. Roleplay on LOTC should be enjoyable, that's what I've always said- if you can't have fun OOC, then the hobby entirely loses it's purpose. I hope this settles without too much tension or OOC hatred.

COOLDOWN REDUCTION! YES PLEASE! +1 I'm always too scared to post MArt ideas because of the cooldown

Somewhere in the distant hills, the announcement is read by a once-wronged man who cackles a moment in delight. "Oh, what a twist! And somehow, you did not believe your actions would catch up to you?" Florian managed a grin, to himself. "Jea did not even have to send a letter. You doomed yourself from the start 'little man'."

Somewhere in the Seven Skies, a once disgraced Alstreim sheds a tear. It had been years, and finally, it had been done. Hans von Alstreim leaned towards his mother, bowing his head into her shoulder. "Hope that ze future of humans can be happier than I was." He murmured. "A shame I did not live to see it changed." Orion breathes a sigh of relief, knowing he and his husband can FINALLY hold hands in canonist nations. About damn time.

The new spells spells are cool don't get me wrong, but why are we adding another slot requirement? Why are we locking spells off from transfiguration enchantments, when enchantments are already SO debuffed, and transfiguration takes 2 slots to have anyways. Some of this could be cool sure, but I feel like maybe these rewrites could (instead of locking off T5 spells) be applied like jing in life evocation, where the abilities are accessbile with extra time after T5. Requiring another dedicated slot makes evocations feel so much weaker than they already are. Add progression, not hard aggressive limits and debuffs. It doesn't feel balanced at all. It's mostly the slot addition I find frustrating. That's a big commitment for a very small addition of power. I don't know why we're rewriting a good thing. Maybe lore addition these spells to the existing evo page? Follow the jing progression thing? idk. It feels like this will make a lot of people just sad too, I'll be honest, esp already fully built mages who would lose access to spells they might enjoy. It feels like rp-wise it would be an implementing mess. No hate, just genuinely, I don't think this will feel right on the server. -1 man, I don't like this. Please reconsider.

Lurin's Supreme Healer scanned the document with a scowl, pushing it part-way off his desk to recall how the event had begun. "You would think, no matter the goals of righteousness these people would find the mind to have common sense. Interrupting a surgery in my clinic, to shout darkspawn while someone was under the knife? It is a repetitive pattern of assault." Orion reached for pen a moment to write a missive of his own, then dropped it, with a shake of his head. "Would probably bring them to harass us more."

Character is a half-elven male. Play-times fall usually within the very late EST, normal AUS, or early GMT times. Though, someone who is flexible/outside these is fine by us. If you're interested in being wrapped into a whole WORLD of family drama mixed in with dark secrets and possible cult? Ties, send me a message! Due to the nature of the character someone who's looking to put a lot of time into them. You probably won't run out of things to do all that often, and you might not even need to wander the continent to find rp! DM: angelics on Discord to inquire!

Orion awoke on the floor of his home, a spiraling gaze staring up at the ceiling. There was already some ruckus outside, he could tell. A vision? It had been a long time since. He would have to find the others. Surely, they'd know what to make of it.

These are quite cool! What if one of them was gained at 16 weeks instead of 12, to add a bit more progression even after the curse is permanent? Just a suggestion.