I’m going to make some sweeping comment having just skimmed the discussion here. I’ve mostly stayed away from the Forums for precisely the reason I think it detracts from the game, encourages a lot more OOC chatter than will go on to influence IC more than it should, and just generally seems like an unnecessary addition. Reading some of the posts it does indeed seem like this is all just going to become ‘The Game Behind “The Game”’, but nonetheless, I’m not really here for the bickering, just to make a few responses.
The main point about this War is that literally any realm that isn’t Astroist is auto-excluded on Dwilight, atleast in the North. You have a choice to join the religion, as we did when we kicked the Torenism out of Averoth, or create an alternative that will most likely fly in the face of Astroism, or be used as a means of targeting your realm. Caerwyn has managed through this because its so big, other realms have ‘secular beliefs’, which I just think is messy and too wishy-washy. Instead of any religion, Averoth has put the most focus on intra-realm-RP and ‘culture’ development, the ideology of ‘The Freestate’, of a benevolent tyranny, of social-consent, and a realm lore that basically says “Whoever wins the Rebellion for the Rulership – deserves to be the Ruler”, all backed by Sextus’ twisted and obscure character traits. It’s a very complex mix, something I will at some point try to clarify on the wiki. (I’ve tried countless times, the enormity of it just ends up drowning me, and I haven’t had much time recently.This isn’t really the place for all that.)
My main point is that SA is too much of an oppressive force unless you want to be part of it, because choice-wise it has so much power and strangle-hold on the continent and there’s not much in the way to avoid it without bowing to it, which is boring. That’s basically how The League Of Free-Nations sees it, but more for the IC actions of SA as reason for the War.
As it stands, Averoth can’t do anything else but fight Astrum and SA, one; for the massively crippling ‘Too Much Peace’ rule, (Something I intend to offer an amendment to as a Game Dev suggestion at some point), two; for massive boredom and three; because quite frankly, to quote a bit of Fight Club, “self-destruction is the answer.” There is no-where to expand, nothing else to do. At this stage Averoth might as well stop existing because we’ve finished fighting the monsters and building the realm up from a single region of 400 starving peasants. It is essentially ‘game-over’ stagnation, in terms of what the realm can actually do. The RP and ‘realm culture’ is there, the IC options are not. I’ve made a point of running a tournament, as a bit of tradition, every 100 days since Sextus took over even when its been financially crippling, and we’ve had our internal realm fun too. But even that for all its IC worth is superficial.
Dwilight basically equals = Pick a Big Realm, Pick SA, OR, Pick a small realm, pick the losing side. It’s conformity or conflict, because SA is everywhere.
Sextus chose the latter, and I make a point of trying to go for the smaller realms, or those in the big uncertain fights. I am running the realm with the most of the worst base-stat regions on Dwilight afterall.
So yes, me and my friends and realm mates have thrown it all in as a chance to make one of those great BM moments, for the enormity of the conflict, and hopefully for the fantastic RP it will bring. SA might be convenient or interesting for those within it, but it’s a game-killer for many of those outside of it. Its like one realm controlling half the continent. We’ll either change it, or we’ll lose Dwilight. The odds are massively against us and we know it, but that’s half the fun.
It seems everything is already off to an epic start though, thanks to Rowan being all heroic
Just remember though; in this fight The League are the good guys, you’re the evil crusading religious fanatics ^^
----
Rowan, I’ll PM you the quick RP I did, since you won’t have got it I don’t think(?)
