Kabrinskia, Astrum, and other such stuff of the North Western Astroist states.

[Chenier]

Pfft, screw another Theocracy. Boring.

The whole reason people are getting bored and leaving Dwilight is precisely because of all the cookie-cutter SA Theocracies. Change it up, make things interesting, or the whole damn server is eventually going to die. Hell, the only reasons issues like Asylon and Aurvandil EXIST is because of the annoying SA Theocracies hogging power and making things extremely boring with their massive northern power-bloc.

C'mon folks, have a little fun! Its an RP game after all. We're not here to win, we're here to enjoy ourselves. The day I forge a successful empire is the day I conspire OOC with people to wreck everything I've built because where's the fun in monopolizing power in an RP game? I'd have my character assassinated dramatically for !!FUN!! factor and the sake of RP, heh.

A theocratic republic in Golden Farrow sure would be interesting.

But there's plenty of non-astrocracies on Dwilight. People are free to go to any of them: Asylon, 'Moot, Aurvandil, Fissoa, Lurias...

[Zakilevo]

You can't expect people to enjoy your way of having fun :p. If your way is better, people will surely change things.

SA wasn't created in a day. It took years of work and I doubt people would destroy it just so that some people can have fun.  If you don't like SA, you should work against it like Asylon and Aurvandil.

Also, for some people, winning is 'fun'.

[Chenier]

If you don't like SA, you shouldn't work against for it like Asylon and Aurvandil.

Fixed that for you.

[Ehndras]

Yeah, for now.

Asylon is a joke right now and only exists because the SA hasn't bothered to swat them out of existence yet, probably because its the only interesting RP going on in the North right now. (No offense - being very blunt about it) Unless they befriend Astrum, stop being at odds with Terran over crap that happened between two former leaders who were quite honestly both in the wrong, or assimilate part of old Kabrinskia, which won't happen and if they try will just warrant an SA religious smackdown, they're practically a non-entity. Its sad to say but the only interesting thing going on in Asylon, that the public sees, mostly comes from Glaumrings crazy politicking, which I am very thankful for and encourage - piss me off as he might.

Aurvandil is doomed. No amount of Mendicant's politicking will stop the fact that half the world is adamantly determined to annihilate every trace of Chevalier culture, Aurvandil, and Mendicant from Dwilight for good. That's not going to stop - ever. Why? Because Aurvandil, rather than play intelligently, waved sticks around and poked a hornet's nest one too many times. Their isolationist manner made them unapproachable, Mendicant's politicking made him difficult or impossible to trust, the Chevalier culture is frankly f*'ing annoying (sorry, had to be said!), and they simply made far too many enemies to survive. Aurvandil was GREAT, they were my favorite nation in Dwilight and I had high hopes for them but their bad choices led them down this path, and now I have to strike the greatest opponent to SA from my plans of global chaos for the sake of epic RP. If Mendicant pulls his head from his behind perhaps some fun can still be had, because right now its just down to watching the clock tick away as Aurvandil's time reaches its end. Then the Falks, since they might as well be one nation. I'm trying my damn best to ensure no Theocracy rises in Aurvandil once its been annihilated because I will be sorely disappointed to have an military and counter-SA powerhouse replaced with a sad excuse for a boring theocracy in the south. If Mendicant changes his strategy or someone comes up with a truly interesting proposal for Aurvandil, or they somehow manage to pull something out of their asses, I see Dwilight getting very, very boring soon enough.

Terran is half-Astroist and anything going against them in the slightest manner gets far too many grumbles for my taste. All our Astroists worry about "Displeasing the SA" and want to be as buddy-buddy with them as possible. Boring! People don't seem to play for the long-term RP, only for the short-term benefits of having a powerful friend. I'm in this to play for years, so I have very, very different plans and schemes in my mind. I want to see this continent ERUPT in interesting RP opportunities, and everyone being "friends" isn't how you do it. We need conflict! Alura is dedicated to bringing peace and prosperity to all but I as a player have RP'd for over a decade and know damn well that the current Dwilight set-up is stagnant and anti-thesis to the healthy expansion of an interesting system. We need some chaos, damn it :P

D'hara is busy with the Lurians, Aurvandil, and other potential threats.

The Lurias are busy fighting each other. Bravo, keep doing that, you're the one chaotic element in Dwilight right now so we love you, keep doing what you do best.

Barca is a complete wreck and only exists because of the 'Moot bending over and taking the brunt of Aurvandil aggression as well as their former(Current?) pact with the Zuma that made the entire continent want to purge Barca and burn it to the ground. But hey, kudos to keeping it interesting and being clever, I respect that. Not really sure what the hell is going on, haven't seen or heard anything from Barca in MONTHS so the only thing keeping me from thinking they're all dead are the occasional messages in the 'Moot from Barca's ruler. Seriously, where the hell are all the other Barcans? What have you guys been doing all this time? At least come bother Alura and ask for aid, or trade, or to help take back land, or just a novelty message for the hell of it so I know there's still a single Human heartbeat somewhere on that side of the continent. :P

The SA, unless those entities within it who want conflict get their way (which won't happen because everyone is too comfortable with their wealth and power to give a damn about quality RP opportunities, it seems), is just going to keep growing as a power-bloc unless I'm back to wanting to quit Dwilight all over again because its a complete and utter snooze-fest. Then again, last time I got pissed at Hireshmont and wanted to quit BM because of all the Astroist bs, I decided to take his place. >_>

I'm all up for Terran having powerful allies, yes, but someone seriously needs to do something about this massive northern non-entity with the SA stamp on its crest, because unless you folks start going at each other at some point, you're just sitting there doing absolute jack-!@#$.

I want to see global politics when Aurvandil is finally dead and buried, which is unfortunate because I really liked their Rp style, despite them acting like elitist douches, which is effectively why everyone decided to gang up on them in the first place. If only they had been a little less... Hostile? Self-righteous? Overly-confident? Downright annoying? They'd have been much more interesting to play with. It would have been much more interesting to see Terran, D'hara, Aurvandil, Barca, and Asylon work together, assimilate some Lurians, and take on the SA. :P But alas... Such is life. Exiled back to boringness and a distinct lack of RP.

At least Provincia popped up, gave me and Rynn a reason to speed up our wedding plans. Oh, thanks for trying to assassinate Rynn at our wedding night, and then trying to assassinate D'hara's Judge at Paisly as well, class-act right there, really helped with the RP ideas!

And Kabrinskia! Ah, how I loved Kabrinskia! You shattered my dreams! It was Kabrinskia that ruined my "Hey, I can join Aurvandil or Terran... I prefer Aurvandil because I'm a glory-seeking elitist douche but I want to make a character that won't be involved in combat so I can learn the ropes, so I'll make a random female noblewoman who's not interested in politics at all because she's counter-culture and doesn't follow anything the rest of the nation likes!" *Kabrinskia declares war* FUUUUUUU! *people actually ***LIKE*** Alura's counter-culture ideas, fiery spirit, and ultra-blunt method of telling people how it is while making everything overly poetic.* From there I got pissed at all the SA-lovers and was going to quit BM for good, but someone convinced me to give it another try and that's when I had the idea to get Vellos kicked out and take his place. At first I was going to just take Perth's place eventually since he was very inactive and supposedly retiring sometime soon, but that changed with Erasmus being a dumbass and lo and behold, I got my chance to become Ruler and took it. I was planning on just being Lord of Vassar for a long, long time but things obviously didn't go as planned. As usual, its the conflict and the betrayal that made things interesting and worth playing. See the pattern begin to emerge yet?

Cheers folks! This ridiculously forward, no-holds-barred announcement/rant was brought to you by Alura Aurea, Chief Magistrate of the Terran Republic, one individual who OOC doesn't give a flaming damn about short-term benefits in light of the overall RP quality of the continent, nor does she IC care about being the most wealthy or powerful noble or realm in all the lands but in making things more interesting. We're here to ROLEPLAY, damn it, so lets roleplay!

((On that topic, if you have any RP ideas or want to discuss one, even if we're rivals/enemies/strangers, let me know and we'll arrange something, I'm always up for new plots, twists, and fun stuff! I'm willing to do most of the writing work as I'm a writer and write all day for fun anyway, so cheers!))

[Indirik]

If you don't like the dominance of Astroist theocrcacies, then do something about it. (I mean besides complaining on the forums.) The game is what you make of it. Personally, I will keep on doing what makes sense for my character to do. That means continuing to spread the influence of SA and the Stars as far and wide as possible. Because that's what Brance would do.

[Chenier]

If you don't like the dominance of Astroist theocrcacies, then do something about it. (I mean besides complaining on the forums.) The game is what you make of it. Personally, I will keep on doing what makes sense for my character to do. That means continuing to spread the influence of SA and the Stars as far and wide as possible. Because that's what Brance would do.

I honestly don't see SA as that imposing, really. Only the outright stupid get themselves whacked.

Sure, you can't ignore them, but that's life. Nothing forces you to assimilate yourself, however.

I would quite hope that we don't see a theocracy replace Aurvandil, though. Mind you, if defeated, Aurvandil is likely to just fold into Falkirk...

[dustole]

How are you guys so sure you can defeat Aurvandil?  Isnt' Terran/D'Hara/Barca the only realms capable of marching that far south?

[Indirik]

Kabrinskia could. And I hear that Astrum wasn't doing too bad in Paisly. doubt they could make it all the way to Candiels, though. From an OOC perspective, I doubt that Aurvandil is in any serious trouble from the theocracies. Maybe if the moot and the Lurias teamed up with GDoF then they could do some serious damage.

[Marlboro]

Haha all your spy networks and plants and y'all ain't even got a clue.

[Perth]

massive rant

You go on and on about how their needs to be "RP" and people aren't "RPing" because of SA. I think that's literally the farthest thing from the truth. SA is one of the most powerful RP engines I have ever seen in my 5 years in BM. Just because you don't LIKE SA doesn't mean that people aren't having fun, or that "RP" isn't happening. Making your character take whatever crazy action results in the most chaos possible is not "Roleplaying" its "Funmaking." Role playing is playing your character how they would, mostly, rationally act. The fact of the matter is that a lot of characters don't have anything to gain from trying to bring down SA, quite the opposite. That's roleplay. I'm not sure why you're so extremely anti-SA OOC, and this is coming from someone who's character is certainly not pro-SA in any way. OOCly, SA is awesome. It's the best religion BM has ever had. It's how religion in the game should be--taken seriously.


There are various other things you said about Terran, Vellos, Perth, etc. that I'm not sure how you got them. But whatevs.

The whole reason people are getting bored and leaving Dwilight

People are leaving Dwilight in significant numbers? If so, I seriously doubt its at a rate any different than the game as a whole. Which means it is hardly a result of SA.

because of all the cookie-cutter SA Theocracies.

Yeah there are sooooo many.... like, 4 out of 17 realms. There are 3 Republics in comparison and 8 Monarchys. The continent is hardly dominated by theocracies. It's a pretty nice, even mix really. Which is why things are really interesting, fun, and dynamic right now. And why there are lots of wars and conflicts going on.

[Marlboro]

Yeah there are sooooo many.... like, 4 out of 17 realms. There are 3 Republics in comparison and 8 Monarchys. The continent is hardly dominated by theocracies. It's a pretty nice, even mix really. Which is why things are really interesting, fun, and dynamic right now. And why there are lots of wars and conflicts going on.

3 Republics and 8 Monarchies, each with its very own rich background and various customs, as opposed to 4 sprawling realms of the same government type, the same religion, that operate in lock-step with each other. That's not to mention the many secular realms that have a high percentage of followers.

The rest of your post is absolutely littered with excellent points, but I disagree with this one. Four is a lot when they are all dedicated to the same religion.

Edit: And don't forget, it used to be five until very recently.

[Vessol]

Samos's reasoning behind a democracy/republic IG were primarily due to concerns over past perceived abuses of power and stagnation.

OOCly besides the war with Terran and Asylon, Kabrinskia has been an utter snorefest. We would go a week with maybe one or two messages to the realm. Army orders were even rarer. I just sat in my regions, improving them and selling food when the call for food for Golden Farrow or Farrowfield went up. I want something unique, and while still IC, that develops out of this situation. Rather then another centralized astrocracy.

[Vellos]

Samos's reasoning behind a democracy/republic IG were primarily due to concerns over past perceived abuses of power and stagnation.

OOCly besides the war with Terran and Asylon, Kabrinskia has been an utter snorefest. We would go a week with maybe one or two messages to the realm. Army orders were even rarer. I just sat in my regions, improving them and selling food when the call for food for Golden Farrow or Farrowfield went up. I want something unique, and while still IC, that develops out of this situation. Rather then another centralized astrocracy.

You were a snorefest because of Allison, frankly. Allison's ambitions used to be very destabilizing, oriented towards shaking things up– they aren't anymore. She did her best to make sure nobody in SA got a war going, or, if they did, to make sure it got cut as short as possible. If Allison had got on board against Aurvandil, methinks Kabrinskia would have been quite a bit more fun.

Terran is half-Astroist and anything going against them in the slightest manner gets far too many grumbles for my taste. All our Astroists worry about "Displeasing the SA" and want to be as buddy-buddy with them as possible. Boring! People don't seem to play for the long-term RP, only for the short-term benefits of having a powerful friend. I'm in this to play for years, so I have very, very different plans and schemes in my mind. I want to see this continent ERUPT in interesting RP opportunities, and everyone being "friends" isn't how you do it. We need conflict! Alura is dedicated to bringing peace and prosperity to all but I as a player have RP'd for over a decade and know damn well that the current Dwilight set-up is stagnant and anti-thesis to the healthy expansion of an interesting system. We need some chaos, damn it :P

lol, Terran is not half-Astroist.

Frankly, anti-Astroism is not the force of chaos on Dwilight. Astroism is. Think about it– in Star Wars, which is a more destabilizing influence: Luke being a light jedi, or Luke joining with Vader to rule the galaxy as father and son? Neither, really. Both are extremely destabilizing.

Similarly, right now, Astroism has few clear expansion opportunities. It won't plausibly engage in a religious war against Terran or the Lurias– both are friendly, nor D'hara, also friendly. Asylon maybe– but it can't do much from there. Astroism has found that, after having expanded so much, all its neighbors are... friendly. So they form this big buffer zone between the Astroist behemoth and the Rest of Dwilight (Barca, Aurvandi et. all, South Forland).

But imagine if all those Friendly Buffer States (Terran, D'hara, northern Luria) became unfriendly and anti-Astroist: it'll just be a stalemate. Those powers won't be able to break Astroism. Dwilight will become two giant blocs locked in eternal struggle... and eternal stalemate and stasis.

If you want dynamism, hop on the gang-bang bandwagon. For all that folks criticize massive gang-bang wars, they DO lead to whole power blocs being eliminated, and new power blocs being formed. And that is what Dwilight needs– major restructuring. The question is: how? The least-resistance path is obvious: convert to Astroism, kill the heathens.

When all of Dwilight is Astroist, Astroism will no longer be a defining political feature. Entirely new blocs will form– and who knows what they'll be! Will trade ties between Morek and D'Hara become a dominant political feature, contesting with Astrumite or neo-Kabrinskian desire for maritime supremacy? Will the Moot experience an internal struggle over centralization vs. federalism? Will there be (another) Morekian civil war?

But for such things to occur, there needs to be resolution. And the surest path to resolution is to convert to Astroism, let one side win this conflict, then start a new conflict. But if all the south radicalizes into anti-Astroism– what will they accomplish? Nothing. Deadlock. And as long as the south is the anti-Astroist bastion, the Astroist north will remain hegemonic and stable.

You say we're not thinking long term: but many of us are, IC and OOC. The long-term is that every continent on BM has lots of local flavor religions. And they are BORING AS HELL. Local culture is need, but the religion game SUCKS for local religions. I've been involved in the leadership or founding of like half a dozen such religions– they're really not that fun until they become international. The long-term is that radicalization against Astroism is the path to stalemate, stagnation, and deadlock. Paradoxically, players trying to create chaos will generate order: chaos and dynamism is generated by players trying to accomplish their goals, achieve objectives, defeat rivals. Change happens because somebody manages to overcome and defeat resistance. So if your OOC goal is change (and it doesn't have to be– you can play for stagnation if you want) and a unique Dwilight– then Astroism is what you should be supporting. Because, frankly, it is what is distinct and dynamic on Dwilight. Without it, we are seeing the Maroccidental War slip into stagnation and food-management-master again. But with Astroism, it's an epic land war. See? Dynamism=Astroism.

[Meneldur]

Pfft, screw another Theocracy. Boring.

The whole reason people are getting bored and leaving Dwilight is precisely because of all the cookie-cutter SA Theocracies. Change it up, make things interesting, or the whole damn server is eventually going to die. Hell, the only reasons issues like Asylon and Aurvandil EXIST is because of the annoying SA Theocracies hogging power and making things extremely boring with their massive northern power-bloc.

C'mon folks, have a little fun! Its an RP game after all. We're not here to win, we're here to enjoy ourselves. The day I forge a successful empire is the day I conspire OOC with people to wreck everything I've built because where's the fun in monopolizing power in an RP game? I'd have my character assassinated dramatically for !!FUN!! factor and the sake of RP, heh.

IMO rp-ing your character in a way that is IC-ly not consistent for OOC reasons is not fun at all. What makes conflict and schemes interesting is that the characters involved are genuinely working against each other to the best of their ability. A war simply for the sake of "fun" becomes little more than an rp-less button game as characters have no motivation to get properly involved. Similarly an OOC arranged empire collapse turns what could be a variety of fun schemes into a single pre-arranged event that is over quickly and most players didn't get a chance to become involved in. Not to mention the fact that it's often painfully obvious that what's happening was arranged OOC so it's horribly immersion breaking.

[Chenier]

Kabrinskia could. And I hear that Astrum wasn't doing too bad in Paisly. doubt they could make it all the way to Candiels, though. From an OOC perspective, I doubt that Aurvandil is in any serious trouble from the theocracies. Maybe if the moot and the Lurias teamed up with GDoF then they could do some serious damage.

At least all the war declarations is forcing Aurvandil to knock down their taxes back down to sane levels one could expect from normal realms. 'cause seriously, it's abnormal that they could be so strong with what would otherwise be considered a poor realm.

It levels the playing field considerably, even if half of these realms can't send any military aid.

They could, though, also send financial assistance.