Messages

46

Dwilight / Re: Luria

« on: April 18, 2013, 04:36:44 AM »

D'Hara ABSOLUTELY has claims from Shadovar.

What you seem to have forgotten is that Shadovar was a colony of Pian en Luries. Therefore, Shadovar's claims are inherently Lurian.

The question is whether because Shadovar was a colony of Pain en Luries the claims revert back to Luria or whether they pass to D'Hara as the legitimate successor state. So while it's understandable where the current Lurian claim comes from, it's a far stretch from being the only valid interpretation.

47

Dwilight / Re: Sanguis Astroism

« on: April 17, 2013, 02:43:16 AM »

Also, I find that theocracy engenders a mindset in the players who have characters there. (This happens, more or less, in all government styles, too.) The people who play there go along with the idea of the realm dedicated to the church. It is, after all, a theocracy. So, no, there is nothing game-mechanics wise that forces the realms to fall in line with the church. It's the players who play in that realm that willingly go along with the whole concept that make it work.

^This

The mindset of the Farronite Republic, or at least the mindset that Khari appears to portray, is most definitely republican over theocratic, valuing he sovereignty and rights of their lords over religious principles. This can be seen in the fact that they refused to pass even the most basic of religious laws without a vote and that they explicitly reserve the right to remove those laws at any time they desire. Even in the recent controversies, when they essentially buckled to ecclesiastical pressure, Khari made a point to inform the Elders that these were not acts of submission or piety but rather the free decisions of a realm that had no obligation to comply but rather only choose to do so out if convenience.

Now of course, as the player of a character who has frequently criticized the theocracies for perceived "impiety", I recognize that a theocracy can still cause trouble. But it cannot be denied that in the majority of theocracies to date there has been an implicit recognition, enshrined in game-mechanics that can be changed only with rebellion, of the vital role that SA plays in their realms. However
I do not see this in the Farronite Republic, the closest being a set of laws that they have explicitly stated exist only at the pleasure of their lords.

48

Dwilight / Re: Sanguis Astroism

« on: April 16, 2013, 01:08:44 AM »

Indeed. Theocracies wanted to use the church to vassalize the non-theocracies, but now that they stopped caring as much, the non-theocracies want to use the church to vassalize the theocracies.

I wouldn't say that- I would say the current situation is more about the Elders Council desiring to subordinate the theocracies to themselves rather than to their realms. Constantine often acts against D'Haran official policy for example and apart from perhaps Hireshmont and Jonsu there is considerably less "fighting for the realm"  from non-theocratic Elders than we used to get from the theocratic ones,

49

Dwilight / Re: Sanguis Astroism

« on: April 16, 2013, 12:55:48 AM »

Constantine has long been an advocate of greater ecclesiastical authority, though in the past it's been a secondary concern to Allison's shenanigans. Constantine still sees himself as a theocrat on an extended missionary trip, which is why he still favors the theocratic system, though I don't know how many even remember his time in Astrum.

IMO the movement of power away from the theocracies is very much the doing of the theocracies themselves. In the past prominent theocrats, often rulers, were also very prominent Elders which prevented the council from acting against theocratic interests, allowing them to get away with the very things that would now earn condemnation (like Bustorsenzio harboring Bowie). The new generation of theocratic leaders however seem to have taken this for granted and shown little interest in church politics leading to the current situation of a nearly entirely non-theocratic Elders Council that has much to gain but little to lose in extending it's power over the theocracies. If the rulers of the theocracies take more interest in the church, perhaps even have their nobles vote in blocs during Consul elections, we could see quite a reversal in this trend.

50

Dwilight / Re: Allison's Eulogies

« on: April 12, 2013, 12:52:26 PM »

Allison was one of the main reasons why SA has been so much fun over the years, and though Constantine ended up hating her, I have to say as a player that Allison was one of my favorite characters in Dwilight.

51

Dwilight / Re: The Marrocidenian war

« on: April 01, 2013, 01:24:30 AM »

Damn right. But, I do have something to say now. Something related to how, even being Holy Week in my country and thus being in holiday (spare time FTW), I haven't felt like answering letters the latter days.

If I go back to my first arrival in this game, which happened pretty much by hazard, I found it slightly exciting, though I was dissapointed by the turn system (why do I have only so many hours to use? That's silly! - those were my thoughts )

Still, I read the manual, the RP guide and nearly everything the wiki had to say about the game. Then I thought: heck, this thing has potential. Let's stick to it.

Some months later, I won my first region (yay, Port Nebel!) and started getting involved a little bit more with the politics and all that. That's when I said: dude, this game's awesome!

But do you know why did I say that? Not for politicking, not for the region and definitely not for what was happening. It was all about the atmosphere. After playing so many directly competitive games, BM was refreshing as hell, and above all: I thought it had an extremely healthy environment, where everyone was kind and everything went fluent, no grudges between players and all kept within IC.

Errrr... no. Now I'm close to the 2 years mark, and even though I still consider myself a sort of newcomer, since there are people who have been here for ages, my opinion of the atmosphere has changed quite a bit. And it all started by OOC bitching and, especially, my first visits to the forum. Hell, no. That was not healthy anymore. Some of it had indeed quite harsh words between PLAYERS, and resentments hold for literally RL years.

Has anyone considered that the loss of players may be simply because of a "professionalization" of the game and the change in atmosphere? Those two things tend to scare casual players as myself, and were I not as involved as I already am in some stuff I would possibly say: that's it, here it ends.

Anyway, I don't even know why I have written this here. Perhaps because I don't know where else write it, perhaps only with the vain hope that people may start being nice to other people again so the overall feeling is improved a bit and IC becomes important one more time. Apologies for the long post.

I'll second this; the Dwilight forum in particular is very bad for this sort of thing. There appears to be some genuine OOC resentments between certain players of opposing realms that regularly manifests itself on these forums and it really makes the whole game, both IC and OOC, less fun to play in. Logging onto the forums only to see the conflict you were enjoying IC turning into a massive OOC flame-war is not very nice, and were I a new player I would certainly have been discouraged by it.

52

Dwilight / Re: Mendicant Cheating

« on: March 28, 2013, 01:13:32 AM »

This whole discussion is absolutely ridiculous. The bottom line is that Mendicant is not Aurvandil- the other nobles there invested a lot of time and effort into that realm and destroying the whole thing because of the actions of one cheater is ludicrous. And yes, this means that overall they "benefit" from the cheating but that's not their fault and they should not be punished for it.

53

Dwilight / Re: Sanguis Astroism

« on: March 16, 2013, 12:46:15 AM »

Sanguis Astroism won't win this time, they may have beaten Caerwyn (Incompetents) and the Averothoi and Saxons (tiny fortress realms) but how do they intend to defeat Aurvandil? Even all of your mobile armies combined are smaller than Aurvandil's army currently is. Based on the forty-thousand mobile combat strength you raised earlier in the year.

I don't imagine they'll beat Aurvandil, but I can imagine them beating Asylon and I don't think that Aurvandil's arm is long enough to defend them sufficiently (though of course I may yet be proven horribly wrong on that assumption...)

I should clarify that my comments have been primarily regarding the conflict surrounding Asylon, being primarily a response to Glaumring's posts. I very much doubt that Mendicant really cares that much about SA (though of course only you know the truth about that) and as a player I know full well that the Northern "war" against Aurvandil is a logistical impossibility.

54

Dwilight / Re: Sanguis Astroism

« on: March 16, 2013, 12:33:09 AM »

Since when did this become a war against Sanguis Astroism?

Well technically its not but considering that Astrum, Morek and Corsanctum, along with possibly Iashalur and the Farronites (not sure about these two as all I've heard is forum references which are of course notoriously unreliable) are marching against Asylon it is effectively a war with SA (or at least most of the nobles within SA). And while its not an official crusade its pretty clear that upon a theocratic victory SA is going to expand and benefit greatly.

55

Dwilight / Re: Sanguis Astroism

« on: March 16, 2013, 12:29:28 AM »

Assuming SA wins.. Which you all assume so much and we haven't even begun to fight yet.

Well barring Zuma intervention or an astoundingly quick destruction of Terran (I don't rate their chances of survival too highly, but at the very least they should keep Aurvandil busy), I think its a pretty safe assumption. It might take some time for the Northern armies to get back into the swing of things after so long a peace, but considering we were able to destroy Caerwyn I would imagine that SA can at the very least drive Asylon back past Via and possibly destroy it altogether.

But nevertheless you are right that the war is not yet over; the victors shall be clear soon enough.

56

Dwilight / Re: Sanguis Astroism

« on: March 15, 2013, 11:26:53 PM »

I the thing that puzzles me about many people in SA is that they genuinely seem flabbergasted that anyone would want to oppose SA. Like the very act is beyond all reasoning and just shouldn't happen. What fun would Dwilight be if we all got along and followed every rule diplomatically? SA is just a moment in time, it will rise and fall just like everything else. BM has changed so much in the time I started in a year or two it will be equally as different.

Well "opposing SA" in the way you mean it tends to involve complete annihilation, so based on the assumption that most realms want to live, yes it is surprising when someone stands up with a painted target on their chest and screams "Kill me!".
Not that I'm complaining of course. Without Caerwyn and co. declaring war on SA we would be vastly less influential than we are now, and now that Asylon's done practically the same thing its nice to see SA get the opportunity to really expand again. Keep it up guys!

57

Dwilight / Re: The Wedding

« on: March 01, 2013, 03:22:40 AM »

Well my memory must have forgotten about Baal. Which big event are we talking about?. I totally recognized his name.....

He was the Archon of Caerwyn who betrayed/declared war on Astrum and led the "League of Free Nations" (Caerwyn, Averoth, the Saxons, and some elements of Madina/Aurvandil) in a war to destroy SA. Basically responsible for the whole Caerwyn Crusade, the pillaging of most of southern Astrum and (at least indirectly) the death of Vasilif Rowan of Astrum.

But in the big picture to Khari Baal was Rynns guest and elder of his faith. She needed to allow it to happen. VE should also not like Khari so much as she closed a magnificent temple in Farrowfield long ago when Kabrinskia was formed.

I guessed as much and it makes sense, although of all the VE Elders Baal was probably the worst one Rynn could have invited. That said, its unlikely anything will come of it now that the wedding is over and apparently everyone who was there forgot who he was.

58

Dwilight / Re: The Wedding

« on: February 28, 2013, 10:36:44 PM »

I wonder how many of them remember, or ever knew.

Yeah, I think this was the issue more than anything. I think Rynn, Himeko, Ghaundan and most of the other major players at the event were too young or too distant to remember/know about it. Mathurin might have known as he was around then, but considering his general lack of involvement in the war I can imagine he might have forgotten the exact name.

Khari should have known however, considering that she was one of the nobles actively fighting against Baal's forces, though she obviously had RP reasons to keep quiet about it. It would have been interesting to have a member of the "old-guard" in attendance to call her out for it but I suppose its just as well; its not like we're in need of another controversy at the moment.

59

Dwilight / Re: The Wedding

« on: February 28, 2013, 09:52:11 PM »

I'm not too worried about the sermon: where there's a quote from a religious leader there's a way to twist it, and its not as bad as it could have been.

I'm still surprised that no one has commented on the fact that the man who lead a huge war of extermination to wipe Sanguis Astroism from the face of the earth was allowed to perform a religious ceremony in the temple of Mimer.

Either Constantine's grown incredibly grumpy in his old age or the rest of SA has just gone incredibly soft....

60

Dwilight / Re: The Zuma

« on: February 26, 2013, 05:06:23 PM »

So I know this is not the right place for it, but since it has come up, did you have Jonsu really do those things? Or did the old boys make it all up? I never did find out.

I am 90% sure if my memory is correct that Jonsu really did do those things. I recall that my character (Constantine) received a game-mechanics message that said gold was going missing before the allegations started flying, which from an OOC perspective pretty much means she was guilty.

Ofc at the time Constantine was convinced she was innocent and remained a supporter of Jonsu's until she left for Luria (which is why he took her betrayal so personally), however OOC I'm pretty certain there was something fishy going on.