Calm before the storm on FEI

[Velax]

You should be thankful, Harte. Normally you manage to get any realm you're a member of destroyed. At least Toupellon only want to get rid of you, not Ohnar West itself.

[Telrunya]

A war with no territory conquest involved? I like it.

[BardicNerd]

In other news, some fun stuff going on in Zonasa.  Religious uprisings, a Duke accused of treason . . . fun times.

[bluexmas]

Well something's happening now  Toupellon marches on Ohnar West or else on the terms that Duke Callandor II steps down as Duke and Banker. Hows that for "chivalry and honor" that Toupellon was based on? Oh and dare I mention the " King of patience" as mentioned on the wiki? Hah, Toupellon is none of these at this rate, just another big realm praying on the weak. Or some amateur players with too much power.  Apparently the big 7-city realm is very very afraid of a badlands single-duchy realm. Hopefully this will spark a chain of declarations of war, though! I do look forward to some human battles (even if I do lose, it's all in good fun!)

See, this is what drives me crazy about the forums. Badmouthing another realm with a completely decontextualized and slanted account of events should not be what this supposedly OOC forum is for. It's one thing to discuss what is going on, another to insult the players of characters in a realm.

[Vellos]

In other news, some fun stuff going on in Zonasa.  Religious uprisings, a Duke accused of treason . . . fun times.

Except it's so lopsided we can't get a real fight going, and the real international weight is likely to rapidly crush the conflict rather than let it really bloom into something beautiful and destructive.

[Anaris]

Except it's so lopsided we can't get a real fight going, and the real international weight is likely to rapidly crush the conflict rather than let it really bloom into something beautiful and destructive.

It's "lopsided" because the idiot who's being accused of treason is a guy with little political clout, head of a tiny little religion, who sent some vaguely threatening letters to multiple Lords, then auto-da-fe'd the Judge.

I'm really very surprised that Oradrikkon is supporting him. I thought that all the Velloses had at least some political sense. If he's not very, very careful, his (or, perhaps, his player's; I don't know Oradrikkon well enough outside this incident to be sure) love for chaos is going to be his downfall.

[Perth]

It's "lopsided" because the idiot who's being accused of treason is a guy with little political clout, head of a tiny little religion, who sent some vaguely threatening letters to multiple Lords, then auto-da-fe'd the Judge.

1) Lighten up, man.

2) It's fun; Zonasa is boring as crap normally.

3) Vaguely threatening letters? As in, a priest sending super polite letters trying to engage interest from other players in the character's religion, providing plenty of information on the religion, giving the other character good reasons to possibly join it, etc. only to be ignored? Hell man, I guess I just suck at playing priests but for the life of me how else is a priest supposed to create any kind of interest in their religion? I had to message you like two or three times just to even get your character to respond. Again, I guess I just suck at it, but sheesh, I feel I'm not the worst BM player to ever play the game.

4) Again, basically I was bored out of my mind with Galen, tired of writing lengthy letters to everyone basically begging for someone to even respond to me about religion... argue with me, call me a heretic, ANYTHING. So, on the verge of deleting Galen, I was like ah what the heck lets try to at least make some fun.


5) It is painfully obvious no one in this game cares about religion until their precious titles are at risk (for, oh-no, two days!).

[Anaris]

1) Lighten up, man.

Apologies; it was intended with a light, sardonic tone, but that obviously translates poorly through text. You should see me when I'm annoyed (as Vellos has, many times)

2) It's fun; Zonasa is boring as crap normally.

Granted.

3) Vaguely threatening letters? As in, a priest sending super polite letters trying to engage interest from other players in the character's religion, providing plenty of information on the religion, giving the other character good reasons to possibly join it, etc. only to be ignored? Hell man, I guess I just suck at playing priests but for the life of me how else is a priest supposed to create any kind of interest in their religion? I had to message you like two or three times just to even get your character to respond. Again, I guess I just suck at it, but sheesh, I feel I'm not the worst BM player to ever play the game.

If you didn't intend them to sound like thinly-veiled threats, you really must suck at it, because that's exactly what they sounded like As far as I recall, each one contained some reference to how the peasants were upset about their Lord not following Echad, or how Galen couldn't be responsible for what the peasants did, or something like that.

4) Again, basically I was bored out of my mind with Galen, tired of writing lengthy letters to everyone basically begging for someone to even respond to me about religion... argue with me, call me a heretic, ANYTHING. So, on the verge of deleting Galen, I was like ah what the heck lets try to at least make some fun.

I have no OOC problem with what Galen did. Like you, I think it's a welcome bit of fun. I just think it's silly for Vellos to be complaining that it's lopsided, when of course it's lopsided, given how it was started!

5) It is painfully obvious no one in this game cares about religion until their precious titles are at risk (for, oh-no, two days!).

This is not true at all. Baranion and Sigrún follow another religion, and aren't interested in the Church of Echad (and Sigrún was particularly insulted when Galen called her Gods false Gods).

I'm actually planning to found another religion on Beluaterra (yeah, I know, great place to found a religion, right? a continent that's probably about to sink? ), and I have hopes that people will actually find something in it that they like. You're welcome to bring someone to Riombara in the next week or so if you're interested in joining up; the information is already on the Wiki for your perusal.

[Velax]

It's interesting the way different people interpret things. A Cathayan trader once sent my character and another duke letters about selling food. To me and everyone else in Kindara they were very obviously (not at all veiled) threats, and were eventually used as one of the reasons for going to war with Cathay. But apparently (so he says) the player of the trader did not intend to make threats at all.

[Perth]

If you didn't intend them to sound like thinly-veiled threats, you really must suck at it, because that's exactly what they sounded like As far as I recall, each one contained some reference to how the peasants were upset about their Lord not following Echad, or how Galen couldn't be responsible for what the peasants did, or something like that.

Not threats, no. More like "hey here's a good RP reason to join my Church..." I guess if you really saw them as threats, I apologize. I was more just playing off the fact that I figured it was common knowledge peasants get antsy when their "local lord does not share the faith" or w/e.

I have no OOC problem with what Galen did. Like you, I think it's a welcome bit of fun. I just think it's silly for Vellos to be complaining that it's lopsided, when of course it's lopsided, given how it was started!

Oh, for sure. I don't mean to imply that I didn't know or expect things would be like this, either. Like I said, it was basically a "let's see where Galen ends up" kind of thing, since I was strongly considering deleting him. I think Vellos perhaps was more just complaining about how sometimes people want fun/action to happen, and then something as ridiculous as this happens and everyone just jumps on the "Oh, yeah that's dumb and a bad guy" bandwagon and "1, 2, 3" the guy is dealt with all back to normal.

For instance, Oradrikkon has found a way to stimulate the conflict while remaining fairly neutral and appearing to simply just be seeking justice/fairness. He has condemned Galen multiple times, but has merely not jumped on (and resisted) Sigrún's witch-hunt bandwagon.

This is not true at all. Baranion and Sigrún follow another religion, and aren't interested in the Church of Echad (and Sigrún was particularly insulted when Galen called her Gods false Gods).

Well that's good to know, I wish either of them would have bothered to even tell Galen that. I understand maybe, as characters, they just didn't want "give Galen the respect or the time" but as a player all I'm left with is people not responding to me, so I'm just like "well, this is no fun."

I mean, I literally sent a letter asking Sigrún is she was Order of the Elders and she never responds. Galen literally was never of informed of her being Order of the Elders until she started talking about it after the auto de fa! And if she was insulted by Galen calling her gods false, well geez I wish she would have called him out on it! Call him a liar or a heretic or ban him from preaching in Razrpot, something!

I'm not trying to complain here or tell people they're "playing their characters wrong," just trying to explain how, on my end, I literally had nothing to go with simple because I was being ignored 90% of the time (and not just Baranian or Sigrun, either. Galen attempted to talk to lots of others, most ignore him 

[Vellos]

It's "lopsided" because the idiot who's being accused of treason is a guy with little political clout, head of a tiny little religion, who sent some vaguely threatening letters to multiple Lords, then auto-da-fe'd the Judge.

I'm really very surprised that Oradrikkon is supporting him. I thought that all the Velloses had at least some political sense. If he's not very, very careful, his (or, perhaps, his player's; I don't know Oradrikkon well enough outside this incident to be sure) love for chaos is going to be his downfall.

Oh, I fully get that. And Oradrikkon has no love for Duke Galen, who he basically views as some kind of country bumpkin with a backwards and fanatical faith. But Oradrikkon's reasons for getting involved IC are pretty clear for anybody who knows the recent history between him and Sigrun. Oradrikkon is a very petty person.

Ultimately, I don't think this incident will reduce Oradrikkon's political power. There are ways Oradrikkon could be knocked out of power quite easily, but this dispute won't accomplish that at all. If anything, it has the potential to make him more powerful, depending on who ends up angry at who by the end of it.

[Vellos]

Oh but, from an OOC perspective... Zonasa is boring as !@#$. As a player, I'm about to start randomly looting Kindaran towns just to try and start something. The only realm I am in with any character that has any visible drama before this incident in Zonasa was Terran. All Zonasa did before this was argue about whether Moses was polite enough. And, even then, Moses actually had a pretty darn good RPed setup for conflict, what with the whole duel challenge thing. I was bummed that avenue for excitement and politicking has also been shut down.

If Zonasa is boring, it isn't because there have been no good opportunities to start something. It's because of a concentrated effort by its leadership to make sure that nothing ever happens. Heck, I systematically starved a city for, like, 3 seasons, and publicly said so, and all I ever got was a few angry glances.

[Perth]

Ultimately, I don't think this incident will reduce Oradrikkon's political power. There are ways Oradrikkon could be knocked out of power quite easily, but this dispute won't accomplish that at all. If anything, it has the potential to make him more powerful, depending on who ends up angry at who by the end of it.

Not to mention his political power stems from being banker and basically sole orchestrator of Zonasa not completely starving all the time... and no one else seems to care/want to do that job.

If Zonasa is boring, it isn't because there have been no good opportunities to start something. It's because of a concentrated effort by its leadership to make sure that nothing ever happens. Heck, I systematically starved a city for, like, 3 seasons, and publicly said so, and all I ever got was a few angry glances.

LOL

[BardicNerd]

If Zonasa is boring, it isn't because there have been no good opportunities to start something. It's because of a concentrated effort by its leadership to make sure that nothing ever happens. Heck, I systematically starved a city for, like, 3 seasons, and publicly said so, and all I ever got was a few angry glances.

There were people that were fairly angry with you about that.  Morgan had to do a bit of talking to people to make sure it stayed only angry glances . . . because honestly, though he would never say so in public, Morgan actually thought Oradrikkon was doing the right thing.  That's part of Morgan's political strategy -- keep people around who do the things you want, but that you can't publically say you want -- and a large part of why Oradrikkon isn't likely to lose his position soon, even though he's been getting some pressure recently to try and get rid of him.

As far as nothing happening . . . well, it's a constant balancing act between doing what makes sense IC and trying to keep things interesting . . . Moses would have been banned a while ago if not for the fact that I think OOC that he makes the realm more interesting.  There are opportunities to start things, I think, you just have to not be stupid about it.

Hopefully this should get our blood flowing again and activity will pick up, even after the current business is done.  And hopefully we'll have a war soon . . . working on that angle.

[D'Espana]

It's interesting the way different people interpret things. A Cathayan trader once sent my character and another duke letters about selling food. To me and everyone else in Kindara they were very obviously (not at all veiled) threats, and were eventually used as one of the reasons for going to war with Cathay. But apparently (so he says) the player of the trader did not intend to make threats at all.

That was fun, I had almost forgotten about it. Oh man, I really, really miss the days when I had so much free time that I could do this kind of things. University has been killing my battlemasterish soul for the last months 

Now seriously, seriously, I didn't intend to sound threatening or something like that. It is just that the character was originally thought as a damn bastard and a rude noblemen with little idea of politics and less care for the polite treatmet. But meh, the republican system of Ohnar West is making him a pussy. If everything continues this way, he might even end vomiting rainbows and sweating perfum all over his way.