This thread is for talking to each other out of character! I believe this will see a lot of use lmao.

Don't worry about proper grammar or whatever in the Chat, save your energy for the game haha

Hi everyone!

Welcome to our first two players!

I should mention that my time zone is EST (yes I am up at 4 AM - my sleep schedule is currently a huge mess) - I generally try to respond at least daily. You are encouraged to post daily as well, but there is no post minimum (for now - this may change if a player or two start falling behind the others).

I will generally slow the pace of the game rather than hasten it, since I believe it is vital that all players feel equally included and attended to.

When we get a third player, I will begin constructing your individual threads. These will be public threads (you are highly encouraged to read each other's work, unless you want to go in completely blind to your future encounters), but don't post somewhere your character is not present for haha

The first threads in this game will be based on the location of your characters. My original post in them will have two parts. The first part will be a description of the economy, environment, government, history, et cetera of your character's culture.

This will be mostly made up by me based on the input from your RTJs. You are also free to ask for details you want included, as well as offer real-world cultures for me to take inspiration from. This will only be a possibility before the threads are finished.

The second part of those threads will be a description of your current situation, which is what you will be responding to.

The first couple weeks of this game will be back-and-forth between your PC and myself.

This time will be spent building a foundation for your characters to soar from - but it will also serve the purpose of guiding your characters to an as-of-yet-undecided convergence.

After you have all met up, you are free to go your separate ways. The reason I need you to meet up is because I am hoping that you may choose to party up - this will save me from having to do as much work.

I will admit, it is not personally sustainable for me to respond to three to six players daily for the entirety of this game - so if it ends up that i have to do so, I will probably end up responding to your threads one at a time.

This is not necessarily a bad thing, but I'm just letting you know that I started this game while on holidays in order to ensure I had ample time and energy to respond as frequently as possible to all yalls actions.

I have to go back to university some point in January (havent found out when, yet) - so the game will either slow down or keep its same pace, depending on how many of you group up to interact with one another.

I should have mentioned this earlier in this post (which is too long for OOC, actually - my apologies) - but you do not have to wait for me to respond if you are posting in a thread with other players. Only if you need to learn the result of something in the world. Social interaction can be done between players freely.

Sorry for such a long post, these are just some things I thought I ought mention to avoid confusion. I will probably start working on your threads tomorrow, so feel free to post here or PM me (use your RTJ thread to avoid clutter) with any thoughts you have regarding your future homelands.

This is probably the only time I will do this kind of railroading, but this is necessary because I really want to avoid a situation where this game ends up being three to six completely independent stories. You will all of course have your own narrative throughlines, and time in the spotlight so to speak, but interaction with other players is going to be a big part of this game!

the only somewhat unfortunate consequence of starting like this is that there will be limited time to do hands-on exploration of your characters' birth cultures. Of course, you can always return to those places when you desire to.

Oh gosh, one last thing to discuss:
The ETERNAL part of the games title.

The way this will manifest changes from character to character. Some of you may be literally incapable of dying (that would get tricky if you were nuked, for example - since none of you are physically invincible from injury [[yet]]), while others may quickly be reborn after death. Some of you may be eternally youthful, while others will age normally.

It is even acceptable that maybe you want your characters Eternal power to manifest as causality reversal. Meaning, whenever you would die for any reason, the universe itself prevents it.

It is up to you how you want that to work, I will leave it to your discretion.

Keep in mind that in a world as magical as this one will eventually reveal itself to be, biological death is not the only way to cease existing. Imagine a Wizard appears and erases your consciousness entirely. This would qualify as a destruction of your existence, and so cannot be allowed to happen. But how is it avoided?

(this would not make you immune to ALL mind manipulation powers)

What if a cultivator or some other powerhouse appears and literally punches a hole into your soul/essence/origin. What now?

What I am getting at is this world has the potential for some insane feats (though not any time soon), and there may come a time when there are many more immortals than just 3-6. the difference is that these beings may have immortality derived from phylacteries (like a lich) or perhaps they have ascended to godhood - immortal unless all but their last follower is killed.

What if a being goes so far beyond mortality that they become existences tied to a very concept of reality? How then, could they be "killed"? Well, I have ideas, but let's not get ahead of yourselves.

The unique aspect of your characters - is that none of this applies to you. You have the absolute highest form of existence. Utterly eternal.

Therefore, "immortal" doesn't really describe your condition properly.

For now, it doesn't matter because none of you will begin the game aware of this ability.
Some of you may not learn the extent of this inherent power for many years - while others will learn about it the first time they escape death.

ultimately, you can consider your uniqueness separate (elevated above) any other power that appears in this game, no matter how grande. Your character might not know this, though, so they may avoid dangerous foes out of fear that they could actually be finally destroyed.

one thing that I predict coming up is that your characters may at some point desire death. This is totally understandable, as many people consider 'immortality' to be a curse, not a blessing. This will prevent sublime roleplay opportunities, but sadly the outcome is predetermined (your character may or may not know this right away) since even if you wanted to disappear, you could not.

If you have any questions about any of the stuff I rattled on about please feel free to ask here or in PMs

once again, huge apologies for the megapost. I realized there were a lot of things I had forgot to mention in the Game Info thread and RTJ text :SORRY:

Sorry for the double-post, all!

Welcome to our third player, though! Talonor, feel free to change your bio lines. I put those in case you want to use them. Please write a short description in your larger character bio, also. It can be just a couple lines on your apparent age and skin/hair/eye color. You can put more, if you like.

With this, we now have enough players to start. I will still be accepting more (up to five, not six like I mistakenly wrote before) in the future, but we have enough to start the game.

For your starting homelands, these are my thoughts but feel free to make suggestions since these will still be WIP until we are all happy enough for me to start their threads:

There is no better feeling than when your game turns out more popular than you thought it would be!

Welcome, @Asherah! Please put some basic appearance details in your character bio :3

We now have room for one more player :-)

And yes, I tripled posted. I will kowtow 1000 times in penance

Indeed so!

Welcome and Merry Christmas everyone.

Would you mind enabling character sheets for us GM? I like keeping notes there and I have a feeling that we will have a lot of notes in this game!

Sure thing! I forgot that was something I needed to manually do, haha

EDIT-

We are now full on players! Everyone welcome Sigismund :)

I set all your sheets to editable, so hopefully that works... if not, I'll figure it out lol

__________________

Asherah and Sigismund, here are the ideas i've come up for your homelands. Let me know if you want anything added, changed or removed!
This message was last edited by the GM at 10:16, Mon 25 Dec 2023.

I still can't get the character sheet I am afraid. I thin you have to create it first... You go edit it and then make it user editable. This is one of the few bad things in the RPOL gui

Hello all. I look forward to playing with ya'll.
I'll be your friendly bear of a cook, whose love for cooking for himself and others, is eating said food. Oh, and Merry christmas everyone. Hope the days are filled with good cheer, and better food ;)

I love what you wrote for my homeland, Froggychum. It's a perfect starting point, far as I can see. The only thing I envisioned differently was then maybe living in a place with more snow in winter, but that's only because my starting point was the early villages of the scandinavians. But that's no problem for me, this works great.

I'm contemplating my homeland as well. Interesting. Thought provoking. I think it's a super backdrop.

Yesss foood!! *cough* I’m excited to play with y’all as well [and very excited to find somebody else who says ‘yall’]

That looks wonderful FroggyChum thank you!

Heh, I'm not even sure why I do it. Not like I'm American and says it daily, or anything. I think it's just a subconscious way to seem more casual in text for me. 'You all' feels stuffy, somehow.

Im Canadian so y'all isn't really part of our dialectic either, but I do like using it, especially in text :-)



i caught onto that a bit late while writing, so I changed some names up and added snow into the backstory. the region you're in probably doesnt have much snow (though localized weather phenomena are not out of the question when magic is present) - and I thought it would be more convenient to have you closer to the action, rather than manufacturing an event to have you move closer (i'm doing that with some other players who I placed in farther regions, already).



A relief! I was least confident in my initial draft for you. I will be doing formatting but also a few tweaks for everyone's, but yours may get a bit more attention since I still feel like its not quite as elegant as I'd like.

---

@all - Merry Christmas to everyone who celebrates! I'm hanging out with family today, so I won't get too much done GM-wise, at least not until later (though we are having turkey so I might fall asleep before then, lol)

Game should be up and running in just a day or two! Looking forward to it :-)



This is what I thought too. I will figure that out now.

Edit: should be done :) please lmk if there are any other issues. i use RPOL very infrequently when not running/particpating in a game :P
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:29, Mon 25 Dec 2023.

Well, I've got access to my character sheet. So I'm good, at least.

That worked. Thank you :)

JFC that took way too long - way way more than i thought it would (rip my free time today xD)

It's not even all that good or fully finished... but im out of time and sick of how finnicky that particular program seems to be (first time using it)

in the future I will probably stick to using paint.net to make my game maps

For now, just know a few things:
 - This map is to help visualize. its not perfect. in fact, the terrain is absolutely horrible i just couldn't be bothered to clean up what was randomly generated for me.
 - im not 100% happy with it, so I may change some of the names
 - some locations are missing. I couldn't fit everything I wanted, so the red arrow points to north Kalatoria, while the blue arrow points to Tzama. The Graff Ravine is also not visible, but it blocks off access to those two areas.
 - The Sram mountains and Azak Basin are part of Ghanbar, the part nearest to Iderran Wilds. I don't know how to draw those by hand, and the program was too difficult to figure it out
 - Jorgrim would technically be in the Iderran Wilds, using this map.
 - the land bridge between State of Fa and Cantel/Andorry should be smaller
 - there is no scale because the map is not to scale. Until I get an idea how long I want travel times to be, you won't know. For now, I am planning on having all of Kalatoria (both halves, including Tzama) be a continent a bit smaller than Australia.
 - since this is the ancient age, none of these borders are actually touching. think of it as territory claims rather than actually defended land.
 - i didnt draw the credi isles or Asherah's village. the former are in the Param Sea (which you can tell i put in by hand) and the latter is on the Kalatorian Coast, due south of the 'K' in Kingdom (not that this map is so accurate)

Okay, enjoy!

Paint is good. It's what I use all the time.

Right what do you want from us? I have a vision in my head now of Zhao (thank you for the background info) so would be happy to start RPing. Do you want anything before that?

Do you have an idea how we meet? Can we recognise each other as  'different' (Highlander has that, and it's quite effective as a plot device and I think adds to the world)

You guys are good to post as soon as I create your threads. That will be tomorrow, probably.

I have plans to have you all converge around Ghanbar, and I have different ways to drag/lead you there.

As for the recognition thing, I hadn't considered it. It's a good idea though, but since none of you are aware of your own natures yet, it will probably manifest as a feeling of similarity with each other (though not necessarily familiarness, intimacy, kinship or closeness).

Later, when you all begin to realize your nature (almost certainly will happen the first time you would be killed - or maybe when your aging catches up to you (or if it fails to)), you will be able to put two and two together, that all the people you felt that unique and unmistakeable sensation around are also the only beings with this same nature.

By the way, I'd like it if each of you can tell me how you want your 'eternal' ability to manifest. I have decided to call this ability "Eternal Existence" and one who possesses that power would be an "Eternal Existence" (different conjugation)

However, your characters will not know what it is called (likely for the entirety of the game), and may call it whatever they wish. Most likely, they will call it immortality - but that will get confusing when you encounter other immortals later who are not actually as permanent as you are.

Right - so just tell me how you want your ability to manifest. this is not a prerequisite to start posting, but we might as well get it out of the way. You should consider the things mentioned in the tail of msg #3 ITT - or you can leave them up to me to decide, which I am happy to do - but you might not expect it.

Keep in mind - again - that this ability does not have any sort of adjacent super powers or whatever.

You are not immune to damage, or the like - you just cant be destroyed by it, for example (the definition of this is variable, and may vary between your characters).

Ultimately, the distilled essence of this ability - if you need a single thought to focus on, is "Your existence is fundamentally a part of reality"

If I feel like your interpretation won't work too well, I will suggest changes until we are both happy. Again, it's fine to leave this part up to me to decide but I'm giving you freedom to do a little extra design work on your character.

No matter your choices here, in the long run your abilities will all act in the same way, more or less. Don't think you will have a 'higher level' of the ability than another PC, it doesn't work that way.

One last note: Remember that unless I post it in an IC thread (Known World, or your upcoming personal threads), its not canon. Currently, you can take the game map as noncanon as well. Just use it as a reference for visualization.

Generally, I create threads based on their physical location - but there is plenty room for exceptions depending on the circumstances.

I look forward to starting the game tomorrow! Rest well, all :D

So just to be clear, will each of our immortality powers work differently, except that we are all true immortals and will always return somehow, or are we each gonna suggest a way and work until we find one we're all happy with, which will then be the way it functions for all of us?

Either way, I was thinking something like always ending up back in prime condition. Like if I got wounded, or dead, I'd eventually end up back at my prime. A lost limb would take longer than a stab wound, a body burnt to a crisp would take longer to reconstitute than a body with a wound in the heart. But always, you eventually come to in perfect condition, including age. Somewhere in the mid twenties, I imagine. Unsure on whether this should involve aging. Like you could age normally, and when you die of old age, you come to at some point, somewhere, youth restored and strong of body. Or maybe you don't age at all beyond your physical prime, but the rest still applies.

EDIT: Oh also, I can't see the map. Might just be because I'm on my phone, not a computer. Just figured I'd mention it in case anyone else has the same problem. Otherwise I'll see it in two days when I'm back home and can get to my pc.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:39, Tue 26 Dec 2023.

I can see a map in the main game map.

In reply to Zhao Li Hua (msg # 20):

Probably just my phone, then.

EDIT: wait, no now I can see it. Weird, didn't work earlier. Nice map, BTW.
This message was last edited by the player at 02:20, Tue 26 Dec 2023.

The ability can work differently for each of you. In fact, if you leave it up to me it will manifest inconsistently even when used by the same person.

The idea you have of Sigismund 'returning to peak condition' is very appropriate. Here is my suggestions for semi-definitive rules (privated in case you want to keep it under wraps for now):

Also note, these mostly cover things that are possible given the current setting (zero magic, cultivation or other powers) - not to boast, but I am incredibly good at thinking of ways to kill things that should be unkillable, and that has led me to imagine some very esoteric abilities. None of these will ultimately succeed in ending you, but the ways they interact with whatever version of the ability you decide on will depend on the general theme you go with.

Speaking of themes, if you do have a preferred process for your Eternal Existence, please try to go with a theme - this will make solving edge cases easier and feel less arbitrary
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:43, Tue 26 Dec 2023.

I like this. Your ideas for how it works have a lot of potential, I think. I'm good with it working like you've suggested. And I don't think I'll ask anymore question about the immortality for now, as I also like surprises :)

Not quite sure what you mean with themes and preferred process for the eternal existence, though. Is that different from just how the power works in general? Or like, a specific name for my brand of eternity? If so, I was thinking perpetuality. My idea was in part inspired by the brand of immortals found in warhammer 40k, called perpetuals.

I'll give it some thought. I actually prefer it if my character doesn't know even if I do. Experimentation is obviously... not a sane thing to do!

It's not challenging actually dealing with an immortal through regeneration. Concrete is great. Lasts at least 2000 years and is stronger at 2000 years than before. Even a simple bottle dungeon will buy you hundreds or thousands of years.

@Sigismund,

i've used a lot of terms which may have been confusion. I'll try to explain things more cleanly now that I myself have a better idea of it:

Eternal Existence is the name of the game, the name of the power you all have, and the demonym for your characters

when i used the term manifestation, im half talking about the specific functionality (ie preferred processes) of the ability, as well as what kind of flavor you want it to have.

when i used the term theme, I'm basically saying "if you want a hand in how your power is expected to behave, give me a short prompt to adapt to the changing situations". In Sigismund case, his theme would be something like "Return to peak condition" as previously discussed.

@Zhao Li Hua

no matter what the player knows, your character only knows what they have experienced or inferred. Generally I won't have your character magically suddenly know something, but I'm not 100% taking that off the table. It won't happen often, though - since its kind of a lazy way to do things.

On dealing with regeneration - you are correct. In the case where one of your characters gets imprisoned for an absurdly long time period, I will give you something to do in the meantime - rather than just taking you out of the game until something releases you.

---

Today, I plan on doing (3) things:

1. Remaking the game map in MS paint - I just feel the need to do this, it might be OCD
2. Filling in the ~Known World~ thread with information about the world
3. Creating your personal threads

There may be time on my end for a 4th thing, which would be responding to your guys' posts.

All the immortality approachs have strengths and weaknesses. I have to admit a fondness for the regen approach. Wolverine anyone :) I'm going to try a different one just to be different!

Looking forward to starting. Just for general information I am on European time

That was my idea in letting players have some agency in the matter :-)

Let them pick their own poison, xD



I responded to your PM, hopefully you are satisfied but feel free to discuss and offer tweaks

New map just dropped :P

I'm much happier with this one. It still doesn't show Anurath, Tzama, the Gaff Ravine or Holy Kalator - but I can expand it in the future if you visit those places.

Please give me praise for hand-drawing this :3

This is much more accurate, but still not perfect. Consider it canon, but anything in text takes precedent since I am a better writer than I am an artist <3

Going to fill out the ~Known World~ thread now, and personal threads will follow shortly after!

Its beautiful!! I enjoy how you shaded the territory areas a darker color instead of just making them one solid color! Often people sacrifice the usefulness of different colored terrains to show territory borders but here you found an elegant solution.

thanks to those just darker shaded areas you also get to use all the bright non-terrain colors for roads, super smart! And, oh gosh, the fact you did all this by hand! phenomenal! I mean why would you try to use a new website when your hand drawing on paint is this good.

[that good enough or shall I go on? ;D]

Wonderful map. Colourful and varied enough to be interesting to look at, while also simple to navigate. Gold Standard for maps, really.

Im blushing ;-;

My megapost got interrupted by RPOL's downtime (I forgot about this)... Fortunately I saved beforehand out of paranoia xD
(ill try to get it up soon before making your threads. sorry for the delay, today was busier than i thought)

It's gonna be weird to explore the new responsive site... I vaguely knew this was coming, so maybe I should have checked it out before lol

All done!

Last thing today is for me make your personal threads (I have been working on these things since I woke up lmao)

It's good to get this done ASAP so I can do less work in the future though :)

Alright, everything is ready. Be free, my little ones!

I'm srsly exhausted, that was a ton of work on this game today! Six straight hours (minus a turkey dinner) and now I have to hit the hay in 2 hours.

No thread for Khayyin because he mentioned having to rethink some stuff for his character. When he gets back to me I'll make his thread.

Enjoy, guys! If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to include them in your post after putting "OOC:" in front. Also color code them.

Something like:


This message was last edited by the GM at 03:09, Wed 27 Dec 2023.

Appologies for being slow. Family stuff at Christmas.

No problem. I was away from my computer for most of the day. I ran a DND game with my friend and brother. I only got 2 hours of sleep last night so its a miracle things went as well as they did LMAO

Going to update Asherah's thread, and maybe check back here once more before bed.

Starting tomorrow, I'll be more active!

Take your time. Better that you're well rested, and we've probably all got some things to do here up until new years. No rush :)

Sadly, Talonor has messaged me that he is going to be unable to participate in the game for the forseeable future :-(

So, I will be putting all his stuff on hiatus until then. There is no need for me to run his character since he has not interacted with other players yet. The lore from his backstory still exists in the world, however.

This means we currently have 3 players, or 4 if you count Khayyin (who is currently taking some time to reconsider his character).

I have one RTJ that I had to deny since we had already met 5 players. I will offer that person to join the game, to shore up our numbers a little.

I will respond to all your threads when I am done with that :-)

I'm liking the way out stories are starting so different. Really enjoying reading them.

I feel the same way!

Welcome our newest player, everyone!

I will be updating your threads now. Sorry it's been a bit later in the day when I've been getting to these, my sleep schedule is a ruined mess RN

Hi Anton and Khayyin

Welcome Anton!! I'm excited to see what story your bring to the table!

I'm enjoying reading each others stories too! [as well as writing mine] Its always fun when you get such a diverse cast.

And GM no worries! I'm amazed by people who can get their sleep schedule together.

Preaching to the choir on the sleep thing :p

And yes, welcome Anton.

And I also really like how we're getting different starting points. Really let's froggy lay the groundwork for our different cultures going forward as well.

I'm really enjoying the game so far as well :) Thanks for the compliments on the cultural worldbuilding, I tried quite hard on that ;P

I am a bit sad that a few players are currently inactive, but I'm far happier with how invested the rest of you have been :-)

Besides that slight stumble, the beginning of this game has gone very well!

As a tip, I would suggest you think of this short part of the game as a sort of Prologue. The reason is that there are some definitive plans for the future (having you all meet up), which won't be something done again in this game. I don't like railroading, or anything close to that, so this will be the only time we're doing it.

I look forward to under what circumstances you all meet up (I currently have plans for Asherah, Sigismund and Li Hua ; I will think of something for Anton once he's had some time to settle in and explore his homeland a little. I have very rough ideas for Khayyin, though I know not when he will return)

EDIT - I should mention, you all are free to change your 2 little character tags as you please. I just put those there as reference, but you can remove or edit them as you wish!
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:20, Sat 30 Dec 2023.

Good to know, as for my tags I'll be leaving them as is since you pretty much nailed Asherah on your first shot.

Out of curiosity though, did anybody else base their culture on a rl ancient civilization? I have my guesses but I wanted to hear it from the horses' mouth(s).

Well, I was basing Sigismund's people on something of a blend between scandinavian and germanic culture. It's shaping up to be just about when they transitioned from being hunting dominant to getting into farming and animal husbandry. Fun fact, I thought those two things came about fairly close to each other in history in history, but apparently husbandry has been around way longer than farming as a concept.
The more you know.

At any rate, I'll be keeping my tags as well. I know what I'm about :)

Made a small update to the game map.

Im going to bed now, since i need to wake up tomorrow.
Tomorrow is my birthday (turning 21), so might be a slower day here depending on what i get up to :)

Night yall, Ill update the threads soon!

Well then, Congratulations on becoming a proper adult in... Most countries according to the law? Haven't heard of any with the drinking age higher than 21, at any rate. Anyway, congrats. Hope you have a nice day :)

Congrats! And no worries! you just make sure to enjoy yourself.

Hello and glad to be aboard!

Welcome, Anton! I will set up your thread shortly :-)

Please let me know if there is a specific way you want your Eternal Existence to function (CTRL+F for messages ITT if you are confused what I mean by that) - A reminder to everyone: Once your Eternal Existence first triggers in the game, you will no longer be able to change how it works. That will likely not be for a while yet, but this is to prevent metagaming. Consider it the Freeform equivalent of when you are allowed to roll extra dice or give the sum a bonus, but only before you make the roll!

Also, it's come to my attention that I have been reducing player agency a little by describing your internal reactions and actions. I don't normally do this, but I've realized I have been overly rushed to finish the ''prologue'' before Uni returns for me (like the monster it is XD) - From now on, I will be avoiding this. That does mean my posts will be slightly shorter and cover less content than they have been.

Nothing good ever comes from rushing, and we all already know this is going to be a long one, so I think my general anxiety is the cause of this. Now that I have reflected on it though, I can avoid it.

Please always feel free to PM me suggestions or write here on how I can make the game better for you all. I would do the same if I felt the need to (probably in PMs rather than OOC, unless its a general thing)

Super sorry, to clarify, are you asking for suggestions on how learn we become the Pillars of the Universe or....whatever we are? :D

My guess (I am saying this so that the GM can correct me if I am wrong) is that we have a 'what is the nature of our immortality. We get to work on it with the GM. Together we craft ow it works. Once we have that set and are out of the prologue that is finalised.

Each comes with pluses and minuses. I'm keeping mine a 'surprise' but it has significant pluses and significant minuses compare to (say) regeneration. I'd think of a cool 'how you are immortal'. Chat with the GM if you want help: the GM is very creative I have found.

Ah cool :D I will wait til my first post and reply before contributing to that one :D

^ that

OK in short: Your characters all have an ability called 'Eternal Existence' which is like super omega hyper juiced immortality. You don't know about it yet, though.

Until it comes up in game, you are free to have some input on how the ability should specifically work.
If you do want to have some input, make sure to come up with a bit of a theme. Sigismund is currently using the theme "Return to Prime" (yes this was previously called Return to Peak. This sounds cooler and means the same thing but is a bit more accurate imo)

Zhao Li Hua and I talked in PMs and while we don't have a name for the theme, we have some general ideas on how it works. I can come up with a name for it when it matters, but I already have a few possible ideas.

NOTE - it is also totally fine to leave it to me. If you do, expect your power to behave inconsistently (this is not necessarily a negative). I'm hoping at least one player will decide to leave it to me, but I also do enjoy reading what you guys come up with lol

Last thing, if I think your choices are too similar to another players, the player who first contacted me gets to keep theirs and you have to change yours enough to be distinct from theirs. I think its boring if everyone ends up choosing the same thing TBH.

ah crap i totally forgot to start your thread. Soz, I'll start that now :3

Oh geez knitted coasters? I just noticed that, lol. This is quite the advanced artistry village.

Knitted Coasters is a very poor name for 'Eternal Existance' I think *looks innocent*

W

lol your right it'd be a terrible name.

Nah I just thought knitting was as old as or younger than the telephone. Turns out it was invented sometime between 500-1200 A.D. Not that I'm complaining, I just found this fascinating and wanted to take a moment to be proud of Asherah's village.

That's my bad, then. Excuse the anachronism (we are at least a couple thousand BC real world... though i've been bending that in a few places), though honestly I don't think its that unlikely knitting could have been invented earlier... it doesnt have much of a tech tree, imo

Speaking of anachronisms, feel free to point them out as you see them. I definitely think I've made a couple mistakes so far, but honestly designing 'primitive' civilizations is really hard, since I still want to find ways to give them character and depth... TBH this world will probably take a different evolutionary/progression path then our own - you know given the fact magic and shit exists xD

LOVE that post...need to sleep since been up for 36 hours but will post earlytmrw

Well, let's not get too bogged down in accuracy to the perceived timeperiod, either. That'd get old quick, I think.

Anyway, I've posted IC, and am going to a new years party in a few hours. So I might not check the game again until tomorrow.

If I don't, Happy new year everyone! :)

Happy new years!

Happy new year everyone

Happy new year. Careful around the fireworks. Ya'll can't type in the game with missing fingers  XD

*looks at three remaining fingers* Um good news is I was careful around the fireworks. /j

Happy new years all!

I will try to update threads today :o

@Asherah: That's no good! Here, have some spares *hands you a gory bucket of severed appendages* on the house :->

*le gasp* thanks Froggy! *runs off with bucket* I’m gonna have so many arms!

Happy NewYeatrs!

Threads updated!

I'm liking these stories so far :-)

Please let me know if there is anything else you think I should add to the Game Map or Known World threads... I feel like something is missing, but I could totally be wrong.

On another note, I think I've got the (very) rough outline for all the interwoven power systems within this world. Frankly, it's probably too much to ever cover, but that's part of the charm.

I won't reveal anything until you stumble across something beyond the ken. Please, absolutely, certainly and completely make sure not to introduce mystical elements in your replies (your own thoughts or rumors about them may be okay, use your better judgement).

I will ask you to remove those from your posts if I see them. Just a heads up, so far none of you have tripped any guidelines

(well there have been cases of the players doing a bit more worldbuilding than they should, but that's acceptable because I think there was some confusion on what I originally meant by 'cooperate in building your original cultures'... that wasn't supposed to be a lasting prospect. Ultimately though I think there are some benefits to letting you guys have a bit more leeway in designing your home cultures. The amount you have been doing can stay unchanged. In the future though, just treat everything as an unknown. Cause it all will be. Even some pretty fundamental stuff, if you encounter the wackier cultures I can come up with XD)

I don't think you can do a game like this without the players building their background culture. Because they have to 'be' that culture.

RPOL is mostly a game of cooperative fiction writing. It need cooperation and collaboration to work I think.

That's what I was getting at, yea

Threads updated! Sorry for the delay, though technically it's not been 24 hours since my last replies so I could argue a 'day' hasn't passed hehe

Hello, clarifying a few things that maybe were not most clear in RTJ and Game Intro:

1. Collaborative worldbuilding is inequal. That is probably the harshest way to put it, though. You are all welcome to suggest things, but this must be done in OOC or PM not in IC threads...

2. Most the worldbuilding will be done by me. Players get more of a say in their homeland because I have been convinced of the merits.

3. There are two reasons for this, which are of utmost importance:

  3a. Players are obviously not aware of all the behind-the-scenes worldbuilding already finished by me. They may also not see the full picture of things I have already partially revealed. This is intentional, and makes for a better gaming experience than knowing everything. If they introduce concepts freely, it can create inconsistencies which are difficult and painstaking to manage for all of us.

  3b. I consider myself to put in an honest amount of effort, but I think it is unreasonable for me to manage any idea(s) a player decides to introduce and how that will interact with the rest of the world as a whole. I already manage direct responses to your thoughts/actions IC, as well as designing and considering the intricacies of the wider world.

4. If these things were no clear in RT/Game Intro I apologize, I struggled to write those before the game had even begun

I don't mean to make this sound like a huge problem, and I know this writing is a little stiff, I am not good at writing this sort of thing. I just want to avoid problems in the future, and make sure everyone can enjoy the game. Right now I am a little (*ok a lot) tired, and so I will take a nap (*midday deep REM sleep)

If you have thoughts about this, even if they are contrary, please share them here or in PMs. We all have visions for the game, and it's best if we can make sure they are close to the same.

Threads updated!

Most of you are nearing or at the end of your prologues now!

I still haven't figured out a way to get Anton out of Tav Andor... oh wait, I just had an idea... that will work... yes... *evil laughter*

Hopefully these last replies felt at least a little natural. This is a necessary bit of railroading, but I'm not happy to do it...

TBH, the load hasn't been as bad as I have been expecting - but given school comes back in 5 days I still think its best if I can get you all RPing together in the same thread(s) before then.

This steel feels a bit rushed to me, but I don't really foresee the circumstances lining up for any of you to meet, if we don't hamfist it a little...

A shitty thing I thought of recently is that I don't know how I'm going to make it matter that you all meet up. I mean, none of you know you are Eternal Existences... so why would meeting each other mean anything? I guess I'm definitely going to do some variant of that Highlander thing Li Hua mentioned - because it is the only option I can think of without having all of you die at the same time and then also return to life at the same time... Also it is cool, genius, and doesn't break the worldbuilding at all.

Ok ily all please lmk if anyth comes up. i will try and respond more today (but ive been up 13 hours already and its only 2 pm ...)

This thread is becoming a bit of my personal notice thread LMAO. Hopefully I didn't do anything to kill it for the rest of u xD

I just responded to Anton's post - and it took a lot outta me ;-; --> I have skimmed your guys (Sigismund/Li Hua) posts and will more closely read and respond to them in a couple  hours. My sleep schedule is mostly fixed so my replies should be more consistent until I ruin it again (joke but im also crying)

Just don't think I'm ignoring any of you lol

see yall in a bit

I greatly enjoyed it! I will reply this evening

I'm enjoying the prologue actually. I'm finding that they are really firming up our characters. Mine has come out quite different to how I intended, but that's all to the good. I've been quiet here just because of the time of the year :)

Looking forward to it!

You're posts have been great, but the spelling/grammar are a bit rough in a few places. Are you by any chance using a phone? I know some people (including myself) type better while not on a mobile device

It's no big deal either way, I totally can understand what you are saying so no need to change anything if it's a pain



Great to here it! I personally find that I never know exactly what a character will feel/be like until I actually player them for a bit.

I really like Li Hua so far, and am interested to see how she develops!



That makes sense, and it's good to know. I was worried you guys were sick of me already xD

No, I'm using a MacBook which I am still learning and I do have cataract surgery in one eye in a few weeks so small print does make me miss a few things

i'm enjoying myself too. I'm just really bad at posting OOC posts when I don't feel I have something pertinent to the game to say. Small talk and the like doesn't come naturally to me. Not when I'm initiating it, anyway.

Not a problem.

And, good luck on your surgery, buddy!



I'm better at small talk when it comes to text. IRL I stutter a lot more haha

No pressure to post ITT, but it is always open and since it seems that I will be using it pretty often it's probably nice to have some other voices in here rather than just a big ol wall of frogposts

Sorry my posting has slowed down. things picked back up once the holidays were over so I've been hard pressed to find a moment, hopefully I'll post today.

No worries, Asherah.

Good news everyone: Three of the four of you are done with your Prologues (Anton, you are actually closer to finishing than you may expect)

the convergence approaches... (a spooky way of saying the meetup is soon lol)

I also noticed we only have 4 active players. I would normally seek out 1 more (it would be 2, but there is still a small chance Khayyin returns) but honestly 4 players is enough work so I think I'll leave it as is for now lol

Good chance I might introduce a fifth player in the future - if neither Talonor nor Khayyin ever return (and I get comfortable with handling 4).

ok tty[all]l

It will be good to be with you all :) Less load on the GM too

I'm not gonna be able to get an IC post up today. gonna make one sometime tomorrow.

All good
---
My friend is coming over tomorrow (to play D&D), so I will probably post later in the day if at all

blegh as much as I love writing compelling scenes or emotionally driving ones. If I spend too much time mentally attached to the character, I feel everything they're feeling and Asherah is dealing with wayyy more then I can handle right now XD

Have fun!

My friend couldn't make it yesterday because his friend's house burned down, so he was over there helping.
Needless to say I wasn't gonna hold anything against him after hearing that.

But the whole thing made me feel kind of depressed, so I ended up just sleeping for most of the day.

--

I'm gonna post today, but uni starts tomorrow and I have no idea how much time and energy I will have once I'm going to school again.
Hopefully I'll still be able to update all the threads daily, but I may end up having to cycle through them across multiple days.

For real though, I felt actually sad reading your last post. Poor Asherah! Who made her feel this way, I just wanna talk to them (oh wait it was me... damn)

--

Alright replies are up, enjoy yall

Ah the reason I RP especially on RPOL is to get the emotional attachment. But I don't think I've had my character get as 'down' as that. It was powerful reading though

Li Hua I think you have confused the Eastern Road / Fen Guxi for the real-world Silk Road. Not sure how that happened.

I also don't get this part at all:



I don't know why Li Hua assumes she should dress as a boy? Kri Tan culture is actually relatively gender equal for the time period (albeit not perfect, and we didn't get to explore it that much), and she knows virtually nothing about the cultural prejudices (or lack thereof) to the west.

Also I don't get the second bit either. There's never been mention of Kri Tan women lacking feminine qualities, if that's what you're getting at. Also, what would Li Hua know about Kalatorian women's appearances?



This is just a whole load of stuff.

I also don't know why you assume you have a horse, or that horses are even domesticated in this region.

"Small valuable things" is exceptionally vague

---

@Sigismund,

I was just checking your Character Bio.

It's fine to describe your PC like that for ease of reference, but keep in mind 'Scandinavians' dont actually exist in-world (Jorgrim is a bit of a proxy, but overall much more diverse ethnically)

Fair point. It was indeed just for ease of reference. now that we've got the setting pretty established, I might as well delete that part.

I'll edit the name of the road.

I am suprised you are surprised it's unusual to want to travel as a boy. Girls are targets. Valuable. Easy picking for bandits.

I assume I have a horse because my father is a general. If it's the case the horses are a tech too far, then you can tell us and I can edit that. I clearly have no idea what is a tech too far. Do we have the wheel? Do we have pottery? Do we have weapons such as swords? I assume yes to all of those, but now that you have said we predate horses do we have fire? Are we stone age or copper age?
This message was last edited by the player at 17:24, Sun 07 Jan.

Well we definitely have pottery. Gm very proudly added the detail of Asherah’s mother having a ceramic pot. So I would assume that we have a wheel since that would make the pottery of better quality. [yes I know you were talking vehicle wheel but the vehicle wheel came before the pottery wheel so pointing out there’s probably a pottery wheel means there’s definitely a vehicle wheel]

We’ve obviously discovered fire seeing as how Sigismund can make stew.

Gm originally put swordswomen in one of your little bio things so it’s safe to assume we have swords.

I didn’t see anything suggesting we pre-date horses but if we do we have to have some beast of transport. sense it mentioned merchant caravans coming to Sigismund’s little town and im pretty sure Asherah will be one those, and she sure as heck isn’t walking there. So if not horses maybe Oxen? I myself wouldn’t be complaining if I got to ride my Dad’s War Oxen ;D
This message was last edited by the player at 18:26, Sun 07 Jan.

That makes sense, I don't know how I missed that.



I feel like you're being facetious, but I'll answer seriously:

It's not that horses are too 'advanced' for the Bronze Age, in fact they predate it by quite a bit. The difference is that horses do not naturally live everywhere, so it's more of a worldbuilding thing than a general tech tree.

A similar example would actually be silk. Silk only grows (on Earth) in one part of the world, so even though it's not difficult to produce (technologically I mean, sericulture is very labor intensive) that doesn't mean every society would have access to it just because they have the ability to use it.

While wheels, pottery, swords and fire are all things that are available (virtually) anywhere, horses and silkworms may be limited to certain regions.

Other examples include gum arabic, maple syrup, large oil reserves, different types of stone or wood, particular herbs/flowers , and so on so forth

Being a general doesn't really imply having a horse either, I mean I understand the mental image but it's possible to be a leader of men while standing on your own two feet ;-)

Ultimately though, the horses are actually fine. It doesn't break anything in the world, so I have no reason to say no. I didn't mean to imply that it was impossible, just that it's a major assumption to make. I can include it easily enough, though.

An example of something I'm more comfortable with, Asherah recently sent me a PM asking "do we have windows" and that may sound super specific but is actually a good question, because while glass is not difficult to produce even in the Bronze Age, windows are actually really finnicky to work with and didn't exist IRL for thousands of years after glass was already widely used for other stuff.

If anything, I think I was just a bit surprised that you wanted to bring so much with you, but the more I consider it the more sense it makes, given the context.

We all (including me) sometimes make mention of things without deeply considering it. I was just pointing that out, but I should have made it clear I don't think it's a problem.

Updating now~

I know you posted this before I posted mine, but just to reiterate it's not about pre-dating horses. It's a regional thing.

Ooh, oxen. Stealing that! lol

Walking places is actually more possible than it seems. Horses are not faster than people (except when going full speed, but they cant keep that up very long at all), they just reduce exhaustion for their riders in the long run. They also help carry more supplies thanks to their builds, but in exchange they demand their own supplies too unless you can expect good grazing land and ground water along the journey for them.

Also, I'm not super familiar with real-world pilgrimages, but the idea of pilgrimages being done on foot by mandate could make for a really interesting plot hook at some point.

That make sense. While im also not familiar with real world pilgrimages I am familiar with the human body. If they were/are going to have Asherah walk there while pulling a cart of wares they should have been training her for this since she could walk. None of the work she’s been doing has been labor heavy enough to prepare her body to walk so far, so long, and with a cart.

I’m willing to elaborate more but I think I’ve made a sufficient point.

The time period before horses is pretty much stone age which was the purpose for that question. The question about fire is because... I now have no idea what's 'in scope' and 'not'. From what you were saying it sounded like we were in the stone age... well I wasn't expecting that. Especially since I am a 'swords women' in my bio. (Swords and horses happened about the same time: give or take a few hundred years)

You've partly answered it. We have horses in some parts of the world but not others. And not in mine. Since swords exist we know fire exists and I hope I can assume that some basic metal working exists.

The wheel probably is a recent invention given how far back you are going. Has that made it to the East?

I'm not being fascetious, I am trying to 'not do world building' but it's extremely difficult because you have a view which hasn't been communicated yet other than when we make errors and I don't know what your view is. I'm trying, but it's quite hard. I certainly didn't think that horses was a tech I had to ask about: the question didn't occur to me. We can't do anything about assumptions we make that we don't know are assumptions.

This is going to keep on happening, although I will obviously try, so let's have an easy way to deal with it: just PM me and treat that as educating me about your world view rather than a mistake, and then I can edit. The only other alternative I can think of is for you to give a list of acceptable techs and I think that's too hard. And probably wouldn't work anyway.

So moving on. Are there beasts of burden? Ass's (sp?) were used for that long before horses were used to transport people.

You'd be surprised with how much work people got done back then, and they did a lot of it while severely malnourished.

But that's all hypothetical, you're not going to be carrying anything.



I've said multiple times we're in the (rough) Bronze Age.



No, Kri Tan does have horses.



You can read Anton's threads for more information about that.

Generally, the most primitive tools (flint, usually, but sometimes obsidian) will only be used by tribal people in the 'uncivilized' portions of the world

Copper tools are used by all sedentary societies in the setting, and Bronze is the newest discovery, seeing wider and wider usage.

quote:

The wheel probably is a recent invention given how far back you are going. Has that made it to the East?

There are both 4th century BCE heavy stone wheels (used for pottery) and the later 2nd century BCE wooden wheels, used for carts and such

quote:

I'm not being fascetious, I am trying to 'not do world building' but it's extremely difficult because you have a view which hasn't been communicated yet other than when we make errors and I don't know what your view is. I'm trying, but it's quite hard. I certainly didn't think that horses was a tech I had to ask about: the question didn't occur to me. We can't do anything about assumptions we make that we don't know are assumptions.

This is going to keep on happening, although I will obviously try, so let's have an easy way to deal with it: just PM me and treat that as educating me about your world view rather than a mistake, and then I can edit. The only other alternative I can think of is for you to give a list of acceptable techs and I think that's too hard. And probably wouldn't work anyway.

So moving on. Are there beasts of burden? Ass's (sp?) were used for that long before horses were used to transport people.

I should have considered it may be difficult to intuit what level of technology I have in mind, so I apologize for that.

I don't have a complete picture of the world yet, since world building only goes so far before interaction needs to happen to flesh stuff out.

If it helps, the benchmark I have been using is whenever I want to introduce something, I google "When was ___ inventedd/discovered" and if the top result is before about 1000 BCE I will go for it.

In the first place, it kind of comes down to judgement calls of 'what is too confusing to write without' vs 'what would be more interesting to introduce later'. Also, this world will probably follow a fairly different evolutionary path than our own, especially once magic and whatnot enter the picture.

Ultimately though, I'm not finding it fun to nit pick over every little detail like I have been, but I don't really know how else to cultivate a setting that feels as ancient as this world is supposed to be, without needlessly limiting the options of the players.

If anyone has ideas, feel free to post them. If anything, I think I have leaned more in the direction of 'whatever is fun' than 'whatever is strictly realistic', especially in terms of culture and society (I have been more stringent on tech than anything).

Anyway, I'm happy to move on with the discussion. I don't want to make anyone feel like they're walking on eggshells, but you were correct to identify the fact that it's not really possible for me to list each and everything since a lot of things I obviously just won't think of until they come up.

We may or may not have the same image in our head, and that's fine. Just go with what you like, and if something seems immersion-breaking we can always talk about it.

Sorry for all the trouble, if I'm being honest, I am having a bit of a struggle to decide exactly what atmosphere I want from the game.
One way I think about it is if I changed all the terminology so that it was fully modern, would the situations be realistic to real life? If they are, that's not entirely what I'm going for. I want the characters, places and events to have verisimilitude, sure, but I also want it to feel slightly alien in that special way only the historical past can make us feel.

Sorry for not posting today. Really long day at work.

Same for me. it's late here, and I've had a lot to do. I'll get an IC post up sometime tomorrow.

No worries, either of you.

Just finished my first day back at uni. NGL, school is always painful but I think I should still be able to post pretty much daily unless I get swamped with assignments or something. my schedule worked out like that , at least

Threads updated (one with a slightly over-the-top effortpost)

probably no replies from me tomorrow, i anticipate being tired

Im enjoying the game so far :-)
look forward to reading yalls' stuff each day

That thread was significantly more satisfying to write. I know its terrible but one can't help but enjoy their 'revenge plot' high.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:59, Wed 10 Jan.

Anton's player has decided to leave the game.
He was upset that I 'called out his writing'.
I made his character an NPC (because I don't remember if just deleting a character will cause thread gore), but I'm not planning to use him.

Honestly, this outcome is for the best.
I wouldn't have accepted him into the game originally if the sample he sent was representative of how he would end up choosing to write.
It's a shame, because - unless the writing sample was stolen - he clearly had better skills than what he showed.

Anyway, since we now have just 3 players (Khayyin is probably not returning anytime soon, if ever) - I'm going to advertise for two more. I'm going to have them choose a pre-existing location to start, this time.

Tav Andor is still a location in the game-world, so you will still post in that thread if you are ever there.

Probably no thread updates today, I already have assignments due on day 3 of the new semester ;-;

madness I tell you!

Hm, shame. But as long as we go along with a solid group, we'll survive.

For sure!

Im sorry guys but im too tired to reply today. I will reply tomorrow, before or after class

All good! You did forewarn us of this.

Sigismund is right

As for posting. Anything more than three or four a week is great! never mind most days.

Updates incoming ~~

Awesome :)

Hoho things are getting very interesting...

I think we're far enough along that I can come clean: I'm not sure where to have you meet up.

I had plenty of ideas over time, but I think the only one that really works is somewhere in Ghanbar. Most likely a southern city, like Kuracos.

Getting Sigismund there will take a few posts, but is straightforward. However, getting Li Hua will be a bit tougher (which makes sense, given that the Eastern Road / Fen Guxi ends at Aderun... also I kind of want to explore Sedoria, at least a little bit. It's my personal favorite of the places I've made up so far for this game, and the least explored!)

Now that I've said this, any elegant ideas? I know I can always 'force' it, but honestly I've railroaded you guys quite a bit to get here and I'm sick of it. I don't regret it though, it's practically impossible for you to ever naturally meet up without me forcing it somehow. And - of course - this game has an aspect of individual stories but it is not meant to be a handful of 1-on-1 games between me and players LOL

Regardless, I'm not too worried. We've gotten past the biggest hurdles (actually convincing your characters to leave their homelands) and now I just need to find a way to draw an awkward path

Oooo susipcous charisma? Powerful words? Idc if this is a red herring I’m crossing my fingers for demon blood.

And yay oxen!!

[apparently my phone thinks it’s a red herring, auto correct wanted to change ‘Idc’ to ‘ofc’ XD ]

just a couple minutes ago i got news that class is cancelled, and i felt so happy and relieved i literally screamed. i dont even dislike that class, i just did not feel at all like going outside today (its snowing and just 2 days of school has alr exhausted my mind and body).

i need to work on my stamina. no idea how i managed to get through almost a full summer of working a part time job, but i can barely handle a week of school at a time (not even, my uni doesnt do friday classes)

anyways, its not exactly an early weekend, cus i have shit loads of work to do it should be illegal for me to already have assignments due on the first week of the semester

this is cool cause it means i can defo update a couple more times today, though.

I think we're all able to say 'hey lets do some stuff together'.

• A really simple task is 'caravan guards'. Going from A to B. If we are all guards, or in the caravan then we have reasons to be together.
• Similar tasks are 'on board a ship' but at this time a ship is basically a raft. I'm not sure if we even have rowing boats.... so maybe that's the futures
• People hiring for bodyguards would work for me. Especially if it was a woman's bodyguard.

On that note I'm not poor so could hire the others as bodyguards / guards etc if you don't want an NPC doing it. It might be easier with an NPC though.

I'm totally fine with rail roading in prologues.  So with that in mind just let me know what you want to do about exploring places. I was set on getting west asap to join with the others, but I'm 100% fine with exploring your city.

Yeah, We basically just need to get Sigismund past the current issue, and he's already motivated to maybe leave the village and travel.

He'd probably be more likely to get a spot in a caravan as a cook and/or food gatherer than a guard. He's strong and a capable hunter, sure, but he's not a warrior yet.

Damn, that was a really difficult reply to write (Li Hua's thread)

Hopefully I managed to do justice to my idea of the Legonites.

Speaking of that thread, does anyone know if its possible to move posts? Because I realize that the last few posts there should be in their own 'Eastern Road' thread, and I would like to make it then move them there if thats possible.

In reply to Zhao Li Hua (msg # 116):

Asherah is more likely to be a stowaway than any of those, but hey at least they would be in the same place?

Not sure if posts can be moved after they've been made. Haven't dm'ed on rpol before, so I'm not very familiar with that side of the settings.

No it's hard to 'move posts'. i.e. you have to manually copy them. I've done it few times. But you know the easier thing to do is just rename the thread to Li Hua's prologue. That way it's accurate and you don't have all that pain

Welcome to our new player, Kavian Aminar!

I will continue looking for another player to fill our last slot.

Tomorrow is Friday, so I won't have classes. Whenever I get time between homework , I'll make sure to update. I also am going to manually move those posts over, I don't think it will be too much of a grind.

In the future, we will switch threads when we switch locations. This was already the case but I forgot about it.

The prologue thread idea is not bad at all, but I foresee you guys may want to revisit those locations in the future, so I don't want to have to make them anew then. I also like the idea that if a lot of in-game time passes between now and then, you will have the cool experience of updating a thread that is also older in real life time.

---

@Kavian Aminar, feel free to use the Abarion thread as your starting point (ignore the previous posts in there, we'll just say your stuff happens after or in a different part of town).

In your first post, please describe some backstory as to why you are in the city (it could be as simple as "I was born here" or a long, winding tale). Go as in-depth as you like, and feel free to do tangents. You won't have a size limit for that post (the normal size limit is 'take pity on me' lmao, so feel free to go as hogwild as you like)

You are also encouraged to include stuff about how Kavian currently feels, what he is currently doing, and so on. This will let me quickly set the scene in my response.

--

I had a lot of fun today, I'm happy the game is going so well. I feel like I'm starting to get into the swing of things!

Updates threads and the ~Known World~

I'm trying to think of a way to make the ~Known World~ easier to read. At least for me, it seems like a wall of text despite my best attempt at formatting... I might tinker around with it, since I want it to be easy to find certain sections (for the future)

Also, I'm going to manually duplicate some posts to a new Eastern Road (Fen Guxi) thread, and I will delete the originals. Please forgive any inconveniences while I do construction.

I added a scale to the map, now that you've all done some travelling.

I used both KM and miles, since I don't know which yall prefer.

My calculations (feel free to check for errors):

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Oxen travel ~10 miles per day. Slower than horses by quite a bit. It took Li Hua's caravan seven days to get from Mazan to Tav Andor (hence, 70 miles).

I drew a line between the two in the paint.net Map file I use, and it was 163 pixels. I multiplied that by 10/7 (1.4285 [...]) to get a round number (100 units compared to 70 units). The result was 232 pixels.

1 mile is 1.60934 kilometers, and 232 over 1.60934 is 144 pixels. That is how I calculated for kilometers.

This was all done using an (online) calculator, obviously.

---

Normally I used kilometers in real life, since I prefer it. Miles might fit better in this game, because they give off a less modern vibe (I know they are used in modernity, the reason I get this feeling is because kilometers literally uses SI prefixes). Neither exist in-world, nations have their own forms of measurement.

Maybe as you encoutner more places, it would be cute to add their lines to the legend to see how they stack up compared to miles or km

<joking>Why not try Cubits<end joking>

I'm good with either. There isn't much difference between the two anyway when it comes to ancient travel: the accuracy of the maps isn't up to that I suspect! Oxen (while slow) were the the heavy goods vehicles of the ancient world. Glad to see them here.

I'm good with either as well. Miles would fit better though, I think, since Miles as a term has existed for quite a bit longer than kilometers. Again, I think?
I'm not exactly a learned man about the history of measuring systems :p

Mostly I'd just say pick what makes sense to you, and try not to get too bogged down in it fitting perfectly. Too much detail can be just as detrimental as too little, in my experience.

Just FYI:
Miles were used by the Romans. So say 2000 years.
Kilometers were invented by Napoleon. So say 200 years.

I corrected a few mistakes I noticed in my posts. This probably isn't noticeable, it's just for my own satisfaction.
The official names for everything are always in the Known World Thread

Fun fact, the current game map is about the size of the United Kingdoms

Just got a confirmation that Khayyin won't be able to play. It was very nice of him to let me know for sure, instead of just ghosting.

Made the character an NPC in case I can use it in the future.

Oops I missed that Balshad would be coming with me (I didn't read the Tal Andor thread before posting). I will just edit the post as it doesn't make sense given what is in that thread

I've been having an off day, so I'll post sometime tomorrow.

Greetings everyone! I'm looking forward to playing with you all one this prologue is complete. I'm getting off to a bit of a slow start but have my description up finally.

Hi Kavian! Good to see you with us

Yes, nice to meet you. Looking forward to playing with you.

Welcome Kavian! Looking forward to meeting you IC as well!

I'll probably be able to update today.

@Kavian, In case you don't know, you don't have to wait to post in the Abarion thread. In fact, I encourage you to have a short prologue of your own

Yep I understand. I am putting together a post. I am still creating Kavian to a large degree so starting is the hardest!

Part of the problem is knowing the limits of technology in the bronze age. Currency is one of my road blocks at the moment. Seems it is unlikely that coinage even exists at this point. Bronze age is 3300 BC – 1200 BC. Coinage begins roughly 600 BC. Trying to figure out how to be a gambler and con-artist in this setting lol.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:16, Mon 15 Jan.

From my understanding:

The original form of economy was barter between individuals. Organized "Trade" between individual states has also always existed, though it gets more and more sophisticated and prominent over time. Evidence of tally marks also dates back at least five thousand years.

--- In this setting, trade is rather common across South Kalatoria (namely between Ghanbar and the Kalatorain Coast, and Ghanbar and Cantel/Andorry. Sedoria is rather trade-isolated, but that just means they don't have any policy for it, many merchants still exist within Sedoria) while Kri Tan is historically isolated, but is in recent decades making first contact through the Eastern Road (Fen Guxi, in the Krissh language)

The second form of economy was basically commodity currency. A currency which has inherent value. Sort of like Spirit Stones if you've ever read just about any cultivation (Xianxia) novel. The gold/silver standard has existed in some form or another for a few thousands of years. Basically, since humans found gold (we found gold before we even learned to cast copper). Gold is so common in ancient history because it naturally exists in its NATIVE FORM. that is to say, it doesn't need any complicated processes to be extracted. Also it is shiny. Shiny good.

--- In this setting, there are probably a few accepted forms of 'commodity currency' in different regions. Metal coinage tech doesn't exist yet, though the earliest mints could possibly arise soon, if a head of state thought to do it.

For example, in Kri Tan, they use 'Wei'. This came up briefly IC before, but to explain a bit more:

 - Wei are probably some kind of decorated bead
 - Wei are probably not accepted everywhere, and not even recognized outside of Kri Tan
 - Wei are transported on strings... This idea comes from an actual ancient currency, but I can't remember what it is.
 - Wei usage does not replace bartering in any way, at this point. It is more of a media of exchange then a commodity currency tbh

---

Ultimately, I don't know exactly how you'd be a gambler or con-artist, but there are possibilities. I mean, getting away with crimes used to be a lot easier, but if you got caught they would just kill you, so criminals probably lived as wanderers.

If you want to play a 'street urchin' sort of character, it is totally possible, but you are definitely a bit early in the time period for it, so a lot of methods won't exist. Probably, you would have to rely almost entirely on deception and trickery. Depending on how young you actually are, that will be an advantage.

A good example is that you might always try to fleece foreigners. Keep in mind, if you became a nuisance to the people of the city you live in, they will just banish you or execute you. Urban settlements are not yet at the size that you can 'vanish into the crowd' to erase your traces. I mean, congregations of people do get large enough for you to literally do that, but figuratively you can't really 'hide' in plain sight, within a city at least.

Keep in mind, societies in this time period didn't have a social safety net that tolerated loners. You have to find work or have someone pay for you, to survive. Babies and young children without a caretaker are simply left to die, or maybe mercy killed.

Think about your background as well as your current lifestyle. How long have you lived like this? Where are your parents? How long ago did they disappear or stop caring for you?

Here are some ideas that might work:

 - You had someone raising or taking care of you for at least seven years. It could be your parents, or anyone else if you want Kavian to have never known his parents.

 - Anytime after that, you are now being forced to resort to crime to survive. There should be a reason you are living like this, instead of doing labor. Though hard labor is not really possible for eight year olds, it is also true that as soon as peasant boys (and often times girls) can walk, they will start some kind of physical labor. Normally, this would be chores around a homestead, but if you are orphaned, you would probably rely on finding considerate people who will let you do easier jobs, but pay you little.

 - After adolescence, you can basically join the real labor force. Construction projects, street cleaning, or any kind of unskilled labor.

 - Now, let's say you're not a laborer. There should be a reason for this. Maybe you simply don't want to. Maybe you can't find work (this is not a very likely prospect in a large community. In small communities, you are more likely to be shunned, but in large communities there is always something to do and very likely someone who will allow you to do it). Maybe you got physically crippled in some way. In this era especially, crime doesn't pay.

 - Getting away with crimes is really easy in this era, if you know what you are doing. Underworlds may or may not have formed yet, but most likely if they have they are just street gangs run by petty criminals. You could totally become a mob boss, if you want to, but it will be an uphill battle at this point in time.

 - Since you are starting in Abarion, I recommend basing your skills around fleecing foreigners. The reason for this is that, in most circumstances, this will not overly offend your community. "Do not go too far, and do not target the wrong people" would be your creeds. Because, trade is important, and while it is fine and dandy among your community for a merchant to get tricked out of some coin by a little rascal, it is a whole different thing if you cause a major disruption.

 - The older you get, you will have to change your strategy. Children are disarming. Adolescents less so, especially in this time period, where the culture around 'teenagers' is hugely different to the modern view.

 - Thievery, if you can get away with it, is paradoxically probably safer than conning people, since you don't show your face.

Those are my thoughts on being a con artist. Now, in terms of being a gambler:

 - Gambling exists. Obviously. I can't imagine people not gambling. That is not to say it's very organized, though. Gambling is mostly done among friends, or perhaps during large events. There isn't enough circulation of currency for people to have the opportunity to develop gambling addictions (people with addictive personalities may instead gamble in other ways, such as with their lives or the lives of others).

 - Thus, underworld casinos or whatever probably do not exist. Dens of 'mixed pleasures' may appear here and there, but unless it's part of your backstory, it would be difficult to access one, let alone learn how to navigate it.

Hopefully that gave offered some decent guidance.

TL;DR - A lot of things worked differently back then, but fundamental human behavioral patterns haven't changed in tens of thousands of years. So, while it is not impossible to be an 'urban youth', a 'gambler', or a 'con-artist' these things would work very differently than you may expect.
This message was last edited by the GM at 20:52, Mon 15 Jan.

Okay. I appreciate the lengthy commentary on trade and currency! Yes, this is launching me into a dive into the history of things in the bronze age, very enlightening. I think professional gambling and con-artistry may be ahead of this time so I am going to change a few things.

No worries and no rush :)

Threads updated. Lots of long posts today (guess I had more energy than I thought)
I will probably update again tomorrow, and maybe even again today.

I'm really enjoying your guys' prologues so far. Which is good, because they just keep going and going and going and-
(XD)

Oh hey just to be clear my Prologue is finished right?

Also, as for gambling, my guess is it originated in tournaments when the wealthy would set forth their champions. Guy D would tell Guy C 'If your champion beats my champion I'll give you six cows' or something like that and it evolved from there.

Gambling is one of those things that doesn't really have 'an origin'. It just generally emerged, way long ago.

Your prologue isn't necessarily finished. You still have the trip to Kuracos, unless you want to fast forward it.

Technically, the 'prologues' last until all of you meet up, because after that point I will stop moving the story in any particular direction.

It's looking like Abarion (or maybe Kuracos) is going to be the meetup place for you all. It makes sense given it is roughly the most equidistant location.

My thoughts look smth likethis:

Asherah > COMPLETE JOURNEY > Kuracos > SOMETHING > Abarion

Sigismund > JOIN CARAVAN > Abarion

Li Hua > CURRENTLY IN > Tav Andor > DEPART FOR > Sedoria > SOMETHING > Abarion

Kavian starts in Abarion

-

For fairly obviously reasons, Li Hua has to make the longest journey!

-

We also maybe have a fifth player joining soon. If so, I'll find a way to fit that in as well.

-

@Asherah - I'm not sure if exactly that was what you are asking. If you mean 'is that part of the story over?' then yes, but it is leading into a new 'arc' that I would still consider prologue-ish. Let's just take some inspiration from Sanderson and call it a second prologue (lmao)

In terms of what you can currently post about, just LMK if you want to RP the journey to Kuracos, or just skip to the town. I will make the appropriate thread (either 'Trail to Kuracos' first and later 'Kuracos' - or just 'Kuracos' alone)

it is also true I don't really have any ideas for you in Kuracos (not to say nothing can happen there, just that it will require more exploring on your part). I'm still trying to think of a way to let you have a self-discovery arc that won't be interrupted by the advent of the other PCs...

Hmm, just hypothetically, here is a different roadmap:

Asherah > COMPLETE JOURNEY > Kuracos

Sigismund > JOIN CARAVAN > Kuracos (via Abarion?)

Li Hua > CURRENTLY IN > Tav Andor > DEPART FOR > Sedoria > SOMETHING > Kuracos

Kavian > STARTS IN > Abarion > SOMETHING > Kuracos

--

Most of that could work, but I'm more loathe to move Kavian away from Abarion than I am to move you to away from Kuracos.

For one, Abarion is the more interesting city of the pair, and two it's overall less disruptive to the story progression, if I were to estimate.

I guess, Kavian could always start in Kuracos, but it doesn't fit nearly as well, given it's much smaller size.

-

Moving Sigismund to either should be trivial, while moving Li Hua to either will take the same amount of time but that is prolly quite a bit.

-

TL;DR - the specifics will work themselves out. I'm thonking [sic] on it pretty often, and there are no real issues just a few creative decisions I need to make and a fair amount of legwork.

All of you are free to continue what you are doing, the trajectory is lining up. If you aren't sure what to do next, ask me here or shoot a PM

-

Anyway I go to bed, gn gn

I feel my posts are at the moment 'on the journey posts'. I'm totally fine with fast forwarding this. Or whatever mechanism we want to do. In other words 'I am good with anything'.

Hey, sorry for my silence the last few days. Work has been extra trying, and I've been left with no energy for much of anything. Plus, my sleep's been shit. I'll try to get an IC post up sometime today. tomorrow at the latest.

No problem, @Sigismund. I've also been rather busy.

@Kavian Aminar - so sorry, but i just noticed something: the Caerish states actually do use varying metal coinage (mentioned earlier in Tav Andor thread). This doesn't really impact you, as you are in Ghanbar right now - but I'm letting you know that I made a mistake and it may be more possible than we thought for you to do gambling in the future.

@ Li Hua, @ Kavian -- sorry for the delay guys, I've already been struggling with keeping up with school. I'll update your threads shortly! Kavian, your last post was really extraordinary. Huge props, it was totally worth the wait!

I can't wait for the meetup!! Your all such fantastic writers!

Well I find myself in Li Hua's situation IRL a bit. I've been dropped in New Delhi India on my own. And wow the culture is so different to what I know. I'm experiencing 'culture shock' quite a lot. I have to be a lot more careful: I live in one of the top ten safe countries in the world (the USA is not in the top 100). There are literally no streets I can't go down, and literally no dangerous neighbourhoods. And the few dangers there are are bears not people.

In my first hour I had at least three people try to hussle or short change me. Someone tried to steal my luggage. Just crazy.

And almost everything has two prices: the local price then triple it (or more) for the obvious forigner. And you are expected to negotiate. And probably pay only 1 1/2 times the local rates...

The cow eating the grass and looking menacing at people at the entrance to the (very nice) hotel... And so on.

I won't be able to post tonight... too tired with jet lag

JFC, be safe! I'm sorry you're going through that

I guess sometimes life really does imitate art, huh...

If you want, we can put Li Hua's thread on hold until you feel comfortable covering that topic again?
Or, we can continue it, and maybe it will provide some catharsis? I don't really know how it would, but it's possible you take something helpful away from it.

Maybe the game and your real life are totally separate in your mind, which is ideal, but I understand if that is difficult giving the unfortunate similarities present between the two, currently.

Sorry guys, I'm in a bit of a funk and probably can't post today (it's already pretty late in the day, too).

Tomorrow I'll try my best to update threads. Sorry for making you wait for three days, @Kavian

No problem. I get it. I'm up to four kids now. It's hard to find the energy some days.

It was pointed out to me that I make 'closed posts' (posts wherein I begin and end a conversation or event all at once)

This is a huge oversight on my part, but it has also helped me realize something:

The issue I am facing now is not that I am as rushed as I was to get through the Prologues, but that if we end up taking our time on it, we run the risk of having a situation where some players have nothing left to do because their characters are already in place. Or worse, their characters may decide to keep moving, thus 'overshooting' the meeting point. If this happens even once, I have no way to get you all back together and all the plans fall apart.

It's probabilistically impossible to naturalistically engineer fate in such a way that your characters from disparate corners of the continent ever meet up in one space at one time. Thus, we all long ago agreed (at least implicitly) that railroading would have to take place.

---

What does this mean? Nothing, just an underlying concern I've managed to verbalize.

I will no longer be making these 'closed posts' though, since they make the game way less interactive for the PCs, even if they do lessen the risks of my fears coming true.

---

Updates incoming :-)
(thx for your patience)

I won't reply to anything until later today.

I've done some huge updates to the Known World thread, and I am finally happy with it!
Thanks for giving me the idea to use colors, @Asherah!

I got distracted by a 14-hour longplay of Inscryption (great game, def recommend)

it is now almost midnight, so I will update threads and reply to PMs when I wake up tomorrow morning (soz, i forgor)

I responded to everything!

Also, turned off 'requesting players' - forgot I still had that on.

We may have 1 more guy joining us, but he's alr told me he cant be a super active player, but even then its been a while since I replied to his RTJ so maybe he lost interest or is extra busy.


Progress update on prologue completion:
============
WIP
Sigismund - Not caught up in anything major (minor arc - help sister). Can leave Jorgrim to Abarion, through a merchant caravan.

Zhao Li Hua - Not caught up in anything major (minor arc - tourist). Has more steps to take before arriving at Aderun, and then somehow (and somewhy) going to Abarion

Asherah (minor arc - coming of age storyline) - Not caught up in anything major. Once her stay in Kuracos ends, there will be lots of opportunities to send her to Abarion.

DONE
Kavian Aminar - Not caught up in anything major. Is in Abarion, and ready to rumble.
============
Looks good to me. Li Hua will probably take the longest to get to Abarion, especially if we don't time skip (I know Li Hua said she is okay with it, but I want to explore Aderun for at least one day. I don't care about time skipping the road travel, though)

Therefore - Sigismund, Asherah and Kavian - you guys should all take your time with your minor arcs, unless you want to arrive in the city early.

Also keep in mind, all of your timelines are currently independent. Meaning, we can easily skip as much as a few years, as long as we do it before you meet any other PCs. (Asherah is currently planning to skip roughly 8 months)

To explain a bit further how this works:

No time skips:
Day 0 - Sigismund's IC thread begins
Day 0 - Asherah's IC thread begins
Day 0 - Li Hua's IC thread begins
Day 5ish - Kavian's IC thread begins

With time skips:
Day 240 - Sigismund's IC thread begins
Day 0 - Asherah's IC thread begins
Day 240 - Li Hua's IC thread begins
Day 245ish - Kavian's IC thread begins

Hopefully that makes sense. Basically, I just push back the start date of anyone who time skips.

In the future (post-meetup) I will be making more mentions to seasons and the current year, which are too annoying to synchronize if they get messed up between players.

The current year is 412 AV (Sedorian reckoning), but that is for when you meet up.
Therefore, depending on if some of you do really long time skips, your IC OPs may technically be in 411 AV, which I think is kind of nifty lol

Sorry for being a little slow. I had a terrible case of writers block. Just hard to write something...

I do empathise with Li Hua. Today I was in a part of India where hardly anyone speaks English. I was the only westerner I saw all day. It's pretty isolating and yet exciting. And for me it was just a 'tourist trip'. For her it's going to be 'all the time'.

I'll try and be fast responding to the new place

Welcome back, Li Hua.

That is also the way I deal with writer's block - just write anything, rather than give up.

--

Alright, I am actually super happy with my last post. I really like how the vision of this city is coming together. Please all of you feel free to read it, and tell me if you like it as much as I do.

Anyway, Li Hua, you don't have to feel pressured to explore this place (it will probably be around for a while yet), though you will probably have to a little bit if you plan on finding a way to leave for Ghanbar.

--

anyway, those were some big posts. im exhausted.
oh wait, just realized I still have PMs to resond to... uh... later! LOL

Picture of Ader's supreme temple (this took actual hours for me to draw, despite how goddamn simple it looks):

https://i.imgur.com/LFK3i0F.png

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
Of course, this is just the structure, no details. The interior is also not shown, because none of you have been inside yet.

---

This message was last edited by the GM at 03:04, Sun 28 Jan.

Hey guys, i don't know why but I'm feeling kind of dissociative (I woke up like a couple hours ago but still feel half-unconscious) today, so please excuse me if I make any mistakes (I will fix them next time I feel better, probably the day after tomorrow since mondays are hell)

I am responding to PMs, and updating threads right now!

Nice! I updated everything!

Very happy with that :)

I'll keep an eye on this game until I go to bed (tomorrow I probably won't update, but it's possible)

Oh, also, one more thing:

Progress update on prologue completion:
============
WIP
Sigismund - Idle. Can leave Jorgrim to Abarion, as the chef for a royal caravan.

Zhao Li Hua - Currently in Aderun. Will leave for Abarion at some point, for some reason.

Asherah - My next task is to write up her megapost. Once her stay in Kuracos ends, there will be lots of opportunities to send her to Abarion.

DONE
Kavian Aminar - Not caught up in anything major. Is in Abarion, and ready to rumble.
============
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:19, Mon 29 Jan.

This is why time skips take a long time!!!!

Please excuse me from any further posting today <3 <3

Hopefully you all enjoy reading that. It was fun to write, but also a major PITA lmao

edit - Please ignore any spelling, grammar, pacing, formatting and tense errors/issues you spot: I'm sure I made lots of them I just don't have the mental energy to go through the whole thing right now lmao
This message was last edited by the GM at 09:32, Wed 31 Jan.

I enjoyed it very much! That would take me two weeks lol.

Ohmygoodness that was gorgeous!!![insert magic spell for this message to contain more exclamation marks without it seeming obnoxious or spam like]

I can’t get over how amazing that was. And the purely Asherah line at the end *chef’s kiss* ofc she forgot her hand loom.

Woof, nothing compared to Froggy's absolute masterpiece, but I think I did a decent portrayal of inner indecision

Sorry for the late replies!
Life has been kind of tough lately, so I've been losing track of time a lot.

Updating everything now :o

Map update!

It now shows everything in the Known World thread!

Collectively, all these landmasses are known as "Kalatoria" or maybe "Greater Kalatoria"

Of course, Kalatoria is actually a rather small continent... who knows how big the rest of the world you live on is? (muahahaha)

If only we had eternity to explore it. Oh wait...

Sadly, the planet probably won't be around that long...

scuse me... what?

LMAOOO

how dare you mock my ignorancepain!

Easy now, Ashera. If we play along until Froggy destroys the planet, we'll just have to take the logical next step.

To paraphrase Tim Curry, we shall go to the one place where we can freely explore...

SPACE!!

ah yes the classic 'the fantasy game has lasted so long its now sci-fi as well' the very thing that destroyed the xanth novels. [not that I'm against space, it sounds great!]

sorry guys, i ran out of budget and so space has been replaced with ad space ):

Boo, you just say that so you can give it to us as paid dlc later. Boo.

Honestly though, I hadn't thought of it at all in terms of the xianxia fantasy to sci fi thing.

I just wanted to quote the Curry :)

In reply to Sigismund (msg # 176):

and I just wanted to qoute Princess Bride

Wait, which part of what you wrote is from princess bride?

Man, it's been too long since I watched that movie. I remember the broad strokes, and the most memorable quotes/scenes...

Well, now I know what I'll be doing next weekend.

Gosh I love that movie so much. It as a matter of fact predicted the future...

but anyways what I said that was a qoute was "How dare you mock my pain!" and the common reply is "Life is pain, highness, and whoever tells you otherwise is trying to tell you something"

Haven't seen princess bride, but it's been in a small corner of my mind gathering dust since I've heard it's really funny

Honestly, having finished designing the 'power system' (actually more like many distinct but connected power systems) for this game, I can't help but say a few things:

1. Any genre you can think of, I can quite easily design a power system for. Feel free to get esoteric. Keep in mind that some genres aren't possible to design solely based off a power system, and may require an appropriate environment.

For one example, Superhero-style games don't really work outside of a modern world (at least 1900s, but normally later)

My personal favorite genres are High Fantasy and Xianxia, but I know many more and am willing to try anything (if I'm not familiar with it, I will do my best to research but don't expect too much lol)

2a. Sharp-eyed readers of the Kuracos megapost will have picked up on a little bit about a Strange Tablet. Take that as a teaser for what's (potentially) to come.

2b. By the way, a lot of the background for this game's power systems comes from my own writing (the setting is completely fresh though, I don't use it anywhere else), and not to toot my own horn, but I genuinely believe my personal project has blown anything else I've ever read/watched/seen or even heard of right out of the water in terms of [meaningful] power scaling. The nature of this game means it doesn't really have the potential to reach those extents, but what I've come up with is still more intense than most of fiction, I'd reckon.

2c. Power scaling gets a bad rap, IMO. Don't expect ridiculous 'face-slapping' stuff (well maybe a little, but just for the ironic humor value) or DBZ-esque scream fights where two sweaty, shirtless, muscly men dye their hair increasingly brighter colors until one is defeated

The Strange Tablet mentions roughly six realms, though it starts at 0 (Python moment)

To give a bit of a hint, you are all in the zeroth realm, basically meaning you have no mystical powers or whatever. You're basically just real-world people, if a little cooler.

The first realm, "Mortal" covers basically the majority of power levels you come across in media. To put it into context, a Level 1 and Level 20 DND character would both be in the mortal realm (a level 20 character would be pushing it close to the next, though)

You have actually all met quite a number of characters in the Mortal Realm, though keep in mind that can describe someone as weak as a slightly-stronger warrior to someone who can level an entire city from the sky. You haven't met anyone very far into this realm, yet.

I will say nothing about the second realm, but given where we are in the story, there may be at most a handful of these characters across all of Kalatoria, if there are any. This will very likely increase in the future.

3. Good news, everyone! I plan on allowing you all to walk your paths to power once these prologues are finished. Meaning, you can expect the game to change semi-drastically, pretty soon. Of course, this game will be a slow burn and I probably won't let anyone out of the first realm for at least a real-life year (at least dozens of years if not a full hundred, in game)

Princess Bride is in the list of top ten movies every for my entire family. It's awesome. Stop everything you are doing and go watch it now!

There was an amusing comment about 'planet won't be around that long'. There's a few good sci fi novels about that. My favourite was about humans in the 'the stars all went out' phase. They had 'the big bang'. 'the afterglow' and then humanity was just 'minds' floating around in the darkness. The novel moved from there to the place where there were no longer any atoms... Took a good few hundred billion years, but what's a billion years between friends?

Sorry for the delay guys

I've been having a really hard time with school lately (mostly my own fault TBH).

all good! School comes first, always. My general rule is I'm excited if it comes within the same month I reply [I've done some pretty slow rps]

Maybe it's because I'm young, or maybe it's ADHD or something else but I'm pretty sure after a month I would either totally forget I am part of an RP or would have lost all interest by then.

I find the best way I can keep my interest in something is to keep doing it (without overdoing it). I don't know if this is common, but I can burn out from inactivity and not just overinvestment (though I've done that too haha)

Anyway, unless I'm missing something obvious those should be both threads that needed updating.
Enjoy :-)
I sure did, writing those replies !

My ADHD hyper fixes on these things wayyyy to much to ever forget XD actually there are still some canceled rps that my brain will randomly bring up and mourn over.

Yeah, I got ADD as well, and I can definitely recognize both your points from myself. Although my brain can kinda flip flop between hyperfixating and losing interest when time passes. But eh, that's life sometimes, I guess.

Just checking: are you waiting for anything from me?

I updated the Aderun thread on Feb 10, so you're free to respond at your leisure :)

Sorry I didn't spot that. My bad!

 I think I was waiting for you waiting for me waiting for you waiting for me....

Will post tonight!

this is too relatable ;_;



Looking forward to it :)

Interested to see what Li Hua will think and feel about this particular encounter

Wow that's some situation Li Hua is in. Oh! My! God! perhaps literally. Well except for the 'My' part. It will be fun working out to respond to this

I've just got done with a tough week at work, so I am totally bombed. I don't have the mental energy to get a post up today, but I'll make one tomorrow or sunday.

Hey guys,
quick update:

Sorry to say, but it's probably gonna be a couple more days before I can reply. (its a mix of personal issues and schoolwork, as usual)
I think by now it's safe to say the game has definitely slowed down a lot (at least for now), but I think that's okay even if its not ideal.
Hopefully, you all aren't too put off by it. I'm still interested in this! I haven't forgotten about it!

Alright, talk to you all soon.

As you say it's slowed down. Happens. I am very much looking forwards to getting us together! I think you will find that will energy into the game.

Keep well in the meantime :)

Same. Slow down is natural, but as long as we keep the interest, I'm sure we're good.

I share the same sentiment. There are periods of slow and fast paced posting dependent on circumstances and energy. Appreciate the update!

*lets out a deep sigh*

man, that was both a lot of work and also really de-stressing.

It's been ages since I've written about love (actually, now that I think about it, this may be the first time, idk)

I've never been in love before (i dont think so anyway) so this is all from stories I've read or my own sense of empathy (cause obviously other people have fallen in love before and i can learn from that, at least to an extent)

Anyway, I didn't just put effort into Kavian's response, it just struck me as the most... pertinent? idk

For Sigismund and Asherah, I'm kind of waffling XD
Just kidding, I do have plans, but nothing of extreme import happened in these last posts of mine

(@Asherah, I've actually kind of forgotten what I meant by 'Twin Seas' hence I skipped over it a bit LMAO...
My scratch pad should probably have more in it than just power scaling information... man im dumb lmao
im prolly gonna have to think of smth new for it to mean... hm.... okay done lol (jk this actually took a few mins earlier))

(@Sigismund, I do want you to get more cooking info, so most likely we will skip most of this journey soon, since I forgot the language barrier existed lmao - unless you have bright ideas to get recipes and such that is, which would be sweet if you do - but fine if not lol)

For Li Hua, I put a lot of consideration into this post... I didn't really want to explicitly say this, because I wanted to give you the chance to realize it yourself, but I think it would be unfair of me not to give you a heads up:
 - You should probably request 'safe passage' from the God. You know, because of the extreme hostility surrounding you. The God has assumed you are
  much stronger than you are... so he probably wouldnt stop his followers from attacking you - thinking you could easily dispatch them. Then again,
  maybe he would be worried about offending you... ugh, writing beings beyond mortal comprehension amirite?
Now that I write this, how about this:
 - Request safe passage if you thought of it before reading this (or if you want to do it anyway, even if I spoilered the idea) - if you do, he will grant it. If you don't, I will not have you attacked, because the God will command the followers not to hinder/offend you - either off camera or on camera, doesn't matter too much.

This may seem a bit too much attention on such a small detail, and I could agree. I just want to be careful. It's really tough to write situations where players are facing far more powerful individuals than themselves without making it seem like they get no agency whatsoever (you do have some agency in this case... in the entirety of this game, I will probably only ever pull a 'zero agency' card at most a couple times per player... I actually have some really profound ways to do that, but they become depressing if overused (which could work for a grimdark arc but that would be smth I would ask the player abt first lol))


@all
TLDR okay sorry for the huge OOC post, feel free to ignore lmao.
Love yall ttyl

This message was deleted by the player at 04:00, Fri 23 Feb.

So very cool! Nicely done GM

And *laughs*  great minds think alike. The 'how do I make it out of here without getting murdered' was the number one thing I was wondering about.

I've read all your posts! Awesome stuff!

Still have some thinking to do on what to write,
But as soon as I'm feeling better (very likely tomorrow), I'll respond!

When I said tomorrow, I meant it!
Tomorrow, for sure!

(eyyy, you know what they say, "Tomorrow, Tomato")

---

ok the actual reason im not posting is cus i woke up ab 14 hrs ago (it is 11:40 am RN) and I just finished writing 60 pages about a dream i had

the end result was mediocre, if im being generous with myself.

...

....Was it a good dream?

...you studying Oneirology at uni or something?

Actually I do my most creative work while sleeping. There is a nice video on the subject here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f84n5oFoZBc

It was more interesting when I was having it.

I ended up 'filling' in a lot of the stuff that was missing for it to make since to a waking person
(meaning, i mad up most of those 60 pages as i went - based on what i thought made sense)



LMAO

No, but that would low-key be more useful than my actual degree.



Neat video, very relevant :-)

I've been working on a huge worldbuilding project since maybe Grade 10 (if i remember correctly, i didnt pay attention at first)
At this point its over 5000 pages and 1.1 million words

From working on it so much and for so long, its basically a part of my life now.
I'm always thinking about it and its probably them most important thing to me (I don't have any relationships TBH and I kinda hate uni so far).

Saying all that is to lead up to this:
I agree completely.

Generally, whenever I have a particularly interesting dream (maybe 50% of the ones I remember), it usually has something to do with my writing, or gives me ideas on new things to write about.

So yeah, dreams are great for ideas...
... if only they were also any good for actually helping organizing your work xD xD

(if you're paying attention, 1.1 million words for 5000 pages is actually on the really low end.
Because i don't mostly write novels,
a large part of my writing is just jot notes that I will need to come back to and expand on later
or completely forget what I meant when I penned them (no actual penmanship involved, its all digital cus i cant handwrite for crap))

---

I had a nice dream just now and I woke up feeling kind of pleasant. I'm still tired, but I'll take what I can get. I can count the number of times in recent memory (since the pandemic, more or less) that I've woken up feeling even remotely 'good'.
In terms of waking up feeling rested... Never? I don't think I've ever done that (not since childhood, at least, which is too fuzzy to tell). If people actually experience that, I'm jealous - but it might just be a trope that doesn't actually resemble reality all that closely.

So I'm gonna use this energy to do the dishes I've left in the sink for probably a month by now, cause my family/roomies are up to ~here~ with me

Then, if I have any of this energy left, I'll make my replies here UwU
(I probably will either way, since the chronic dizziness of the last few days has gone away a bit... its def a sleep issue, my own fault prolly)

---

Okay, feel free to read none of that its all stream of consciousness stuff anyway
TL;DR - i am a very well-adjusted person with extremely good habits and lifestyle choices. Updates will be Soon(TM)

If you are into IT and especially 'getting paid a lot of money in IT' then he's a very interesting person. If you want to know what the 'correct' way to do anything is, just ask yourself 'what would Rich say'.  You might not agree with it, but it will always be a worthwhile exercise. Especially when it comes to hard topics.

@Big worlds
I have a friend who just retired. He used to run a nuclear power station. Cool job. Since he was about 20 he's been GMing a game. Started using chain mail rules because that's all there was. Still has some of the same players (Me I've only been playing 30 years so I am the newbie). He has detailed notes on little cards, loose leaf folders, books, maps... And the depth of thought in the world makes it a great world to adventure in.

@Here
Well I can safely say that was Li Hua's first 'religious experience'. The idea of a Godless place is looking very attractive right now!

Posts done!
Woof, im tierd :o

Thanks all for your patience,
Hopefully I didn't disappoint
(Sorry Sigismund, I replied to you last of the three, so I feel like you got the shaft a bit there, buddy)

@Re: Big worlds
Okay this is incredibly cool. I love hearing about gaming campaigns that go long like that. Awesome, inspiring stuff!
Reminds me of this epic video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ-ehbVQYxI

Me? I'm just happy if my game lasts more than a few sessions! XD

@Re: Here

LOL, I can feel Li Hua's stress!

--

Aight that's it for me for tonight
Talk to all you fine folks later o7

Well this was fun. TY Froggychum. A great start to a character. For the rest of you if you haven't been reading: I've basically been given the bums rush and punted out of the last place. I'd like to say 'Ha! I've been kicked out of better places than this' but actually that's not true. And I think I've acquired some very interesting info in the process!

How are the rest of you doing?

Asherah's pace is simultaneously slow and fast going. Honestly just excited to start meeting up with people and really kicking things off. Though enjoying things happening now. For those of whom you haven't read it Asherah is at last getting onto the career path she wants to take in life.

Things are getting exciting all around!

I feel like we're closer than ever to the great player convergence (tm)!
So, I'll say a couple things:

1. I've decided on what will happen when you all meet. This should at least get you interested in each other.
(I'll say it has two main components. One is similar to what Li Hua suggested with the 'Highlander' concept of 'recognizing each other on sight'
and the other is a secret teehee)

2. I still don't know how to keep you all together. There is a good chance you may split back up. My hope is that you all stick around each other for a least one 'arc' - but I also don't foresee a future where you travel together like an adventurer's party.

One of the main predictions I had when making this game was that "all of these characters - unless they are of a certain personality - will certainly have character arcs centered around the idea of isolation or even soul-deep apathy" - this obviously wouldn't come up for a long time, because repeated cycles of losing loved ones and becoming too powerful to empathize with 'the common folk' could lead down a lot of routes, but presuming the player characters didn't outright become sociopaths, they would feel isolated, almost surely.

--

The reason I'm mentioning that is because the other PCs were meant to the only other beings in the vast, uncaring universe that could truly empathize with each other. That's why I'm having you meet very early , to build this ground of familiarity.

--

That is a bit of a bittersweet thought (mostly bitter) - but there is also an interesting opportunity for something even more depressign:
 - What if two players became enemies instead?

Hopefully you can imagine why that would be a terrifying, dreadful prospect. If two PCs truly hated each other, the world around them and even ideas like 'morality' would change into a mere backdrop: a selection of tools they could use to hurt each other. Because they both know they could never kill the other - defeat would only be possible through nonlethal means (such as mental ruination).

Even if you construct a prison around your archnemesis that they can not overcome - if they live in it for 1 million years, whose to say they won't develop a new ability to escape?

Of course, this sort of conflict would have to be roughed out beforehand to ensure both players were on board. I also don't predict any of you would be very interested in this, but it was something I considered before any of you actually joined the game and we got talking.

Another direction to take that though - which is honestly kind of beautiful but also horrifying - is that two players fight like this - giving up everything to try and 'destroy' the other person - simply because it's the only thing they have. Neither of them truly want to defeat their 'enemy', because then they would have literally nothing left. It's a game that can never end, which they use solely to fill their lives that can also never end.

A less extreme version of that would be multiple players having 'friendly competitions' that last millions of years, outliving worlds. Things like 'who can destroy the planet first, but with only their bare hands and no help?' or 'race you to the end of the galaxy, no special powers, just a foot race!'

---

Basically, the great thing about you meeting up is you would have another thing in your lives that will always be there.

The only unfortunate thing about you all meeting up so early, is that there will be no chance for any of you to ever experience being the 'only' being in the world who is permanent. Therefore, it means future 'loneliness' arcs would be of a less severe variety.

Because, after all, you at least have SOMEONE else (in this case, multiple SOMEONES). This means you would rather be pining for 'new things' rather than 'anything lasting other than oneself' because at some point you may know each other so well you don't really have anything left to experience.

--

Alright, that was a bunch of stuff lol. All things that are very far off, too.
Hopefully you're all as excited about these kinds of things as I am, though lol :)!
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:12, Mon 04 Mar.

I think it's easy for us to stay together. We just decide to do so because the GM wants it. That kind of meta gaming is 'going along with the spirit of the game' and entirely appropriate.

I run a game where the players and their enemies are immortals and bitter enemies (that's one reason I wanted to play this: we always GM the games we want to play in). Immortal as in 'cannot die'. So... I'm pretty aware of what happens :) Or at least I've thought long about it. It's interesting the effect that has had on the immortal society (well as I run it anyway). In that game there isn't the 'loneliness' aspect. There are other heart wrenching things (raised tears in players eyes) but not that.

I'm not sold on the 'nothing more to experience' mindset. I think that's about 'how you look at the world'. And more there are limits to memory: we only have so much memory capacity. After a while things going in replace things going out. That's just my view of it of course. Other people come to different conclusion

I don't necessarily agree with that. I think one of the fun aspects of freeform is you don't have to metagame like that. Games like DnD encourage it, but I find that frustrating because the point of a game isn't just to live out the Gm's plot but to grow your character as well [and its hard to grow your character if your not actually playing your character]. Plus I think that kind of playing would be particularly detrimental to this game since we're immortal. Doesn't matter if we become buddies we spend thousands of years traveling together, we're going to get a little cabin fevery around each other at some point. Better to let to disbanding, reforming, and rejoing happen naturally, a little at a time, then a big [metaphorical] fiery explosion that would take forever to get them back together again.

As for the memory thing, whats the point of being immortal if you have the same memory constraints as a mortal? You'll eventually hit some sort of memory ceiling and be stuck as the same person of the rest of eternity [because its memories and experiences that shape you]. Completely unrelated note:I wonder if this was the case with Zeus... he never really learned his lesson in the myths lol.

I understand you probably don't mean memory span like a mortal but just a set memory span in general. The thing about that is, anything truly significant in your life, you don't really forget, it just gets shuffled to the very back of your mind till you 'forget' it. Then, suddenly, it'll come up later. Hence why, even with a limited memory span, the whole 'survivor's syndrome' is still quite feasible.

Loved your 'how you look at the world' point though! Didn't think about that :-)

Sounds fun. I'm not sure I am up to full hostility but I think I can qualify as a prankster. They can be very very inconvenient and mean if you like, but meant to be playful and to break up the monotony of immortal life.  So more of the friendly competition option rather than the outright hate option. Each immortal trying to one up the other with a better prank, a prank war so to speak. Still fun for Kavian even if the others don't play back.

Memory doesn't really work like that. I mean we're talking real world here right? Not the game. In the real world each time you remember a thing you change it. It's just a set of neurons firing. If you haven't thought about it for a long time, it fades as the neurons rewire themselves to help you with things you actually want help with. And refreshing those faded memories it is basically recreating them in a new image. Your recreated memories may have little or nothing to do with the reality of what happened in the past. So for example if you watch a video and your brain goes 'ah that's what happened' and learns to recreate memories in line with them.

I can't remember much about my childhood, especially the early years. I can remember fragments: usually things that we've talked about. But when I investigated some of them I found the reality was quite different to my memory.

--

But that's the real world. As you say immortals may have 'special memory'. I quite like 'highlander' where they seem to 'replay it in time'. I know that's just a cinematic tool, but it's a good one.

And your comment on Zeus is very appropriate :) He's one of the big baddies (maybe the biggest) in my immortal game. Ever since I saw 'the rape of Ganymede' at the Prado I've thought 'he's just a baddie'

On metagaming staying together for my sake,
You don't have to. You can, but you can also choose not to. I accept both.

In terms of what I actually want from a personal perspective,
is I would like you all to at least spend a short time together.

Mostly because it's taken a lot of work to get you here, and it would feel a bit of waste for you to split up right away.
(regardless, one you all meet up the "Prologue" ends, and I am letting go of the reigns (you are free to go anywhere but you will also encounter a lot crazier stuff, depending on what you do))

But, no, I don't foresee or actually want you to stay together hereon. My ideal breakdown is something like this:

Moving around alone: 60% of the time
Moving around in pairs: 30% of the time
Moving around in threes: 9% of the time
Moving around all together: 1% of the time

That's obviously just a way of expressing my thoughts, don't actually worry about the numbers or even in following that pattern.
Generally, I would expect characters to be 'doing their own thing' most the time, but working together when a situation calls for it.

Also, since you all live forever, being apart for 10 000 years might be a 'short time no see' to the lot of you - at some point.

--

Yeah, Zeus is the cause of like 99% of the bad things in Greek mythology.
Though, pretty much every God and Goddess in Greek mythology is just about as bad as Zeus, and there's more of them!

--

In terms of memory, I've thought about that quite a bit for this game.
In terms of real life memory workings, Li Hua is correct (to my knowledge, at least. I'm not a neuroscientist tho xDD).

Human minds can degrade memories by not accessing them, but they also degrade memories by accessing them.
'Forgetting' is also interesting. It's possible to 'forget' something but for it to still be recoverable (think Childhood Trauma, or just really inconsequential stuff like "what I had for dinner 3 months and 2 weeks and 4 days ago") but it's also possible for something to be forgotten with no hope of ever being remembered.

Conversely, a lot of stuff isn't actually 'forgotten' by our brain, because we never actually were remembering it. IIRC, it's the effect of being black out drunk or on certain anesthesias. You don't "forget" what happened while extremely drunk or under the effects of anesthesia, but rather your brain temporarily loses its ability to form long-term memories in the first place.

If any of you have ever read JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, there is a character with an ability to make it so you can only have '3 memories' at a single time. This is one of the scariest things, honestly. I bring this up, because this would be the effect of losing your ability to form ANY memory (short term and long term both)

Actually, now that I think about it... I saw a real life version of this in a video a while ago

Found it (warning: heart breaking, soul crushing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_P7Y0-wgos

Side note: In the DND games that I run, there is a lot of custom spells (players are still low level and havent found them yet, sadly) but one of them is basically a higher-level variant of Modify Memory. Does the same thing, but it actually makes permanent changes to the brain, rather than just placing a magical charm or whatever the actual spell does. You can't dispel this one

I won't say too much about memory in this game, but I will let you all know it has to do with your Realm (only a little ab this has been hinted at IC, so far), and both the cosmology (cant say anything about this yet, tee hee) and power systems interact with it in unique ways (from some Arcane spells that affect the mind to Super-Intelligence to my whole 100% custom system of Psionics to using Qi Reinforcement on your brain)

So yeah, since all of you are regular old folk right now (except for your uniqueness a la Eternal Existence), your memory works like it does in real life. Mostly, that won't matter since none of you have lived past the end of your lifespans, nor do you have early on-set dementia - so you don't to worry or think about that in the moment.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:26, Mon 04 Mar.

I'm reminded again about how different the understanding of time is between modern people and ancient people.

I've actually been cognizant of this since I decided to set the game in an ancient world. Notice that I rarely if ever refer to highly specific times within a day. Usually, I use terms like "noon" or "dawn", but sometimes for convenience I say things like "some hours to" or "a few hours past"

The reason for this is that before mechanical clocks, and especially portable watches, events were not scheduled on such a tight timeline.
Saying, "meet me at 7:35" would be a nearly impossible request to fulfill knowingly.

---
I guess I should now explain time-keeping in this setting:

This world has a very similar astronomical cycle to the real world Earth. This is for convenience, more than anything else.
A year has 360 days, and thus each season is roughly 90 days (not every part of the world experiences seasons evenly).

Days are about as long as they are on Earth. They are not the exact same though. At some future date, you may all find out the differences!

Calculating months and such is a cultural thing, and so depends on the region. The same goes for weeks.
Some cultures may not refer to months or weeks, at all.

One last note is that Calendars haven't been invented everywhere in the world yet. Most places have, but not all of them.
---

'seconds' and 'minutes' are used in IC text, but do not refer to units of time, but are rather abstract, linguistic ways of denoting 'time' loosely. This is how these words were historically used, probably.

A 'second' just means a very brief moment
A 'minute' is synonymous with 'a moment'. I don't think I've actually used 'minute' so far, because I prefer 'moment' for being inexact.

Some societies may have a concept of an 'hour' (or a similar motion, such as the ancient Chinese double-hour) but others might not use them whatsoever, and simply account for time based on celestial observances (sunrise, noon, sunset, midnight)

---

If you're curious about what your culture uses, LMK and I'll write it out here for you (and probably in Known World, cause that's pertinent)

---

What I'm using right now (and probably going to continue using) to understand the difference in our common understanding of 'time' and the understanding of 'time' in the ancient setting of this game - is to relate my notions of time to concepts in the real world, and if those concepts haven't been developed yet in the setting, the notion probably also has not (unless it can come from another source)

One big thing: It's technically possible to intuit a lot of stuff about time, without any tangible references. Worse maybe, the language to communicate it would be incredibly abstruse and hard to grasp, if its even present at all in the tongue you use.

99% of how we learn to understand these certain intricacies of time is through education NOT intuition. The same applies to many other things.
Once we have a solid grasp on these concepts, of course we can intuit them - but the intuition comes after.

Another example of a topic that works like this is 'numbers'. People have to 'learn' numbers, but then they are able to intuit them.

The inverse is also true. Intuit something first, learn second. I'm autistic, but I've heard emotions are generally something people intuitively understand, and then quantify afterwards. I had to do that in the opposite direction, sadly. Fortunately, I ended up arriving at the same point.

---

This topic relates heavily to thought processes, which are obviously different for every individual - but follow general trends as determined by our shared human neurology (actually in my case (and lots of others), my brain is literally wired different).

In terms of mental processes, I could write twice as much as I already have, but this is already really long, LOL.

There are (AFAIK) two good gods in Greek mythology

• Hades. No recorded history of 'rape' apart from MAYBE Persephone. And he married her. Certainly he's a ton ahead of most of the others. He was famous for being 'fair' and 'just' (if merciless... but merciless != evil in the way the others are)
• Athena. Just an out and out goodie

You could make a case for Hephasteus and Aphrodite

Everyone knows of course (thats my teasing voice) that Appollo is also the God of disease and skins people alive that he doesn't like. Artemis is also a disease god and is viscous. Poseidon... don't get me started...

Your comment about time and numbers is of course valid. And going to be next to impossible for us to act on fully. I too had the autistic thing: all my social skills are learned the hard way.

As for memory... let's see how that works out

I would love too see an argument about how Aphrodite is good after the crap she pulled with Pysche. I completely agree with the Athena and hades thing though. An argument could also be made for Circe.

Not gonna lie I couldn’t read through all of that numbers stuff. I’m open for lore or character dumping anytime but I struggle with finer, technical details and jargon.

In reply to Kavian Aminar (msg # 213):

Can 100% see Asherah engaging in an immortal prank war against  Kavian. Sadly though nobody has really gotten to see that side of her because she’s doing a coming of age arc but that side of her will likely be more prevalent as things move along.

What you said about Aphrodite... I was just saying 'a case could be made'. She's certainly not as out and out horrific as some of the others.

I think it will be fun to see how our characters develop. Mine's just totally shellshocked at the moment...

Hey everyone. Sorry for the silence for a while there. But after a lot of thought, I've decided to bow out of this game. Work, family affairs and life in general has been kicking my ass lately, and it's only gonna get more busy in a little while. So I simply don't have the energy and time to give this game that I would like to.
It's an awesome premise, and it's been great fun to write and read your sides. But I'm just not in the headspace for it now or anytime soon.

So I'll wish you all a fun time with it, and hope to see you in future games on here. It's been great.

And DM, thank you for the huge investment you've made so far. I hope to rp with you again as well later on.

Aw, that's a huge shame.

I understand your decision, though
I wish you the best :-)

Thanks for everything!
And, I hope possibly to roleplay with you in the future, as well <3
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:12, Thu 07 Mar.

EDIT --> This is a really long one. Don't push yourself to read all of it if you don't want to. A TLDR is at the bottom, as usual.

Okay, so this is a pretty major blow to the game. I could have tried asking Sigismund to reconsider, but I respect him enough to believe he has thought his decision through beforehand.

So, here our my plans for salvaging this situation.

First, the problems I'm facing:

1. We are at a very crucial point in the game. I'm not confident of being able to integrate any new players at this moment, without rushing them or halting the rest of the story.

2. Ultimately, I feel like three players is too few for the long-term health of this game.

  A). A lot of relationship dynamics become impossible or infeasible with just three players in the mix. Four or even five is better for the feeling of a small group, while the number of dynamics based on 3 people is countable on one hand.

  B). As a GM, maybe I'm supposed to be a perfect arbiter of the narrative, but in truth I have my own biases and interests. So far, I've enjoyed all your storylines. But, what if I lose personal interest in a particular arc by one of the characters? Obviously, I would keep running it - though maybe after some time I would reveal that it's not hitting for me; I wouldn't want to pressure a player, just inform them of where my mind is at.

  If you put the chance of an arc being totally uninteresting to me at like 20% (in reality, it is way lower than this, obviously), with three players, it is true there is only like a 1/125 chance of me not having any interest in the current state of play - but the actual danger is of the MAJORITY of the game losing me completely. This would be a rather high 4%, growing with each new arc.

With four players, this is basically a non-concern (because of plain probability)

  C). If we look at things from the perspective of anticipating players dropping out over time (which happens, even though we all wish it didn't) - three is literally zero buffer. At two players, I would be all but forced to completely halt the game until I can get more players. I'll also be the first to admit - nothing kills interest in a game faster than waiting around until some fresh blood appears.

Now, the solutions I can come up with (feel free to contribute, if you think these could use some work):

Solution Alpha --> I play the character Sigismund from hereon out. I really like this character, but I don't want to play NPCs to that extent. If I don't run him at the 'convergence event' (my fantasy-poisoned brain gives everything cool names like this LOL) then he's going to be more or less retired, like Anton, Khayyin and Talonor currently are. If he's there, I will bring him back in the future whenever I think it's warranted. Just having him show up isn't the issue for me, the issue is that I may have to run him for an entire arc, which would be difficult and maybe also awkward (generally, NPCs are meant to have less prominence than players in the narrative - though I am often willing to bend this rule... but im not gonna break it)

Solution Beta (this is what I'm leaning towards) --> I bite the bullet, and we complete the convergence event with just the three of us (four if you count my epic narrative skillz as a player /s). After you all meet up and go your separate ways, I'll begin requesting some new players. For lore reasons, we will probably have to do significant time skips before new Eternal Existences could appear in the world. Probably at least 100 years. Obviously, I'm not willing to skip 100 years when your characters are still not even 100. I still don't know how to solve this.

In this solution, Sigismund is left as an NPC like the others have been. This means he could come up in the future, but it's unlikely, and if he shows up it will have to be within the character's natural life span since he's not going to be an Eternal Existence like the rest of you.

---

Problems with Solution Beta:

 * Skipping 100+ years. This seems almost insurmountable.

Resolution for Solution Beta:

 * No clue. The best I can think of doing is to linearly increase the range of the timeskips by 1 year, starting at 1 year. This means it would only take about 13 or 14 post-cycles before we could introduce new players. This is better than skippin 1 year per post, which would take 100 post-cycles.

A post cycle refers to 6 posts, 3 for each player and 3 from me. Grouping up would reduce this, but only on the surface, since I'd have more to respond to.

(13.5 posts is thus acutally 81. This is somewhat ridiculous compared to out current IC posts of 209 [428-219] as it is an additional 38%)
(100 posts would be 600, which is 300% and completely disqualifying. I'm not making new PCs wait real-life months before they can play)

---

The result of trying to solve the 100 year problem is that it cannot be done, and even if it can be, it shouldn't be. My ultimate goal for this game is to for timeskips to be a regular thing (obviously, we were never going to keep the current pace for millions of years, we would all die IRL first), but for them to be prompted by the story - not as meta requirements.

However, it's important for the backstory that you don't all meet up before until there won't be any more of you for a period of time. This has no specific requirements, but given all your current ages, it would have to be nearing 100 years.

I'm tempted to reveal the lore, since it's possible to dance around the more secretive parts and just present the logistics (which are actually fairly easy to estimat efrom your perspectives right now, knowing nothing of the lore but just what you already have learned about the game)

---

Ultimately, I could use some help.

If none of you have better ideas though, then we're going to go with Solution Beta - and just ignore the 100 year problem until we find a magic solution or I can change the lore so that it doesn't matter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here you go, everyone who chose to skip to the end:

TL;DR: The game is in a rough spot. We need more players, but also now is a bad time to collect RTJs. So, I've decided to complete the meetup and then open the game back up to advertisement. This is an alright solve mostly, but it leaves an issue on how to introduce those players. For lore reasons, we need to wait 100 years...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I will be updating at a later date, since this was very long and I just woke up to write it LMAO
Later date may or may not refer to a few hours from now - it depends how I feel after waking up a bit more :O
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:56, Thu 07 Mar.

Shit. I just thought of something really good. Holy crap, I'm a genius.

Actually not entirely joking...

Let me know if this is as useable as I think it is:

---

Spoiler text: (Highlight or hover over the text to view)
The new players (probably 3 of them) will appear in a new continent. This continent is separated from Kalator's timeline by 100 years. I will work out the specifics later.

---

Thoughts?
This message was last edited by the GM at 14:58, Thu 07 Mar.

Well, without the spoilers it seems to me like you solved your own problem. It makes sense that separation by continent would prevent a worldwide convergence in the early history of the world.

Sounds great! Honestly I'm just glad I don't have to think of anything cause I haven't really been batting a thousand lately [or however the saying goes].

edit:My one concern is if they are off by a hundred years is it because this world has a fascinating timezone structure or will they be 100 years ahead of us in technological advancements? Heck even if it is the Timezone thing that still gives them the chance to be farther along civilization wise. I actually don't have a problem with that, I just imagine it could be a bit of a headache for a Gm.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:27, Thu 07 Mar.

100 years of bronze age technological development? So basically nothing changed.

100 years of modern change is significant due to the accelerated degree of progress of our age compared to the entirety of human history. Plenty of conspiracy theories about why we are moving so fast now.

Bronze age development is basically "Nothing to report this year, check back in 1000 years!" 1000 years later, "Nothing to report! No change."

Ah okay thx! I was never a huge ancient history buff.

Anyone who read my large OOC write-up in the Aderun thread about 'time' can totally ignore that.

I was wrong about what sort of ideas and objects civilizations in this area had in order to anchor their perception of time like we do in modernity.
Stuff like Zeno's Paradoxes and the hourglass are two major examples of these very things.

I still believe that in some civilizations, they may not have access to these sort of things - and therefore I don't think the average person would have the same grasp of 'time' as a concept.

As I always say - I am fallible. Sometimes my understanding of history is incomplete, or in cases like these I just forget shit lol
Please don't take it personally if I wrongly correct you on something, i'm just trying to make the game as immersive as possible.

My three main avenues to create immersion are verisimilitude, deep character exploration, and complex and logical settings.

Since we have not diverged from mundane reality (yet), verisimilitude is basically just 'realism'. I thought it was 'unrealistic' that people in this world would think of time as we do. Now, I recognize that many of the advances that would allow them to do so were made far, far earlier than I had ever imagined. Therefore, for characters of appropriate backgrounds (that is all of you, since Sigismund is gone and Jorgrim was one of those places that wouldn't have counted), they can continue thinking of time with that same familiarity.

Not to get too much into how I create immersion, but I wanna say two things.

First, that 'deep character exploration' refers both to character development, and meaningful NPC and PC relations
Second, complex and logical settings refers to both social structures and power systems.

--

Okay, that's all from me for now!
Updates will probably not be up today, but never say never, amirite?

It's all good. Once we know what you like/dislike we can act on it. I have always been very impressed with just how much the ancients knew. Like measuring the diameter of the earth thousands of years ago to a ridiculous accuracy. Aristole's thoughts on time were pretty much the norm until Whitehead (his answer to the Xeno's dilema is superbly simple ... but simple doesn't mean easy).

A suggestion for you: if you want to really make this feel old. 'Money' was only invented sometime between 500BC and 300BC. Coins were unheard of before then. The Egyptians ran a fantastically complex civilisation with passports, lawyers, contracts, fine print in contracts... so many things that are the same as today. But they didn't have any 'money'. At all. No means of 'a unit of value' that can be bartered for goods and services.

They had standardised weights and measures of course. And used precious metals as a basis for value. But the idea of 'currency' or 'money as thing' or 'having to exchange your money to the local stuff'... that's all ultra modern.

Which is a real mind bender. Money is so ingrained into our psyche that we find it hard to consider how you could possibly function without it.

@Li Hua

With regards to economic stuff, it will vary a lot by region. None of you have particularly gone into depth about it IC, either.
(If you guys want information about what your characters know about this kind of thing, feel free to ask me)

I may have introduced coinage a bit early, but I think it's reasonable enough since it doesn't require many predecessors (mostly minting technology and 'the gold standard' or some variant therein) - I'm not going to make a bunch of retcons over this, in the end.

---

I'm planning on being able to update tomorrow, but no promises.

Until then, I wrote up a few things that are relevant to what we were talking about:

 - The Ksugara (tl. Hourglass, lit. Sand Glass) Experiment: In the world of Eternal Existence, the hourglass originates from Kri Tan, and is a rather recent invention that is mostly found amongst the well-to-do. The hourglass was invented as a timekeeping measure, often sold in different sizes, named after their use. For example, the 'Niukata-Ksugara' (Ten-Form Hourglass) is designed to trickle for about ten minutes, the length of time it takes to practice an average martial arts moveset tenfold. There is also the 'Karokata-Ksugara' (Hundred-Form Hourglass) variant, which trickles for ten times as long.

Other types of Ksugara include the 'Chaeheun-Ksugara' (Teamaking Hourglass) which lasts for about four minutes, the time it takes to boil tea leaves - and the 'Yunkrisu-Ksugara' (tl. Merchant Hourglass, lit. Gold-Man Hourglass) which comes in three varieties: Quarterdays, Eighthdays and Sixteenthdays - meant to help busy people keep track of time, so that they don't go off-schedule.

The Ksugara is not widely used, but it's not uncommon among the upper class either. The existence of the Ksugara would not be as publicly known if not for the advent of the Ksugara Paradox. A contemporary scholar and philosopher in Kri Tan, named Sadagara Yufien was the originator of the thought experiment. Yufien reported to have spent seven days and seven nights without food and only a single bowl of water, and only the light of a single candle to keep him company in his total isolation. The only objects in the room with him was a custom-built Ksugara which would flow for 84 hours before needing to be flipped again, as well as a brush pen and bamboo scroll for him to take notes with.

During this experiment, Yufien pondered upon the movement of sand within the Ksugara. He came to many conclusions about his own life, but his greatest reward for his efforts was a newfound understanding of 'time'. He reports to have gained this as he watched the last grain of sand fall from top to bottom.

This was thirty years ago, and the notion has spread all across Kri Tan, where few communities have not heard of the Ksugara Experiment.

From this Experiment, the general understanding of 'time' has been advanced. Previously, the moment-to-moment conscious experience of 'time' was never thought to be measured. Thus, concepts of 'stopping, reversing, hastening or slowing' time would have been considered gibberish. However, these notions are now possible to grasp with a proper understanding of the Experiment. Of course, these things are all lofty theories, and do not exist anywhere but the minds of men.

While young children have long wished to 'grow up faster' and bitter elders have long wished to 'return to the past' - now they are able to relate that to the 'feeling' of being immersed in 'time' as a 'flow'.

The longstanding study of history is not much affected by this new zeitgeist of conceptualization - because it deals with a much larger scale - and thus the effects are lost in the magnitude of what would have to be visualized therein.



 - Beyond Kri Tan, 'time' is not widely understood in the same way. Individuals who have spent time in meditation, allowing themselves to be immersed in the feeling of time 'passing' may be able to grasp these notions, but under most circumstances they would not think in such a way, natively.

Some exceptions include:

Sedorian followers of the Temples of Legon, Father Mondalaz, Vazer Tanagath and The Lady With Lily-Eyes - who experience many things as part of their induction into the inner clergy.

Any Jakadim who has heard of the deeply melancholic fable of 'The Man Who Counted The Raindrops' and understands not just it's message, but the revelations it has about the nature of 'time' itself...

Caerish society may or may not have their own traditions that allow for such an understanding, or they may not yet think of 'time' in such an advanced, tangible way. Only by exploring this land, would it be revealed.

I had a really bad day today, but I still managed to find the right state of mind to write some replies.

Hopefully, you all enjoy :-)

Its been most of a week since any of yall posted...
Y'all still interested?

so sorry! I forgot to reply here when I was replying to all my roleplays yesterday! life has been busy and im afraid its going to stay that way for another week or so so I won't be able to reply as often for the next week.

edit:I'll admit I've been a little less engaged since I'm not use to doing so much slice of life stuff. Still definitely interested!
This message was last edited by the player at 23:05, Sun 17 Mar.

Yep still interested. High probability of getting an post in today!

Sorry for going quiet. Craziness happened in RL. I'll post tomorrow

Glad to know you're all still with us.
No worries about any delays, I was just making sure none of you had ghosted - haha.

I'll try to update threads in a couple days.

--

In IRL news, I just started a new medication - and it's probably going to take a couple days until I can learn how it will affect me.
That's to say - this may affect my activity overall.

--

BTW I'm still planning on advertising for some new players, in the near future.

I quit that new med. Didn't work out for me.

--

I've started advertising!
If it's not too busy, responding to RTJs hopefully won't overly affect how much I can respond in IC!

With that said,

Within the next couple days (maybe even today) I should be able to update the threads.
Sorry for the wait!

I hope the new medication works out.

I sadly came down with a horribly cold/flu thing. A problem with traveling: you are in a place with lots of other people for a long time and all it takes is one of them to be ill... Still getting better now.

Interestingly Li Hua's plan is of course the worse things she could do to something like the Rhino (assuming that's what she saw before). They are natures firemen. I don't think there are any predators though that will willing attack fire. We'll see

@Li Hua

It didn't work out, sadly :( (had to quit it, made me feel terrible and had no real advantages)
Sorry you're not feeling well. Being sick suck! Hopefully this game can provide a bit of a distraction...

@everyone:
Welcome to our first of three new PCs, Ulle!

ALSO --> Thread replies (and new threads) will have to wait a little while longer.
Over the next couple days, I hope to sort that out.
Currently, we don't have enough RTJs to fill quota, but that could change if more people see the ad.
I'll try not to stall us too much!
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:22, Fri 22 Mar.

Hello everybody.

Excited to learn about your characters and to read all of their stories.

Hi Ulle

@GM
Actually yes. Helps :) Thanks

THREADS UPDATED!
I am da greatest!! :O

----



I'm honestly glad <3

Also, please help my cute dog! I swear he's a good boy >:D
(if this makes no sense, read my reply to your thread lol)

----

@Ulle - I'm probably going to postpone setting up your thread until I've got the other players. Sadly, this could be a week since I need to wait for RPOL to let me bump my ad again.

If it ends up taking longer than that, I'll set it up anyway and let you get in a little early. The main issue is that I can't do all the local worldbuilding until the new players join - not that it's unfair for you to start before others or something. Frankly, we could use the extra time to move through your prologue.

Thanks for the update!

Hey @Ulle, I'm gonna start working on your thread over the next couple days.

I'm not getting any RTJs right now, so I'm reconsidering trying to fit you into the old continent (Kalator) somewhere.
It's dumb and lame to place one player alone on a separate continent, especially since prologues are still WIP

---

@Lihua, as of now you're the only one with an outgoing post for me to respond to. I'll do that on the same day I post Ulle's thread.

Sounds good.

We can just 'draw the curtains' and move to another scene. Like in a movie sometimes the camera just moves.

Speak of the devil, and he will appear.

In this case, these RTJs are more like angels though.

Not to speak to soon or risk jinxing it, but I'm confident we have some absolute kingpins joining us soon. What a treat!



It's a technique I've used before.

Right now, I'm not too worried about it. If anything, having it move slow like this right now is beneficial for me.
When things pick up again (fairly soon, I hope) I'll probably start moving things a long more quickly - in the manner you suggested

For now, we're doing a classic RPOL move and spending real life months to pass days in game. God bless play-by-post, amirite?

Welcome to our newest member, @Rhya Brightsong!

-

@new players

I'll start working on your threads over the next couple days, or maybe once I've handled all the outstanding RTJs

@old players

Whenever I make the new threads, I'll also be updating for whatever you guys have written. Get em in before then if you want the quickest response time lolol

-

/personal stuff - skippable/

I'm still pretty down, but winter is ending so I should be able to rebound and be a bit more active.
Schoolyear at uni is almost over. Gonna try and pull through; hopefully I pass my courses. This semester was a total shitshow, though.

This game has recently been doing a lot to improve my mood. Hopefully, that energy is useful to me. Thanks to all players for sticking around or being interested. I think you won't be disappointed with what I have cooking .... ( I still need some time to cook )

Anyway, my sleep schedule is garbage but I'm trying to salvage it --> So I'm going to bed. night night

Hello to all!

My character is Rhya Brightsong, young woman currently living in her village. She is a herbalist and perhaps a bit of a ranger having a strong bond with nature. I am envisioning a viking like living, at least at the start. Probably she will start to wander around the world sooner or later.

I am open to possibility to have some kind of connection with Ulle (or with anyone really, depending on the GMs vision) if preferable, or Rhya can also be her own island at this point.

I have read a bit about what have happened before, but there is still work to be done. Also trying to get descriptions up.

Great to be here. I am using my phone for the next couple of days, so posts might not be top notch =D

Hello  Rhya, and welcome!

Happy to coordinate and to play together. Not quite sure what Froggy has in mind as far as solo and group threads.

I’ll will also need a description soon, but I think we are still getting some last things decided on.

The most recent message stated that I we will start solo, but be brought together soon enough, which works well for me. Still looking forward to meeting Ulle. It was your character that inspired mine, just from the few tag words =D.

Got the description up, even though I am not yet truly satisfied with it. Hopefully you do not mind the elf ears in the picture, it was otherwise so fitting I wanted to use it.

Hi  Rhya.

The prologues have been a ton of fun and I think things will only get better when we meet up

Right-o. For now, it will be solo threads for the new batch of players. Same thing we're doing with the older players.

I won't get into the details too much (will be sort of revealed IC at some point, i'm planning), but the old players are being 'pulled together' by an attraction of Fate. The same attraction of Fate will be happening to you lot as well.

This can be seen as railroading, but it's necessary railroading. It's also the only time I'm going to do this sort of thing. As a GM, my biggest weakness is not giving player's a sense of direction... but railroading isn't the way to do that, so I've been experimenting and have found the best way to solve this skill issue is to just make a really cool world and give the players lots of hooks. I've also learned it's okay to sometimes adapt what you were planning initially to what the players may be expecting or leaning into.

Li Hua is right on the money, also. These prologues are enjoyable, but their purposefully slice-of-life and without much supernatural stuff. A few exceptions are cropping up here and there, such as Li Hua's no good very bad encounter and the mysteries of Asherah's father - these are meant to be plot hooks for later exploration, or just because I couldn't help myself but throw in a bit of insanity.

(also it will be really fun to see your characters finally interact. Man, it's so exciting)

I'm feeling incredibly energized today, so I think I might be able to crank out all these updates I've been promising. No guarantee, but I'm hopeful!

---

TL;dr (we do these a lot around here, 'cause my posts are sometimes like a stream-of-consciousness and get a bit wordy) --> You all will be having individual prologues. These will probably last around a few months. The original players (on Kalator) are going to meetup before you guys are done with your introductions, but you lot will also be able to similarly meet up whenever your prologues finish.

Hypothetically, the new continent peeps could meetup first, which isn't a problem lore-wise but would be a "dunno whether to laugh or cry" situation for our friends from Kalator LMAO

Perfect!

I’m glad I was able to inspire you Ryha, even through a little tag line.

Should be fun.

Yeah. The tribesman beast tamer was so evocative idea. Not that I wanted just that, but inspired me to make the counterpart with emphasis more on the nature where you have the beasts.

Though I am a Finn, so all Viking style stuff comes to mind naturally ;D.

Damn, I'm impressed with myself!

Hopefully you all like what I've cooked up as much as I do.

We should hopefully have one more player incoming. I've already got a good idea of what to do for their culture, if they end up joining us.

--

Okay, talk to yall fine folks later <3

Welcome to our third player :)

I'm no longer request players, but I do have one more RTJ that I'm willing to accept. I know the guy from another game, and he's awesome. He's on vacation right now, but if he's still interested when he comes back I'll make an exception for him lol

#favoritism

--

Ok, I'm making @Leander's thread now :3

*applause* woo fully party again at last! Lets hope it stays that way this time ^_^;

Yeah, lol.

---

Okay, I've gotten the last new thread up. I really like what I've got here, but I'm honestly not super happy with the writing quality. Mostly because I feel like I did a bad job setting the scene. I guess I spent too much attention on the worldbuilding, whoops.

Hopefully it's not too bad.

Anyway, @Leander, I'm giving you a chance to write kind of whatever as your first post. I was originally planning on throwing you directly into combat, but I decided to make that my first reply instead (LOL)

---

Okay ttyl fellas, I'm taking a break lol

Good to be here! I'll likely post tomorrow, but looking forward to it.

Made some updates to the Known World thread...
Trying to collect all my lore and half-hearted conlanging in one place, for my own ease of access (as well as for you guys, if you get curious)
Formatting is a pain in the ass though and I really wish there was a lesser bad-feeling way to do all this.

Get chat gpt to format it for you.

Drop it in, and say 'output this in nicely formatted bbcode' and it will do just that for you

Getting home today hopefully. I will most likely wait until then to post, typing with phone is ... Doable, but I do not like to play with colours, italics and stuff if not necessary, unless I have a keyboard.

@Rhya
I look forward to it!

@Ulle
I've updated your thread! Loved your first post, very resonant!
Also, I made a small change to my OP about Old Man Kuergrin. He is totally blind now. A small detail I wanted to adjust - so I did >:D

@Everyone else
I have a lot of work to do today, but if I have time I'll make some more updates. If not, I'll write some stuff tomorrow :O
This message was last edited by the GM at 15:26, Mon 01 Apr.

Updated @Li Hua, @Asherah and @Kavian's threads!

I've got to go to class now (and have more work after that) - but if I have the energy I might write some more, later.

Regardless of when I get to it, the next up for replies are:
@Ulle
@Leander
@Rhya (if she gets a post in before I update the others)

EDIT - Also, happy 500 posts! Hurray! I expect the activity will start increasing more quickly, from here on out, though :=D
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:11, Tue 02 Apr.

Activity:
At the moment it's 'everyone talks to you'. When we get to being able to talk to each other then your posts reduce (I think) and ours go up.

The nice thing about the prologue is that our characters are much better defined now

That's the idea!

The way I think of the game is this:
 - Everyone has their own story
 - Sometimes, these stories intersect

A metaphor is that you are all the protagonists of your own novels, but these novels exist in a shared universe.

This might sound a bit weird now, but when the scale of the game moves from countries to continents to planets to dimensions, the idea of PC interactions being 'crossovers' will seem less weird.

First reply posted. I have to say I am not completely satisfied. I got a bit intimidated by everyone's longish posts and tried to paint some kind of picture.

Sorry I didn't make any posts today. Busy with other stuff. New continent players are still next on my list (probably tomorrow or day after)

I've also had the idea to maybe make a Game Wiki for this game, since I'm not liking the ~Known World~ thread so much. Does anybody more familiar with RPOL know if this is a good idea or not? I've never made a game wiki for a game before, but I have a slight amount of experience with editing some fandom wikis.

I think you did great Rhya, for what it is worth. I got a great  mental picture from your opening post.

Unfortunately I do not have any experience creating wikis. Wish I could help.

I've not read your post yet, Rhya (I generally read posts right before I plan to reply to them) - but I'm sure it's excellent!
Don't feel pressured to post anything super long, either. As long as you don't start writing just a few sentences, any length is fine!

@Ulle - No problem, thanks for the sentiments. I'm pretty interested in trying it out, but we'll see how it goes pretty soon, anyway.

---

OK, I'm going to bed. I'll ttyl, everyone!

Internet was out all morning (it snowed in April WTF), just got it back.

It's a bit of a disruption but I should still be able to make some replies, most likely.
This message was last edited by the GM at 17:50, Thu 04 Apr.

It took 4 hours, but I drew a map of Ebira!

I think it's pretty decent, so take a look :-)

That map is very helpful actually. Thanks for making it.

I'm traveling a lot at the moment (Sweden, Denmark, UK then back to Switzerland) so a little rushed and doing lots of tourist stuff. I don't think I did your post justice but it was better than waiting any longer.

@Li Hua
No worries. Life gets busy sometimes!

Responses to Kalatorian threads incoming.

---

@Everyone
By the way, we have a game wiki!
I've put a lot of effort into it, and it's going to be where I store the lore from this game from now on.
Please consider taking a look and telling me what you think could be improved!

I'm also considering making pages for your characters (since they are kind of important, or at least will be in the future), but I thought to ask first since I wouldn't want to misrepresent you.

If you want to contribute in any way, let me know. I can give special permissions to specific players to edit individual pages (ie your character pages). I can also make you an Editor, should you have some spare time to help keep track of established lore (this would let you edit any page on the wiki and create new ones). I don't really need an editor ATM, but it's always appreciated.

Are you OK if we add to it?

For example I'd like to mention the Fen GuXi (just the same level of detail as the others) and it might be nice to add something about NPCs. You put quite a lot of detail into them. A list and maybe a link to a thread they are talking in is a huge help (for you and us) and saves you the trouble of describing the,

For sure! Just let me know if you make any changes, and make sure to only add 'canon' stuff (anything from an IC thread that hasn't been retconned)



I'd be very thankful!
I might have to make you an Editor though (unless you want me to make some blank pages for you to edit?)

The idea of linking to threads isn't something I'd thought of. You're right that it would make things easier, so yeah we can do that.
I might still add descriptions though. It's probably obvious by now, but I enjoy creative writing XD. Honestly, my least favorite part of writing is the kinesthetic aspect of it (ie typing). That is a bit of a bother. I wish I could directly beam my thoughts onto a page, sometimes, haha

I don't mean TTS, I've tried it and it's worse than just typing IMO

I'd rather not be an editor. I'll probably just PM you some stuff to put in.

It's mostly that it can be hard to find things. Games can end up with a lot of threads and 'you are sure you had this NPC' and just can't find them. There isn't a good search story.

Have you tried just dictating? Voice to text is now superb. Personally I like typing, so I am much more confortable with that. I think that TTS was 'text to speech'. Yes it's a problem. We need to find a good replacement for typing

Definitely! Hit me up with whatever you think would be good! Thanks a bunch!


That's been my second biggest problem, yeah (if you remember, the first problem was formatting but that's mostly solved now). It's really annoying to find everything I've written about the world, without reading literally every post in every thread.


I do enjoy typing, and it's definitely preferable to handwriting (I *SUCK* at handwriting, but I type at like 140 WPM) but it would be great if something else became available. TTS is accurate, but sometimes I stumble over my words and that makes it a huge PITA

It's late here and I have an early flight tomorrow. I'll try and get something over the next couple of days. It won't be much just a table of NPCs and 'where'. Very helpful for me in the future though :) Even if only memory when RPing

Hey guys,

I might not be able to respond to anything for the next couple days.
I've had a really awful semester at uni (I think I've mentioned this) and I need to try and salvage everything I can in this final stretch.

Hopefully, I manage to finish everything I can.
Regardless, I'll definitely be able to pay attention to this game again quite soon (I've procrastinated this far).
It would be kind of irresponsible of me not to at least try to lock in on my actual responsibilities for this little while.

See you all soon (with good or bad news), wish me luck :|

Good luck!

Best of luck Froggy!

Life has been hectic the last few days. Trying to get something posted today or tomorrow.

Finally, I've completed everything I need! (Just have final exams, but thats not a problem)
Thanks for the patience and well-wishes everyone!

Tomorrow or even later today, we'll return to our regularly scheduled programming.

Thanks!



Thank you!



No worries! Thank you for the heads up :thumbs up:

----

@Everyone
I've updated all threads (except Abarion). I'm going to wait a bit, since we have 2 ppl in that city (FINALLY). If in a couple days Kavian doesn't have a post (no rush BTW) I'll reply just to Asherah.

Tomorrow, I'll reply to Ulle and Leander's threads. Thanks in advance for your patience!

--

Also, we might have 1 more joining us soon! I've got an updated map waiting to be posted :-)

Welcome to our last player for Ebira :-)
With his arrival, comes an update to the Ebira map!

@Ahirom
I'll have your threads up by tomorrow or the day after

Welcome :)

Welcome!

Welcome Ahirom!

I've made a (hopefully not controversial) decision. I've decided I'm going to use Sigismund as an NPC that I can occasionally pull out. He's also going to be an Eternal Existence.

My reasoning:

1. I really like (and miss) the character. I also don't want to throw out the "Return to Prime" concept.
2. It would be good to have another Eternal Existence in South Kalatoria.

Does this mean I'm going to be RPing with myself? No. Sigismund will only appear "on screen" when interacting with players. Of course, he's still active in the background and maybe might show up here and there - either in reference or on his own initiative to seek some of you out.

With that, there's one other (hopefully not controversial) thing to mention: I will probably - at some point - create wholecloth NPCs with Eternal Existence. I've been thinking for a long time if I want it to be a PC-only thing, and decided it will mostly be, but not entirely. There's a lot of lore reasons for this, which I can't get into yet or probably for a long time.

Last thing: @Ulle, I'm going to PM you with a description of your Eternal Existence ability, since it's already been activated once (congrats on being the First Death, btw :D)

Can we retcon a death into Ahirom's backstory?  No? Shucks, I can't steal first death title.

Hi All!

trust me the people who have been here for months are just as jealous lol.

Looking forward to writing with you Ahirom!

Sorry!

Did not know Ulle was going to cross the magic line and perish.

A neat way to go though, very unexpected!

Me: Gives my players absolute, limitless immortality
My players: What's the point of being immortal if you don't even get to die??? WTF GM!? When will you kill our characters!??
Me: ... you... want to die?
My players: No, why the hell would we want that?
Me: ....

*Knee slap laugh*

IN MY DEFENSE I tried to die and it didn't work, thats on you GM not me lol /hj

Well I have not been here for months, and I am delighted not to be dead. Delighted! Leander thinks that death is (probably) highly overrated.

And welcome Ahirom!

I'm quite happy not perishing :) In fact Li Hua is trying really hard not to perish.