Fri Jul 18 12:10:43 2003


At 9 o'clock AM, Day of Deception, 30th of the Month of the Old Forces
on the Theran calendar Faeras perished, never to return.

Race:	felar
Class:	warrior
Level:	51
Alignment:	Evil
Ethos:	Orderly
Cabal:	EMPIRE, the Empire
Age:	46
Hours:	262
PK Ratio:	53% (closer to 100% is better)

Could never land a kill on you, the two times I tried. Very slippery. I don't know too much about Faeras otherwise, but good job and good luck on your next.

Dafeb

Yanoreth betrayed us.

BETRAYED us!

The elves, under the guidance of Laurella, may her flesh be eternally flayed from her brittle bones, built Darsylon. The giants have built a fortress in Kiadana! The dwarves have carved two great kingdoms
within the bowels of mountains!

Of all the civilized races, who lives in the trash heaps that humanity has left behind? Who lives like the festering orcs in squalor and beastiality?
The fela!
We are not the servants of man!
We are not animals, kittens to be fed the milk and scraps off man's table!
We will not regress into the barbarity of our past, we will unite and form a great city, of and for the fela!

Powerful words, I spoke, for many months, calling the fela of
Blackclaw around me. Yes, deaf their ears were at first, closed from
ages of servitude and barbarity from lifetimes of "living" within that
hovel. And they might have listened, but for the "warlords" of
Blackclaw, who were consumed with fear of a united fela kingdom,
and banished me from those decrepit wooden gates. Bah! I will
return, at the head of an army! I will burn down those broken walls
and build anew a great city atop its ashes, and reclaim Blackclaw for
the fela of courage who will not close their eyes to our future, and
what we may become. Where Yanoreth has failed us, mortal hands
will succeed.

Soon after I left the broken trail from Blackclaw, there arose a new cry across the land, of the formation of a Great Empire, dedicated to expanding across Thera and bringing civilization and order to the lands. Immediately, I saw the opportunity for my people. Long shoved to the outskirts of civilization, living only in the lands other civilized races disdained, the Empire presented a golden opportunity for fela. Here was a possibility to unite the realms and bring it under the control of a single great power, where a felar could claw his way out of barbarity and rise to a position of power over all the other races. Darsylon, Mortorn, the kingdoms of races that had long enslaved us and harbored all Thera's resources, these would be crushed before the Empire's might. Here was my army, that I could lead across Blackclaw, grinding the village into dust, and creating a NEW homeland for my people! With this aim, I sought to take the Bloodoath.

Empire. Blade. Fela. Faeras will not travel with any Scion, and, assuming that one day he is powerful and advanced enough, he may bring war to them. This is because Faeras does not want the world plunged into chaos and shadow and ruled by barbaric demons. Faeras trusts the other Sects very little, and in general in his dealings with others, he will not commit a selfless act - every action Faeras takes for another will benefit Faeras or the Blades or the Empire, although if it benefits the Empire, it must reasonably benefit the Blade. Faeras will be mistrustful of Blades that show greater interest in themselves than the Blade - he is wary of betrayal within the Sect because it will weaken it, which in turn will weaken the Empire, which in turn will leave the Fela further adrift. Keep in mind Faeras's ultimate dream is a unified Fela civilization with wealth and importance in the world. Faeras's enemies are those that stand in the Empire's way, and especially traitorous fela that betray his ideal of a unified civilization under the umbrella of the Empire.

"Felar is both the male and plural term, and Fela refers to a single female Felar."

So unless Faeras was some pimp or something... *shrug*

I don't think he needs to be criticized for something that trivial.

It's a very nicely written role, Faeras, no matter how you spell your race.

Good work with your Imperial Blade, too.
I can't remember if Sylvrin ever tangled with you or not, but your name was sure brought up on Fortress cb channel quite a lot as one to watch out for.

Good luck on your real life endeavors and come back to the realms when you can.

Smile - It can't hurt and might help. :)

I didn't say it was a badly written role, I was pointing out that for once there is spelled out in a helpfile how to refer to males/females of a race.

The helpfiles are there for a reason, to help flesh out the game as well as bring general understanding for how something works to the masses. Read them, they make a good read if you have nothing else to do or we might as well start calling elves 'scruglocks' instead.

*tip*

I've never been really sure about this. Is it correct to say elven or elfin? I've seen it both ways.


Smile - It can't hurt and might help. :)

GOODBYES:
(partial list):

Faeras the Blade, early years:
I don't think I died a single PK until I passed 40, and then I hit a wall. Every login I faced 15-to-1 odds, at least. No joke. Even worse, I faced an improved invisible Gherian with a can full of immolation whoopass. I watched everyone around me delete, and the range only seemed to get worse. I could have deleted, but I decided right then that I would outlast those "good-align fully-decked gang-banging bastards", build an army of Imperials, and make them afraid to log in before checking their range with a level one gnome invoker. Unfortunately, the most Imperials I ever had in range were maybe 5 or 6, not quite as large an army as the old days of Empire, but enough to get the good aligns to stay logged off for a little while. I really wanted some of them to face 15-1, though.

Onglaurst:
The most depressing week of my CF career was being stuck at Bloodoath while Wilhath and Knipit were promoted to Citizen -- no exaggeration. It was fun roleplaying with you, and your presence was sorely missed in the later years. I actually liked the minotaur-speak.

Zulg and Khasotholas:
Never interacted. I would have liked to, though.

Shrizhiel:
It was a blast. You didn't stay with Empire for long. I can understand why, but I think you would have hit it off with Navarro and maybe the two of you would have kept one another from deleting.

Knipit & Wilhath:
Said everything in your goodbyes, I think. I wish Wilhath had held on another week, though. Hmm. Maybe another two weeks.

Knipit:
You were ambitious, but you deleted too soon. In my mind, cabal leadership means the responsibility to stick it out no matter what. There's not much glory to it - it's just a way to "give back" to the enjoyment of the game. It's sort of like putting your own enjoyment on hold. The issue I was going to say in your goodbye is that a lot of your Oaths were ill prepared and seemed questionable decisions. Onglaurst told me early on not to Oath someone unless I thought they had the same promise I saw in myself, and although I had to allow that standard to lessen so that the Blade wouldn't be just me :P , I demanded basic knowledge so that they wouldn't just be anathema bait.

Mesdoram:
I would have deleted had you been made War Master.

Jhanderin and Gherian:
Others talk about the massive roving gangs, but in my mind, the two of you were the Towers of Power for the good aligns. Both of you knew what you were doing, had strong race/class combos, and were playing all the freaking time. When Jhanderin deleted and Gherian immorted, I knew the range would never be the same again .. and it never was.

Jhanderin:
Like I said in your goodbye, I wanted to roleplay with you, but I went about it the wrong way. It came across like I was ranting because you and Gherian killed me, but I was really trying to charge up my role. I'm new to the idea of roleplaying with enemies beyond "Well done.".

Gherian:
You made me want to delete and roll anything but a felar. Levels 42-46 were a living ####ing Hell. It wasn't the 15 on 1 odds, it was you. Every time I walked through an area that could have quicksand, I had to be paranoid and assume there was quicksand, and the times when I felt safe and didn't assume it, you'd be there. And even if I was flying, Immolation was certain and nearly unavoidable death because it was hard to keep a resist_heat given my range. This unfortunate matchup was combined with the fact that you were the only good align with any degree of skill at hunting.

I got so frustrated that when I finally killed you the first time with Crasner, it was a fist pumping, cabbage-patch dancing moment. I can not remember anytime since my very first PK, six or so years ago, that I danced after killing another character. Roleplay wise, I think I made the same error with you that I did with Jhanderin. Once I knocked off trying to play up the role-based anger, it went alright even though I didn't get to really "Roleplay" with a capital "R".

Lao, Crasner:
Said it all in your goodbyes, you two sucked for deleting on me :P I was hoping we could rebuild the Blade together. Lao, you would have been my choice for War Master, but something about you seemed like you didn't want the responsibility. Maybe it was projection.



Faeras the War Master, the later years:
The Elite Blades:
I had three great Elite Blades. Birkota, Hukalon, and Demoli. Of the three, Hukalon was probably the strongest, Birkota the steadiest, and Demoli the most ambitious.

Demoli:
I was pretty hard on you at first because your ambition was not very subtle and conflicted with my role. I probably would have left you at the lower echelons for much longer if you hadn't impressed an Immortal. I actually don't think I promoted you once except for giving you the Bloodoath :P Later on, though, you cloaked your ambition and it went fine. Also, I was ambivalent about demoting you because I had read the log Ancruhljin posted, which gave some insight into what you were doing with your role. I hope you haven't deleted because Demoli seems like a cool character.

Tibtzapt:
I think I lost you because I left you sitting at Sheathed too long. You deserved Blade a while ago. Play more of a proactive role in getting raids together, and you'll advance.

Zalennon:
Fun bard, wish we had done more together with the notes and stuff. I never quite figured out how to best use you, but I know there is some way out there that will add to the Blade environment.

Khalizad:
Good luck. You're enjoying success. Don't burn out when bad or boring times hit.

Other Imperials:

Astilamos:
It seems like I'm in the minority, but I liked you. I'm always seeing people flaming you for level sitting when every time I'd log in, you'd want to rank. I don't think anyone can understand how difficult it was to rank during that 15-1 time period unless they went through it, and I know from experience what a bitch it is to rank an AP. You were a tough little bastard, and a lot of times it'd be me and you against the odds. Oh yeah, and I loved having you in the group because EVERYONE would target you first. The one time I got pissed was the last raid, when you called "OK retreat" and left while I was getting bashed/cheapshotted to death. Man, we could have had them. But I wasn't too pissed because that's just Empire and we all know who to blame for our own deaths ;)

Imperial Healers:
Mazaufat, Quhmnari, Xeligu, Xalhaell, Dolomock, etc.:
Definitely made a difference every time.

Menzaen:
That thing you did with that one blade and me was awesome. I was twisted in circles for a while afterward. I think you're one of the few with a real grasp on Empire.

Fortress:
Erenthell:
I liked your character a lot. I've played a lot of Maran, and you are a credit to the tradition. I wish I hadn't died to you that one time at the Vanquisher. Afterward, I learned to wield a staff and pugil. Obviously it wasn't great RP to let you have half your gear back, but a felar really has to *try* to full loot someone.

Zacharyn:
Zach has a good heart. I felt bad the times you died because I knew the other Imperials would full loot you, and you're a cool guy. Of course, I didn't stop them.

Gwyythinniel:
Pretty damned smart bard, but with pretty damned unreliable backup. But tell me.. why did you just stay there at those centurions that one time? Cocky? Confident? No return potion?

Fortress healers:
In general, you have to stick it out more with your tanks.

Other Therans:

Darch:
Sorry I never stopped by. Was always too busy when you were around.

Eluna:
The time I died to you from bleeding while running in Seantryn, I messed up my aliases, and had "quaff return" instead of "quaff recall". And then I kept misspelling recall until the damned bleeding took me. Damn it. :P You seem like a cool character, I wish I could have put up some more interesting fights.

- Zulg and Khasotholas:
Never interacted. I would have liked to, though.

Sure we did. You just didn't know it. Good job.

If I come back as an Imperial, I promise to up the intrigue level and do a better job.

I just so knew it was you. It had been a few months since seeing you around, but I hit the nail right on the head with that email you sent me. Great character, and thanks for all the fun. I'll see you around sometime, old man. Tell the wife hey for me. : )

The Forsaken

My favorite other Sect leader. No, you would have never seen the talking down, because we were equals. One Infantry Brigade commander does not talk down to another, they work together with thier Brigades to accomplish the mission set forth for the Division.

I liked Faeras alot. Going back to Brindlefrin, when you insulted me, and I vowed to kill you, remember? (I think that was you, heh, I've been drinking today, so excuse me if it's not) But then we became friends of sorts. As Dread Lord, it was nice fighting beside you, because I knew you could handle yourself.. as could most the Blades.

Good luck with school and life.. come back next summer!

Dug

You're talking about ranking with you(Blind), Huromhaur, and me. Awesome RP experience between the two of you. I was on the outside, pretty entertained. Hurom was just crazy. You were bemused.

I had a lot of fun weaving that little bit of deception...I'm curious, when did you figure out that it was 100% ####? Did it have a noticeable impact on how you dealt with that individual?

It seemed to me it was a pretty successful scheme, because the individual went so far as to manage to contact me OOC and vehemently accuse me of using OOC connections to screw his character.

That even aside, I was saddened as a player that our relationship had to sour towards the end. I did like you -- more so as a player as a character, because as I mentioned in Haaslett's post, it was dangerous for a character to show affection for another sect's members.

I hope CF feels your influence next summer.

Can't really go into detail for obvious reasons, but I had a clue it was 100% #### when Ghuljun had no idea what the Hell I was talking about. Until then I thought maybe there was a kernal of truth (which there was, as with every great deception).

Keep up the good work.

Mesdoram:
I would have deleted had you been made War Master.

Heh, just kidding. You seemed to do well as War Master although I wonder how things would have turned out if I would have waited and gotten that duel? Maybe I would have become the War Master! Yea...day dreaming...Good luck with the next.

This duel thing of yours. Is that something of your own devising or did you get fed that tripe by an immortal or something?

"Duels" are what orcs and battleragers do for positions of power, Empire is more about politicking and orderly coups.

A bit late but here it is.

Onglaurst said on the cabal channel one day that we must be stronger and show our worth. He said that we should not be afraid to challange the War Master so the best can be the Leader of the Blades.

I went and did it as you got War Master, big mistake.

Learned from it though...fun fun!

We fought a few times before we made peace. Guess it was better for the empire than me, anyway you survived through some insane odds.
I dont know how you did it ( i am glad i could fly).
Well done, you did what few others managed ranking up in a very hostile pk range. Not bad for a kitten, not bad at all.

See you around.

You were a good foe. The player behind Erenthell appreciates getting his armor returned, but doesn't expect to. It's just the way it is when you're fighting evil. Glad you got Warmaster.

>Jhanderin and Gherian:
>Others talk about the massive roving gangs, but in my mind,
>the two of you were the Towers of Power for the good aligns.
>Both of you knew what you were doing, had strong race/class
>combos, and were playing all the freaking time. When
>Jhanderin deleted and Gherian immorted, I knew the range would
>never be the same again .. and it never was.

Gherian and I made a good team. A skilled invoker with those warlock skills and a healer who can toss a sanc on him is ridiculous. I made an elf healer and geared for mana and saves vs spell. I never ran out of mana and I think I got put to sleep maybe 3-4 times. Healers are a totally thankless class. You are responsible for a whole lot but your allies often overlook your importance to their success. It's usually only your enemies who notice you :P Thanks


>Jhanderin:
>Like I said in your goodbye, I wanted to roleplay with you,
>but I went about it the wrong way. It came across like I was
>ranting because you and Gherian killed me, but I was really
>trying to charge up my role. I'm new to the idea of
>roleplaying with enemies beyond "Well done.".

I remember the situation but I do not recall exactly how it played out. And I dont think you went about it the wrong way I was actually interested in hearing what you had to say but I was busy or something. Either way I have to give you lots of love because you really stuck it out when everyone else deleted on you during that first wave. And you almost killing me with cranial was a reason I started enlarging myself when we went to raid or whatever. Good luck man

Yeah, I really had fun with Faeras for the three weeks or so I ran this thiefie. Thanks for being my spam monkey, I didn't know perfecting cheap shot was so easy, or I'd have done it with all my other hoardes of thieves. Easy donations for you too.

Oh yeah, and Navarro was one of the reasons I deleted. After I got oathed I couldn't even get the time of day out of him. And then school let out for the summer and I came home. I'm way to spoiled with the direct internet access to play a pk-char on dial-up. So I gave my junk away and deleted. I figured you'd go places. Have fun in Jamaica or wherever you said.

Shrizhiel

>Eluna:
The time I died to you from bleeding while running in Seantryn, I messed up my aliases, and had "quaff return" instead of "quaff recall". And then I kept misspelling recall until the damned bleeding took me. Damn it. :P You seem like a cool character, I wish I could have put up some more interesting fights

You stuck it out through the thick of it and finally the empire started to go strong it suddenly stopped again. I wanted a fair fight for the battle for the strange bracers, all I had was protection up. I was so shocked that I saw you stunned bleeding, because you did have a lot of time to get away.

Our fights were really close, you did much better when you picked fist of the titan as you second spec. Being able to hold onto weapons even when you are -16 str is a good thing.

Well done, I liked the character a lot.

We would hack and slash for a while, and eventually I'd end up retreating til I could wield my weapon again. I was looking and looking for the blade of shimmering waters so I could face you without dropping my weapon, but, oh well. You had some real spunk, and would make attempts to retrieve or defend when no one else would even show up. Well done, and good luck on your next.

Overall:
I quit CF a year ago almost to the day. I was getting married and starting law school, and I knew I wouldn't have the time to play without screwing up my life. But I promised myself that if I managed to get straight A's in my first year, I would allow myself to play a character over the Summer. And damn me, I did it. I actually just got word I'm transferring to Boalt, which is a dream come true. (that's it for the self congratulation, I promise). I have like three "to do" character concepts, and Faeras had a role that I wanted to play for a while. Classes begin in under a month, and I'm leaving for a vacation in under a week, so unfortunately it's time to leave CF again.

That all being said, I WILL NEVER PLAY ANOTHER FELAR. 42-46 was a living Hell of paranoia brought about by one particular Warlock Imm. The first few times I died to his immolation, I was tempted to delete. The next several times, though, I got used to the feeling. The only thing that kept me from deleting and re-rolling a power character was the thought of having to move through the echelons again.

Goal:
I really wanted to focus on roleplay with this character and not focus so much on the cabal "give and take item" or Pking factors. I also knew that, at most, I could play an hour or two a day. I was hoping to just "fly under the radar" and maybe advance to a couple of cool cabal powers, but just support whoever was leading the sect. Initially, I was pretty successful with roleplaying, but my intended character arc was crushed by the realities of having to be a cabal leader, and at times I would play for six hours straight.

Faeras is only my second evil-align hero, period, and I'm still new to the roleplay, so I was probably too understanding in a lot of situations, as well. For some reason my evil aligns end up as distant. It also affected my raiding strategy because I loved raiding the Fortress (having spent a lot of time there) and could have cared less about the Sylvan/Warlocks (raiding those was just busy work).

Philosophy towards Empire:
I never wanted to lead the sect, but everyone went and deleted on me so that I didn't have much of a choice. It's hard for me to muster up the IC ambition to lead a cabal when I know all the responsibilities that come along with it. Power = Having to sit and listen to some guy spout helpfiles at you and ruin his day. My plan was to organize things the way my wife organizes her classroom. She's the only teacher in her school that never gives a detention and never sends a student to the office. After realizing how utterly miserable it was to be stuck at a low echelon while others advanced past me, I thought that leaving someone at the same echelon was enough of an encouragement without using the Anathema button. I could use positive reinforcement. It worked OK. The Blade greatly increased in firepower and donations, and the echelon system seemed to be grinding its gears and working.

Unfortunately, later on I realized that that type of leadership doesn't really fit the Empire. For that matter, my role didn't quite mesh with a good Imperial. I probably unintentionally killed a lot of roleplaying opportunities with that style.

Also, I think I somewhat "betrayed" the Sect by my lack of motivation to go for Emperor. I knew I had to quit in under a month, I knew I couldn't play any more than I already was, and I knew it wouldn't be fair to take on the responsibility. I also knew that Astilamos, the only original sect leader left, was a "straight shooter" in that he would be predictable and not just randomly Anathema sect leaders, so I felt pretty safe lying low and not pushing for Emperor. It wasn't until Hukalon mentioned it to me a couple of days before Astilamos was chosen that I understood I had an additional responsibility as a sect leader to push for Emperor, and I started to, but it was too little too late. It's only disappointing because as a whole, the Blade worked their butts off, and I didn?t meet my end of the bargain.

It's funny. A lot of people are making "nice" Imperials, probably due in large part to the propaganda that was disseminated by those who called themselves "Imperials" before Empire actually went live. Wilhath was supposed to be a nice guy initially as well, but Onglaurst changed that with his expectations of ruthlessness.

I thought you were a shoe-in for the War Master position because you were the first bloodoath of Onglaurst. You were a good one to have around. I thought you were a trustworthy ally and in Empire it's sometimes nice to have those even though those kinds of relationships should be in the minority.

I had a lot of respect for you because you were man enough to rank into the hero range while others sat just outside of it and charged their axes. C'est la vie.

I love immolation. For some reason it is just my favorite/skill/spell/power in the game. Someone is just a big ball of fire running around and screaming like some old cartoon. Anyways. I won't say we had alot of epic fights. If it was just me against you, it usually ended badly for you. If you had the healer with you, you generally made it out alive. But you did show consistently through all the hard times and that was what I respected out you for, even if your con had to be dropping like a stone. One of the most memorable fights in my mortal days was solo raiding to try and kill you and some bard, forget his name. I was so bored I just kept going in, fighting 2 on 1 at the omegus. Then I died. Bummer. Yet while the bard bragged his ass off, you didn't, which shows some character consider how good it must have felt. Anyways, see you next summer, or sooner.

Read my goodbye to you above.

I was dancing around my keyboard when you died ;)

It definately wasn't much to brag about.. permalag is pretty routine and flairless if effective, but it was pretty satisfying, if short lived. You unghosted soon after by running into the Omegus and I was paranoid again. heh.