I loved the character. He was the nicest person in the world, always looking to be friends, and even those he hated (mages, a few others) he would share an ale with when they (or he) died. Most interactions were great. Particular thumbs up to Rast and Bellin (appreciate your comments below, right back at you both!) and Quinloc. Bellin in particular did great (still does I'm sure) finding the fine line between being belligerent and being an ass. Totally frustrating, but totally good char rp. Rast, you were the very first person I spoke with and I'm flattered you found the char strong at level one, that's a real compliment. It was great interacting with you during your out-of-village time, and then back in. And Quinloc, I know you had a real love/hate (more hate I'm sure!) with Ihj, but again, you always kept it IC and were particularly good with the witty quips. I'm going to be emulating some of that one day I imagine! There are some others, so please don't be insulted if I don't mention here, and if you write I will definitely respond.

Three or four real sources of frustration and, honestly, some anger. First was the total hypocrisy and ridiculousness of what happened with Sqierna. Her elemental attacks someone in Hamsah. That person is not wanted. It's a pure and simple violation of the primary law, no attacking in town. I've played long enough to know that it's always been the rule that archons/angels/devils/elemental/demons are considered the conjurer for such purposes, when they attack a pc. It's like if a rager were to quaff a potion (if not hardcoded, obviously), or an outlander going and buying adamantite from a city shopkeeper and wearing it. Or a maran grouping with an antipaladin and killing goodie orphans. It's violation of the fundamental rule of the organization. And not just a regular person, but a vindicator.

What happened? No punishment. I'm sure Ishuli will come and say there was some internal punishment of some sort, but please don't waste your time. Having to write something? Having to spend time on something? Come on. Not just not losing leader status, not getting booted from the cabal at all. You can't even apply if you've committed a crime, now you have a leader who has. It *really* turned me off to the game, seeing an imm handle it this way. There's already a lot of problems with people not paying consequences for rp decisions, this was just a bridge too far.

Second, I won't lie, Ergush, some of this is a result of you. You didn't respond for ages, then when you do, it's a great conversation, you give me a task. I do the task and write you a note with the results and then ... nothing. Ever again. Over about a month. Not even a response saying you saw what I wrote, anything at all. Pretty demoralizing. Nobody gets real life crap more than I do, but you were online several times and at the very least, let me suggest in the future you don't just go silent but rather at least something to acknowledge you get the person's looking for you and had done what you asked and was waiting on you. Coming up on 300 hours without even a hint there would be a second talk was not the main part of the deletion, but it was a factor.

Third, and perhaps the biggest, really, was the game itself. Meaning, I won't exactly say I was bored, but pretty close, as the last several weeks I spent almost the entire time without anyone to engage with. A few people from time to time, but mostly it would work this way: I would log on, and pretty much any mages online at the time (or other enemies) would log off within 20 minutes. I'm not arrogant enough to think it was always a direct result, but it wasn't just now and then. It was the norm. So much so that I would spend much of my time just gathering tahren items, or getting equ for non-hero villagers, or just going and exploring alone (or, on two or three occasions, with other villagers online at the time). This was true for weeks.

And in the last four weeks, I never - ever - saw any member of the imperial council. Once, Urmnar (sp?) logged on and was terrific and we fought several times and I give huge props (though with the caveat that venoms priests are silly, just go in, one or two communes, done - dying to a 30 rot was just not fun, nor was venoms, when as a villager you can do nothing) for showing up. Hero bard, hero ap, hero thief, etc., never once was even logged on, much less participating or fighting. Total avoidance. Maybe you guys were on all the time when I wasn't on, but others told me they never saw you either, so who knows. And you used to be on when I was on, back when I was not a hero and then a new hero. But then when other battle heroes leveled up and things maybe wouldn't be so easy for you, you all just stopped. Weak sauce.

So, mostly boredom at the end, with that other stuff. Didn't mean to get quite so negative here, the actual rp'ing with people was great, and I loved the ale and the laughing and the emotes (I hope they came across as natural, if also often) and the speech and all that stuff. Rites were great, though of course I should have been made commander. Har!

Unsure if/when I'll be back. The tribunal stuff was really disheartening and, unlike other issues and player stuff, made me really disillusioned about the behind-the-scenes stuff in a way that maybe can't be cured; it wasn't a bug, it was by design, obviously, and that design is a fundamental problem for me. That being said, after enough time there's always the pull and hope that maybe something's different. So no promises!