Wed Sep 28 17:14:10 2011

At 12 o'clock AM, Day of Thunder, 24th of the Month of the Sun
on the Theran calendar Shinju perished, never to return.

Race:	elf
Class:	invoker
Level:	51
Alignment:	Good
Ethos:	Neutral
Cabal:	FORTRESS, the Fortress of Light
Age:	530
Hours:	292

I don't even know who got me that last death. I logged on to die so I wasn't going to put
up too much of a fight. I'm off to Cape Cod for a few days and want to start fresh when
I get back.

Shinju was my first caballed character who was not a Villager.

When I was playing Eck I got the sense that much of the Fortress were bland so
I decided to see if my impressions were correct, at the same time playing a
class that has always given my Villagers fits at hero to get a better understanding
of how to beat them.

Usually I have a lot of free time during the Summer. This wound up not being the
case this year, and Shinju's simplistic, detached roleplay grew out of that. Sometimes
I would not be able to log on for a week, so I wasn't able to give this character
as much love as I usually do. So it goes.

On the name: I named Shinju after a Japanese restaurant that I have never eaten at
in my neighborhood. After writing the role and everything I did a google search and
discovered that "Shinju" is a form of Japanese breast-bondage. I winced and decided
to charge ahead as if I didn't know this unfortunate fact. But seriously, why would
you name your restaurant that?

My role was very simplistic, and I stopped talking so much about grapes and wine as
the character went on. This was probably a mistake, because people seemed to like
all the metaphors, but I've been too distracted all Summer to RP my heart out.

Getting that first evil kill as an invoker was much, much harder than getting a mage
kill with any one of my Villagers.

On being an elf: 420 hp at hero? This seemed absurd, but I rolled with it. As a result
I'd gear almost exclusively for HP. There's a good chance that this will be my last elf,
especially since I got an OOC tell from an IMM asking why Shinju, a member of Thera's
smartest race talked like a dumb giant. The whole time I was going for a CTSL (Common
Tongue as a Second Language) vibe, but I suppose an elf would be able to pick up any
language pretty quick.

On being an Invoker: Spamming wasn't so bad, even with 5 affinity across the board.
Granted, I have the patience of a monk (when not driving) so I didn't find it to be
too much of a hassle. Also, along the way I learned the do's and do nots of spamming.
Pebble to Boulder from 75%-100% in fifteen minutes? I learned a lot. Once I had all
my spells I realized I just had too many choices. Also because prepping is new to me,
I'd often prep myself and then forget to prep the terrain. Not using quicksand or
Rain of Stones cost me several kills.

On making Maran: I never expected to make Maran with Shin. I just never had the PK
worthiness nor the leadership that I would expect is a requirement to become full
Maran. Thank you, Baer, for handing it out based on what I would assume was simply
lengthy consistency. Next time will be better.

On full loots: I ate more full loots with this character than any other I've ever
played. Unfortunately, I have yet to discover the easily requestable 600hp regear
kit. That said, I eventually worked out an okay system to regear. But ouch, guys,
you gotta take the elf_only stuff too?

On wands: I can't remember which Fort shifter it was who dragged me to thirty
or so spots and helped me find my amber and sienna, but thank you. I've managed to
help a couple of people since then, and it turns out that I'd stumbled past my black
and found it in an easy spot when I was rechecking. One thing that I wasn't too
keen on was having my amber and black on neutral mobs. Obviously I killed them
dozens and dozens of times, but I tried to not let anyone know where I was going.
Felt a little sketchy, but I wasn't going to give up the only things that made
me viable in certain fights over NPC RP, though I'd occasionally RP with the mobs
to no avail.

The High Point of Shinju's Life: Getting lastnamed after working over funnyone.
feelsgoodman. It felt especially good when he accused me of only killing him because of
my protections. I didn't even have mantle up. Just a few shields. feelsgoodman, did I
say that already?

On Fort: So many Fort characters talk the same way and act the same way that it
was hard for me to differentiate between certain characters. When there were six
Paladins they might as well have all been the same character to me. Granted, I'm
certain I'd have felt differently if I had be playing more consistently, but knowing that
there was wacky #### like Mubs and a squirrel going on in The Village made me wish
I'd had a Villager. As a personal response to this, my next Fortie is going to be
super RP driven.

On The Village: I've been hearing bitching about The Village for years, but the only
mages I've played have been O/G Conjies who weren't interested in fighting, but this
time, holy ####. Being a Villager is not about picking the low hanging fruit. I can't
tell you how many times I'd be hurt from fighting a gang of Imperials and had some
Villager run up on me and strike while I was writhing. My role included coming from a
society that had produced many Villagers, so I'd tend to mock your bravery. A couple
of times I got some excellent RP in response, but much of the time I got poop.
From my limited POV Tontik is a shining example of what it means to be a Villager.
You buggers ought to learn from him.

Specific goodbyes:

Allysia: After Eck it was tempting to roll a Nexun and raise some hell with you,
but I was just so uneducated as to magic in Thera (being a serial Villager) that
I figured Fort would be a better place to get my caballed mage feet wet. I can't
believe you're still trucking. Though we had limited interactions this time around
you remain one of my favorite characters ever.

Rhone: Absolutely awesome serving under you. Everything a leader of the Fort should be,
in my opinion.

Eachy: Killer character. It amazes me how much damage a group with two invokers can
pour out. You're doing a great job.

Ozrek: Always glad to see you on as you're very skilled. Also, if I'm right about
the player, very nice job.

Tavlin: I consider any fight in which I get you to bleeding wounds to be a victory
(even if I die). You are the scariest character of the moment and probably the fifth
age. Also, you're classy as hell. I really appreciate that. Keep it up.

To the Nexun Bard I was in Enpolad's with: I'm so sorry I let you die and get into an XP hole. I should have been paying closer attention. I'm sorry I dropped the ball.

I interacted with a lot of people, and I've likely forgotten most of them, but I want to thank everybody for making this game so awesome.

Yeah I usually call that kind of a "pity" Maran. I probably should have read your role closer because I thought for a long time you were playing a functionally retarded elf, not an ESL one. But ESL elf is kind of unimaginable since CF doesn't have more than one language, no? ( I wasn't the one who sent you that tell btw )

You were helpful when you were on but I'd cringe every time you died. I'm really glad to see you referring to your "next fortie" though and think it's awesome you're willing to give the cabal another try.

Good luck on your next (even if it isn't Fort)

Obviously not entire language, nor officially sanctioned really, but thought they each had some detail in the Lyceum. I generally figured it was more a suspension of disbelief, or just assumed that anyone off adventuring took the time to learn common, or that you magically just UNDERSTOOD each other in CF no matter what language you use, sorta deal.

One thing that surprised me about Fort was a sense (and this may be entirely my imagination) that one should be embarrassed when they die. I've certainly cut my teeth on Village ideals, but it seems to me that any caballed character on the making-war side of the equation should be anything but embarrassed to die (unless the circumstances were particularly foolish.)

Whenever I'd hear someone apologize for dying over cb I'd try to remind them that all soldiers die, that's just the way of war.

As for the speech, I always appreciate the attempt to differentiate between a heroic fantasy character and guy-at-a-computer. When you interacts with Thror or Ysal there is no doubt that you're communicating with a Dwarf right out of the fantasy novels and games that drew you to CF in the first place.

Unfortunately that's rare. It's also hard to do, but I appreciate when people make an effort to act like "a character" instead of a guy. Maybe "foreign elf" was a bit of a long shot, but hell, my first hero was a Dwarf with a thick German accent.

As for people magically understanding each other despite the language, I had never thought of it that way, and the biggest indicator I have that this is not the case is minospeech. People in CF speak just like in the real world, so it makes perfect sense to me that some people will speak differently (or worse) than others.

I'm realizing that I may have based my speech a little too much on how Arlovskah, a Village Ranger from a year or two ago spoke, but I was very fond of that character and if I had to play Shin again, I'd do it exactly the same, perhaps with an earlier role entry to indicate that he wasn't retarded, just not from around here.

maybe dent spec...with a funny warcry...but from what i could see you did well

So you could hide.

From the gangs out to con-die you.

Two thoughts on this. First language, since it's been brought up. A common language doesn't mean everyone talks the same, it just means the words (in theory) should mean the basic same idea. How often have people heard the comment between American English and British English? Same language, but certainly different accents (and event accents throughout different areas of the US, Australia, Britain, etc). Everyone knows what the words MEAN, though sometimes how they're said is changed. In that note, Minotaurs *SPEAK* english/common, the problem is their mouths cannot properly pronounce the words. Think of it as no differently than someone who has a cleft lip or palate, be it by birth or injury. The physical abnormality makes it difficult to properly pronounce the words they attempt.

Secondly, having recently played Jerohk (Cardinal), I honestly feel that most of the deaths that Fortress do seem embarassed about really ARE somewhat embarrasing. Is there any reason an Acolyte SHOULD die because they used altruism on someone, then got hit w/ poison/plague? Not really, but I'm sure EVERY Acolyte's done it at least once. Part of it is that Fortress is a newbie-friendly cabal on the inside. Everyone's good align, mostly willing to help each other. Hence you get newbies that DO die in embarassing ways. The other half is, you're up against evil. Many veterans lean towards neutral/evil to have a greater choice of PK. Here, the vets might just outplay a newbie. Also, evil really does have more of the power characters. Lich/Mummies, Scion mages, Emperors, etc are all powerful characters that Fortress has to deal with. Even RBWs that tend towards N/E. This means even a skilled fortress character may be going up against many fights that are already stacked in their favor, yet good tends to often feel obligated to make a noble/martyr stand against evil. Too often I've seen an entire raiding party die because everyone's too busy trying to save the other person, rather than everyone scatter and GTFO.

So, ultimately...yeah, I think it's stacked where you just feel dumb somedays, heh.

I had pored over your role and couldn't really identify what, in it, should clue me in to why you spoke like Hunsobo after a mental knife.

Once you explained it, it *sorta* made sense - if it had been a little more explained in the role I probably wouldn't have asked.

At that point I did throw a history comment on you so that nobody else would bug you about it. :)

Nice character, good for you for branching out and trying new things. Good luck with the next.

I've played CF for over 2000 hours in the past few years (I know that some of you guys have fifty times that) and I have received exactly three OOC tells (other than from people who can't find Market Square and stuff like that.)

One was from an IMM who caught me reading "help rotd" when I was sleeping during a solo raid. They were concerned that I had an alt who had been sent there, which I didn't.

The second was from Illian and both jolted me back to reality and strangely enough endeared him to me, though I have hated most of his characters with a passion.

The third was this tell that Shinju got.

I don't mind, well certainly no more than I mind being called to kill a spider when I'm reading, but each time it happens it has struck me as a bit odd and it certainly (for me) breaks the flow of the game.

I'm just wondering if this sort of thing is rare, uncommon, or common.

Then again, I've probably only sent up 2 OOC prays in those 2000 hours, so maybe it all works out.

I don't recall specifically but I believe I was snooping you for a while and waited until you had teleported somewhere relatively safe and were resting up. It isn't the sort of thing I'd send a tell to a person if they were in the midst of a raid or anything like that.

Sorry if it bothered you, but listening to an elf talk like that finally made me just say "You know, what, screw it, I'm asking him what is up with that."

On one hand it's like having to pause a movie to go answer the door,
but on the other it's nice to be provocative enough to warrant investigation, even if that was never my goal.

thanks for the compliment I am trying :)

and with your fortie we never really talked allot and most fort mages insta word/flee when a neutral attacks them for whatever reason that is. So we never really got to fight but from what I have heard and what little I saw this was another of your all around decent chars, even if you did talk funny.

COME BACK TO THE VILLAGE

having another homard in the village right now would brighten my day for sure

glwyn

p.s. there is nothing wrong being a serial villager even if you take a few year long break.....its just like grape flavored crack all you need is a little taste and you are hooked again like you never quit

I've gotten a sense that The Village needs some love.

It's the only thing that makes you clean after playing a filthy barbarian :)

But seriously, I was a big fan of Shinju. Really enjoyed that, like you said, you stuck out in the faceless Fort herd.

Thanks for the compliment, and cool character. I still remember your interview. Mainly because five minutes in, I had no clue WTF you were talking about .. it was like you made up your own little world... until my groupmate said it had to do with the Zurcon story. And then I thought, "Wow, cool, he's taking some obscure CF lore and building an entire character concept around it."

I'm easily impressed by that kind of role building because it's rarely done well, and the CF lore is so obscure that even when I spend time with the character, I still have no f'ing clue where the references came from :P There was a human ranger in Outlander named Andrlos that followed Joheem, and apparently Joheem is referenced somewhere in the eastern lands of CF .. but hell if I ever saw it.

Anyway, between that interview and your role I knew what you were doing with the language, and I have a feeling if you introduced the whole grapetender background thing more into your RP everyone would have hit on it, too. Now knowing that you played Macaca, the ox tailed cloud giant (???) it all makes sense :) You go for the unusual RP angles, don't you.

Good game and hope to see you around again sometime.

Just when I thought I had everything figured out.

The interview with Rhone forced me to think. During some of my more recent Village interviews I've thought to myself, "hey, these questions are the offspring of Knacnar's interview!"

This time around I actually had to think about things I'd never thought before. Furthermore, I had to turn it all into a metaphor involving wine-making.

As for the RP, I figure if I'm gonna put 300 or 400 hours into this thing, it better be interesting enough to keep my interest, if it garners interest from others, even better. (and yes, I know Macaca con-died in less than 200, but I had a lot of fun with the ugly giant with the tail.)

We never really got close to killing one another as both couldn't keep the other one in place.

Only think I got you one time in Galadon.


On a side note:

Like your posts on the forum and the way you seem to enjoy the game. Hope you have the time to roll another char.

A fully shielded AP walks up to me and when I attack him there's two Tribunals there whaling on me. I think you guys were expecting eyes of flame to jump that drow, but I might just be being paranoid.

The funny thing is that the character didn't have eyes up, but the player did. I had been looking all over for that guy and when I saw him I unrepentantly jumped his evil ass.

Also, I think I got you once on the Hamsah docks. You had a bard and I had a warrior with me. I think everyone in Trib right now is doing a really good job, though I've had minimal interactions with them.

Well I can see how it looked that way but it really wasn't. Think we just came back from raiding the tree and well the AP recalled but we walked as we had the fetish. He just told us over grouptell that he was attacked and well it was bad news for you. =)

Yes forgot that fight in docks. Was a wile ago. We got the short end of that one. Think the bard or warrior you were with loured us out and there you where throwing ice and lighting =)

Could tell Shinju was new to mages the times I did see him, but you were pretty ballsy for an elf mage. In some of those fights I certainly wanted to tell you to be a bit more cautious, that you were fighting more like a villager than a mage, but I generally try not to give advice unless it is asked for. Guess I know why now. :)

Glad you like Allysia and I am glad to see you tried a non-village char, much as they could use more villagers at the moment. I would never suggest rolling a character based on the presence of another though, they might not be there by the time you get up in ranks to really travel with them. And sometimes those characters lose their spark pretty quickly. I think you're already good at coming up with good chars and interesting roles to fit builds you want to try, so stick with it. Maybe one of them will lead you to nexus, and you can get a sense of what it is like to fight villagers all the time. Can only help when you then go back to playing another villager. :)

There are reasons why Shinju probably would not have interacted with a Nexun as much as you did with Eck which I am sure you can imagine. It's hard to befriend people you have to kill sometimes. And it's not like the village where you fight so often you get that mutual respect thing going on after your 23rd fight.

Looking forward to what you come up with next.

Part of the reason I rolled up Shinju was to learn more about magic in Thera. At some point I'd like to play a Nexun, but I want to be able to be a warrior with aura, shield and wraithform (is that even possible?) or some such nonsense.

Now I have a slightly better idea of what magical stuff is out there and what it does (other than burn in Tahren's forge) so I'm one step closer.

Hell, I even learned that one of my freqent veil shaking objects has some sort of invokable prog on it, and I've just been burning it this whole time like some sort of barbarian.

Keep it up, Dragonslayer.

Probable to have all those preps and to have them consistently, no.
You can get the following in potion/pill form and have all these up at once.
Aura
Shield
Sanc
Wraithform
Haste
Stoneskin
Protection
Desensitize
And pretty much anything else you want. (i.e. resist mental, resist any elemenet, negative, positive...)

Durations might be short on lots of them, and one mage casts one dispell and they are gone (except aura and shield) but you can spend about two hours gathering all those preps. For maybe 5 minutes of use. Which is why most warriors don't really bother. A few simple preps easily gathered are all you need. Plus you'd find real quick people would just run, because warrior preps like that are rarer and harder for them to regain. And they are all one shot, where as talismans are multiple use. So such things are generally for raid/retrieval at bad odds when you know the fight is happening.

And just talk, whenever I was able to see you at all! Which was not that often, hehe.

I do make an effort to not be Fortressite #10327 'cause yeah ... So I do hope you do not categorize me as such :) (not that it's 'that' important, I will do whatever I like! :D)

See you with the next.

-Iliandar

Hey thanks for the kind words. I had no idea I had made any sort of impression on you, since we really only got to go bash heads a couple of times. I was thrown off by Shinju's language, and sometimes between you and a certain other strange-speaking Fortie, my eyes would involuntarily twitch as I looked at the screen lol. But, I liked you and am sad to see you go. I am curious though...why use the Darsylon Signets? Just RP? Elf gear blows! Needs some loving, for sure.

Also, the meaning of "shinju" is ####ing rad. You should have rolled with it.



(735hp 1450m 900mv) c "tara'bal tittytwister" cotz

(735hp 1425m 900mv)
Your fingertips ablaze with holy flames, you lunge at Cotzibue's chest!
Cotzibue screams in agony as you twist and pull!
Your unscrupulous assault >>>ANNIHILATES<<< Cotzibue!
Cotzibue raises her arms defensively, and her shoulders hunch forward as she cowers in fear.
Cotzibue yells 'Ack! Shinju just twisted my nipples!'



At least that's how I see it playing out. *wisenod*

Maybe meaningless, but I liked the way Shinju talked. It made him
stand out.