Tue Sep 17 14:14:15 2013

At 12 o'clock AM, Day of Deception, 30th of the Month of the Great Evil
on the Theran calendar Israh perished, never to return.

Race:	human
Class:	shaman
Level:	51
Alignment:	Evil
Ethos:	Orderly
Cabal:	EMPIRE, the Empire
Age:	40
Hours:	193

Like I wrote previously I was lucky to have a great range of enemies.
Thanks for all the fights.

I just wanted to add that

Rihujac, you were super cool. Always looking for a fight, not afraid to take on bad
odds, but also very sportsmanslike. I don't know whether it was good RP, but it sure was
more fun. You reminded me of one of Abernyte's old school ragers.
Best of luck to you.

Zallazzar, come on, man, be more aggressive. You have a good skill set, go out and use it.
I found you very timid, somewhat at odds with being a jaguar, but then again, I don't
know the whole story.

Trenloch. I enjoyed the talks mid range, but they made Israh see you as a bystander, rather
than an enemy. I should have killed you when I could ;-) At hero you just kicked my ass with ease.

No mention??

Learned a lot about fighting shamans from fighting you. And essentially that there was not a lot I could do if I couldn't pin you down. I'm sure I was more of an annoyance most times but we fought many times coming up and at Hero. Enjoy your next. Shaman was definitely sturdy and easy to drag a fight out for a long time with.

You were constantly out there looking for a fight. Sometimes I would get the echo
you see a vulture high in the sky. I don't know if it was you, or merely ambience, but it
certainly made me "watch the skies".

In a way, it was unfair that I didn't really mention my foes by name, as they were by far the majority of the people I interacted with and also provided most of my fun.

We had a lot of fights, but you were more than annoying to fight. If things were going my way
you simply flew away. If I was not careful, the rhino would quickly trample me to death and even when I retreated, impale put me out of battle for at least 7 ticks.

I did try to set a few traps, but they never came to fruition ;-)
I remember having a long drawn out fight, recalling near death and then getting attacked at once at my recall and dying after a teleport. I was WTF! that was fast. Turned out later it was Sehdara. Damn vultures!

Keep trucking.

Chased ye around for what felt like a third o' me life -- one victory t' show fer it.

Yer style an' presence was consistent, entertaining, and remarkable.

Thanks.

I got the impression you are strong leader, but you are also a good warrior.
To have a chance I had to go for a 2 to 3 strike approach. Land one key malediction then retreat and come back when healed. But eyejab and your damage output made it hard for
me to control the fight.

That time on the eastern road I had just received the new devil path, so I was trying out the
new stuff and suddenly I was at the pit. Ouch. I couldn't even find my corpse afterwards. Heh.

Best of luck with everything. I hope you get some tough fights to keep you on your toes.

At first I wouldn't take the bloodoath as it conflicted with Israh's
loyalty to Naburus. But then I thought that conflicting loyalties is
the basis of drama and changed my mind. Being in Empire was a breeze,
though. Nobody asked Israh to do anything, except for Etion ordering
me to level to 40.

I rather liked the auto goading on CB as well as the questions you had
to answer to enter the sect halls. I can see it might get old when you play
your 5th imperial, but for me it helped shape my role.


Gedunthos
Awesome. I am so impressed by your character. You were always RPing
both in words and actions. You were solid in PK and offered some great
advice to me.

I (we?) missed out on some interesting politics when Etion deleted. While I
didn't mind getting high priest, I sure didn't want to be emperor. I
was on vacation during the vote and didn't have internet access.

Mreii
You took it on the chin when I turned you down a few times when you
were low level. Then later I tried to aid you with a few
pointers. After all, I rather appreciated when others educated me, so
I might as well spread the love. Still, I think such aid should make
sense IC. Conflict is the source of drama, whether it is intersect
rivalry or elves vs orcs, etc.

Divines
I suppose it sucks when your sect leader plays at other times than yourself,
but I tried to ask around and make certain people could get promoted.

Daltheis
I found your character perverse, but in a good way. Glutton for pain,
heh. You have nice RP and I liked that you played sect before Empire.

Soviatos
A potential member of the Dire Cults. I would have liked to
talk more with you.

Zadirah
I hope you had fun. I felt a little like groping in the dark in our
first encounters, but it turned out to be a pleasure. The high light
was probably the initiation ritual of the dire cults, but there was a
lot of neat little touches. A shame our playing times didn't overlap
more. Thanks for the note. I hope you claw your way back in.

Elystan
I am going to lump a few of your characters together here. You were
helpful and a pleasant to be around, but why, oh, why would you always
delete just when we could be buddies?! I had looked forward to
grouping with Rogoza, but you quit at level 36. Then much later I
meet this interesting tribunal who talks politics, turns out to be a
suitable ally and I begin to make plans for the future. Turns out you
delete a few days later. Bummer.

Gharzal, Jaunka
You two seemed to know what you were doing. Thanks for the pointers. I
hope you continue to kick ass post level 40.

Merf
We only saw each other in the weekends as we had completely opposite
playtimes. I was very happy with you as emperor, in so far as I had
free reign. I felt you were a bit like a classic patriarch overseeing
the family rather than an evil emperor, but it suited me well enough.
Best of luck with your plans.

Llocerat. Color me impressed. I hope you go far.

Keriel, invokers are scary, at least with a buddy. It was fun to raid with you and thank you for helping me level.

I actually enjoyed interacting with you as Mordwen more than any of the other characters.

Rogoza and Accolon both simply died far, far too much. I struggle in 1vs1 situations in ideal circumstances and I was facing gangs with out of range healing, burning through my con and looting preps.

I always felt like I was talking to your character though rather than your player, which I think is too rare. I wasn't quite sure how to field your questions about demonology though - I gave you answers from IRL demonology mostly and I didn't know if that was going to end up conflicting with in game lore; Naburus certainly is a carrionfields fiction. I think Malgwyn was the character best suited to it but I just disliked him.

Well done on your character, I enjoyed him but I do think you didn't really take the reigns of Imperial religion like you could have.

>Well done on your character, I enjoyed him but I do think you
>didn't really take the reigns of Imperial religion like you
>could have.

A fair criticism. I think my biggest RP failing was that I didn't take the reigns
as I should have. Part of it was lack of imagination on my part, another
that I was afraid to impose restrictions on other people's characters.

I did demote someone outside of my sect for messing up in a raid, but otherwise I left
people too much alone.

It was interesting to play again, though at times very demanding, so
I'd rather use my free time on something else. CF is a pretty intense
experience. I don't have a lot of free time, so I have literally been
losing sleep over CF these past months.

Apart from a lowbie this winter, I think last time I played was 5
years ago. I felt like a complete idiot half the time, couldn't
remember anything. On the other hand everything felt
fresh. Amaranthe's role challenge lured me back in. I play for my own
enjoyment, but CF is a group oriented experience, so I hoped those I
interacted with have had some fun too.

I have a few general comments below. I will probably also get around to
doing some individual goodbyes. Please make a post if you have any
comments and I will reply.

PK
I was blessed with a great range. There was always plenty of enemies.
Always something to do. Unfortunately, I found it very hard to utilize
the shaman skill set. I don't mind losing, but I mind losing all the
time. It was pretty easy to figure out how to survive, but winning
was another matter entirely. While I might be able to see the
usefulness of a skill or commune while reading the help file, I
usually reverted to my reptile brain in the heat of battle and
expected to beat people in straight melee.

It was also humbling to see how bad I was at the meta game (setting up fights).
50 hours ago I set the goal that I should get 3 PK wins at level 51. A
modest goal, I should think. I am not sure, but I think I managed 1 win and
10 deaths. Yay.

Players were super nice. My enemies left gear and said come again, my allies
didn't sneer but said you can turn it around.

I would have liked to have a mentor, but usually I was alone or if not, then
either one of two things happened, regardless of me asking for advice
beforehand.
a) people expected me to do the right thing without a word (which I didn't)
b) people wanted me to lead. WTF?

A nice exception was Gedunthos who offered some great advice. Too bad I
usually figured out what he meant after the moment had passed, often with
disastrous results ;-)

I did feel it was somewhat easy to negate a shaman, on the other hand
I can see that a shaman is potentially much more dangerous with a
buddy. It will be interesting to see how the new paths play out. I
liked Hell's Pact, even if I didn't get to play with it that much.

RP
I was very impressed by the depth and effort people put into their RP,
regardless of whether they were foes or allies. Great work, guys.
Only thing I had a trouble with was all the accents. English is not my
native tongue, so when you bend the rules a little my comprehension goes
drastically down.

So very inspiring on one hand, on the other I felt out of my depth. I had
trouble developing the Dire Cults beyond the inital concept, much to the
chagrin of the few who engaged in it.

I failed big time at the political side of Empire. Something I am sure
others would enjoy wholeheartedly. So, you are the high priest of
Empire. What will you do with it? I couldn't come up with a fitting
answer.

Amaranthe
Super impressive work with the character challenge. It was a daring
move that some roles were so tightly entwined, but in a game about
interaction, it is only fitting. I assume you were behind the
infernal codex/succubus incident, which was awesome on more than one
level. I am impressed that you drew others into it, so it wasn't just
a private moment, however cool that would have been. Thank you.

Other Immortals
Thanks for the game in general and the shot at being high priest. The
game is constanly evolving. There has certainly happened a lot the
last 5 years. I was lucky to experience the new shaman paths as
well. It felt great to have you give Israh the right path at day one
:-)

I'd also like to thank the immortal who played the prelate at one time when
I was running from/fighting a couple of fortress people. While Israh didn't
think of it as a big deal, it sure felt like a nice pat on the shoulder.

So thank you all for the experience.
I will probably be back next year or so.
Take care and have fun

-Drokk

Really liked RPing with you and did what I could without compromising my character to aid with the whole 'cult' thing. Had really high hopes for it and love the whole demonic thing (was half hoping that perhaps I would get a demon lord of my own to speak with about souls). Shame all you cultists and brotherhood are dead now.

Finley was great fun and the closest thing to a friend Israh had.
I liked your accent, your attitude and your little in game jokes.
Keep going, man. Great job.

I know you pressed for more development in the cults, but I was
at a loss, because I didn't really know what to do.

I really wanted to get more RP-sessions out of you but my own play times haven't been great and lately I've not "felt it" as much and focused a bit on exploration. (Hoping to get back my RP-drive again.)

Anyway, I really enjoyed Israh and I was hoping that we'd get this nemesis thing going on. I was very curious to your god/gods/devil thingy and was hoping that it was a line to open up the Inferno again.

Am I guessing right that you were to bring forth a new creed? Part of the Amaranthe role contest thingy?

Yeah, Israh was part of Amaranthe's challenge and Voralia was his nemesis.
I got injured and couldn't play for something like 10 days in june and when I got back
you were level 51 and I was still in the early 20s. Bummer. That sort of put a damper on the whole nemesis thing. In many ways, Drogar took your place as an arch-enemy.

I think you played Voralia very well. I liked your preaching and your world view was very
inspiring and full of hope. Of course, Israh only saw it as pretty, dangerous lies.

I think my favorite talk was in Seantryn Modan, which was the first in depth examination of our different faiths. Unfortunately, I was with Malgwyn at the time, who had a tight agenda and I was compelled to go with him, so our talk was ended prematurely.

As far as PK goes it was fun to fight you because you didn't have neither dispell nor the commune which stops other communes. Not that I could do that much to you :-)
My best chance was once Gedunthos had knocked you and Trenloch out, but unfortunately
I didn't do what he said, but just charged in to bash Trenloch and died like a fool. Heh.

To be honest, I do not know what Amaranthe intended with the Dire Cults,
but they certainly fit the mold of an evil creed, i.e. devil worshippers.
I was on a quest to find the references to devils in CF lore and what they stood for, i.e. which vices/virtues if any. Obviously the Inferno was the big source here, but I know nothing of it, and other people were surprisingly tight-lipped, so I never finished it.

I knew my gaming time would be up around October, so I set an in game goal to finish that part of the quest by the age of 40.

I was (for the very short time) Abernomicon. As Naburus I could have done so very much for you. Sadly, I just couldn't really get into the character, despite absolutely loving the RP.

Everything went wrong for me with the char. I was getting curb stomped in pvp, and trying to get inducted, right after his lame ass RP attempt, the warrior nexus leader deleted before inducting me. Then I finally got in contact with the invoker, who then went on vacation.

Along with Voralia not talking to me, and Israh not being on, I couldn't continue. But still, I am really sorry I couldn't be there to enhance your rp fun, which is what I rp for.

Opposite playing times and me not being able to play at the beginning meant a bad start for us both.

We only had one encounter, but it was super cool RP on your part and chilled me out.
I asked around for you and had my few allies to scout for you, so we could meet again.

I did flounder though. I was supposed to herald Naburus, but I didn't really know what he as
about. When people started asking about him I just answered vaguely, because I wouldn't say
something which might be at odds with the real character.

I suppose Abernomicon never got to level 30, because I assumed you were still active, since
he didn't appear in the graveyard.

Oh, well. Opportunity comes to the faithful.

Sorry some information didn't pan out. I would have been more than willing to share in an adventure to find it... It's the reason I rolled Aggy to run around with anyone who wanted to go PVE.

Yeah, you were pretty forthcoming. I had planned to go to the depths of Mortorn with you, as there seemed to be some demon references down there. "Wrath of the Abyss" and all that.
Too bad we never got around to it. I would like to see more of all the new areas (and old explore ones!) but there was usually too much raiding going on.