Wed Apr 23 07:19:16 2014

At 10 o'clock PM, Day of the Bull, 8th of the Month of Futility
on the Theran calendar Zhenyen perished, never to return.

Race:	dark-elf
Class:	conjurer
Level:	51
Alignment:	Evil
Ethos:	Orderly
Cabal:	SCARAB, the Cult of the Scarab
Age:	708
Hours:	807

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I don't remember exactly what our dealings were, but I do remember interacting with you somehow. Were you the one who traveled with me without servitors because they made Maehayla uncomfortable? I remember Zhenyen being very mysterious and seeming dangerous but it was directed elsewhere, which I was greatful for. I wanna say we had some sort of arms-length friendship. Very cool character, regardless.

That was it, I was trying to rank right?
I remember plotting how I would escape any traps you might conceive in the process.

But I remember having some fun conversations with you, I'm glad you got to see more than the murder side of Zhen.

Enjoyed our interactions a lot.

Did I actually make you switch over to Scarab or did Scarabaeus provide something tangible? Or was it really the boredom of being the chancellor for so long and so you wanted some change?

The details are murky to me now but from my PBF and my role comments I'd say Zhenyen was convinced by you.

Personally I had been plotting something along these lines for a while just never found a angle.

Thank you providing that chance, and I greatly enjoyed our interactions. It was fun talking to what was effectively my reflection in Scarab.

GL

I fought with Bureunus all the time, but we managed to co-exist pretty well (I don't remember us ever actually fighting.) I was always looking for more room to maneuver (literally, a lot of times I couldn't even walk around) and saw an opportunity to take off a little pressure. I saw other cabal pushing the limits of what I as player considered acceptable behavior in regards to cabal dogma, so tried to put Empire Scion conflict at the bottom of Empire priorities the best I could and I felt like it worked out pretty well for both of us even if there were flair ups from time to time.

I have been curious though what you wrote that got my death thread temporarily removed before. :)

Pretty sure the forum software outed me.

Stupid forum code.

I ####ing Loved Kral man. Your RP was so spot on, and as you said due to outside pressure Zhen saw it as you did. Ideal to turn a blind eye to each other.

Aside being orderly, and not having any reason to outright dislike you ment it was in my favor to be friendly to you. You were the one that would have payed the price, not Zhen.

We fought a few times, you insured it was not in Zhen's best interest to pursue you beyond a warning strike when you interfered with his plans too much.

GLWYN

My current, and last 3 characters all had interactions with you in varying degrees, and I was never disappointed by the caliber of our interactions.

I only hope I pked a few of them. Muwaha.

Glad to see you still lurking your chars are always positive to the game.

As Aucius I was trying to oath as many people as I could. This included forcing/threatening people and trying to buy them with gear, gold, et cetera. I remember meeting Zhenyen in the Inn and you agreed to the oath if I got you some basic gear. Afterwards when you went to say the oath I believe your exact words were "My heart, my soul, my life for the CHASM!" I slept you, spelled up you fully and you somehow managed to escape. I was impressed.

Jump ahead to Azhelak and it was a similar theme. The few times I really thought I had an upper hand on you, you escaped handily. It really disturbed me how easily you could kill Inner Guardians and you always had me on my toes.

Over all I enjoyed all our interactions. I hope your next is just as prosperous.

Azhelak. Dang dude you managed to drive me to a rage with your ability to slip away by the skin of your teeth. I think you managed that 5 or 6 times with Andy's help.

Well done, I wasn't sad to see you gone you were a thorn in my side when it came to raiding.

You were my favorite necromancer in my whole CF career. Extremely well done, if I never said it before.

n/t

d

nt

d

Before that spurt of like 6 people getting inducted over 2 days or whatever it was...you had pretty much single handedly killed the Scion cabal.

Is this shocking information that people thought you were a no-show leader - especially in the beginning?

FWIW, I had some good interactions with Zhenyen...but I didn't see you around a whole lot. My own scion got immducted.

I'm not going to give this much discussion since no one has all the information and most of the "facts" are either in my logs which are easily changed, or in the heads of a few random posters on a section of the internet best cordoned off and forgotten about.

>Before that spurt of like 6 people getting inducted over 2 days or whatever it was...you had pretty much single handedly killed the Scion cabal.

There were no applicants.
I had rejected the two idiots who did regularly failed my basic questions, inducted the other two worth while people and the only other person remaining I'd never seen I couldn't do anything about. Since they chose to not reply to my notes.

Then there was this idiotic fury based on non-facts on the qhcf and the garbage forum and suddenly I had people looking for inductions again that wanted to do more than to read someones PBF comments and role to me about things they shouldn't know ICly.

So I inducted the ones who met this simple qualifier.

So you can say "Oh Zhenyen you killed the cabal" all I'll say is,
"I killed the wave of ####ty applicants by snubbing them or rejecting them and made the 0 effort crowd realize that no matter how much chest pounding they did in the forums that I wasn't going to budge on the subject: RP or GTFO."
Nor will I. This is a RP game, if you can't put forth the effort to provide a immerse interaction I'm not going to bother interacting with you or making it so you can be around me/bother me all the time.

You can quote me on that, but as for the rest of it. Facts or data, otherwise drop it. You're spouting fantasy.

One thing here - you're general attitude here just reinforces what I'm saying. Maybe a good evil conjurer but a bad "leader". A leader's job is to build their ranks with quality candidates - a lack of recruits to me is just as much of a failure as turning down everyone who comes along. Anyway, live and learn to accept criticism or ignore it and excuse it like you're currently doing.

> A leader's job is to build their ranks with quality candidates

Next time maybe some quality canadites should apply eh?

I don't see constructive criticism. I see comments by those not in the know fueled by idiot posts on another ####tier forum.

You can't be that obtuse. If I had the ability to make quality players join my cabal. I'd probably have quit cf and use that power for more useful things.

As for your "constructive" criticism. Seriously cram it, if I gave a #### about the opinions held on that forum I'd post there.

>If I had the ability to make quality
>players join my cabal. I'd probably have quit cf and use that
>power for more useful things.

I don't have a dog in this fight, but this isn't completely out of a leader's hands. It's not uncommon for someone to mention in a deletion thread that they rolled a character to play with a leader they saw as cool, or for people to decide to not play a cabal because they don't like the leader.

Admittedly, like everything else, the perception/buzz around the leader matters more than their actual behavior here.

I could have chosen better words, but I still stand by what I said.

>I don't have a dog in this fight, but this isn't completely out of a >leader's hands. It's not uncommon for someone to mention in a deletion >thread that they rolled a character to play with a leader they saw as >cool, or for people to decide to not play a cabal because they don't >like the leader.

Meh to me that would imply I wanted sycophantic cabalmates. Which I don't like.

I am not sorry I rubbed some people the wrong way? But, to each their own.

Might be an exercise in futility to try to show you a different perspective but consider the following :

"You can't be that obtuse. If I had the ability to make quality players join my cabal. I'd probably have quit cf and use that power for more useful things."

If you really only had two candidates - both of which you dismissed as idiots (your words not mine) - what positive perception can anyone *possibly have* about you as a leader at that point in time? After all - the only people you'd have interacted with in that capacity you sent away because they were unworthy.

Those same people on that other forum are the guys you're playing the game with, love it or hate it. It's not like there's thousands of people in our little community. There's a limited number of opportunities to make impressions both good and bad but leadership evil-incarnate or otherwise is a mostly social/soft-skill thing.

You played a great scion I thought, cunning, immersive and
deadly in a calm, controlled fashion. I had lots of fun during our
fights and trying to trap you, and the Jagad lore you gave me
(and the way it was done) was great roleplay.

Vhateel remains my favorite scion from that time but you are right
next to him.

Early on I tended to be a little aggressive with you and nearly got you a few times, then you started to become a little more dangerous as you kind of grew into your skills and that became a really high risk game. That time you got me down to like 150 hp in Eryen was when I decided I should take a more defensive approach...

Enjoyed our talks especially later in life.

Hope you haven't forgotten that day I managed to keep the scepter from you and the out of pk druid. I at least felt that was a valid tactic.

Why did I roll Zhenyen? I have tried to make a successful D-elf conjurer 3 times. NbM hated my role for the first one, so he deleted. Scarab gave my second one a well deserved bad title, so he deleted. and I just ran out of time for the third.

Zhenyen was try #4 and once he got his steam built, things went pretty well.

My goal was to get titled, get tattooed, lead Scion to my own ends, and age die.

Got the first two, didn't quite finish the third, and failed the fourth.

Players, I interacted with a ridiculous number of people over the life of this char. Some were just plan awesome, some not so much.

Due to the sheer number of people.. I'm not even going to try and mention names.

Battle:
You guys never seemed to get how much of a edge you could get on me, and how quickly I could lose my advantages over you. Klib and one other person ever really seemed to *get* it.

Scion:
Man. I think maybe.. 6 people over the entire life of this char even had any clue as to what Zhenyens true intent was. I had some awesome interactions with many different people. I also had some very disappointing interactions. To be short and to the point. Don't complain people aren't evil enough, then complain when people are evil to you, they'll just laugh at you.

Empire:
There were so many machinations I had turning with this cabal through the years. I really expected someone to come up with a clever way to betray me but I don't think anything ever came to fruition.

Maran:
Some really good players here, I wish sometimes you guys would focus less on hording rare items and more on "doing good" but I think that is a issue of game mechanics and choice patterns.
Lots of awesome interactions here, some people seemed to "get" what Zhenyen was about and tried to actively turn him or convince him. Others openly acknowledged the differences and played heavily off the contradictions between Maran and Scarab - I really enjoyed those talks.
Andy/A-healer who's still alive -you two come to mind foremost

Outlanders:
Had some awesome enemies here, even if it was forever a game of "Do I go into the woods and hope I get lucky? Or wait for them to make a mistake and gaunt them?"
A pity some immortal I assume interfered with my plans.

Trib:
Had some neat conversations with tribs. Zhen was orderly, but not by any means lawful. This caused some interesting strife.

Nexus:
Few of you tried to play in Zhens life. Unfortunately I chose role wise to distrust you guys, so we never really interacted beyond raiding and some back and forth quibbles.

Scarab:
Awesome. All I can say is DAMN YOU Thombury.

Immortals.
I'm pretty sure I've interacted with more than a few select immortals. You guys are awesome, keep it up.

I will answer direct questions about interactions to an extent.

You were extremely knowledgeable, great RP, and had very interesting story-lines going...perhaps some of which shall be carried forward in your absence.

I only wish our times had matched up more early on.

Still alive, yes, and still in awe of your character well played. Great conversations. Very enthused about what interactions we managed.

You were an effective healer, and weren't as quick as some to abandon your allies when things went sour, yet managed to keep a level head and slip away alive with your party intact often.

Your RP was pretty on the level with what I'd expect from a Maran healer. Well done.

Shame I never finished what I kept hinting at, I was very curious to see your reaction in the end.

GL

Guess I don't have to carry those st items around anymore. You were always sinister, but ready to work a deal. One of the few scions Corlx trusted. See you with your next.

I really wanted to see what was in there these days, oh well. Guess I'll never know at this rate.

Well done, and you were one of Zhen's favorite thieves. You quickly understood his unspoken but open agreement with thieves, and capitalized on it to the best of your abilities.

Enjoyed our talks. I'm absolutely amazed your still alive btw.

Loved playing when you were on, both on the Scion and Scarab side of the equation. Not sure why you switched it up to Scarab but you paved the way for Halifan to take over which was fine and dandy with me.

Although we spent some time together when you were on, I never got the feeling that you had any real use for me. I wish I could get inside that brain of Zhenyen's and figure out a) what the hell you were b) what you were trying to do and c) a map of Silent Tower :)

Good job on a successful and memorable character. Don't beat yourself too much on not age dying a leader dark-elf, you must have been alive for at least a full year there.

Oh man. I was so disappointed when you said what were basically key phrases that put you on the "enemy" to my cause list.

But you ran with it once you seemed to kind of have a inkling as to what was going on, I was curious to see where the growing conflict would go, and if we would ever end up actually fighting.

As for the distance thing. No one, and I mean no one got to stand around while Zhen was helpless... I put a lot of effort into only showing my strength and being unfindable when I was weak. You seemed to notice more than others.

I loved every one of our conversations and the delicate balance that we had both personally and mechanically. We were polarized and strangely equalized. Neither could kill the other but we also couldn't really stop each other, so we'd mostly settle for talking things out with the occasional distraction of item retrieval. I really wanted to finish out my RP arc with you but I understand that sometimes it's time to just cut it.

You were also one of the very very rare 'redemption' efforts that Andi has made. I'm really curious if she was at all on the edge of success there or not.

Good luck on your next. Roll Fort?

Hmm Redemption that was interesting path. You certainly made it a possibility, and I won't say I didn't consider it. But I don't think it was exceptionally likely until Zhenyen had completed his other task we often spoke of.

Not to say I didn't try pretty hard to convince you to join me.

You certainly had a knack for impacting my ability to raid, and I was quick to show my hand when you would try likewise since it was a race to the bottom. Someone was going to loose their pets first, and die quickly.

You roll a scarabite first.

Thanks for the induction! I really loved our interactions. Before you took off for Scarab, I enjoyed your assurances that I would be your advisor, then total backstabbage. Perfect. I knew you were doing the same thing with Halifan... What I couldn't figure out is why when I spied for you about the Imp, you totally ignored it.. Who knows. Not long after that the Imp tattooed me.

I also enjoyed that you were trying to leading me 'astray' - you know what I mean.

At one point, I had gotten Halifan to kill his own nightwalker - hoping that there would be a repercussion for it.. Nothing. Totally disappointing that something like that would be totally overlooked, then he gets tapped for leader. pffft.

Rather enjoyed my interactions with the tiny nightwalker. Great job imho.

I hope your health improves drastically, and whatever troubles you have at work go away. GLWYN

With Rydell, I knew whenever you were around, we were in for some trouble. You never got to kill me tho, which is good. :)

As for the bit about the Imp. Zhen was never ever going to fess up to it, but he confronted the Imp about it and was reassured in a way that made him decide that the imps meddling lay on the positive side of things. Yet he never wanted to show his cards to Miro.

I had greater plans for you, even if you opposed my initial advances you were going to play a part. I was pretty sad when you threw in the towel but I heard enough about what happened to understand your frustrations.

As for my health: Just remember kids, don't smoke.

Guess like with many things timing is everything because once I deleted this character out of sheer boredom a few Scions got let in from what I understand. I'll try not to be a troll and hopefully offer some constructive criticism.

I understand that as the leader of a 'secret' evil society you should be mean and hard to get along with so I respect that much. However there is a thin line between RPing evil and just being a #### and with my character I believe you crossed over into being a serious #### who basically wasted sevral hundred hours of this character's life for no reason other than I didn't know the current secret scion handshake.

I've been in scion before more than once so I know I didn't do anything so very wrong besides not fit your mold which is fine. But my criticism is that even as an evil leader you can leave a small bit of room for an applicant to mess up and come back and correct the perceived 'mistake' and still have a shot at getting in the cabal.

Instead you forced a confrontation with Granje when I was doing everything in my power as a player to not have a confrontation with the leader of the cabal I was trying to get into while still maintaining the integrity of my rp which was an evil demonic force who didn't take #### from anyone.

I tried RPing with other scion members, I tried getting the scion imms to show some love and managed some immteraction but thats about it, what I didn't accomplish was getting a second chance because you as a leader insisted on being....a ####. I just can't be any nicer about it honestly. I'm sure you were a great character, I have seen others say it and I had brief interactions with you with another character and those were alot more pleasing.

But as an applicant I just want you to know you wasted my time and thats just not cool. Please don't ever accept another leadership position if you are going to not show up and when you do you are going to waste the hours someone put into their character.

Granje didn't deserve what you did at all.

To be blunt about it, you didn't grasp what sort of answers I was seeking.

When I tried to give you guidance you were either dismissive or outright ignored me.

By our third interaction you started telling me things that conflicted with what you'd told me previously. At that point I decided you were a lost cause.

Sorry if that killed your char. Being evil ain't easy.

You didn't give a clue as to what answers you were seeking and as for guidance there was absolutely none. I never told you anything that conflicted either because we only had about two or three interactions which mostly consisted of 'you don't get it' 'go away' and things like that all of which gave me NO information to go on as to what you were actually looking for.

I'm sure you'd like to think you were being 'evil' but it is more like you were being that annoying bureaucrat who sends a person back multiple times for new paperwork without telling them the 'first' time everything they did wrong despite knowing ahead of time that the person is going to come back and you are going to send them off again.

As for being 'dismissive' and 'ignoring' you....I tried my very best to be respectful as an evil person can be to another evil person who is sitting there basically ####ting all over them. I literally had to not be my character in order to interact with you because you made each interaction a confrontation instead of actual 'evil' guidance.

And you may want to believe this is a misperception but it seems as if from what the general consensus is, you were one of the worst leaders of a cabal in recent memory who nearly left Scion empty for months.

I don;t know about all that but what I will tell you from the bottom of my heart is that I've been playing CF for over a decade and you are definitely the worst cabal leader I have EVER had to interact with on any level as an applicant. I've been in scion at least three or four times both as a mage and a non-mage. I thought I knew the secret handshake.

Being evil isn't easy and shouldn't be but that is no excuse for being a #### to another player.

This is a game we all play and take time out of our lives to do on a regular basis and wasting a person's time on your #### powertrip is a ####move plain and simple. Please for the sake of all that's holy and unholy do not ever again accept a leadership role if you still don;t realize how bad a leader you were and why.

I suppose if I have time this weekend I'll grep my logs so I can point out exactly why I blew you off.

Pretty much got screwed after slogging through the ranks for 100 hours with almost no one to group with, trying to chase Zhenyen down for weeks. Was really excited about my role and then had my worst series of experiences in CF interacting with Zhenyen.

I crossed paths with Zhenyen with another char and it wasn't all bad by any means, but can definitely confirm some totally lame #### going down. As a "leader" with that kind of power, overseeing a cabal with little to no Imms and rarely even an Advisor in place, you should be around more during normal play-times or get the boot (MUCH faster than you did). Period.

Feel the hate.

Or just put on your big-boy pants and accept that the world is not fair, and Carrion Fields has no mercy.

Mercy is for the weak. Act a fool and the masses rise up.

That gets results.

Trust me, I know.

I went off on my rant when it went down (which I can honestly say is the only time I've done so playing this game and kind of regretted it), so I'm done. Forgive and forget.

Zhenyen was clearly top notch in many regards--I'd have liked to know more about what was going on behind the scenes. Regardless, I simply wished to confirm a similar experience to what was described above, that has nothing to do with any sense of entitlement to anything more than respect for time invested and a fair chance to prove oneself through open communication.

Very much is subjective about this game and what is earned (both good and bad), no doubt about it. With Zhenyen there seemed to be a certain pattern that some experienced. Perhaps it was a minority, and if so it is forgivable. We can't all be perfect 100% of the time, but a leader can and should be far more accessible. I guess this is simply a chance for feedback to the player and the Imms (i.e., put a new leader or at least strong Advisor in sooner in such a case). Just my perspective.

That is all.

GLWYN, Zhenyen. Peace.

It was not a lack of good applicants that made scions numbers drop so low for so long. It was due to the person that was in charge of the cabal for so long. That is a fact.

I have to know... Was I really the only one of the village to take you down? Aside from the question, I thought you did a fantastic job of portraying the dark, mysterious, sinister conjurer. Always throwing out cryptic comments when we'd talk. And darn tough. I think I died to you considerably more than you did to me... One of them I escaped and died at nearly full hp due to rot that lasted, what seemed like forever. I can understand if you lost the drive or if RL got in the way but I hope you throw something else into the mix before long.

That is correct, if I recall I had 6 Pk deaths.

You managed to get 2 of them.

As for why I stopped.

Lets see, I switched shifts mid year last year
Then I got sick as hell in december,
Then I moved in January,
Then I got sick again in February,
Then I moved job duties and times *again*
Then devils broke
Then I kind of lost motivation.