Wed Nov 29 13:48:10 2017

At 5 o'clock PM, Day of the Sun, 13th of the Month of the Great Evil
on the Theran calendar Thalamanion perished, never to return.

Race:	elf
Class:	paladin
Level:	51
Alignment:	Good
Ethos:	Neutral
Cabal:	FORTRESS, the Fortress of Light
Age:	392
Hours:	189

Goodbye note,

Thank you everyone for making this a great game. I find myself circling back to carrionfields every now and then. Over all these years it's so many memories. It's hard to give up on something like that. And I don't intend to. I'll be back again eventually.

But my journey with Thalamanion has ended, and I now intend to ramble on about the choice of paladin and his background in general. He was rolled in a spurr created by friends that we should go back. My thoughts were that "well, if I go back I want to have quality entertainment". For me, it ment a minimum of time spent prepping. This
did take me out of my confort zone of playing mages. But I can all to easy see myself being stuck with a difficult wand spot with a low playerbase, and then dying to the left and right as a consequence. I know there are limited wands, but still.

So this was to be avoided by plaing a paladin. In addition, I had fond memories of the RP I had back when I played Menon - a shield dedicated paladin back in ... 2004(!). I checked wizlist and at that time it looked like Ysaloerye was the one with playtimes that best overlapped with mine. I also vaguely recall I've been fighting with her as earlier Scion mages (I could be wrong), which added some spice to the choice.

Also that fortress imm that later deleted had made a post about getting promoted to Maran after 15 hours and I've never been full Maran with any character ever.

Sidenote: The role was composed after some wine. I'll leave it at that ;)

My original intention was to go 2h dedicated with the thought that shield dedicated was so, well, boring back when I played Menon. But then I talked a bit in the paladin guild with some other paladin players who recommended Monk. So I figured I'd give it a try.

Fast forward 50 hours of playtime. I pushed up to ~40 or so and no immteractions. I was ready to call it quits and I saw Ysaloerye had updated wizlist noting that they were starting a new job (btw congrats! :)). I recalled the times I've tried to follow other
imms and always failing to catch them. The curse of Swedish playtimes perhaps.

So I thought well, what the hell, I had seen Ishuli were active on the forums and whatnot so maybe I will give her a shot before I delete. I scrambled together a role update about it and she answered after the first prayer! Finally, 50 hours in, empowerment! I didn't even have one of her spheres but I think she took mercy with me.

I had understood that with Ishuli, one needs a subject and the Paladin Code seemed like a good one for a paladin, so I went with it. So my sphere combat evil hunter became a scholar. ;)

The Paladin Code has some controversial topics and challenges. The greed part etc. I began writing and doing some research, mostly fueled by the wish to get virtues and maybe a tattoo eventually. It took way more time than I estimated and I hope that my little essays will eventually find their way into the eternal library. I did check the catalogue whenever I went to see if they were there. It was very nice with the student of the code subtitle. Thank you whomever gave me that! I was a little bummed when it was removed. I guess I had
inadvertently broken the code somehow?

I don't know how many hours I spent as a squire before promotion, but eventually a note from Hunsodin and Ishuli pulling some favors made me a Maran. It was no 15 hours tho, but what the hell. Thanks!

The writing for Ishuli went seemingly well and I was rewarded temperance and fortitude. I suspect the combination would be lethal in someone elses hands (Hunsodin) but for me it kept me afloat, seldom killing anyone, and seldom dying. I certainly forgot aristaea and spirit of the blade and I suspect they could have changed the outcomes of some fights. Ah well.

Also, as Hunsodin pointed out - I don't think counter works like it should on a Monk. Rarely triggers.

As a result of all the communes to maintain I had to actually research and create a script in zMUD to use the status window and list the communes that were down. It took quite some time to get to work, but once it was up and running it was such a relief to not have to try to
figure out what was missing of 17 communes/skills/powers/flight.

The Fortress, my enemy with so many earlier Scions, turned out to be pleasant. Devoid of that cringy silly vibe I vaguely remember from my earlier interactions. I think all gaming is made better by doing it with others. I recall the lonely Scion days and even though the powers were awesome there, the minimum of interaction made for a dull experience. I suspect it's the same in Scarab. In addition, it's great that there is a new active imm for Fortress. Also, really cool exploration religion there, created a lot of fun to "force" us out and kill dragons.

I guess it must be mentioned - Edges
I had completely missed that PK wasn't rewarded anymore, and frankly very bummed. I love running back after any fight to the guildmaster and see if something new has arrived, and it certainly is a driving force to get you out there and take risks. I don't want to kick the
dead horse on this one, and I don't want my farewell thread to descend into another flamefest on the subject. But character development - power wise - is such a great stimuli in any game. And PK is fun. The mixture of PK and RP is what makes CF unique. Yes - I still fought, but part of what made PK fun was the Edge rewards and that's gone.

I was gunning for shining soul edge, since I was generally rather tanky in regards to fisticuffs but shamans, priests and necromancers were out in numbers. I could never get it and eventually
I settled for some simpler ones. Couldn't tell if they made any difference (templars aim and mailed templar if I recall correctly).

Some ceremonial con were sunk into the silent tower. I hope I was not a contributing factor to closing it down. I did help someone get in and showed them a little bit.

In the end I kind of ran out of fuel with Thalamanion, for the lack of a better phrase. Up until I got the second virtue I felt wingclipped. First without empowerment the first fifty or so hours, then for not having a virtue. Then for not being a full maran, and then I suddenly had all the rewards and ... I don't know. The urge wasn't there anymore.

Goodbyes in no special order,

Ishuli: Thank you so much for the immteraction, the two virtues and getting me maran'd. In a greater sense: thank you for rescuing this character from deletion and returning it's spark. I know I didn't follow your sphere and my role was certainly not well aligned for a scholar but we made it work, I am very grateful. I also suspect you will end up with alot of half finished books from me and other followers, deleting halfway through projects ;).

Hunsodin: as I've already written in your thread, thank you for all the advice and, at lower levels, the gold - as well as the recommendation note of promotion.

Yanni: Great fun! You lift players around you with compliments and your funny disposition. CF is better beccause of players like you.

Annalaethina(?): you seem very competent and I enjoyed our interactions, especially when it turned out we were both frequent visitors of the eternal library. I was hoping we could have
done things together in the living tower, but alas it was not to be.

Grumba: I literally sat in Korsgaards shrine when you sent a tell sub level 10? At least I think it was you. A day or two later you are like level 30 or something. Two days after that you are inducted and at level ~40? And then hero almost the day after. Zero to hero in a week?
Impressive! Our interactions were good, though I had anticipated you would burn out, given your frequent playing time. But you keep trucking. By this time I suspect you have exceeded
my number of hours played on the character.

Syldur: You were interesting. At first a little excessive in your positive attitude but the journey you went through and how it changed you shows excellent RP. Good luck, brother.

Krelroy: thank you for the recommendation and the nice interactions leading up to it.

I interacted too little with enemies as Thalamanion, unfortunately. At first I held a rather extreme interpretation of the paladin code and not associating with evil, and later because it didn't feel right for the character to do.

Rhoyshdean: we levelled up in parallel, and I think you may have been my first evil kill as was required to join the Fortress (I got lucky in a 3v2 shameless ambush). After that we had fights back and forth. For a while we traded the seantryn helmet. Then I got temperance and
we drifted apart in our login times.

Emperor Glik: in character you seemed like a decent guy. You went out of your way at times to return gear, I vaguely recall. And you are definetly skilled at PK and killed me several times. However, your online presence on this forum and another can leave a terrible impression. Paranoid, narcissistic and just very ... unpleasant. You have an influence that brings people down, man. Try to think of that going forward. A little more positive attitude! If you care.

Khorra: cold is such an easy vulnerability to cover! :) Still, I underestimated you sometimes and was left paying for it.

Hokrur: Excellent at playing shaman. I chose to anticipate dispel over malice but you frequently cut through eventually anyway. Elf con is a fragile thing, especially after silent tower visits. I actually had a con set in my bags after a while, with you in mind. How I hoped for the faith or retribution virtue to get to you. Regardless - well done and good luck.

I've forgotten plenty that I've interacted with over these four months, thank you all for making this a great game.

Good luck on the fields,

/Adrigon, aka Oskar

Player of some very old characters like:
Valkyneth Ayvileth the Dark Composer of the Elemental Order
Khratetch Vanterion the Fist of Darkness, Chancellor of Eternal Night
Haratzi Tzagzeth the Weaver of the Elements, Chancellor of Eternal Night
Vanakoth Anakteiron the Fist of Darkness, Imperial Dread Lord
Kresh the Mummy Lord, Imperial Dread Lord

Thal was great to be around. I also regret we didn't do more together. I really felt like we always caught each other in passing and probably could have had even more fun otherwise. Pretty disappointing to see you delete but that's the game for you! We all move on one way or another. It's about the fun. Hope you come back and have some of that fun!

You were an absolute joy - so half-finished works are more than welcome :)!

Thanks again for rolling with the punches and joining up with the religion!


-Ish

.

Sorry to see you go, you totally rocked it, not just from a fighting standpoint, and boy could you throw down, but also from the solid paladin philosophy aspect.
Always enjoyed snooping on you!

GLWTN!

You were probably the best paladin, with regards to sticking to the code, that I've seen in years. You were a very strong presence for Fortress and you were a contender for Marshall. It was fairly easy to tell that you progressed so much as a fighter with this character. From who you were when you first hit hero range, to who you were at the end were two completely different characters. I'm glad we had a chance to hang out so much, and it's sad that we didn't get more. GLWYN and I hope to see you back in these fields real soon.

Having stolen you from your original god, I ended up becoming a big fan of watching how methodically you interacted and discussed things with other paladin'folk.

As I ended up tighter on time, we started having somewhat off hours - then when I'd see you on and be ready to steal you, you'd be out doing something I didn't want to interrupt.

Aside from my own constrictions, I was a big fan of yours. Your stuff made it into the library just yesterday (yaaaay).


I'd write a bit more, but I've gotta split from work while I have the chance.


-Ish