Mon Feb 22 19:50:40 2021

At 2 o'clock AM, Day of the Bull, 15th of the Month of the Battle
on the Theran calendar Derrideigh perished, never to return.

Race:	azure
Class:	bard
Level:	51
Alignment:	Good
Ethos:	Chaotic
Cabal:	FORTRESS, the Fortress of Light
Age:	37
Hours:	147

I've had the pleasure to interact with Derri on two characters now. Obviously, the most meaningful interactions were on Cedany, so I'll speak to those here and shout you out in my death thread.

I loved pretty much everything about Derrideigh. Her backstory as an orphan always lingered in my mind. You gave just enough detail and I was always wondering about what happened. It was realistic and also sad - showcasing that beautiful things can come from tragedy in Thera... but there would still be pain there too. I saw the parallels between her path and the one Cedany took, and I had the highest hopes that Derrideigh would succeed and thrive where Ced didn't.

Your songs were top notch. I distinctly remember sitting there for one of them and thinking 'Man, I wish I could do that'. Bravo, you drunken genius!

Beyond that, having you at the Inn was always nice, even when we didn't talk about much of anything at all. I can't believe how much you got out of 147 hours and you've inspired me to RP harder and stop idling around as a result.

Hi everyone! Buckle and pour a drink, it’s a long post. I said some of this on the Discord but wanted to run through a few goodbyes (and I played this character for a while and there's no way I will get to everyone), I love this game so much. I, like a lot of folks, came back to it because of quarantine and not only is the player base just wonderful but the imm's are really doing special stuff left and right. I've had frustrating moments but they've all been moments I learned something and while I've gotten better at this game, I'm still not awesome at it (my PK stats are... well, yikes). I had to leave the character not because I did everything I wanted to do with it but because I did as much as I could with the time I could give to the game, and ultimately it felt unfair to continue to sit on a limited slot (with Azure-touched) and in a cabal that needed more attention and guidance than I could give it (to the degree I was up to doing that). Sometimes life just gets in the way, c'est la vie. Best of luck to those who were left behind.

Anyway!

Ariendel - What an amazing induction you gave me and what a fantastic performance you made as an RP player. The fact that you were ALSO Ahrloire just blows my mind. Clearly I've got work to do as a player who is RP first, PK second because you were just a master class in terms of characters. Thank you for inducting me, guiding me, giving me things to do (one of the hardest parts of playing a Squire/Acolyte), you were always my Elder Prophet and I missed you when you were gone. My character's Role chapters basically stopped after I caught up to the story of meeting you and as far as the development of who Derri was, I'm not sure if what came next could top that. Bravo. And again, Ahrloire… just… wow.

Cedany - Well, well, well. Not sure how to say goodbye to someone who, while she left before I did, somehow her absence is still felt in this game as a character (and as a Herald, my second favorite Cabal). I truly enjoyed our in game chats immensely and your events at the Inn were fantastic (as was your newsletter!). I don't have too many regrets or "what if's" as for when I was able to play this character, but not being able to explore more together or to have ranked up at the same time is one of the few.

Gnimos - I don't believe we ever actually interacted, but your edicts from the Spire greatly impacted my character and led to some lifelong positions/opinions about Tribunals. All these good characters I wanted to rank with and they're like "You chaotic? Nope!" I have a lot of respect for someone really molding characters as leaders and to do it outside of the cabal you're leading is even more impressive. Kudos!

Tylluan - How the heck the Commander of Battle became my go-to exploring buddy I'll never figure out. Really enjoyed interacting with you and seeing more of the game with you. I regularly had to remember which harp I was holding and which sword I was wielding just to avoid your tsk-tsk. I saw both your character as Derri's friend and your character as an occasional adversary of the Fortress and I loved the fact that it led to more than one moment of conflict; I only wish our play times had lined up better so that we could have continued to see where that went. Great job.

Birbmwn - Your character was so fricking weird and I absolutely loved them.

Maeneekoni - Thank you for our chat in the water. You were a super interesting character and I’m only sorry we didn’t interact more. I like Outlander as a cabal and have interacted with a few leaders there before but you truly stood out to me even in our limited interactions.

Umbrand - My Second Elder Prophet and someone I had a complicated relationship with. I always found you to be a bit distant and we didn’t actually rank up or retrieve or adventure together (frequently our play times were off, even when I was playing more frequently than I was towards the end). I will say that when I finally did have the chance to spend some time with you, I 100% understood why you were chosen for leadership. I’ll keep my comments tight here since you’re still active but can’t wait to read your PBF.

Ivylok - Did you finally land your kill on me? I can’t remember, but I do remember the amount of smack talk you made which was a real blast and led me to pursuing Ergush (more on that below). Great job!

Ahrloire - I loved watching your character develop and your story was riveting. Thank you for sharing it and I appreciate you and I disagreeing (when we did) in a way that made interacting so rewarding. I loved your quasi-retirement to the Inn and our chats later in your character’s life. I’ll say this, I too thought you were going down the road to evil and wasn’t sure if you were the kind of player who just liked playing morose anti-hero’s or whatever. When I found out (as I said earlier) you also played the kind and wise Ariendil, I’m just, still kind of not over it. Thanks for what you add to the game, looking forward to running into you again in whatever character you play next.

Minverna - Really wonderful character, glad we got to spend a lot of time together in my early days after induction.

Dollerveim - Gosh you were fun! The entire candy thing was really enjoyable and then your persistent upbeat attitude was such a breath of fresh air in the game.

Tristhana - I know we only chatted a couple of times but YOU’RE GOOD. And by good, I mean bad, or evil, or whatever. I loved the angle you were playing and your RP was persuasive enough I actually considered going with it. If we were playing D&D I would have asked to roll some sort of check to be persuaded by your manipulations. Keep up the great work!

Jisko - I guess you’re still kicking, but really enjoyed our interactions. Loved when you were constantly trying to sell or buy stuff.

Zraldar - You were a formidable Emperor but I’ll never forget when you took something from me, let me know you did it, in this way that was so “I’m sorry but I really need this” without actually breaking character. It was super charming. Hope you had fun being King Bad Dude.

Ahinu - It was weird to have had a lot of fights with you and then to suddenly have this amazing RP experience at your event at the Inn. I loved you teasing out your backstory and your emotes in response to me and Umbrand being all goody goody was a real pleasure. I had no idea of your character’s depth and just really appreciated that you had clearly put together a pretty compelling backstory and that it had informed a relatively nuanced perspective of the Empire. Great work.

Ganndretia - Like a lot of the challenge characters, I’ll be guarded in what I say but I really liked her and really felt like you were what the Fort needed in leadership. Sorry your light burned so quickly.

Kira - SO SPOOKY. I remember interacting with you early and often and just really enjoyed all of those moments at the Inn and in a few RP tells. When we got older and we were of course going to fight, you were still a consistent and excellent part of the game for me. I was scared of you but I was also so tempted to mix it up just to get more of that quality time RP. Mostly scared though.

Primdella - You were so nice to me so often and I had an inner monologue of like “I hate Tribbies” but yet, you were just wonderful. Sorry we didn’t explore more and do some research together, that would have been fun!

Other Fort folks - There were so many people I spoke to, I can’t possibly remember everyone (or list everyone even if I remember them) but I always love interacting with folks so know that even if I didn’t drop your name here, I enjoyed spending time with all of you. Except the Watcher, because one time he gave me crap for sitting around the Fort as a ghost while the orcs were raiding. What could I do Watcher, what do you want me to do? Pretty rude tbh.

Orcs - Orc, orc, orc. (But so many of you were such class acts, really appreciate it.)

Empire - Always happy to debate you and always happy to retrieve from you. I spent much more time fighting you than talking to you, but that’s how it goes.

Scion - Kith I never saw the dream, don’t know what to tell you. You probably PK’d me more than any other character, so… good job? I’m bad at PK, so I realize after typing this it’s more like a backhanded compliment, but you were incredibly consistent in your post PK banter which is admirable. You other Scions were all appropriately evil and mysterious and maybe one day I’ll go figure out what’s happening with Team Dark Secrets.

Padwei - What can I say but I just didn’t get your religion 100%. And that’s on me, not you. I made a couple of mistakes (some innocent, some not doing the research which is totally on me). Thank you so much for the interactions we had, more than one of them were so good I wrote songs about them. This is the second time I’ve been lucky to interact with you heavily and while there was a different feel to it this go-round, I still very much enjoyed it. I’ll take a break from pursuing your particular religion I imagine (just to mix things up for a while), but I hope I get the chance to pursue it again in the future being better for this character. I died with carrots on me, sorry I never got a chance to give them to you.

Azorinne - When you showed up I just freaked out, for a couple of reasons: first, it’s an azure-touched Imm! Second, your religion was really well suited to my character and I would have likely gone sphere Mercy if I hadn’t been planning on pursuing Padwei. And then when I got to meet you it was such a lovely series of chats and all of the events and RP stuff you were doing was adding so much to the game. Thank you for making especially Derrideigh’s later years a little more guided, and thanks for all the apricots. I laughed out loud when you threatened to throw a snowball at my head and always expected to be pelted with one later on. And that was after the time you caught me gambling. And the time I didn’t have any milk for you. Such a fun immortal and such a wonderful addition to the game. Thank you!

Ergush - So after Ivy told me I “had it coming” I started to really get curious about why azure-touched were not allowed to be in the Outlanders and just wanted to interrogate it and explore it (which was fun from a meta perspective but also Derri never could understand why anyone wouldn’t like her). The interaction with you about why I needed to be, well... if not destroyed at least not tolerated, was so wonderfully done. Pulling in a warden (why am I blanking on their name?) to have a debate and discussion around it, it was so rewarding. Thank you, it was a very nice interaction and I truly appreciate it.

Other Imms - Shadowed Coshee whoever you are, thank you for stopping by and trying to keep me moving. Thanks to whoever gave me a last name, first time that happened as a character (and yes, it’s a palindrome, I’m not sure it was as clever as I initially thought it was but thank you). And Twist, thank you for giving me a role contest win right at the beginning, that was a real morale booster.

See y’all in the fields some other time!

I really liked Derrideigh across both incarnations as Ariendil and Ahrloire. She was a great presence and you were the most involved Fort member with your RP that constantly wanted to do more and to progress further and did great with every task I would come up with. I had recommended you for Acolyte as far back as November/December (I think), and I was annoyed why you seemed to be sidelined for so long, but I see now that your playtimes weren't that high so I guess it was just timing.

I hope life gives you more time for a hobby like this one, I enjoyed having you around.

I would definitely have loved to see Derrideigh's impact as a more long-lived Acolyte. I hope you had fun. Thanks for the poetry and being there for your fellows when you could.