Fri Apr 29 23:25:48 2011

At 1 o'clock AM, Day of the Sun, 13th of the Month of the Dark Shades
on the Theran calendar Athioles perished, never to return.

Race:	human
Class:	warrior
Level:	51
Alignment:	Good
Ethos:	Neutral
Cabal:	FORTRESS, the Fortress of Light
Age:	78
Hours:	491

I am sorry I didn't run with you more, but we did some very solid things the two or three times we ran together.

I had the utmost respect for you, and admired you so much that I would prefer you for a deadbeat dad leader over an active leader.

I liked Athioles a lot. You were mean and always hunting. I thought you were very well played.

GLWYN

Sad day.

I've been working two jobs which basically amounts to 60-70 hours of my time each week. As though that wasn't bad enough most of it is done at night which makes cf'ing (or well, doing most anything) essentially pointless. I've gotten on every weekend for the past month with the intent of deleting but I never could bring myself to do it. I'd always run into Rhone and just end up PKing for a few hours.

I noticed it was time to go when I didn't recognize anyone on the who list anymore, let alone in my own cabal. I've noticed a few new Marans, any of whom probably deserve the spot more than I do. I always prided myself on being an "active" leader (I never play more than one character when I lead a cabal) but 2-3 hours a week just isn't fair to anyone.

So with the rest of this post I'll just touch on a few thoughts that I've collected over the 500ish hours of this character.


THE GOOD

The combo: Human warrior mace/whip soul/crashing. With my better sets I was rocking 1400 hp and around 50-60 dam with good maces. I really regret not taking hth instead of whip, but early on in the character's life I always had a healer at my side so entwine seemed well worth it. In hindsight I'd of had quite a few more kills with hand to hand to compliment the maces. I'd of not changed the legacies for anything. Crashing got me a lot of kills and also saved my ass a time or two.

The PK record: According to my own personal stats/logs I went 138 pk wins, 50 logged assists, with 28 deaths to players and another 13ish to mobs/suicides. The PBF will tell the tale and the gank-o-meter (I didn't log that).

Fortress: Awesome cabal. Awesome powers. Awesome IMMs, great experience.


THE BAD

Hell: I made it through the first five circles or so. I knew this would piss some people (imms) off but I didn't realize exactly how badly. If I could do it over again I'd of saved my first hell adventure for an evil character.

My demotion: I stuck up for Drayden after the fiasco on eastern road with Derialx. I did so quite loudly for two reason.

1) The Acolytes were pissing me off with their constant holier than thou routine. It felt like everything we did was under a microscope by a small group who never seemed to do much else aside from that. If that's their "job" like I was told (time and time again) then that's fine. But I don't have to like it, and when my buddy gets verbally jumped by the entire cabal of course I'm going to stick up for him. My only mistake in doing so was not understanding the situation completely (I had no idea about the rotting, for example). Either way Adekar's decision was just and it was a fun turn for the character.

2) Goodies in Tribunal (Brom being the lone exception in Athioles' life) are nuts. Derialx attacked me, Serelyia, and Drayden hundreds of times and we'd have to gently run her off. I guess Drayden lost his patience with her and it cost him. I think all good aligned characters should be held to the same standard as the Fortress. Cabal politics/policy should never come before alignment.


THE UGLY

Oh boy I'm embarrased to even admit this. Worst day of mudding ever.

I was around rank 40ish and I was still a squire. I was leading a large group of Forties against a large group of Imperials in the Palace. I ran the entire group to Vanquisher and told our Paladin to summon Chzar. I started spamming my "cranial ch" alias and for some reason I hit our conjurer's mis"ch"evious djinn familiar. My entire group then proceeded to two round it. I'm not sure if the conjurer died as well. I blocked that out of my memory.

So as I'm standing there trying to figure out what the hell just happened the Imperials all come pouring out and attack one of our group, a h-elf warrior squire (name escapes me now). In a panic I start typing "cranial ch" (even though I have an alias for it) and then in mid stride decide no I should rescue my friend! and I start backspacing to rescue, and long story short it turned into cran h-elf and I proceed to gang bang my groupmate with a large pack of Imperials. Better yet, I do it right in front of Adekar.

I tried to lie, and say I was shoved. Even though I knew that wouldn't hold since the blade didn't have the power. I almost deleted out of principle but I decided to die first. I stuck around and fought the Imperial hordes with whatever of my group I hadn't killed and we proceeded to somehow kill them. All of them. Adekar came down and Maranted me after. To this day I don't think I deserved it. That was one ####ed up series of events.


GOODBYES

I'm not going to remember everyone so if I forget you I apologize.

Adekar: Thanks for everything. Including the tough love. You're doing a great job.

Nnae: Thank you for the kind words and constant encouragement.

Sollin: The only Acolyte I didn't want to strangle! It was fun watching you evolve from the little kid to an awesome aco to an imm. You were easily the most powerful character in the Fort. When you logged in the entire atmosphere of the game changed.

Serelyia: I had such big plans for us and our little alliance. Your knowledge and RP make me wonder why you get all the hate you do. Easily the best character I interacted with as Athioles (if not in my brief CF career). I'll miss running with you.

Rhone: You became like a brother to me IC. I saw great potential in you from the beginning. Play it out to the death, the fort needs you.

Thuorn: Despite my comments on the Acolytes I do really enjoy your character. Keep it up.

Ghrimriddor: We came a long way, old friend. I'll post some logs of our interactions in a few days.

Drayden: Our last interaction made me scratch my head. But everything before that was worth it. We were a real force to be reckoned with.

Allysia: Awesome bard. Makes me wish I had time for a Nexun. Getting drunk with you in the Inn was one of my favorite experiences.


Anyone else feel free to post and I'll get back to you. It's pushing 5am and I'm long over due for some sleep. I don't know when (or sadly, if) I'll be able to play again but if anyone wants to keep in touch my AIM screenname is AmenotepDM.


Cheers,
Kevin
aka. Vhoren/Rhyaldrin/Hjalmar.

> Goodies in Tribunal (Brom being the lone exception in Athioles'
> life) are nuts. Derialx attacked me, Serelyia, and Drayden hundreds
> of times and we'd have to gently run her off. I guess Drayden lost
> his patience with her and it cost him. I think all good aligned
> characters should be held to the same standard as the Fortress.
> Cabal politics/policy should never come before alignment.

Yet you didn't frown upon Ghrimriddor for killing goodie mages? Goodie Fortress mages. In fact, I've observed some ugly things from all parties you mentioned, and that's okay, we're not perfect and so are our characters.

Oh, by the way, I have an idea! How about, all orderly characters should be held to the same standard as Tribunal? Cabal politics/policy should never come before ethos. Like it?

Sarcasm aside... Athioles wasn't someone I hated. You certainly did not deserve the amount of disgust that was expressed on you by some enemies.

Never saw Ghrim do that. If it's true then yes he should have been held to the same standard. If you look at my PBF you'll see I had one good pk, which was a storm giant villager who attacked me for being grouped with a mage. That is the kind of situation I'd like to see the IMMs enforce rather than what I saw over and over again within the Fortress (and only within the Fortress).

I agree with you to an extent, and had I been orderly I'd of taken a completely different approach to the Tribs and Outlanders. As it was the concept of a multi-alignemnt "order" didn't mean jack #### to my character.

...to be honest I don't like good vs good clashes too much either. Outside raids I'd never touch a good outtie with a good trib or vice versa. I'm just somewhat put off by phrases like "All goodies should always be like Fort", this doesn't sound right.

Ghrimriddor did attack and kill fortress mages. It's documented, see his PBF ;)

The difference between what drayden did and what Derialx did was drayden was TRYING t kill Derialx. Derialx never was trying to kill any of the Fortress nor was she trying to kill any of the sunwardens. I could of killed that healer and the sunwardern several times during raids but i let them live. I mostly just tried to knock them out if I had to fight them/ if they were protecting a criminal that wasnt a goodie. The Tribunal thing is hard you have to know your limits. The only time i ever killed a goodie is when Grigor had me at 100 hp and i had just been trying to run him off. I then fiended him and he died.

...I expressed genuine remorse afterwards. In case of at least one, I had no clue that person was even good-aligned, much less in Fortress. At least one of them even attacked me first and I didn't do a single thing in combat while trying to talk to them. Obviously towards the end of Ghrim's life he was a bit different in how he treated good-aligned mages, but that was due to events that happened in game.

An example would be, you are friends with a Marine. He's a great guy, you get along faboulously, and he gets deployed. When he comes back, he's still your friend, but you know that he's more than likely prepared and possibly even killed someone. You would never kill someone (I hope heh), but because your friend has doesn't mean that you completely change how you feel about him. He's still your friend. Obviously CF is more black and white, but that's the general gist. Athioles and Ghrimriddor went way back, literally to the level 20s and within the first 50 hrs of both of our characters. Ghrim considered him his best friend (with Throthgor, Drayden and Doban being right up there...and yes, Doban was evil).

It's one of the tricky things playing a good-aligned villager. I certainly didn't ever strike the Maran or attack any good-aligned mages unless they stood around in front of me using magic. Or if they attacked my villagers in a group (which led to me and Rhone fighting pointless battles where I'd attack, he'd flee, I'd run away, etc). Athioles knew this.

And not for nothing, but Athioles and Ghrimriddor had real conflict often. He'd often tell me that my soul was at risk with all the evil villagers I had running around, and that I should boot them all from the cabal. I'd often tell him that his Fortress mages were destroying the world with their wanton magic use etc.

It wasn't as cut and dry as many would think, but that's completely understandable. Other people weren't us. And so, they didn't see what happened between us.

Anywhoo, just my two cents.

I'm going to call BS on some of this. I interracted with Ghrim with a couple of characters. Most recently was Drasdan. You attacked me at least one other time than the time you killed me. I know for a fact that you knew i was a fortie becuase I'd talked to you about it. You walked in to the Arena as I finished with another and immediately started in on him out of form. I worded him, and you then turned on me one or two rounding me. Your post kill remorse was non-existent as is what I've experienced from others trying to play goodies in the Village. Could be that you were at teh end of your life and expecting to be turned Neutral. But as I said, I call BS.

Listen, I was the commander of the village. I was supposed to kill mages. That's the job of a villager, much less a Commander.

I thought it was odd to say the least that you send a note to the Fortress about how I killed you. Like you expected a goodie villager to never ever ever ever attack any other good align. I'll see if I can't throw up the log later, but after I killed you, I frowned (l33t RP there) and was upset that it had come to the fact I killed you. That doesn't mean I was upset you were dead. It means I was upset I killed you. If it was up to me, I'd let the neutral/evil villagers slaughter every goodie mage in Fortress seeing as how I talked to many fortress mages about quitting magic and other than Aliastriana, all of them gave me stock RP about how magic was saving the world and that I was evil for hating magic. Perhaps if you had taken the time to prove to Ghrim that you weren't destroying the world with your magic, he wouldn't have ever attacked you (which is how I was with Aliastriana).

Even still, I feel like you the player are much more upset about this than I would have expected. I'd ask you to think about how you would play a good-aligned villager. If you state you'll never kill a good-aligned mage, you probably won't have a hut for long. In fact, the simple fact that I didn't hunt good-aligned mages was the reason Karkarrak challenged me and Borkahd was just looking for a reason to boot me at any opportunity.

You say I attacked you once earlier, but I also left you alone several times when I more than likely could have killed you. Rhone was in a similar boat.

You want to know what's really funny? Is that Imperials used to complain to me all the time that I never attacked good-aligned Fortress mages and that I was in bed with them. Kinda funny considering.

Ah well. Send me an email if you want to continue this spsawyer22@gmail.com. Rather not clutter Athioles death thread.

Ok I dont get how someone is good when they commit genocide (there might be a better word but dont know it) which is what the village is about. Killing all mages.

which is pretty much genocide. Moreso than "kill all mages" which wouldn't be genocide but professicide or something like that.

This is CF. Not real life.

All that said, playing a goodie villager is tough, yes. Or should be, at least.

It is most likely why people have a hard time figuring out why others kill them for no "reason".

While finding enough middle ground to respect each other.

Drayden was a dear friend, so it was painful to have to see him leave, but Thuorn will always say what needs to be said, not what people would like to have me say.

The both of you were hellraisers, in a way, that meant it was a matter of when, rather than if, before things would explode the way they did.

That situation was bad for the people involved and for the cabal, but it sure was an interesting RP opportunity. You also deserve major kudos for supporting your friend, no matter what, and for getting back to Captain, even though you did seem to have lost momentum.

Athioles will be a memorable character. Good luck with life and everything, CF will be waiting for you when you have more time again.

I always knew you'd be badass. It was great times in Nexus with you (probably the best caballed times I've had not being a rager), Kyaltaru, Calbaseeti and Slorinek (and occasionally Tahel, Biklaha et al).

However, I never expected you to be this badass. Dear Lord. I honestly thought you were Tongni for a while until I realized you took more risks and played the character longer than he ever would.

It was a pleasure to interact with you each and every time as Ghrim. We truly had a relationship with depth and conflict, and it made for some great roleplay. I'll never forget when you told me "Now if you kill Zasoswki I'll buy you a drink" after I killed Pandol and Sivyh.

I hope you keep playing man. You're great for the game.

I still can't believe you were Rhyaldrin. That's just awesome.

Damn I should have figured. We got along great in the Nexun days too. Always awesome to cross paths with you. I hope it happens again some day.

Thanks for the compliment too. CF hasn't been that big of a leap for me after playing Dark Mists (which pretty much ripped off CF in every way). Ironically Tony (Tongni) started there as well.

When you went all berserker and killed those Imperials I was amazed. Actually, all of Fort was. We assumed they were off dying in an area explore again until I started asking questions. Well done.

>Sollin: The only Acolyte I didn't want to strangle! It was fun
>watching you evolve from the little kid to an awesome aco to
>an imm. You were easily the most powerful character in the
>Fort. When you logged in the entire atmosphere of the game
>changed.

Aww, this makes me sad. I always thought Athioles and Jerohk got along pretty well. I really enjoyed when I got to run with you. Hopefully I'll run into your chars again!

The other Acolyte I liked! It was always a blast playing in the middle of the night with you and the others.

I can understand that. I wish wish wish Baer wasn't such a hard ass sometimes but unfortunately she is. She can't abide impurities and her followers being willing to commit the sins that take them down circles of hell is just a deal breaker for her. Trust me when I say I wanted nothing more than to tattoo you because you were pretty awesome. I just couldn't justify it with Baer. Maybe you should have been a Rayihn follower instead. :) Either way, I hope the experience didn't turn you off from the religion - I'd be thrilled to have you as a follower again.

Good luck on your next.

Nothing personal Baer, just forgot.

You were the first IMM I ever interacted with on CF with my very first character. We interacted for about 30 minutes about fate or some nonsense as I was just trying to get a feel for your religion. You've empowered me a few times since (unfortunately I can't seem to play anything that isn't a mace spec) and my number one goal with every goodie is to get your tat, including Athioles. I figured with this build, and how things took off that this would be my best shot. It never crossed my mind that going into that area would screw that up (I'd never been there in the past, only having played here for around two years) or I'd never of even considered it.

I think I took it like a man though (our talk, not the bull). I understood why and the interaction was top notch as always. If time allows I will be trying again some day when we both have more time.

Take care and enjoy that baby! He or she will be driving before you know it.

I think we only scuffled once while I was ranking, and you near nailed me. I pretty much had you pinned as the guy that would figure out a way to kill me, and I thought you had the best shot at it. Needless to say I am relieved a bit, but your character was great, so it definately will impact the forts power. You online was a huge power boost for your cabal, you were a truck man.

Good luck with the next.

It got to the point that I actually felt bad about crashing ranking parties. I know how hard it can be to get a group sometimes. The last thing a level 42 wants is to have my hero ass swinging maces at them on Kiadana.

We never got to interact but I've heard nothing but good things. Keep it up.

The Tiamat run was one of my favorites. Light is swaying heavy, and you convince me to join your group, saying we're going to kill Tiamat. So I say what the hell, I'll tag along, knowing full well it's about 99% certain we're all going to die, and thus help balance things. I think I even said we'll all die, which is why I was willing to go (Allysia figured having her along would be a sure way to be positive you all attempted Tiamat, and thus would die, even if it meant she would die as well). We go in, and sure enough, I think all but one or two died. Though for a brief moment, I think we could have pulled it off. Until we all started dropping like flies.

I think our relationship became a bit softer as we grew and talked more, and I always enjoyed the talks later on. Though getting summoned into you by Drayden was one of the two or three biggest ass kickings Allysia has ever had. :)

I remember Rhyaldrin, he was a solid char, so I'm not surprised by how well you did with Athioles.

Hope time allows you a little leeway for some CF in the future :)

That bloody wench. We tried several times over all. We found a few tricks that got us close. I believe (Serelyia or Rhone will have to confirm) we had her convulsing three separate times. The closest by far was our first try when we had 11 of us and we STILL couldn't do it. It became an obsession for Rhone and I. I hope he manages to pull it off.

I didn't know you then, and I was going off mostly what I'd heard (which wasn't very nice things from Villagers) so when we saw you, and we knew you all had just been attacking another Fortie I figured lets pull the trigger.

As I got to know you I felt really bad about that violation. It got to the point where I'd avoid killing you even if you were attacking us. I'd take other targets... like Schorie that day you all just showed up at the Palace.

Nexus can be a hard ride, but stick it out. That cabal needs solid leadership more than most.

As another emperor once said:

"There's an old saying ... that says, fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again."

After my first two cry of the phoenix deaths I stopped attacking you straight up when there were other Maran online. Instead I would just stalk.

Seems like something Hunsobo would say. Or Hanord when drunk.

Close!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKgPY1adc0A

All hail Emperor Bush.

In all honesty assassins don't scare me. I feel that I'm alert enough to not get popped even if I'm just slumming around in the Fort or another area. You were the exception to that, and if you check my PBF you'll see you're the only one who got me. Twice, at that.

The first one was me sitting outside the Village waiting for Zaahir to come out for round two. I had no idea you were online. I cursed, a lot, at my pit.

The second was still the most impressive assassination I've seen. We fought our way into the Lands and took the Codex. We knew you had been stalking us (or rather me, as I had your strange bracers) and the plan was to let the bard run it home and the rest of us recall. However, as I hit Hamsah a thief in Fort said that you were still in, or near the Palace. Like an idiot I abandoned the plan and figured I'd walk everyone home since eastern had been crawling with evil villagers that day. I hit hte crossroads and boom, cursing at my pit again.

I assume you vanished and landed ahead of us? Or maybe the thief just fed me some bad intel. Either way I was impressed. You'll be a great Emperor.

Honestly I can't remember. I think I may have worded then run back out onto the road, figuring you'd pass that way. It was indeed gratifying. Especially since I kind of suck at assassinate. :)

I liked Athioles for a lot of reasons. You were a strong, competent leader that really inspired people and stuck up for your troops, like any good leader would. Obviously, that was a bit to a fault with the whole Drayden situation, but you recovered well and I felt it was very well rp'ed out. All and all, a well played character that I really enjoyed interacting with. I hope life slows down a bit for you and you can find time for CF again in the near future.

Nae-nae!

I really liked you. I was worried this might happen, but can understand why you might.

If you hadn't been praying to Baer I would have been a little more involved and chatty with you, but I try to focus my free RP time on people that might not get it with other imms as readily.

Good character--I'm glad you stuck it out. Feel free to write me if you have anything else to say about Adekar, your char, or Fort in general.

Edited to add: And about Maranating. You were overdue for it, and a big part of it was for not losing your cool (that I saw). Also, I felt a little guilty for going overboard with the keywords when I wrote that familiar and including "charming" :)

Sorry I took so long to get onto this one, I have been on the road a fair bit lately and haven't had as much time as I usually would have...

Man! Thankyou for all those good times. I remember being unempowered, stumbling around pointlessly looking for people to annoy when I found your ranking group in the Drogan...

And then bammm!!

Next thing I know you are not only a Maran, but Marshall and you were certainly a blast to be around. It was a pleasure to spend all those random hours together, especially in those times when Empire was on top and we had our hands full! I loved how willing you were to mix it up and your presence around the Fortress was nothing short of inspirational at times.

Cheers for all the love!

Goodluck with your next.

-Sollin

Thwrerrorip only had a conversational issue with you, when you all
but told the potential squire to kill goodie tribbies in his way
to kill an evil. I was like WTF?!?! It took a while to see that
you didn't DO wrong but you talked it up for others, and to
Thwrerrorip that was leading people astray.
As a player though I just couldn't NOT go along with you on oh so
many things. (I play ALOT of marany-types)

and as an aside I REALLY REALLY wanted to go on the hell trip
with you but when I asked why you were going had you given me
a reason like slaying evil things, to lessen the hold of darkness
on thera or anything like that I'd have been in.

Most memorable (to me) was the villager on the road who had been
grouped with an outlander earlier or something. I think we both
died to flurries. His feet aren't on the ground? Whatdya mean
his feet aren't on the ground! Does not compute.. can't wrap brain
around... I should fl.. you have been killed.

All in all:
Fun guy to be around, but dangerous to the soul to listen to. :)
Had I been playing a more maranly character though...

>1) The Acolytes were pissing me off with their constant holier
>than thou routine. It felt like everything we did was under a
>microscope by a small group who never seemed to do much else
>aside from that. If that's their "job" like I was told (time
>and time again) then that's fine. But I don't have to like it,
>and when my buddy gets verbally jumped by the entire cabal of
>course I'm going to stick up for him. My only mistake in doing
>so was not understanding the situation completely (I had no
>idea about the rotting, for example). Either way Adekar's
>decision was just and it was a fun turn for the character.

Well I guess this explains why you weren't interested in my help with anything. As for a holier than thou routine well, that definitely was never my goal, but it is true that part of the Acolytes' role is to keep the Maran on the straight and narrow, and I can see how that would be annoying if you want to play it a little looser. Anyhow, sorry if I was one of the obnoxious ones.

F UUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU :)

To give context, I'm sitting on the beach with my smartphone checking the Battlefield. "Oh, Kjaz is gone, bummer - what? I'M the full looting douche?! Um, OK, Kjaz.." ... scroll down .. "Oh, Faeshu's gone too?" ... scroll down and then .. "ATHIOLES?!!"

This deletion was totally unexpected. I was prepared to age die before you. But alas, no. So...

Good job, Man! I greatly enjoyed your leadership style, which was to basically (1) raze your enemies' lands, (2) be fearless in doing everything you ask your "troops" to do, and (3) have everyone of your "troops" backs no matter what. It worked extremely well, and Athioles was probably one of the most effective cabal leaders I've ever seen so far as dominating the cabal wars. I was totally dumbfounded trying to guess who played the char because I really hadn't seen a character with Athioles' style before. It makes sense you were Rhyladrin, who I liked but never had the chance to play on the same side as. That said, PK-wise, I think Athioles was way more successful than Rhy.

So I'm pretty bummed you're gone from the Fort, but it was fun, I enjoyed being your second-in-command, and hopefully we'll have the chance to play it out again sometime.