Well, a number of reasons.

First, I waited till I was at 32 hours to get empowered. That was harsh. I understand Bria was having some internet troubles, and I don't blame her in the least. Then, after ranking for awhile, I made the hugest mistake I could have made.

I put it into my role that I would ask Bria for her permission to join the Fortress. It fit Zdenhoi's personality to do it, it made sense ic...but ooc it was just about the kiss of death, what with Bria dissapearing. After 20 ranks, and 65 or so hours of trying to get an audience with Bria, she posts that she has been without internet for a while, and it should be fixed soon....good stuff...I couldn't wait...

Then another week, another 20+ hours of trying to get in contact with her...and she posts again that she should be up soon...

I decided not to rank anymore, ic, because if I enter hero range, I will rank out of range of the 30+ empires and aps and various evil characters that I have now.

But, at this point, with zero chance of getting in contact with my imm...with some very important ic friends deleting, and being rank 41 with 30 or so enemies with all my friends going away...I started to think maybe I'll just wait for a while until bria comes back.

You see...I might be way off...but I've looked at paladins above rank 40 like this...

3 virtues: tip top, very standout, very rare.
2 virtues: good, well respected, liked, good example of paladinhood.
1 virtue: decent, above average, maybe even average.
0 virtues: sub par in some way, been wayed and judged and found lacking in some way...

Basically, I was tired of being a no-virtue paladin with no chances that I could see of getting a virtue (yes, I understand that is a really unhealthy attitude to have when you play a paladin...but I'm being honest)...it was getting increasingly difficult to hang in a one on one fight with 3-4 shamans in pk, with healers gating to me, with highly prepped a-ps.... and I didn't want to resort to walking around in Gangs like so many other lightwalkers did....it wouldn't be fun, and it really would break role.


So, I roll another character, a mindless, role-less character, just to pass the time for a week until bria sais she is back online...

Well, as the fates would have it, a week into this char, on a role I make up on the spot, I'm inducted into a cabal and start having immteraction....a week later (two weeks into the char) I've put near 130 hours into this "pass-the-time" character, and have been having more immteraction with this one character than I've had with my past 10 put together...including my empowerees.

**********sidebar*********
You see, you can almost name an imm that has left cf, and I will have had either an empoweree, or a prospective empoweree, of that imm when they left.
Arvam...had a paladin of him when he left. Kasty, had a prospective of him, mayeesha...yup...Justin...yup...Andaren...yup....Intronan...yup.
So, when I had this role Idea for another paladin, someone said "Pick someone who is always there, someone high up in the imm structure...someone like bria"....so I did...
And what happens? *chuckle* Her internet goes down for three weeks.
*************end sidebar********

So I am 2 weeks into my other character, but still wanting to play the paladin....and I see a new provost...that means bria is back.

So, I send an email to Bria, outlining the situation with why zdenhoi has been absent, basically asking if she thinks it would be possible to make a comeback with him after being absent so long.

But, my email won't go through.

I log on zdenhoi, and I see noone that zdenhoi was friends with, only people I know with the other character....and I figure the paladin is doomed.

Maybe if I hadn't put my application to the fortress as riding on permission with Bria, I would have had something to work towards and for in her absense rather than just sitting and marking time....I figure that me putting that into my role is the main reason I've deleted.

While Zdenhoi was infinately patient, I as a player just couldn't take yet another imm dissapearing on my empowerment char, bringing yet another role that I liked to a complete halt (I do NOT blame bria at all).

In light of my history of empowered characters (I've only had one successful one, an old shaman high-priest a long...LONG...time ago)... I just think it just isn't for me. I doubt I will ever play another character that relies on immteraction for anything role-related.

Yeah, that probably means I won't have any more fortressites or empowered chars of any flavor, but my own personal experiances tell me that immteraction, while great when it happens, is just far too random and iffy to base ANY part of a character around.


Oh yeah...

I think the straw that made me realize it was time to delete zdenhoi was actually the new role contest....

You see, I've been a "mention" or "honorable mention" in the past three....and when I saw the role contest, I just didn't think zdenhoi's was up to par to even compete this time...that made me realize that I probably had very little chance of getting a virtue, and even less chance of getting Maran should I ever actually become a squire...so I decided to cut my losses and concentrate on the other char that I have.