Well, it's finally happened. I knew it was a bad idea to even log on tonight, but I figured hey, I'll just read my notes, talk a little, and then log off again. Then I see the Grimoire is held by the ragers, but there's only one rager. So I figure, hell, we'll get a few people together, one rager won't be very tough. Unfortunately, I didn't realise he was a whip spec. Giant was convulsing, and I got entwined right there. Can't recall, can't flee, and getting beat on by a bloodthirsting, deathblowing sword/whip spec berserker who's immune to all my spells. Well, I guess my arrogance hs gotten the best of me again. It's too bad, too, because I really wanted to complete Anastrianna's dream quest.

As for goodbyes, I'm only going to name a few names in speciffic because there are just WAY too many people to name everyone who impacted Ana's (<---now look, you've all got ME abreviating her name now, too!) life:

Annalena, you were the best Sister Anastrianna ever had (and for the greatest majority of her life, the only one). I thoroughly enjoyed every moment of interraction with you; a great roleplayer all around, and a well developed personality for your char. It's too bad we couldn't finish exploring Ana's dreams and history together like we wanted.

Karithia, you may not have been Ana's first sister, but you were right up there with Annalena. I remember the first time Anastrianna met you. I was with Boderbic and we were looking for a third. We ended up finding some guy (I don't remember who) and I asked if you would help us rank. We went to Icewind Dale, verbeeg hunting. I almost felt sorry for the dude we were with, having to put up with three flirty women who wouldn't stop giggling. I wish I could have been around more while you were doing your own quest, but that was shortly after I was called back to work after being laid off for about a month, and they had me doing alot of overtime. Once again, I thoroughly enjoyed all my interractions with you.

Varick! *giggle* I think I feel the most sorry for you. You wanted Anastrianna so bad from the first moment you ever met her. Too bad for you that she was just too innocent to fully catch on when you first met. And then, by the time her innocence faded beyond her grasp, you had pretty much stopped trying. I almost cracked up at Varick's reaction when he finally got a kiss from her. Unfortunately, shortly after that kiss, and right about the time that Ana started returning Varick's affections, I got nailed for more overtime and couldn't log on very much any more. Then you were gone when I was able to come back. Oh well, maybe they'll meet and fall in love in their next lives.

Solmyr, you should have taken lessons from Varick. The way to a woman's heart (especially one of Anastrianna's demeanor) is not by making crude comments and cheap come-on lines. Despite your ineffectual attempts at winning her affections, she enjoyed your company and all the exploring that you both did together. I almost busted a gut laughing when you're little ventriloquate prank backfired on you and took on a life of it's own in Organia. Ironically, it provided me with a HUGE stepping stone to develope Ana's role some more, and proved to be a pivotal piece in the ongoing story of her life. If you want to know a bit more, just drop me a line. My e-mail will be at the end of this post.

Gynax, you needed lessons from Varick as well. Half the time, you were worse than Solmyr when it came to trying to win Ana. Even though you died more often than Ana did, you did manage to serve as an occasional bodyguard for her, and even though she would never have asked you to die to save her, she was always very much appreciative of your efforts.

Ilraeth, what can I say? In the 4 years that I've been playing this game, I have NEVER, NEVER had the amount and quality of interaction with an Imm as I did with you. I thought I was getting alot of immteraction with Selric when I played Gailen, then I made Pleckis and Brakak and got even more with Thror. I didn't think anything would beat out Brakak in that department. I was wrong. Thanks to you, I have serious doubts that I'll ever be able to come up with a character capable of outdoing Anastrianna as far as a creative, unique role that was highly successfull (and I think you'll have to admit, hers was pretty far outside the box for still being a successfull one). I've met others with some pretty unique ideas for roles, but most of them don't go very far because A.) the player goes around almost asking for special things, B.) no imms latch onto the unique aspects of that person's role and whip up a quest around it, or C.) the person just sucks at roleplaying their kick-ass role and it would be a waste of time to give them a quest. Keep up the good work, and KNOW that all the effort you put into this game is deeply appreciated.

Savraeth, someone told me once that you and Ilraeth are the same person. I really don't have any proof one way or the other, but if that's true, then you really are a talented roleplayer. If it's not true, then the rest of this pertains to you. I'm not sure how much of a part you played in Anastrianna's continuing developement. I'm sure there were times, based on subtle clues about which NPCs knew what. If you played a major role in her "life" then much (if not all) of what I wrote for Ilraeth applies to you as well. Admittedly, Ana never had much direct interraction with you, but it always seemed to me like you play the parlementarian of Warlocks. Most everytime someone was punished for something, the note about it was written by you. I found it ironic that the goddess of ice and death, who has difficulty relating to mortals due to her lack of understanding of their emotional reactions, would be the more compassionate and forgiving of the Twin Goddesses, and the goddess of fire and life, who (in the words of Ilraeth) "understands those things better than I do," would be the cold, disciplinarian. *shrug* Either way, a you do a great job, and I hope you keep up the effort.

Imms in general, as far as I know, Ana didn't have too much interaction with most of you (though I freely admit I don't know which imms controlled all the various NPCs). Based on experience with my past characters, I think many of you would do well to pay close attention to the subtleties of various characters. I realise that not everyone thinks to add those subtleties to their character, so it's not a common thing to see. But there are some of us who do, and I've found that with my past characters, those subleties were severly overlooked, and unappreciated. I realise that you're all quite busy with maintaining the game in general, but when you do have time to look in on the characters, pay close attention to the small things they do, and how those things might relate to what is written in that character's role (if they have one). Unfortunately, not everyone knows how to express an aspect of their character when the character is not aware of it. Those people won't necessarily be able to make it clear in their role, but they may at least make an attempt. If you watch the small things they say and do, it becomes apparent. Just a suggestion. Although I'm sure you hear it plenty, overall, you people do an outstanding job keeping this place kicking.

Klaak

Great spirits have always met violent opposition from mediocre minds.
-Einstein