With the age of the Ruined City *finally* coming to a close, we are pleased to announce the grand opening of Voralian City, a new bastion and home for Thera's followers of the Light. See the corresponding helpfile for in-character details.

Over recent months I've taken the mantle of leadership on the stalled project to get it done once and for all, but far be it for me to exclude any of the numerous people who have contributed to this project, not just now but in the past, perhaps too many to mention. A special thanks to Valguarnera who really did blaze through those final nuts and bolts to bring the area live for your enjoyment.

The area also marks the debut of the use of the 'sayto' command for exploration purposes. When using 'sayto' directed at an NPC, you can ask about a variety of subjects in the hope of eliciting a useful or amusing response. I recommend starting with something simple such as 'Hello, 'What's your name?' or 'What's your job?'.

For now, this function is mostly limited to Voralian City, but expect to see it expanded to other areas in the future.

Enjoy!

After coming back from a lengthy break I found myself playing a character with this city as a hometown. To all that where involved in its creation I just have to say it.......whoa. Amazing detail and the historical references and such are just flat out a touch of style. It's about time some of those tribunal imms got what they deserved, and yet again I have to say it whoa.

This the shortest time period within my memory for an 'area transition'.

Also the new metal and the details about them are highly appreciated and have been much-needed. Big props on that.

Ignore the people who mention the layouts being similar. They're actually pretty lucky that for the most part normal people can still walk through the city like they used to TV and RC.

Ignore the people who mention the layouts being similar.

Most of the city was damaged in the aftermath of the cataclysmic event, but the buildings were largely intact with the exception of the White Tower. Quoth Amaranthe on this topic:

"The Voralian Order does not have whitesteel bulldozers. Of course the streets are in the same places."

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

>"The Voralian Order does not have
>whitesteel bulldozers. Of course the streets are in the same
>places."

haha

Wooot.

Heh.

So what's our next project gonna be?

Big kudos to Amaranthe for all her hard work in getting us to the
final stretch.

This is just a reminder that if you see references to Tar Valon
or Ruined City throughout the game, to use the typo command
to report them. I'm sure we'll be finding them for a while.

And please post all the bugs to the Bug Board as you find
them. We've already picked up a few errant Tribunal issues and
a shopkeeper who refuses to sell her wares, but the sooner you
report them, the sooner we can fix them!

Qaledus (who snuck into the echoes and was not a big wheel in this)

First of all, long time listener, first time caller...

Why do all traces of Tar Valon and Ruined City need to be removed from the game. They did happen--they did exist, right? They are part of Thera's history. I find this different than, say, Maethien, were reality itself was twisted and it was like Shadar Logoth and Aridhol never actually happened. TV and RC should be in certain characters' historical consciousness, as well as the broad scheme of things.

For example, I'll tell you right now that the Octagonal tower has lots of stuff that refers to Tar Valon. I didn't report this until now, because well, I don't see why it's a problem. The backstory involves TV and the white tower, so why would this need to change--these things were real at one point, and what we have left is...well, you'd have to explore the Octagonal tower to see.

For example, a number of Lyceum texts refer to "Tar Valon" as the site of historical events, etc. However, the majority of the changes are for descriptions/etc. that refer to the city in the center of the river by name, and that name is now Voralian City.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

In the interest of becoming an "all original MUD", the intention is for all copywritten material to be removed from the game. Additionally, the use of copywritten material may present potential snags for whatever future CF may have.. for example, if we were to sell a map of Thera in our gift shop to raise money for the MUD, we are now selling an item with copywritten names on it. Not to mention, it just smacks of inconsistent silliness for those familiar with Robert Jordan's series, to have Tar Valon and the White Tower in a world that is decidedly not Robert Jordan's world. I have recommended CF to a few people who upon logging into Tar Valon or walking through Mirkwood ( as it was known in the past ) just quit where they stand because they can't possibly believe a mud that embraces roleplaying to abide by such a hodgepodge of literary references.

With that in mind, the goal is to have references to "Tar Valon" just not exist in the game. Naturally, some characters will retain memories of the place and it'll come up, but ideally that will be reduced over time. References to the city's past in the Voralian City area itself you'll notice are often called the "old city", or something of that nature.

So, no, we're not going to smack you down for mentioning Tar Valon in your roleplay and role, but we want to endorse these names as little as possible.

...if a mock-up of this "old city" were put into the past, like Ostalagiah. That would pretty much fix the botched-up, unwanted pieces of CF's timeline in regards to Tar Valon. Making a name for the city, instead of the generic "old city" would be a plus as well.

I don't have a strong interest in tempting Robert Jordan's people into issuing a "cease and desist" letter someday by continuing to use their copyrighted material without consent. Jordan's official stance is that his permission is required (as is the Tolkien official stance), and we don't have it. A great deal of fantasy stuff (notably D&D) is considered public domain and the authors have never shown an interest in preventing people from using it, but you'll notice that no area introduced in the last few years is based on copyrighted material.

In reality, the fact that our game is free is probably most of the protection we'd need, but if they asked, I'd still feel obligated to remove it out of respect for their wishes.

Given how much effort it takes to add a new area, I wouldn't want to assign the mock-up to anyone with the area facing an uncertain future anyway.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com

(I probably didn't clarify very well)

I didn't mean make something that references Tar Valon in any way. I meant make a city to reference Voralian City. Make the city that "used" to be there, before it became the "Ruined City". That would fix the timeline I think. Or just axe all tar valon stuff and ignore it.

From what I read, it seems like he was saying to make an area along the lines of "Galadonian Encampment" in the past to help flesh out the "past" of Voralian city as a non-Tar Valon setup, like when Ostalgiah appeared, and CF-wise it was just "everything else was some trick, it never existed".

Are you inferring that we are in danger of losing the past, the new city you just put in, or something else in that last sentence? I always wanted to see more past stuff...

I meant Tar Valon, since we theoretically could receive a future "stop using our city" letter.

valguarnera@carrionfields.com