Tue Feb 28 19:34:25 2012

At 4 o'clock PM, Day of the Great Gods, 33rd of the Month of the Spring
on the Theran calendar Qiirvas perished, never to return.

Big thanks to the players and enemies that made this character fun to play for a while. Enlilth, Otuerghad, and Elolania specifically made this character very memorable and worthwhile to play. Yarglen, we didn't travel much, but when we did I could tell that you will be able to bring a good balance to the Empire. Hope you keep the faith.

I drew out this deletion longer than I liked, but am glad I finally severed the chord before auto-deleting. I'm sorry to folks that may have relied on me to be around for not doing it sooner. It got to a point where I would stare at the skull for a long time debating whether I wanted to put myself through the pain of a login that would entail playing by other people's terms for a few hours, and I just didn't end up enjoying the last few logins to the point where I just stopped logging on.

I'm what you might call a casual hardcore player, in that I come back every few years or so and when I do I like to think I bring a good enough mix of rp/pk to the MUD to be recognized for it, and this turn didn't disappoint. My last character was an Emperor turned hero-imm named Urog of little renown but man, that must have been some long time ago.

Some enemies that were fun to play against - Illanthos, I enjoyed our banter though we never 'clashed' in what I would say was a worthwhile enough encounter. Vallinae and Laesron, I think you guys play a great game with your builds and respect what you've done to get the Fortress into the powerhouse that it is now (with illanthos help, of course!), but there were certainly times when I felt really pained and somewhat cheated after falling to the horde mentality often enough. A special kudos goes out to Pincerstaff, which, while not a sentient character persay, certainly left a lasting enough impression on Qiirvas that it is worth mentioning .

Thank you Enlilth - you certainly deserve a special place on my thread for the time and effort investment you placed on me and I appreciate the opportunities that you gave me. I hope that my sudden withdrawl will not sour on mortal involvement because I very much enjoyed the attention that you gave me.

Thank you to the staff - I have been playing this game off and on since Tar Valon and the sa'angreal were something people used to do, and you have managed to impress me with your humanitarian efforts in maintaining this game -- frankly I don't know how you do it. I hope this thread gets lost in the overhyped nonsense over the Cyradia scandal, because speaking from a casual player's standpoint that stuff is so not an issue to what makes this game enjoyable to me that I never really stopped to let it affect me or impact my gameplay. Zulg and Nepenthe, you guys deserve the digital equivalent of Nobel Peace Prizes for continuing to support a hobby that probably seems like work to you but does ultimately bring enjoyment to the non-vocal masses that outweigh the vocal minorities who spend far too much time nitpicking without really enjoying the premise of the game.

I leave this thread satisfied that I was able to accomplish certain milestones in the short amount of time I spent on the game, and a bit disheartened that I was not able to bring the level of support and ability to the hero ranks that I would have liked.

I look forward to responding to the few people that brought me enjoyment in this incarnation and will politely acknowledge the few that may respond to cast their opinions on matters not pertinent to my character's death .

Best of luck to y'all.

-Qiirvas.

I also am debating whether or not to just cut the cord (though in my defense my time is growing short anyway re: CON) so I understand you making the choice you did.

Qiirvas had giant brass balls that dragged on the ground below you. Until I got you after Dvalygg left you to me on a silver platter, I don't think I ever really worried about you too much (even though you got me with Eleagra and then with Elolania + Otuerghad) mostly because by that point, I was able to gather gear to give me suitable strength and save backup.

I really respected that you logged into some horrible ranges and battled as much as you could to regain your item/rank.

And yes, pincerstaff is mean. I always knew about it (I remember a Tribunal warrior using it to own me with special guards a long time ago) I rolled this build because I thought polearm was an under-used spec combined with some other things. Seems several other players had the same thoughts.

Also, thanks for letting me kill you and the Orc. I was convinced Baerinika thought I sucked too bad to ever get Maran until that day.

Good luck with your next.

To be honest, I really, really wanted to hate you but I couldn't. Though you caused me the most grief, I just couldn't really get riled up against you because of the, dare I say 'friendly' attitude you displayed against me. A part of me was wishing that you'd flip me off, or tell me a story about how dark-elves murdered your grandmother and forced themselves on your pet goldfish, or something! Get angry!

Man I was really hoping to see what you'd do with that little extra skill.

Qiirvas is definitely a great example of a character made great by effort. His concept isn't anything we haven't seen before. It's pretty archetypal. You made this character great not because you had an original idea but because you played the hell out of it. You put more energy and effort into constant RP than most do and that turned a character that, sincerely, would have faded into the background if I played it into one I'll remember.

Great job. I wish we had ten more people who went at it like that.

Thanks for the note and the kind PBF comment, I'm glad my RP efforts were noticed. Thanks also for chain plague, though I'll be honest if I thought to myself at the time "when would a shaman ever want to fight 1 on 2 anyone. Now forceduel against the goodies... face. Thank you for the reward - I was very humbled to get it and at the time thought Enlilth just felt guilty for leaving me in hero ranks unempowered for two weeks!

The sup was his idea. The rest may have been me feeling guilty for leaving you in the hero ranks unempowered for two weeks. I apologize for that, but you managed fine and stuck it out. I had no qualms coughing up a few goodies in return for your patience with me. You need to include Twist in your shout outs! He actually helped me a lot with Qiirvas in regards to making you high priest while you were offline. Imagine my surprise when I called the vote to discover he'd only taken you to elite status.

I'll echo Daev and say I was really looking forward to what you might do, and have been logging in during your normal play times for the last week in hopes that you wouldn't auto. If you can only manage to connect and stare at the skull because you don't want to play your current character, then clearly it's time for a new one. Best of luck in whatever you do next. I hope you follow me again one day. Good stuff.

-- Try an Enlilth follower today! Enlilth, now with 40% more chewey caramel in every bite. --

Very sad that you weren't able to find the fun you wanted in the lopsided range you would bravely log into.

Believe it or not, I never tried very hard to kill Qiirvas outside of raiding situations, since I figured you didn't really need a lot of extra harassment. There were a few isolated incidents where you walked into my garrotte, of course, but for the most part I didn't try very hard to hunt you down. Empire was down in the dumps enough without me contributing to the hardship.

For the most part I only made real effort when you were fighting us in a raid or retrieval. I think this actually ended up contributing to the horde mentality that you saw from me, because whenever we fought there was usually a big group involved that was ganging you down, and empire wasn't strong enough at the time for the reverse to be true. Believe me when I say I wasn't trying to frustrate you or powergame you, in fact, the intention was just the opposite.

Thing is, you'd always come and defend no matter what the odds, no matter what the chances of success, so super kudos and I'm sorry that I probably contributed to a lot of painful deaths that you probably didn't have a lot of luck turning back around on me.

I thought Qiirvas was a great character which really pulled hard to turn the empire around, and its a terrible shame that you deleted before empire could regain its footing.

Thanks for the kind words. I did not think to note that we really only ever fought in raid situations while the rest of the Fortress made it a mission to chase me down, so I suppose there was a certain measure of pity/boredom in chasing around susceptable-to-permalag guy.

I remember not thinking much of you as a threat until raiding the Fortress and getting knocked out, then light of heavened after having fought you a few rounds with a weapon that your mantle was, err, evolved to ward against. At the time I thought you were the most overpowered MF-er but then I remembered you're a thief so that made it alright! (jk, I realized eventually you were using a scroll).

You certainly made it a tough road for me, so keep doing what you're doing and don't let the anti-goodie folks get you down. The pendulum always swings.

I really enjoyed the respectful rivalry we had between us. You, like Yarglen, would come to retrieve/defend regardless of the odds. You had a rallying presence to the rest of the Empire, which made your prolonged absence all the suckier as the Empire stumbled over itself in a false-start. I hope you have time to play another character, because we could always use more characters with your presence.

Engaging in mocking banter with an enemy is a heck of a lot of fun, but I worry about people taking personal offense to it, these days. I'm glad you enjoyed the banter as much as I did.

GLWYN, whether it comes around next week or next year.

This really makes me sad. You were an exceptional character who I was just really starting to get to know. You leave big boots in the divine sect that I hope somebody equally competent and fun fills. (A healer??!!)