Sun Aug 3 16:24:27 2014

At 2 o'clock AM, Day of Freedom, 11th of the Month of Nature
on the Theran calendar Andira perished, never to return.

Needless to say, you were very influential in Rydell's role/life.

You inducted me, brought me up, guided me, and all that good stuff.

I didn't catch on that Andira = Baer until I was already a full Acolyte, or maybe even the Cardinal. I actually didn't know that Andira = Baer = Rayihn until later in Rydell's life. Seriously. I never really paid attention to any of that stuff, nor did I really care. However, after Rydell was gone I stayed away from the Fort because I was a bit uncomfortable after I knew. It kinda 'dispelled' the entire roleplay about it, so I just stayed away. I'm sure that's not everyones case, but it was mine.

Matter of fact, I thought it was funny when you would talk to me about the sour puss snotty spearmaiden. Cracked me up... but still. When I was writing Rayin's Tenets. I kept spelling it Tenants. Andira was like. RYDELL. TENETS. lol.

Anyway, about Andira:

The most tense time for us was when you got the evil raven. That was actually a lot of fun because it turned our little fortress on it's head. It spun everyone around and NOBODY knew what to make of it. A lot of people were uncomfortable about it, and didn't know exactly how to RP that out. I remember this whole drama involving the Captain, Tolgrumm, and the Marshall, Oshuii, and I remember just having a lot of fun with the whole thing. Stuff like that doesn't happen in the fortress often. So glad I got to be a part of that.

AS a maran? What do you do? Awesome.

Highlight: Was the Golem - which was part of Amaranthe's quest. I can't remember his name now, but that was the most enjoyable 100-150 hours or so of Rydell's life, and you were a HUGE part of it.

Lowlight: I remember that one time I sanctified with the raven present during a Tiamat hunt, and the entire party full of maran and acolytes killed your familiar in like, 1 round. Oh man I felt bad. Totally didn't even think that could happen. Sorry bout that.

GLWYN - keep on doin what you do!

About 50 hours or so before I was going to delete, I started to become senile (or something like that).

Messing up names, messing up races, sexes, classes, and just being really forgetful in general. Started giving away all my possessions to folks and running around with barely a stitch on.

You were one of the few people who noticed and help that RP along. Thanks for that.

At the overwhelming positive consensus.

I didn't interact with you much, and most of my RP gripes would be wrt how other people reacted to you as opposed your RP. The couple times we sat and talked, you seemed in character enough by my standards, but you were quite long winded. Beyond that, I'll hold my tongue.

From a player perspective, even though I'm never gunning for leader spots, I think it's kind of nonsense to lock up a leader spot in your own cabal for so long. Unless of course you have some third party judge ready to demote you if you are out of line.

Finally, I want to echo incognito. I super appreciate admitting this character is you after death, but not letting it slip while the character is active, is more important than a player not outing themselves. We all know there is a slew of players that will only put on their RP face when they are being watched. Folks knowing it is you only adds to that. I saw it first hand with some folks while I was active. Little to no RP while your gone, you show up and suddenly they are trying to grab center stage. Notice how that plays into the top paragraph, Maran for instance probably aren't as willing to rock the boat in response to your evil familiar if they know you are also Baer.

Overall I would say a lot more negative if you weren't getting so many positive responses (like my disbelief that Baer would let anyone but Baer have an evil familiar hang out in the Fort). Someone likes it and you're adding fun apparently, so kudos for that.

Just honest criticism,

Regards,
Matrik

I don't think some of this is really how it went down, particularly with regards to 'outing myself' but I appreciate the feedback.

Looked like our times matched too.

I'll just say this... When I rolled Kazzru, I intended to be a disgruntled, angry drunkard who enjoyed stabbing people. Even if he did have a heart of gold, he was definitely NOT Fortress material.

You changed it. You practically led him by example through a whole character development arc. I never expected to make full Acolyte, ffs.

I kinda wish I didn't stay out of your sight when I played my evils.

I think you asked me (Baer) in your Kazz deletion what was different about this one compared to your past felar theif Acolyte attempts and you just answered your own question there - I spent so much time with you as Andi, I had a much better feel and love for the character. Some people might criticize letting things I've found out with a mort influence an imm decision but ...eh. Playing a mort really gave me a lot more exposure to a variety of characters I wouldn't have otherwise kept much of an eye on and that drove me to reward more so I can't see how it would be a bad thing.

It was well known that you were andira even for those that avoid the third site. If people knew that, what you saw as andira could be unrepresentative of their usual rp. So while I wouldn't say it's wrong to use what you found out, I think the rewards should be confined to what you see when they have no idea they are being judged.

If that makes sense? So andira thinks Fred has great rp but Fred won't get rewarded unless wiz invis Baer or ray sees good rp when he doesn't know he's being watched.

Then you can have some confidence that it probably representative rather than staged.

But I do get what you're saying. It's more of an over arching statement from me more than in regards to Andi.

I won't mention it again. I just know that from traveling with some chars many years ago, it was no rp until an imm was there, and then lots of rp.

I try to believe the best of people.

Great character and I'm envious of your role-playing ability!

Hope to see you back again with another Fort character!

So two whole years ago Scar was working on putting goblins in and I was moaning a little bit about how good doesn't have their own race. The husband said "Well, Scar's done great work with the infrastructure there, we could add a race you know."

...To which I said "Half dragons!?"

And he said no. But then he said he'd liked my half celestial idea. I didn't want to just introduce a new race so I mulled it over for a few days and came up with the idea for Andi. A slightly crazed conjurer who was desperate to break her way into the Azure Fields and find her husband there. I had an idea of a half - angel baby worked in there somewhere but I really hadn't planned to play Andi for more than a hundred hours or so, just RP my butt off to get this going.

But I actually loved playing this character and the role evolved in ways that veered wildly from my plan. All in good, frustrating ways that it never seemed the right time to end it!

I enjoyed every bit of this character. I interacted with way too many people to do individual goodbyes so give me a shout out and I'll reply.

I know some people will criticize my conservative playing style, and I totally agree. At first I worked hard to be less PK averse but as the character got older I slipped back into bad habits.

People will also complain that my hours dropped off. Totally true and something I always felt guilty about. I just always had a few people around that I enjoyed interacting with so much I couldn't bring myself to delete, even though I should have.

I was very impressed all around with all my interactions with Andi. I expected a lot of OOC flak once everyone knew this was me but I can't say that *anyone* treated me differently or poorly in game and that really renewed my faith in the game as a whole and the people who play it, so thank you everyone for that.

I'll probably roll something with bash to play around with and again try to break my pk reticence. Or maybe not, it's hard to find mort time when I've got so much going on this summer, sewing, knitting, raising a 4 year old, school, work, etc etc. I'll be a little more incognito next time tho, hopefully.

Hey just wanted to first say thank you for helping usher in a new race.
Secondly, we didnt interact much but I also wanted to thank you for trying to help me at times and hope you didnt find me rude. I thought it was funny near the end there when I was running away so you wouldnt heal me and you caught up and healed me anyways.
.
It will be interesting to see the official stance from Outlander on this new race. Have you guys discussed that? I could easily see how they may view these Azure as unnatural.

Andi had a fun relationship with Outlanders, between her generally passive attitude and liking for magic, and Azhelak and Amaranthe. She liked all the Wardens and most of the Harbingers. Azure-Touched will be untrusted by Outlanders, so. They can't join the cabal but they also aren't mortal enemies/attack on sight.

I am not much for forums. Obviously not one for making connections between player and character. I had no idea Andira was you, lol. What interactions we had were enjoyable. Ama still wants to get that raven!

Re-iterating again that I loved Amat. The friction between us was great.

An amazing character all around. I reveled at the opportunity to RP with you. Your character had so much breathe in the aspect of RP. A deep story that only continued to grow from what I saw. It was fun doing a tarot reading on you. And hoping all the while that it'd make sense seeing as I had to piece together your "fate" as I saw fit rather than background knowledge to rely on. I'm a bit saddened that I wasn't here for your final fight as you know Sindarielle would've stood beside you but all in all it was fun. And thank you for going through these lengths to introduce a new race to our midst. As always thanks for all you do whether it be in the form of a mort or IMM.

I had to ask Amaranthe if she fed you that vision or you came up with it and she wouldn't say one way or another! Said if I didn't know, then you were doing your job spot on - and I couldn't agree more. You're shaping up a great and creative character all around. Stick it out!

You already know, but I need to say it again; amazing, wonderful character. Had a blast learning everything I did, from RP stuff to game stuff, to showing you where to find certain wands.

Even the quiet days, logins were nice. 'Jogging' around the Fortress. Bitten fingers. Lavender.

Thank you for all of the fun, for everything really.

kekes

was how I viewed Keara. Incredibly nice, pleasant to be around, you lift spirits up for anyone around you. Much love.

Ha! Through a vague alcoholic haze, I remember crashing your wedding, even though I wasn't invited! Nothing but good interactions, thanks for humoring an old drunken Svirf. You were one of the few to outlive me...

Andi really avoided neutrals where she could so this drooling, drunken, rat loving Svirf sorta freaked her out - which to me is a measure of a great RP'er. Well done all around with Corlx.

You were by far beyond the reach of Deaer in RP. It is like trying to catch the moon. Yet, for even how advanced you are at your roleplaying, I was delighted to roleplay with you. Thanks for all the fun. I hope it was fun for you as well.

Your fun Twilight RP was novel and interesting and don't sell yourself short on the RP department! You were (and still are) fantastic. Thank you so much for the kind words - really made my day!

Unfortunately everyone seems to think I was going for Twilight RP. I have read the twilight books but they were not the inspiration for the character. In fact, there were many things I did not like about the books. However, Twilight is the closest mainstream thing to a good-aligned, vampire-esque character so that is what people associate it to even though Deaer's backstory is more complicated than that. This kind of character concept has been done many times over different settings. I can think of a few off the top of my head which are mostly, very silly, anime. Even though that still overshadows the character it was quite enjoyable.

You and Azhelak made for a nasty duo to face off against as an evil player, and as such I expect that some people will not share my sentiment.

Having said that Andira's role was a good one. Well thought out, developed and more importantly, excellently roleplayed. Despite what anybody might say, this would have been the case whether pulled off by an immortal, or a mortal player and nobody can detract that from you.

Andira was fun to have as an ally, added volumes of depth to the game for other players and generally was a boon for anyone who took the time to interact.

I had a lot of fun running with you guys and honestly, even though the mortal stuff is over a year ago now, I'll miss this character.

but a character whose goal was to open portals to other planes to allow it denizens to travel back and and forth and even possess creatures in Thera just doesn't scream to me as one the Ancients would be cool with. That is a knock on the outlander side, and not on Andira.

Azhelak/Andira complaints for the most part had nothing to do with how deadly they were, but more with apparent violation of cabal Dogma.

The cabal dogma is generally necessary to maintain game balance, preventing things like a conjie tessing a ranger with pursuit to a quarry that has insects on.

Rp of both was fine but unfortunately having a conjie to heal fort outer and an outtie with insects and pursuit to attack those trying to kill it, spending large amounts of time there, was not cool.

I happily died to azhelak when retrieving from the tree. I was not happy when having to deal with this combo at the fort (as cagocluse) even though I think I survived that double teaming. Things were already unbalanced and this previously discouraged combo just made it moreso.

All that said, I did enjoy interacting with both characters over a number of my chars, but that's because I don't let balance decisions from the admins bleed into my ic interactions. I just consider the cabal restrictions to be important for game balance. I would not mind them being blurred if fort and outlander were taking a beating (as it could help to restore balance) but the timing wasn't really ideal here.

outlanders were cool with Andira because she only conjured and bound ordely archons and neutral earth elementals and left the chaotic angels alone. Did I miss something?

it sounds a little silly. It made sense when we were RP'ing out all out though. Amaranthe's not so much about inside the box, which is all fun and games until she saddles you with evil raven familiar!

I know she likes to throw things in ever once in a while that will make everyone go WTF. I'll quit stewing over this now and try to go back to being a productive member of the community.

I should also point out that this is during a time Amaranthe was also really pushing for good Outlanders to be GOOD, so Azhelak and others may have as much been cool with her because Amaranthe gave her some gorm of OK and she had a gold aura. Nythos continued to treat her as sort of a lost child that he had no real qualms abour seeing her dead if it came to it. Other neutral Outlanders I feel were sort of a mixed bag, and evil was happily encouraged to slaughter her ridiculously.

Broody elf. You rp'd your evolution from wide-eyed youth to bitter and broken adult flawlessly. I was so happy you let me be involved in your story arc, and thank you for that!

Nice job though. Seemed like a really solid character.

My time in Fortress through Cand and for the first time in my CF life did I -truly- experience roleplay. I can't believe the energy you have. Andi was on a whole diff. level and from your post the reason you made Andi, you pulled it off flawlessly. You don't know how many times even now as I'm writing this we would both be logged in, we'd start talking, and then you'd leave me speechless. I mean there are characters that roleplay, but whatever it is you were doing was on a whole diff. wavelength. I think there were times I legitimately believed I was inside the Fortress as Cand and you were roaming around inside as Andira(that sounds weird but whatever).

Really good job Baer, much respect.

i actually avoid her imm chars because i just can't keep up with that level of rp/immersion and feel inadequate

I'm like, can I have about 3 minutes to respond to that? Wow. oh okay, you've said something else or emoted again. I'm still responding! Wait! ah crap. I feel like a doofus.

Thank you! Cand was such a wonderful character - you know I kept your newbie cookie that you gave me up to my deletion, when I passed it to Keara for safekeeping. I'd always look in my knapsack and smile, remembering you. It sounds selfish but after Amaranthe rolled Skeeta I really wanted to play something epic like that, and posts like yours make me feel like I was successful, and that means so much to me. So thank you again! I hope we cross paths again in game somewhere!

So when I played Toktok I tried to get better understanding of what Baerinika was thinking and looking for though our roleplay. Though in the end it still seemed like it was Andira's opinion of Baerinika rather than what Baerinika was thinking.

Kudos for your ability keep separate your personas.

Before everyone knew it was me I'd be RP'ing with people and they'd inevitably be like "You need to go talk to Baer!!" so I came up with all these reasons Andi couldn't stand and was terrified of Baer. It was kinda fun playing a character who was very much so anti Baerbaer. But yes I felt for the people who'd come to me for some Baer insight because that was so not happening with Andi.

I am impressed with how long you managed to stick it out. Was afraid you were going to delete and it would take away one person for some early morning(or maybe not so early for me) banter at the Fortress. Enjoyed our time exploring as well.

Was nice to not be the only semi-pacifist of the Fortress. Everyone else seemed so happy to be out hunting baddies.

Good luck with whatever comes next.

I loved how chill you were about everything. Pictured you as the perfect farm boy, chewing on a chaff of wheat and occasionally strumming a lute to make people happy. I always hoped you'd wander by Ray's shrine for a chat since you were sphere healing but it wasn't meant to be.

I have never really played a char involved in any religion. After all I hear about your IMM personas and my experience interacting with Andira, perhaps I just have to do something about that.

It's just hard to come up with an interesting enough char concept I want to try out. I've not played since Belendithas died but I do feel it's almost time for something new. How I miss just hanging out in the Fortress, chilling. Chars like Andira made it very enjoyable.

It seems like, from reading these comments, that I was one of the last ones to figure out who was playing Andira. When you first came to me for your Fort interview, I was really pumped about your storyline and RP, and from the reviews here, you kept it up long after I kicked the bucket.

Once you got your evil familiar, I think it took two or three conversations between me and you (as Baerinika) to get the inkling you might be playing Andira, and it was actually your RP division between the characters that gave it away. From then on out, playing out those interactions was awesome -- though I kind of wanted to smoke your familiar. Too bad I had a jaguar tattoo and not a bleeding scimitar.

- Tolgrumm