Sat May 14 18:31:31 2016

At 5 o'clock AM, Day of Thunder, 10th of the Month of the Ancient Darkness
on the Theran calendar Darvoderis perished, never to return.

You was a good ally, and I liked you. Especially had fun with promotions and Orilzis's demotion/anathema. Thanks for promotions, by the way. Too bad I died to the quest, we would have some fun.

But what you did to Tiiga is (imho) absolutely ugly - you, in fact, ruined Empire that I love so much. I even have a conspiracy theory that you did it intentionaly, knowing that he will become anathema and Empire will be ruined, so you'll safely play in an enemy cabal. I hope I'm wrong, though, but I see no other reason for that demotion, and replacing one of the best imperials with someoen weak and mostly absent.

I enjoyed Draguul and wish your quest had gone differently. You had some pretty interesting interactions going on I believe were going to lead to some pretty interesting inter-cabal strife.

For the rest, we likely have different opinions of someone you call weak and mostly absent (I voted for them for Emperor once upon a time, even though I did move to overthrow them later) and my actions were based off of previous interactions and arrangements that had been ongoing prior to Darvoderis becoming Emperor. Tiiga became anathema for attacking the Emperor which is pretty straight forward (I did not have a charm commune to force them to trip me). That happened before I could start any dialogue. They could have continued on as they had for the life of the character up to this point with pretty much no change to playstyle as an Elite Shadow with the opportunity to become Shadow Lord or possibly more again.

Based on player numbers, I will agree losing Tiiga is a big hit to the Empire, but things tend to change drastically over a few weeks anyway, so I think it is a stretch to say I ruined the cabal, especially since it has not been on very solid footing (as far as cabal wars go) for a while already (at least pretty much all of Darvoderis' life).

Lastly, I don't play safely. It just isn't what I do.

You were always up for a fight and I like that, had some good talks, but as a vuln holy cloud giant I could do little to stop your onslaught of prayers my no matter my saves, I think I might have got you twice, but enjoyed our fights. Great character

Same. Good luck with the RL event you had referred to. Hope everything is going well.

It's kinda funny that I as a player wanted you to get emperor for the longest time as you were the only imperial very often and very often without the codex and very often coming to get it back.

Of course, none of that IC, but we had somewhat amiable chats. I still logged on often during Qinsa's reign, but since you weren't the focus then, I guess we went way down on interactions.

Enjoyed the char as much as one can enjoy an enemy and GLWYN!

P.S. Hopefully no more centurion traps for a while - had to often specifically check for that before doing my thing...

but since you weren't the focus then, I guess we went way down on interactions.

That.

I still saw you and Ardish and others around, but you weren't taking the codex and had your hands full at the spire, and I had more than I could deal with fighting villagers, so it was just rare for our paths to cross during that period.

I was a bit disappointed you figured out seaweed

Not a great char from my perspective, but probably my best in three years. Playing a low exp light armor shaman (I have typically played giant/heavy armor types if playing a shaman previously) had been on my to do list for some time. I had lost interest in my previous char over the holidays, and Empire finally seemed to be in a downswing (best cabal for Shaman IMHO), so I rolled Darvoderis. Being viable in PK all the way up, and actually having things like energy drain work from time to time were awesome.

Darvoderis made it to High Priest fairly quickly based on being the only Divine who met the prerequisites. When Gaspare was still around, logins where either Gaspare was on and there was no one to fight, or he was not on and there were about 10 people to fight which began to take a toll once I hit hero range. When Gaspare deleted, the situation at least had a bit of a shakeup.

I didn't feel real good about overthrowing Caecilius. I thought Caecilius was a very interesting char, and had very good takes on the Empire, but once the Trib war got going, with the numbers battle had plus Qinsa's effectiveness, I could not even leave a protected city to try to recover the codex at that point, so log ins were spent sitting around frustrated contemplating deletion. When I pushed for a vote, I saw my options as delete or find a way to end the trib war, and that was the only way I knew to do it. This was probably more of a move motivated by what me the player wanted than what Darvoderis wanted, although those get to be hard distinctions to make at some points.

Once I got Emperor I was a bit light on con already, so that probably hurt my motivation to do much more as Emperor than just to run around and mix it up (which is the part of the game I enjoy the most anyway). I considered trying to get a con quest, but RL is getting pretty busy (not that that will stop me from rolling up something else immediately) and I was already a bit fatigued on this char anyway.

Apologies to anyone I lashed out at on the days my frustration was peaking. It happens more than it used to. I tend to gravitate toward underdog cabals, but then get upset about being the underdog, which is something I need to work on. I don't think I really saw anything negative from any enemies

Destuvius - Great interactions and thanks for everything. Sorry if I fell off or made questionable decisions toward the end.

Jormyr - Thanks for the RC win.

Golthazar and Rodacir - Thanks for the votes (would have left this out but since Destuvius posted it already).

Golthazar - When you were around, it always felt like we were winning

Rodacir, Prantus, Donetov, Almsethla (SP) Thanks for running around and trying to do stuff with me, even though it usually ended up with some (or all) of us dead.

Qinsa - If you had not started attacking me, I would have never called for a vote, so in the end that actually did get you what you wanted, although as an Imperial char (and the player of an Imperial char) it chafes a bit that Darvoderis let characters outside of the Empire affect its internal affairs.

Ardish, Gwildathea, other outlanders - We had plenty of interactions early on, but they kinda fell off after Qinsa's dismantling of the tree started and they never really got rebooted.

Shravthar and Grimgal - thanks for deleting. That greatly extended the life of my char.

Llathe - Early on I considered you a bit of a band wagoner even though I always considered you one of the most competent and deadly villagers. Seeing your conduct when battle was no longer on top really changed my opinion and I think your char is really shining now.

Grundo - You reminded me of my attempts to play warriors. That isn't really a compliment. I loved your willingness to keep getting after it though.

Dol - I'll go ahead and say you are the most significant Azure so far and I grew to really like this character over time.

Worthag - I had your rod then got in another fight before I could give it back to you. Sorry. I never did kill you.

Daphedee - thanks for checking up on me, although my answers rarely went beyond good or fighting.

Nexans - had fun getting out items back, or trying at least.

Balgrum - some amazing interactions today. Good job on sticking it out and good to see you are finally not alone.

I am forgetting a lot. Post and I will reply

My only real regret with this char is I am going out just when there are finally squires and paladins around to kill vs eating deathblows or curing spores all the time.

You were with Abelmon; I missed my window of opportunity to attack him but managed to strike you and it turned out you were extremely low on hp.

It was pretty much my stance that since I could not kill Gaspare AND he started taking the scales, I would instead make every other Imperial's life hell, and demand that the criminal Lich be deposed. Obviously, Gaspare was unfazed.

I'm not sure you were even aware of all that; you just picked up your stuff and continued on, without a word. For a moment it made me feel like I was the villain there.

I knew about it, so it wasn't shocking, even if no one other than Gaspare was really acting on it at the time. If I remember correctly I think we chatted not to long after that and smoothed things over between us at least. I had actually forgotten I had ever died to you (I knew we had fought a time or two) and think Darvoderis and Laeden had a positive (as much as it could be) relationship overall.

I liked Darv. Good sportsmanship and the kind of enemy you like to mix it up with no matter who comes out on top.

GLWYN

Thanks. I like fighting you more when I had 9 titles on you, but even then pretty sure even then you came out on top more often than not.

Good, solid character. I thought you were sort of a pushover early on, especially when the rest of the Imperials never even logged in, but you seemed to grow into the class over time. I'm sure that it didn't help that I was rocking -130 svs for a while.

You were a classy enemy, never afraid to fight, and so I was pretty much always willing to throw down against you and anyone you might have had by your side.

Not sure about the bandwagoner comment, but oh well. I rolled up when Gaspare was running things (though he was gone before I got into his range, for reasons I'll describe when I'm dead).

GLWYN, there'll be less fights without you, and that makes me sad.

From my perspective, at that time village was fairly numerous, and there were some very tough ones, so my reaction when you were coming up was "oh ####, now they have a bard too." Me just putting a spin (likely unfairly) to suit my woe as me narrative at the time.

Felt like for a while, no other imperial would login and it'd just be you, soldiering on alone and getting knocked around for your efforts.
I'd like to think I avoided excessive piling on during raid/retrieval attempts, but you're probably a better judge of that than I.

For the most part (and I would say you always) villagers tended to try to give me a fighting chance and not all jump on at once even when I was trying to retrieve.

Definitely liked seeing you around in the short time we were at hero together. I knew others would rally behind you and action was going to happen. Seemed like you and I had a similar mind to just mix it up even if the odds weren't going our way. Maybe not the way to get a great ratio, but way more fun. GLWYN.

You got very tough very quickly. It was good to see fortress getting back to the point it mattered in cabal wars, and you coming up was the most significant part of that rise so far.

I had fun battling with you as Lexxi. The word I would use to describe you is tenacious. Which describes the perfect zealot shaman. Whenever you logged on, I knew you were coming to mix it up asap. I felt you deserved to kill me and I was even rooting for you, in a weird sort of way, because you were always willing to push the envelope. But I couldn't simply give it to you because that would be down right disrespectful. I did always try to be respectful with looting though.

Anyways, count me as a fan of yours, and I look forward to your next incarnation.

We had some pretty epic fights. I felt like I had you so many times, but always came up just short it seemed. I was impressed with what you were able to do with that build.

You had a lot of ups and downs (mostly ups) over the course. There were a few moments where I was thinking to myself "Man, I should give this guy some special rewards or something cool." And then you would do something questionable RP wise (generally in conflict with religion and not cabal). It was in those moments where I decided that keeping empowerment and all the other stuff unchanged was in itself a bit of a reward for having some bad religion moments.

I am glad you got your run at Emperor, and also that you stuck it out till the bitter end. Thanks for being the kind of character that makes the mud better.

Title'd, tat'ed, last named, leader, RC winner (nothing over the top) felt pretty rewarded to me, and I will admit the last few times I prayed I felt a bit relieved no one showed up because I had a feeling our next encounter would not be a pleasant one for me. After Jalrandar (another Destuvius follower), I thought I had it kinda down, but it felt like Darvoderis got kinda sidetracked along the way and never quite found his way back and interesting things he had going on early in life in just let trickle out.

Thanks for everything you do for the cabal and the game.

Well I had fun with it, never been able to play THAT RP angle, probably less common than getting an Emperor title is getting it then getting overthrown. I am glad you stuck it out, really glad you didn't press the issue of me waiting till the last minute to aid you in fights when you mentioned your health waning, and really glad me pushing the envelope with the RP because of the obvious reasons to do so didn't cause you to anathema me as well.

All in all you were a solid presence, and it was really cool having someone come in to power in the same religion for sure.

And re: The trip session... if only they had waited like, what...five minutes? That whole 'scenario' we had talked about, was just an angle to drain your con and pretend they were not following my orders. Ah well... can't win em all.

Oh and if you had lost, I was going to have you eat the grapes or eat anathema. Darvoderis Lawson, has a nice ring to it no? So really good show on winning the coup, well done.

You ruin half the fun of interacting with you

The four things that kept Caecilius from being anathema'd were:
1. Darvoderis had a bit of a short timers attitude from the get go
2. Regardless of the coup, Darvoderis still liked Caecilius a lot, and they were still both tattooed Destuvians (which actually provided more complications than simplifications in interactions)
3. I still have not decided if you were being subtle or brazenly upfront, which is really a testament to how well you were pulling everything together.
4. Caecilius is a lot of fun. I had played outlander for most of the year prior to Darvoderis, so I got to see him from both sides.

On the coup - This was my fifth vote and third coup, but the first time I had organized one, so I was really in the dark on how everything worked. I was frantically reading through old descriptions and really only found Sivhy's, where the Emperor definitely did not have a vote, and Merf's, where Soviatos was complaining about his early deletion throwing off the vote suggesting that the Emperor did have a vote. I was pretty sure I had two votes, so if it was the first scenario, I was good, If it was the second, I was spending a lot of time trying to figure out where the third council vote would go and where your vote would go, but in the end voted with the first scenario in mind.