Thu Jun 11 01:44:27 2020

At 3 o'clock AM, Day of Deception, 9th of the Month of the Dark Shades
on the Theran calendar Targung perished, never to return.

Was an absolute blast traveling with you, was always interesting to see what you were planning next.

Ol' Targ.

Targung was a lot of fun, by and large. I thought of a role for a Jormyr based Empire Shaman...but I had to develop a lot because Jormyr's religion is a lot more complex than I expected!

From an OOC standpoint I wanted to play with desolation, as I hadn't before, and also since I was finally back on a decent connection (I've been playing from Armenia/China for the past 5 years) I wanted to see if I still had shaman pk chops.

Ultimately I got to a point where I had accomplished most of what I could reasonably accomplish. I thought about keeping him around as an explore char but that wasn't Targ's style. To progress the role, I wanted I needed to advance in Empire to council/emperor so I could build it up, anathema myself, and then struggle against that which I built, for ultimately Jormyr-ness.

I guess I could have done that as an Elite but it just didn't feel right. I have nothing against Inaj, but Targung definitely felt like he was running the sect for most of his life. I had exhausted about every avenue I could think of to get HP from her and it is what it is. I don't blame Wijara, I was probably the biggest threat to the throne and Inaj is also his only healer so. Just a bad draw.

I gave my all into Empire, probably being too nice. I did demote a few people, but they took it in stride and ultimately even the people I started off on the wrong foot with (Grahn!) I ended up liing a lot. If you oathed, I was going to gear you out. I was going to rank you. Lord knows how many Imperials I ranked and geared and oathed over the course of my lifetime.

Goodbyes:

Jormyr! Thank you for everything. You gave me a lot early on, and I hope that I did you proud and justified the rewards I got. I liked both my paths and the tattoo was super fun. I may not make overly long-lived chars, but I try to put my all in my chars while they're around. Hope you enjoyed Targung as much as I enjoyed Jormyr. The last couple of times I visited your shrine I was basically looking for a pep talk, but I know that's not your style. Thanks again.

Wijara - You're a cool dude. Super tough and knew your stuff. I took a few last hail mary attempts at getting High Priest and then decided that I was going to at least make sure you were a monster before I deleted with the last few explore trips I organized.

Inaj - You're fine. I wish you were around more, and I can't tell how much of what you said to me was lip service or not but. I enjoyed our interactions and you're cool when you're around.

Fardrin - I was way nicer and kinder to you than I probably should have been. I probably should have tried to butt heads with you more, but I just...I just liked you a lot and thought you had awesome cool swag. Keep the faith strong.

Phron - I liked you a lot too, and I tried to stay out of that RP feud that exists. Targung liked the feud, as it was, he thought it was all good fun and made everyone stronger, but if you would have forced my hand I would have sided with the other dude in the feud. But you were cool and had a lot of promise and I hope my deleting clears an elite spot up for you.

Vlalkon - Man. I loved you a lot. I was holding on to so much gear for you. Ah well. Keep trucking dude, you're awesome.

Pininip - I don't think I ever got you, and not for lack of trying. Very capable, very competent. I don't like new entropy RP as it feels very aimless and like the cabal is just outlander/fort lackey against Empire/Trib. That said, you bucked that trend in that it often times felt like they were your lackeys. You got me two or three times just by being tenacious and shooting your shot, so you ended up catching me with my pants down, or in aristaeia after fighting other people, etc. Well done on that.

Fort - Eh. Mob mentality. Kind of disappointed in Fort as a whole. No one really 'took it to me' or even tried unless their odds were ridiculous. Thiga gets some props for trying to fight me. Merahaid was cool.

Devrena would stick it out and was super tough. Faith/champion pally is an absolute nightmare matchup for shaman.

Ajanfindel - It felt like you were selectively logging nonstop. To the point that at one time I had members from 4 different cabals telling me how funny it was how you would log off/log on. You almost never defended and the one time you actually did defend I was so blown away I just kind of slack-jaw stared at my screen. I hope you had weird RL stuff that just happened to pull you away time and time again, as it wasn't uncommon for you to logoff the second you were getting raided or the second your allies logged off but I don't think I'm naive enough to really believe it. Absolutely no respect for you. You were one person I was going to full sac.


Battle

Polunt was awesome to interact with. Nothing but respect. That minotaur whose name escapes me was cool as well and man, what badass tough rp. Took everything right on the chin.

Saffaeh - I have no idea why you think I somehow cost you DM. But that explains why you full looted me I guess. You got the drop on me when I had been experimenting with aristaeia and lava fountain and playing around. I died, and you looted some things for Tahren. I definitely raged at you a little bit. Nothing OOC or anything. Then I killed you and Qutt in a 1v2 but Pininip was there to finish me. And you decided to full loot me, which is your prerogative. I told other Imperials who helped me regear not to go after you that I didn't want to turn it into a village/empire full loot fest and that I would keep it just between you and me. And then I caught you trying to full loot another Imperial. Moments later, I killed you and you absolutely went off the rails with a weird rant about how I'm the reason you weren't DM. Truly, I have no idea what to make of it. Defender assassin is tough and you were good at getting out before I could finish you usually.

Iastran - Really wanted you to rank up so I could school you. Talking trash to a hero as a person deemed too weak by the gods for me to fight always grates on me. You seemed to complain about, well, everything. Whenever I was around and you died you seemed to have something to say about it. Toughen up man, you're DM of the village, stop crying.


Outlanders

Maeneekonai - You were great. You would come and raid when no one else would. Your autobearcharges and presence in the wilds was something I always had to account for, and you were super fun to RP with post fight. Loved you.

Ydane/Dravaden - Loved both of you. So many golden eagles I didn't even know who I was fighting most of the time, but that RP session we had in Frigid was awesome. Thumbs up, to quote Ydane.

I fought and died a lot to outties as the Spirit would always put me in a tough situation to escape from, but you all were always pretty cool about it.

Others

Doilen - Awesome. Loved you and I wanted to get you to oath so, so badly. Ah well, couldn't quite convert you.

Daksoble/Mortavala - Thanks for all of your alls help and little RP snippets. I really liked both of you.

Orcs - I liked all of you, and I tried to justify rolling with you all whenever I could. Orcs are strong right now and I think that's good for the game.

Imogrezio - You were swank. You dealt with my narcissism pretty well, but in a humorous way. You knew your stuff, and were a pleasure to have on the explore trips, especially when I didn't know things and could easily turn the reins over to you.

Quway - We had a really funny meeting but I ended up thoroughly enjoying running with you. Awesome stuff and keep on keepin' on.


Closing thoughts: I will say that in the past I've criticized imms about not rewarding impactful short-lived characters. I have to eat crow, because I absolutely got rewarded in ~200 hours and it felt very nice. Thank you, to the imms who interacted with me and helped Targung come to life.

In general I really liked my interactions with Targung, minus the three or so bad apples I addressed in my goodbyes. Overall it does seem like CF playerbase plays not to lose now instead of playing to win. It was frustrating how often people wouldn't even try to defend or retrieve. It was frustrating the overwhelming odds people seemed to need to go raid or retrieve. Gear comes and goes. But people seemed way more obsessed with protecting their shiny sets, and it saddens me that some of these really fair weather total coward playstyles are getting rewarded as much as they are. But that's just the nature of how the game I suppose.

Thanks for everything and if I didn't mention you I definitely liked you, overall I really liked playing Targung.

Wow, I didn't get a mention after defending against you and a druid / getting away from you and that same druid during full moon while having the hunt effect (almost died) / getting ganked down by 3 imperials, got half looted including 150 slow potions?

I don't recall you dying when I was around, but if you had, I am sure I didn't touch anything from that corpse. I did see a moment of " nice " where you asked the other two imperials to return what they couldn't use, that I feel is good sportsmanship.

Nonetheless, Targung was a tough nut and Shaman is pretty much a Healer's bane.

My bad. You did always show and defend, and your escape from Maere and me was pretty incredible. The way you were acting I ALMOST thought about sitting in Galadon, since I figured you had orbs of travel but ultimately I didn't because I couldn't have hit you there anyway.

And yeah, I totally looted you and Kruissina's slow and flight potions. I had such a ludicrously high burn rate on gold with oathing/promoting/donating/centurions that I was ALWAYS strapped for cash and slow potions make giant shaman waaaay more bearable.

So. Thanks for that.

Laurandt was cool, respect.

Amazing character. I already deleted, but you were one of the reasons I very much hesitated to pull the plug. Total badass, and I really did want to see you get high priest. "Prince Targ walks" quickly became one of my favourite things to see during a session. A seriously great ally.

I put up with your trash talk even though one on one I did not stand a chance against you at centurions, which is the only place you ever really wanted to fight. Elsewhere, if I fought you outside of the watcher, you were just going to dispel me or recall away, you out-damaged me, and I could not stun you, so there was little point in engaging you on your terms. I congratulate you on making a threatening Jormyr shaman, bent on destruction of others and self.

I have a poor connection and lots of distractions, so I am sorry if my logins looked sporadic. It can't be helped, and it puts me at considerable risk when I lose my connect in the middle of raiding. I think the game is better when people log on, even if the times are short.

As for the full sac/fool loot, I expected it, not because I thought you were a hot-headed asshole but because I have good gear and Targung struck me as a the sort who would want to bring people down to his level. Targung was an egomaniacal narcissistic self-proclaimed prince, and although I offered respect to Targung, I can't say that I found the character pleasant or admirable. Always good for a fight, though!

Having had desolation in the past, I would love to chat with you some more about it.

Real gut punch to see you (and now Vlalkon!) gone. That's a testament to how major an influence you had.

You were a force of nature in the best way possible, completely reshaping how dynamics worked. I was blown away by how you melded consistent RP with excellent tactics and game knowledge.

I definitely became envious of desolation, which is a complete 180 from my perspective coming into this char. Overall there were times I felt completely in your shadow from Fardrin's perspective, but as a player I learned so much and benefited so much I really didn't mind.

Targ's RP was brash and fun to be with, taking losses in stride and keeping his head (perhaps too) high.

You'll be missed, also as someone who plays during my hours. Would love to have you back as an ally if you're trying to decide what to play next!

Great job with Targung, for me, you were the engine that kept the empire running while you were around.

I agree with you that sometimes it's hard to get a fight, and on that front, you were always willing. Thank you for the fun. I understand that a pally faith/champion is a hard match for a shaman, in the other hand, an well played shaman in the empire, is one of the toughest fights a paladin can get. And you sir, were for sure well played.

About your comments during some of our fights, i take it was your roleplay, so, alright. All fun in the end. I had huge respect for you.

Thanks for the fun and GLWYN.

Jormyr! Thank you for everything. You gave me a lot early on, and I hope that I did you proud and justified the rewards I got. I liked both my paths and the tattoo was super fun. I may not make overly long-lived chars, but I try to put my all in my chars while they're around. Hope you enjoyed Targung as much as I enjoyed Jormyr. The last couple of times I visited your shrine I was basically looking for a pep talk, but I know that's not your style. Thanks again.


Seriously, it's my anniversary today and you do this to me! Fortunately, I've CF'ed longer than I've known her, so she knew what she was getting into.

I would say it's a shame to see Targung go, but it's very definitely not part of the Jormyr philosophy. You knew what you were getting into when you started the path, and it always ends the same way. That said (without going into detail for living chars) - even dead, Targung is impacting characters.

I'm glad you found something to explore in the religion- even proposing it, the concern was that it might be too simplistic and excuse for murder-bots. There's definitely a lot that was built into the character to impact his interactions and influences the religion. Ultimately, I try to portray Jormyr as a D&D-style deity that has reason to involve himself.

You did have a bit of an easy route as a frost giant, and I was definitely concerned at first when I squashed your Empire plans, but was pleased to see you roll with it. You could definitely have remained Empire a long time if things rolled right, but Inaj did certainly stall your roll. I was hoping you'd just force the issue to a head and either take the spot from Inaj or force an Anath.

In either case, I'm glad you enjoyed it - I'm off to drink with Mrs. Jormyr! *puts on his grandpa glasses as Bingo starts*

...If you had managed to get Emperor, I really would have taken the Oath because I felt like you would have made me your War Master quickly and because it would have breathed new life into Doilen.

no idea what you were thinking in galadon that day. But yeah if it wasnt for I was losing against you and the village commander even if slowly I would have chased you even to the council to strip you completely bare. I told empirials if they want to go out of their way to fight me as a magistrate I would strip them and give them alot of time to think on that action.
It did show in the fighting after you were capable, but yeah really he saved the targung that day unfortunately. After that it was a rarely seen situation with me and you.

Thumbs up on Targung.