| |
|
#8804, "More than you wanted to know, I'm sure."
In response to Reply #0
|
Lan. That was the name my mother used to call you, and she did speak of you often. To the uninformed stranger, it would seem as though the two of you had spent more time together than a brief, passionate few months. Although love and children can begin their blossomings in a short time, sadly, generations of tradition and preceptions are not so quickly overcome. And so you left immediately upon hearing of her pregnancy. No doubt a curious and exotic summer turned into a very real responsibility, and potentially damaging to your heritage. You ran to escape. You were able to run. But the further you ran, the more the sting of "bastard" was burned upon my forehead, right next to your previous brand of "half- breed". I cannot hold ill will against you, my father, for many would have, and have already, done the same in your situation. And for my mother's sake: she holds nothing but a detached obsession for you.
It was not until many years into adolesuenece that I discovered that Lan was a common name beginning for the elves of Darsylon. I never had the heart, nor courage, to tell my mother about this. Sometimes I wonder if that is all of your name she really knew. Not a lie, but neither was it the entire truth. Maybe just personal enough to bring you into her trust, yet anonymous enough for you to slip out again once the fling was over. And so your "almost" name became me.
I never learned very much else about the elves. My mother would never let me see or speak with the very few visitors who stopped by our small cottage. "You're too precious, they'd want you for themselves!" she would say. When I think about it now, I simply guess there would be too many questions. Questions she did not want to answer. It was in an abandoned cabin in a mountain crevice filled with books that I learned all I could about the outside world. I tried to learn about what was beyond the forests and fields that I knew so well. I tried to learn about you.
Well, that was how Lannie started out. One day at work, out of the blue, I sat there and wrote that as a role. I had no class/cabal/alignment/ethos figured out. Just a name and a role. Then I remembered Shokai commenting a while back about how much harder it is to roleplay the simple and straightforward "good guy" than it is to be some wacky crazy role like we get a good bit of in CF (ie warriors who think they're mages, etc, etc). And there were a ton of Scions on at that time. Always up for a roleplay challenge and I love playing the underdog, I decided to go good alignment (my first good hero, and only second char since a year+ break) and try to be a Maran, and picked a class/ethos based on how I think this overachiever (I figured Lan would constantly compare himself to elves, and try to make himself be better morally than how he perceived his father) would be. He liked strict rules and organization, and saw unplanned carelessness sort of as the error of his father. Picked sphere of Knowledge, followed Yanoreth whom I called the Lady of the Midnight Light. Thought it was a good way of looking at the moon, and was able to toss "Light" in there too. He looked at knowledge as the light in the surrounding darkness. That part of the role is to come.
Ranger was kind of obvious from the role, at least that is what I thought before I played Lannie, my first ranger. I used to think of rangers as the survival/outdoors type but I think the Imms have more focus on them been woodsmen. Yeah, I didn't play him like a woodsman. Yeah, I never had fast camo, fast creep, or any of that fun stuff. Don't base the strength of rangers on my char. They have so much potential it is insane. Staves/scrolls are two wonderful skills. Oh, one comment about rangers though: I only hit ambush onslaught on one character, an orc. With 100% ambush, I missed it on duergar, Amora, and a few other characters that I can't remember right now, usually with a hitroll in the 20-30 range. If it is based on my wilderness % or something like that, ok, I understand. If not, might want to look at how often it hits?
Anyway, somewhere in the 20s, I was asked to change my name. I had no idea it was a char in a book, sorry to everyone that thought of the book every time they saw my name. It was completely based on my role so I really didn't want to get a totally new name, so I asked the Imm about "Lann" or if had to be further: "Lanni". The imm suggested "Lannie", I agreed (happy to not be deleted) and then Lannie was born.
To make a long story shorter: I got bored. Evil disappeared, Goodies popped up. I got extremely tired of the pk/eq side of it all. Tried to get people to tell me more about the areas we went to, but it was worse than pulling teeth. Seems like the majority of people just: c loc x, go to spot y, get x and z, repeat. So I spent a good deal of time alone exploring, trying to learn so I could one day impress Yanoreth with all that I was learning. Never heard from her, can't blame her, it was my fault for getting my hopes up rather then assuming nothing would happen and go from there. Tried approaching Shokai about doing some research for the Maran cabal, didn't get a reply to my note, didn't hear any answer to my prayers. Again, I can't blame him, this was back when he was moving. So I ran around trying to do my share in the fighting. Lannie was obviously never intended to be a strong pker, and so that part of Lannie is what really made me lose interest. I rolled up a new character just to brawl some with and had a lot more fun with him, than the ranger sitting out in the woods thinking of poems that nobody would ever hear, or resorting to gangbanging some hapless scion. Frequently I would sit around and talk to and help out various lowbies I ran into. Yeah, I had to bribe people with experience or equipment before they'd entertain me by doing more than pk/eq. I probably should have joined Dawn.
Then I think the kicker was when the staff locations were moved due to TLB and TLB2, around the same time I won the role contest. That put a huge kink in my pking. I put myself in a great disadvantage by rarely fighting in the woods (I know, I know, rangers=woodsman). At the same time, it really bothered me to be reminded that I did have a good role, yet nobody to share it with. So after that, I didn't hardly log in at all and continued to play the other char. Never even bothered to get the reward for winning. Don't get me wrong Cyradia, I was extremely happy to have been one of the winners, and simple acknowledgement was reward enough.
I did meet a few wonderfully played characters, that I wish I had seen more of. I think some good aligned people get the short end of the stick when it comes to being recognized for roleplaying. The strong silent type do seem to get overlooked 10 times for every dwarf who thinks he's a mage. The Imms comment about the large number of unusual character on CF, but it does seem that roleplaying a good, solid, "normal" character isn't enough these days to catch the Imms' eye. Not trying to bitch and moan, just trying to figure out where the Imms are placing the rewards, and which direction they're trying to guide the game.
Role Part II:
The more I searched for understanding within the new world, the more sadness and despair crept into my heart. I began drowning in the seemingly endless oceans of moral decay and wickedness of the world, overwhelmed by wave after wave of nauseating evil. In fits of rage I lashed out against this invisible foe, striking the random duergar or unholy fighter in the streets of cities. Occasionally I would stumble away from the fights covered in blood, numb to the great pain of my body, and numb to the even greater pain of my heart. More frequently I would find myself stumbling back to a mutilated and unrecognizable corpse.
It was during the Month of Futility that I found myself pausing in mid- stride to reflect upon what was happening. The druids claim that this time of year the wild itself pauses as it resteadies the burden of civilization upon its shoulders, calling it Thera's Sorrow. I returned to the pastime of my youth: reading. At the Lyceum of the Eternal Star, I turned my attentions first to researching the evils that had so obsessed me. I browsed through books speaking of Valguarnera's formation of the Scion under the watch of the Crow. Then I picked up a book speaking of the rise and fall of the Shadow. Immediately I felt the surge of sunken bitterness within myself as I read of its beginnings. Then a feeling I cannot describe overcame me. I began reading of a force fighting against the Shadow. A force called the Knights of Thera.
I had heard brief mentions of various Knights of Thera in the past, but only now did I fully realize the importance of a group fighting the tide of darkness. My soul bathed in the Light! I eagerly read for days and days about the Knights of Thera, Lord Cador, Lord Shokai, the Marans, and the Holy Brigade. The Lady of the Midnight Light had chosen to reveal this to my aching heart, and I wept for joy. I murmured a quick prayer of thanks to Her, vowing to follow Her as faithfully as I could, and hopefully in turn pass on to others the blessings She bestowed upon me. No longer was the new moon upon me. The next phase of my life had begun. I began to seek the Immortal Commanders of the Holy Brigade.
Goodbyes:
Karhon, Lydian, Algorvhal, Wasabre, Dalentar: I came across quite a few very strongly played good characters. Hope I brought some level of enjoyment to your playing.
Orinah: One of my favorite foes. Sadly, getting all prepped up and then charging in never seemed to work, and snare just didn't seem to last long enough. Heh, as Stargher, I bet you were cussing that time you ran into me as you were running from Sofia and you ended up dying to the backrake bleeding. I did watch you from time to time and the frequency that you zapped yourself with barrier was kind of scary 
Jaslanna: I know you really want the one on one fights, and I'm sorry Lannie didn't fight that way.
To any lowbies I helped: You're welcome. Go play a Maran!
Did I forget anyone that actually remembered me?
|
|
|
|
| | |
|
#8808, "RE: More than you wanted to know, I'm sure."
In response to Reply #1
|
>Did I forget anyone that actually remembered me?
Well I would say so
Agreed, we didn't travel much but I liked it when we did a lot. I don't know how much scouting from above I did for you but I'm sure it was atleast some *shrug*
I thought this was coming as I've not seen you around for a very long time now. Ah well, I hope you will be back in one form or another because I liked you 
Lardovian
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Dalentar | Tue 27-Aug-02 02:03 AM |
Member since 04th Mar 2003
0 posts
|     |
|
#8807, "Enjoyed the travels"
In response to Reply #1
|
I knew you had it rough, often being the only maran on and I wasn't in a position to fight along side you. So I did the only thing that I could do to help was help gather clothing for you. I liked you straight from the first time we traveled. After that we just clicked and I loved the character. You were one of the few people that I didn't mind showing my secrets to. And It felt that the feeling was mutual because you showed me a couple of things.
Great character and much luck with your new one.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Algorvhal | Tue 27-Aug-02 07:59 PM |
Member since 04th Mar 2003
0 posts
| |
|
#8806, "I really liked Lannie"
In response to Reply #1
|
I remember you coming to the fortress as a mid-30s ranger and asking about marans, and being very self-conscious, self-deprecating, and generally making noises that you weren't worthy. I remember standing there with Karhon every now and then and snickering about you on the cabal channel, saying if you didn't get some self-confidence soon then you would in fact not be ready to be a maran, since so much self doubt and generaly 'fraidycatness' is not something we think of in a maran.
But, of course, you did pull it together and you bettered all our expectations. I had a feeling it was your first in a lot of ways, but it wasn't nearly as bad as many other first timers, and in fact you did some things I was very impressed with. I hope you enjoyed hanging with the dwarf as much as he enjoyed having you around.
Good luck with your next.
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Ulthur | Wed 28-Aug-02 07:27 AM |
Member since 04th Mar 2003
44 posts
| |
|
#8805, "Hey"
In response to Reply #1
|
I think we started ranking together at, what... pre-pk range I think? I know the first time we travelled, I wasn't even empowered yet, and your name was still Lan. Then somewhere in the twenties you started ranking much faster than I did, then by the time I caught back up at hero you were around less frequently. Was sorry we didn't get to do more at hero ranks, where you can spend time exploring and such. Had fun, good luck!
.ulthur
"Don't worry cutsy buttons. Tonight, dyin's not on the menu!"
- Strong Bad as Dangeresque
|
|
|
|
|
