Deleted because I wasn't extremely into the character and I accomplished my primary goal (heroing).

Love Herald (as a concept), hate playing one with an empty cabal and no leader. That's not a complaint, it just contributed with my extreme boredom with the character. And, by this point, I wasn't really interested enough in the character or the combo to stick around and try to get leader.

Heroing was fun, glad I finally got to do it. I'm going to take a short break to make sure I have everything in order school-wise, and come back with something a little more challenging and a little more interesting. I had intended to use my time at Hero to explore, but I was just so disinterested in the character that I really didn't care to move on.

Just a few things I wanted to get off my chest when I deleted:

Iunna: Thanks for the interactions, and the beards. I'm glad you've gone dormant, though. It's always been obvious to me that (even before this character) you're bored to tears by Herald, and you could use some time off to recharge. My only regret is that we didn't get to talk more religion.

Uial: I'll start off by saying overall, I enjoyed interacting with you. However, your shtick drove me up a wall, mostly OOCly, but you grated on Ellor, too. OOCly, I'd say that declaring yourself "the Eternal Star" of Thera and campaigning to be High Herald is a really pisspoor decision for a Herald and for someone trying to be leader. A more leaderly thing to do would be to simply DO LEADERLY THINGS, and the position will follow. HOWEVER! I recognize that these things, annoying as they are, really fit with your character, and that's what made them bearable. IC, I think it made for some really interesting interactions. Mostly, Ellor humored you, since it was the best thing for Herald for the two of us to get along and work together. But if you ever noticed Ellor drinking and smoking a lot while you performed... that would be why. As a bard and an artist he felt very much above your kitschy popstar singy nonsense. Mostly though, as a player who values roleplay, I enjoyed this dynamic.

Braell: I hated you. HATED you. Seriously, kudos to the player for coming up with a semi-original concept and thinking it through as well as you have, but I was so annoyed that all the toys you "made" were bought from Voralia. When you buy things from Voralia, your CHARACTER is doing that. You can't just buy them and pretend you made them to support your story, that's OOC. Not only that, but your race is "gnome" not "automaton." I thought it would have been a bit more interesting if your character was actually some kind of a conman PRETENDING to be an automaton toy-making gnome, but as you are... bleh. So annoying. But that's just my opinion. Kudos for the effort but bleh for the result. Also, Herald isn't a "job" and you don't get "hired" to do it.

Damgril: I enjoyed our interactions. Good dynamic. Herald/Imperial relations are always interesting in my opinion. I wasn't surprised when you didn't make Empress, but that time you came into the bar drinking, before the vote, and talked about Imperial politics... and then that other sect-member walked in and said his piece, was golden. All around well-played character from what I can see, but I do have one complaint. Your name is "DAYUMN, GRRRL!"

Anyhoo, I traveled with a bunch of people, but mostly I was just focused on heroing, so I didn't have much else in the way of notable interactions. Drop a line if you liked/disliked me, or if you have any advice. I'll be back in a bit, playing something that's not a Herald. Thanks, Imms, for this awesome game.

Splntrd

Oh Come on, no one hates a GNOME!

Well...I don't know what to say without going giving away some major points about my character. I just wanted to let you know that there is more to Braell than meets the eye! You are actually one of the few who picked up on the so called "Automation" concept but as my role develops its more of a past transformation than a present concept. I will let you read my role when all is said and done and it will explain a lot of what you think is OOC but in reality a well thought out plan.

I know Herald is not a job, I can also read Iunna's forum. =P But making toys is a job and is what my character wants to be hired to do. Non-profit jobs are still jobs.

As for the Toys? How do you know where the toymaker in Voralia learned how to make those Toys? How do you know I don't work in that workshop too? How do you know where he gets his materials from? If you wanted to be strict with how you get things in the game it would be nearly impossible to roleplay any creative role. Would you rather me be a Gnome Baker cause I have commune 'create food'. And I have seen too many Herald Cooks that make the same stuff over and over again.

If I said too much, I am sorry, haha. I enjoyed our interactions; you should have stuck around longer! You could have seen my character develop even more!

Best of Luck with school and all that stuff, I know how it goes.

Huh, well you did a good job at hiding the bitterness. I'd appreciate it if you didn't reveal as much about other characters in the death thread though, I don't think there's anything I do in Thera that isn't IC. I will say, that while I agree bards are much more useful than my performances, music is about entertainment, and that's what I'm going for.

P.S. - Loved Shapeshifterman, but I couldn't make you a winner because of the plagiarism. Oh, and it's not popstar nonsense, it's some other sort of nonsense.

I'm not sure what you mean by not revealing so much about other characters; I don't think I said anything about Uial that you haven't made abundantly clear by your roleplay in game. And I assure you, I very much try to avoid letting my OOC feelings affect my roleplay.

I would also like to reiterate that (once I got over my initial annoyance) I definitely enjoyed our interactions, and I think your roleplay is top-notch and totally apt for your character. It just got on my nerves at first, that's all. As far as bards vs. your singing and popstarness or whatever it was, that was Ellor's IC view of it. He was somewhat of an intellectual elitist. Comes with the artist territory. I (the player) don't have a problem with what you're doing.

Edited to add: I also don't expect Heralds to ever win Herald-sponsored events, so I didn't even think about whether or not I would win. It was just fun, that's all.

Splntrd

I really liked Ellor, and I like him even more now that I find out he didn't like Uial. All sorts of little things, which I really didn't think of as strange or anything before, make sense in a different light now. You really hid it well, without just ignoring it.

I'll tell you why I loved Shapeshifter Man so much in my death thread.

I liked you. It's really sad to see all my Herald friends go. I hope Dwarf Appreciation Day went well, but by the time I brought Kirrus in to share in the debauchery, he had to appreciate dwarves all by his lonesome. Not that he minded, but for me it was just sad. I'm too much of a dumbass to explore (can't find my way around) or PK (I can just chalk that one up to being literally stupid), and I keep playing empowerment chars for some reason so even ranking is severely limited. Thus, Inn-sitting has become my main hobby. Now that there's only one Herald left, even that might not be fun anymore.

Ah, well. Good luck with school!

Ilvena/Kirrus

One herald left? Man, I need to get off my ass and join the Inn for some herald loving goodness. Maybe if they were allowed to pk a little, or try to, or help others pk. Straight rp is a tough road with limited players, especially when most that are around have more interest in ranking and pk'ing then just relaxing in the inn.

That said, my next char is going to be an Inn junky, herald or no, just to give people that stop by someone to interact with a little if they want to.

Heralds are totally allowed to PK, and to help others PK. They're just told to avoid raiding/defending. With Ellor, I strictly avoided ANYTHING related to cabal warfare, including just lending people my songs, and even writing notes for other cabals. But that's just one way to do it. There have been successful Heralds in the past that were also active PKers; the only hard and fast restriction is not raiding/defending. Sometimes Heralds who pick on a single particular group will get a talking to, but general PK isn't really restricted.

Splntrd

Thanks for the info, only played battle, scion and trib. The things I never knew about heralds. Though most pk is driven by cabals I guess you can get into it indirectly. PK two cabal members and they can no longer defend as ghosts. I guess that was my thought, not striking anyone in a cabal limits targets, but I guess that's not a rule, so long as it is not raid/defense. And of course, you do that people are going to start pk'ing you non stop and causing trouble in the inn. I like the idea of a sword for hire herald, but guess it's untenable outside of being a bodyguard type for exploring/gearing people. Maybe an area eplore tour guide. If I knew anything about them that would probably be better. Oh well, see what happens I guess.