Who was one of your old school or favorite? Drum it up I will support the pbf, TOO AN EXTENT.


Ahem

Well, where to start.

So I decided to throw a character together one day while off work, rolled up a wood-elf
animist started to copy/paste role-desc-etc. and realised holy ####, this would be
an awesome role for a druid! Deleted immediately and re-rolled a wood-elf druid.

This character had a lot of ups and downs, when I was hot, I was on fire, when I was out, I was kicked around like nobodies buisness. For all of it generally speaking, a freaking blast. I think this was my third outtie druid, not nearly as deathful, as I really took a beating in the higher ranks, but just overall Fun. I didn't really know what I was going to do one moment to the next wether it was ranking, pk, cabal stuff. Be it attacking the Last person I should be concentrating on fighting, raiding the spire when empire had the fetish, or just picking a few targets and spending my whole login trying to get them. Careashiin was just a blast. As far as the class itself goes, what can I say, Druids are a constant moving style of play, and just a heart-pumping class if you like the pk game. I don't think I've ever enjoyed more another class.

There are some negativities worth mentioning, but not worth squallor if you ask me. I probably had five or six Con when I raged/re-activated, then deleted soon after I was ROTD'd and obviously discouraged enough to simply stop playing the character. For what it's worth to that though, I was probably con-dead or deleted within a day or two anyhow. I just didn't need that kind of grief.

Goodbyes?
I played a pretty nuttsy elf so it's hard to tell who were really friends and who werent.
If I try to name everyone I had a memorable experience with, I know I'll forget plenty, so
I can respond happily.

Lyristeon ~ Always a pleasure and constant adreniline rush playing characters dedicated to you. Every time I do though, I must say it always seems to be a different experience however wierdly familiar as I progress through your religion. That's really cool. Thanks for the Empowerment!

Immortals ~ I have no clue as to who other than Lyristeon might have been checkingout Careashiin time to time, but I hope it was more good than bad!




thanks!










"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." - John Adams

I interacted with your character once, I think, and I really didn't appreciate it at all. It was after some event involving another rager, when I was Veteran. It's your graveyard and I'm trying to remain constructive, so I'll just offer that there was a better way to handle it, and I wish you had.

My title.. I absolutely LOVED that title, and I thought it was creative and dead-on fitting. I just wanted to say thanks for the really cool name, the lastname, and going along with the whole Odins Tree take off.

Between the tattoo, little perks, you mocking me for one-rounding myself to someone, and even to the exp bonuses that kept getting me some neat edges to tinker with, the character-immortal relationship as it played out over the hours was just a blast, and I enjoyed every minute of it.

Around the last week of this character I felt and knew it was on a spiral, as I do tend to burn out ALL of my characters around that 200 mark, but even still, the good times were awesome, and the overall input and immteraction-esqe made the bad times even better.

I had fun watching you. I do most of the titling for the players because I want every player to have a memorable experience. Just about every imm that I spoke with thought my idea for your title was dead on. For some reason, you get the religion very well. What I do like is that you do it differently each time. Have you had one that you tried with me that didn't work? That would be neat to know.

While it was memorable to you and many people who got special titles. It is becoming all too common now. I believe it actually loses its meaning. its also the reason many characters burn out too fast. Having everything before 200 hours doesnt give you character much options to grow or goals to achieve. 199 hours and i'm leader, titled, have tons of edges, and etc.

With Izuhlzin I didnt hero until nearly 250-300 hours. Wasnt galadon magistrate until 300 hours. I had hopes of vindicator and even more edge possabilities with my lack of immexp for anything. I also had hopes of a title. I'm not bitter now I didnt get any of that BUT it did give my character A LOT more longevity(600 hours) because I had stuff I wanted to accomplish. I gurantee you I would have faded long before that had I even gotten any of that quickly.

Take it for what its worth. We might differ but I just wanted to state my perspective which might hit with others as well. Of course, more often than not, it may miss!

"Having everything before 200 hours doesnt give you character much options to grow or goals to achieve. 199 hours and i'm leader, titled, have tons of edges, and etc. "

Well, in my opinion getting a tattoo has nothing to do with longevity, it has to do with consistency and a deeper understanding of a religion, as well as the consistency within said religion to be marked for it. I had no plans to be made leader, nor did the Immortal leadership have plans to make me leader, which also was previously stated. The current leader stepped down and rec'd me. It was kind of a fluke.

I also had less than ten edges, maybe 3 were picked after getting Imm exp. The rest was from my usual explore/observation exp I get and no more or less than I generally do with most of my characters.

Also, almost Every character of mine burns out at the 200hr mark. That's just my personal style. I doubt I will EVER play a 600hr character, that is just not my playstile. Pound for pound, I involve myself in a LOT of PK to my play time ratio, and I also tend to mob die as often as pk win/losses combined.

I just think you're way off mark. Rewards should be given as they are earned. If one character is doing it in a fashion that seems to be a lot faster than one of your own, there is probably a good reason for that. I don't waste much time IC with what I am doing, and often drop 5-10hr sessions in a single day when I have the time, if not more. 200hrs for you might be more than a few weeks, for me, it's often less than that.

Not only all that combined, you have to remember this is probably my fourth or fifth tattoo follower of Lyristeon, and even you have to admit, I probably have it down pretty pat. Am I wrong for playing often, a build that I enjoy? We play for fun right? Forgive me for not playing my typical cloud dagger spec, imperial shapeshifter, drow assassins or cloud giant rangers, or thief villagers, or any other slew of my "cookie cutter" power combo's, *wink* but I like to play my comfort characters time to time, because I understand how to promote them very quickly, aka outtie druids.

Long post, but honestly, you can't take my specific situation and try to generalize it to halloween handouts of power-candy.

I'm no PK giant, and I am certainly no RP whore (I mean that in a good way) but Lyristeon chaos druids, I am very good at and able to gain what I have a lot easier than most people.

So, it might lose meaning to you personally about my said situation, but I had a freaking blast the whole way through, and probably would have con died within RL hours after my deletion anyhow. So take that to think on for a bit.



"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." - John Adams

His chars are all balls to the walls. They dont sit and wait for things to happen, they go out and do it.

Lyristeon likes followers who mix it up or are busy.

I would take a Rogue druid anyday over a dozen tools/fools that poison the hero ranks.

I have had my disagreements with some of his chars over the years, but it is just the agressive personality in the player coming through.

PS: Titles are cool and playing something for 600-700 hours is damn hard. Burn out in 200 is a fine way to go. Quality over Quantity.

Well, I started on this big long post, but I nuked it. What can I say. I still have this hidden accusation that your religion spawned off my playstyle!

My first two empoweree's of yours, I had no idea what I was doing right or wrong one moment to the next, but I kept plugging away. Once, I had a ranger who didn't do so well, and that was my own fault for trying to play on "your" emotions, when I should've known better. Other than that for the most part, I seem to do pretty well with you, as far as empowerment characters, and that one outtie assassin.

I appreciate that you also let me ride it, so to speak. I love being able to take the same idea, twist the angle, and play out a style that I thoroughly enjoy. I do try to offer different twists with the empoweree's I've brought to you, and I am happy and complimented that you have enjoyed each one thus far.

You'll probably continue to see a lot of me, but I also continue to greatly enjoy your style, so I'll do my best to keep em fresh!

Fendril was really annoyed with you and your ways, but me personally, I wish I could play a character like that. Just running about and not seeming to care about anyone or anything. I thought it was great. There was one time I thought you went a bit OOC when I flagged you for something (I wouldn't really even call it OOC per say, just really ticked off maybe), but other than that, I thought your RP was awesome.

That time you ran into the market square as a bear and fell in what I think was one round, you were dead before I even realized you attacked me. I just stood there for a minute going "What the $#^& just happened?" Good job and good luck with your next.

Dude you were one wacky wood-elf. I enjoyed your presence, and thanks for some of the ranking there.

You just.. well.. brought a lot of energy to the table, I don't know how else to say it.

Personally, never saw/heard anything but IC goodness from Careashiin.

To be honest, I kinda had you pegged for a Rogue character-- but only because of you know all the paths to run so fast from one side of Thera to the other through the woods .

Well done and glad you had fun.

Thanks bro.

I really had no idea what I was going to do next, and that is what really pushed my types of emotes coupled with character background. I tried to be ... just not something you could really describe to someone else easily. Someone you just had to experience for yourself to understand the energy. I'm glad you enjoyed hangin out with me, and enduring my cigarette breaks while ranking

And if I'm getting pegged through my characters for game knowledge, that is a hell of a lot better than what's been said about me before, so thanks!

Sorry Rogue. I was very drunk when posting last night and given that I didn't see much of this character I think it is probably unfair of me to have commented on the farewell thread. Sorry.

You, and a small handful of some other guys on EVERY death post of mine slander the #### out of my characters with having little to no knowledge of the character itself. And honestly, I have lost all patience and tolerance for people like you.

Just because your little bandwagon didnt get rolling this time your gonna apologize to save face? #### you buddy, and your dirty mother too.

Actually, what happened is I saw a bunch of posts suggesting you did it yet again. Being drunk, I got wound up by what i recalled of your attitude, so posted when I shouldn't have.

I then apologised when sober, having decided that I shouldn't have.

But if you don't want to accept it, don't. Personally I play the game as a game, no more. If I have an axe to grind with anyone, it's because they are damaging the game in my view.

Can you think of any other reason I'd have issues with you?

nt

nt

You were correct in all of your assumption. From the very first interaction with this character I knew it was Rogue. Usually I full loot/sac his chars cuz I hate him but Caraeshiin did enough to piss me off IC to deserve it over and over. All in all you are right about your assesment of Lyristeon followers. Typically act like a raging moron RP on borderline OOC, go OOC when you die. Trust me I did it and I got his tattoo.

Don't get me wrong Lyristeon I think you do alot for the game as an imm, tons of immteraction, quests for mortals, all the titles you give. However it occurs far too often where you tatto/title/reward a char that myself and about 15% of the playerbase says WTF are you serious?

nt

Coming from you, Kanye, I feel all the better about my decisions.

That speaks loads about your rp ability.

Umm...that isn't a fart, but, you would need to interact with me to know what that is. Most people who have interacted with me and have seen what happens when I disappear knows it.

I think you should save the vitriol for someone who deserves it. Granted I think Rogue has some negative times, but I thought Careashin was a good char, even though he attacked me for seemingly little reason. I liked the chars RP. As for Lyristeon, seriously, he is one of the most involved and better imms out there for mixing it up with people. WHy in the world would you be acting the way you are toward him. Did he wrong you in some way, did he destroy your newbie breadz? Seriously, back off from the craptastic slinging.

Some of you remind me of the people who post in our local newspaper blog who must get their jollies from being pissy. These people are consistently 90% wrong and should just shut up. Go kick a dog or something at home, and treat this like the game it is.

As Zekaris when I was trying to help a newb out of the shadow grove in the past (and died).

nt

Feilinal didn't know what to think of you. Which is specifically what you were going for, I think.

Forgetting that you had the Scales on your Treant? Hah.

Being competent and fairly reliable the times we fought together? Hrm.

Smarting off to me when I "commanded" you to kill some zombies on eastern? Heh. Grr. Hrmph.


In general you were GFTO (Good For Team Outlander).


I've been full/mostly looted very rarely (thankfully). Every time someone did it to me recently, they blamed you in one way, shape, or form. Possibly a copout, but in a small way I'm glad you're gone now, just so they at least have to come up with a new excuse (or not make one at all, which is fine too).

Great character, I think. Feilinal, as I said, didn't know what to think of you, but the player behind the char thought you were pretty damn solid.

Good luck with the next.

I like all of your characters Rogue. They are not deathful usually but i really enjoy your style (opposite to Ravon's style). I even enjoyed your very evil paladin Delen

However i'd recommend you to make at least one different character, who would have less fun but also die less often (a-p for example)

P.S. People like you make cf better.

Um, sarcasm? Delen wasn't evil at all. Are you just trolling? It's early, and I haven't had any coffee yet.

Seriously, though, he has a point. You should play a character that:

1. Isn't an outlander.
2. Isn't a druid.
3. Doesn't follow Lyristeon.
4. Is orderly.
5. Has well-defined and *restrictive* role-play that governs who he can and cannot attack.
6. Makes a point of not looting much.

Just to be different.

Um, I did. Delen was orderly/good Baerinika paladin I deleted at 46 with a virtue. Rarely got involved in PK.

Careashiin rarely looted though was often naked.

Bseter was a zerker Galadon thief.

So my last three, one neutral lyristeon follower, one goodie baerinika follower, one evil villager galadon thief.

Oh, and a drow galadon thief before that (first thief since revamp), and I believe a scion reject before that.

How is that the same? My I've had 4-5 lyristeon outties over a 4 year period. I've had a lot more characters than that in between.
I also regularily play tribunals. I just don't happen to get tattoo'd and titled Everytime I play.

He doesn't have a point, and neither do you.

nt

3-4 people seem to post the same garbage on every thread, regardless of character. Then, you have forum browses like isildur, daurwyn, etc., that don't neccessarily have anything to do with, or read little of but comment based on a few threads they read. Does Isildur honeslty pay attention to each character I play? Probably not. Do certain characters I play tend to get more attention than others? Of course. Just because someone only notices the firecrackers deathposts that hit over 200 hits in a matter of hours doesn't mean all the other characters in between don't exist.

Like I said, my last three characters were a neutral druid outtie, evil duergar villager, and human paladin maran app. If that is everyone pinning me down as playing the same character types, then apparently you need to goto you're old private school and ask for your money back from the phonics dept.

Come on, even *I* knew you were Delen. Granted I only had one interaction with him, where you called my A-P a coward multiple times because I told you I wouldn't fight you unless you ditched the invoker. Maybe it's the way you said it? But just then I knew for sure who was playing him. And the fact that you used the word #### in every other sentence helped me figure out who was playing Careashiin.

Rogue i really like your style and how do you play cf There is no any sarcasm at all.

I'm sorry but Delen was evil (and my only goodie in 3 years of cf was evil as well) - i'm not speaking about align, but about actions. It isn't complaint - simply it's impossible to rp real goodies for some of us.

I didn't suggest you to play something different from rp point of view, i suggest you to play something pr-oriented more conservatively (i know it's not fun, but it's a real challenge and very different).

I swear if you wouldn't have been a druid I would have tried to kill you a dozen times over. You grated on me nearly everytime I heard you speak and to Jhoqu you just didn't seem serious enough about her ideas of the Cabal to be a member. Those things being said you did add something to the Cabal. I knew quickly that you were an experienced player and knew how to handle yourself in pk, and while I didn't like the roleplay it was damned consistant. You were nearly my complete opposite. Where I was generally quite and very conserative you were very outlandish and uber aggressive. I know that Lyristeon really likes his followers to "live" their lives bodly and in that I am sure you did an excellent job. Thanks for adding to the game Rogue.

Awesome, thanks for the words. For what it's worth, if you're not already, you should have been made Harbinger imho, after riv stepped down. When I was given it, I expected it just to be kind of a flamboyant joke being that I was around pretty often. Unfortunaltey with a pet dying and my car getting totalled, towards the end there I really lost a lot of play time and presence.

I remembered you from Delen. Me, another paladin, and transmute were heading to Arial City and walked in your snare. All my prots down, slowed, and having played enough cloud giant rangers myself, I knew I was soooo ####ed, and you handled that PK Textbook Definition.

I enjoyed your serious manner, and you deep-seeded relationship with outlander, and also could tell we had very little if anything in common other than that we were direct opposites. But, you being a powerful and wise giant, and me being an unworldly and wily little trickster, I think it meshed well. I did love taking anything you said serious and chopping it down into something funny only to watch you silently steam about it. You and Throkk both!

Thanks again for the words, I really appreciate hearing things like that. Good luck!

Naming you Harbinger was without a doubt the best command decision I made. I hope you enjoyed it I just have an inordinate amount of admiration for people who follow Lyr's religion. I'm still too scared to try it

I just got the Rogue vibe from you. Fortunately, I really didn't/don't care to have a vendetta and start full saccing/full looting in those times I killed you.

Overall, I thought you were a decent character. Not too keen on the RP portion, and I was extremely surprised when you got the leadership spot, but still a fun character to interact with.

Oh, that time when you first killed me with call lightning? I kicked myself and told myself NEVER EVER to do a scissor kick against .

Heh, not very many assassins would run up against me like you would and hang out long enough for it to be called a fight. I don't remember if I got you more than once or not, but I know you got me plenty. Nothing I like seeing more in a fight though is armor of thorns going off two-three times in a row! You learned quick my weaknesses. That being said, we had a mutual respect character to character I think, and pretty much never touched too much if any of eachothers stuff.

And I was probably twice as suprised as you on the leader spot, when I logged in and found out Riv rec'd me and stepped down. I never really got to go anywhere with it, and only spoke to a couple people, but my character wasn't so much a leader as he just wasn't a follower. gg

Typical Rogue murder druid. I can't understand how you can possibly have fun trying to make other people go OOC and delete. It's pretty sad though.

Role subject 1 was.. How I intend to be #### to every player I find.

Role subject 2 was about how I made extra donations so the Imms would give me rewards without having to actually RP for them.



Just becuase I can gain Lyristeons tat and outlander leader spots like its no ones buisness and you cant, save yourself the time of bitching about it, because it's pointless, I had "connections".


My 3rd role chapter was all about people that piss me off OOC and OOC things I plan to do to get them pissed off in return.

So, your completely right, this was the most horrible character I ever played, with no thought put into him whatsoever and absolutely NO RP! Just a murder druid intent on pissing 'you' off.

Happy?

I can tell this note is dripping with sarcasm. Some others might not. For those of you who don't see it, that may be a reason why my religion is misunderstood by some of you.

I snooped the character a lot. As other imms did. Not a single imm ever came to me or put in his history about going OOC all the time. Quite a few imms came to me and told me he was totally nuts, but, that's fine. That's why he was titled appropriately. Only one pray came up about him saying something that was odd, but, the pray came from a person who is consistently OOC with his demeanor, so it was taken with a grain of salt. And it was near the end of Careashiin's time.

Am I surprised that Careashiin was Rogue? Nope. Rogue plays Lyristeon followers very well and this one is included in that. Was this one of Rogue's deadliest characters? Nope. In fact, his pk stats are quite even. Was I planning on making him the leader? Nope. The previous leader stepped down and recommended him.

Let me say this...most Lyristeon followers don't get full empowerment, never mind a tattoo. If you aren't living life to it's fullest every time you log on, chances are, you won't see it happen. For those of you who wish to twist this into, "I wanted to sit on my ass and type where, who pk, eq, prac and score all the time, so I was living my life to it's fullest as I see it.", bleh. You need to be actively living. And from what I saw and what I am hearing, he was a pain in the ass who kept going no matter what. That's a Lyr follower.

Is the sheer hubris in every word that drips off your keyboard. Even OOC you are IC, and vice versa, and that ain't RP.

I have three words in response to everything I've ever seen you write:

Grain of Salt

I have no idea what you are talking about. It isn't hubris, it just is what it is.

nt

He didn't have the con to last much longer anyway.

He attacked one my characters for no apparent reason. Then sort of left me alone for the rest of his life. So, I guess that qualifies as good chaotic role-play? Heh.

You forced him off?

I'm guessing that if he beat on you, he'd not have left you alone.

No, I think I got away by the skin of my teeth. After that I made a point of not exposing myself to further attack.

Rogue is like the Dennis Rodman of CF, The guy everyone loves to hate, but seems to do a fairly effective job in the actual game.

I personally would not argue that point. However, I think you can either add to the game, or ruin people's days. Rogue tends to find justification for the latter. People like Mekantos tend to find justification for the former.

Honestly, I am baffled by how he repeatedly gets Lyristeon tatts by grouping with tribs to the point of inductions to outlander and then pk'ing random people.

The guy, imho, could be a cf great, but instead he makes himself a cf griefer.

I think you are easily impressed by formulaic pk.

The guys pk stats would prove otherwise. I gave a tattoo to a guy not too long ago because he just died in almost every situation he put himself in. I think I gave him con just so he could find new ways to die.

I would say that you have repeatedly been able to get Lyristeon's tatt, and that his criteria are not necessarily linked to being anything other than an ass.

Not to say that he's not tatted some damn fine rp'ers, but by and large, a murder XXXX (insert class) gets his tatt and respect from him. Many of the rest of us remain unconvinced.

Personally, I had nothing against this char since I never knew him (suprisingly), but I've known many of your other tatt'ed Lyristeon characters and most have been undeserving of tatts imho. e.g. characters that could easily be inducted into tribs until the moment the get induction into outlanders instead. Then carry out the usual "camo, deaf, ambush, talk crap, camo, deaf, ambush stuff". My impression is that Careashin was better than this, but based on the feedback I am now under the impression that he fit the usual mould.

Daurwyn on Rogue's usual traits:
>Then carry out the usual "camo, deaf, ambush, talk crap, camo, deaf,
>ambush stuff". My impression is that Careashin was better than this,
>but based on the feedback I am now under the impression that he fit
>the usual mould.

Granted, I wasn't an enemy and I think the foe vs. foe relation is very important, but it was my impression that Careashin was much more than a griefer character.

I'll admit first hand that I found his antics extremely annoying, but I don't necessarily see that as a bad thing. He was the genuine trickster personage and as such fit perfectly into the outlander mold and wouldn't work as tribunal, as you seem to suggest he could have.

Furthermore he was very active, always out there doing something. I never heard him say something stupid over cb or bitch in person. Also he struck me as genuinely unpredictable, which is rather rare.

Dunno. I understand the 'but this is just the usual Rogue' argument, but I consider it hard to pull off a real trickster personage and I think Rogue did just that and did it well.

where he calls me pathetic.

It explains why I posted what I did.

Only four of my Outlander followers had 100+ pks that I can recall. There may be 1 or 2 who weren't Outlanders who have had it.

Granted, all but one, that comes to mind quickly, had a positive pk ratio. But, very few had a lot of con when the deleted or died off.

The thing is, many tattooed players, not just mine, are going to have a positive pk ratio. Pk is part of this game. Just from my list that I have handy, this is who I have tattooed from Outlanders who aren't active:

Careashiin 54-41 Harbinger
Dalbiddle 48-10 Harbinger
Werzidian 90-27 Harbinger
Folsa 106-32 Harbinger
Iia 125-49 Harbinger
Dizrug 73-21
Dyneli 51-2 Nightreaver
Krynna 147-28 Nightreaver
Jhesar 34-7 Harbinger
Nreisshe 295-4 Nightreaver
Salvrath 65-21 Harbinger
Drahke 39-40 Nightreaver

I look at the list of these names and I can comfortably agree with my decision on giving each and every one of these characters my tattoo.

I think I'm probably confusing tatts with leadership positions.

The one that really soured things in my eyes was Psyrel.

Anyway, I probably owe you an apology too. Although from an enemy point of view, those followers I can think of seemed like psycho murderers to me, and not particularly "gaping maw" because I knew what was coming every time (sometimes in a generic sense, like "he'll be out there waiting to beastcall on me").

Thank you for the rational response to the rather drunken posts though.

That's okay. To be quite frank though, Psyrel never got my tattoo, nor was he ever leader of Outlander. In fact, he played during the time I was rarely around because of the hurricanes that hit South Florida. Most of the loving he got, title included, came from Amaranthe. And that was over three years ago. I really don't remember him.

Man that was a long time ago! Psyrel Galler, the Bitter Bard of Mobocracy, later changed to Drunken instead of Bitter.

That must have been my first bard, and if I am remembering correctly, probably my second outlander? A very cool character for me considering I was so stoked about having a self chosen title on top of never having a title that was really cool! I don't think he was a lyristeon type at all either. That was back when I went to amaranthe for any and all forest-religion-esqe characters. I also had very limited knowledge of outlander but had a lot of fun singing from camo!

Crendal and Faelir!!

Fereksah got the tattoo and ended up at 24-20.

Were you the felar that lived in the "other" tree in that area? Didn't I kind of talk you into to join Outlander over the ranks? If so, you were probably my favorite younger character around that time. I loved your roleplay and it made the felar in you just break out from the seams, all the time. On top of that, what I could remember you were pretty deadly with that dagger. Sweet.


"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." - John Adams

You did talk me into it. I had to wait a while for induction because my wilderness time was so low. It was a fun character--my first Outlander. I got a healthy boost in felarocity from rolling with Ritur in my low ranks. Nice to be remembered, thanks!

How this char got a tattoo, lastname and leader spot? He went OOC all the time.

I made a donation yesterday for the PBF, but, like a dumbass I forgot to put the character name in at the pay screen, again. Anyhow, thanks.