Factions Roundtable!

Now that all of new guilds have been released, I thought it would be nice to give a little closure and behind-the-scenes insight to our overall process for both the events themselves and the development of factions. I wrote up a couple questions and nudged all of the admin who helped out to give their answers. Enjoy!

Why did you choose the guild-ending event that you ended up doing?

Celest

• Weiwae: I wanted to give Celest a reason to see that the current layout of guilds wasn’t working, but I also didn’t want a full repeat of Old Celest blowing up. The main goal was to give Celest a reason to gain a new theology. The basic idea was that there would be some “badguy” attacking Celest, but the attack revealed some “Uncomfortable Truths” which the city had to face by looking inward.

Serenwilde

• Charune: Serenwilde has a few underlying themes that are prevalent in its entire design: ancestor and spirit worship; the cycle of life, death, and rebirth; willing sacrifice of the self for the “greater good”; and a distinct isolationism that no other org can really even touch on. Our event was designed to touch on each of these points in a way to, at least it was our hope, invoke the emotion create memories related to each of these. When designing the event, we had to keep the isolationist aspect in mind from the beginning, and that is how we ended up choosing the Foolish Warrior as the Serenguard knew him in their legends, named Delosidir in the planning stages; if the threat had come from outside of the Serenwilde, was some alien evil that had no bearing on the forest itself, I don’t think anybody can argue it would have had the same effect. Delosidir was a child of Serenwilde, and we made this obvious from the beginning, going as far in my writing of his dialogue to ensure he was a familiar voice, making use of informal language, copying the intonations of certain old Serenwilde players in a few cases, copying the more behaviours of certain players, even setting up some of his insults days before with some things my own order mob had said. He was Serenwilde’s problem, and their problem alone, because he is the worst of Serenwilde personified. Death and rebirth is kind of obvious, but we needed death to happen here, we needed people to mourn as death is, frankly, traumatic, and we saw the same behaviours in most of Serenwilde we see of a grieving family member: some clammed up and retreated quietly, some got irrationally angry, and some just grieved. For rebirth, we made sure there was a message of hope from the beginning, from the last lines of the prophesy, foreshadowing the event as a “boon”. Sacrifice was a big one for us. Except for Eurytus, every guild tutor was savable with effort and a bit of luck (we actually ended at least one life based on the result of a d20, sorry Ridien!), and we actually wrote scripts for both paths. In the end, Serenwilde ended up choosing the path that was best for them at the loss of a mob at every turn: nobody tried to talk Osierti into leaving for more than a moment, but he saved a massive part of the forest with his psionic barrier; Dain is now Fiabelhie’s prison in the dreamworld, keeping her locked there, but it’s not likely she’s going to escape again soon as a result; people forgot about Lleucu entirely to go try and save the Voice of Trialante which, being a divine voice, would probably have been fine in the end anyway (seriously, Serenwilde, that was cold). In the end, the sacrifice of Hart and Moon drove it home, I hope, as without Hart’s sacrifice, Moon would never have been wounded, and without Moon’s willing sacrifice, Awedhel/Lalenna would never have been found to guide Serenwilde with the Wodewoses, Teharo Stardapple would have never been summoned, and the Last Seed and that frightening(ly cute) ghillie you call Sparrow would still be buried under eastern Serenwilde. And as for ancestor worship… Well, the only solution to a problem in Serenwilde is for Serenwilde itself to face it, and the spirits are as much Serenwilders as anybody living.
• Hoaracle: Charune pretty much said it all. We needed the event to be cataclysmic enough to wipe the slate clean for Serenwilde, but it needed to be personal to the lore it has developed too. Originally, we were going to do a sort of “Rogue’s Gallery,” but that was quickly pushed aide for being simply too much.
• Lisaera: Charune talks a lot, and I generally agree. I was devastated to see some of my favorite mobs die, but the profound impact it had on the playerbase made it all worth it in the end. Stay tuned, too, for more… dun dun dun.

Magnagora

• Drocilla: Magnagora was never given a choice in regards to what happened to it during Project Cosmic Hope – they accepted what happened afterwards, their minds already transformed to perceive it as a blessing. The Empire was using it as a safe and disposable testing site, the Fates lied by omission, and the very Verses of Magnora upon which the city was founded promised wonders and power without stating the cost. “Foretold but never forewarned”, Magnagora’s latest prophecy thundered, “Acceptance is a serf’s substitute for choice.” There was a weakness inherent in the first major transformation the city has undergone and I wanted the second one to put them in a position of strength now that they have grown. I knew Magnagora would be loathe to part with its guilds, an ironic stance considering its moniker and yet entirely understandable. But Magnagora does not back down from a challenge and it would sooner destroy that which weakens it than be consumed by it – the Engines of War march ever forward. And so I knew, from the moment I started thinking about the event, that Magnagora must choose destruction on its own in an epic, poetic twist upon what happened to it in the first place. This time willingly, this time knowing the price of power and paying it gladly. Far as I’m concerned, going out in the throes of the largest necromantic ritual ever performed by the city is the most Magnagoran thing out there. Save for maybe doing just that and then rising from the ashes as liches to behold the destruction. In destruction, transformation!

Glomdoring

• Viravain: Glomdoring has always been so unbelievably set in its ways. Never, since the organization opened years ago, has there been much to really shake things up, outside the discovery of the Wyrd. I thought — what an incredible opportunity to really give the Glomdoring players something new to grab onto, beyond the almost trope-like ideas that have been in play for so long! But what? It donned on me that stagnation, which is one of the “Seven Deadly Sins” of the Glomdoring, was really happening, but short of Viravain Herself appearing and demanding people to change, there wasn’t likely a lot to go on in terms of cataclysmic events. So I created my own. The greev — the “reaper” concept — is another amorphous, fae-born horror, like the wyrd, that was a culmination of the Glomdoring’s own will to evolve. Because of the wyrd, which is itself a terrible, hungry force, the greev manifested as an enormous spider. I actually had nightmares about the nehvgree (the little spiderlings that did the greev’s bidding) for a few days.

Hallifax

• Isune: I wrestled with this with Zvoltz even before he stepped away, because the crux is “What defines a guild?” Is it the guild hall? Or the tutors, per se? The logic of getting rid of guilds for me had to go beyond blowing up a hall and walking away. Not to say other cities shouldn’t, but in Hallifax, it was almost too easy with so many experiments to hijack that could cause havoc. But, a guild as an organisational entity does not exist simply because it has property deeded to it. The existence is governed by the contract between the entity and the Board of Directors. So now the question became: “What could induce, persuade, or even coerce, the Board of Directors to voluntarily dissolve their guild organisation contracts?” It had to be something or someone with a lot of clout that could guide, demand, or pressure the ‘desired’ outcome.
• Czixi: During the event, Gero summed this up perfectly: “This is how it ends, not with a bang, but with a quiet vote in the board room”. Hallifax has had more than its share of apocalypses. We didn’t want it to be a repeat of the Dreaming Year and the destruction of the city there – and so we started to look for alternatives that were just as strong in their impact, but not quite as salt-the-fields. But as Isune mentions, this meant that we needed to pull in the big guns in order to make the city willingly disband their guilds. Interestingly, it was much less of a fight than we anticipated. We prepared a whole slew of counterarguments to the possible concerns – but it seems that the Chairman Eternal is still, and always will be, an irresistible force within Hallifax.

Gaudiguch

• Kalikai: We needed something that would be logical to erase the guilds, but something so pervasive that it would make sense to move on from them instead of just rebuilding. That’s why we went with the explosions that destroyed the guilds and framed it in a ‘from the ashes, a newer, better, system arises.” I know a lot of players were disappointed with the sudden explosions, but how do you really build up to complete destruction? We wanted people to feel helpless, confused, upset, out of control. We didn’t want it to be something that a player may have felt like they could have prevented. We dropped hints and pieces, but left everything intentionally vague. Then afterwards we could really build up to the identity of the incoming factions, the Goonsquad fighting for the people, Revelry keeping Gaudiguch’s soul intact and Illuminators being the spiritual center and the guarders of the real costs of enlightenment and freedom.
• Mysrai: As Kali stated, we wanted something dramatic, something plausable, something utterly chaotic. Gaudiguch, for me, embodies chaos. There was quite a bit of anger over the sudden violent explosions and whirlwind of change, and that, in my opinion is GOOD. The goal was to evoke emotion, in both players and their characters. What would devastate? What would shove them forward into a revolution? Destruction of all they knew before, at the hands of some unseen enemy (A secret society? Hallifaxian invasion? Who knows?!?) All those questions can be filled in by the players, though they may never be concrete. That’s the beauty of it. In the end, the soul of Gaudiguch was exposed, and it is up to the people to see it continue on in the spirit of all they fight so hard for.

Was there anyone/anything you wanted to save/preserve during the event? 

Celest

• Weiwae: Everything!

Serenwilde

• Charune: Nope. Burn it all, nothing is sacred.
• Hoaracle: I am with Charune on this one. We had a very clear plan about what or who could go away and we made peace with that from the beginning.
• Lisaera: A few loose threads were burned away that I could have used for my own nefarious ideas, but in the end, I’m with the other two — fresh start felt good.

Magnagora

• Drocilla: I wanted to save the guild tutors because they were such a memorable part of each guild. Except for Veritus n’Rotri, I had it out for him from day one because much as he is a walking legend (the first Heresiarch post Project Cosmic Hope), he ish a pain to poshsheshsh with that damnable lishp. I still haven’t decided if I’m bringing him back but the Nihilists are very fond of the old fart. The city was really bent on protecting the tutors too… except for when they went to perform the ritual and left them twiddling their thumbs in the towers that were about to crumble. Good job guys! Jezebel was quite content to go rummaging underground though and Jagrerox was drawn to the ritual with all the death and chanting. We’ll see about others. Other than that I flat out asked the faction clan if there’s anyone they find particularly annoying and everyone pointed fingers at the crier. Much as I felt for the poor guy who’s just doing his job, we discussed a clockwork blimp as his replacement and, well, the man was found dead not long after. Other than that, the one thing I was really attached to were the dark towers of Magnagora’s skyline. I wanted to bring down the Necropolis, and with it most of its guild halls, but I also wanted to rebuild them, taller and grander than ever. It’s just not Magnagora without those black skeletal fingers clawing for the smog-tinged firmament.

Glomdoring

• Viravain: I don’t think it’s a surprise to anyone that I was very fond of some of the casualties. In fact, I brought two back that were slated to die horribly: Dominique and Lasher. I did, however, bank on there being a few resurrections, considering how tough it is to kill a swarm…

Hallifax

• Isune: We wanted to save as much as possible. Especially because so much of Hallifax’s class skills are tied to specific rooms. Finding a reason or way to move these or re-architect them into a new location was going to be tough! Though it’s too bad we had to kill Cririk, I think people would’ve liked having a living version to guide them.
• Czixi: Oh gosh, everything. As Isune said there were some rooms and beings we couldn’t remove (imagine trying to destroy the Temporal Conclave, or the Voice of Crys) – and at that point, it felt too unfair to close down one guildhall but leave another open. Fortunately the very thing that made the guildhalls hard to remove was also the thing that made it easiest to justify keeping them; they are and always have been intrinsic parts of the city. Some of them are whole spires or monumental structures within it. Transferring them to being part of the city proper was the logical step forward. Watching everyone surge forward to explore them when we opened them was wonderful (and yes, the Aeromancers do have all the cool toys).

Gaudiguch

• Kalikai: We weren’t as ready to murder everyone off, mostly because we wanted to have people to pass on knowledge and secrets to the new tutors.
• Mysrai: I had briefly considered going on a murder spree, and still might have a few regrets at not doing it. However, it all works out.

What was your favorite moment during your org’s event?

Celest

• Weiwae: My favourite part was when players roleplayed things which ended up having a great effect for the story. Like when Tridemon said something which inspired us to remove Aquamancy for a bit, or Reyqae cleaning with a bucket instead of the staff, or Auriella cleansing some water with healing kata forms. Working off of the actions of players was very rewarding. It shifted the event from “Here, let me force this onto you” to “Let us do this thing together”.

Serenwilde

• Hoaracle: The epic scenes between Delosidir (when he killed Hart/hurt Moon and when he was banished), Osierti’s gallant effort to fight Fiabelhie, and Ridien destroying Moondance tower were some of my favorite moments written by admin. On the player side, I liked hearing and seeing Everiine’s development of a ritual to banish Fiabelhie, and I also liked the moral debate that people participated in when Dain adapted said ritual. Another good one was Ejderha’s attempt to get with Lalenna.
• Lisaera: All of the beautiful moments between the players and their favorite NPCs. It always warms my heart to see people truly connect with the work we do, and I sincerely shed a few tears when everyone mourned Ridien’s passing. I was also fond of Moon being harmed and the fall-out from that, because wowza — blood moon was such a cool concept (that I had no part in, by the way! Charune and Hoaracle are clearly jealous and tried to come for my daughter).

Magnagora

• Drocilla: Lots of favourite moments from the event but what I enjoyed most of all was how much players got into it. The investigations they have conducted on the corpses found were amazing and the feeling of chaos reigning was so raw and tangible that I, myself, felt the confusion and anxiety of the city. Is this a new body? Have we accounted for this one? Has the Chancellor been found? Who even was the Chancellor? Further, the way they got into the D&D spirit of raiding the Cogs headquarters was awesome, even as they were quite surprised by what was required of them to proceed. I was particularly delighted by the Prince of Rust being elected and the ritual to do so finally being completed. It was such an old plot of mine and to be able to use it here was particularly rewarding. The Bell-Tower going down was a last minute decision that had such a huge impact, it was really moving to see people react to it and echo the sentiment for it that I, too, share. And lastly, the ritual at the end was made so much better by the players getting into it with abandon. The atmosphere was electric as they chanted and shouted and screamed and prayed and were all kinds of nuts while the ground shook and everything was ripped asunder. Unforgettable. What is more, as a player I have always dreamed of using actual player skills for events so, suddenly inspired, I asked Ianir if he could code in a special use of Necromancy for the event, fully expecting him to say no, but all he said was, “Sure, give me the lines.”

Glomdoring

• Viravain: Watching people slowly realize that they were powerless against the greev was fascinating, the playerbase and the NPCs alike. Glomdoring is so full of strong personalities who do not recognize weakness for what it truly is — being helpless againt a force that you cannot overcome. I was mesmerized by this happening in the forest, which is why I may have accidentally hammed it up a little more than was originally intended…

Hallifax

• Isune: The amount of collaboration and interaction as a whole; from ideas on how to ‘fix’ the Tower, to ways of negotiating with the insurgents, to rallying different mobs to reorganise into new guilds. The creative, generosity, and helpfulness of Hallifax as a whole always delights me. Being able to have the kind of back and forth roleplay we achieved is the highlight of any event for me. Though it gets crazy with the amount of denizens being controlled, I adore it.
• Czixi: I have so many, but will try and narrow it down to three. During the invasion, Portius decided to engage espionage mode in a way that was both hilarious and incredibly useful in terms of delivering some more of the background to the insurgents – it turns out that weaponising your own reputation is quite effective! On a totally different note, one of the roleplay stars of the event has to be Nelras. Sometimes it’s really easy to make characters, especially refined and poised ones, completely unflappable. That Nelras was willing to show what happens when a character like that is utterly emotionally destroyed is a credit to him. And finally, on a more personal note, the opportunity to portray Cririk Adom was one that I am privileged to have had and one that – though terrifying – I enjoyed immensely. As a player I deeply regretted not having been around for the return of Gaudiguch and Hallifax, and getting to be part of that legacy was amazing. (On a related note I have to thank the nameless administrator who, when I asked them for tips on authentically portraying Cririk, gave without hesitation the answer: “Cririk was kind of a dick”).

 Gaudiguch

• Kalikai: I like Ziamu, he’s fun. Enadonella and Breandryn kidnapping Luce was amazing.
• Mysrai: The explosions, obviously… Really though, had some great interactions with players. Letarne chasing around the suspicious figures was pretty fun. He tried SO hard to get those damn things to tell him something and was clever about it.

 

What was something you wish you would have done differently?

 Celest

• Weiwae: More planning, more mposing, more grand rp sessions which could have lasted hours and hours at a time over many days. I wasn’t so happy with how often players seemed to feel stuck with nothing to do but wait for the “next step”. I also wished that I had made it more clear to people to post to the city news what they were doing more. Sometimes I really felt like I was in the dark, not knowing what players were trying to accomplish and only being able to interact with “solo rp sessions”. I really wish I could have had more people involved with things at a time, but it got a bit overwhelming.

Serenwilde

• Charune: Three things: More ways for players to interact with the event, actually preparing a day’s stuff more than 8 hours ahead of time, and restarting my MUD client before doing event stuff so I don’t end up with the situation we had where I crashed while setting up the final Delosidir phase and Hoar didn’t know how to prep it and everybody just kind of sat there waiting for three minutes while I’m trying to restart Wine and get MUSHclient running and log back in. Oh, and I wish we had expanded on some of the cooler side lore we had actually written for the event, like the story of Delosidir and the Stripes of Oblivion.
• Hoaracle: Definitely having a larger window for preparing the event. The entire proposal for what we did happened very late in the game, so we were scrambling to finish, prog and describe a bunch of things to get ready. I also agree I wish we had more ways for players to interact. This event was “forced,” in the sense that we had a very clear set goal but we tried to open up possibilities, consequences throughout. If we had more time, I would have liked to not only made the event more open-ended, but also had it going on at different times so more people could participate.
• Lisaera: I would have been there more. Unfortunately, life started to take me away from the game right around the time the new guilds were being planned, and I wound up taking the back seat for a lot of this one. You’ll have noticed my delicate touch here and there, but I really wish I could have been there more to see everything firsthand. Charune and Hoaracle did an INCREDIBLE job without really needing me, and I’m so happy with the outcome. As a side note, I’ll be around much more frequently very, very soon!

Magnagora

• Drocilla: As per usual, I wish I had had time to do more, do it longer, do it better. The plot at hand was very complex and I didn’t always get to hint at the deeper levels of it the way I intended because there just wasn’t time for it. I managed to do some of it at least and the rest will be revealed in time. The one thing I wish I had had the option of doing was giving the city more choices but working within strict time constrains of the overarching change and also of my own life, things had to be moving and happening at a rapid pace. I also wish I had had either more time or more help to get this done but I’m very proud of what I managed to pull off considering most everything was slapped together on the very day it was being used. I’m particularly fond of the traps in the Cogs headquarters as this is something we’ve never done before and was quite hilarious.

Glomdoring

• Viravain: I wish I could have scripted more of it. Literally everything, save for the final few hours, was unplanned. Even the greev happened in the moment, and I begged a team of helpful ephemerals to describe some of the creatures you saw (yes — this new round of volunteers is just as dark and twisted as I am for coming up with what they did). All of the conversations, all of the fun revelations, all of the evolutions… they were all what felt right in that exact moment. If I had more time, between Lusternia and the real world, I would have probably scripted more and spent more time on building programs to support the cool, macabre story that was unfolding. As it so happened, I was manually firing most of the ambients, with a little help from other incredible Elders during the Dark Spirit bit. Next time!

Hallifax

• Isune: I wish we’d had more time for a more extended build-up, but time schedules as they were, we got everything done we wanted to do in a logical and realistic way.
• Czixi: I have to echo Isune and say that I wish we’d had time to make the event longer. Unfortunately we were both hugely busy around the time of the release and there was no way to fix that. There were also a few times where we saw people trying to engage with the event but weren’t able to attend to it (due to being away or preparing the next part or so forth), but that is always going to be the case to an extent.

Gaudiguch

• Kalikai: I know I could have done better with the event over all. This was really my first large-scale event I had to take a part in leading, so mistakes were made on my end. It was a learning experience for me. I also wish the players were not so quick to dismiss and damn the event. It was pretty disheartening knowing that we had more buildup for the new guilds planned but very few people wanted to participate. Also, what the hell is wrong with attacking Hallifax when you bastards raid and murder them for shits and giggles on an almost daily basis?
• Mysrai: I would have loved to have more RL time to just dive in and RP with players, and as a whole I felt like I didn’t get to deliver on that end as much as I’d like to, but Kali being around was a HUGE help and she did a lot to fuel the roleplay for the event.

 

What were your initial feelings about doing the switch from guilds to factions?

 Celest

• Weiwae: I was sad to see some guilds I worked so hard on as a mortal go poof. My immortality in those guilds is now lost to history.

Serenwilde

• Charune: I’m not a very sentimental person. Since factions were announced initially, my reaction to it has been it’s a chance to improve, to build, and to revitalise. My perspective has not changed, and I tried to take that into the event as a priority.
• Hoaracle: From the very beginning, I was excited about the prospects of changing from guilds to factions. On a practical level, we needed the facelift; we needed to address the constant concern of population issues, the failure of covenants, etc. But beyond that, they were a chance for nations, Serenwilde especially, to grow in newer and different ways. Obviously, all the older lore from the Moondancers, Shofangi, Spiritsingers, et al is still relevant, but now that same lore can be freshened up and looked at through entirely different lenses.
• Lisaera: Terror, but that’s because this kind of sweeping change is always a little intimidating for me. I think this is mostly due to my very random work life, which can sometimes rip me away from the game at unexpected intervals. As a concept, I was thrilled by the idea that we would have a chance to recreate some of the finer points of Serenwilde’s history with a new foil, new goals in mind.

Magnagora

• Drocilla: No. No, no. No, no! You want to destroy my beloved Nihilists? The one thing that above even Magnagora and the gods looking over it had been my one true love? I thought it’s madness and that it will never work. It was only after Zvoltz wrote a few example blurbs for what factions could be like for a few choice orgs, that I saw this could be a new beginning rather than an end. We weren’t discarding all that lore, we were just using it in new and creative ways. It still pains me to think of but I know the things we are creating are amazing and will revitalize their orgs, in addition to being good for the game as a whole.

Glomdoring

• Viravain: I was thrilled! Maim and slaughter, blood everywhere, carnage! I saw this step in Lusternia’s history as a chance for us to really establish a newness that included the direction we wanted this time. The original guilds were, for all intents and purposes, perfect for that time period, but now…now the game has evolved. We needed something new to represent that paradigm shift.

Hallifax

• Isune: OMG what!? They want to do WHAT? Ugh. This is going to be HUGE, what about x, and y? How will this play out logically from an IC perspective?? The storyline needs to be something that characters in the game can accept. Even if this must be done, we should preserve what lore we can, start fresh where it makes sense, and present a logical flow to the dissolution or it will just seem ‘forced’. I couldn’t stand for it to feel forced.
• Czixi: I hated it. I cannot emphasise how much I hated it. I was so angry that we were even considering it, I wanted to quit everything there and then so that I didn’t have to watch all the things that I loved get destroyed forever. Honestly, at the start I just went along with it purely so that I could defend the legacy of the old guilds – but then I started to see the ideas that people were coming up with for the new guilds, and I fell completely in love. It was actually one of Magnagora’s new guilds (the Heralds) that made my realise how this could be an evolution, not just a destruction.

 Gaudiguch

• Kalikai: Lets do this, out with the old and in with the new.
• Mysrai: I was a bit tentative. I could see the reasoning behind the change, sure, but I had attachments to certain guilds and the thought of them just going away was a hard pill to swallow. In the end though I have to say it’s better for Gaudiguch. Things needed a’shakin.

 

How was the process like?

Celest

• Weiwae: Long, hard, fun. I hope I never have to do it again 😛

Serenwilde

• Hoaracle: Not going to lie, Serenwilde’s process from point A to Z was a real roller coaster. We started off with some basic ideas that evolved very quickly into the early prototypes of the Listeners and Wodewoses (at the time, the Sowers was still not conceptualised fully). It looked like everything was good and dandy. Then, unfortunately, the entire Serenwilde pantheon left for only two of us return roughly five months later. When we got back, suddenly there was concern about these prototypes, which blew up into larger concern about the direction of Serenwilde’s roleplay. We always had in mind the idea that these factions would help us look at, revise, refine and change Serenwilde in many ways, but the intensity of ideas often overburdened and stressed both players and us out. I really like the end products of this process; the three new guilds have a lot of texture and nuance to them, which I hope players will start engaging with. But at the end of the day, I am not sure if that outweighs the meandering path it took us to get there.
• Lisaera: See above.

 Magnagora

• Drocilla: Amazing, painful, awe-inspiring, dreadful. All the things. The only thing about it that I disliked was the time involved and it was indeed quite the time-hogger. I have dozens of projects on my plate (such as Drocilla’s godrealm) and I rarely, if ever, get the time to pursue them. But working with the faction clan was really invigorating and engineering a new Magnagora was a treat. In between serious work we found time for laughs and it made the work easier. Working on factions also allowed me to blow up half of Magnagora so… win win! No, really, I am seriously in it for the death toll. Exactly twenty-five Magnagorans died in the ritual and I was cackling like mad.

Glomdoring

• Viravain: Like I said in another section, it was…fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants mayhem. I was alone (Nocht and Manteekan were, sadly, very busy in the real world and could not be here for this stage in the game) and I was uncertain in the beginning. How was I going to join this process so late, after having only offered my two cents during the initial stages, and take the reins completely? Then it sort of became second nature. I realized quickly that I knew Glomdoring as well as a ranger knows her land, so I knew what would make the most sense. The game is evolving. The playerbase is evolving. So, too, did Glomdoring need to evolve in order to keep up. What better way to force change inside Glomdoring than by having Glomdoring itself act as the catalyst.

Hallifax

• Isune: It was just massive and I’m lucky we only had 4 guilds to juggle let alone 5 elsewhere. But, this was also my first BIG project as an admin. SCARY! Until Czixi was ‘born’ shall we say, I was in the early stages of just brainstorming and organising. First was revisiting the clan, making sure we had the right players in and giving each side of Hallifax representation. Then came the unending checklists… I love checklists, the satisfaction of checking a task as Done just feels good! So our twikis are full of lists and notes, plus transcripts here and there of important discussions. The big thing was communication and coordinating that between the Pantheon and Clan and making sure we were all on the same page, knew what was coming next, set expectations, all those fun coordination tasks.
• Czixi: Exhausting. Wonderful. Huge. I have said elsewhere that it is the biggest project most of us have undertaken in Havens – and the nature of projects of this size is that they take all of the joys and all of the difficulties of this job and magnify them tenfold. I’m very grateful that the former outweighed the latter (or at least made the latter bearable!).

 Gaudiguch

• Kalikai: I only came up to godhood in the middle of the whole process, so a lot of the planning was done prior to me.
• Mysrai: A shot of tequila, some cursing (I lie, lots of cursing), and a ton of fretting over every little detail.

What were some of your goals for your org’s factions (i.e. what purposes did you want them to serve)?

 Celest

• Weiwae: The Ecclesiarchy/Church faction felt like a no brainer. The other two factions were created with a reason in mind why anyone would want to join them and without making the factions feel the need to be in competition with each other.

Serenwilde

• Charune: I can only speak on a general sense as late as I came to Serenwilde, but my hope for factions in Serenwilde personally was that it would give the org a bit of a new start, a chance for players to grow the lore and force them to work together on a combined goal.
• Hoaracle: As Charune said, we definitely wanted the factions to be a new beginning for Serenwilde. We have constantly had to fight against this idea that Serenwilde has minimal roleplay (either do to simply lacking it or being surfeit with tropes that it really isn’t unique), so the hope was that these new orgs would help with that by fleshing out or highlight an element of that roleplay. The Listeners are interested in the ancestor spirits – which has been played up by Serenwilde’s epic quest, the Hartstone lore and the Spiritsinger skills; the Sowers draw upon the legacy of Ellindel and Glinshari to restore, heal and purify the world; the Wodewoses play up the idea of living in the forest, its folklore, its traditions and its tribalism. Going forward, these are the sort of plot points we want to push for Serenwilde to, hopefully, conceive of a fresher, stronger identity.

Magnagora

• Drocilla: I wanted the Heralds to embrace all things spiritual but be more than just priests. Several attempts at that were made in the Nihilists in the past but they were, still, ultimately Nihilists and perceived as such. But kneeling to the Demon Lords is about more than an homage, it is about learning from them and using those teachings to further your own goals. The city’s spiritual goal has ever been transformation, and they are the heralds of just that. The Infernals echo that sentiment in the form of domination of the Basin, the more immediate purpose of the Engine. And finally the Society came about to give voice to something Magnagora has always done and had but never in the form of a guild. They are the voice of progress and industry but within they are corrupt. I wanted something with rivalry, peerage, ambition, basically something with teeth that look pearly to the casual bystander but in reality are sharp as needles.

Glomdoring

• Viravain: I wanted the players to distance themselves from their very, very limited scope of Glomdoring. The Shadowdancers are, in my opinion, one of the most amazing guilds, but it’s so easy to become completely and wholly engrossed in the shadows. That is really limiting for us as administrators because we have to tailor the events to fit the interests of the players, who so far, have been more or less one-note when it comes to game play. Now, with these factions focusing less on internal guild lore, they’re all driving each other forward, which will hopefully allow for more exploraiton of Glomdoring’s lore that exists outside of the guildhalls.

Hallifax

• Isune: We wanted to make sure each type of Hallifaxian lifestyle was represented in some way while making sure no one faction got ‘stuck’ being “the combat org” or “the art org”. We focused on factions providing the fuel and motivations to DO combat and DO art rather than being THE place you do art.
• Czixi: I wanted them to tie into the past as well as creating the future, but without just making them terrible remakes of the old guilds. The new guilds are not so much what you do, but how you do it. You can be a brilliant scientist who is part of the Grand Aerie because their goal is to make the world a better place; a majestic artist who devotes themselves to the Adherents because they believe that their art uplifts the Collective; a bloodthirsty combatant who becomes part of the Consortium so that they can be well equipped to bring destruction to their enemies.

 Gaudiguch

• Mysrai: It was important to us that the factions not only embody Gaudiguch ideals, but that they provide a place without conformity to a certain stereotype. Essentially, places where people who identify as roleplayers, pvp’ers and everything inbetween can have fun and not feel as if they need to go elsewhere because they don’t fit into a certain “type”.

 

Were there any changes from your faction design plans?

 Celest

• Weiwae: Even until the moment when the new guilds were released, things changed. For example, the Holy Exliarch of the Ecclesiarchy, one of the names which was “set in stone” from the begining, ended up being called “The Guiding Star” based on player feedback and some inspiration during the building process of the guildhall.

Serenwilde

• Hoaracle: I don’t recall any really big changes, honestly. I think the largest change (if we can really can call it a change) was the development of the Sowers of the Last Seed. We tried very hard to capture the themes of the fae and ethereal without replicating the Moondancers; however, it is too soon to tell whether that worked out. My hope is that people latch onto the charge of Glinshari and Ellindel in a more direct way. Beyond that, most of our changes were attempts to make each of the factions approachable to different kinds of roleplayers. We altered some early HELP file drafts to suggest a variety of positions – aggressive, diplomatic, mystical, etc. – but that was about it.

 Magnagora

• Drocilla: Yes, rather significant in fact. Spirituality is something so inherent to Magnagora that I knew it has to remain, much like in Celest. Those two organisations are unique when it comes to their cosmic planes. At the same time I did not want to just create Nihilists 2.0 because there is more to spirituality in Magnagora than just the Demon Lords. It is the divine, the Earth Lords, the Demon Lords, and even Jagrerox. The idea of the Heralds was a bit last minute in the sense that we were set on Cabal of Damnation for over half a year. But the Cabal was too focused on the cultural aspect of the city too and culture should not be any one guild’s domain – it is the domain of the city as a whole. Once the name was there, everything else about that guild clicked – the everyday purpose and the greater purpose. It was the same with Infernals who were a shift from the Dominion – I did not want them to be so heavily focused on combat because 1) it was our directive from on top not to create the pvp guild, the rp guild etc, and 2) it was shallow. A heavier focus on Necromancy and the idea of subjugating the Basin for Luciphage has both combat and roleplay vibes.

Glomdoring

• Viravain: Not many! The originally agreed upon designs were very structured. The leader titles changed a few times, but that’s it, as far as I can remember.

Hallifax

• Isune: We struggled because so much of Hallifax was represented and designed so well, though we had gaps. There was a lot of brainstorming and debate over how to not make “version 2.0” of our old guilds.
• Czixi: You have no idea how long we spent debating the name of the Adherents. I think we could’ve made a whole other guild in the time we spent doing so!

Gaudiguch

• Mysrai: Yes and no. Nothing outrageously so.

 

Any hints or ideas you have in the pipeline for the new factions?

Celest

• Weiwae: So many ideas… not many hints. Sorry!

Serenwilde

• Charune: We have some ideas and cool RP stuff we want to drop in, but we’re looking more toward what the players have in store right now. No pressure or anything.
• Hoaracle Yes, we have a lot of neat ideas that we want to get out there as soon as possible. But, for me at least, I am most excited by the new denizens that I hope to populate both Serenwilde and our guilds, seeing as we lost quite a few during the event!

Magnagora

• Drocilla: So much! Not only exciting roleplay opportunities but also secrets being revealed. Once all is said and done I will finally be able to cast some light on the events that brought the transformation about as not everything is as it seems. While preparing the event I came up with something I fondly refer to as the three theaters of war and Magnagorans are only aware of one of them. There are so many cool things we’re going to build in the city too: the bulwark, the museum, the new Necropolis, the guild halls, the new library. I can’t wait!

Glomdoring

• Viravain: Oh. There is a lot coming. /stroke scythe

Hallifax

• Isune: Just one… Spoilers!
• Czixi: I’m far more excited about what our players have in store for developing them!

 Gaudiguch

• Kalikai: Stuff is a coming
• Mysrai: I don’t know, I hear Aanisah has a secret dungeon she might reveal… >.>