Most of the time, most bashing zones are bashed out right now. People who normally bash Astral are being pushed out of it and hunting Prime. There's nothing good to hunt that's non-sentient, and hunting sentient beings is bad RP for a lot of people. Since I stick to my roleplay, unlike a lot of people, and I can't reach Astral, all I can hunt right now are mooses, cows, sheeps and rockeaters. Not fun.

We all know we need bashing zones, so I'm going to save the admin the trouble of getting ideas for bashing areas (You just have to worry about small tasks, like development ).

My idea is a complex of caves extending all the way through the Basin; it would have entrances in the western and eastern mountain ranges, and would have several levels. The first level would be a good lowbie (20-30 level) bashin area, and lower levels progress in difficulty until a bashing area that is in the 50-60 range, and connects to the catacombs. There would be plenty of denizens to hunt, both sentient and nonsentient. The sentient ones drop gold; the non-sentient ones can be sold for varying amounts, to denizens in several places. There would be a denizen in the top level that buys corpses from several types of creatures all over the caves; if provided with two of each type, he can make a potion that will have the same effect as the Tosha blessing. The potion lasts a long while, so it can be sold as well as drunk, or saved until needed.

Any more ideas?

The game design requires that all "bashing areas" have reasons and history behind them. Places to learn from, not just places to bash. There needs to be a larger purpose and goal to the area. I'm all out of ideas myself, save my Gorgog elemental village idea, but hopefully if people stick with that basic concept someone will come up with some awesome ideas.

A surprising number of the Astral nodes are up at Rainbow or around there, right now. Loadsa people are bashing astral currently.

Yeah, Astral is back really and very bashable right now, as far as I know all the nodes are hovering around motes/halo.

There's also the gorgogs and the catacombs.

But I agree that some more high-level bashing areas might be nice...

Loads of people are also hunting other people in astral as well. That's not a problem for the folks who already have conglut, but for those that don't going to Astral is riskier than a Mag hunting in the Inner Sea.

Guess it does mean that the Prime areas won't be bashed out though, so that's ok, although I notice that credit market's gone to the dogs again.

In any case, the divine have already said that they do NOT want to make areas JUST to bash in. Besides, if it's made it'll probably be based on conflict and, thus, have sentient people involved. Perhaps, instead of that, we need more quests: powerful ones. It's already been said that a non-violent player can go up to around L60 or so with quests+influence but no higher. Perhaps we need to get more things in there for the L80+

Yep I'm 60+ and finding it harder to bash with grey moors usually bashed out, plus it doesn't help that cosmicfire sucks.

Random ideas for bashing grounds:

* Deep caverns underneath Serenwilde in which surviving tainted creatures hide away, remnants left from the Soulless God that is trapped there and weren't reached by the healing of the forests. Although they are underneath the forest, they are too deep to be reached from above, and instead have entrances from various neutral locations. It is not entirely a bashing ground, as it is a darkly beautiful realm in which the horror of the taint is half-undone, leaving a morally ambiguous situation in which monstrous creatures are possessed of normal spirit - no malice, evil or corruption of mind. Although there are horribly powerful aggressive beasts that wander around, much of the area is filled with viscanti-appearing sentients that will trade peacefully and offer various quests for assistance. They are deathly afraid of the outside world, as various commune efforts through history have attempted to destroy them (in their view). Serenwilde/Celest will probably kill the monstrosities as they see them, while Glomdoring and Magnagora will be more tempted to support them and offer friendly diplomacy. (Let's break those stereotypes, eh!)

* The Unseelie woods on the Ethereal plane, a mysterious and magical place in which rebellious fae have rejected Faethorn's tolerance for mortals and founded an eerie twilight land in which they attempt to lure and seduce unsuspecting men and women to their deaths. This land is not reached by any physical entrance, but rather by being caught in mushroom circles at the stroke of midnight. Widely populated by evil fae that will use their charms and subtleties to kill intruders, the biggest threat instead are the cosmic creatures which these fae capture and breed into their service. Mutations of the pure energy of the cosmic planes, these disastrous horrors are abhorrent to both those who revere the angels and demons that they were, and those who fear the dangers of corrupting the forces of life with wild and unliving vibrations. Do not be tempted to eat in this place, as you will be stuck within for one turning of the sun, and do not believe all that your eyes and ears tell you - it could lead to your death. The quests and challenges in this place are two-sided, either you support the rebel fae and bring instability and harm to nature, or you attack the fae and quench their efforts. Though the balance of *a majority* of these quests will have a slight effect on the wild places of Prime, there is nothing linked to any organization, and no single quest that can be 'won'.

* The Dreaming - a manifestation of the dreamworld. A place that all can enter with the permission of an Aspect or Lord, this ephemeral world is actually a reflection of some parts of the present reality - all cities and communes have a dream counterpart which appears identical to the real thing but contains phantasms and memories created by the fears of each population. While this is a dangerous place in which these ethereal thoughts bear down upon foreign minds, there are numerous quests and helpful beings as well that will affect your population and others. Kill enough nightmares and use them to complete a certain quest and your citizens will have more pleasant dreams than unpleasant; seek out and meet the challenges of various spectral guides to gain insight on the status of your enemies and send them frightening messages; help the lost souls trapped in this world between worlds to finally escape, or put them back to better use. (Yes, you can actually swing swords and so on against nightmares - after getting the Aspect/Lord to help you get in, your mind uses familiar actions to translate what is essentially an exercise of will.) Completing a powerful quest may even allow you to enter the dreamworld of another organization - but be warned that loyalties may carry over to this place.

Meh, I know that probably didn't make much sense because I'm tired... but there's a few suggestions anyway.

You know, that actualy sounds pretty neat. It also sounds sort of Catacombish as well, with more sides having reason to be involved (or not be involved as the case may be). Perhaps add in an honors quests that help to destroy/enhance the sentients and it'll sound like a hotbed of violence (though then you may have to move it to Ethereal, which isn't far fetched since the Cats is there).





Not realy feasable realy. It sounds nice but the fae aren't realy anywhere near the type to realy rebel and turn evil. Fae aren't normal creatures: they're spirits created for the purpose of healing the earth. They can be mutated into other forms but we've already established what the other forces do to them (Wyrd = shadowfae, Taint = imp, Light = Cherub).






OMG, Dreamworld warfare! Mag slips into Celest's dreams and terrorize citizens with nightmares. Celest rushes in and kills nightmares to aid their citizens. This is EXACTLY what we need to add more conflict and ways of war to off-plane environments!

Also, we MUST, MUST, M.U.S.T. give Dreamweavers an advantage here.. perhaps allow them to enter/exit the Dreaming at any time and bring others along with them, and a few other aspects to boot.



Already stated how I feel about them, but overall I say that you're getting the idea. We need areas/ideas that add more to the world, the conflict, and the history to the place that just happens to also give nice quests/bashing spots.

Oh, and again. We need to be able to enter the Dreaming!

I always wanted something like this, like the Underdark from forgotten realms. It'd be deep enough to be considered off continent, but it wouldn't be off-prime.

I can't see how this applies to the Toronada Tidal Flats, which are just a place to bash and quest, it seems. Also, I never thought it made much sense that the whole Basin never noticed an entire complex of beaches, complete with beach mutts, clam diggers, and a stoned beach slacker before three weird scholars happened to run by the place.

Fae exist because Nature exists. They weren't "created" for healing Nature. Because I am alive, I have a soul. Because Nature is alive, it has a soul (in the form of Fae). Nature has it's darker parts. There is far more to the Ethereal than just Faethorn and the Etherwilde, Glom, and Ackleberry. It is not unfeasable that some of them would bear unhealthy dislike of mortals. Although, I doubt these would be Fae with physical forms, like we know them - they were given them by Ellindel and Glinshari. I am curious how much of the Ethereal those two saw. I wouldn't be surprised if it was limited only to Faethorn and the three forests - everything beyond that the Fae are still as they once were. Spirits. No bodies, no shells, just spirits roaming.

I would like the dreamworld, and giving the dreamweavers an advantage would be a great idea. Maybe some advantages could be the ability to go to the dreamworld at any given time (maybe have dreamwalking in the dreamworld not cost willpower), all motes used there will be 100% accurate, burst does extra damage to anyone here, maybe using nightmare on a citizen of the commune/city would cause a npc nightmare thingy to appear (I'll elaborate later on my idea for that later...), and violet/kether would be the only non-dreamweaving skill that works here.

Now as to how it could affect cities/communes...
The number of nightmare thingys could be created by either casting nightmare on someone belonging to the city/commune (only one can be created per citizen) or an alternative method that would be harder and longer for non-dreamweavers. The amount of nightmares would affect how fast one gets rest while sleeping (and maybe what dreams the dreamer has...), how fast the citizens restores health while sleeping, and possibly affect the dreamweavers powers. Also, to encourage non-dreamweavers to go there, maybe something similar to essences can be found and returned to the dreamworld version of the nexus for power(3-5), and maybe these things can also be used by dreamweavers to create a few motes without the power cost.

Yes I'm being overly optomistic, but who cares?

If we have a problem reconciling Fae forests as a bashing ground, we could have Wights instead. It’s a fairly similar concept in mythology (exactly the same, depending on where you look) but the different name would help separate between lesser nature spirits, and these seelie and unseelie beings known as Wights. There are creatures like the Brown Man, Water Ponies (I think that was their name?) and many others that are different enough from the Fae to become a whole different species of creatures in Lusternia.

On a slightly off-topic note, I find the novels by Cecelia Dart-Thornton to be a good contextual point to read about Wights, even if the writing style isn't to my tastes.

Exactly right.

Although, bear in mind that the 'physical' form Ellindel gave them may be what we would think of as summoning them to the Prime plane. The Ethereal plane is the spiritual side of Nature, but it only exists intangibly in the physical forests. That's why I don't think Ellindel 'made' them into brownies, sylphas, dryads, etc - I very much doubt she gave Maeve the form she has. Rather, these spirits dwelled in the spiritual plane, and it was only Ellindel that was able to discover a means of bringing them into physical manifestation on prime, and also how to travel to the Ethereal itself presumably.

I think it would be nice to make a set of fae that aren't loyal to any commune, so its not so cut and dry as it is now - Serenwilde helps fae and the fae like them best, while Glomdoring dominates them and is always trying to overpower them. Let's give some more depth and meaning to the relationship with fae that have a bit more independence and malice about them.

YoLF: Blah, I forgot my histories. I thought the Fae were MADE then, not given form. Blah. Thanks for the reminder. Given that, I can definatly see that 'evil fae' area comming in.



Well, I was hoping the Dreaming would have a bigger capability/power for the nations. Affecting people's sleep would only seriously harm novices (who aren't using vials all the time to recover) and annoy people under L80. How about this?

Dreams, normaly a part of every citizen's (player) being, can be pulled from their forms, either by 'hand' by a dreamweaver, or by a special 'mote' obtained through a quest by a non-dreamweaver. The player being affected will feel nothing while awake but, if asleep, will feel something being pulled away. After that, they will have no dreams at all.

The effect in itself is harmless to the player, but the pulled dream can be given to NPCs, which convert into Nightmares or Fantasies. They can then be used, for multiple things, like:

Attach one into a dream version of a villager and it'll make the villager more calm/panicy, making them less/more willing to revolt (Fantasy = calm, Nightmare = panicy)

Attach one to a guard to empower/weaken them, like a semi-permanent Influence (which stacks with the actual Influence effect)

Attach one to a Nexus and the Nexus will gain/lose a SLIGHT amount of power (should take ALOT to make it noticable)

And other things, perhaps involving long quests that make dramatic changes to the Basin or a particular Nation.

The Nightmare/Fantasy simply follows the target when attached and is targetable in the Dreaming; killing it returns the dream to the original character. Also, killing the character the Nightmare/Fantasy is attached to in Prime brings the dream back as well.

Of course, that could be a MESS to code, so it might be easier to just have the effect be temporary to all involved: Grab a dream, plop it in and the Nightmare/Fantasy fades into the target and lasts a month.

Oh and NO to making violet/kether/dreammoves the only ways to fight. Your dreamself in the Dreaming can do what your body can do, and what your dream self suffers, your body suffers. Just give the Dreamweaver more capability and advantage.

What happened with the Project that destroyed the Mugwumpi home? I think that would make an interesting area to bring back. It can be an underwater city sunken in the middle of an ancient swamp.

Alternatively (edit: and separate to the Mugwumpis), I'd love to see an area in which an early experiment of the Empire in healing the land went a little overboard. A vast primordial wetlands which has been magically animated to cleanse itself and restore itself to pristine condition. The elemental mages of the empire created creatures of earth, sea, sky and volcanoes (?) that are intended to eradicate traces of the scarring left by the wars. Unfortunately, the spells were a little awry - mortal intruders are attacked as foreign invaders, and the flora and fauna of this place are unnaturally bent on destruction and bizarre life cycles (think trees that eat the birds that nest on them, mutant frogs that kill alligators, acid rains that burn away grasses and shrubs, etc). Some of the creatures are sentient - mages that bound themselves into their creation in order to sustain it, but they are insane and very dangerous to treat with. In spite of the dangers, a village of hardened dracnari live below a dormant volcano in the center of the wetlands (who cares about geology!), and eke out a harsh existence.

Edit: And as far as the Dreaming goes, I wasn't suggesting a huge new system of interaction - just a separate area with some nifty quests. The only advantage dreamweavers would have would be getting to an appropriate spot without going through the Aspects/Lords - just like AstroGlide. And of course the fact they can stay awake permanently. Anything more and it becomes a dreamweaver-only arena, which I didn't intend it to be. Benefits that individual dreamweavers can get, like free motes, I suppose that would be ok.

How about a set of caves is discovered in the mountains behind Serenwilde which for centuries has been used by the commune to seal away and torture cityfolk that had entered their forest uninvited? These caverns are vibrant with gardens that are fertilized by the blood of the victims interrogated there, though only a few are actually tortured to death or harmed seriously. Most are locked away in prison-like complexes in the meandering tunnels, some having formed villages and tribes of their own. These caves are filled with moderate-level dangers that roam between the fortified enclaves that were intended to keep the prisoners in line - like wolves, bears, bats, carnivorous plants and so on which form a medium level bashing ground. Quests can be completed to free some of the prisoners from captivity, or to bring troublemakers inside (there will be roaming missionaries as NPCs that wander around the highways/anywhere preaching about Light or Taint ). This isn't part of Serenwilde territory or right outside the forest, but just close in the mountains, sort of the same distance Rockholm is away.

Edit: I should point out this isn't going to be cruel, sadistic or malevolent torture... it is simply inhumanly cold and uncaring. The cityfolk do not matter enough to care for their well-being, so they are interrogated at need. In dire circumstances, it is done without much restraint. It is something that most Seren do not want to know about, sort of like a dirty little secret. Fun fun!

Werent the Mugwump driven from Balach?

And the project was called Soulforce I believe? (correct me if Im wrong).

Though, you can add on to parts of the swamp appearing that were hidden before. Or the Mugwumps creating a settlement there now. Need more villages that include other races that dont have a City/Commune or wont in the future (If the Admins decide to add in Gaudiguch, Hallifax and Ackleberry). So no more Dracnari villages, though swamps have sulfur vents in them dont they? They can produce dangerous gasses as well. No place on a planet is unable to have a volcano due to magma being under all parts of the planets crust. (I really may be wrong on some points, but Im mostly sure except for when it comes to the swamps and gasses).

And the Gardens fertalized with the blood of victims is a good idea, but does it have to be only those that arent uninvited and are of the Cities?

I was going to suggest an idea I had for racial bashing grounds (only certain races can get to them), but I think I will get beaten with a pink umbrella if I do.

Yeah, you're probably right... I haven't studied much about Soulforce.

How about a multicultural village that is discovered in the dead regions just to the west of the Razines, outside the Basin? A small passage through the mountains is found, though the path is confusing and dangerous to master. Beyond in this village, remnants of all races (except the new races of viscanti, faeling, and human of course) have huddled together to survive against a bitter environment untouched by the restoration of the Basin. The soil grows no plants at all, and the village is surrounded on all sides by endless rocky desert bereft of life. The village is fortified around the only source of water the villagers have found, a tiny waterfall that trickles through the mountains from the snow and rainfall on the Basin side. The culture is built around preserving and worshipping water, and their shamans draw on knowledge similar to the shallowest lore of the aquamancers in order to extend their small water supplies, and extract it from the dead. The only source of food in this hostile place is an algae that grows in the sacred pools around the waterfall, and occasionally poisonous insects that were able to survive in the desert. The desert around the village is plagued by undead horrors that survive from the time of the Soulless Ones, and though these creatures raid the village very rarely, they are devastating in their onslaught. Only very few adventurers would be brave enough to venture out into the deserts beyond the Basin to face them.

Sidenote: The villagers have not travelled beyond a distance of one day's water, so it is possible the northern, southern and eastern sides of the regions outside the Basin have their own inhabitants.

See, lots of possibilities for bashing grounds that serve an RP purpose.