As part of the Seren Festival of the Arts I've been working on for ages (and which is finally approved and ready to go), I wanted to have a pageant procession from the Mother Tree to the stage. I don't know the right words for this, but I've seen them a number of times, most recently at a farmer's market. Here's some pictures of things kind of like what I mean:
A closely related kind of body puppetry, perhaps better known, is the huge Chinese dragons, manned by a large number of people, like this:
The idea would be for the guilds to each design one of these (or a small group of them) and then have members of the guild bear them in a procession. They would represent the Great Spirits, or whatever the guilds saw fit. Ideally, the march would be accompanied by drumming (I wish artisans were able to make drums, pipes, etc., even if they couldn't use them with Music skills!).
The trouble is, I can't think of a good way to actually do this in game terms. Illusions aren't a great approach because you can't maintain that many illusions, you can't move them, and you can't make it so people can look at them more closely. I can't think of a way to get tailors or any other crafters to do something that'd do for this. The ideal thing would be a mob that followed someone from the guild, so it could be probed and have enter and exit messages; but that requires divine involvement in its creation, and probably would end up with an impossibly high price tag besides.
Unless someone comes up with a great solution, I think this idea is going to have to fall by the wayside. I'm not even entirely sure what to propose (this is the Ideas forum after all) for this. Maybe a skill in Arts that creates a temporary mob that only lasts a few days, can't fight or attack or anything, and can only be led around? (The same skill might, in the cities, be used to make floats for parades. In fact, the idea originated with Liam, who wanted it to be floats; it was Lisaera who suggested these more commune-appropriate kinds of puppets.)
Any better ideas?
A closely related kind of body puppetry, perhaps better known, is the huge Chinese dragons, manned by a large number of people, like this:
The idea would be for the guilds to each design one of these (or a small group of them) and then have members of the guild bear them in a procession. They would represent the Great Spirits, or whatever the guilds saw fit. Ideally, the march would be accompanied by drumming (I wish artisans were able to make drums, pipes, etc., even if they couldn't use them with Music skills!).
The trouble is, I can't think of a good way to actually do this in game terms. Illusions aren't a great approach because you can't maintain that many illusions, you can't move them, and you can't make it so people can look at them more closely. I can't think of a way to get tailors or any other crafters to do something that'd do for this. The ideal thing would be a mob that followed someone from the guild, so it could be probed and have enter and exit messages; but that requires divine involvement in its creation, and probably would end up with an impossibly high price tag besides.
Unless someone comes up with a great solution, I think this idea is going to have to fall by the wayside. I'm not even entirely sure what to propose (this is the Ideas forum after all) for this. Maybe a skill in Arts that creates a temporary mob that only lasts a few days, can't fight or attack or anything, and can only be led around? (The same skill might, in the cities, be used to make floats for parades. In fact, the idea originated with Liam, who wanted it to be floats; it was Lisaera who suggested these more commune-appropriate kinds of puppets.)
Any better ideas?
I like the idea of having something like this. It seems like it could be suited to the many different cultures there are in the basin. I like the idea of it being something done with the Arts skill, and it being temporary, so the world isn't overrun by giant puppets. 
