Hi there :)

I'm looking to start playing another IRE game and have heard great things about Lusternia. I've been playing Achaea on and off since 1999 and am, well, a bit board of it. I need a new world to explore :)

I have a pretty specific set of interests and skills. I am not a combatant and although I can hunt, I am not overly interested in it. What I enjoy most is righting and RP.

I love creating events. I've masterd everything from musical performances to rituals and am slightly famous in Achaea for my work. I love making paintings, is there the opportunity to do so in Lusternia? I also enjoy playing priest/scholar characters. I have a lot of experience creating sermons and have published journals on a very wide range of topics.

With the above parameters in mind, does anyone have any advice as to which Lusternian organisations would best suit me? I haven't decided if I'm going to be Good, Bad or Forestall yet, so all suggestions are welcome. :)

Plenty of opportunity to make paintings. Unfortunately it requires a bit of a work-around to make a custom painting. You need a manse and the landscape skill in arts, as you can customize the landscape of your manse for 1000 gold.

Priest/Scholars suggests to me the cities. You can be it in the forests too, don't get me wrong, but the Guardians/Mages are the most thematically close to that role. Nihilists and Celestines are pretty basic priests, but the Illuminati are a bit closer to being cult-like from what I've seen, and the Researchers are FOR SCIENCE!

That said, any org can use another good event maker.

Wiccans are "priests" too, much more so than Gaudi/Halli guardians. :P

I would say you'd find a place in any organisation based on the information you've given.

As for making paintings, I'm sure you can find somebody who will let you borrow their manse if you asked around.

I agree with the above and would also amend wiccans to guardians so as not to exclude the communes. Agree with Kiradawea, any org would be glad to have you. Lusternia has some really great systems in place for publishing and stage craft. The arts skill is really kind of blah, though. The work around noted above is the only thing that lets you be creative, otherwise you're basically just reproducing images that have appeared in-game, for example making figurines out of quest event mobs. (They're little action figures we can battle. So fun.) For event-making, you might look in to guilds that can take illusions (so you can do room messages) and learn some dramatics (common skill, for animating mobs).

Depending on how sensitive you are, you may not like Magnagora or Glomdoring. Magnagora touts its "social darwinism" and while as a Glom player myself I like to think that we're super welcoming, apparently we can be a little dismissive and condescending. It's part of the org-feel and rp in either case. Feel free to ignore this advice if it doesn't apply. I'm making assumptions about you based on your being a non-com. Some orgs may give you a hard time about that. You might have a smoother time of it anywhere you go if you allow yourself to be open to the idea of joining combat in a group setting.

Oh they are priests, but not as typically "priestly" as Celestines and Nihilists, which are pretty similar to Priests from Achaea. Illuminati and Researchers are more scholarish, along with the mage guilds.

Also, to save you looking it up. Illusions are available to all Mages and Bards.

The Hartstone and Moondancers are so totally scholars and religous leaders. /shameless plug Though personaly I haven't seen anybody playing up those aspects of the guilds in awhile.

Really you could do what you want in any org, so really it just matters which you'd prefer focusing on for sermons, the Light, the Taint, the Wyrd, Nature, Science, or Freedom.

Hello, and welcome to Lusternia!

I imagine that you will probably love the stage system that Lusternia has, where you can record performances (from scientific lectures, to concerts, to artistic exhibitions, to dance performances, to plays) to be played back at any time in the future, and submitted to a competition against other stage submissions.

As to which organization, that's really going to depend on what kind of character you're interested in playing. As previously mentioned all orgs have their scholarly/priestly guilds in the guardians/wiccan archetype. I'd also suggest the mage/druid archetype as also being fairly scholarly and priestly. And then there are the bards, which are not like the Achaean bards, and allow/require you to write songs to actually use your skills.

(I need to throw in an obligatory Hallifax is the city of Science AND Art here. We do both.)


Edit to add: Lusternia also has a fairly impressive designing system. It's not just for clothes and food.

Celest has a 47 room library.

(Did we win?!)

Eventru:
Celest has a 47 room library.

(Did we win?!)

Everything just has to be big with you, doesn't it? How many rooms is the godrealm now?

Lehki:

Everything just has to be big with you, doesn't it? How many rooms is the godrealm now?

Size matters!

Eventru:


Size matters!

You compensating for something? Maybe we need to ask Lyreth...





too soon?

The beauty of Lusternia is that you can play (almost) any role anywhere. Where you play is more important than what kind of character you play, I think, as the organisation's ideology will place restrictions on how you go about fleshing out your specific character.

Note that many orgs already have their established go-to scholars/priests and a 'new kid on the block' will likely need to put in a ton of effort to be viewed equally. There are opportunities to play this kind of character in any org, though. Do your research on what the orgs stand for, what they believe in, how they operate... and then go with the one that seems to resonate with you!

Edit: Highly suggest reading the histories and making a couple of test characters to get the feel of different orgs (peruse their scrolls and libraries).

Come2Halli, we are the pinnacle of art and science... and balls!

Kiradawea:

Also, to save you looking it up. Illusions are available to all Mages and Bards.

Illusions are also available in a more limited form to dreamweavers (mages/druids). Illusions make for great freeform emotes though (in colour!)

From my experience!

Serenwilde is a great and welcoming place, so if you're looking for a nature-scholarly path, definitely check that out.

I'm currently in Celest, in the Celestines, and it's a play on the basic priest archetype, and we have an entire path devoted to scholarly / philosophical pursuits, even with credit rewards, I believe!

Anyway I agree with the others, make some alts in the places you're considering, look through their scrolls and check out the general vibe of the city or commune and your guild.

And have fun! :)

casilu:


You compensating for something? Maybe we need to ask Lyreth...





too soon?

... more of a reason to bring him back. Lyreth backplz. :C

If you end up thinking about Serenwilde, Hartstone is the way to go for scholarly.

I personally think that the people suggesting the guardian and wiccan guilds are completely off base. Think about it:
-Can do musical performances
-Enjoys ritualism
-Is a good writer
-Likes giving sermons
-Is good at art in general
-Would be very well served by Illusions

This screams to me BARD, and CANTORS specifically. Look at these advantages:
-Gives guild credits (5 per performance) for writing plays.
-Gives guild credits (3 per design) for designing items.
-Is currently publishing a guild hymnal.
-Is planning sermons/choir performances in the city Cathedral.
-Skills are great for influencing.
-Has a very strong religious theme, despite not being explictly a priesthood.
-Has extensive access to the city stage and most of the city's playwrights.
-Is in the city with the 47 room library.
-Has me!

Clearly, you should join the Cantors.

Greleag:

I personally think that the people suggesting the guardian and wiccan guilds are completely off base. Think about it:
-Can do musical performances
-Enjoys ritualism
-Is a good writer
-Likes giving sermons
-Is good at art in general
-Would be very well served by Illusions

This screams to me BARD, and CANTORS specifically. Look at these advantages:
-Gives guild credits (5 per performance) for writing plays.
-Gives guild credits (3 per design) for designing items.
-Is currently publishing a guild hymnal.
-Is planning sermons/choir performances in the city Cathedral.
-Skills are great for influencing.
-Has a very strong religious theme, despite not being explictly a priesthood.
-Has extensive access to the city stage and most of the city's playwrights.
-Is in the city with the 47 room library.
-Has me!

Clearly, you should join the Cantors.

I'd like to further press this point to, yes, join Cantors.

To point out people who are in it and run it, the GM Joylah seems absolutely awesome from what I've seen and heard of her; she really stands by and sticks with her bards. Qoivhae's a personal friend of mine, great guy, really. And Draylor is just uber great and helpful. (He gets cranky at times, but that passes quite fast. Then he's awesome again. >_<)

DON'T FORGET LYRETH, HE'S COMING BACK ONE DAY.

Oh, and for Celest, you have Kelly who is the best princess evar. EVAR. I love her so much and, as tempted as I am to say no hetero all homo, I will have to refrain. But yes, Celest's a really nice place with both its playerbase and the general RP of things and all that. If you enjoy writing sermons, the holy and heavenly theme of Celest would suit you perfectly. Fire-'n'-brimstone, anyone? And being a bard, you're naturally quite flexible and can play as any of the RP roles that the other guilds can and may have. From my perspective, bards seem to be a binder or unifier in the grand scheme of things.

For hunting, you have divinus-type damage. That's just great. I mean seriously, that's great. Go Cantors.

/shameless plug for moar Equinox members

Magnagora is actually in DIRE need of an active scholar/playwriter. And by dire I mean that we'll probably flood you with credits and gold for doing that sort of stuff. We're a darker, more occult atmosphere. I know that, for instance, if you joined Morgfyre's Order, I would be pushing you to make up some awesomely dark, twisted and positively gruesome rituals :D Of course, it all depends on your style. Mag's getting better at being more novice friendly under my watchful Revan Eye (tm). We're really pushing for more active novices and encouraging them to be an active part in the city. We'd certainly love love love to have you :)

Ps: Mag also has some of the richest lore in the game. Lots to draw from, especially with the nobility RP :D