I'm curious, if Serenwilde is supposed to dislike cities, them being to affront to Nature and stuff... Why don't make selling elixirs and salves to citizens illegal? Boom, cities have to live off rogues who manage to steal power from Mother Tree. Or maybe Bob, if he's going to stay in business after things get running smoothly. Guess how long they could keep up? And, most importantly, I would like to know how giving one side in conflict monopoly over absolutely vital resource is balanced?

You can't be a true rogue, if you leave the city your guild is based in then most of your powers just stop working, including alchemy.

You've never played an IRE game before, have you?

Well, it's a trade skill and you use your trade skill.. well, ironically, producing the wares that it lets you for sale or trade to others.

Now, while the Serenwilde said they'd never trust cities, and that they dislike them, they're neutral grounds. Selling someone an elixir really isn't saying you trust them, it's bartering.

As for the last part, it's not one side. They're neutral. They don't take place with New Celest or Magnagora. Further, really, where would the need to seek alliances with any other City/Commune be if you all had access to every little thing? Just banish the thought about leaving your home, really, why? You got everything. :p

Further, you need the alembic, and I think some other things, for alchemy that're based in Serenwilde. Think you'll tank City defences all day while cooking up a health elixir?

Just look at RL economics. When nation A sets up a protectionist trade barriers such as sanctions or tariffs against nation B, and nation B produces things that A needs, it frequently causes B to do the same thing back against the protectionists in nation A. (I believe that was especially common in the 19th century.) So I imagine then that the cities would respond with a ban on selling enchantments to the Serenwilde since they have a duopoly on that. Maybe it would cause an alliance between Magnagora and New Celest. (That would be cool!)

Furthermore, it would be hard for either side to enforce that with shops since they cannot control who buys things in shops. Thus all potions (and enchantments) would need to be banned from all shops, which would make their distribution channels very innefficient and make profits plummet even further. Could this even cause shortages of potions for Serenwilde citizens and of enchantments in the cities? I don't know, but maybe it'd be fun to find out! :)

Well, even if New Celest and Magnagora will come to agreement in such case, you can still live without enchantments. But you can't live without elixirs.



They can control shop owners.

It has been proved multiple times with every trade skill in every IRE mud - you CANNOT control the suppliers. Look at the Magi Trade Bans, or venom/toxin bans or any other single tradable skill that has tried to be controlled. When you try that, then a black market for the items WILL form, and the items will get through anyway. That isn't even counting the people who continue to supply for their friends and relatives regardless of any bannings.

That is true, but I think it is balanced by the two-to-one gang-up of cities vs. Serenwilde. So Serenwilde would have two armies invading it if things got really bad, while if Serenwilde wanted to forcibly end trade warfare of an enchantment ban then they would have to split their army in half and invade two cities at once.

What's to stop them only banning one city out of interest?

The Monopoly really disappoints me... Silvenae got trans alchemy, left Serenwilde, all the helpfiles said powertpye (Any) explicitly, but oh.. Oops! It's actually supposed to be Mother Tree

In either case, it's not especially hard to bribe people.

I imagine there are some alchemists out there that are just craving an elixir ban for the cities, just so they can sell their elixirs on the black market for ungodly prices

It will still cause much inconvinience, especially for new citizens who don't have many connections. Detract newbies from city - gain even more advantage.



I just can't imagine Celestians and Magnagorians raiding Serenwilde in one group. Also, what raiding can possibly accomplish? Piss off some communers (or whatever it's called)? Maybe, but you can't kill them repeatedly thanks to Avenger system. Furthermore, raiders going to die a lot due to lack of elixirs. And their bashing will also be greatly hampered. Even 2-on-1, Serenwilde should have much trouble winning, IMHO.

Now imagine if they decide not to sell elixirs to one city instead of both? That city will be screwed royally without comparable means of retaliation. And this doesn't require Serenwilde to make treaty with any of cities either.

As for their neutrality... How often do they raid Celestian villages or Celestia?

One of solutions (if problem actually presents itself) might be shifting conflict from New Celest vs. Serenwilde vs. Magnagora to New Celest + Serenwilde vs. Magnagora + Glomdoring. Would be interesting. Althrough it might require designing new archetype or two.

I have to say that this is the exact same reason I would vouch for a Glomdoring commune

Yeah I've got quite a few who sell to me even though I am omigawsh evil enemy :ph34r:

Most Serenwilders will sell their stuff to a Celestian much sooner than a Magnagoran, and cheaper at that. So there's a big imbalance no matter how you look at it or try to argument it. But the opposite will probably happen with Glomdoring, since they are tainted just as Magnagora, they will most likely favour Magnagora over Celest, so the alchemy could become balanced.

1) That's assuming there'll be a Glomdoring commune anytime soon
2) That's funny cause Celest is way more thuggy than us

Even if Silvenae quickly joined Serenwilde to milk trans alchemy from us, using us, I smiled warmly when I heard it didn't work. Any city specific skill should require power from only the city that allows the tradeskill, hence why the Alembic resides in Serenwilde as well. If Glomdoring comes around in the near future you will have the neutral neutral and dark neutral communes and no one will have to worry, but for now...be nice boys and girls.

Yeah but it used to be (Any) and then was changed to Moonhart Tree shortly after she left

I found most serenwilders to be achaean forestals, often with the same name, who call magnagorans mhaldorks. And even the ones that really try to change are so brainwashed they can't pronounce magnagorans, they can only say it as magnagorians. All that, plus human nature's inherited anti-evil way of thinking (luckily it's present in many people), makes it that most serenwilders will always lean towards "good"...untill there's forestals that actively choose to be evil or dark alligned.

See, that's the funny thing. There's a few who aren't totally incapable of RPing the Serenwilde role, just a matter of finding them, and hoping the "ZOMG ACHAEA2.0" people are kept out of power.

Personally this is my first forestal role since the beginning of my IRE gaming experience, seems alright for now but you wont see me hugging trees, at least not in public view.