Yes, but you'd have to think of all the different messages and echoes that you'd get from the skills, and how they would interact with pre-existing skills, and then you would need to think of their city-wide quests, et cetera.

Although, conflict-wise, maybe Hallifax and Gaudiguch end up hating each other over some reason, so they don't meddle too much in the Celest-Magnagora thing.

And if you bring back Ackleberry, they could hate Serenwilde for the same reason, so you could have uber-battles everywhere you turn!


Muhahahaha!


-Etanru

Halifax and Gaudiguch's disapperance was quite unrelated to the disappearance of Ackleberry. Ackleberry was scared, and they thrust themselves into the unknown, (non-existance). None of them really knew whether they would live or not, but they knew it would be better than being warped by Kethurar and his taint.

If anything, Serenwilde and Ackleberry would team up. Serenwilde was very close to following Ackleberry and dropping a veil of non-existance over them, before they realized the Taint would spread no further towards them and they were pretty much safe.

We've mainly been discussing about the skills and nexuses and stuff.

I've been thinking about the races...

I mean there is one specialty race for the three society, communities, groupy thingies, at the moment.

Like Elfen is specifically for Serenwilde. You gain specialisation in their skills and bang you get to be a special Elfen dudey.

Same with Viscanti in Magnagora and Merians in New Celest.

Sure, I mean a couple of the races we got now already have roots in Gaudiguchy and Hallifaxy, but perhaps some special thingy to go with speciailisation in their skills.

Of course, we need to find an RP way to figure out how to change them properly. Perhaps a story saying that the return of the nexus shoots off power into the races and make them change, or perhaps the already made chars can do some special rite at the nexuses, like sacrificing 30 virgins and wading in their blood while naked, singing to an unknown god - I don't know.

It would be interesting to see...

Not necessarily. I think that the races, for example the Dracnari, always had the ability to become High/Imperial/Lord Dracnari or what the name will it be. They simply aren't able at the moment because the only way they can do that is by joining certain Gaudiguch guilds, which they cannot at the moment.

Also, the question 'which races will get specialisations in the new cities?' has been discussed many times before. Just to add what are my opinions:
-Gaudiguch: Dracnari, of course (but that'd make them overpowered)
-Hallifax: Lucidian (some people vote Trill)
-Ackleberry: Furrikin (maybe they'll suck less, stat-wise), some say Tae'Dae but that'd be a murder
-Glomdoring: no idea here...

I really don't think it'll be long before at least one of these places comes back. I remember when Estarra was talking about the release and how many guilds the game had way back before the game was open, she mentioned that there would be more guilds, that there were only 9 on opening, because otherwise, the game would have taken a lot longer to open.

Alyvia, Messenger of the Great Estarra, has restored hope to our kind by bringing the True Word of Revival back to our people. Go forth to your laptops and pray, true believers, for our moment is at hand.

I would be unsurprised if Hallifax has (oh my god) two races specializing! OMGAW WTFS ERION U R KRAZY!

Erm, no. Celest was founded by Merian, thus their specialization. Serenwilde was home to a largely elfen-based Commune, thus Elfen specialization. Viscanti (being either pure-blood tainted or mutt-tainted) live in Magnagora, thus they specialize. Gaudiguch is home to Dracnari, thus they will specialize.

Estelbar is home to Furrikin and Tae'dae. They will both, most likely, specialize. Same with Hallifax. Just because all of the other cities/communes seem to have one race specialization might be because, oh gods, THEY ONLY HAVE ONE PRIMARY RACE. Ever think of that? There's no Igasho quarter in New Celest. It's Merian and non-Merian, suggesting a large portion of it's citizenry is SUPPOSED to be... You guessed it. Merian.

Now, Hallifax may be set up in a rather interesting manner. It has been pointed out by several Mesa mobs that the trill are more warrior-oriented, and the lucidians more science/magic oriented. So they could have Lucidians only specializing in cosmic guardian (assumably a science-esque guild), Trill only specializing in warrior guild, and both specializing for Aeromancers.

And the Wyvern Riders were not, for the bloody millionth time, Pyromancers. They were viewed as a different entity than Pyromancers, where led by a GENERAL, NOT the High Flame, or any of the other council members, and where being led on the Elemental Plane of Fire by their guild champion, if my memory serves. Just be-bloody-cause they are riding wyverns and Aquas have turtles, Geos have taint wyrms, does not mean that because they ride a bloody wyvern makes them a bloody Pyro-mancer.

If I go mount a stag, am I most certainly a druid?

No, I'm a zoophiliac. (Yuk yuk yuk)

Just to set the facts straight on the Gaudiguch guilds and GM titles:
Illuminati (guardians)
Wyvern Riders (warriors)
Pyromancers (mages)

Most Venerable (City leader)
High Flame (Pyromancers GM)
General (Wyvern riders GM)
Grand Cypher (Illuminati GM)

Pyromancers will definately have Elementalism (Pyromancey) Illusions (read Tsaraziko), and Runes
The Illuminati and Wyvern Riders will share one skillset (the rituals specialization, most likely pertaining to Chaos, (read: Occultism) due to the fact that it would be the best fit for the RP of both guilds.)
The Wyvern Riders will have Knighthood (and blademaster, bonecrusher) as well as Atheletics.
The Illuminati will have Cosmic (and their specialization, most likely dealing with vortex entities (read: Domination), judging by the similarity to the occultists, and the mention of the bizzare creatures of the Vortex) as well as Tarot or Hexes or Healing.

---

Just on a side note, due to the lack of being able to do a damn thing until the building of it is completed, nobody (except for on the occaisional whim) is doing anything more regarding the hand quest. We tried to do it, thinking that the divine had it all built, and it turned out that it wasn't, and no other quests to aide it have come to light, hence most of us have either moved on, or the ones who are still dedicated to it (or due to their character's persona have no other RP avenues until it is released) are just sitting around, or logging in occaisionally to check up and see if any new quests have opened up.

I actually think that Hallifax and Gaudiguch would be hostile towards New Celest, as they would see it as a pale reflection of the Old Empire they left. They could also presumably be angry at Serenwilde, for not coming to their aide, and at Magnagora for being representative of the taint in the first place.

Consequently, its concievable that alot has happened, wherever they went. We assume that they were frozen in time, but who's to say whichever pocket-dimension they've isolated themselves in doesn't have a time flow? They could even have a faster time flow, and thus been in there developing for millenia...which is a scary thought. Who knows what CRAZY things they could have gotten up to in the mean time. Maybe they've reconciled their differences and are now strong allies. Maybe one wiped the other out. Maybe they CAN see the ordinary prime material plane, and have been watching us this whole time.

One possibly combination of this is that they have been watching us, and have allied with each other, and decide to come back from isolation to unleash a war of conquest and "Restore the old empire". We cannot say.

At any rate, our population cannot handle the simultaneous introduction of two more places of power right now, it is simply not big enough. This is why I think that Ackleberry will come first (or Glomdoring), because only one of those concievably needs to be brought back at a time, and thats something the playerbase can probably deal with (and it may just see the kind of injection of new people trying it out that leads to a long term increase overall).

But, like everything, its' really Estarra and Roark's call. I imagine they've thought of most everything we've said here, and more. I also don't think its fair to pressure them about it, between the two of them, if my memory serves, they have over a decade of IRE mud administration experience. If ANYONE knows what the best thing to do is, its them.

I for one don't think the playerbase has "Matured" a good enough view of the roles of the existing cities to throw in a completely new set that could be percieved in an overused, shallow and droll way.

I would argue that the lack of increase in playerbase is due to the fact that Magnagora and Celest (No offense Daevos and Rhysus) suck to live in for those of us who like to think a little deeper than "RULE D VURLD!" or "Oooooh, shiney light!".

And dont get me started on Serenwilde.

I doubt Im alone here in the way the current world situation has made me want to put a little space between myself and the game.

I honestly would be very disappointed if either of those cities came online soon, as pure playerbase cities anyhow. As they said, we do not have close to the playerbase to add many cities in at this point, and there are times that I only see 4 people in mine as is. The only one I might see would be another forestal commune, but even that would stretch us a bit thin. As I posted elsewhere, I would like to see more focus on the cities we have and events for the groups that we already have. After we pick up steam, then you can add in even more cities.

It just would be too painful to have 4-5 major cities/communes and a playerbase that ranges between 40-150 (whatever our max usually is). I understand some people have put a lot of work into it, but we just aren't big enough yet. Give it some time, and it may happen, but don't freak out when you push for it and it is not built yet. We just came up not long ago, so you can't expect with our population for them to have 5 prepared cities.

There is much more to the groups that are around now, you just have to find your own niche within them. I was in Serenwilde for quite a while, and you don't have to deal with the BS you don't like there. Same with Mag, I help out fighting when necessary, but beyond that I kinda do my own thing.

As a side note, I would really, really like for Shiri's work on Faith and Physics - or at least their concepts - to be used. As fun as Gaudiguch and Hallifax could be within the current framework, I'd love it if they could expand it. Also, I'd really like for the Illumanti's specialization to be -different- from Domination. Having it be similiar would...ruin the mystery and charm of the whole thing.

I'd love it if the coders slowly opened the cities for those curious players out there. Since that doesn't explain anything I'll go into detail.

As the nexuses of Gaudiguch and Hallifax slowly lose power (Which apparently they're doing each time there's a KABOOM and we see people die from the nodes) I suggest that perhaps a small portion of the city open up (Small as in.. five rooms or less? Not sure how big they'll be), but of course the time bubble.. or whatever the hell it is will be visible in the distance. (So either make it a line that can be easily removed in the description or I guess you'll just have two sets of rooms. Abuse those builders!) As more rooms develop, or as the story develops, present more rooms.

Either way.. tease the people!

Naw, open exactly one room.

How great would it be to walk past and see all the followers of each sitting there...rocking back and forth...chanting..."It's coming, It's coming, I just know it." Give them a little nervous twitch too.

Them being trapped in time does not have to do with the power of the Nexus, really. When the Nexus are drained, there will not be such a powerful force keeping them gripped together and thus outside of time, allowing us to THEN pull them back.

As an afterthought, I imagine that what happened was a city version of what the Ackleberry did. They sundered themselves from existance into non-existance. Hallifax got dragged along because they had linked their two nexus together.

If we were to drain the Ackleberry's nexus does not mean pieces of it will appear, now does it?