I was just wondering if there was any specific reason Glomdoring doesn't have an active patron? I'd like to get into the Order stuff, but I don't want to join an order of an inactive patron.

Estarra? Fain? Anyone? Tell us when we will get an active patron? If not, why can't/don't we have one?

Glomdoring "managed to drive off" its previous Divine and scare potential ephemerals away. Words (loosely) Estarra's, not mine. You are unlikely to get anyone for a while - there are a couple Ephs hanging around, but no guarantee that they'll choose to help Glomdoring out given its history with this kind of thing.

P.S, this would be a kind of awkward question even without that. Plenty of guilds and communes/cities have been stuck without active patrons for some amount of time even through no fault of their own - it's just how it goes when there aren't that many competent and willing ephemerals to be selected from to begin with. Patroning is more like a privilege than a right around here, annoyingly.

Or-- raise a Vernal, get a cult, have that kind of roleplay, and let our little helpful Ephemeral do the behind-the-scenes stuff until it's ready to move on and either Patron or make way for another ephemeral.

Viravain's Order is also supposedly doing some order roleplay to keep the thing active, though personally I'd prefer that Viravain was just dropped at this point as a concept. It's going to be hard for anyone to salvage much from that, though possible I suppose.

I just have to second what Nejii said. He phrased it extremely well in saying that having a patron is a privilege, rather than a right, even though if you need help, the responses you'll get is, "get a patron." Granted, you try that 4 times and the only active divine who can possibly patron you refuses 3 of those times, and when you ask about it you get told, that volunteers don't grow on trees and no other guild has needed administrative handholding.

I've heard in the past under Shayle's reign, our Patrons were treated horridly, but I think in order for Glomdoring to fully recover, we need a Patron. Is it really THAT much to ask for?

Only the patrons who thought turning the Ravenwood pink was fun were 'treated horridly' because that doesn't make a whole lot of IC-sense to a number of our characters. They were also in between a rock and a hard place, being told to force change and getting flak from the Commune for doing what they were told (especially since that seemed to mean 'rapidly changing stances/opinions/decisions' which nobody could keep up with).

However, the first Patron we had wasn't really treated horribly at all. Of course, she pretty much ran the Commune herself...

Actually Elostian was the one who turned the Ravenwood pink and he doesn't really count as a patron. You (Glom) did treat Viravain 2.0 pretty terribly, but she was also very easily manipulated by Shayle.

Note the "was fun"-- that Viravain supported the change in-character. Wouldn't have been an issue otherwise.

Out of curiousity what do you feel you need a patron for in order to recover?

What did Shayle do to manipulate her? I would hope gods would keep some distance with players normally.

Hmm, not necessarily NEED one, but both cities and the other commune has one as well as an Order to RP with their God. I think it is just one of the many pieces missing from Glomdoring.

Eh, if you don't NEED it then good luck. I think the admin will be the first to tell you that you need a patron and don't need one at the same time.

But let's also not forget how understaffed they are and that probably doesn't help.

Hmm, isn't tax season almost over? *nudge Myndaen*

I don't think it's really constructive to dredge up past issues when we have (hopefully!) moved on.

I do note Viravain does occasionally show up. Other than that, gods don't spontaneously appear out of thin air. These are volunteer admins who work behind the scenes because they want to, and they certainly deserve much more respect than they usually get. If Glomdoring doesn't have a patron or one as active as they want, it is not because we are "holding back"--it's because one doesn't exist.

I wouldn't mind if Viravain stayed barely-active forever. Her character has been through the ringer, and so many people feel so many ways about her. I mean, I love being in her order, but..as an interesting character, she's too much soap opera. I mean, she's had radical personality change, seeming death, and amnesia.

That's pretty damn over the top

I always thought it would be kind of cool if Viravain got split up into different strong mobs that sat in places in the Glomdoring.

You know, Lady of the Summer Song, Mistress of the Webs, Child of the Wyrd, Daughter of Shadows, Lady of the Thorns. And they could all just be mobs. You know, maybe Viravain did a miniature splinter.

Part of me really wants Viravain to be active and great, but I would really rather (OOCly) have ephemerals being cool and interesting gods rather than stressed out bipolar schizophrenic ones, not that that can't be cool (Read: Morgfyre) but..I can't explain it. Viravain has just had too many realm-switches. And I'm not even talking about that little Isune-Seduction-Seed thing that happened for a day but got retconned.

As it is, we have Ajeren to help out where possible, but do I think we need a Patron? No. Not at all. Would it be nice? Sure, but not necessary to anything.

Well, we DO need a patron for some of the day-to-day things (like, it took a long, long time to get a new Shadowdancer envoy after Shamarah left, about a month). Envoy appointment is actually one of the largest demands for an actual hard-coded Patron. See: Myndaen's post.

First of all, I would like to thank you for the explanation, since some of us new people don't really know what happened in the "past".

What exactly do you mean one doesn't exist? Like you don't have a person to play that God or there is no God that exists to fill it?

Don't have a person to play that God. They can and do make new ones from time to time.

Bad, bad phrasing following.

Or, to Astraea's note - have Shikari (who is also a dormant god) and Vira combine, sort of Gemini like, and take up a new form, mayhaps an almost amazonian goddess/god. Though, this plays into my little note with the Serenwilde having the triple goddess version with the moons and avatars - the triple moon symbol, in some technicality, is a four phase moon. The fourth moon is the new moon, unseen, which plays both into night, and into the history of Glom with Serenwilde, and I personally think would be interesting to see in a god.

It may also prove a nice opportunity for Glom to work on a new identity - something that combines the good of the old, while also letting for change and growth and also be engaging. Right now there's a bit of a slump, so I've noticed and heard about from multiple angles.

/end rambling, feel free to ignore.

EDIT: as I left this out, for the moons, the new moon is the 'warrior' moon.

I actually really like this idea. I really do think Glomdoring is trying to change and come out of its slump. This would further streamline this process by following the wake of a new god with a semi-big transformation.