[Caelum's Scrapbook] Use Your Words.

[Caelum]

On the Ethaefal Rewrite. It was brought to my attention today in chat that there is some concern regarding the ethaefal race rewrite, specifically the part where a person who kills an ethaefal is cursed by the eth's patron deity. I decided that it was a good idea to clear up some apparent misconceptions and also to explain my thought process in this regard. This is nearly impossible to do in chat, so I came here to my handy dandy scrapbook. First things first, ethaefal are not immortal. They can be killed. They can die. Kill them with poison or with bodily injury. They'll die just like the next person. They cannot be killed via disease or age, however. This is because they are immune to disease. They do not suffer from cellular sensescence (the deterioration of cellular structure and divisional ability due to time) which means they do not age and cannot die from old age. This is because the eth were handcrafted -- that's Etsy-made, y'all -- by their gods. They are not the children of the gods. Some of them were even the children of other gods first. Instead they were selected by Syna and Leth. Hand picked. They were divinely claimed as mortals, after a long series of lives in service, specifically and individually by Syna and/or Leth. And when they fall back to Mizahar Syna and Leth handmade them a body to carry on in. That body is therefore special. They are not meant to be a species. They cannot procreate as a race. They have no people, no place, and are interminably strangers in a strange land. And, yes, if you kill one of them then Syna or Leth (or maybe even both) is going to curse you. Why? Well, because it makes sense. They cherry picked these people ages ago. They not only marked them, but brought them back home to coddle and love and hang with for eternity. And then doom struck and everything changed and their best buddies are back on earth without a friend in reach, a family, a home, or even knowledge of why. You up and murder them, Syna and Leth are going to be mad. Those are their roomies. Their mates. Their freaking chosen ones. You shouldn't be able to kill anyone in Mizahar without consequence. Ever. Why should you be able to get away with doing it to the best mate of a god? Further, why would you want to get away with it? Story follows character. Character follows plot. And plot is goal + conflict. This is conflict. This is potentially fantastic conflict. And it's only just begun there. Because here's the balance, kids. Ethaefal are going to be hunted. I'm not just talking about some random slavers that you want to come up with could maybe stumble by and scoop them up just like, oh, anyone else. I mean hunted.After this revision, there should not be a single ethaefal who can go anywhere without constantly looking over their shoulder. This is because ethaefal horns will survive the ethaefal. In fact, the quickest way to get your hands on a horn is to kill an ethaefal and let their body do its super-fast deterioration thing, leaving the horns behind. The horns can be sold for thousands upon thousands of mizas. They are going to be incredibly pricey. You will be able to sell them, and not just in one city to this one shady dude who is going to only to offer you half price, but in a lot of places and to a lot of people. People who want these horns to work amazing pieces of magic. Amazing magic. But, see, there are under 300 ethaefal in all of the Mizahar. Their horns are therefore really rare. So the price? Even higher. You sell even one horn, you can buy a house. Now let's flip it around. The ethaefal obviously know they're hunted. They don't like this. (Color us stunned.) So the ethaefal consider it their duty to try and kill anyone who crosses their path cursed by Syna or Leth. Think about it. That doesn't just create plot for the person they are trying to kill (and remember, kids, you're not going to die in Mizahar if you don't want to or, you know, you blatantly break the rules). It creates plot for the ethaefal too. Who's to say the ethaefal even has the ability to try and kill these people? Well, now they better at least give it a go in some incredibly clever maybe even third party way. It was even suggested in chat that ethaefal could potentially use all of this to their advantage, and my immediate, visceral response to that is: GOD I HOPE SO. Eths aren't angels. They aren't supposed to be all goody-goody saints. That is not the purpose of their existence back on Mizahar. And if any PC can actively use any piece of their racial lore in new and clever and interesting ways to produce more plot not just for them but for everyone around them, then I will throw open the doors for them. Plot, guys. Plotplotplot. This isn't about being able to kill someone and get away with it. Kill an eth. Get cursed. Or figure out the loopholes and get smart and interesting about it and don't get cursed and then get rich or make some spectacular new piece of magic with that shiny horn. Plot! Finally, there need to be more curses in this game. I hardly ever see any PC with a curse from a god. That's ridiculous. These gods are like children half the time. They are volatile and play favorites and have long standing power struggles and there should be at least half as many cursed individuals as there are marked ones. I think that anyone who kills anyone with a gnosis mark from a god should either be cursed by the god who marked their victim OR have a really, really, really excellent argument as to why not. Sure, there are probably some necessary exceptions depending on what god we're talking about, but it seems like a pretty good blanket rule to me. We're here to write, and I am revising this sorely underdeveloped race in the service of story. I'm going to make mistakes. It's not going to be perfect and there are going to be things that need polished or bounced around a bit until they're the best they can be. There are probably going to be things that need taken out too, that just don't fit right into the whole. That is the nature of revision, and writing. If you still don't like the idea of it after reading this, that's okay. Soon enough, the entire race will go up for Peer Review and I very much hope that all of you will come in, read it, and then tell me how to make it better. Make a good argument. If I agree with you, I will change it. And even if I don't agree with you, a Founder might before it all goes into the lore. And that is also okay. This isn't for me. This is for Mizahar.

[Urna]

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Let me just say, Katie, that I absolutely adore everything you've done for the Ethaefal as a race thus far and the direction you're taking them in. It's a direction, which is something the race lacked before. It's going to make this girl's future (and past, holy crap) so much more interesting to watch and write. ... And plot! All the flashbacks!
.

[Estrellir Konrath]

Wile reading your thoughts (which I love, btw), something occurred to me. What would an Eth have to do to earn a negative gnosis mark from their patron deity? Is that even possible? Obviously it's a step beyond even forsaken status, but... like you said, plot.

[Caelum]

An eth could absolutely be cursed by their patron deity. I think it would require some extreme circumstances, but is definitely not out of the realm of possibility. The Forsaken, notably, are not cursed by their god. Their situation is somewhat different. By the way, thanks Urna and Estrellir. I'm glad you're enjoying it!

[Caelum]

Plot vs. Development or ST vs. Player Anyone can do development. I don’t mean everyone can do great development, but that here on Mizahar you don’t have to be an ST or have an official rank of some kind in order to develop. Not only do most if not all of the cities have open development submission and request forums, but there are now seriously amazing Scribe STs who will gladly assist you in your development process via the Development Forum. You can be a day old on Mizahar and develop something or assist someone else in developing. If you don’t have the time or wherewithal to do an article from scratch, there are several in desperate need of more Peer Reviews. And if a Peer Review isn’t up your alley, go write up a cool location or NPC or who knows what for your favorite city. Development is something easily obtained here. We don’t require special status and the only sort of application you have to contend with is the kind you’ll be needing to do to develop well anyway – ie, an article outline, etc. Sure, if you’ve only been on forum for a few weeks and you want to rewrite an entire magic system, you’re going to be steered in a different direction. But that, friends, is just logical. This brings me to my question – why would you stress development ideas in an ST application? Yes, they’re all well and good. Gods know we love development around here, but seriously, anyone can do it. You shouldn’t want to become an ST to develop. You can develop as a player. If you want to develop with a shiny colored name, that’s okay (I mean, we all like shiny things), but it really oughtn’t be your primary motivation. You need to want to write. You need to want to write great, far reaching adventures that have massive PC impact and alter the face of entire regions. You need to want to put a god into writing and show off a PC’s depth and potential by furthering their personal story. You need to want to uncover ancient ruins and weave a modern day plot from the past lives of a dozen PCs and help them suss out the secrets of survival in a post-apocalyptic world. You need to want to write saving souls and crushing the moral high ground. See connections. Pull the threads. Write in new ones where they don’t exist. Give plot. Write plot. They’ll start making more. One plot seed can turn into a dozen if it’s the right one. You need to want to be a plot producer, to use Tarot’s terminology. Obviously, players can also be plot producers, but players are a) way more limited in the authority of their plots and b) are for the obvious reasons more focused on their personal goals than the needs of the community. That’s what Mizahar needs from their STs. We don’t want to know what you’re going to put in a new flora/fauna list. We want to know what you’re going to do to incite writing riots in your city. The development? Will happen regardless. Necessity is the key to invention, and plot vehicles (aka development) come from plot happening. Okay. That’s all. Well, save this disclaimer: I am most certainly not talking about anyone in particular. I’m addressing everyone who is interested in lending a helping hand in Mizahar but who might not be aware what sort of help it needs.

[Caelum]

Hi, y’all. I’m leaving for Cold Mountain tomorrow on a long overdue vacation. I will be back next week and unlikely to be usefully present until then. I may respond to PMs while gone, but that will probably depend on the subject matter. The mountains are calling and I must go.

[Ball]

Enjoy!

[Caelum]

Uh, guys. This is my new combat goal with Caelum. How freaking cool is this? Now picture on horseback.

awesome archery.

[Aoren]

Uh...wow. Yes please.

[Xira Hezmek]

Oh wow. I thought the catching the arrow part was cool, then he shot an incoming arrow out of the air. While in he was turning around.