August's Featured Contributor: Tabarnac!

[Cayenne]

August's Featured Contributor: Tabarnac! Please join me in congratulating Tabarnac, August's Featured Contributor. Cayenne: You’ve been around for quite a while. How did you find Mizahar? What keeps you coming back to it? Tabarnac: Nate (Baku, Jaeden, Hatot, etc.) and I used to play a couple of games together back in the day and he invited Christine (Nel, Damijan, etc.), who pulled Selena (Dusk, Miharu, Doc, etc.) and me (Tabarnac, Sama'el, Hadrian, Ifran, Mihai, etc.) into the fold. So I didn't find it, but it sort of found me. As to what keeps me coming back, well, I signed on to be a storyteller and I suppose I feel a sense of responsibility... ha! Also, I can't leave until Sama'el has a pavilion, Hadrian becomes a god, and several other milestones are passed. That and while I've gone long stretches only playing small-time games with groups of friends, I really do enjoy a wider community. Even when there's a high attrition rate, which does make for lameness, there's something exciting about new blood and the opportunity to collaborate with lots of people. Cayenne: What is your favourite aspect of the game? Tabarnac: I like world-building. People are quick to say "We're not Tolkien!" and whatever, but he was a phenomenal world-builder, as are most of my favorite writers. So I enjoy getting to build, not only Denval, but whatever my characters touch, because they affect that reality, and help elaborate upon it, I think. And whether it's within a huge context like Syliras or a tiny one like Denval, there's still the opportunity to effect change. I like that. Cayenne: You look after more than one domain in Mizahar, and in different regions to boot. Do you find it hard to do that when they both are so different in flavour? Tabarnac: Well, I'm not technically working in Zeltiva anymore despite my name still being attached... But I was happy to step up and cover Zeltiva while Liminal was away. I like to think we had a simpatico going since I started Hadrian in Zeltiva, which gave me a certain familiarity with the place and the way his (twisted) mind works, and the seed of Denval was his idea that I developed under his supervision, so despite the fact that Denval and Zeltiva are on opposite sides of the continent, there are many connections that allowed for an easy transition. I also like to think that I've been doing this long enough that I can grok a place's essence given a little familiarity. The downside of this is that a lot of people ask for my help outside of my realm and I just can't get to everyone and still provide the minimum quality of service I try to give everyone with whom I work. Unless the Founders can afford to pay me for full-time services, along with medical, vision, and dental care...! Cayenne: Do you have a favourite NPC that you like to use again and again? Tabarnac: There are many special places in my heart for all my NPCs, who are three dimensional voices in my head... (Shh, don't tell anyone.) Currently, Justus is my favorite to play. He's the priest of Nikali running her Temple in Denval and he came out of an idea in my head when I was thinking about a whorehouse for the little sex-positive settlement. I like that he is a priest of the goddess of slaves and addictions, but he has risen through her esoteric path to a place of leadership and healing. He still responds to the needs of others, but he has become wise enough to intuit the roots of needs and how to guide people toward healthy expressions of their needs. I also like how I now have Katie (Caelum, Izdihar, Dor, etc.) guest moderating her Cian Noc in Denval, and the rapport between our boys. Cian is a priest of Rak'keli and heals the body. Justus is a priest of Nikali and heals the mind and spirit. And then they get drunk together because nobody else understands. They're emo boys underneath it all. But I think he is an example of taking an archetype and rather than trying to follow the letter of the law, finding the spirit of the law, a deeper understanding of what it's all about, and the interconnectedness of things. I like that too. Also, his compassion is staggering to comprehend. His whole life is devoted to the service of others, but he has not lost himself in the needs of others. Need and the service of needs have tempered him like a blade. Plus, he gets a lot of action so I can live vicariously... Cayenne: If you could run any thread in your domains, what would they entail? Tabarnac: I'm currently running it, though it's actually a series of threads that are connected, though not everyone is aware that I'm doing it. There's a citywide plot going on in Denval that will take a few seasons to mature. There are seeds now, but it's going to be imminent doom before long. Rocks fall; everyone dies. But I do wish I could be entrusted with even bigger plotting, like what Tarot has up his sleeve with the Priskil v. Sagallius plot. My response is (pc) memememe! and (mod) but Denval! If Aquiras wakes, Denval is going to be transformed and then the rest of the world had better watch out. There have been some development ideas I've had that I have had to shelve because Founders have claimed them, which is all great, but I just sit and wait and wish they could afford to make Mizahar development their full time jobs too! Perhaps someday I'll be a Regional Storyteller and my plottings will grow exponentially. Or I will kill a Founder and eat their heart and thereby ascend to Founderhood... wait... no... Cayenne: When we write, we tend to write what we know and from the heart. Do you feel that either of your domains really reflects who you are? Why? Tabarnac: Well, Zeltiva was only temporarily mine, but I'm well on my way to hyperedcuation and a career in both the arts and academia, so the city with the most prominent University was not difficult to play. Also, I grew up in a town with a harbor, so I can understand the mentality somewhat. The sailors remind me of living in Savannah, though... As for Denval, I liked the idea of a town in isolation for 451 years. I know everyone feels isolated from time to time, but I thought it would be great for them not to be victims, but to have taken that time to really distill who they were as a community and look inward. They worship the god of travel, but cannot take a land route to any other place. They don't have the resources to build ships, so they couldn't sail anywhere either. Now they are sort of like post-World War II Japan. I mean after the initial recovery. They assimilate other cultures, taking what they like and reinventing it within their own cultural context, and, given the right circumstances, they will take over the world. So they took the idea of travel and internalized it. I might be working through some of my own spiritual ideas through Denval, mostly with Veldrys at the moment, who has to listen to my priests talk a lot. Does Aquiras not exist because He does not answer? I am also plotting a pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela next year. Not because I am an exceptional Catholic, but because wine, walking, and reflection. Plus, I'll finally have a good enough reason to get a tattoo, and then the chicks will dig me. Cayenne: You are one of the few moderators who have actually started a place from square one, as opposed to it having a couple of locations and a definite flavour set to it. What was it like to build a domain up from an idea into a thriving city, especially one that has had so much isolation in its past? Tabarnac: Well, Liminal had created the seed of Denval, but I do like to think I really took that seed and set it on fire. One of my first thoughts will shaking those ideas around in my head was "Wait, 700 people? I do not want to play a city full of inbred Yoders! So I derived the idea of a cult to Viratas, who would help them keep their bloodlines from developing too, too many problems from inbreeding. Plus, Kalinor wasn't far, so if the deities of Mizahar turned out to be more limited than I thought at the time, He could have reasonably kept an eye out for Denval while focusing on those creepy spider-people. Also, I think the cult of Aquiras came out of me reading about the military doctrine of flexible response. Because I tangent like whoa. I was listening to La Roux too much, and then we got a Captain Astrid... Somehow I take my crazy ideas and weave them together. The tapestry might look a little funky, but my Denvali seem to enjoy it. Or at least they tell me they do to my face. ...why? What have they told you? But it was a lot of work, mostly being disciplined enough to write out all the jumbled thoughts in my head. It took me a couple months to get up enough locations and a feel for the town so I could alpha test it. I'd say we're in beta right now, and once the citywide plot reaches a conclusion (there are no ends and no beginnings), it'll be on like Donkey Kong. I'm not sure most people realize how much work goes on behind the scenes, and how the storyteller needs to really, really get it, or there's no hope that the players will, and then it won't be fun. Cayenne: What is your favourite type of thread to write? Is there a theme to it? Quirky threads, action, magic, intrigue, something else? Tabarnac: Right now I'm enjoying the development threads I've been writing with Katie between Cian and my NPCs to elaborate on the citywide plot. We've been playing together since I was... as young as many of our current players, so we work really well and easily with each other. I am enjoying these threads because (assuming Denvali players read them) they will offer up some more puzzle pieces and help me keep the plot coherent. I felt bad that I had several people ask to be allowed to jump into the first, experimental one, and had to decline. But the current one is going to pull in at least one player, and eventually Katie and I will be tag-team-moderating some of the citywide plot threads. But overall I enjoy threads that break people's brains most of all. I just have been reining myself in here in Mizahar because the Founders can trace my IP address and "deal with me" if there are lawsuits for people driven crazy by me. Cayenne: What is your favourite wiki article? Tabarnac: I laugh at Qalaya's wiki every time, just because most of the gods have these slick, photoshopped avatars and Qalaya looks... not like a flapper, but so anachronistic, which sort of works for the Goddess of Memory, I suppose. Basically I assume that Liminal is cracked like I am and that there's a good reason for the tangent responsible for the avatar, and eventually I mean to dig it out of his skull, whether or not it's still attached to his head. I also really enjoy Selena's to do with Syliras, because I can hear her reciting them to me. The which I should get her to do next time I see her. There will be gin. Or something. Sorry, I'm a moderator. Children, don't buy alcohol. ...become a rockstar and they'll give it to you for free! Cayenne: You definitely have the mythical powerposting ability. What’s your secret? How do you juggle offline time with Mizahar (as a storyteller and as a player)? Tabarnac: I feel like I don't post enough, really. When I can't log in daily, I feel like I'm letting people down. So the first ingredient is probably Catholic guilt? But really, I cut my teeth in text-based MUDs and IM/chat based games, which required quick thinking and quick typing. I think it might also have to do with my theatrical training. I just slip into character and try to type fast enough to keep up with the voices in my head. When I'm visiting gamer friends in Savannah or New York or Iowa, we frequently sit in bars and channel our characters, which probably frightens the other patrons, but whatever. And answering these questions has taken me a lot longer than I thought. My Denvali are going to get angry at me... I had better go give them love and attention so they don't grow sullen and speak words of rebellion behind my back. But, yes. I try to avoid chat most of the time now because it distracts me from posting. So I'll usually only peek in if I've given up on posting for the night. Now I have an Android, I answer PMs on breaks at work to help keep up to date even if I don't have time to post, so my petitioners at least know I'm not blowing them off. Oh, side note before I go: I consider a lot of what I'm writing with people to be like doing improv acting. If I can help it, I never say no, but rather yes, and... I really do bang my head against proposed ideas trying to figure out a way to make it work, because if I wanted everything to go my way all the time, I would be writing a novel or a play (which I need to get back on...), but in this sandbox, we have to collaborate and get a long. Sorry, I ramble. It's late. /soapbox Exit, stage left. Cayenne: And there you have it, folks. Congratulations, Tabarnac!

[Cheshire]

Super congrats Dani! You totally deserve this! I like your avatar by the way. Who ever made it for you is pretty awesome *hides huge ego and sparkle supplies* I gotta say, I am equally excited and scared for my Sitkanis adventures with you now. Please don't kill him. You can make him crazy but I don't think he can handle dieing again.

[Irriari]

Congrats!

[Darik]

Lol Tabarnac, a awesome interview!

[Caelum]

Well deserved, dude. Congratulations! There is wine waiting for you when next you visit. Also, your mention of me made me smile. Thanks.


Don't think this gets you out of helping me move.

[Talen Stirling]

Congratulations Tabarnac!

Have no fear, there will never be rebellion against my favourite storyteller as long as Talen is alive! Which might not be long with all of his heroic-ish thoughts and dreams but none the less, I'm with you when Denval takes over the world as Aquiras returns and the watchtowers grant us passage.

Thank you for all of your contributions!

[Gossamer]

Thanks for all you do, Dani!

[Nil'kayn]

SUPER DUPER UBER CONGRATS TABARNAC! <33333

[Matthial]

You cannot imagine how much I have enjoyed our RP's over my various chars. Huge congrats bro!

[Colombina]

Congratulations, Dani! I appreciate the sense of humor and freshness you bring to things. Mizahar is lucky to have you on board.