How to keep Mizahar's Integrity? (founder input appreciated)

[Alric Wilmot]

This question has popped into my head several times lately. Mostly because I've read several times how magic is rare and closely guarded and dangerous. I've had my character Overgive twice, but it hasn't really deterred him any. And I think it should. In addition, my character is very open and doesn't keep secrets. That has led me to teach hypnotism and even give away secrets of it. This isn't so big a deal I think, because it goes against my character's philosophy to inhibit other's understanding. Yet, I feel as though the philosophy itself just doesn't belong in Mizahar. I enjoy RPing it out, since it forces my character to reveal his weaknesses, but I still worry that I'm compromising the founders' original vision for Mizahar.

Not only that, but my character treats others as fountains of knowledge rather than threats, even other wizards. This is almost completely contrary to the wizard psychology article in the wiki, and I'm not sure what to do about it. It is too late for my character to completely change, but is there a way I can keep his personality consistent, while still keeping Mizahar's integrity?

Thank you for reading, and please answer fully. I really am confused on this subject.

[Growl]

Well, I don't think you're the only one who does that. I can't say what the founders were thinking, or what have you when they wrote out magic, but I can assure you you're not the only teacher.

As someone, however, whose pcs are the opposite of yours- as in, they tend to attack other magic users, mistrust them, refuse to teach, etc, I'd say it's different. I know that each group exists, as well as one in the middle. There are also groups who belong to each mindset if you will- like the towers in lhavit teach magic. So does the university of zeltiva, and the 'stryfe run school. Mind you, the last one seems to teach only to members of the 'stryfe or black sun...

The point is, people like your pc exist, and those described in the wiki article do too. I don't think one is right or wrong, or that you have to play your pc a certain way. However, I think you should keep in mind that you have to be reasonable. After all, how likely is your pc to teach another if they don't trust that person? Or if they aren't getting something out of the interaction, perhaps.

Hope that helps.

Growl

[Gossamer]

One of the most frustrating things about running a game like this is when people deliberately ignore something about the game, mostly in the name of being original. What do I mean by this? Well, my top list of frustrations runs like this... 1. I won't play the race standard. Everyone does that. It's boring. This results in no one playing a race standard. I get SOO frustrated. 2. The setting is tame. Nothing and no one is going to eat me, rob me, abuse me, enslave me, or get in my way! Uh. No. Its seriously dangerous. 3. Travel is easy! I'll globe trot with zero consequences. I can travel from Falyndar to Avanthal in one season... or Ravok to Hai in another! Take a year to get from one end to another like you are supposed to idiots. 4. My PC is batshit crazy. Because, no one does authentic crazy like I do! This includes hearing voices. I hear them a lot. You can't possibly hear voices as cool as I do. Your crazy is boring folks. Stop being crazy. Crazy should be dead... in the dangerousness of this setting. 5. Magic grows on trees! I can learn it daily and be Mr./Mrs. Awesome in a heartbeat! No. Make it a bit harder. Nothing comes easy. Talk others into it. Stop gaining XP by passively using your magic in every sentence without consequence (I'm talking to you auristics users who never concentrate here). 6. I'm religious without ever being religious! Give me gnosis marks! Mentioning a god is not enough. Praying is not even enough. Live the lifestyle. 7. I can do anything well right out of the gate, including riding a horse or swinging a sword. I have the solo threads (and a shit load of them at that) to prove it with zero failures. ZERO! Are you serious? Really? 8. I have an awesome pet of a wild eagle/jaguar/wolf and its not a kelvic and I have no animal training/husbandry to back up my relationship with my pet! Uh... no. You don't. And if you do, it should have eaten you by now. 9. I'm being creative by giving my PC a physical deformity rather than developing their character and personality in a unique and very personal original way. Deformities = creativity EVERY time. This is one place where showing isn't better than telling. Showing sucks here (kinda like the #10 folks). Limping doesn't make you cool. It only makes Greg House cool. 10. I'm physically perfect. I start out with an hourglass figure, emphasize my incredible BOOBS in the first line of my physical description or if I'm a guy my perfectly toned muscles. OH yawn. Really YAWN. Bonus annoyance: 11. I'm incredibly antisocial/emo/goth/untrusting (because its cool being that way) in a game world that demands really being social for threads to run smoothly... This one needs no further comment. Okay so the magic issue is really like #5 on my list. I'm way more annoyed that there aren't any 'typical' Drykas or frail water-dependent Charoda. I see PCs as exceptional, but their exceptional needs to come across in some way that make them stand out as original without being cliche (aka the crazy part or emo thing). If your PC is generous with his knowledge and sees magic as everyday, I think in a way that's not such as big of a sin (because hes exceptional being a PC) as say ignoring how hard it is to travel... and bee bopping around the area. My suggestion is this. Run into trouble with magic... either a dark mage or someone that wants to exploit your PC for what he knows to give your PC a bit more cautious attitude. Others might have better suggestions, but that's mine.

[Alric Wilmot]

Thank you both for your input, especially you Gossamer. I think I might be able to play out such an encounter and change my character's personality appropriately and believably. Would you recommend a very dangerous encounter with a pc, or a moderately unpleasant encounter with a made up npc dark wizard? Or some sort or combination? Again, thank you for your responses. They are quite helpful.

[Ronan Windsong]

Don't quite agree with that list entirely, though I can see why it would annoy you. My PC is (was) antisocial, typical 'cliche' tragic past e.t.c but I didn't do that so he could wallow in self misery and be an emo. I did it so he'd have room for development, I've loved watching him open up to friendship - and now family.

[Seven Xu]

Just adding to Gossamer's list of annoying things found frequently on Mizahar.

~ Orphans. Street urchins. Children PCs that run around, practice magic and steal and are generally "badass" in their writer's eyes that simply would not survive in the world. What? Your parents died when you were very young? This isn't a Disney movie; there are people out there that would love to have your skin to do their hard labor, or just as soon kill you as they plow through your broken family home to merrily gather up dead dad's reserve of gold-rimmed mizas.

~ Nonhumans that associate themselves as humans. Namely, kelvics that play well above their station. Kelvics that come into the game sans bondmate and are capable of philosophy, magic, and the required meditation and deep trains of thought for magic that their species just are not bloody capable of*. Great, you're a two year old wolf that can transmute fire. What animal WANTS to make fire? Fire's terrifying. And how in the hell did you get reimancy in the first place? How do you know to use it? When's the last time you saw a dog on the street meditating?

*I am aware that kelvics can practice magic; it just seems wrong and annoying to me when I see unbonded assumedly derpy animal types being all "woahh look at me pew pew lasers now I'm a wolf awesomeee". I'm also under the impression that a kelvic's desire to learn magic would stem from a bondmate's needs, and otherwise they would generally be uninterested in something so complicated.

~ This is an OOC annoyance that has surfaced more so recently with NaNoWriMo than any other time: posting for the sake of word count. If you can say the same thing in 30 words that you've just said in 150, why not go for a more concise post? Length is not quality. I could honestly care less if I get a 200 word reply to my 1000 word post. Maybe I had 1000 words of things to say, a setting and a mood to establish. I see people bragging all the time about their 4000, 5000 word posts, to click on their links and see 90% of it is really drawn out and flowery and superfluous and the post could very well be condensed to 1000 words and say the exact same thing. We're all guilty of flowering a post up from time to time; it's just receiving un-replyable novels that say everything and nothing that irk me.

Woops. Ranted. Now that that's out of the way...

Magic should be more difficult than the majority of players take it. Far, far more difficult. While this may sound biased, I'm a big fan of low fantasy, and because of that sometimes I see the majority of "common folk" in Mizahar as being set among this low fantasy setting. People may hear of magic and never see it practiced once in their lives (alright, so these people are admittedly a little sheltered, given descriptions of festivals and schools and etc but I'm sure they're out there); gods and goddesses are just that, intangible beings that are to be worshiped and not expected to drop from the sky to give you a pretty new arm tattoo because holy crap you're super interesting to them; stories of wizards overgiving with horrible results would likely be common and would very likely deter a level-headed person from delving into the arts in the first place. At least, it should.

It irks me to no end when I see people use magic here as a comedy device. I just wanna slap 'em.

[Alric Wilmot]

Well, I do imagine that magic should cost one something. Whether that be time, sanity, or health, should probably be up to the discretion of the player. Mizahar, is a dangerous world to be sure, but magic need not be hated by the players who don't use it. I imagine Mizahar is about fun first and foremost. And while I will do my best to keep my Magic as risky as possible, I'll still use it. And probably use it a lot. And while low fantasy is a wonderful setting given the right trappings, I believe Mizahar to be more of an High fantasy, if treated right. I promise, my character won't be well by the end of his journey, but unless a founder tells me not to, I'll play with the fire(magic) until I get burned.

[Bolden Denusk]

I'm way more annoyed that there aren't any 'typical' Drykas

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