This is actually the third year I’ve attended the Festival of Discord on the Antonia Bayle server. For those who have never heard of the event before, it’s a player run event (coupled with the Festival of Unity which was earlier this year) run by various guilds on the Antonia Bayle server. It’s a week of events that everyone can partake in. There is roleplay pretty much constantly, and it is a LOT of fun. The past two years have involved GMs to some degree, as they have agreed to set up the fair grounds for the event – this year was absolutely amazing in terms of decorations.
If you’ve never attended before, you’ll want to take a look at the calendar of events as well as the map of locations on the EQ2 players site. You can also find the guild portal page for more information as well as forums for each event. If you’re looking for the central role play ‘hotspot’ of Antonia Bayle you’ll also want to check out The Town Square, and there’s a page for the Festival of Unity too.
I missed the opening ceremonies, but I did manage to log in along with Hamal to check out some of the events tonight – we started with one called ‘Bit by Bit’ which included slowly slicing up a gnome ratonga dwarf piece by piece while a crowd cheered on. The dwarf was named Augur, and it was pretty amusing to watch him call out to the crowd while he was being picked apart.
The second event was the diving event, held over at Lucan’s Mount.
It’s hard to tell, but in the center of fireworks is a gnome, who I believe combusted on the way down due to fright. Obviously the skeletons looking on from the water below are the contestants who went ahead of him, and you can see those who still have to jump way up there at the top. I had a perfect seat right up front.
After the diving came The Wishing Well, which is where bards and those who think they’re bards tell the crowds poems and stories of their choosing. I was starting to fall asleep by then, despite the Fizzlepop and Cookies that Hamal had purchased for me (there are vendors during the festival wandering around peddling their wares) so I decided to call it a night.
If you’re on the Antonia Bayle server I HIGHLY suggest you check out this event, even to simply wander through the crowds – there were more then 100 people in attendance for this while I was there, and it was incredible. If you’re interested in taking part, be sure to /join festival from the Antonia Bayle server, or if you’re interested in listening to the events going on but you’re not actually on Antonia Bayle, you can always /join antonia_bayle.festival and listen from whichever server you reside on. There are some VERY amusing advertisements that play on the channel and that almost makes it worth it right there.
I intend on going to more of the events as the week progresses, so if you happen to be around, send a tell to Stargrace, or you can /who all torrent and see who is on from Torrent Knights – no guarantee that it’s me, but perhaps whoever is on can help you out. I’ve always been really excited about any player run festival in game, and this one happens to be one of the largest, and the best. I’m still stunned over the fact that I’ve written about it on this site for three years now, hehe.
Happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself! I’ll see you in Norrath.
I play on Mistmoore but I think I may hop over to AB and check this out. Sounds like a great server, sometimes I wish I had started over there.