Gaming

Pick a God, any God…

stargrace August 29, 2006 No Comments

With the prophets and disciples roaming around Norrath it’s hard to walk anywhere without someone screaching at you about the return of the Gods, a highly anticipated part of the new EoF expansion due out in November. With it of course comes a lot of questions, speculation, and other randomness. For myself, I’m a bit flustered as to which God Silverstep (the Dark Elf Druid who lives in Freeport) will follow, if any at all. I’ve been browsing the Eq2 History and Lore forums to find out more scraps of information. Below is a summary of the Gods players will be able to chose from, based on of course city faction (which I don’t agree with by the way.. I don’t worship a certain deity based on where I live…. ) Anyhow.. The choices and a brief description are found below, the information taken from this site.

Qeynos ONLY:

Allied with Karana, Erollisi Marr and Rodcet Nife, and enemies with Bertoxxulous, Tunare, the Mother of All, rules the Plane of Growth.

Tunare appears as a very attractive older humanoid female wearing flowing robes and a crown of vines and leaves.

Tunare is very protective of what she considers to be one of Her finest achievements, the good elf races of Norrath.

As part of an agreement with Brell Serilis and Prexus and in response to the arrogance of Veeshan in claiming Norrath for her own, Tunare created the High Elves and the wood elves of Norrath.

This peaceful child-goddess is allied with Rodcet Nife and Erollisi Marr, and an enemy to Rallos Zek and Innoruuk.

Followers of Quellious the Tranquil seek peace. They are not strict pacifists, though, and will fight to defend themselves and their loved ones.

The peace they seek is an inner one. They wish to know all there is to know about themselves and the world around them.

They thirst for knowledge of their true selves and strive to help others attain enlightenment. It is through the sharing of this knowledge that they believe universal peace can be obtained.

If every creature fully understood itself and its neighbors there would be no need for conflict and war.

Followers of Quellious often follow a nomadic lifestyle, constantly seeking what there is to know and hoping to find themselves along the way.

Freeport ONLY:

Innoruuk is allied with Rallos Zek and Cazic-Thule, and the enemy of Quellious, Mithaniel Marr, and Erollisi Marr.

Followers of Innoruuk, the Prince of Hate, include nearly the entire dark elven race who regard him as their “Father”.

They believe that hate is a creative force, or rather “THE” creative force in the universe – creativity born of destruction.

Love and kindness are tools for those too ignorant to know what they want or too cowardly to do what is necessary to obtain it.

They believe that it is only through the total disdain of your enemies that you can gain true power over them.

Pity and mercy have no power when confronted with contempt and viciousness.

It is the honest belief of the followers of Innoruuk that if they were to hate strongly enough, they could destroy all of Norrath.

Rallos Zek is allied with Innoruuk and Cazic-Thule, enemy to Quellious and Bertoxxulous.

The followers of Rallos Zek, the Warlord, believe in survival of the strong and death to the weak.

The heart of a true follower of Zek yearns for strength, courage, but above all, victory.

They believe that the heat of battle is the only place and time where enlightenment can be gained, that the universe was formed by conflict and in conflict it will end, with the victors feasting upon the remains of their fallen enemy.

No respect or regard is given to the dead, for if they were worthy their hearts would still pump blood through their veins and not upon the soil of Norrath.

The followers of Zek are almost exclusively warriors.

Cazic-Thule is allied with Rallos Zek and Innoruuk, and the enemy of Mithaniel and Erollisi Marr.

Followers of the Faceless, fear their Lord and believe that only by causing terror in others will they be spared his vengeful wrath.

Fear rules their lives and through fear they rule the lives of others.

Pain, misery, violence, torture, living sacrifice – these are the tools of a Cazicite.

Many lizardman tribes are devout followers of Cazic-Thule, but his number of humanoid followers grows daily, a cold shadow slowly engulfing the bright spots of Norrath in a nightmare of horror and pain.

NEUTRAL:

Brell is allied with Fizzlethorpe Bristlebane, and an enemy of Veeshan’s.

Followers of the Duke of Below find true happiness in the caves, caverns and tunnels that permeate the belly of Norrath, but this is one of few points upon which all followers of Brell can agree.

The Runny Eye Clan of goblins claim he is their father, much to the disgust of the dwarves of Kaladim who are certain that only the dwarves are the true children of Serilis.

The vicious gnolls of Split Paw disagree entirely, for was it not Brell who sculpted them out of the sacred Clay of Cosgrove?

Followers of Brell Serilis, in one form or another, can be found nearly anywhere you enter the Underfoot of Norrath.

The Plane of Sun is ruled by Solusek Ro, the Burning Prince.

His father, Fennin Ro is the Tyrant of Fire who rules the greater elemental Plane of Fire, from which the Plane of Sun derives its power.

Solusek wears a suit of golden ringmail and a crown of flame and wields a spear of fire.

He is allied with no one, enemies with no one.

He has a friendly rivalry with Mithaniel Marr.

After reading through each one, it becomes a little more apparent where my conflict comes from. Being a druid, and just simply the way I RP Silverstep, she would not follow Innoruuk, nor do I see her being a minion of Cazic, and she’s most certainly not a follower of Zek. She also doesn’t strike me as a follower of Brell… so that leaves Solusek who I really know little about. Ricotta is pretty easy, she’ll follow Brell unless Bristlebane comes back, Willamina will follow.. well, she’s sorta crazy I’ll figure hers out later. Calicia would more then likely follow Zek, being a fighter and what not. Stargrace (the coercer) will be agnostic. The Gods are usless to her. After all, why did they suddenly decide to show up now.

In the mean time, I’m having a lot of fun reading all this lore that I never paid attention to before. I admit right now I glimpsed through this stuff when I played eq1 and never gave it any thought, but now that I’m actually reading it, it fascinates me. As an ending note, Willamina hit 37 last night, Ricotta managed to land in a fairly good pug (pick up group) in Varsoons and hit 31, and things are going well. More ranting later!

Quest of the Week – The Soul of Tarinax

stargrace August 28, 2006 No Comments

While wandering around the Feerrott, I came across an npc or two that I must have over looked in my travels there, which I admit now, were probably purely for exp reasons. I’ve barely done any questing there aside from grabbing a random HQ, or perhaps a quest or two that interested me. Anyhow.

General Fandrak stands with a few of his battle-ready orcs in the same small section where the spires are. I had actually been looking for the soul-shredding quest, and figured this may have been it since it mentioned Tarinax. Of course I was wrong, but I’m glad I stumbled onto the quest anyhow. He has a very interesting voice over that I suggest people have enabled as they do this quest, I’d typically just rushed through most npc speeches, finding them dull and drab, but I enjoyed reading this one as well as listening.

First thing he does is send you to retrieve the lost soul of Tarinax in the chamber of Contained Souls. Which is, of course, in my favorite zone ever, the Obelisk of Lost Souls. Since they’ve removed the access quest needed for OLS, it’s been highly populated with farmers (sighs) but I managed my way through the quest just fine. You need to examine an urn, which is in a spiral staircase type room, it’s one of the rooms where a named hides out that’s used in the quest for access to the lower floors (One of the named that the book of summoning sends you to). After you examine the urn, you need to kill 3 different types of shadowed men, which can all actually be found outside the zone, Shadowed Riftwatchers, Shadowed Evocators, and Shadowed Soulflayers. After this, you head back to the urn, and you need to kill a Shadowed man with an acolyte symbol to find a way to remove the souls. These spawn inside the Obelisk with the book of summoning, the 3 mobs that surround it. If they don’t happen to be up at the time, you can just simply clear the spawns and they will eventually show up.

Once this is done you return to the urn, which sends you back to General Fandrak in the Feerrott. It also opens up another quest, which sends you to Everfrost. I love chains of quests like these. It rewards some money, and a choice of item rewards (which can be sold to vendor for 6g or passed down to those wonderful alts, or given away etc etc).

The story line was wonderful and talked about how you could help his empire, and help your own at the same time, that there would be treasures involved, and all that wonderful stuff they use in order to entice you to doing their bidding. I’m looking forward to doing the next lines of quests.

On a side note. I started a carpenter last night, a level 1 iksar brigand named Ixiana. She’s not for anything aside from carpentering (is that even a word?) and I managed to get her to level 20. One odd thing I noticed. I hit level 9, and promptly went to West Freeport to choose her subclass- and it instantly dinged me to level 10. I did the same at level 19, having just reached the level, and 0% into it, I went to West Freeport to choose my subclass, and instantly dinged to 20. Not that I’m complaining at all, but I’m not sure if this is ‘working as intended’ or if I was not actually supposed to get a full level of free exp. In any case, it will be nice to outfit Silverstep’s home a little more, Stargrace’ too I imagin since her 3 room house is still just a cluttered mess of items strewn along the floor with no sense of order.

Fear me, for I’ve returned..

stargrace August 27, 2006 No Comments

Ok, so in a strictly non-rp sense, yes, I’ve re-activated my eq2 account after what.. a whole week of having it de-activated? It didn’t last long. Those who knew me probably knew that would happen. I’ve done it off and on for years now, it’s nothing new. I grow bored or frustrated for a short while but eventually I always toddle back. I will post an rp note on Silverstep’s ‘return’ in a few days time, I’ve got enough to write about at the moment that I don’t really feel like posting it as of yet, I’d rather save it for one of those days when I’ve nothing at all to say (do those days even happen?! … yes.)

I took Silverstep to do the quest in the Feerrott in the cave of Fears, this screen shot is of her standing in front of the portal to the plane of fear, which is not yet activated of course. The quest was a lot of fun, I mentored a level 13 on the advice of Tipa and it worked out wonderfully. Maj’dul was not agro to me, since I have never done any faction quests there yet (Silverstep is a huge slacker, she may be level 70 and have fabled gear, but she’s only completed around 400 quests total, something I’d like to work on in the future) – though I did strip down and make her do it in her party clothes, simply because she was resisted twice and ended up getting smashed to pieces as a level 13 wandering around. It took about 15 minutes to gather all 100 souls though, and .. well. I was slightly disappointed with the quest reward. Only because I have the exact same item sitting in my house, that I paid for with seafurry buccaneer faction. It’s sold by the merchants on the boat in South Freeport. 10k status and 30s, which is not a great deal I know, but even the colours are exactly the same.

Monkeys, camels, and man alike all fell before my soul-shredder. It was great. I spent my first day back going over my banks, remembering the commands for the game, and watching the spam fly on the level channels. I was going to work on some smaller quests that I’ve had forever but instead just sat around and talked to a few old friends. I did end up leaving the guild I was in also. For a few reasons. #1. There was no one I actually knew in the guild. I wasn’t friends with any of them. Having friends in this game or at least acquaintances is pretty important to me. I’ll admit right now it’s one of the main reasons I play. So when I would log into my guild and see 35 people online, and not a single one says anything like hello, well, it put me off. #2. Far too large. Yes, a guild can be too big. When people have to register for raids, or sit out, then in my opinion perhaps a guild is too large, for a raiding guild that is. I didn’t like the way loot was run, it was fair in the fact that everyone had a chance at something, but if someone just showed up at one random raid where as you’d been to the last 10, it could put some people off. In any case, it was just simply not the place for me any longer. Considering no one said a word to me after I’d left, I doubt it was really that big of a deal. Anyhow, it’s nice to be back.

A farewell, of sorts.

stargrace August 18, 2006 No Comments

(( Since Silverstep was started on an Rp server, and my account expires tomorrow.. it seemed only fitting.. that she also have an rp ‘ending’ ))

Silverstep glanced around the once lush home, and sighed. How things had changed. The once cheerful fire place was nothing but a collection of soggy logs that refused to ignite. The paintings that had always appeared to dance along the walls now hung coated in a thick layer of dust, uncared for. The dark elf hugged herself as the tears trickled along her cheeks, reminiscing about what once was.

“It does no good to remember,” she scolded herself. “Things change.. you’ve changed.” The melancholy she felt was her own fault, she knew from the start. It was just simply not meant to last. With those she held close to her moving on with their lives, she began to distance herself. Such was the way things worked, or at least that is what she convinced herself of.

Tripping over one of the fir boxes used for selling wares in the main room, she cursed. The sound echoed off of the walls and sounded empty and hollow, not rich and full of emotion as she once felt. Had it only been a few months ago? Time had sunk into an oblivion that simply had no meaning.

“It is better this way…” she whispered. Trying to convince herself that it was true. Upon the counter she left a note, explaining why she was no longer meant for this world. Or any world for that matter. She spoke of love lost and dreams crushed, apologizing to those few people who would be affected by her decision. There were not many, she’d pushed the majority of them away over the years. She blamed no one but herself. In her heart she carried burdens too great and numerous to mention. The sadness that washed over her became unbearable. Melodramatic? Of course. It was how she lived her life, flying from one extreme emotion to the next. It was how nature had molded and formed her, and she would wish no other course for her life.

Glancing at the numerous volumes of old books that surrounded her library, she allowed herself a small smile. Silverstep had worked exceptionally hard at refining her library. It was her pride and joy. Spending countless hours with the literature that had never asked anything of her in return. Her slim hands reached out and brushed against the worn cover of one titled “The Oops Factor”, and she smirked to herself, recalling how she had told everyone that it was most certainly a book about teen pregnancy or some other such ‘mistake’ of life. How fitting that it all end here.

She gathered her skirts and sat on the rug, before the book of the dead that had graced the small ornate table for so many years. The flickering candles that surrounded her made the room seem ghastly instead of warm and welcoming. Her eyes gazed longingly around the room, drinking it all in as she murmured a prayer under her breath to the gods, asking for it not to be a painful end. She begged them to understand there was no other solution, no other way to end her suffering and misery. There were those who would of course argue that it was a cowards way out, but for someone such as she….. it was all there was, plain and simple.

Picking up a small knife from the floor, Silverstep murmured a single name under her breath, and slid the blade across her pale flesh, gasping in incredible pain as her life blood began spilling out across the floor. She bit her lip as the world began to spin black, trying not to cry out and her heart the only sound she could hear echoing through her mind as she slumped to the floor. Her fingers managed to drag through the blood, writing out a single word, before her breathing stopped.

From beyond her, someone crashed through the doorway, praying they were not too late.

“SILVERSTEP NO!” They screamed, and then her world went black.

Venekor and an itch to scratch

stargrace August 16, 2006 No Comments

I’ve been lacking rp in my life, just in general. Yeah, that is a weird thing to say that one is lacking, but it’s true. I love to role play. I enjoy the creation and thought process, making characters who are based off of me and who I am in real life, or those who are the complete opposite of me and provide a release that one would otherwise be unable to demonstrate. I’ve been taking a break from Eq2 as most know, in fact the 19th is the last day my account is open. In the mean time I’ve toddled back over to WoW for a little, I enjoy certain aspects from both games and playing both on and off over the past year is quite common for me. Anyhow.

WoW is not a very good place to role play. Even on the ‘rp’ specified servers. I don’t expect enforced rp. I hate having to force someone to do that, it just doesn’t seem right. Though I suppose in the end that would be the only way in which I could find what I think I am lacking out of my MMO experience.

So a friend of mine suggested I try Venekor, the rp/pvp server on EQ2. I created a character there just for the fun of it (no my account is not enabled yet) and was turned off right away when on newbie island I came across names such as ‘AAADDDFFFF’ and ‘happyhappy’ and so on and so forth. I played on Lucan D’Lere for quite some time as well, and there is rp there. Unfortunately, it’s not what I would term ‘real’ rp. People say on the forums all the time, rp is what you make it. Don’t just wait for it to fall in your lap. Ok, that’s fine, I understand that. But I attended the organized rp events, which were held (typically) once a week or once every two weeks, and while they were fun little events to go to, in my mind they were not the sort of rp I wanted. They were groups of people who showed up did their thing at the event, and then left, and the next time you saw them they’d have little to no recollection / rp-ness about the event they’d attended. It was as though they were completely different people.

Or there is the sort of rp where you can do nothing but sit and watch / react in some sort of /emote because their story is so wrapped up between them / one other person involved, that there is no room for a 3rd party to enter into it. When on Lucan, I spent most of my ‘rp’ time as a reporter of sorts. I would find stories and people whom I’d never heard of before, and I’d tell their stories. I played the role of a ‘nobody’ because that is what I was to those people. No one noticed me. Everyone was far too preoccupied in their own lives and stories to notice the dark elf wandering around with a note pad. I’ve written on these topics before on past blogs that I’ve subsequently taken down.

I tried to do a google search, for some sort of online role play (fantasy based) campaign. Came across a few issues. Number one, lots of p0rn sites instead of what I was actually looking for. That’s alright, understandable, I can’t seem to type anything into google without at least getting a few typical sex sites. Number two, while there were some fantasy based role play forums out there, where people (DM’s) would create worlds and others would create characters to play in those worlds, the responses or the stories were often forgotten about and dropped sooner then they’d started. Some characters replied to that one particular story, once, and then there were no replies. So it wasn’t very constant or active.

I suppose what I’m looking for role play wise, is an AD&D type. Not specifically those rules or that play style, but anyone who remembers gathering in some friends basement, with 4 other friends, and playing out a really good campaign knows what I mean. Where you had time to develop a personality and interact with others and also had the fun of defeating mobs and what not. Is this asking for too much? Does such a thing even exist online? I’m not sure.

I’m 25 now and since I live in the city and most of my friends are in the country, I would have a hard time setting something like an AD&D campaign up in real life. Not to mention the fact that I’d be a horrible DM. Especially since I have little to no interest in actually creating a world and npc, I just want to be a part of one. Suggestions? One person suggested Neverwinter Nights to me, another rpg that I know little to nothing about. In the mean time, my quest for role play continues.