Role Play

Festival of Unity – Why the Fuss?

I’ve been tweeting up a storm about the Festival of Unity on twitter, and yesterday was the opening ceremonies. If you’re not familiar with this event, it is a week long of celebrations that incorporates everything good including order, peace, and friendship. Those aligned with Freeport, Lucan D’Lere, and the other denizens of evilness are requested to disguise themselves or lie about their alignment which I find very amusing.

Why am I so excited about this event? Well you really have to be there to soak up the atmosphere. First of all it is BY FAR the largest player run event across all of EverQuest II. In fact I would even say it’s one of the largest events across EQII period. No, we didn’t crash any zones (that I know of) but there were well over 200 people clustered into Antonica for the opening ceremonies in the afternoon, with more showing up to partake in events and just mingle with their fellow role players.

This is a massive event with a LOT of planning and work put into it by players and employees of sony alike. In fact there was a Gnobrin spotting, as well as a Domino spotting. I tried to rush after both for autographs but alas their evade skills are far beyond what my level 12 dirge could manage.

The community of SOE gets involved by means of decorations for the fair grounds, which is incredible every year. This is the third annual festival, and of course Gnobrin out did himself. tents, cooking areas, merchant grounds, lights, flowers, everything was perfect.

If you’re not on Antonia Bayle but would like to listen to the public announcements (which are always humorous) and see what else is going on you are more then welcome to join their festival channel: /join antonia_bayle.festival. Of course if you’re like me the first thing you did upon hearing about this festival (since I no longer technically play on AB) is rush right out and create a character. Thankfully Malfi had some spare party clothes for me so my baby dirge didn’t have to wander around in her uncomfortable chain mail.

There is a calendar of events with times that you can find, as well as a map of festival locations. Not a role player? I’d still suggest checking it out. There are so many other stories going on that you don’t really have to have one of your own in order to enjoy the party atmosphere. If you’re a people watcher (like I am) it works out wonderfully. I heard so many stories last night from characters I have never heard of before, it was amazing. I plan on writing a role play introduction from my bards perspective later on today (depending on work, it is Monday after all).

I can not stress enough that THESE are the reasons people will play your game. The community. Sure, it is fantastic when the game itself has festivals and events but player run events on a massive scale such as this are simply astounding. The creativity that goes into it just amazes me every time.

So if you happen to be on Antonia Bayle this evening, you’ll want to make sure you catch the events! They start at 7pm EST and include Gnome punting, Antonican Idol (eep!), and Golden Lemming. The festival closes after a full day of fun and games on Saturday June 6th, so if you’ve never witnessed something like this before, make sure you head out that way.

Me Tog!

(A random role player started talking to me in Darklight wood after I’d created a character there specifically to delve into a story of some sort. I have no idea who they were, but I just wanted to say thank you for reminding me why I love these games, and why I play. Whoever “Metog” is – again my thanks if you ever read this, hope they don’t mind me using quotes of our conversation).

How she came to be in Darklight woods standing in an outpost of some sort was a story for another time. All that mattered was the ‘now’ of the moment. She was teamed up with an Arasai who she had known for quite a few years and though the two looked like a highly unlikely pair, they worked well together. 

As she spoke with the various commanders, her attention was drawn to an Ogre who was hopping about on one foot. He displayed none of the typical fear (or something that vaguely resembled hunger) when he looked at her and her winged friend, but sat himself down on the ground, smiling and drooling slightly. 

“Heddo liddle people,” He said, a grin crossing his face. The Teir’Dal and the Arasai looked to one another some what bemused as they introduced themselves in turn. 

“Gud name. Me am Tog. T O G.” He said, drooling even more. 

The Teir’Dal only half listened as a Commander rushed up to her to give her more orders, her shoulders sagged slightly. She waved a hand impatiently at the Ogre who was rambling away. 

“You dog? Well you don’t look much like a dog but if that’s your name then so be it.”

“No dog, Me Tog. Tog eat dog though, yum.”

She tried to pay the ogre the attention he deserved (could it even be said that he deserved attention?) much like one would with an unruly child. She warned him about stepping on the smaller folks who were gathered around as he clamored to his feet. 

“Tog on step if Tog told to step. Blue people tell Tog an Tog do.” She found this intreguing. He was taking orders from someone, obviously. There must be a reward of some sort as well, so she tried to figure out what that was. Perhaps this was some mastermind test set up by her family, a trap for her to get her back home.  “Den dey give Tog nice tings.”

Or maybe not. Maybe it was just greed. 

“Food an sharp tings to smash stuff wit.”

Or survival. Either way, the Teir’Dal couldn’t be bothered with finding out more at the moment. She had things to do, and as always the night refused to stand still to grant her enough time to finish her tasks. She rambled off some excuse to be on her way, and motioned that the Arasai should follow. Medog Metog frowned a little, and moved out of the way of the pair. “Tog like to smash.”

Throughout the rest of the evening, the dark elf heard Metog’s voice muttering about one thing or another 

“Scuse me. Blue people need ta make big doors.” he said once as he tried to bypass the elf entering a building. She sniffed in distaste but said nothing and gave him a brisk nod. For such a large creature he sure got around. There were other, more pressing matters to attend to that night but for some reason the image of the Ogre crouching through doorways and trying to catch fish with his bare hands wouldn’t leave her for the rest of the night and she walked around with a smirk on her face for no reason in particular.