Long, MUCK-related
Sometimes things happen and there's nothing you can do about it.
Other times, you're just not there to tell friends what they're doing is insane.
Dramatis Personae
Amanda Leader of the Peace Keepers (a police-like force ruling the city-region known as the Shire), and member of the Kithain (a secretive anti-supernatural order)
Jhazza Local leader of the Kithain
Kaigen Deputy Peace Keeper and member of the Kithain
Kyn'Elwynn Judge Peace Keeper, powerful mage, leader of a mage guild, member of the Balancers (a religious order worshipping the Goddess of Retribution and Balance), ever paranoid about Kithain who take offense to mages
Mika Goddess of Retribution and Balance
Deveron Member of the Balancers
Alexander Plot-based NPC, leader of a faction that wishes to take their district and secede from the Shire
Assorted NPCs Many with red shirts, even
Act 1, Scene 1
Amanda goes to Jhazza, explaining that Kyn'Elwynn knows Amanda's Kithain. Amanda suggests she leave the Shire, even though Kyn'Elwynn has posed no direct threat beyond expressing his knowledge. Jhazza, always having been somewhat concerned about Amanda's influence, accepts this choice as reasonably and advises her to discuss the matter with Kaigen, who seems the natural choice as the new PK leader.
Amanda doesn't discuss, she pretty much just attempts to leave. Some people catch up and talk to her, but ultimately Kaigen is left in charge and feeling like things were just dropped in his lap.
Act 1, Scene 2
Alexander sees Amanda's departure as an opportunity. He declares Argus independent from the Shire. There are hostilities and injuries, particularly to PK officers within the district. Kaigen manages to speak with him, however, and calm things by officially recognizing Argus as independent.
Deveron, meanwhile, is frustrated by the goings on and prays for Mika to "remove Argus from the map." Mika is not seen to directly intervene.
Act 2, Scene 1
Kyn'Elwynn takes offense to the actions of Alexander and Argus in general. Taking a rather radical view, perhaps, he decides to deal with things his own way, gearing up a massive spell of fiery destruction that rains down on Argus. Aside from targeting omissions he specified (allies of the PK and Balancers) and the few people who have defense against such (Alexander and his posse) the new state is leveled. Buildings burn. Thousands of people - involved in the political goings on or not - die. The 'nation' of Argus exists for less than twenty-four hours. A new record in Kith Kanaan, most likely.
Alexander's magical defenders are said to have been aware of something and prepared accordingly - they defend themselves (presumably) and bounce back some of the magical damage on the caster. Kyn'Elwynn asks his goddess in that instant to protect him.
Mika's thought process must be something like "I'm goddess of retribution. You're killing a ton of innocent people. And you want me to protect you? Not seeing the reasoning here."
Cinders. Lots of cinders.
End
---------------------------------
I missed most of this. Not sure what I would have done anyway. I have been asked if I wanted to undo everything - "retcon" as the term is. But I can't bring myself to go that far, especially as people asked publicly on the MUCK seem to be against it.
The kicker of this is that I wrote fiction a while back specifically to address my concern about events like this. Wondering "if mages are so powerful, how do nations ever survive their whims?" I wrote a tale that explained just that. It laid out how anyone seeking to disrupt the world to such a degree is, essentially, plucked from it at the moment of their choice to do so by the deities of the world. Sort of a divine "if you don't want to play in our sandbox, fine, there you go - not a part of the world anymore."
But... no one used this "rule" last night. Instead, they let things play out. So now my reasoning doesn't hold water (because if Kyn'Elwynn can do it, so can anyone) and the setting is a mess that I'm not sure I want to deal with.
Whee.
Other times, you're just not there to tell friends what they're doing is insane.
Dramatis Personae
Amanda Leader of the Peace Keepers (a police-like force ruling the city-region known as the Shire), and member of the Kithain (a secretive anti-supernatural order)
Jhazza Local leader of the Kithain
Kaigen Deputy Peace Keeper and member of the Kithain
Kyn'Elwynn Judge Peace Keeper, powerful mage, leader of a mage guild, member of the Balancers (a religious order worshipping the Goddess of Retribution and Balance), ever paranoid about Kithain who take offense to mages
Mika Goddess of Retribution and Balance
Deveron Member of the Balancers
Alexander Plot-based NPC, leader of a faction that wishes to take their district and secede from the Shire
Assorted NPCs Many with red shirts, even
Act 1, Scene 1
Amanda goes to Jhazza, explaining that Kyn'Elwynn knows Amanda's Kithain. Amanda suggests she leave the Shire, even though Kyn'Elwynn has posed no direct threat beyond expressing his knowledge. Jhazza, always having been somewhat concerned about Amanda's influence, accepts this choice as reasonably and advises her to discuss the matter with Kaigen, who seems the natural choice as the new PK leader.
Amanda doesn't discuss, she pretty much just attempts to leave. Some people catch up and talk to her, but ultimately Kaigen is left in charge and feeling like things were just dropped in his lap.
Act 1, Scene 2
Alexander sees Amanda's departure as an opportunity. He declares Argus independent from the Shire. There are hostilities and injuries, particularly to PK officers within the district. Kaigen manages to speak with him, however, and calm things by officially recognizing Argus as independent.
Deveron, meanwhile, is frustrated by the goings on and prays for Mika to "remove Argus from the map." Mika is not seen to directly intervene.
Act 2, Scene 1
Kyn'Elwynn takes offense to the actions of Alexander and Argus in general. Taking a rather radical view, perhaps, he decides to deal with things his own way, gearing up a massive spell of fiery destruction that rains down on Argus. Aside from targeting omissions he specified (allies of the PK and Balancers) and the few people who have defense against such (Alexander and his posse) the new state is leveled. Buildings burn. Thousands of people - involved in the political goings on or not - die. The 'nation' of Argus exists for less than twenty-four hours. A new record in Kith Kanaan, most likely.
Alexander's magical defenders are said to have been aware of something and prepared accordingly - they defend themselves (presumably) and bounce back some of the magical damage on the caster. Kyn'Elwynn asks his goddess in that instant to protect him.
Mika's thought process must be something like "I'm goddess of retribution. You're killing a ton of innocent people. And you want me to protect you? Not seeing the reasoning here."
Cinders. Lots of cinders.
End
---------------------------------
I missed most of this. Not sure what I would have done anyway. I have been asked if I wanted to undo everything - "retcon" as the term is. But I can't bring myself to go that far, especially as people asked publicly on the MUCK seem to be against it.
The kicker of this is that I wrote fiction a while back specifically to address my concern about events like this. Wondering "if mages are so powerful, how do nations ever survive their whims?" I wrote a tale that explained just that. It laid out how anyone seeking to disrupt the world to such a degree is, essentially, plucked from it at the moment of their choice to do so by the deities of the world. Sort of a divine "if you don't want to play in our sandbox, fine, there you go - not a part of the world anymore."
But... no one used this "rule" last night. Instead, they let things play out. So now my reasoning doesn't hold water (because if Kyn'Elwynn can do it, so can anyone) and the setting is a mess that I'm not sure I want to deal with.
Whee.
What you said about "Other times, you're just not there to tell friends what they're doing is insane." struck a chord with me. Mostly in that sometimes, even when you are there, it just doesn't make any difference ;) There have been a number of times this year where might night has begun with me saying "yup, we're probably going to jail".
ReplyDeleteMaybe the 'plucked from reality' doesn't happen all the time. After all, Aranous was wiped off the map. Maybe it just happens at particularly critical moments. We'll see. Yeah, if you were online, I'm pretty sure this could have been nipped in the bud. I don't know why Kyn waited until 2 am to do this. :
ReplyDeleteYeah, like that. Only without the jail part. ;)
ReplyDeleteI didn't wait until 2 am to do this. I got home, got on-line after a rather FUCKING annoying day in reality, only to find that the land-grabbing theives of Aranous were being allowed to steal land they had no claim on to raise their old nation of evil demon worship and slavery. Seriously, how else do you expect someone with no tolerance for Typhon to behave? Roll over and just let things happen? So I was angry, and my wroth did spill over on-line, as it is often to do.
ReplyDeleteYou say to the person who considered Typhon one of the few people online he completely despises... yet still allowed Argus to be made, and was willing to play a relative of his for RP purposes.
ReplyDeleteI disappear for awhile and masses o' peeps start worshipping Mika. I find that I'm surprised, though perhaps, I shouldn't be. The rest, on the other hand . . . doesn't surprise me. I'd love to tell you otherwise. With slightly more relevance . . . sometimes, you're there to tell them it's insane *and* it happens anyway. The only truly self-limiting RP world I've seen done as a mu* is FML. Hideous displays of power triggered defenses from the conception of the game. If you don't have that there as part of the concept--if it's an add-on--I honestly don't know if it works. I guess I haven't *seen* it work, in my admittedly limited experience. It's not something that comes up, much, in a paper campaign with a full-time GM, but mu*s seem to beg this kind of behavior.
ReplyDelete