Secrets and Lies

Dreya Dalt - no longer at Realms of Ice and Fire

My hiatus from roleplay lasted approximately six months.  That was more than decent, to focus on myself and try to get my head into a better space after the last fiasco.  And then a friend of mine lured me to Realms of Ice and Fire, one of the oldest Game of Thrones sims in Second Life.

I had been mulling over a project with some other friends but real life bit us in the behind and it never came to fruition.  I also started mulling over another side project with another friend, but again, my own rl went a little nuts.  I've just lacked the motivation to build.  I'm not sure what the mental block is.  Probably Blender...

So then my friend came calling and told me about Realms of Ice and Fire.  I'd been there before before the recent reboot of the sim build and story.  I wasn't impressed back then - I didn't like the lore, and the welcome center was just creepy - always full of people who were not friendly and said nothing to you.  Not much has changed, in that regard.  The welcome center is always full of people who really have little business being there, and it still looks like a bot farm, except for those people grabassing and horsing around with each other.  I just wish they would stand more than 2m off the landing spot.  That is such a pain in the ass.  Get out of the way!

Against my usual judgment, this time I went in.  I had the itch to rp again and if I could go with my friend, it would be worth it, because she's a great writer and we had some good times while playing together in Era of Conquest.  I made Dreya Dalt, a bannerwoman to House Martell of Dorne.  I've taken a real shine to Dorne, enjoying the delicate balance of trying not to scare off Northron houses with the passionate zeal for life that the Dornish embody.  She was not the Lady of Lemonwood; her older brother Azeris had the honor of being the Lord of Lemonwood.  There was also another sister, younger - Elaine.  This was a role I had intended for my friend, Elaine.  Dreya was related to House Dayne of Starfall through her mother's side, of House Toland.

While the main area of the sim was being built, they made a tournament area in a skybox, so that people could get their rp fix.  Sadly, there wasn't much actual building going on, at least as the eye could see.  Their builder had been sick and if she was doing much building in the threeish weeks I was playing there, it was all in the Beta Grid and Blender.  Anyhow, there was a tournament there as a basic premise for everyone being in the same space, until they open the ground level for rp.

Dreya went off to the tournament and had a fabulous start, meeting all kinds of people and making some important connections.  Some of them might be unexpected to the point of being controversial - a budding respect and friendship with Arianne Hightower was intriguing.   But her best friends were Penelope Karstark and Ensly Arryn.  The Arryns in particular were a fruitful connection, with the prospect of increased trade with the Vale.  And then there was Willem Tully, affectionately called "Wanderlust," for his worldly ways.  He'd taken a liking to Dreya, and there was some potential there.

Lord Willem Tully, aka "Wanderlust"

But ... there always is a but, isn't there?  But rp was stalling.  The lead for House Martell was having a busy life and wasn't very present.  I had a good rp session with him but I had to schedule it and even then it ended up getting cut a little short.  He's nice, but probably should not be a house lead if he can't be present and active.  A lot of the story in Dorne revolves around the Hand, the Dornish prince's brother.  And yet, there was sensitive info there that Dreya should not have been privy to hearing, and so that cut off a channel of rp for me.  I was getting bored.

I started getting antsy.  One can only go ride horses or chit chat with friends for so long.  I wanted in on the bigger story, and picked a character that was a featured role, one that was sorely needed for the story to move forward.  I took a male alt (since the character is male) and spent days wrapping my head around him because his story really didn't make much sense.  I also spent time coordinating backstories and doing some shopping, to modernize his clothing and his look to the son who had joined the game.

So after all of this preparation and writing I submitted my application, only for it to be summarily denied without any remediation.  What?  I thought they were looking for someone to play this character?  I expected some kind of discussion because I knowingly made one small addition to the lore for a backstory, to fill in a hole.  I also disclosed that the character was Dreya's alt.

Apparently, they had some requirements for this character that they kept secret, and I didn't meet them and they wanted someone who would be an "organic fit."  Now, what kind of  horse shit is that?  I got this bullshit answer over email that basically said, no, but keep playing your original character or try something else.  I was not a born telepath, why the hell would I try that again?

Now, I and my friends have worked up a few theories as to why my app was denied without discussion.

1. They have someone else in mind.  This is always a strong possibility when faced with this kind of opaque, crap answer.
2. They don't like my writing style.  I tend to think that this is the reason.  I am an efficient writer, and while I can do long posts that take 15-20 minutes to type, full of details, I prefer not to do so because I hate spending an hour roleplaying and only getting in one post.  More interactive, please.
3. They know I'm female and they don't like me gender-bending.  This is not something that occurred to me at first but it is always possible. 
4. Maybe it's some combination of the above.  

So in any case, I accepted their crap answer because it was telling in and of itself about the people who run that show, and I decided that they were beneath me, and it was not worth working with them.  I would make one exception, though - Baal, who was kind enough to try to suss out the real reasons why my app was denied.  I didn't want to bother, but he saw that I was upset and at least tried to make me feel better by getting some truth.  You succeeded in small measure, Baal.  But I wasn't going to argue with him over the reasons that he returned with, explaining the denial.  I just wanted to be finished.

The reasons it was denied allegedly were:

• They didn't think I 'got' the character.  

• Actually, what I did was reconcile the ridiculous proposition that this character was even alive when he shouldn't have been.  I took an event that happened in the sim days before my application and wrote in a precedent for it in the character's backstory.  
• A treasonous lord that challenged the king and lived?  How could that happen?  I wrote in something that made sense for that to happen, and it set a precedent for events that had just unfolded in the sim.  But in the few minutes that they took to glaze over my app, they didn't realize that, I suppose.  Even then, it was not something that should have been a reason for an outright rejection, but a point of discussion.  
• The character was supposed to be humiliated; he was.  He was allowed to live, as well as his son, but banished from King's Landing and a crippling fine imposed. Considering that he should have been attainted and killed, and his family's lands stripped and given to someone else, this particular absurdity is not my fault.  Still, he suffered a huge loss with that crippling fine and wheedled his way back into power.

• They wanted a "sim-changing character" who might kick Lord Lannister in the teeth, and someone who would create conflict.  Nothing in the app suggested that I wouldn't, and given the information I would have soon learned IC I would have, but if they wanted me to develop that aspect of the character more, I would have.  But you see, at this point, I know that the problem is that they really don't know me, and didn't care to know me, because all of the characters that that alt has been have been centered around creating conflict.  I didn't really expect them to know that, but the picks from the two previous characters were there to see  and they were both controversial, social-climbing assholes.

• I deviated from the canonized lore.  This is the most minor point and would have been easily remedied by deleting two fucking houses from one sentence or so in the backstory. 

• They wanted a more detailed personality.  If they had asked, they would have received, but the truth is that they really were not interested.

So yeah, I was pissed.  These are not people that you want to work with.  I went in specifically asking about this role and who to talk to, and they pointed me to the OOC lead, who pointed me to the IC lead and the family members, none of whom seem to know what these so-called unlisted requirements are.   Instead they expect people to read their minds and let a key role go unfilled for months.  WTF??

I would have been less angry if they said something like, "we don't really know you and would like to watch how you work a little more before awarding this role."  That would have been less infuriating than NO with no discussion.

The final straw was going after me due to my pick about the family, in that I wanted Elaine to be my sister.  No reserving roles, they said.  They want people to have equal opportunity to get into the House.

You know, that is some seriously laughable horse shit after how they have secret requirements for the featured roles.  The specific char, Elaine, is for Elaine, why would I let anyone else play Elaine?  She just hadn't applied for the role yet.  If they said, hey you can't lock up your family, leave room for others to join, I would have been fine.  The char Elaine was an NPC, and would have remained an NPC until Elaine actually applied, and other people apping for House Dalt would have been written into the story the same way House Dayne exploded with siblings.  Hell, I could put in a secret requirement:  be Elaine!  Nimrods.  That was the last straw and Dreya was voided, as if she didn't exist.  Le sigh.

Anyhow, that's the end of that sad tale.  And now I'm back on hiatus.  The other sims out there, candidly, suck.  Leadership cannot be trusted.  Oh well.

Dreya with the horses.  Too bad it's all gone.

Fashion Plate (Or, What Has Cristalle Been Up To These Last Months)

Roleplaying in SL is fraught with obstacles.  Primarily, the problem is human beings and our failure to communicate.  I don't claim to be perfect in this regard, but I try - and malice is something that I don't really get into.

I like to look at people's hearts and their intent, rather than focusing on their actions and how their actions hurt me.  People who do things thoughtlessly or with innocent intent can be forgiven fairly easily, especially if it's the latter.  But unfortunately, not everyone can do that and some people have to be right and remain a victim rather than choosing to be happy.

So, another rp sim that I was in but didn't blog about closed.  Too bad, because it had a lot of potential, but a lot of human drama closed it.  I am not going to get into any details here, it's not worth writing about - but it's a shame because I had some really meaty stories going on.  As an aside, maybe one day I'll transcribe the logs and bring them here.  The bigger shame, though, was in losing someone I thought was a friend, but I guess we were not truly so in the end.  There was a miscommunication on my part, that I will own up to upon rereading logs - but a strange unwillingness to forgive was the death of the relationship.  That's all I will say about that, publicly.

Myriah Nymeros Martell, one of my favorite characters to play, wearing LOGO Alex.

In the meanwhile, I've taken a break from rp and got back to my roots - building and sailing.  But I have also been on a mad quest to modernize my avatar, getting rid of a lot of old clothing.  Now that there are more clothing choices for the Maitreya body, I've blown a lot of Linden dollars getting mesh clothing (and some appliers, but mostly mesh) that fits my curves.  It's still a challenge sometimes as some designers still design for skinnier bodies and it shows, but some people are bang-on with the design and it just fits, even with my avatar's generous bosom.  I get a serious thrill to find those pieces, because that means that I don't have to compromise my shape in any way to please anyone else's aesthetic of what they think a body ought to look like.  

The New Me: Lelutka Karin with DeetaleZ Ana Lucia head applier.

Granted, my look is still (at least in my opinion) well within the bounds of normal.  There are some people who prefer to make some very extreme shapes and it's still shocking to see it.  Ugly is the new pretty, so they say, but ugly is very subjective.  But it's still their second life, they ought to do whatever pleases them.  Live and let live.  We cannot please all the people all the time, and all that really matters in this medium is ourselves and those closest to us. 

A fun shot with the Eve'Olution head from Eve (Absolut Creations) and Pink Fuel Morgana head applier

I've had some fun, as I have gotten on board with mesh heads.  The technology is still young, and there are changes coming in the near future that will make heads more customizable, hopefully.  It would be lovely to be able to change more than just the general roundness or ovalness of the head and adjust bone structure a bit.  We'll see if that happens.  

My daily driver for "me" is from Lelutka, the Karin head.  But I have Stella as well for rp and several appliers that really make it beautiful.  I just got the new one from Pink Fuel, Vera, that was designed for the Lelutka Simone head but looks fabulous on all of them. I also have LOGO Alex and the Eve'Olution head from Eve (Absolut Creations).  I am not yet ready to expend more cash to get the Catwa head.  It looks good but that magic combination of head and skin hasn't come up yet that makes me say I have to have it.  Still, Catwa is the gold standard when it comes to features.  Maybe someday soon I'll add that to my collection.  It's gotten a lot of traction  among the popular skinmakers, very quickly, and it's a game changer that has made other makers scurry to keep up or open up their systems to third party support. 

Lelutka Stella with Pink Fuel Vera applier, for my next character :)

This pic above is probably going to be the face of my next rp character.  I can't wait for that one.  I am not telling anything about her here, nyah nyah.  :)

I've enjoyed this time off, upgrading my look without any human drama hanging over head.  But I'm itching to get back, a bit.  We'll see what happens.

Boardwalk City

Boardwalk City is an amazing place, crafted by the amazing Uri Jefferson.  Uri was the owner of and builder for Wystenra, the historical sim that I still love and miss.

Inspired by American Horror Story, it is chock full of disturbing imagery.  It is not an rp sim per se, although some people rp there.  There are no rules, no applications.

You arrive on a boardwalk in front of a huge ferris wheel.

There are actual rides and attractions, including a merry-go-round and bumper cars.

There is an authentic urban feel to it, with its seedy underside.

But the crowning feature is the sideshow.

It's a smorgasbord of freakishness, and it's a tough call to say which freak is the freakiest.

Either way, you lose, lol.  But this is an amazing spectacle, and I have to give credit where it is due.  Go visit.

Love, Henry

Love, Henry - a beautiful build by Tahiti Rae that asks the question, "What if Henry VIII never executed Anne Boleyn?"



Sadly, I think his desire for a new wife thoroughly overcame whatever love he had, and he thoroughly hated her by the time he had Anne killed. I took a break from roleplaying for once and went exploring, inspired by a photo I saw on Flickr and took my own set. It's builds like these, so lovingly detailed, that make me feel so inferior and wish that I had the time and talent to create such things.



See my Flickr to see the entire album.

Visit: maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/LEA8/193/142/2501

End of an Era

Era of Conquest closed a couple of weeks ago. Many of the usual reasons: rl, mainly. Stress can be a terrible thing. I wish Sash and Oconnell the best.

The Era of Conquest

So I found a very beautiful Game of Thrones sim called Era of Conquest.  I was very impressed with how it was built and how it was set up.  For the most part, it's done right, although it's not perfect.  I've made some friends there and have had a lot of fun writing myself and my family's history into the lore.

I play Calysta Velaryon, from a banner house to the Targaryens.   I didn't know much about Game of Thrones until I started playing but I am very much into it now, and reading the original books.  It's such a detailed world, although I think GRRM could have spared us a few plotlines and several hundred pages.

It's a relatively new sim, so I'm giving it a shot.  So far I've enjoyed myself but it's got growing pains like Lightbridge did. People are always seeking instant gratification and few people care enough to try to grow the sim.  I try not to think about that too much as it makes me a little angry.

I'll save my rant about roleplay in SL for another day.

Leveling Up

Last week's flop has yielded so much fruit, I declare that I have officially "leveled up" in my sailing.

It's amazing, really.  So much so that I decided to take a chance and abandon the traditional HUD and only run with the infoHUD.  The impetus for using the infoHUD was the hot crashy mess that I was during Monday's Topless Sailing cruise.  I got thrown so many times, my head is still spinning... 

So, yeah, that made me reeeeally wish that I could sail with the stripped down HUD to reduce lag, and ya know what, I did it!  I took the time to fix up some old sailing gestures I had languishing in a folder to fix the winds and boat commands so that they were quick and easy, some of the commands being similar to the commands in BWind based boats like the Loonetta.  I also added a bunch of gestures.  I had to compensate for the loss of a quick click means of hiking, and for certain boats, reefing.  Also for gybing / goosewinging the jib or spinnaker.  There is more, of course, and some of it is boat specific, but I'm not going to bore you!  

I do miss the wind/boat speed/direction meter, though.  If there was a slightly scaled up infoHUD that had that visual info on it it would be wonderful.  But I'll do well even without it, I think I have the hang of it now.  Besides, the luffing feature helps me to know when I'm too far out of trim anyhow.  For the most part, I'm sailing by the senses and not the numbers, and that's an amazing thing.

Going Topless

I joined the Topless Sailing group.  It's a pretty diverse and fun group, they sail topless cruises and in most cases, bottomless is also allowed.  It's not a sexual thing, it's more of a naturist thing.  Men and women can join, and everyone I've met has been very nice so far.  Especially considering my lag disasters.  I managed to make the cruise today and for crying out loud, I think I got thrown off my boat at least 7 times.  Fortunately I had a nice crewmate who was able to teleport me back to the boat!

The cruises are nice, long courses that can be a little challenging sometimes.  After the cruises they have a nice dance party with a DJ.  They do this twice a week, Mondays and Thursdays at 1pm SLT.

It seems it's very Euro-centric, as many of the people I've seen on the cruises are European.  That's not a bad thing, but it would be nice to have some American-primetime-friendly cruises.  I suppose I'll have to volunteer or some shiz like that, lol.  In the meanwhile, I hope I can make it more often.

Flop

I have, thankfully, no pictures of today's debacle where I totally embarrassed myself. I will spare myself the pain of recounting all the details. What I will say, is that I ultimately learned a lot more about sailing one of my boats - Frivolity, my Francois Jacques.

In a way, it's a very good thing that this shameful thing happened because I don't think I'd have learned otherwise just how much power I was dealing with and how much restraint is needed sometimes in controlling it. Normally when I sail, I don't bother to change the SL wind. My approach has been to deal with it as it comes, and just tack and tack as necessary to go upwind. What I never normally experience is a gale force wind.

Well, stupid me didn't realize that the recommended wind for the day's event was a gale force wind. And the FJ loves to heel, something else I'd forgotten in almost three years of hardly sailing because of getting deep into medieval roleplay. Well, disaster first came when I couldn't even get started. I chose the wrong boat for the recommended wind; I probably should have stuck with Twinkle, my T12. I didn't want to use Twister, the 12 Metre, because I already saw several of them being used. And I wanted one of the big pretty boats, just not the same as everyone else. Vanity... so, out came Frivolity. But -sploosh- I went as soon as the sails went up. I was capsizing, something that has never happened to me before, and I had no idea why. I managed to right myself, but then I hit a horrible spot and I was capsizing again. I didn't know why, until I went back later at night to try the FJ out again, and also consulted dear Jane Fossett's invaluable blog for the scoop on the FJ.

Herp derp, I had a sense that I needed to do the counter-intuitive thing and let the sail out, but it felt like the HUD wasn't responding and I couldn't let it out enough. Well, that's intentional. Had I known my boat better, I'd have known that the recommended 18m/s wind speed was too much for the FJ with the mainsails up. As it was, I'd have needed a crew of burly musclemen to stop the heeling, and even then it might not have been enough to keep from tipping over.

What I should have done was drop the mainsails and just sail with the jib/stay/jib topsail, or vice versa and drop the jib/stay/jib topsail and sailed with just the mainsails. There is just too much sheet open to the wind with both sets of sails up at that speed, and it will blow you over unless you can start running downwind. My instinct was right in letting the wind spill, but with the pressure to try to keep up with other cruisers, who remembers these things? People with more experience, that's who.

So, lesson learned - stop being a permanoob, and know what the hell it is you're actually driving.  I know that my instincts are underdeveloped, partly because I don't sail in real life and partly because I hadn't done it enough in Second Life.

Although I am still ashamed at the flop, I am proud that I actually learned something from this, and I am already a more confident sailor.

eta: it wasn't a gale force wind but Trudeau doesn't use knots... oops.

Twisting in the Wind

Welcome Twister, my new Trudeau 12 Metre!


The 12 Metre represents a return to the big boats, another America's Cup racer that lasts well into the 1980s, after the J-Class.  It's a lovely yacht and it has fantastic lines - literally.  Watching the ropes move and slide along the pulleys as the sail swings is fascinating to watch.  I can understand why it took so long, I think, for Jackie to come out with a new yacht.

So I took a spin in the Fruit Islands, as my original trek starting at the Leviathan didn't go so well.  A few sims away and then I was left behind.  I still don't know where the boat is...

But hey, can't complain about sailing around in paradise.



I've yet to really put it through its paces, with a full crew. I'm not a racer anyway, but still, it would be nice to see how it handles with a full crew to stop the heeling. My first impression is that this thing can really pick up some decent speed very quickly. But it can, through cap'n's ineptitude, come to a dead halt quickly too. This yacht is soooo not meant for shallow water. Try not to cut it too close by sailing too close to shore.  I think I've already scratched up my keel...

Change Keeps Coming

So, after some consideration I closed the sim for Lightbridge.  The most important thing is to maintain balance, and the stress of trying to grow it was not something I could really endure - I had to be honest with myself.

There are a lot of maybes of things that I could have done differently, but the bottom line is that it wasn't growing anymore.  It felt like I hit a limit and what I had wasn't satisfactory.  I had a profound sense of waste, being the only one in the sim and hearing again and again how it was just too hard to get into the rp.  I thought differently, but that's not something you can just change people's minds about.

So upon suggestion from a friend, instead of closing completely, I downsized and moved - there is a village but it's atop my new home on a half homestead, instead of having a full homestead and only a closet's worth of prims for a home away from the rp.  And I love my home:



Life rebalances itself, and in the end, I always come back to the water.

Still Sailing

I'm on a roll, but I'll never make up for losing almost two years of blogging.

So I added a couple more boats to my collection: The T-12, finally, from Trudeau Classic Yachts. I don't know why I missed that one but it's a perfect small boat for skimming mainland waters, or just going out with one friend. Yeah, it holds more than one, but I like it for smaller groups. I got the party boat (the New York 30) for that reason - partying with lots of friends.

I've also added a Loonetta, finally. I'd been eyeing that boat for some time and it's just a marvelous bit of engineering. So many places to sit and so many animations! I love the steering animations when you stand at the helm. It's just a quality machine.


It's a different experience from sailing a Trudeau and honestly, I prefer Jackie's method for sailing when in control of the ship. Maybe I just need more practice but it's not something I'm used to and I think the sail luffing looks better on the Trudeaus. The Loonetta is a perfect boat for cheating easy sailing, though, with the motor. My life is stressful enough, sometimes you just need to chill.

 

Pics are from a casual cruise around Corsica and over to Gaeta.  I started off at Tradewinds, but I really want to comment on Danshire Yacht Club, over in my old nemesis, Knaptrackicon.



Quite the difference from this 2009 photo:



My thoughts at the time:

Lovely sim, eh? Well this bitch is nigh impassable. These folks have access to 2 protected Linden ocean sims, north and south. But they apparently don't like seeing all the pretty sailboats come through, because they haven't bothered to leave enough open land to let that happen. There is a very narrow strip in the west that I had to edit myself through, because not only is it shallow, there are things there that obstruct passage. I need to double check that, but it was pretty convincing to me when I couldn't pass this one particular papyrus that the plant was solid. I'll try again in the Leetle Cat, because the Ketch has a pretty deep keel. Overall, it's just a DICK MOVE.

Change can be very, very good.

To Recap...

It's been a long time since I've written anything.

I know I needed to, but I've just been mentally preoccupied even when nothing was going on.  It's just a block, it happens.


So in the past almost two years, I'd finished playing at Mystara and joined a new historical sim.  I had replaced Cristalle with a lovely Avariel named Liriel, of whom I have some great pictures.


Liriel was supposed to take Cristalle's place as Tyaro/Diplomat, but that plan changed when she applied to own the Vanya Sulie and she became the Keeper instead.  I stuck that out for almost a year, but then I began playing in Wystenra, a historical sim set in a fictional country on the European continent.


I found a love for all things not magical, as I felt like magic was being abused to keep people alive when they probably should have died.  I understand that people get attached to their characters, but I'm more attached to stories and magic as the constant means to evade death became a turnoff to me.  I'm not singling anyone out, a ton of people do it, and I find it more than a little lame.  The amount of fruit that Cristalle's death bore was amazing to me, and even just a few haunting scenes were enough to make those of us involved teary eyed and runny nosed.  There is power in consequences, and yet that power is often abdicated.

Unfortunately, Wystenra also closed near the end of 2014 due to some unfortunate rl circumstances with the sim owner.  But it was a great time, with many wonderful stories and a few friendships to come out of it, some of them very special to me.


After 6 months of ambiguity in Wystenra, I decided it was time to commit to working on something that came to me over the summer, an idea that began to grow.  That has resulted in me now running my own rp sim, Lightbridge, also historical but in a different place and time from Wystenra and with very different rules. In a way it's more rigid about the realism, as the thing I want to capture is that consequences matter and the choices we make in rp matter over time.  But upon further introspection, I realize that maybe I take the difficulty of the character generation process for granted, and I am mulling over some ways to make that easier for people to just get in and play.


Running your own sim is difficult, and you need good help.  That isn't easy to find, and sometimes even if you have good help you just need more.  It's rewarding but also a source of stress.  I'm very proud of the build I put together for Lightbridge, as it is on a homestead and the prim limits are very tight.  It's months of work and love and that's before you even let anyone else in.


So that brings me to the announcement that Mystara is closing, which makes me sad.  Few sims could ever match it in its beauty and all current pretenders to the throne pale in comparison.  This is not to denigrate anyone's hard work, but Mystara is a visually stunning sim that is currently unparalleled and it is a shame to see it broken up and sold off.  You couldn't ask for a better physical environment in which to roleplay.


That's the one constant feature of Second Life, though: change.  Everything eventually goes away, and something new comes to take its place sometimes.  Some things and sometimes some people are lost forever, as they are irreplaceable.  We take things for granted in our youth but even youth fades and life can be taken from us while we are still young. I wish Annie well and I expect that in time Mystara will be back in some shape or form.

So now, on to Lightbridge... and yes, I'm still sailing.

Treaties, Plague, Famine and Death. Oh My!

It's been a busy couple of months.  The following is a brief overview, and each will get their own post in their own right with their own pictures.

In a very brief nutshell:  Cristalle was promoted to Cora Soumia, along with Idril.  Cristalle handled the ambassadorial work and Idril collected intelligence.  She managed to arrange a summit for the three races (Dragons, Mer and Elves) which was a great success, a happy occasion.

Unfortunately, not long after that, a magically induced plague and famine hit Mystara, and there was much suffering.  Cristalle was attacked in her shop by the plague vulture carrying a bunch of plague infested rats, and was near death for about 2 weeks, also having lost her eye to the vulture.  Fortunately for her, she received great care at the healer's temple, from the Infirmary Staff, and from the Tari, Tyl'rathia, and Doki.  They also managed to regrow her eye.  Amazing!

But near the end of April, Cristalle died in battle outside of Ered Eithel.  Morgana, her old nemesis, had been executed for her involvement with the death of Sophie Du Pont, but was resurrected and became a demon.  She finished Cristalle after Cristalle had a lengthy fight with the Drow outside the city.  She had a touching funeral and her body was sent to the stars.  Her spirit did a little haunting but it has gone to find the summerlands.

Cristalle is dead; long live Cristalle!

Still Here

I got upset about something and overreacted.  These things happen, although not often to me.  But things worked out.  Thank God for people who are willing to forgive.  I still have some big things in the works.

Viva Ered Eithel & Long Live Taure Rhun!

Ered Eithel at nighttime.  The Dragon Temple can be seen in the distance.

The Elves of Mystara rebuilt their home after the destruction of Taure Rhun, with the aid of several other nations.  Aid came primarily from the Dragonkin, and with a significant assist by the Mer and the Humans.  The new city has been named Ered Eithel - which means 'mountain wellspring' in Elvish.

Unlike the very cozy and bohemian treetop buildings of Taure Rhun, Ered Eithel is made of stone, built to last centuries, like the Dragon Temple seen in the background above.  I was instrumental in obtaining that help, and as my reward I was invited to join the Tyaro - the diplomatic corps of the Elves, even though I am human.

Not a meeting in the Ladies' Room... a meeting in the Dragons' Lair!

As Sha'Quessir, an ally of the Elves, I have been welcomed and have been able to contribute to the reconstruction effort.  I was given responsibility over procuring supplies, and with that came the idea to seek the Dragons' aid.  The Da'Ariv, or the Queen of the Dragons, Vanthadriel Tobor Ma'Jakar, was gracious and I would say even eager to help.  As a result of this cooperation, the Elves formally gained another ally in the Dragonkin.

Vanthadriel, the Da'Ariv of the Dragons

The construction was rapid, as aid came in from many sides.  Queen Nna of the Mer and King Declan of the Humans pledged significant amounts of help with supplies.  Absalon's traders also helped, sending a few of their men to help with construction.  Even the fat bastard that told me to piss off when I went to order the supplies...!  Anyhow, it finished quickly and the finished product is simply breathtaking.

Ered Eithel at nighttime, the palace and the temple are shown, as is the guard house and the entrance.

The effort by all was incredible.  Not long after the destruction, the mages started terraforming the land, raising it up to the mountain upon which the city currently sits, creating mystical waterfalls that lend to the city's name.  The Great Tree was also moved back to its place at the center of the city, the key vestige to the heritage of the Elves.

The Great Tree sits in the center of the square.

A few structures are very noticeable in town - the Temple, which was absent before, has been given a prominent place.  Also new is the foundry, so that the Elves can now make their own special weapons.  The library got a significant upgrade, with much more space.  The most noticeable and enjoyable difference is the Vanya Sulie, which is enormous and rivals the Royal Oak for space, but is unmatched in beauty.  The Vanya Sulie has an enormous balcony facing the eastern waters, large enough to support a dragon or two in their full form.

The Vanya Sulie, center.  In the distance, Wolf Mountain, the Healer's Temple and the Kokarri Enclave.

It is all breathtakingly beautiful, isn't it?  I will get some daytime pictures to show off here and there.  It is sad that the old village, with its quaint bohemian charms, was destroyed.  But like a phoenix, the Elves have arisen from the ashes... stronger, with new, powerful allies and an appropriate home to match.

Frolicking on Frivolity

Two posts in a month?  Heavens!

Well, there will actually be another.  But you'll have to wait for that one...

But yes, this is my second post, dedicated to my other new sweet ride, which I have christened with the name Frivolity.  It's just a fun little F name that follows my alliteration scheme.  It means the state of being frivolous... in the sense of playfulness, that is - not anything derogatory.

The Francoise Jacques model from Trudeau is truly glorious, much like its inspiration, Gloriana, a racer from 1891.  It has such elegant lines, and those five sails make me want to bite my hand, they are so pretty.  I really couldn't resist her.  I had to have her!  Which is why I ended up buying not one, but two boats, the other being Namaarie, my Trudeau New York 30.

It's been a pleasure to be back out on the water.  I promise I won't be away for so long.  Now that I have these two beautiful new yachts, it's unlikely I will be gone so long.

It's Up To You, New York

Here's something I haven't actually written about in a while: Sailing.

This blog used to be dedicated to sailing and exploration, but then that darned roleplay bug bit me HARD and I've been lost in Mystara ever since. But what a glorious time I've had!

Well, that put me behind the times when it comes to my fleet of yachts. I decided to check out the latest from Trudeau, and sure enough there are new things abounding. Now, I don't own every single one of Jackie's yachts. But I do have quite a few, and it saddened me to see that many if not most of them are now considered obsolete, and their only hope of seeing sales is through a redesign. It tempts me to box them up, but I can't bring myself to do that yet.

What I could bring myself to do was buy something new. I had a dilemma: get the party boat or the pretty boat? The party boat is actually the New York 30. The pretty boat (as if they aren't all pretty, but this one is very very pretty) is the Francois Jacques, named after a beloved SL sailor who recently passed away.

There are distinct benefits to both; New York has a crew of 4, and also sleeps 4 in the cabin. The FJ is a more intimate experience, with a crew of two, sleep space for two, and its five sails are a glory to behold.

Which one to choose? Great googly moogly!

Well, I resolved my dilemma the easy way. I got both! Muhahaha.

Please welcome Namaarie, my lovely new New York 30. The name means 'farewell' in Elvish. Fitting, I guess, considering what I've been up to for the last few months. It also continues my trend of naming boats using some form of alliteration.

It's a wonderful ride, and the crew positions are great. I christened it with a couple of friends, and we had a grand old time. It really is great for a party boat, having 4 of my friends along for the ride, it will be so much fun. My only complaint was the motor, being really slow. I may sail lazy sometimes, but not THAT lazy!

I couldn't be more pleased with Namaarie. It's beautiful and I love love love the size of the crew. I definitely intend to have more parties.