Arelith

I'm not sure it is fair that I get a vote, but I have to say Andunor.

It really feels like something straight out of a series of novels. It has so much depth and is really just infinitely playable. It's complex, and feels really complete.

(for standing outside and just enjoying the view and birdsong I'd say the Earthkin Village)

i play alot of hin so Bendir is my pick, but

like cordor and andunor too

Cordor. I'm very fond of large human settlements in fantasy settings and the non-traditional roles that it opens up for other races.

I love Andunor and Myon as well, but my all time favourite place will always be the Arcane Tower (though it's not a settlement).

Andunor is my favorite.
The compact nature of The Hub makes it a place you know Every underdarker will be at.
Every area is compact and easy to access.

Surface Experience
my first day on the surface i was killed with no pvp warning before-hand, by Boredome.
I never reported this unlawful pvp though.

Wharftown.

Bendir, by far.

When I was a new player, I migrated to Cordor with about six or seven Earthkin friends I had met. Drago, Pippin, Ren, Suli, Azgarin, and a few others. While we had fun getting drunk at the Nomad, we eventually made our way up the street to Bendir.

I was shown the utmost respect and given plenty of tools I needed to succeed as a level 10 player with a 10 RPR and barely any idea how to emote. Gear was given, knowledge was given, and most of all, friendships developed that I still have two years later.

Bendir was the nicest place I could have asked for as a new player.

The Undercity.

Wharftown.

The GrumpyCat wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 29, 2019 10:39 pm

It's difficult to present any interesting moral connundrums for pcs when there's basicaly no morality, which is why I rarely run events down there.

Dilemmas come in many forms, and evil characters face plenty. IMO, an evil character in Andunor will have to navigate more of them than a typical good surfacer. "Moral" dilemmas also present themselves in the form of conflicts that arise in the course of adhering to one's faith, creed, or ideology, which most evil characters subscribe to some form of.

This is why my vote goes to Andunor.

Wharftown or Udos

Udos was cool with my rose tinted glasses on, but I think Andunor is the best thematically and the best designed too. There's just so much going on in Andunor it could be its own module.

Bendir has a lot of character too, but to me a lot of it comes from remembering how it used to be and how it's changed over the years. I get a little tingle in my heart whenever I look around there.

Myon is cozy.

I voted for Andunor because huge kudos to whoever the person/persons were that put that all together like that. It's just magical. I don't even play there much, but it's fantastic when I do!

Hazard wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 02, 2020 6:14 am

Udos was cool with my rose tinted glasses on, but I think Andunor is the best thematically and the best designed too. There's just so much going on in Andunor it could be its own module.

Bendir has a lot of character too, but to me a lot of it comes from remembering how it used to be and how it's changed over the years. I get a little tingle in my heart whenever I look around there.

Myon is cozy.

I voted for Andunor because huge kudos to whoever the person/persons were that put that all together like that. It's just magical. I don't even play there much, but it's fantastic when I do!

I'm not sure about thematically, the underdark is not meant to be a place of unity where anyone can go and do as they like...but I understand why it happened. I still miss my Udos days though, where Drow got to be Drow and everyone else didnt matter.

Andunor is best at bringing players together

really love the atmosphere thanks for the great work !

Brogendenstein.

Very atmospheric and feels very dwarven.

It is unfortunate the often there aren't a lot of players about.

NegInfinity wrote: ↑

Sun Mar 08, 2020 6:33 pm

Brogendenstein.

Very atmospheric and feels very dwarven.

It is unfortunate the often there aren't a lot of players about.

my second choice thanks to the players at Brog , you guys are Amazing

When Sibayad isnt a option ;c. But I vote for Skallard. The best place to start Imo and a place I got when I want to detox.

Andunor, hands down for all the reasons Grumpycat stated. But likewise? I do have to put in ... As an evil character ... I find a lot of creativity in creating moral conundrums that my drow are not aware are morale conundrums. She stresses about these things she wants, but cannot have. Discussing issues like love, or impartiality, fairness, respect, or philosophizing about what to do -after- your god or ideology has conquered all others (and realizing it might destroy the society you grew up in if they actually won)... etc ... because my character didn't grow up in a society where these topics had ready examples are ... pretty key to a lot of what my character's RP is about. And in a lot of ways? Evil characters can seem both endearingly naive, and innocent (while being absolute monsters) in regard to philosophies that even the most backward modern humans take as common axioms.

The key is? You have to approach them without actually USING those words. Love is lust, fairness is more about pragmatism.. "look, we've tried to kill all the humans/orogs/whatever it didn't work and it screwed us over".. and teaching a city of evil liars how to make believable smiles, and believable lies for the sake of maintaining their own wealth and survival ... even though they WANT to stab their neighbors in the guts and eat their hearts... they can't always.

They have to pick the battles that matter, and the goal-post is always moving. My character is definitely evil, and self-serving, hedonistic, greedy, and so-on... but? Often telling the truth or something easily confused with the truth so that her few (often devastating) lies are believable or can be misinterpreted as "human-error" (drow-error?) even under intense investigation...

But she certainly struggles with philosophical "human" issues.. (try debating Sydney Harrow sometime with any measure of intellectual honesty!) And it is this "alternative morality" and "alternative ethics" that I find so absolutely compelling about Andunor - which I believe to be the absolutely most compelling and most cosmopolitan of all the settlements on the isle of Arelith. A larger collection of ALL races (sometimes even including surface elves, surface dwarves, and surface gnomes!!) working in a loose confederation than in any other settlement on the server while actively being willing to hack the heads off the species next to them if they look at them funny -- all because they have nowhere else to go, often because every drow, half-orc, mind-flayer, tiefling and surface-elf is an outcast from their native society.

And it's beautiful ... and alien ... and weird ... and dangerous - the essence of Dungeons & Dragons ... and it's exciting when a large enough body of people understand that dynamic, the zealous brinksmanship is narrowly averted and while the status quo never changes (as I believe is the intention of the admins in making such a city - it would be chaos if anyone could ACTUALLY 'conquer' Andunor) ... there is often a security for those who don't want to get involved in politics that I don't think can exist in many other cities on Arelith because so many of it's rentals are immune to eviction. Whereas people who do not support the new regime in Cordor may find themselves evicted ... a kind of self-serving, false-neutrality is a highly respected past-time of MANY factions in Andunor and factions that don't respect or understand that are often pushed out by those that do. Pragmatism and utilitarianism rules in Andunor.

There is no ultimately powerful faction.. and falling out with one, can allow you to hide in or with another and keeping your head down or submitting to the demands of one enemy to be protected against another is a tactic that -works- in Andunor. Even neutrality lets you be a fly on the wall, and view some -amazing- RPs you won't see in those other cities. If you've never taken the plunge? Make an Outcast, and just go sit in the new central bar in the hub ... and listen for a while. Nod at people.. talk if talked to ... but just ... listen, more than speak.

You may not like all, or even a majority of the characters you meet in Andunor ... but I think you'll be surprised as to the moral and ethical complexity of a -lot- of Andunor's population - especially the leadership and their relationships to each other in the city; especially when their factions -need- them to go to war with another for multiple personal reasons ... but they can't find a way to win anything substantial by doing so and their second in command is nipping at their heels in popularity because he doesn't have to do anything but posture as if he can change the tyranny that both the current leader, and the second in command knows cannot be changed.

I think all settlement leaders know: A commonly believed lie is often far, far more powerful and dangerous than an unpopular truth - and that I believe is the true essence of Andunor and the actual nature of evil. Having or creating a collection of such lies that cannot be distinguished from amongst your many truths inevitably leads to power and wide respect in Andunor... but these lies are never convenient or easy to create.

"The Town Crier" is often called "The Town Liar" for a reason. Nobody trusts something anonymously spoken, anonymously posted or whispered where others can't hear in Andunor. You have to bet your public reputation to make it happen.

Skaljard

The hamlet has a certain charm that no other settlement has. The mundane, day-to-day, just trying to get by vibes. It isn’t like the established cityscapes like Cordor or Brog, it doesn’t have a vast farmland like Bendir or stable logging economy like Guldorand. Just a minor fishing village with the tin mine’s veins gone dry.

It’s almost like Easthaven from Ten Towns, Icewind Dale. And the Icewind Dale series happens to be my favorite Infinity Engine games, even more than the BG series.

Skaljard is free of the always-looming settlement politics that often overshadow character arcs. At the same time, it also doesn’t have the scorching heat or as high a population of epic characters like in Sibayad.

Last but not least, the place has strong ties with the Furies, the different type of evil that is more nature based than the generic evil. People don’t see the RP that comes with it often enough, but when PC Umberlants, Stormlords, or Aurilites appear, they make for great storytelling and world-building, adding further onto that immersion.

On looks id say Bendir Dale by far. I really like that cosy feeling you get inside of it, with the walls and all, and the grass, the inn, and etc.

Brogendenstein i feel lacks some grandeur, in contrast with the Umbrick Halls, for example (which i guess, makes sense, but regardless. If hoomans can make the giant new guldorand in a short time ICly, im sure the dwarves can make brog much bigger in the 161 years since the retreat from umbrick?) Either way, Brog looks like the tiniest of halls and is very claustrophobic. The community there of course makes it all up and its the reason why all my chars play there.

Certainly brog wouldnt make anyone go "hm let me risk a little more light. Behold the great relm and dwarf city of brogendenstein!". After all, you can cross from the port to the thousand stairs in a few seconds.

I've always been jealous of Bendir's ability to lock their gate. It just gives me such a cozy feeling.
Same as Myon's mythal back in the day before everyone knew how to bypass it.

I like the feeling of getting back to town and actually feeling a bit safe. At least if it's a little racial settlement, like Bendir used to be (only halflings) and Myon.

Cordor.

Why - I really don't know. I can't stand the petty politics, the message board drama nor the constant stench that wafts up from the docks, but yet when I'm out and about and it's time to go home, I head back to Cordor.

Sibayad!

Sibayad is hands down the best:

Portals in fine location, good shop acces, Fun dungeons in hands reach.

Brogendenstein is a hard second, Shadow Wharftown could have been, But it doesn't live up to the original.

The rest honestly, Is terrible.

I get the evolution of it all, But I loved how settlements were straight to the point.

Hazard wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 27, 2020 11:30 pm

I've always been jealous of Bendir's ability to lock their gate. It just gives me such a cozy feeling.
Same as Myon's mythal back in the day before everyone knew how to bypass it.

I like the feeling of getting back to town and actually feeling a bit safe. At least if it's a little racial settlement, like Bendir used to be (only halflings) and Myon.

+1

I really like the Mythal of Myon, and that it forces a racial-alignment-non-evil community -- granted the community of Myon is not as strong as in years past, but if the day comes that the Mythal goes away, I will be very blue.