Arelith

Not a rant, or complaining;

1) My PC of 14 years (an early-gen i7) died; had to run on a cheap laptop for a while that took a long time to even load the hub and get it replaced on a low budget. Trying to recover information from the dead computer's hard drives is putting financial strain on me. Happened in December; some issues are still ongoing.
2) Time-zone differences. I was active across many time zones; now it is growing increasingly difficult due to a need to work and the affiliated emotional exhaustion of working after 7 years retired, to recoup the expenses above.
3) Change of base-stats requiring my character to be continuously level 2. Makes it difficult for any STR character with an expansive inventory to even walk around. (i.e. over-encumbered slow-walk even at full buff.) Even without the above stuff? It's a long process every time I want to log in to refresh my house and shop which people know I supported obsessively for a long time.
4) Obsessive attention to International affairs and military family members now deployed to Eastern Europe make it hard for me to focus (emotionally) on a roleplaying game. Changing gears from human empathy and personal family issues to playing an evil drow takes time on top of the releveling and this and so many issues make the character Saslae Xun'viir difficult to take on and off as seamlessly as I used to.

I understand that without this support? It's made it difficult for some groups to function at the pace they did for even a small amount of time. A lot of people have and had storylines wrapped up in my character, Etc. Etc. Etc.

Given the number of IRL things currently conspiring against me; I intend (once my character can be level 30 again after the level 1 stat alterations) to step back from Arelith a bit and focus on fewer things after helping settle the most outstanding affairs and accounts to give some people some closure.

I'm not leaving Arelith; but when I get back I am changing my focus.

A lot of completely random events are making it hard for me to do the things that I need to be able to do to participate in Arelith at the capacity that I normally do. I am not leaving the community, nor am I abandoning my character; but I fully appreciate the needs of other people to be able to move on and function. My gameplay has always been an attempt to facilitate other players organizing.

As soon as my level 1 rebuild is approved or disapproved, I will come back, probably sort out affairs, offer funds and support to a few organizations and outstanding issues, and try to support the transition to another district-head getting started in Greyport to try to end things on as positive a note as I am capable of doing so people don't feel the need to "wait for me".

I have no intention of holding things up, but I am not emotionally in a position where I can focus continuously on the needs of dozens and dozens of people across multiple time zones, their factions, and so on. I intend, fully, to be back and active on Arelith and will probably still putz around.

I love a lot of people here. I love the work and love that admins and devs put into it and almost everyone I've ever met on this server.

At the moment, however, following the instructions, and having to spend what feels like 25 minutes to log in, relevel my character, and then unlevel it again as I log out has resulted in a significant amount of complexity in my ability to play the game and focus on the top of other IRL things that have made it difficult for me to function and focus since early December.

I attempted to maintain for a sustained period using a cheap laptop, but the keyboard and screen alignment of a small laptop resulted in an undue amount of stress, inability to quickly and efficiently do the sheer amount of things I needed to do IC that I was accustomed to handling and in general? Had to be solved by buying an actual PC that has created the financial hardship I am attempting to recover from.

For those whose story-lines, my absence has held up? I apologize. I do love you all, and I'm still available on Discord, but: I'm human, and being an Arelith Settlement lead is often too much even when everything's going perfectly IRL as any current, or past Settlement lead will tell you. ;-P

My own financial and emotional security has to come first or it is impossible to maintain the pace, ethics, and roleplay that many people have come to expect from me; so I have to spend some time focusing on these other things. I want everyone to know that I ENJOY and ENJOYED the work that I did to try to balance multiple competing interests and alliances, but being this far outside current events and RP due to IRL stuff?

I fully acknowledge that makes things untenable.

Thank you for your roleplay. It means a lot to me, or I wouldn't do all the work I did. <3

100% support you taking the time you need to deal both with tech and RL matters, and playing at the pace you want. This is a game after all - it's supposed to be just a fun way to relax Do what you need to enjoy yourself.

ooc first, we can nerd out ic later on sometime its fine

Agreed! Take care of yourself and your family first, then game second. Also whenever a game causes RL issues or Stress its always a good sign to take a step back and put things into perspective.

I had barely got to rp with Saslae and was looking forward to it. However yes you need to do you first before Arelith.

We look forward to your return

Seriously surprised by your tenacity to play Saslae so consistently all these years. I know I've gone through at least 4-5 characters since she was made.

No shame in taking a break, especially for those reasons.

Saslae is a whirlwind of a character that I find very endearing, despite her loudness . I hope she returns soon!

Always focus on IRL first!! But look forward to seeing her story continue when you get back!