firstly, big kudos to the original players of Barashava Deathstrike, Lumumash and other names for coming up with cool names (and character history) for me to steal.
zeltic/malos/deathstrike/dragnah/kross ashentusk etc is being tucked away into shelf heaven. goals achieved, huge roleplay created and the characters existed for more than a year.
you know the drill, for those I can't reach out to on discord to shake hands with:
jobless freeport squatters - Laberia, Maxine Majesta, Vulture, Ivrathe, (also red wizard guy with bald head who had whirlwind attack as a spellsword I canot remember the name of. ITS VARTHEKT) and Siltrin all made the freeport a pretty enjoyable place to pass the time and obviously were titans in their own right when it came to creating things for other people to do. Maxine Majesta despite being the total opposite of Mal-Karash, he always harboured a great amount of respect for them due to their bravery in challenging him on a cultural and intellectual front. Obviously most people turned a cold shoulder to public ravings of praising bane but only 1 person directly approached notorious super axe murderer ov hell and told him 'erm, you're wrong and heres why'. Overall the experience of the freeport at the heights of Laberia/Maxine/Redwizardguywhirlwind axis were very fun and unique and I appreciate being around to see it in action. (I did these interactions as Zeltic Tyrneamal). alexa play again from full metal alchemist
Order of hitting me in the head with 243 damage crits - Theres a few people from the order of ascension I wish I got to more directly interact with. I wasn't playing the kind of villain though that stands in the shadovar and bemoans the tragedy of his own existence to anyone who would hear it so what interactions I did get with people like Minerva de'arte and Aedrick Bibliophsisisis were quite enjoyable. It was interesting to see Minerva approach the 'redeem bad people' angle in what I considered to be a very refreshing manner which was by trusting in the metaphysical transformative power in prayer rather than the purely temporal works of 'erm just do good things lol?'. Meanwhile over the year I had played Mal-Karash I routeinly gangstalked Aedrick and I saw a number of times the character was forced between following the paladin oath into death or burying your head in the sand and pretending there isn't a band of super murderers running around Arelith forest and every time he chose to rise to the occasion which is badass as hell. Mal-Karash as a result always viewed them both as worthy of their titles. I wish I got to interact with more of the order however. Ringing up Alis to dob in people being too nice to me was also a good time.
Minmir Keep - zargoth was probably one of the most impressive clerics I had ever seen when it came to actual religious roleplay. The thing I wanted to always see done the most with Minmir Keep was for it to be treated like an actual church and the black mass was never in short supply. Victoria Hawthorne was also another great cleric, they got a sliver of what Mal-Karash was really like (and that is a lot) and did a wonderful little event impromptu for me. Playing a character that is playing a character that is playing a character can be frankly very exhausting, so to be able to mask off even briefly with a character like Victoria is nice. Ernst Mirna is kind of like Minmir's Aedrick. Hes always ready to just go and is remarkably level headed. He routinely tries to play what cards he can with the hand he is dealt.
Verta and Lazarus are also fun to reflect on because I begam incredibly hostile to both and the Keep but through a lot of character work and serious development, all three would eventually arrive on the same page and eventually he would come full circle and even admit he was wrong about something (unheard of). Oh that derro was also cool
Gwynevere and Eztli Vermillion also get special mention for one of the most memorable scenes of breaking out of prison. (I got obliterated but they did great) Gwynevere was also always a big help when muscling over poor peasants and they always gave off the energy of a seriously neglected puppy. I wish I could of interacted with these two further but when you're playing a character who is playing a character, it strangles a lot of your ability to seriously bond.
Myryn Blightscar and other sharps people - the big men on the scene. They made being around Andunor fun for me. I sadly arrived during the tail end of myryns reign so the bulk of the roleplay was sitting around meeting rooms but I always felt welcomed by the players there. Also Kazrath made me an axe for free so he gets cool guy cred forever.
Izziak - incredibly brief interaction but I observed your character through intermediaries and gangstalking and I thought you were cool and fun, I appreciate being a good sport.
New Guldorand Government - this is a funny one because I primarily saw these characters develop indirectly. I have to say though they are a tough administration under probably the most intense pressure I have seen in awhile but the end result was seeing Guldorand more populated than ever and making it one of the places that were actually fun to be around. Hornraven, Rhealyn, Waithe and Gabriel were of course all people who stood out and I am typing this phrase a lot but due to find out icly, I had to keep a serious distance from the characters lest the schemes be revealed. I do wish we got to directly interact more but because of what I was playing, I only got to see them through intermediaries, board posts and brief interactions on the street through various disguises. What interactions I did have with them though were memorable. So kudos to the ppl in Guldorand making it fun and enduring all the drama that directly comes with that.
Bastion Serpentis *puts feet on table - fellas, we got stuff done. It has been a very long time since I felt like I got to experience something fresh and engaging and the plots that we presided over were like I was new to the server again. There were more people in that base for hours on end than there were in most settlement squares. All we were missing was a water cooler so we could stand around it and waste time not doing our real Arelith jobs. There is something satisfying about walking in to a group of 5 people just to drop the hottest gossip only to be followed in by another Agent who drops even hotter gossip. A lot of the characters involved formed some serious gel, our own inside jokes, hierachies and feuds were naturally born and gave the place a real sense of culture after awhile. I can't name names but the kings involved know. Ourani, the 2 guys who don't even know, old man dementia, and all the others I can't think of creative nicknames for, it was fun and unique experience. And the schemes, I can safely say, when we put our heads together there was genuinely nothing we didn't achieve. No one but us will probably know the full extent of our footprint but its definitely been left. I still got the screenshots of the meetings and for those who also have them all I ask is that everytime you look at them you play No Sleep Til Brooklyn by Beastie Boys.
best for last:
"Entropy" - Mal-Karashes much better half and the person that is probably truly responsible for cementing his reputation. A lot of what got attributed to Deathstrike was really done on the backs of their work. They effectively singlehandedly erected the entire network of information and organisation for the Bastion as well as still found the time to assassinate people and run their own little corner of Arelith. I always knew the player was a good roleplayer so what was the most satisfying for me to see was watch them grow in their own space and for other people to recognize how good of a roleplayer they are and how much they bring to the server. Frankly their achievements can't be understated. They threw together journals in 15 minutes that toppled governments and made totally off the cuff comments to people while we robbed them that ended up collapsing entire factions. Witnessing the domino effect of 'I said this because it was funny' lead to what was effectively the burning of the library of Alexandria was very powerful.
Furthermore and I've said this a lot throughout this thread, its very hard to roleplay a character who is roleplaying a character and in our case, we were both doing this, so it was nice to have someone you can actually show the ORIGINAL character to. The dynamic was tough because even behind closed doors they cannot actually be 'themselves'. So to be drip fed over a year the real nature of both characters to one another was very special. We both heavily disliked the idea of laying all our cards on the table for others to see because it just doesn't make IC sense considering their role, so as a result being able to tuck the character away with at least 1 other person seeing their cards was nice.
Brief but meaningful interactions - kara rogers, Alyth, Filawyn silvershade, Talyrrae, Anathema, Skohl, Joseph Krauser, Horatio, derro guy, Ekrid,
