elder_tale | Disturbance in the market

Aiko turned her head in the direction of the crowd, her ears flicking all about her, and then decided to follow the direction of the crowd. For a moment she wished that she was playing one of her more dexterous characters, because then she might be able to take to the rooftops, but failing that she'd settle for joining the crowd itself. Her ears flickered all about her to try and take in what was happening, and it startled her when she realized that she could actually make out far more in terms of sound now. Directions, volume, it was all easier to discern, especially for someone who had chronically bad hearing.

"I'll have to work on that more later," she murmured thoughtfully, and then turned both ears forward to see if she could use that lovely new hearing to figure out what was going on.

Aiko notices to her surprise that more than half the crowd is made up of Landers. They are talking among themselves a fair bit, as a man standing above the crowd on a statue's platform addresses them.

"The cathedral is not just about respawning! It shall be a place of sacred worship, here all are welcome to participate in reverence of Ephara's light!"

The man on the makeshift podium speaks loudly and clearly, with the charisma and poise of someone clearly well practiced. There is no difficulty at all understanding him over the murmuring crowd. Clearly the extra height from the raised platform is necessary, as he is a dwarf, with a bushy waist length black beard, bald head, and ornate patterned white robes with gold trim.

The preacher's shows up on Aiko's HUD as "Gurmanon, level 90 Priest [Ephara's Radiance]". while the clan isn't familiar to her; the name Ephara is, as the Goddess of cities and civilization in Elder Tale, vaguely analogous to the Greek Athena, though with somewhat of a less martial bent.

The adventurers in the crowd are clearly dubious, mocking the preacher, but the Landers seem in awe. "A prophet? Truly Ephara blesses us!" "He spoke to the Goddess! I wonder what she's like?" "Its a miracle!"

The dwarf's voice booms. "The Goddess wishes me to assure all of you that we are in this world for a reason, which she will reveal to me in time. But until then, I will retire to the Cathedral, her house in this land, and lead any who wish to join me in service and prayer to her glory. I hope that you will join me there, brothers and sisters."

The dwarf leaves the podium, and begins walking toward the cathedral. The crowd gets louder as any who were silent out of respect to the speaker begin discussing and arguing the implications of the speech.

Some of the crowd breaks off to follow the dwarf to the cathedral.

The fact that there's an Adventurer taking advantage of the Landers just makes her ears go back in irritation, and she hisses a little with the same emotion. A prophet, really? And did he honestly think that the Cathedral was only for one of the game-designed deities? If nothing else, she has to hear what else the guy is going to say, especially if there's a chance to get to him alone and talk to him. Even if he is a hard-core roleplayer, sometimes they could be pulled into an OOC conversation.

Aiko slipped through the crowd quickly, tail-tip flipping here and there as she swam through until she managed to catch up with the group heading to the cathedral.

This is clearly some sort of guild operation. You count at least 6 members of [Ephara's Radiance] around the cathedral as the crowd, now down to two dozen or so PCs and several dozen landers, filters into the cathedral. You see some of them using their in-game menus, instantly building some furniture, setting up benches and chairs for the crowd in the previously sparse room.

The guild's members are all decked out in blue and white, Ephara's colors, and only monks, priests, and paladin-spec fighters. Its fairly well split between races and genders.

The speaker from before walks ahead past the raised altar, turns to face the crowd, and begins singing.

You sort of recognize the song; its from the game soundtrack. You aren't familiar with the words though; he seems to be singing in Japanese. He has a deep strong bass voice, and the cathedral's acoustics lend well to it.

You feel a warm fuzzy tingle down your spine, and notice on your HUD that you are under a status effect called "Hymn of Hope", increasing your maximum mana capacity.

Hovering behind the man, a familiar angelic shape appears, smiling at the congregation. It is white and translucent, and lends serious intensity to the song. The congregation watches in awe. The spirit fades away as the song ends.

Aiko shakes her head a little at the whole production, almost exasperated by it. The Cathedral is styled after Christian cathedrals, sure. And it's got the same name. But it's supposed to be a Rez location, not a specific spiritual center, or at least not for a specific deity. She's a little annoyed that someone's taking advantage of people here, but it's not like she can really do too much about it just yet. She's not on her level 90, after all.

Still, she can't help but close her eyes and listen to the priest sing, because she's always enjoyed music, and he's got the sort of voice that she loves. The tingle down her spine almost goes unnoticed in the appreciation of a good singing voice, but she still slits open her eyes to see what it was. ...huh. Not the song, or perhaps because of the song, and she wonders if it only lasts while he's singing. After a moment she wonders if, perhaps, he's not actually a bard rather than a priest, but her HUD says otherwise. The trick with the image is pretty clever too, and she wracks her brain to try and see if she remembers if there are any high-level priest spells that do that.

It occurs to her "oh yeah", some of the more powerful priest spells are referred to as Hymns, and have a duration of 'channeling'. And while she never tried out that spec, the holy spec priests got a 'guardian angel' effect that protected them while casting channel spells. Still advantageous to disrupt them, but slightly more difficult, and more costly.

"Brothers and sisters," intones the priest,
"It has been a momentous day. We stand here transformed, amidst a miracle, given new lives and forms to serve the light.

"In this world, it is trivial for the bless-ed to heal the sick, the hurt, the dying. We may be truly immortal, only returning to this place upon death. All the terrors and stresses of our old lives are gone. There are no more deadlines, no more dead-end jobs. We are reborn in paradise."

*continued when I have more brain*

"Worry not for those left behind. While we are blessed, this is not heaven, and they are not in hell. We are the forerunners; the Novasphere Pioneers. An expedition in Ephara's service into this new world. If we are successful, all those who wish to return may do so freely.

This is the start of the greatest quest in the story of Elder Tale. A quest delivered to us by the gods themselves; to find and claim the Novasphere.

We must prevail! And to do so, we need the help all those willing to pledge themselves to Ephara's Radiance, or give tithe that her strength be unrivaled. The acolytes will speak to you about your contributions.

Ephara's light be with you all, brothers and sisters. Amen."

He steps down from the altar, and the acolytes begin taking up collections from the crowd, and mingling with people. The High Priest goes to a nearby table and begins summoning and blessing refreshments.

Amaadia tilted her head, ears lopsided as she listened, and at least some of it seemed to make sense. On the other hand, it also sounded like something some NPC would say as part of a quest description - and she was one of the weirdos who would actually read the entire quest text, so she knew what she was talking about. With a snort once the whole show was over, she headed straight for the table, her ears now back entirely. Okay, so this character wasn't Lielyn, who would have been able to take on this Priest with ease if it came down to it, but who knew how much of a role level would play right now after everything that had happened with the expansion?

"Excuse me, but how much of that do you seriously believe, nya?" She managed to keep her voice less than full-on confrontational, but it was close. Still, Amaadia did keep herself under control, even if her fur was standing at least partially upright regardless.

"I understand your skepticism."

The priest beams with friendliess, offering [tasteless] scones and tea.

"I certainly could doubt the avatar of Ephara that appeared before me. I could insist that she provide demonstration of her power and divinity. But I am not so brazen as to ask a goddess to do anything."

He laughs.

"No, I will take her at her word, and believe. I wouldn't know what to do with myself otherwise. And it might be the best chance any of us have to ever get home.

We didn't used to accept druids in our ranks, for game theme reasons. But in this world now, the more the merrier. We would be glad to have you among us, and help you power-level, if you would like to embrace Ephara. I did mean it; we hope to be the first to beat the expansion. If nothing else, that should mean something."

She accepts the tea and takes a sip, and then her ears go stock-still in shock, because it smells like tea and looks like tea, but it tasts...like water. After a horrified moment, she tries the scones too, and if she didn't have fur her face would have gone pale. Instead her ears go back as far as possible, blue eyes wide with horror, and she stares at the delicious-looking snacks. Looking. That's the key part, because it tastes like absolutely nothing. Amaadia swallows hard, and then turns to stare at the priest as she tries to recover her composure.

"You do realize that you're just talking about game constructs, right? This is...this is something out of an anime, there has to be some way to get home. And I really doubt that appealing to a game-made goddess is going to help you very much!" Her tail lashed behind her, but she stilled it with a stern thought. No need to make herself a major bother or anything. "Besides, if you go by the game deities, this character is more a follower of Nylea."

Still, the thought of beating the expansion was something that she hadn't come up with just yet. It was clever, and maybe that would be the trick to all of this. Maybe they just...needed to beat the game, and they could go home?

"Sorry, we haven't figured out how to make food with taste yet.

As for goddesses, game construct or not, don't you think the game's explicit 'good guys' might be a little more trustworthy than its explicit 'bad guys', or the fence-sitters allowed to play with both sides? You are not bound by the character you came in with. Remember, the Novasphere Pioneers expansion advertised the addition of a multiclass system. We haven't figured out how it works yet, but you are /living/ here. You can go with what /you/ want to be, not just what /your character/ is 'supposed' to be.

I invite you to choose to serve Good."

"Is all the food like this?" The thought is unexpectedly horrible, and she can't help but hope very, very hard that it isn't true. Still, there are other things to worry about than tasteless food, however upsetting it may be.

"You do realize that I'm one of those "fence-sitter" races, right?" She arches an eyebrow at the Priest, crossing her arms after setting down the tea and biscuit. "For that matter, character races and alignments don't necessarily reflect player alignments. I've got a few evil characters as well as a few good ones. Are you really planning on ignoring or belittling people who chose supposedly "evil" characters?" Amaadia tilts her head to the side, entirely cat-curious in her body language. "I don't think that "good" and "evil" should be defined by and limited to the game concepts, not now. Not after what's happened to all of us." Still, he's got a point about the new system, and the whole new world that's opened up before them all.

"I also don't think that it's fair to all the players for you to claim the Cathedral as just yours. You're going to restrict other players, keep them from rezzing here?" Even if maybe resurrection doesn't work any more, it's still the principal of the thing. "Come on, if you want us all to beat the game, we're going to have to work together, whether we're followers of your goddess or not."

"Frankly, I would hope that all the races and factions would come to join the side of good. To promote civilization and community. I know that is naive, though; certainly it doesn't happen in the real world.

But which sounds better, the Goddess of Civilization rising to prominence, or the God of Deception? Do you really think the game constructs in the evil faction won't actually be written as villains?

While there's a lot of gray area allowed in this game, they wrote in a lot of stark black and white. I'm siding with white. There's a place for you here if you want it. If not, no, we won't block your respawning. You are allowed to fence-sit. You don't need to be a part of the solution if you don't want to.

But anyone who decides that its more fun to troll, to abuse, to destroy than to build and nourish isn't respawning in peace.

We don't know how the expansion works yet. I don't know if we respawn at all. But I do know that the Cathedral applies a buff to all Priest spells while present. That's its the only place we've been able to contact anything resembling someone who knows what's going on through our Goddess. And that makes it very vulnerable to abuse. Better through us than someone else.

Give us a chance. Join our guild. Get to know us. You can quit at any time, and will trust us better being able to see things from the inside."

Edited 2014-03-27 01:17 (UTC)

"Personally, I'm not super thrilled at the idea of any religion rising to prominence, though better a good one than an evil one, I suppose. Still, you're leading people on. If not other players, than the People of the Land who just don't know any better." Amaadia stays right where she is, defensive but still, hopefully, at least a little polite. "Personally I'd like someone to rise to prominence who doesn't rely on religion to lead, because we've got enough attempts at that back in the real world. Okay, so people find solace from the unknown in religion and faith, I know that, but it still feels...I dunno, a little skeevy? Just a bit." Now she started pacing a little, because staying still just wasn't a choice that she could really make right now. At each turn her tail-tip lashed, though just a little for now.

"Look, I want to help beat this and get us all home, don't get me wrong. But I don't think that I'll be comfortable doing so as part of a group that has the trappings of any sort of organized religion. I'll be happy to ally with you, and while I know that you've got a ton of healers I'd be happy to off-heal if you need me, but...I dunno." Amaadia huffed, then shook her head again. "Besides, there's someone that I need to talk to first before I make any big decisions, and he's- ah, she's busy right now."

"I understand. Our way is not for everyone. I hope you come around, but while you enjoy your neutrality, I encourage you to speak with Sister Merrun over there, and add her to your friend's list. She is our raid organizer, and will be setting up 20-man raids for lower-level players to power level. The Crimson Labyrinth quest chain would earn you two to three levels per run till you hit the early 30s. Its your best bet, whether or not we are the ones to assist you in it. That is, of course, assuming that the Mad King of Icari will still give out the quest chain in this world.

Its been pleasant, but I should move on to speak with others as well. Ephara bless you, Amaadia."

The man never stops smiling, but turns away from you, disengaging and starting to offer food to some Lander children, again apologizing for the blandness.

Amaadia can't help but want to smack the guy across the nose with her claws out, but she knows that it's not only rude, it's irrational. There's still a part of her that wants to bare her fangs and hiss at him in irritation, and it's upset over these unusual instincts as much as anything else that has her turning away to stalk, rather stiff-legged, over toward the "Sister" in question. Not all the way, though, as she needs to take a moment to calm down.

Sister Merrun is a very friendly-looking level 84 elven priest. She's talking with Midick, Level 90 Kitsune Ranger [DaBoss].

Merrun: "I assure you, the word of Ephara is genuine. We care only to promote order"

Midick: "Cut the RP bullcrap. I'm a PvP raider. I don't buy the god business. Just lay it straight, do you guys have a lead on a real exit or not?"

Merrun looks flustered. "Please leave. We don't want anything to do with PvPers."

Midick: "Yeah, I thought you were all bullshit. Just know that if you guys decide to fuck with our respawning, we'll kick you out of this cathedral, god and all."

He storms out. You see her ball a fist and bite her lip, before turning to greet and speak to a level 5 dwarf paladin.

Amaadia watches the two talk, and can't help but feel torn. The Ranger had a point, and she's right there with him in terms of the way this guild is presenting information, but there's still no need to be a dick about it. Once he leaves she sighs and heads toward the elf, because she can't help but try to smooth things over, at least a little.

"You okay?"

You see the wall of Customer Service spring up, with its little jolt of "oh shit, work".

She smiles at you. You know its forced.

"I'm fine. How may I help you? Would you like some water? It actually tastes like water, at least."

She pours from a pitcher and offers a small tin cup full.

Amaadia knows that sort of expression all too well, and her own expression turns sympathetic and reassuring, the smile of one Customer Service Representative to another. Hopefully it comes across as it usually does, considering that her face is definitely different than it used to be. Feline faces don't work quite the same way as human ones; the weirdest part is just how utterly natural the changes feel to her.

"Don't worry, you can take a bit of a break if you want. Though it's good to know about the water." After a moment she tilts her head, ears cocked, and does her best to ensure that her voice is a lot gentler and kinder than the PvPer's had been.

"I'm just...curious, I guess. As to why you guys are sticking to the RP story so hard, when you know that this is a game. I could see it for the People of the Land, to help cover what happened here, but why for other players? I just...want to know."

She looks you straight in the eyes. "We're in another world. All we have to go on is what we can learn from the game interface we can strangely still access, an understanding of how the game used to work before we were living in it, and what the NPCs tell us.

"Gurmamon claims to have spoken to a Level 100 solo NPC. None of us has ever seen one before. No one has been around here long enough to consider figuring out how to fake that. And I've known him long enough not to think he's a liar or crazy. Stands to reason Ephara's info might be good."

Her intensity builds.

"And even if its not... I'm a single mother. My son is 4 years old."

You can hear all of the frustration with the previous guys leaking out, her buttons slightly too far pressed.

"I can't speak for the rest of my guild, but... excuse us a little escapism! Being someone else, in another life, is the only way I can deal with anything right now. And I get no closer to home being a panicked wreck."

She freezes for a sec.

"Shit, sorry, I didn't mean to go off on you like that."

Edited 2014-04-23 06:38 (UTC)

Disturbance in the market

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