YesGood

Maybe the three of you can get together! That'd be pretty adorable.

[align=center][/align] [align=center]L’Atelier des Fleurs[/align] [align=center] is now hiring skilled performers for both social and private entertainment across the allied city-states. [/align] [align=center]Benefits include (but are not limited to) guaranteed pay per performance, meals afforded during events, ungarnished tips, commission, professional training (upon request), and temporary housing (upon request). [/align] [align=center]-Dancers[/align] [align=center]-Singers[/align] [align=center]-Poets[/align] [align=center]-Acrobats[/align] [align=center]-Hosts[/align] [align=center]-And any other individuals with unique social or artistic skills[/align] [align=center]Are welcome to apply.[/align] [align=center]Those interested in employment with or arranging events with L’Atelier des Fleurs can contact Miss Ashling of Ul’dah by post to arrange an interview. Trials will be conducted in the Fifth Ward (Plot 10) of the Goblet.[/align] [align=center]*L’Atelier des Fleurs reserves the right to deny service to any individual or company.[/align] [align=center]*L’Atelier des Fleurs is not a brothel; attempts by clients to solicit physical favors from our employees and vice versa are strictly prohibited.[/align] [align=center]*L’Atelier des Fleurs’ employees will never offer sexual services to our clientele or any individual attending our performances. Unlicensed employees who are discovered transgressing in this manner will be immediately severed without pay and turned over to the proper authorities.[/align]

This FRIDAY, 2/25/14 @ 10 PM EST the Closed Tournament for the Grindstone will have its first trial run. The roster is open to individuals who: -Have participated in one Grindstone event on Saturdays -Have been invited by an Overseer or has challenged/been challenged by an Overseer to a trial duel. The trial duel will be an inspection of how realistically you use your more advanced character techniques to assure that there will be no conflict in the official tournament. You will be evaluated by your Overseer and you -must- be open to constructive criticism and improvement. If you are denied, you are free to reschedule and attempt entry again. There are a few changes: 1. In order to participate in the Closed Tournament you MUST fulfill both of the above requirements. 2. The Closed Tournament will track the wins/losses of all its fighters for in character purposes. 3. Enhancement magic and abilities -ARE- allowed (i.e. chakra, fortification, speed increase, dragon soul, beast within, bardic songs, etc. etc.) 4. Healing is still -NOT- allowed. 5. Offensive magic is tentative. 6. Firearms, non-lethal poisons, and other accessory weapons or substances with temporary effects (blinding powder, etc.) are allowed. 7. Assistance from any individual or summon (faeries, carbuncle, egi, etc.) is strictly prohibited. 8. Fighters MUST be capable of restraining themselves. If necessary, wards will be applied to the fights to prevent potentially devastating moves to have lethal effects, but in essence the fighters must be disciplined. --- The outlines above are subject to change as necessary.

First off, Darkfae has the absolute right of it. Time and time again I've attempted to come up with a fair set of rules for spellcasters to use, but in the end, magic and most importantly people's vastly varying approach to magic in FFXIV makes it exceeding difficult to dictate any real rules for it. On top of that, the use of summons, whether faeries or primals, and then healing and such complicates everything. Trimming the abilities handicaps the classes; pitting them against physical fighters makes things vastly more difficult unless those physical fighters have supernatural abilities which many of ours do not. In the end, the Grindstone rules are meant to be quick and easy. When I created the Grindstone there were plenty of mage or magic-oriented FCs and LSs so I thought doing something for the physical fighting characters to -show- that they were doing their thing and to experience another side of roleplay (emote fighting, as you call it) would be a great idea. So far I've regretted nothing. I've stated this before and will state it again: We don't discourage magical combat rpers. In fact I encourage it. And I'm always open to listening to suggestions on how we can make combat with all magic classes a feasible idea. But right now it's simply not one for us, and I apologize if that makes you feel excluded, it was never my intention. Magic users are always free to participate using physical combat skills. ALSO Soon there'll be a change. Wednesday nights are moving to Friday nights and there may be some change in whether or not it'll be training nights again or a slightly more advanced tournament.

UPDATE: 2/11 Much of the directory page, times, rules, and ranks have been edited and updated as well as the Overseer list. If you were a champion at some point in the past and I forgot to include your name in the list, please PM me and I'll add you.

!.) The FC chat is generally not a huge deal. It hasn't been, although perhaps it's grown a bit since. Usually the LS is used, as everyone in the FC is in the LS, but not everyone in the LS is in the FC. 2.) Members of the Grindstone are extremely pleasant and helpful. They're usually down for roleplaying outside of the tournament and many of them have very serious fighter characters. Feel free to ask any time but remember that there are different times where people might be preoccupied with other aspects of the game or other RP. (Outside rp happens a lot and I met almost all of my RP friends through the GS)

<333 I'm excited to see them!

No, they are nothing like saints in Christianity. They are like gods in ancient Greece or Rome. Certain greek city-states had a patron god because they valued that god more, for whatever reason. In Rome, for example, Jupiter was the main the god for Roman mythology but, in practice, Mars was more important because he was the god of war (and the Romans liked their military victories very, very much). Basically, the gods in those societies are diverse aspects of reality. In Eorzea, this is also the case. Ul'dah gives importance to Nald'thal because he's the god of commerce. Limsa to Llymaen because they are seafaring. Gridania to whatever the goddess of harvest was. Ishgard to Halone because she gave them a divine command to wage war to the dragons (and is the goddess of war). Each society/community gives more importance to one god above the others because he or she is the most prominent aspect of reality in their life. But that doesn't mean there is no worshipping to the others. It's just that most of their important rites, celebrations and customs will be tailored to favor that particular one. Ala Mhigo to Rhalgr. Well, saints in Catholicism... (I'm not sure they're worshipped in any other branch of Christianity, namely 'cus I'm Buddhist and was raised that way) can be compared to the worship of multiple gods in this sense to someone who understands that better than ancient polytheism. The answer stands that no, simply because you are a Keeper or a Seeker does not mean you -must- worship Menphina or Azeyma respectively. It only means that there's a very very high chance that your tribe, clan, or homogenized family as a unit focus on pleasing or praying to those particular deities. Your personal patron may or may not be different, but you would likely keep Menphina or Azeyma virtually on par with that deity depending on how close to your own culture you were raised. But no, I imagine there isn't a ton of "I spit on your Menphina!" going around as the entire pantheon is acknowledged by virtually everyone. Their patrons merely take precedence in their personal lives or their communities.

Remember that the tournaments are on Saturdays and the training events are on Wednesdays now. It was being run just a touch too often before. <3

Sio'll put the fear of gods into that boy... Or a fear of her... Or... Or he's already afraid so... Mission: SUCCESS!

I suppose you already know but Siobhain is extremely devout. Her faith is probably stronger than any of the other characters I've ever had, including my 'good' priests. She's constantly put off by how few others she meets who share an equivalent level of her faith, but mind, her practices are completely custom. Her belief in Azeyma is primary and she concentrates equally on inquisition and warding as her philosophies. One dictates her lifestyle and the other, her approach to combat.

I welcome each and everyone. We'll be having our training days on Wednesdays and our tournament days on Saturdays. Val -is- a great person to add. Spectacular RPer who is wonderful at combat and very very active. <3 I'll also be on for the next couple hours, I hope, if anyone is about now.

Oh my! That all came in rapid succession. Most of the time, except on tournament nights, we don't meet up so much any more. I try to hang around the bridge in Central Thanalan when given the chance but lately I've been trying to grind my way to 44 (at least). If any of you want to stumble across Sio and any of her accompanying friends, feel free to add me to friends or PM me. It'll often be after 10 pm EST on any day.

My boyfriend has a very serious, smarmy Lalafell character and he has an issue with how people treat that character as weak or childish because of his size. I think that you have to take into consideration that the race belongs in that world, they're not new to the other races at this point. In many places, especially Ul'dah, the characters don't have a whole lot of reason to doubt how powerful, threatening, or even evil some Lalafell can be.

Siobhain should have tea. She can wear fancy clothes and pretend she's Faye for a bell or two.

Fen, you look so young. And pasty.

Ahhh, Fystrael, I love these. <333

I can answer this in only one way: Amongst all the characters I've ever had, Siobhain is unique. A lot of them have been the same. Usually very feminine characters who were quiet and maternal to some degree. Usually soft spoken and intelligent, exceedingly slow to anger, and vicious in their own way when the time came for it. Some were really witty (because I love my quips) but overall just very submissive personalities. Siobhain? Complete opposite of that. She is a dominating female without being a crazy Amazonian. Despite having something of a commanding presence, she never dwells in it or allows it to give her any sort of ego amongst her peers. She's confident, physically and emotionally strong, strategic, she thinks ahead and she tends to be rather open-minded. Unlike my other character's she's not self-centered nor would she throw her life away over any little cause simple to prove she's brave. Not only do I find her different from all of my past characters, I find her pretty different from other female Roe-- though admittedly I have met very very few Hellsguard. My Roe-lady has several emotional flaws that are generally tempered by friends. Her anger is heavy and almost inexplicable at times. While she can be open-minded on several topics, morality isn't one of them and she refuses to protect anyone who commits what she considers to be crimes; mostly stealing, killing, and betraying one's loyalties. Romantically she has no idea what she's doing or where she's going-- she had no experience with hugging or hand holding or kissing. She was just as awkward as you can imagine. She is almost always blunt and that bluntness can be derisive, usually aimed at people of a certain race (Yes, she's racist against male Elezen.). Her final and possibly largest flaw is her naivety about religion. She can be very easily manipulated by an individual who simply presents themselves as devout and pious. It hasn't quite happened yet but I'm waiting for it. Physically, she's short compared to most Roegadyn women and relatively light. She bears a number of scars which could or could not make her more or less unattractive in the eyes of others-- she genuinely does not care either way. Most of how she is and how she thinks stems from two sources. Her broken family and her Sultansworn mentor. Her father and brother abandoned her-- when her brother returned more than a decade later, he was a smarmy criminal and virtually embodied everything she despised. Between the two they fleshed out her distrust of larger men and her own people, as well as rounded out her hatred for bandits, mercenaries, and bullies in general. Her mother's faith broke and she neglected her, leading her away from wanting to be a blacksmith/housewife like her mother. Waken gave her virtually every one of her personality traits, including her naivety and all of her likes and dislikes in some facet. That's probably one of the things I like most about Sio besides how she's slowly and surely learning and adapting to having friends without being clumsy or hateful all the time-- that she has characters in her past who influence here where most of my characters were stand-alone toons without much by way of history. Sio's history is pretty filled out.

10.02.13 Saturday - EVENT We'll be holding our regularly scheduled blood match tournament outside Ul'dah today. Apologies to everyone who was disappointed by our cancelling the last event but that will not happen again. Look forward to seeing you all there. Edit: U'roh Tia was our winner! <333

Well, Colliseum gear is, as far as I know, only worn by Ul'dah NPCs, and the Miqo'tes from U tribe don't wear heavy looking armour either. To me, it's just about how sophisticated and civilized the armour looks. To each their own. (Also, think of Spartacus and then tell me how well protected he was for battle.) Sparticus on TV or Sparticus in Antiquity? The two are not the same. Plus, what a Gladiator might wear into combat isn't going to be the same as what an actual soldier/warrior would wear. Gladiatorial games, by nature, are far more about the pagentry than about what a warrior would actually wear into combat were he free to choose. (Then again, supposedly the Germanic Tribes (and later on, the Picts) went into combat buck ass naked and painted blue, if you believe the stories, so...) From what I know about the Coliseum and the gladiators who fought in it-- You actually got every single piece of gear from your theme that -actual- warriors wore in -actual- combat. The only thing that I think no one used in the arena was the official battle dress of the legion. Otherwise you wore the same amount of armor and such that the cultural warriors whom Rome had faced wore into battle. That's not to say there wasn't a bit of pageantry in other aspects of the Coliseum besides the gladiatorial games but for the most part you simply filled a niche from whichever style you fit best. If you happened to be a slave or a warrior who'd been taken from that country that was familiar with that style of fighting, bully for you, but otherwise most got trained via lanista to handle their things. They just didn't wear a ton of armor to begin with during those times. More over, Roman soldiers wore less by the time of Nero than they did at the time of Caesar.

Many of the fighters I've had in the Grindstone are realistic-- they use variations, perhaps, of their in game moves but not the exact ones. Val Nunh is a spectacular fighter who uses his lance in... I mean I can't think of another style... a kind of kung fu-style both on offense and as defense? I love to see him fight. I love to fight him. Separately, Siobhain uses her sword and shield in a sort of hoplite style (minus spear) often leading with her shield and aiming for the arteries. She isn't flipping around through the air and Rage of Halone'ing or anything, but that's my preference. She does, however, use shield lob-- but every time she's ever flung her shield at someone, she's lost it for the rest of the fight. It's a last ditch effort sort of strategy. As I said most of the fighters I've seen use more realistic tactics from styles of martial arts or weapons' play beyond what's included in the game. I've yet to fight many magic users or archers so I can't say how they treat their attacks and whether or not they're firing ten arrows at once or ripping up huge hunks of earth and flinging them at your face. I'd like to think they're open to interpretation though. Another thing I enjoy about combating with my peeps is the realism of gravity and damage and weather. If it starts raining, Sio usually has to move slower or else, and this has happened, she'll either slide and get smacked in the face with someone or she'll be more prone to twisting her ankle and going down like a ton of bricks. She's not meant to be a super mobile fighter as a 'tank' type, so having to chase down her opponents makes situations like that more likely. Also our wounds build up over time (many of ours aren't the type to never take a hit until that last big one), but we do have one or two people who will 'lose' a match with a cut hand and nothing more. (Which is kinda weird when you think about our 'three strike rule' and how three successful strikes should have been landed but... Such is life.)

Hello there. I herd u liek RP combat... I love RP combat and hence, I started the Grindstone over on Balmung. The last week or so not-withstanding, it's been a pretty successful venture. More or less, your concept sounds exactly the same! Except that we're not really running an arena and our purpose is purely neutral-good aligned in nature. If it helps you out at all, please feel free to look over our directory page. I keep most everything regarding our tournaments there, including our really simplistic roll system. Step 1. Opponents roll; the person with the winning roll attacks first. Step 2. The winner attacks; both competitors roll. If the attacker wins, the blow is successful. If the defender wins, the attack is evaded/countered. Step 3. The defender either takes the hit and launches a counter attack or evades the blow and counterstrikes. Both opponents roll to see if the counter lands or is evaded/countered. Step 4. Repeat this process until one attacker lands a set number of blows. We use http://rolz.org/group to do our rolls. You don't have to worry about the honor system because your referees can be in the same room as the fighters each time and make sure whatever rules you come up with are followed. Also it saves the rolls from before an individual enters the room so long as there are people in said room. Two things I want to point out to you in your planning: 1. Keep stress to a minimum: I try to keep the roll system super, super simple. The reason for this is to reduce stress. RP combat is one of the most disliked or at least stress-inducing aspects of roleplay from what I've seen and many, many people try to avoid it at all costs. The ones that don't commonly get into fights over outcomes or end up in super-long and complicated ordeals and eventually just get bored and quit. You don't want to have a bunch of spectators sitting through a fight where the people involved are going to take several hours per fight because that makes the fighters feel awkward, hence why with our official tournaments we keep it to a three-strike win. I let my people make little variations here and there on how they'd like to handle things such as tie-rolls but for the most part we just can't do free form with strangers in the tournament. It's led to bad things in the past. 2. Try to keep posts relatively short for an event: Really descriptive RPers have a tendency to roll in a four paragraph post that takes maybe ten or fifteen minutes to write up which isn't really viable in a live event where several people will be around. Our tournaments can have up to sixteen people and take several hours to complete. Each fight can take from five to twenty minutes or more. One issue is people going AFK for emergencies, but that's relatively small. Sometimes we have people confused as to what should happen with a roll, but that's also relatively small. Usually it's someone who is writing a super huge post that's filled with superfluous details which is doubly problematic because their opponent has to read over the entire thing and then respond to it as realistically as possible. Then there's the potential issue of god-modding in a post that's too long because people begin to assume what their opponent is going to do. I like our fighters to keep tourney attacks to a two or three paragraph maximum instead of, say, six. So those are the main two things. The last thing I can think of is making sure that opponents are partied together, in a chat room with a roll system together, and have someone watching over all the posts. You want to have to retcon as -little- as humanly possible but if you intend to be open to any walk-up fighters like the Grindstone is, then you run the risk of people not fighting the way that others are used to; which shouldn't be bad but it can create conflicts. So make sure all your rules and bases are covered. Also: We have had issues before where individuals felt their character was 'too strong' for losing or at least losing to their opponent. Honestly, this is very hard for an outsider to discuss with people who aren't simply open-minded. For the most part, I've found a ton of people willing to play at a novice level and work their way up by fighting over and over and over again. I think some people assume Siobhain should be an exceedingly skilled fighter-- but the fact is that she's lost more fights than she's won and more often than not, that's -my- choice. I've heard it said that roll-based RP isn't 'skill-based' enough for their liking because luck takes 'skill' out of the equation. Likewise, many of those same people share that exact feeling for PVP-based duels. I believe it helps to stress that people should be accepting of other styles and open-minded. You might want to do what I never did and screen your fighters before they get to participate in a tournament to prevent anyone who has RP combat misgivings from raging about how they wouldn't have lost if-- Well honestly, people rage over everything. From 'Well if we weren't rolling...' to 'This guy's grammar alone should make him lose' and so on. RP combat makes for lots of stress. I don't think your system is overly complicated but remember if you intend to let plenty of people participate, 'screening' them and teaching them your system before hand would likely remove a lot of the confusion and the delay in getting whatever events you have started. On a side note your system looks really good and I think it would work out well-- you'd be avoiding any issues with retconning by having each post sent to the 'Battlemaster'. As long as everyone's posting and working and ciphering and such as quickly as possible, it shouldn't tack too much extra time onto the whole thing. I still think it would probably help a lot to have people learn the rules before participating in any events-- I know some of our people had issues with our super simplified system and remembering what they should do. Good luck.

I actually really like that female Roe style. *rubs chin thoughtfully...*

Truth be told, the one thing that irked me more than anything was the games of 'noble swap' they various house guilds played. Like they were noble houses who... collected other nobles. Not retainers, not servants... not anything that would make sense. And they didn't marry them off or make political alliances. Nope, noooo. Way too much effort. They just hoarded them. Plucked them off the street and said "Hey, you wanna join my house, you stallion?" ...and then, you know, they'd meander off to screw. Just tons and tons of unassociated, unconnected noble families but they are all under one 'house'. Which prompts my 'Do you even know what nobility ARE?' point of contention any time I see someone bring it up. Even worse was the ratio of retainers to nobility was abysmal. In fact, there were several hundred players in some of the larger guilds... and I knew... 3 people in one that were not in and of themselves nobility. Three. One, two, three. Out of around two-hundred... Nothing about either of those things is good. It's just blatantly pontificating your own character and their importance. I'm not saying all nobility are this way, I'm not saying the concept is inherently this way, but if it's not handled with a bit of common sense it's much easier to overblow it into all out 'mary-sue' territory than, say, your garden variety warrior. Nobility aren't the only ones to suffer from their either. Warlocks are the other major culprit of 'Mary Sue by Design'. Everything in lore denies that they should be allowed to exist alongside the rest of society, but, you know mechanics get in the way of that... Anything can be a bad character, a bad design, or a bad concept. It's execution that's going to determine whether it is or not. But some require a bit more forethought to conduct in a meaningful way. That's my point more than 'You shouldn't do it ever because it is bad and you're bad if you do it'. No, it's not. But you should think about it, contextualize it, justify it, and bring it into alignment with the lore, the world, and most importantly the player base. Doing things just because you can IS bad design. So I do apologize if I seem overly hostile on the matter. I don't mean to discourage or berate people that do aspire to such levels of competency as you described. It sounds absolutely lovely and I'd adore to see nobility being treated like, you know, goddamn nobility instead of conductors of orgies. I paint a grim picture because it's all I know, it's all I've seen, and I point to it and go 'Don't do that' out of love and a desire NOT to see the community go the way of Moon Guard, rather than to upset anyone who has well intentioned aspirations. I feel like I gave you the impression with the tale end of my rant that I was directing something at you. I wasn't. I was pretty sure you and I were on agreement for all the points that mattered. I totally feel you, and I'm glad it seems we -do- agree on most everything thus far. I mean, honestly, with nobles it's hard. If they don't have enough support there's just not a lot more of them to do than be noble-errants, wandering around... telling people they're nobles... that's about it. But with all the bad experiences and sometimes the bag stigma that goes hand in hand with RPing a noble, how else can you get started? Not all of us have the beginnings and willingness to work that the people in Ravenholdt did-- and even those blew over eventually. I dunno. It's a catch twenty-two to me.

The majority of WoW nobility I ever saw were humans or Blood Elves. Blood Elves sort of kind of make sense of you take in the Convocation of Silvermoon-- as at least five of the houses were unnamed so far as I've ever found. One large effort on Ravenholdt was to re-establish seven houses (not including Sunstrider or Drathir) in place of the seven that had fallen in RP. It was done entirely through roleplay and for a while it worked out really nicely, consolidating smaller houses into larger one and generally using political marriage and manipulation to get things combed out. I never played on Ravenholdt, so I can't speak for that, but we had dozens of Sin'Dorei 'noble houses' on Moon Guard... and they were all awful. The idea itself isn't bad, in theory. But you're taking a major lore component into the hands of players at that point. Especially if you're going to present your house with having any sort of merit that's to be respected or acknowledged ICly. I think it can be done, I think it can be done well, again in theory. But you have to have the drive, the ambition, the organization, and perhaps most importantly the lore knowledge to pull it off and run a respectable establishment. Standing in bars all day playing spin-the-bottle is not what nobles do, and organizing whole houses around that perception is even worse. And that's what they all were. In fact, that's all any 'noble' type RP I've ever seen, really bad played up 'Victorian Playboy' types. Thus, my long running apprehension. I completely understand your point and I've heard horror stories of MG's hack at 'nobility'. I saw the same thing happen on Wyrmrest Accord and honestly when Ravenholdt began to deteriorate, it happened there too. I'll list my issues with poorly-done noble houses in a moment but on Ravenholdt there was organization. The cornerstone to the whole thing was two large Sin'dorei houses run by an OOCly married couple. One ran one house and his spouse led the other. Their conflict and their openness to bring other houses into the 'fray' provided the building blocks. More, and here's my stance of noble houses, they fulfilled what I consider to be one of the most IMPORTANT parts of running a house-- GIVING YOUR MEMBERS SOME STORY. Too often do I see a clique of people who are all ICly connected or related expecting all their roster to simply support their story. They commonly walk around with their posses who exist, seemingly, only to credit their 'power' or 'status'. In our house at least, each person who was brought into the fold was given plenty of attention. Our officers turned us, trained us, and stayed with us. Our guards actually did their jobs and spent much time talking and training amongst themselves. Our diplomats lived endangered lives, we had spies, infiltrators, scape goats-- no one was simply a servant with no other purpose except to add one more to the roster. We had goals, rivals, and conflict. Nothing was swept under the rug simply because a member who got involved with an issue was 'too low rank to notice'. I mean when it really boils down to it, it's RP. For the nobles, you should have some sway and notoriety. You're not going to get that by trying to accumulate as many RPers as possible then neglecting them or focusing solely on your own story. The revival of the Convocation of Silvermoon made no real efforts to try to twist the actual lore. No one was trying to dethrone Lor'themar, no one was trying to usurp the Horde or pretended that the united 'power' of the group could accomplish such a feat on behalf of the whole of their people. What they did was fill their niche-- whatever job they did that made them a noble house, they continued to do. The conflicts that arose were often two wealthy houses having an issue over territory or jobs that they wanted to fill that some other group wanted as well. The IC decisions they made and topics they discussed affected the united houses as a whole, and perhaps the 'retainer-houses' that were allied with them, but they didn't try and control NPCs. If, say, a war broke out on their doorstep (there were huge non-Elf groups like the Shadowtusk Clan which was a giant Troll guild who hated belfs and loved to start issues that could turn into full scale blood-sport, or evil guilds such as the Knights of the Icy Blade who readied themselves to attack the living houses eventually), they'd use that Convocation to persuade the other houses to aid the effort, throwing whatever accumulated weight they had around and pulling all the ties they'd forged. Another fun part of it was the 'Shadow War'-- all members of all houses and even non-Elf houses were held to the single important rule 'No fighting in the cities'. The NPC guards would no doubt take you and put you away. Rather than testing that rule and saying 'Oh well that Sentinel just ran by me and didn't do anything' people honored it and took it a step further to the Shadow War. They worked in manipulation, kidnapping, subterfuge, and there were people in the houses whose sole purpose was to do the dirty work and keep the reputation of the house pristine. It's almost unfathomable now-- people not being called on their guild tags simply because they're floating over their head or recognized because of their name. I don't know. All the memories and the work and how well things went for quite some time still leaves a nice big place in my heart for nobles and noble houses that are done well. I always feel a little sad for an aspiring crime-lord or a noble who doesn't have anyone to beef up their reputation but I feel it's something that can be accomplished in character. I certainly don't want to see nobility demonized OOCly by people who assume everyone who RPs nobility is going to do so poorly and they don't -deserve- to RP a noble character-- but I know the vast majority if not the entirety of the RPC doesn't feel that way because of the general open-mindedness I find here. Someday I'd be happy to have Siobhain swear her loyalty to some noble or another if their views were in line with her own. But chances are, just because of the character type, it'd be far more likely to see her connected to some type of militia or school. *On another note, I yearn to see some large scale criminal coalition in Ul'dah filling different niches that are connected and work together. Similarly, I'd enjoy, I think, seeing a few nobles grouped up and doing noble things together. I'd like to see the dynamic of different nobles and how they interact with each other despite their different origins as well as non-nobles interacting with them. *dreamy sigh*