Rise Together or Fall Alone

[Havoc Snow]

 

The following is an In Character message delivered via parchments scattered on the wind throughout the three City-States.

 

Greetings Friends,

 

I am speaking to you today to remind you of a fact that many of the citizens of Eorzea have seemed to have forgotten. Not long ago our home faced certain destruction, we fought tooth and nail against the Garlean Empire, and we battled against the very forces of nature in the form of Primals. I fear now that the citizens have become complacent in these dark times, all too eager to roll over and accept their fate. I for one will not go quietly into the night, and my order and I are all to eager to take up arms once again for the people of Eorzea.

 

The threat of Dalamud is over, but the Garlean Empire still festers like an infection at our borders, the Primals still drain our land of its life blood, and new threats grow every day in this Umbral Era. Still, our worst enemies are in fact ourselves. The homeless, the lost, and the broken continue to pile up each and every day and hope becomes a commodity in this time far more precious than Gil, and I come to you this day to tell you that it is something we have in abundance. Hope that we will see through these dark times, hope that the people of Eorzea will be tempered by this era and be even stronger in the end, and hope that these words will not fall on deaf ears.

 

So I ask you my brothers and sisters, join us and help protect this great land we all call home, whether ye be Adventurer, Merchant, Artisan, or Scholar we extend this offer to all those who will heed the call. Should you have need of us, you need only offer a single Cowry to the fountain at the Arrzarenth Ossuary in Ul'dah. We are watching. We are waiting.

 

Regards,

A.

 

The purpose of this post is two sided. In one it is to bring awareness to the Blades and their purpose in the RP community. Unlike many groups that claim to be mercenaries or assassins but never actually accomplish their goal (primarily because they only do RP within their own group), the Blades are a group looking to get involved in the community. Consider this as a sort of advertisement of sorts, whether you're interested in joining us, or you want to hire us.

 

I am not only looking for members, but I'm looking for any interested LS/FC Leaders (or members) who would be open to forming an IC alliance between our two groups, or any groups that would be interested in contracting us short term for a job. Whether you're merely looking for a group of soldiers to escort you safely from Ul'dah to Gridania, or a secure and discreet method to transport your wares, or perhaps you're in need of equipment but feel it would be unwise going through open channels. Whatever your cause, we're here to fulfill your needs.

 

My hope is to bridge gaps between Linkshells/Free Companies. Too often in MMOs I see great communities become insular within their guilds and RP tends to stagnate a bit in that fashion, and while RPC seems open to things like server wide events and what have you, I'm hoping to lead by a different kind of example, to show that guilds can work together without jeopardizing the integrity of their own stories.

 

As I said before, we are looking for any interested members who would like to join our ranks, as well as any Linkshells or Free Companies who would be interested in forming alliances. I'd also ask that you keep us in mind in the future if you ever find yourself in need of our services (which will be posted in the coming days before Early Access), whether it be for an event for your LS/FC, or something personal.

 

If you're interested leave a response below and I'll contact you personally.

 

[FreelanceWizard]

L'yhta picked up the note that nearly smacked her in the face. "Oh! How curious! This is definitely something worth investigating!"

 

We've already spoken privately, but I figured I'd make Mysterium's interest a bit more public in response.

[Gar]

XI:7 will throw in some interest alongside Mysterium. (We are soon-to-be-official allies after all. Love you Mysterium! :love: )

[Havoc Snow]

I just contacted you Garryson about future endeavors, and I also put my application in for Mysterium on your site Freelance. Sorry it took so long, have been busy the past week and once I had some free time I got caught up with beta.

[LeCard]

the three grand free companies of balmung.

The blades-XI:7-Mysterium

The shadows-the face-the arcane

[Asyria]

During a trip to the local miner's guild to arrange for some materials to be brought to her small forge, Azyria noticed this note and smiled inwardly to herself. Good, she thought. People are waking up and taking up arms. This will surely help in my own fight. I should keep them in mind, just in case.

 

Azyria's fight is somewhat different but that doesn't mean we can never RP...

 

 

After a night of drinking and partying hard, Agata stumbled and almost fell facefirst into the wall that note was pinned on. Curious, she shook her head and focused through the haze all this ale put over her eyes. "Well well, look at that. Seems like some people are eager to fight the good fight out there." She cracked her knuckles with a half-drunk grin. "This could be fun."

 

My Roe is way too wild to be working efficiently in the Blades, but she's always up for fighting for a good cause. Who knows!

[Gar]

the three grand free companies of balmung.

The blades-XI:7-Mysterium

The shadows-the face-the arcane

 

So. Epic. This needs to be a thing. This is gonna be a thing.

 

Nald'thal is Ul'dah's deity right? Are they based out of Ul'dah? And where is Mysterium based from? I think I remember them being outside of Limsa (I'm too lazy to go look) but if they were in Gridania we would have all three city-states accounted for. :evil:

[Havoc Snow]

the three grand free companies of balmung.

The blades-XI:7-Mysterium

The shadows-the face-the arcane

 

So. Epic. This needs to be a thing. This is gonna be a thing.

 

Nald'thal is Ul'dah's deity right? Are they based out of Ul'dah? And where is Mysterium based from? I think I remember them being outside of Limsa (I'm too lazy to go look) but if they were in Gridania we would have all three city-states accounted for. :evil:

The Blades are indeed based out of Ul'dah.

[LandStander]

the three grand free companies of balmung.

The blades-XI:7-Mysterium

The shadows-the face-the arcane

I actually like this idea and I am not in any of these guilds .

[Havoc Snow]

the three grand free companies of balmung.

The blades-XI:7-Mysterium

The shadows-the face-the arcane

I have to admit, the idea of the three of us forming a kind of Triad would be pretty awesome. Three different Free Companies allied with each other, working in different cities, but working towards common goals and assisting each other when necessary. These are the kinds of ideas I created this thread for!

[FreelanceWizard]

Mysterium's based out of Limsa Lominsa, actually. L'yhta lives there and it's the historical home of the Ivory Tower. Alas, I'm raining on the three city parade.

 

You know, we could have an IC LS that's a "coalition" channel for characters involved in this project. I was actually going to propose that we do that as part of the IC alliance, but hey, this is a better, more inclusive reason for it.

[Gar]

Mysterium's based out of Limsa Lominsa, actually. L'yhta lives there and it's the historical home of the Ivory Tower. Alas, I'm raining on the three city parade.

 

You know, we could have an IC LS that's a "coalition" channel for characters involved in this project. I was actually going to propose that we do that as part of the IC alliance, but hey, this is a better, more inclusive reason for it.

 

Not a bad idea. Once we get the storylines of how all three groups interact, we could have occasional councils of all the leaders.

 

I also think we need to start thinking of an official name for the three-way alliance. The Eorzean Alliance is taken... so maybe something along the lines of... The Limsa Lominsan and Ul'dahn  Cuz-Nobody-Likes-Gridania-Anyway Alliance...

 

No? Okay, lets keep brainstorming.

[LeCard]

maybe not all three city states represented but but still, a "Triad" sort of deal could still work. now we just need to work on starting some branches in the un-claimed city of Gridania. maybe even a source of conflict later on, or maybe there is another company based out of Gridania that would be keeping us from being able to move into the region.

 

just spit-balling. based on the Triad idea there is a whole mess of corporate/underworld intrigue that we could play with.

---

added after seeing ideas from Kaln

 

could go off of the supposed routes of the Chinese triad

White Lotus Society

 

though we could change the Lotus to a flower that is from Eorzea

[AkhutaiAngura]

The Triad of Eorzea

The Eorzean Triad

United Nations (Ha! Funny, cause it actually works.)

 

I'll come up with more, and throw them at you guys.

[Gar]

I actually like the idea of something keeping them out of Gridania for the time being. Which spawns my next thought. Maybe we could pull a City of Heroes and write up an antagonist organization that all three of them oppose. We could play alts of bad guys. I know I'd be willing to play another character that's a villain. Hell, I've been sort of looking for an excuse.

[FreelanceWizard]

Funny enough, I have an idea for a very rich son of Ul'dah who uses the law and mercenaries to indulge his desires: forbidden magical research and power at all costs. "Power is the only game that matters, and in the end, it is a game with no rules," he might say. Such an organization would be problematic for all three organizations: they play dirty and hide behind the law, abuse and steal magical knowledge, and trample upon the poor to their own benefit.

 

Just a thought.

[Gar]

Hmmm... How would you feel about a bit of a coalition thing on the evil side of things too? I have a character in mind who would work with an organization like that to gain power, but secretly be gaining it to just bring the world to destruction from pure bitterness. An agent of chaos basically.

 

The good guys team up, so when bad guys can use each other, they team up too right? 

[AkhutaiAngura]

The only problem with the badguys being our alts.. It won't ever be an 'us vs them' thing. It'll only be a portion of them against a portion of us in any encounter, leading to the ever ellusive rabbit.

 

That, and I'm not a fan of playing alts for any reason. I'd just as soon organize something with an existing 'evil' FC.

[Gar]

The only problem with the badguys being our alts.. It won't ever be an 'us vs them' thing. It'll only be a portion of them against a portion of us in any encounter, leading to the ever ellusive rabbit.

 

That, and I'm not a fan of playing alts for any reason. I'd just as soon organize something with an existing 'evil' FC.

 

That is a good point. Definitely something to consider. But to be fair, we would only need a small handful of us to actually do something like that. At any given time we could just have one person be the Dungeon Master/Their Villain to run an event or whatever.

 

So maybe we do a big event, and that night its my turn to be the bad guy. So we're only one man out and I make a plausible excuse for my character not to be in the fray.

[LeCard]

The only problem with the badguys being our alts.. It won't ever be an 'us vs them' thing. It'll only be a portion of them against a portion of us in any encounter, leading to the ever ellusive rabbit.

 

That, and I'm not a fan of playing alts for any reason. I'd just as soon organize something with an existing 'evil' FC.

 

They don't even need to be evil, but I do agree I don't care for alts within the same storyline myself. makes too insular a story to me, kind of like playing yourself in chess, in the end you win either way and you could even force a certian side to win.

 

think about the Triad. they would see themselves as the one that should win, but toss in another mob in another country and that mob would think of themselves as "good" too. making evil simply in the eye of the beholder. Maybe the gridania based FC(s) are simply competition and we/they are moving into the other groups turf, insert turf battle here. the battle could be physical or more along the lines of a price war, or that sort of things.

[FreelanceWizard]

Yep, my recommendation would be to create our own "SMERSH," so to speak, of bad guy NPCs -- or a set of bad guy groups for use in storylines. That'd be a resource for players to create their NPC nemeses and a source for multi-FC storylines. To keep things fair and sensible, they'd all have to be NPCs; the usual problem is that there aren't enough bad guy players to fill a full organization, and not everyone wants to play evil alts.

 

All that said, Mysterium isn't a hugely story-driven organization RP-wise, so I'd like to keep the villainous plotting to long-term, slow-burning plots combined with occasional events. I'd like to see the villains be "shading" for our heroic PCs -- a background threat that provides longer term motivation -- but that's just me. I think our PCs have enough going on with the NPC threats that Square's throwing at us: primals, voidsent, Ascians, Garleans...

[AkhutaiAngura]

The only problem with the badguys being our alts.. It won't ever be an 'us vs them' thing. It'll only be a portion of them against a portion of us in any encounter, leading to the ever ellusive rabbit.

 

That, and I'm not a fan of playing alts for any reason. I'd just as soon organize something with an existing 'evil' FC.

 

They don't even need to be evil, but I do agree I don't care for alts within the same storyline myself. makes too insular a story to me, kind of like playing yourself in chess, in the end you win either way and you could even force a certian side to win.

 

think about the Triad. they would see themselves as the one that should win, but toss in another mob in another country and that mob would think of themselves as "good" too. making evil simply in the eye of the beholder. Maybe the gridania based FC(s) are simply competition and we/they are moving into the other groups turf, insert turf battle here. the battle could be physical or more along the lines of a price war, or that sort of things.

 

Ah, but see.. To my knowledge (Correct me if I'm wrong, Ash), the Blades aren't a.. Competitive sort. WE don't have a turf. We don't care about competition. We just wanna make sure people aren't doing bad (To us) stuff, and make sure the Garleans/Bahamut/INSERTOTHERBBADGUY is stopped. In a nutshell.

[Gar]

Yep, my recommendation would be to create our own "SMERSH," so to speak, of bad guy NPCs -- or a set of bad guy groups for use in storylines. That'd be a resource for players to create their NPC nemeses and a source for multi-FC storylines. To keep things fair and sensible, they'd all have to be NPCs; the usual problem is that there aren't enough bad guy players to fill a full organization, and not everyone wants to play evil alts.

 

All that said, Mysterium isn't a hugely story-driven organization RP-wise, so I'd like to keep the villainous plotting to long-term, slow-burning plots combined with occasional events. I'd like to see the villains be "shading" for our heroic PCs -- a background threat that provides longer term motivation -- but that's just me. I think our PCs have enough going on with the NPC threats that Square's throwing at us: primals, voidsent, Ascians, Garleans...

 

Yeah I like these ideas. If we do something it should be, like you said, slow burning. That solves a lot of the problems. Firstly that it doesn't have to be true alts that are antagonistic, just NPCs some of us might play out at certain points along the journey.

 

And I do agree that there are plenty to oppose ICly, and we all will I'm sure. But sometimes you need someone to play out the other side. So I think these ideas are for those occasional events where we want to band together and go against something a bit more tangible.

 

We're not talking every RP is going to be "We gotta go fight !" To me we're just planning some long-term occasional RP events for our groups. I'd love to run cross-group events where we sort of break up into a couple teams and intermix the FCs so you can have epic RP with people from the other groups.

[Myxie Tryxle]

I've been rolling around the idea of an evil group to serve as antagonists for the community. This sort of discussion keeps cropping up, so there appears to be some demand for such a group.

 

In my local RP group, we've been breaking away from the typical gaming paradigm of "GM writes plot and runs game." Basically, everyone has a PC, and in any scene where a PC isn't present, their player takes up the role of the NPCs. Generally it plays out where each player has their own character and several notable NPCs (good, bad, and neutral) to play in the game. Occasionally you have to pass off one of your NPCs for someone else to play, but we try to assign NPCs to players who have little conceivable reason for their own character to interact with the NPCs they play.

 

I think this idea would work if we had an antagonist group that served as a resource for the community. Since Garryson is in this thread, I'll use his organization as an example. Suppose XI: 7 needs an antagonist. Garryson contacts Villains, Inc (just a stand-in title) in advance and requests some dark characters for his storyline. The members of Villains, Inc work out among themselves whose villains would be best for the task, based on Garryson's needs as well as trying to find players who would likely never overlap with the XI: 7 storyline. Considering the size of the community, if we can get a couple players from each of the established groups supporting such an organization, it could be a good resource for the community and give players interested in having a villain alt the organization necessary to make it a worthwhile endeavor.

[Gar]

That is actually a really good idea Myxie. If something like that started to get organized, I'd probably put a villain in the pool.