Out of Curiosity
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Polaris and I got to talking today, we wondered if players would like to see the return of an old faction such as the Eclestian Order, or the Knights of the Merciful Sword, or a new faction in a similar vein that built on the server's history but still had a kind of "knighthood" feel to it. Both were a hunt down and judge/fight/destroy evil faction, but with very different concepts behind them ultimately.
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Eclestian Order.
An LE faction within a LG setting stirs up conflict. Though I will say it will need players who will actually pyre people who deserve it.
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Never did like the Eclestian Order. Too much 'I think your evil' then your dead. Merciful Sword was much much better.
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I miss the Knights of the Merciful Sword; they had a really unique role back in the day. I say bring them back. EO while cool I think can be supplemented with the War Wizards or Purple Dragons.
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Why do we need EO? Hardcastle already filled the LN/LE role.
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EO hunt lycans, demons and infernalists. Hardcastle doesn't?
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Every other faction does that. Its practically our bread and butter
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Thunes right killing demons isn't exactly a niche profession these days.
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Take this with a grain of salt- still on the extreme casual level of play here and not involved like many of the players:
I liked the EO when it was at full bonfire of the vanities level: if they're out declaring mainstream sorcerers infernalists, maybe burning important texts and sections of the library, magic staffs and the like I'm for it. Unless there's an event to turn the mass populace towards godly endeavors and into a full on fear of magic where the EO is out "protecting" people due to some dubious philosophical reason I don't particularly like them as a "good" faction. I sort of like them as a way for evil and good magic users to band together. As another good guy faction who really hates demons, meh. I good guy faction who saves the city and then burns all the sorcerers at the stake and the commoners still love them- awesome.
I will say the merciful sword always seemed to serve as a support group for paladins and a battleground for warring small differences in the goodly faith. At its best you had a bunch of strong willed dogooders arguing about whether they could torture the orc to divulge the secret plan to kill all the humans or not, at the worst it was a club of fairly generic goodies. A persuasive and powerful pally could set the tone for what good looked like server-wide. If they took on the other other lawful or the other good paladin subclasses… it might be a mess or terrible fun.
I'm not sure if there's a godly enough faction or an infernal enough need to bring the EO into the setting that makes sense.
With the return of the PD faction, the knights following right behind seems a bit of a push. It seems like something that should have happened to fill that power vacuum before now or if the PDs end up being too lawful neutral or something? Not 100% sure- I don;t get to talk to a lot of faction guys in my timezone. -
Neither factionn are really needed, to be honest. But some form of balance for the current factions is probably needed.
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I'd like to see something new.
These things are in the past. I wouldn't be against dropping more lore related to these groups ingame, but bringing them back entirely seems like a desperate grab for a 'better time' that will ultimately just prove disappointing.
It's best to leave the past as history. Let it be something we can learn IC, and learn from to create something new and fresh but still having the same themes if they are truly needed. Then it's no longer a case of expecting the moon and getting disappointed when it stays out of reach.
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But people worked hard because they wanted to see some of the servers past brought into the current setting Hellz because for the majority of its history that has been its core identity and when it was the strongest. One thing I will say in terms of the downside for the KoTMs functioning as Judges is that its very hard to bribe them being paladins and all so I'd rather see that as a role for either the Citadel Advisors or have Judges be appointed by one of the two noble houses. That I think would make criminal trials more interesting.
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While something different would be cool I would love the chance to play an EO agent again. The merciful sword were indistinguishable from any other 'we are good, we fight evil.' faction that in all honesty could be replaced with any similar player faction and get NPCs sponsorship fairly easily with enough players.
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Personally I'd rather see another noble house resurface maybe Anya Deshurr decides she wants to claim her father's mantle as a warrior and become the people's champion competing with Hardcastle whom she sees as opportunistic and greedy. Bhaliir is pretty much gone as far as I know and not sure how Fezznick could be sewn back into the setting and we are pretty heavily law as it is.
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Anya DeSchurr would be the LG to Hardcastle LN/LE and Lhal CG. Not honestly, the PDs should be filling the LG role.
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Deschurr would be just another good aligned DM faction, there is currently only one faction that evil pcs can realistically join and its a predominantly LN faction.
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Its still the most powerful faction, and the source of most of the server conflict.
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Personally I'd like to see a chaotic or nature aligned faction, they seem to have all been chased off.
That may sound self serving as I'm now playing a nature PC, but I only changed characters because there wasn't any representation of nature folk ingame.I miss the furies
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A powerful nature based faction or a barbarian faction might be what Arabel needs. Not exactly enemies of Law, but not friends either. Competitors, occasional allies, occasional enemies.
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What about opening up Cult of the Dragon as a DM faction? give some love to the NE and CE characters.