The Ara'ki Proposal

The once proud city of Surna has fallen; a year has passed since the inhabitants mustered a last, desperate defense against the corrupted Occitanian Legions and failed, escaping obliteration only by the slightest of chances. Lifted out of their home and flung through time and space, they find themselves as strangers in an even stranger land; Ara'ki, fabled land of danger and wonder, half a world away. For weeks they wandered through the strange and virulent forests, slowly gathering the scattered inhabitants. Some days bring joyous reunions; others bring only the silence of uncertainty, as another day passes with no sign. Cut from the civilized world, they eked out a meager existence, day by day until they came across a native hunting party.

Sympathizing with their plight, these natives guided the Surnans to their home; a prosperous city, teeming with life, far from the primitive locale that was expected. Populated by both natives and the descendants of Talibarian and Occitanian colonists, the city is a unique three-way blend of cultures; Chapels of Tyr can be found on the same block as Churches devoted to the Saints, while the worshipers of both wear native garb and eat food prepared in the local style. So far away from their homelands, these long-time enemies now live in relative peace. The city cannot be properly called either 'Talibarian' or 'Occitanian' - it is simply 'Ara'kian'.

The city is not without it's share of darkness, however. Nestled in the side of a mountain, the city is built on the marble-white ruins of a civilization long past, whom the natives regard with religious veneration. Though the ruins themselves run deep into the mountain, entrance is utterly forbidden to any but the natives. Indeed, most of the orthodox natives live in huts near the base of the mountain, arranged around entrances to the ruins. The Natives will ignore common law and slay any and all trespassers outright. Such complete secrecy has acted as fodder for rumors of what lies below; stories of fantastic treasure, human sacrifices, or artifacts of unbridled power are common tavern tales. There seems to be an inkling of truth to these tales, however slight, as every so often strange creatures and metallic beasts crawl out from the ruins, sometimes into peoples' homes - the ruins run far and wide underneath even the city; it is not unheard of to have some hideous monster smash through your floorboards. Such attacks have led to calls from inhabitants and the Guard to investigate the ruins, though so far the natives have still refused outright.

Beyond this the city is well-protected, with the protecting force an interesting mixture of the Talibarian Guard and the Occitanian Wachtermacht. The Dark Arts and dark creatures are both outlawed, as they are in any normal Talibarian town, but with the Occitanian influence there are laws against magic as well. Though it is legal to use magic in the privacy of your home, it is illegal to use magic on another person or in the streets. Violators and magical criminals are punished as severely as any necromancer or dark creature.

To step beyond the city, however, is to step into dangerous territory. Strange and vicious creatures roam the forests, and talk of dark cults thriving in Ara'ki's isolation are common.

Spoiler:

This is the most current version should we stay in Ara'ki. Due to change.

I fully support this change. Revoking my support to the Talibarian Proposal.

Hm... Again, I'm annoyed at the fact that it's a city, but this is a very different kind of city... however, this setting feels a lot more open to development. I like it. The Surnan Proposal wasn't a bad idea, but this is more interesting.

I'm gonna place my vote on this one.

Say what you will about the siege and how it was handled, I still think Ara'ki is a better setting and a much-needed change of pace. I support this.

I figure they're both good ideas, but when we get down to it Ara'ki offers much more potential in the way of quests while Surna would be much better for faction driven events and situations. Personally I'd still side with the Surnan vote, as, from what I've seen in the past and at other communities, factions create more of a steady flow of interaction and things to do where as quests are more of a wave effect.

Munroe wrote:

Say what you will about the siege and how it was handled, I still think Ara'ki is a better setting and a much-needed change of pace. I support this.

^ I wholeheartedly agree.

The Surnan Proposal is nice, but it would be stepping back in time. Ara'ki provides a whole new and interesting setting, full of opportunity. And Ruta, we could always establish the factions again should we so want to.

I'm voting for this one.

I don't understand why the buzzword potential is being spammed. If anything this setting holds less potential, as magic is frowned upon, and Occitanian Guards are zealous faggots. And all the guards have to re-apply. Not seeing the potential here, not supporting it. Plus, it's nestled in a mountain, we'd have to use mountain-village. I'd rather play forest-village, tbh.

We don't necessarily need to use mountain village.

Phry wrote:

I don't understand why the buzzword potential is being spammed. If anything this setting holds less potential, as magic is frowned upon, and Occitanian Guards are zealous faggots. And all the guards have to re-apply. Not seeing the potential here, not supporting it.

How much "potential" can there possibly be in Surna? It's been at the crux of multiple world-changing events, and to be honest, I don't see how one random town in Talibar can be that important. Besides, in Ara'ki, the town isn't some place that's been explored a hundred times over by all the characters; it's new, it's mysterious, it's undiscovered and off the beaten path. So what if the guards have to re-apply? They could use a cleaning out of old, inactive members. So what if magic is frowned upon? It won't stop anyone from having and using it, and will create RP opportunities instead of "Oh, that guy just flung a fireball. Huh. Ah well, back to work."

Munroe wrote:

How much "potential" can there possibly be in Surna? It's been at the crux of multiple world-changing events, and to be honest, I don't see how one random town in Talibar can be that important.

Oh, I don't know, because maybe that's the center of roleplay, so it has to be interesting. Same shit happens in books, and it's going to fucking happen in Ara'ki because something bigger needs to be present. Again, same for a book, if that 'bigger thing', aka the plot, isn't fucking there it's a shit book.

Yes, but you don't factor in two things: One, that many plotlines don't revolve around random, unimportant backwoods towns (which is how I've heard Surna described before), but rather, huge capital cities or centers of activity. Take for example my own event, involving the Black Tower. It just so happens that the resting place of Shar's Avatar is only a few days away from quaint little Surna, by some freak coincidence (or is it coincidence?). Does that make sense? Even in my own mind, it's a bit of a stretch.

Second of all, even if you make an exception for Surna, isn't thrice enough? The area itself has nothing left in it to explore or uncover, and if there is still something left, it'd be a huge stretch as to why no one noticed it before.

Munroe wrote:

Yes, but you don't factor in two things: One, that many plotlines don't revolve around random, unimportant backwoods towns (which is how I've heard Surna described before), but rather, huge capital cities or centers of activity. Take for example my own event, involving the Black Tower. It just so happens that the resting place of Shar's Avatar is only a few days away from quaint little Surna, by some freak coincidence (or is it coincidence?). Does that make sense? Even in my own mind, it's a bit of a stretch.

Second of all, even if you make an exception for Surna, isn't thrice enough? The area itself has nothing left in it to explore or uncover, and if there is still something left, it'd be a huge stretch as to why no one noticed it before.

But what would be the fun in always having the plot in some big city or center of activity? Surna is a town of misfits, outcasts, and those 'good' enough to bother to be there. Surna is like a magical ghetto made into a town, if anything.

Surna is also sort of isolated by wood from any nearby places, meaning that the forest is rather large. Doesn't mean it has been searched ever square inch for anything of any importance, and doesn't mean it should, but that's what makes it interesting. A place of trouble reels in trouble, despite how coincidental it may be.

You can't blame anyone for it having multiple large events. If you hadn't noticed, Surna has been occupied by multiple gods multiple times as they can just be there without a heinous uproar starting over their presence, with or without a disguise. As example, what if Cyric had some burning rage for a god that frequented our troublesome town, what would Cyric do? Try to cause harm to it, obviously. Which also accounts for The Prophet, who was some crazy god-worshipper high on the smell of his own ass, making him some important figure when in truth he was not and he was overthrown.

And anyways, just because you have found absolutely everything there is to be found in Surna, doesn't mean new members have.

Nobody's done absolutely everything there is to do in Surna, becuase that's impossible and would take years. I don't think people want to move to Ara'ki becuase there's more 'potential', I think people want to move becuase they're too lazy to come up with things to do in Surna and lack the inspiration to explore it any futher than it has been so far.

You're both missing the point. There is no reason for Gods to go storm around some backwoods town just because they can, because that's illogical and doesn't accomplish anything whatsoever. A God is far more likely to raise an army and siege a huge town (eg: Imperia) in their attempts to take over the world. It's even more illogical when the residents of said backwoods town are all super-capable fighters who can rise victorious even when hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned.

It's also not a question of laziness, the fact people have ideas and inspiration is why they want to go to Ara'ki, because if we stay in Surna, it once again pushes the boundaries far beyond what they've been stretched to already. Considering we've already found x number of powerful artifacts, x number of cults, x number of ancient gods/demons slumbering mere miles away from this tiny town, it seems completely impossible, even by fantasy standards, to find any more such things and retain that sense of freshness and discovery. We keep having to do time-skips because the rate at which all these things happen around Surna goes beyond a normal town's capacity to recover from, and it's all we can do to reset it and try to keep things from getting stale, which I contend they have anyway. It's time to let go of Surna and move on. Ara'ki gives us a fresh start where people can put their new ideas into motion without feeling like the setting's been overextended.

Surna is also limiting in what can be added to it, I think people are just scared of change like usual.

I'd say Ara'ki is a change in setting, where as staying in Surna under a new government is a change in the social order of things. Besides, even by reading the Ara'ki proposal it seems like just a new plot because it has an end goal, anyone reading that probably had their mind go to "ruins" where as in Surna nothing has really been established and it allows us to do everything. Besides, if we go to Ara'ki I can just smell an OOC shitstorm of drama in the near future because Ara'ki involves artifacts of world ending and nation creating power and nothing like that has ever gone without a lot of crap.

Also drop by the Shire in middle earth and tell them world changing events don't happen in the literal middle of nowhere. The Shire is so out there, most men in the east don't even know hobbits are real, or rather, still alive and well.

Rutabega wrote:

Also drop by the Shire in middle earth and tell them world changing events don't happen in the literal middle of nowhere. The Shire is so out there, most men in the east don't even know hobbits are real, or rather, still alive and well.

Well, I didn't say it never happens, and I'm not saying we should go back and retcon everything we ever did in Surna. And the Shire's not the best example; it happens to be Gandalf's vacation site, and he dragged Bilbo along to go kill a dragon when he found the One Ring by pure chance (or perhaps by some sort of divine intervention) in the Misty Mountains. Then Frodo got the ring and romped around with three other hobbits and some badasses from all over the world until Gollum tripped and fell into Mount Doom. None of this took place in the Shire itself, which continued being a peaceful out-of-the-way area with farmers and uneducated Hobbits. You know what did happen in the Shire?

Spoiler:

Now, I'll reiterate my point, using the Shire example. If Buckland got invaded by Mordor itself, complete with mumakil and attack trolls, and repelled the invaders, then Shelob herself went and attacked and got beaten down, then they found a Silmirillion inside Meriadoc's house, then a dragon came, it starts getting ridiculous just how much shit goes down over there. I think Surna's seen too much.

I like Munroe's point. Regardless of the time period. If that all took place in a week, or over thousands of years, it's still a bit ridiculous.

Note that Surna is not a backwater town. The reason why it was called the 'Jewel of Talibar' is because it was, at one time, an incredibly prosperous town. Of course, according to the timeline, at the start of olden Surna had degraded quite a bit. It still wouldn't be considered a backwater town with two horses and half a donkey, though.

Furthermore, I tend to think of the crazy shit that's happened in Surna as a series of escalating consequences of the otherworld crisis, the first plot. Before the Otherworld Plot, Surna was relatively insignificant on the world scene; and then came the plot, with an invasion of beasts and beings that no man or god had faced before. Far from being wiped off the map like they should have been, a group of individuals instead emerged, fighting and defeating this threat, casting it out of the world. This makes Surna very... interesting, to the right people. This is certainly the reason the Prophet chose to visit; his later actions were caused by an affront to his pride and the desire to impose his will on the defiant Surnan populace. He was slain by his own hubris. The Sharic plot I tend to view as a more separate event than the other two; the otherworld and the prophet may have had world-scale consequences, but they were mostly local incidents. The Sharic plot began in a far-away land, grew to a world-level event, causing destruction, before a few citizens of Surna took it upon themselves to take action.

If you want to doubt the probability of things, consider the unlikelihood that some of the people of Surna escaped destruction, survived translocation half-way across the world, only to end up in EXACTLY the right place to be involved in the next world changing event. The fact is that the characters and, by extension, Surna, is protected by the Theory of Narrative Causality. No matter which we pick, we're bending the laws of probability because we are limited by the characters and one, specific setting.

That said, I'm still torn on which to vote, myself. I recognize the potential of Ara'ki and have a desire to see the plot I planned for it through, yet I find myself wanting Surna because of the greater overall 'establishment' it brings. By that I mean that it more freely acts as a sandbox, with factions and inter-character problems, with characters free to move within a structure; a sort of status quo that characters can exist in within a more personal level.

EDIT: Oh, and another thing. It's true that Ara'ki would probably lead more directly into a plot, while Surna would exist in 'sandbox mode' for longer. I'm still torn, though.

Quote :

If you want to doubt the probability of things, consider the unlikelihood that some of the people of Surna escaped destruction, survived translocation half-way across the world, only to end up in EXACTLY the right place to be involved in the next world changing event

Could not have been said more perfectly.

Well-said, Pat, well-said. I still support Ara'ki, though, because I'm sick of Surna. Ara'ki has new races and dungeons and stuff. Surna has... a forest. And it's too well-established.

But I wouldn't rage if we went back to Surna for a while but still went to Ara'ki eventually.

That's one main point I'd like to bring up. If we go to Surna, almost any and all events that happen there leave Ara'ki unchanged, thus making it possible to go there later with just the same plot and soforth as we've got planned now. However if we go to Ara'ki first, there's going to be huge world changing events that may or may not make it impossible to return to Surna to conduct the Surnan proposal sort of line.

I'd have to disagree there. I'm about as uninformed of the background info on the Surnan Proposal as most people probably are, but I can tell you this: If the Confederacy is formed of a group leaving Talibar, Surna could very well be saved by joining this mysterious group in the middle of the war. They would then become a neutral party while Talibar and Surna kill each other. Or, the Confederacy can even rise out of the ashes of the present conflict.

There would be some smaller changes. A small portion of Surna would be gone, but it'll be damaged even without the warp event. Instead of guards simply keeping their jobs, they would have to return and take up the jobs again, but that's, again, not a huge issue. There are small discrepancies, but it's not like it'll be impossible to go back.

I'm not so sure about that, Ruta. Would that mean we'd have to run through the Siege again? Or would we do a community-wide 'fade to black' and end up in Ara'ki? Or would we do it completely different? I'm sure we can think of a few ways to do it, but...

And to respond to the recent post by Kain, The Confederacy is actually a plot idea I already had planned for Ara'ki, and would exist whether or not we go to Ara'ki. Several concepts would exist regardless of the retcon, though WITH the retcon back to Surna, there would be no corrupted Occitan, and therefore no Occitanian invasion. Without the retcon, the times are made more immediately desperate, with Sylornath on the march, while with it the Confederacy would be forming in a time of relative 'peace'.