~ Suggestions & Improvement ~

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: I hope that I would not be amiss in portraying Rixenda as a student whom other students speculate about as insane, given what players on this forum have said about her and how the Academagia regards her art.

[Legate of Mineta]

I don't think that would be too troubling.

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Since only one of my characters attending the Schohanwicht has performed the Special Summoning, I was wondering if I could write a little automatically triggered event for the last day of Y2's summer vacation in which a student at the Schohanwicht School who never participated in the Special Summoning reflects about why such a rite was not engaged in - with explanations ranging from the whimsically cute to the paranoid.

[Legate of Mineta]

Sure! Definitely.

[Schwarzbart]

3 hours ago, Rhialto said:

@Legate of Mineta: Since only one of my characters attending the Schohanwicht has performed the Special Summoning, I was wondering if I could write a little automatically triggered event for the last day of Y2's summer vacation in which a student at the Schohanwicht School who never participated in the Special Summoning reflects about why such a rite was not engaged in - with explanations ranging from the whimsically cute to the paranoid.

For me the price, a increase in your Stress Minimum, of the Special Summoning is not worth the gain of a single Attribute point. At last the adventurer live of my characters give them more then enough attributes that for some they probably not even need a single increase in Y2. (Yes Legate you can report this to your team as well, maybe they change the price or reward of the Summoning in Y2 i.e. when the gate magic skill increase)

[Legate of Mineta]

Well, I can certainly suggest it.

[Rhialto]

2 hours ago, Schwarzbart said:

For me the price, a increase in your Stress Minimum, of the Special Summoning is not worth the gain of a single Attribute point. At last the adventurer live of my characters give them more then enough attributes that for some they probably not even need a single increase in Y2. (Yes Legate you can report this to your team as well, maybe they change the price or reward of the Summoning in Y2 i.e. when the gate magic skill increase)

For what it is worth, I always assumed that the rite would mark the PC in some way with potentially serious consequences in the future. I mean, such a rite might easily lead to serious traces of gates magic in a body...hypothetically.

[Schwarzbart]

17 minutes ago, Rhialto said:

For what it is worth, I always assumed that the rite would mark the PC in some way with potentially serious consequences in the future. I mean, such a rite might easily lead to serious traces of gates magic in a body...hypothetically.

Similar to many adventures we can't be sure what the long term consequences are for the character. The Special Summoning could i.e. have an interesting adventure as follow up in Y2 or gain some powerful ability from the creature you bound your self to and then suddenly it becomes interesting.

For me the biggest no go from character view is that you not knowing what creature you are binding your self to. I.e. you might end to be bound to an dragon this way that then suddenly appears in Mineta when enough people bound to it.

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Are there any plans to add in a memory/flagging system (not sure what the correct term is) in order to establish that a PC is attracted to the same sex and/or not attracted to the opposite sex?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

Yep.

[Metis]

Out of curiosity, how is that flagging going to be handled?

[Legate of Mineta]

M;

You can set it at character creation/transfer.

[Metis]

Is that something a player has to commit to at that point? Because that seems a bit...early.

[Legate of Mineta]

M;

Maybe could be changed in future years? But you can decide your own preference.

[Metis]

Mainly curious because what if the player doesn't know for sure, at that point? Just flip a coin, maybe roll a d20 and hope you don't regret it later? I feel like "uncertain" is a variable that the game should be able to keep track of, at least as early as Y2.

[Legate of Mineta]

M;

It's not binary, and you can choose not to make a choice as well. It seems pretty open, I think.

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: I ask because I have some content for Y2 that would best work with such flags. Would the Team insert such flags into my writing as part of their editing? And fear not - the choices with same-sex flagging would be obvious.

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

I assume so, but official content will still not really be romantic in Y2, so it would need to be pretty innocent.

[Metis]

6 hours ago, Legate of Mineta said:

Rhi;

I assume so, but official content will still not really be romantic in Y2, so it would need to be pretty innocent.

Sensible, but aren't "needs to be pretty innocent" and "can set gender preference at character creation" kinda at opposition with each other? If the option is there one expects it to matter, after all.

[Rhialto]

10 hours ago, Legate of Mineta said:

Rhi;

I assume so, but official content will still not really be romantic in Y2, so it would need to be pretty innocent.

Don't worry. I am not planning anything outrageous - just vague comments about how a PC has been attracted to certain students of the same sex. Given the Y1 content about Philippe and Joana, and the Y1 adventure for students with the Prodigy: On the Prowl trait (especially for students in Avila), I hope that such content would be acceptable.

[Legate of Mineta]

M;

I personally don't see them as being in opposition, at least for me. We'll see what the Team says, though.

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Any feedback about my question/comment "Don't worry. I am not planning anything outrageous - just vague comments about how a PC has been attracted to certain students of the same sex. Given the Y1 content about Philippe and Joana, and the Y1 adventure for students with the Prodigy: On the Prowl trait (especially for students in Avila), I hope that such content would be acceptable."? Or would the Team need to consider that more?

[Legate of Mineta]

I think it would be fine- basically, it's similar to the Y1 standard.

[Rhialto]

In celebration of my nearly complete recovery from my surgery, wherefore I have been able to complete a game of Academagia that I was unable to complete for almost a year, I submit the following proposal about an ethnic group of Satyrs. @Legate of Mineta, if you want, I can move this to my writing thread.

Background: I will be fully transparent about my sources for this ethnicity: Raðanite Jews, Lydians, and a general desire to create an ethnicity inspired by Jews without falling into the anti-Semitic stereotypes that have bedevilled, for example, J. K. Rowling's Goblins.

Caveats: I am not skilled in any language or creating titles to suggest a name for this ethnicity, but I think that it would be appropriate for others to call them the Hanse, because such a term is thematically appropriate (for reasons which I will explain), short and easy to remember, and to a certain degree accurate (because the Hanse are often operating as bands of merchants).

Whence are the Hanse?: The Hanse are satyrs - but they are satyrs whom even other satyrs, to say nothing of humans, often find strange. While most satyrs occupy their own tracts of woodlands and consider the woods where they live to be their homes, no true Hanse would dare to say that he or she has a home. The Hanse consider themselves to be wanderers, even when they establish permanent homes (as some do). Their real homeland, they know, is unreachable upon the surface of Cyve, marked with mounds within which the ashes and burned bones of their heroes and great people, having been consecrated, were buried. The Hanses' traditions assert that they had powerful magic within their homeland due to these and other rites, and they yearn to return to their homeland if they can. But they take pride in their traditions' claims that they used to be great heroes, who fought hard against the Dragons.

Where do the Hanse Live?: In northern and temperate forests, although with some ambitiously moving into more southern climes, the Hanse live. Sometimes, the Hanse send delegations to the fays' courts.

What do the Hanse Do?: Most humans encounter the Hanse in northern or temperate forests, where the Hanse serve as merchants, trading forest products and fay products from community to community. Hanse merchants trade within and outside the Empire of Man, and certain Hanse merchants are eager to trade in Mineta and Satyrius.

Why are the Hanse mistrusted by others?: The Hanse are mistrusted for several reasons in addition to why satyrs are not trusted. In no particular order, they are:

1. Their insistence that they are lacking a homeland leads people to doubt that they can be loyal to where they live - a sentiment aggravated by their networking amongst each other.

2. Their maintenance of a separate language and script (the Lydian alphabet is its real life equivalent) leads people to suspect that they may be spies, especially because they, in their pursuit of trading opportunities, are often crossing borders (and often through fay-based ways that are difficult to monitor).

3. Their occupation as traders leads them to be accused of being greedy, lazy, and exploitative.

4. Their habit of carrying their ancestors' bones with them in pouches, necklaces, etc., although meant to connect them to their ancestors as a substitute for the homeland which their ancestors lost, is often misunderstood, even by other satyrs, as evidence that they are cannibals. Lurid rumours surround what they do during their funeral ceremonies, of which human and satyr sacrifice are perhaps the safest to mention.

Why are the Hanse called the Hanse?: Because Hanse is an old Vilocian word referring to a travelling band, and Hanse are most famous within the Empire of Man as travelling bands within violocian forests, trading fay goods and goods from further away to certain humans and satyrs who are willing to trade with them.

General Remarks About Hanse Society: The Hanse are very decentralized, due to both their refusal to concentrate within a tract of land and call it their homeland and due to their constant trading voyages. In the immediate aftermath of their losing their homeland, some Hanse tried to serve as mercenaries among fay and satyr communities, but the previously mentioned reasons why they are mistrusted forced most Hanse to become traders instead. Hanse communities (each of which is called a bira, meaning house), whether nomadic, settled, or semi-nomadic, are led by a Diarchy. The junior Diarch has the title Tyrannus, and is responsible for ensuring that members of the community are peaceful and law-abiding - although despite what certain anti-Hanse rumours say, this almost always refers to following the laws of the land within with the Hanse community lives. The senior Diarch, called the Bone-Keeper, is essentially a priest/scholar, preserving the Hanse's traditions, geneologies, and ancestors' bones as best as can be done in the circumstances while guiding the community in preserving what remains of the power that they think derives from their lost homeland and their ancestors. To be entrusted with a bone from a Bone-Keeper is a great honour for an average Hanse person. Bone-Keepers and tyrannuses are not officially ranked in a hierarchy, although in practise Bone-Keepers and tyrannuses who have displayed great wisdom and/or are associated with large and wealthy communities will acquire fame and respect even in other Hanse communities. How Bone-Keepers and tyrannuses acquire their positions within their communities varies from region to region, and in certain circumstances may create tension between Hanse communities. Hanse in general anticipate their return to Cyve's surface (although they are not exactly sure when or how it will happen), at which point they will supposedly reoccupy their homeland (described in detail by their traditions), bury the bones of exalted ancestors within mounds, and properly serve their gods and their ancestors again. All gods receive from them the title "tzivs".

I hope that this ethnicity is capable of being incorporated within the setting. I deliberately kept them operating in the fringes of the setting (mostly deep forests north of Mineta and the fays' lands). Feedback would be much appreciated.

[Legate of Mineta]

I'll pass this one!