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That capsuleers frequently communicate by means of dataprojectors? (The Burning Life, p 30)

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Author Topic: The tides of change  (Read 8860 times)

Saede Riordan

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The tides of change
« on: 17 Jun 2011, 14:26 »

With everything that's happening ICly, I thought it would be prudent to explain things a bit OOC, so everyone knows where I stand on things.

First off, background. Basically, when I first developed Nikita as a character, she was violent, short sighted, temperamental, slightly crazy, and overall, just very listless. She had no direction, and just sort of floated around doing what others told her.

As I played the character more and more, this gradually faded away, she started caring what people thought of her, she started caring about what she was doing to people, and through her interactions with the matari in particular, she realized how much of a monster she was, and had been for a long time. She'd lost sight of why she was fighting, who she was fighting for. She hurt people, she killed, and tortured, but she didn't know why. She was a soldier without a cause. She'd lost touch with why she was fighting in the first place, and through some interesting RP (♥Ava♥) She came to realize this. She saw what she was doing to people, pointlessly, and decided that if she wanted to continue doing it, she needed to understand what it did to people, what it felt like. (bit shaky logic here, but it made sense to do it the way it came out of the RP)

So, Nikita backs up her DNA, hands it off to a number of people she can trust, and injects herself with Vitoxin. During the initial phase of the infection during which the vitoc barely kept her alive and didn't actually make her not sick, (this is not exactly PF, but it was how we did it because it was how we heard about it, and there are probably enough strains of vitoxin we could safely claim whatever we wanted)

Nikita spent the last week in vitoxin induced delerium, (which you can read all about in my blog) during which time she talked to 'spirits' and went on what was essentially a vision quest. She drew all over the walls and cut marks into her skin and all sorts of fun stuff.

She came out of that with a number of realisations:
  • That her loyalty was to the Angels, the people of Curse and the other nullsec regions the Cartel controlled, not to the Cartel itself.
  • That the cartel as an organisation was not one she wanted to support at all or be a part of.
  • That Slavery as an institution was bad and wrong.
  • That she had a tribe, that tribe being all those outcast from Matari society.
  • That she was going to have a daughter in the next two year. (wooo strange spirit premonitions wooo)

This has led to Nikita deciding/finding/understanding her 'path' as it were.
Which is to unite all of the various outcast peoples of New Eden, and reform the cartel into an "Angel Nation," a proper empire worthy of consideration by the Big4. A shinier, brighter world for her people. And she's willing to be a horrible, cruel, vicious, person, to do that. Utopia Justifies the Means sort of logic.

So, what does this mean for Risen Angels stance on things:
  • We're still pirates. And will continue to be pirates. We will just be pirates with morals of sorts.
  • We're loyal to ourselves, and anyone wanting to help our cause.
  • We're still NBSI for now, although NRDS changes have been discussed for the future.
  • We're still willing to accept merc work, although keep in mind, pirates often make terrible mercenaries.
  • We're still angels, we're just not members of the Cartel.
  • We're still allies with our allies (though how long this remains depends on their willingness to put up with our shenanigans.)
So what does the future entail? All sorts of things! Shady deals with the devil, backroom bargaining with questionable allies, daring raids into hostile space, rescuing outcasts from Arzad, trying to build a power base to challenge the Cartel for control of Angel Space...oh, the future looks fun. Its so interesting to have goals and directions for my character, especially ones that are effectively unreachable, since that basically just means I will always have something to do with the character.

I will now take your questions.
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Senn Typhos

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Re: The tides of change
« Reply #1 on: 17 Jun 2011, 15:02 »




Does not compute! Does not compute!

Error! Error!
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Invelious

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Re: The tides of change
« Reply #2 on: 17 Jun 2011, 15:23 »

What outcasts from Arzad?
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Saede Riordan

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Re: The tides of change
« Reply #3 on: 17 Jun 2011, 15:25 »

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Invelious

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Re: The tides of change
« Reply #4 on: 17 Jun 2011, 15:47 »

What outcasts from Arzad?

The ones from Arzad

OHHH their fine. Their in good hands. Their being taken care of by Ardishapur.
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BloodBird

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Re: The tides of change
« Reply #5 on: 17 Jun 2011, 15:51 »

What outcasts from Arzad?

The ones from Arzad

Those are not Outcasts FROM Arzad, but outcasts from Minmatar society in general living ON Arzad.

As for the topic at hand, nice turn of events Niki. Good luck and have fun, but don't expect to be forgiven your past anytime soon.


Apropo past... have you ret-conned your toon into a Sebeistor or anything like that?
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Saede Riordan

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Re: The tides of change
« Reply #6 on: 17 Jun 2011, 16:23 »

Apropo past... have you ret-conned your toon into a Sebeistor or anything like that?

Is it a retcon if I've claimed that since I started RPing? Nikita's always been mostly Matari, she's just registered to CONCORD as Gallentean.
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lallara zhuul

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Re: The tides of change
« Reply #7 on: 17 Jun 2011, 17:49 »

I'm confused.

Should all this information be somehow be accessible IC, not OOC?

My view on interaction in EVE has been quite clear in the last few discussions on these boards, so do not take it as nothing personal.
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Merdaneth

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Re: The tides of change
« Reply #8 on: 18 Jun 2011, 03:46 »

I stopped reading quickly because you were explaining IC things. I'm happy to hear and accomodate OOC reasons for your change, but prefer not to read another IC motivations, it tends to spoil my ability to act without preconceptions.
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Saede Riordan

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Re: The tides of change
« Reply #9 on: 18 Jun 2011, 07:27 »

I stopped reading quickly because you were explaining IC things. I'm happy to hear and accomodate OOC reasons for your change, but prefer not to read another IC motivations, it tends to spoil my ability to act without preconceptions.

I'm finding it rather difficult to explain it from the perspective of the character, and despite trying, I feel like I'm causing a lot of confusion. So..thus this.
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Saede Riordan

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Re: The tides of change
« Reply #10 on: 18 Jun 2011, 15:26 »

Okay, so to backpeddle a bit, I'm beginning to wonder if this character change was really one I should have let go through, or if I should have used my executive player powers to say 'no, sorry, I can't let her go in this direction.' Part of the reason for this is that, OOCly I admit it, I'm trying to have my cake and eat it too. I want to be able to play a Matari tribalist, while also playing an angel, and I really have only managed to isolate both groups. I'm really sort of at a loss for what to do at this point. I love the character, but I just keep running into brick walls, and OOCly I'm really just not sure where I want to go or what I want to do.

On one hand, I could drift hardcore matari anti-pirate and abandon the cartel all together, I'm not really sure if I could do this, because OOCly, I'm a huge angel fangirl and I really really enjoy the faction, they're just so stylin' and cool.

On the other hand, I could drift back to being the evil moral-less pirate, and hardcore angel. But I'm really not sure I could do that either, because I can't play a character who has no morals and just lives in the moment. I played Nikita like that for a while and it just got boring. Everyone hated her and I just wasn't having fun. I need a character with goals.

So...right now I'm trying to unsucessfully sit on the fence between two groups whose mentalities are polar opposites, and its really really not working (obviously) and I'm just at a loss for what to do. I can continue to walk the tightrope as it were, because that is a valid character direction, despite it meaning that I won't have very many friends or people to fly with because I'll be seen as 'bad' by both groups, and I don't really know if I want to just be alone anymore. I could abandon one group or the other, but honestly, I'd never really perfectly fit into either faction, and would always be something of an outcast. I thought about just icing Nikita and rolling another toon, but I don't think I could do that, I've invested too much time into Nikita, if I dumped her, I'd lose the will to keep playing, and I can't afford to keep two accounts going at once...I just don't know what to do.

halp
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Kaleigh Doyle

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Re: The tides of change
« Reply #11 on: 18 Jun 2011, 15:48 »

Take my suggestion with a grain of salt, but I'd suggest playing for your character instead of a faction. I feel like Tyler Durden here but you are not your job. Nikita is, like all capsule pilots, a free agent to work with anyone she damn well pleases; the moment you "limit" the character's role to that of a faction, you cease to have any creative liberties with them.

Something you may want to ask yourself is what your character's driving goal is and WHY she wants to achieve it. Build relationships from what the character cares about and let your enemies try to stereotype or typecast you with their propaganda. Find out what cultural characteristics fit with the goals of your character and work with them. I have a great time with Nola for that reason.   :o
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Saede Riordan

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Re: The tides of change
« Reply #12 on: 18 Jun 2011, 16:14 »

Take my suggestion with a grain of salt, but I'd suggest playing for your character instead of a faction. I feel like Tyler Durden here but you are not your job. Nikita is, like all capsule pilots, a free agent to work with anyone she damn well pleases; the moment you "limit" the character's role to that of a faction, you cease to have any creative liberties with them.

Something you may want to ask yourself is what your character's driving goal is and WHY she wants to achieve it. Build relationships from what the character cares about and let your enemies try to stereotype or typecast you with their propaganda. Find out what cultural characteristics fit with the goals of your character and work with them. I have a great time with Nola for that reason.   :o

I've tried to do that with my latest character changes, but the problem is that playing my character like that makes her effectively an outcast from all the faction based RPers. All my friends are with one group or another, and as I'm rather sick of being alone, I have to try to play the character in such a way as to support one faction or another.

I'd love to be able to run with this story as I imagine it, and play the character as a member of her own faction, seeking social change and revolution, but doing so means I'm effectively alone. None of the other people I like will want to RP, befriend, or fly with my character if she's like that. They'll all consider her an enemy.
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Vincent Pryce

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Re: The tides of change
« Reply #13 on: 18 Jun 2011, 16:31 »

What's exactly stopping you from being a proud tribal matari and a loyal Angel?

Pro-Republic & anti-slavery =/= Matari

Yes, they are the dominant themes for the moment in Matari RP, but if you look in deeper through the layers you come to realize those really are the current dominating themes. There's PF about the very fact that tribes and clans used to raid, kill and maim the shit out each other over petty squabbles. Hell, Angel Cartel majority ethnicity is Matari even if it's like the dark mirror universe version of the Federation and takes in every race.

Who's not to say there's much of the disenfranchised of the tribes building their own clans, following some obscure not so well known traditions. Fuck mainstream, write your own clan history and style. There's nothing stopping you. Just look at our worlds historical clan tribal culture, there was plenty of slavery going around. Matari are part based on Vikings, and shit girl, did they like their slaves, tho some preferred the term wife on some of them.

Nothing's stopping you from changing the Cartel inside out either, just start less grandiose themes. Instead of abolish cartel slave trade, start with humane treatment for slaves.

Possibilities are endless. Cartel is a diverse multifaceted entity after all. Not all people choose to be disenfranchised after all, but the Cartel gives them chance at new life that will take them places, sometimes it's places they don't want to go. Sure there are cruel cutthroats and bastards there but it's very much imprinted in the PF that is not all to it. To some it's new chance at life.

As long as there are people willing to buy people Cartel is going to sell them, it is only smart to keep the stock well treated and in good shape, that way other people are more inclined to buy what you are selling, just think of livestock trade. That said slave trade is hardly the whole of Cartel, it's a part of it but not one that defines it. It's just business that creates revenue  to fund other projects.

Look at it this way. Arch Angels manage to conduct a raid and acquire slaves. Dominations reward the Arch Angels for the job well done, slaves are handed over to the Salvation Angels who sell the stock at an open market. That profit made out of the slaves is funneled to fund the construction of a well stocked children's hospital on one of the industrial colonies in LJ-YSW.

Sure it is cruel from the perspective of the raided party, but those kids thank the Dominations for providing with a pretty gift card. New Eden is a very much a world of us against them. And if that slave trade provides for me and mine, why not do it? End justifies the means.

I would also like to play the Skarkon Card.

People of Skarkon preferred Angel rule over Republic. Just go dig the old news articles about them. Amidst chaos and turmoil, Angel Cartel brought peace and stability to that system.

That said sure there is cruel and unusual bastards who do bad shit for fun and profit and are just plain foul.

I dunno maybe that'll be some food for thought. What ever you do and decide in-character, someone will always hate you for it.
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Kaleigh Doyle

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Re: The tides of change
« Reply #14 on: 18 Jun 2011, 16:31 »

All of your character's friends only like you because you're a member of the Cartel? I find that hard to believe, and if true I wonder why they'd consider you an enemy even if you're willing to fly alongside them. Maybe some new friends are in order.

Kal went through that briefly when she started dating Nation and Bloodier types. She started getting the cold shoulder from the nationalist pro-Fed types, but it opened plenty of new doors. Character growth isn't bad either.  ;)
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