Nostra

Hemrick O. Alistus Gentleman, Wizard, Chirurgeon, Visionary 'He who makes a monster of himself removes himself from the pain of being human.' ~Doctor Samuel Johnson The Early Years. I began my path in life with the same vigour and curiosity that I have ever since cultivated. As a young boy at Sir Wesley's Boarding School for Young Gentlemen I quickly took a keen interest to the scientific and arcane arts, much to the detriment of my future there. I was studious and disciplined yet I often found myself in trouble both with my peers and our teachers. My projects, ambitious and revolutionary (albeit I freely admit now, quite immature and naive) lacked the martial applications sought by our mentors. In fact to my chagrin and later sorrow once my Father found out, they were horrified at my attempt to gift a rodent the power of flight. My kitchen privileges were rescinded and my ad-hoc laboratory demolished. Despite this early setback I was undeterred and decided to pursue my visions in secret. I laboured at night in the library, studying charts and books the content of which would only serve to perplex you, dear reader. But it is safe to say that I gave myself a thorough education despite the best efforts of my tutors. My graduation gave me the freedom to seek out the tutors I should have been granted, I found myself in the esteemed company of the masters of the Academy of Arcane Arts and Sciences. My father grudgingly, mostly at the behest of my dear mother, provided funds for my entry into the Wizard’s Guild and a premium membership at the academy library making available to me stores of knowledge no common man have ever laid eyes on. I gorged myself on what the old tomes and scripts offered and jealously guarded them from the predations of careless apprentices and old fools with little tact or propriety. My measures were often criticised by the librarians and they threatened time and again to remove my membership, it astounds me to this day that these supposed guardians of knowledge would allow an apprentice of no bearing or heritage to simply waltz in and leave with any book they wished tucked under their uncultured arms. While the Academy provided me with my first opportunity to pursue the great project I had set before me I soon received an invitation I could not refuse. The esteemed Sorcerer's League of Dalaran offered me a position within their ranks that allowed me to study under some of the most prestigious masters of our time. My mother told me, beaming with pride, that had my father still lived he, despite his reservations regarding the arcane and what he deemed similar silly nonsense, he would have approved of my advancement within the academic world. Of course, it was a few years after my arrival in Dalaran that my work truly began. Only after the wars, the plagues and the horrors of reconciling my position as a supposed ally of brutes and savages with the incredible breakthrough achieved by my greatest enemy and rival. My memoirs will detail the trials and tribulations of those times and how I came to be the giant of progress that I am today. And how I escaped these light-forsaken islands and returned to civilisation. Personality. Aristocratically Arrogant. Presumptuously Punctilious. Contemptuously Pretentious. Unscrupulously Inquisitive. Physical characteristics Nose. Hemrick’s facial features is dominated by the Aquiline peak at the centre, a beautiful, sculpted nose hinting at the intelligence, firm moral fibre and enlightenment of the wearer. He molded it himself, melting what remained of his cash to create the silver prosthetic that plugged the hole gnawed open by some rodent or ghoul during his short stint as a dead man. Hemrick has a habit of wiping his nose off with his handkerchief, making sure to polish it regularly. Left Foot. Born with a debilitating handicap, Hemrick struggled with a club foot for years. In recent times however he has taken it upon himself to improve on his situation. Currently he wears a gentleman scholar he met and shot dead in Silverpine, the purple-robed man provided all the materials needed for a very handsome new foot. Looking oddly fresh, compared to the flabby, grey flesh covering the rest of Hemrick the piece does not seem to be preserved by the necrotic energies within him meaning it is only a matter of time until it needs to be replaced. Belongings. Chirurgeon’s Kit A thick leather case which when unfolded reveals a set of scalpels, a small saw, an assortment of glass vials meticulously labelled, needles and thread, what looks like a hand-operated drill and a sinister, falciform knife with black handle and silvery blade. Haversack. A shoulder slung satchel which holds most of Hemrick’s belongings, within four books take up most space; ‘The Mysteries of the Worm’, ‘The Laws of Decay’, ‘Anatomical Illustrations’ and an untitled tome tightly bound with a leather strap. Besides the books there a writing implements, dice and cards, two boxes of ammunition shells, a compass, a scroll case, a sextant and astrolabe, a small spyglass, a thurible packed tightly with a pouch of herbs, a small case of cigars finely emblazoned with what looks like the silhouette of a Tauren and amazingly it seems like there's room enough for more. Magelock Pistol. An atypical pistol with mesmerising runes engraved both on the wooden handle and on the silvery barrel. Rather than a revolving magazine or being breech loaded the pistol sports a short spring-loaded belt which feeds ammunition into the barrel on the side of the gun. It is designed to fire specialised rounds and propels them through a small crystal which is activated when the trigger is pulled. Hemrick generally carries the pistol hidden within his coat but he is quick to draw it if danger present itself. Two cases of nine rounds each, each bullet being hollow and filled with murky, liquefied shadow which is released on impact and immediately infuse the target. Excellent way to quickly dispose of a threat. The rounds are quite hard to produce but can customised to contain a variety of chemicals or arcana-charged liquids or crystals.

Welcome back!

If this can be called living.

We are looking for some feedback on our current idea for how we'll organise staff on the server, we will have three positions to begin with where two focus on moderation and helping with OOC issues and one focused on creating more roleplay. These are Helpers, Moderators and Dungeon Masters, what they will do is detailed below. One of the issues we are trying to address with these positions is how easily storytellers burn out and/or disappear. While holding a title like Storyteller (Or DM in our case) there is often a pressure to perform which can be taxing, people often feel like they need to provide events or people will be bored and complain. I think we've all seen it. Players and storylines suffer from this when the storyteller in charge suddenly leave, often without having shared their plans, if they had any, for how to continue the storyline(s) they were hosting. So instead of sitting with the title and having a demand to create events we will give the title to people who have an event or storyline they wish to host. After you are done with your event you are no longer a DM, unless you're inspired and decide to host another event, perhaps a follow-up or something entirely new. Helper Your job as a Helper should be obvious from the name, you're there to help people. Specifically you are there when someone needs help in-game, if they encounter a bug, need help navigating the RPG or get in a OOC conflict with another player. You are the support and moderator of the server, as such you will also be there to ensure people do not abuse systems or their peers. Perhaps the most important task is to keep the atmosphere on the server welcoming. Moderator Communication within the community is vital to the server, both on the forums and on Discord. Your job is to keep it civil and to help newcomers get oriented. In terms of moderation you use the community rules as a guide to keep the server a place people want to spend their free time. A lot of the work is to simply direct discussions to the right forum and remind people to keep a civil tone. You are also there to greet newcomers and show them the ropes, point them to guides, guilds, Discord and so on. Dungeon Master Being a Dungeon Master is not a full-time job, instead you become one for the duration of a planned event or storyline. Anyone is welcome to try their hand and we encourage you to give it a shot at least once. Nothing is too small of an event and there are plenty of experienced people ready to help you out. As a DM you will have all the in-game permissions necessary to host both big and small RP sessions, be it a dungeon crawl or a religious rite. Your 'tenure' as a DM will last as long as you need it to, if you need a week or two to prepare for an event, by creating NPCs, decorating the event locale(s), etc you will have that time and enough to clean up afterwards. If you wish to host an event or storyline you will need to make an outline of what it is you wish to do, if you like you can even do it with a friend or two and share the workload. Think of this as the preparation a DM does before a Pen&Paper session. When you have your outline you post it to the Scriptorium forum, don't worry only you and the Council can see your post, and unless there is any clashes with other events or lore you will be given access to a Dungeon Master account. If there are any issues with the outline we'll help you sort it out. A few examples of outlines can be found in the post below but do not be afraid to innovate and make your own template, they absolutely do not need to be elaborate, it is only there to give us an idea of what you are doing and if you were to unexpectedly disappear (accidents happen. . .) we can carry on based on that information. Outline Examples: Big Storyline: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tAbyxfaNEnJd-YIE8oYQBoe-EmMWpJMsfaT8D24lWOg/edit?usp=drivesdk Dungeon Crawl: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jNrq2DZFM95aHPXxumWqMkQY1S2WSVDKk_IWkVnFYzw/edit?usp=drivesdk One-off Event: To Come

Staff Code of Conduct Do not abuse your power on the forum or in game. The power of councillor, helper or other administrative position are crucial to the operation of this server. It is a trusted and voluntary position to which all those accepting of the role embrace selfless participation in operational matters. The exploitation of this station in game or on the forums to forward ones character, guild, project or event will not be tolerated. Recuse yourself from conflict where a bias is present. We aim to be objective and hold ourselves to a standard of trust and collaboration. When an issue is too closely related to your personal project, RP, or OOC situation, we ask you inform a member of the staff team and step away for that situation. Respect your fellow staff. Respect decisions and comfort levels of your fellow staff. If there is a disagreement, work with the staff team to come to a resolution. It is imperative to be consistent in decisions to possess a united, communicative front. Gain approval before changing content. Be sure to confirm with the author of a post before changing the content. If they are indisposed, contact one of the senior staff about your desired change. Also, remain transparent and communicate the needed change with the rest of the team. Do not partake in nepotism. Do not promote or gift others advantage in the forums or in game due to OOC or IC associations. No unfair advantage in the RPG or forum notoriety can be offered through staff. Your own projects may be promoted through the proper channels. Be diligent and receptive in answering concerns. Take each concern seriously, inquire to evidence whenever necessary and maintain a calm demeanour when answering concerns or criticisms. As previously mentioned, this project wishes to grow and learn with its membership. We will not tolerate complacency.

Respect, maturity, and humility. These are the core principles that glue our community together and what we expect each member to adhere to. Remember that above all else, each of us are responsible for our own behaviour and creating an atmosphere conducive to fun and interesting roleplay. Be respectful. At all times. This is not optional. Show respect to your fellow players, regardless of their faction or affiliation. We are all playing this game to enjoy it, and being rude or disrespectful to another player does not enhance anyone's enjoyment. If it enhances your own enjoyment, you undoubtedly do not belong on this server. Being respectful is easy enough if you think about it. Even players that you dislike or seem unable to get along with can be treated with respect. When all else fails, report it to Staff so that they may deal with the situation. Here's something to think about. When you read a book, you're reading a story about one or two or more characters, usually. These characters are the central focus of the story, and though they may meet other characters, typically the main characters remain the focus of the story. This is a pleasant and useful device in fiction and storytelling, but it doesn't work in real life, and it becomes a bit clumsy when applied to roleplay. Each of our characters are central to their own stories... and everyone else's character is central to theirs. Nobody else loves your character as much as you do. When coming up with a story for your character, remember this. Other people may not get involved. Other people may not care. Other people may not comply. Part of being a mature player is recognising when your character isn't supposed to be the centre of attention. Sometimes other players' characters need to shine, and it is your honour and privilege to stand aside and give them room in the spotlight. Heck, play along. Find a way to fit into their story now and then. So, What are the Rules? We have no intention of writing a law book detailing every infraction and how you should act, rather we rely on common sense to guide both us and you in following the spirit of the server as detailed above. People who cannot find it in themselves to be polite and contribute to the enjoyment of everyone will be removed from the server. We have no illusions of being omniscient so we are open to discuss a ban and will explain why we remove someone if it comes to that. We will rarely ban someone out of the blue and will always contact and explain why something is unacceptable first, only after repeated incidents will we ban someone from the server. In some special circumstances a ban may be applied immediately, such as when we are a dealing with an obvious troll, hacker or harasser. Here are a few simple rules that you need to know when you create a character and interact on the forums. Ban Appeals If you feel you were wrongfully banned, you can submit an appeal in the staff-contact forums. Should that be unaccessible, send a discord message to Varen#9668. Multiple Accounts Please do not make extra forum accounts in order to create new server accounts. This makes it somewhat difficult to keep track of account associations, and will likely get both your accounts closed. Should you need more than one account, feel free to contact staff. Do not share your account, doing so may result in it being permanently closed. Naming Policy Use appropriate naming conventions. Avoid using pop-culture and real-world references in the naming of your account or characters. This implies a level of power or rapport that players must acknowledge due to real life homage or mockery. Do not use alternative numerical characters (leet speak) in naming. This can fracture immersion for those participating and investing their creativity in the storylines. Combat (Player vs Player) Player versus player combat handled in the RPG system requires some previous roleplay. Before a fight begins, players should have interacted and, if a player or group intends to start a fight with another player or group, their emotes should reflect this by getting ready to fight and attacking, the primary purpose is to give the other player(s) a chance to reply IC before the actual RPG combat starts. After the 'preparation' emote, combat may begin after the enemy party responds or after two minutes. A preparation emote could consist of anything from drawing your blade, stating that you are going to kill X to begin weaving a spell to cast ICly on X as a lead-in to the RPG combat. The point is to make it obvious your character is about to attack your victim. If someone is using game mechanics to escape, like drinking a speed potion to run away fast or similarly, you can use .rpg fight create or 'attach selected target' in the RPG Handbook to start an RPG fight. Player combat and execution should always be handled ICly and done for IC reasons. While perma-death and conflict are very important to the server, they should be done in a way that is conducive to roleplay and actual character motivation. That is to say that murder for the fun of it or because your character is a psychopath is not acceptable. Death should be treated with proper respect, it is courteous to give the player who's character is dying time to emote their dying breath, say a few last words or die dramatically. A player death can be reported by the killer or the victim and, if judged to have broken rules or done improperly, the death will be rescinded and the victim given an IC way out of the death. Regardless if you are the attacker or defender, we encourage you to contact a staff member on the discord the moment you decide to attack another player so that they can come and observe the situation. It helps us greatly to solve any disputes over a PvP fight, if there should be any. If you did not have staff observe, please take screenshots if you intend to dispute the death. Death A dead character can transfer 75% of their XP, and 75% Profession levels to one of the player's other characters (the receiving character's XP and levels cannot go above that of the dead character). If the character is somehow resurrected in the future they will only come back with 25% of their previous XP and profession skill. In special circumstances some equipment can be transferred as well, to the attacker or defender depending on the circumstances. Looting of executed characters are not permitted and neither is robbing and then executing a character. If you rob them, let them go (knock out, leave for dead or what you consider fitting IC). The only time looting is permissible is when we are dealing with legendary, quest or lore relevant items. Player Bases When destroying a group of players by killing them off, we lose a lot of potential roleplay. When possible, try to be creative about your solutions, try to find other ways to interact with the group or player that doesn't involve annihilating them. However, if shit hits the fan and you see no other solution, these are steps you need to take when assaulting a player base. The players should get in contact with one another to set up a time and date, in a 5 day time frame from the date the attacker got in contact with the defender. Staff may get involved at the request from any involved party. You must work together to set a date and time that can be mutually agreed upon. Staff should be notified of the agreed upon time. Deciding whether a player is within the protection of their base is can be difficult and depends a lot on context, but if they can reasonable be seen or heard by the characters supposed to be at the base, it counts as being within that protection. A base located on a resource node keeps the protection described above, however anyone is welcome to try to loot the node and doing so is not in violation of above rule. If the owner(s) decides to attack the resource gatherer(s) they forfeit their base protection for the duration of that encounter. Any player has the right to base protection from other players but have no safety from NPCs, though any Keeper or DM is expected to treat the base with due respect. Any player has the right to a base, however only one location is accorded protection as described above. If a player joins a group or guild, they forsake those rights as the guild/group base become their home. Exploiting The use of known and unknown bugs or obvious exploits in the system or game is not allowed. The RPG system and Unknown Shores are all custom made and there is potential for loopholes and exploits in the revised systems architecture. Reporting of these bugs will come with a reward, abusing them will come with punishments. An example would be, gaining a faction or a friendly standing with an NPC faction, then attacking them, knowing they won't fight back. A GM should be ticked it you wish to pursue hostile actions against friendly targets. Lore We play in the World of Warcraft and as such all characters, guilds and other concepts should fit within that setting. That is not to say you cannot be creative within that setting, the Doldrums are an example of that, but your concepts need to be grounded in the ideas presented by the Warcraft setting. Vacation Rule Notifying staff, you can set your account to vacation mode for a minimum of 7 to a maximum 30 days. The account will be inaccessible until you return from vacation. When returned, you'll receive 45 * [days Of Vacation] * [xp bracket multiplier] XP. It is up to the player to notify the beginning and end of the vacation period. After using vacation mode, you may not do so again for a month, unless there are exceptional circumstances to speak with staff on. (If you're dealing with a hurricane, XP can wait.) Should you wish to set a vacation post-fact a maximum of 7 days can be used, unless it's due to an emergency. Retiring Characters Notifying staff, once every 30 days, you can retire a character. Doing so allows you to transfer 100% of its experience and professions to another character, with the following limitations: -The total final xp/professions cannot exceed those of the original character. -Receiving character cannot have more than 1500xp already -Receiving character must not have died prior to receiving this XP. A character that is actively involved in a dangerous situation cannot be transferred until that roleplay is concluded (Bounty, captives, holding a legendary object/Doldrums-lore item and similar scenarios). A retired character can be restored by returning its experience/levels, after at least one month since the character was retired. If the receiving character dies, normal XP transfer rules apply, even if it's desired to restore the old character. A Reminder Be patient with timely responses. This entire project is a hobby, not an occupation. Be considerate of IRL schedules, time zones, etc. When requesting changes from staff, and moderation, understand that they may have other tickets or moderation duties. You will receive a response in a timely fashion. Each filtering of tickets are answered in the order which they are received. Grave offences are flagged for priority along with the functionality of both forum and the game engine. When applying to guilds, initiating contacts for roleplay and partnerships, be patient of those who are responding to you. If time goes by without response, politely address those involved, but avoid badgering and negative posts on the matter. Respect staff decisions. Not all decisions are going to be agreeable but navigate the appropriate channels and speak to the team in order to gain clarity or remedy the problem. This will help members remain informed and the staff team grow and evolve with its community! If you want more detailed "do's and don'ts" look in the spoiler below.

Made some changes based on the feedback, we discussed more in the council yesterday and you can expect a preliminary updated post later today.

This is pretty great, thanks!

For Helpers and Moderators there'll be an application, template below, thoughts on that is welcome as well! Application: Age: Characters played: What timezone do you live in: When do you usually play: Languages known: Have you ever been a moderator or game master before; If so, where and when: Please tell us a little about yourself:

WB

. . . There is no edit button. Ops. Well now there is?

nice