A Strange Package

There was a strange package on my porch.

Oh hey look, it's my EQ2 Chains of Eternity Poster!
Woooooooooooo!

I need to get a frame for it.
Someone signed Firiona's tatas!

Who YOU Callin' Casual?

There is a misconception floating around that decorators are casual players.

It's true that a lot of us aren't as interested in combat. Some of us may have never been on a raid before, and there are just as many of us who don't have capped level combat characters as there are those of us who do.

And yet, decorators tend to be some of the most hardcore players. Yes, you heard me correctly. Decorators tend to be some of the most hardcore players.

Let me repeat that in case you missed it.

Decorators tend to be some of the most hardcore players.

Not all of us raid. Not all of us roleplay. But all of us spend hours and hours and hours and hours lining things up just right. We go short on sleep to adjust a fireplace just where we want it. We craft, quest, raid, and writ endlessly to obtain the items we want for our homes. If we don't raid, we pay raiders for what we want. We farm tirelessly for materials during holidays--and EQ2 has a lot of holidays!

Decorators (from what I have observed) spend the most SC out of any other group of players. We buy houses. We buy furniture. We buy home expanders. We buy more houses. We buy more expanders. We buy character slots to host characters specifically for the names of house zones. My character list is full of them. Hello, Library, Town, Hallway, and Abode! We buy appearance armor not only for ourselves, but for mannequins to place in our homes, or to dress our guild hall guards with.

We spend anywhere from a few hours to a few months on a single zone in the game--the house zone we are working on. Have you ever heard a raider say, "Yeah, it took us weeks to down XYZ mob?" Guess what? It took a decorator months to get a house ready for publication, and a raider will likely only spend a few hours a week raiding. So their weeks turn out to be less than 24 hours of play (Yes, I know that they can spend longer than that getting a raid down, but for the most part, I'd say 24 hours is a safe average). To put that into perspective, I spent four hours working on the grand staircase in Blazewolf's hall. Four hours. On a staircase. And I'm fast at using the circle tool. I shudder to think of how long it would take anyone else.

Let's also consider the time to gather materials for a house. It's true that we have guild harvesters, a pack pony, and a goblin. But sometimes you need more. My dojo alone (the Homes and Tomes Credit Union) took 23 eucalyptus lumber and 30 brellium ore! It's a tiny little space used exclusively for holding special harvests and apprentices.

I took Jazabelle, grabbed a harvesting potion, and spent about three hours harvesting eucalyptus. Brellium took another three hours. That's six hours of harvesting just to obtain the materials for furniture for a tiny space (and I'll admit I came out of there with extra eucalyptus and brellium, but we can always use more rares in a crafting and decorating guild).

So the next time you think of a decorator as casual, think again. I've spent on average of 120 hours per house I build. That's a long time.

Decorating is hardcore.

What Is It Like?

I was chatting with a friend in another guild late last year. She's a decorator (of course), and she's in a hardcore RP guild.

"What's it like?" she asked me wistfully as we each engaged in our respective play of choice for the evening, she at some tavern somewhere, while I meticulously aligned tiles in one of my warehouses.

"What's what like?" I resized the tiles and stacked them again, trying to neatly fit the maximum number of tiles in the minimum amount of space.

"What's it like being in the only decorating guild around?"

I was quick to reassure her that Homes and Tomes isn't the only decorating guild around. There are others. Homes and Tomes just happens to be one of the largest, with a member list that spans servers.

I am asked this question in various way rather regularly. Sometimes it's someone who wants to know what the guild is like because they're interested in joining. Other times, it's someone who wants to start up their own decorating guild, but they aren't sure if they want to invest the time and effort. Still other times, they're people like my friend--wistfully looking in, dreaming of life in a guild where saying "How many times the scale do you move a tile to line them up perfectly?" isn't met with confused silence.

Sometimes I get a variation of the question that focuses on me instead. "What's it like leading the only decorating guild around?" I had someone ask earlier this week. Once again, I assured them that Homes and Tomes isn't the only decorating guild around. And then I had to explain that it's work.

Like running any other guild, running a decorating guild is work. You are responsible for ensuring that there are no conflicts of personality within the guild. You are responsible for the people you promote to officer. You are responsible for the events that your guild runs, even if you have no hand in organizing them. Your guild's name is on the tag, and you need to make sure it's represented properly.

In some ways, running a decorating guild is easier than running other types of guilds. For the most part, decorators tend to be soloers--decorating is a solo playstyle. While you can (and most of us do!) engage in conversation while decorating, the act of decorating itself is entirely single player.

Decorators also tend to be self-starters. We're a group who has to come up with our own ideas, find the materials to go with our ideas, and build what we envision. It's more common to hear a decorator say, "Does anyone want to join me for an instance?" instead of hearing the dreaded, "So, is anyone running an instance?" from a follower.

The hardest part of running a decorating guild is the management. We're a guild full of crafters, whose crafting serves the purpose of decorating. Unlike most other crafters, we use all tiers of material constantly. Our harvest depot has a revolving door.

How do you measure who's participating in a decorating guild? You can't go by the number of homes a person has done, or the number of commissions they've taken. You can check the status they've earned and donated, but that's only one small aspect of participating. How about the items they've given to other guildmates? Or when they stop their own projects to give advice to someone else? Add in the fact that Homes and Tomes isn't pure decor, because we also encourage roleplay, and we have a few people whose only interest is combat, and you have a guild that's very hard to administrate for.

Then there's the commission aspect. I'm regularly contacted by people looking to commission a member of the guild to build their home. Over the past two and a half years of the guild's life, numerous individuals have spoken to me about hiring a member of H&T to build their homes. Guild members' mailboxes are full of "So-and-so is looking to hire a decorator" mails that have been sent out to the guild. Once I've sent out the mail, I then have to follow up and find out if the person has been contacted by a decorator.

We finally got around to putting up a commission form on our website to help streamline the process a little, but it's still a lot of followup work.

But let's get back to the original question. So what is it like being in a guild where someone can ask "How many times the scale do you move a tile to line them up perfectly?" and hear the answer, "2 times, unless you're working with the dark or light frozen tiles, or the petrified bone tile"?

It's a place where you're guaranteed to share interests with everyone else. It's a place where you can converse while working on your home. It's a place where the puns flow thickly, and innuendo practically drowns you.

There's very little drama, for which I'm grateful, since we're all easygoing adults.

It's the best feeling in the world. It's home.

D'Morte, D'Ryil, and Freeblood

This post has nothing to do with housing, and only a passing reference to combat. Instead, it focuses on roleplay. More specifically, it focuses on what lore we have about the D'Morte, the D'Ryil, and the Freeblood.

I've been asked or seen people ask for the lore numerous times. I figured I would archive it all here for easy reference and updating as I find more lore hidden in the depths of the vast pit known as The Internet. Additionally, it keeps this lore "safe" just in case the sources of the lore disappear into the ether.

The D'Morte

This was posted by Vhalen on September 6th, 2006, on the old forums. It concerns a D'Morte holiday known as "Libation."

House D'Morte's seeds were sown in EQLive. Early on, pieces of their story began to appear within Neriak, namely, The Lodge of the Dead. Although their story was never fully told, the roots existed. There is a portion of old Neriak that used to hold their original villa and the agents charged with the ongoing hunt of the vampire house could be found.

Although Bloodline Chronicles holds a chapter or two of the saga of House D'Morte, it does not tell all. Unknown to most is the story of the chateau in the land of frost and ice. There rests a chapter of their lives that followed the great escape from Neriak. Only in such a hostile land could some of the D'Morte's hide from the slayers of The Dead.

Over time, the D'Morte's began to embrace their affliction. They even began a family holiday.

"Libation"

This “holiday” is in dedication of the event to which all the D`Morte house was turned into vampires. The typical D`Morte celebration on this day is a gathering in a grand hall they call the blood chamber. Here the elder of the house recites a history of the D`Morte saga, detailing its beginning, its trials, and its current status. During this recitation, lesser minions or prisoners are bled dry. After the recitation the results of the bleeding are imbibed by the D`Morte clan. A grand ball is held afterwards and often rages on until the edge of dawn. To the few "guests" that have gazed upon this site and (un)lived, they refer to this as "The Blood Ball". To House D'Morte, this is "Libation."

The tragic tale of the D'Morte's is related to Mistmoore's origins. That is evident to those that can piece the puzzle together properly. Sometime in the future we will see more pieces to that puzzle appear in the world of Norrath.

The D'Ryil

This is taken from an interview Stratics did with Elizabeth Sigmund, Game Designer II about Neriak.

Stratics: What was the story behind deciding to populate part of Neriak with vampires?

Liz: I'll drop some lore on you guys:

In Darklight Wood were the remnants of the D'Morte clan, mostly the vampires deemed too weak to journey with the rest of the clan. One of those left behind was a vampire named Lazarus D'Ryil. He was not physically powerful, but was skilled in the arts of intrigue, seduction and flattery. The power he craved was social and political.

Once the D'Morte clan was gone, Lazarus decided his best bet at survival would be to find someone stronger to protect him. So, he made contact with the agents of The Dead and agreed to share all he knew of the D'Morte vampires, vampirism in general and Mayong Mistmoore in exchange for a home in Neriak and the rights to sire his own clan.

The Dead and our lady Queen Cristanos have always been looking for new ways to gain power and immortality. They see some of what they are looking for in vampirism. The Queen agreed to Lazarus' proposal, with the one stipulation that his progeny could never number more than twenty and they were subject to the rule of The Dead, meaning that they could be taken for "research" at any time.

Lazarus agreed and he now lives happily ever after in Neriak with his clan.

The Freeblood

There are three "D'Ryil's Letters," parts 1, 2, and 3.

Part 1:

Verilos,

Please read what I have enclosed. I have gone through the notes that were brought to me from Mayong’s library, and I believe that the sections I have highlighted below are the most pertinent to our experiments. Familiarize yourself with these.

… exactly how these runes might fit together. I believe that these are separate from the runes on the inside of the ring, but their significance isn’t immediately apparent.

As an aside, I am still puzzled as to what happened back in the tower. I have pondered the failure, but the reasons to her dramatic transformation elude me. I have turned others of her race, and none have changed the way she did. There is something more to this, something that reacted violently to the gift of vampirism.

Utilizing magic as she does, I wondered at first if she might have entreated herself to a powerful dark force that might have lashed back against anything that could wrest control of its thrall from its grip, since she would become subservient to me. I believe, however, that the possessor would have revealed itself in some manner had this been the case. There was no message of any kind (no changes in voice uttering a warning, no disembodied spirit attempting to threaten me), so I don’t believe this to be the case.

I wonder if she might have been under another sort of protection spell. Perhaps she was attempting to protect herself from the vampirism using a weak warding magic. This is plausible, although I did not feel the presence of a ward, and she had drank from the goblet containing my blood without any signs of difficulty. I suspect that if there were a ward, I would have noticed it immediately.

I believe that there is something else at play here…

… to continue the search for the staff. I despise their incompetence, but they are indeed necessary to complete the task I have before me.

Once again, I must make note of my findings regarding Tserrina. After pondering and researching, I believe that something was different about her blood itself. I recall there being a taste to it, something that I did not recognize. I brushed this off at first as some manner of contamination, that perhaps her dabbling in necromantic or demonic arts had tainted her blood. It seems I should have not been so quick to dismiss that fact.

If indeed her blood was impure, or mixed somehow, then whatever it was that she had infused in her blood was likely the cause of the transformation. I have a few theories as to what this could be, but the truth of the matter is that any discovery I make now is largely moot in regards to her. She is locked in the tower now, and will rot with time. She is no longer my concern, although I believe that I can apply the lessons I’ve learned to a similar experiment. I am interested in how a mixture like this might apply to another stock of blood, such as dragon’s blood. The implications of this are quite intriguing.

I will, however, make sure and look for the same sort of tells, should I choose to take up another bride as such. I do not want to waste more time and resources on another failed venture such as that again.

It’s clear to me that we must locate the notes of Tserrina Sly’Tor as well. She has the other half of the information that Mayong was missing. If we can recover that, then I believe that we can combine the two pieces of research to accomplish our goal of strengthening our bloodline. Send a thrall into the library, and recover the notes of Tserrina.

Do not fail.

Part 2:

To the Esteemed Arelin Holst D’Ryil,

I must write to inform you of our current progress.

As you know, our experiments have been going very well. We’ve been able to extrapolate quite of bit of information from Mayong’s research notes, and I believe that your theories on the outcome of his attempted transformation were quite insightful. It was fortunate for us that we had the information he was missing from Tserrina’s notes.

Several of our experiments, at this point, have been failures – this was expected. We’ve destroyed the majority of the failed experiments, as requested. However, we’ve found that some of the failures have yielded some interesting information as they decay. We’re interested to watch this process, and thus have kept these failures alive, partially for analysis, but admittedly there is a fair amount of amusement in their agonized writhing and cries.

Finding the correct mixture of blood is, as you know, the essence to our experiments here. Too much of the mixture resulted in dramatic transformations that the recipients rarely survived. Too little, and they became ineffective, creating rebellious, angry, weakened vampires. Finding the correct balance has been a difficult endeavor.

One particular experiment, a human male, has proven quite promising, however. Initially, we expected a complete failure with him, as his mixture was only slightly varied from experiments we had tried and failed with. As with the others, he writhed through the night, pleasing us with gurgling screams as he transformed. I myself entered his chamber the following night, prepared for either a wide-eyed, stiffened corpse, or a vicious, drooling, mindless beast. Neither was the case. He looked at me and asked the usual questions, “What happened to me?”, “What have I become?”… the standard list of disbelieving queries we are all used to from new blood. This was promising.

In spite of all of this, I would hesitate from calling this one a success. He seems to lack many of the benefits of our race – his strength does not appear to be that over others of his original stock, he seems to lack any manner of significant regeneration, and, most fatal of all, he does not appear to be subservient to our house as he should be. This was unexpected, and regardless of all his other flaws, makes him quite useless to us on the whole.

I still want to keep him alive for the time being, as there might be more to be to learn from him still. Once he has outlived his usefulness, I will see him destroyed. I am pleased, though, that we are on the verge of success, and that this recent experiment proves this.

I will inform you of our progress once a significant breakthrough has been made.


For the D’Ryil,
Verilos

Part 3:

Alesandra,

I am writing to discuss a very troubling matter, one that is up the utmost importance to our House and family.

It seems that our brother, Aerlin, has acquired some very interesting notes. He was able to gather a tome of research from none other than Mayong himself, which seemed to detail Mayong’s encounter with Tserrina, and notes he took on his attempted, and failed, turning of her. Aerlin then managed to acquire Tserrina’s notes on her own experiments of immortality from the library of Neriak.

His work seemed to point toward something he called the “strengthening of the blood”, a mixing of the research of Mayong and Tserrina. According to my informant, these experiments were largely unsuccessful, although their processes were well thought out. They attempted to turn all manner of races, from the brutish ogres, to the hideous iksar, to the insignificant gnomes. It seems that of all the races, the only ones they were able to have any measure of success with were those of human and elven stock – any others simply died in writhing agony.

Although it appears they have not yet achieved their goal, they met a measure of success with a human male they refer to as “Sarkon”. While he was not what they were hoping for initially, he did survive his experiments and was able to evidently provide them with a wealth of information. Evidently, they found all they needed to know, and were planning to destroy him. That was, until they entered his chamber to find him missing. Sarkon had escaped.

The troubling piece of information here, is that Sarkon escaped during the daylight. I’ll repeat that: Sarkon fled his confinement during full sunlight. While the fools are scrambling to discern how this was possible, the implications of what happened are not to be understated. It appears that Sarkon can walk into the daylight, since no charred remains were found. Whether he had assistance with this act is irrelevant. Sarkon, while D’Ryil, is not subservient to the House as he should be, and could prove to be dangerous to all of the D’Ryil as a whole. He must be found, and ultimately, destroyed.

In the meantime, we must find Aerlin and his laboratory. My informant is not aware of the location of the experiments, but I believe it is of paramount importance to find a way to put a stop to their research before they endanger us any further. We must convene, and contemplate what our next move will be. I will contact you when it is time.

Farewell for now.

- Viktyr D’Ryil

Summary

The D'Ryil (specifically, Aerlin D'Ryil, with help from Verilos D'Ryil) were attempting to strengthen their bloodline. The D'Ryil are weak in comparison, especially considering they were begun by Lazarus D'Ryil, a member of the D'Morte clan so inferior, they left him behind when they left the Darklight Woods.

Their experiments combined the research of Mayong and Tserrina. Unfortunately, all experiements were considered failures. They tried all different races, but only those of Human and Elvish stock survived the transformation. Most deteriorated or were destroyed.

Then came the failure known as Sarkon D'Ryil. While he didn't have the strength or regenerative powers of the D'Ryil vampires, he also apparently didn't feel the need to be subservient to the House. He was slated for destruction, but somehow managed to escape in daylight. (The benefits of being a Freeblood: No subservience, no aversion to daylight, slight regeneration, slight increase in strength.)

Sarkon D'Ryil is the creator of the Freebloods. Our lore on how Freeblood are made is sketchy--in the flight quest for bat form, you bite someone, but the implication is that there could be more to the process than just a simple bite.

Because of the idea of the D'Ryil experimentation, most people tend to create their own take on a vampire and go with it. And also because of the experimentation creation story, having a variety of different styles of vampire for the Freeblood works.

H&T Tile Inlay

I'm not the one who came up with the tile inlay in the Homes and Tomes hall. That was Pizazz. But it's one of the most asked-about features of our hall. On the old forum, Pizazz was kind enough to post the instructions in the thread about the Corporate Headquarters of Homes and Tomes. However, since we don't know how long the old forums will continue to exist, I've copied his instructions here. Enjoy!

4 white tiles, 4 red tiles, and 1 gold coin tile in 3 layers. Everything is at the same X, Y coordinate but the layers are at different Z coordinates
Layer 1:

• 2 white, 2 red - scale as desired.
• Rotate the red tiles 45
• Rotate the white tiles -45 
• Roll 1 red and 1 white tile 179.25 and roll the other 1 red and 1 white tile -179.25

Layer 2:

• 2 white, 2 red - scale to 1/2 of layer 1. 

• Rotate the white tiles 45

• Rotate the red tiles -45

• Roll 1 red and 1 white tile 179.25 and roll the other 1 red and 1 white tile -179.25

• raise the layer 0.010 - I might be off on how far to raise it 

Layer 3:

• 1 gold coin tile

• scale to layer 1 scale + small amount - I think in the case of this example the gold is 0.10 larger than layer 1

• Rotate the gold coin tile 45 degrees.

• raise or lower the tile to get the desired border effect.

Housing Colors

Every once in a while, someone in Homeshow will ask why the various houses on the Leaderboards have titles of different colors.

Each time a home reaches a landmark award, the title changes colors. Invariably, the next question is what those awards are.

0-9

10-24

25-49

50-99

100-199

200-399

400-699

700+

If there's a color beyond light purple, we haven't reached it yet.

November 2012 SoE Gamer of the Month?

On October 25th, I received an email that I never expected to receive. I had been chosen as November's SoE Gamer of the Month.

I admit that when I first saw the email title, I almost sent it to the spam folder. Me? SoE's Gamer of the Month? It sounded like a phishing email. I knew from Aurelis' stint as Gamer of the Month that people usually submit themselves. They fill out a questionnaire, including why they should be picked as Gamer of the Month. I hadn't done anything of the sort, so how had I been picked as SoE's Gamer of the Month?

However, certain things didn't add up to this being a phishing email. For one, the email came from an actual name, not the word "Congratulations!" or something like that. For another, all of the links in the email appeared to direct me to exactly what they said they would. Third, they weren't asking for my login information. Fourth, they addressed me as "Jazabelle," not by my email address. Then I looked at the signature. The email definitely appeared to be from a legit SoE employee. My hands started to shake. I was really chosen to be the SoE Gamer of the Month?

People who have been around me for a while know that I tend to be a pretty private person. I don't like flaunting myself. I still become terrified about speaking in public before any sort of group, to the point where I swear it feels like I'm having an out-of-body experience when I actually do talk. My head goes all floaty, and I can never clearly remember exactly what I said while I was speaking. Interviews, even written ones, do the same thing to me. Aurelis interviewed me back when BiblioNorrath was a thriving website, and we bibliophiles hadn't been regulated to a small subsection of the housing community. We roleplayed out the interview in-game, and my hands shook so badly the entire time, I had to retype each answer several times before it made sense.

So being the SoE Gamer of the Month really shook me up. It made a little more sense when I replied to the email, asking for some clarifications on some of the questions. I'd been nominated by one of the Community members who has begun spending more time on the Homeshow forums. It was likely the layout editing classes that really did it.

Now, I wasn't the first to think of layout editing classes. Gracey taught classes on the Test_Copy server, and before that, I and several other people offered private lessons whenever someone needed to learn some aspect of the editor. I'd even helped Gracey teach her classes in the beginning, and stepped in a few times to "sub" when she couldn't make it. But people had been requesting classes from me for a while, and I finally decided that I might as well go through with it and teach the layout editor basics, not just aspects of the editor. I haven't started those classes yet, since I'm still putting together the picture tutorials to go along with the classes. Sometimes it's just easier to be able to see exactly what you need to do when you're trying to learn how to do something new.

Being chosen as the Gamer of the Month really made me look back on my EQ2 experience. I wanted to really do the interview right. I wanted my answers to be clear, carefully thought-out, and interesting. I decided that for once, I could be less private about myself, and share who I was and how I came to be.

I've never set out to be "someone" in the games I play. I'm uncomfortable with attention, and even more uncomfortable drawing attention to myself. I've learned why when I've praised other people in the past, they acted uncomfortable--I too am uncomfortable with the praise. It often makes me feel like a fraud. The homes I build are easy for me. They seem simple and plain, nothing special to write home about. Even the Cathedral, with its vaulted and ribbed ceiling is actually quite simple when broken down into its component parts. It's nothing like Jesdyr's chapel, with its elaborate architecture.

However, the response to the article has proven to me that no matter how much I feel like a fraud, other people don't see me as such. For the most part, the comments on the Facebook page have been positive. The tells I received in-game were positive. The messages I received in-game were also positive. And when I mentioned to Zhadowsee in bewilderment that someone had told me it was well-deserved recognition, he informed me that yes, it was. He isn't the sort to hold my hand. On the rare occasions that I start to act haughty for whatever reason, he brings me down to earth by gently mocking me about being "the Jazabelle." I never want to be the Jazabelle. I'm just Jazabelle, that crazy person who's a little bit obsessive about the alignment of the items in her home, who knows the layout editor well enough to teach it to others, and who writes the occasional picture tutorial to go along with it. So if Zhadowsee and others say it's well-deserved recognition, I suppose it must be.

Overall, I mostly feel bewildered and honored beyond belief. I'm still not really sure how this happened.

The article, for anyone wishing to read it.