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.

Stupid Facebook!

I should have realized that linking images from Facebook wouldn't be a safe thing to do. A lot of my posts now have missing images due to Facebook apparently deciding to change the URLs for those images. I'm not sure why some changed and some didn't, but I won't be cross-linking to Facebook anymore.

I did check and ensure that the tutorials are all fine. I'll be fixing other posts as I find the time.

So sorry for the inconvenience!

The Chapel Maze to Anashti Sul (Prizes October 6 - November 17)

Somewhere hidden amongst Freeport's streets
A temple to the Forgotten sleeps.
Every Nights of the Dead it awakes,
Mortal life it forever forsakes.
If for prizes death you would cheat,
Proceed to Jazabelle's to partake!



Apologies for the horrible poetry, but last year's maze set a precedent, and I didn't have anyone to write the poetry for me this year.


Important information: This was originally set to run from October 6 - November 10th. Unfortunately, I fell ill in the weeks prior to November 10th, and was unable to promote the maze. In the interest of fairness, I've extended the event for a week. Those 24 individuals who completed the maze prior to November 10th will still receive their prizes on November 11th. Anyone else is welcome to run the maze and answer the riddle. If you do so, your prize will be mailed to you on November 18th.


When: October 6 - November 17, 2012

Where: Jazabelle's Lavastorm home in Freeport on the Antonia Bayle server. Alternatively, you may visit The Chapel to Anashti Sul on the Leaderboards, under the Hall of Fame.

Why?: Because Nights of the Dead is awesome, but sometimes you need to take a break from grinding for the house items! So instead you can run a maze and answer a riddle for prizes (I know, I know, not that different...).

Prizes?: Yep! Prizes will be awarded through the 18th of November. Details can be found in the book inside the chapel.

Other servers offering prizes:
All other servers are eligible for prizes, as we have one kind person on Freeport taking care of prizes there, and a kind person from AB offering SC prizes to those who complete the maze and riddle. If you'd like to offer prizes for your server, please do feel free to contact me (I'm blown away by your generosity, guys!). You still have to travel to Antonia Bayle to run the maze and see the riddle, but you can receive awards on your main character.




Other NotD fun:
The MazeMansion from 2011 is open again, and offering token prizes to anyone who completes it!

(For those interested in seeing a photo album of the construction of the zones, click here. Don't worry, there are no spoilers.)


Riddlemasters:

1. Lunshea (of Freeport)
2. Liily (of Freeport)
3. Qaia
4. Kiosha
5. Ashinor
6. Nihke
7. Sedeck (of Oasis)
8. Facemeats
9. Immauri
10. Lealani
11. Atmu
12. Blazewolf
13. Savriel
14. Teoh
15. Chikkin
16. Senya (of Crushbone)
17. Kaian
18. Melago
19. Kiuf
20. Locomotive
21. Lowgan
22. Zazoo
23. Kasumie
24. Ughucork (of Freeport)

Beginner Layout Editing Classes

That's right, ladies and gentlemen. By popular demand, beginner's layout editing classes will be returning to EQ2.

(Link to the thread on the Homeshow forums for if you want to post questions, comments, or opinions!)

FAQ:

Where will the classes be held?

Cloudrat was generous enough to donate a guild and guild hall on the Test server. The Norrathian Decorators Academy is now in session!

For those who cannot reach the Test server for whatever reason, I am willing to hold the occasional lesson on the Antonia Bayle server. Please send me an email if you'd like to arrange a lesson on Antonia Bayle. Do keep in mind that it may take a few days to arrange a lesson. Sending me a tell or mail in-game, or a PM on these forums is not a guaranteed method of contacting me. Email is. You can find out how to email me further down this Q&A.

When will the classes be held?

Dates and times will vary. I'm aiming for every two weeks, but realistically, it'll probably be more like once a month. Dates and times will be posted in this thread. I will update the thread name as well as this post to reflect the planned class time. Be warned! I'm mildly pedantic (I know, how can you only be mildly pedantic?) and expect class to start at the time posted. If there is no one there at class time, I'll simply log out of the test server and go do something else. I will not wait around for you. Do not log in at the class time. Log in at least five minutes before. Better would be to give yourself ten minutes, so that if anything goes wrong with the test client, you have time to fix it. If you can't get in, log on the live server and send me a tell. Don't mess around with the server for half an hour, log in twenty minutes late, and expect a class to be there. There's the possibility that no one else showed up, and I logged back to the live server. So send a tell to either /tell Test.Jazabelle or /tell Test.Jazabella, depending on who I'm on.

But what if I contact you beforehand and let you know I'm going to be late?

All right, I'm not completely heartless. If you contact me beforehand, I'll stick around. I understand that real life can be rather annoying, and might keep you away from the game. I can be flexible, but I expect the courtesy of being informed beforehand that you'll be late. If you don't bother to let me know, I can't guarantee that there'll be a class in session when you log in. And if something comes up and you have no way of letting me know, you'll just have to try and either arrange a private lesson with me, or you'll have to wait for the next class.

How can I contact you for private lessons/lessons on Antonia Bayle?

Follow this link to my Blogger profile. On the lefthand side you should see a heading that says "Contact me." Under that is another link that says "email." Click the word "email," and you should be able to email me.

If, when you click the link, a window pops up telling you that there's no program associated with that action, click "Okay." Then right-click the word "email," and go to "copy email address." Now you can paste my email address into the email program of your choice to email me.

If you still can't find it, try (my character's name).(my character's last name without any punctuation)@gmail.com

Why are you making it so hard to email you? Why can't you just type it out here?

I'm not deliberately making it hard to contact me. It's just that the more places your email address is, the more likely it is that you'll wind up with spam. Since this email address is spam free so far, and I'd like to keep it that way, I'm not posting the actual address.

ZOMG MATH!

Yes, there will be a little bit of math. No, it won't be more than a little addition and subtraction. If you're not good at doing math in your head, the calculator program that comes with your computer will be enough to take care of it.

But I heard something about trig?

That's for advanced layout editing, and you don't really need to use trig. There are websites that do all the math for you, and I'll provide you a link to a website when you're advanced enough to use it. Until then, I'm not going to, because I don't want to scare you (and there's no reason to be scared, anyway!_)

Do I need to know anything coming into the class?

Nope! These are beginning layout editing classes for a reason. Eventually, I'll have picture tutorials up on my blog to go along with the classes, but I haven't gotten there yet.

Picture tutorials?

Yep! Here's a link to my layout editor tutorial page. I don't yet have beginning tutorials up, but when I do I'll include a direct link to them here.

How do I get to the Test server?

I'll include a picture tutorial for that, too, in a bit. But for now, follow these steps. Do not do this a few minutes before class. Do not do this half an hour before class. Give yourself at least an hour for the first time you log in to the Test server just in case something goes wrong. In fact, I wouldn't even do this on the same day as the layout editing class. I'd do this several days before, so that if you can't get it working, you have time to ask people for help. If you frantically contact me the day of the layout editing class, saying you're still copying files over and can I please hold class for you, I'm sorry, but the answer will be no. Either arrange a private lesson, come late, or wait for the next class to be held.

1. Find the EQ2 icon on your desktop.
2. Right-click it.
3. Click Open file location.
4. Create a new folder in this folder, and name it TestServer. That isn't a typo. There is no space between the word test and the word server in the name of the folder.
5. Select everything in your EQ2 folder except the TestServer folder, the logincache folder, the cache folder, the screenshots folder, the logs folder, and the eq2_default.ini file. The easiest way to do that is to select everything in the folder, then hold down ctrl and click each of the folders and file I named above. That will unselect them while leaving everything else selected.
6. Copy the files. You can do that by right-clicking after you've selected them, and clicking the option to copy, or holding down ctrl and c.
7. Open the TestServer folder.
8. Paste the files you copied. You can do that by right-clicking and selecting paste, or by holding down ctrl and v.
9. Open the EQ2 launcher like you normally do.
10. In the upper lefthand corner of the launcher, you will see a section that says Version: US English (or whatever version of EQ2 you're running).  Click the US English (or whatever yours says after Version). The lower half of the launcher should change to something that says Advanced Settings on the left and Select Game Version on the right.
11. Under Select Game Version, there's a dropdown box. Select Public Test.
12. Make sure that Full Download is UNSELECTED. That's right, you don't want it to be clicked. Not unless you want to wait several hours while the game downloads the entire test client.
13. Click the green Apply button. The client should now patch. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes, but depending on how different the Test server's client is from the Live client, it might take a bit longer.

You're now ready to log in to the Test server!

Why the Test server?

I understand that we have free accounts now. I also understand that some people don't like to make free accounts. The Test server allows people to play on their main account, without counting against their character total on the Live servers. I also understand that some people can't log in to the Test server, which is why I'm willing to offer private lessons/small lessons on the Antonia Bayle server.

Wait, the characters on the Test server don't take up character slots?

They do take up character slots, but they have a separate count from the Live servers. If you have twenty character slots on the Live servers, you also have twenty character slots on the Test server.

Okay, so I started the Test client. Now what do I do? I don't have any characters here!

Create a brand new character. The easiest place for you to start is in New Halas, because that's where the guild hall is. Race and class don't matter, so make whatever you want to make. Contact Jazabelle/Jazabella or anyone in Norrathian Decorators Academy for an invite to the guild.

How will lessons be conducted?

Lessons will be conducted in /say. They will be step-by-step, and I will explain everything that's going on. Don't be afraid to speak up if you have a question. If you're too embarrassed to do so in /say, go ahead and send me a /tell. But we're all there to learn, so there's really no need to be embarrassed!

Lessons won't be in voice chat?

No. Lessons will not be in voice chat. For one, lessons in /say have the benefit of being caught by EQ2's /log option. For another, not everyone plays with sound or microphones. I don't want to leave anyone out.

But I learn best when I hear instructions instead of reading them! You're leaving ME out!

Then arrange a private lesson with me. Public lessons will be in /say, and that's that.

How long will these classes take?

Class length depends on how many students there are, and how quickly people are picking it up. Some people just learn things a little slower than others, and if there are a lot of people, classes can take a while. Set aside at least an hour for the class. When Gracey was running classes, they usually took anywhere from half an hour to a couple of hours. If the class is taking longer than usual, I may call an end and schedule a followup class for the next week.


So how much are these classes going to cost me?
Absolutely nothing. These classes are free! I only ask that you "pass it on," and help someone else out in the future. The more of us passing on our knowledge, the better.