Ciadel Ziske, Loreseeker of the Restless

OldeSword · **Joined:** Sat Aug 20, 2011 7:28 pm **Posts:** 126

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o [Scores] Ciadel, Ziske, Loreseeker of The Restless o
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o Status: Grand Master(1) Race: Human Class: Sorceror o
o Kingdom: Uxmal Cabal: Independent o
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o Coins: 2 platinum, 5 silver, 6 copper o
o Carrying: 1/12 items Load: 124.8/195.0 pounds o
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o Health: Excellent Mental: Lively Physical: Fresh o
o Attribute points: 1 Wimpy: 0 percent Mode: Stun/neutral o
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o You are standing. o
o You are over two-thirds of the way to the next level. o
o You have played 609 hour(s) so far. o
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[HP:100%] [ME: 60%] [PE:100%]
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attributes

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o [Attributes] Ciadel Ziske, Loreseeker of The Restless o
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o Status: Grand Master(1) Race: Human Class: Sorceror o
o Age: 30 Sex: Male Size: Medium o
o Alignment: Principled Handiness: Right handed Religion: Zavijah o
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o STR: Weak INT: Genius WIS: Wise o
o DEX: Limber CON: Healthy CHA: Influential o
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o Carrying capacity: 12 items with a maximum weight of 195.0 pounds. o
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[HP:100%] [ME: 60%] [PE:100%]
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spells

Amateur - armor (mastered) change sex (mastered)
detect buried (mastered) detect magic (mastered)
magic missile (mastered) ventriloquate (mastered)
Novice - color spray (mastered) continual light (mastered)
detect hidden (mastered) detect invis (mastered)
fly (mastered) invis (mastered)
Initiate - enlarge (mastered) giant strength (mastered)
identify (mastered) infravision (mastered)
shrink (mastered) sleep (mastered)
Apprentice- acid blast (mastered) cancellation (mastered)
mirror image (mastered) shield (mastered)
teleport (mastered) understand (mastered)
Journeyman- airy water (mastered) charm person (mastered)
dispel magic (mastered) etherealform (mastered)
haste (mastered) tongues (mastered)
Veteran - locate object (mastered) mass invis (mastered)
polymorph (mastered) summon (mastered)
Expert - detect aura (mastered) enchant armor (mastered)
enchant weapon (mastered) recharge (mastered)
Mentor - depetrification (mastered) gate (mastered)
petrification (mastered) spell ward (mastered)
(C)ontinue - (R)efresh - (B)ack - (H)elp - (Q)uit [RETURN]:
c
Master - final strike (superb)

[HP:100%] [ME: 60%] [PE:100%]
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skills

Amateur - dagger (mastered) sling (mastered)
staff (mastered) dodge (mastered)
scrolls (superb) staves (superb)
swim (mastered) wands (superb)
taslamaran tongue (mastered) uxmaln tongue (mastered)
zhensh tongue (mastered) empire tongue (mastered)
aghelian tongue (mastered) sylvan tongue (mastered)
firmyrn tongue (mastered) deep tongue (mastered)
taslamaran writing (mastered) uxmaln writing (mastered)
zhensh writing (mastered) empire writing (mastered)
aghelian writing (mastered) sylvan writing (mastered)
firmyrn writing (mastered) deep writing (mastered)
Novice - meditation (mastered)
Apprentice- crossbow (mastered)
Journeyman- trance (mastered)
Veteran - self defense (mastered)
Expert - scribe (superb)

[HP:100%] [ME: 60%] [PE:100%]

He also had max art and a few mana trains.

Ciadel was my first and last character in SK. I created him while I was trying a few different MUDs and was completely ignorant of the game at chargen. I just wanted to play a spellcaster and I wanted to see if it was possible to play a MUD as a character who opposed violence as it is a concept I've been exploring IRL. This likely means that I invested a bit too much of myself into him. I very nearly didn't play SK and stopped for a few days to try other MUDs but came back to this one because of the RP I got my very first day.

The RP is what kept me around.

Ciadel started as a teenager who was in love with the art. He quickly GMed and immediately proceeded to master as many spells as possible. I never intended for him to join any faction at all, much less become Justiciar of the Keepers, but after Zahirana was captured and enslaved (deleted), he felt a lot of guilt and shame concerning it. He remembered (though her player did not) a time when she asked him to join the Keepers and he said he had no interest in politics. At the same time, his mentor, Sakamoto, was telling him that he should use his power to some good end. He felt responsible for not using his abilities to benefit others.

So I PMed Mira and Judge Atzalyn inducted him into the Keepers and, seeing that he was GM, made him Justiciar on the spot. A few characters were happy with the decision and he felt bolstered. He also dived headlong into the fray at first. One of the first things he did was launch a stealth raid on Krychire (with some help) and steal Zahirana back. Thanks to Nashira for being awesome and resolving that.

Then he started questioning the motives of his allies, instead of accepting him at face value, and investigated the details concerning the start of the various wars. He took the loss of each Peacekeeper personally, viewing them as people and not just law NPCs, and started suing for peace. He reviewed the book of law and started aggressively enforcing the laws concerning freedom, sanctuary, fair treatment, and slavery in Taslamar. This would be the start of his conflict with the Hammer, whom he held and still holds responsible for much of the violence pervading Taslamar, which was 'resolved' when Mira puppeted Queen Serena and ordered him to stop deporting the Hammer while ordering them to defer to the Justiciar within Taslamar.

My submitting a build request for trebuchets may have tipped Mira off that if the Hammer wouldn't leave Taslamar willingly that I intended to bring Castle Morea down on their heads.

Ciadel had also prayed to Zavijah for forgiveness after charming Lathron - once, the only time he charmed an NPC for combat - and stated he could never attone but would seek to do better by making sure it didn't happen again that he was invested with the faith. Later, he would start developing theurgy: A form of ritual magic designed to petition the angelic beings for aid. It was to be a counter to all of the blood magic and infernal powers running amok throughout Pyrathia and I really appreciate Marfik's openness to the idea. I would have done more with it but Ciadel was constantly distracted by fighting or preparing to fight.

I felt that Ciadel had drifted far from who was and he was increasingly bitter about it. He wasn't pursuing the art like he wanted to. He had abandoned his first love and knowledge was being allowed to languish. He also felt that he was being forced to endorse tyranny because Queen Serena, out of sentiment he thought, would take the Hammer's side over the law and fair treatment of the people. She wouldn't even enforce her own proclamation so after several years as Justiciar, he resigned.

I tried SK for a few more weeks with Ciadel going back to his roots, though trouble and politics always seemed to find him, and likely would have lingered for several more weeks or even unto age death. Part of me wanted to see just where his story would go. Another part wanted to make theurgy happen and contribute to the game. A bigger part just wanted to continue having fun with a few friends of mine - and one good friend is what I consider the most valuable thing I've derived from my time here.

However, November is going to be a busy but phenomenal month for me. I have to get ready for transitioning from military to civilian life. I have a business to grow and a novel to write. Ultimately, I decided that my time (609 hours!) would be better invested elsewhere.

If I were to try and list every player or character that had a positive impact on my time here I know I'd miss someone. So I won't. The people who mean the most to me and Ciadel know who they are and I am content to leave it at that.

ninja_ardith · **Joined:** Wed Sep 24, 2008 12:21 pm **Posts:** 4452

You'll come back.

It's possible to play the type of character you want, so long as you are not getting involved in tribunals and cabals.

Dulrik · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 6:00 pm

Oldesword, you made a bigger impact on the game with your first character than most can claim. Sorry to hear you are moving on, but sounds like you are doing it for the right reasons.

Teh_Peso · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 6:31 pm

patrisaurus · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 6:36 pm

As entirely frustrating as many of our interactions were, they were always consistently roleplayed. I'd really hoped to reconcile in the next few weeks. You deserve credit for an influential character and I regret not finishing the RP we started in the church of wisdom. Hopefully Paedrig can go it alone.

Edoras · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 6:38 pm

Oldesword, you and I had a lot of disagreements that seemed to move out of the OOC and into the IC, and frankly, I feel like they all resulted from you both wanting to play a peaceful character yet trying to do so while leading a faction that is ultimately destined for conflict (Not PK necessarily mind you, but conflict). I honestly thought for a long time about writing out a post that didn't come down on you too hard, but I feel like that would be very dishonest to do.

There are most certainly places for characters who avoid conflict at all costs, but the Peacekeepers is not one of those places as those as long as the other in-game factions are populated: Joining a cabal like the Peacekeepers means that you have to "man the wall" and essentially turn into the conflict-ridden person that keeps a nation safe. If you wanted to play a peaceful character, you should not have asked to get inducted into the most PK-active faction in the game.

Personally, I always found it very annoying both ICly and OOCly that, while you were trying to play a character who pursued peace, you seemed to be abounding in forgiveness on the side of the factions who had absolutely no IC history of peace with your nation yet simultaneously unwilling to consider the point of view of the IC faction who not only had a history of peace and alliance, but actually shared a nation with you. Ultimately, it took an IMM to knock it into your head that it was completely out of place for you to presume to command the Hammer of Light or to start a war with them, and even then you didn't accept it but rather seemed to just get more OOCly annoyed at how you felt your "Peacekeepers need to war with the Hammer for doing their job" RP was being slighted by the IMMs. ICly you tried to act as if our meeting with Queen Serena ended with Queen Serena telling you to be the ultimate authority in all the Hammer's political decisions despite that clearly being in contrast to her points, and even in your afterlife thread here you expressed discontentment with the in-game ruling passed from the OOC administrators of the game.

I honestly believe that on an IC and OOC level, for the majority of Ciadel's existence, you were genuinely looking to create an RP of peace, but in the worst possible way and without once thinking of what things were like from the other side of the debate for you, and also without having any respect for the IC rules of the game: Like how you ICly stated that someone's alignment had very little to no impact on someone's actions. I purposefully played Pilnor to be the most conservative and calm leader that the Hammer of Light had seen in years, and I think I accomplished that goal: Yet even then you nearly pushed my limits to the brink and made me want to rip Ciadel's head off. In the time period where you were the most active, I was one of the only people keeping the vast majority of the lighties from declaring war on you and spam-killing you for essentially creating alliances with the only group of people who were truly at war with your faction.

In addition, please don't take this the wrong way, but even when you asked for advice on how you should play your character, and I wrote you paragraph upon paragraph of great ideas, you seemed to even respond to those with snarkiness or ignore them. From interacting you with alts even after the advice that I gave you OOCly, it became clear to me that most of my advice which I gave you was falling on deaf ears. I'm pretty sure that it took you nearly 20 minutes just to enchant two weapons for one of my low-level alts, which should only taken somewhere around 3-4 minutes maximum for someone who has been playing a sorcerer for 500 hours and been given tips on how to maximize a sorcerers' potential. It's very frustrating when you take time to give someone advice OOCly because they asked for it from you, and yet they seem to disagree with or ignore the vast majority of it.

In short, your character had consistent RP, and I feel like you could have been a very positive influence on the game as a whole perhaps if you hadn't joined the Peacekeepers, but ultimately I feel like while this character had a lot of neat fresh ideas that it was very hard to him to be taken seriously by other players while his pants were on top of his head.

Deathadder · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 6:39 pm

Llyewlyn still feels like you abandoned him. But got over it anywho good job with your first. And you will be back....

Minette · **Joined:** Sat Jul 16, 2005 7:50 pm **Posts:** 1798

Before anything, I want to tell you right away, straight up that I came to appreciate Ciadel after learning a lot about him, as a character in the story of the game. He held his grounds with principles, fought when needed, and helped a decent number of players in the game - those were qualities that will make him memorable.

But I hate to tell you, not as a mean to offend you, Ciadel was frustrating to deal with, I suppose that comes with someone who has principles (duh min), and despite that it is allegedly your first character, both you and your character are/were unwilling (?) to accept commonly established concepts/ideals. It constantly reminded me of a metaphor someone once told me. A tea cup with full of tea cannot take any more of it.

I think this is largely because most of the players have played SK for a long time, we begun when we were rather young, and in addition, we have come from a long history of how certain factions have been molded and expected to be played. These are gradually changing in SK, though.

At the end of the day, people have talked about removing/replacing Ciadel, wanting to put another in his place, but everyone just became accustomed to his personality and decided well, life is tough, just got to deal with him then. I think similar examples happen quite often in Talons too, generally new players join that faction, and quickly become its leader, then they learn the ropes as one of the hottest PK spots in SK.

Overall, I want to thank you for sharing him with us, if anything, you showed us a drastically different perspective of how a Peacekeeper can be played. If it was your intention to be frustrating, well damn, I might even say it was well-played. If it wasn't, I hope you can see some of the comments in this thread, but I think you are a matured player with his set principles RL already, so we are not going to budge you, are we?

At any rate, from a fellow player to another, I wrote this wasn't hoping for changes, but rather explaining people's actions to/with you, and I humbly wish you good luck.

Kirsenvar · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:25 pm

I actually liked Ciadel and I think he worked, he was reasonable and I liked that in a Tribunal Leader. Good job with your first SK char, hope you come back.

MsPooperTrooper · **Posted:** Tue Nov 01, 2011 8:54 pm

Much love to this character. I didn't get to interact with him much personally, but his actions impacted a lot of the goings-on in my last character's life and made me really regret not being able to play more to see what would happen.

I hope you come back someday! Whether you do or not, I hope everything goes well for you IRL. And if you're writing a novel, let us know when you publish it! Most of us, if not all, are book worms, and it'd be cool to read something a fellow SKer wrote.

Shattered Kingdoms

Ciadel Ziske, Loreseeker of the Restless

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