[Felkesste]

Please don't view this as an official application, more like pitching an idea and getting direct feedback from as many sources as possible.
The TLDR is that a team of academics from Karaten would wash up on Korvara with the goal of researching and cataloging everything to form some kind of encyclopedia of Korvara- and the less important objective of surviving long enough to do that.

Coral Quill would be a naval branch of a larger research institution within Karaten, sent aboard contracted or privately owned vessels to either support aquatic experiments and research, or actively carry out their own studies and tests above the surface of the ocean. While given basic training, ranks, and often having respectable educations behind their hiring in the first place, they're still primarily scholars at the end of the day and would generally be seen writing reports or collecting samples rather than wrestling squid monsters or taking part in military affairs.

The pitch is that this theoretical naval research team would be sent out to investigate unusual tidal movements somewhere in the vicinity of Korvara, (speculated to be something massive moving deep beneath the surface, too far for the team to get any actual information at the time with the staff and resources they had on hand), and when a freak storm ends up sinking their ship, the survivors end up washing up on Korvara. Their surviving pocket money is useless there, as it's the wrong currency. Their equipment was lost, or ruined in the storm, leaving them with the basic rags of any fledgling adventurer. Their bodies are not in the best of shapes, though it's unclear if that's their scholarly lifestyle or the battering of the waves and mysterious magics that brought them to this point in their lives. Starting with nothing but the pins of their company still stubbornly clinging to their clothes, the Coral Quill would have to make contact with locals, and navigate the complicated waters of staying on everyone's good sides while studying their cultures, their histories, *Cough* their magical secrets *Cough*, their economies, all while organizing expeditions into the wilderness to obtain soil and mineral samples, flora and fauna samples, and write field reports on everything they see and experience that deviates from their idea of normal back in the empire at large.

This would be something people sign-up for. There'd probably be a set deadline for signing on to the crew, and when the day came around, there'd be an announcement or immersive freak storm in-game, and the selected members would be put into a guild together and dropped on a random stretch of beach together in Korvara. Some quick things to keep in mind for the speculative terms and conditions of signing on,
- This is not going to be an opportunity to bring max level characters from the mainland over to Korvara. You will start at level 1, on a fresh character. Again, you can explain this initial weakness as being a paper pusher by nature, or as having been wounded in the storm and shipwreck.
- Karaten does not approve of liches, vampires, or dullahans last I knew, and would not likely hire them for naval research teams. Other unusual races are probably a case by case discussion with admins, though it goes without saying that you probably won't be allowed to sign on initially as a Korvara native race. Future members will likely be recruited from that pool, I imagine.
- You will not have any authority or political power on Korvara. I mean, you probably don't have any kind of power back in Karaten either, but that's likely doubly true when you're just a shipwreck survivor with nothing to your name and no way back home. You're an outsider, a stranger in a strange land, and thus anything you promise or threaten is entirely on you, giving you a difficult position to negotiate from. How the locals and their rulers choose to view you is going to depend on how your guild operates and contributes to life on the island.

The pro's, as I see them, are things like having an opportunity to immersively learn about the lore and mechanics of Korvara, introducing a neutral faction that's more interested in information and research data than politics or war, having a group that'll pay for escorts and expeditionary forces to unite players and stimulate the economy some- "Bringing new job opportunities to the unemployed masses!" If all goes well, the foundation of a library of information and lore in-game at whatever ends up being the Coral Quill's campsite or base of operations, giving players a place to immersively learn more about the island and the myriad of differences between it and the mainland's sensibilities. The Coral Quill can be kept under close watch and control by admins to serve as a sort of informational deus-ex-machina as needed for future events; If something like an earthquake is about to hit, or some ancient horror is waking up, it'll probably be the guys collecting soil samples and monitoring seemingly inane changes in the air that'll be the first to know, and from there they can inform the local authorities. This would make them good for introducing events ahead of time immersively.

Some optional toggles for this proposal would be..
- If the guild is headed by an admin, and kept under watch within certain limitations and rules not unlike guards, then the Coral Quill could potentially be given a limited means of communicating and trading with Karaten to exchange information and resources, to eventually open the door to imports and exports to and from the island handled entirely ICly by the leaders of the island. Something like a rudimentary gate that can transport inorganic matter, but would fry or expose anything with any organic components trying to pass through to the void.
- The guild could serve as an introduction to a rising threat, whatever was beneath the surface and whatever brought on that storm. The nature of the threat could be as straightforward and simple as a titanic monster from primordial times, or as complicated as some mad wizard trying to take something precious from the island in secret.
- Incentivizing research for members or even just freelancers that know how to read and write and show up with a decently written report, with in-game rewards, keeping tabs on who accomplishes what, and Karaten or the local leaders or whoever taking it upon themselves to reward the member of the Coral Quill that did the field research or served as the guild's mouth-piece during negotiations or first contact. This would keep the guild and it's recruits active and ambitious both ICly and OOCly.

The guild would not benefit from aggression on the whole. This is not ever going to develop into conquest, and any wars they take part in would either have to be really, really forced on them by the local political powers, or a matter of survival for the island as a whole. From the start, their goals and desires would push even the most ambitious among them to take peaceful approaches to any disagreements, because you can't learn much from people that have closed their gates to you, and you can't survive if no one wants to trade with you- especially if all you want to do with your time is study the life cycles of the local butterflies. As fascinating as that may end up being, it won't keep you fed without outside support...

I'd appreciate feedback of any kind on this. Criticism, concerns, complaints, I'd like to hear everyone's thoughts, from the admins, to the players, the Sigrogana imperialists to the Korvara islanders.

[Slydria]

I'm just gonna mention my biggest worry with something like this, we're still in the early stages of Korvara and I think it is much too soon to pull back the curtain and let people from Sigrogana trickle in and reintroduce much of the lore from there. Doubly so considering these are the scholarly sort from the most scholarly nation so there's not much of a filter on what they could potentially unveil.

[Felkesste]

I'm not entirely sure what they could reveal that might make much of an impact for the folks on the island, but I can't pretend to be an expert on the lore.
I wasn't trying to imply this would set a precedent either, just the introduction a more peaceful neutral faction that could serve a lot of utility roles, introducing events, helping to educate on Korvara lore, and serving as neutral functionaries for the leaders of the region to carry messages or pen things, share findings, the like. Being from Sigrogana initially would serve as their motivation for their neutrality and desire for knowledge. They have no nation to fall back on, no support, no certainty of food or shelter, so they have to make themselves useful to the powers-that-be while they conduct their studies. Giving a neutral faction that's operating in all the cities, trying to gather up knowledge, giving folks quests to obtain specific samples that day, or hiring people on as escorts or laborers for large scale expeditions would also feed into the economy and give people more IC reasons to explore- I mean, they'll explore either way for loot and levels, but it reduces aimlessness and gives people a place within each city to learn about the island. Maybe it'd work better as an NPC faction, primarily?

Like I said though, I think it'd probably benefit from a great deal of oversight anyway. I was hoping to get more feedback from more sources before I even considered applying for anything or speaking to any admins about it.

[Skullcatrons]

I'm not entirely sure what they could reveal that might make much of an impact for the folks on the island, but I can't pretend to be an expert on the lore.

Very well then.



What Korvarans do not know;

The Gods themselves, including Zera, Huggessoa, Mercala, Ryart. They are real.
That the races are manifestation of the Gods' will themselves upon human template, evolving basically.
That there is a whole God-war thing that happened, named the Heavenly Contention.
There is an actual way of doing teleportation system reliably (Korvara do not have real Mage's Guild)
The existences of the world at large (korvara is isolated)
The Black Doors Phemenons (Korvara so far do not have BDP)
That Gods empower magic (Mercala especially moreso, which is why healing is weakened in Korvara)
Vampires, Liches, Sentient Dullahan (Ones Korvara have is not sentient).
This extends to Mechanations, and Zera. 
Black Beasts and Seto (They do not act in Korvara either)
The Asago Corporation
And so much more...

What Korvara do knows is Magic language are same as rest of Sigrogana, that the races are named what they are (Despite gods being absent and it's why some people made up names for them instead of using original), and finally, Elves know of Mersales. But only Mersales.

[mourningstar]

Why would Korvarans give a fuck about the ramblings of some shipwrecked idiots? I could make up a God called Hearazcrn and be just as valid as these morons talking about 'Ryart'.

[Felkesste]

Humor me for a moment; Let's say you were transported back to ancient Rome or somewhere just as far from your world, your norm, your societal expectations- and for whatever reason, you decided that you wanted to educate these people about some of the things you know from your society. Like germs. You try to explain to them that there are these creatures that are so small, they appear invisible to the naked eye, that breed in filth and cause illness when they enter your body. They can only be killed with these specific materials or substances. They can only be seen with special tools. The myriad of ways they reproduce and spread could fill several books.

But I'm going to go out on a limb here, and guess that you don't know the first thing about building a microscope- especially with ancient tools and materials. I would also presume that, while you might have a vague idea on how to make homemade soaps, it'd be a lot of trial and error, and it'd be very hard for you to prove that this pleasant smelling block of slippery "fat?" is in any way good for people's health, enough to dissuade them from prioritizing the production of more immediately recognizably practical things like food or tools. I'd also bet that you wouldn't know the first thing about how to kill germs that have already entered the body, or how to treat most illnesses once people have succumb to them. If a plague hit the town, about all you could do is explain some of what you know about how germs spread- and even back then, they already had a murky understanding of how that worked, so you'd really just be spewing their own common-sense back at them from their perspective and getting haughty and smug about it.

I don't see any of that information making an impact on day to day life on the island, not only because none of it could be taken -to- the island and proven to anyone in any capacity, but because the island would, in theory, have it's own culture, it's own history, it's own beliefs and heritage, outsiders trying to preach about these gods from the outside and promising that faith in these gods would make you more powerful would be -IMMEDIATELY- upsetting to the powers-that-be on the island. That's the sort of thing that would get you and your faction hunted down and exterminated. Rocking the boat like that would be very foolish of the guild, and what would they gain from doing so? All they'd be doing is muddying their own studies into the culture and history of the region, and upsetting the people in charge to boot by "starting cults". Some of that is a little silly to worry about, too. "Did you know that the Asago Corporation exists somewhere in the world?", "Oh my gosh, this changes everything-"

What I was proposing was the equivalent of a very weakened, isolated branch of the mage's guild essentially, that has far more player interaction. As a player-filled neutral faction, they could spark a lot of developments and serve a lot of functions for the island, while giving the members something non-violent to do with their time. Roles that would prioritize writing reports, gathering samples, seeking out information no matter how obscure or secretive. Maybe they evolve into a cabal of sages that serve as scribes during the day, and study "mysterious secret magics" in their sanctuary at night. Maybe they evolve into a bunch of ink-stained, half-mad scribes that can read, write, and speak a variety of languages, so they're just useful enough to put up with their mad rambling about the life-cycles of the local crows.

As an NPC neutral faction, they could fulfill the role of giving players daily quests to hunt specific monsters, gather specific materials from specific locations, locate local flora- mushrooms, moss, flowers, leaves, herbs, locate local fauna- birds, fish, insects, unicorns- and maybe buy some of the growing pile of captured monsters from players as the arena does, "for research purposes". They can't make portals. They can't teleport anyone anywhere. They might know that those things exist, but they can't replicate it with the resources and knowledge they have available- (being a professor of history does not mean you know how to forge an axe because axes exist in history, the crew likely had specific jobs, and they might be pretty good at their jobs, but those jobs didn't involve crafting anything particularly society-changing singlehandedly out of twigs and stones)- and they can't prove any of it to anyone, nor would they want to try when it would likely cost them their lives. The empire could conquer Oniga pretty easily. But that rocks the boat, and they have the good sense not to take such a pointless risk. This group of surviving scholars would, I hope, have enough good sense to come to a similar conclusion about sharing any of those things. There is no benefit; Only danger.

[Sawrock]

PRAISE HEARAZCRN

[lalchi]

Humor me for a moment; Let's say you were transported back to ancient Rome or somewhere just as far from your world, your norm, your societal expectations- and for whatever reason, you decided that you wanted to educate these people about some of the things you know from your society. Like germs. You try to explain to them that there are these creatures that are so small, they appear invisible to the naked eye, that breed in filth and cause illness when they enter your body. They can only be killed with these specific materials or substances. They can only be seen with special tools. The myriad of ways they reproduce and spread could fill several books.

But I'm going to go out on a limb here, and guess that you don't know the first thing about building a microscope- especially with ancient tools and materials. I would also presume that, while you might have a vague idea on how to make homemade soaps, it'd be a lot of trial and error, and it'd be very hard for you to prove that this pleasant smelling block of slippery "fat?" is in any way good for people's health, enough to dissuade them from prioritizing the production of more immediately recognizably practical things like food or tools. I'd also bet that you wouldn't know the first thing about how to kill germs that have already entered the body, or how to treat most illnesses once people have succumb to them. If a plague hit the town, about all you could do is explain some of what you know about how germs spread- and even back then, they already had a murky understanding of how that worked, so you'd really just be spewing their own common-sense back at them from their perspective and getting haughty and smug about it.

I don't see any of that information making an impact on day to day life on the island, not only because none of it could be taken -to- the island and proven to anyone in any capacity, but because the island would, in theory, have it's own culture, it's own history, it's own beliefs and heritage, outsiders trying to preach about these gods from the outside and promising that faith in these gods would make you more powerful would be -IMMEDIATELY- upsetting to the powers-that-be on the island. That's the sort of thing that would get you and your faction hunted down and exterminated. Rocking the boat like that would be very foolish of the guild, and what would they gain from doing so? All they'd be doing is muddying their own studies into the culture and history of the region, and upsetting the people in charge to boot by "starting cults". Some of that is a little silly to worry about, too. "Did you know that the Asago Corporation exists somewhere in the world?", "Oh my gosh, this changes everything-"

It does change everything, and people back to ancient rome did had to confront the progress of technology and mix of culture, changing everything as well. Even if after their fall.

Thing is, those knowledge karaten has, is not just beliefs, they are true. 
The gods are true, Mercala is very real, the use of the salamander structure is a big change. Safe teleport is a big deal. The knowledge of the races origins change all the history and raise questions. 

And of course, knowing their a whole ass other continent on the other side of the ocean. There's no way NO ONE in Korvara is going to ignore that.

That is maybe not for your character. But in a world view point. It REALLY matters. 

Best is to just wait for Korvara to be open to Sigrogana before such organisation.
Sigrogana itself, at this point, is not supossed to be aware of Korvara. But movement like the Coral Quill Pitch could be part of reasons Korvara and Sigrogana becomes connected at some point, in the future.

[Felkesste]

I'm sorry if what I wrote last night came across as short, or personally targeted in any way, I was super sleepy and trying to hurry to bed.

This might seem unrelated, but have you ever tried to be "just a craftsman" before?
The first problem any dedicated crafter encounters is that the level cap on crafting skills. You, as an ordinary citizen who can't be expected to swing a sword, let alone face terrifying monsters with one, would level far slower than an adventurer. That's to be expected though, right? That's fine.
The second is sourcing your materials. You can't go plundering dungeons all day for things, so you'd probably need to buy raw materials from either NPC shops, or from adventurers- that makes sense, that's economics, and it could lead into a really healthy relationship of buying materials for cheap, and producing quality goods that can be sold back to those same adventurers for a pretty penny, right? The thing is, those adventurers can just keep the materials, and craft the same things for themselves, without paying for them. That's just the smarter choice for them. So they'll do that. Moreover, they have the wealth of materials, levels, and murai to mass-produce the same goods you could, even at your peak, and because it's all things they obtained for free, they can sell at a lower price than you, in bulk, and still be generating loads of profit. People would look at you and the prices you have to set just to break even after having paid for all your materials, and laugh.
So for practical purposes, there is no reason to be a craftsman. You should just be an adventurer.
That means everyone hoping to be noticed, make an impact, and have any degree of influence or appeal is going to be an adventurer.

Being max level isn't special or unique, it's expected of you. If you hope to have any kind of conflict with anyone or anything, and you're not level sixty and LE'd out the whizzle, then you're a jobber that's there to make other people look good. You get one-shot in fights, and have no impact on anything, and very little interaction with anything during confrontations or events.
Combat-oriented events are the norm though, because there's just not much room for other sorts of events. Cooking festivals? Well, how many people are dedicated cooks? How many people haven't been roleplaying as a hardened battle-hungry explorer, that wouldn't know the first thing about chopping carrots, let alone how to bring the greatest flavor out of them? Admins have limits on their time, patience, and attention, so if they're going to put time and energy into events, they'd want something that reaches as many people as possible, right? Since just about everyone's an adventurer waiting for a villain to fight and slay, introducing big baddies is just the go-to standard, the most sensible choice.

But by that same coin, there are SO MANY ADVENTURERS that are patiently waiting for their time to shine, that whenever a baddy does show up, everyone comes falling out of the sky, crawling out of the woodwork, and sprouting out of the ground, in the hopes of being the one to take them down and having their moment at long last. This crab bucket of enthusiasm and desperation only lets a handful of people actually get to be heroes, and the rest are just awkward spectators that might get to fight some henchmen.
There's not a lot of incentives to be anything other than an adventurer. No matter the flavor, warrior, mage, healer, rogue, you're a hobo that's good at killing things, one of many, many hobos, that some times roam in packs to rampage across stretches of wilderness, looting and killing as you go. You live your life waiting for that next glorious fight, but between an ever evolving meta of finding the most broken or exploitable builds to hammer down on until some balancing patches come out, and the huge line of fellow glory seekers waiting for their turn, you probably won't get your chance.

I'm not saying that the system is broke, yo.
I just want to see incentives to be things other than an adventurer. As it stands, adventurers do everything better than everyone else, and they get the lion's share of event and content. Idreamofadaywhenwecouldhaveacookingcontestevent. Studying up on the judge's favorite foods, going on journeys to acquire rare ingredients, sabotaging the dishes of our rivals, sparking mysteries and investigations about who ended up poisoning the judge with one of the competitor's dishes.. I'm not particularly married to this Coral Quill pitch, but I'm dead-set on a lot of what it has to offer being valuable additions to the game. A reason to roleplay as a scholar. Writing field reports. Conducting expeditions. Opening the door to people signing on as apprentices and trying to learn the ropes of being an academic. The Sigrogana aspect is an excuse for a lot of their core beliefs, neutrality, and curiosity, but the actual number of imperial members compared to Korvara members would probably start drifting hard towards island natives over time, because they're who's available to join, no more imperials would be showing up.

It's easy to say, "If it's IC, you should just do it, and not worry about the OOC practicality, or the mechanics of it-", but that's not how the minds of your fellow players work. A lot of people will choose the cheaper option of buying from an adventurer that can mass-produce things in bulk and sell for cheaper than you, than your barely-breaking-even prices and sparse inventory. A lot of people will prioritize reaching level sixty as soon as possible and getting the best gear as quick as they can, so that when the next big combat event does inevitably roll around, they're primed and ready to throw their hat into the ring for that evening's protagonist-lottery. The narrow scope of priorities this creates leaves the world feeling shallow, and at times, stagnant. People I used to play with for hours every day can't be bothered to play the game now even with Korvara having been released, because they feel like it's just more level grinding, more combat, more meta rat-races, they don't see a fresh start, they see a level reset that has the community lively and optimistic for a bit.
Being the change you want to see doesn't do much to change experienced gamer mind-sets.

For the record, for as doom-and-gloom as I may come off in that last bit, I don't expect special treatment here. If the masses are having fun, and it's just me and my circle of contacts that aren't, then that's on us. No one needs to cater to us and our tastes. I've presented a suggestion for a change I thought would be to the game's benefit, and now I've presented my thoughts and feeling that lead to that conclusion. If no one wants it, then no one wants it, and I'll shut my mouth. It's part of the reason I was hoping to spark more of a discussion about this, to hear how others see these patterns and their results. More perspective, and less echo-chamber effect.

[Snake]

I suggest giving Korvara a chance and a solid try with your all.

We waited two-three whole months of its development, let the game at least outlive its production time, by like twice as much. So in six or five months (four from now) we can try to revisit this topic.