[Poruku]

The Cursed Land AKA My Dream For The Future Of SL2
Hello friends, and welcome. In this thread, I will detail my idea for a new SL2 concept and area. I'm calling it the "Cursed Land" here, but know that this is a complete placeholder. My intention is that Dev would take this idea, and implement it into the world organically, with his own lore and his own methods. However, I'm going to give my idea, and he can do whatever he wants with it.

In short, TL;DR
The cursed land is a large zone in Korvara where player-versus-player is more impactful and more frequent. To achieve this, the zone has the following rules:
1: In the wilds, you cannot avoid conflict unless the other party lets you go. This means that when you go there, you must be prepared to fight. Escaping is possible using the normal fleeing rules.
2: The wilds contains certain desirable resources and services, meaning there is an incentive to go there.
3: The zone is divided between a "fair" area and a "savage" area. In the fair area, battles must be done with equal numbers. In the savage area, unfair battles (4v1) can occur.
6: When you defeat someone in the wilds, you gain infamy, and your enemy will lose a little. Being defeated will incur some penalties
7: Infamy can be used to buy things from the wilds shops, and use certain services in the wilds.
8: Sometimes, timed events with rewards will occur in the wilds, which will drive people to gather in a certain location, potentially fighting for resources or ambushing people... Think black beast raid, but pvp. This will be the main hotspot where battles occur more reliably.

Cursed characters (yeah the name is a bit lame but it works for the sake of example): 
1: It is possible to create pvp-focused characters, called "cursed". These special characters start out at level 60. The goal of this system is to provide a unique gameplay experience for people who enjoy pvp and wish to be bad guys without having to orchestrate anything complex or grind a character through the normal channels.
2: They cannot use nemalyth crystal (thus cannot LE or gather shards).
3: Each cursed character begins with a small amount of murai and infamy which they can use to get starting equipment.
4: Cursed characters need to use infamy and gold they earn through combat in the wilds to get gear and such, beyond their starting equipment.
5: They gain murai and infamy when they manages to defeat someone. Combat among themselves yields a much smaller amount.
6: They are marked by a certain IC and OOC "curse" or "mark". They can be identified via a clear warning in their profile.
7: Cursed ones that leave the wilds are open season. They automatically gain danger level 4 and can be captured. They cannot hide their nature because the curse is obvious and impossible to conceal.
8: Cursed characters slowly corrupt and kill life around them, and cause a great feeling of discomfort to normal people. For that reason, they cannot exist in normal society.
All in all, these characters are made to be pvp only, and the RP restrictions are there so they can't simply exist as part of the other korvara nations. They can travel if they wish, but they cannot simply assimilate. This is to make sure cursed characters remain pvp-focused and antagonistic.
By now, I think you probably get the gist. It's a zone where pvp is encouraged and rewarding. Due to the fact it's an area, it's opt-in by nature, which means you fully know the risks when you get in there. Now, I'll elaborate a bit more on the elements of this system.


The map
Everything starts with a location. The cursed land would be one of two things: Either a part of the ruins, or a standalone area. Though, it being central would just make sense from a usability perspective. Here's what it might look like:

People could access the ruins via boat, and enjoy whatever content the ruins have to offer. I'm assuming Dev has stuff planned for the future with those. PVE and PVP areas of the ruins would be divided, and the "cursed land" would be a clearly marked area, with a different vibe, and certainly different lore.
It would be large enough to accomodate a few things, but without being so big that it's difficult to find people. The following map is obviously just to give a basic idea of what it would contain.

As you can see by the stunning art on display, the map would contain a few important points of interest that give an incentive to move about the isle. By moving around to places that are useful, people have a chance to meet, and that may lead to encounters, especially by cursed people.

The Hub
A small area where cursed people have a sort of settlement. There are a few NPC shops (probably ghosts and shit) that allow cursed characters to function and use basic features of the game. In addition, it acts as a safe zone, but for cursed characters only. This is so they have a place they can sit and relax while logged in. It's not actually a safe zone IC, but OOCly, the rule that forces pvp is not enacted.

The Infamy Shop
A fundamental feature of the Cursed Land, the infamy shop allows people to turn pvp glory into useful rewards. More detail in the infamy section

Docks
These are connected to the rest of korvara via little boats that let you fast travel to other docks. NO PVP ON THE DOCKS. It's forbidden to camp the docks or fight there as it's a travel location.

Event Zones
The event areas are where the events take place. It can happen in one of two locations randomly. More in the event section.
The Material Shop
This is a shop that allows people to buy secondary materials for crafting such as metal plate, beast fang, etc. The stock is limited, and refreshes periodically. It's a very useful and advantageous shop, so korvarans may wish to peruse it despite the risks...

The Mine
This is an indoor area that contains a wealth of mineable veins. A great place to mine, if you think it's worth the risk. There is also mobs inside, probably. Would be too easy otherwise, wouldn’t it?

Food and Fishing Shop
This handy shop contains a few food items that are better than tomato soup, cheap cooking ingredients, and fishing gear. Mostly for cursed ones to have a food source, though it may be attractive to outsiders. Might contain some things you can't find elsewhere (beef wraps?...)

Trees
Wood source

Hostile Mobs
Some monsters roam the cursed land in certain small, dedicated areas, usually a passage. It might be dangerous to pass through there, but maybe there's less chance of encountering someone even worse than those monsters... 

Tower
Well, the place is a ruin after all. There must be old ruins scattered around the landscape, providing shelter, or a hiding place for an ambush...


Infamy / The Infamy Shop
The main reason people go to the cursed land is so they can stack up some infamy, and then use it. It's an advantageous thing to do due to the generous rewards of the shop, which creates an incentive to visit the cursed land in the first place. Incentives are important, as the entire point of this area is the concept of risk versus reward. There is risk, and as such, there must be reward.

Infamy Sources:
As non-cursed, defeat any player in a serious battle while on the isle: +100 infamy
As a cursed character, defeat a normal character in a serious battle: +200 infamy
As a cursed character, defeat a cursed character: +10 infamy
Lose a serious battle on the isle: -10 infamy, loss of murai, other drawbacks
You cannot go below 0 infamy.
It's strictly against the rules to "farm" infamy by meeting up somewhere to fight without a good reason. All infamy gains must be completely IC. Some systems might be put into place to check for these things. However, you can still spar freely.

Infamy Shop
Some cursed undead guy who watches the isle. You can purchase mutated cores from this shop, giving you a bunch of random items. There are also a variety of goods and equipment you can buy outright. There might even be some unique items in there if dev feels like it. Overall this shop should have a nice selection of things that are difficult to obtain otherwise.


The Events
Think of these “Events” as when a loot crate spawns on the map in a battle royale game. Everyone knows it’s there, red smoke and everything, and there’s something valuable to be gotten there. This is likely to be the main place where all-out PvP will occur. Just like a lootcrate, only one party can reap the rewards of this event. This means if more than 1 party gets there, they need to fight.
How it works is this:
1: The event announcement is sent. In 5 minutes, the event will spawn.
2: The event spawns. People have 5 minutes to get there, but they can’t interact with it just yet. They need to be inside the zone of the event in order to have “control” of it when it activates.
3: The event activates and people can now interact with the thing. If there’s only one party? Then they get to do it. If there’s more than one party, they need to fight to know who will claim it. Basically, the event interactable(s) will just not function if there is a battle in the zone or 2+ parties.



Event 1: Rare creature
A rare creature spawns on the cursed isle. It’s perhaps a random level 60/80 boss, but scaled to level 70 and with a random modifier. Defeating it grants gold bars, cypelle, and a nice chunk of infamy.


Event 2: Artifact
An old ruin activates. You need to complete a simple puzzle, after which your party gains infamy and a random item with a boss enchant or divine/vorpal.