Ryzom

I started playing Ryzom in November of 2004. In December of 2004 it was pretty clear to me that this game was about rival factions, (it was also mentioned on the box) and different visions for the future of the same planet and that eventually the conflict would force everyone to choose a side.

For a year I remained neutral, mainly because there was nothing going on. The factions were still rather poorly defined and there was not a great deal of information on either. AA was an original member of HOPE (an old neutral alliance), we even wrote a good bit of its charter. Atys began to change. I saw that war was coming and a side must be chosen. Sitting on the sidelines was not an option, it would have been the equivalent of abandonment. I felt the developers had made it pretty clear that neutrals would be an rp stance and not a viable functional alternative.

I know alot more of the Lore now then I did then. There is also alot more lore available. This post is about making that choice so I am trying to stick with what I knew at that time.

When I first started playing both factions worshiped Jena. Ma-duk was not a god but was referred to as the soul stealer, the deceiver. That lore has been removed, I can not find it anywhere. What I can still find in the lore is that the first appearance of Ma-Duk to a Homin occurred less then 50 Jena years ago.

At that point only the Kami had harmed Homin's. Kami loved to blast the pud out out of diggers. Kami tolerance was a great deal lower. They would not only force the digger to respawn they would get everyone in a 25 meter radius or so.

Kami forces actually attacked the first religious ceremony of the Karavan where the Jena commandments were revealed. This spoke volumes to me about how they viewed the world. I spent a great deal of time reading and interpreting the Jena Commandments. I found them far superior to the xenophobic and intolerant revelations of Ma-duk. Homins are not native to Atysso according to Ma-duk we must be transformed or destroyed.

So I went Karavan.

Pero

Why do you feel you need to justify your reason to become karavan? Neither side is perfect and they have both made their mistakes and it is always going to be a personal decision on which faction you pick.
The reason why faction wars have had so much objections in SoR is because everyone played happy families untill one day when we where told to fight, in my mind the worst thing that could of happened (from my game play perspective)

Amen, Pero, my good sir.

Interestingly, what i 'learned' about the factions while still on the island was very contradictory to what i have learned since joining the mainland. There seems to be either 1) a lack of the quality and quantity of good information on he island, or 2) perhaps a conscious effort to defraud by misleading the homins?

Even today, i occasionally walk the island in a younger version of myself, and i still observe the same biases and misinformation that i did last year. I wonder how many homins unknowingly support principles that do not reflect their beliefs?

I am not offended by those who knowingly choose to oppose Jena NEARLY as much as i am offended by those who are guided down the wrong path based upon falsehoods and deficiencies in the truth.

*Sigh*

A beautiful piece Pero. Thank you!

[url]This thread[/url] asks for explanations about why people became neutral.

moyaku wrote:So I d like you Neutrals to explain to me why you decided to stay Neutral ;
- What does it add to your RP stance ?
- How come you feel like you can only go this way ?
- Had the lore have any impact on your decision ?

Maybe Pero thought some people might like the same information but regarding Karavaneers. Maybe you (edit: or someone else, doesn't really matter) could start a thread for Kamists? Would be interesting all round I think.

The other thread also covers Kara, this should be in there.

sprite wrote:[url]This thread[/url] asks for explanations about why people became neutral.Maybe Pero thought some people might like the same information but regarding Karavaneers. Maybe you (edit: or someone else, doesn't really matter) could start a thread for Kamists? Would be interesting all round I think.

I think is very interesting. I'll say why I made a Karavaneer from a start; I'm very new, so maybe this could be a more temnplated point of view. Surely some of the oldies doesn't know the point of view of a new user; I wish this could help:

When I start download the client, I read the lore in the website, and search a bit more. Then, I knew that probably the Kara will be my choice, and select a matis as race; I didn't know nothing about fame, but knew that even being a matis I'll be able to join Kami if I wont, so I take because they are proud, honoured, strong and crafters. They represent the progress, whitch is always good to me.

Then, I was playing more, and become to ML with a good 50 lvl in all four branches. In ML learn a lot more about kami and Kara; for sure that being in the matis land biased somewhere my perception, but I have my choice done: The kami was about magic, conservation and the planet; the Kara was about Technology, progress and the people. For me this last part was (and is) the most important.

So I take my rite as a Karavaneer. Since then, I've learned a lor more of lore; old lore and new lore.

OOC, I have to say that it appears that, in some decisions, the choice of one dev was more important than the liberty for the comunity. In the temple wars, from all I've readed, the devs want only two factions, so they try to force the neutrals to join the factions, by making a strange lore movement. A bad movement, IMHO, and bad done. But, anyhow it was, now there are another situation, and have been for so long, that return to old is impossible.

grimjim wrote:The other thread also covers Kara, this should be in there.

No, the other thread included one karavaneer post, but it was started for neutrals. Read what I quoted; "I'd like you Neutrals to..."

As for why I chose Karavan, it was a simple matter of what faction my guild went (we were neutral and voted). I chose my guild on the basis of where my friends were, and the guild chose our faction based on many things.

For anyone who doesn't know, before the fame patch the "faction" of my guild(s) would have been considered to be neutral, then kami/neutral, then kara/neutral in that order, then the guild went kara. (Though at that time, most guilds on arispotle were neutral by RP and everyone was neutral according to the game)

mithur wrote:The kami was about magic, conservation and the planet; the Kara was about Technology, progress and the people.

I think that's a very good summary of why I chose Karavan.

I chose kara to fight againt the kami as I no longer believed it possible to fight with ppl I fundementally disagreed with.

I started
joined a kami leaning guild
then joined a neutral matis guild, who then went kara on me while I considered myself kami.
then I joined infinity, there wasnt much question I was all out kami
after a small break and infinity's death I went to KoO where again I fought for the kami with passion like many of my fellow guild members

the kami always held an unexplainable attraction to me as far as the game goes, I didnt choose kami when I logged on, it kinda just felt right that I was on that side.