Message 475 : Let's Stop Griping and Face the Harsh Reality (*Lost*)
Written on Thu Dec  8 15:59:04 1994

Survival and advancement as a BN is ALMOST impossible.  ALMOST.

Various people have written griping about this and requesting or
demanding improvements which will help us to prosper and have a
better chance of survival.

This is NOT going to happen.  We were not INTENDED to prosper and
become numerous.  Anyone who wants an easy trip to the midlevs should
go be an *elf* or a troll. 

Where we encounter what is in essence a bug, like meatless fish,
I think we have a decent chance of getting it fixed up.  And it will
make our lives a LOT easier when [as Arion has promised] the low-levs
among the orc and troll NPCs are informed of our allied status.
This will improve our chances of getting back from the Misties by about
400 per cent.  But as to putting in features which would make it
a LOT easier to get to level 5 - no.  Forget it.  It's not part of the
divine plan.

Well, what IS the divine plan? - and no cynicism here please.  [Somebody
wrote on some board that we exist so that newbie whities can have
the thrill of PK, but if that were the plan it would have failed
miserably because we get killed by great whitie legends, not by newbies.
Newbies aren't dangerous to us.  Quite the reverse in fact.]

Remember what things were like just before BN's were created?  Not
so many years ago there were great whitie PKing mages on Sauron's list -
people like Isaldren and Barsk.  Some thought they were a great feature
of Arda; others thought they were just a pain.  Their existence
created controversy.  Isaldren was punished for working with *orcs* 
even though it was what you would expect of an envoy of Sauron.
Then realdeath was introduced, creating a HUGE flamewar.  Some people
argued that this was the end of MUME, there would be no more excitement,
MUME would turn into a "care bears" MUD (that was Phier), and so on.
Others pointed out, quite rightly, that without realdeath for envoys of
Sauron the war between pkilling mages and everyone else would overshadow
the Ringwar and change the whole nature of the game.

Then, -shortly after- the demise of Barsk, BNs were introduced.  Do you
remember the first message?  It said that we were likely to be
** " mighty mages " **.

Do you see the pattern here?

**WE** are the inheritors of the glorious legacy of Isaldren and Barsk!!

In fact, that was what some people said at our introduction.  They cringed
and said, "mighty mages who will be able to camp anywhere, group with
orcs and trolls, port anywhere etc. etc.?  It will be like facing an
army of Barsks!"
"And they won't realdie like Barsk did either..."

But it hasn't happened yet, because leveling is ALMOST impossible for us.
And it will be KEPT almost impossible, because the divine plan is NOT
to have an army of Barsks, but a **FEW**.

This is what I interpret the divine message to be:  "Do you want to
be a great pkilling mage like Barsk or Isaldren?  Do you want to zip
around Arda blasting people to ashes as they did?  You can.  It's
possible.  But NOT by racing your way up to become the standard
off-the-shelf mighty *elf* legend, and then making a career move
into pkilling.  No, it will take a LOT of work, a LOT of time.
More work than anyone has every put in on developing any character
in Arda before.  You will die hundreds of times on the way up.
You will need to truly be the *BEST* in Arda - the most devious,
the most skillful.  It will be so difficult to do this that only a very
few will do it."

This is how I interpret the situation.  And if I am right, it is a waste
of time complaining that we could be a less sucky race if we had
a warrior guild, newbie protection, no-locate, etc. etc. etc.  I think
the message is that those who are NOT prepared to undertake the
*VERY* long and arduous climb toward Barskhood should get the hell
out of the BN business and leave the shortswords to those of us who
believe ourselves part of the destined elite.

Dagorlad, for Morannon