PI - faction - the dark adhiel

[Finley Ward]

The dark adhiel have recently moved surface-wards. This thread will contain notes on their general aims (as a community), their general direction in the future, and any major NPCs (such as the queen herself!) that might be involved.

Our dark adhiel contigent on PI will necessarily be fairly small, most existing at Fort Dusk - however, we can't disregard what might be going on in Gulanadur, despite the fact that the location is currently closed for play. My suggestion is we run Gul in a very simple, background sense behind the scenes, because this will inform how the dark adhiel on PI will behave. Ie, we know what the queen is up to, despite the fact that she's not in any actual threads.

So... the dark adhiel have managed the surface. They have begun the peace and diplomacy process with the Seven Isles, and have sent an Ambassador there in the hopes of furthering their move to the surface. That will, no doubt, affect many things in future (excellent exported content, hurrah!).

Actually on PI, they have Fort Dusk, and Gulanadur. Gul we can ignore for the time being - we only really want to know what the queen and various heads of house are up to, and even then only vaguely - we can be fairly general for the time being. As for Fort Dusk, they'll want to expand and fortify their hold their - I have no idea how far along they've gotten with that already, but we can probably assume that, even in three months, they haven't gotten that far. I imagine what they will want is for Fort Dusk to become a permenant surface city for the dark adhiel, a twin to Gul - so they'll want to expand it, move more people up there, defend it, etc etc.

As for war, and the other factions, and how the dark adhiel will react to them...

The dark adhiel and the centaurs
Well, versus the centaurs the dark adhiel will probably be openly hostile and aggressive, but in a defensive way. I can't see them attacking the centaurs, but rather just defending their current works - the general and sensible footing for the dark adhiel to take at this point is one of diplomacy - they don't have the strength or the numbers to fight and they haven't consolidated Fort Dusk to the extend where they are secure enough to do so, so it'd be much wiser for them to try for peace and a general sort of security. If the centaurs attack, the dark adhiel will be very ready to defend - almost everyone at Dusk is a soldier in the same way new settlements frequently have a lot of soldiers, it's a fort after all - but they won't openly be attacking the centaurs immediately. They have too much to lose.

In the future, with stronger allies and a more secure position, if the centaurs are still proving a thorn in the side of the dark adhiel, I wouldn't be surprised if they attempt some sort of more permenant action against them - to either wipe them out or perhaps arrange a diplomatic option to force a peace.

The dark adhiel and the panlings
As far as I can see, the dark adhiel won't be much interested in the panlings at all. The panlings are no threat, being weak themselves, and really not strong enough to make a decent ally. In the future there might be land clashes, but right now the dark adhiel have more important things to worry about than another small settlement miles away. Most dark adhiel still are killed on sight, remember, so these noobs to the surface aren't going to be massively keen on making friends all over the place - it's too dangerous and a big risk, even meeting new people - though I suspect the Panlings are a big more tolerant than your average citizen of Tazlure, being as they fought in the war against the Mouthies together. (I have no idea why, but they did... let's gloss over that.)

So, I see perhaps some trading for food, other materials to help build Fort Dusk. And that's about it. The dark adhiel won't trust the Panlings, and the Panlings won't trust the pointy ears either. A mutual mistrust, but no open hostilities. Yet.

The dark adhiel and the Mouthies
This one could be more interesting. As far as the dark adhiel are concerned, the Oneist Mouthies have actually done them a huge favour - it was their holy war that allowed the dark adhiel to come to the surface in the first place. They cleared the way. More to the point, the Mouthies are powerful, and though they don't represent the whole of the Western Kingdom any more (not actually being a part of it any more), their acknowledgement and friendship would go a huge way towards the dark adhiel being accepted worldwide. Politically, the dark adhiel would really like to be friends with these outpost pioneer Mouthies - but sadly, I'm not so sure the Mouthies themselves are going to feel the same way.

(Although, I've thought of one way they would - and that's this. The dark adhiel might have any number of very interesting things to sell the Mouthies... things they just can't get anywhere else. Strange mushrooms and drugs derived from them, for example. Precious stones. The Mouthies would put aside any amount of racism and religious hatred for a good trade deal - and while this wouldn't secure outright friendship (Mouthies are rarely true friends with anyone they consider inferior, and that's everyone non-human or not a Oneist) it would certainly secure a working relationship. If the dark adhiel can make themselves useful to the Mouthies, then they are in with a good chance of being offered the opportunity to actually integrate with the city in a wider sense. Possibly. It's the one way I can see it working.)

Also, we've got to bear in mind that the Mouthies that are on PI are not exactly going to be World's Mouth's most important citizens, and even a friendship with this colony isn't going to mean the dark adhiel would be acceptable in the Mouth itself - but it would be a step in the right direction. The dark adhiel are very likely to try and help the Mouthies if they can - and if the Mouthies can bring themselves to trust the dark adhiel long enough to accept that help, that could be a very interesting relationship indeed. But it is a delicate situation, we shall have to see how it goes.


The rest of this thread left open for additional dev work, and listing of important NPCs from this faction, including off-screen NPCs.

[Finley Ward]

Turns out one of our PCs is already trading with the dark adhiel - well, with one House of them, at least. This, of course, doesn't change the situation with the dark adhiel and Aveas - seperate organisations really, Aveas and World's Mouth. The real power lies not in Aveas, but in WM. And Aveas has a legion and doesn't trust anyone at all. It doesn't need anything from them.

http://www.tazlure.nl/board/viewtopic.php?t=13770