Just to give you all an update on my situation - if all goes well, I should be moving within a week. If so, I expect to be back in the swing of things within about two weeks from now, at which time I believe I could devote the necessary time and energy to pick up this game again. We'll see how it goes.

Hello everyone, I have decided to be your entertainment until the GM gets back, and once the GM gets back I will be another player.

My method of providing entertainment is to ask you to each help me get a feel for the game, and how you think a priest type character could be of use to you and your character in it.

Anyone with ties to or opinions about one of the branches of the Orthodoxy is encouraged to make suggestions about how they would like to see another character with such ties integrated into the story.

It is my objective to add something to the game as a whole, and hopefully to each other character in the game so please speak up about ways you could see that help happening.

Well I am in favor of a Universal Church Priest.  I think Andreas is a Hesychast monk (though I could be wrong)?  And I believe Tchak’Ikhlul is a priest of the Ukari native Banjak faith.

Personally I wouldn't have minded having a confessor for Rafael, though that might be tricky to incorporate into Rafael's subplot/story at the moment.

While Rafael isn't exactly pious in a traditional sense (ie he's no Li Halan or even a member of the religious Bursandra Hazat family)... he is a traditional enough noble to respect the Church and its clergy.

I believe in some of the background development I worked out with the GM for Rafael, the local priest for Rafael's family's fief is an Amalthean.  In fact I seem to remember that some distant cousin of Rafael's was sponsored by Rafael's father to train with Sanctuary Aeon on Artemis and then the cousin returned to serve as the parish priest for the fief controlled by Rafael's father.

Rafael spent time among the Decados as a sort of liaison/ambassador, it could be interesting if Marcus had been sent by the Church to the Decados (also this could be a tie-in with Daniel since he was a Hawkwood ambassador to the Decados).

Or if Marcus served the Church on the battle lines of Kurga/Hira against the Kurgan barbarians/heathens, he might have met Rafael's late older sister Fidela (she died in the line of duty on Hira fighting the Kurgans).

Seeing as Marcus is an Urth native there could easily have been some crossover between him and your cousin who went to Artemis although Marcus has spent most of his life on Urth he has been sent various places.

House Dacados is a somewhat unlikely posting for Marcus but a stint on the Church ships that fought the Kurgan Heathens is quite possible, and he could have been your sister's confessor, or depending on the circumstances of her death he could have been there when that happened too.  Perhaps even been compelled by her to bring you some item or personal message not to be entrusted to any sort of postal system?

I am open to those ideas, the sister connection is probably the better one (the Amalthean cousin is distant and not that close to Rafael).  Rafael was very close to his older sister Fidela and he's still taking her death rather hard (although his father Marquis Santiago Eduardo has taken Fidela's death even harder).

Rafael's sister died sometime in the past 6 months to a year... shortly after the Emperor Wars ended (while the Hazat were bitterly engaged with the Kurgan barbarians and still recouping/repairing their losses from the Emperor Wars).

Of course it could be that Marcus had to wait a few months to get permission to leave his posting on Hira to seek out Rafael (to fulfill his oath or promise to a dying Fidela) and by the time he reached Vera Cruz, Rafael had already left.  So it could be that Marcus has been traveling the space lanes trying to pick up Rafael's trail for the past several months.  Perhaps we'll meet up for the first time IC?

Assuming you (and the GM) are cool with this idea.

Given what I recall about Fading Sun's travel arrangements 6-12 months of space tracking a moving target when the only real information I have about you is 2 or 3 years out of date from your dying sister sounds like a fairly quick and efficient hunting process.

I would like the thing your sister gave me to be in a box, likely small, that it is conceivable I have not opened under the assumption that it was her preference, or her having told me as much.  You go ahead and think up whatever you want in the box, sort it out with the GM, and don't tell me what it is.

If I get approved for play as anything like the character I intend Marcus to be I will have your box for you when I show up IC.

Well this sounds good to me... maybe the GM has some ideas on what is in the "box" (ie sounds ripe for a possible surprise "plot device" that perhaps Rafael doesn't know about... maybe something linked to the Hazat struggle against the Kurgans).  Otherwise I could think up a few possible "cherished items" or even "family heirlooms" or something along those lines.

I was thinking that perhaps Marcus made his way back to Vera Cruz from Hira (that's where Fidela's and Rafael's family fief is located) and encountered Rafael's and Fidela's father Marquis Santiago Eduardo who might have provided a (begrudging) hint as to the direction Rafael went (Marcus would certainly note the deep grief felt by Santiago over the death of his eldest child Fidela and likely sense the strain between the Marquis and his now oldest child Rafael).

That works well enough, Marcus could easily pass a few days or even weeks of conversation with the Marquis in an effort to convince him of the sincerity of the need to find Rafael, although he would not have even mentioned the box, no sense in risking it being intercepted even by a well meaning family member.

Update:

I'm moving tomorrow. Hopefully I should be able to pick things up here within a week from now. Also, Marcus has begun character creation and is moving along through it at a steady pace.

If nothing else I tend to have plenty of persistence.

*SIGH*

While I really hate to do this... it is looking more and more like this game may be dead.  The GM hasn't logged on since early December and has not replied to PMs.

It is sad because I think this game and its characters/players had great potential.

That said... I think I'm going to take this game off my Sticky List.

Of course, if I am wrong (and I would like nothing better than to be wrong) and the GM returns & the game starts back up in earnest, then I will certainly return (Lord Rafael will travel the stars once more).

Until then, I wish you all the best and perhaps we'll meet again in another Fading Suns game.

If you do find another (active) fading suns game let me know.

Hello everyone. I want to apologize to all of you for my long absence. I never intended to leave this game hanging and I certainly never intended to abandon it. Unfortunately, due to extreme stupidity on my part, that ended up happening despite my intentions, and I feel I owe all of you an explanation.

Over a year ago, disregarding the site's warnings against it, I foolishly trusted someone whom I had been dating with my password so that she could read material in private threads in a previous Fading Suns game I once ran here. That person also had access to my home computer for several months. She and I had an extremely bad falling out and she moved out.

I discovered the same day she moved out that both my email password and my password for this site had been changed. I attempted to reset my email password so that I could log in, only to find that she had changed my security questions and answers as well. For the past several months, I have been locked out of both that email account and my account on RPOL.net.

Last night, she and I finally had a long talk during which we made peace with each other to some extent. She apologized to me and gave me the passwords for my email and this site, which I have now reset, and we have gone our separate ways. Needless to say, I won't be making that same mistake with any person ever again.

At this point, the two main questions I have to consider in regard to this game are, 1. whether I'm able to get back into the groove after all these months and continue running it, and 2. whether you guys are still interested in playing in the first place. Who all are still around, and how are you doing?

Wow... that really, really sucks!  At the risk of being offensive regarding your Ex... what a Bitch!

That was a seriously F-uped thing for her to do (I don't care how bad the break up was).

As for me, I would still be interested in playing as I'm usually game for a good Fading Suns campaign.

Heh, I'll allow it.


It was. She knew how invested I was in this game and hit me where she knew it'd hurt. She had been fed up with how much of my time and attention was focused on running this game instead of spending time together.

Having had a significantly less spiteful/technologically competent version of that happen to me almost exactly ten years ago where I was forced to alter my own passwords (fortunately security questions worked in that case) I have some idea of the level of trust violation you experienced.

As far as the game and the character I think we could get things back into a going forward style although we may end up in a slightly different groove the dedicated gamer can generally find something fun.

In reply to Gamemaster (msg # 132):

First off, Glad you were able to get your stuff back and straightened out. As for picking up the game where we left off or at a different point/groove.

Edit: As for picking up the game where we left it off, at a different point or in a different groove is fine by me. I look forward to seeing how many others are also interested.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:33, Thu 14 Nov 2013.

Yes...?

I'm here, and I'm ready to jump back into the game!

By the way, I've also received compliments on the background piece I did for Anna when I shared it with other writers.  I just thought I'd mention that, since that piece was inspired by this game.

Well, that's four so far. Unfortunately, three of you are in different groups from each other and in vastly different places, and Marcus is in the middle of character creation. I did see Shik's player sign on recently, so hopefully we can get him back into the game. I'm also hoping we can get Tchak's, Sir Daniel's, and Andreas' players back. I know it just wouldn't be the same for Sir David's group with both of his companions being NPC'ed, just as it wouldn't be as fun for Lord Rafael with Sir Daniel being NPC'ed. I'm going to wait in hopes that we can get at least some of those players back before making a decision on our course forward.

Evening all, just wanted to make my presence known before I post my initial character proposals in the relevant thread.

Welcome, E_V_I_L, glad to have you!

In reply to E_V_I_L (msg # 140):

Welcome Evil. Glad to have you with us.

Welcome to the game EVIL!  ;)

Welcome back! It may take me a bit to pick up the thread of this character, but I'm in.