[A-RP Event] The Trial of Ahnes Silverthorn

[Leonir-zandalar-tribe]

Those with interests in the ongoing investigation of Alaif and Ahnes Silverthorn are at last able to confirm that the investigation has been concluded after representatives of the Wizard’s Sanctum have committed to the task of seeing evidences and testimonies collected. All findings have been submitted to the House of Nobles, and a Judge will soon be elected. The trial of Ahnes Silverthorn is set for the upcoming Friday, and is to be held at the Petitioner’s Chamber at Stormwind Keep half past seven on the evening. Official summons have been sent to all relevant parties, and other individuals who wish to utter their piece are asked to establish contact in advance for the sake of maintaining order.

General Information
Date: Friday 22nd of November
Time: 19:30 servertime
Location: Stormwind, Petitioner’s Chamber at the Stormwind Keep
Contacts: Leonir (Prosecutor) and/or Velakhir (Judge)

Who?
All who have been involved in relevant events are encouraged to come along, and those who have had their testimonies collected even more so. That said, all are in essence welcome to observe the trial regardless.

[Edwin-zandalar-tribe]

The Brotherhood is watching…

[Melusine-zandalar-tribe]

Will attend.

Sid.

[Kinleya-zandalar-tribe]

Sounds amazing! Will attend.

[Alaif-zandalar-tribe]

My son…my pride and joy…

[Leonir-zandalar-tribe]

I want to thank all who attended. It all culiminated with a somewhat sorry note, and I’m thus scribbling down some thoughts here:

1. On the trial being pre-determined
What’s the purpose of a rigged trial? Well, it serves a purpose when none are aware that it is rigged. It also serves a purpose when it is actually rigged from an IC perspective. We didn’t actually pre-determine how the trial would unfold, and what the ruling would be on an OOC level. We simply established a guideline in advance. We were all agreeing that it would be unlikely for the ruling to favor Ahnes, mostly on the grounds of the stunning amount of material secured in advance. That still opened for the Judge to rule otherwise had he been convinced, but alas! In the future we probably should make it more clear in our guidelines that a trial should always have several possible outcomes.

2. On the grand escape
I have likely spent more time on this storyline’s development than any other player, and I assure you that I was quite demanding with Ahnes when he presented his ill will towards having his character executed. In my book the character’s actions left little room for anything but execution, but one must always be respectful towards a player’s wish for maintaining his character’s life. We reached a compromise, and while I can’t spill the fine details, everyone should rest assured that Ahnes will more than likely wish for the mercy that is death soon enough. I put it bluntly when we discussed alternative outcomes: “This must end with a huge feedback when Ahnes’ character is concerned.”, and Ahnes’ player agreed.

3. On the fiery backlash
I’ve spent much time on this storyline, but many others have too! It’s only natural to be dismayed and annoyed by developments that at first can be experienced as lacking of immersion or a straight out mummer’s farce. At the end though? We’re all a vast collection of players who all have different perspectives on roleplaying, different experiences with it. Some are new roleplayers, many who whispered me after the event to sign up for more. Some are hardened roleplayers, who were veterans back during retail’s first days. Some are forwarding ideas of high fantasy, others are more attuned to the realistic aspects. We must try our best to make room for all, even those who lash out in a moment of frustration on heated occasions.

4. On the use of "mummers"
When “official” events are arranged, there’s always the question of what kind of player should be able to wield the power to judge. In our scenario we used mummers. This is a term used for temporary characters, forged for specific situations and to be used only within a very limited framework. Both Prosecutor Adam Ridgewell (Leonir), Defender Andrea Finston (Daltyn) and Judge Harold Gresham (Velakhir) are examples of mere NPCs crafted by us for the sake of providing life to an event that would otherwise be highly questionable because of the elevation of certain actual player characters.

I’m always looking for mummers, and do not hesitate landing me a whisper in-game on Leonir if you’re willing to serve such purposes in the future.

Final Notes
I enjoyed it very much, and I am surprised so many of you stayed until the end. Events like these aren’t very exciting, unless of course you enjoyed Adam and Andrea’s not-so-subtle rivalry inbetween the conversations. They do however serve a very important purpose, that being binding the community together. Events like these are a part of forming a joint fundament, and are indeed remembered as milestones that most can identify with and refer to moving into the future.

Thank you for attending!

[Erxkum-zandalar-tribe]

Thank you for the rp it was very fun and the server definitely needs more events like this.

[Finneas-zandalar-tribe]

As one of the people that worked to capture Ahnes and to make this trial happen, I have to say I am disappointed by the conclussion.

Let me explain why in much needed detail.

Let us go over several undisputed facts that Ahnes’ plot offered:

1. He has broken laws on multiple ocassions, from threatening, to outright attacking people, and summoning the demon in front of arguably most powerful priest on Azeroth – Benedictus. And he has gotten away alive and well, along with people who defended him (Lion’s Sword)

2. After this event, he was walking around the lands of Alliance at quite a pace, unnoticed by anybody, despite clearly being KoS after what he has done.

One of my points yesterday was that Stormwind has literal army stationed in it. It is not my construct, and it is not something I am trying to use to my character’s benefit, it is a lore fact. Dark arts are against the law, and Stormwind’s garrison is strongest force of the Alliance, along with SI:7. My charaacter is a mere guard, but the might that wants Ahnes down after his many crimes is thousand times larger. With great crimes comes great punishment.

Despite this, he went on his merry way without any issues. Despite being wanted for summoning a fricking demon on Cathedral Square, SI:7 did nothing (and I don’t mean SI:7 roleplayers, but the NPCs that would go after him after such a crime), and guards did not try to capture him either.

Here, we have to move away from what we see, because what we see is a world constructed for gameplay. In game, Stormwind has around 10 guards, and 3 agents. That all are gameplay restrictions, though. In fact, Stormwind has thousands of soldiers and dozens of agents operating EVERYWHERE. He would be captured, unless he is extremely powerful entity.

Moving on.

He was captured relatively randomly. Many people, mainly Leonir, worked to prepare for the trial. The trial should have been an end to this plot, or at least to the part where Ahnes is invincible overpowered character. Nobody wants to play against character that has no boundaries. Ahnes mentioned he wants to be an “enemy of the Alliance”. Is that really fitting, for one guy? Or even for ten? Alliance has, IC, tens of thousands of citizens, men-at-arms, and so on. He is not going to be a real threat unless he promotes himself to Archimonde himself.

The plot started as Ahnes being powerful Warlock doing questionable deeds. It has got ridiculous when he started to break laws in the middle of the day, right at the Cathedral Square. And yesterday, it turned into 16 years old emo boy written novel. It is literally Twilight we participate in. Things make no sense, and hecklers that have very little understanding of IC realities make things worse.

I am sorry if my opinion offends anyone. I just think that people should avoid playing characters as powerful as Ahnes is, or even anything close to it, especially if they are not experienced enough to handle it with proper care.

• Finneas

[Finneas-zandalar-tribe]

TL:DR

There are IC restrictions and consequences to everything You do. Not just from fellow RPers, but from the world itself, that You have to very much count in.

In properly working world, Ahnes would be dead, long time ago. Your argument will be – You cannot kill player’s character unless he agrees to! – and You are right. But the palyer himself is responsible for not getting himself killed. If Finneas would come to Throne room and attacked Anduin, he’d die, my consent would not matter at all.

[Eeria-zandalar-tribe]

These are some bold statements, I do have to say.
Unfortunately the game does not allow us the insight in how many guards there are at one post at one certain time and therefore you could argue there could be a switch or a blind-spot or something along those lines. Crime goes on in every city, in almost every place in the world, why would Stormwind be different? I don’t think one can assume the power to say how or what a city -exactly- fuctions. However, I know nothing of this particular mention, so I won’t dive deeper as that would be ignorant.

What I do want to say is the following; having enemies is good for the realm, just as it is good for the game, some will be more powerful than others. Giving Ahnes the right to be powerful, is of course up to us the players and I personally enjoy that aspect of having something to rally together towards, a uniting cause. Just as you would want your character to be powerful in the name of the light, we should allow other characters to be powerful for the sake of dabauchery and chaos.
You are of course allowed to have an opinion on the matter and allowed the give critique but to outright comdemn a character, is wrong to me.
If you wish to take down an important character, I advise you to come together with all and plot just as he had done, but to do so in a single night is terribly anti climatic. All of this above was simply my opinion on the matter and I do not state to know all, so please do not take it personal as it is not.

Our guild has worked with Ahnes on multiple plotlines over mutliple weeks, months, and I spoke with them OOC about how it would be fun if he grew in to an enemy that would be hard to take down, that would take a lot. I gave him that power, as I thought it would create a fun dynamic and would force us to communicate with other guilds as well, thus, creating a community. To say you should avoid this kind of interaction… Seems odd? But that’s my take.

Have a wonderful day!

[Leonir-zandalar-tribe]

As one of the organizers of this particular story, let me make it clear that this wasn’t necessarily Ahnes’ own doing. It could just as well be the work of some unknown faction of exterior force. Rest assured that an important premise for the development was the assurance that it would leave the Ahnes character with a solid impact and a negative progression. More likely than not he will move forward wishing he had been snuffed out as the verdict wished it. Also, in our characters’ eyes Ahnes did indeed die. IC there’s no reason to be upset about anything, aside from the fact that he received a worse death than what called for, and by unknown hands.

Assumptions often play too big a part in these misunderstandings, and most of these assumptions are based on OOC perspectives. People ought to assume less, and to instead play along with the story trusting that there’ll always be more to it than what immediately meets the eye. One aren’t meant to be revealed it all on the first few pages of the book after all.

[Ahskuh-zandalar-tribe]

I think you did a fantastic job organizing the event, and I hope you continue to organize great events like this in the future. Thanks again for putting it together, Leonir!

[Bulgakov-eonar]

Even horde players?

[Finneas-zandalar-tribe]

Just a quick reply to Eeria.

I do not want my character to be powerful in the name of the Light. I want my character to be believeable in the world, thats why I picked such mundane job. The more important character You play, the harder it is to keep things in line. I did not have any personal OOC or IC conflict with Ahnes. I was merely doing my IC job.

I am not shy at all of the idea of having powerful characters, in the name of chaos. But it has to be believeable, it has to go along the fine lines of lore. You cannot simply make a guy that knocks out half a city and escapes without any harm, because its not believeable. Its like reading a bad book, or watching a bad movie. Its not thought through, its a bad plot.

Crime goes on in every city, for sure. Small criminals are everywhere and its impossible, especially in medieval setting, to purge them. What Ahnes has done, though, MASSIVELY exceeded minor crime. Just that demon summoning at Cathedral Square would - in any realistic setting - get him killed almost instantly with the assumed density of guards /paladins / priests at that area (compare this to some guy coming to the Aachen Cathedral in 1500s, screaming “DEVIL IS THE LORD”). Now, not only that he (and couple of mercenaries helping him) did not sufer any harm. They simply walked out of the city and travelled the territories of Alliance like if nothing happened. That is what I mean.

Nobody, including me, has any rigt to kill off anybody’s character unless they agree to it. I did not want to kill Ahnes, I did not even know him properly IC. But for what he has done, IC, he should be dead not once, but five times over, unless we totally ignore rules and NPCs of the world we play in. Even very powerful lore characters, the kinds of Nefarian, Balnazzar, and others, who wish to seed unrest and break the Alliance apart (and both of them have actual armies at their disposal), do not just walk into Stormwind, attacking people.

Regards