Valikorlia has been around for over 4 years. In that time, our history has gotten twisted, convoluted, and anything you could think of. The world has spontaneously changed at least three times, and cataclysms happen every few IC years. For older players, we've watched Val evolve from something very simple into something very complicated. Anyone from back then will tell you this isn't the same Val, that the former was more fun. But that's not why I'm typing this.
What I'm typing is an..idea. Not so much a proposition, as it usually is turned into, just an idea. Now, in cases like this, I find metaphors don't capture the true spirit of ideas, but there is one I believe works quite well.
Around 2000, Marvel Comics realized it had a fundamental problem. For titles like Spider-man and X-Men that had been around for 40 years or more, there was a long, twisted continuity. This made it difficult to write stories, because there was so much one had to consider when making stories, and even worse for readers, who easily got lost. These two points are my main inspirations, and I will go into greater detail in a minute. Marvel's solution was to create Ultimate Marvel; A line of comics that basically rebooted popular titles. It was like starting from the beginning. It was, fundamentally, the same universe, but with a fresh slate. The stories we knew began again, with new takes. The setting was one modern readers could relate to. Familiar characters appeared, but with, in some cases, vastly different origins and powers. This made an incredibly fresh series to read, and was an instant success. You didn't have to know all of Spider-man's history to read a story, his history was happening right then for you to see. Old, stale characters were reimagined, and writers had more leeway than ever in crafting their stories.
So, this is my idea. We go back to the Neo vs. Rebel War. Its as simple as it gets. We'd be going back to Kharlia's beginnings to get a new story. We'd be writing a new Valikorlian history.
Of course, there is one fundamental difference from regular plans of this nature. A rule was always that new characters must be created. That, sometimes under enforcement, all players would abandon their characters. this is the main source of problems with this idea. It is a lot to ask for someone to abandon the character they love. So, I thought of something different. Why not have the same characters, but reimagined? One of the principle complaints about this sort of plan in execution is that someone who, say, had been a king for a long time on Val would go for the throne again, or a big hero would make a carbon copy of their former character and go on as normal. This accomplishes nothing. As an RPer, I want to offer a chance to be the same basic concept, but try to do something new. Here is my basic idea for Wind, under this:
Wind is a Rebel with a sharp wit and a sharper tongue. Detesting civilization, he lives mostly in the wilderness, feeling more at home in nature. He has formed a small tribe of nature worshippers, and himself worships the Hawk totem. He helps the Rebels to take down the Neo government, but does not truly support their cause. He works mainly for his tribe and his own goals, and is thusly not the most loyal ally. Rather inexperienced with technology, he feels out of place in civilization, and thus is limited to his nature skills.
I've taken several concepts of the current Wind, and alterred them to fit something new. I understand that losing a character completely is hard, and even with this idea I'd feel bad losing Wind. However, as an RPer, I'd like the chance to do something new and exciting, in a new environment. Now, we'd be relying on players to try something different. Frankly, even if you made the same character, since you'd never have met anyone else before (Unless you decided it with someone OOCly), you could still develop differently. This comes to my next point.
NOTE- There has been some confusion. This is NOT a rewind; We are essentially creating an alternate timeline. Thus, anything could change. Your character isn't their age at the Neo vs. Rebel war, it is someone different alltogether. The option to keep basic character concepts was done to make this easier on players.
Everyone starts equal. Too often, and yes, I am guilty of this, older, more recognized players begin to take center stage. Likewise, they're often maligned and mistreated for it. This is understandable. It is difficult for newer players to gain standing in our server. Many try to do this too quickly or without much effort, but many capable RPers are lost in the glory of old heroes. If we reset, everyone would start out the same. If we had a system, everyone would be level one. No one would be an established hero. We'd be writing our history, a new story everyone would be a part of from the beginning. Of course, we would provide background and events, but the players would be the driving force behind what direction the story takes.
That's another major problem with Val. Our history is very restricting. Nothing new can come about because -someone- will find historic details that prevent it, or something like that. It is also very disputable, as almost any major historic event has multiple tellings based on who's telling it, and thus no real history can be discerned. However, we are not the ones who suffer most for this.
Valikorlia is a server famous for being difficult, if not sometimes impossible, for newer players to get into. This is not due to RPing skill, or lackthereof. Besides a playerbase that is rather unaccepting of new players, there is a daunting task presented to anyone who wants to enter our RP world. They must learn a long, confusing history that even those who were around for all of it cannot recount well. If they do not correctly learn the history and mannerisms of the server, they are isolated and maligned. Our RPing environment is extremely difficult to break into. With this new start, this would be fixed.
The old governments of the world have collapsed. A new Neo Empire has risen, and for long the people lived in prosperity. However, not all agree with the ways of the Neos. Prosperity has begun to fade, and the Neos have begun to make their empire more absolute and powerful. The Neos believe that a powerful, industrious empire is the only path to survival. They believe that prosperity lies in strength, and will do whatever it takes to maintain what they worked so hard to build. Mounting tensions between areas of the Kharlian continent have begun to create the quiet rumbles of war. A group simply calling themselves the Rebels have begun to rise against the Neos. They have seen the Neos' slow but dangerous corruption, and do not wish to see it blossom into something evil. As a Neo or Rebel, you must choose a side and fight for your beliefs and your life.
This is the basic story we'd be using. Of course, depending on player interaction, the conflict could shift either way. There would be no "end", at least not for quite a while. Nations would not exist traditionally, but there would be different towns for either side, and different guilds or groups within them. The leaders of the Rebels and Neos would be NPCs, but major positions in each group would be players. Of course, we would be stressing non-combatant RPing as well, with job systems and different places for different professions to flourish. Essentially, what we want is a simple story and setting, for players to get acquainted to and involve themselves in, and craft the future in a way they have not been able to. By immersing ourselves in a new world, we can go to new heights and directions that our current environment will not let us.
So, what does this all boil down to? Valikorlia has begun to grow stale and difficult to work with, and caters mostly to older players who have grown into it. We're looking for a new RPing frontier, and to create a new story. There are different ways to do it, of course. It could be a separate server, or we could have an "Old Val" area within the server for players.
Of course, this plan would never actually go ahead unless it had a lot of support. We have no illusions about how massive these changes would be, and would not want to do this unless our players really wanted it.
If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me. I'm sure I didn't cover all my points here, so I'd love to chat about it.