Guild Overview - Servants of Shardak

Guild Created by Dragnar and Balowski
Recoded and maintained by Vertebraker

Current Wizards: Earwax, Linus, Mosobp, Laera, and Vital

This guild overview written by Earwax on 7/22/03.  It's my interpretation
and writeup of the theme originally hammered out by Dragnar and Balowski,
further refined by Vertebraker.  There are slight differences in the theme
to what is shown in the files, but its mainly a fleshing-out of it.

shards.tx   is the theme, overview, and advantages/disadvantages.
shards2.txt is the breakdown of the actual levels, trials, and all commands
shards3.txt is the list of all changes (finished and ongoing) made since 
I've taken over the guild.

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Theme: 

The Servants of Shardak (mainly known as 'Shards') are followers of an evil
God, Shardak.  Shardak was one of his god's favored angels, until Shardak
took exception to the favored treatment of the people (humans and such) of
the realm.  Shardak believed they weren't worthy of such treatment, and 
began to fight against his god.  He slew many other angels and grew in power
to approach that of his god, until finally he was cast down, cursed to the
form of a half-dragon/half-angel God.

Shardak, exiled to the material planes of Nirvana, grew even more in
strength, and went on with his attacks against mortals.  His quest for
genocide ended only after a great order of heroes eventually managed to seal
him within the Shardak Caves, through vast valor and use of magic.

By 2032 (or whatever year the Wastelands are set in), however, the magical
seals on the caves began to weaken enough so that Shardak could begin to
call out to the mortals nearby.  Through use of his godly will, he began
to corrupt these mortals, filling their souls with evil, and feeding off
their malice.  As much as he despised these mortals, he recognized that he
needed them to continue his war against the people of Nirvana, and against
his god, as he still couldn't leave the caverns yet.

Shardak began to form his group of disciples into an army.  He appointed a
leader for them, the 'Master' to provide leadership outside of his own
area of influence, and gave them increasingly greater powers.  These powers,
appropriate for a being know referred to as 'The Dragon God,' made their
practictioners mighty in combat.  Other mortals, seeing the great power
wielded by the hated Servants of Shardak, sought out the caves in hopes
that they, too, might wield that kind of power, never realizing the cost
would be their souls and complete servitude to the fallen angel.

Now, they are a small, elite, army of mortals devoted to causing as much
pain and strife to all other mortals as possible.  They are forced to
continue Shardak's aim of complete genocide and extermination of the mortal
races, and to freeing Shardak from his prison.  The members they recruit
are required to prove themselves worthy of wielding the vast power of the
Dragon God, for they value skill at arms and valor more than sheer numbers.

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Overview:

Shards are a pk-required, evil guild.  They kill pets, steal kills, steal
corpses, and do their best to incite fights and kills on other players.
They thrive on hatred, and relish their role as being the most hated guild
on Nirvana.

My role with this guild is to ensure that they perform those deeds, but do
it fairly.  I intend on ensuring that they are as evil as possible, yet
stay within all of Nirvana's rules.  I will not tolerate bending of the
rules, or even loose interpretations.  The problems that have been had
in the past with Shards, will not occur anymore, or the offenders will be
dealth with extremely harshly. 

The main problems I saw before were:

 - Extremely poor role-playing, using out of character information, publicly
   chatting other players' alternates, using what one character does against
   that player's other character, things of that nature.
 - Harrassment.  Repeatedly stealing a player's kills, to the point where
   that player can't even play effectively.  There was an unofficial '1/3' 
   rule before, that Shards went off of, where they limited that activity
   to stealing 1/3 of a given player's kills, is way too high in my eyes.
   Other things, like repeated tells and other harrassment to a given player
   and such, were also problems.
 - Messing with newbies.  Stealing their kills, corpses, gear, etc.  I am
   considering a 'newbie' anyone under the level of 9, although I may
   change that to under the level of 10.
 - Abusing bugs.
 - I'm probably forgetting a few here, but they will be added as I think of
   them, or as they occur.  If it's something that they should know to be
   wrong, I'm going to assume they knew it was wrong and something they 
   shouldn't have done.  I have no patience for bending the rules to fit
   what they want to do.

These things will not happen anymore.  The players, upon being invited, or
reinstated into the guild, will be given a list of the rules to abide by,
and examples of what they shouldn't be doing, as well as letting them know
that if it's wrong, period, listed in the rules or not, don't do it.  

Punishments:  Warnings, Execution, Freezing of all guild powers, and 
execution until the player gets the idea and leaves the guild.  Execution
is full player death, with exp loss and all.  Unless something is very 
minor, or unclear, the player will be executed.  Warnings will be considered
to be what they're told before they become Shards, and what gets told to
them as rules get added.  Second offense is the players' powers being frozen
and them being executed repeatedly (upon them praying) until they leave the
guild.  It's harsh, but I think with a guild like this, the penalties for
breaking the rules need to be.

PK: All members will have to have pk set at all times in order to use any
guild power.  The only guild power that will work while pk isn't set is 
leaving the guild.  This should have the added effect of making Shards -
who were already one of the harder guilds to max - the hardest guild other
than Rangers to max out.  This should have the added effect of raising a
maxed Shard a point of pride with the members.  Hopefully the other players
in the game will see the challenge of it, and want Shards for that reason
as well.  Another reason for forcing Shards to set pk is simply that it's
more fair.  A Shard without pk set can steal corpses, kill pets, steal
kills, and so on, without any real danger of retribution.  That's unfair to
the other players, and this makes all Shards accessible.

Allies: Removed.  I want Shards to be self-sufficient.  They will be hated
by all other players, and they will have a very hard time finding people to
party with, and that's the intent.  If this guild is to be roleplayed 
properly, they have to be as self-sufficient as possible.  No more of the
previous bs where allies dragged Shards around giving them easy exp, and
Shards having allies get them gear they were perfectly capable of getting
themselves.  Shards will learn the MUD better, do more exploring, and 
become more cabable and skilled players in general.  I may add allies back
to the guild later on, but this is certainly something that the other guild
wizards and players I've talked to have almost invariably agreed on.

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Advantages:

Guildhall - A number of advantages in their guildhall
-Can summon Shardak, he's big and aggressive and can't be calmed
-Can summon darkness, short-term prevents leaving the room (probably will be
 removed soon, I personally think it's BS)
-Room shorts masked to non-shards.
-Room exits don't show, although can still read them in the long desc
-Room spam for invaders
-Possible hp damage (1 hp per hb or 2), if approved
-Must be PK and evil to enter (teleport room to get around that however)
-Can make guild items there.  Detailed under guild items.

Guild Items - with physical components, can make a few guild items.
- Ring of Murder - adds slight offense, crappy ring armor really though,
  compared to bracers of speed or the blocker.  Just looks cool.
- Demon Blade - made from Protege's (80k ranger mob) Holy Avenger.
  With very evil align, it averages out to about wc 18.7, so it's not too
  great.
- DragonHelm - Made from dragonscales (red dragon caves, aggressive, area
  effect mobs, the hardest kind for shards to kill), and a helm of high
  quality.  Makes an ac 2, weight 1 helm with additional fire resistance.
  Other than the fire resistance, equivalent to any number of helms out 
  there that are vastly easier to get.
- DragonPlate Armor - Good stuff, dragonscales and good armor required, the
  ones I've statted have been ac 4, weight 1, with fire resistance.  The
  best saveable armor is ac 5 right now, though, so probably shards will
  go with that, although the fire resistance is very necessary for shards.

Dragons - have a number of abilities.
-Remember/teleport
-Can be buffed up for offense (requires feeding it lots of corpses)
-Takes some damage for the owner (primarily a defensive pet)
-Summon player (costs sp)
-Transport item (costs sp)
-Spy on player (costs sp)
-Storage (not really used, too many players kill shards in hopes of getting
 their saddle bag, or just pissing them off)
-Mount/Fly/Soar can mount the dragon and fly around, looks cool

Spinal - offensive guild pet, can wield a weapon and wear a shield

Powerful spells - mainly outlined under the powers section in shards2.txt
-Encircle does extra damage to those who hit the encircled.  Castable only
 on shards and allies (and there are no longer allies), also does damage to
 the encircled.
-Blaze - damage to all in room, including caster and their pets.
-Burn - primary attack spell, decent damage, bonus for high xlevels
-Inferno - great in pk, damages those who leave room, including caster/pets
-Dragonskin - imparts much needed fire resistance as well as a slight damage
 reduction.
-Bonus vs goods - very minor, and only 1 in 10, includes a penalty vs evils.
-Storm - sucks, but I plan to revamp it so it doesn't.
-Course - same as storm
-Channel - good vs multiple opponents, damages all attackers, and heals
 requires physical component, not used too often but not bad.

slayer Sword - Thanks to Vital, it works now.  It's the primary offensive
physical damage shards can do other than spinal, and it will help guild 
level 4s reach the upper levels, it adds some offense, although the caster
loses their shield slot for it, plus it costs a ton of sp to cast, as well
as a sword of high quality.

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Disadvantages:

They will be pk at all times, and the most hated guild.  This will make
levelling and gaining exp and gear much harder, and with 6.5 mil required
to max the guild currently, this makes raising a Shard very difficult.

Many of their abilities require hp as well, and some of their offensive 
abilities suck hp from the user.  Most have drawbacks.
-drain - Gives energy decorpsing.  If no corpse, deals damage instead.
-fataility - deathblow.  If it misses, they take damage.
-encircle - deals damage to the caster as well
-blaze - deals damage to caster and pets as well
-inferno - doesn't discrimanate, hits the caster just as hard
-slayer sword- drains
-conjured flames- even touching their own flames damages the caster.

Spinals (their offensive guild pet) can, and will turn on it's master 
randomly.  Probably every Shard that I know of has been killed by their
spinal turning on them at one time or another.

Certain of the more potent powers require tasks.  There are 6 tasks right
now required for max powers/abilities.

The potency of many of the guild powers is based on the player's level.
Under level 19, most of the powers aren't really that powerful, so it's
by far in the player's best interest to get over level 19 as fast as 
possible, or they really suffer.  Getting to level 19 while raising their
guild level is very difficult, I've been there, and must have bounced from
level 19 to 18 and back about a dozen times before I finally maxed guild.

Very hard guild to advance.  PK required, plus strict adherance to theme,
plus being the most hated guild mean very little help getting gear and 
getting exp.  The maxed shards will mainly be focused on PK, regearing, 
and preparing for PK, and stockpiling gear for their next death, so there
won't likely be too much help there.

Most of their spells require either a task, physical component, or hp cost
from the caster.  Most can also harm the caster.  Very dangerous to be a 
shard.

They are very heavily pet dependant.  Pets don't help in pk, so they're on
their own.  Vs mobs with area effects, particularly fire based ones (like 
the dragons in red dragon caves, where they get their guild armor) they have
an extremely hard time, with lowered damage, no pets (they keep getting 
killed), and have a hard time in general.

They die in the church.  I plan on adding at least one guild rank, at an
exorbitant cost, with a heavy task, where they can lower the damage they 
take there, but right now, Shards die in about 3 hb in the church if they
are over level 19, and at max HP.  Then they die again trying to retrieve
their corpse before someone else snags it.  Nasty stuff.  Fear, terror,
summon ghastly stench, all that can make a shard run into the church against
their will, and an almost guaranteed death every time.  Full exp and stat
loss from it, plus the usual loss of gear and cash make it really hurt.

Shardak is needy.  He's lonely and had a rough childhood with not enough 
hugs.  He was 8 months premature, bastard son of a transvestite crack whore.
He had it rough.  His step-father used to beat him with a rubber trout. 
Even Jerry Springer thinks he's too screwed to put him on his show.  He
compensates for all this by requiring lots and lots of sacrifices.  Money,
corpses, souls, and more that we haven't coded yet.  He wants it all, and
if he don't get them he'll take your powers.  Sometimes the sacrifices are
really brutal, especially when you're broke, he's taken away burn, and you
have no armor because some ninja sold it all after you died in the church,
because some damn necro thought it would be funny to cast summon ghastly
stench there, or you terrored yourself into it.

Putting in more sacrifice types, and making sacrifices required more often.
I'm going to put in code so that if a player goes above 0 alignment, it
subtracts that amount from their sacrifice points.  A player that stays good
aligned too long, is going to be doing a lot of sacrifices.

Everyone hates shards.  Everyone tries to kill them, raid their guild hall,
so on and so forth.  It's hard being so hated.  Until a therapist guild goes
in, I'm listing this as a disadvantage.

No alliance.  I disabled the alliance.  Shards will be self-sufficient.

Can't go inactive without leaving the guild.  Like rangers, I don't see a
reason for maintaining members of the guild who will be either leaving for
over a year or more, (if they do, and let me know, I'll probably be more
than willing to reinstate them, if indeed a year goes by.) or leaving 
because they are pissed off.  I've seen too often where characters have gone
inactive because they were mad, and wanting to play again in a day.  I know
I myself did this one, although it was over some legitimate BS (namely 
Cerberus demoting my Shard because my ninja killed him, the turmoil within
the guild because of Rek trying to take control of the guild from Dazed, the
spats between Dazed and myself for purely out of character stuff, and just
general complete BS that will not ever occur again).  If they know that's 
the consequence, they won't do it.  Especially because of the next
disadvantage.

Unlike all other guilds, once a Shard leaves the guild, they can never 
rejoin again.  I have put code in creating a banned list, upon leaving the
guild they will be added to that list.  Even if a wizard clones a guild 
object and puts it on them it will destruct.  This will be made very clear
to players.  If you want a Shard, it won't be an issue where you can bounce
back and forth.  Once you forsake Shardak, he never forgets.  I may post
banned names somewhere, have a wall of shame or something, and make members
responsible for not inviting players on it.  If they do, Shardak will not
be kind to them.

You can't insta-max the guild.  With the exception of those players who had
Shards at the time of Vertebraker closing the guild (proven by the presence
of their guild .o file), no player can bring more than 1 mil free exp into
the guild.  There will be checks for this in the join-guild code, and I have
logs for objects getting cloned to players.  If the object is cloned to a
player that wasn't a previous member, I will remove their object and remove
their guild .o file.  If they're going to go behind the guild wizard's backs
that way, I don't see how they can even ask for a reimbursement of the guild
experience they lose that way.  Only those who join legitimately (through
player channels) or are reinstated can expect to stay in the guild.  If a 
player has over one mil free exp, and are less than level +100, they have
somewhere to spend that exp before joining the guild.  One million exp will
put them in position to gain the rest of the guild experience, through work.
I know at the least, Spyder and myself both joined shards at level 12 and 10
respectively, with less than a couple hundred k in free experience.  We both
maxed the guild while pk, while killing pets, stealing kills, pking, 
stealing corpses, and just generally being really nasty people.  If we 
could, everyone else can, and it will make better players out of them, 
although it will be a hard road.  I want maxing this guild to be a mark of
pride amongst its members, and amongst the non-shards, I want them to be
respected for having maxed it under such harsh conditions, as well as hated.
Plus, having too many Shards online at a time is a bad thing, and having too
many Shards period has the potential for that.  This way, it will be a
select group of very dedicated, loyal members.

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