I think the only issues I really see are the in-character reasonability of some of the issues.

Frankly, Kaolla is absolutely free in-character to propose the kind of set-up that you originally stated here. However, taking a look at the current cast in the RP, if Kaolla began to actively start recruiting characters she may get one, I'm guessing, at best that would jump on board.

I think for this to work out, you have to be thinking very much in terms of this being a long-term, active project for your character. Back when you first joined the RP you had planned for Kaolla to be a sort of seer-like character pulling the strings of the RP cast. A sort of manipulator character in a way. I doubt the Dark Lilies were formed over the course of a day, or even a couple months, and I wouldn't expect Kaolla's version of the group to take any less longer than they did to form… especially given Kaolla is considering training up her own group of Black Mages, instead of from existing Black Mages.

what I think would be most realistic (instead of waiting for the end of Chains to come), would be for Kaolla to start looking for potential candidates and in a way trying to 'lead' them in the direction she would like them to go. Avina recently taking up Dark Knight in the story would make her a prime target as she is already versed in some of the Dark Arts but Avina isn't going to transition being part of a coven easily or quickly. I would say for Avina, Kaolla would have to have interactions with her first to influence Avina towards exploring her talent with Dark Magic. After a time, a sense of apprenticeship/mentor kinship would be formed, and from there she might take the idea of joining a coven more easily.

I can't entirely speak for other characters, but if I saw potential, perhaps even Sobe or Muriru would be possible candidates for this (if you stick with gender-specific). Sobe has already demonstrated a desire to use magic as a means to power, Kaolla could pose black magic as an even greater magic, possibly even a more mentally 'safe' form of magic since although Black Mages tend to be a little bit quirky they don't eat their minds from the inside out like BLUs do. Muriru would arguably be much more difficult since her parents were White Mage purists but she is interested in Zeti-Reti's practice in Summoning Magic, so there is potential there. As for Aurou… she's practiced in magic but I'm unsure of her tendency towards black magic. Something to explore? Draenen seems pretty DD centric.

The point being, I think that there's a lot of potential to the idea. But I think you should plan on having it take a long time, I'd say a years worth even, for Kaolla to actively play a part in planting the seeds in her companions and in a way, manipulate/steer them towards this kind of coven that she is looking for. Because I don't think the cast we have set up right now is really ready/able to take this on now with some heavy convincing/manipulating. However, slight manipulation over a long period of time could have the effects you are looking for. Telling Avina, "Why run in to get beat on by several foes when you can stand off to the side and destroy them all with one large blast… while you remained untouched" would certainly spark a curiosity. Avina has seen Kaolla in action: she knows what she is capable of.

But the rules may possibly be too strict. First thing people ICly will ask is why no guys? Why must it be secret? Kaolla will need to have a good reason IC for them, and depending on how she's made friends of others and/or manipulated them so far, that may be harder/easier to do.

I think it probably isn't too realistic to expect people to level up mules specifically for this purpose unless they were already planning to do so. That's a lot of time, and a lot of work and gil no matter how you spin it.

I do think though, like I explained above, that there is a lot of potential to the idea and I do think it could work. But I think it has the greatest chance of success the longer you take to do the setting up for it.

Well I’m in no rush. Actually I think that’s something I haven’t made clear. I was already planning on taking at least a month or two to lead people into this side RP and if it would take longer than that that’s fine with me.

I think that might solve a lot of the issues people seem to have with the idea, I didn’t realize that people might be thinking that Kaolla was just going to spring the idea on them and be all Wanna join? Huh? Huh? LOL.

No this will be a very slow and gradually introduced subplot. Kaolla will first “befriend” her potential lilies and then slowly convince them to join. You could almost compare it to a Sith like seduction, though the DarkLiliesCoven is not going to be evil, more a chaotic neutral group.

The dark lilies isn’t just about Black Magic (though black magic is the focus) It’s a philosophy. It’s a way of looking at the world and magic, and embracing of the fact that chaos is truth for chaos has no true opposite. The opposite of order is disorder the opposite of chaos is entropy. The goal is to feed on chaos and use the power of magic to order the universe to fit ones own needs. It walks the fine line between BLM and DRK almost. A DRK as I always saw it struggles with chaos literally wrestles with it and bends it with spell and blade to their purpose. A BLM does something similar but in a very different way, they become a channel for chaos. A DRK mirrors chaos and reflects it upon the world a BLM is a prism that lets the chaos pass through them and refracts it into a rainbow of power.

That being said I’ll probably need some help from any interested players in finding the best way to approach their character. I’ll probably start hinting at any and all female chars with magical potential, actually I already have done some minor hinting already some people might recognize it for what it was now :3 I might start pushing a lil more now IC but yes this is a plot that will take a long time to get started.

Actually if I have to choose between manipulating things in the main RP for a year to get a core group of 4 to 6 BLM women for the coven or changing the idea to just some random magic club and starting in a month I’d rather take the year to get the group set up. Of course if nobody is interested in this idea even with a lengthy setup Kaolla would probably be interested in joining a magical group of any kind if someone else wanted to set one up.

Well laters again

Kaolla

It looks like at least for now that if people are interested in this side RP that it will happen sometime on Tuesdays. Though my work schedule is hardly set in stone as the changes I’ve had made to it already show.

Right now I just have a couple questions.

The 1st question is if anyone is interested in joining as one of the lilies meaning as a female black mage?

The 2nd question is who else is interested but want to be involved in this RP as either a male char or as a job other than BLM?

The 3rd question is if anyone is planning or just thinking about either creating a new char or using a mule they want to lvl blm on for this RP?

This isn’t so much a side plot as a side activity with the potential of introducing several side plots depending on who is involved. If anyone does decide that they want to use a character other than their main RP character for this I’ll probably start the mana-burn with them while we figure out how to get other people involved ICly. Right now though I’m interested in knowing for certain who wants to do this and how they want to be involved. I know this idea still needs a lot of tweaking in order to get peoples characters involved IC but right now I’d just like to know who wants in OOC so that I know who can help with those tweaks etc.

For me:

1. Avina, as of the moment, isn't prone to just join up. Kaolla would need to do some convincing, possibly some manipulating, to get Avina to work hardcore on Black Mage. Even if Avina leveled Black Mage, that wouldn't necessarily mean she'd sign up for a coven. Convince, convince, convince!

2. She would be more likely, at present, to join up as either Red Mage or White Mage. Black Mage isn't out of the possibilities, but again, I'd like to see some push to get her to become involved. Again, for her, it would be a slow recruitment, but your chances are probably high that you would succeed in the end. Another possibility would be that Zeti-Reti could practice Black Mage now that he is becoming a more magic-focused character, but again, you gotta convince him of the benefits lol

3. With Avina and now two alt characters that I'm working on for RP purposes at the moment, (Zeti-Reti, Burald) I really can't afford to put anymore new characters out there for this. However two of my existing characters could become members if the necessary steps are taken.

Kaolla would probably slowly try to get Avi to join but it’ll be a balancing act. Also will probably be easier to do once the group is already up and running. Maybe not but I think it’d be easier to get Avi to join if Kaolla already had other members to introduce her to.

As for Zeti there are a number of IC reasons that Kaolla wouldn’t try to recruit him.

1: He’s been gone for a while so Kaolla doesn’t really know him that well any more.
2: He’s a guy and Kaolla still is stuck in her world view of jerk until proven nice guy when it comes to males. Zeti is prob. one of the few guys Kaolla did trust but as stated above he has been gone for a while until just recently.
3: He’s a SMN now and SMNs make Kaolla a lil nervous due to her past; especially SMNs who summon Fenrir as frequently as he does. This is why Aurou’s summoning doesn’t bother her as much since she seems to rely almost exclusively on Carbuncle.
4: He’s a taru that has already displayed magical talent, that means he potentially can become an even more powerful BLM than Kaolla. Kaolla is okay with creating a group of equals but the idea of someone surpassing her makes her nervous.

And I would like to keep the Dark Lilies an “all girls club” if possible. Think of it like cheerleaders, there are male cheerleaders but they’re never quite part of the group in the same way. Though it could be amusing for Kaolla to do things like try to get any male members in touch with their feminine side especially since Kaolla is so tomboyish herself. At least Kaolla seems to lack any sense at all of feminine modesty especially if she’s been drinking lol.

So now the Dark Lillies are Racist on top of being Sexist?

I wouldn’t put it that way… Though if you want to look at it that way I guess it is, just like if you want to look at it from a certain point of view the NAACP is a racist organization or at least has a racist name. But no the Dark lilies aren’t anti male or anti taru. I’m just stating reasons why Kaolla would be reluctant to actively recruit Zeti IC. And let me EMPHASIZE the IN CHARACTER part.

Perhaps a better way to look at it is like this. The Dark Lilies are a sorority. Sororities are for women fraternities are for men. Are fraternities and sororities sexist? In a way yes if you want to nitpick but they are what they are. If you want to mana-burn on Nodem have him start a rival group it could be an interesting conflict to RP out. If you don’t want to mana-burn on Nodem then don’t complain because then the existence of the Dark Lilies shouldn’t effect your character at all.

I could say more but I don’t want this turning into a fight especially over an idea that probably isn’t going to happen anyways.

I wasn't fighting. I was pointing out that as you go on with the idea you are slowly knocking away any possibilities a person might want to come as.

We can ignore the gender thing, as I stated before I understand.

But the race thing… That's kinda pushing it from an OOC point of view. Next it'll be mithra and Hume only since they have the same INT and makes things BALANCED. Or… No Elvaan because their INT is lacking. I'm pointing out that this is just another dangerous road to go down if you're going to nit-pick jobs and/or races the entire way.


As for Manaburning Nodem… I solo'd BLM to 75 solo and it's the only character I'll level as BLm due to not wanting to go through all the pain again. I'm just being constructive, just I don't always word things the best way.

I don’t always word things the best way either, and I’m not excluding tarus from the group though it will be much easier for a female taru to join then a male one. That comment was for Zeti specifically, Kaolla is afraid of him due to him being a SMN and having Fenrir pop up with him all the time.