The Black Tower welcomes you

[Arath Faringal]

We rode on the winds of the rising storm,

We ran to the sounds of the thunder,

We danced among the lightning bolts,

And tore the world asunder.

 

Hi there, and welcome to Dragonmount.  I'm Arath, one of the leaders of the Black Tower RP Division.  I hope to see many of you visit the RP side of these boards soon.  If any of you have any questions at all regarding the BT Division, or the RP in general, feel free to post them here, or to PM them directly to me.  I don't bite.  Balefire is far more fun :D

 

The most important thing about the RP is to have fun.  We are a bunch of random people all brought together by a love of the books, and an urge to write about some of the little people in the stories.  And sometimes the not so little people.  Ever curious about any of the story of Joe Asha'man?  This is your chance to create it.  Ever wanted to hear more about civilian life for all the non channelers at the Farm?  It's all yours.  

 

Black Tower Div is in charge of (funnily enough) the Black Tower, or the Farm as it is better known, and all the inhabitants thereof, both Asha'man and regular civilians.  Our channelers go through a tough training program, advancing from Soldier, to Dedicated, to full Asha'man.  Our civilians can do pretty much whatever they feel like doing.  Civilians have a wide range of things they can do.  The Asha'man have a wide range of skills, but they are primarily soldiers and have need of other people to help the Farm function.  Your civie can be a blacksmith, a carpenter, tanner, farmer, weapon trainer, ... whatever floats your boat.  Our most popular type of civilian seems to be the tavern wench ... (we're always on the lookout for any Domani girls to bring to the Farm ;) )

 

I've been with the Black Tower since 2001, so I'm pretty knowledgable about anything and everything to do with the BT.  Anything I don't know can probably be found with the BT's other Division Leader, Covai Seriba, who has been around even longer than me.  Feel free to ask questions.  There are no stupid questions ... although there may be a few that I have a good laugh at first :D  I blame the taint.  I also encourage you to visit the Black Tower Website to learn more.  It might help generate some questions as well.

 

Alrighty, I'll wrap this up for now.  Next post, The One Power and the Taint.

[Nynaeve]

Is it typical for most people that role play a BTer to do the whole 'voices in their head and going pshyco' thing? Or do most focus on the more sane period of a BTer's life? 

 

 

 

Nyn

[Arath Faringal]

Good question.

 

At the BT, we tend to let people pick their own level of crazy.  For obvious reasons, you might want to take it slow at first.  Hearing voices after your first day doesn't bode well for your chances of a long and happy life.  Sooner or later the taint will get to everyone, but you're a bit better off if you decide to make it a little later.

 

Schizophrenia is only one of the many afflictions we offer though!  Truth be told, we have had a LOT of Asha'man over the years who hear voices.  A few have alternate personalities entirely, with various levels of crazy among them.  It's interesting sometimes to read about the alternate personality (which is sometimes the more sane one), trying to figure out what's going on.  Paranoia, irrational phobias ... they're all possibilities.  It might even be interesting to go with necrosis, letting your body rot around you while keeping your mind whole.

 

I guess to answer Nynaeve's question, most people start off their character and keep him sane while the character develops and goes through basic training.  Then as the character matures, you can begin his descent into madness.  It's all up to the writer.

 

As an example, I'll use my main character, Arath.  He's currently a Storm Leader, and has been channeling for 2-3 years.  As of yet, he hasn't been damaged much by the taint, but he has begun to develop paranoia.  He is very suspicious of new people.

 

Contrast him with one of his students, Tai'Dashan.  Tai has been channeling for maybe a year, and he has a full blown, and rather psychotic, alternate personality which calls itself 'Chaos'.  Chaos has the unfortunate habit of taking control during stressful situations, which can lead to some rather interesting battle scenes in the future.

 

One good thing to remember though, is that after a certain point the Black Tower leaders will step in and spice your wine.  Crazy is fine, but it needs to be kept at a tolerable level.  Or kept very secret. :)

[Liitha]

where are you in regards too the books? like do you have split factions with disagreements with the dragon and whatnot...or whats going on?

[ConQuest]

im also curious about that cause as well,

 

im waiting to start a warder Person so are the warders and everyone on edge still?

[Arath Faringal]

We've kind of mixed up the Black Tower story line a bit.  We haven't quite reached the Cleansing of Saidin yet, though that should be coming up very soon.  We are right in the middle of bonding with the Red Ajah though, so we've skipped ahead a little in that regard.

 

We don't really have split factions within the Asha'man at this time, though that could change at a moments notice.  We recently had a small battle where the insane M'Hael and a few of his cronies were killed by two other Storm Leaders.  Right now, our Black Tower is ruled by a Council of Guardians; 7 Storm Leaders and 14 Attack Leaders who all work together to govern the Farm.  Currently, there is no M'Hael position at all.

 

Like I said, this could all change rather quickly.  I know that we have at least one character who could quite easily begin to plot and scheme for control, forming his own faction and waiting for the right moment.  He's been working on it for years :D 

 

 

[Barmacral]

I've been through the Black Tower boards reading their roleplays every once in a while, and they have some really fun storylines. My favourite thread title involving the BT that I've seen so far is "I just killed my boss, can I see yours?"

[Covai Seriba]

Yes, we were rather proud of that one :D

 

*Waves to all the new people looking at joining the crazies*

[AoShun]

I want in...  I must be mad to actually WANT to be a man who can channel, but even though my parents used stories of men channeling to scare me, i've always been intrigued with learning.  I feel like its the best way to make the biggest difference in the impending final battle.

 

so... how do i join?  ;D

[Liitha]

go down here and introduce yourself http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/board,80.0.html

 

you are more likely to get help there since this was a january marketing tread and the BTers may not be on top of it still *s*

 

looking forward to seeing you down there