Honestly, Arath didn't know how Jasine got his information. First, the other trainee had found the Oneness class, and then yesterday had told him about this Advanced Forms class. Not only was it a class Arath needed, it was a class instructed by a blademaster. Arath had never studied under a blademaster- sure his teachers were strong, but not that strong. Arath was giddy, he couldn't imagine what it would be like learning from a Master.

Without even realizing it, Arath began mentally picturing what a blademaster would look like. He would be a big man, probably, with a muscular build. He would probably be scarred too, after all it took many battles to become a blademaster. And probably rough hands. He probably wouldn't be a kind instructor, all work and no play. Arath had seen many very proficient swordsmen in his stay at the Yards, and most of them seemed to be very strict. The mental picture seemed very familiar... almost like he had seen someone like that a long time ago.

Putting the thoughts out of his mind, Arath saw his instructor. The man was much like he imagined, tall, muscular, scarred, and strict looking. Oddly enough, Arath got the same feeling of knowing this man. It was like he had met him before but could not remember where. Suddenly a cloud blocked out the sky and a shadow was cast over the blademaster. Imidiately, Arath recognized the Master; it had been over a year since he last saw the man. It was in the forest on the edge of the Yards, and the man had given him a sound beating. Arath couldn't even remember why the crazed Blademaster was after him.

Wow! He had managed to sucessfully run away from a blademaster! Arath felt a surge of pride before a sense of doom in the pit of his stomach. What if the blademaster recognized him? What if whatever grudge the man had against him resurfaced? From the blank look on the master's face, it didn't look like he was recognized, and Arath prayed that it stayed that way. His pace slower and not as enthusiastic as before, Arath made his way to his instructor.

Naturally. Right before I leave.

hehehe. Yeah, I'm good at disturbing... And it helps that I want to be a psychologist, so I know all about the nice little quirks of this disorder. *evil grin*

Enough, I grow tired of people proving me wrong *destroyes DM* there, now there are no Borderlanders.

Lol, of course, she has a spy network that looks for any mention of darkfriends... or she's just a lurker like me  ;D

Lol, I don't think it's actually forbidden, just strongly discouraged. I don't have any desire to play borderlanders though, they have too much of that honor and obligation. No offense to anyone, but I feel like borderlanders are boring. They grow up surrounded by death, they have full knowledge of shadowspawn, and they're practically all warriors. I think it's more fun to develope your character into what borderlanders are all born as.

Lol, but yeah, I totally agree that variety is good. I have an Andoran and if my current pending bio gets approved I'll have an Amadacian

haha, just wait until you read my bio! Yeah, I play for this character to become a Darkfriend eventually, but after I at least get to dedi

Hmm, maybe there just aren't that many where I am  ;)

So, in just about every guide for new members, it says something along the lines of "Don't be a borderlander, everyone is and it gets boring to have only borderlanders who all know of trollics and are warriors." However, I've noticed that now we actually have very little borderlanders. I guess because of these warnings people make characters from different places and try not to make borderlanders, but with a lot of older members (who played borderlanders) gone, we don't have very many. XD It's not really a problem, but it just struck me as funny.

OOC: Lol, I'm going to be gone for five nights starting tomorow morning, so Arath's just popping in. If there's any group involvement, just pretend he's not there.

IC: Arath driften into the Bonding class, glad that he had gotten a very good night of rest. He could see that he would need it when he saw the Mistress of Trainees trying to murder her parchment, Melenis practically dying on the table, and Jasine all but pouting in his chair. At least Perivar was normal. It was quite obvious what the three suffered from, though. Melenis had been drinking too much last night, and Jasine was far too obvious. He was doing a good job at not looking at the Mistress, however, he was looking everywhere but the Mistress. Arath sighed as he made his way to his friend; Mistress Thera was wielding her pen as if it was a longsword, so Jasine must have done something inapropriate. He was still siting in his chair, and not running laps, so it must not have been that serious.

Arath patted his friend's shoulder simpatheticly. He didn't say anything, and waited for the teachers to enter. Arath almost didn't come to the class, knowing that no Aes' Sedai would look twice at a man his size. He told himself that he came because it was very rare that a Warder (and Aes' Sedai for that matter) ever shared their information. However, he couldn't silence the small voice in the back of his mind that whispered he was here for Rasheta. Arath scowled mentally and shook his head; he hadn't seen Rasheta Sedai in months. He appreciated the confidence Rasheta Sedai had shown him, but she would not waste her time with a trainee such has himself.

Unbidden, the memory of her last words returned to him. "You are a good teacher Arath maybe when you become one of the Gaidin I will come back and you may teach me how to use this properly. Train well so I can come back and you can teach me everything I need to know about the blade."

Arath scowled again mentally; was here only to learn about the bond, no other reasons. Maybe there was something about the room- Arath was disgruntled, Melenis was hung over, Thera was ready to kill someone, Jasine was depressed, and Perivar was trying to make awkward conversation with them all. It was looking to be a very good class.

Well, I am the reviver of Divisions. I joined the Warders and started RPing, and all the sudden the div got really active. Hopefully I can do it again ;D

Hey, I am of course a hopeless lurker who goes through old threads and reads them, and found something of use. I found a thread that tells us all about what's happening in the different contries all across RP-land. Granted, it's about seven months old, but I'm pritty sure that the things in there aren't innacurate.

http://forums.dragonmount.com/index.php/topic,24227.0.html

Check it out

So, I went over to the boards for Dragoncon, and noticed that most of the people there are Com people. I actually live a fourty minute drive from Atlanta, so I'm definately going to Dragoncon with some RL friends, but I was wondering if anybody from this side is going over there?

No, I refuse.

(that means yes btw)

I give up! You win! I made the decision to stick to one character for a while, and I tried, I really did! I lasted almost two whole months without giving into the temptation to join the raving lunatics, but nooooooo! You all had to constantly attack my mind, giving me character idea after character idea, until finally I wrote a bio for a Sociopathic, parent-murdering lunatic! It's all your fault! You just had to tempt me with your insane male channelers! Rawr!

*screams senseless profanities until drug off*

Oh, and just in case you didn't get the point of this after all that, I joined the BT ;)

Ah well, because of my character's background, he's fine in a city, but a fish out of water in the wilderness, so I'm gonna have to vote for wilderness. ;)

Honestly, it doesn't bother me, there's no need to go back and edit posts. One thread isn't a big deal, but I don't want it to become a habbit of misrepresenting Arath. :) But really, no problem.

I'd be interested in taking an Advanced Weapons class, however it ocurred to me that you might want to have a WS requirement for this thread. After all, it would be kind of weird to have a character with a WS of 1 taking Advanced Weapons. ;)

Ok, let's put this thread to rest. I'm almost 100% positive that the little notes in parenthesis are just for show.

If you start out at WS two, all you have to do is complete one requirement. This requirement is not necisarily a class. The classes count as one Free Choice requirement, and you can use only two of those for advancement.

http://www.aliciawilkerson.com/warders/?page_id=18

that link has a list of threads that can be used for advancement

For example: Arath advanced from WS 2-3 by completing the Challenge requirement, and because he advanced to WS 3, it is assumed that he knows the Basic forms, this does NOT mean that he's taken basic forms classes. The words in the parenthesis are just saying that by the time your character has gotten to that WS, he (or she) will have learned those things, however they might not have been RP'd

*shrug* well I could be wrong but I'd imagine that the staff would at least want to look at the final decisions

Sure, sure, got an MSN? Or Yahoo? and Ty btw!

Hey, I'm Talavin, and I have a wee little TG trainee named Arath. Now, my little trainee is a bit of a social outcast, and tends to spend all of his time overworking himself. Now, he's been working like this for a year, and as I'm sure you all know, that's far from healthy. So, I want Arath to collapse and be sent to the Yellows. Now, the Yellows know that the only way for him to keep up his health is to take periodic breaks (like take a day off every week or something) so they tell him that and say something like "if I see you in this Infirmary again overworked, I'll have you kicked out of the Yards" or something like that so that he's really forced to take breaks. Anyone interested?

OOC: Hm. Well, I'm actually going out of town soon, so I was trying to stay away from DM... but you can see how well that's worked out. Meh, you two've gotten Arath out of character, but it's not horribly far from what he is, so it's not that important.

IC: A flame, any flame? Arath frowned at the very general instructions and began his task. First, he imagined a large inferno, for surely his emotions would fule a large fire. He imagined his emotions as logs, and started the fire on top of them. For a second, he felt a rush of complete emotionlessness, but then imediately the Void was too large for him to handle, and it shattered. It was a startling feeling, like glass shards were falling through his head, but he shook it off quickly and pondered what he did wrong. He was unable to keep up the Void for more than an instant, for the sudden appearance of the ko'di was shocking, like being dunked in ice water. The sudden transition from emotion to emotionless sparked suprise, and the sudden emotion destroyed the state of emptiness.

The only thing Arath could think of to prevent this suprise was to form the Void more slowly. To do so, Arath decided to make his flame smaller. Once again, he created the Void, and it lasted a little longer, but still shattered. Arath experimented, making the Void smaller and smaller, until finally he couldn't imagine his emotions as logs under the fire anymore. Instead, he imagined them as leaves, and slowly fed them to the fire. Eventually, he ended up with on small flickering flame, a bit smaller than a candle flame, and fed his emotions to it. Slowly, ever so slowly, a Void formed around that flame, and he sat in that Void.

It was definately odd, the feeling he got in the Void, but at the same time exciting (or rather Arath imagined he would be feeling excited if not for the Oneness). Smells were sharper- Arath could smell the lingering smell of sweat from when he and Jasine had been sparring. He could smell the crisp smell of the grass below them, and the earthy smell of the dirt. He felt connected, not only to the people around him, but the objects and animals. In the absence of emotion, logic and pure thought prevaled, and Arath could feel how every movement he made effected those around him. He breathed, and disturbed the air, his body became an obstical for insects to overcome, and he could easily interact with his human peers, changing their potential actions simply by his presence.

Arath was aware of the other boys' conversation, and also of the task that Master Jesse had given them. Arath made his way to a hiding space, unhurried but briskly. He let go of the Void and observed Jasine as he came near, when they greeted eachother, he wondered how the other Trainee had known where he was, for he was in a position higher than his friend. Pondering it, Arath concluded that it must have been easy, his scent and the sound of his heartbeat giving him away. Thus, when the next Trainee tried to find him, he hid behind a living person. Still, he was found eventually and it became Arath's turn to seek.

Arath tried to ignore how unsettling it was to be robbed of his sight. He didn't realize just how dependent on it he was until it was taken away from him. Still, in the Void, the worry was pushed to the side; it hovered outside the Void, unwanted and ignored. Arath focused on the ground underneath him; he could feel his connection to the ground, feel the grass bend beneith him. It bended to a force superior to itself, but it survived. Arath couldn't help but wonder if the grass had a wisdom greater than humans. If the grass was stiff and brittle, it would crumble and die, but because it was supple and bent, it lived while other beings stepped on it.

Arath fed these thoughts to the Void, for they were unimportant. His task was to find Perivar and Jasine, and thoughts about grass didn't help him. He knew that his comrades were most likely away from the training rings, and so he avoided those. They were very easy to locate, for the sound of clacking and clanging was easily noticed. Slowly, Arath strolled, keeping his steps even and steady, for the calm of the Void prevented him from franticly searching. At one point, Arath's bare feet trod upon a particularly sharp rock. It didn't break the skin, but the sudden pain broke the Void. It was very shocking, to loose the sense of connectedness and his heightened senses. It was worse, however, to return and have no sight.

Suddenly, Arath felt very lost and alone. He was standing in the middle of the Yards and he had no idea where he was, blinded and stranded without the sense of confidence the Void provided. Arath struggled to remake the void, but failed, his growing panic refused to be fed into the Flame. He had no perception of time, trapped in his dark abyss with no escape. The panic grew so quickly that Arath forgot it was only and excersize, that he could easily take off the blindfold and regain his senses. The non-existant world seemed to spin around him, he was dazed and he couldn't keep his balence. Arath felt his terror double as he was falling, falling, falling- Oof!

Suddenly the ground reappeared, and he could feel his body lay spread-eagle on the hard ground. Instantly his terror was snapped, for his landing reminded Arath that there was a ground, and he was laying quite firmly on it. He couldn't hold back a laugh at his own foolishness and weakness, and easily reformed the Void. His embarisment at feeling so terrified was beyond the Void, and unimportant. He could feel the connection to the ground below him, as well as the plants and the trees nearby. Unhurried, Arath steadily got to his feet and continued his search.

Jasine was the easiest to find; Arath had spent a good amount of time around his peer, and he knew that his friend always had the faint lingering smell of horses around him. Following his nose, Arath wandered until he found the smell of horses. Unfortunately, he ended up in the stables and would have felt quite foolish if he was not wrapped in the Void. Arath adjusted his criteria and instead looked for a more faint smell of horses. After running into a few stable-boys, Arath managed to find Jasine on the very edge of the Yards.

"You had to hide all the way out here, didn't you?" Arath asked, a little disgruntled.

"You had to hit me when the pritty lady was distracting me, didn't you?" Jasine shot back.

The other boy avoided his good-natured swat, and ran off with a grin towards their instructor. Muttering, Arath reformed the Void and began his search for Perivar. Luckily the other trainee was on his path, for he didn't have any hints like he did with Jasine. It was rather by accident that he found the last Trainee- Arath was passing by the kitchens when a stray pig ran between his feet, tripping him. He was aware of the man moving out of his way, just as he was aware that the man was still there. However, Arath did not hear any offers to help him up.

"Only a man trying to hide would not offer assistance to a fallen comrade. Is that you Perivar?" A laugh answered him and Arath removed the blindfold and let the Void disipate. "Come on, we need to get back to Master Jesse and learn the next lesson."

Hm, now the question is does she mean feedback from us, or feedback from the staff? I'd imagine you can't make a major change like this without staff approval.