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Raeshlavik In reply to FeanorKelsick [2013-08-12 02:30:29 +0000 UTC]

For our lore we have determined that Changelings have separate hives that all have different ways of doing things – somewhat like individual nations. Recently, a hive just to the west of Roanoak was rather abruptly left without its queen (a long story) – and in true “love and tolerate” fashion we have taken in the drones.

A sort of Ponified “District 9” thing.

The difficulty here is everypony has a different measure for “love and tolerate”, and as such there has been some political strife.

It turns out that the Drones can be quite individualistic when they are separated from their Queen – and while many of them are quite happy to live amongst us and draw sustenance from the ambient emotions of the citizenry – there seem to be a group of them that are still quite loyal to their fallen Queen… And appear to be actively seeking to undermine the Roanoak crown…

Espionage and blackmail are complicated, dirty affairs – but when your opponent can look like anypony, it makes things quite a bit more complicated.

And it makes ponies very, very paranoid.

In this regard Roanoak is enacting the “Changeling Registry”, a mandatory identification law that requires Changelings to be registered. Registered changelings are given an amulet that they must wear which has a unique signature based on the changelings individual magical 'signature' – so no matter the form they wear, they can be identified - and the amulet only works for the Changeling it is attuned to. Changelings found not wearing the amulet are detained until proper identification is established.

The scene here is Imperious discussing the Registry with the Empress and trying to explain to her that, while the political ramifications are ‘complex’, it is required from a guard perspective. The map he is displaying is our world map, and he is showing the Empress the tactical things the Changelings did to get into Equestria and more specifically Canterlot… This is to illustrate the danger of unknown rogue agents in our midst to the Empress, who does not fully back this Registry idea…

Queens, apparently, are created when needed, and a recent complication in this arc is that a new Queen has been found amidst the local Changelings. She is a possible third faction to contend with as many of them begin to follow her.

It is certainly never dull in Roanoak.

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needthistool In reply to Raeshlavik [2013-08-30 22:15:23 +0000 UTC]

Thanks very much for posting all this; I was about to ask myself.

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FeanorKelsick In reply to Raeshlavik [2013-08-12 06:28:59 +0000 UTC]

whoaa, didnt expect all that. That is actaully really cool idea, I love the registering changelings idea especially, thank you very much for the detailed explanation, and the pic now seems even cooler!

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Raeshlavik In reply to ShadowNevener [2013-08-09 13:50:16 +0000 UTC]

Actually, the price was quite reasonable when weighed against the fact most artists on dA undercharge by quite a bit.

Think of it this way: let us say an artist takes ten hours to create something like this (it actually took quite a bit longer, but ten is a nice round number) and the artist would like to make minimum wage for their time and talent - or $7.25 an hour - the commission should cost around $72.50.

I think we can agree that minimum wage is not all that fun and something like $12 an hour for a talented artist willing to do whatever you want is more reasonable - now the commission should be $120.

The above took about a week of talking over what things should look like, reviewing references, reviewing sketches, laying out light sourcing, ink and paint... Jaaaaaaaz invested *way* over ten hours in this - I will leave it to you to determine what I should have paid, and then tell you that jaaaaaaaz is very, very reasonably priced for being an absolute professional to work with.

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EnkaiXiomasa In reply to Raeshlavik [2013-08-10 20:30:29 +0000 UTC]

That is pretty much how I felt when they drew something for me. I honestly feel like they earned way more than they got: especially for the quality and attention to detail they give in their pictures. By the way... this is totally awesome and looks exactly like how my mind sees the throne room.

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Raeshlavik In reply to SomeKindaSpy [2013-08-09 00:48:36 +0000 UTC]

Good eye!

While the Roanoak symbol is a unique device, I did want to invoke that 'Myst' sort of feel for a specific reason. You see, one of the story elements of Roanoak are what we call 'rifts', random and unstable bridges between places, times, and even parallel worlds, and they can be read about at the link below.

This story element allows us to play around with pretty much any fan fiction we want to for a short period of time... For example, one of the bigger story arcs dealt with a "Fallout Equestria" like possible future of our world, and another involved sending ponies into another realm to recover an artifact that would help a little filly with some rather big problems.

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SomeKindaSpy In reply to Raeshlavik [2013-08-09 14:59:38 +0000 UTC]

That's pretty cool. I think I'll go read it.

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Raeshlavik In reply to Wisdom-Thumbs [2013-08-08 14:33:40 +0000 UTC]

The introduction to the whole thing can be found here: www.trotsdale.com/topic/what-i…

The characters here are the Captain of the Imperial Guard, Imperious, and the Empress of Roanoak, Aurora.

The lead-up to all of this is a bit convoluted, but I got into 'Pony' back in the 80's with the TV special "Midnight Castle" and this was rolled into the tabletop Roleplay game I was running at the time. This land of "Roanoak" was created based on what we *didn't* know about the world of ponies, and as such there was a lot of 'creative license' at work - mostly regarding this kingdom of Roanoak and these really big adventures ... with ponies.

Roll the clock forward to the latter half of 2010, MLP makes a comeback with a lot of the same mythology and 'big stories' I had used so long ago - and I *LOVED* it... So, as I was very active in SecondLife at the time (an open-framework 3D simulation) I decided to re-kindle the old Roanoak story using some of the reboot material as a real place people could interact with.

Roanoak was built to be another kingdom within the same world (Thank you Lauren for pointing out Equestria is a land, and not the entire world), with its own leaders, factions, history, and other trappings of nationality - and offer players a chance to be the heroes of their own adventures... 

We already know all about the Mane Six and even get a brilliant TV show about their adventures, so this is a setting for /everypony else/. A place where the owner of the local mercantile is actually a guild master of a bunch of miscreants and they use the storefront as a cover for their activities. Or where the local Guard is currently embroiled in a political issue with requiring a changeling registry and the guard Captain is experiencing some political hot water. Or where the owner of the local inn and tavern is in cahoots with a mysterious mare with connections to some dark past...

Stories that take longer than 22 minutes to resolve.

Now, as the TV show is aimed at pre-teens and therefore has to adhere to certain thematic restrictions, Roanoak is aimed at a slightly older audience. The core thematic elements are still present; love, tolerance, friendship - ponies - but the setting contains things such as organized crime, changeling espionage, the Imperial Guard, international intrigue, and other slightly more mature subject matter. But! The regions are still all "G" rated, so there is no truly adult issues (no sex and drugs, but some rock and roll), but Roanoak is not all kittens and rainbows either.

That is it, in a nutshell...

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Wisdom-Thumbs In reply to Raeshlavik [2013-08-09 05:12:38 +0000 UTC]

Awwwwwwww yiss, I loves me some good reads

I'm heavily reminded of The Witcher games, which I've suddenly gained a keen interest in after the E3 reveal of the third game. This is good, me gusta. It probably helps that Imperius vaguely resembles a ponified Geralt. Either way, you had my curiosity and now you have my attention.

Myself, I turned to the show's lore and ancient history for my fix. Piecing together Equestria's dark medieval past based on evidence offered by the show is my favorite hobby. One of these days I'm going to need to start a tumblr just to keep up with it all.

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Aryte In reply to Wisdom-Thumbs [2013-10-18 19:24:49 +0000 UTC]

I am late to the party here, but being called a ponified Geralt makes me squee.

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Raeshlavik In reply to lugiayoshi [2013-08-08 04:22:56 +0000 UTC]

Oddly, it is something like an MMO... The land of Roanoak exists in SecondLife, where the Empress (pictured above) literally rules over a real land full of real ponies. There are about 1000 players in the various groups, and the RP region (with the big fancy castle) typically has around 30 players from the different RP factions on at once during prime time.

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Raeshlavik In reply to Siarnaq21 [2013-08-08 04:25:11 +0000 UTC]

It is a play on the lost Roanoke colony, as some of the bigger events in the land's history mirror that legend.

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Siarnaq21 In reply to Raeshlavik [2013-08-08 23:34:06 +0000 UTC]

Fascinating.

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Raeshlavik In reply to K4nK4n [2013-08-08 04:26:48 +0000 UTC]

But I am always cute ... Except when I am holding court or wrestling with taxation or working on treaties or... 

Okay, maybe I am cuter than usual here.

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K4nK4n In reply to Raeshlavik [2013-08-08 14:23:11 +0000 UTC]

 *giggles*

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1Jaz In reply to DarthAgnan [2013-08-04 17:17:48 +0000 UTC]

нахуй иди днище

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DarthAgnan In reply to 1Jaz [2013-08-04 17:25:57 +0000 UTC]

Я от чистого сердца сказал, но ты оказался действительно омерзителен. Тебе тудаже :3

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1Jaz In reply to DarthAgnan [2013-08-04 18:42:43 +0000 UTC]

ахаха, заползи обратно в ту дыру откуда вылез гнида, таким как ты на ДА не место.

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DarthAgnan In reply to 1Jaz [2013-08-05 03:38:39 +0000 UTC]

Схронил :3

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1Jaz In reply to DarthAgnan [2013-08-05 04:56:31 +0000 UTC]

Себя схорони, так будет лучше для всех.

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DarthAgnan In reply to 1Jaz [2013-08-05 05:00:52 +0000 UTC]

Такого жира я еще не видел, вдвойне схронил)))

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