Roadside graves

Juniper Onyx · Post by **Juniper Onyx** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 2:06 am

Ok, having traveled everywhere possible, I have wondered......

Are the roadside Gravestones really necessary????? They look like the 'crappy' roadside crosses we have here.

Almost every settlement has a 'cemetary, and if they don't, perhaps they should. Dumping bodies in 'ditches' next to roads or next to buildings was reserved for peasants and nameless people, not persons that want to be remembered.

At first, it was kinda cool to see the occasional 'legendary' character tomb, but I just think the "Increasing" number of "personal" tombstones is ugly and disturbs the 'aura' of the landscape. Why not move them, rebury them in a cemetary? They won't be the last ones to die.

Plan for the future. If characters are given gravestones, we should at least put them in a place 'made' for them.

Greenbriar has a cemetary
Silverbrand has a Tomb for it's Kings
Trollsbane - I think the Main Cemetary is for TB, or should be.
Varshikar - No cemetary
Vanima - No cemetary
Grey Rose - Has a cemetary (Very old)

One of the advantages to "City" membership could be 'personalized Graves". I don't believe Guilds (Besides Grey Rose) should have graves and tombstones.

PS-It would be nice to have 'actual' characters at the "Cemetary" than the 'nameless' graves there now.

A Partial List of Graves: (feel free to add if I forgot one)
Retlak - by Theater
Elfess - by Outhouse
"???" - by outhouse
Johnny Rant - By TB jail
Darny - by Farmers Union
Siltaris - Hill above Varshikar Pigs
"????" - Hill above Varshikar Mine
"????" - East end of Troll Woods (Maybe Quest, I dunno)
"Nameless" - in the Nordmark

I'm sure I forgot some, but it is getting kinda stupid if this continues.

Discuss.

Post by **Nitram** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 9:20 am

I think they are cool. O real need to move or remove them

Miklorius · Post by **Miklorius** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 1:36 pm

Some special graves for well-known characters are nice, but graves for everyone everywhere are not really needed.
I guess that could be solved ingame: Ask the local gouvernor or similar if he can (re)move the grave (e.g. nobody would keep a grave near the TB jail).

Juniper Onyx · Post by **Juniper Onyx** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 5:21 pm

Miklorius wrote:Some special graves for well-known characters are nice, but graves for everyone everywhere are not really needed.
I guess that could be solved ingame: Ask the local gouvernor or similar if he can (re)move the grave (e.g. nobody would keep a grave near the TB jail).

Yeah, but after time, even 'known' characters become forgotten.

For example.....I think I met Retlak one time a couple years ago when I started. I doubt newer players even know who he was.

And 'Johnny Lant' and 'Darny' wasn't well-known anyway.

I agree it could be handled IG, but what about those graves in the middle of nowhere? I just think we should include "Graves" in the "Building Rules" and put some limitation on it. If everyone thinks they can get a stone for their character, it could become rediculous.

Pellandria · Post by **Pellandria** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 5:25 pm

Siltaris was brought to varshikar and buried there, taeryon has his grave on the mage island, I have no idea why the other graves are where they are, but I think they should stay for the sake of remembering, or would you go around in real life, demanding that crosses along roads or monuments should be demolished?

Llama · Post by **Llama** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 7:16 pm

Pellandria wrote:Siltaris was brought to varshikar and buried there, taeryon has his grave on the mage island, I have no idea why the other graves are where they are, but I think they should stay for the sake of remembering, or would you go around in real life, demanding that crosses along roads or monuments should be demolished?

If I can't go to school without needing to walk over the burried remains of many people....

Pellandria · Post by **Pellandria** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 7:28 pm

Actually yes you walk on death people all day, you just don't know that they are there.

Lrmy · Post by **Lrmy** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:51 pm

Pellandria wrote:Actually yes you walk on death people all day, you just don't know that they are there.

Maybe in Europe.....

But really, those graves around Bane served a purpose when they were put there and are where they are for a reason.

The two graves outside of the eastern gate of Troll's Bane were put there in protest of Stephen Rothman. Retlak's grave is where he died I believe. I am in favor of keeping Retlak's grave where it is just because he had a large story line that influenced many character's whether you realize it or not. I mean, he was a lich for a long time, in various orc clans, and a key player in the temple storyline. I do not recognize Darny and Johnny....

Post by **Jupiter** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 8:56 pm

Lrmy wrote:I do not recognize Darny and Johnny....

I do.
Darney was the chef of the farmer's union, but got killed on the fields of it.

Johnny was a thief. So the place where the grave is fits to a thief

Rhianna Morgan · Post by **Rhianna Morgan** » Fri Sep 19, 2008 9:44 pm

Leave the graves where they are. For me, they do not destroy the atmosphere, but add something to it. If I don't know the story of the dead char who lies there, I can imagine what it perhaps was, or try and look it up in the forum.

Each one of that graves is there because of a story, and just because I did not know any of the deads does not mean I am disturbed by the graves.

Those graves show to everyone new, that Gobaith is an old place, where many people settled, before their chars came to that isle.

Keep the graves!

Miklorius · Post by **Miklorius** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 12:27 am

Another question is: Can every character who really died get his own grave stone?

Lrmy · Post by **Lrmy** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 1:27 am

Miklorius wrote:Another question is: Can every character who really died get his own grave stone?

If enough people like your RP, maybe

Juliana D'cheyne · Post by **Juliana D'cheyne** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 2:02 am

The gravestones ig first started me taking a closer look at the history of Illarion having just skimmed over it. I DO think there should be a limit outside a graveyard but like the ones that are placed now. I would like possibly a graveyard for some chars that have been ig awhile... it would also be nice RP to even see a ghost ((elemental maybe?)) in the graveyard occasionally. Possibly expanding the graveyard that is ig now to add more toombstones is an option too.

LifeWonder · Post by **LifeWonder** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 2:57 am

I've seen a bunch of gravestones (Notably at the jail, by the Aerna too) how to know whose tombstones these are?

Olive · Post by **Olive** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 3:56 am

click on it and it gives you a small blurb

i like the road ide graves
BUT
i think they should be few, and far between so they mean somethign more than 'this marks the grave of my 800000th char

Juniper Onyx · Post by **Juniper Onyx** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 4:18 am

Pellandria wrote:, or would you go around in real life, demanding that crosses along roads or monuments should be demolished?

Actually, roadside graves are illegal in the entire United States, and cemetary construction and coffin placement are regulated by various departments of Health so the remains do not 'contaminate' drinking water and such.

Also....roadside Markers are banned in many counties and cities. They were cited as a cause of 'Distractions' and caused 'car accidents'! Also the environmentalists didn't like them, but that's a long story.

Now, I know we don't have cars, but the tombstones are becoming an eyesore. I am just thinking of later when more characters want them....."cause their friends 'dragged' them to the middle of nowhere and performed some ritual." OMG, I mean, as it is now.....it seems no-one decides on where and who places these.

Hmm....what will Gobaith look like when there are 50-60 such graves littering the roads and wilderness.

Just asking for a little common sense and 'guidelines' on who and how one gets placed. Having your character 'remembered' by a grave should be a 'benefit'- a goal, not a 'right'.

Miklorius · Post by **Miklorius** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 1:15 pm

Instead of preventing donkey-crashes on gravestones near a road, you could say, that graves and graveyeard could be seen as dubious locations. Maybe graves outside of sanctified places could attract evil creatures or such.

Well, all in all: Don't give a grave for everybody who died ingame and don't spam the landscape with'em.

Pellandria · Post by **Pellandria** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 1:37 pm

We are in the eight or nine year of illarion(I guess)... it should be the third after the new client and we got ~less~ than 10 graves and you whine about how they litter the country, its just ridicoulus and why are they even annoying you, its just a grave and most of the time they on't even stand on a way, were one would travel, so who cares?

I guess more people than those died and seeing as only a few got graves I don't see anything wrong with it, only "important" chars get gravestones anyway, well or atleast important to a few people, Lennier controlls those graves anyway so there are lines and regulations.

Retlak · Post by **Retlak** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 2:03 pm

Retlak's gravestone by the Arena is done for comedy reasons. As far as i remember It says "Here lays Retlak...at least sometimes."

This makes passing characters think "wtf? sometimes?" and when they ask other people why, maybe they get a nice story about the temple and Retlak's undead form.

I think it can be nice opportunities for roleplay with these gravestones around.

Llama · Post by **Llama** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 2:23 pm

Pellandria wrote:We are in the eight or nine year of illarion(I guess)... it should be the third after the new client and we got ~less~ than 10 graves and you whine about how they litter the country, its just ridicoulus and why are they even annoying you, its just a grave and most of the time they on't even stand on a way, were one would travel, so who cares?

We didn't have gravestone graphics before. I remember the graveyard having stones instead. So your argument "Less than 10 graves with respect to time" is irregular.

Pellandria · Post by **Pellandria** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 2:29 pm

We had other graves, I can remmeber the 3 graves at the lighttower and noone complained about them either, still 10 graves in 3 years is nothing, I don't want to know how many people actually died on gobiath in this timespan, you see every perma ban would basicly mean ever char dies for good of this player, not to count all chars that got deleted and what not, so you would rather prefer a simple stone in the middle of nowhere, so noone has any idea what its supposed to mean or do you prefer gravestones that atleast hold ~some~ memory, because with every new generation of illa players most of the old history gets swept away anyway.

Vern Kron · Post by **Vern Kron** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 5:39 pm

There are a few reasons why sometimes dead people don't get gravestones. Some dead people actualy are just inactive, never really died. Some just leave the island, because the PO doesn't want them to die incase they ever want to play again. Some are burnt and sent down a river raft. Some are just left laying dead, rotting and smelling up the place till a vulture or other creature of the like eats it.

I am working on an idea right now as to what could be done instead of having these 'random' burial spots though. Also, the graves have been moved before. The two by the bathroom were once underneath what is now a house.

Julius · Post by **Julius** » Sat Sep 20, 2008 10:12 pm

The idea is decent, but it's not really something the gms could. The idea that IG towns should implant new graveyards should be presented ig.