With the closing of Sembia, the last of ALFA's active NWN1 servers, I too see the end of my character, Sheyreiza. Sheyreiza was created ... 5 years ago? Something like that. Many years, 14 levels, and half-a-dozen DMs later she is my most beloved character of any game, computer or PnP, that I've ever played. Though I have not played her in a year or more (I think the last time I was really trying to play was around October of 2007, and the last time I logged in with her to walk around Sembia was months ago) I never retired her because I always held out hope that something in ALFA would change and I would find away to play her again.
I have tried NWN2 of course, and found some fun with Vellya the half-elf for awhile, and now I am playing around with a new character, Lotus. But for me, the fun times were playing Sheyreiza, whether it was in the Lonelywood on TFN, with Muse DMing Sheyreiza's rather stormy love affair with Jain'n, or in Skullport, with Ecclesia (sp?) DMing Shey's slow disillusionment with Qilue and Eilistraee, or in the end, the ultimate game for me, Vendrin's multi-server spanning War of the Spider Queen campaign which saw our ALFA characters play through Vendrin's twisted version of the canon events.
Playing Sheyreiza through all of these was a dream come true for me. I owe a great deal of thanks to Vendrin, Zakharra, and all the others who made it possible (including, actually, myself, since I built a big chunk of the underdark server). It was an amazing ride. There were times I thought Shey, an evil drow priestess of Lolth, would actually find happiness, such as with Jain'n at his tent the first time that they went out alone, or in the sacred grove when an avatar of Eilistraee appeared. And there were times when I knew despair through Shey, as when the Promenade of Eilistraee was under siege and Qilue was nowhere to be found. There were times I thought I was going to die - such as when I turned a corner in the underdark and found myself face to face with a hostile spider so big it was larger than my monitor - I was poisoned and at half-hit points by the time I turned around! After I got away, I had to get up from the computer and let my heart slow down. I knew sorrow through Shey as well, such as when Shey had to kill her sister-in-arms, Inthara, because that is what Lolth wanted (I am still soooo sorry Zak!). I knew desperation through Shey, such as when we barricaded ourselves in Ched Nasad's council chambers, struggling to hold off the Demon Lord Wendonai long enough for the mages to do their work. And I got to express my petty and vengeful sides as well, as Burt's character Phaerun and others found out to their dismay.
In short, that run with my character Sheyreiza was the most amazing role-playing experience I've ever had. Now that NWN1 in ALFA appears dead, I would like to make some thank yous to the folks who made my NWN1 experience what it was, primarily from the perspective of playing - some of these people no longer hang around these parts, but I will thank them just the same.
To Muse: Thank you for all the DMing on TFN. It was my first experience with what real role-playing COULD be. The stories you wove, which went way, way beyond “find this” “kill that” transport them” were amazing and engrossing. After explaining it once to my dad (a one-time ALFAn actually), he referred to ALFA as a “soap-opera with swords.” And he was right – and I am grateful for it!
To Grand Fromage: Thank you for hosting us on TSM while we awaited the opening of the underdark. Without a place to start and grow, I don’t think interest would have been strong enough to see construction on the underdark server finish. Thanks!
To Ecclesia: Thank you for DMing in Skullport. The Promenade would not (and indeed was not) the same without you.
To MShady: Thank you for playing Hignar, one of Sheyreiza’s most interesting foes, allies and friends. It was always dicey hanging out with Higgy, since I never knew if he was going to kill me or not, but at the same time, I (and Shey) seemed to have a real soft-spot for the grumpy-but-good-hearted dwarf.
To Darugith: Thank you for the times with Nikki, who was perhaps the closest thing Shey ever found to a kindred spirit.
To Burt: Thank you for Pharun, the most interesting characterI ever killed in ALFA, and probably the *only* one Shey ever regretted killing.
To all the folks who played drow alongside me, be it in Skullport (either time) or the underdark: Thanks for giving the ‘dark a try – and if I killed your character or ordered their death or abandoned them to their death … I am sorry that I ruined your fun. Shey is not sorry of course, being the black-hearted witch that she is, but I am.
To Faeryl: Thank you for laying the foundations that I stood upon. Without Faeryl’s voice here in the early days, I do not think drow would have been a playable race in ALFA, and I never would have spent so many years of my life here. She was ALFA’s dark matron before me – true, I became ALFA’s Valsharess, but it was only over Faeryl’s dead body (it’s the drow way).
Thanks Faeryl!To Ebonith: Thank you for inspiring me in the early days with our forum RP. You gave me hope as to what we might achieve if ever an underdark server ever got off the ground.
To Marklos: Marky-Mark was the person who noticed me in chat and asked me to become an ALFAn based on the strength of my drow-lore. Little did I know he was roping me into what would become a multi-year obsession. Thank you Marky Mark!
To all the folks who contributed to building the Underdark server: Thank you! Much of what was given to me was never used, and much of what I built was never used, but I know that but for my efforts, that server would not have ever gone live, and I would not have ever been able to do it but for all the people who helped me, especially at the end … but then .. Faeryl and Vendrin get their own special thank yous.
To all the regulars of the Lonelywood Elves: Thank you for some of my most difficult and challenging times – while in Lonelywood I/Shey was scared, humbled, exhilarated, inspired, crushed, emboldened, empowered, imprisoned, loved and scorned. It was an amazing experience, and while Muse and Mr. Duncan may get the spotlight, what happened up there would not have happened but for everyone who played (and I am looking at *you* Kiyoti, Rilralia, etc.!) Thank you.
To Ogregrim: Several thanks – one, for playing Tottespiel, perhaps the most interesting person Shey ever met whom she didn’t kill. And for the two songs/poems you wrote about Sheyreiza. As Sheyreiza was (obviously) an extension of myself, I was touched. Thank you.
To Squamatus: Thank you for our time on Daggerdale. The death of your character (and my fav NPC) was perhaps, my favorite moment DMing in ALFA ever. It was mostly your doing for thinking outside the box and outside the limits of the game engine to make a better story, but at least I was smart enough to see your brilliance and go with it! Thanks for making that rivalry and its ending one for the ages!
And that brings me to my last three big thank-yous. These three people … well … I don’t really have the words to express rightly how I feel about our times together and what its mean to me.
To Zakharra: Thank you. Thank you being you. Thank you for being by Shey’s side from the very beginning to the bitter end. Thank you for always understanding. The night that I/Shey killed Inthara was the toughest moment of gaming I’ve ever had. I was crying, even if Shey was not, and you, well, you tried to comfort me! After I killed your best and most favorite character! You tried to comfort me! Thank you. You’ve been like a sister to me.
To Mr. Duncan: Thank you. Thank you for playing Jain’n – perhaps the person more people loved to hate than any other person in NWN1. Jain’n was the love of Shey’s life and her best hope for real redemption, until he betrayed her (in her eyes – I know Jain’n had a different view of things!). Shey’s relationship with Jain’n was the first time I saw how deep role playing could go (and no, for you perverts out there, I am not talking about cyb0ring! As Mr. Duncan can tell you, I don’t cyb0r – my real life partner doesn’t allow me too!) Though Shey and Jain’n were only together for a few real-life months, those months colored all the remaining years of Shey’s life in ALFA. And OOC, you have always been the person courting me to come back and play, and perhaps the biggest reason I came to back play in NWN2. In game, I think you are like my own special brand of boyfriend-heroin – I know its bad for me on some level, but I don’t seem to be able to get enough. Thanks.
To Vendrin: THANK YOU. THANK YOU for the War of the Spider Queen campaign. THANK YOU. It was the single greatest RP campaign I’ve ever partaken in and it was literally a dream come true. In reading the War of the Spider Queen series, two things came to mind – one, I wished some of those clueless authors would have consulted me for some consistency
and two, I wished I could play out those events as a drow priestess – and you gave me that chance! You put us right in the center of the biggest thing to ever happen to the drow since the descent. And it was awesome. Sometimes the game engine failed us – riding the dracolich around was awesome but there was no decent way to simulate that in battle, though you tried (like at the orc barricade) – but still, even though your dreams and our aspirations were bigger than the game, we made it work. I know this campaign was not as much fun for some of the others, and some of that was because I killed off or drove off their characters – that is a shortcoming of drow society as a medium for role-playing I think – and in the end, Zak and I were left alone to role-play with ourselves, and we had only ourselves to blame. But what a ride it was to get there! Lastly, I want to put out a general thanks to all ALFAns who helped make ALFA-NWN1 what it was. I had good times DMing (Daggerdale and the drow-invasion campaign, the Bright Blades Quest which was the first multi-server mega-quest, etc) to playing. And in playing, I got to see and do things you cannot do in other persistent world projects. Shey started life in Skullport … then moved to The Frozen North. After leaving Jain’n in Lonelywood, she came to live at the Promenade in Skullport again before moving to stay in ThePirate Isles for awhile. After the Pirate Isles, she lived outside of Silverymoon while she and Higgy negotiated with Alustriel. When the war of the Spider Queen started up, she moved back to her origin city of Ched Nasad, and when Ched Nasad was destroyed, she moved to Menzoberranzan. And when politics turned against her in Menzoberranzan, she slipped away to Selgaunt in Sembia. And of course, during all of this, she made various forays to several different layers of the abyss.
Skullport
Lonelywood in the Frozen North
The Pirate Isles
The Silvermarches
Ched Nasad
Menzoberranzan
The Abyss
Selgaunt, Sembia
Where else could one online-NWN PC visit all these locations in an open, hard-core RP environment? Where else could Shey's story have happened? Only in ALFA I say. Only in ALFA.
So, let me close with this …
Thank you ALFA.
