I'll start this with 'constructive feedback is good', and I'd like you to know that in me replying I'm not trying to argue, but it is a good to put my thoughts down and at least attempt to explain something on my end.
I've not shied away about how I feel on this campaign, a couple of people from our community most probably already know. I genuinely feel that this campaign so far has been rigged from the beginning and heavily against those who play Jishrim worshipping characters. It feels that from the start it was decided that Jishrim would lose life and no matter what actions we took in character it would happen.
In a sense, you're not wrong. The campaign was intended to revolve entirely around permitting the opportunity for Life to be removed from Jishrim, but as for 'where she went', that was up in the air. Those who sought to take Life for Jishrim were able to do so, and for a long time now he has held Life under his Court. From then till the campaign, there has been a large collective of players who sought to give Life back to Shalherana, and so an equal opportunity has been given and I've merged it into a campaign that holds a lot of Divine influence (many have wanted a divine themed campaign for a while, instead of the arcane/titan ones). This is the result.
Original intentions were that a thread would be made to allow for 'groups' with their own goals to form, be it keeping Life under Jishrim, returning her to Shalherana, or putting her somewhere else entirely. There is however a great majority in one party, and so that has shifted things - It isn't balanced, it isn't an even fight. It is a lot of players against fewer, and I've been doing my best to work with that.
The biggest example of this being the fight for the child, it was at the crossroads and was supposed to be a 7v7 but became a 6v5 because not everyone was able to show up to the event. We fought and their were deaths on both sides, 4 on the good and 3 on our side I believe, the event concluded however with us being the ones escaping with the child. One of our members were able to get the child and that's how things left off. We celebrated because usually when you play the bad guy on this server you're expected to lose and be the stepping stone to make other characters look cooler. However it was then revealed that one of the people were allowed to track down the child and things were timelocked, this came as a surprise to most of the Jishrim players who attended. The character who tracked down the Jishrim character was allowed to use NPCs to find the location the person headed in, got on a horse and tracked down the carriage and took the child away. The DM allowed for an NPC to be used in this hunt of a player vs player scenario, something I find to be completely unfair. If we are allowing the use of NPCs how will that be regulated, where is the line drawn between information being Meta and hearing it from an NPC. However the Dm gave vital information to the player about the direction the other went in through the use of an NPC. Many of the Jishrim characters felt that this was unfair and I'm certain if the roles were reversed and an evil character used an Npc to track down another character that their would be a quick moderation ticket made.
The Jishrimites who attended were able to set up two web way escape routes, had a rowboat to leave on, had a scorpion set up, had a ballista set up, had about 44 pieces of obsidian scattered around, and had Evil landing players and making spiders. This event was far further tilted towards the Jishrimite side of things and they did win the fighting, and I think despite so many actual characters dying people enjoyed it, or I was led to believe they did.
The part with Daeron chasing Cassandra and using NPCs is, as I've stated before, not something I feel was wrong. I would have given the opportunity to anyone, it was a continuation of the event on the friday but after five hours of DMing I simply had to move it to another time, and I was sure to talk to both Jstar and Kakers in discord to see if they were alright with the things that occurred. As combat wrapped up in the Crossroads, Daeron was able to move to the next location, which is where Cassandra killed two and took the infant. She then went into the Landing, injured child and bow in arm and garbed in a black cowl and robe and took a carriage to Mockingbay. To me, as a DM, this felt like something that could be followed up on, and I went ahead with it because this was still a continuation of the event I'd been DMing the day prior.
The time between these two characters was minutes, 30 at most, IC we had several CRPs going on at once and the spacing got pretty strange, but he wasn't entire hours behind Cassandra. This was not 'two players using NPCs on their own to their advantage' nor was it metagaming, this was storytelling through a DM in a city that has an NPC population. I have used NPCs in many of my events in my time on the team, they're what fill the gaps between player characters. In events I will try to make this more clear in the future, that they are present to speak with if required and so on.
After this happened most of us just gave up on this campaign, we felt that their was no need to continue even trying if the team running this campaign were going to do something like this. Another example that I feel was rigged was Archon severing the chains that Evil used to hold life. Many probably don't know it but the Jishrim characters went to the place where Archon had died and took his sword giving it to Evil which resulted in all present being cursed (with the exception of our hostage). However that action didn't seem to have any effect on the campaign as well since Archon was given a mundane sword (from what I was told when I asked around on how he got the sword) and that mundane sword was able to cut through the chains easily. So another thing we did and got punished for was ultimately for naught, this part to me felt rail roaded. It felt like the team behind the campaign already had it planned out that Archon would come back and cut the chains in half and that no action we took here would stop that from happening. It was always destined that Life would be free from Jishrim which some have pointed out should've been obvious from a campaign title called Restoration but that flew over my head.
I am sorry that the infant interaction has led you and others to no longer with to participate, it was not my intention.
Archon has been on the sidelines, hidden from most of the playerbase, by Daeron and Jenette. It is only relatively recently that he has emerged, but he has been given SP from them both for so long I lost count, and then others contributed too. Items given to him to try and empower him further, he grew from essentially a boulder to a 12ft version of himself at their efforts. He was intended to try and break the chain, yes, for I felt it was important narratively to split Life and Evil in order for the campaign to proceed, born from the efforts of the Shalherana group (just as those who took Life in the beginning were able to do so). This is the point of opportunity that permits the groups to have control over what happens next. Archon having a sword does not matter if it were mundane or not, for his original sword in the ground was effectively just stone. It is the ones that hold these weapons that give them the power they have.
Archon's original sword in the hands of Evil is what allowed for Archon, who has been nurtured and kept safe for this long, to be essentially cut in half and killed off as a result. Archon will not be making other appearances, or aiding them further. Your characters were also punished 'until the end of the campaign', you are not permanently altered forever, unable to change. If I was not clear on that, I apologise, it's been a long week.
The way things have been going has been nothing more then making us feel like glorified NPCS for the good characters of the server to stomp on and strike a cool victory pose, this is something that I am confident in saying many of the Jishrim characters also feel. To the point that we didn't even plan anything for the Cathedral event, we saw how things were going and didn't even bother forming a plan. We knew we were just going to lose so we just went in with no plan, why bother when you have zero chance of winning and all the server expects you to lose. After all its the role of the evil character to lose. With how the evil characters have been treated in the past and in this campaign, I didn't even feel any motivation to show up to the cathedral event. I only ended up going since I had nothing better to do. I mean we were literally told my Evil himself to go and die for him just to offer more power to him, how would I not feel like an NPC in that situation.
I have been trying to give more on the Jishrim side where I could, be it the 'capture' scenarios or monsters in the Landing, but I do understand that you feel like NPCs. I've tried to consider the growing difference in sides and aimed to make conflict easier, make it so death doesn't take people out of the 'fight' for long. The Cathedral event was planned on one side, and not on the other, yes - But both had the opportunity and one one took it. I can see this is because you were demotivated, and prior to the event I tried to come up with something that allowed people to go and still feel like they contributed (and still got to observe IC after) but this was rushed on my end as I wanted to try and make a way for those four who attended to enjoy it somehow even if they didn't win. It was a server event of about 40 people and the majority were again Jishrim/Evil, and I still have to keep that in mind too. I do regret that I didn't think it through more, I can see that you felt like NPCs and that is certainly on me.
The evil characters are not always expected to lose, however. Life was taken, and they could not stop it then, and the Jishrimites have done a great deal of things on the server that are successful to them. From the slum burnings, to assaults on regions, to kidnapping characters (where the Exalted was not punished as the victims all appeared in the Cathedral) and I'm sure there are more instances.
Going forward I'd like to see the campaign be more fair for everyone involved good or bad, however if we're going to continue being nothing more than glorified NPCs. I'd like to know now because I don't want to continue going to events in which I'm always going to be the loser and that's just my role to fill. I don't mind losing, it's just not fun when it's all the time and that's what's expected of you.
I won't punish people for not partaking, I don't want players to feel like they are NPCs, and I've efforts to try and make more conflicts fairer or more even (the crossroads one had even players though someone may have left as you said) and it felt better. Losing isn't fun all the time, no, but I suppose I'm trying to provide fun and events throughout even when the scales seem so heavily weighted. It is just as unfair to not acknowledge the work of those aiming to put Life back under Shalherana, but I can only say I'll try to work on things, because enjoyment for both sides is still very important.
