[mrshad]

I started this game while I was trying a string of really bad MMOs.

I really figured this one would just be the next brief stop in my tour of the MMO slums.

I made a matis character simply because I liked how the female toons looked.
Then I found that the game was pretty fun, and I just stayed with the Matis. I read the lore, came up with a fun, but evil character for my little toon, and I kept playing.

Sadly, my character didn't fit right with the goals of my guild, who at the time wanted peace between facitons and harmony between races; but that was way back before any of it made any difference to the game. I liked my guild more than I liked my RP, so I changed my ways and became a uniter, not a divider.

Then the events started happening. Little things at first, but they still forced the players to choose a side. It was becoming evident that "Neutral" would have no meaningful role in the Saga of Ryzom. The guild still wanted the pretense of moral supieriority that not aligning with either of the flawed factions would have given us. After all, OOC you really can't trust either of them. But, we also wanted a meaninful hand in shaping the way the story worked out.

So, based on a few factors, like race, lore, the current members of each faction, and the fact that the Kamis were comitting wholesale slaughter on homin diggers across Atys; we decided to support the Karavan and work to unite the races of Atys in Jena's light. We still debated it from time to time up until EP2.

That is really when the Kami showed themselves for the bloodthirsty, deceitful, hypocritical little fuzzballs they are. Ordering thier minions to attack Karavan diggers while turning off the Kami Tolerance in the battlegrounds were the most lavish displays of Kami decadence, but hardly the only ones.

But, even if my character were lore-neutral, the behavior of some of the kamist players would have turned me off to them. I am not big on PvP. Ganking harvesters in the PR seems a bit dishonorable. So much of that behavior came from the Kamist camp that even had I started with a Ma-Duk loving Zorai, I would have changed factions just to not be associated with it.

Now faction plays a huge role in the game, from which TPs you get to how easily you find support for your OP fights. The KA is a great group of players. We work together to help each other out, and I am proud to be part of them. I don't even like PVP, but I will show up everytime I can in order to support our alliance.