Community Contest

[katriell]

Great post, Beau.

[gillest]

Let me give it a try That is a true story btw
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It all started one day, in another life, in another world. A messenger dropped some papers on the threshold of my door; by mistake as I was not the one supposed to receive them…
Curiosity took over me. I opened the message looked through the pages with low interest and throw it with disdain on the table.
And that was it: my first encounter with the Kami welcomer.
At the back of the message, this picture, the announcement… The exile was soon to begin; the portal will soon be opened.

Months passed and this image haunted me. Regularly I was looking for clues, asking all around me for more information, nobody was aware…
The only thing I knew: soon!
And this image still haunting me; it appeared to me that I knew all those years inside myself that this day will come but never really believed it.
I knew this was the world I had been looking for, just by my first glimpse at this faded image.

My researches were not in vain: the portal was to open on the 24th but so little people were even aware of it. I knew I would be there…
………………………==================……………………….
And there I was, taken away from my previous dream, to be confronted with reality, with this world I had been longing for.
There I was… A refugee… An Homin, at last…

But it was said that I would have to wait some little time as the powers took me back to the dream, as I first came unprepared (Ooc: Blame 512 Ram, had to upgrade to 1 Gig  /Ooc).
I was so eager to be there that the last preparations did not took me that long; and this fire burning inside me, never had I felt such desire…

An Homin again, at last, and this time fully prepared, and ready for his new life…

And then all was explained to me, the exile, the relocation on Atys the living planet, the dragon and the kitins. Those kitins, which were the only thing that could stop hominkind to fulfill its destiny.
And then the teachings:
Survive the planet, this new hostile environment, learn the art of survival with what is at your disposal: vegetal and animal textures will be your only means of survival: learn to gather them and to reform them for your own use.
Learn and teach the new homins coming to those lands so that you can master this planet, meet the 4 races of homins and learn from them all.
Would we show that we are worthy, then, the powers would take us all to our real destination.
A thought started to form in my mind: the mission; which would be express in words later by a comrade of fight: “Rule the world, to free your kind”.
………………………==================……………………….
Another portal and then the mainlands, the blood and tears, the dying and the biting from the gingos..
And from despair of a refugee in this vast new world, came friendship, helpfulness and collaboration. Other homins were there and, as predicted, some took my hand to teach and guide me.

A few days after, I made a strange encounter: a strange blue homin who crossed half of the world to visit our forests. “hello stranger” were my words and this encounter increased my thirst of traveling this world even further.

I was going from discovery to discovery, helping here and there, ressing and fighting, getting stronger so that one day we could push back those kitins… They tried to invade us once already but hominkind won the battle.

Cooperation, hope, ecstasy in front of marvels of this world, sun shines, birds and flies were what this new planet was giving us daily.

Those were the days where my destiny was forged.
And even today years after, I am still discovering this world, finding new places and new wonders which I did not notice before.

This world I made mine with respect for its flora, fauna as well as my fellow homins.
Some days though I feel sad remembering the ancient promises of the powers: I would miss this world would I have to be sent to another one as the legend says. But as well, I am wondering, could there be out there another one of those beautiful planets…

I would love to see it as long as we all go together and can count on each other to survive as we always did.
But the powers seem to have forgotten the promises, now they are waging war against each other and playing with us.
And we know that homins love a good fight. But the cooperation is still there even though sometimes we bash each other.
But the most important of all I know, are my fellow refugees…

[tigrus]

Keep them coming everyone. You are doing great.

[mugendo]

What is Atys to me ?....
mmm, now there is a thought provoking question indeed.
Surprisingly it is a simple question to answer, and frustratingly a written summary is as elusive as the fabled white yubo.
Which in fact allows me to draw your attention to one of the unique features of Atys....
Homin statement, religious belief and written reference all have equal priority.

Is the White Yubo a myth ?..is it a religious Icon ?, is it a creature indiginous to Atys ?..or none of the above ?.
I can....and have.....spent many an evening debating these aspects of Atys with the homin I meet.
Opinions vary and some homin are adament in their belief that no such creature exists, Some even become frustrated that there is no definitive answer to such a seemingly simple question.

Which leads me to tolerance, another aspect of Atys that effects all of us.
Who does not participate in the war ?.....well we do have the neutral homins who love to hug trees and talk about the good old days of unity and understanding......such folk would never harm another homin.
Yet those who wish to actually remain neutral must ask themselves......
Do I use the product of the Outpost ?,
Have I encouraged the combatants to acquire the Cats to benefit me ?,
Do I use the advantage of faction transport points ?.
If I have used the labours of the religion to benefit myeslf...how can I be neutral, surely I would be a pacifist ?, or worse..... maybe a hypocrit ?...

I wonder who else has pondered these dilemnas, How many are ignorant of the fact that the war touches us all..from crafters to diggers we all play our part in prolonging and supporting this conflict between homin.

Which brings us to the real threat that watches from the roots...ready to strike, ready to erase the homin infestation that crawls across the surface of Atys....Is it the Kitin we fear, or the lost Homin returning to claim their reward for keeping the Kitin in the roots.....

Atys, the rising sun paints the forest around me in rich colours that stretch as far as the eye can see in every direction, Above us the canopy beckons tantalisingly just out of reach.......Yet the homins debating in their towns and cities are the true wonder often overlooked in our search for adventure and mystery.

My only wonder is.....will I ever tire of the Zorai stables, Until that time arrives I will continue to greet all that pass through there, and let them lead me through their Atys through debate and recollections.

[kyesmith]

Great idea sunce, when you first mentioned it to me i wasnt sure on how sucessful it would be, but i can happily say im pleased with how its going.
Love reading everyones posts so far, atys means so much to so many of us, its funny in a way that a game can unite people all over the world.

[flat75]

Can i post an older story of mine? Entirely Ryzom-related, but not quite fitting for the community contest thingie? Please note that at the time of writing I was quite a young homin....

-----------------------------------------
There is a house in Yrkanis. Actually there are more, but this particular house is quite well known in the neighborhood for being the only bar, not just in the city, but for miles around.
But this story is not about this house. This story is about one of it's usual guests. More exactly it's not about him, it's about his story.
Let's go inside. Do you see that tall, muscular, green-haired Matis over there? Isn't he quite unlike any Wylan you have met before?
And the small figure next to him? He is listening with the patience of a kincher-tamer while the tall guy tells tall tales.
Let's listen what he has to say...
...
You know, I have seen it all, I've been everywhere... As an experienced adventurer, and master digger, I know every inch of this land, like my own palm.
Let me tell you, it's not a big deal at all, sooner or later you will see for yourself.
I could tell that you are from the island at the moment I've seen your ranger armor and your flaming sword.. whatchacallit .. blaze and anger, or what.
You may probably wonder how is it possible that here are some really good mats right in the middle of the city, while you had to go to the *oh-so-dangerous* jungle back there to find something like this.
Let me tell you something... there is a place north of Yrkanis, called... Way to the Bridge of Tower.
No, wait, Tower of the Waybridge. Or something like that.
I just call it waybridgetower. These three words are in it, I'm sure. You can dig up some really good mats over there. I could show you how to do it, but I've got these blisters on my hands from the handle of the pick... Maybe later, dude.
But you have to be careful on the way to there, lots of yubos are around. You have to be really careful with them. They are freaking killing machines.
No, I kid you not. On the very first day I got here, we were exploring the lands around with a good old friend Verzoo, when suddenly out of the blue we were attacked by a vicious creature with large yellow teeth, and foul stench.
It was a giant yubo, madder then the rest of them, it jumped on us, and begun to chew our face off. I kid you not, ask Verzoo if you dont believe me, we could barely escape by the help of Jena, blessed her name shall be.
Later we were told that it's name is Ora, many around here thinks its only a legend to frighten the people, but those with scars know better...
I tell you, never trust these treacherous creatures. Of course they may seem innocent, but at the moment you are surrounded by them and no witnesses around, they gonna eat you alive after they skinned you.
Godless freaking killing machines.... every last one of them.
And a warning: dont try to exchange blankets and knives to jewelry and gold with the Gibbais around bridgetowerway. They are quite pissed since someone pulled off this trick on them.
If you wander to the south, you will see we have a couple nice villages around here. Natae, Davae .. and ... hmm... Lavae, if i recall correctly.
Quite nice places, if you like to hang around doing nothing, but you have to be careful with the bandits around them. Yes, yes, it is about robbing.
Do not try to rob these bandits, they have nothing of value, although they are annoyingly peaceful. I have tried ... I mean I have heard from someone whom I trust.
If you go even more to the south you reach the Fleeing Garden. Quite a strange name, but at least easy to remember, I have spent lots of time fleeing there.
There are some good mats over there too, and a vile kami camp, best to be avoided, even if they want to pay you to accept their lame teleport tickets...
I suppose you have heard about all those Kami teleport failures, people arriving with legs and arms exchanged.. brrr... never trust those primitives and their technology.
Everyone should stick to what they are good in: Kami to hide in the ground and harass diggers, Karavan to give us all the cool stuff and things and stuff.
Anyway, if you move to south and a little west, you will reach Upper Gob. That is quite a dangerous region, I assure you.
There is a giant creature roaming, called Wyac, a fearsomely agressive, unbelieveably huge torbak. Yes, it IS really that huge. Imagine a big house. It's even bigger than that.
A friend of mine, Gill showed me around there. Imagine my surprise when ground begun shaking, trees falling and a huge, insanely big torbak suddenly appeared, seemingly longing for some hominburger.
Lucky for me, Gill is quite a capable magician, so he begun to fill the raging creature's mind with madness. If you have ever seen a torbak eating itself... well, it's quite a spectacle.
After he ate most of itself, and barely anything left for us to loot, well, mainly teeth, I told Gill that this was a neat trick, but next time he should do something that leaves a bit more loot for us.
So in the Upper Gob, north of the Karavan telepoint, there is a beautiful, peaceful little valley, with some really awesome material sources and peaceful bolobis.
Bolobis look like those creatures I used to see during yelk mushroom tea overdoses.
Although this valley has no name, I call it the Woo Dresin Valley, that name is .. good enough.
Luckily there are no yubos around that beautiful place. Brrrr. Deceiving godless freaking killing machines.
I could show it to you... but unfortunately it is bolobi mating season right now. Man, you don't wanna see that. What those wierdos do to each other at this time of the year...... brrrr...
God, I will have nightmares for two weeks again just for thinking of it....
Believe me, no man can watch an entire bolobi mating season and retain all of his sanity.. hehehe... hehehehe..
No, really, we can't go there right now. No, that's really not possible, really.
So, if you flee to the southeast from the garden, you will reach the alabyrinthing mazes of Heretic Hovel. No, wait, amazing labyrinths, nah.
Thats a pretty bad region, let me tell you, with lots of unfriendly peeps around, not even I want to go there.
But, to the north of towerwaybridge there is a really small region called Grove of Confusion.
It is really, really small, consists of the telepoint, and a small path to the camp of the Sap Slaves.
Either that, or that grove REALLY confused me.
So there are those freaks, who grew killer plants in their gardens for reasons beyond comprehension, unless they use them to reprocess dinner leftovers...
But the ground around their camp is loaded with the finest mats you ever want to dig.
No, I'm really sorry, but I can't show this place to you right now, it's entirely sealed because of ..... the outbreak of cuttlerian flu.
Nobody is allowed in or out. For everyone's safety. I hope you understand. It's our best interest...
There are other places where you can go, y'know. For example there is the Burning Desert, a fine place if you like your lungs bleeding because of the hot, flying sand.
But buddy, let me tell you there is one thing worth bleeding lungs.... Fyros women. Damn, they are the hottest. Both literally, and non-literally.
Those fine babes can handle some manhandling, if you know what I mean... *wink*wink*nudge*nudge* .. anyway...
There is a place called Scorched Corridor, man, that place is so hot, like... you know.. you drop an Yber egg, and by the time you reach for it, it's already deviled.
The only place around there worth visiting is Dyron. It has a fine market, and luckly some trees you can lean on when bleeding lungs begin to trouble you.
And the only good thing in being around there is the lack of the Yubos. Jena save us from those bloodthisty deceiving godless freaking killing machines.
No, we can't go there right now, it's summer. I was talking about scorching heat in the winter, can you imagine what's it like in summer? No way in hell, I'm not going there. Not even if chased by yubos.
And there is Zora, the city in the jungle filled with emptiness. After all, you can imagine how many interesting things can be in a region called Void.
However a friends of mine have a nice ranch around there called Zo-Kian. Not long ago, they have invited us for some yelk mushroom tea party and ...
Wait, you are not from Atys Drug Encorcement League, are you?
Ok, ok, just asking... so we were there cooking some yelk mushroom tea, when suddenly a lots of uninvited Kami begun to show up.
Our leader, Ciri told us to perform a group hug to show them that we are hospitable people, someone had an idea to cast some sparky healing spells around,
some others added a couple of lightning and fire spells just for the spectacle to welcome the uninvited guests.
You wouldn't believe but, they were ... kinda reluctant to come closer, sometimes they just laid down lazily in the grass.
Although some of them were a bit more active running around next to us, showing their lastest acquisited arms and armor...
You have to be careful with yelk mushroom tea, hehehe, sometimes that stuff can make you a bit paranoid. For a few minutes I could swear they were trying to kill us, hehe !
Hey, bartender, can I get some more of this fine sarina beer? Say at least five glasses.....
So after an hour of so, they got bored or something and went home. We resumed the yelk mushroom party, and, let me tell you there were some strange things happening...
No, there is no reason to go there. Not just now, anytime ever. Really, dumb, empty region. Much like all Zorais I've ever known....
If you want to relax a bit, you can visit the sandy beaches of the Trykers, there are lots of fun things to do.
Usually I go there to gather materials for my special stinga salad with caprice dressing, but boy, that region is all about fun.
You just can't avoid having fun there, really. There are these things called kinchers, they a playful fellows, let me tell you.
Like dogs love fecting things, these guys wanna race with you all the time. Usually the winner is who reaches the nearest lake.
So if you go around there, always try to remember the way to the nearest lake. These kinchers are nice, but if you refuse to play with them, they can get a bit ... upset.
My best advice is not to refuse a kincher if it wants to play with you, however.... they can try to pull some dirty tricks on you if you are about to win.
Like knocking you over, chewing off your feet, stuff like that, you know, like kids, they don't like to lose, hehe.
Gathering stingas for salads in trykerland is kinda sauna treatment. You get sweat by tearing the leaves, and racing with kinchers, and in the next minute you are in the cold water.
Last time I was there with my friend, Lachlanseed, he is a really great fellow. We were gathering stinga leaves, however I asked him to deep-freeze them with cold magic, he just insisted on using rot. To be honest, rotten stinga salad was NOT the greatest hit on the next guildnight, despite the delicious caprice dressing....
Anyway, moving around there will make you think about growing fins. Don't do that, they would look awfully lame on you once you leave Trykerland. Seriously.
No, unfortunately we can't visit them right now, there was a great flood, and now the entire region is underwater. Even the poor kinchers.
It is called Aeden Underaqueous now...
You know there is an interestion region, deep below the surface called Prime Roots. I don't know who primed it, but anyway...
-
[ at least one hour and several, I mean seriously several more sarina beers later ]
-
... and that's how you can ...hick.... move safely in the prime roots ....hick... and trick any monster ...hick... except yubos. Hick.
Those vicious bloodthisty ...hick... deceiving godless freaking ...hick... killing machines.
Hmmm hey, bartendril, gimme ...hick... summore of this sarina seed... hick... I mean beer.
Hey, I mean it. Whatcha say, who is drunk? ...hick... Hey, man that's ...hick... no fair.
You see that? Hick. How can somebody ...hick... be so rude to customers ...hick... and can afford such a nice ...hick... kachine wood table...
Hey, katchine wood!!! I was ...hick... searching for it for sometime now, I ...hick... bet I could dig some units from it...
[ at this point, the tall, green haired unwylanlike matis started banging the table with his pick, and was promptly removed from the building ]
[ his last words echoed for a few seconds before overpowered by the sounds of the bar ]
I've been there, I've seen it all! It's not a big deal! Oh, I hope one day I can leave this big, big training island and go to the mainmainland....

[mugendo]

Originally Posted by flat75

No, wait, Tower of the Waybridge. Or something like that.
I just call it waybridgetower. These three words are in it, I'm sure. ..

Very nice guided tour of the land (using place names even I can understand) Wylan, I enjoyed the journey

[wardone]

****posted on behalf of morgaine****

There are many who will not like my story. I can accept that. I no longer play the game and thus winning the end prize is of little interest. However, my story is mainly in response to DTs request that old timers share their views. So, here it is, my view on what Ryzom means to me.

Ryzom is an idea. An ever evolving, all encompassing, all powerful idea. It’s the kind of idea that when a person has it they can scarcely believe what they’re thinking and it makes their heart race and their breath short. It is the idea of a world where every homin can take a radically different path. One in which their actions actually have an impact on their future options. A world that mimicked our own in the most breathtaking of ways. Generations of people growing on Atys, where each player could have a whole family at their fingertips. There would be religious differences, wars fought over creed, territory, insults, or nationality, and alliances created over the exact same things. The Kitin would remain a constant threat as Homin began to explore Atys, peeling back the layers of Atys like an onion. From canopy, to the bark, to the prime roots and into the core itself, Homin would march on, exploring, learning, fighting, digging. The Kami and the Karavan would look after their followers, and take an active role in shaping life in lands that honored them. Tribes of lost homin would be encountered, and befriended with the simple offering of services, be it heroism in battle, generosity in goods or the keen of a craft. If one were to earn the trust of a tribe over time, they might be persuaded to allow a group of ‘outsiders’ to set up residence on the land the tribe oversaw. The main governments of Atys, Tryker, Fyros, Matis and Zoraï, would all interact and politics would play a role on daily life. Bazaars would be filled with Homin all selling their wares as the tax men make their rounds collecting the dappers needed to continue running the state.

This idea, the one promised to all of us there at the beginning, has never made it into playable form. Be it financial issues or lack of game coding experience, the evolving world remains just an idea. That is not to say that it can never be a reality. The potential that Ryzom has is mind boggling. We have tapped only a minute fraction of what Ryzom could be.

I’m sure there are those of you who will label this as a negative post. It’s not meant to be. I’m simply being honest. There are a great many of us who fell in love with the idea of what Ryzom was meant to be. It was a magnificent vision and one that would have propelled Ryzom to the front of the MMO market had it made it all into the code. But while we are left with the foundations of what could be, there are still some of us who yearn and strive to see that original idea put in motion. While I no longer play Ryzom, there is not a doubt in my mind that if that original idea of the evolving world were brought to Ryzom I would return. And many of those who populated Ryzom in its infancy would to. And while the game has done little to advance beyond its initial state, the grandiose idea of what Ryzom could be has remained alive in many of us.

So, until that code is written, Ryzom remains to me an idea. That all powerful, all encompassing, ever evolving idea that hooked many of us old timers from the start.

Morgaine

[beaut666]

These are all great! To the winner goes a piece of my birthday cake.
Speakin of winners, how are you going to decide this? Man I dont envy the judges!
Beau

[tigrus]

Originally Posted by beaut666

These are all great! To the winner goes a piece of my birthday cake.
Speakin of winners, how are you going to decide this? Man I dont envy the judges!
Beau

Myself, Yaffle, DT, (Hopefully Marjo) and one more "secret judge for now".