Plugging up the Holes (or, "Valhalla for the Squishies!")

The Case for Warding Portals against the Divine Armies and Infernal Hordes,

and the Consequences We May Expect

A quick note— within this document the term “ward” is seen both as it was just written, and capitalized. When capitalized, as “Ward,” this word refers to the wards set up for the purpose of blocking off the other planes. Otherwise, when written simply as “ward,” the word refers to wards in general, including wards being cast to maintain the Ward. While the author suspects that most people understand what “extraplanar” means, it is inevitable that someone reading this will not. For the purposes of this document, “extraplanar” refers to all planes besides Valhalla.

There are currently twelve portals on Valhalla. Six portals lead to Stygia— these are located in Corpus Island, Northcamp, Chuckwagon, El Porto di Diablo (eastern Harper Island), Big Tease, and the Webster Oil platform. Four lead to Paradise— these are located in Poco Maquez, Southton, Lina Island, and Northcamp. Finally, the remaining two lead to Purgatorio— these are located in San Cristobol Prison and the Downtown area (which leads to the Isle of Gates area, and so should be regarded as perhaps the most important of all portals).

Now, of these twelve portals, six may be completely warded on the Valhalla side, while the other six border water to some degree, and so the Warders will have to enter the portal and ward the locations around it from the extraplanar side.  None of these portals costs more than 10MP, and an Extended Greater Ward costs 20MP to use. Accordingly, with only a single Magic Recovery Potion, a Tier3 Neutral-aligned spellcaster will be able to enter a portal and cast two Extended Greater Wards before his magic is too far expended.

As there are always eight spaces around any portal, we thus need a minimum of four such spellcasters. As there are twelve portals, this would result in needing, before taking other factors into consideration, a base of forty-eighty T3 spellcasters, working to add to and maintain the wards around the clock. This number can be reduced, however, such skills as Sorcerer’s Might and Tattoo of the Soul. The Wizard, in particular, would be particularly useful, and such a character (with all three Cosmic skills and Nexus Affinity) would be able to enter a portal and set up five Extended Greater Wards before needing to replenish his supply of magic. If we were to somehow acquire twelve such Wizards, and twelve Nexus Champions with Tattoo of the Soul (and spellcasting abilities), this endeavor would be rather guaranteed to succeed. Each team would be able to set down eight Extended Greater Wards and maintain them indefinitely, regenerating their MP at a rate of 2 and 3 points per tick, respectively.

To summarize, we would require between twenty-four and forty-eight spellcasters to maintain the Wards. Anyone else wishing to help with this project, and who is capable of casting a ward, should also cast one or two every few days, preferably at the extraplanar sites.

Why Do It in the First Place?

There are quite a few reasons, and the author expects that most readers will find at least one which makes the Ward an attractive idea to them.

Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, many people have expressed a concern that the game is “dead” or otherwise stagnating, getting “stale,” etc. The dynamic of the game, however, would be thoroughly changed were this to be successfully pulled off. Even if it lasted for four or five hours, and/or covered only a large portion of the portals in Valhalla (as opposed to all of them), it would prove to screw up quite a few plans during that time, especially if the raising of the Ward were to be scheduled and placed appropriately (during high raid time, for example). Imagine four hours in which Valhalla is entirely cut off, for all practical purposes, from the other planes. While overall the effect would be negligible, the sheer fact that such an audacious scheme was pulled off should be enough to make most people take another look at it.

Consider: As of the writing of this document, the Ridleytown Resistance Front has enough spellcasters to pull off the job all by their lonesome. And they have the motive to do so, too. As it says on their faction page, they are “dedicated to freeing St. Germaine from its extra-planar invaders, no matter their alignment.” And if they were enlist the aid of, say, Balance, they would have enough T3 spellcasters (to say nothing of those currently at only T2) to maintain the Ward and keep it strengthened to such a point that only a concentrated assault could topple it. And once that happens, so much AP will have been expended that the invaders will be hard-pressed to do anything afterwards.

As time goes on, the Ward might be expanded, even, especially in areas near chokepoints. The author foresees other developments which would aid in the defense of the Ward, and while he would rather not go into detail regarding these, in the fear that they might be attacked and sabotaged before they can come to fruit, if only a few work successfully, it will be hard enough for an extraplanar force to just reach the portal, let alone penetrate the Ward.

Secondly, there are flavor reasons, as noted with the RRF. As only a cursory reading of the Nexus’ history would show, it seems almost inevitable that a nation-like entity will arise. To some extent, this has already happened to varying degrees, with the Axis of Evil, the Nimbus Alliance, the Evil Non-Aggression Pact, and other entities and treaties. Those wary of the concept of the emergence of nations within the Nexus— for gameplay reasons or yet other reasons— might find themselves more comfortable with the idea by replacing “nation” with “superfaction.”

At any rate, nations/superfactions are not the topic of this document. I bring up the repeated emergence of nations in the Nexus’ past to then bring up that this has always led to even greater conflict. Augarnian, and the Empire of Sun and Moon, fell to the Infernal Hordes after becoming dominant in the Nexus. It’s not unreasonable to think that such a thing might occur yet again.

If we can raise the Ward, however, this will not happen again. If we can seal off the other planes, and keep it sealed, taking care to continually maintain it, we will be able to continually hold the Divine Armies and Infernal Hordes at bay.

From another practical, gameplay point-of-view, the author sees no reason why demons and angels would object to the idea. After all, it’s unlikely that the demonic/angelic reader would think that their side is losing, and so if it is winning, should it not be in a better position to suffer the blow caused by the Ward, and prevail? The Ward will cut the demons off from Valhalla, but it will cut the angels off, too. Alternatively, if the reader does think that their side is losing, then isn’t this just the sort of last-ditch move that they’ve been looking for? Especially if you’re preparing for it, there’s very little reason why it can’t harm the winning side more than the underdogs.

A Brief Overview of the Great Warding’s Consequences

Interestingly enough, it seems like this endeavor might result in something resembling the classical Medieval view of the world (not exactly, of course, but close enough that the image cannot help but be evoked by the author). Valhalla becomes a place inhabited mostly by “true” humans, and those who have been only partially touched by the Elder Powers. And then demons and angels lurk in their hells and heavens, fighting amongst each other and trying to access the human realm, occasionally aided by someone helping them on the Valhalla side. Indeed, reaching Tier 3 marks not only the point where the greatest amount of power can be reached, but also where Valhalla is torn from one’s grasp, and becomes a place to be visited only briefly, until its inhabitants kill you and banish your soul back to your plane of origin.

The reader might challenge this, saying that Tier 3 characters already spawn only in their home plane, but of this moment, there does not also exist a set of Wards obstructing re-entry into Valhalla. Currently, returning to Stygia or Paradise (or Purgatorio) is a mere inconvenience. Once the Ward is raised, though, it shall be a grievous blow to any who wish to stay within Valhalla.

The nature of the Nexus will be changed from one of many planes, constantly at war, to a place split in two. On one side of the Ward lies Valhalla, inhabited by mortals, Neutral-aligned, “lower” or T2 demons and angels, and those who have managed to slip past the Ward. On the other— demons and angels, and those who would place themselves irrevocably on one side of the moral spectrum or another, locked away in the other planes. Other divisions among the planes can be expected to form, as well, once the usefulness of such a tactic becomes apparent. Wards against Good in Stygian portals and Wards against Evil in Paradisiacal portals will no doubt become rather common, creating yet another line of defense for all involved.

There are, however, several ways the Ward might be evaded, and these will all have an effect not just the Ward’s effectiveness, but on the very nature of how the game is played (the author is tempted to say “Great Game” by this point, and perhaps this is indeed a better term, at least from an in-universe point of view). We can reasonably expect to see more and more Void Walkers choose Stepping of the World Gate, which will present unrestricted access to Valhalla, even if accuracy cannot be expected (though this is turn is remedied easily enough, at least to a degree, with Stepping of the Stone). Void Walker-only factions might be more common as time goes on, in an attempt to circumvent the Ward, and the class itself might indeed be chosen by demonic characters more often.

Interestingly enough, the sheer number of Void Walkers with Stepping abilities might eventually reach a point where it is no longer all that useful to maintain the Ward, which would in turn immediately lead to those Void Walkers’ chief purpose becoming obsolete. The proportion of Void Walkers then slowly returns back to pre-Ward numbers, at which point maintaining a Ward against demons becomes useful again, and so the cycle goes on and on.

Characters of neutral morality should become more common, given that the Ward will, by necessity, not affect these people. An interesting tactic which might arise would be of demons and angels bringing their morality to either -19 or 19, moving through the Ward unobstructed, and then adjusting their morality appropriately once on the other side. This would be especially viable for classes which don’t depend on a certain morality score to keep access to their skills, though the author suspects that these same characters might simply find it easier to maintain an in-between morality.

With regards to characters of the Neutral-aligned classes, it seems likely that Goros will become the most worshiped of all the Elder Powers, owing to the fact that sufficient Favor will grant access to the myriad “secret doorways” scattered throughout the Nexus.

Flying characters should also become more useful, since barricades will inevitably become another line of defense for the Ward, and every AP saved by simply flying over them, rather than destroying them, will be unimaginably precious. Void Walkers would, once again, find another use if the barricades weren’t already a moot point, for Stepping of the Corner would offer them the ability to walk through the walls as easily as another character could fly over them. As the author continues to write, it becomes harder not to say that the Void Walker class might not just become the most popular of the demonic classes, but of all classes. On the other side, Good classes might become increasingly unpopular to those interested in having any access to Valhalla, given that they possess no unique method of bypassing the Ward, and those who remain in the Divine Armies will likely as not turn their attention from Valhalla, and focus their wrath upon Stygia once and for all.

Certain potions will also become much rarer, especially as the various extraplanar factions construct their own versions of the Great Warding. Daisies are, to the author’s knowledge, not found anywhere but in Valhalla, and while Water-breathing Potions aren’t likely going to be all that sorely missed, daisies are a vital component of Potions of Strength. And the ingredients of other potions will become nearly impossible to find, in time. When the demonic factions find themselves blocked from Paradise, where will they get the paradise water for their Flying Potions? Magic Recovery Potions will be similarly “difficult” to acquire for both sides, meaning that their attempts at a Great Warding of their own will be hindered. And forget about making a Potion of Greater Invulnerability if you’re a demon or angel.

Enter Ye Olde Component Shoppe. Long valued for their stocks of supplies, the Shoppe will find that business is doing nothing but boom. Demons need to buy bottles of Paradise lilies and bottles of holy water, and are more than willing to sell Stygian coal and Blood Ice, the latter of which seems to be highly valued by the Shoppe. And angels are happy to sell Paradise lilies and bottles of holy water if they can just get some materials located only in Stygia, behind the anti-angel wards those demons set up.

As of the writing of this document, the Shoppe has ten spellcasters, and the author sees no reason why they won’t be supporting the Great Warding wholeheartedly. Blockades have always meant higher profits for those who can get through them, and the Ward is nothing more than a massive, magical blockade. Mortals start out at neutral morality, and respawn for very little cost. Is it too unlikely that the Shoppe might attempt to recruit large teams of low-level mortals and send them out into Stygia and Paradise in order to acquire the components that the two sides so desperately need? Don’t think they’re in any danger, either. When the Shoppe is the biggest and best supplier of everything you need, and some things you really can’t get anywhere else, who would be foolish enough to attack one of its representatives? If such a thing occurred, the character in question will quite probably be made a brutal example of by his superiors, in an attempt to placate the Shoppe. It can, after all, throw its weight around in the wake of the Great Warding, and it will be very weighty, indeed.

Other unaligned factions might also try to muscle their way into access to the new opportunities made available, but given the Shoppe’s head start, the author finds it likely that such a conflict will end with the Shoppe defeating its competition, most likely by breaking knees until the rival merges with the Shoppe or simply gives up. On the other hand, if the various factions competing with the Shoppe can join together as a single entity and compete only with the Shoppe, and not with each other, quite another conclusion might result.

Regardless, a nice profit is available for anyone wishing to engage in a bit of black marketeering, whether they need to evade Ye Old Component Shoppe or The New Component Shop. The author simply advises that anyone wishing to do so makes sure to not get caught.

Signed,

Mr. Anybody