Odric, aka Ramuz the Shadowlord, and the Black Necklace (OOC)

[Trebr Drab]

Please note, I have a bit of a problem here with things as far as roleplay vs. UO. One of the Devs, perhaps Draconi or Darkscribe, had said once that we needed to watch all the news stories and shard happenings because the story would be revealed through them, and may not be on all shards individually.

This, coupled with a thought that perhaps we were intended to RP UO as Earthlings traveling to Sosaria, just like the Stranger did, leaves me with the problem of roleplaying "what we know". Are we from Earth, and thus able to communicate experiences with those who travel to other shards? Or are we Sosarians, and unable to do so? I would prefer to roleplay a Sosarian, but I have a stronger feeling that we should roleplay as the game dictates we are, not what we want to roleplay.

Then again, there is intra-shard travel now. Should this be roleplayed?
​

As we know, Odric turned out to be Ramuz, the Shadowlord. We know that, as Odric, he showed up in a battle with Minax and somehow controlled Keeonean to take the Necklace "Mondain's Embrace" from Minax and give it to him, then leaving.

I'm assuming that this Necklace was the same one that was behind much of what was happening in the early days, the one called "The Black Necklace" by the few players who knew something about it. I think that's a fairly safe assumption, but cannot say so with 100% certainty.

-It was after the Necklace was taken by Odric that he was revealed as a Shadowlord.
-The Necklace had a black stone in it, Blackrock in one of it's forms? Or a Black Jewel, similar to the Gem of Immortality? Or was it a dark shard, turned completely evil and able to make another Shadowlord just as the first 3 did?

This all leaves me with some questions.
First and foremost, did Odric use the Necklace to become a Shadowlord? It seems to me that Ramuz the Shadowlord had shown up on at least one shard, but not all, in Moonglow long before Odric took the Necklace. If that's true, then he was already a Shadowlord, and if that's true, it leaves another question. Is there now a second Shadowlord on our shards?

Or, perhaps Odric took the Necklace at different times on different shards, thus accounting for the difference in the appearances of Ramuz? (If that's even the case!)

 

[WarderDragon]

You will have to elaborate for me the connection between the above - italicized portion - and the below discussion on Ramuz.

However I understand the Shadowlords as being the numerous manifestations of Evil / Mondain; sometimes possessing the corporeal forms of various humans (and demihumans) throughout the Age(s). There are more than Three. Therefore Ramuz could have survived the War of Shadows and the deaths / banishment of Astaroth, Nosfentor and Faulinei.

If he is a Shadowlord this could account for the remnant Shadowlord Faction still active in Felucca.

 

[Trebr Drab]

The italicized portion is sort of a question. How the h-e-double L are we supposed to roleplay information that doesn't happen on our individual shards? There are ways to look at it to allow us to, but many roleplayers won't accept it. Such as that our characters come from Earth, or that we have cross shard communication through travelers.

UO, in it's grand style of non-guidance, has left us with a bit of a problem there. I can easily solve this for myself, but I don't roleplay just with myself.
I can still solve this, it just makes it more difficult, and leaves me possibly in a poor light with some other roleplayers.

Yet, they themselves placed us in a cross shard information mode. If they've backed away from that, then we back at the WTF?! stage. Something UO is all too well good at.

Overall, I'm far from happy with the way UO handles the story. There's been times they did great, and then there's the times they just sucked the life out of it. I want other players to be involved, but I can't expect them to be when UO itself often seems barely involved. I'm far too often walking the fence between the game play I want and just saying "screw it".