Correct me is I am wrong, but don't your shard role play? If you do not role play about knights and every day life in the medieval era, what exactly are you guys role playing about? Just a question, not a troll.....
We Role-play following the "in-game" metafiction.... We are subjects of Lord Blackthorn. Lady Willa of the Yew-wood is a very kind elf. Ask most anyone on my shard and you'll find her fairly well liked. She is a healer by nature. She has lived in Yew ..... was married at one point to the commander of the Yew Militia and while they are no longer married Polynikes of Yew still is the commander of the Yew Militia guardians of the city. They have long protected the city from invaders and problems... They are members of what we call the Britannian Armed Forces. Groups of defenders from other cities and such that are all allied and work together to protect and defend the Kingdom.
Many serve on the High Council... which outside the "Royal Council" carries out the day to day business of the Kingdom. Holding sessions every other Monday, they discuss problems between the cities, listen to the needs of the citizens, they make declarations and laws designed to protect the citizens and the cites. Things ranging from declaring a group an enemy of the state... to hearing requests of citizens for trade deals, or trying to solve issues that perhaps don't need to go before the King.
Sadly while we do role-play much of this all the time... outside of our RP community not to many people care about any of what goes on.... they don't come to High Council meetings (not that I blame them)... they do NOT come to the "Royal Council".... they only go to the EM event to get the drop pretty much. There are several wonderful people on GL's who while they don't RP do respect us and do support us even if they don't really care about the background of the whole game. I know years ago there were several role-players on GL and many shards who IMO took it a bit too seriously... and were not nice to others who would have enjoyed RP but perhaps weren't so knowledgeable about UO history... and Ultima Lore as the others insisted on being. But those days are long passed. Like most communities ours has dwindled... but it is very close.. more like a family.... sometimes I think a family of misfits... but we have a great time. We do a whole lot of everything. Still have some evil role-play.. the Temple of Mondain while not as active as it once was still remains... there are rumors of a nasty group of Slavers and it's rumored that they sell slaves to some Dark Elves or something who sometimes are seen going through the caves near Minoc and have been rumored to be doing something down in Terra Keep or something... but no one knows exactly what that's about.
I certainly miss the days of chasing Orcs or urks from Skara Brae bank... where they often harassed citizens for "shinnies"... and threatened to eat them or their horses. I miss skirmishes between the city of Yew and Minoc over who controlled the guard towers along the road between the two cities. Miss seeing the Highland Guard in all their green kilts... I think most those days are long gone.
