What is the overall point of the Bane War?

[ACB1961]

We've flattened the Ophidians on Atlantic so many times the spawner should be broken. Now the Banes have moved over to attack the Meer. The Banes are red and the Meers are Blue.

It would be really excellent if someone would tell us what we're even supposed to be doing here. Why are we helping an army full of murderers kill Blue people who have lived peacefully among us for a really long time. Sorry, this is so close to rping, but how else can I say this?

It would be great for someone that knows what's actually going on here to tell us. I realize the final scenario ends with Magincia being restored eventually in one form or another, but how in the world is killing this stuff going to accomplish that? I also remember that Yew is a partial swamp at least on most shards. What is the best thing for us do to restore Magincia to a beautiful state, and the worst thing we could do to cause the most destruction possible to Magincia?

Thank you very much for your time.

 

[Kiminality]

Probably to keep us busy until the rebuilding of Magincia.

It's quite hard to follow the Bane in the context of the world, because they basically just appeared, and started smashing one of our former enemies.
Now they've moved on to one of our former allies.
It's not feeling much like a part of the main plot. Probably because it's just "Suddenly... War!" with very little meat over the bones.

 

[MalagAste]

Why are you helping the bane??????

 

[Kiminality]

The ambiguity of the sides didn't lend itself to an easy decision, when it came to picking sides.
On the one hand, you have the Bane, who are ultimately up for some good old school Ophidian slaughtering, which has been a Britinnian national pastime for years.
On the other hand you have the Ophidians, who are enormous jerks.
The question could stand contrary - why did you side with the age old enemies of Britannia?

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

To distract us with shinies and mindless combat.

As far as the Ophidians being age-old enemies.. Uhm.. They've fought Britannia thrice. Once with "reason" (Artificed Scion theft), then it was a rogue queen, and lastly during the Shadowlord's invasion (could assume they were 'corrupted'). In the case of the last event, the Ophidians were the innocents.

The Bane Chosen, however, have taken a racist and vengeful tact that is contrary to the teachings of the Virtues. (Hence the title of the arc, In the Shadow of Virtue) Their actions are in no way defensible. Now that they are attacking the meer, those associated with them will make themselves enemies of Britannia.

 

[Kiminality]

The Bane Chosen, however, have taken a racist and vengeful tact that is contrary to the teachings of the Virtues. (Hence the title of the arc, In the Shadow of Virtue) Their actions are in no way defensible. Now that they are attacking the meer, those associated with them will make themselves enemies of Britannia.

The bane "seek to take back the land of Sosaria from the uncivilized races, such as the Ophidians".
Is that really any different from 12 years of PvM?
You could argue that forming an organised resistance, and working to protect the rights of the citizens of the kingdom not to be slaughtered en masse by the invading monster du jour, is a pretty good thing.
Players have been partying up to do basically the same thing for years, so how are the bane any worse? "going to hunt ophidians" is functionally equivalent to the Bane's party line.

Now, moving on to the Meer, who's only negative impact on the kingdom was to bugger up Yew for a time... That's interesting.
I don't see how they are any less civilised than the orcs, or the solen, or the terrathans, or the other monster groups.
So, at this juncture, I'll agree that the bane are bigger jerks than the ophidians.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

The bane "seek to take back the land of Sosaria from the uncivilized races, such as the Ophidians".

That single line in the Bane's quest dialogue condemns them. The Lost Lands, presently, are not officially part of Britannia. Papua and Delucia are protectorates, but the rest of the underground valley is "officially" unclaimed territory.

Had the Bane gone after the orcs, the daemons, or another hostile monster race in Fel/Tram first then their story would make more sense and choosing their side would be far more reasonable.


One meer, Adranath, was pretty much responsible for the Decay spell going awry.. Not an entire species.


Bad Bane. Bad, bad bane!

 

[Kiminality]

That single line in the Bane's quest dialogue condemns them. The Lost Lands, presently, are not officially part of Britannia. Papua and Delucia are protectorates, but the rest of the underground valley is "officially" unclaimed territory.

Had the Bane gone after the orcs, the daemons, or another hostile monster race in Fel/Tram first then their story would make more sense and choosing their side would be far more reasonable.


One meer, Adranath, was pretty much responsible for the Decay spell going awry.. Not an entire species.


Bad Bane. Bad, bad bane!

But, that doesn't change the fact that players have been decorating the sand with the ophidians for way longer than the bane have.
You can't condemn the Bane, without condemning all those that have hunted the Ophidians specifically.

Now that they attack the Meer, it's fairly cut and dry.
But up until that point, without taking into account meta-knowledge, they were effectively an ambiguous mercenary group.
I wish they'd done more to make them ambiguous, and maintained that ambiguity by not going after one of the few good-aligned civilisations in the game.

 

[Trebr Drab]

Remember that the Ophidians of lore come in 3 flavors, Chaos, Order, and Balance. They may well be at war among themselves too, we don't really know at the moment.
We also should be aware that the Ophidians left Britannia long ago to escape Lord British's virtues. And they practiced cannibalism. They are not "good", by our standards.
And whatever turned them into snake people, as they are in our Sosaria, whether it was because of the shattering of the Gem or Immortality, or some other magic, they may be far less "human" than we yet imagine.

But they never showed any signs of being directly connected to any of our primary forces of evil. Mondain, Minax, Exodus, or the Shadowlords. And while they fought us from the beginning, they never tried to conquer us, nor bring our world to an unholy end.

The Bane Chosen, on the other hand, show signs of true corruption. They have the evil outlook to force their racial intolerance through the destruction of whole races. This is not a tenant of Chaos, rather of Order without virtue. This is something we might want to keep in mind as we try to figure out what exactly is going on.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

Trebr...

The Ophidians of the Lost Lands are not in any way, shape or form the Ophidian Civilization of Serpent Isle. Lets not start this debate again.

 

[WarderDragon]

That single line in the Bane's quest dialogue condemns them. The Lost Lands, presently, are not officially part of Britannia. Papua and Delucia are protectorates, but the rest of the underground valley is "officially" unclaimed territory.

Where are Delucia and Papua identified as Britannian Protectorates?

 

[Kiminality]

Where are Delucia and Papua identified as Britannian Protectorates?

I'd guess either part of the introduction lore, or part of GL's RP lore.
I don't recall reading any differing explanations.

 

[Martyna Zmuir]

I'd have to dig through the fiction... It was mentioned once, and I believe that Draconi mentioned it a few times as well.

 

[G.v.P]

There should be an official bridge of fiction which explains why the Bane have moved on and why the Bane have left the Ophidians where they are. Why didn't the Bane conquer the Ophidians, as the Savages did the Orcs in T2A?

Most shards killed Ophidians in order to get Bane food more so than any RP alignment reason, whereas personally, I can say I sided with the Bane because Ophidians attacked Delucia and Vesper in the past. I wanted vengeance, whatever the cost. Delucia is my locale of choice, and Vesper is my home away from home (I started in Minoc as a miner way back when; the back of the T2A box convinced me I would be able to own my own shop and smithing looked fun). However, due to greed, and the consequences of the Bane's next target, the Meer, I decided to flip-flop on the last day and kill the Bane, since it became apparent the Petrified Matriarch Ring might not be available in the future.

On one hand, faction loyalty creates consequence in UO, something that made the single player series great. However, since we can play so many characters, and "RP" each one, there is much less "risk" involved in choosing a side. Also, as this current Publish reveals, the whole Bane / Ophidian war is going to be left unresolved. The Ophidians somehow managed to survive whereas the Bane have moved on without a reason. If player interaction mattered, the Ophidians would be removed from the game, and there would be a new Bane town in that T2A area (depending on the shard). However, as others have pointed out, these events are determined more by the items/things you can get as a result of your actions, and no matter what we do, the arc will end the same way.

 

[Uvtha]

The bane "seek to take back the land of Sosaria from the uncivilized races, such as the Ophidians".
Is that really any different from 12 years of PvM?

We have met the bane...and they are we.

 

[Trebr Drab]

Trebr...

The Ophidians of the Lost Lands are not in any way, shape or form the Ophidian Civilization of Serpent Isle. Lets not start this debate again.

They are and they aren't.
They are in the sense that they are UO's version of the Ultima Ophidians.
They aren't in the sense that they are changed, due to the shattering and the way the shape of facets change things, including time and history.

But yeah, I don't want to argue about it. If you see absolutely no correlation between the Ophidians and the Ophidians, we can agree to disagree.

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

Pick the side you like.

Its not that hard.

Choose a side and see what unfolds.

The only reason anyone would want to know is to know if they are choosing the side to get the best stuff?

Am I wrong?

 

[Kiminality]

Pick the side you like.

Its not that hard.

Choose a side and see what unfolds.

The only reason anyone would want to know is to know if they are choosing the side to get the best stuff?

Am I wrong?

I don't think you're considering the various levels of RP considerations.
Whether they take RP seriously, or otherwise, a lot of people just don't want to side with the "bad guys", either through in-character or just personal reasons.

 

[Trebr Drab]

Pick the side you like.

Its not that hard.

Choose a side and see what unfolds.

The only reason anyone would want to know is to know if they are choosing the side to get the best stuff?

Am I wrong?

I hope you're wrong. I hope they add real consequences for choosing sides. Not necessarily to hurt you so much as to make it feel like you have to reflect on what you decide to do inside the world of Sosaria.

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

Well even if you are RPing. You can RP you chose the wrong side and now have to make a menz.

RPing and playing should be about not knowing. Not... give all the info.


Pick a side, take ride, kill and hide, loot and divide.

 

[northwoodschopper]

Pick the side you like.

Its not that hard.

Choose a side and see what unfolds.

The only reason anyone would want to know is to know if they are choosing the side to get the best stuff?

Am I wrong?

I don't think you're considering the various levels of RP considerations.
Whether they take RP seriously, or otherwise, a lot of people just don't want to side with the "bad guys", either through in-character or just personal reasons.

there's already a defined consequence, as your character will be heralded/hated to the participating sides, and will not be welcomed in some parts. the devs stated that this will extend to many npc 'factions' soon. perhaps it'll have even greater ramifications in the future, like which quests characters can be involved with or what territories a character can travel freely.

as for rp and siding with the bad guys, character that have strict codes of conduct and such will just have to sit out unless they are willing to bear the consequences of being involved. these are purposely set up to choose the lesser of two evils if getting involved. if someone doesn't like the thought of their character not making perfect choices, then their character just has to follow queen dawn's advice to stay neutral and watch it unfold from afar. you miss out on stuff, but your character remains pure.

 

[RavenWinterHawk]

Im sure there will be a potion of forgiveness.


Could you imagine the outrage. "I cant buy off this vendor... I didn't know this would happen."

 

[northwoodschopper]

Im sure there will be a potion of forgiveness.


Could you imagine the outrage. "I cant buy off this vendor... I didn't know this would happen."

probably more like a chain of quests for reprieve like the human to elf quests. of course they can just start killin' stuff too.

or the devs will just leave the system half implemented due to player issues. sounds a bit more reasonable.

 

[Phineas le Monge]

PROPOSED:

The bane never intended to defeat or destroy the ophidians. They just wanted something the ophids had. (Crystalline Blackrock) They now are preparing to attack the meer for something they have (power crystals). Then they will move on to another group for another resource. The question is, for who or what are the bane gathering these resources? Are they building some construct of ultimate desolation or powering some magic spell never seen before? Tune in next week - same bat time, same bat channel!