iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

we ended up changing the hill giants into chaja for example and turned it into a prolonged conflict between the two. I know the scalping thing was a mechanical conceit, and we have a whole task engine for handling that kind of thing now, so we removed that part bc it didn't feel super "good guy."

100

it's a perfect artifact of where fantasy RPGs were at the time; the whole setup could be lifted out of any D&D campaign and work. as the game's story and setting really established itself as something different, though, the tone of it shifted and the way people talking about it changed.

100

the presence of eroticism in the setting is good! I know my own tastes are inevitably reflected in what I've written too. later generations of staff kind of cracked down on the general presence of eroticism in any of the text as well as ERP in general, which wasn't good for the writing quality imo

110

I have 'only' been around for about ten years so I wasn't there for the first or second generations of folks that laid a lot of that ground work. it has been very important to me to incorporate that work when building on top of it. I admit a lot has changed from then but I hope the lineage is clear.

000

the shuddeni ended up being one of my favorites to work on because of what creepy little freaks they could be. there are a lot of things in the game that had a ton of clear foundational thought put into them that just didn't get elaborated on much later. we have been doing a lot more of that :)

200

I do need to give this another editing pass but I'm mostly just happy to have something written down at all :v

000

Republic of Earendam - Avendar

Also, there's an article about all the lead up to this up! Should have part 2 (religion, culture, government) up tonight, but much of the history is finally written! avendar.net/Republic_of_...

avendar.net

100

At the center of the efforts at diplomacy are a cohort of adventurers. A Daphoan aelin naturalist, a Gaaldic Sythraki srryn, a walking corpse, and a scholar of infernal (and illegal) magic. What could they possibly stand to gain from peace between Sythtys Earendam?

000

Lesser noble houses concerned with their precarious mixed-lineage border holdings want peace as well, and have made strides in recent decades encouraging trade. Dreadlord Hastet famously broke Sythraki tradition by trading fire magic practices with Gaald; maybe could Earendam do the same.

100

Elanthe @avendar.net · 10/06/2026

Big things happening lately! Sythtys has begun to make diplomatic overtures to Earendam, and Patrician Vhiona is stirring up the old guard by considering it. Earendam and Sythtys have been at war for millennia... so why now? Does Vhiona think she can get the srryn on board with a western expansion?

100

we're bringing PK back in Avendar :) #MUD

100

in the next week or so we will be ready for some play testing of this and our new classes.

000

the purpose is to provide strategy and flexibility in how and when you train your skills, and let you feel like you are tangibly progressing and working towards a goal. the cost can be high, especially for split spheres, what was calibrated with current means of making money in mind.

100

each practice tier will give you 25%. the final 25% is practical use and is only gained in play. you may never gain more than 25% in a skill without training it.

100

Elanthe @avendar.net · 10/05/2026

as posted in discord, in the new build we're introducing a new version of the practice system. instead of each lineage receiving a static number of practices, practices will cost money. the cost will scale on level and training tier. every skill has 3 tiers.

110

New house powers for Raiders and Merchants tonight. Will have more posted in Discord and in-game soon. :)

000

Elanthe @avendar.net · 06/05/2026

the mechanics are fairly simple as things go (thank you Alil) but fine tuning happens on the strength of the healing etc. the first pass was pretty solid though! my part of this was coming up with NPC concepts that had enough flexibility to hang with almost any kind of PC. that was fun.

000

Elanthe @avendar.net · 06/05/2026

recently tried a prototype NPC healer. the idea is to create a suite of NPCs for various roles to support groups of PCs where that role being missing more or less completely precludes doing some kinds of content. they are strong but not as good as hero-level PCs. gonna do some refinement soon.

100

Elanthe @avendar.net · 03/05/2026

we should have a working model of the new practice system soon. curious to see how people interact with it.

010

Elanthe @avendar.net · 03/05/2026

In the past I have attempted to remove my personal feelings from rules enforcement because that is what I thought fairness was but I think that I was wrong about that. if someone is being so consistently belligerent that our interactions with them are just poisoned, that itself is worth acting on.

000

Reposted by Elanthe

Micah @rincewind.run · 28/04/2026

GNU Terry Pratchett, whose words will echo long after we, and our children, and our children’s children have moved on thank you, as always, for making me a better person (quote from Reaper Man)

No one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away, until the clock wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone’s life is only the core of their actual existence.

173132816

Reposted by Elanthe

William B. Fuckley @opinionhaver.bsky.social · 27/04/2026

Middlebrow media enjoyers rise up. We want art with complex stories and emotional nuance featuring characters with interiority and yes we also want them to solve a murder or be a spy or kill a vampire or something

621903232

Elanthe @avendar.net · 27/04/2026

I have ideas now. they are wholecloth. we are rather cleanly away from what already exists. perhaps even more so than the chaja in an odd way, though I consider this a mirror of their problems.

000

Elanthe @avendar.net · 27/04/2026

Really want to finish the lineage lore books (aka bookman) for the school of heroes this week. shuddeni is probably the biggest lift remaining. "what did the shuddeni do before the war of night?" uhhhhhhh,

100

Elanthe @avendar.net · 26/04/2026

Alil and I have talked a lot lately about stepping away from Avendar when we're done with the new build. The experience of development is incredibly stressful sometimes and we're approaching a time in our life and marriage where that stress is starting to really harm us.

000

Elanthe @avendar.net · 26/04/2026

I have nearly thirty thousand hours of time logged into this game producing things (for free!) for people who largely seem to either hate it or don't care. I know this is like, the universal multiplayer game dev experience, but fuck man.

120

Elanthe @avendar.net · 26/04/2026

It's a big #gamedev day with getting called bitchy by a player for attempting to explain design decisions he doesn't like. I will not be looking at prod or discord for a few days.

141

Elanthe @avendar.net · 23/04/2026

call that a cnc machine

030

Elanthe @avendar.net · 23/04/2026

rapidly approaching the point at which I have to actually sit down and sketch out some fight specs and I Don't Wanna I know it won't actually take me that long now once I scrape it together but there's still plenty of manual work involved!

000

Elanthe @avendar.net · 21/04/2026

at what point in a work do they cease being OCs and simply become Cs

000

show me you are a true art lover by describing the execution of that chiaroscuro like you want to fuck it

000

You don't always need all that information. Digital art lacks much of these, though there are many examples of other design choices simply taken for granted in that space. When you're describing a medium that does use it, though, you need the whole thing. Or you just didn't finish your work.

100

What's it painted on? Is there a frame, what's it look like? Is the work flat, or is there impasto? How was it varnished, or is it unvarnished? What kinds of pigments were used? What do the brushstrokes look like? Why are you making me read braille with oven mitts on???

100