Celtic Heroes

It has oft times been said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and there have certainly been some examples of this on the Isle of Morrigan / Sycorax of late.
Hopefully here though, as with the play from which this post draws it's title, the storm shall pass and ultimately turn to good end.
Having never been a resident of this particular isle, and turning up somewhat late to the theatre / forum production, I confess that there are many holes in my knowledge as would pertain to backstory and motive, and to the point where I may only speculate. Indeed, such is the complicated and somewhat convoluted nature of the plot (as with many a turbulent conflict) that I suspect even among the main protagonists the original causes are distorted or inscrutable to most. Although it is not always productive to dwell upon or seek out such roots anyway.
My perspective is simply of one standing outside of events, looking in, (thus unhindered by the shackles of island politics) and my only right and motive for commenting is as a person who might hope to (by some small degree) lessen the hurt and harm that people are causing not only to others, but also themselves.
Since stumbling into the Morrigan forum a few days past, I have witnessed many horrible things. Most glaringly, I should say, is some small measure of hypocrisy from all sides of the argument, but most disturbing of all is the lack of empathy on display.
There are certain tragic things and key events in a persons life that can shape the way they view the world for a time, and which move them irrevocably.
Such events as these you would not wish upon your worst foe (assuming you consider yourself to have a foe in the first place, of course), and certainly I would think it unconscionable that anyone would use said matters as a stick with which to prod or beat a person (or else to bar them from an avenue of temporary respite).
Remember, these are events which most of us shall come to know eventually. They are one of the things which bind us all together, and should never be made a devisive tool.
In time, all memories may be seen as a blessing to be cherished but whilst they are yet raw it is quite natural that someone will endeavour to seek refuge from them and by varied means.
I have seen many good traits turned to bad here also.
Loyalty is one such admirable quality, that can lead to good or ill (often the latter, if applied blindly). Sometimes the most loyal thing you can do for someone you care for, is not to follow them but to correct their path.
Rather than continuing to consign each other and yourselves to the personal hells that have been manifest on the isle, take time to gaze into the waters around it instead.
Make hell a temporary stop-off point as opposed to the destination.
It's doesn't matter whether you are a Prospero, or a King Alonso. You are all good and decent folk at heart, I'm sure, and more than capable of engaging in mutual respect if not friendship.
This respect is not to be found in backhanded compliments. Neither is it in intended injury which mascarades under the guise of constructive criticism. Only in empathy and understanding from all parties.
Being the bigger person is not about intellectual superiority. It is not about who can beat their chest the loudest, or have the last word. I chose to reference the tempest as opposed to moby-*** for a reason. Because im certain you are all capable of coming together positively in the end, unlike the tale of the white-whale, where a leviathan and a captain's roles are fixed.
I fully expect to come under no small amount of criticism for speaking out on matters that I am not a party to, but if it turns to good purpose then I am fine with that. Perhaps even it may transpire that such exception is taken to this post that it brings former enemies together in the condemning of it (not my aim, but of little consequence if the outcome is the same).
With any luck though, an outsiders perspective will simply serve as impartial lens that regards not the red mists of Morrigan, but rather allows a view of something more favourable.

Kind regards,

Magustra

Well, I hope you stay on this island Magustra. Your post just brought me great comfort and I am going to keep it. Right now I am deeply hurt that even when you apologise openly on this forum, some people use it to damn you further. I am so cheered to see someone else on here who loves Shakespeare (again, some mock me for my love of him). Actually what comforts me sometimes is the knowledge that his words and wisdom will live on, always there to guide others, to make them sit up and think. When I was 15 I read Macbeth and it absolutely whacked me over the head; its themes and truths have followed me all my days since. It is known as, 'The Scottish Play' and little did I think aged 15 that I would end up even living in Scotland let alone marrying a Scottish lass (and one who was a professional writer). Macbeth is of course considered the Bard's darkest play, and indeed it is. It fascinated me how Lady Macbeth pours all her own want of power and position into her weak husband; feeding his ego to murderous intent and how both become destroyed by it.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
Signifying nothing. — Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)

How often I have recited that to myself since my boyhood, and yes, always, always knowing that my own little life is being told by me the idiot, my own, 'Sound and fury signifying nothing'. And no where better have I exhibited it, than wasting my time engaging with some other 'idiots' on this forum.

Thank you, Zapper. If the post brings even a modicum of comfort, and when weighed against the opposite, then it should have been well worth the writing.
I do not currently have any toons on Morrigan, however, and neither do I ever mean to play here (or anywhere outside the confines of my own server, for that matter).
For better or worse, I am a one server player, and to this end Danu is a fine fit for me.
I often joke that the odd day on Danu may see more back-stabbings and political manouverings than the average season of 'Game of Thrones' but it is seldom anything overly malicious and it certainly keeps things interesting. There is also much light scattered abroad here too.
Someone I consider a dear in-game friend of mine (sadly no longer with us in the physical sense), made a post entitled 'the turning away' before they embarked upon their great journey. At the time of writing it sits on page four of the Danu forum, and sparked a small debate on gaming conduct which you may find somewhat pertinent and of some further reassurance.
There is another topic called farmer's journal which you may quite enjoy as well, as may find it appeals to that aspect of your personality which is predisposed towards fan-fiction.
Who knows, after reading you may even deem Danu to be nice place for a in-game vacation, in which event I'm sure you will find any number of friendly tour guides at your disposal (myself included).

All the best, chap

Magustra

Magustra, another thank you! I will indeed go and check out those posts you recommend on the server you play. Yes, I have heard from other players on Morrigan (who left because of some of the truly awful bandits on this server) that other servers do not have bullies, cheats, ksers and scammers on the scale of this one. Obviously I can't verify if that is true or not, but some who have left, like Kiltie, have advised that the only way to be free of these characters is to move to another server. I have considered it but A) there are so many players on this server who I respect, look up to and in some cases have known a long time so have become dear friends. Also, many players I don't know well who play the game to enjoy, not to ever bully and/or cheat others. B) If I leave this server, that extremely small group of vile players who seem to be bonded like glue (no doubt because they have so much in common, some even talking exactly the same style of gangster language), will see it as some kind of victory and if anything behave even worse than they already do (if that is possible).

I am sorry that one of your game friends has obviously died, and it must have hurt you a lot. I did try to explain in my apology post that part of my anger towards the thugs who play on this server, is that for them to use a game in that way, a means to brow beat, cheat etc is as low as it gets. I was honest enough to explain I had used the game to try and escape some life difficulties. I was simply naive in thinking as it was a game there would be none of the greed, nastiness and bullying that there is in the real world. Of course logically as the game is played by people from the real world, it is bound to incorporate some who are balls of retarded aggression and greed. That is why I made an apology to all the good players in game, as in my attempt to stand up to ones who wish to turn clans into gangs has resulted in me offending good players who are in their clans.

All best wishes to you on your server. Zap

One thing you may find somewhat cathartic and liberating is to try and subtly alter the manner in which you might view a person that you would otherwise fall into conflict with.
I often like to muse that if it  so happens that each of us is assigned a single great adversary in life, and that we are charged to contend with, then surely it makes sense that such an enemy could only ever be our own selves.
Of course we will all be exposed to things from time to time that call such ideals into question... after all none of us are perfect. Yet if we try to imagine for the most part that anyone who transgresses against us can only do so by first transgressing against themselves, then occasionally our anger can give way to sympathy.
If someone causes harm to another, then they have lost a personal battle against the unpalatable aspect of their own nature, and they themselves are the worse for it.
I also find it useful to remember that we have each of us had different experiences and influences in life, and there are often unseen factors as to why someone acts the way they do (whether positively or negatively).

Magustra, while I know your words are meant with kindness and I respect your view of how to deal with highly aggressive people, I am unable to share them. You only have to look at the statistics to see that abuse against women and children in our modern world is at atrocious levels, to realise that appeasing bullies doesn't work! From the 1960s onwards we have had this very Liberal Western society, awash with 'module' minded academics brainwashing us into thinking to discipline a child is to be cruel to it! The word 'discipline' actually comes from the Latin 'disciplinare' which simply means to teach.

In the West it used to be accepted that to be taught was something to be valued, it isn't anymore. It is surely more than co-incidence that the UK and the USA now have the highest illiteracy rates since the inception of their educational systems, this while countries like Singapore and China have far better literacy rates among school children than we do.

Just think what that really means for a moment, what that is leading the West to. When I talk about education I do not mean that everyone should end up a brain surgeon or rocket scientist, I myself do not have the intelligence to even understand certain things about CH, so I could have hardly become a rocket scientist. I think people who undertake manual work are every bit as important as anyone else, you could argue more so (I myself did continual low paid manual work from the age of 13 until I was 20). This is NOT about class, or social snobbery, this is about the right every child should have to become literate. When they don't, when they have lazy teachers, un interested parents and are brought up on junk food and junk videos, they are being robbed of their own talent to contribute to this world, and this world needs them!

So that has been one consequence of our Western societies becoming too liberal in thinking. The second consequence is that some people, and for what ever reason, grow up into completely selfish *** who want to have power over others so they bully them (and it is of course mainly women and children who are easy targets for male bullies). You can make all manner of excuses for their conduct, that they came from a broken home, were beaten as a child etc etc, but that 'excuse' cannot then be used as a means for them to continue bullying. Your attitude is to 'appease' but it doesn't work. I have tried it on bullies in this game, got no where, and the same in the real world. I was talking to one player after Christmas, they said they had tried hard over a year ago to do the 'appease' method with the most notorious thug in game.....a couple of months later that player ended up reporting that same thug, just sick and tired of seeing him bully constantly on game.

Also from my own experience it is not the case that a bully is someone who has been bullied themselves as a child. My own father used to boast about how his parents spoilt him constantly. My own father ranted, bullied and beat some of his five children and he hit my mother sometimes too. None of my brothers have ever beaten their children, in fact the damage done by my father to his family was so intense that we are all still all trying to come to terms with it. Nothing new in that, this is a situation repeated many times over in families around the globe. The point I am making is that I am in fact an expert on bullies, because I had to try and survive living with one from infancy. I spot them immediately on game because their characteristics are ALWAYS the same; they lie and need to boast all the time and they must constantly dismiss nearly everyone else around them as their inferior, and because they can't do this by physical aggression on game they use streams of foul language instead (my father employed both).

Aged 12 and moving to a new school in a completely different part of the country, so my accent different, meant I became an immediate target for a gang of bullies. I did all I could to ignore them, I took endless verbal and physical humiliation; punches, kicks, homework torn up slowly in front of my face....all because my accent didn't fit in (again this 'gang' mentality that also draws bullies like a magnet). I pleaded with my father to let me go to another school but there was only one State school in that area and I was in it! I remember him going nuts at me, telling me he wasn't Fxxxing rich and even if he was he wouldn't waste money on some poncy private education for his children. These were the days before school counsellors and politically correct ideas, these were the days when if you were bullied at school you were on your ownio. So one day, and it would have to be in an art class (one of the few subjects I loved and was any good at), Junior ThugBrat and his merry band of spotty followers laid into me again. The teacher had had to leave the class and of course with pots of paint around Junior ThugBrat decided to have a field day with me. Except this time he didn't, cos this time I snapped. I grabbed him, half strangled him with his tie and thrust his head under the cold water tap of the large art room basin. He squealed like a pig as I soaked his head. His little band of followers stood as silent as the rest of the class. From that day onwards I was never threatened by bullies in that school ever again.

I never wanted to ever fight anyone in my life, it is gross, demeaning and animal like, but I know that out and out bullies do not respond to kind, 'appeasing' words. What they do respond to is giving them their own foul behaviour back to them. I have lived in a drug ghetto, and yes, you don't fight junkies, you just end up dead. But in a game that is meant for fun, to see a few bits of adult bully scum endlessly trailing around trashing, scheming, lying, boasting, ksing and scamming....nope, I am never going to 'appease' them. That is exactly what encourages them! I saw bullies in my time in the Navy, again always cowards and always ended up locked up (best place for them as they are useless and in any serious situations always run the other way).

On this game I have had 12 to 14 year olds come to me in tears sometimes about what adult bullies have said to them (things so bad that I cannot repeat here). I never forgot one young lad in a clan I used to be in, telling me his mother had cancer and all he wanted was to be in the game to not keep thinking about it. What a lot of people in this game are not seeing, or don't wish to see, is that yes, you get me talking about this a lot, and you think it is me be boring and/or obsessive, but you forget about the many, many young players who come to me when the adult bullies are making their game lives a misery, so all those who stay silent out of fear.

Having been a victim of bullying as a child both within and outside the home, and with no one to defend me, I will never let a child or even an adult I know be bullied and just ignore it. Some older people who play this game need to remember that while they can comfort themselves by declaring endlessly, 'what does it matter, it is only a game', some young people literally kill themselves when they get on line bullying. There can be no one more vulnerable than a lad of 12 whose Mum is battling with cancer, and there is no way some stinking bully on game is ever going to treat a youngster like that and feel he can get away with it.

I am not saying my view of bullies and how they should be treated is correct, I am merely telling you that in my own life experience of them, they must never, ever be given into.

All lost! to prayers, to prayers! all lost!

Hi, Zap.
I too appreciate your view, chap, and share in part of it, even as I would seem to share in some similar experiences as well (as, indeed, many I should think do).
Naturally there are times when a person is stirred to stand against certain things which they are exposed to, as I perhaps poorly alluded to in my last post, and certainly I would consider myself far from liberal when it comes to criminal or serious matters.
I simply believe that shift in perspective can remove things such as wounded pride from the equation, and so as not to allow personal slights to reach one's core.
Empathy does not necessarily lead to apathy,    but rather sound judgement.
I am familiar with old adage that 'all that is necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing', It is perhaps due to a similar notion that I posted initially.
I do think it important though to consider one's definition of evil, or other similar labels.
There are other quotes that could be considered to advocate a stay of hand or tongue also... Such as 'discretion being the better part of valour', and 'pearls before swine' (not meant in derogatory fashion of course, and not aimed at anyone in particular here either).
It is simply a balancing act,  is the only point I was hoping to make. And if struck right, then can lead to much good.
I half recall another quote as well, which I shall paraphrase as best I might (though I'm sure you'll pardon my attempt if it proves overly clumsy).
'Shout and they shall cup their ears, but whisper and the world shall strain to listen'.
I shall end on that note for now, purely because I do not care for too much forum exposure at a time.
I do look forward to your response though, chap, and have enjoyed our chat immensely.
To that end, I expect our forum paths shall meet again at some later date and look forward to it... Though in the meantime, if you ever want to chat and find yourself short a pair of friendly ears then please feel free to pm anytime, bud.

Kind regards,

Magustra

Thank you both for a stimulating discussion. Refreshing around here.

Was musing on Zapper's story of the school bullies and of how they stopped when he finally snapped and retaliated. Part of the difficulty here is that the only real way to do that in the game is to level up, team up, and shut them up. That IS the Celtic Heroes version of choking them with their own tie.

This can be seen even here in the forums. In thread after thread when people complain about ill-treatment, the response is often "level up!"

Reporting bullying in the game rarely results in significant consequences for the offenders, so the approach of turning to the authorities has little effectiveness. Not to say we should not diligently and repeatedly report offenders, but need to recognize that it tends to not truly effect much change.

There is little that can be done to combat verbal abuse on the game. Polite requests to stop are mocked and engaging just tends to cause escalation. Again, these things can be reported -- and should be -- but the players themselves have few options. Witty comebacks are satisfying and occasionally embarrass a bully into silence, but that presumes s/he is intelligent enough to appreciate the sting and how ignorant, ill-mannered, and childish they now look. More often than not the most perceptive and cutting retort is simply met with some schoolyard taunt about one's mother.
Ignoring seems to be the most practical response; the audience on which these bullies boost their sense of self and importance turns away and the bully eventually is quiet. For the moment, of course.

And. I think that applies to forum discussions as well. It seems that, at some point, all that results is an escalation of hostilities and a spiral of aggression both in and out of game which just feeds on itself.

I still say that "block" is the best button in the game. I find it much easier not to engage if I don't hear what the idiots are saying in the first place. Sometimes in the forums that means I choose not to read certain threads when it gets to an unproductive level of hostility and insult.

A while back I was training with a friend in the Snorri pit when a few people from a rival clan came down and started killing mobs. There simply were not enough mobs in the area for both groups to be able to train. We were mid-lix, the other group unlixed, and they were killing every mob in sight. In a matter of minutes, one of their clanmates -- a notorious nasty on our server and much higher level rogue -- came down and killed everything. Obviously deliberately wasting our lixes.

Now, maybe this situation would have been different if we had invited the original rival group to join us. And perhaps I should have extended that olive branch. Maybe I will try that next time, tho I confess there are certain rivals who I am simply not willing to help level up and therefore compete better against my clan!

But, I didn't and so we were stuck with few choices. We tried logging off our toons and going onto alts for a while. When we logged back, the pit was empty but almost immediately, here they came again, killing everything before we could get to it. This went on and on.

Eventually, we called our clan.
A good 20-30 minutes of everyone's time was, in my eyes, wasted, as the two clans had a pissing contest in the pit. Eventually our clan dominated and the bullies slunk away.

I am lucky enough to be in a clan that can do this; a clan of skilled, high-level, and well-equipped players that places a high value on clan loyalty and protecting our clan. Many do not have this and are, therefore, without much recourse at all.

I think it is admirable to drive for fairness, justice, and civility here and to model the sorts of behavior we would like to see. But the truth is we have few tools available for effecting change other than coming together to fight against them on the game's terms.

Cmon! Nobody even gives me a bump for actually quoting The Tempest???