Yes, it is difficult for paladins to keep playing in such a plotting-friendly and evilish environment. But not anymore! We have got a society that will caress you in its tender lap, that will give the paladins some sense of order and organization and facilitate doing great, heroic deeds the bards can subsequently sing about! Yes, this is an ode to the Society of the Ordered Mind.

I will speak here based just on my (still limited) experience I have got with the faction. Maybe you are finding it difficult to keep up with all the clandestine plotting, schemes and murders, withholding knowledge or stealing and robbing? Are you tired of playing the harsh reality of the Underdark and yet still want to explore its evil bowels and deadly tunnels? Does the classic style adventuring of the "the party of heroic adventurers sets forth to beat some mean illithids" type suit you more? Then search no more! The Society is just for you!

Being the opposite of the factions that are oriented towards plotting within Sanctuary (the Spellguard, the Watch, the Council, maybe the Tigereyes), the Society (probably the Seekers as well) is an extremely extrovert faction that encourages going into the vast and unexplored Underdark, or to the locations that are far away, although known, and requires its members to devote themselves to a seemingly hopeless and simplistic goal - getting rid of all the aberrations, fighting them wherever you find them. Why just seemingly? Because in an environment as aberration-overridden as the Underdark, there will be never lack of things to go and smite down. Should anyone oppose that, a place for scheming and politics is created for the more talk-and-plot type PCs.

So, what kind of PCs are best to create? What kind of characters will assure you the best fun there can be had for the proactive and bloodthirsty among us? I am sure you are acquainted enough to have already figured it out, so just a little reminder: 1. paladins, 2. zealots and clerics of good deities, 3. characters holding grudges against any type of aberration, best to hate them all, and wishing to bring them down. Even though the leader is a not a paladin either, it is still the paladins the society has been mainly created for: trying to join a party with the detect evil tool can seem impossible at times, but when you are in the Society and have your loyal buds all around, you can go questing and foolish/epic-wannabe adventuring all around. Of course, you still have to mind that this is a survival-type PW and chances of surviving upon displaying any foolishness so inherent to the archetypal paladin are rather slim.

To sum it up, apply! I can of course help you anytime you need, but with the awesome DMs we have got and being an awesome player you undoubtedly are, you probably won't need it anytime soon. Mind, the more members there are, the more awesome the application has to be. Better to apply as soon as possible, with still a well thought-out application, so that we can together go and spread all the holiness with sword and fire.

To clear it up a bit, the Society is as deep in the plotting of Sanctuary as its members wish it to be - nothing says you cannot put together an awesome concept and change its nature. You might be perceiving it in many different ways and I am sure the actions of its members will ultimately push it somewhere else. You might view it as a group of blind zealots, or as highly trained and organized crusaders, or as goody folk keeping themselves tightly together in a hostile and evil environment, just wanting to survive in the most virtuous and least obtrusive way possible; or an Inquisition that comes to purify Sanctuary off the unclean elements and wrestle a portion of the political power for itself... there are many possibilities and it is only up to you to bring your preferred one into reality.

Imagine playing a character who is so completely committed to the ideal of good that he would willingly give up a life of luxury and peace in some idyllic surface land to instead enter into the very depths of the earth to pursue a crusade against the natural order's greatest threat.

As some of you may have noticed, the theme of mental perception and psionic domination/influence play a large role in the feel of this server -- members of the Society train themselves to rigidly control their mental landscape and resist psionics.

I forsee an almost inquisition/exorcism feel to this organization, very grim but very dutiful approach towards fereting out enemies and crusading against the very worst terrors of the Underdark.

Okay, guys and ladies, I think we have made the Society fairly known by now and my advertising campaign can end. If you are interested, I will be hanging on the Society channel; I will try avoiding the main one due to time issues. Due to the propagation you might have gotten an impression that it's a bunch of bragging hotheads which is not entirely the case and the faction should slowly come to where it is supposed to be. But we will let find you that and everything else in-game. :wink:

Presently the Society ould use new members. We are in the midst of alot of aberration related-goodness. But really, besides telling you that there are indeed plots and interesting happenings in the Society at this time, there is not much I can do to add to the previous posts.

So if this looks like your cup of tea drop by #society.

PS -- For everyone out there, the new title for Society members is "Ordinant". This is one of those 'comes into effect now, but you pretend it has been around forever' things. It is only used when formally adressing or speaking of Society members, somewhat like how the Skeer's title, "Seeker" is used. (By the way, Ordinant is a made up word as far as we know, creative license for the win).

I'm fairly certain ordinant is a real word, and I've seen it used as a title before (in fiction). That said, nothing wrong with using it.

Merriam-Webster Dictionary states:

2 entries found for ordinant. ordinant

\Or"di*nant\, n. One who ordains. --F. G. Lee.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

ordinant

\Or"di*nant\, a. [L. ordinans, p. pr. of ordinare. See Ordain.] Ordaining; decreeing. [Obs.] --Shak.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.

Ordinants are units in 40K that do just the same thing as the Ordinants here, so i think we're good.

but not to be confused with Ordinance (local law or ammunition for large caliber military weapons).

Who says the Society members don't make good ammunition? :twisted:

Hey, the drow did it too!

The Society is short on PCs at the moment. Players new and not so new, please take a look at the posts above to see if you would be interested in stomping squid heads with us.

Yes, we need all the help to stomp heads that we can get. We're like the Three Musketeers, so, ah, join us. :)

Presently, the Society has one semi-active player and one active player whose play time will be cut down in a few days.

As a brief summation, the Society of the Ordered Mind is an organization based in Upper that opperates largely without the town. We do not have any legal powers in the city, but we function as a proactive team which hunts down aberrations outside of the city (and sometimes inside as well).

We are a well-equiped and small organization with many unofficial political connections and a good deal of action in the field, which would increase if we had more player characters. We do more than just bash beholders and strangle mind flayers, there are plots which center around the Society and include the Society, many of them player-made. Members get some good armor, an excellent helmet, and a unique ring from the Society armory; free bedding and access to a communal storrage (which, like all other persistant storrage, is down). The Society is also physically expanding so you can look forward to more benefits in the future.

We welcome all sorts of characters into the fold. Wizards, Clerics, Rangers, and even Rogues are welcome and wanted to compliment our Paladins and Fighters. The only real requisites are a decent-to-good will save, non-evil, and non-chaotic. (Also, I believe that DMs are reluctant to accept druids and barbarians into the faction). Heck, a Societal Monk would be pretty novel. We're looking forward to bulking up our numbers, if not only one more brother. So apply now ye who will face Underdark's most perilous foes.

! Where do I sign?