Mebril Blackhearth, the Jack Rabbit

[Ramc]

It is, at last, over.



Mebril Kelteel, a cat burglar from Westgate, Awoke in the city of rings in a pile of trash. Tenacious, she bent her mind to surviving and, eventually, thriving. Early, she found herself on a path into entrance into House Moonspear when she interefered in a bridge duel at level 5 trying to help a Carmine Desmarais that didn't need any help at all. The death of Carmine and Mebril's revenge on those responsible set the tone of the danger of the City. Her first several months were in Moonspear as a scout and spy of sorts, navigating the politics of the Ward and worming her way into anything that she could weasel into.

She wore a lot of hats. Took up painting and would continue to throughout her time here. She took up ringrunning and gained the trust of certain druidic ponds elements. Eventually she would be kicked from Moonspear for her association with Rin Farrell, though. Fatefully.

She fell in with Bristol Blackhearth with an eye toward reviving the name of his minor house and through opportunism and diplomacy found herself the Castellan of Grey Keep- a Baroness. She and Bristol would eventually wed, consolidating their feudal 'titles' and cement the makeshift legitimacy of their minor house. Contraversial, Blackhearth weathered its share of threats as it sought to cultivate allies and mitigate enemies.

Very eventually, events would conspire to see the Grey Keep out of Blackhearth hands and spur Mebril and company to go over the Smoulderpeaks to Baz'eel. This didn't solve as many problems as one might hope. Returning to being a presence in the Ward that ultimately didn't want her, internal House matters and the crumbling of the City of Rings would come to slowly snap the ties one by one that held her here. Until ultimately, with some of her closest friends, she took those first steps on her final journey toward Ring 1.

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Mebril was my first PC in City of Rings. Put together more or less on a whim at Diablo's suggestion at the end of November '21 and I got sucked in. I went in completely blind playing an Awoken and just decided to try to weasel and survive and see what she could wring out of a world that so wanted her dead. It turns out quite a bit. Her [Journals] and [Letters] are all about the forum for those with an interest.

Special thanks to specific players would be very long to list as she has been about for more than a year at this point. You probably know who you are but special mention is due:

Rin Farrell

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Mebril's closest and most influential friend. More than that theirs was something of a mother-daughter relationship with the young rogue seeing her as the mother she never had- or at least never remember. Her association with Rin caused no end of trouble especially as Rin's profile as an open changeling continued to rise. I lost count of the times some retainer or another- from established knights with whom she'd had long friendships to fresh faced armsmen in fresh-bought livery she'd never ever seen before- would demand Mebril kill Rin Farrell to prove something or another.

Mebril didn't, of course, in the end and never would betray Rin. She was drawn into her cause to seek an end to the cycle of death and animus between changelings and the King, bone weary of losing so many to it. There aren't really enough words to go into wonderful it was to hang out with Rin and their year of adventures before culminating in this final arc. Merrychase is an incredible roleplayer and one of the things that really made the City of Rings come alive for me. Merrychase- thank you.

Bristol Blackhearth

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The other most influential person. What started out as a chance friendship in Moonspear born out of a mutual interest in each other's artistic works developed into something nuanced and little... ambiguous. Bristol still being around I won't get too much into it but Bristol/SgtWombat is an absolutely incredible player that wrote a [whole dang book of poetry] that I was lucky enough to provide 'art' for as Mebril (insofar as text based 'painting' is doing up tone poems anyway). Also a [history] and a [play] and an incredible [journal] that I cannot recommend enough.

Sorcha O'Conner & Brie Cesme
Spy club. :) Sorcha and Brie were influential. Sorcha was one of the prevailing voices (among many such as Isaiah and Rin) telling Mebril that she could be better than she was, and resulting in her alignment drift toward 'good'. Brie showcased that one can, through spycraft, effect great change and, as well, that one can walk away from a house.

Isaiah ibn Hazr
It's probably too much to get into here what a great friend and influence Isaiah was. Don Nadie knows. He presided over Bristol and Mebril's wedding and noone even died despite the best efforts of some. A rarity in the City. The Metalworkers guild and all the drama that came with Bristol's feelings for Isaiah were great to bounce off of.

Oliver Merryweather-

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You were the best on again off again nemesis a rogue could want. That we spent over half a year trying to get each other killed without it ever coming to some bridge duel or trite ambush was pretty great.  A wonderfully complex relationship.

Carmine Desmarais, Luc Deveraux and Bartimus Steel
The original formative Moonspear crew... Thanks for showing me the ropes. The deaths of her friends in Moonspear helped highlight to Mebril the sickness at the core of the Ward, and spur her resolve to try to become someone who would be listened to to avert such things in the future. Mixed results even after becoming a "Lady". The ward saw Mebril as a perennial punching bag to try and make their bones which led to serial exiles that Mebril and company had to put no small political effort into overturning and subverting.

All the retainers of House Blackhearth. Diethard, Lalena, Daniel, Ranald, Wolfgang, Kori, Miles and Lucian. As well as all the people that were basically Blackhearths in all but livery- you know who you are I imagine
Thank you for becoming part of our own little story and faction. Blackhearth bootstrapped itself up entirely on player initiative and I like to think is a fine example of what can be accomplished in the medium purely through players. That it was able to maintain its internal mysteries well enough that outsiders still didn't seem to get its 'deal' is probably good. I'll probably leave exposition on this for another day though as House Blackhearth does still exist even without Mebril's presence. Lalena and Deithard  were in particular some of Mebril's closest friends.

We Hopeful Eight, and its inner ring successor group, Bristol, Daniel, Lalena, Dela, Meryl, Nyx, Calliope and later Rin, Dela, Calliope and Boots-
Thank you for a wild ride. Our run from 64 to 55 especially was just incredible. Dela in particular was a long-time close friend of Mebril. And to everyone else I ran with over the year in one form or another with a special mention I think for Wesley Madoc. Karpie you heartbreaker.

Everyone who did a Grey Keep Challenge-
This was one of the most fun and rewarding things in my time on EFU and an example of the sort of player-driven, socially-focused, 'event' that could be fostered in the setting. Getting over 40 PCs to create introspective works and art as part of their journey through the Rings was an absolute highlight and I do hope we can get around to collecting them properly. They are, save for a few spoiler ones, collected in Mebril's [Letters to Bristol].

If I got into every single person I'll never finish this. I think, if you interacted with Mebril, you probably know if you had an impact on her or not. Despite being a practiced liar she had a way of wearing her heart on her sleeve with trusted company that I think had as much to do as anything with why she was able to attract so many friends and followers. She was trying her best to be better and to make things better. Trying to thread a needle through a city so often seeming bereft of hope. To seize something from it. Safety, happiness. And at times she even succeeded.

I'll probably try to put together an imgur piled with screenshots in the next few days. I posted a lot in the screenshot thread as well in discord for those looking for something more immediate. Going through shots is sort of emotional at the moment.

And, loot, I suppose:

[hide]Mebril actually only had two bits of DM loot from her first month in action and that was it, but they were extremely good for her purposes as a sneak survivor:



Mebril was, by and large, honest 99% of the time. People would be regularly surprised when she just sort of... did what she said she was going to do.


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Compiling the Albums posted in-thread with links below:

[hide]The Moonspear Era: (November '21-March '22)
https://imgur.com/a/Kn4jJjZ

Early Blackhearth and Castellanship (March '22-April '22)
https://imgur.com/a/vAPAzTq

Screenshots for May 2022.
https://imgur.com/a/PYyu7TC

Screenshots for June 2022
https://imgur.com/a/a6ouUSa

Screenshots for July 22
https://imgur.com/a/zQXKhND
https://imgur.com/a/soyXGyU

Screenshots for August 22
https://imgur.com/a/biVVAlq

Screenshots for September 22
https://imgur.com/a/kNdA5ZX

October 22 Screenshots
https://imgur.com/a/4FCze7D

Screenshots for November '22
https://imgur.com/a/qQvxFpg

Screenshots for December 22-Feb 23.
https://imgur.com/a/gMYH85D

Screenshots from the Road after 64 but before Baz'eel. (scattered across November to January)
https://imgur.com/a/9Ig8TPF
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Also! Mebril and House Blackhearth were lucky enough to get fan art on occasion : )

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My original concept sketch after a week or two and getting my feel for the character.



Karpie did some early art in Moonspear times. Then one much later as Benji for the the Blackhearth times.







Boots/Runic's Grey Keep Challenge Art



RPG made some Mebril art and also Blackhearth's extremely cool heraldry.





SqT art!



Boots/Runic's art of our Kingward coterie


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Thanks for the memories.

-Ramc

[Don Nadie]

A truly organic character, a survivor, and possibly my favourite Castellan of the Grey Keep. I'm very glad for all the loooong hours we had of doing stuff or just chatting. I enjoyed our time playing together a lot, even (or specially) when things were hard and/or sad. And, thanks to the work in the forums, the letters and etc, I kept enjoying her even when I was not playing.

Thank you!

[Runic]

Across many PC's, Mebril was often a fine friend. Can't believe it's finally come to an end. What a rollercoaster <3

[merrychase]

I took great pleasure in the hundreds of scenes, conversations and jokes our characters shared. 10/10 Ramc, really touching depth and texture, so many highs and so many lows. I saw Mebril go through a lot of development and changes - and one I for sure took great relish in was bratty teenager scamp being lead astray by old strange witchy woman to beloved daughter and mom pair who survived multiple trips through hell together.

[Diabl0658]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMXBJW1PuU8

[TheCisco]

Was always a pleasure for Mil or Tik to see Mebril still alive and kicking, exchanging information in the vast web they both had access to as well as offering wisdoms and advice along her way. A truly outstanding character!

[Lalena Steele]

Was great fun playing with Mebril. Our PCs trauma bonded. My favorite era will always be when lalena and mebril were both young major house retainers, just chilling, Lalena letting Mebril just crash house meetings without consideration for the fact that she might (definately was) be spying on the meetings for her own ends.  It is funny how Lalena, Mebril and Diet all found each other, three first time awoken PCs and just organically grew together.  Congrats on all you accomplished, an amazing first PC run.   Maybe you drill PC will run into mine one of these days.

[Empress of Neon]

Going to keep fond memories of the journey Meryl got to share with her. S+ :3

[Ramc]

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[AlukiteofMoth]

Glad you stuck around for long as you have, Mebril definitely made it worth logging in each day.

[Ramc]

A whole ton of screenshots from earlier in the PC. Will put together albums with more later as this kind of took longer than I thought and also was fairly emotional at times.

The Moonspear Era: (November '21-March '22)
https://imgur.com/a/Kn4jJjZ

Early Blackhearth and Castellanship (March '22-April '22)
https://imgur.com/a/vAPAzTq

[-UnholyWon-]

A most epic first character! Well done!

[Caderousse]

Can't believe how much hell Kay put Mebril through. Sorry for that.

Felt really lucky to be embroiled in anything Blackhearth-related. Wish Greywood and Blackheath had been able to interact more earlier on when I played Bracken; there were some cool plots with the sword and shield that unfortunately didn't get to see more action.

Didn't get a chance to interact overly with Mebril, but felt like I got to know her to some degree through everyone around her, ringrunning between 71 and 64, and the few heartbreaking scenes that happened after. (Still getting hit in the feels running rings behind her.) Kick ass that you guys made it all the way to Ring 1.


Awkward moments after certain revelations:
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Mebril giving blood to Doukas (and us sitting through his interminable lecture):
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[Juglar]

And so does Mebril, now.

[Ramc]

Screenshots for May 2022

https://imgur.com/a/PYyu7TC

May was a very make or break sort of month for Mebril. Bristol and Mebril's house wasn't much of anything beyond Mebril having seized and politic'd her way into Grey Keep. Bristol, himself, had not even ringrun to reach that far himself because of the Torment and some IRL scheduling woes. Further, this was a time of high animosity toward changelings fanned by the Castells mostly who later became Orzans and bullied the rest of the ward with impunity for a time.

We were ready to throw in with Phelan's house when the time came, entreated by Rin but when the masterstroke of the plan resulted in Phelan becoming a tree and dissolving the house- which none of us saw coming- it was sort of back to the drawing board.

Also during this time Mebril joined the Brotherhood of the Broken Groat (I think?) in their ill fated attempt at 64. They met with an overwhelming force within and half of them died, including Wesley Madoc who had planned to go to the King to wish for the restoration of Lord Lyon. Mebril was shredded for awhile after. She nearly died in the fight herself if not for her Defensive Roll belt and Rin sliding into home plate with the heal. This put her off attempting 64 for many, many months.

Also during May, Bristol proposed to Mebril. Part of it was for the purpose of consolidating their feudal titles so she wouldn't be like "yes im a baroness with a castle who is a retainer to a lord with no lands" and because they did care for each other in their ambiguous sort of way. She nearly died several times in May. Besides 64 she was also nearly caught up in a burning of the Groundskeeper's Cabin. Mebril went there to tell Rin that she got engaged, and it was at this point a giant crew of Orzans decided to burn the place. Rin and Mebril snuck out in their own respective ways though, else more than likely they'd've been done for.