Posted by Quintius on June 7, 2000 at 10:29:50:
In Reply to: Question about the arbiters posted by Forum Reader on June 7, 2000 at 15:09:49:
> I know this has been brought up before, and in light
> of the current rager/arbiter war (if one wants to call
> it that), what is the purpose and an arbiter lord or
> elder?
The purpose of an arbiter Lord and Elder is to do inductions, obviously, and co-ordinate the guarding of the cities, pursuit of criminals, raids against entropy, and, in my opinion, making certain his arbiters are at least decently clothed and RANKING AS MUCH AS THEY CAN.
I don't know how many times I've said, "Right, where is everyone?"
> Do they actually hold a leadership position? If so,
> why can't they make war in extreme circumstances. I
> remember this being an issue with Saagkri and the
> Warders, and more recently with Imbro/Quint and the
> ragers?
The IC reason is that the main enemy of arbiters is criminals, not other cabals except entropy. Getting muddled with other cabal wars distracts us from our main duty.
OOC, when arbies do go to war, it gets UGLY fast. Getting PKed is bad enough, but I've noticed that, more often than not, when I fight someone in my PK range with special guards, the guards get the killing blow, which means a really nice XP hole for the looser.
Now you can normally avoid this by just obeying the Law. In a war, an arb could hypothetically but you in a 80K+ xp hole without too much trouble. That makes the game a little unbalanced because of that.
> Why don't the "mortals" have more say in where the
> cabal is headed? Why should a mortal lord have to
> continually check with the arbiter immortals regarding
> largely "mortal" issues? Why can't they make war when
> it's apparent that one is being waged against them. They
> can't maintain order without their item and without the
> ability to enforce the laws.
Trust me, I think the ragers have MORE than asked for a war. Once my $()*&)*&% internet gets hooked back up in my room, this shit will stop.
> I understand
> (as much as one can without being in the middle of it)
> that the arbiter immortals have to put up with a tremendous
> amount of crap. I'm just curious why there are times where
> the arbiter leadership seems manacled by the arbiter imms.
Believe me, I get tired too, especially watching every single other Lord and Elder delete these past few months.
The main reason is the amount of damage you can do to someone with the XP holes your guards give them, makes the IMMs reign us in a little.
It makes sence, but I really think the ragers have abused our non-raiding policy way to damn much. I know a war, with it's oh-so-annoying XP holes would make this shit stop. Fast.
-Quintius