The Sword's Edge

Issue 8: April 9th, 2016 - In Ferro Veritas

Welcome to the April 2016 issue of The Sword's Edge. The last few weeks have personally been quite quiet for me in terms of TSW, but I know that has not been the case for our members who have been online. We have had a stack of new Master Planner achievements, runs through Penthouse, flappy and many people getting stuck into Issue 14 content. I think Ishco had the cookies.. at least the imaginary ones. So, help yourself.. and get reading!

Planning for celebrations!

It is never too early to be planning for a fun set of events for our Anniversary - and wow, 4 years have flown by. June 29th will be here before we know it! As we are fast approaching the date again (seriously this year has been drinking red bull) I would really like to organise events for us to get together as a cabal and celebrate Nine Swords. Our community. We have members from all over the world, but I am confident we can make cabal history with a huge attendance to the events we will have going on over the celebrations. Events will include a special cabal meeting as well as a social event. Strengthening our cabal spirit by getting as many of our members involved as possible over our anniversary events can only ensure we help steer Nine Swords towards exciting new ventures.

Looking forward to lots of you signing up to get involved in the celebration events! Raise to the challenges, get involved and contribute to our successes as a truly global active cabal!

Call to Arms - 9S PvE Engagement Survey

In the coming weeks you are going to be invited to take part in a 9S PvE Engagement Survey. The survey will focus on PvE events in the cabal and will enable us to gain feedback from you as to how we as a cabal can provide opportunities for improving your PvE experience via cabal events. The survey is being championed by TS-13 and on launch will be available via our website. It will be impossible to miss the release of the survey.. Kate will have it plastered everywhere!

Interview with ...

The Sword's Edge interview this month is with Relana.

Katelin: Hi Relana, thank you for taking the time to chat with me! You have been in Nine Swords a few months now, how are you finding things so far?

Relana: Everyone has been very welcoming. Nine Swords seems to be just the group I was looking for, a mix of structure and fun. I haven’t been involved in too many group activities yet. I’m still fairly new to TSW and I’m still concentrating on working my way through the main storyline (I’m currently in the Carpathian Fangs). But I’m looking forward to more group events once I’m ready to face the Gatekeeper and can do Nightmare!

Katelin: You recently also joined our Estoc Division, why did this division appeal to you?

Relana: I have a degree in technical communication, plus experience with web development and video projects, so organizing and presenting information about the cabal is something I can contribute to.

Katelin: Your first big project in Estoc is a video to promote the cabal. I love this idea, it really is a really fantastic idea and I cannot wait to see the outcome - though a lot of work I am sure! What makes you want to get involved in organising this?

Relana: I love video editing. It’s a hobby, not anything I’ve done professionally. I took some TV production classes for fun and was involved in a student video production club at my university many, many years ago. I learned video editing on Super-VHS tapes, so editing digital video in Final Cut Pro doesn’t seem like work to me! When I saw there was a recruitment video project in the To Do list on the Nine Swords forum, I figured that was a project I could resurrect and contribute to, and also have a lot of fun doing it.

Katelin: How can our members get involved in the video with you? Or even sharing their ideas?

Relana: If anyone has any game video and would like to contribute it to the recruitment project or have an idea for a new project, comment on one of the video threads, PM me, or contact me in-game. Also don’t hesitate to give feedback and suggestions on videos I’m working on.

I would like to do some more videos showcasing each of the divisions for prospective members, so contact me if you have any ideas for how to best represent your division. I’m currently working with Floryn to create a video for Rapier Division.

Katelin: Sounds very exciting and I hope that lots of the cabal do get involved! Is there anything else you would like to add?

Relana: I’ll be creating threads in the Public Relations forum for any video projects, so come on over and share your feedback and ideas!

Thank you very much for talking with me, Relana! Swords, this is your calling - go and sign up in the video threads and get involved in promoting our cabal!!

The Secret World in the Real World: by Floryn

A lot of things in the Secret World are based on actual stories, events, art, etcetera. The Real Secret World will highlight one of the things you can see in the Secret World and tell you something about it’s origin in the real world.

Today’s highlight is the Katana.

Historically, katana were one of the traditionally made Japanese swords that were used by the samurai of feudal Japan. The katana is characterized by its distinctive appearance: a curved, slender, single-edged blade with a circular or squared guard and long grip to accommodate two hands.

Katanas are traditionally made from a specialized Japanese steel called tamahagane, which is created from a traditional smelting process that results in several, layered steels with different carbon concentrations.

After the blade is forged, it is then sent to be polished. The polishing takes between one and three weeks. The polisher uses finer and finer grains of polishing stones in a process called glazing, until the blade has a mirror finish. However, the blunt edge of the katana is often given a matte finish to emphasize the hamon.

Big Trouble in the South China Sea - Episode 4

Written by Mellified

She loves her swimming (but is still nervous of sand). This is her first time in tropical waters and she revels in the play of the light on the surface of the water, the azure blue sky above, the heavy muggy feel of the air that could herald a brief tropical storm. She dips below the surface, dives to a couple of metres, flips onto her back and opens her eyes wide to take in the streams of light as they ripple through the ocean. She can pick out the hull of their craft as a wavy black shadow and she is actually glad that they had to stop to carry out minor repairs.

As she surfaces, she finds that her ears have become water blocked but she can dimly hear shouting. Treading water and turning towards her boat she can see activity on deck and a speed boat approaching from the North. Fast, sleek and seemingly dangerous with something wrong above the prow - she can’t make it out. She breaks into a front crawl to get to the rope ladder on the side of her cruiser, but knows that she is unlikely to get there before the speed boat.

The water tingles and her head goes light as she approaches - the speedboat must be on the other side. She puts a hand on a rung and is almost knocked off by Hinoki falling on top of her like a sack of potatoes. She grabs Hinoki’s unconscious arm, threads it through the rungs of the ladder, checks she is secure, and cautiously climbs up. Her head is reeling and her is skin rippling with strange forces, the air dimly full of a sound like she has never heard before. Her ears are still water blocked and she has a feeling that she should somehow be glad of this. She peeks over the side …

She has time to see two mermaid-like creatures chained and caged on the speedboat - their mouths shark-wide and ringed with needle-teeth. They are slowly turning their heads to sweep the whole of the Templar boat and she instantly blacks out as they turn the full force of their ‘song’ upon her. She lets go of the ladder and falls backwards into the sea like a stone.

Nine Swords directives, and you

When you joined our cabal, one of the things that our Recruiter likely talked about with you would have been the Nine Swords directives. The directives we have provide an overview not only of what we do as a cabal and how the cabal is structured, but also give you an idea of what we can help you with... and how you can get your hands on precious loot!

Sometimes our directives change, or are updated – this was especially the case following our leadership promotions at the end of 2015. New leadership with active in-game attendance and big ideas on how we can develop what we do, grow in our roles and how we can effectively maintain a happy and fun cabal community.

What is important though is that the way we are isn’t just a reflection of what our leaders wish for and want to have – it is just as important for our members to get involved and provide suggestions and support for changes. We have successfully had discussions over the years that have led to raid policies and other guidelines being set out in the cabal, and there is never a better time than the present to submit your suggestions to help our cabal become an even stronger force to be reckoned with.

You can find all our directives here. If you would like to offer a comment to make a change, why not get in touch with the leaders of the division it affects and talk about your idea. Good ideas aren’t always the first ones we come up with – but acknowledging that there is room for improvement will certainly enable a healthy discussion to get underway!!

We look forward to hearing from you, Swords!

#TSWtips

We have a huge broad range of interests in Nine Swords, and we are always on the look out for members who are interested in ensuring that the knowledge sharing in the cabal remains effective, manageable and relevant! All our members are encouraged to share their TSW tips related to any game play area within our forums - or even to take a bigger step and share them within the TSW Twitterverse. If you take those steps and venture out into the wider world - why not tag us (@Nine_Swords] along with your #TSWtips and we will make sure your knowledge is shared!

Sapientia est potentia .. even for us Templars!