The Sword's Edge

Issue 12: September 9th, 2016 - In Ferro Veritas

Hello and welcome to The Sword's Edge, Issue 12! September through to December this year is going to be absolutely fantastic - do you know why? The next three months are going to be the most exciting EVER in Nine Swords because we are kicking off a mega-achievement-hunting-storytelling-funfilled-extravaganza event AND we have got Cabal Pride 2016 coming up in October! It is going to be a lot of work, and potentially a lot of stress organising - but I am absolutely positive that the fun and great times we are going to have together will be phenomenal!

But that isn't all Swords.. just because there are these awesome events going on, doesn't mean everything else grinds to a halt. You will get ALL of this, on top of everything else that is already going on. There just will not be enough hours in the day. Definitely time to take off those vacation days you didn't know what to do with!

Sadly, with this issue of The Sword's Edge - we have reached the final episode of "Big Trouble in the South China Sea". I would like to extend a huge thank you to Mellified for submitting such fantastic story continuations each month, and here's to hoping for more writing from you in the future!

Nights in the Museum is here!

Today is the 9th day.. of the 9th month - and at 9pm GMT - we are going to be kicking off a 3month (sorry, 9month event seemed a bit long ;) ) mega-achievement-hunting-storytelling-funfilled-extravaganza event!!!

Nights in the Museum is an event that will focus on our Museums. This will mean lots of PvEing and RPing! We are aiming to set up mini events over the coming months for you to sign up to and participate in. These will be organised via our Noticeboard forum and tagged with [NitM] so you can quickly see them amongst all the other things that will continue to go on.

We have a team of 9S members who will be organising events for you, these will include things like:

• Monster hunting (10k runs)
• Lore gathering (Dedicated hunting teams)
• Museum items (Hunting teams)
• Museum social events (RP team)

If you are interested in also helping to organise events, please get in touch with Katelin. It was clear from our Call to Arms survey that our members are very interested in achievement hunting opportunities - so our Nights in the Museum team very much hope that we have some great attendance and a lot of fun together.

Cabal Pride 2016!

Planning for this years Cabal Pride is in full swing! I am very excited that we will see another Nine Swords and GSP collaboration - and that there are already cabals getting in touch with me to say they are looking forward to getting involved again!

We are still looking for more Swords to help run the event on the day, and help with the coordination. If you are interested - we already have a thread over in the PR area of the Office Tract and you can always also just get in touch with Katelin!!

Nine Swords is Recruiting!

What's your name?

Very excited that two members of Nine Swords have stepped up with explanations of their name this month!! Thank you to Yuriksha and Leonqoeur.

Why Yuri "Yuriksha" Bahana?

My character name goes back to a character I played in a tabletop Star Wars RPG back early in the d20 days. She was named Rikka Yumasha, sort of a bastardization of Kirika Yuumura, an assassin in the anime series Noir. As a child, Rikka was trained as a saboteur by a regime that got shut down by the Republic; this was before Attack of the Clones told us the Republic strangely had no armed forces. She escaped off-planet and years later joined a smuggler ship at the start of the campaign. When I started playing Anarchy Online, I wanted to name my agent after my Star Wars character, but had to somehow get it into one name. I mashed first and last name together and thought "Yuriksha" sounded pretty good. I've been very fond of it since.

In AO and elsewhere, people naturally started contracting it to "Yuri" and when I found I could set my own first and last name, I decided on "Yuri Bahana" as something of an inside joke, as it was another name lifted from an anime series I and my friends liked. Juli Bahana was a character in the series Infinite Ryvius, the most competent of a group of elite pilot cadets called the Zwei. With how Japanese is, the first name easily sounds a lot like Yuri.

For my TSW role-play personality, I've mostly been incorporating things from my real life into her, such as knowing Russian and Japanese and being familiar with Japan and the Russian Far East. In real life, it's because I've spent time in those countries and studied the languages; in-game I gave Yuri mixed Russian-speaking and Japanese ancestry. Although, this past weekend I was trying to explain to Hit-Parade my name in-character including my alias of 'Yulia Yureevna' and got myself turned around and maybe into a plot hole. Bakhan (feminine Bakhana) might work as a Slavic last name, couldn't it? Though Bakhanov (fem. Bakhanova) is more likely.... Maybe the mother was the one that spoke Russian; I haven't really decided. In-character reasons for things are often malleable and a work in progress.

Why Solidus "Leonqoeur" Pliskeen?

My full nickname derives from three different things. Being a fan of the Metal Gear video game series for a long time, my first name originates from one of the anti-heroes in those games, “Solidus” Snake. Continuing to the last one, Pliskeen is the last name of S.D. Bob "Snake" Plissken who’s the protagonist of the films Escape from New York and Escape from L.A. Can you see a connection here? :shock: . The Director of the Metal Gear series is Hideo Kojima, a Japanese developer who got inspired by the movies I mentioned before and named his protagonists after those movies.

Leonqoeur on the other hand is a different story. Leoncoeur, I believe, roughly translates from French to "lionheart" but that’s not the reason I chose it. I am also fan of the Warhammer fantasy universe, so I got the inspiration from my favorite faction in that cosmology, the Bretonnians, whose King is Louen Leoncoeur, a Grail Knight. But I was unlucky and Leoncoeur with a c was taken so I changed it with a q. And that’s my story

Big Trouble in the South China Sea - Final Episode.

By Mellified

Imagine lying in a field and staring up at a steep hill, the morning sun hidden behind the ridge. Now imagine that this hillside is made of water and streaming towards you at the speed of a train. Imagine you are flat on your back, stunned and unable to move out of the path of this monstrous wave.

See how the Sirena are lifted out of the open top of their cage by the size of the wave. See how the Orochi and the Phoenicians are suddenly pulled under the water. See how the machines are swept away like toys.

Feel how the water picks you up in the immense swell and carries you to the peak. Feel how you start to sink after you are past the crest. Feel how your throat and lungs start to fill with water. Feel the panic start to rise as you descend into the depths.

Marvel at the scaly hands that fasten around your waist and carry you upwards. Marvel at how sweet the air tastes as you break the surface. Marvel at the small inflatable and it’s cargo of water-logged team-mates. Marvel at how the Sirena deposits you, stares into your eyes and slides gracefully back into the ocean.


Epilogue 1

The satellite feed now shows a small atoll where the concrete island had been. Mellified assumes the wave swept away the Phoenician installation and the Orochi invaders. She hopes the Sirena manage to find a new home. Nicholas de Vlamingh was never found.

She speculates that the Sirena had somehow managed to generate the water wave using their sonic powers. After all they both were waves and so could perhaps interact with each other. However, digging further (Wikipedia) she finds the latest research into ‘rogue’ waves:

“A rogue wave is a natural ocean phenomenon that is not caused by land movement, only lasts briefly, occurs in a limited location, and most often happens far out at sea. Rogue waves are considered rare but potentially very dangerous, since they can involve the spontaneous formation of massive waves far beyond the usual expectations ...” (There is a theory that it was such a ‘rogue’ wave that caused the crew of the Mary Celeste to leave their vessel, get into difficulties and disappear.)

She grins.

She was saved by an outlier.


Epilogue 2

A portion of an undersea cliff, dimly lit. Perhaps a rectangular shape can be made out resting on an outcrop.

A search light clicks on. It illuminates a waterproof laptop festooned with stickers of Kylie.

A mechanical arm with an Orochi logo slowly moves into view and metal claws fasten gently around the laptop ...