The Sword's Edge

Issue 15: 9th March, 2017 - In Ferro Veritas

Welcome to the 15th Issue of The Sword's Edge.

The end of another Golden Week in TSW, and I am sure JollySwagMan is elated with any social items you have sent his way for other members of our cabal to make use of!!

February was a pretty special month in my eyes. Special because it saw the kick-off for a new project in the cabal for our 9S Academy. If you didn't see it yet - where have you been?!?! We are still searching for more members to join the new team before we really get underway with development and planning. You can read more about it in this months issue of our newsletter.

Before we get comfy and dig into this months issue, I would like you to join me in expressing thanks to all our recruiters. We have had an absolutely stellar month of work from the Hook Swords team and all our members who are also taking on recruitment roles. I cannot be alone in appreciating even more people to team with and chatter away with when I am logged in! Between these amazing efforts, the revitalised efforts for Sharpening the Blades and the prospects ahead with the Academy - it is an understatement to say I am excited about our future.. and there are still more ideas and projects on the horizon.

Anyway, chocci-biccies at the ready - enjoy this issue of The Sword's Edge!
~ Katelin

Super Swords WANTED!!!

We are sure you have seen us all shouting about it already - but The Sword's Edge is certainly a great opportunity to make sure all our Swords know that we are still looking for people to join our new Academy team!! We want to find members within our cabal to form a mini-team to work together with the goal of running workshops. This mini-team would be under the leadership of Mellified (and the support of all our leadership team) within the "Advancement" section of A&D.

We would like the team, once it has come together, to consider content that could be covered for workshops, make plans for the workshop and develop ideas. Once the development has happened, we want to work with you to make this all a reality – and to help you kick start it into a really amazing opportunity for our cabal.

Do you think you have what it takes to be part of the Nine Swords Academy?
You don't need to be an expert of everything -
you just need the drive to share what you do know,
and a huge desire to help people find their way!

Whether it is with

• Scenarios,
• Dungeons,
• Roleplaying,
• PvP
• ... or anything else in TSW

Every element together will come together to make our Academy complete!
We want to hear from you.

You are welcome to ask questions in this thread – or send a PM directly to Mellified and Katelin.

Interview with...

The Sword's Edge interview this month is with CarbonArc. As he has just taken on running Sharpening the Blades sessions, Helixia sat down with him to find out just how much arm twisting went on and what his hopes are for the future of the cabal.

Is there a story behind your character name?

Well, my full name is Joe 'Carbon Arc' Chaney. When deciding on a name I drew on my main, non-human real life passion, which is cinema and, in particular, silent film. In the US, UK and Europe silent cinema gave way to talkies after 1927. Chaney is the surname of one of the great silent film stars Lon Chaney who appeared in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1923) and The Phantom of the Opera (1925) as well as many others. As for my nickname, Carbon Arc, this refers to carbon arc film projectors which in use up to about the 1960'sand which used copper-coated carbon rods to create a light source for the film. And, Joe, just sounded snappy!

What is your favorite thing to do when away from the computer?

Silent Film! I am one of the organisers of a silent film event that takes place every three weeks in the Cinema Museum in London. We show silent films (usually real film, not digital!) with live piano accompaniment to a crowd of about 90 or so regulars. We want to introduce new people to wonder of silent film which is a very different art form to the cinema we know now. In the silent era actors and actresses had to convey emotion through the subtleties of their performance and not dialogue. At its best it can be sublime and very different from most people’s perception of what silent films were all about. This weekend at the Museum we have an all-day silent Western event. Yee hah!

What made you choose Templars?

Back in my youth I used to play Dungeons & Dragons and always played a Lawful Good character. The Templars seemed to be a natural progression. And who wants to be an Illuminati or Dragon? They seem just plain sinister!

Was Nine Swords the first cabal you ever been a part of in TSW or were others before it?

It was my first and I can't see myself leaving to join another cabal so long as I am playing TSW and the cabal is still going. I am very grateful to all involved in Nine Swords for enriching my time in TSW and I feel a great loyalty to the cabal.

What is your favorite TSW memory?

Exploring Kingsmouth and the Savage Coast for the first time . I thought it was the best depiction of the Lovecraftian world since Infocom's The Lurking Horror (yeah, I am that old!).

What is your favorite in-game activity?

New content is what I really look forward to in the game but as there has been precious little of that for so long, what I most enjoy currently is running with cabal members in dungeons and raids. It's great that everyone is so friendly and helpful.

You recently stepped up to take care of Sharpening the Blades. What made you decide that?

I was press-ganged by Kate who threatened to switch aggro to me whenever I joined the Flappy raid. Sorry, I meant to say Kate asked me very nicely and in a completely non-scary way if I would be interested. I felt it was time to step up and contribute to the cabal and so I was delighted to say yes.

What is your hope for Sharpening the Blades?

The recruitment team have done such a good job recently of swelling the numbers of new members that I think Sharpening the Blades has a very useful role to play in answering any questions that new members may have about the game and the cabal. It's also a great opportunity hear their suggestions as to what the cabal could be doing better or differently and for them to meet and interact with other members.

Is there anything you would like to see happening more often in the Cabal?

I would like to get a second team up and running for the Kaidan dungeons and I would quite like to have a go at the Nightmare NYR. We seem to have quite a lot of hard hitters now in terms of DPS output and we are pretty good at handling the Elite raid so, let's give it a shot!

Thank you very much for taking the time to answer questions, CarbonArc!

Sharpening the Blades is an opportunity for you to come and chat with us to find out how your experience of the cabal has been so far! We are also open to answering any questions you want to ask us! As well as the new members, our leaders (if available) will attend and of course, every other member who would like to join is invited! The sessions are usually held on the last weekend of the month and are of course posted on our Noticeboard forums with a calendar entry to so you know when and where to find us. If you haven't been to a Sharpening the Blades session yet, it isn't too late. We will see you at the next one!!

What's your name?

Why the name Robert "Chasualbob" Smith?

Well this is a funny story; I have a habit of making my characters very generic and unspecial. CasualBob, RegularGeorge and AverageDan, stuff like that. The same goes for Robert Smith. I tried to think of the, probably, most boring English name. I came up with Smith first, and since I had already made my alias Casualbob, I just rolled with Robert.

What do you mean my ingame name is not Casualbob? Oh yeh, Chasualbob... well I noticed this little “typo” only when I was already in Transylvania. So I couldn't be bothered to start all over again! Too much time and effort went into that character. So now you have it, it's a simple typo.

OR IS IT?

Here is the real story about this small “h” in the name Chasualbob. It's a metaphor for the game we all play and this character exists in, “The Secret World”. Casualbob is the simple and boring man that would live in just “The World”. It's only the “h” that makes it special, unique and weird. And just as I stared at the name for many hours, all the way as I played up to Transylvania, the “h” was never consciously perceived, always lingering or you could say “Secret”. So in some way, it was the game world itself that chose this nickname. The game world itself wanted us to learn to pay attention to the little details that always hide in plain sight. Those that were always there! NO I did not pull all that out of my ass in a few seconds to hide the fact I was not able to spot such a simple and dumb mistake like a typo. Stop it. It's not true!!

By the way the picture shows me getting ready with Traian for this awesome “definitely not some fetish party”, though he doesn't look too pleased with my choice of clothes :/

TSW in the Real World!

Hi, Ishco here again - You dream to visit Versailles one day? As a Templar, you'll be a special guest, as indicated by this cross on the floor of several of the rooms! Floryn and I were ecstatic to discover them! I won't tell you exactly where they are, consider it an Easter Egg of your visit of Paris!

We saw a pretty Templar jacket last month, let's keep going with these Roman ties. You can't miss the cross on the door, you can't miss the invitation! And, there's no tax (yes, yes, look at the door closely), so it's a win-win!

While you are out and about in the real world, keep your eyes open for ties to TSW. They are absolutely everywhere!! If you see anything and you think it could be interesting for a future issue of The Sword's Edge - why not send it to us. Don't forget to let us know where you found it and what you think about it!

Activity check incoming!

Starting on the 1st of April, we will be carrying out an activity check. Anyone who has not logged in yet this year, will be receiving a PM from Durendal here in our forums. If you have logged into the game, you don't need to do anything. If you receive a PM from Durendal though, please reply and let us know how you are and what you are up to! The activity check will run til the end of the month of April 2017.