Thinas Posted March 10, 2003 Report Posted March 10, 2003 (edited) (Prenote) The following is neither an opening post nor an indirect application for membership. It's an idea that's been flickering around in my head for a while, and with AM down, I saw no harm in posting it here. I hope you share that opinion. You can consider me a "Guest writer"....if you must consider me at all. Looking to my left, on my tabletop, there is a so called "lavalamp". It's a tricky contrapment someone made, quite probably out of boredom and a lack of a fishtank. But still, its simplicity fascinates me and the lazy bubbles relax my mind and send my thoughts away. Make no mistake - The lavalamp's effect on a mind is in no way similar to Fox Channel's. While one no doubt looks like a drooling, mindless zombie in the process, the lavalamp politely enriches and returns your thoughts while Fox Channel steals them and has you STAY a zombie. It was in one of these brief moments the idea that you're about to hear struck my mind. The splitsecond where you snap back to reality, blink, and shake your head softly before you pick up your lower masticational device from the floor and wipe up the puddle of saliva it left. Until that happens, however, you're stuck in the lavalamp's hypnotizing power, staring blankly at the slow world of activity inside the glass pipe. The birth, and the death. In the button, there's a sea of amalgamated wax, moving softly as it's heated by the lightbulb underneath. It's what causes the red, fiery color the lamp emits. Once in a while, when it becomes too hot, the wax will gather into a round bubble and begin its journey towards the lamp's top. It ascends slowly, but securely. It happens that a descending object will meet the new bubble on its way. One going up, one going down, there's only one possible outcome. *Boink!* They clash, rather violently for their size, in midlamp. Frequently, they bend and stretch as they severely deform in order to make it past each other. On rare occasions, one may even absorb the other. But most often, the ascending makes it past the descending, and continues towards the top. It may meet other obstacles on its way, it may not. But it gets there, with time. Hovering around for a little while, at the very peak of the glass lamp's interior. Its goal accomplished, its dream made real. But it lasts only until the wax bubble meets its sad fate in the laws of physics. It will cool down. The heat that propelled it at first is gradually fading, its spirit lost. The bubble descends. As it drifts slowly back down through the lamp, it may meet new bubbles, on their way up, and history will repeat itself. *Boink*. They clash, once again stretching and bending their vulnerable bodies at the impact to create room. But we will continue to descend, for we are no match for the heat of the new bubble. In the very end of the journey we reach our birthplace in the molten sea of wax in the lamp's bottle, there we shall end, absorbed back into what created us, returned to the sea from whence we came. Widen your view. Adjust the scope. Enlarge the scale. We are in modern time, and the lamp is long gone, replaced by the ocean-crossing Internet game we know as Archmage. What's different? Little. What's similar? Everything. The server with its rank, its fame, its height, and its tender players, some only a mouseclick away from the fictional "Inferno", the Hell that they reincarnated from. So close, the masses still feel its heat. Some are already up there, where it matters, in the top. Some are wronged, some receive visions. But common for them all is their ambition. Its what propels them. Some find they share the same ideals, the same philosophy, the same goal. Mayhaps they even laugh at the same things. Two swords fight better than one. Or....As you guys would like to hear - Two Pens write faster than one. So in light of this undeniable fact, they gather, and others rally under their flag. As with all things, it takes time. But with the right amount of heat, the right amount of patience and work, the bubble that is our guild grows, and the journey begins. Fueled by the ambition of the people it consists of it ascends up through the server's tube with only one goal in mind - The top is up there, and the bubbles who guard it got there at the expense of others. Some are already on their way down, having been knocked off the top, or having simply lost faith. They descend. But it's against their will. They will do whatever is in their power to cling to the glory they once had, so they jump the new, ascending force, wanting its land, its resources, its heat. *Boink*. "They clash, rather violently for their size, in midserver. Frequently, they bend and stretch as they severely deform in order to make it past each other. On rare occasions, one may even absorb the other. But most often, the ascending makes it past the descending, and continues towards the top." If their spirit is adequate and their heat sufficient, they will make it. Conquer the top, achieve their goals, realize their dreams. But what now? They are as far as their initial ambition will take them. This is it. The goal is reached, the glory obtained. This is where the heat comes to an end. Fighting for something from the bottom has two ultimate options. You either win everything you dreamt of or you fail to move anywhere and stay where you are. It's a "Win/Unchanged" situation, so to speak. Anyone would take that chance. Fighting to hold on to what you already have also has two options...But they're much less pleasant. You either succeed and keep what you have, or you fail and lose everything. It's a "Lose/Unchanged" situation. No one wants to take that risk. As human beings, we would rather retire in glory than defeat. So people start to lose interest, some may even do what the wax could not and constitute a difference between the analogy and real life - They leave the lamp altogether. But most of the guild fights on. They continue the fight because they believe they can change the laws of physics and prevent the descent. Some are even hellbent on this cause, but the fact is undeniable: The work their ambitious selves did with great zeal in the past have begun to resemble death cramps. Pleasure turns to duty, and each post written on the board is a great exertion, done for the Love of what the guild was before it reached the top. The bubble WILL cool down, and I assure you....It WILL descend. I personally find it paradoxical that like the sammon moves up the stream to its death to spawn, the guilds of Archmage desperately fight to reach exactly what kills them. It's not anyone else, the wars it wages or the beatings it takes through other means...It's the success that destroys the guild. Think about that. All Archmages are a bunch of suicide candidates. The Army of Darkness has been through most of the system. It took several years, but they've done it all now, save dying. They gathered players, formed a bubble, began their journey, clashed with other bubbles multiple times in their ascension. I was absorbed into the bubble when it was on its way up. I was there during most of its clashes. I was there when it reached the top....And I was there when it began to descent. It clashed with guilds like WoD and Hungrymen on its way down; they were on their way up. I also foolishly fought this natural course. Eagerly, even. But I realised what was happening a few months ago, and pushed the Eject-button. I've helped in the forming of a new bubble now. Let's see how heated it is. The story serves as a reminder to those that mock a defeated power on their way up. Never forget the cycle. Mock as you see fit on your way up, but remember that sooner or later, after you've reached the top, you'll come descending back down. And when you do? ...*Boink!* Sincerely, /Thinas the Darkelf\ Edited March 10, 2003 by Thinas
The Portrait of Zool Posted March 10, 2003 Report Posted March 10, 2003 Well done, Thinas. It reminds me of Sun Tzu's The Art of War, and his ruminations on inertia. Too bad you didn't post it as an application...
Gyrfalcon Posted March 11, 2003 Report Posted March 11, 2003 Wow... the scary thing is, it makes a lot of sense. I've never considered a lava lamp as an analogy for Archmage, but it really works. Good going, Thinas! Now apply, you crazy dark elf.
Gwaihir Posted March 11, 2003 Report Posted March 11, 2003 You like that word 'masticate' way too much . A very interesting analogy. I think there is one case though where a guild can be different from a bubble. If the guild has no goals to take the top, beat anyone else down or inforce it's rules on the server, but has other less dominating goals then be it up or down that guild will not descend so quickly. Or maybe if the guild has a goal (not just hitting the top) that is so hard that it can never get more than half way there, maybe that would be another way to stay in the middle. But what guild would choose to stay half way up at a place where it has enough heat to hold together if it had the choice? No, the bubbles will keep rising.
Peredhil Posted March 11, 2003 Report Posted March 11, 2003 Considers this post in light of his experience with the guild, The Polite Magi... I guess one lavalamp can't fit EVERYONE! Good post.
Justin Silverblade Posted March 12, 2003 Report Posted March 12, 2003 [Enos mode] Hmm.... An amazing thought. Seems that the new wax that forms from your wisdom, Thinas, has a heated future indeed. You offer insight worthy of your reputation. And, as firm as your analogy is, I would dare not bring it to the new Army of Darkness. Through death eventually comes another rise. You are correct, it is an enevitable cycle... I am ready to commit suicide once again. Why? Perhaps you ask? the lavalamp politely enriches and returns your thoughts Onward! Upward! To be enriched is all one can ask for, even if death is the final result, isn't it? [end Enos mode] GREAT WORK Thinas. I'm glad you posted it here as well. It certainly does have a great philisophical air to it, and offers some real insight. Also I very much enjoy your writing style. The repetition of that one italizied paragraph was perfectly placed. Please feel free to post more, guest writer or hopeful member. As it has been commented on before, it is frightingly close to the truth for many many guilds/events on the servers. Excellent prose, thanks for sharing old friend. - Justin
Gwaihir Posted March 12, 2003 Report Posted March 12, 2003 Would it be too dark if I made an analogy to all of life from this?
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