Tu Shanshu | OOC

I'd like to invite players to also use this post for a GAME HMD: that is, to share your thoughts on how you feel this year has gone in regards to the running of the game, the plots and events (speed, content, etc) and to share any feedback that we as mods can use to improve running TuShanshu. We cannot overstate the benefit that player feedback plays in allowing us to run the best possible game for everyone, and any input (positive or negative) is valuable to us. As always, we allow anon/non-IP comments if you are more comfortable commenting that way.

As mentioned on the November itinerary, in the coming year we're looking to consolidate some of the ongoing plots that are presently running, as there are a lot of them! We're asking that players choose from the list below, their top three preferred plots to pursue starting in the new year, and to comment with those three choices (and any input you have on them!) to this post.

We want to assure everyone that the other plots are NOT being completely shelved, nor that the existing development on them will be lost! TuShanshu has always had a connected-web style of plots, particularly with the overarching metaplot, and we do enjoy the intricacy and hope you all do too! Instead, we're simply looking to not have quite so many plots on the go at the same time, which we feel will allow us to put more detail, more personalization, and the better involve more players, in the "active" plots. When one of these plots resolves itself, we'll simply roll into another one to take its place.

Despite the reaction from the Foreigners, Tu Yunxu's post has left a mark on the kedan population. At first it only serves to bolster spirits -- finally some of the remaining invaders are being dealt with, finally the Snakes are fulfilling their promises!

But on the final days of the festival more and more kedan notice that there are shapes in the fields -- like crop-circles, but in the shape of Chihuelan insignias. The festival ends naturally, but parties of Woodsmen can also be seen investigating the outer edges of their lands, and everyone -- Foreigner and kedan alike -- are encouraged to return to the city and stay there. They will find leaving the city to be difficult for the next week, with Snakes on the inside of the gates and Woodsmen on the out.

For the next week matters are somewhat tense, with rumours abounding regarding the insignias in the fields and what they mean, and fear that the Chihuelan raiders may already be in the city. They look so much like most of the Foreigners, and they don't carry soul-gems. The primary defense the kedan have is in their shapeshifting; if the Chihuelans take that, the kedan fear, they'll have an even more superior edge.

For the next week anyone who looks human, but can't shapeshift and doesn't have a soul-gem is going to be the target of high suspicion. On occasion, even those who can shapeshift will have trouble -- a few brawls will break out among the kedan themselves, due to the suspicion, and it's not impossible that some Foreigners, both new and old, might be caught up in the action accidentally.

Aside from the above, there will be few instances of outright violence, thanks to the Snakes patrolling the city, but many of the fourth-wall visitors will find their patronage refused outright, or be harassed walking in the street. The Midnight Hotel and the construction of the Foreigners' quarters on the old palace land are the exceptions; the first is well known as a haven for everyone and the second is seen as an opportunity to keep Foreigners out of the way. Despite that, both places will be watched, though no kedan will make trouble in either.

Ironically, this means the Foreigners who live in the city long-term are more trusted. If the Chihuelans are after soul-gems to try and ingratiate themselves into the city, it obviously hasn't worked; all the soul-gems have been recovered, and therefore the recognizable Foreigners become the authority on who is really a Foreigner, temporary or not. Fourth-wall characters who have cast-mates or can otherwise use a permanent Foreigner as a character witness will have an easier time of things.

For the most part the attitude is one of staunch and unbending patriotism, and, continuing on the festival theme, renewal after a terrible era. The kedan feel that the two apprehended Chihuelans deserve what they got. There will be a constant crowd outside Yunxu's mansion, demanding justice and punishment for the Chihuelans he arrested. Every night there will be kedan going to Water Sector to put lit candles in the canals to represent those fallen during the invasion. It isn't an atmosphere of mourning; if anything, its one of fierce pride and hope in the future, and a sense that they will not be stopped.

By the end of the week the kedans' desire to be left alone by 'invaders' will have closed the rift that caused the new Foreigners to arrive in the first place, sending them all back home.