The Society of Tanelorn

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AARDWOLF HOMEPAGE



Theme Applying Promotions Demotions Dissertations Clan Decisions Restrictions Rules

Theme

In many ways, it is like the Buddhist idea of Nirvana, although its residents remain far more active. Members of the Society strive to uphold the tenets of The Three Pillars, as described in the helpfile, through specific means as well as their general actions. Society members are expected to be above flaming, personal attacks, macho posturing, revenge, and pointless whining. Indeed, members should try to act to reduce such vices wherever they find it. To further this goal, the Society will offer mediation services for individual conflicts and large-scale note board debates whenever needed.

The Three Pillars arise from the reconciliation between the opposing Lawful and Chaotic influences within each person. Law is stable, focused, and disciplined, but in extremes it can be sterile, severe, and static. Chaos is creative, beautiful, and liberating, but becomes selfish, uncaring, and destructive in its extremes. The synthesis of the two encompasses peace, beauty, love, equality, selflessness, and true justice. The prime goal and duty of the followers of The Three Pillars is to uphold these ideals at all times through speaking with respect and forethought, treating all others with civility and kindness, and acting to stop aggression.

In addition to their activities on note boards and channels, members actualize these beliefs by always standing in opposition to organized aggression against other people - such retaliation must not be born of anger and violence, but instead of peaceful protest and resistance.

While some would say this is an ineffectual way to resolve conflicts, The Society of Tanelorn seeks to make the world a better place for everyone by embodying the teachings of the Three Pillars whenever and wherever possible, and by rewarding those outside the clan who do the same.

Members of the Society of Tanelorn are expected to resolve conflicts through peaceful means; The tired methods of violence and hate solve nothing. Members are also encouraged to give dissertations about The Three Pillars to all who would listen. Topic must be of the members/ prospective choosing, and should relate an event, action, or player attitude to a theme of peace or friendship. One dissertation is required for entrance, and extra dissertations can lead to promotions (see below.) All dissertations will be immortalized in the clan's library for all to see and remember. Such dissertations should be given to teach others about the ways of the Society, but members should refrain from pestering others about the clan's ideals; such actions can only cause more harm than they prevent.


Applying for Membership

As previously mentioned, there are three pillars of inner peace and harmony: peace through knowledge, wisdom, and experience.

Knowledge is vital in the search for one's inner harmony because only those who demonstrate a thorough base of information can comprehend what true peace really is; simple killing proves nothing about the strength of a person's character.

Wisdom plays a significant part because the wise are able to realize the impact that their actions have on others and on the world. Thus, such wisdom enables people to better relate their actions to the tenants of The Three Pillars.

Finally, experience is necessary as well; as a person spends more time in this realm, they begin to lose their aura of immaturity and naivete that cause minor conflicts to bloom into full fledged war.

To obtain entrance into the clan, a prospective member must ascend all of The Three Pillars to find the embrace of the Society. The applicant will begin by speaking to active members of the clan and waiting for one of the active members to give sponsorship into the application procedure. Please keep in mind that anyone above the rank of Brother/Sister is allowed to sponsor an applicant. After this has been done the individual must seek inner peace. Inner peace being something that one must first seek on his own before being fully accepted into the society, any form of help on the tests of The Three Pillars will immediately and permanently disqualify the candidate.

Entrance - Pillar of Experience

Even the most devoted followers of the Three Pillars spend years searching for Tanelorn before they find the city, so applicants must be level 150 and at least 600 hours online. In the old days, your character would have an age of 47 by that time. They must have also demonstrated, through their actions on public boards, behavior in areas, and conduct on public channels that their life experiences have taught them how peaceful interaction with people is the best way to interact with others. The most important factor in an application is whether or not the applicant demonstrates belief in the principles of The Three Pillars on public forums, both previous to and concurrent with applying. The peaceful balance of the world cannot be achieved through acts of ineloquence and pointless flame wars; such responses only create more conflict, and thus, are harmful to the society's message of peace.

Entrance - Pillar of Knowledge

Knowing the various workings of the world helps a person find his or her own sense of serenity. The more knowledge a prospective accumulates, the more he is able to appreciate how peace is not born of violence and fighting. Hence, members will be given a set of 3-5 room descriptions from somewhere in the world and be asked to identify from which area and room they come from. This pillar, often considered to be the most difficult of the three, ensures that all members of The Society are acutely aware of their surroundings and that they have not simply gone through the traditional, violent methods of power-leveling with total disregard for the world.

Entrance - Pillar of Wisdom

As wisdom greatly affects the way people interact with their surroundings (especially with mud society as a whole,) the wisdom of all applicants will be tested via one of two means.

Written Dissertation

The character must prepare a dissertation of no longer than 3 pages (60 lines of text on the note board.) This essay must be about a specific incident that the prospective experienced or some belief he/she holds and how that topic relates to the society's Three Pillars. Eloquent, well thought out answers are much more important than choice of topic the prospective is given complete freedom in topics as long as they can successfully relate their chosen topic to Tanelorn's ideals. Topics can range from the peacefulness of an area's room descriptions, the effect of peace upon certain races, or even how a particular skill or spell brings about the ideals of The Three Pillars.

Item Dissertation

The applicant must fetch a minimum of 6 gameload items from the mud that the applicant can relate to each of Tanelorn's pillars. Two items per pillar. These can not be manor items, clan items, or imm/special items. Once the items have been obtained, the applicant meets with the clan in the same way they would for an interview for an informal show-and-tell where they explain why they chose the items they did. The applicant may fetch more than 6 items in case the clan disapproves of particular some choices but they must have all their items gained prior to meeting with the clan.

The people who attend, will then do votes on if the item is valid for the pillar it's being associated with. The applicant will have to get approval for 2 items per pillar. So it's in their best interest to try to have a backup or two!

Item Dissertations are held in the Dissertation hall.

Remember that these time at Wanderer is under the assumption that the applicant is relatively active during that trial period. Applicants that spend their first month+ offline or extensively MIA will naturally remain at Wanderer even longer!

In summary - Applying to for membership within the Society of Tanelorn takes the following path:

  1. Requisition and Sponsorship - The Applicant is required to contact an active member whose rank is equal to or higher than Brother/Sister in order to obtain more information of the clan and requesting sponsorship from this member. The member chosen is required to explain to the applicant our application/recruitment procedure and ascertain that he is a good candidate to apply before offering sponsorship to the clan. Talking with several members of course is always encouraged to gain a broader view of the clan.

  2. Description Quest - After sponsorship has been given, the sponsor will contact the rest of the clan via personal board and formally request to have the applicant's Description Quest issued. The answers must be posted on Personal to the leader(s) who issued the quest. (Just reply to the note that contains your description quest.)

  3. Dissertation and Feedback - After the Description Quest has been completed and the results are approved by one of the leaders, the applicant may hand in his/her dissertation. This will be done by posting on Personal to the entire clan. While the dissertation may be handed in prior to completing the description quest, it is in the applicant's best interest to hand it in last - if the description quest is failed after handing in a dissertation, then a new dissertation would have to be written for any future attempts at joining Tanelorn.

  4. Interview - It is required that a minimum of a leader and 2 members, whose rank is equal to or higher than Brother/Sister, are present at the applicant's interview. Bear in mind that the applicant's spouse (if they are a member of Tanelorn.) may not be present at the time of the interview.

  5. Approval - Approval may no longer be given immediately following a successful interview as it has been done in the past. If those giving the interview or members reading the dissertation have additional concerns/questions regarding the applicant, time will be given to have those sorted out.


Promotions

Promotions have been moved to their own page! Click the link above to go there!


Demotions

Crimes can include giving private information to outsiders, breaking any of the clans rules, or consistently acting contrary to The Three Pillars' tenets (through actions on channels/noteboards, behavior in areas, refusal to defend the verbal honor of Tanelorn, etc).

No specific rules for punishment or enforcement will be written, since each case should be judged on its unique merits; the idea of legal precedent is one of the most common fallacies of Law.

Suspects will be temporarily reduced to Wanderer until their case is decided by clan vote (see decisions).


Entrance Dissertations

Topics of dissertation are to be chosen by the applicant (see more information on dissertations under rule #6 in rules3.) An in-person interview will be conducted by at least 2 of the leaders at a time that is acceptable for all parties. The purpose of such an interview is to determine the moral strength of the character by asking questions about the character's background in this realm, inquiring as to what The Three Pillars mean to the character, as well as determining the character's motives for joining the clan.


Clan Decisions

Issues will generally be decided by clan vote.

Leaders can make the decisions if speed or secrecy are needed, but the clan as a whole has absolute veto power if they disagree with the actions taken by leaders; peace and balance cannot be brought about through dictatorships or totalitarian governments.


Clan Restrictions

As mentioned previously, no alignment restrictions exist for the society, since true inner peace can be sought by all. Since even the more violent races and classes can learn to overcome their shortcomings and lead a benevolent life, no race or class restrictions exist either.


Clan Rules

Many of these were mentioned elsewhere in the petition, but not stated explicitly:

  1. Never start a PK fight, and avoid PK situations whenever possible. While Tanelorn is a NoPK clan, it is still possible to be dragged into a PK situation with the Revenge Code. A Tanelornian has no reason to ever use the setwanted command and is expected to refrain from making use of it. Doing so makes it trivial to drag the Tanelornian into PK since it makes it possible to have themselves setwanted for the next 24 hours. This clearly goes against the "Avoid PK Situations" aspect of the clan.

  2. Coded warfare/combat maze/dueling (via the command) are not included in the above guidelines, because entrance is voluntary and reward minimal, making it a contest of skill and entertainment rather than aggression and violence.

  3. Never trade (sell) in clan eq from private clans, for doing so supports the black market that drives raiding and thus leads to a destruction of the peaceful ideals that the society holds dear. Clan members may purchase equipment freely, but advertising the sale of 'black market goods' on public channels or boards is strictly forbidden. The intention of the rule is to allow buying for personal needs only. Attempts to break the spirit of this rule while adhering to the letter will be seen as breaking the rule itself.

  4. A number of volunteers (at least one leader and one non-leader) will keep running lists of people whose public actions uphold or conflict with the ideals of The Three Pillars. Placement on these lists will be very important should a person apply for membership or a gift.

    Actions that put others on the clan's List of Disruption include (but are not limited to) raiding, pkilling, flaming and breaking any of Aardwolf's rules. Actions that uphold The Three Pillars (including, but not limited to, eloquence on the note boards, politeness on channels, and general good conduct) can remove a person from the List of Disruption. The list will be for clan purposes only and will never be made public.

    Any player, regardless of clan affiliation (or lack thereof), may petition for a gift of The Three Pillars. If the petitioner has upheld the Society's ideals, or at least not conflicted with them, they will be given a piece of clan eq, a raincheck, or some other reward if no clan item exists in level range.

  5. No clan member is permitted to help another ascend The Three Pillars. Punishment is an temporary demotion to Wanderer until the clan can vote on the player's specific punishment.

  6. Dissertations are required for clan entrance, as stated in the trial of the Pillar of Wisdom. Extra dissertations may be given by clan members, but no more than one per player may be given per month (Each member may only give 6 dissertations during any one year period.) Preference is given to those members who have not yet given a dissertation after joining the path of peace.

    Unlike the dissertations required for entrance into the society, intra-clan dissertations are open to the public and must be given in the clan's speech hall. Notes by the speaker will be posted to the clan board at least 3 days in advance, so that any not in the society who desire to attend have sufficient notice. The purpose of such dissertations is twofold; first, dissertations are an excellent method of communicating to the rest of the world what the clan stands for, and thereby helping non-clan members follow a path of peace as well. Second, they serve as a reminder to society's members, helping us to remember exactly why we chose to follow The Three Pillars in the first place. After a dissertation is given, it will be posted on the clan board so that those who were unable to attend can see the topic of discussion and will also be kept in the clan's Hall of Remembrance in the Book of Balamce in the form of an extra description.


Last Updated: June 10th, 2006