Player Highlight for Wiccana Server ~ Zaraseret

Ahh one, of my favorite long time players known on the forums as Lamiastrix was kind enough to drop by and give her take to AoC. She used to be on Cimmeria before the Tyranny merge but came over to Wiccana for a PvE RP focus. She is vocal on the forums and an excellent RP advocate. So, without further adue, let us look at the player Highlight for the week:




Wicked Beginnings


Give us a quick overview/background of your character:
Name: Zaraseret (aka Lady Zaraseret, just Zara to a select few).
Age: 26
Race: Stygian
Class: Necromancer
Zaraseret is a Stygian noble from Luxur, a cousin of Pharaoh Ctesiphon and heiress of her House. Her father is mad and confined in the palace and her mother has withdrawn to the great temple and is a Priestess of Set. Unlike most of the rest of the nobility Zaraseret is very "awake" and curious, hungry for both power and knowledge. She eschews lotus and drinks sparingly. She has taken an active interest in her family's business affairs and oversees everything herself rather than leaving it in the hands of stewards, servants and slaves. Because of this, her House has prospered despite the scandal of her leaving the palace and taking a suite of apartments on Akhet Isle to better involve herself in business affairs. Of course, this unconventional lifestyle gives her the freedom to pursue her study of necromancy. Determined to escape the yoke of a dynastic marriage and being turned into a royal broodmare whose duty is to produce the next heir she has determined that she herself will simply never die and will thus sit the family throne forever.


Do you belong to or run a guild?I run Hedj Dejet (loosely translated as Bright Snake), a tiny RP Stygian cultural guild.


If so, tell us about your guild?We have a rudimentary website recently set up at: http://www.guildportal.com/Guild.asp...&TabID=3714118
The idea of the guild is that it is a Stygian noble House comprised, primarily, of Stygian characters. I hope to eventually also have an elite guard core of Dark Templars who have derived their power from Stygian gods and/or demons and have become de facto Stygians themselves. All other races within the guild are slaves. We are different from other guilds in several ways. As a very small niche guild we have limited appeal and even those who are attracted by our premise may hesitate to join because they prefer to also enjoy the benefits of a large guild with all the bennies of a high renown guild city and the ability to raid and PvP easily. I understand those things and feel it's unfair to make people choose between roleplaying their character authentically and getting to experience a great deal that the game offers. Therefore to join Hedj Djet you don't actually have to join and wear the tag at all. You merely have to join the website and post your background for review to make sure your character is suitable within the limited scope of the guild. This allows people to be in any guild they would like and yet still get to roleplay in a deeply immersed way with a strong Stygian cultural structure.


What motivated you to play your particular class?Are you kidding? What's not to love about Necromancers? OK, kidding aside, I've always loved to play villains and/or darker characters. Bad guys (and girls) just have more fun. And while all the classes in AoC have their issues (and these often change) the class has consistently been a blast for me to play and I've been playing a Necromancer since launch back when the Cimmeria server was still going strong.


What are your character motives immersion wise?I've probably covered most of that above. She has the double whammy of being both a noble woman and a sorceress so a fixation on power and mastery is pretty deeply in her bones. Though her family drives her crazy she is fiercely loyal to them and to Pharaoh. She is not a particularly devout Settite but does meticulously observe the forms and also accords reverence to Dereketo and the other Stygian gods as well. She is no fan of Thoth Amon and views him as a threat to Stygia, thus making her a reluctant advocate of King Conan in Aquilonia. Secretly she would love to find a man who is an equal, who is the opposite of the silk clad lotus addicts lolling about their palaces in Luxor. Unfortunately, she is also deeply xenophobic and would likely look down on any man not of her race and social class, which leaves her in a bit of a predicament. Therefore she often seeks solace in her studies, deeply immersing herself in the arcane arts of necromancy, gladly risking her very humanity.


What things do you most enjoy about playing AoC?1. The genre. I grew up reading the RE Howard books thanks to my dad. It's a magnificent world he created, savage, lush, treacherous and beautiful full of surprisingly complex characters. There's nothing else like it going. 2. The game itself is stunningly beautiful and easy to lose myself in. For a little while I can actually feel like I'm in Howard's amazing world and I really never get tired of exploring it.


Are you a premium subscriber or free to play?Currently I'm enjoying a month of free premium membership. I haven't quite decided if I'll reup when that's over or if I'll give f2p a try.


What do you think of the in game store?They have some neat stuff but right now I think they are really under utilizing it. Premium subscriptions should come with some Funcom points to use in the store each month. They really need to step up the social clothing and make it a little cheaper as well since it's just statless vanity gear. People love to individualize their characters and change their looks from time to time. They really need to come up with some good cultural clothing. I think the stuff they sell with stats is about right and I hope they DON'T expand on that as it would really cheapen the earned gear in game. I'd also love to see a slew of new hairstyles in the in game store!


What aspects of the game have improved since launch?Overall graphics and smoothness has improved. Otherwise, there's still much to be desired. Like smoothly function seiges.


Do you enjoy pvp, pve or both and why?I enjoy PvP when it's among well balanced groups and engaged in with a good nature rather than the childishness that is unfortunately so often prevalent in PvP. I don't care for mini games because, to me, they make no sense in the context of the world. I prefer groups of people fighting over RP objectives. Since that's hard to find I'm mostly a PvE girl and I really do enjoy questing.


What areas do you think need improvement specifically?A new game director that doesn't hate roleplayers?

Where do you see the game direction going as a whole positive or negative?That's a tough one. I cannot forgive the death of Cimmeria, the only RP server in the US. Doing away with it, and thus ANY pretense at supporting roleplaying by Funcom itself, leaves a really bad taste in my mouth. I've retired all my Cimmeria characters. I am finding that I can still have fun on Wiccana, a PvE server, and I do not miss the "style" of PvP that dominates on Tyranny. Overall, I feel the game has really gone downhill with Craig at the helm and I resent all the resources being poured into Secret World that should be being used to improve this game. Still, as long as I'm managing to have fun, I'll keep playing even if just on a casual basis.


Any final thoughts?I'll let Zara take that one.

"Death is just the beginning."

*cue creepy music and fade*

The True Power of Luxor

 

Thank you very much for dropping by Zara. It has been a wicked pleasure to see your dark presence here in Hyboria!!! Folks, if you are looking for RP on a darker side, I am telling you even on the fly, Zara is definitely one of my favorite people to go to. Intrigue, dark plans, ironhanded ruling, she has it all  along with a wealth of experience and understanding of how Mr Howard envisioned Hyboria!