Groves of Slumbering Shade

Cosmetics---Aug-2019---Social-Media-and-Website-Post-compressed.png

Deep within the domain of the Empyrean civilization is a clearing of remarkable verdancy and stillness. It is upon this sacred ground that the presence of the earthly deities worshipped by the Empyreans can be most greatly felt. A place of nigh unnerving resplendence, life here drifts along as whimsically as the breeze; yet one would be remiss to think such a slumber can be disrupted without consequence.

The Groves of Slumbering Shade cosmetic addons will be available in the Ashes of Creation shop from August 7, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific until September 4, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific. Don’t forget that the Maestros of Merriment addons will be removed on August 7, 2019 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific when the new cosmetics swap over.

For more information, check out our news post: https://ashesofcreation.com/news/2019-07-31-groves-of-slumbering-shade

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Comments

Nagash

Games workshop wants a word with you

caedwyn

I'm sorry, but i find it VERY annoying and insulting for the elves that their most sacred avatars and godly artifacts are being sold to just anyone who is paying...

this doesn't make any sense!
it also looks like a p2w thing to do!

race-specific things should not be on sale for everyone who is not that race!
its just....

unknown

This content has been removed.

unknownsystemerror

Yeah, all the real elves I know are up in arms about this. And it isn't like the armor will change and conform to whatever race is wearing it. Oh wait...they confirmed that mechanic. Damn. Nvm.

caedwyn

im not only talking about the armor set which btw is directly said to be gift from the elven deities to the "protectors of the grove and its people"
im talking about the elven shrine
the elven super rare stag which happens so rare in entire empyrean lifespan and is literally grove's avatar!
the special tree pet that is part of the lore "before venturing out of their home they take it to remember the home etc..."
each race must have unique things

unknownsystemerror

Oh, I get it now. You are trying to say that unless you have a toon of that particular race active you won't be able to use those cosmetics in the game. Yeah, not gonna happen. Though for you and your extreme roleplay concerns I guess you could outright refuse to enter any city that wasn't elven, not interact with any non-elven players or npcs, and many other things. Sort of like how white power xtians only eat at Chik-fil-a now. I think they have written enough Verran lore that we can see that Sanctus had all races freely mingling and in the starting areas of the game will be integrated also. Who is to say as a young dwarf I wasn't orphaned on Sanctus and grew up with my own Groot protector that has followed me to Verra? You? No.

caedwyn

unknownsystemerror wrote: »

Oh, I get it now. You are trying to say that unless you have a toon of that particular race active you won't be able to use those cosmetics in the game. Yeah, not gonna happen. Though for you and your extreme roleplay concerns I guess you could outright refuse to enter any city that wasn't elven, not interact with any non-elven players or npcs, and many other things. Sort of like how white power xtians only eat at Chik-fil-a now. I think they have written enough Verran lore that we can see that Sanctus had all races freely mingling and in the starting areas of the game will be integrated also. Who is to say as a young dwarf I wasn't orphaned on Sanctus and grew up with my own Groot protector that has followed me to Verra? You? No.

why are you attacking me lol
im not even talking about roleplay!
but you are !
im saying each race and each type has to be unique in their own way otherwise there wont be much difference!

and here the most sacred things in empyrean lore are being given not freely but for cash to EVERYONE who pays for it! dont you see what i mean?

yeah they have written enough lore but it seems you dont care to read either that or the very descriptions of the items in this pack.

a dwarf owning avatar of the forest that happens RARELY in a long long elven lifespan? please!
earlier in discord you mentioned "i like that we are just a hero not THE HERO" so how does your special dwarf who was specially grown up in the most sacred place of inner elven society and has been given direct gifts from elven deities account for that? because it seems to be VERY SPECIAL kind of dwarf

this whole thing looks like a cash grab as much as i hate to say it
you should NOT be able to get everything with cash
the game is not even out yet!

i would expect each group and each race to have their specialties and buffs and quests and sacred places and items to make them look even more unique and in-depth

how does THOUSANDS of people running around with the most sacred of entire elven history that is so rare and is ONLY given by gods and ONLY found in the grove make up for the lore itself?
it doesn't!
dont you see its not about you or me or a handful of people its about literally everyone who pays which could literally be thousands. how does the lore work with that many people?

you can keep attacking me and turning my logical concern into something else
i do not agree with this p2w method that bypasses all the lore and race and religions
the moment we try to *fix* something with imagination to find a way to make it work
we need to think how we should make that acceptable and make it work so people dont need to think about imaginary ways to make it work in the first place

dont see me as an enemy or try to insult me i never dictated what you or anyone else should and should not do or have i dont give a damn but what i care about is the lore and consistency of the whole game when they always say its not going to be p2w and clearly we see this right with this pack.

GrinningJack

caedwyn wrote: »

unknownsystemerror wrote: »

Oh, I get it now. You are trying to say that unless you have a toon of that particular race active you won't be able to use those cosmetics in the game. Yeah, not gonna happen. Though for you and your extreme roleplay concerns I guess you could outright refuse to enter any city that wasn't elven, not interact with any non-elven players or npcs, and many other things. Sort of like how white power xtians only eat at Chik-fil-a now. I think they have written enough Verran lore that we can see that Sanctus had all races freely mingling and in the starting areas of the game will be integrated also. Who is to say as a young dwarf I wasn't orphaned on Sanctus and grew up with my own Groot protector that has followed me to Verra? You? No.

why are you attacking me lol
im not even talking about roleplay!
but you are !
im saying each race and each type has to be unique in their own way otherwise there wont be much difference!

and here the most sacred things in empyrean lore are being given not freely but for cash to EVERYONE who pays for it! dont you see what i mean?

yeah they have written enough lore but it seems you dont care to read either that or the very descriptions of the items in this pack.

a dwarf owning avatar of the forest that happens RARELY in a long long elven lifespan? please!
earlier in discord you mentioned "i like that we are just a hero not THE HERO" so how does your special dwarf who was specially grown up in the most sacred place of inner elven society and has been given direct gifts from elven deities account for that? because it seems to be VERY SPECIAL kind of dwarf

this whole thing looks like a cash grab as much as i hate to say it
you should NOT be able to get everything with cash
the game is not even out yet!

i would expect each group and each race to have their specialties and buffs and quests and sacred places and items to make them look even more unique and in-depth

how does THOUSANDS of people running around with the most sacred of entire elven history that is so rare and is ONLY given by gods and ONLY found in the grove make up for the lore itself?
it doesn't!
dont you see its not about you or me or a handful of people its about literally everyone who pays which could literally be thousands. how does the lore work with that many people?

you can keep attacking me and turning my logical concern into something else
i do not agree with this p2w method that bypasses all the lore and race and religions
the moment we try to *fix* something with imagination to find a way to make it work
we need to think how we should make that acceptable and make it work so people dont need to think about imaginary ways to make it work in the first place

dont see me as an enemy or try to insult me i never dictated what you or anyone else should and should not do or have i dont give a damn but what i care about is the lore and consistency of the whole game when they always say its not going to be p2w and clearly we see this right with this pack.

Makes sense to me.

Jahlon

Ok I'm going to jump in here before this gets out of control.

You all know me, I'm the resident asshole, I'm the guy with the mantra of "word matter" so let's take a look at some words we've gotten hung up on:

Sacred

The word sacred appears in the lore article twice:

"It is upon this sacred ground..."
"The satchel's more potent concoctions are derived from the sacred groves themselves"

Most Sacred

The term "most sacred" never appears at all.

Now as far as @unknownsystemerror he's not attacking you, he's just a 80 lb dog shoved into a 50 lb cage. He just attacks. He doesn't mean anything by it...well ok he does, he wants you to get smarter. Not an unfair challenge when he throws this out at people

Now as far as @caedwyn I absolutely see your point ... on paper. There will be limited cosmetics in game that are limited to race, class, religion, social organization, etc. Those will be the rewards of your ultimate bad ass quests, they will be restricted, so you could say those will become your "most sacred" items.

Its along the same lines of why everyone can wear the Necromancer robe when only 1/64 classes are Necromancer's.

Now, since I always like to take the opportunity to make sure Intrepid is doing the diligence, I don't know who wrote the lore snippets but @LieutenantToast posted it so she's got the bulls eye, and I will say...the lore is spot on.

The community asked to start getting lore snippets with the cosmetics after the Stufferton scandal of 2018. Stufferton came out and a sizeable portion of the active discord speakers (note the qualification on the population size) raged about Stufferton. Shortly after we got a little lore clip and a lot of people (myself included) called Steven out on bullshit for that lore clip saying it was ex-post facto written and just to GM pencil justify and validate the cash shop item.

Shortly after that we started getting lore for the items, and as written I see no reason to throw any bullshit flags.

Both @unknownsystemerror and @caedwyn have valid concerns, but I think while both valid they are both complimentary and not contradictory, as everyone in the cash shop was stated to be globally useable by all characters, it has to remain that way, but from those discussions we did find out from Steven there would be restricted cosmetics earnable in game.

"The things that unite us are far greater than things that divide us."

caedwyn

i agree with you @jahlon
and i imagine if now (after buying the thing) they change it people will be upset and that will not help the community at all.

I'm still not satisfied with the fact that thousands of people can potentially ride the avatar of empyrean elves... or the armor which gods give to the guardians of the grove to protect their people.
it would make me mad and disappointed to see that armor and mount on a tulnar characterS for example or a bunch of dwarves ... a handful bunch? SURE but not that many (potentially) ...

thanks

LieutenantToast

@jahlon - Glad to hear that the lore alongside these items is helping to paint a more precise picture of Verra! Alex wrote these lore snippets, so I'll pass along your kudos to him as well

@caedwyn - We definitely appreciate you sharing your feedback on how the lore for these particular items truly sets them up to be "special" within Empyrean civilization, and I can understand how you might want to keep that as unique as possible!

MrMasquerade

First of all I really like the Gondor inspired aesthetics of this armor but after reading the lore I was a bit disappointed that the armor is specific to empyrean elves.

Before reading the comments I had intended on venting my frustration about the exclusivity of the lore however, after reading everyone's comments I actually now disagree with myself.

I think it is fine that the armor is mostly race specific even if I might use it on my Tulnar. The reason being as mentioned above by @unknownsystemerror its not impossible that a human or dwarf who visited the empyreans elves fell in love with their culture, dedicated their lives to protecting the forest, and was eventually 'knighted' into being a empyrean themselves.

In practice, it is these protagonists who may not belong, the orphan, the outsider, the underdog, the street rat, the arsonist, etc. who eventually develops into the hero who protects the very thing they might have never been allowed to be a part of. It might be cliché but if you see a dwarf wearing this armor it might honestly play in the RP element they were once an orphan who was caught and nearly put to death for burning down a section of the forest but rather was adopted into the guard to protect the forest after displaying some great act of bravery as an alternative punishment. The very nature of a non-elf wearing this armor or riding this stag speaks to the depth of a character's back story more so than an elf wearing this armor would otherwise. Also, considering the amount of cosmetics that Steven and the team plan to implement into the game, I do not think we will have an issue with every other player wearing this armor and thus ruining the immersion of the game.

That's my take on it. I hope it helps you guys get more comfortable with the race specific armors and instead of applying it as something negative let it become an asset for your immersion. Let it build an otherwise 'nobody/not important' player-into perhaps a main character of another players story. The beggar who became a guard and was more worthy of the stag (the chosen one) than the pampered prince who was given his position in the guard for free.

MermaidTears

I love love love! this pack but its concept art... I wish we were able to see the meshes somehow.. the final product in-game might not look anything like this, that's why I can't part with $400 of my money

Also I would love if there was an elven dress added but that's just me being picky and longing for more girly cosmetics. ✦

sunfrog

I like what @caedwyn said and I can imagine it being written into the game now that it's been said. Steven reads the forums. I was thinking about Titanwood Bark. Since no one is allowed to chop trees there and can only get it as a gift does that mean it will be rare and valuable in the game? But @caedwyn took it a step further. Will the Empyreans be insulted by their artifacts being sold on the open market? If yes, then that's good writing. Seeing someone ride the sacred Stag of the Boughs has got to make them wince.

Narys

For my taste these are the best cosmetics yet, I actually think I may buy all of them!

caedwyn

Narys wrote: »

For my taste these are the best cosmetics yet, I actually think I may buy all of them!

your name reminds me of nyrissa

Fuzzoro

I like pickles but ill prolly buy this set as well as the others I have. Cuz.. yea, gonna whip that elk into submission. lol

Fuzzoro

Gonna live stream this game into the history books too.. if I can ever get my hands on a release.

Narys

caedwyn wrote: »

Narys wrote: »

For my taste these are the best cosmetics yet, I actually think I may buy all of them!

your name reminds me of nyrissa

I must admit I never realised, but you're right!

Ashlynmae

How much space on our freeholds will the Altar of the Venerated take up? 25% or less?

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