Question about Novian lore

And how will you ever notice this if you don't make use of the feature yourself I wonder?

 

Hahaha..,. touché... Nice try Bowen but I don't believe this will be a 'feature', more likely something that is actually already built into the game.

 

To the OP's point, I think there are some issues to sort through. Or perhaps they won't be and will just remain disconnects.

One of the things that wasn't mentioned by the OP is that the storyline seems to start with your arrival, as Arabella wonders about which path you will choose. (This is consistent with previous Ultima storylines which start with your arrival). For the sandbox part of SotA it's easy to justify the pledge items at the start... for the storyline, not so much. We don't really even know whether you will have to play part of the storyline before you are able to land somewhere with all your pledge items. It seems not, however, as the land rush has been set at the opening.

I don't think we should try to come up with ways to explain it because that has to tie into the storyline which is not our call. We will have to wait and see. I think pointing it out was a good idea mikeaw1101 and hopefully some dev will see it.

 

As for me (Avatar Rhiannon), I got discouraged in the land of Britannia. I heard of this new land so I packed up what belongings I could and made my way on my own. I don't have much so my road to wealth and prosperity will be long and hard. I am aware of others who were able to bring much more with them and arrived before I did. I hope to make many new friends and that my home in New Britannia will be long and fruitful.

 

um.. features are built into the game.. that's what makes them features.. So are you suggesting then that the game will manage your friends and block lists for you? Or it's somehow going to force you to use them?

 

To a point I'm still waiting for more lore to use to build my own backstory, but realizing things may go live before I have a satisfactory basis to work off of, I've got some ideas stirring about already. But, first off I agree with Bowen, players should not feel tied to the pledge system in determining who or what their characters are.

That said, in absence of lore directing otherwise, to me it makes sense that most nobility would have established family history in Novia rather than that suddenly the land is flooded with foreigners who are all handed titles and lands. Perhaps your character is decendent of an Avatar who arrived in Novia many generations ago (suggested perhaps in the "Ancestor" gravestone and such mentioned elsewhere in this thread). This hypotetical ancestor-Avatar may have come to notice of royalty or nobility, been knighted and promoted, perhaps a son of such was awarded a higher title, or someone in the line between this ancestor and your character married well, etc. By such reasoning your character may not be known as an Avatar or having "Avatar" blood after many generations have passed, enough to be taken for a native rather than outlander.

There is some stretch here from playing literally some guy sitting at his computer being zapped into the world afresh, and suddenly somehow awarded lands and high titles, anyway such are some of my ideas at this point. Others have mentioned titles in context of the sandbox (multiplayer) game vs. the single-player story, which I find a useful distinction in considering how to play our characters and consider their backgrounds; unless we are strong direction to the contrary from Portalarium, I'd tend to take the story we get in the single player version as a sort of guideline rather than a literal experience our 'sandbox'/multiplayer game character has experienced himself (otherwise everyone we run into in the game has the same exact story/experience with variation only in how they respond to the virtue tests or whatnot that play out in the single-player story).

In short I'm thinking outside of any tips/explanation/lore Portalarium gives us directly, the best bet for those making use of the noble titles in roleplay in the game is to play as either a native or decendent of a past Avatar from long ago, so there is time for the family to have built up a foundation that led up to the nobility, and so that not every bloody noble you meet has suddenly been granted their titles/land all at the same time. Everyone will play as they like of course, and there is no telling what wonderful creative backstories or explanations for noble titles various players will present to us - it should be fun to see

 

I've long been of the mind that the character backstory Portalarium is giving us may work well for single player.. but it makes absolutely no sense what so ever for multiplayer.

Consider this.. when every outlander arrives from where ever they came from.. they have nothing but what they carry with them. So no money that would be accepted anywhere.. probably no weapons or tools.. the very lucky ones might have some kind of knife on them. Most have just left behind whatever comforts they may have had. A job, a home.. family, friends.. no food, probably no useful skills, like there's a chance in hell that out of thousands of people arriving under these conditions all are just going to be happy to be here and no one is going to want to go back. Most new arrivals are little more than refugees now burdening the population until they learn to make their way in their new world.

While I do not necessarily agree that all nobles should have established families.. the larger point there is that attaining that wealth and titles would naturally take time. A LOT of time.

In terms of nobility in New Britannia I tend to think the system would be rather more flexible than Earth.. especially with city states. Having a noble title then wouldn't necessarily put you anywhere near a line of succession to any throne. Rather it's more of a reflection of social status within certain circles. This interpretation allows for a great deal more flexibility with fewer ramifications. ie a Duke can be a "duke" without family ties etc.