Darkfriends

[Diana]

Well, the Darkfriends I saw in the books were usually secret. Depending on if their clanned, they should be used for information. Information is knowledge and knowledge is power.

Even reports of message boards could tell one something, clan lists..etc. I think there should be darkfriend mobs or something in every city, or a mail address one could mail information too somehow. (pigeons)

One thing that has annoyed me about WoT, not that I have tried to take anyone darkfriend, is the fact that in order to be a "good" darkfriend, they expect you to find a fade, convince him not to attack you, or any of his friends who happen to come in spamming their Kill Human alias.

That's just dumb. Perhaps have the dark one send people visions or send other darkfriends to meet with them. In the books, fades went to darkfriends when they were alone. Even Forsaken went to Darkfriends for info under most circumstances. Why endanger someone who could serve you?

The reward on that other mud is usually getting to go over to the 'darkside' or get "known" in your title. Joy. How the hell is having everyone know who you are, a reward? Why in the world would I want to leave all that I've worked for behind, by going to the Darkside?

I think Darkfriends should be granted more power maybe in the world, given a title, or some money. I understand the Game of Houses is coming..perhaps more strength, depending on where they are.

Diana

[Kemael]

hrm... Darkfriends.... does that have to be a clan proper? or could it be a separate tag?

[Arilyn]

Well,

I think the FACTION system may really compliment how DarkFriends work in the books.. the only problem is how it may conflict with City Justice Code.

example:  

In the books a Darkfriend would make his first kill of an innocent to the Dark One and maybe form a limited circle.   He then has an imprint to other DFs that they are one in the same.

The faction policy works great with that... the only would be *IF* that faction also "notifies" the light side.

If  City Justice Code only fires off when an "Official" City guard mob sees a murder, as opposed to a merchant guard what have you.... then he wouldn't be insta-"city"  WANTED by killing innocents.      

At the same time there are other RP ramifications to killing innocent mobs.  

ie: if you kill a Merchant ... then you become auto-wanted by Merchants.   No more buying selling trading.

Just throwing ideas out.... since i have no idea if merchant guard has any mob identification that differs him from joe blow mob.

Maybe to "get" into DF you have to kill a certain number of innocents that are non-clan affiliated... you get the Faction that identifies you to higher level Darkies... and then "they" give you more RP type quests.    

To me, this more relates to book events on how those DarkFriends work.   It's not all killing.. and we don't want people just going around massacaring PCs and mobs... but there is a part of that.  

Arilyn

[the_muffin_man]

Here's my view on the DF "clan"- more specifially, how people know your dark intentions.

In quests, scripts are run where they can log a message into a clan's log. When designing a quest, I usually want people to choose between 'right' and 'wrong', and as such, I usually tempt the quester with wealth/eq if they'll do x-crime. This is where the scripts come in. If you do something 'bad', then the DF logs get a little message like "Quester X did X, and may be considered useful". If you're bad enough and haven't gotten your name dragged through the MUD -god, I hate puns- you may be considered. That is, discretion is the key. Be bad, but be bad without people knowing you're bad If I get enough time, I'll start attaching such script messages soon. Anyways, just know that you don't have to be a famous bad egg to be considered- quite the contrary. Just be bad secretively all the time and sooner or later, the clan members will know

The_muffin_man
the artist formerly known as Jaxon.

[Dantecguest]

I want the darkfriends to have access to a couple of things.

One, a raven based mailing service, so that they can send messages to the dark side, like about what the other side is doing.

Two, when you complete darkfriend quests and do things that earn "points", you get tokens that can be exchanged for trollocs. You can get darkfriends to make attacks with the aid of trollocs to succeed at objectives.

I think darkfriends should be secret, stealthy, and not all that physically strong. Rather, their strength comes from the use of the darks minions, and knowing when to use them.

[Merl]

You could have darkfriends as well as the Chosen.

[Me]

"The worst darkfriend was the scared nobleboy who jumped even at the slightest noise. And he poisoned an entire city watersupply."

[Tular]

The darkfriend community in the books seems to be structured somewhere between a spy organisation for the Shadow, and a terrorist organisation. Their goal: to saboutage the designs of those acting in the service of the Light; to hobble the effectiveness of the champions of the Light; and to perform such tasks as to forward the interests of the Great Lord of the Dark. Basically, as per our timeline, Darkfriends are in a Cold War with the servants of the Light.

A darkfriend should thus be treating life as a spy on foreign soil would. Do what you need to do, but don't let anyone find out, since if they do, its death.

Possibly an easy way to see what a darkfriend may be getting ordered to do is to see what tasks Aes Sedai are doing. If Aes Sedai are trying to mend differences between two great Houses, chance are there will be darkfriends working to keep those differences jagged. If there is a young man that AS think may one day unite his land and needs nurturing and protecting, chances are there'll be a darkfriend farmer as part of an angry mob that runs a pitchfork through him.

The Shadow has many forms of servants quite suited to dealing death, so why waste a df on it when they could be out gathering much more useful information. I expect the Shadow would only bother burning such agents if the target was extremely high priority (an eternal adversary such as the Dragon Reborn, for example). Otherwise service would focus on intelligence and support, such as 'leave that gate unguarded', 'don't inspect the hold of this ship', 'don't ask questions about the new maid serving today'.

As I recall, darkfriends were formed in circles (or cells), each of which had a leader that was part of a higher circle. No need for low ranking members attempting to commune with rats and ravens without any ability to do so, just a chain of command right up to their highest circle. Once at that level, dfs likely got visits from myrddraal directly as we see evidence of frequently in the books.

Anyway, being involved in something that could get you executed if found out, and associated with others (your circle) that could expose you would lead to a rather nervous life. You can expect that any individual darkfriend captured would be swiftly dealt with by others in the circle at risk of they themselves being exposed, and being hunted in turn. I expect that level of paranoia could lead to entire circles being eliminated simply to protect the greater organisation. Doesn't really promote sloppy workmanship, does it.