The dank tunnel walls of the Hydlaa sewers seemed infused with the stench of centuries, and the young Nolthri wondered if it would similarly seep into the core of her being.  Arjaya hated the place, though the damp humidity was welcome on her water-born azure skin.  The dry air in the city above ground always made her feel as though her skin was on the verge of cracking.

The sounds of the dark corridors echoed off the aged stone; the metronome-like drip of befouled water from the overhead drains, the skittering of claws in the distance, and the occasional inhuman scream of some unknown beast or bug taking it's final place in the Yliakum food chain.

She crept in silence through the shadowy tunnels, on the hunt for the members of a rogue gang that had been breaking into the homes of a number of Hydlaan families.  The city guard had little interest in entering this filthy warren; they were more than happy to leave the task of clearing the sewer system of various vermin - humanoid or otherwise - to the Hydlaan guilds.  Her guild, the Daughters of Xiosia, were unique among them, in that every guild member was female.  Beyond that, Arjaya was one of the more unusual DoX acolytes.  Xiosia was called "the Mother Goddess," the creator and maintainer of the balance of life.  As such, DoX members were, generally speaking, non-violent except in cases requiring self defense. 

If there was an irony to belonging to a guild of professed pacifists, Arjaya, who often referred to herself as a "warrior priestess," didn't let it bother her overly much.  She had a rather loose definition of what constituted self defense.  "Someone has to protect the sheep," she once told told a questioning Dermorian, "and that's me.  I won't wait for the predators to kill my flock... not if I know how to find them."

It was with such knowledge that the Northri quietly slipped from shadow to shadow, and several of the gang of thieves had fallen to her twin sabers.  As she climbed a bending set of stairs, she heard a familiar sound, the frenzied chirping of tlokes, a hive insect sacred to the Mother Goddess.  Though generally peaceful, they were dangerous and vicious if attacked, and from the sound of these, they were enraged.  Almost drowned out by the tlokes was another sound, out of place considering the din of the insects - human laughter.

As she reached the top of the stairs, Arjaya froze.  Two black-garbed rogues were taunting a flight of caged tlokes, stabbing and slashing at them through the bars of a closed gate, held shut by a stick jammed through two notched brackets. Several tloke corpses lay spilling fluids on the ground as evidence that this torture of Xiosia's favored creatures had been going on for some time.  The red-rimmed gills on her neck twitching in anger, the daughter of Xiosia's arms waved in a complex pattern as she quietly chanted in an ancient language.  Suddenly, a storm of ice exploded around the rogues, by chance freezing one thief's boots in a puddle of filthy water.  It wouldn't hold him long, but a little time would be all the Northri needed.  The other rogue turned on the warrior-priestess and raised his short sword high as he charged to the attack.

His reflexes slowed by the icy chill, the rogue missed badly.  Arjaya had no such problem, felling the brute with a slash to the knee, and ending his life with a stab through his throat.  As a geyser of blood erupted from the first thief's neck, the furious warrior priestess turned to the second. "You presume to torture and slaughter the sacred creatures of the Mother Goddess? I think not," she snarled.  She re-cast her freezing spell, further locking his boots to the wet tunnel floor.  "Let's see how you fare when YOU are the helpless one."

With another gesture and more arcane words, a brilliant rift formed in front of her hands and a arrow flashed from it - shattering the stick holding the gate closed and freeing the small swarm of tlokes.  As the insects overwhelmed and shredded the now defenseless rogue, the young Northi turned on her heel and stalked off, his dying screams unheeded.  Sheathing her swords and dropping to her knees in meditative prayer, her breathing slowed, and as the screams died away, the chirping of the tlokes changed from fury to joy... and the priestess smiled.

After a little more time, i'm a bit less frustrated.  I've also managed to find my way on foot from Hydlaa to Ojaveda and back again.  I have noticed something that i wonder if any of the developers have considered.  We always want a way to orient ourselves.  In the "real world," we do it based on the direction a compass points.  However, before that people used the positions of the stars.  Now, we don't have stars, but we DO live inside a giant, hollow crystal, one that's not uniform.  Look up, and you can see differences along the inner surface.  

Couldn't there be shapes or natural designs in that surface that might be identified much like the Big Dipper or the Southern Cross?  Having a few of those to use as reference points would help players find their way in new areas in a way that makes complete sense from an RP standpoint.

What a place to start for my first post... probably going to get myself in a boatload of trouble and a reputation as a malcontent as well.  Not my intention, and i apologize in advance if that's the impression i leave, but... what you read below are just my personal opinions, based on an admittedly VERY short time playing PS, but also with well over a decade of playing several other online MMORPG's, and over a quarter century of playing RPG's - starting with AD&D in the early 80's using polyhedrons, Plexiglas, graph paper, and grease pencils on a dining room table.

I understand - and even applaud - the desire for players to roleplay while in RP.  I also understand wanting to make the in-game experience as immersive as possible.  However after about a day and a half of play, from what i can see, in PS a good thing has been carried to an unreasonable extreme. 

Let me make this clear: i'm enjoying PS so far, and there have even been a couple of players that have gone above and beyond the call of duty in helping my character.  But while the players i've met thus far have been amazing, the game itself can only be termed "user-hostile."  Virtually EVERYTHING has to be learned from RP-ing with other players, and not only are there no resources to help you, players apparently can be (and i'm sure, have been,) banned for creating any - or at least making them available to the general public.   It seems to me SOME things ought to be okay to disseminate without being deemed "spoilers."  Think about it: we are dropped as adults into a city we've allegedly lived in since birth, and we don't even know where the most basic of vendors or trainers are?  We actually have to find another player willing to tell us?

Our fair city has a library.  One might think the library, with its thousands of visible books, might include a few useful resources, like basic maps that would tell you - generally speaking - how to get to adjoining towns, maybe even with a metaphorical "here be dragons" warning or two? 

Going to a trainer gives me a "point of book learning," if you will, but no actual instruction on how to do the thing i was allegedly just trained in.  I just paid the trainer to teach me something... why didn't he?

Our fair city has a bulletin board in the center of town... why wouldn't that board include a map telling visitors where they might find various products and services?  Or perhaps those two map halves i found in my inventory could be a little more detailed?  Seriously, and i know i'm repeating myself, i've lived in Hydlaa my whole life, i should know where things are, don't you think?

It's great to want people to learn from each other.  In any game i've played, i've learned a LOT from other players - often more than i did from in-game resources.  But speaking as a former programmer, learning how to use an application shouldn't require a new user to learn from another more experienced one.  After all, there may not be anyone around that's either willing or able to play teacher, and that's simply not fair to the player.  The application, and all its features, should be well documented such that anyone can learn to be expert at its use all on their own.

Yeah, I know, "it's a free game, and no one's forcing you to play."  Agreed, but entirely beside the point.  Let's at least be logical enough to admit there's a vast gulf between producing a lowest common denominator grindfest and a game that requires a player to be a MENSA candidate to be able to figure out on their own how to cast the simplest of spells.  I don't want to be handed everything on a silver platter, but at the same time, every single scrap of knowledge gained shouldn't be the result of painstaking toil and hardship.  It IS supposed to be fun... right?

All that being said, i'm going to keep on pulling them teeth, because from what i've seen so far, the people that play PS are worth it.

Regards to all - and especially thanks to the developers,

Arj