Lost Lands article update

[Rias]

The helpfile/wiki article about the Lost Lands has been updated. (Click here to see the wiki article version.)

In particular, the "Knowledge & Memory Anomalies" section talks about the odd gaps in knowledge and memories not just about the ruined Kingdom of Aetgard, but the memories and knowledge of Lost Landers themselves. There's definitely something strange going on, and the helpfile gives some of the more popular theories of potential causes.

In addition to the general lore of this however (it has a purpose beyond game-related reasons), it can also be drawn on for a few game-related reasons. For instance, a new player character might have a backstory as a competent woodsman or blacksmith or soldier, but as a new character in the game they don't have the coded skill levels to necessarily back that up. The player can choose to just not call attention to this of course, but on the other hand if they're for whatever reason needing a reason to reconcile this situation they could blame Lost Lands Oddities for their reduced capability and need to re-learn some things that they might have been skilled at in the past of their backstory. (On this note however, I also want to remind players that they shouldn't try to put too much power, prestige, and accomplishment in their backstory - let their time and experiences in the game where they make their extraordinary accomplishments!)

Another opportunity this offers is an excuse as to why characters can't recall every single detail of their backstory, or their home culture, etc. which is in reality just because they don't know all that stuff as a player, often because the information just isn't available. I'd much rather a player have their character use Lost Lands Oddities as an excuse when this type of thing comes up, rather than just start making up their own lore on the fly in some misguided attempt to try and avoid being viewed as ignorant or naive. I don't think people should lean too heavily on this, but if for some reason there's a situation where they're really being pushed about why they don't know some detail that they'd be expected to know as a character given their backstory or homeland or such, these Lost Lands Oddities are a great potential explanation.

In more extreme cases, if there was some accidental misunderstanding of lore that a character had been building on for a while, this can also potentially be used as an excuse. The preference is of course for people to do their due diligence in reading up on the info available and asking on the BBS for additional details they might want. Please do not just invent your own lore to fill gaps and act as if it's official. But if for some reason Lost Lander Lloyd had become known for his referencing the King of Karnath, and then gets faced with the fact that - oops, Karnath isn't ruled by a king at all in the game's lore - there's always at the very least an excuse of Lost Lands Oddities messing with their memories, rather than them feeling like their character now has to be treated as a deliberate filthy liar when in reality the player was just operating on an innocent mistaken impression they picked up somewhere.

[RoyceArty]

This is going to come in handy for characters with a deep cultural bond like mine, thank you very much! For the longest time I've been confused as to how to treat these gaps, so this is somehow one of the posts I am the most excited about.

As a side note, please point out if I ever accidentally invent something I shouldn't have anywhere: it will be greatly appreciated.