ETIQUETTE

HUNTING:

Typically when you enter the hunting fields to work your combat skills, you find an area that is vacant and wait for prey.   If the fields are full, consider an alternate creature to hunt.   Alternately, you can ASK whoever is in the area if you can join them to hunt.   If they decline, don't verbally attack them out of your own frustration.   Ask how long they plan to be there and if it's a prime area ask if they mind gwething to you when they leave.

If they agree to share the area with you, be considerate with kills.   Do not engage every creature that comes into the room.   Alternate.   Have a clear understanding with your hunting partner from the beginning with regard to working skills and sharing boxes, items, and coins.   Unless your partner states otherwise, all boxes, coins, and items should be split equally.

If you need to work evasion or armor, express that to you partner.   "Do you mind if I dance a few with this croc to get my armor moving?"   Communicating well will save you a lot of headache and hurt feelings.

If, while you are hunting, the creature retreats from your room after you lodged a few bolts in it, you can follow.   But if you follow it into a room where a hunter is already set up, do not continue to engage that creature.   Ask the hunter if you can have your bolts back from the creature after he/she kills it.   This is a sore spot with many.   There is nothing more annoying than having someone enter your hunting area and attack the creatures in it.

This sort of behavior has led to many conflicts and deaths.   If the creature retreats from you, you should consider hunting a more difficult creature.

If someone enters your hunting area and attacks the creatures there, do not immediately threaten them.   They may not be aware of proper etiquette.   Ask him why he is attacking creatures in your area without asking first.   He may get upset and smart off, but he will usually leave.   While you do not OWN that area, general etiquette of the realms is that you don't inhibit someone's learning by killing the creatures in the area that they have staked out to hunt.

If he doesn't leave, guard him so that creatures engage you rather than him.   Do not physically attack the other person.   I strongly suggest that you keep your cool, be firm yet polite in speaking to him.   Reporting in this instance will not help.   Zoha has stated plainly that since no one can OWN a room, the creatures in it are fair game.   However, if you want to keep breathing, I suggest you adhere to proper etiquette.

HEALING:

For those of you who are new to Elanthia, Empaths have the gift of healing wounds.   Due to their gentle nature and teachings of their guild, they cannot cause harm to any living creature without going into empathic shock.   This shock scars their souls and for a time prevents the use of their healing abilities.   Therefore, the primary means of income for Empaths is the tips they earn from healing others.

You may see a simple abrasion on your body, but when an Empath touches you and begins to transfer your wounds, the Empath draws out your true injuries and sees much more.   For every abrasion or cut you receive from a creature, you also receive internal injuries.

When an Empath transfer that abrasion (external fresh wound), most will transfer your internal fresh wounds as well.   This will leave you with both internal and external scars.   Thus, by the time the Empath takes the whole wound, for the one abrasion you saw, he actually took four wounds.

It is true that an Empath has to heal others to progress in his guild.   However, you shouldn't view this as his job, but rather a kind service he provides to you.   Be courteous and thank the Empath verbally and with a tip.   Take into consideration that it takes the empaths twice as long to heal themselves as it did to take your wounds.

On the reverse side of this, Empaths should be conscious of their fellow guild members.   When a person comes to an area where more than one Empath is stationed and asks for healing, that person becomes the patient of the first Empath (primary healer) to touch them and begin taking wounds.

It would be considered rude for another Empath to begin taking the wounds as well, unless the primary healer requests help.

There are several reasons for this:

If there is too much action in the area to see who is healing whom, ask aloud, "Is someone healing <patient>?"   If you don't get a response, then they can become your patient.   You can also whisper to <patient>, "Is anyone healing you?"

RESURRECTION:

When a deader is dragged into an area where there is more than one cleric, it is considered acceptable for all to assist with their rejuvenation.   However, the first raising cleric in the area, regardless of circle, should be given the opportunity to raise the deader.   Whisper to that raising cleric, "Are you going to raise <deader>?"   The cleric may be tapped out of mana and more than grateful for you to raise instead.   At least do the polite thing and ask.

Now, say a friend of yours died and you went to drag him.   You found him and dragged him into a good holy area to work on him, and there are other clerics present.   Well... your friend called you, and you went to the effort to drag him.   You have a right to be the one to resurrect him.   For your friend's benefit, however, accept any rejuvenation help offered.

If you enter a room where there are several dead, and corpses are rotting away while clerics are focusing on one deader, it is acceptable for you to begin rejuving the dead who are not being worked on.   However, even though all clerics should be grateful to receive rejuvenation assistance, unless the bodies are piled high, ask before rejuving a body that is already being helped.

Never view the deader as an item for you to use to gain magic experience.   Though they are dead, their spirits hovers nearby, waiting to return.   Putting your needs before theirs to learn a meager amount of magic skill is pathetic and rude to their spirits.   Accept rejuvenation help if it's offered.   If you want magic experience, you gain far more from working the "Protection From Evil" spell then you ever can from rejuving or raising.

Clerics do not have to aid the dead to progress in their guild.   Clerics provide these services out of the kindness of their hearts.   It is not a Cleric's job to raise.   Resurrection is a gift from the gods and should be viewed as such.   Resurrection leaves not only the previous deader drained of their strength, but the cleric as well.   It takes time for the cleric to recover.   You should thank those involved with your rejuvenation or resurrection and offer a tip.

I have heard some spirits say to clerics who can restore memories but not raise the dead, "I'll wait till a REAL Cleric gets here."   I have news for you, ALL Clerics are REAL.   They should be treated equally and with respect, regardless of their ability to raise.   Memory restoration is more important then getting a raise (assuming you are smart enough to have favors with your god).

Those of you who are Clerics, please keep in mind that most areas with good holy mana are poor in life mana.   So when an empaths are preparing a deader for resurrection, they may need to heal the deader in another area.   Even though the body looks like it can sustain life, ask the Empath before dragging that deader to the holy area.   Some Empaths may not be aware of what condition a body needs to be in before raising.

If you feel the body is ready and the Empath doesn't, then explain to them why in a polite manner.   If you have any doubt at all, then let the Empath heal what he feels is necessary.   Just remember, better safe than sorry.

If you are an Empath, you need to understand that the longer it takes to heal, the harder it is on the Cleric to restore the deader's memories.   First thing that should be done is a "Persistence of Memories (POM)" spell cast by the cleric on the deader.   Then the Empath heals the body till it can sustain life, the Cleric raises, and finally the Empath heals the raised person the rest of the way.   This may take some cooperation between Cleric and Empath as to using power effectively.

STEALING:

What do you do when you catch a thief pulling coins out of your pocket?   The GMs have stated that when thieves steal, their victims may view the theft as consent to combat.   This means that you do have a right to engage a thief in melee without an accepted challenge.   Consider before you do this if the amount he took is really worth the possible loss of your life.   The Thief does have a right to defend himself too if you choose to seek retribution through force.

If you are in town, you can go to the GuardHouse and accuse the Thief.   This will put him on the warrant boards and will cost him a felony fine when he is caught.   From the Thief's point of view, he has to know how to steal to circle.   Until he reaches a high enough skill to shoplift, then pockets are his only source.   True, he can choose to practice on his friends.   But by his choice of profession, he considers your pockets fair game.   If he were caught, I would strongly urge him to talk his way out of it, use a hidden passage, or stalk off.   It's better to avoid a conflict and possible long-term problems, than to add insult to injury and engage in combat.

One of the old rules of the Thieves Guild has been to avoid the pockets of Empaths.   Empaths are unable to defend themselves, and since theft is considered entering into combat, it is viewed as dishonorable to steal from them.   This, of course, assumes that a certain level of honor exists among thieves, and it is why so many people are willing to come and seek retribution from the thief in the name of the Empath.

If you think about it, it really is bad business to steal from those who heal you after you blow your boxes.   Of course, not everyone will agree with what I have said and will steal from whomever they want, regardless of profession.   I'm sure many will engage in combat and find that in the long run, it only made matters worse.   One thing to remember, not all thieves are guilded Thieves.   They exist in all professions.

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