Long Game 104: The Flame of Tar Valon

[|TJ| he/him]

"Why are you here?"

"I was summoned by the Hall of the Tower."

"What do you seek?"

"To serve the White Tower, nothing more and nothing less."

"How would you serve?"

"With my heart and my soul and my life, in the Light. Without fear or favor, in the Light."

"Where would you serve?"

"In the Amyrlin Seat, if it pleases the Hall of the Tower."

***

Welcome to Long Game 104! It's been a while since I've been wanting to run a game with election mechanics, while also coming up with something interesting to do during the Night cycles. This game is the result of that, so I hope you enjoy it! A fair warning, I do expect the game to be swingy from all its moving parts, but I have tried my best to balance it with some amazing help. 

Tag or quote me for any clarifications. Not sure who will be your mod for the game, but once I find out, I'll edit them in here and you can contact them for any issues during the game. 

Sign-ups are now open and will be EXTENDED until I reach the minimum player count of 18 required for the game. If the minimum player count has been reached, the sign-ups will remain open until March 5th. The exact timing of the start of game will be announced closer to the start of the game. Please find the rules below and also in the doc format here. 

Edit: Tentatively, sign-ups to close on 19th March around 22:00 hours GMT and the game will begin soon afterwards. 

Game Setup and Phases:

Spoiler

• Players are divided into separate Ajahs. Each Ajah have a document to communicate in. 
• Black Ajah are unevenly distributed among the different Ajahs—some may have none, others may have multiple.
• The game begins on Night 0.

Day Phase - Standard Elimination

• Players vote on a Black Ajah suspect in the hopes of eliminating them.
• Player with the most votes is eliminated at the end of the day. 

Night Phases:  

Night 0 - Amyrlin Seat Nomination

• Each Ajah nominates one of their members as a Sitter of the Hall. 
• Nominations are submitted in the document of each Ajah. 
• Sitters are immune to the faction Night Kill of Black Ajah and cannot be eliminated during the Day Phase until an Amyrlin Seat is elected or unless they are Stilled. 

Amyrlin Seat Election - 

• Night 1 onwards, the players vote to raise a new Amyrlin Seat from among the nominated Sitters.
• A majority vote is required for an Amyrlin Seat to be raised.
• If only 2 Sitters remain, a plurality vote would be enough for the Amyrlin Seat to be elected, a majority would not be necessary. 
• If no majority is reached, the Sitter with the fewest votes is Stilled (removed from the running for Amyrlin Seat). 
• This process repeats until an Amyrlin Seat is raised.

Amyrlin Seat Deposition - 

• Once elected, the Amyrlin Seat must survive a deposition vote for X nights (2 or 3, TBD).
• If two-thirds of living players vote to depose the Amyrlin, she is removed.
• If she survives for the required number of nights, her election is complete.
• If the elected Amyrlin is from the Hall of the Tower, the Hall is blessed with her presence for one more cycle following her complete election, after which she is removed from the game. During this cycle, the Amyrlin Seat has access to all the Ajah documents AND her vote counts for double. 

Factions:

Spoiler

Hall of the Tower:

Majority faction required to eliminate all of the Black Ajah.

Black Ajah:

Minority faction required to defeat the Hall of the Tower. They have access to a factional Night Kill, and a document to communicate in. Black Ajah win if they either:

• outnumber the Hall of the Tower,
• successfully elect and prevent deposition of an Amyrlin Seat of the Black Ajah
  OR
• successfully depose an Amyrlin Seat from the Hall of the Tower.

End Conditions:

The game only ends when one of the following occurs - 

• Last Black Ajah is eliminated.
• Black Ajah members outnumber the Hall of the Tower.
• Amyrlin Seat of the Black Ajah is elected and survives deposition. 
• Amyrlin Seat from the Hall of the Tower is deposed. 

Ajah Abilities: 

Spoiler

All actions are by the virtue of belonging to an Ajah. All Ajah abilities only affect the Night cycles. Ajah abilities can only be used in the presence of 3+ Sitters.

• White Ajah: You can target a player and they would require (majority + 1) votes to be elected. Each member of this Ajah can use this ability once per game (Day). 
• Grey Ajah: You can get elected by (majority - 1) number of votes if you belong to this Ajah (Passive).
• Yellow Ajah: Once per game, you can protect someone from Stilling by unanimous vote of all Ajah members (Day). The person with the next lowest votes is Stilled instead.
• Blue Ajah: If you belong to this Ajah, you are immune to your first Stilling (Passive). The person with the next lowest votes is Stilled instead.
• Green Ajah: If you belong to this Ajah, you can Still a player (not in the first place) with the unanimous vote of all Ajah members (Night). Once per game. 
• Brown Ajah: Target a player to make them immune to votes. They cannot be Stilled, but they also cannot be elected in that particular Night. Unanimous vote required and to be used only once per game (Day). 
• Red Ajah: Halt the night at any point in time for one particular player. Any votes after that point are irrelevant and will not be counted. Unanimous and once per game (Night). 

Basics/Miscellaneous:

Spoiler

• Days last for 48 hours and Nights are 24 hours long. 
• All ties are randomly decided. 
• Only alignment is revealed on death. 
• Private Messages (PMs) are not allowed. 
• Ajah that the players belong to is not public information. 
• Information about the Ajah the nominated Sitters belong to is public. 
• Inactivity filter exists. Since this is a vote heavy game, any player who does not vote in the thread during a cycle is issued a warning. Any players who do not vote in two consecutive cycles are removed or replaced. 
• Players are not allowed to nominate themselves for the Sitter position. 
• Sitters are not allowed to vote on themselves during the Amyrlin Seat selection. 
• The elected Amyrlin Seat is not allowed to vote on her own deposition. 
• Players can choose to ‘No Vote’ during the Amyrlin Seat election, but if there are no votes cast on any Sitter, i.e., all Sitters have a total of zero votes,  one Sitter is randomly chosen to be Stilled. 
• Black Ajah do not get a Night Kill during the Night the Hall-aligned Amyrlin Seat is scheduled to leave the game. 

Participants:

Spoiler

Players - 

1. @The Wandering Wizard - Evelyn Rosemary
2. @KelsierApologist - British Racing
3. @TwinStorm - Melian
4. @Experience
5. @Ashbringer
6. @Steeldancer - John Steel
7. @Kasimir - Kamil Lovric
8. @The Unknown Flame - Verde
9. @ThatOneWorldhopper - Alkarii Tay'TerTüne
10. @DrakeMarshall
11. @Mark IV
12. @BridgeBoi - Taimon
13. @Terrisman - Terri
14. @Teldris Anuar - Tesan Alruddin
15. @Sart - Sartala
16. @STINK - Rasmuht
17. @Nemoras Enchanted Easel - Altea O’Canavan, aka Nameless Whisper
18. @A Joe in the Bush - Emmett

Spectators - 

1. @TheRavenHasLanded
2. @Ookla the Arbiter
3. @Gudrean
4. @ThatOneCrayonChick

Pinch-hitters - 

1. @Aeternum
2. @Aeoryi
3. @Stick.

Quick Links:

Spoiler

Night 0

Edited May 27, 2025 by Araris Valerian

[The Wandering Wizard he/him]

I'd love to join as Evelyn Rosemary!

Are you able to join @Edema Rue 

[OoklaApologist She/her]

I’ll join! Name TBD

[TwinStorm He/Him]

I'll join as Melian!

[Experience he/him]

I'm in

[Ashbringer he/him]

I'll join!

Question - are Unanimous Ajah actions decided in-Doc, or in GM PMs? I.e. does it have to be unanimous decision in the doc (and thus visible to the other Ajah) or in GM PMs (where you could say something different than what was said in the Doc)?

Edited February 24, 2025 by Ashbringer

[Aeternum]

Put me down as a pinch hitter for now, I can switch to player if you need later.

[Steeldancer he/him]

Well with my game over, my itch to play is well... itching. Count me in. Name, John Steel. 

[Kasimir he/him]

Wylla was...perturbed.

It had always been a strange, insistent feeling through the bond, like ants scurrying up and down his calf. By this point, Kamil was by his own reckoning rather good at ignoring it. He scraped the file steadily along the edge of his sword, steadily removing the slight nick from the bad parry during the spar with Roderick. Thank the Light, the blade was still serviceable. He didn't fancy taking the blade to the Tower blacksmiths for a new one, or for admonishment over a novice's error. A moment's inattention.

And there was the matter that preoccupied them all, even Wylla. But Kamil said nothing.

He was old enough to know you didn't rush Wylla, not when she was left to her own thoughts.

Steadily, he ground away at the edge. If the nick had run deeper, there was no saving the blade. Sometimes, wounds were like that. He thought about the death of an Amyrlin Seat, an event rare enough to shake the very foundations of the White Tower. And when the Amyrlin Seat had been murdered in her bed, and her Warder slain with the use of the One Power, then that was something far more terrifying.

The Aes Sedai did not brook talk of the Black Ajah. Kamil knew this. Nothing got the Aes Sedai of Tar Valon to band together like Saldeans defending the Blightborder, or more prickly than a Kandori whose honour was at stake, than mention of the Black Ajah: the very whisper of which was a stain on the honour of the White Tower.

And yet.

And yet a Warder had been slain by the One Power. Kamil'd known Tancred passing well, had sparred him several times, as had most of the Gaidin in the Tower. He did not think a Darkfriend Warder—and there it was, the forbidden thought—stood a chance against a blademaster of Tancred's calibre. Not in a fair fight.

"It was them, wasn't it," Wylla said, at last. She let fall her pen, and capped the open jar of ink on the desk. "The use of the One Power demands it. Of course, there are possibilities in which the Amyrlin Seat fought another Aes Sedai, who used the One Power in defense of her Warder, on Tancred, but that's just absurd. If it isn't—them," she said, as though invoking the very name of the Black Ajah was a taboo beyond her, "—then what could possess an Aes Sedai to strike out at the Amyrlin Seat herself and disappear?"

"What indeed," Kamil said, ironically. His kit still lay open on the carpet before him, and he selected the whetstone, now, wet it with water from his drinking flask, and set to work scraping it across the blade. As Kamil saw it, there was little better than a Shienaran waterstone for honing a blade to a keen edge it would keep, and there was no shame to Kandor in the admission.  

"But why kill the Amyrlin Seat?" Wylla asked, aloud. She was not looking at the letters and books and treatises on the desk now. He felt the heady rush of her mind working, spinning about from thought to thought like a blademaster dancing from form to form, rebounding from one opponent to strike at another. "We elect a new Seat, of course. The Tower cannot afford to be threatened like this. And—oh, I suppose. They control the election, and put their own in the position. An Amyrlin Seat of the Black Ajah. Then we will truly have fallen far from the Light."

"You think too complicated," Kamil said. He was used to this, to half-conversations, but sometimes Wylla was wont to soar in flights of complex fancy. Someone had to keep those Whites anchored firmly to practicalities. 

She looked at him.

"It could be the opening strike," Kamil said. "Like in a fight. Open aggressively, force the Tower into a defensive play, tear it open with fear and doubt, and then go for the kill." There wasn't a need to elect an Amyrlin Seat if the Black Ajah were truly ready to kill everyone and anyone who stood in their way.

Light help them all.

"Well," said Wylla, slowly. "We'll just have to stop them, won't we?"

Whoever said Whites were forever divorced from matters of practicality and import, Kamil thought, had never met Wylla. The problem wasn't that Whites were detached from reality: it was that you had to give them time, had to nudge them back gently when they strayed. And even then, they could surprise you, with how ruthlessly they followed the path of reasoning. He suspected an Aes Sedai of another Ajah might have spent longer in denial, questioning the existence of the Black Ajah no matter how plainly the facts stood, having been laid bare before them.

He felt the steady-burning embers of her resolve across the Warder bond, and met it with his own steel. 

"We will," he said. He was Kandori. He had been born to stand against the Shadow: whether at the Blightborder or in the heart of Tar Valon itself. The immensity of the task itself did not daunt Kamil. In this, they were both of one mind.

---

Signing up as Kamil Lovric, pragmatic Kandori Warder determined to guard his Aes Sedai and stop the Shadow.

Edited February 24, 2025 by Kasimir

[Aeoryi she/her]

Pinch hitter 

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

I will join as Verde of the Green Ajah. Don't translate that name.

[OoklaApologist She/her]

I will be British Racing, of the Green Ajah.

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

1 hour ago, KelsierApologist said:

I will be British Racing, of the Green Ajah.

That name sounds straight out of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

[OoklaApologist She/her]

5 minutes ago, The Unknown Flame said:

That name sounds straight out of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

One of my favorite books.
 

I was tempted to pick another language, but “British Racing” was too funny

[Ookla de los Cuervos he/him]

ill have to spec this game.

[|TJ| he/him]

On 2/24/2025 at 4:31 AM, Ashbringer said:

Question - are Unanimous Ajah actions decided in-Doc, or in GM PMs? I.e. does it have to be unanimous decision in the doc (and thus visible to the other Ajah) or in GM PMs (where you could say something different than what was said in the Doc)?

Sorry, I keep forgetting to come back to this - unanimous decisions have to actually be unanimous, it has be submitted in the doc by all its members. 

[|TJ| he/him]

Players! Please note this small addition below as well:

Quote

• Black Ajah do not get a Night Kill during the Night the Hall-aligned Amyrlin Seat is scheduled to leave the game. 

[Sart he/him]

I'd love to be in this, but I'll have to take a pinch hitter role. Can't join due to a vacation. If the game starts on March 10th or later, you can upgrade me to full player.

[Through the Living Hopper He/Him]

Alkarii Tay'TerTüne had always wondered what it would be like to die. 

He was not suicidal, no, not like the villagers all thought. He had no desire to die. He simply wanted to know what it felt like to die. If he died, everything he knew would go to waste.

No, Alkarii had no desire to die.

For if he died, the Secret would die with him.

[Experience he/him]

1 hour ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

Alkarii Tay'TerTüne had always wondered what it would be like to die. 

He was not suicidal, no, not like the villagers all thought. He had no desire to die. He simply wanted to know what it felt like to die. If he died, everything he knew would go to waste.

No, Alkarii had no desire to die.

For if he died, the Secret would die with him.

Welcome to the Shard and SE!

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

1 hour ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

Alkarii Tay'TerTüne had always wondered what it would be like to die. 

He was not suicidal, no, not like the villagers all thought. He had no desire to die. He simply wanted to know what it felt like to die. If he died, everything he knew would go to waste.

No, Alkarii had no desire to die.

For if he died, the Secret would die with him.

Welcome fellow villager! Would you like to be murdered find some murderers?

[OoklaApologist She/her]

1 hour ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

Alkarii Tay'TerTüne had always wondered what it would be like to die. 

He was not suicidal, no, not like the villagers all thought. He had no desire to die. He simply wanted to know what it felt like to die. If he died, everything he knew would go to waste.

No, Alkarii had no desire to die.

For if he died, the Secret would die with him.

That hook ate and left no crumbs. Welcome to SE!

[Terrisman]

Bismael the blacksmiths apprentice was gathering the Warders dented practice swords when he overheard a few of them talking.

"... if we continue discounting the very existence of Black when we elect a new one, why, we very well may elect a darkfriend! It's past time to be done with the secrecy and stamp out the scourge that has been hunting us, trying to lead us down a most terrible path. My sisters and I have decided it's past time we have people of courage step up and confront this evil whom we've tried to deny for nigh on our entire existence..."

For a moment as he listened to the conversation about who should step forward he pictured himself stepping in, fighting for what he believed in. But after a moments deliberation he decided against it.

"Who am I to put myself forward when so many more experienced then I, people who truly understand the rules of the game and have much more experience, are out there. And besides everyone knows boys are not welcome meddling in the dealings of the White Tower"

 

(yeah im gonna watch)

[Kasimir he/him]

5 hours ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

Alkarii Tay'TerTüne had always wondered what it would be like to die. 

He was not suicidal, no, not like the villagers all thought. He had no desire to die. He simply wanted to know what it felt like to die. If he died, everything he knew would go to waste.

No, Alkarii had no desire to die.

For if he died, the Secret would die with him.

Welcome to SE!

2 hours ago, Terrisman said:

(yeah im gonna watch)

Welcome and great RP! Would you like to ask TJ for a spec doc link? It's a place people who want to watch the game can gather, speculate, make bets, and just chill when the game itself is running.

[|TJ| he/him]

9 hours ago, ThatOneWorldhopper said:

Alkarii Tay'TerTüne had always wondered what it would be like to die. 

He was not suicidal, no, not like the villagers all thought. He had no desire to die. He simply wanted to know what it felt like to die. If he died, everything he knew would go to waste.

No, Alkarii had no desire to die.

For if he died, the Secret would die with him.

Hello! Welcome to SE! If you have any questions on how to play, please do not hesitate to ask me or anyone. 

Do you intend to play? Sorry, I will need a definite yes from players when joining

6 hours ago, Terrisman said:

Bismael the blacksmiths apprentice was gathering the Warders dented practice swords when he overheard a few of them talking.

"... if we continue discounting the very existence of Black when we elect a new one, why, we very well may elect a darkfriend! It's past time to be done with the secrecy and stamp out the scourge that has been hunting us, trying to lead us down a most terrible path. My sisters and I have decided it's past time we have people of courage step up and confront this evil whom we've tried to deny for nigh on our entire existence..."

For a moment as he listened to the conversation about who should step forward he pictured himself stepping in, fighting for what he believed in. But after a moments deliberation he decided against it.

"Who am I to put myself forward when so many more experienced then I, people who truly understand the rules of the game and have much more experience, are out there. And besides everyone knows boys are not welcome meddling in the dealings of the White Tower"

 

(yeah im gonna watch)

Welcome to you too! Like Kas said, if you intend to see how it goes, I can send to the link to the spectator doc when the game begins. And if you decide to want to play, you can let me know anytime before the game starts and I can change you to a player