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every year or so i rehash similar points about why i feel the way i do about the Scarlet Crusade and folks who play Scarlets and each year i get a lil more nuanced and better perspective, so i figured i'd take another whack at it with consideration for the cool players
ppl are also currently flooding the secrets blogs on tumblr with scarlet discourse so it got the gears turning
despite my crowing about IC bigots making me wary, the Scarlet Crusade has always been my FAV lore villainous group: religious zealots looking for a scapegoat to bolster their political power, strong aesthetics, lots of untapped potential for political intrigue/corruption story
plus for ppl who are super horny for roman catholic imagery and the irony of religious zealotry being used for evil, it's really good stuff
i've always adored the Scarlet dungeons too, even after my millionth alt, i never get tired of them. there's something just so exciting about venturing into an evil monastery full of priests and bishops who are using their religious doctrines to brainwash their followers
it's more complex than the average "this guy is a demon who's enslaving some orcs, he's doing it because all demons are bad"
by the time i'd moved from my OG realm to MG i saw my first Scarlet rper in the wild, but what shocked me was they were in Stormwind with their guild, completely brazenly wearing scarlet tabards and discussing scarlet business. my character was a lawful good pally so--
--she naturally recognized them and got upset at their presence, but they either ignored her or acted like i, OOC, was an idiot for /my character/ taking umbridge
my experiences from that point were more varied but always with the common factor that Scarlets wanted to rp in Stormwind without issue. no one ever seemed to rp Defias in public, oddly enough, but Scarlets were popular
the type of player i often saw rping scarlets in stormwind was similar to the type i saw rping forsaken, orc, and elf 'supremacists': weirdly borrowing key talking points of white nationalists, ooc trolling of others, casual use of slurs both ic and ooc
it's their OOC behavior that made them suspect tho, not their decision to rp as villains. that's the important part
ppl argue that the only folks who seek to rp groups like the Scarlets or Kor'kron are all ooc bigots/creeps/etc but i don't agree, i think those archetypes can be played REALLY WELL if the player is a communicative and accepting person
i know ppl who manage to play villains/abrasive/bigoted characters really well because they're understanding, patient, and considerate people ooc. it's tough!! especially because they get a TON of rough backlash strictly IC and that can be really demoralizing to take
i, as a person who plays a lot of goody-goody kind-hearted but law-breaking characters who reject IC racism, have legit trouble handling the IC blowback from my characters' decisions because it's tough to sit and take the lumps that make perfect sense from a lore standpoint
i'm also extremely sensitive and take too much to heart but that's somethin i continue to work on lmao
the fact that some folks who play Scarlets, whether well rounded characters or pure villains, get harassed OOC just for being associated with shitheads who play them BADLY, is fucked up and unfair
