In this regular column, the Mother Ducker sits down and talks with the leaders of various groups around DM to provide you with a bit of insight into that group and it’s purposes at DM.  In this month’s column, she caught up with Arath of the Black Tower Division.

MD: First, can you tell me a little bit about yourself and the group you lead at DM?

Arath: Well, I’m David, aka Arath Faringal, Co-DL of the Black Tower Div. I’ve been a DM addict since 2001, and I’ve been with the BT since day one.

MD: Excellent. Who is your co-DL, and is he as awesome as you?

Arath: Covai Seriba.  And hard as it is to believe, I would say yes. He’s been around even longer than I have.

MD: Wow, that’s a lot of awesome in one place.

Arath: Isn’t it?

MD: What does the Black Tower Div do?

Arath: We mostly blow stuff up– When we’re not putting the moves on the BT civilians, that is …

MD: Aha! So some lovin going down behind scenes at the Farm, eh?

Arath: Well … we try, to various degrees of success and some rather spectacular failures …

MD: I can imagine that depends on the skill of the BTer with Compulsion. So are you guys a social group or a roleplaying group?

Arath: We are the roleplaying group, in charge of all Asha’man characters. If you want to play a male channeler who isn’t affiliated with Shayol Ghul, we’re the guys to talk to.

MD: So if one wanted to roleplay with the crazies, what would they need to do to get going?

Arath: First and foremost is to write a character biography– Just a small thing, giving us the basic information on your desired character Size, shape, hair/eye color … all that fun stuff, as well as country of origin, then a brief background on the character himself … what he did before coming to the Farm.  We’re pretty open to different ideas on recruitment.  If you want a wilder who accidentally burns down half his village, we’re totally fine with that.  Or if you want to be picked up on a random recruiting mission, that’s great, too.

MD: Neat; sounds like you leave a lot of freedom to the writer to come up with a unique story for themselves.

Arath: Absolutely.

MD: So what exciting things are going on in the BT roleplay currently that a member could get involved with?

Arath: We’re currently in the middle of a fairly large RP arc, which began with a massive battle with the Shadow in Shienar. After a rather sound whipping there, we began to search for channeling allies to help us stand up to the Dreadlords … which led to our currently ongoing RP in Tar Valon–Bondage with the Red Ajah 

MD: Bondage? O.o

Arath: Bonding, bondage … I’m pretty sure the Reds don’t see a difference.

MD: Aha! So you guys are sort of following the book story line where Reds and BT bond, then?

Arath: In a way. We’ve flipped parts of the story around to better suit the RP. For example, we’ve not yet reached the cleansing of Saidin, which happened before open bonding in the books.

MD: Well it sounds like there’s a lot of exciting opportunities for the players in your division then, with the Bonding and Cleansing both coming up. Can you explain in one sentence why somebody should come join the Black Tower Division?

Arath: We know where you sleep at night, and we have balefire.  Failing that…writing an Asha’man character is a challenging, and rewarding experience, which will push your limits and help develop you as a writer.

MD: Sounds great!  I’d sign up right now…but I can’t, cause I already signed up months ago and have a BT character.

Arath: That’s okay … you can have up to 3!

MD: Don’t tempt me!  Thanks for spending some time answering my questions, Arath!

Claire also took the time to talk to a few members of the BT Division about what they think of the Div, and here’s what they had to say:

Tai’Dashan: I like the Black Tower because when reading the books I was always drawn to the channelers. Being male, I prefer the male channelers.  In addition to this, I like having the character depth that comes from roleplaying the effects of the taint on Saidin. My first character was in the Black Tower Div and he has been my favorite since then.

Liitha: I have an interesting character there who is a Cloud Dancer [a weather Talent], who I keep active cause he is interesting to play.

Jehaine: Well, to be quite honest the reason I RP is because of the characters… Sure, their history sections gear them up to be in the Div in question, but ultimately i leave it up to them on where things go from there. Though Martyn/Tavon doesn’t particularly enjoy the BT, he sees it as necessary because he can channel (as much as he hates to admit it). After the Cleansing, who knows?

Claire: I like the BT Division because it offers me a challenge.  RPing as a male is out of my comfort zone, and so I am loving RPing in the BT because I am trying hard to create a 3-dimensional character with foibles and weaknesses who is male (and therefore doesn’t tug braids or sniff or adjust shawls…which is what I’m used to).  I’m very much looking forward to the BT/WT bondings that are coming up, and the Cleansing RP should be epic.

Thanks for reading Claire’s interview with the BT Division.  If you’re interested in possibly joining the Black Tower Division, here are some handy links for you:

If you still need help, you can always PM Arath or Covai or email them at BTStaff@hotmail.com.