I know that there is some rp planning going on and a lot of buzz around recruiting (I'm courting a few newbies and trying to bring them over to the blue side of the force) but I think maybe we need to sit down and take a hard look at the Blue Ajah of DRPSW and consider what it is we offer players in the way of current rp opportunities and future ones.

 

 

 

WHAT IS BRANDING

First off, realize that the idea of branding isn’t “reinventing” … I’m going to refrence the reds a great deal here since that’s what I worked with for years but, their situation isn’t typical of all ajahs.  What we should do in branding (as you’d do with any product in real life) is better define who we are and find a unique and imaginative way to present that to the players of drpsw and dragon mount.com so to create a healthy excitement about our ajah and drive up numbers.

 

 

 

AN EXAMPLE OF BRANDING AN AJAH

"Guardians of Humanity" ... a group of man loving (not man hating) women who are totally misunderstood and rejected by the very world they are protecting from utter destruction.

 

In the above statement reds go from being the aggressive (and sometimes foolish) near shadow following man haters that the majority of reds in the books appear to be… and instantly become an ajah you can easily see finding a place in the White Tower of the books and the World.   Yes, this sort of concept does probably produce it’s fair share of jaded and angry/bitter souls… but you can empathize with how they got that way and see how YOUR character could fit in with them.

 

This phrase implies that rp opportunities come automatically sewn into the hem of your pretty red shawl.  No matter where you go, you're the bad guy who is trying to do good  In all the world only your sisters understand you and what you’ve been through and love you no matter what.  You're all alone in a fight that you can't win with no warder, no husband, no one to put your trust and heart into; at times feels you‘re fighting the very world can‘t even hope to save... only do damage control on.

 

Sounds cool right?  Something you could see yourself making a character to fit into, yes?  THAT is how you brand an ajah.  You find the qualities that most exemplify who the ajah is and you present it in such a way as to reach the most people - no matter their creativity or writing skill level.

 

 

 

HOW WE BRAND OUR AJAH

There are three parts of branding an ajah that we need to keep in mind as we move forward on this project:

 

+  Who we are (in a short phrase) and why it’s cool to be who we are

+  What it is you can do as a Blue the second you put on a shawl

+  What makes being a Blue cool in days to come

 

Answering these for the reds we see:

 

+  Misunderstood Guardians of Humanity (or simply ‘Guardians of Humanity’ as we shortened it to)

+  All the story ideas implied in the name (facing derision from common folks and the tower, hunting males, dealing with the aftermath of a gentled male, dealing with your loneliness in an AS fashion, trusting your sisters, hunting for clues to heal or help males… gentled or otherwise etc)

+  Bonding ashaman, bridging the gap between the white and black tower, and redefining the red ajah’s purpose in the face of a loss of said purpose.

 

For the Blue Ajah we need to define these things.  

 

 

 

BE CAREFUL NOT TO MAKE YOUR ANSWERS TOO BROAD OR NARROW. - Back when I played Espara I tried to brand the phrase “all for the cause” for us.  As you may notice ‘the cause’ is too board and doesn’t inspire people to choose blue over other ajahs as our many causes overlap with a lot of the other ajahs.  I mean, why be a blue focused on helping common folks be literate when you could be a brown, right?  Why be a blue focused on justice when you could be a gray… etc.  

 

On the flip side… keep in mind not to narrowly define what it is to be blue.  A concept shouldn’t define us as workers of a specific job persay but, describe us as a group…

 

My thoughts on this, as I write this today, are summed up in my Avatar:  “True Blue Heroes.”

 

The Blue Ajah is the smallest ajah but has the most connections in the outside world (eyes and ears) … we’re the common man’s ajah (as it were.)  The difference between a brown and a blue who has taken literacy as a cause:  The brown is working in the tower most likely and the blue hiked up her skirt and is in some po-dung village teaching them.  HERO.  The blue who champions justice vs. the gray … the gray is advising leaders and reading up on law while the blue is working with the town mayor to make sure daily justice is served fairly and even handedly.  HERO.

 

Moiraine from the books is a hero for being out in the world helping rand, hands on.  Suian is in the Tower working with things politically but while their tasks were the same they approached it differently.  Both, in the end, are heroes (arguably.)

 

My suggestion (and obviously this is a discussion so let’s all share ideas) is we try to focus on how being a blue is going to get you out into the world and really interacting with folks as you drive forward with your cause.

 

Players in the blue ajah should be proactive people who come up with rp ideas to bring to others (like our characters we’re innovative and we are self-starters.)  Our concept/brand should suggest these things in general.

 

Okay… rambling has begun so I’m gonna stop and post this.  Let’s here your thoughts.

Ok..Love this! (Just had to get that out there)

I have been reading over this for the last couple of days, thinking of something to say, and I'm having a little trouble getting my thoughts to form a decent sentence.  ;D

 

Anyways, I'm really glad that you posted this Dee.

 

+  Who we are (in a short phrase) and why it’s cool to be who we are

 

~I think it's really tough to put the Blue's in a "box", and I'm betting that's why when you played Espara, you attempted to coin the phrase "All for the Cause". It may not have worked as well as you would have liked, but I think it worked, none-th-less.

 

~The problem with the Blue's is that our Causes ARE wide ranged. When Serena was first raised to the Shawl I had her Weeding out Darkfriends to fight the shadow; however, at the time she secretly had a Cause to study Saidin and Cleanse the male half of the True Source. During that time period, it had to be kept secret because no one was "allowed" to do that in the PSW, at the time.

 

+  What it is you can do as a Blue the second you put on a shawl+ 

~I think it depends on your Cause. Which would mean that as Blue's that have been around for a bit longer, we would need to help out the new Sisters and make sure that they have plenty of RP opportunities for that Cause.

 

~Is there a way we could incorporate several Causes into one bigger Cause? (I know, the word "Cause" is getting a bit redundant, eh?)

 

 

What makes being a Blue cool in days to come

 

~The fact that we CAN do almost anything that we want; but I do see the need for trying to generalize and simplify.

 

 

`~`

I would think that we would be the ones to RP a lot with other divisions, and I don't just mean the BT. If we are to be out traipsing about the land, as most Blue's do, I would think that we would have more of an opportunity to do that. Our Causes range all across the board.

 

~I also realize that we do need to start from somewhere, and the above-mentioned is just what I "would like to see" one day.

 

~Again, I wonder, is there not some greater Cause that we could have that would encompass more than one of our Causes. That way, a new Sister could get involved right away, and we could have something that we are continuously working on.

 

Now...did any of that make sense? :D

 

I also have been dwelling on this a fair bit. I've gotten close to my Blue Streak (As in I'm more blue than any other Ajah these days, although Gray gives it a good run for its money - another politic Ajah; Surprise!) so I've come to understand a deeper sense of the meaning of 'Cause' and in a way I think we have it 'wrong'.

 

 

"Cause" is an outsiders way of relating to the Blue Ajah. We have Causes that encourage us to go on adventures, to change things, to make things better. In a way this is quite true, but it is merely the surface of what the Blue Ajah is all about.

 

The Blue Ajah weave Patterns. We seek out Threads that are woven together, manipulating them into these beautiful tapestries that few understand enough to see.

 

"All for the Cause"? nay, I say "Creating the Patterns for Light" or of some variation.

 

A cause is merely a thread in a pattern, sisters. We must learn to see a more open-minded picture for us to comprehend the complexity of the Blue Ajah.

Saying that we can do "anything" is something that any ajah should be able to argue (to a point.)  However, each ajah has something that they also specifically find that they are good at and focus on.

 

Yes, it can be hard to put the blues into a box (as you put it Serena) but it's also the packaging that helps sell our ajah to newbies.  And while it's arguable that you don't want to collect people to your ajah that don't realize that it's the place for them... to that I say, I NEVER would have thought I'd like the reds and see how that turned out?

 

Arie - I'm trying to wrap my head around your metaphor of threads and patterns for the light.  If I'm reading what you're saying correctly you're saying that each person's cause is but one effort (or thread) to build (weave) a better world (pattern) under the Light? 

 

By that statement (assuming I understand you correctly) you see the cause of the Blue Ajah to be the improvement of the world in general?  Not a bad take really and honestly it's where I was going with "True Blue Heroes" idea.  The idea that each sister does her part in her little area of expertise to improve the lives of the common man and the world (whether in politics or in small village life.)

 

Now again, assuming I understand that you and I are on a page Arie, then it's said that Blues appear to nosey and busy bodies but in truth people are either too ignorant to see the importance of our work or too arrogant to think it important or worth while (a common problem in the Tower) and it's also that "misunderstanding of our purpose" that keeps the Blues the smallest ajah... most folks just don't see the Blue Ajah's true purpose as it's not spelled out in a word like:  "Healing"  "War"  "Law"  "Knowledge" etc.

 

I'll close this post here with the question... am I understanding what you're trying to explain Arie?  If so, and Carly is on a page too, we can try to begin to word this a bit better.

 

 

 

You generally read my mind well. Although I was thinking more than 'making the world better'. It's pretty general, although quite true. Perhaps the Path of the Blue Hero is to see that the world lives to see the next Age.

 

Let us take Morainne as an example. She had a cause and pulled more than simply strings to find Rand. She is the most successful Aes Sedai to Advise him, earn his respect. She went to extreme's to seek out the knowledge of the work through the Aiel and still held true to her path as some threads (lives, pieces of information, etc) were yet still too early to be revealed.

 

The Pattern of the World is what the Blue Ajah manipulates. The Pattern weaves on, but the Ajah manipulates the strings to their will. (Yeah... I love this metaphor).

I love what you said, Andrea. "Perhaps the Path of the Blue Hero is to see that the world lives to see the next Age"

 

That's fantastic.

 

Dee, I agree. I think it IS really difficult because you DON'T see the "true" purpose of the Blue Ajah in  a single word, definately.

 

In fact, what you both have said is right up my alley.  ;D What I meant by saying, "Is there a way we could incorporate several Causes into one bigger Cause?" I think that what Andrea said fits that. Although, I think it's just difficult to lump all of our different "threads" into one generic "pattern"; however, that doesn't mean that it cannot be done. It's figuring out how we might go about doing that and executing it.