So everyone knows that war paint decays.
Like, we’ve all accidentally used a Darfari or Black Hand war paint, noticed it disappeared, tried it again at a Dyer’s Bench 'cause we coulda sworn we applied one earlier, then noticed that it disappeared again, and from then on completely ignored that entire section of the Dyer’s Bench for the rest of their gaming experience.
And we went through all this long before learning that Funcom even had a forum to moan to the abyss, right?
(and if anyone replies “I definitely use war paints” outside of a modded game making them permanent, I’m preemptively calling you a liar right now)
One would think, in a phase of the game called “Age of War”, after we’ve been getting new (and essentially useless, as the inevitable unifying experience demonstrates) war paints at every Battlepass, and even a few in the Bazaar… That we might consider making them last until replaced or erased. Y’know, so they’re actually desirable rather than a waste of time.
I totally get making (formerly) bonus attributes as temporary as potions and food bonuses, but for decorative war paint it makes no sense.
For those that wanna point to realism - “paint wouldn’t stay on your body” - okay. And slaves need more than an hour (at most) of convincing to join their abusers. And humans aren’t traded in bags the size of a head, and all weigh 50 pounds precisely. And Frost Giants aren’t found in the pockets of dead women.
Point is, it’s perfectly fine in this day and especially Age (of War) to let realism fall aside a bit for the convenience of fun. Let modders have their realism, and let paying customers use the war paints they paid for.
But if you HAVE to have realism, here’s a few ways it could be implemented:
• Make it another aspect of Sorcery. You gave us a bench to illusion skins for armors and weapons. You gave us a spell to illusion the effects corruption on players’ bodies. Give us some ability - a spell or aspect of the Thaumaturgy Bench - to illusion permanent war paint onto or off of ourselves.
• Make it another aspect of War. Clans, guilds, tribes and plenty of other names for groups often use tattooing as a symbol of camaraderie. Give us some ability to apply war paints tattoo-style. Let us wipe it away at the Orb of Nergal, then we could add some other war paint tattoo.
It can be done, it should be done, it needs to be done.