The Phoenix Project Status Update, Monday, June 24, 2013

The Phoenix Project
Status Update, Monday, June 24, 2013
By: Segev

Some hard news hit our community this past week. I do not wish to belabor it, because nothing I could say could really do justice to the emotions people felt and still feel. Our community is strong, and we will persevere. The Phoenix Project mourns along with the rest of our community.

This is not new development, but I would like to take the occasion to talk a little bit about how we plan to memorialize those who have departed who have left a mark upon the hearts of this community, because it has come up before. We want to remember without dwelling upon sorrow.

Titan City is a place of hope - whether for justice, or for personal advancement - and so while it will not forget, it will not be a city-sized mausoleum. Instead, it is a city of rebirth, where we look to the world of tomorrow while we remember those who came before. So, let us meet more of the city, and see the story behind an area very relevant to the emotions we are all feeling right now.

Following World War II, the city set aside a plot of land, as many cities did, upon which to create a memorial. For Titan City, they chose to make a memorial garden on a hill on the edge of Rhinehart park. The garden is surrounded by a decorative black wrought iron fence, having a brick-paved walkway which leads past an open grassy area filled with statues of heroes. On the west edge of the grassy area there is a lily-studded pond fed by a small formal stream that winds its way through a simple maze of lavender hedges. To the east, the brick walkway leads past a small information kiosk with information on each fallen hero memorialized here into the hedge maze. Trees of varying ages and species dot the maze, providing shadow for visitors. The maze itself is filled with nooks and corners, some empty and some holding elegantly carved wooden and ornately forged iron benches. Each bench has a plaque on one arm, naming the fallen hero it is dedicated to, and every tree has a plaque embedded in the brick beneath it. At the top of the hill there is a circle of apple and cherry trees. Inside the tree circle, there is a formal Victorian gazebo painted white, with scarlet and yellow roses climbing on trellises around the support pillars. A bed of violets, chrysanthemums, calla lilies, tulips, and snapdragons circles the gazebo, with four brick-paved walkways through the circle into the gazebo itself. We will not forget our great ones, our friends, our heroes and our beloved companions. This is how we choose to do so, with taste and decorum, with honor and reverence, and still keeping the city as a whole a place of growth and forward-looking hope.

This monument is a place for us to stop and remember and to introduce new players to our history, without making newcomers feel they're walking through a museum or mausoleum just by entering the game. I wanted to talk about this because I feel it important to discuss just how we will memorialize people in our game. Let us pray and hope that we do not have more names to add to this memorial before the Phoenix Project launches. We will always remember our friends.