Goblin Squad Member
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When looking back at nearly a year of the most contentious topics - those subjects that truly spawned the largest number of disparate viewpoints - one stands above all others...the green hat. Seldom has any item (in meta space) spawned so many different uses, with so many alternative meanings, fostering such diverse emotional states, or so much pure, unadulterated befuddlement as the green hat.
For your reading pleasure, I give you the definitive PFO Forums Green Hat collection:
Nihimon has tipped his green hat at both myself and Bluudwolf. Diella wore her green hat in support of a blog, Proxima sin wants to dye hats green, and green hats are something Tigari is wary of. Andius sees a connection between green hats on Tuesday and shooting oneself in the foot or having one's head split in two with a meat cleaver. Goodfellow apparently fears intimidating, passive people in green hats, yet sometimes, just wants to kill the first green hat wearer he sees, though we hope for his sake that it isn't the green top hat wearing Godzilla that Papaver spotted. An entrepreneurial Cyneric looks forward to taking people's green hats and opening his own green hat supply store. Feydred believes green hats are a sure sign of bloodthirsty, indiscriminate killers, which might be why Lam seems uncertain if an approaching character in a green hat is a friend or foe. Qallz believes there will be no rep loss for green hat Tuesday, which may be why he plans to distribute them to newbies. Yet, for all this negativity, Jazzlvraz wants messages about green hats carved in stone at major crossroads. Urman believes that green hats are items that newbies will have at the start of the game, though Banasama knows a guy who sells them ten to a box for only ten gold, which strikes me as rather odd, since I have them patented. I also tip mine often at others, wear it when playing referee between Nihimon and Bluudwolf, and drag it disappointedly off into jungles when I have to be Simon and die before EE. KitNix advises against wearing them with matching cloaks, Phyllain is advertising an order for all your face stabbing/green hat wearing needs (a promotional +1 green hat of face stabbing included), and Lahn learned that dragging a thread off topic is punishable by being hit with a green hat. Lahn also enjoys jumping over green hats, contributing to green hat packs, apparently knows someone named Bob from the Green Hat Trading Co., believes green hats are something to be doled out, likes to think of them as "Don't PK me please" hats, and suggests demanding that people hand over their green hats and with their pants. Banesama actually thinks green hats could provide sanctuary from combat, while Alk Caskenflagon ponders about green velvet hats in the Talking Head Tavern. Finally, though DeciusBrutus believes green hat killing should reduce notoriety, Areks believes that green hats on Tuesday have the ability to actually transcend the game. You can read all about it in his upcoming novel, "The Green Hat Diaries."
In a class (and paragraph) by himself is Bluddwolf, coiner of the phrase, but oddly enough, the one who seems most confused about the whole thing. Though he plans to kill people wearing green hats or SAD them triple the usual amount, he also receives them as gifts from little old ladies. Even though he believes that green hats will be the item of choice at the Haberdasher's Ball, leading to server wide truces, he is ready to fight people at the drop of a green hat. As much as he doesn't think advertising the sale of QL 250 green hats warrants shouting across a hex, he concedes that they are acceptable rewards for grinding, even if making green hats is on par with basket weaving. Odder still are his views about what one does while wearing green hats, from carrying books out of bars, forgetting about alignment and reputation, skipping off into sunsets, and self-deletion. In trying to understand this rather convoluted obsession with green hats, we have it from a reliable source that Bluddwolf's nanny may have hung herself while wearing a green a hat. If this should prove to be untrue, we will be looking to borrow his "Green Hat of Fire Protection."
(This is a compilation of all the posts containing the mention of green hats - 5 pages worth - by the morning of 11/26/13 on the PFO forums. If I missed yours, please forgive the oversight. *apologetically tips green hat*)
Before I get to the meat of this post, I would like to tell a story. We can call it, "Story Time with Hobs." *Puts on his green hat of storytelling*
In one of the sculpture classes I've taken, I met a young (20-ish) student who liked to blend performance art with his pieces. For his metal casting project he decided to cast a 2' x 3' solid aluminum door. He framed this with a welded steel door frame, then proceeded to weld the door to the frame so that it could never be opened. He then welded on metal rods so that the door could be laid upon the ground and driven into the soil using the rods protruding from the back of the door. However, he didn't want to just drive it into the ground, he planned to dig holes and sink the rods into cement so that there would be little chance of anyone ever prying the door off the ground. After giving it an acceptable, tarnished patina, he and a buddy embedded the door alongside a busy expressway, complete with a bike path, thus ensuring that people would see the door. His plan was that passersby would wonder at the door leading underground. He was certain that some would attempt to make sense of the door, at it's possible use, where it led, etc. Over time, those guesses would give rise to assertions, which over the course of time, would lead to the stuff of urban legend. Thus, on one hand, his door had no real meaning or purpose. On the other, the stories that were generated (though totally wrong) were the point.
Meat of Post --->
Before I wrote this post, I actually researched for any reference of green hats in Pathfinder RPG. Much to my pleasure, I found nothing. I was pleased because the green hat, with all its sundry uses/meanings/etc. as illustrated above, is not game generated content. Rather, this one is all ours. it has evolved from all us. It belongs to this community. The twisted, borrowed, morphed metaphor that is the green hat is what we have made it and keep making it with every mention.
Proposal:
Come OE, the green hat will have taken on its own life. We who are here now will be in on the joke, but those new to PFO will have no clue. As much as we know this began with Bluud's attempt to claim that a seemingly random act of PvP could have meaning for the killer, it has grown far beyond his original intent. So let's have fun with this. Let it be like the sculpture student's door and create our own lore that will spill into the game and be the stuff of PFO River Kingdom urban legend. As an outlet for creativity and a somewhat silly yet fun way to bring us together as a community, I challenge each of you to add a post with your own lore for the green hat. What does it really mean, how has the meaning changed over time, where did it come from, who should or shouldn't wear it and why?
*waves you off like Ferris Beuller at the end of the movie*
Are you still here? Go on. Get outta here. Go make some lore.
Hobs
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Goblin Squad Member
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If I am a crafter, I will stubbornly contend that you do not have a patent of green hats, though I may concede you do have a patent on a particular shade or a process which makes that green "permanent".
Let the battle begin. My hats will have superior color and resiliency. And my shop can under sell yours -- though in another town.
This is proper PvP.
lam
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Goblin Squad Member
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In China, a green hat evidently signals a husband whose wife is cheating on him (the exact story of why seems to vary by my internet search). "His wife put a green hat on him" being the commonly used phrase. I'm trying to write a little something with this in mind; get back to you in a while. :)
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Goblin Squad Member
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Okay, maybe not the best story ever but here's a little something. Tried to make it read like a folk tale from the River Kingdoms. Go easy on it :P
One day the River King who ruled the area at the time, a tyrant who placed large taxes on his subjects, declared that he would set up a toll on any person wishing to use his roads. Many were the River people who spoke against this ruler's ignorance of the River Freedoms; merchants, adventurers, and common folk alike all spoke against the tyrant. The King raised his taxes against the defiant people as punishment, which only provoked their ire further.
The master thief quickly found that the people were lean on coin, and learned of the River King's injustices. Once she knew where all the coin was going, she hatched a plan to take it for herself.
The master thief disguised herself as a Varisian woman, hid her green hat underneath her skirts, and stole a horse, then rode to the castle and was allowed to enter and have the king's audience. Once in the River King's presence, the master thief told him, "I am a fortune teller of great renown in my homelands. I have come here to tell you of a prophetic dream I had. I dreamed of a brave and noble king who might one day rule all the River Kingdoms. However, before he could have such an opportunity the noble king was cut down by a scoundrel in a green hat."
The River King scoffed and replied to the master thief, "Aha, I must be the king you speak of! I must make sure that no man wearing a green hat is allowed anywhere near me!" With that he thanked the master thief and dismissed her, then made a royal declaration: no citizen was allowed to wear a green hat, and any doing so would be put immediately to death. All his guards were ordered to attack on sight any person wearing a green hat. Thus the king ensured that he would not be struck down, and the master thief's prophesy about him becoming king of all the River Kingdoms must come true.
In order to celebrate his coming glories, the king ordered a feast that very night; his cooks and servants busily went to work. At the setting of the sun the feast table was set; many guests were allowed to dine with the king, and the master thief who was still disguised as a fortune teller was seated as the guest of honor. The dining commenced, with every guest eating little of the tyrannic king's ill-gotten feast. The River King himself, however, ate fiercely, and got thoroughly drunk. When the master thief was sure of the king's drunkenness, she carefully slipped a minor poison into the king's drink. After a few minutes the poison took its effect and the River King's stomach let out a ferocious grow; he stumbled out of his throne in his haste to reach his lavatory. The master thief helped the king move to it in his drunkenness, then in the king's living quarters she took off her sash and pulled out her green hat.
When the king emerged from his lavatory into his living quarters, the master thief ambushed him, tying his hands behind his back with her sash and pulling her green hat over his eyes. She quickly doused the lights in the room and ran into the dining hall, leaving the drunken king to stumble about bound and blinded. When in the dining hall, the master thief cried out dramatically, "Guards, help! There's an assassin in a green hat inside the king's quarters!" With that the guards rushed off towards the king's quarters while the thief ran in the opposite direction, towards the castle's treasury.
The king's guard emerged into the darken room and struck down the king, thinking him the assassin in the green hat. At the same time the master thief worked quickly to disable the castle's protections on the treasury. By the time the guards had realized they had killed the king and alerted all the guests at the feast, the master thief had already taken all the gold she could carry from the castle's treasury and escaped the castle.
The thief left half of her gold at the local church along with another green hat, and took off out of town on her stolen horse. The people of that town celebrate the day of their freedom from the tyrant king by wearing green hats, and the tradition of the green hat has spread from there throughout the River Kingdoms.
Qallz believes there will be no rep loss for green hat Tuesday, which may be why he plans to distribute them to newbies.
Innocent until proven guilty. ;-)
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Goblin Squad Member
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In the movie Green Hornet a bunch of people were killed for wearing green. Not sure if it's related to the green hat idea, but it's what I think of every time I hear about green hats here.Write us a short, homemade legend with that at it's core. :)
Here you go. I tried to follow up on Shane Gifford's story. I guess it's not so much of a legend as just somebody's bad day.
She was having a bad day. Cold reasoning skills were all that kept her temper in check ... at least in check most of the time.
It all started when she made the mistake of trying to read over lunch at some tavern. The Green Hat. She'd heard of strange tavern names before, but this one made no sense to her. Apparently it was some form of annual holiday today. Not a religious one, but more likely some form of local tradition. Annoyingly enough, every last person in the tavern was wearing a green hat of some form - except her.
Having her reading interrupted every couple of minutes to answer idiotic questions about where her hat was got old quickly. Having a few drunkards bump into her and accidently spill ale on her left her feeling very uncomfortable and smelling of alcohol. But the worst? The worst was the idiot who spilled on her spellbook.
After that reading was pointless. Her temper kept getting the better of her and concentrating on the details of the spells she was trying to learn was pointless. So she returned to her room in the tavern and gathered her pack. Tucking a few extra pieces of paper into the spellbook in a hope of soaking up the spilled ale, she placed it gingerly into her pack and checked out of the tavern.
Outside wasn't much better. Even the children were wearing green hats. More questions about her lack of a hat got old very quickly and her temper started flaring up again. She kept it in check - just barely - on the way out of town.
It was the guards at the wall who finally caused her to snap. "No hat today lass?" "Nah, she don't care 'bout the River Freedoms."
She didn't even realize she was casting an enchantment on them until she was almost done. The cold uncaring part of her was pleased with the improvements in her ease with magic.
The four guards stood immobilized before her, their faces frozen in fear. She moved up to the one who wasn't wearing a green hat. He was a wispy boy, perhaps no older than fifteen. Instead of a green hat he had his helmet on and leaves tucked into it to make it look green. It was laughably bad and she couldn't help but smirk at him.
"What's this celebration about?" she asked, her voice cold in malice.
"A thief who freed us from a tyrant king. He left a green hat as a symbol of freedom for us." He stammered out, partly in fear and partly in confusion at her lack of knowledge of the legend.
She rolled her eyes at the boy soldier and pulled a dagger from a sheathe on his belt. With quick work she opened up the necks of the three other immobilized guards, picturing the drunkard who had spilled on her spellbook each time she killed.
Turning to the boy, she gave him a wink. Wiping the blood from the dagger off on his uniform, she placed it back into the sheathe.
"Why?!" was the only thing he could get out at her framing of him for three murders.
"They were wearing green and you weren't." She looked again at his ridiculous attempt at putting leaves in his helmet and smirked again.
He just stared at her in fear. She released the spell and he fled.
She'd have to leave this town and go somewhere else. Thornkeep perhaps?
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Goblin Squad Member
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Thanks, Shane. It is a holiday weekend, so maybe they are too busy, don't like to write, or have other more important things to spend their valuable online time doing...I know how that is. Also, some may not care for how green hats in general (see all the different comments in my first post) are tied to some people's notion of PvPing someone for a particular item, like the Pants Monday that I believe Murder Herd used to do. My hope was that if you didn't like someone else's interpretation, you could attach your own and sort of "crowdforge" where the lore was headed. We'll see. :)
