empatheias_ooc | Mod Announcement: February

— MONTHLY MOD ANNOUNCEMENT: FEBRUARY —

Selenium has ended and it is now February. It's also leap year this year, so we have 29 days!! We have a few notes just so summarize/wrap up last month's events, but at least for this mod post, there's not much from our side. However, that means there's a lot to talk about in terms of player plots and events, so read it just as thoroughly and attentively like always!

» CALENDAR

The main calendar spreadsheet has been updated here.

But here are the basic dates to keep up with:

2/01: Canon and Original Character Applications open.
2/07: Applications close; Reservations close.
2/03~2/04: PLAYER EVENT: Chinese New Year Festival
2/05~2/12: PLAYER PLOT: Gate of Truth
2/13: CR Meme.
2/16: Test Drive.
2/23: Activity Check starts; Reservations open.
2/29: Activity Check ends.
3/01: Applications open.

In terms of weather, snow is still falling but it's a bit lighter than previous. ...Of course with certain events happening, the weather could change along with moods so who knows. But for now, just stick to your "normal February cold day" schedules. (For those who live in southern climates, think constant 40s, touching 30s °F.)

» ACTIVITY CHECK RESULTS

Below are the following who were either removed from the Activity Check or dropped out of the game. The list includes all characters who left the game throughout the month. The following names will also be posted in a visible place within the residential area where most of the characters are residing. This list reflects the names that are also on the wall.

Armaros |

voiceless_songbird
Cormag |

wyvernlance
Haruka Nanase |

oyogihoudai
Haseo |

dualgunner
Kurogane |

tsuninja
Megumi Hakone |

mugenhatsuden
Mukuro Ikusaba |

disappointingact
N Harmonia |

enharmonicchord
Rin Matsuoka |

jumpstheshark
Tis Arrior |

thiswarrior
Vincent Nightray |

untraces
Wanda Maximoff |

sokovianwitch

The following received strikes and must pass this month's Activity Check to remain in the game.

lifetooshort

peggy_carter

rustyhonesty

tough_love

Those who made fulfilled the "Free Pass" requirement can be found on this spreadsheet. When you use your pass, we will mark it off.

If there are any mistakes, please let us know ASAP!

» JOBS & TASK BOARD

The Task Board has been updated so characters can start taking on odd jobs if they are so inclined. Details as to how the Task Board works and sign-up can be found here. In addition, there is a Job List sheet that list out more permanent jobs available for characters. These are different from the Task Board jobs as they can be used as part-time or full-time jobs and do not have any specific time period. If you want your character to have a job, that's it. This is also where we will list character run businesses. So if you have one or are thinking about one, there will be a place where it can be referenced and looked at. You can even make tasks relating to your business.

» EMOTION TRACKER UPDATE

The Emotion Tracker has been updated with the February sheets all brand spanking new. Anyone who posts after this announcement will be added to the February sheets (so any late January tallies can still be counted).

While you are free to look at the entire sheet, here's a (lazy) screenshot of what matters:

Again positive. Why positive. Don't you guys want bad things to happen!? Don't make us force our hand—!

In all seriousness, Peromei just got dumped with a bunch of feels, but it's kind of even in terms of positive and negative. She may have actually had a bit more negative from her aligned, so it was mostly the unaligned who helped bring out more positive. Aiada, Elios, and Piphron seem to have come out ahead in terms of the positive vs. negative ratio, with Aiada REALLY getting a positive boost. Aw.

Also. Take a look at those apathy points. YOU ACTUALLY BROKE 100 CONGRATULATIONS and you almost got to 200! New goal unlocked.

With these numbers we should be able to devise something more concrete—and with the next "game festival event" not until April, we should have some time, including bouncing off plots in this month. It might end up staggered or we'll burn everyone out, but we'll try to weave everything in.

» TREE OF MEMORIES POD UPDATE

So as we mentioned last month, we have a Pod Tracker for the Tree of Memories. Selenium was designed as a deliberate push for some pods to ripen, and boy did we get a lot, especially for Daimonia, Elios, and Peromei. This means that more pods will fall over time, but we may vary how they fall so that they get the right attention and without overloading folks with these pods.

» NIGHT OF SELENIUM WRAP UP

Here's a quick recap of what happened at the end of Selenium. Aside from the event itself, a few days afterward six pods fell from the tree. These pods revealed past memories of different Selenium-like festivals, with some giving more of a glimpse of the Arehtei's past. While they were mostly fluff pieces to further flesh out our favorite not!gods, there were some clues hidden in a couple of them.

For those who may have missed or want to look back again, the event post is here with quick reference to the memories here.

As of today, the pods are no longer open and instead are closed up.

» ENFORCERS "OTHERWORLDER UNIT" UPGRADE

A lot of discussions have been going on about the player run section of the Enforcers. For those who may not know, last year a player run unit was established and is currently run by Bobby (Meowzy) and Edea (Wighty). With the game and the unit growing, and a more variety of characters now in, they've been working hard to make things more interesting for everyone.

So as a first step, they have created a specific journal for themselves:

enforcersrecords. This journal is to help them keep track of everything as well as for organization. It has an information page, roster, sign-ups, and something really cool and new.

The Case Board.

This case board functions similarly to the game's own Task Board. They will put up cases and other jobs that those of the group can take on, so this will hopefully allow more onscreen action from the group. In addition, they welcome non-Enforcer members to submit their own crimes. The characters don't have to be involved, but they could if the player would like to have their character as a witness.

As mods we are also going to work hard to incorporate them into our events when a disaster strikes or there may be some conflicts that they could help take charge in.

There are other ideas that they are working on, but we'll let them talk more about them when they got it all nailed down. So that's the end of our promo—go check it out! They have their monthly IC post here.

» CHINESE NEW YEAR FESTIVAL = INTRO LOG

As a heads up, China and Lu Meng are going to be hosting a Chinese New Year Festival. Given the timing, we are going to utilize the festival and let it be the game's monthly character introduction log.

» GATE OF TRUTH

Most of you should be aware, but just in case there are those who don't track the OOC Community frequently and only have mod posts tracked, this is an official heads up regarding an upcoming plot that could affect several people and later NPC reactions.

The actual details can be found here, here, and here. For dates, the actual event is occurring on February 12, but the kidnappings are starting earlier. If you haven't discussed this with your current CR yet, please do so!

» IC REPRESENTATIVES CAMPAIGNS

Sooo in regards to the IC campaigns for representatives, we are a bit at a crossroads here. So far, only two people signed up, and while that works to hit our minimum, we are starting to wonder if there is any actual interest regarding the campaigns.

While we would like to continue this as it allows another opportunity for players and characters to be involved, we also don't want to have something around if it's unnecessary. So this is a quick poll to see where everyone stands on this. If it's more of a timing issue (since February is proving to about to have some severe trust issues), then we can always postpone until later OR have people arbitrarily chosen (with player permission) until a more suitable time occurs.

Regardless, here's a poll so we can figure this out where to go with the representatives.

Poll #17289 IC Representatives

This poll is closed.
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: Just the Poll Creator, participants: 16

Keep the system?

Yes
15 (100.0%)

No
0 (0.0%)

Is it a timing issue?

Yes
10 (62.5%)

No
6 (37.5%)

If yes, should we hold it at a later time?

Yes
6 (37.5%)

No
2 (12.5%)

Indifferent
8 (50.0%)

Should we appoint "temporary" reps?

Yes
6 (46.2%)

No
7 (53.8%)

Would you sign up to either volunteer your character or run a campaign?

Yes
8 (50.0%)

No
8 (50.0%)

You may notice that most of the questions are hard yes and no questions. This is by design, as we want actual answers and a majority "neutral" answer won't help us much. So if you are neutral, please still pick a side!

The poll will run until February, 5th.

» CRYSTAL CLUE HUNTERS

You were not forgotten. January proved to have a lot of plots circling around, some of which were related to handing out clues (and some of you guys already got involved). Assuming those who signed up are still interested, we will field out the remaining via PM throughout the month, hopefully within the first week.

------------------------

That's it for now! If you have any questions, concerns, or want things clarified, please comment to the post!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Hi mods!

Since the latest pod drop mentioned a Verens in Aiada's memory, I'd like to ask a couple of questions about the history of Emp, and if these questions could ICly be read up by the characters at the library/discussions with the librarians?

1. Does the earliest historical records mention if the city was built on the island after it was floated, or if the city has just always been there and the Empatheians have just lost the records on the city's foundations?

2. Were there any different kinds of Night of Selenium celebrations throughout the available history of Empatheians, and were any of them very similar to Aiada's?

The answers to the following questions CAN be found in the library, mostly for scholars and researchers.

1) There are indications that the city has more or less always been there, however there are mentions of damage and the need to rebuild portions. Rather than a completely new city, it could be inferred and stated that the current Verens has expanded and built on top of the original. There are still original structures and foundations, and there are old city blueprints HOWEVER—these seem to be badly smeared and damage so it's hard to really make much detail. As to when the city was originally found, the records for that are lost. There are various references made in other materials to indicate that the city is quite old, however, and certainly pre-dates the 800 years it's been floating in the air.

2) Night of Selenium itself was always celebrated, however like all traditions, it's evolved and taken on different forms of actual practice. For a real world example, you can take Christmas for an easy example, and for a bit more complex, you can look at the various rituals and practices for revering the dead from the variety of cultures around the world. While the core tradition usually follows along, with the change in time, society, and culture, the focuses and nuances change. So there would be records (mostly in the form of stories and social history) regarding the varying ways Selenium was done over the years.

As for Aiada, anything involving the memory that Aiada recalled would not be found. In terms of the scene of what Aiada actually experience, it's a bit too vague to really pull anything out in terms of "what ritual" they were performing. Lanterns were always used regardless and was carried over in each iteration of Selenium, no matter what changes were made.

Mod Announcement: February

Lore Questions wrt Memory Pod Drop

Re: Lore Questions wrt Memory Pod Drop