empatheias_ooc | Mid-Month Announcement: February (Reply)

— MID-MONTHLY MOD ANNOUNCEMENT: FEBRUARY —

More like late month, but fortunately not too much to cover! Well except to explain the thing that happened last week.

» CALENDAR

Here are the dates you should know for the rest of the month. The main calendar spreadsheet can be found here (and it has been updated!).

2/16: Test Drive.
2/22: Activity Check starts; Reservations open.
2/28: Activity Check ends.
3/01: Applications open.

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» EMOTION TRACKER UPDATE

As always, it's kind of early to tell where the Emotion Tracker is going.

As a reminder, this is just a "mid-month" check to give everyone an idea of where the Emotion Tracker stands. If you haven't had a chance to submit your threads, don't worry! You can still submit and have it count for the final tally at the end of the month.

Here is the screenshot for this month so far:

Oooh negative. Exciting. Of course there are only 10 responses so far, so this all can change. And because of the giant floating crystal being broken, I can once again give the state of that! It is...!! Still glowing happily light gold. What, you think a measly -17 points, especially with no apathy thrown in there, will bring it down?

For those of you who have forgotten or just have no clue what this all means, be puzzled no longer! The section below has the explanation.

» RE: SIMPATHIS'S APPEARANCE AND EVERYTHING ABOUT IT

Last weekend, all the puzzle pieces were put together and the results were a big show of a lot of things. For the vets, it was cool. For the newbies, it was cool but also probably very confusing. So this is the breakdown of what happened and where it could go for the future.

The compass. All the pieces found in the strange rooms in Lavieti's underground sanctuary came together to form a large compass of sorts. The only catch, though, is that instead of pointing true north, it pointed to the giant floating crystal that hovers above the city.
- Current state. After that particular light show, it is not pointing in any direction currently. That is to say, the crystal needle is just spinning aimlessly.
- Experiments. There are theories as to how the compass it so work, but experiments will be done. We will conduct these through the task board next month.
- Future use. The compass will indeed be necessary for a lot of future plot points, so figuring it out how it works relatively quickly will be key. Relative in that the experiments performed should be enough to get a better idea of what it does so that it can be used in other endeavors.
Riddle thing. In addition to the compass, the paper fragments found in the rooms were pieced together to reveal two lines of poetry. "When Golden Rays meet Silver Night // the Paths will open to cleanse the Blight." Although these two lines could stand alone, it is believed that this is actually part of a larger piece. Like with the compass, more will need to be done, but unlike the compass finding the rest of the parts will be kept to mod controlled events since they are significant plot points.
- Call for Adventurers! However, while we could just easily plop the stuff down when it happens, it would be more fun if interested parties tried to at least help search where to even start. This is where those who like to do adventures could come in. If you'd like your character and others to try and find at least a tangible clue of where other fragments are, then just make a request on the Adventures & Excursions thread. This may even help influence which direction we go next!
The giant floating crystal. Most in the game know this, but those who do not, Verens has a giant floating crystal hovering above a tall observatory and can be seen at all points of the city. In the past, it was used to monitor the state of the island's emotions. When it was mostly positive, it shimmered gold, when it was negative, a dull silver grey, and when neutral, just mostly silver. This helped the citizens gauge how things are going and if things spin too negative, try to work it back to positive. Back in September 2015, it broke during the battle between Elios and Sosyne and all it did was just float in the sky with strange character glyphs displayed on its surface. Several attempts were made to fix it, but it was only now that it's returned to its formal state.

If you wonder why we didn't put too much focus on the crystal, it's mostly due to it not really playing much of a role at the time. Even now it won't see as much attention as in the early days, but it is a part of the environment setting. So huzzah, it's fixed!
Simpathis. The first real glimpse of what the mysterious eighth Arehtei has been revealed. A hippogriff in form, now everyone can put something of a face to the Arehtei that embodied sympathy and apathy. As some may have noticed, the more that is done regarding Simpathis's domain, the more sympathy and apathy effects there are. CONNECTED OR COINCIDENCE!?!?!? Throw of the dice on that one.
Mysterious city thing? After the giant light show, an image of a city or tower-like structure reflected against the surface of the floating crystal. Currently, no one knows what it is or what meaning it holds. But if it showed up, it must mean it's important, right? Maybe the compass and riddle are key in finding it.
- Call for Adventurers! Like the riddle, if there are those who are interested in trying to find hints or clues to help identify or locate this structure, then an adventure is the way to go. Bear in mind that this isn't supposed to be an easy to find thing—something of a long-term goal. So we may throw red herrings or dead ends, but not without at least something else gained so it won't be a complete loss.

And that should cover at least most of what happened in that post and what direction it will take us—at least for that plot point. It's being deliberately broken up so that it can be dispersed and handled by different parties and at different times. Like several "main quests" of an RPG.

» OTHER INTERESTING THINGS

For those who may not have noticed, the investigations heading to outside of Theasthai have very interesting results. But we are not going to announce those results ourselves, preferring to have such things be revealed ICly through the game. So slots are still open and players can still participate!

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And that's about it! If you have any questions, concerns, or want things clarified, just comment to this post.

Mid-Month Announcement: February

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