AMENDED November Update - Please Read

[moustre]

Regarding the Monster-Witch Swap Mechanic
Truly when we posted the announcement about this, we didn’t foresee the concerns overwhelmingly listed on the previous announcement. We never meant to cause anybody any strife when it comes to playing their characters ICly. These were not issues that we anticipated being so widespread. We do apologize that the implementation was not up to snuff, and so we are pulling the swap mechanic in order to reassess and come up with something that will be more feasible for a larger portion of the game. The information in the previous announcement no longer applies and will be revised as such:

During the Samuin fireworks, a witch finishes an experimental ritual that transfers his witch abilities to the Mirrorbound Harpy Four, and changes him into a Harpy in turn. Nessie is quick to catch on, as one of the ingredients for this ritual is a near-extinct flower found only in her gardens, and the Coven moves swiftly to keep it contained and quiet - Nessie personally takes custody of all the Witch-turned-Harpy's research. Such a magic has never before been seen in Aefenglom’s history, and thus the information is not released to the general public. It is possible for Mirrorbound characters to hear about what happened, especially if they know Four, but it’s just as likely that the happenings on Samuin remain a secret.

Any other Mirrorbound who do hear about it, and approach Nessie to switch with a witch or a monster are denied with a concerned frown (unless where explicitly worked out OOCly between the player and the mod team). It’s still highly experimental magic and not safe - not to mention, she’s been cultivating these required near-extinct flowers for years, and has very few left alive in her garden to show for it after the theft. She will not risk someone’s life and risk fully killing off this species of flower, which is also currently part of a line of Cwyld cure research, on a whim - it is exceedingly difficult to cultivate, even with Faun magic and Witch magic combined. They’ve tried.

Characters may notice security around the Coven is increased after Samuin, especially around Nessie’s private garden, and anyone speaking too loudly about not liking being a witch/monster are given the side-eye by higher up Coven witches. They don’t give Mirrorbound too much of a hard time but what happened with Four and her now-Harpy “friend” are a bit of an open secret just within the Coven walls. Most of them don’t approve of such antics, especially after the mist, due to the inherent dangers.

This means that your characters can generally go about their days not hearing about the possibility of swapping at all, if that’s easier for you, or they can be denied directly by Nessie if they pursue it.

However, if you are truly having trouble playing your character in their current monster or witch form, please PM the mod journal and we will offer you the same opportunity that Four’s player received, to work out a feasible swap on an individual, one-on-one basis.

Swapping into a dragon or fae is still not allowed. If you truly want your character to be a dragon or fae after all, you’re welcome to drop and reapp them as one come January’s round. We will allow memories of Aefenglom to be kept upon re-acceptance.

We will not be currently implementing swaps on a widespread scale until we’ve had a chance to re-assess and work out a better direction for it, and we appreciate your feedback on the matter that helped us come to this conclusion.


Regarding Cast and Franchise Caps
We knew this would be an unpopular decision. Caps are never fun but we feel they have become necessary in a game this size. While we did read and take into consideration everyone’s opinions on the October Mid-Month post, we also have to take into consideration the concerns expressed to us through private channels. As mods, we have to give everyone’s opinion weight when making our decisions - not just the opinions posted in public. This sort of decision ultimately has to be made by the mod team based on what we think will be best for the entire game. We do apologize for any disappointment or negative feelings this may cause, and we don’t do this lightly.

Currently, we are sticking to our decision on the numbers, though we may re-assess these in the future as the size of the game and makeup of the taken list change. Individual canons will be capped at 10. Franchises will be capped at 24 total. Fandom OCs are capped at 3 per canon where applicable.

Franchises are not determined by whether or not the worlds in each individual title cross over ICly or not. In order to be fair across the board and not give any one franchise special treatment or ‘extra slots’, we determine what a franchise is based on titling, branding, if it can reasonably be called a ‘series’, etc. Based on OOC information, not IC information, essentially. We do consider each on an individual basis but we have to have a consistent reasoning behind it.

The franchises currently represented in game are as follows: Fate/ series, Fire Emblem series, Final Fantasy series, Marvel, Persona series, and The Legend of Heroes: Trails series. Other things we would consider to be franchises are DC, the Tales Of series, etc.

Original Characters will not be capped, including DnD and tabletop OCs. We apologize for that confusion - it was bad wording on our part, and we fully accept the blame there. Critical Role and The Adventure Zone, and similar canons, despite being DnD based, would be considered their own separate canons and would have the cast cap of 10 applied for each.

We did consider a game cap, but instead we settled on something we feel was missed from the October Mid-Month post: we will be implementing an application round cap going forward. January will be the last uncapped round, because we promised that in the poll as a compromise for closing applications in November. What this cap will be is yet to be decided - we will determine what it should be based on the size of the game after January’s app round, and it will be announced well in advance of March’s application round when it will go into effect.

We appreciate everyone’s feedback, negative and positive both. We always want to take player opinions into consideration where we can, but unfortunately, sometimes we have to make the hard and unpopular decisions, as with caps. As far as the swapping mechanics go, we see now what kinds of problems it could cause implemented the way we were going to - please consider all of that from the last post scrapped, and refer to this announcement instead.

We haven’t replied to everyone on the previous announcement post and likely won’t individually (it’s a lot, guys, we’re sorry!), but if your concern or question was not covered or clarified in this announcement, please let us know, here, or on the Mod Contact post if you prefer to air it in private.

The CR Meme for November will still go up today at 3 PM EST.