First and foremost, we would like to extend a huge thank you to our member-base for being patient while we worked through some changes. Particularly, we are very grateful for everyone’s understanding as we took time off from our regular updates and accepting suggestions — this time has allowed us to reset, refocus, and give some much-needed breathing room. Having said that, we are very excited to find a new rhythm!
As we near the end of the year, we thought that now was a good time to check-in with a small update. We hope that 2023 will be another amazing year, and we look forward to sharing it with everyone.
We love getting to make the holiday season a little extra-special for the community, and know that you guys love it too. This year, we have a variety of things planned (including some brand new events), so please make sure to read everything over and get involved in anything and everything that interests you!
This year, we have our annual Advent Calendar, in addition to Holiday-Themed IC Random Events and a Den Decorating Contest!
For the full information on these events and to learn more, please take a look at this thread!
The results for our October BWP are in — based on the community’s posting and the final point count, Maua has managed to subdue Kivuli and maintain their control over the lands of Amaryllis. Even though the dark deity has retreated back into the shadows (for now), rest assured that this is not the last time that you will hear of them. So enjoy the perceived peace will you can, because it won’t last forever.
Additionally, because of our evolving site lore, we have also made the decision to remove the Native Pass and replace it with an Old Lore Pass. Essentially, it gives a character instant-knowledge of all of the site’s lore, including what occurred pre-Amaryllis, irrespective of where they were born.
We are also working on revamping the Guidebook’s lore page to include recent developments, and hope to have this up-to-date soon!
We know that the majority of our members get along really well and we are very grateful for that — we love seeing you all support, encourage, and accept one another, and watching as you all enjoy each other’s company and handle disagreements in kind and thoughtful ways is inspiring.
However, we also know that this isn’t always possible. It’s completely okay for not everyone to get along — but to help the Sr.Staff team mitigate inter-member conflicts in the future, we will be making an addition to the Guidebook in this regard. In short, we are adding an expectation of behaviour and conduct, even in times of disagreement or difficulty — and we expect everyone to be able to follow this.
Moving forward, every member of Amaryllis needs to share this space with others in a respectful and civil manner. Even if you do not mesh with another member, you are expected to conduct yourself without being mean, nagging, dragging up old issues, displaying passive aggressive behaviour, pulling other members into things, and so forth. We ask that, if you are going to be a member here and have an issue with another member, you recognize that you do not need to interact with them in any capacity and that they are allowed to be here just as much as you are.
This applies to everyone, equally and consistently. We do not condone malicious or passive-aggressive behavior and hope that this addition to the Guidebook will hold everyone to a better standard — for the health, enjoyment, and benefit of the community as a whole.
If you are experiencing issues with any members, please let Sr. Staff know, with screenshots, as soon as possible. The sooner we know what is going on, the sooner we can act and try and rectify the situation.
We want the site to be a place where everyone is able to come, feel safe, and enjoy their time while roleplaying. Anything outside of that isn't needed and won't be tolerated. If you are unable to share the space with those you don't get along with, you will be asked to step away until you are able to.
We understand that, at times, characters are unofficially "killed off" for various reasons (such as stress/real life/etc.), and then when things settle down, it may be a point of regret. We want to strike a balance between being fair and open to flexibility, and keeping in mind the spirit of the site.
To help find this balance, we have developed some loose guidelines to account for these unique circumstances. Please note that these are general guidelines; for situations like this, a formal request must be made to Sr. Staff so that can look at it case-by-case.
- If the account has been moved to an afterlife tier, they can't come back from it.
- If an IC death post has been posted by the account, they can't come back from it.
- If there is a DM request pending/approved and the character "dies" without an on-the site death post, the DM request will be treated like our rules for inactive accounts (on the Death Match page of the Guidebook).
- If the account was deleted, all character creation items need to be paid for, and the original RDG or gifts cannot be reused.
- When Sr.Staff looks at the case in question, they will take into account the IC circumstances and explanation for their return to determine whether or not it is plausible/realistic.
We hope that we do not need to use these Guidelines very often, but believe that having them here will be a good foundation for problem-solving any of these types of scenarios.
Our community-wide suggestions will be opening back up, and suggestions will happen every other month moving forward. This means that the schedule for open suggestions will be: Dec, Feb, April, June, Aug, Oct, Dec.
Suggestions are only able to be submitted via our Discord server. If you are not on Discord and wish to have a suggestion submitted on your behalf, please send it to a Staff member for submission.
Just as an update: our planned Guidebook review is taking us a little longer than we hoped. We are taking the time to be as thorough and as thoughtful as we can, while also being flexible to the team’s schedules and busy lives. We anticipate that you will notice a good amount of streamlined changes, clarification, and wording adjustments once we are done with it — so we promise that it will be worth the wait!
Additionally, if you are interested in being part of the Guidebook Review Team, please reach out to an Admin or Sr.Staff member - it’s not too late to get involved. It’s all still a work-in-progress, but we feel good about the direction that it is going and will provide updates as we get closer to completion.
Though not mandatory, we strongly encourage you to use the Account Switcher plug-in in the User CP to link all of your accounts, both OOC and IC, together. Having your accounts attached in this way is extremely helpful for the Staff team, and is also what allows you to show up in our member directory.
Don’t know how to attach your accounts? Check out our step-by-step how-to guide!
— The Staff Team