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Hey there and welcome to the rules and tutorials page! Here, you'll find everything you need in terms of hard-line regulations, as well as guides and helpful links to working your way around Aeipathy. Use this page if you're stuck at all on how to do things like, apply for a character, create a wanted ad, message a member of staff. If you have a suggestion for a guide, tutorial or just helpful information that you think should go here, simply send a PM to our staff team at "admin" and we'll be happy to look into it! Please note that, while most of this page is voluntary reading and here to help you, our Rule Guide should be read by all of our members and checked whenever an update or change is announced.
Communication
Be respectful to each other. It's not a difficult rule and it's the most important one. If you can't be a polite human being and be considerate of the feelings of others then please leave - this is not the forum for you.
Alongside simple pleasantness is our policy of anti-discrimination and anti-argumentative language. We're all up for fun debates and interesting conversation but if you feel a certain way about something that you know to be controversial or potentially offensive, then please either keep it to yourself or word it very, very carefully. We do not tolerate any form of deliberately offensive language or discrimination against any kind of person or state of being. Anyone found to be deliberately discriminatory or rude may be removed without warning from the forum.
Personal drama should be kept to a minimum. We understand that life can be stressful and we fully encourage our members to make friends and share aspects of their lives with one another. However, there is a limit to be drawn here. This site is designed to be a place of fun - a retreat from the hassles of everyday life. So, before you feel the need to rant and expunge your crazy life drama all over Discord or our OOC boards, please be cautious of how much you share or, at least, in what tone you share it. Someone who is constantly complaining or talking negatively can bring down the mood of the site and discourage others from actively participating in conversations. We don't want to discourage you from sharing your life or to pretend your life is perfect but please remember that roleplaying is a hobby and escape. We want our site spaces to be primarily positive, not just a space for bemoaning hardships. We're not saying we don't care - just please help us to keep the site fun.
Please choose a name for your Discord profile and stick with it. An occasional change isn't too bad but to keep flicking between different usernames can be very confusing for other members - especially if we think a new member has joined us when, in fact, they haven't.
Profanity and swearing are perfectly allowed on all OOC communications, so long as it is not directed specifically at other members. We also ask that the profanities not be used to describe overtly crude or offensive content. Any language or word choices that have a history of racial discrimination or hate, however, are not permitted. Even in jokes, quotes or another context. We have a diverse community of people from all walks of life and though we do not judge those who believe these words appropriate to be used in certain circumstances, we request that all members respect that we do not know the background and personal feelings that every member on the site/server and therefore not use them in deference to them.
Registration
We have a one character per account rule. While we know this can be annoying for some people, our staff have been on forums before where this rule was not implemented and it was both confusing and difficult to manage. As such, we insist on a single character per account. You can use the same email address for every account you make, so you do not have to keep making new email accounts. And, if you use the same password for each account and have your browser remember it, it is the work of two moments to switch between accounts, using the link in the top left of the forum. As well as the identifying name in the top left of the site, we also have a customised layout in which your current account's image is displayed beside the reply box, reminding you which account you are in at any one time. If you do accidentally post a message in the wrong character account, simply delete it and re-login with the correct account to post again, or request a staffer member to use our Ghost-Writing feature to re-skin the post as if it were posted by the correct character. Please note that this second option will not change your post count totals.
To avoid cheating (on polls and such) or spamming, if a constant change in your IP address is brought to an admin's attention, you will be asked for the reason. If you are unable to provide one, your account(s) may be banned from the site. IP addresses are only ever checked after spamming rules are broken or if needed to keep banned members off the forum or to confirm poll votes and the like. If you are a normal user who only operates a few different devices and IPs for your character, you should have no concerns regarding this rule.
Application
All character applications must be completed within one month. Applications for canon or wanted characters must be completed within two weeks. Any application that has not been submitted for review within those appropriate time frames will be open to other members seeking to create them. If another member requests to creation of a character whose username is already in play by an account that is over its application deadline, we will message the original creator and give them a 48 hour deadline. If their account is not complete by then, it will be removed without warning and reopened for the second member to start the creation process for the character. We keep all information from every account we remove on Aeipathy, meaning that old accounts can be recreated. Just DM our Head Admin on Discord to retrieve the information you need when recreating your account.
When creating new characters, Aeipathy is fairly restriction free. We hold no time limits, accumulative counts or gender ratio restrictions. Our only ask is that your current characters have each acquired 30 IC posts and that they have contributed to our Events and/or Provincial Stories. A "contribution" must be the interact/connection with three different characters (ergo, you cannot post your character hidden in a corner - they must integrate). This can be an interaction with three different characters in one Event, or one character in each of three Events, or any such combination. Our only rule is that each character is different. These requirements are less daunting than they sound when our Event threads usually contain a large portion of our members' characters, including staff, all of whom are eager to help any member achieve their required contribution to unlock a new character. These requirements are in place on Aeipathy, not to make our members' lives difficult but to ensure that all current characters are active, with current storylines and multiple IC connections, ensuring that they will continue to be looked after as their member is excited for their shiny new character.
When claiming a canon character, all claims are limited to one canon character per House. This includes marital Houses for women. Aka, if they were born in one but married into another that member cannot apply for a second canon in either House. The husband's loyalties in this scenario are not divided and remain with his birth house so the same is not true for his player.
We do not have a character limit on Aeipathy but we do expect you to keep all the characters that you have active. Some people can manage a whole handful of characters and post with each on a daily basis, others struggle to keep the activity up with just one or two - we leave it to you and your self-intuition to know what you character limit is. If you have multiple characters, however, and are not maintaining a decent level of activity with each one, our staff may be forced to step in. To define "decent level of activity" is dependent on the character. If you, for example, have an original character who spends large amounts of time out at sea, and you only use them irregularly, this is not a problem. If you have a character involved in multiple plot-lines and time-sensitive relationships with other members and are still only using them irregularly, this could be a problem. This is especially true of any canon character who already have relationships and plots built in upon their creation. Basically, our staff define a "decent level of activity" via how much of a hold up you are creating for other members. Members who want to post but are unable to because of the activity of another writer can lose interest in a site very quickly and we like to keep as many of our members as happy as possible, for as long as possible.
Please note that the above activity requirements work alongside our Aeipathy Activity System, the information for which can be found below in the "Activity" section.
Roleplaying
All posts are to be written in third person limited and in past tense. They must also be written in English. While many browsers offer the option to have a page translated the translation is never amazingly accurate so, unfortunately, we do stipulate that all IC posts must be written originally in English.
Please note that we are an open and accepting forum with multiple members for whom English is a second language. Whilst all IC posts must be written in English we do not penalise against those for whom English is not their native language.
No spamming. You may post one post reply to a thread but then must wait for someone else to reply before you can post another on that same thread - no double-posting. When topics/threads include more than two players there is no defined order to respond in. For example, the roleplaying order does not have to go Person A, Person B, Person C, Person A. So long as you aren't double-posting, you can respond to a topic as often and as many times as you like, so long as it does not leave a character out of the progression of the story. For example, if Person B and Person C are having a conversation that does not include Person A, despite them being present, then B and C are welcome to post back and forth as much as they like without including A. What they cannot do, is start a fight or leave the room, or do something that Person A should be allowed to react to before the plot continues. We ask that you use your better judgement in how and when you decide to respond and when you want to wait for the other writers in the topic.
In regards to the above rule... Remember that all posts are transient. We do not carve our IC posts into stone. If you are a member who feels that their character has been left behind, or they are wishing to interrupt something and the opportunity hasn't been presented... simply talk to the other members in question. Our community is not one of mind-readers. Speak in a friendly manner that does not break our Doctrines and Principles, or the Communication rules above and you can request people to delete and repost posts after you've had the chance to catch up, or rejig a thread so as not to be left behind. Communication is key.
Please note that our members try to keep multi-player threads clear by using Fake Tags in the #roleplay-tags channel in our Discord server. All posts are tagged in this channel but if you are someone who has read all of the available posts and thinks that someone else's character is better to go before yours then we post a Fake Tag to tag that person and let them know not to wait on you - that you are waiting on them. This saves confusion and threads grinding to stand still because members don't know whether to go yet or not.
Use of drugs and alcohol should be written narratively, not instructionally. In our setting, wine consumption is common and opiates were available but this forum should not read like a how-to guide on taking drugs. Please be considerate of the different ages of writer we may have on the site at any one time.
Profanity and derogatory terms are perfectly allowed so long as it is clear that these are your character's opinions and words, rather than your own. There are no limits or restrictions on profanity so long as it coincides with the no-offensive language rules above.
With regards to mature or trigger content, our forum is an open forum with almost no content restrictions. If you believe that your thread may hold content that others would find trigger-sensitive, go to the Actions drop down in the top left of the thread and scroll down to 'Labels'. If any said labels apply then simply click to add them to the thread. Please note that this can be done at any time. So, if your thread starts out innocuous enough but progresses into mature content, just click the drop down and update the labels.
Aeipathy does not permit sexual content between characters under the age of 15 or with animals. Such content may be alluded to in character histories or faded to black in roleplay but we do not permit explicit writing of these scenes.
If you are a member that wants to contribute to the site by adding a new House, Faction, Guild, plot, event or story... or, in fact, any other information into our main Encyclopedia, please note that you are offering our site an addition to our universal lore that other members may want to use. As such, it becomes a permanent part of our Aeipathy lore. It will not be removed if you decide not to stay with us on the site. It is also not under your management or control once it has been added to the Aeipathy lore - it is something to be used and enjoyed by everyone and, like with normal plots, others can change or add to your additions as time goes onwards and our world expands and grows.
IC Life Events
Whilst we, as a community and a site, encourage creativity and adaptive writing, it's important to remember that we are a site who write a story together; that our characters' actions may have knock on effects to other members' stories that we had no intended or expected. As such, communication is key on Aeipathy. It's important to check with the staff team as and when you want your character to undertake a massive life event.
Marriage
If your plot is leading towards your character getting married, remember that your character will need permission from the appropriate characters to go ahead with their union. You can find information on Marriage in the appropriate realm pages under "Everyday Life" to check which characters will need to be consulted on the event of your characters' marriage. If the characters in question are played, you need to contact that members to confirm their characters' permissions of your upcoming nuptials. If they are currently NPCs, please contact our Head Admin JD, for confirmation. Our staff team need to be consulted if the character is an NPC so that, when that character is taken up by another writer, they are given a history of consistent and appropriate choices to build from when making the character. If the appropriate characters do not grant permission for your characters' marriage, other options will need to be looked at. Please contact our Head Admin JD to discuss ideas.
Divorce / Declaring Widowhood
Please note that there are few instances in which these options are required. For advice on these options for your character, please contact any member of our staff team.
Pregnancy
Contraception was limited if not entirely unavailable during this time period. For information on which realms and kingdoms offer which kinds of preventative and abortive contraception, check their appropriate pages in the "Everyday Life" section. If you plan for your character to not use an era appropriate form of birth control, you must speak to a staff member about performing a "pregnancy roll". This is a dice roll, completed by a staff member. A six is a confirmed conception. If your character does not become pregnant when you want them to... well, practice makes perfect! We herald realism here on Aeipathy so sometimes your character might find it hard to conceive, or they might get pregnant right away - even when they don't mean to. So, dive in and take the unexpected twists of life where you find them!
Miscarriage
Such a topic can be a trigger subject for some. Therefore, we ask that anyone intending on writing a miscarriage seek the permission and confirmation of our staff team. There will normally not be any issues here, but it allows our staff team to be aware that the topic is being played out and that, if other members have it as a trigger subject, we can be careful of how it is discussed in the Discord server. Please also note that any miscarriage of a pregnancy can only occur if the players of both the mother and father characters agree. Any disagreements or issues should be brought to our Head Admin JD.
Birth
Once again, we at Aeipathy like our realism. Therefore, a child's biological sex, and whether they are a single or multiple birth, is only established at their birth. Once your character has been pregnant for 9 IC months, please contact Head Admin JD. A "birth roll" will be performed and the sex and number of the baby(ies) will be announced. This cannot happen prior to the child's birth. Your character isn't going to know the gender of their child, remember! Please note that "birth rolls" are loaded on one side or the other based on the history of births on the father's side of the family.
Death
If you wish to kill off your character, please message any member of our staff team. Our staff team need to be kept informed of characters being killed so that we can update the information in our Character Compendium and other appropriate information pages in our Encyclopedia. If your character is an Original character, you do not need permission to kill them off - you just need to keep the staff informed. If your character is a Canon character, you must seek permission for them to die IC. This is due to our canon characters being involved in a lot of our global stories and their existence - or lack thereof - having a larger knock on effect to other members' stories. Please note that you may not be permitted to kill off a canon character, but you are always allowed to drop the character if you do not wish to play them anymore, and someone else can take them up. You will never be forced to continue writing a character you don't wish to anymore.
We request an average of 2-3 posts per week from each member. We know that there are periods in every rpers life where real life takes precedence, or sometimes you have no replies to make if others are being slower. We don't hold our members to this rule because sometimes people won't reply for a week and then make a dozen posts in three days. It depends when you have the time and the muse. Please note, however, that we are an active site and it is important that you only hold the number of characters that you can keep active.
Activity
At Aeipathy we have a unique activity system. No checks, no sign ins! You can read all about it here. In general, however, we ask that members contribute an average of 1-2 posts per week, per character.
Staff Rules
Respect operates as a two-way street. Our staff are expected to give respect, a fair mind and an open ear to all of our members but the same is also to be expected from our members towards our staff. If you have a request, complaint or reminder to make of our staff, a little courtesy goes a long way - even if they are the member of staff you have a complaint about. Disrespect to our staff members (just like disrespect to any member) will not be tolerated, no matter the subject at hand.
We encourage all of our members to give feedback, suggestions or offer ideas to our staff with regards to any aspect of the forum. We are always looking to improve Aeipathy and we can only do that over time through a team effort. So please - we encourage your opinions.
Members are perfectly allowed (and encouraged) to politely disagree with a staff member's choice or ruling in any particular matter, such as site alterations, profile acceptance or the decisions made over member disagreements. Our staff will then respectfully and politely explain our decision-making process and, if we have made a mistake, change our judgement. However, we also reserve the right to hold to our original choices and ultimately, we have final say on all changes and postings. In other words - we do occasionally make mistakes, and we're happy to accept this but if we feel that no mistakes has been made then, beyond trying to explain our reasoning, we are allowed to simply say (in the politest and most understanding way possible) "Deal with it". At the end of the day, it is our site and creative home that is at risk based on our decisions; so we have to be able to stand by them.
The Aeipathy staff reserve the right to disallow any element of a character or plot device on the site. This will rarely be done and may only be a case of refusing certain face claims for lack of historical elements or banning a certain type of historical detail because we feel the plot device has become saturated on the site but if and when we do decide to disallow anything on the site, we reserve the right to do so.
Due to the fact that we don't want to encourage inactivity in our members, a staff member should always be active on the site. This means checking in at least once every other day or so. As with all members, it is obviously understandable for staff members to disappear for personal life reasons like exams, jobs or events but an absent staff member will always let the rest of the moderators and admin team know, so that our members are never left hanging.
In order to encourage a good standard of roleplaying, staff members will be active on the roleplaying boards, as well as the OOC boards, and be producing the expected quality of writing. High levels of grammar and spelling accuracy, a zeal of creative writing and a few paragraphs per post on average. This is the standard that we ask all of our members to aim for but we expect our staff to adhere to this style of roleplaying more stringently, in order to lead by example.
Our staff will always be here to stay. In order to apply for a staff position at all, a member has to have 50 posts to their name, and will then continue to be around after they've been promoted to staff. So, our members can be confident that, when they message a staff member, they will not be met with silence when that staff member suddenly disappears.
JD
Staff Team
JD
Staff Team
This post was created by our staff team.
Please contact us with your queries and questions.
Hey there and welcome to the rules and tutorials page! Here, you'll find everything you need in terms of hard-line regulations, as well as guides and helpful links to working your way around Aeipathy. Use this page if you're stuck at all on how to do things like, apply for a character, create a wanted ad, message a member of staff. If you have a suggestion for a guide, tutorial or just helpful information that you think should go here, simply send a PM to our staff team at "admin" and we'll be happy to look into it! Please note that, while most of this page is voluntary reading and here to help you, our Rule Guide should be read by all of our members and checked whenever an update or change is announced.
Communication
Be respectful to each other. It's not a difficult rule and it's the most important one. If you can't be a polite human being and be considerate of the feelings of others then please leave - this is not the forum for you.
Alongside simple pleasantness is our policy of anti-discrimination and anti-argumentative language. We're all up for fun debates and interesting conversation but if you feel a certain way about something that you know to be controversial or potentially offensive, then please either keep it to yourself or word it very, very carefully. We do not tolerate any form of deliberately offensive language or discrimination against any kind of person or state of being. Anyone found to be deliberately discriminatory or rude may be removed without warning from the forum.
Personal drama should be kept to a minimum. We understand that life can be stressful and we fully encourage our members to make friends and share aspects of their lives with one another. However, there is a limit to be drawn here. This site is designed to be a place of fun - a retreat from the hassles of everyday life. So, before you feel the need to rant and expunge your crazy life drama all over Discord or our OOC boards, please be cautious of how much you share or, at least, in what tone you share it. Someone who is constantly complaining or talking negatively can bring down the mood of the site and discourage others from actively participating in conversations. We don't want to discourage you from sharing your life or to pretend your life is perfect but please remember that roleplaying is a hobby and escape. We want our site spaces to be primarily positive, not just a space for bemoaning hardships. We're not saying we don't care - just please help us to keep the site fun.
Please choose a name for your Discord profile and stick with it. An occasional change isn't too bad but to keep flicking between different usernames can be very confusing for other members - especially if we think a new member has joined us when, in fact, they haven't.
Profanity and swearing are perfectly allowed on all OOC communications, so long as it is not directed specifically at other members. We also ask that the profanities not be used to describe overtly crude or offensive content. Any language or word choices that have a history of racial discrimination or hate, however, are not permitted. Even in jokes, quotes or another context. We have a diverse community of people from all walks of life and though we do not judge those who believe these words appropriate to be used in certain circumstances, we request that all members respect that we do not know the background and personal feelings that every member on the site/server and therefore not use them in deference to them.
Registration
We have a one character per account rule. While we know this can be annoying for some people, our staff have been on forums before where this rule was not implemented and it was both confusing and difficult to manage. As such, we insist on a single character per account. You can use the same email address for every account you make, so you do not have to keep making new email accounts. And, if you use the same password for each account and have your browser remember it, it is the work of two moments to switch between accounts, using the link in the top left of the forum. As well as the identifying name in the top left of the site, we also have a customised layout in which your current account's image is displayed beside the reply box, reminding you which account you are in at any one time. If you do accidentally post a message in the wrong character account, simply delete it and re-login with the correct account to post again, or request a staffer member to use our Ghost-Writing feature to re-skin the post as if it were posted by the correct character. Please note that this second option will not change your post count totals.
To avoid cheating (on polls and such) or spamming, if a constant change in your IP address is brought to an admin's attention, you will be asked for the reason. If you are unable to provide one, your account(s) may be banned from the site. IP addresses are only ever checked after spamming rules are broken or if needed to keep banned members off the forum or to confirm poll votes and the like. If you are a normal user who only operates a few different devices and IPs for your character, you should have no concerns regarding this rule.
Application
All character applications must be completed within one month. Applications for canon or wanted characters must be completed within two weeks. Any application that has not been submitted for review within those appropriate time frames will be open to other members seeking to create them. If another member requests to creation of a character whose username is already in play by an account that is over its application deadline, we will message the original creator and give them a 48 hour deadline. If their account is not complete by then, it will be removed without warning and reopened for the second member to start the creation process for the character. We keep all information from every account we remove on Aeipathy, meaning that old accounts can be recreated. Just DM our Head Admin on Discord to retrieve the information you need when recreating your account.
When creating new characters, Aeipathy is fairly restriction free. We hold no time limits, accumulative counts or gender ratio restrictions. Our only ask is that your current characters have each acquired 30 IC posts and that they have contributed to our Events and/or Provincial Stories. A "contribution" must be the interact/connection with three different characters (ergo, you cannot post your character hidden in a corner - they must integrate). This can be an interaction with three different characters in one Event, or one character in each of three Events, or any such combination. Our only rule is that each character is different. These requirements are less daunting than they sound when our Event threads usually contain a large portion of our members' characters, including staff, all of whom are eager to help any member achieve their required contribution to unlock a new character. These requirements are in place on Aeipathy, not to make our members' lives difficult but to ensure that all current characters are active, with current storylines and multiple IC connections, ensuring that they will continue to be looked after as their member is excited for their shiny new character.
When claiming a canon character, all claims are limited to one canon character per House. This includes marital Houses for women. Aka, if they were born in one but married into another that member cannot apply for a second canon in either House. The husband's loyalties in this scenario are not divided and remain with his birth house so the same is not true for his player.
We do not have a character limit on Aeipathy but we do expect you to keep all the characters that you have active. Some people can manage a whole handful of characters and post with each on a daily basis, others struggle to keep the activity up with just one or two - we leave it to you and your self-intuition to know what you character limit is. If you have multiple characters, however, and are not maintaining a decent level of activity with each one, our staff may be forced to step in. To define "decent level of activity" is dependent on the character. If you, for example, have an original character who spends large amounts of time out at sea, and you only use them irregularly, this is not a problem. If you have a character involved in multiple plot-lines and time-sensitive relationships with other members and are still only using them irregularly, this could be a problem. This is especially true of any canon character who already have relationships and plots built in upon their creation. Basically, our staff define a "decent level of activity" via how much of a hold up you are creating for other members. Members who want to post but are unable to because of the activity of another writer can lose interest in a site very quickly and we like to keep as many of our members as happy as possible, for as long as possible.
Please note that the above activity requirements work alongside our Aeipathy Activity System, the information for which can be found below in the "Activity" section.
Roleplaying
All posts are to be written in third person limited and in past tense. They must also be written in English. While many browsers offer the option to have a page translated the translation is never amazingly accurate so, unfortunately, we do stipulate that all IC posts must be written originally in English.
Please note that we are an open and accepting forum with multiple members for whom English is a second language. Whilst all IC posts must be written in English we do not penalise against those for whom English is not their native language.
No spamming. You may post one post reply to a thread but then must wait for someone else to reply before you can post another on that same thread - no double-posting. When topics/threads include more than two players there is no defined order to respond in. For example, the roleplaying order does not have to go Person A, Person B, Person C, Person A. So long as you aren't double-posting, you can respond to a topic as often and as many times as you like, so long as it does not leave a character out of the progression of the story. For example, if Person B and Person C are having a conversation that does not include Person A, despite them being present, then B and C are welcome to post back and forth as much as they like without including A. What they cannot do, is start a fight or leave the room, or do something that Person A should be allowed to react to before the plot continues. We ask that you use your better judgement in how and when you decide to respond and when you want to wait for the other writers in the topic.
In regards to the above rule... Remember that all posts are transient. We do not carve our IC posts into stone. If you are a member who feels that their character has been left behind, or they are wishing to interrupt something and the opportunity hasn't been presented... simply talk to the other members in question. Our community is not one of mind-readers. Speak in a friendly manner that does not break our Doctrines and Principles, or the Communication rules above and you can request people to delete and repost posts after you've had the chance to catch up, or rejig a thread so as not to be left behind. Communication is key.
Please note that our members try to keep multi-player threads clear by using Fake Tags in the #roleplay-tags channel in our Discord server. All posts are tagged in this channel but if you are someone who has read all of the available posts and thinks that someone else's character is better to go before yours then we post a Fake Tag to tag that person and let them know not to wait on you - that you are waiting on them. This saves confusion and threads grinding to stand still because members don't know whether to go yet or not.
Use of drugs and alcohol should be written narratively, not instructionally. In our setting, wine consumption is common and opiates were available but this forum should not read like a how-to guide on taking drugs. Please be considerate of the different ages of writer we may have on the site at any one time.
Profanity and derogatory terms are perfectly allowed so long as it is clear that these are your character's opinions and words, rather than your own. There are no limits or restrictions on profanity so long as it coincides with the no-offensive language rules above.
With regards to mature or trigger content, our forum is an open forum with almost no content restrictions. If you believe that your thread may hold content that others would find trigger-sensitive, go to the Actions drop down in the top left of the thread and scroll down to 'Labels'. If any said labels apply then simply click to add them to the thread. Please note that this can be done at any time. So, if your thread starts out innocuous enough but progresses into mature content, just click the drop down and update the labels.
Aeipathy does not permit sexual content between characters under the age of 15 or with animals. Such content may be alluded to in character histories or faded to black in roleplay but we do not permit explicit writing of these scenes.
If you are a member that wants to contribute to the site by adding a new House, Faction, Guild, plot, event or story... or, in fact, any other information into our main Encyclopedia, please note that you are offering our site an addition to our universal lore that other members may want to use. As such, it becomes a permanent part of our Aeipathy lore. It will not be removed if you decide not to stay with us on the site. It is also not under your management or control once it has been added to the Aeipathy lore - it is something to be used and enjoyed by everyone and, like with normal plots, others can change or add to your additions as time goes onwards and our world expands and grows.
IC Life Events
Whilst we, as a community and a site, encourage creativity and adaptive writing, it's important to remember that we are a site who write a story together; that our characters' actions may have knock on effects to other members' stories that we had no intended or expected. As such, communication is key on Aeipathy. It's important to check with the staff team as and when you want your character to undertake a massive life event.
Marriage
If your plot is leading towards your character getting married, remember that your character will need permission from the appropriate characters to go ahead with their union. You can find information on Marriage in the appropriate realm pages under "Everyday Life" to check which characters will need to be consulted on the event of your characters' marriage. If the characters in question are played, you need to contact that members to confirm their characters' permissions of your upcoming nuptials. If they are currently NPCs, please contact our Head Admin JD, for confirmation. Our staff team need to be consulted if the character is an NPC so that, when that character is taken up by another writer, they are given a history of consistent and appropriate choices to build from when making the character. If the appropriate characters do not grant permission for your characters' marriage, other options will need to be looked at. Please contact our Head Admin JD to discuss ideas.
Divorce / Declaring Widowhood
Please note that there are few instances in which these options are required. For advice on these options for your character, please contact any member of our staff team.
Pregnancy
Contraception was limited if not entirely unavailable during this time period. For information on which realms and kingdoms offer which kinds of preventative and abortive contraception, check their appropriate pages in the "Everyday Life" section. If you plan for your character to not use an era appropriate form of birth control, you must speak to a staff member about performing a "pregnancy roll". This is a dice roll, completed by a staff member. A six is a confirmed conception. If your character does not become pregnant when you want them to... well, practice makes perfect! We herald realism here on Aeipathy so sometimes your character might find it hard to conceive, or they might get pregnant right away - even when they don't mean to. So, dive in and take the unexpected twists of life where you find them!
Miscarriage
Such a topic can be a trigger subject for some. Therefore, we ask that anyone intending on writing a miscarriage seek the permission and confirmation of our staff team. There will normally not be any issues here, but it allows our staff team to be aware that the topic is being played out and that, if other members have it as a trigger subject, we can be careful of how it is discussed in the Discord server. Please also note that any miscarriage of a pregnancy can only occur if the players of both the mother and father characters agree. Any disagreements or issues should be brought to our Head Admin JD.
Birth
Once again, we at Aeipathy like our realism. Therefore, a child's biological sex, and whether they are a single or multiple birth, is only established at their birth. Once your character has been pregnant for 9 IC months, please contact Head Admin JD. A "birth roll" will be performed and the sex and number of the baby(ies) will be announced. This cannot happen prior to the child's birth. Your character isn't going to know the gender of their child, remember! Please note that "birth rolls" are loaded on one side or the other based on the history of births on the father's side of the family.
Death
If you wish to kill off your character, please message any member of our staff team. Our staff team need to be kept informed of characters being killed so that we can update the information in our Character Compendium and other appropriate information pages in our Encyclopedia. If your character is an Original character, you do not need permission to kill them off - you just need to keep the staff informed. If your character is a Canon character, you must seek permission for them to die IC. This is due to our canon characters being involved in a lot of our global stories and their existence - or lack thereof - having a larger knock on effect to other members' stories. Please note that you may not be permitted to kill off a canon character, but you are always allowed to drop the character if you do not wish to play them anymore, and someone else can take them up. You will never be forced to continue writing a character you don't wish to anymore.
We request an average of 2-3 posts per week from each member. We know that there are periods in every rpers life where real life takes precedence, or sometimes you have no replies to make if others are being slower. We don't hold our members to this rule because sometimes people won't reply for a week and then make a dozen posts in three days. It depends when you have the time and the muse. Please note, however, that we are an active site and it is important that you only hold the number of characters that you can keep active.
Activity
At Aeipathy we have a unique activity system. No checks, no sign ins! You can read all about it here. In general, however, we ask that members contribute an average of 1-2 posts per week, per character.
Staff Rules
Respect operates as a two-way street. Our staff are expected to give respect, a fair mind and an open ear to all of our members but the same is also to be expected from our members towards our staff. If you have a request, complaint or reminder to make of our staff, a little courtesy goes a long way - even if they are the member of staff you have a complaint about. Disrespect to our staff members (just like disrespect to any member) will not be tolerated, no matter the subject at hand.
We encourage all of our members to give feedback, suggestions or offer ideas to our staff with regards to any aspect of the forum. We are always looking to improve Aeipathy and we can only do that over time through a team effort. So please - we encourage your opinions.
Members are perfectly allowed (and encouraged) to politely disagree with a staff member's choice or ruling in any particular matter, such as site alterations, profile acceptance or the decisions made over member disagreements. Our staff will then respectfully and politely explain our decision-making process and, if we have made a mistake, change our judgement. However, we also reserve the right to hold to our original choices and ultimately, we have final say on all changes and postings. In other words - we do occasionally make mistakes, and we're happy to accept this but if we feel that no mistakes has been made then, beyond trying to explain our reasoning, we are allowed to simply say (in the politest and most understanding way possible) "Deal with it". At the end of the day, it is our site and creative home that is at risk based on our decisions; so we have to be able to stand by them.
The Aeipathy staff reserve the right to disallow any element of a character or plot device on the site. This will rarely be done and may only be a case of refusing certain face claims for lack of historical elements or banning a certain type of historical detail because we feel the plot device has become saturated on the site but if and when we do decide to disallow anything on the site, we reserve the right to do so.
Due to the fact that we don't want to encourage inactivity in our members, a staff member should always be active on the site. This means checking in at least once every other day or so. As with all members, it is obviously understandable for staff members to disappear for personal life reasons like exams, jobs or events but an absent staff member will always let the rest of the moderators and admin team know, so that our members are never left hanging.
In order to encourage a good standard of roleplaying, staff members will be active on the roleplaying boards, as well as the OOC boards, and be producing the expected quality of writing. High levels of grammar and spelling accuracy, a zeal of creative writing and a few paragraphs per post on average. This is the standard that we ask all of our members to aim for but we expect our staff to adhere to this style of roleplaying more stringently, in order to lead by example.
Our staff will always be here to stay. In order to apply for a staff position at all, a member has to have 50 posts to their name, and will then continue to be around after they've been promoted to staff. So, our members can be confident that, when they message a staff member, they will not be met with silence when that staff member suddenly disappears.
Guidelines and Rules
Hey there and welcome to the rules and tutorials page! Here, you'll find everything you need in terms of hard-line regulations, as well as guides and helpful links to working your way around Aeipathy. Use this page if you're stuck at all on how to do things like, apply for a character, create a wanted ad, message a member of staff. If you have a suggestion for a guide, tutorial or just helpful information that you think should go here, simply send a PM to our staff team at "admin" and we'll be happy to look into it! Please note that, while most of this page is voluntary reading and here to help you, our Rule Guide should be read by all of our members and checked whenever an update or change is announced.
Communication
Be respectful to each other. It's not a difficult rule and it's the most important one. If you can't be a polite human being and be considerate of the feelings of others then please leave - this is not the forum for you.
Alongside simple pleasantness is our policy of anti-discrimination and anti-argumentative language. We're all up for fun debates and interesting conversation but if you feel a certain way about something that you know to be controversial or potentially offensive, then please either keep it to yourself or word it very, very carefully. We do not tolerate any form of deliberately offensive language or discrimination against any kind of person or state of being. Anyone found to be deliberately discriminatory or rude may be removed without warning from the forum.
Personal drama should be kept to a minimum. We understand that life can be stressful and we fully encourage our members to make friends and share aspects of their lives with one another. However, there is a limit to be drawn here. This site is designed to be a place of fun - a retreat from the hassles of everyday life. So, before you feel the need to rant and expunge your crazy life drama all over Discord or our OOC boards, please be cautious of how much you share or, at least, in what tone you share it. Someone who is constantly complaining or talking negatively can bring down the mood of the site and discourage others from actively participating in conversations. We don't want to discourage you from sharing your life or to pretend your life is perfect but please remember that roleplaying is a hobby and escape. We want our site spaces to be primarily positive, not just a space for bemoaning hardships. We're not saying we don't care - just please help us to keep the site fun.
Please choose a name for your Discord profile and stick with it. An occasional change isn't too bad but to keep flicking between different usernames can be very confusing for other members - especially if we think a new member has joined us when, in fact, they haven't.
Profanity and swearing are perfectly allowed on all OOC communications, so long as it is not directed specifically at other members. We also ask that the profanities not be used to describe overtly crude or offensive content. Any language or word choices that have a history of racial discrimination or hate, however, are not permitted. Even in jokes, quotes or another context. We have a diverse community of people from all walks of life and though we do not judge those who believe these words appropriate to be used in certain circumstances, we request that all members respect that we do not know the background and personal feelings that every member on the site/server and therefore not use them in deference to them.
Registration
We have a one character per account rule. While we know this can be annoying for some people, our staff have been on forums before where this rule was not implemented and it was both confusing and difficult to manage. As such, we insist on a single character per account. You can use the same email address for every account you make, so you do not have to keep making new email accounts. And, if you use the same password for each account and have your browser remember it, it is the work of two moments to switch between accounts, using the link in the top left of the forum. As well as the identifying name in the top left of the site, we also have a customised layout in which your current account's image is displayed beside the reply box, reminding you which account you are in at any one time. If you do accidentally post a message in the wrong character account, simply delete it and re-login with the correct account to post again, or request a staffer member to use our Ghost-Writing feature to re-skin the post as if it were posted by the correct character. Please note that this second option will not change your post count totals.
To avoid cheating (on polls and such) or spamming, if a constant change in your IP address is brought to an admin's attention, you will be asked for the reason. If you are unable to provide one, your account(s) may be banned from the site. IP addresses are only ever checked after spamming rules are broken or if needed to keep banned members off the forum or to confirm poll votes and the like. If you are a normal user who only operates a few different devices and IPs for your character, you should have no concerns regarding this rule.
Application
All character applications must be completed within one month. Applications for canon or wanted characters must be completed within two weeks. Any application that has not been submitted for review within those appropriate time frames will be open to other members seeking to create them. If another member requests to creation of a character whose username is already in play by an account that is over its application deadline, we will message the original creator and give them a 48 hour deadline. If their account is not complete by then, it will be removed without warning and reopened for the second member to start the creation process for the character. We keep all information from every account we remove on Aeipathy, meaning that old accounts can be recreated. Just DM our Head Admin on Discord to retrieve the information you need when recreating your account.
When creating new characters, Aeipathy is fairly restriction free. We hold no time limits, accumulative counts or gender ratio restrictions. Our only ask is that your current characters have each acquired 30 IC posts and that they have contributed to our Events and/or Provincial Stories. A "contribution" must be the interact/connection with three different characters (ergo, you cannot post your character hidden in a corner - they must integrate). This can be an interaction with three different characters in one Event, or one character in each of three Events, or any such combination. Our only rule is that each character is different. These requirements are less daunting than they sound when our Event threads usually contain a large portion of our members' characters, including staff, all of whom are eager to help any member achieve their required contribution to unlock a new character. These requirements are in place on Aeipathy, not to make our members' lives difficult but to ensure that all current characters are active, with current storylines and multiple IC connections, ensuring that they will continue to be looked after as their member is excited for their shiny new character.
When claiming a canon character, all claims are limited to one canon character per House. This includes marital Houses for women. Aka, if they were born in one but married into another that member cannot apply for a second canon in either House. The husband's loyalties in this scenario are not divided and remain with his birth house so the same is not true for his player.
We do not have a character limit on Aeipathy but we do expect you to keep all the characters that you have active. Some people can manage a whole handful of characters and post with each on a daily basis, others struggle to keep the activity up with just one or two - we leave it to you and your self-intuition to know what you character limit is. If you have multiple characters, however, and are not maintaining a decent level of activity with each one, our staff may be forced to step in. To define "decent level of activity" is dependent on the character. If you, for example, have an original character who spends large amounts of time out at sea, and you only use them irregularly, this is not a problem. If you have a character involved in multiple plot-lines and time-sensitive relationships with other members and are still only using them irregularly, this could be a problem. This is especially true of any canon character who already have relationships and plots built in upon their creation. Basically, our staff define a "decent level of activity" via how much of a hold up you are creating for other members. Members who want to post but are unable to because of the activity of another writer can lose interest in a site very quickly and we like to keep as many of our members as happy as possible, for as long as possible.
Please note that the above activity requirements work alongside our Aeipathy Activity System, the information for which can be found below in the "Activity" section.
Roleplaying
All posts are to be written in third person limited and in past tense. They must also be written in English. While many browsers offer the option to have a page translated the translation is never amazingly accurate so, unfortunately, we do stipulate that all IC posts must be written originally in English.
Please note that we are an open and accepting forum with multiple members for whom English is a second language. Whilst all IC posts must be written in English we do not penalise against those for whom English is not their native language.
No spamming. You may post one post reply to a thread but then must wait for someone else to reply before you can post another on that same thread - no double-posting. When topics/threads include more than two players there is no defined order to respond in. For example, the roleplaying order does not have to go Person A, Person B, Person C, Person A. So long as you aren't double-posting, you can respond to a topic as often and as many times as you like, so long as it does not leave a character out of the progression of the story. For example, if Person B and Person C are having a conversation that does not include Person A, despite them being present, then B and C are welcome to post back and forth as much as they like without including A. What they cannot do, is start a fight or leave the room, or do something that Person A should be allowed to react to before the plot continues. We ask that you use your better judgement in how and when you decide to respond and when you want to wait for the other writers in the topic.
In regards to the above rule... Remember that all posts are transient. We do not carve our IC posts into stone. If you are a member who feels that their character has been left behind, or they are wishing to interrupt something and the opportunity hasn't been presented... simply talk to the other members in question. Our community is not one of mind-readers. Speak in a friendly manner that does not break our Doctrines and Principles, or the Communication rules above and you can request people to delete and repost posts after you've had the chance to catch up, or rejig a thread so as not to be left behind. Communication is key.
Please note that our members try to keep multi-player threads clear by using Fake Tags in the #roleplay-tags channel in our Discord server. All posts are tagged in this channel but if you are someone who has read all of the available posts and thinks that someone else's character is better to go before yours then we post a Fake Tag to tag that person and let them know not to wait on you - that you are waiting on them. This saves confusion and threads grinding to stand still because members don't know whether to go yet or not.
Use of drugs and alcohol should be written narratively, not instructionally. In our setting, wine consumption is common and opiates were available but this forum should not read like a how-to guide on taking drugs. Please be considerate of the different ages of writer we may have on the site at any one time.
Profanity and derogatory terms are perfectly allowed so long as it is clear that these are your character's opinions and words, rather than your own. There are no limits or restrictions on profanity so long as it coincides with the no-offensive language rules above.
With regards to mature or trigger content, our forum is an open forum with almost no content restrictions. If you believe that your thread may hold content that others would find trigger-sensitive, go to the Actions drop down in the top left of the thread and scroll down to 'Labels'. If any said labels apply then simply click to add them to the thread. Please note that this can be done at any time. So, if your thread starts out innocuous enough but progresses into mature content, just click the drop down and update the labels.
Aeipathy does not permit sexual content between characters under the age of 15 or with animals. Such content may be alluded to in character histories or faded to black in roleplay but we do not permit explicit writing of these scenes.
If you are a member that wants to contribute to the site by adding a new House, Faction, Guild, plot, event or story... or, in fact, any other information into our main Encyclopedia, please note that you are offering our site an addition to our universal lore that other members may want to use. As such, it becomes a permanent part of our Aeipathy lore. It will not be removed if you decide not to stay with us on the site. It is also not under your management or control once it has been added to the Aeipathy lore - it is something to be used and enjoyed by everyone and, like with normal plots, others can change or add to your additions as time goes onwards and our world expands and grows.
IC Life Events
Whilst we, as a community and a site, encourage creativity and adaptive writing, it's important to remember that we are a site who write a story together; that our characters' actions may have knock on effects to other members' stories that we had no intended or expected. As such, communication is key on Aeipathy. It's important to check with the staff team as and when you want your character to undertake a massive life event.
Marriage
If your plot is leading towards your character getting married, remember that your character will need permission from the appropriate characters to go ahead with their union. You can find information on Marriage in the appropriate realm pages under "Everyday Life" to check which characters will need to be consulted on the event of your characters' marriage. If the characters in question are played, you need to contact that members to confirm their characters' permissions of your upcoming nuptials. If they are currently NPCs, please contact our Head Admin JD, for confirmation. Our staff team need to be consulted if the character is an NPC so that, when that character is taken up by another writer, they are given a history of consistent and appropriate choices to build from when making the character. If the appropriate characters do not grant permission for your characters' marriage, other options will need to be looked at. Please contact our Head Admin JD to discuss ideas.
Divorce / Declaring Widowhood
Please note that there are few instances in which these options are required. For advice on these options for your character, please contact any member of our staff team.
Pregnancy
Contraception was limited if not entirely unavailable during this time period. For information on which realms and kingdoms offer which kinds of preventative and abortive contraception, check their appropriate pages in the "Everyday Life" section. If you plan for your character to not use an era appropriate form of birth control, you must speak to a staff member about performing a "pregnancy roll". This is a dice roll, completed by a staff member. A six is a confirmed conception. If your character does not become pregnant when you want them to... well, practice makes perfect! We herald realism here on Aeipathy so sometimes your character might find it hard to conceive, or they might get pregnant right away - even when they don't mean to. So, dive in and take the unexpected twists of life where you find them!
Miscarriage
Such a topic can be a trigger subject for some. Therefore, we ask that anyone intending on writing a miscarriage seek the permission and confirmation of our staff team. There will normally not be any issues here, but it allows our staff team to be aware that the topic is being played out and that, if other members have it as a trigger subject, we can be careful of how it is discussed in the Discord server. Please also note that any miscarriage of a pregnancy can only occur if the players of both the mother and father characters agree. Any disagreements or issues should be brought to our Head Admin JD.
Birth
Once again, we at Aeipathy like our realism. Therefore, a child's biological sex, and whether they are a single or multiple birth, is only established at their birth. Once your character has been pregnant for 9 IC months, please contact Head Admin JD. A "birth roll" will be performed and the sex and number of the baby(ies) will be announced. This cannot happen prior to the child's birth. Your character isn't going to know the gender of their child, remember! Please note that "birth rolls" are loaded on one side or the other based on the history of births on the father's side of the family.
Death
If you wish to kill off your character, please message any member of our staff team. Our staff team need to be kept informed of characters being killed so that we can update the information in our Character Compendium and other appropriate information pages in our Encyclopedia. If your character is an Original character, you do not need permission to kill them off - you just need to keep the staff informed. If your character is a Canon character, you must seek permission for them to die IC. This is due to our canon characters being involved in a lot of our global stories and their existence - or lack thereof - having a larger knock on effect to other members' stories. Please note that you may not be permitted to kill off a canon character, but you are always allowed to drop the character if you do not wish to play them anymore, and someone else can take them up. You will never be forced to continue writing a character you don't wish to anymore.
We request an average of 2-3 posts per week from each member. We know that there are periods in every rpers life where real life takes precedence, or sometimes you have no replies to make if others are being slower. We don't hold our members to this rule because sometimes people won't reply for a week and then make a dozen posts in three days. It depends when you have the time and the muse. Please note, however, that we are an active site and it is important that you only hold the number of characters that you can keep active.
Activity
At Aeipathy we have a unique activity system. No checks, no sign ins! You can read all about it here. In general, however, we ask that members contribute an average of 1-2 posts per week, per character.
Staff Rules
Respect operates as a two-way street. Our staff are expected to give respect, a fair mind and an open ear to all of our members but the same is also to be expected from our members towards our staff. If you have a request, complaint or reminder to make of our staff, a little courtesy goes a long way - even if they are the member of staff you have a complaint about. Disrespect to our staff members (just like disrespect to any member) will not be tolerated, no matter the subject at hand.
We encourage all of our members to give feedback, suggestions or offer ideas to our staff with regards to any aspect of the forum. We are always looking to improve Aeipathy and we can only do that over time through a team effort. So please - we encourage your opinions.
Members are perfectly allowed (and encouraged) to politely disagree with a staff member's choice or ruling in any particular matter, such as site alterations, profile acceptance or the decisions made over member disagreements. Our staff will then respectfully and politely explain our decision-making process and, if we have made a mistake, change our judgement. However, we also reserve the right to hold to our original choices and ultimately, we have final say on all changes and postings. In other words - we do occasionally make mistakes, and we're happy to accept this but if we feel that no mistakes has been made then, beyond trying to explain our reasoning, we are allowed to simply say (in the politest and most understanding way possible) "Deal with it". At the end of the day, it is our site and creative home that is at risk based on our decisions; so we have to be able to stand by them.
The Aeipathy staff reserve the right to disallow any element of a character or plot device on the site. This will rarely be done and may only be a case of refusing certain face claims for lack of historical elements or banning a certain type of historical detail because we feel the plot device has become saturated on the site but if and when we do decide to disallow anything on the site, we reserve the right to do so.
Due to the fact that we don't want to encourage inactivity in our members, a staff member should always be active on the site. This means checking in at least once every other day or so. As with all members, it is obviously understandable for staff members to disappear for personal life reasons like exams, jobs or events but an absent staff member will always let the rest of the moderators and admin team know, so that our members are never left hanging.
In order to encourage a good standard of roleplaying, staff members will be active on the roleplaying boards, as well as the OOC boards, and be producing the expected quality of writing. High levels of grammar and spelling accuracy, a zeal of creative writing and a few paragraphs per post on average. This is the standard that we ask all of our members to aim for but we expect our staff to adhere to this style of roleplaying more stringently, in order to lead by example.
Our staff will always be here to stay. In order to apply for a staff position at all, a member has to have 50 posts to their name, and will then continue to be around after they've been promoted to staff. So, our members can be confident that, when they message a staff member, they will not be met with silence when that staff member suddenly disappears.