The Nether Realm

[Phoenix]

''A solitary fantasy can transform one million realities...'' ((MAYA ANGELOU))

Transform your reality; visit The Nether Realm


Aloha! This is phoenix, the head admin of the Nether Realm. I received an interesting invitation from the admins here and am willing to oblige once I find out more about their proposal. I am honoured that my board has been asked to join your Invitational, as I can see a couple of pretty awesome boards have already been asked as well, makes me all warm and fuzzy to be in with such good company.

The Nether Realm is a fairly young board, we have only been advertising a year (with any real fervour) and in that time have had over 20,000 posts. This time last year we were barely at 7,000 (at that time the board was less then a year old.)

We are, in essence, a bit of a niche RPG (and by niche I mean we seem to attract the FR's crowd and the people who love to read and fall in love with the wiki - we scare off the people who want something less ... committing). We are original, pretty structured, and organised.

TNR is in a quasi medieval fantasy setting (which means we have elements of the medieval world - from many cultures - along with some industrialised cultures and even savage peoples) and we focus on character and plot development. The world is complex, we have a wiki which is detailed, constantly added to (and huge!) and contains the world's lore (magic) and everything you need to know, want to know and everything else we could think of.

We welcome all kinds of levels of writer and attract many a budding author and people from all walks of life. Like Dark Rain we tend to mentor the beginners and help them get better and accept some profiles others may sniff at because we see potential. We are a community, a welcoming one at that and we love involving people in our plots and helping them to start their own in a world that is full of magic, detail and wonderful characters.

We are not a "write anything you want board", we are linear, mostly structured (although free form plots are played out all the time as well) and encourage telling stories and linking characters, idea's and building a grand tale that weaves itself through the regions, that stretches over time and culminates in a dramatic climax. We pride ourselves on being storytellers, and although this may seem restrictive to some, to those that have grown to love the place it is Home. Creativity is the key and we have writers and artists who contribute in many ways to the Nether Realm. Check out the art gallery at the wiki for our maps, concept art and character art.

We welcome one and all, we are easy going, fairly active, and always looking for new characters and members to write with!

[Rodgin Kemph]

It's classic fantasy with an orgional twist. Pheonix has done an amazing job in building the framework, and the other mods and admin have only added to it. I would encourage any fan of fantasy to make your way over and add something to our story.

And remember, cliche isn't cliche if it's done well.

[Ji'lanha Eroved]

The Nether Realm is the best roleplaying site I've ever found I found as much freedom here as I could want for myself and enough structure and information to help me make my story the best it could be. There is no way I could have fit my story into any other world and the admins and mods have always been willing to help me when I hit a wall.

Some of the best writers I've ever known are here too Anyone who loves writing in a fantasy setting should visit this site.

[Ataraxis]

First off, a warm welcome to the members of The Nether Realm, and we hope you'll enjoy your time on Althanas!

I've been checking TNR out for a while, and I've really enjoyed everything I saw, from the layout to the images and the quality of the writing. I do have a few questions though, to start this up: when you say linear, do you mean it as the opposite of free-form or as the imposition of storylines to follow? I doubt it's the latter, but I figured this would clear up a lot of questions since Althanas is, like TNR, a world with canonic lore and overarching plots, and I think members here would thus find that TNR offers a nice feeling of familiarity.

I was also wondering about Adoptables in your Character Creation Center. People can create characters for others to use? It sounds to me like a great idea, though are these free-to-play characters essentially related to the world of TNR (as in the equivalent of important NPCs such as government leaders) or can they be from the typical way-laying child to a visitor from beyond the Milky Way?

[Phoenix]

By linear we mean you cannot post with your character in more then one RP at a time, you have to follow a path, so to speak, have your own plot go from A to B, rather then post all over the world and have no concept of time, travel or plot. We don't prescribe a plot, we have board plots members are welcome to join we only ask that if your RP crosses over with a board plot, say - a war - then you do not ignore the fact (or at least do not contradict it) that the canon world has a war in that city, or country, and you try and stay in the same time frame as the canon world (we also have a forum for "The Past" as well, where players can RP their characters history if they so choose). I hope that made sense. :P

There is freeform in the way that people post topics and don't have a plot to follow to begin with perhaps, and you are not forced to play in the set plots you can make up your own - but as you said like this place it is "a world with canonic lore and overarching plots".

Some of the adoptables are, some are not related to the world. Lilith, for example is linked to the canon characters but because of the nature of her position there is a lot of freedom for a player should they choose to post with her. I know sometimes people want to have characters played for their plot but do not really want to play them themselves, so making a basic profile, which another can add too is basically what adoptables are. Or, if like me you have all these character idea's and no time to possibly play them all but don't wanna get rid of them or never have them played you make it, then have someone adopt them. :P

Hope that answered your questions properly. It can be confusing, I know. :P

[Calico]

Yeah, we have a few major plots which myself, Phoenix and a couple of other staff members over-see and plan out, but after that the small story arcs within those plots can be headed by any member. Of course, there also threads which are not entirely connected to any of these plots and arcs at all as well, so there is variety that way.

It really is a world where you can just jump in and have your lonely wanderer take on their own adventure. Or, you know, just have them enjoy the easy life.

[Phoenix]

FYI, Calico here is my other half. We live together and are engaged and all that good stuff. We have been running this game for over two years now, having started it with another real life friend of ours who does the concept art for the world.

The place is really friendly and we are all really empathetic when it comes to real life and net activity. Two of our members of staff are parents, and most of us are either married or in long term relationships. Its a mature board with mature writing but we have loads of fun OOC as well.

So we have Marik and Ji competing in the Tourny and maybe Rusty (our hume mod) as well. Sorry we couldn't contribute more players but everyone is just so busy right now.

[Trivia]

Duuuude... You've got us too! And by us, I am not referring to the fact that I have multiple personalities (which I don't because I'd never be able to keep track of my conversations if I did), but to Nemai and uh, me, yeah. Whoop, whoop!

I've only been a member of TNR for, umm, two and a half months... Holy smokes, that's it! O_o Hmm,I thought it was longer... Oh well. Everyone has been amazingly friendly there, welcoming me into their world without any evidence of hesitation. Which is a little weird because I have a small tendency to be a bit unwieldy... Yeah... alright, we'll go with that word. I definitely enjoy pushing boundaries and seeing what comes of it. There are limits in TNR, rules, same as everywhere else, restrictions and lines just daring a person to leap with their eyes closed. I haven't done that yet... Still waiting until the point when I have enough time on my hands to deal with the consequences

What I mean is that Phoenix and the rest of the staff have put so much hard work into this site and into the wiki that sometimes things can be a little overwhelming. It's a whole horde of information that at times can seem limiting, but it also gives a writer soooo much to work with!! I gobbled it up, got confused, sorted myself out, was amazed, joined and have never regretted a minute of it. Phoenix even gives an option that was perfect for me, about that jumping over lines thing, the ability to create my own race! (It's a bit more complicated than that, but ideal for someone who's got an active imagination) Perfect for someone who has an annoying tendency to need to be different and special, aka, me. And I will finish that app eventually, Phoenix :P

Trust me when I say that the Nether Realm is a place filled with unique people and awesome plots... I mean... awesome people and unique plots. Everyone there deserves a round of applause for going above and beyond the ordinary.

[Phoenix]

Yay! Triv and Nemai are competing! Our resident grouchy dragon and uber awesome Shifters!

And yeah, the wiki is expansive and vast and the lore complicated but members are allowed to add to the world, as Trivia mentioned. Races are hard to get accepted as they need to be truly unique and not be similar to what we already have. Members have added to the bestiary though, Nemai and others helping me out massively with the Fauna and the bestiary and Ironside with the Flora. The wiki still needs cleaning up, the profiles there need to be formatted a bit (wiki coding still confuses me!) but we are always looking to improve the place, always want to help and answer questions and take on suggestions in the way they are intended, as a critique not criticism.

So yeah, we are a laid back lot, so laid back in fact they are all bloody here and not saying hello! lol.

Anyways, I get why people don't join right away as its an involving world and people *do* get overwhelmed. A niche board, plot and character focused and as active as we can expect (which is still pretty damn active, not including December >_< ) For me that just means we are truly original and also a bit long winded. >_> Great writers though, and great people too.

[Nemaisare]

Whooohooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!
I found the thread! Go me! I was looking, honest, but I couldn't find it! Maybe I wasn't looking hard enough and kept getting distracted by other things, but I was still meaning to post here awhile ago. *meep* Teehee. Anywho... *whistles innocently*
I LOVE THIS SITE! It has all these open-ended possibilites staring you straight in the face until you just can't help but grin and join in the fun. There are plots ready made for folks to join, and there is the chance to make your own plots out of nothing but your own imagination. The admins are open-minded too, and this is from my own exerience, lol. Because Phoenix let me bring in an unecessary character into her already fairly restricted and well-planned out plot so I got to join that, which, for all those people out there who like to have at least one character in something big and almost cetain of being played through, is an awesome addition to this site. After you take in all the time and effort folks have put into the wiki, Phoenix working through the paranoia of maybe clicking on something wrong while she edits that blastly huge bit of writing, the patience of everyone explaining new stuffs to those who are easily confused and can never find the facts they were sure they read at some point... aka me... All the questions they get and the generally friendly atmosphere created by all the members, plus the really cool world and the numerous options of plotness, character creation and how many people keep repeating themselves in attempts to go above and beyond all the compliments of everyone else to explain just how awesome this site really is....

Well, I suppose you must get the idea at somepoint, probably a lot earlier than this post of mine, but I had to put in my own two cents just to up the awesomeness. So yeah... I could continue if you wanted me to, but I'll stop now for those who've gotten lost in my confusing rant, or have I managed to write something unconfusing for a change? That would be awesome too.

Anyway, to reiterate the aboveness, TNR is one very welcoming, very open and very awesome rpg forum that I think anyone could fit into, beginner, advanced, adult or teen. It's all about the awesome-o-meter, which we don't have but should get, and everyone could vote for Phoenix until it exploded and she was made awae of just how uber-awesome she is to have created this site... And yes, I do know I've used the word awesome a bit much, but that only gets the point across better... Usually.

And ending on that note, I'm really looking forward to this tournament getting started. I've always wondered hat one of these would be lie and have now found one, me likey. I have to say, I think it shows a great deal of courage that you went through and decided to get this up and running, both for the time and the need for organisation.