Max Dirks
06-18-2018, 03:28 PM
Hey everyone, this is the official FAQ for the upcoming Althanas Feature Quest, The End of All Things. This is our second major world spanning featured quest, the first being To Rule All Flesh. The synopsis has been up for awhile, but here it is again for a quick review:
5000 years ago, a world spanning disaster washed away the Ancient Gods in a tide of war and fire. From that fire rose the Thayne, and at its height, 90% of Althanas identified as Thaynites. The Thaynites called that disaster "The Great Calamity." Though the influence of the Thayne has diminished over the years with the shattering of the tap, and other religions, sects, and cults of risen and fallen across Althanas, they all share a single common element in their mythology: a great disaster that created magic and gave birth to their varying religions. The events of "The Great Calamity" are lost to time, but old Raiaerean texts refer to the "nyotamkia" and "fukatmaki," the only two words in the Elfish with those roots. Scholars debate their meaning, but the most agreed upon translations in trade speak are "volcano" and "comet." Two weeks ago, as the sun began to shine over Corone, a comet appeared in the northern sky towards Berevar. One week later, Althanas was devastated by a natural disaster. It turns out the oddly circular Lotho Mountains in Lornius were not a mountain range, but rather a caldera for a supermassive volcano. The resultant eruption caused an earthquake that could be felt as far away as Melnach, and created a tsunami that destroyed Serenti on the western coast of Corone. Lornius was completely destroyed with thousands of lives lost. The entirety of Northern Althanas has been covered in a relentless ash cloud that threatens life throughout the land. Is this the coming of the apocalypse? An opportunity for the evils of the land to gain a foothold? A time for heroes to rise up to protect Althanas? A passing disaster that will one day be simply a footnote in Althanas' storied history? Only you can decide…
The first thing to note is rather than a central NPC rising to power, I made the core "antagonist" a natural disaster. The reason for this is simple. To Rule All Flesh was a fun outing, but the only ones who really permanently affected canon were the players who stuck it out and defeated Xemzund. The centralized storyline also forced characters into particular archetypes. Good united with evil to take out a greater evil. By setting the course of the story with a natural disaster, I hope to avoid forcing characters into archetypes and enable "at will" participation. If you want to affect canon, I want it so that you can jump in or out at any time based on your schedule and motivation and not miss a beat. As such, individual registration rules are fairly simple:
Individual Registration Rules
-Formal registration is not required.
-All characters may participate. There is no limit to the number of alternative characters that can participate.
Easy right?
As fun as it might be to go alone, some of you might want to tackle the apocalypse? with a group. That's fine by me, but unlike individual registration, we will be doing faction registration. The reason for this is also simple: I'm opening all former PGs and canon factions (such as the Church of the Ethereal Sway) to public use. Ever want your character to be the High Priest of Fallien? What about the leader of the Purifiers? Now's your chance. The only exception to this rule is that current active PGs, such as Ixian Knights, can only be registered as a faction with permission from their current leaders. If you want to start a new group, that's also permissible. Here are the guidelines.
Faction Registration Rules
-Any faction, new or old, can be registered. The only exception to this current active PGs must be registered with permission from their owners.
-To register a faction, there must be at least 3 characters willing to initially represent that faction in the story.
-Registration should contain the name of the faction, an outline of their goals, and a list of the members initially representing it.
-Initial roles within the faction are not required at registration.
-A ledger will be kept detailing each registered faction and active members, which can be added at any time.
-The person to register the faction will be considered it's leader for administrative purposes.
-Canon factions, such as the Church of the Ethereal Sway, cannot have membership limits. If someone wants in, the administrative leader should make efforts to allow it.
A little more complex, but nothing major. A separate thread for faction registration will be made and linked here at a later time.
I opted to "destroy" my own contributions to Althanas as a symbolic passing of the torch; however, Lornius and Serenti can still be there, if you so desire, but they will be the epicenter of the disaster and the introduction to the story. Indeed, my goal is to make this as player run as possible. There will be a brainstorming thread, as well as a separate thread for updating the wiki as events unfold to change history, if necessary, and write it as we go along. FennWenn and Max Dirks will be heading that side project. Despite opening the story up to everyone, there will still be some core guidance.
Story Progression
The FQ will represent an end of the old and the beginning of the new. Thus, to tie this to existing canon, I based the disaster on the Great Catalcysm, the relatively undeveloped period of Althanas history that saw the end of the old gods (or the belief therein) and the rise of the Thayne (or the belief therein). This is the only connection I intend to make. The rest of you can come up with any major or minor relationship or change you desire. The End of All Things will be broken into three chapters. The first is entitled "The Obsidian Wave." I named it this because as the lava flows from the Lornius volcano into the sea, it will cool and create obsidian. Obsidian is not listed in our Bazaar FAQ, but will be a glass with essentially the strength and properties of Prevalida, making it very valuable to all Althanians for a variety of different reasons. Whether we follow an economic route, or go somewhere completely different, is up to you. Stories will progress normally. The chapters do not necessarily have to be natural breaks in the story. Administratively, I hope the story and participation will be continuous until its completion. The chapter breakups will simply be an opportunity for the staff to judge threads, all of which will receive a full judgment as an Althanas event.
That said, stories will not be put up without a method. Indeed, the story will progress as a series of missions. They will be based on the brainstorm thread, then approved VIA a short submission system. Don't worry, as long as you meet basic requirements, all story ideas will be approved. My goal is to start the FQ with at least 7 missions. Four will be story driven, two will be battle driven, and one will be a general open thread that, if necessary, can act as a means to connect all characters in an IC manner. It will be a bar/tavern thread, if you will. If we come up with more stories in the brainstorming thread, that's fine by me as well. Missions postings will contain the following information:
Title of Mission
Brief Synopsis of Mission
GM, if any
Number of Players
Open or Closed
Quality Expectation: 1-3
To elaborate a bit, open missions will be missions where anyone can join at any point. Closed missions will be missions that cannot accept new writers as they progress. ALL THREADS WILL BE OPEN UNDER THE CLASSIC DEFINITION OF THE TERM. This means if you want to participate, and indicate so prior to it starting, then you're in. The one exception to this is if all spaces are taken. It will be first come first served, but please only take up a roster space if you intend to see the thread through.
I can't iterate enough: EVERYTHING WRITTEN FOR THE FQ WILL BE CANON, but don't let that scare you.
Expection of Quality
Threads will be formally judged, as this is an official Althanas event, but please don't let that fact deter you from posting. All missions will be given a quality expectation level, which will generally be set by the GM. This should be used as a guide to roughly predetermine the amount of effort you'll need to put into your posts.
Quality Level 1 = General posting. Jump on in and have some fun. Posts can be a sentence, a paragraph and there's no need to proof read. These should be the biggest, most fast paced, fun threads.
Quality Level 2 = Psuedo posting. In general, the authors of these threads will have some goal in mind, which might require some active brainstorming, corroborating and proof reading. Posting will be a bit slower paced. These threads will likely be medium in length.
Quality Level 3 = Quality posting. These threads are not reserved for the best of best, never think that, but expect to get active feedback as you're writing. You'll also be proofed. These are likely the slowest quests. They'll be designed to tie storylines together.
Don't worry about submitting threads once they're finished. Just send me a PM and I'll put it in the judgment queue.
Judgments
All threads will be judged by moderators using full rubrics. Don't be daunted by this. It's simply to make sure that players receive maximum rewards. That said, if a thread scores less than a 65, players will still be given rewards based on a 65 score. I want everyone to participate, so there is a chance, if a thread has all moderators participating, that someone who participated in the thread might have to judge it. I'll review those judgments for consistency. That will not happen in a battle thread, though. If a thread is competitive (meaning players are scoring against each other - for instance, to determine who gets to be the major PC villain), a non-participant moderator will judge the thread.
One last thing.
Canon Conflicts
Given the amount of corroboration required to pull off such a massive feat, I doubt they're will be much conflict, but if one of you decides to bring the down the comet on Salvar, and another one of you decides to have it pass harmlessly across the sky, I'll be the final arbitor of what actually happens. I'll use the standard canon submission standards for determining which action plays out. They are:
Severity
Scope
Permanence
The less of the above factors, the more likely I'll be to approve your side. I'll also consider who came up with the idea first. To give everyone an equal opportunity to affect canon, I will not be considering the score the thread received. That said, whether your action is selected or not, you will receive rewards based on your score.
That's all I have for now. Let's use this thread as a question and answer area for now. I'll edit this post as folks ask questions. I'll also open the brainstorm thread. I'll probably wait a bit to open the faction registration simply to give you guys time to figure out what you want to do. I hope to see everyone post at least once!
5000 years ago, a world spanning disaster washed away the Ancient Gods in a tide of war and fire. From that fire rose the Thayne, and at its height, 90% of Althanas identified as Thaynites. The Thaynites called that disaster "The Great Calamity." Though the influence of the Thayne has diminished over the years with the shattering of the tap, and other religions, sects, and cults of risen and fallen across Althanas, they all share a single common element in their mythology: a great disaster that created magic and gave birth to their varying religions. The events of "The Great Calamity" are lost to time, but old Raiaerean texts refer to the "nyotamkia" and "fukatmaki," the only two words in the Elfish with those roots. Scholars debate their meaning, but the most agreed upon translations in trade speak are "volcano" and "comet." Two weeks ago, as the sun began to shine over Corone, a comet appeared in the northern sky towards Berevar. One week later, Althanas was devastated by a natural disaster. It turns out the oddly circular Lotho Mountains in Lornius were not a mountain range, but rather a caldera for a supermassive volcano. The resultant eruption caused an earthquake that could be felt as far away as Melnach, and created a tsunami that destroyed Serenti on the western coast of Corone. Lornius was completely destroyed with thousands of lives lost. The entirety of Northern Althanas has been covered in a relentless ash cloud that threatens life throughout the land. Is this the coming of the apocalypse? An opportunity for the evils of the land to gain a foothold? A time for heroes to rise up to protect Althanas? A passing disaster that will one day be simply a footnote in Althanas' storied history? Only you can decide…
The first thing to note is rather than a central NPC rising to power, I made the core "antagonist" a natural disaster. The reason for this is simple. To Rule All Flesh was a fun outing, but the only ones who really permanently affected canon were the players who stuck it out and defeated Xemzund. The centralized storyline also forced characters into particular archetypes. Good united with evil to take out a greater evil. By setting the course of the story with a natural disaster, I hope to avoid forcing characters into archetypes and enable "at will" participation. If you want to affect canon, I want it so that you can jump in or out at any time based on your schedule and motivation and not miss a beat. As such, individual registration rules are fairly simple:
Individual Registration Rules
-Formal registration is not required.
-All characters may participate. There is no limit to the number of alternative characters that can participate.
Easy right?
As fun as it might be to go alone, some of you might want to tackle the apocalypse? with a group. That's fine by me, but unlike individual registration, we will be doing faction registration. The reason for this is also simple: I'm opening all former PGs and canon factions (such as the Church of the Ethereal Sway) to public use. Ever want your character to be the High Priest of Fallien? What about the leader of the Purifiers? Now's your chance. The only exception to this rule is that current active PGs, such as Ixian Knights, can only be registered as a faction with permission from their current leaders. If you want to start a new group, that's also permissible. Here are the guidelines.
Faction Registration Rules
-Any faction, new or old, can be registered. The only exception to this current active PGs must be registered with permission from their owners.
-To register a faction, there must be at least 3 characters willing to initially represent that faction in the story.
-Registration should contain the name of the faction, an outline of their goals, and a list of the members initially representing it.
-Initial roles within the faction are not required at registration.
-A ledger will be kept detailing each registered faction and active members, which can be added at any time.
-The person to register the faction will be considered it's leader for administrative purposes.
-Canon factions, such as the Church of the Ethereal Sway, cannot have membership limits. If someone wants in, the administrative leader should make efforts to allow it.
A little more complex, but nothing major. A separate thread for faction registration will be made and linked here at a later time.
I opted to "destroy" my own contributions to Althanas as a symbolic passing of the torch; however, Lornius and Serenti can still be there, if you so desire, but they will be the epicenter of the disaster and the introduction to the story. Indeed, my goal is to make this as player run as possible. There will be a brainstorming thread, as well as a separate thread for updating the wiki as events unfold to change history, if necessary, and write it as we go along. FennWenn and Max Dirks will be heading that side project. Despite opening the story up to everyone, there will still be some core guidance.
Story Progression
The FQ will represent an end of the old and the beginning of the new. Thus, to tie this to existing canon, I based the disaster on the Great Catalcysm, the relatively undeveloped period of Althanas history that saw the end of the old gods (or the belief therein) and the rise of the Thayne (or the belief therein). This is the only connection I intend to make. The rest of you can come up with any major or minor relationship or change you desire. The End of All Things will be broken into three chapters. The first is entitled "The Obsidian Wave." I named it this because as the lava flows from the Lornius volcano into the sea, it will cool and create obsidian. Obsidian is not listed in our Bazaar FAQ, but will be a glass with essentially the strength and properties of Prevalida, making it very valuable to all Althanians for a variety of different reasons. Whether we follow an economic route, or go somewhere completely different, is up to you. Stories will progress normally. The chapters do not necessarily have to be natural breaks in the story. Administratively, I hope the story and participation will be continuous until its completion. The chapter breakups will simply be an opportunity for the staff to judge threads, all of which will receive a full judgment as an Althanas event.
That said, stories will not be put up without a method. Indeed, the story will progress as a series of missions. They will be based on the brainstorm thread, then approved VIA a short submission system. Don't worry, as long as you meet basic requirements, all story ideas will be approved. My goal is to start the FQ with at least 7 missions. Four will be story driven, two will be battle driven, and one will be a general open thread that, if necessary, can act as a means to connect all characters in an IC manner. It will be a bar/tavern thread, if you will. If we come up with more stories in the brainstorming thread, that's fine by me as well. Missions postings will contain the following information:
Title of Mission
Brief Synopsis of Mission
GM, if any
Number of Players
Open or Closed
Quality Expectation: 1-3
To elaborate a bit, open missions will be missions where anyone can join at any point. Closed missions will be missions that cannot accept new writers as they progress. ALL THREADS WILL BE OPEN UNDER THE CLASSIC DEFINITION OF THE TERM. This means if you want to participate, and indicate so prior to it starting, then you're in. The one exception to this is if all spaces are taken. It will be first come first served, but please only take up a roster space if you intend to see the thread through.
I can't iterate enough: EVERYTHING WRITTEN FOR THE FQ WILL BE CANON, but don't let that scare you.
Expection of Quality
Threads will be formally judged, as this is an official Althanas event, but please don't let that fact deter you from posting. All missions will be given a quality expectation level, which will generally be set by the GM. This should be used as a guide to roughly predetermine the amount of effort you'll need to put into your posts.
Quality Level 1 = General posting. Jump on in and have some fun. Posts can be a sentence, a paragraph and there's no need to proof read. These should be the biggest, most fast paced, fun threads.
Quality Level 2 = Psuedo posting. In general, the authors of these threads will have some goal in mind, which might require some active brainstorming, corroborating and proof reading. Posting will be a bit slower paced. These threads will likely be medium in length.
Quality Level 3 = Quality posting. These threads are not reserved for the best of best, never think that, but expect to get active feedback as you're writing. You'll also be proofed. These are likely the slowest quests. They'll be designed to tie storylines together.
Don't worry about submitting threads once they're finished. Just send me a PM and I'll put it in the judgment queue.
Judgments
All threads will be judged by moderators using full rubrics. Don't be daunted by this. It's simply to make sure that players receive maximum rewards. That said, if a thread scores less than a 65, players will still be given rewards based on a 65 score. I want everyone to participate, so there is a chance, if a thread has all moderators participating, that someone who participated in the thread might have to judge it. I'll review those judgments for consistency. That will not happen in a battle thread, though. If a thread is competitive (meaning players are scoring against each other - for instance, to determine who gets to be the major PC villain), a non-participant moderator will judge the thread.
One last thing.
Canon Conflicts
Given the amount of corroboration required to pull off such a massive feat, I doubt they're will be much conflict, but if one of you decides to bring the down the comet on Salvar, and another one of you decides to have it pass harmlessly across the sky, I'll be the final arbitor of what actually happens. I'll use the standard canon submission standards for determining which action plays out. They are:
Severity
Scope
Permanence
The less of the above factors, the more likely I'll be to approve your side. I'll also consider who came up with the idea first. To give everyone an equal opportunity to affect canon, I will not be considering the score the thread received. That said, whether your action is selected or not, you will receive rewards based on your score.
That's all I have for now. Let's use this thread as a question and answer area for now. I'll edit this post as folks ask questions. I'll also open the brainstorm thread. I'll probably wait a bit to open the faction registration simply to give you guys time to figure out what you want to do. I hope to see everyone post at least once!