Dusk Forest is a fairly lax club, having only a mere minimum of rules to keep things running smoothly. These rules are in place for a good reason, and are enforced by the Board. Any questions about these rules can be directed to the Board. Actually, most of the information you'll find here is not actually a rule, but rather a guideline of sorts.

Council
Rather than having a Lord and Lady Weyrholder, which can change all too often to the detriment of the Weyrhold, Dusk Forest has set up a Council. It's members are pulled from around the area, who take the responsibility for the running of the Weyrhold and its surrounding areas.

These positions are Ranking Personas, which comes with certain responsibilities, including Rank Limits, Character Requirements, and Posting Requirements. Please read over the linked pages to find out more information if you are interested in writing for a Council persona.

This group includes:
- All Goldriders
- All Wingleaders
- Weyrlingmaster
- Lord and/or Lady Holder of Sunset Valley Hold
- Master Crafters*
- Others as appointed**

*One Master per Craft allowed onto the Council
**On rare occasions, older/experienced riders (any color dragon) or other personas, including retirees, may be offered an appointment to the Council at the discretion of the BoD.

Rank Limits:
Each writer may hold only one Council-level persona, and one minor ranker from each list. No exceptions! You may have a goldrider, wingsecond, and a persona with a gold firelizard, but you may not have a goldrider, wingsecond, and headwoman. In addition, your ranking characters may not overlap - your Headwoman may not have a gold firelizard.

For example, if you already write a Master Healer on the council, and you submit a bronzerider persona, it will be approved as a wingrider, and be ineligible for any Council spots that may open up.

The only way this will be lifted is if your Healer persona gives up his/her spot within the Council. This MUST be done with both the knowledge of the Board, as well as an approved plot to logically write the character out of the position.

There is no limit on the number of other personas you may have, although if you submit a new persona while your others are inactive, we will ask you to resubmit that persona after you have done some writing for the others you have. We would much rather see a person with two well written, well developed characters, than a person with twenty and none of them are active. Quality over quantity, please!

Also, the date your persona was approved will be noted and posted with the sheet on the site. Please do not submit a persona for an additional ranker until a minimum of two OOC months have passed. You must also not have any warnings on your other ranker(s) at the time you submit the next. Exceptions for this may be made if the Board deems it necessary.

Rank Levels
Council:
Rank Requirements - 3 per Pern Month**
   Goldriders
   Wingleaders
   Weyrlingmaster
   Lord/Lady Holder
   Master Crafter (Council member)
   Appointed Member

Minor Rank 1:
Rank Requirements - 2 per Pern Month**
   Wingsecond
   Weyrlingmaster's 2nd
   Headwoman
   Master Crafter (non-Council member)*
   Female Brownrider*

Minor Rank 2:
Rank Requirements - 1 per Pern Month**
   Steward
   Searchrider*
   Gold flit owner*
   Female Bluerider*

Most rankers will show on the persona lists with the title, but no persona sheet attached to it. For these, if you are a member in good standing, submit a sona to us! We'll be more than happy to consider your persona for the position.

*Even though these positions may appear to be regular personas, they have been deemed rank due to demand and/or rarity of this type of persona. Please contact the Board to see if we have any openings for one of these personas.
**Each Pern month is roughly 2 real life months.

Pets
Please don't give your persona more than three pets, and only two of them can be firelizards. If your persona has a gold firelizard, the other one may not be a bronze. Also realize that this is Pern, and all animals should have a function. Felines are useful in chasing tunnelsnakes and other rodents; canines can help out with the herds, turn the spit, and also help guard. Runners are useful in pulling carts and wagons, as well as being used for courier duty.

Each writer is allowed only one gold firelizard, and not everybody will be given approval to have one. Otherwise, there will be too many queens and not enough suitors! If you really want a gold, try getting another color first, and establishing them - make the firelizard into an important part of the character. Don't just create a firelizard, post for it a few times, then have it die out.

Posting
Posts going to the list should be in full-post format. No round robin posts (where somebody starts a post, then sends it to the list for somebody else to work on), should be sent. Posts should contain a header, a body (the post), and a signature. Forgetting any of these does happen, so don't stress if you forget something in the header, or forget to tack on a signature.

Coposting is a term that means a post with more than one writer. These can be about anything under Rukbat, from two people meeting, to Threadfall, to wing duties. When coposting, please keep a couple of things in mind:

Don't write for another person's character without their permission. It is great if you know enough about another persona to write about them, but common courtesy requires asking permission first. This goes for mentioning another persona in your post, as well.

Allow about two days between responses; wait a week or so before asking if your coposter received the last segment - it's always good to use the "save sent email" function for coposting! If you are going to go on LOA, please tell all of your current coposters so that they are not left hanging.

If you ask somebody to copost, please include which personas you'd like to use, as well as suggest a possible plotline or two. It's always nice to find somebody prepared, rather than saying "I don't know; what do you want to write about?"