Rules and Regs

Getting Started: the need-to-know~
That's right; we've got rules here, rules and regulations! Let not thine heart be troubled, for it isn't that bad. This is not only the place where you find out what not to do, but where you find what to do. Please read through this whole thing if you are new to Earthendell. It looks big, but it should really only take you a few minutes to read. You may want to swing by the message board before or while reading this so that you know the general layout. Please do not register or post, however, until you have read this through.

Let me start by telling you how this all works. The first thing that you need to do if you want to be a part of the Earthendell universe is read this page all the way through to the end. I don't want people going into it and breaking all of the rules right off because they didn't read them. The first thing that you must recognize is the purpose of each forum.

There are three forums: Higher Earthendell, Middle Earthendell, and Lower Earthendell.
Higher Earthendell is a forum for what is called Interactive Fancacy-fiction(often referred to as interactive fanfiction). This is exactly what it sounds like. An interactive fantacy-fiction is a story that is started by a registered member and is continued by that person as well as other people. This is not the same thing as an RPG (RPG= Role Playing Game). You do not post in first person and describe actions between asterisks (this will be covered shortly for those of you that don't know what I'm talking about). Every post must be written as if it is a book or a novel. Example:
| "I have never eaten such foul cheese!" Heratio exclaimed to Mercuscio with a look of disgust on his face.
"My dear Heratio," Mercuscio replied. "You must not express your opinions so openly. Tis unformely." |
You get the picture. Anyway, one person starts a thread (a new topic that has many posts and often ends up having several pages) and other registered users can add on to the story. If you start a story or add on to one, you must make sure that you do not write something that conflicts with the goigs on at Middle Earthendell. I know that discrepencies happen, so don't worry about getting sacked if you mess up. I would suggest writing stories that happen previouse to the current happenings at Middle Earthendell.

Middle Earthendell is a forum for RPGs (Role Playing Games). In an RPG, one posts in firts person and describes actions bracketed with asterisks (*). Here is an example: | How dare you call my mother a hampster!
*I charge toward Heratio, swinging my sword wildly. He ducks and manages to dodge the attack, but I connect with a kick to his back.* Take that you French Ka Nig It! *spits at Heratio* |
And so on and so forth, you get the depiction. This is how one writes in an RPG. I would suggest that before joining an RPG, that you read some of the other posts that people have made to get the feel of how one is to post in an RPG. Also, before you join an RPG, make sure you read through the whole thing so that you know what is going on.
As a general rule, one should always post in character in an RPG; however, there often arises a situation in which it is appropriat to have an out of characer post. (this is usually done is cases of miscommunication and confusion) When posting out of character, put the out of character text in parintheses and denotate it with "OOC:" Example: (OOC: Um...are we inside of the fortress or outside of the fortress?)
Before one can post at Middle Earthendell, one must post a personal profile at Lower Earthendell. Details on that are explained below.

Well it's below, but wait a moment while I explain what exacly the Lower Earthendell forum is for. Lower Earthendell is primarily an out of character forum where people can talk about what is going on in Earthendell. If you are master of a Guild (explained later on in the 'Guilds' section) then you may confer with your followers or with other guild leaders.
Now people who are only going to post at Higher Earthendell on the interactive fantacy-fictions do not have to post a profile, but if you are going to play a role in an RPG at Middle Earthendell, you must do the said. You have to post a personal profile for the character who's role you will play. First you must make up a nice sounding name. Please do not use characters from other stuff or anything like that. Like don't have your character's name be 'Blink 182' or 'Cloud Strife' or anything that has already been used in one form or another. Something that a lot of people like to do is mix up the letters in their name to make a character name. I just made one up. I will give you an example of a profile. Your profile must have all of the sections that are in the following profile example:

Name: Rey'Kas (your username should match your character name; otherwise it gets confusing for other people)
Age:N/A (you see, you must have this section, but if you prefer not to state your age, as it may flaw the mistique of your character or something like that, then you don't have to. Just post as much info as you can.)
Weapon of Choice: Bastille (medieval styl broad/long sword)[sometimes one will not even use a weapon but will use magic or hand to hand combat only]
Special Attacks: N/A (okay, a special attack is a particularly powerful attack that has a name. I don't have any attacks with names, so for this example at least, I have put N/A for not applicable. Even if you do not have any special attacks, you can say what you should say what you specialize in. Physical attacks, or magical attacks. With magical attacks, say what type of magic you use. You can find precident for this at the intex of magic.)
Bio: (Here one would talk about the history of one's character and his/her background and stuff. Post any character traits or anything like that that you think is relevent)

Once you have posted a profile at Lower Earthendell, you may proceed to Middle Earthendell and join one of the current RPGs. You may also post at Higher Earthendell, but your profile won't really matter there unless your character is in the interactive fantacy-fiction. When at Middle Earthendell, you must always post in character. More than one RPG can be running at once (though they must not contradict eachother) and any registered user can start and RPG. I would suggest, however, that new members join an RPG that is already going and stay with that one until it ends before starting one of their own.

To Register~
Okay, now this is simple. You can register simply by going to 'the Registry' section of this site and following the simple instructions there. You can also register by going to Earthendell itself and clicking on one of the register links that are scattered all about the message board.

Guilds~
This is a rather minor issue, but one that needs addressing. The RPGs at Earthendell are not stricktly 'every man for himself'. Often, players will join forces to face an unknown foe who isn't even a player, just some bad guy they made up. Other times, they will slug it out with eachother. However, RPGs tend to end up with everyone teaming up agains an non-playable character for some reason. This is why guilds are not only allowed, but encouraged. A guild is a group of players, lead by a leader (duh). Members of a guild submit to the guild leader, thus forming unity among some of the players. The good thing about guilds is that there is almost never just one. There can be several guilds. These guilds, while they may be peacefull toward one another, tend to not like to work together. They are constantly at rivalry with one another. This is good. It causes interest, thickens plots, and keeps things exciting. Guilds are fairly straightforeward. Guilds are started and maintained at Lower Earthendell. To view the current guilds, their leaders, and their members, go to the Guilds section of the Earthendell web site.