Hey! Those of you who were here for the downtime this summer probably remember that I still have 3968360 things I've been meaning to finish for Helovia, but sadly I just haven't had the time to sit down with it.

However, I've had some time the past couple of days to fix a few, very minor things!

** SWP characters are now properly included in the Whitepages
**** Whitepages groups characters based on the account switcher, so if you have not linked your accounts they will show up as multiple entries. :)

** There was a bug in which the thread location would be over-written to "Archives" when the thread was archived, but this has been fixed and the automatic archiving is running once again.

** NEW: Threadlogs now have this link called "Order By" next to the Last Post heading, which will shuffle the threadlog to put threads that have been recently replied to on top. If you click this on someone's profile it reloads the profile, meaning you'll have to click their History tab again to open up the threadlog. I'm looking into a way to load it directly onto the History tab instead. ^^ -- fixed

--- NEO

Hey guys!

So, it's finally back - the adoptables system! And, it comes with a few improvements, too...

• Improved design! I gave it a face-lift to match the theme of the site better, as it now (sorta) mimics a profile when you view an adoptable!
• A cookie remembers which Species tab you had open the last time you visited the main page, and will reload that tab upon being opened again.
• I know that some people ran into the problem of 'You don't own this character!' when trying to put a pre-existing account up for adoption. This has been solved, by making it very easy: you can only put an account up for adoption by being logged in to it! So be careful with that checkbox...
• The manage tab contains the controls for your adoptables. The same controls are available as links on the adoptable's "view" page, if you're the owner or an admin. Control/Manage is based upon your account switcher, so it shows all adoptables associated with your account/s.
• In the same vein, the system will only display adoptables created by someone with at least 1 account in an "active" usergroup (any of the herds, Unclaimed, Outcast, Other, SWP, or an admin rank). This is because it feels slightly unfair to display an adoptable for someone you have no means of contacting anymore. If you find one of your adoptables is missing from the list, ask an admin to change its "Created by" ID to your current main and it should show up again!
• Even if you entered an older account as the Creator, it's going to display a link to your current main account on the View page (as long as the accounts are linked).
• Creator ID is pre-set to your current master account, to make it even less of a hassle to figure out. :)
• NEW FIELD: "Vision"! This is for more specific things like, what you would like to see a potential adopter do with the character! For example, certain plots, story arcs, developments, etc. Basically, a place to expand on your expectations, hopes, wishes and ideas. :)
• Did I make a typo or an oopsie? Let me know xD
• Also, final note: if you have to fiddle with the adoptables, for example mark one as "adopted" or ask an admin to do it, you might run a risk of getting it set to the "Unclaimed" usergroup. Just explain in rank updates if this is the case. I'm sorry about this, but I think it'll only happen when done from the Admin CP. I'm too lazy to fix it because, aside from this one occasion when characters might've gotten taken out manually when the system was down, it should not be a problem in the future. ;D
• DELETING AN ADOPTABLE does not delete the account, if one exists. It just removes it from the Adoptable system. :)

Final notes that aren't going to be pretty with circles because I'm weird like that:
* If you have characters under your "Manage" tab that are listed as "unavailable" despite never having been adopted, they were marked as adopted by administrators during a sweep to clean up adoptables no one wanted at the time. Check with an admin before putting these back up for adoption.
* Do you guys want to be able to view a listing of "Adopted" characters? There isn't one right now because there's no way to distinguish between adopted characters and aforementioned cleaned-out characters.

Two last words:
* This song is too sexy for my own good. Click.
* I'm now going to go to my giant pony and put salve in her eye. Having to do that twice a day was exactly what I needed right now to manage my stress levels. :B :B :B :B :B :B :B /wants pity cake



--- NEO

Hello all,

The Admin team constantly strives to be as transparent and open with all of our decisions as possible. We constantly encourage you to come talk to us if you would like to know how a decision was arrived it, or why a certain call was made. However we also know that for some of you, this might be an intimidating task. So! In the interest of keeping communication as open and free as possible, we wanted to give the community some insight as to how the Admin Team actually functions.

WHO WE ARE
The Admin Team is comprised of three main admins: Tamme, Blu, and Odd. We three are responsible for making all decisions that pertain to Helovia. Broadly speaking, Tamme oversees updating, Blu oversees Judging, and Odd oversees mythical. However we are all capable of stepping in to these areas when needed. For instance, we are all capable of updating and making item and magic related decisions, are all capable of rolling and judging spars, and are all capable of writing Gods and REs.

HOW WE OPERATE
None of us act autonomously. We function as a group. All decisions need to be ‘passed’ with a 2/3 majority, however all members of our team are always informed of decisions made and the reasons why. Sometimes we have different opinions about rules or policy, but as mentioned, we always discuss these things together - and even when a vote isn’t unanimous, we all stand by the decision and understand the reasonings.

BIASES IN OUR TEAM
Biases are unavoidable which is why we eliminate all possible conflicts of interest. Admins may not roll their own spars, write RE’s/Gods to themselves, roll their own drops (if they are in a drop that they are hosting, someone else will roll for them. OR if the drop is ‘puzzle based’ they are simply not allowed to participate). We track our IPs, and so we can ALWAYS see if any of these failsafes have been violated. We take screen shots and post them for drops, since that is the biggest point of contention with biases, but we are always happy to give you even more background information if you think any amount of unfairness has occurred. We are not allowed to judge our own stealths, or judge stealths were biases might be a problem, nor do we judge our own spars. In fact, spars have to be approved by a SECOND admin, before being posted.

In order to eliminate any other biases, occasionally we break out 2/3 rule. If one of the admin is directly involved in challenging a rule, or is in any other conflict, they let the other two know, who handle the situation. We all know that emotions can run high especially when your character is involved, and so as admins we are forced to step back and abide by the decisions of the other two. When this is not possible (if we are all involved in something), we outsource. We look to our Jr A’s, or even to members of the community who have been admins in the past, or who have been around long enough to have an informed position.


On a personal note… It is very hurtful when we are accused of being biased. We are often told that our characters get unfair dice rolls, that we win more in drops, etc. Not only could we show you how far from the truth this actually is, but being an admin actually vastly decreases our opportunities. There is rarely a day that goes by where we don’t have to discuss someone on the site who is upset, someone who wants to talk about a rule, battles that need to be rolled or judged, SWP posts that need to be made, future SWP’s and other goodies (the giving trees, the halloween contests, the birthday event, etc) - Gods that need to response, ranks that need to be updated, stats, items, magic, wish lists, new applications, ETC. So after ALL THAT, we might have time to post. But we’re usually exhausted. We don’t have time to just post like you guys do - because we do all these things behind the scenes. We three are EASILY among the most active on this site - but half of our energy is spent making Helovia run. So believe me when I say, when we hear “It isn’t fair you have a demigod. That’s bias” or “it isn’t fair you lead a herd”  “it isn’t fair you won a prize” - let me tell you how crushing that is. We get NOTHING for doing this job - there are literally no perks and about a million downsides to doing it. But we work hard to make Helovia run, and work hard to keep up our characters at the same time. So if you would like to know how a decision was made, or to be reassured that no ‘funny business’ is happening, we are more than happy to have that discussion.

SO!

Please come to talk to us about any issues you may be having. We are ready and willing to provide proof (include showing IP addresses of the poster with permission) to any of your claims. If we do not know the issue, we cannot help, but we are always trying hard to make sure that this site is as fair as possible. Even if you just want to causally bring up some way you might have been feeling about the site, we are ready to talk and able to show you who has been doing what. We can't emphasize enough that we are always willing to talk to you about ANY issues you might be having. We are available through PMs, or on Skype - and are always happy to have a 'moderator' to keep everything light and professional.



Thank you,
The Admin Team

It has always been the purpose of judgings to be given when no clear winner can be decided (re: passing out = auto forfeit), so in an effort to uphold this purpose, any fights that finish with an HP gap between fighters of 20 points or higher is determined an automatic win to the fighter with the greater HP.

In these scenarios rubrics cannot be requested, but if you are searching for feedback you are encouraged to ask in the Growth Board if anyone could provide an unofficial rubric or read through, and of course we always suggest participating in in teaching fights.

Thank you!

Hello all,

During this break the admin team have reviewed some of our rules, and have gone through suggestions that the community has made regarding some of our policies. Please take the time to read through the following rule amendments. Feel free to ask any questions, or to PM the Official account!

• 1. Everyone will now have an OOC account 
  
  
  After many suggestions and much discussion, we have decided to implement new OOC accounts for everyone! We believe that having a centralized OOC account will help us better get in touch with you (without having to guess which account to send messages to, or to look up which characters you have out, etc), will help us better organize the absent board (easy searching!) and prize lists, and will help us with some administrative difficulties we've encountered (people voting twice in polls, tracking, etc). In order to get the OOC Account rank on your OOC Account, please post in rank updates!
  
  Before you make your accounts, please note the following:
  
  a. Your OOC account name should be the same as what you currently use for an OOC name. If you would like to 'change' your OOC name, please message Official so that we can make the relevant changes elsewhere.
  b. Your profile should not contain explicit or inappropriate material. This should go without saying :)
  c. We will be transitioning the absent board to reflect these new accounts - if you are not on absent, please go and ensure that you don't have a current absent thread. If you do, please delete it. The next time you make an absent thread, please use your OOC account.
  d. OOC boards will now be limited to OOC accounts.
  e. [b]THIS IS IMPORTANT: You must UNLINK all current accounts and LINK back with your OOC account as your MAIN! This will ensure that the whitepages and other functions work properly! [/b]
  
  Please go make your account now!
   
  
  
  
• 2. 0 HP now means your character is dead.
  
  
  After reviewing the meaning and purpose of HP, it is now determined that 0 HP means a loss of life. This was carefully discussed and evaluated before being put into effect, and what was determined is that the likelihood of being reduced to 0 HP in a fight is incredibly rare. That being said, you do have a 'tap out' range of 15 HP or less where you can forfeit the fight and still earn the completed fight bonus of 1 EXP. This rule is applicable to immortal or undead characters, however their death is only permanent if their restriction criteria is met (i.e. stake to the heart). The bonus earned for killing a character is only given in 1 vs. 1 fights, not invasions.
  
  
  
• 3. The teaching bonus for fights is now given win or lose.
  
  
  After reconsidering the rule that stated teachers who lose their fight do not earn the teaching bonus, we've decided to do away with it going forward. Because we now evaluate teachers with the approval process and because the dice system involves some luck and focuses on your character's skill rather than your skill as a player, we feel it's no longer a useful restriction. So now any teacher that doesn't default will receive the teaching bonus - defaulting teachers earn no bonus.
  
  
  
• 4. Partial judging verdicts only affect the non-defaulter
  
  
  When a fight defaults, the non-defaulter is awarded 0.5 VP. If each fighter has 2 attack posts or more each, then the non-defaulter could request partial judging which would result in a rubric. In the past, whoever the verdict of the partial judging named the winner earned 1 VP, even if that was the defaulter. Going forward, defaulters will not earn any reward. What this means is that if the non-defaulter loses from the partial judging verdict, then they go from the 0.5 VP to 1 EXP. It will still be the case that if the non-defaulter wins the partial judging verdict, then they go from the 0.5 VP to 1 VP. This rule still offers some risk in requesting partial judging, because you could lose the certainty of the 0.5 VP for either 1 VP or 1 EXP, but it does so without rewarding defaulters. We encourage everyone to complete their fights!
  
  
  
• 5. Over word count in fights
  
  
  Any fight has an 800 word maximum. Failure to adhere to this maximum will result in a -10 HP reduction from your rubric for each post that it occurs. We know it can be difficult to keep under 800 words in fights, but that is part of the challenge! It also helps keep our judges sane :)
  
  
  
• 6. Only list 1 clue per phrase of a stealth
  
  
  Example:
  Stealth line: "Look here, lonely excalibur boy"
  Phrase: Excalibur
  Clue(s): Excalibur is a famous sword, hence unicorn. Excalibur belonged to a king, meant to reference Paladin.
  
  Since excalibur is the phrase it can only be scored for 1 clue, but 2 are provided as unicorn [species ref] and paladin [relationship ref]. If you have multiple ideas, as is shown here, please only list one when revealing your stealth to ensure it gets properly and easily judged.
  
  
  
  
• 7. If an incorrect rank blocks a stealth...
  
  
  It is a site rule that anyone can steal anyone [aside from foals and unclaimed whom cannot write stealths/unclaimed cannot be stolen] - herds may have different restrictions, but the breaking of those herd rules only results in IC repercussions, not sitewide and administrative ones.
  
  It is also a site rule that only leads and sneaks with rank magic (2 total per herd) may block stealths  for members of their herd [outcasts can block themselves]. Going forward, if the incorrect rank attempts to block a stealth and it is not noticed before a response to the guess is given, herd leaders can select from the following options:
  1. Outcast the character and count that as an outcast guess. The character must thread IC to rejoin the herd.
  2. It counts as a herd guess.
  
  Ideally someone will notice that the block is void and say so before an answer is given, but in the event that doesn't happen, those are your options for proceeding.

  ---

  
  The admin team are working to add these rules to the guidebook - although please note that this currently has not been done.
  
  If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to PM this account or post below.
  
  Thank you,
  The Admin Team.
  
  

  ---

  
  The whitepages have been updated to reflect the new change. Right now you may notice it is a lot shorter than usual, because master accounts with no "slaves" (active attached accounts) do not show up. You might notice that, for example, Yewrezz is missing- which will not be an issue once she's set up and linked her OOC account. Then Maren will be the legitimate "slave" of her master account and it will show up! :)
  
  The Whitepages operate this way as a safety against it being spammed with left-over OOC accounts from people who have gone inactive. :) Once all your linked characters are hidden, deceased, or abyssed, you will not be displayed on the Whitepages.
  
  Also please note the player count is probably off, but I'll correct that later. Corrected.
  
  

  ---

  
  a. Your OOC account name should be the same as what you currently use for an OOC name. If you would like to 'change' your OOC name, please message Official so that we can make the relevant changes elsewhere.
  
  
  I've seen some people deciding to change their OOC names. This is totally fine, but you need to let us know. Your prize lists and previous trades are all listed under whatever OOC name you were using previously. If you don't let us know these things, records wont' be updated properly and you will have some very grumpy admins hunting you down.
  
  <3

NEW JR ADMINISTRATORS
We are very happy to welcome SMITTY and BYRN as Jr. A's in the updating field. We thank Whit, Abba, and Linds for their dedication and service! Time will remain as a Jr. A for judging, and Brit and Frostie will remain in Mythical. However we had lots of amazing candidates, and as this learning curve starts to even out, we'll be happy to call on more of you for help!

Congrats!

---

RULE CHANGES AND UPDATES!
1. Previously you needed to have three different types of clues, and once a clue had already awarded you a 'point', you could not get another point for that type of clue (appearance, gender, personality, etc). The admin have decided to eliminate this rule. But please keep in mind that you do still need 3different types of clues. 

Example, if your stealth had 
[personality ]
[appearance ]
[gender]
[personality]
[history]
[rank]
The most amount of points you could get would be 5, since personality would not be counted twice. Now you could possibly get 6. However if you had the following:
[personality ] - +1
[appearance ] - 0
[gender] - +1
[personality] - +1
[history] - 0
[rank] - 0
Even though you have 3 points (which is what you need to pass a stealth), because there are not three types (two personality, one gender), the stealth would still fail.

2. Clues can only ever earn you one point. For example, if a stealth said [Bitch], this could not be a gender ref + personality ref. Similarly [Frosty] can't reference magic AND colour. Or, "Her eyes are the ocean" [her eyes are blue like the ocean so appearance ref] [she also has water magic so magic red] where you're using the same phrase to mean multiple clues. We define a clue/phrase based on the words you use in your reveal and we will judge by whatever you stipulate the clue to be, but you can only ever get one point for it. 

3. There will be changes to the Absence Board! Because we've had difficulties with people making multiple threads, not updating their statuses, or going off of incorrect information, we've decided to amend how the board will operate. 
From now on...

- There will no longer be a prefix for 'busy'. For the most part, we are all busy. You are either here, or absent. Busy isn't informative from a rules-perspective
- YOU MAY ONLY HAVE ONE THREAD (this isn't a new rule, but it is apparently hard to follow :P )
- Only Sr. Admin may ever 'update' someones thread. If you are going to be away and cannot update it yourself, you must let Aud, Blu, or Tamme know. It is acceptable to have a friend let one of us know, but we need screenshots/emails/texts (etc) of the request.

4. Hidden Account Update: 

When accounts meet a certain criteria after exceeding the Absent Abyss 8 month limit, they may become hidden for purposes of saving vital character information for other active characters.

Going forward, those who communicate with the Helovia administration about long term absences that must exceed the already extended time of absent abyss, will continue as normal within Hidden.

However, when accounts are moved into Hidden without communication, and are then later asked to be played again, they may only return as an active character stripped of all assets (magic/companions/items). The IC justifications are that the extended absence from Helovia and its gods leeches the characters of the things which Helovia has granted it. Similarly, if an account is deleted, either normally, or after 8 months in AA, those characters will return stripped of all assets as well.

Absent Abyss was never meant to have an additional safety net to exceed it. Hidden is meant to be a final rank for a character that earns it. Absences from one player/character affect all the other characters that participated, causing a ripple effect among the community. This is why we enforce our "love your character" policy so strongly, and why unannounced absences have repercussions.

5. Please refrain from asking any of the admin, or jr. admins to update things via skype. We are happy to field questions and chat about Helovia, but we ask that all rank updates, character updates, absences, or other requests that have designated threads, be directed to those threads. This includes 'poking for an admin' on Skype and asking us to check the update threads. If there is a place or account on Helovia where you can ask for what you need, please use it, rather than Skype.

6. Herd Champs Update - We are SO pleased to see such competition for Herd Champs! While we want to make sure that post counts aren't over-inflated to try and win, we love the activity! For your information, we wanted to let you know how herd champ prizes work - both as an incentive to win, and a goal to work towards! 

1-2 Months Consecutively :: Extra roll in drops for that month, passive magic, immunity from SWP related things
3-4 Months Consecutively :: Unlimited crafting 
5-7 Months Consecutively :: Granted a herd quest 

7. Items can now be upgraded!  There will be a 'how to write/create items' guide written shortly. Each item can be upgraded a maximum of two times via questing. 

---

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post below, or PM Official.

MAUJA
Ascended Helovian

An Ascended Helovian honor is a special award given to characters who have shown a long-term dedication to the site, have a reputation with the gods as being a leader, hold a position of power, and have heavily impacted the site as a whole over time.  The Ascended Helovian is awarded with either blessed progeny for the remainder of his life or is granted a special, god-given immortality status. This gift is given by the gods of Helovia.  You can tell Ascended Helovians from the rest due to a special badge on their post bit section and a special title beneath their name on their profiles. These characters are also honored by having their character appear on Helovia's banner for a week!  Congratulations to Mauja for his far-reaching side-wide impact; leading herds, multiple leadership roles, incredible threads, and his complicated relationship with the Moon Goddess and service to the Edge.  You can find Ascended Helovians under the Legend Titles Tab in the Character Records.

1. With dragon companions gender is no longer dictated by color. So any gender can be any color. Everything else stays the same!

2. Extended spars will be no more as of this post date, so just the normal standard 3 week time line. Any spars currently ongoing that are extended will continue on that way.

Thank you.

Legend Title Nominations!
Helovia has just reached it's seventh in character year! As a thank you to our loyal members and in response to wanting more Legend Titles for non leaders, we are going to have two legend title characters be chosen every Helovian year! One male and one female character will be chosen based on their activity, actions, words and general in character awesomeness from Helovia's inception to today. The characters who qualify are those characters who are made UP TO THIS DATE (2/20/16).

1. Each character can only be nominated once (please read previous nominations)
2. A form for each nomination has to be filled out
3. Nominating will last for seven days from 2/20/16 to 2/27/16
4. After the nominations are in a 72 hour voting period begins
5. Nomination voting will begin similar to the CoTM voting except you vote for ONE FEMALE and ONE MALE character
6. You cannot vote for your own character


PAST WINNERS
Year One's Winners
Azzuen the Ardent
Onni the Illuminant

Year Two's Winners
Deimos the Reaper
Faelene the (Undecided)

Year Three's Winners
Torleik the Bloodskald
Confutatis the World Eater

Year Four's Winners
Oxy the Addict

Year Five's Winners
Cera the Golden  Prince
Lena the Songbird

Year Six's Winners
Mesec the Nightwind
Roskuld the Sparklight

Prizes
- Character of the Month Prizes
- Legend Title (earned from a prior experience as noted in form)

Form
1. Character Nomination Name:
2. OOC Player:
3. Character Gender:
4. Character's Personality:
5. Actions done by this character that makes them deserving of a legend title:
6. External features of character that make them worthy of a legend title:
7. Why you feel this character would be a good choice:

---

           

MALES Ashamin Ciceron Gull Johnny Tilney Volterra

FEMALES Alysanne Arah Isopia Maren Nyx Resplendence Rexanna

You should absolutely have music on your profile and your posts! Especially if it sets a mood! However, it should NOT auto-play. This is because quite a few of us listen to our own music or access Helovia from places not at home and the volume differences and music style can be a distraction. Also, if someone else's character requires different mood music than what you posted, that makes posting difficult for them.


Thank you!

You may have noticed the admin team have been incredibly busy lately leading to a lull in the otherwise smoothly functioning site. Due to personal life and the fact that we are all at different places in our lives now than we were when this game started (so many years ago), we are bringing on an additional full admin, Time!

Time has been invaluable in our battle board and judging. She's always available to help with anything and is a fantastic communicator. We look forward to welcoming her into a decision-making, plot level leadership position.

SO HOLD YOUR HORSES.

Shit's about to get real.

---

With that said, look out for JA applications to go up soon! We are going to be looking for mythical and judging JAs to join our fantastic team!

After much deliberation and discussion, the admin team have chosen the following individuals to join our team as junior administrators.

Congratulations to Bunnie, Jen and Sarah who have been chosen to join the Junior Admin Team.

Smitty and Brit will continue to aid the administrative team as well.

Thank you all for applying - this was a very difficult decision!

Welcome to Helovia and thank you so much for your patience! We now have a beautiful new layout with the banner by none other than our amazing Sarah. Here is her DA account, go watch: http://littlewillow-art.deviantart.com/

Cosmetic Changes:
- Buttons on the top left give info! Check on the "exclamation point" for links and updates to important stuff
- Our "FAQ" now works and is updated :D
- The "active threads" link is now located in the member panel with your threadlog and new posts, etc
- We have added the "Ranked Characters" page for all the officially ranked characters of our Helovian herds
- Affiliates are now at the very bottom of the site in the footer
- The memberlist has been revamped and you can now search by herd :D!! (thank you neo!)
- The guidebook has yet to be styled but that is because I am still working on recoding that a little bit

Major Changes:
- We have now added the new invasion rules! They are called "Conquer Challenges" and you can see the details of those in the guidebook and on the new invasion thread
- We have new JA who are awesome and we will be working on getting them set up
- We will (very soon) have a new land guide and stuff will be reorganized!

APPLICATIONS FOR THE DEAD LANDS:
- If you are interested in applying for leadership of the deadlands to build up your empire and then invade one of the other herds, please hit up this thread here: http://helovia.net/showthread.php?tid=23780
- The new invasion rules will also be listed there for your review!
- Any and all questions regarding the new invasions can be asked in the "Q&A" as per the usual



Thank you so much!
<333 your admin team

Hello Helovia!

The admin team have made two small changes to our guidebook, regarding herd leaders and wishlists!

HERD LEADERS
Previously we had a rule which stipulated that herd leaders had to post weekly. However due to everyone's differing schedules, weekly unofficial absences from posting were not uncommon and this rule was never policed. Now with our new invasion system, we will be focused less on policing activity, as that will make it easier for new herds to invade others. However the 30 day herd leader rule still applies. If a herd leader is absent for more than 30 days or does not post within 30 days, they may be removed by herd vote or admin intervention.

WISHLISTS
The 30 day waiting limit on wishlists has been removed! Originally we created this rule because we wanted to encourage our members to actually think about the magic/companions they wanted for their characters, rather than just jumping at the first drop that they saw. You have all done a wonderful job of this - and now we see characters being created with a ton of thought behind them! So we are removing the 30 day waiting period. You do not need a wishlist, but if you don't have one, you can't be considered for random drops! So it's in your best interest!

Thank you,
The Admin Team.

Hello everyone and thank you for keeping with us as we make changes! We are VERY excited to try out these new conquer challenges (invasions) with a new herd team/herd land and can't wait to get applications in. It is our hope that this will be a really fun and exciting way to add some of that grittiness and uncertainty back into Helovia that we've been lacking during our lull.

That being said, the admin want to point out our position on IC drama AND give a reminder!

REMINDER

• IC drama is good, but it should NEVER bleed out OOCly!
  
• If you hear about a cool plot, you should not try to hinder or negate it in any way, please! Cool plots are often fragile and since we don't have much free time, can take a bit of working to get it through.
  
• Life isn't interesting if there isn't a challenge or heartbreak that your character has to face! Even if your herd is being targeted, try to think about how awesome it will be to overcome or face defeat!
  
• Don't let your OOC feelings hinder someone else's plot! We are here to support and help each other out. Remember that it's hard to be a bad guy, but we all love them!
  

ADMIN POSITION
The admin position is that we will help, encourage and protect new groups or plots meant to shake up the status quo. We will help and protect our new Deadlands group (whoever they may be), and we will ensure a fair and good challenge to one of the herds. It is our goal to break up leadership bands and remove alliances so that each herd has to stand on its own.

If you have a plot you want to implement and are worried about OOC repercussions, please talk to Tamme (who is in no herds), Aud (who is in a few herds) or Time (who is in all herds). We will do our best to help you navigate your plot and protect your group when and how we can!


THE STATUS QUO IS VERY NOT QUO!


Thank you for your help and participation,
The Admin Team

Hello Helovia! The admin team just wanted to remind everyone that, while we encourage excitement, plots, and foals, we also encourage you to place your early-created foal accounts into AA until closer to when the foal will be born (foal stats are rolled, or the conception thread is finished, etc).

Thank you,
The Admin Team

1. Legend Titles
- Not the first name
- Rough description of character

2. Herd Leaders
- Their names
- Rough description of character

3. After 1 season, Ascended Helovians
- Just who they are
- Not what ability they chose

4. After 2 seasons, who currently has your stolen character/item
- Only the character's name and appearance
- Date starts after final admin judgment on the stealth

Hello Helovia!

The Admin team have decided to make an update to how companions affect battle stats. In the past, companion's numbers went up in age. However, now it will be that all mythical companions and regular companions WITH magic will be counted as an overall "2" and regular companions WITHOUT magic will be maxed at "1". Characters with a "2" companions will still go up to "3" with the Hunter battle buff, and characters with the "1" companions will increase to "2" with the Hunter battle buff.

Hello all,

Because of the delicate IC/OOC nature of stealths, the admin team have decided to enforce a 'default' time limit for stealths.

If you create a stealth, you have 72 hours from the time someone blocks, to respond. Similarly, if for example, your stealth is for an outcast and 72 hours passes, you must post your reveal. If you pass the 72 hour period with no response, your stealth will default. You do not need to reveal who your stealth was for, and you can reuse it (though you'll be at a disadvantage since others will already have had time to think about it and/or make guesses).

Importantly, this cannot be done intentionally. This rule was created so that characters would not be in limbo during extended stealths, NOT so that the effects of the stealth could be avoided. If the admin know that you have been online/are in a position to answer the stealth, you will be required to post your reveal. Anyone using this rule as a way of avoiding IC-stealth penalties will receive a warning.

The admin team think this default time limit is only fair given the number of 'leave my herd alone' challenges, as well as the fact that allowing stealths to remain in limbo for days can be confusing for herd blocks ("well, they were an outcast when the stealth was made, but it's 2 weeks later and now they're in our herd?"), and also time lines.

If you have any questions, please feel free to post below!

Thank you,
The Admin Team.

---

Question. If the stealth has been successfully blocked, but the poster does not respond, does the herd not have any rights to know if the block was correct or not?
No.

Stealths are revealed after 48 hours of the target is an outcast.

So if it's for an outcast, you must post the reveal after 72 hours, which is a full day after the time limit for outcasts to block anyways.

:: Admin Announcements ::

Hello all,

We have made a few changes to the admin team! Time has decided to take a step back from her duties for a little while, due to some amazing things happening in her life and career! We thank Time so much for all of her hard work! In her place, we have asked Smitty to become a full administrator!

Jen has also had to take a step back from her Jr. A duties.

Everyone please congratulation SMITTY on her position as full administrator!