february bulletin!

[asgardmods]

february bulletin Hello, Asgardians! We'd like to start off by thanking y'all so much for how patient and supportive you've been with us, as your brand new mods. We've made quite a few changes already, and have even more in both the near and semi-near future, and it's extremely heartening to see these things met with such enthusiasm. ♥ CHANGES + GENERAL REMINDERS. REMINDER → If you haven't yet, check out our Official Game Plan for some important information and how we're going to be implementing your feedback in the future. Again, thank you for all the great comments you left and for voicing your opinion. We want to make Asgard great together, and our playerbase is of course the key component in making that happen. REMINDER → Reserves are currently open! If you're interested in reserving, or even just want to help someone out with their potential samples, our recent Test Drive Meme is still lively and waiting for you! REMINDER → Applications will open on the 8th and close on the 14th; the regular full week. However, please note that this is not the standard app round - in future months, our bi-monthly reserve/app round will take place in the last two weeks of the second month (rather than the last week of one month and the first week of the next), which lets us put intro logs up on the ~3rd and allow a more tidy chunk of time in which to organize our monthly events and such. REMINDER → February's Activity Check has been put up - which, as a reminder, is open for comments throughout the entirety of the month. We'll give AC reminders once February begins to wind down, but you're always welcome to toss yours up as soon as you have it! PAGE UPDATE → The FAQ has been adjusted to reflect some of the rules changes we've made throughout the last couple of weeks, but it isn't quite fully re-vamped. We'd like to have it finalized by the end of this week, but rest assured that most of the remaining changes are structural and more detail-oriented. RULE ADJUSTMENT → Rather than being encouraged to stick to one of each gods' two schools of magic, we now allow spell sets to take freely from both of a god's given magical schools. This stems from the fact that there are no 'schools of magic' in Asgard - it's a purely OOC differentiation, representing the full scope of one god's magic. God magic isn't inherently divided down the middle ICly, nor is it OOCly so from this point on. (If you already have your spell set but urgently want to change it due to this adjustment, we'll allow you to resubmit spell requests for any spells that have not yet been earned in-game. If your character has their first- and second-tier magics, for example, you're only able to request a new third-tier magic to avoid retconning or fudging the lore. RULE ADJUSTMENT → We've removed the ten-minutes-of-canon rule for character appability. From our perspective, there's no need to gatekeep quite so heavily, and characters that can't be written as complete, fully-developed individuals will weed themselves out via the quality of their application. PAGE UPDATE → We have also recoded the Taken list thanks to Pink! There's a new slot for characters to add in any info pages they have listed on their journals, which you can opt into here. If you're interested, please submit your 'info' link on the Taken page! PAGE UPDATE → The Housing page has also been condensed to one page, with the addition of non-standard housing included under the domain where it is located. We recognize that this does remove quite a bit of setting-related detail, but fret not! We plan to provide resources for What Asgard Is Like in future pages, in a venue that doesn't impede the functionality of the housing page. FEBRUARY IN ASGARD. OVERVIEW. For Asgard, February is a month of distinct and undeniable change. As will become clear in the upcoming pantheonic network address, the Gods have seen the flaw in their approach to the Wanderers, and the weeks to follow are filled with a renewed sense of purpose and hopefully belonging... but with that comes a renewed sense of personal responsibility, as the gods now trust each individual to carry the fate of some small part of Asgard as a whole. THE PANTHEON. What are the gods up to in February? The pantheon's largest priority is currently to create some sort of job or role for any Wanderer who wishes to strengthen their domain, or Asgard as a whole - or even just to find a sense of purpose in their day-to-day lives. (Please note that more information on the gods' respective jobs will be released via the jobs infopage later this week! But note that characters are able to volunteer for up to 2 roles, and neither one is required to be their patron god's.) ODIN → Odin is adjusting a wing of Festa Vinna to host those willing to dedicate parts of their mind and their week to the scientific/magictechnological advancement of Asgard + to the furthered understanding of the deeper nuances of the gods' and Yggdrasil's magics. He's guardedly optimistic. This will not end well, but he holds hope for the very strong possibility that with the Wanderers' help, they'll strengthen Asgard enough to withstand what comes. NJORD → As Odin's right-hand advisor, Njord is content with this move to allow Wanderers to impress themselves upon the machinations of Asgard. It strengthens the Wanderers, and more importantly, it strengthens Asgard itself. Their city (and thus the pantheon itself) has been weakened far too many times by threat after threat that shouldn't exist in this realm, and through this comes the knowledge that Asgard would be strengthened even further by a council of individuals to advise the gods... Which only leaves the task of selecting each seat. This is the task he busies himself with throughout the month. FRIGG → Frigg is tired. Asgard itself is tired, the gods' magic is tired - and Frigg, more than any other god, is the one who feels this intimately. The choice to allow the Wanderers more agency to strengthen the city is a relief, a splash of cold water on a hot day. She dedicates herself to facilitating Wanderers to care for one another, putting thought and attention into avenues to treat both physical and mental health and providing interested Wanderers with the educational materials to learn how to provide these services themselves. HEIMDALL → Heimdall, for one, is more than ready for the task at hand. He thinks not toward the future, but toward the present - and right now, in the present, he's gathering any willing and able-bodied individuals to the brave and crucial task of guarding Asgard from external threats... Or, on occasion, from threats within the city limits. Beyond that, he's requesting his guards be available to train others in the arts of offensive and defensive combat, in whatever way happens to fit their ability. This is crucial, and he can be seen training alone or walking the perimeter of Asgard sometimes to set a good example for his men. TYR → Tyr's excitement is held much closer to his chest, but it buzzes subtly around him nonetheless as he draws interested Wanderers into the comfort of his temple to discuss with them the prospect of forging bonds with other peoples, or even species! He's looking to train diplomats, individuals with the disposition and (with his help) the case-by-case education to make an excellent first impression on those that they meet outside of Asgard - and also to maintain positive relations with those peoples from that point on. This may sound silly, but Tyr insists it's of grave importance. His diplomats may one day be all that stands between Asgard and some sort of war. Much of his time this month is devoted to compiling all of the information he knows about those outside of Asgard's limits and presenting that information to his volunteers. MIMIR → Mimir knows when to speak and when to hold his tongue. The rest of the gods have, strategically, made a very wise move this month. As such, he holds his tongue and he thinks. Considers at length what might prove most beneficial, of all of his offerings, to Asgard as a whole. Then, decisively, he begins to gather to him the researchers. The scribes. The anatomical artists. Those who observe and record and try to make sense of what exists. Those who wish to discover and record the past, so as not to repeat the mistakes it holds. It makes a fine contrast, he thinks, to Odin's experimenters and magi-engineers. HONIR → Honir is gathering his scouts (which is to say: anyone willing to be a scout and passably skilled enough to wing it) with utmost enthusiasm! This is so much better than things were, before - now he can have friends, people to adventure with rather than simply protect. ...Which isn't to say that he's not protecting them. He can be found flitting through the woods on horseback on more than one occasion, a bit of preliminary scouting in the areas where new baby scouts might be getting their toes wet. SIGYN → Sigyn begins the month in unease - the force of nature that is Skadi has her scrambling for some way to calm the waters, but after her best attempt fails, she steels her resolve and focuses instead on welcoming Wanderers into her daily toils as the goddess of harvest. It's a good distraction. Growing, harvesting, distributing, and cooking the various fruits, veggies, grains, and meats of Asgard is quite a busy task! SKADI → Skadi finds herself thoroughly chastised by the others (for her inaction, for her indifference) and you bet that she's irritated, a brooding cloud sweeping through her district and occasionally the others - on the rare occasion that she even leaves her temple. While her pointy-faced scions previously roamed the city, they now hover outside of her temple as if to ward off anyone who might intrude. And Sigyn's little stunt with the mural (art! does she know who the god of art is?) didn't help matters in the least. Fortunately, a lot of that pressure seems to lift on the 17th, vented into a curse to help Wanderers build character. Who says that Skadi never helps the mortals? (Her own god-fostered jobs are opened much later, focusing on spreading art, music, and other creative life throughout the city.) THE WEATHER. All in all, February is chilly - though it's mostly rain and maybe slush rather than the blizzard of late December. Snow does touch down on the 5th and the 19th, but neither offer more than 2-3 inches of powder. THE LATENT CURSES. Each month, we have 2-3 scheduled curses here in the Bulletin. These curses are latent - rather than deliberately being inflicted by the gods, they're a passive byproduct. Every so often a god has a particularly strong thought or feeling, and it creates a pocket of magic which takes life of its own and manifests into a small, short-term curse effect. These curses are not limited to specific areas or domains unless otherwise specified! We won't be making a log for these curses, but you're welcome to include them in your own open posts, etc. This month's latent curses are: FRIGG, 19TH → Like I said: Frigg is tired, and nothing wears her down further quite like division. This curse takes place two days after Skadi's manifests, when she realizes the true scope of what's been done. For 24 hours, a single glimpse of Frigg anywhere throughout Asgard will compel people to be protective and overly caring of their fellow Wanderer. This lasts anywhere from ten minutes to ten hours, and can range from subtle but pressing to outright overbearing. MIMIR, 23RD → In an effort to understand Wanderers and their various worlds and timelines, Mimir has been working on his Divination magic. He hopes to understand the potential threats from their world. Unfortunately, experimental magic can often be unpredictable, and in a moment of thwarted frustration, a latent curse is created. Wanderers are hit with flashes of 30-second memories... that aren't theirs. They belong to a fellow wanderer, anonymous unless you're able to piece their identity together via the memory itself. Hope it was nothing you didn’t want people to know! THIS MONTH'S EVENTS. february 17 ↴ GOD CURSE: CHARACTER-BUILDING WITH SKADI. The morning after welcome day, many Wanderers wake up with a stinging, itching spot somewhere on their body. Maybe their arm, maybe their back, maybe their throat. In that spot, as it turns out, is a set of words in a deep ruddy brown (almost like old blood) under their skin as if tattooed in place. These aren't just any words, either. the phrase can be 1 - 4 words, and it preys directly into their fears, their regrets, their insecurities, and their mistakes. They're facing down some of the worst things they've ever thought or feared about themselves. A few things vary from person to person: The words' severity! They can be varying levels of specific, from ambiguous to needlepoint. Like, say you play Spiderman and he feels responsible for Uncle Ben's death. You could go painful but ambiguous with 'useless' or you could jab him in the heart with 'murdered Uncle Ben'. The words don’t have to be true - they just have to feel true. The words' location! They can be literally anywhere on the body, so you have options. You can plaster it on their face like a brand, on their leg where they can cover it up, on their back where it takes a second person or a mirror to see what it is... The world is your oyster. (Or, I guess in this case, your character's... body... is your oyster??) The number of phrases! Yes, there can be more than one. As many as three, in fact, all in different bodily locations. How long the words stay! For most, the curse fades less than 24 hours later. A few unlucky souls, though, will find that the words linger like any tattoo would - or worse, they seem to fade but reappear at the least opportune moment! The other gods are eager and willing to try to relieve the poor Wanderers of these cursed marks, but they find that it's not quite so easy. Wanderers who seek a god's removal of the words find that not only do the words remain, but a new set appears: Fears the truth. This event takes place the day after new Wanderers arrive, and will share the introduction log going up on the 16th. This event will not have an OOC 'event post' prior to the log, as the entirety of the mini-event is detailed here - so you're free to plot for this event within the comments of this post. february 25 - 27 ↴ EVENT: UNITY CELEBRATION. In celebration of the thus-far success of the budding unity between the pantheon and the Wanderers, Asgard's gods are hosting a festival on the palace's expansive lawn! The festival will last for two days, with one additional day of set-up in which Wanderers from each god's domain are invited to decorate their gods' festival areas in whichever ways they feel best represent those gods. During this festival, characters will eat, drink, dance, and show off their god-given magics in creative revelry - a feat that the oversaturation of magic in the air seems to let them repeat as much as they'd like while within the festival area. More on this festival will be available in the info-post on the 19th! The log itself will go up on the 24th. That's it for now, folks! If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reply to this post or contact us on the mod contact page.

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PLOTTING: CHARACTER BUILDING WITH SKADI

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