REALM EDICTS

+ Welcome to The Crownless! We are an advanced fantasy wild horse text-based role playing game.

+ Please see this thread for information about our site-wide plot as well as the in-character history of the site, including the differences in kingdoms.

+ If you have any questions about the site or these rules, please refer to our frequently asked questions thread.

+ TC is an advanced forum. If you haven’t had at least a year of experience on forums like this one, this is most likely not the place for you.

+ TC has a strict “one strike, you’re out” policy when it comes to disrespect. If you are seen being rude to anyone, you will be banned immediately.

+ Any overly-sexual, violent, illegal, or other inappropriate content will be deleted without warning.

+ All images you use on the forum must be properly credited if they are from a stock provider or otherwise. Do not grab photos from Google and use them without permission from the photographer/artist. Staff will delete imagery that violates this rule.

+ We are a one-account-per-character forum. This means that you will need to make a new account for each new character you create.

+ The first account you register should be your OOC account. To confirm that this is your OOC account, we ask that you fill out a short form and post it in a new thread in the OOC Accounts board so a staff member can set your member group. It's a good idea to bookmark this thread, as you will need it to use purchased items for that account.

+ Once that's finished, you can create your first character. Simply click the "Switch Account" button in the top right corner of the forum. You'll see a link right under your OOC account name that says "Create a new account on this forum". Click that, and create the new account as you would normally.

+ Your accounts will automatically be linked together thanks to the ProBoards global account system.

+ Once you've created a character account, fill in the fields in the "Edit Profile" area under the "Personal" tab. The requirements for each section are listed right above them. These will need to be completed in order for your character to be accepted.

+ Unfortunately, the profile fields only allow basic UBBC code (Bold, Italic, Underlined, and Struck-through text, and Links). This is a restriction by ProBoards. If you would like to have tables or images in the Appearance, Personality, History, or Companion sections of your profile, they will need to be linked from elsewhere.

+ Characters can be joined with Companions. These are non-equine animals that accompany your character. Companions cannot speak "human" language. Companions cannot be taller than your horse, and they must be a real creature that is not currently extinct.

+ To join a companion with your character, simply add the Companion's information in the "Companion" area of your character's profile.

+ A companion joined at the same time as the character is free. This applies to all new characters, not just your first one. You do not need the “Companion” item from the Store unless your character has already been accepted.

+ For characters and Companions, magic, super powers, and psychic abilities are not allowed. This includes telepathy, dreamwalking, vampirism, etc.

+ Mental or physical health issues must be listed as real conditions or disorders. Please do your research if you intend for your character to have a mental disorder or physical disability.

+ After you've filled out all of your character's information, fill out the short form in the "Create" board and post it in a new thread. A staff member will look over your profile and accept your character. It's a good idea to bookmark this thread, as you will need it to use purchased items for your character. Please refrain from using purchased items or posting with your character until they have been accepted.

+ After your character is accepted, you can make a Log to keep track of their interactions with others and any other information you'd like to add. This is also the place to outfit your character's info with fancy tables if you so desire. This is not required.

+ Members who make their characters impossibly invincible (godmodding), attempt to control or affect someone else’s character without their permission (powerplaying), or bestow their character with OOC knowledge they would have otherwise been unable to know (metagaming) will be promptly banned from the forum temporarily or permanently depending on the situation. As advanced role players, there is no excuse for breaking these rules.

+ There is no minimum word count, but we ask that all posts have a level of quantity to them that someone can respond to. Your fellow members are allowed to ask you to add more to your post if needed.

+ General posting etiquette applies here. If you are in a thread with multiple people, wait your turn, or ask first before you post out of turn. If you have to make an unfinished post, notify the person you are rping with when the post is finished so they can respond.

+ Proper grammar and spelling are required in in-character posts. If you constantly have bad grammar, spelling, and numerous typos, staff may ask you to edit some of your posts.

+ Seasons change every 2 months, and all characters must age up by one year every spring.

+ Liquid time, or posting your character in multiple threads at different time periods, is allowed, but not required.

+ TC’s site currency is called Aurum (latin word for gold), abbreviated AU.

+ Every post (IC and OOC) is worth 5AU. AU can also be obtained through participating in and winning contests. You can use AU to buy items from the Store.

+ Our Store is automated, so it's very easy to quickly purchase items. If you accidentally purchase an item for the wrong account, you can gift items to the proper account by going to the profile you want to gift to and clicking "Gift/Trade". Simply click on the item in your inventory you want to gift, and click Send. Your gifts and trades are easily accessible in the top navigation bar via the "Trades" link.

+ To use items for your OOC account or for your character accounts, simply go to your "OOC Accounts" board thread for your account, or go to your character's accepted "Create" board thread and post a reply saying which item you'd like to use. A staff member will remove the item from your profile, and they will respond to the thread confirming that the item has been used and its effects have been put into place.

+ If you are offering a character up for adoption, you have the right to set the requirements for adoption, the requirements for activity with that character if it is adopted, and you have the right to take the character back at any time.

+ If you adopt a character from another member in our Adopt board, you must create a new account for them, and the old account must be removed. If you adopted out a character and you don't want to delete the old account, you can retire it instead.

+ Retiring characters is just an easy way of saying you’re putting them on hold. Instead of differentiating between putting characters on hold and killing them off, we just combine the two into “retiring”. Retired accounts are simply put into the "Retired" member group, and are barred from making new posts.

+ To retire a character, simply fill out the form in the "Retire" board and post it with the account you'd like to retire, and a staff member will change the account's member group.

+ If you would like to bring a character back from retirement, please reply to that accounts retirement thread, and a staff member will change your account from "Retired" back to whatever group they were in before.

+ The players of the Asterian King, Kairosian King, the Halcyonian Alpha, and the First Lord of Boreas are each responsible for maintaining their kingdom’s informational thread. Kingdom rulers who don’t keep up with their informational thread can be forcibly stripped of their title by staff.

+ The requirements for each kingdom’s informational thread is as follows:

- Kingdom rules: Laws that all characters who are apart of the kingdom must follow, with clear consequences if the rules are broken. If any rules you create are deemed unfair or implausible by staff, you will be asked to modify them or remove them.

- Kingdom ranks: Ranks within the kingdom can be changed from ruler to ruler except the titles of the ruling stallion and ruling mare. There can be no “slave” ranks. These ranks must be updated with each new addition to the herd and every time a character leaves the kingdom.

+ New rulers, whether chosen by audition, peaceful succession, or through winning a challenge, MUST make their own, brand new informational thread within 1 IRL week of ruling the kingdom.

+ If there is no ruling stallion, the duty of creating and maintaining the informational thread falls on the player of the ruling mare for the duration she is in power, even with the addition of a ruling male. Whoever rules the kingdom first is responsible for their informational thread and cannot transfer this duty until that character loses power.

+ Players of kingdom rulers must be active. If a royal character hasn’t been posted for 1 month, the player will receive a 2 day warning to make an IC post before they are removed from the throne by staff.

+ Once every site year (once every 8 IRL months), each kingdom must have a meeting (basically an IC activity check) in the sub board within their royal land. All high-ranking equine must attend, and those who do not attend will lose their positions. This ensures that kingdoms are not full of high-ranking characters that are inactive.

+ Royal characters have the power to banish any character from their kingdom at any time. The banished character will be considered Crownless until they are allowed back into the kingdom or until they join another one.

+ Players of royal characters will enjoy a 30AU reward for every month they actively rule their kingdom.

+ Each member (including staff) can only hold one royal position at a time.

+ Characters must be at least 3 years old to breed.

+ Each character, stallion or mare, can only breed once per season, and breeding is not allowed in winter.

+ As long as you have a Foal prize, you can breed. The number of foals per breeding depends on how many Foal prizes you use. The maximum amount of foals allowed per breeding is 4.

+ All foals on TC are custom. You can design your own foal or have another member design one for you.

+ To breed, the Sire account and the Dam account must each fill out a small form and post them in a new thread in the Breeding board.

+ Next, the person who is going to play the foal must create the foal's account and fill in all of the required fields, just like creating a normal character. Foals must be created at the age of "Newborn".

+ Then, the foal account must fill out the Foal form in the Breeding board and post it as a reply to the Sire and Dam's forms already posted in their thread.

+ After the foal has been accepted by staff, the breeding thread serves as the foal's "Create" thread. You will need to post in this thread to use items for that account, so it's a good idea to bookmark it.

+ Battles can happen anywhere. Both Crowned and Crownless characters can battle. Characters must be at least 3 years old to fight, and they must have been posted at least 3 times ICly (must be in different threads).

+ Before a battle begins, one character must issue a challenge. (Members with valid absent posts cannot be challenged.) If you would like to issue a challenge, make your challenge post (can be dialogue, can be a full post) in the land in which the character you are challenging resides (as indicated on the character's profile).

+ After the challenge is posted, the challenged must respond, accepting or declining the challenge. If the challenge is declined, they forfeit whatever they are being challenged for, whether it be bragging rights, a herd member, their rank, their throne, etc. Challenges must be responded to within 3 days of the challenge being posted, or the challenged automatically forfeits.

+ If the challenge is accepted, the challenger writes the battle rules. These rules must include the following:

- The prize: What is being fought for.

- Location: Where the battle will be held. The only places you cannot battle are in the lands of kingdoms that are not involved in the fight. For example, if an Asterian and a Kairosian wish to battle, they cannot hold their battle in a Halcyon or Boreas land.

- Duration: How many posts each member will be allowed, including the amount of attacks and dodges allowed for each character.

- Grace period: The amount of time allowed between each post.

- Extras: If there are any other rules you want to set, like word count minimum/maximum, consequences of losing, etc.

+ After the challenger has written the rules and posted them in the location of the fight, the challenged is allowed to dispute the rules. If the two members cannot agree on rules, a staff member will decide for them. Once the rules are satisfactory for both parties, the challenged makes the first in-character battle post.

+ If the members can decide amongst themselves who will win, their battle does not have to be judged. If you would like a battle judged, please post in the Staff Mailbox with a link to the finished battle.

+ Battles are judged by 1-3 staff members, or members who are not involved in the fight. Non-staff members who judge fights will remain anonymous, and they will sent their judgements to a staff member so they can be posted.

+ Battles are judged by three simple categories: Strategy, Creativity, and Writing Quality. Badly-executed attacks, cop-out dodges, uninteresting descriptions, and grammar errors will more than likely yield a definite loss.

+ Kingdom-wide battles are handled like giant one-on-one battles. When Kingdoms wish to go to war, staff will pair up characters based on the skill level of the writers and the physical stats of the character. We try to be as fair as possible in these match-ups.