Character And Story

Constraints are the friend of creativity, so feel free to play within the sandbox as you'd like! But to ensure everyone has an enjoyable time, please keep in mind the following character and world-building rules, the relationships etiquette rules, and the specific conceits of each setting.
If you are asked by another player or the mods to adjust something you've established in play to fit these rules, please do so gracefully.
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Greek mythology is full of conflict, hubris, and consequences. The gods and heroes represent both the best and the worst that the world has to offer, and our ideal for the stories we weave together here is to acknowledge and explore the often gritty and tragic roots of these myths while also providing for moments of levity and warmth.
==Mythological "Canon"==
We know that while some characters have a relatively straightforward mythological account of their deeds and general personalities, others have many different, even conflicting stories about who they are. In that case, we encourage you to look over the "canon" of myth and decide what elements you like and think help make a cohesive character. There's undeniably a lot of myth material out there for some characters and while great internet sources like theoi.com can help get you up to speed, just focusing on the essentials of a myth works just as well! Feel free to talk to the players of other involved characters if you need help.
When playing in the Titanomachy, establishing backstory for memories regained during later eras of play, or writing backstory posts in your character's Discord channel, please try to stick reasonably close to mythological canon - especially when it comes to character personality and relationships. This is for three reasons:
#It makes it easier to maintain internal consistency b/c you can use google to fill in gaps
#It enables player autonomy because they don't have to worry about contradicting anything when bringing elements from myth into play
#It avoids "I'm frustrated b/c an element of mythological canon I was interested in playing with got changed by another player" bad feels
If you want to shift something from mythological canon (beyond just "my character was around during the Titanomachy"), please post in #negotiations-and-plots and ping the mods so they (and your fellow players) can weigh in on if it's too much a deviation or not.
✅ 	"Achilles was alive during the Titanomachy."
❌ 	"Achilles and Artemis were married."
Additionally, while you are encouraged to delve into the darker themes present in (or implied by) the myths, we will not insist you play anything that you find triggering. "That can have happened off screen, but I don't want to engage with it." is a valid answer when asked to bring content you are uncomfortable with from the original myths into play. If you would like to alter canon to avoid certain content, please run it by a mod first.
===Titanomachy===
This setting is technically before 'Greek canon' and the timeline's been shifted (see Titanomachy) so we encourage you to play with that. You can be anywhere on your character's timeline that feels right for you and for the setting, even in the midst of it. We want you to know that your characters can evolve and grow and create new relationships in this setting, as long as nothing changes so much that your myth can no longer happen as described and it's believable that mythological canon could still have happened.
The goal is to have a common framework everyone is working from and to avoid players feeling frustrated because a relationship or story they wanted to play with got altered too much from myth.
*Enemies are enemies (or the seeds are planted for them to be in the future)
*Lovers are lovers (or the seeds are planted for them to be in the future)
*Villains in certain stories are still villains
Please ask a mod if you have any questions about this expectation.
✅ 	"Zeus and Hera are both still unmarried in the Titanomachy."
❌ 	"Hera and Poseidon are married in the Titanomachy."
==Amnesia Conceit==
Characters in every era of this game apart from Titanomachy have amnesia, where their memories grow abstract and vague. They remember being gods, and what their powers are, but the rest is hazy, and they've blended into mortal life one way or another via their godly grace.
We created this conceit to allow players and characters flexibility to tell new stories across every era, not beholden to the relationships in Greek myth and to allow for secrets, misunderstandings, and intrigue to happen without everyone knowing the whole story.
=== Why does the godly amnesia matter? ===
# It avoids the issue of 'absolute truths.' The myths are varied, complex, and contradictory. To make it so nobody has to know, 100%, how something went down in mythology, especially when there might be multiple versions of the same story that differ wildly, the characters simply do not know what really happened. If they have memories at all, they should be abstract and vague. They must 'sleep' between eras to keep this functional, ie: have a period of being unconscious or absent or a lack of cognition.
# It keeps eras distinct, and ties characters to the flavor (and consequences) of living in a given era. If they remembered everything and had the same level of power, we would lose out on an any drama from the setting of an era itself. The status quo needs to matter as much to our characters as it does to the mortals around them - even if it's just to give them something they can find clever ways to circumvent (just as mortal would).
# It allows for new relationships to grow and develop, so you aren't trapped rehashing a 'canonical' relationship over and over - and in fact we discourage it! Explore new dynamics, try out new things, and build different connections between the eras.
# It prevents people from feeling forced into playing a pairing or dynamic they don't want just because it's 'canon'. There should never be any pressure to do so.
=== How it works In Character ===
# Characters do not stay awake between eras - consider each one a "reset"
# When characters awaken in a era, their memories of the past are blurred, tangled, or missing altogether - it's up to you how much they remember, if anything.
# However, no one will ever remember everything about their past life or circumstances - see Memories below
# They do not have an established past or identity in the mortal realm when they awaken - think a vampire coming out of torpor, not reincarnation.
# However, you should have a vague idea each era how your character blended into mortal life - if they ingratiated themself to a family, woke up with a role already created for them, or scrounged their way from the ground up. They're gods, there's an amount of grace they have. For example:
## In the Sun Court, Apollo stepped into the Hall of Mirrors one day as though he had always been there, and the mortals treated him as such. If it ever occurred to them to investigate, they'd discover the Chevalier didn't exist prior to that moment, but it never will because they're mortals and he's a god. (And a god with his face literally everywhere at Versailles at that)
## Ganymede on the other hand always awakens naked and "helpless" near a powerful man that will be attracted to him and take him in, for better or worse.
# The gods know, vaguely, that they are gods as well as their own true names and understand each other as Gods and concepts - this is to avoid every new era having those "omg who am I why do I have magic powers" trope, because this game isn't really about that. (Percy Jackson exists, it's great, but not what we're doing here.) 
# The gods have general godly abilities - they are immortal, strong, beautiful (well, most of 'em...), etc.
# The gods can influence mortals - it is not difficult for them to integrate into mortal society or take positions of stardom or power if they want it
# However, the gods also know to hide who they are from mortals - this is mainly to keep our characters tied to the sense of setting and the consequences thereof. It's less fun to play in the Sun Court if Apollo can just tell everyone he's the literal Apollo and usurp King Louis XIV than if Apollo has to bow to the king just like everyone else.
# While their name and powers are intact and they can sense each other, they are not at full power they can no longer access mythological places like Olympus or the Underworld.Your character should not be at full power or have access to mythological places like Olympus or the Underworld. This is to keep characters tied to the setting and its consequences, for the reasons mentioned above.
===Memories===
While some players may chose to some have memories return, this is not the expectation of the setting, and no characters will ever remember everything about their life or circumstances in past eras.
This is for two reasons:
#To allow the ability to build new relationships. No character is locked into their mythological counterparts unless you want them to be. This can also change from Era to Era.
#To allow us to not need to know everything about mythology. It all probably happened, but your character doesn't have the baggage if you don't want them to.
Do not expect that other characters will remember yours or pressure other players into doing so.
=== Amnesia for Mortal Characters ===
Gods theoretically re-converge where there's enough of them for whatever reason, and they wake up with vague knowledge of who they are - they have notions of, perhaps, who they are related to or their Godly Purpose. Mortals that wake up... don't. They show up in the same eras and places, but without basically any memories. They have to figure out their way, but are probably drawn to godly characters. The main distinction is that mortal characters can never remember their original lives. The memories simply aren't there. Between eras, they 'die', and they are able to be 'killed' in game, though it doesn't 'stick' until their story is done. (You can decide what this means for their memories of the era itself)
==== What counts as a "mortal" character? ====
For our purposes, "mortal" characters are figures from Greek mythology who were:
* Human in the original myths and historical sources we have from pre-Christian Greece and Rome
* Did not achieve immortality/undergo apotheosis in their myths
* Do not have a god as a parent
Caveat: if this isn't fun for you, almost all heroes can be fudged to be demigods through their godly connections - just think about which you'd rather do!
===How it works Out-Of-Character===
The gods go to sleep when major religions change, when the world doesn't need them, or when they tire of an era. For the purposes of this RP, this means your characters will always return to sleep between each era of play. Why? Dunno, it's just a thing that happens. (You're welcome to have your character investigate this if you want, but there's not meta plot here that will give your character definitive answers).
When a god awakens, they literally just appear in that era. They aren't reborn into a mortal life and aren't inhabiting someone else's body. (They went to sleep, they didn't die or lose their corporeal form between eras, so take "waking" somewhat literally).
While they didn't lead mortal lives prior to awakening, they are trapped in the mortal realm and can't just magic themselves away to Olympus or Hades whenever things get hard (which ties them to the setting and the plot). As such, many gods have siphoned into mortal lives for fun/profit/etc.
The reasons why your character has awakened in a specific era of play is entirely up to you. Were they summoned specifically, like Apollo in the Sun Court? Was it because of a major world event is tied to their domain, like Ares and Athena during WWI? There is similarly no meta plot to be found here, have fun making it up.
== Other Character and Setting Rules ==
===World Altering Decisions===
We ask that you check in with the mods before making any major decisions or changes to the world, such as having your character be President of the United States, or having cellphones around in the 1920s, or anything that wouldn’t be ‘true’ to the setting in a significant way. 
In particular, the historical contexts of the settings are real and present — up to and including the oppressions of the day. There's some definite leeway for this — gods and heroes can get away with more than your average mortal and worry less about the consequences. However, it's still a problem for the mortals who associate with them and should be explored as such narratively. If you prefer not to engage with heavier themes wholesale or in the moment, we ask that you avoid those scenes involving that content rather than invalidating that part of the setting.
=== Transgender or Cis-gender-swapped Characters ===
The trans and nonbinary members of the mod team had a long discussion on our stance on cis-gender-swap or transgender character concepts, and here are the guidelines we've come up with:
*If your character is a canonical shapeshifter - do whatever you want, so long as you don't violate the second bullet
*Both the spirit and the actual events of the myth "canon" still need to be plausible. This is both to preserve the integrity of our setting concepts, and to avoid impacting the myths & backstory of connected characters (particularly, characters that, according to myth, were your character's biological children).
*Keep in mind the purpose and flavor of a character's myths, and how altering their gender impacts them. If a character's gender/biological sex is important to their myths or mythological function, they probably aren't a good candidate for a trans or cis-swapped concept.
*Don't be so anachronistic in the level of general mortal social acceptance or medical intervention that you break the setting (Ex: being openly/publicly nonbinary in the Sun Court, or receiving modern HRT in Titanomachy). Feel free to make deals with gods/magic users to achieve what mortal medicine of the time could not.