Fawnlings History

Fawnlings was both the name of an original species and its art roleplay game (ARPG) on DeviantART. 
This page is a timeline of the group's history and also seeks to log the coming and going of its staff through time. While almost all information of Fawnlings history could be scrounged for and discovered by reading through numerous (and often lengthy) journal entries on the group's page, with the group's closure in 2021, these journals are no longer accessible. Additionally, at an unknown point after its closure, all previous archives of the group were excluded from the Wayback Machine, making Fawnling's past existence only known through screenshots and anecdotal account.
==Timeline Summary==
Fawnlings lasted from early 2012 to mid 2021, when it was closed by it's original admin, Ehetere. For a full timeline of events up until 2019, the "Fawnlings Timeline" should be viewed.Fawnlings Timeline, DeviantART. Mar 26, 2022 (Archived 3/26/2022)
2012: The beginning. Fawnlings has a slow start and is mostly run by just Ehetere and her "second in command," though there is no easily found record saying who this second in command was.
2013: Fawnlings has a little bit of traction and three new staff members are hired on. Oakfern and Silverthorne have a tough time getting enough players. The group is a little inactive around the middle of the year but picks up again near the end. Ehetere labels herself as an "absent admin," but is likely still active in a smaller way.
2014: 2014 is when Fawnlings sees its first player base boom. The game is so popular and the community has become so large that many new staff members must be hired on, leading to 21 newly hired admins. Near the end of the year much change happens and the application process is smoothed. There are many mass roleplays held by staff, mostly in Glenmore and Windborne. Ehetere uploads her finally Fawnling character, which stops being updated. By the end of 2014, she is most likely fully absent from the rest of the staff.
2015: The staff remain busy and only 9 new admins are hired this year. Mostly a year of quality of life updates, such as finishing up herd journals as well as many lore, genetic, and mechanic journals. Fewer mass RPs, more raffles and holiday events. 2 new genes added.
2016: Many more quality of life updates, and 3 new genes are added. 5 Staff members are hired. This year things are becoming more precise as the staff make minute changes to rules. Consistent raffles and holiday events, tokens are a new mechanic to supplement bacon. There are no mass RPs, but there are many curses and blessings. The group now has about 1000 members but the player base boom has slowed.
2017: Many rules continue to be changed to make the game more fun and easier to play. While the group has grown past 1000 members, its updates make it appear the group has slowed down. However, while the number of updates dropped the consistency of updates and contests remain. 14 new staff are hired and 2 new genes are added.
2018: There is a resurgence in mass RPs this year. The slot system is finally discarded and players are instead allowed to get 3 new designs per month (or 36 per year). 7 staff members are hired on and 3 new genes are added.
2019: The staff become rather swamped this year during breeding seasons and apologize for applications having been backed up, then hire on 6 new staff and 2 repeat hires. Not many mass RPs nor any new genes. However, some rules regarding genes are tweaked to make the game even more fun and a journal on how to use genotypes in breeding is made. This year is a clear indicator that even eight years later Fawnlings remains a popular ARPG community.
2020: This year was not archived.
2021: Fawnling staff contact the absent founder, Ehetere, early in 2021, about acquiring the rights to the species and group. This caused Ehetere to return briefly and offer an ultimatum: either the staff divorced her original content from the species, or the group would be shutdown. The staff decided to seceded from her altogether and left to make a new species called the Elaphaea. Rae then shut the group down.
==History==
===The End of Fawnlings===
On April 24, 2021, an announcement was posted to the group via journal entry by the long-time mod and player RusticForrest titled "Dear Fawnlings Members, (!!MUST!! READ)".Dear Fawnling Members, (!!MUST!! READ), DeviantART. Apr 25, 2021 (Accessed 4/27/2021) At first it entailed detailed explanation on how RusticForrest had contacted the original owner, Ehetere (called Rae by members), who had left the group seven years ago, about buying the group and species from her. However, Ehetere had explained that she was now utilizing content she had given to Fawnlings in 2012-2014 in a novel she intended to publish, and that she was uncomfortable with selling the group to anyone because of that. She was also uncomfortable with the large group continuing to use the original Western Isles lore as well. As a result, the staff tried to accommodate her by cooperating. The journal (edited a day later to remove mentions of the novel and shorten the intro considerably; the original intro has been lost) detailed three options that Rae and the staff had come up with. One was an event that would make all Fawnlings forget their past lives, including herd names and gods, but the Fawnlings would live on otherwise. The second was to start from scratch to allow a full removal of all Rae's lore, meaning all characters would need to be re-created. The last option was to do a time skip, killing off all current characters along with the past lore. 
Rae herself would leave a comment on this journal after several members expressed dissatisfaction with her decision. She stated in one response that she believed the members were "clamouring for her head," and in a different comment chain stated at least one member named Howl-n-Hart was belittling her work. Staff then requested that members hold off from asking Rae questions. One of Rae's full, unedited comment is included below, which offers her perspective on the situation as it was happening.
Just two days after the voting began, RusticForrest posted a journal entry on their personal DeviantART stating that the staff realized the only option was to fully divorce from Rae.Leaving Fawnlings, DeviantART Apr 26, 2021 (Accessed) They could not accommodate her as the Fawnlings group stood, due to how drastically she wanted them to change the canon of the nine year old game. Negative comments on the !!MUST!! READ journal made towards the options and towards Rae herself may have aided this sudden decision. Thus, Fawnlings and its Discord were abandoned by all staff members to begin working on a new group and deer-based species. Members began moving to the new game's Discord en masse as soon as it was announced the same day. The staff did not discuss this with Rae and did it suddenly without her knowledge, which may have been seen negatively by those supportive of Rae, though the announcement journal itself didn't contain any insulting language towards Fawnlings or Rae directly.
Rae, living within a different time zone, would not be made aware of this change until hours after it occurred. After becoming aware that the staff abandoned her with the group she had left seven years ago, Rae immediately announced that she would be fully shutting down the groupClosing group, DeviantART. Apr 26, 2021 (Accessed 4/27/2021) and the Discord within four days time, on April 30, 2021. She stripped the front page of its code and galleries,Fawnlings Front Page, before Rae, Jul 20, 2020 (Accessed 4/27/2021) leaving only the comment section, the navigation links, and the journal.Fawnlings Front Page, Apr 26, 2021 (Accessed 4/27/2021) Rae made it clear players would be allowed to keep their character designs and breed them, but no officially approved new designs would be made, and she expected the Western Isles lore to be changed if players kept their characters.
A few members continued to criticize Rae's interactions with the group and staff. Two members, SfwGenuflect and ChaosT, had a conversation about the closing of the group and Rae directly on the "Closing group" announcement journal. The player SfwGenuflect stated that Rae had deleted a previous comment by her, and ChaosT noted the same. They continued to comment on the journal about the comment deletions as well as criticize Rae herself.Closing group, before deleted comments, DeviantART Apr 28, 2021. (Accessed 4/28/2021) The next day Rae deleted all of the replies in the conversation which criticized her response, including one non-critical response that linked to the ex-staff's new game. She then replied to the original comment blaming the closure on having no staff. SfwGenuflect responded again to her, disagreeing with the statement.Closing group, after deleted comments, DeviantART. Apr 28, 2021 (Accessed 4/28/2021)
A few more varied comments from the !!MUST!! READ journal discussing the closure are below, with some being positive, some neutral, and others negative. Many comments were quite long, and are edited for brevity, but can be viewed in full on the capture of the journal. Some ex-players of Fawnlings look back on the discussions within the journal as being hostile and rude towards Rae.
Though Rae had only given a few days notice before the closure date, she ended up leaving the group open for nearly a month before she finally closed it, on circa May 25th, 2021. During the final weeks in which it stayed open she continued to respond to comments on the journal that had announced the closure, and she banned at least one person from the group.Dang, I thought the Fawnlings group was finally gone, DeviantART. May 7, 20201 (Accessed 5/25/2021)
====DeviantART Response====
A few members made journal entries on DeviantART discussing the group's closure.
====Twitter Response====
The closure of Fawnlings and criticism of Ehetere spread far enough to find discussion opened up not just on DeviantART, but on Twitter as well. A player going by @Aliiwa, who described themself as being one of Rae's oldest friends,Reply to Aliiwa's Thread], Twitter. Apr 26, 2021. (Accessed 4/29/2021) made a comment chain on their Twitter talking about the members' reaction towards Rae. They tried to explain the situation in a way that emphasized Rae's view of the situation.I feel like there is a difference between abandoning a project, main Twitter thread. Apr 26, 2021. (Accessed 4/29/2021) (Archived 2/14/2022)
A few days later an ex-staff member named @thatspool, who had been active during Rae's term in the group, and who had also been the one to create the original art base for Fawnlings, left their own interpretation by replying to Aliiwa.That's not... what happened though. I was high staff when Owner left, thatspool response on Twitter. Apr 28, 2021 (Accessed 4/29/2021)
Other Twitter responses from several months into the group's closure are below.
Category:Art Roleplay GameCategory:Original Species
==References==