Character Rules and Guidelines

This page matches what is listed in #character-rules-and-guidelines on our Discord. If you notice inconsistency between one or the other, let staff know. As these guidelines are in two places, there is no excuse for not following them other than failure to bring up the questions you have.

## Preface

No sympathy given for not reading! All players will be held unequivocally to this and #🛑server-rules on the Discord. It is the minimum requirement for playing on this server. Your laziness is not our responsibility.

If you do not read these when creating a character and leave the Soulforge with any of these things being an issue, not even talking to an admin for clarification, you will be told to reroll completely and recreate your character. Exceptions will start with changes staff makes, not your admitting your negligence.

## Universal Concept: Law of Souls

Your character is an Astari. What does that mean???

* Your character has one and only one soul.
* Your character's soul is not fragmented, they do not have multiple parts put together, their soul is not multiple souls combined.
* Your character cannot place its soul into anything else.
* Your character cannot and did not summon any other souls.
* There is no way to get to either of these lands other than death.

You are free to act as if any of these things are not true due to IC character delusion, but all will treat this as a Law of Souls. This is one of the absolute founding lore principles of this server and denying it is breaking the rules. IC your character can be under any delusion they want, but they'd have been told from Adramelch, while they where reforming with in the Soulforge. This information would be know to all ic with in the lands. Any discussion OOC stating otherwise of your character, you will be told you are wrong without exception and did not read the rules stated here.

## What is my character?

You do not get a choice of anything else, you are a Astari . Within this however, there is quite a bit of freedom.

* Your character follows the Law of Souls above.
* They died, as listed above.
* They were not summoned, they died.
* They did not come across, or to this land via any other methods, they just died.
* They were given a choice of what they were to become by Adramelch.
* You have been brought into the Soul Forge and given a chance to remake yourself into whatever your soul sought.

## Astari

**Your character is an Astari**, a person from Astoria, you can be whatever kind of character you want that meets all other guidelines. If you can make your character look that way in game, if it is up to snuff on all rules, you can make it.

This means:

* You can be from essentially whatever lore you want that fits within our character sheet. Just understand that you must follow the rules from above and that your god if your character has one, as no effect in this land.
* You can pretty much be any sort of race you can think of, Elf-cCatgirl. Dragon-Lemur, Orc and so on.
* That said, you **cannot** have a character that exists from other works. By this I mean, you can have a Witcher, you cannot have Geralt of Rivia. You could have a mage from Dragon Age, you cannot be Morrigan.
* If you do have a character that is similar to another work, we reserve executive decision as staff to tell you to either make it different or reroll. None of the staff should see your character and question if it is a character from another media.
* This also included using a name that could be seen as you trying to skirt the line. An example is taking a name like Aragorn, and rping something very close but not the same.

## What is my character capable of?

Here we have listed basically a guideline of figuring out what you can and cannot do.

To start:

**Q: Can I do magic?**

**A:** Yes. Keep in mind, however, that in order for it to be anything fantastical in nature during events, you should have points into either Arcanic Might from Erudite OR Celestial Prowess from Savant (these really only come into play during events). Otherwise, you can do magic as flavor text to your abilities, albeit the effect is *only* as they describe.

In a general sense:

* They are not a god or anything with the potential of being absurdly more powerful than any Celestial. If anything acts as a boon, it will be story related and incorporated by staff.
* You can only do what you have on your character sheet. This specifically applies to anything with a chance of affecting another player. Not everything needs a special skill, but certain things cannot be blanket covered by attributes or skills.
* Also, no skill can go against a players consent sheets. Always try and keep ooc communication open in such scenarios to make sure your not crossing a line!
* What about magic?? Magic, for instance, is one of those things that will not blanket give you the ability to do just anything. If all you are doing is floating an object sure go ahead and RP it. There is a lot more wiggle room when it doesn't affect another player in the slightest. Keep in mind shapeshifting aka **Skin Dancing**, it's own skill and does not fall under magic.
* If it is not reflected on your sheet under abilities in some way, you probably cannot do it towards another player. For instance... "Can I poison someone?" goes as follows:
```
"Does it affect another player?"
-> *yes*
-> "Is anything of that sort represented under your abilities tab"
-> *no*
-> "Then you cannot do it."

```

### Additional answers:

**Q: "Does my attack have to be what the description says?"**

**A:** The effects of whatever you're trying to do can only go as far as what is described. If you use a melee ability attack, it can only do what it says it does for status effects or consequences. A basic slash that does not state a stun or some other effect cannot cause those effects. What the flavor text is on how you do that melee attack is up to you, however. That applies to magical flavor text as well.

**Q: Flying? Telepathy? Teleportation?**

**A:** Certain things will never be allowed due to abuse. Flight in combat, be it IC or OOC (PvE), is not allowed-- however, flight out of combat is fine. Telepathy will never be allowed.

(more added in time as questions are asked)

## Postnotes

Some abilities will potentially become available in time as we work towards a way to possibly incorporate them in the future. Things currently in WIP. If you notice things like this that you believe should be a suggestion, put them under suggestions or DM me (Nier). I will get to it when I can.

If you have questions about something you are doing being alright to do or not contact staff. If you think what you're doing may be a bit overpowered or unfair, **contact staff.** RP sheets are designed in a way to give your character a profile of sort that we can reference what they are capable of doing.

Now that you are done, you can continue on to Character Creation Overview.