Rules & Guidelines

This page will outline all of the rules in guidelines in one place, both IC/OOC rules and the specific RP Rules that arise in RP. If ever you are unclear, please check this page. If you notice a rule that should be on here but isn't, contact an @Admin member on Discord.

## Universal Rules

### OOC Guidelines

1. Profanity is allowed, but sexually explicit language and adult themes are both strictly forbidden. In particular, suggestive comments about other users or their characters are not allowed.
2. Bullying, discrimination, slurs, and personal insults are strictly forbidden.
3. Do not share personal information or doxx yourself or other members of Model Hogwarts. For safety reasons, using your real name as your character name or discord name is not allowed in Model Hogwarts.
4. No spamming.
5. No advertisements unless given explicit permission by an Admin.
6. Be polite to new players; do not trick them, maliciously lie to them or accuse them of being an alt.
7. Alt accounts are permitted, but must be declared to Admins or Sorters as soon as possible upon joining, and must follow the Alt Code of Conduct.

### IC Guidelines

1. IC channels all have strict guidelines on what is and is not allowable. These are listed in the IC Server Ratings.
2. Do not give your character your real name.
3. No godgaming. Do not control another character’s actions, injure or somehow change another person’s character without the player's permission.
4. No metagaming. Do not act on information that you know OOC, but your character does not.
5. Be mindful of others. Everyone has the right to ask for an RP to be toned down if it is making them uncomfortable.
6. Don’t let arguments IC get personal. Hate the character not the player!
7. All spells must be cast using the spell bot. You must RP attempting to cast the spell, and may attempt !cast once per description.

## IC Server Ratings

These guidelines all relate to in-character behaviour that is or is not acceptable to roleplay about on Model Hogwarts. Behaviour that is within these rules may still be subject to IC consequences if the behaviour is illegal or against school rules (e.g. swearing). If you want your character to break school rules and not be caught, you will need to be RP the rule-breaking as discreet, and/or use a token to purchase help in avoiding discovery.

### Violence and Gore

No excessive violence or gore is allowed. Violent actions, blood, and injuries are permissible, but they should not be described in detail, with intense imagery, or in a sustained manner over a long period. No explicit descriptions of psychological torture or abuse are permitted. Violent, dangerous and malicious behaviour must not be endorsed.

### Alcohol and Drugs

Any roleplays that show or reference drunkenness or drug use must not glorify addiction or unsafe behaviour around alcohol or drugs. Depictions of alcohol consumption should be kept realistic but tasteful, keeping in mind the age of the character(s).

### Nudity

Nudity can be stated or implied in a scene, but must not be described. (For example, "so and so's underpants were vanished" is okay, "so and so's [insert body part] was out" is not.)

### Gambling

Gambling, and references to gambling, is allowed in character, as long as nothing worth OOC value is being used or gambled with through Model Hogwarts.

### Profanity

Uncensored swearing is allowed provided it is done sparingly and respectfully, keeping in mind the word and context. Slurs, discrimination and sexually charged language are not allowed OOC. If you are unsure about language IC, use your best judgement. It is strongly suggested that you seek consent from your RP partners before using offensive language targeted at their character.

### Relationships and Sexual Content

Permissible sexual activity and references depend upon the ages of the characters involved. First years should not go beyond light kissing, while mild suggestive themes are allowed once characters hit their early teens. Overtly sexual behaviour by characters under the age of 16 is expressly forbidden in roleplay: this includes "fade-to-black" scenes, offscreen scenes and monologues. Sexual activity between characters aged 16 and over may be referred to but not described. Explicit sexual behaviour and crude references are not acceptable regardless of age. Pressuring someone to begin or continue an explicit sexual scene elsewhere or in DMs will lead to OOC consequences.

## OOC Server Content

Our rules around OOC chat reflect the fact that we have a broad range of people on this server, of differing ages and cultures. The most important rule is to be mindful of others. If someone is uncomfortable with something you've said, apologise and respect their wishes (e.g. to delete messages or change the subject). **You won't get into trouble for accidentally upsetting someone.** If someone else has upset you, then ask them to stop and, if possible, try to explain what's wrong. If this fails, either leave the conversation or use the model's safe-word, dirigible plums. More information on the safe-word is given in this section below.

Some users on Model Hogwarts use trigger warnings to forewarn others that they are going to be discussing a topic that might be sensitive to people. Exactly how you do this is up to you. One way is to hide the potentially offensive content in spoiler tags by placing two horizontal bars, ||, on either side of it. A possible format is:

>
>

There are some topics and types of content that we do not allow on Model Hogwarts at all, **except where required by Harry Potter canon.** (If you aren't certain, ask a moderator.) These include:

* Self-harm
* Suicide
* Incest
* Eating disorders
* Sexual assault
* Child grooming
* Gore/horror pictures
* Uncensored images of spiders/insects

The following words do **not** need to be hidden with spoiler tags:

* Names of animals (e.g. snake, insect, spider)
* Death-related words (e.g. blood, murder, kill, death)
* Drug-related words (e.g. drunk, drug, alcohol)
* Profanities (e.g. fuck, shit)
* Weapons (e.g. gun, knife, blade)

## General Conduct

Model Hogwarts is intended to be a friendly and welcoming community. The rules and guidelines on this page are designed to identify inappropriate behaviour, but the ideal is that they be required as little as possible. Users are asked to police themselves and to maintain not only the letter of the rules but their intention and spirit as well. In short, **do to others as you would have them do to you**. If your conduct does not technically breach any of the rules or guidelines, but is nonetheless unduly aggressive, hurtful or unreasonable, then you should expect to be punished accordingly.

In a community as large as Model Hogwarts, complete harmony is of course impossible to maintain, and as such it is important that each server member is prepared to deal with conflict appropriately. As such, if a user has broken the rules, insulted you or made you uncomfortable, or if an argument is getting heated, **do not cause a scene**. It's not your job to handle discipline, that's the mods' responsibility, and if you react, you yourself may make others uncomfortable, and may get into equal or worse trouble. The correct response is not to lash out or continue the cycle of aggression, but to either withdraw from the conversation or call dirigible plums. Following this, you are encouraged to report the misbehaviour to the mods using one of the methods listed on this page. This is the best way to ensure that all players feel comfortable, and that the model remains the friendly community it is supposed to be.

## Dirigible Plums

Dirigible plums is the Model Hogwarts safe-word. You may use it at any time in any channel in the server, if the conversation there is making you personally uncomfortable or if you believe it is not appropriate for the server. It may be used for roleplays as well as OOC chatter: if it's used in a roleplay channel, place the safe word in double brackets, ((Dirigible plums)), as an OOC comment to avoid confusion.

If anyone uses the safe-word, the conversation around it must stop and change immediately. Persisting with the topic after the safe-word is called will result in moderator intervention, and harrassing the person who called it will lead to serious punishment. If you believe the safe-word was misused or called in error, contact the moderators **privately**.

## Punishments and Reports

Any breaches of the server rules, guidelines and ratings, as well as any other case where a user has made others upset or uncomfortable, are investigated by the Model Hogwarts Moderation Team. Depending on severity, punishments up to and including a permanent ban from the server may be issued. All players are encouraged to report any wrongdoing they become aware of. For more details on punishments, and how to make a report, see The Moderation System.

## Doxxing

Doxxing is the posting of identifying information about yourself or someone else. Doxxing is against the rules on Model Hogwarts. Even if you are an adult, doxxing yourself may encourage younger members of the model to do the same, so all forms of it are banned. There are several things that constitute doxxing.

### Posting your real, full name

Don't post your full name on the server in any way. Whether that's saying it OOC or using it for your character's name, it's against the rules.

### Posting identifying information about yourself

Don't tell people where you go to school, where you work, or where you live. The country and state you live in are okay to share, but anything specific falls under the doxxing rule.

### Posting pictures of your face

As well, posting pictures of any part of your face is not allowed. This includes pictures of your eye or eyes. If you'd like to show off your new shoes, a tattoo, or include your hand in another photo, that is totally fine.

## Spamming

Spamming generally refers to posting a lot of irrelevant or unimportant information. This can be a concern on Model Hogwarts because there are a lot of people, and spamming can disrupt conversations. The following behaviors fall under the category of spamming.

### Posting a lot of bot commands

The bots on Model Hogwarts can be a lot of fun, but it's important to remember that for each time you send a bot command, another post will appear from the bot. Since this can push conversations up quickly, we'd like to remind everyone to be mindful of others and use the info-and-spam-1 or info-and-spam-2 rooms for bot commands. It's no big deal to do a roll or two is okay if it's relevant to the conversation, but keep in mind that it might encourage a lot of people to do the same.

### Posting a lot of irrelevant pictures

Posting pictures is fine, but try to keep them on-topic. Like bot commands, pictures can push the conversation up quickly.

### Posting copypasta

Don't post long, irrelevant chunks of text like copypasta, especially while others are talking. Long messages are okay to post.

## Alt Code of Conduct

Alternate accounts, known commonly as alts, are permitted on Model Hogwarts. In fact, they are necessary if you want to create multiple characters, because of how the model's mechanical systems work. Each character's learns, stats, potions and so on are connected to the Discord account they are operated from, so it isn't possible to link multiple characters' attributes to the same account. As such, separate accounts are required for each character you want to create.

### Alt Rules

Everyone using alts must abide by the following rules:

1. Alt accounts must be declared to the Sorters and/or Admins as soon as possible after joining. When declaring, you **must** say whose alt you are, although you are allowed to do so privately to an Admin if you wish and request that your identity be kept private. Refusal to declare an alt, or deliberately misleading someone about your identity, is grounds for an immediate permanent ban from Model Hogwarts.
2. You may have only **one** character in each school year at Hogwarts at any given time (one in first year, one in second year, and so on). Additionally, you may create no more than **two** new characters in the period of an in-character calendar year, which lasts 6 real-life months. Finally, you must wait at least **three** weeks after your first character is accepted before creating any additional ones. (This is known as the **1/2/3 rule**.) The only exceptions are characters from the same birth (twins, triplets, etc.) which are covered in a later section.
3. One character must not provide another played by the same roleplayer with undue advantages or benefits (**altvantage**). A fuller explanation of this is provided in the following sections.

### Mechanical Altvantage

Situations covered by altvantage can be placed broadly into two categories: mechanical and narrative. Mechanical altvantage refers to characters played by the same person benefiting each other in a way that uses bots, or bypasses the need for token purchases. For example, an older character trading an advanced potion to a younger character who isn't capable of brewing it yet, or two characters fighting alongside each other in a combat situation, are both examples of using bots for altvantage, whereas one character telling the other about token-restricted information, or giving the other a token-restricted item such as a Newt Scamander-style suitcase, are both cases of bypassing tokens.

All mechanical altvantage situations are **not allowed**, and if discovered may be grounds for mod action. Most of these scenarios do have workarounds that allow for such interactions in roleplay without gaining any mechanical advantage. For example, the passing of token-restricted information from one character to another would be permitted if both paid (and applied successfully, if necessary) for that knowledge. In combat, multiple characters played by one person may take part if, for example, they switch turns and share the same HP pool. During plots, adventures and other cases where an enemy side consists only of NPCs, the plotrunner, adventure runner or NPC player may, at their discretion, allow a player's characters to fight together in combat without these limitations.

### Narrative Altvantage

Narrative altvantage refers to a roleplayer's characters benefiting each other in ways that don't involve bots or tokens, but nonetheless impact their and other characters' stories. This particularly arises in cases where such characters are related to each other, e.g. siblings: an example situation might be an older sibling finding out that their younger sibling is being bullied, and confronting or getting revenge on the bullies. These situations are harder to regulate, since disallowing them would unfairly limit the plausibility of anyone playing related characters. It is recommended that, if one of your characters discovers information relating to another that they would realistically act on, that you **discuss the matter with all affected parties** and agree on a roleplay solution that works for everyone.

### Alts in the Same Scene

Most cases of narrative altvantage arise in the course of roleplay scenes, in which multiple characters are present and may act to assist each other depending on the situation, especially if they are blood-related. Because of this, many roleplayers choose not to roleplay multiple characters in the same scene. For those who do, however, we ask that the following guidelines be followed:

* In **closed channels**, you may roleplay multiple characters in the scene **only with the consent of all other roleplayers in the scene**. It is recommended that you establish who is in the scene (or who may arrive later) prior to the scene starting. You may **not** roleplay in a closed channel with only your own characters, as this unfairly blocks the channel from others who might wish to roleplay there. Please pre-write these scenes and post them all at once in order to avoid this issue. Use of the #offscreen-scenes or #monologues channels are recommended.
* In **open channels**, you may roleplay as many characters as you like without needing to seek permission. However, your characters **must** **not interact directly with each other unless it is strictly necessary**. In an open scene related to the plot and run by a plotrunner, the plotrunner may choose to waive this rule.

### Alts in Applications

The rule against characters played by the same roleplayer benefiting each other extends to token purchase applications, which are handled by the Applications Team. What constitutes altvantage in apps will be at the discretion of the team, but in general, care should be taken to avoid using another one of your characters to justify a purchase (such as, for example, applying for a student to gain a rare magical creature as a pet because their parent, also roleplayed by you, owns a magical creature reserve). Applications based solely or mainly on another of your characters are extremely unlikely to be passed, especially if the purchase is major.

The Applications Team may also consider, when deciding on an app, the overall impact a single roleplayer is having on the model. For example, if you have already have a character pushing the boundaries of magical creation/discovery, then the standards for another character making high-impact discoveries may be higher, or outright disallowed.

### Same-Birth Characters (Twins, Etc.)

Multiple characters born at the same birth (twins, triplets, quadruplets and so forth) are the only exception to the 1/2/3 rule: twins by definition break the "one character per year level" rule, while triplets or greater numbers also break the "two new characters per in-character year" rule. Special rules, therefore, exist to make same-birth characters possible, although these rules are still very strict. This is because of the intrinsic altvantage risk for same-birth characters that is far greater than any other, due to their normally close relationship and the fact that they are in the same year at Hogwarts.

The following options are available for playing same-birth characters:

1. Asking other roleplayer(s) to collaborate with you, with one roleplayer playing each character. This is the **most preferred** option, as it avoids the altvantage issue entirely.
2. Roleplaying all characters on the same account, meaning the characters share all bot settings (for example, they will learn the same spells and have the same stats). Restrictions on mechanical and narrative altvantage as outlined above, such as the two characters alternating turns in combat, will still apply. Note that characters in different houses **cannot** be roleplayed on the same account, because the house roles interfere with each other.
3. Roleplaying all characters on different accounts. This is the **least preferred** option, and may only be granted through a private discussion with the Admins, which you can request using the #private-discussion-queue. You will need to explain why you cannot roleplay them on the same account (for example, because they are in different houses, or are different enough to be poorly represented by having the same bot settings), and demonstrate you intend for the characters to have distinct character arcs with minimal overlap with one another, thus minimising the possibility of altvantage.

If you create and roleplay multiple same-birth characters at Hogwarts using option 2 or 3 as stated above, they will **share the token progression of a single character**. Additionally, you will forfeit the right to make characters of the same type for a number of in-character years equal to the "extra" characters you made. So, for example, if you make First Year twins you will not be able to make any First Years the next year, while if you make Fourth Year triplets you will not be able to make Fourth Years for the next two years.

### General Alt Conduct

These rules regarding alts have been put in place for a number of reasons, largely to preserve the fun, enjoyment and smooth running of the entire server. Limits on the number of alts that may be created are designed to prevent people from dominating scenes or class years with their own alts, which can in turn make other people, especially people new to Model Hogwarts, feel unwanted or excluded. The limits also help lighten the load on the Sorter team, who can become overwhelmed when a large number of characters are submitted in a short space of time. Altvantage rules, meanwhile, are designed to prevent characters from achieving an unfair or unhealthy level of prominence in Model Hogwarts, simply due to the actions of other characters played by the same roleplayer. Everyone should be given equal narrative opportunities.

Because of this, as well as abiding by the letter of these rules, those who choose to make alts are asked to bear the health of the server in mind when roleplaying them. Don't make an alt simply to make them part of your other character's story: give them their own character arc. Bear in mind the experience of other roleplayers, especially new users; try to use alts in a way that includes other people who you might not roleplay with otherwise, rather than excluding them. In short, use alts responsibly!

## Hogwarts Rules

Like any school, and in accordance with Harry Potter canon, Hogwarts has rules that students are expected to abide by. You will never be punished for your character's rule-breaking or harmful actions; you are allowed to play a mischievous, mean or evil character if you so choose. However, we do place boundaries in order to maintain the Potter-like feel of the roleplay. As an example, it wouldn't be realistic if characters were allowed to openly cast Dark magic and get off scot-free.

Some actions are outright not permitted in roleplay on Model Hogwarts, or restricted in some way **(category 1)**. These rules are largely in place to avoid common misinterpretations of canon, particularly among people who don't know the Harry Potter universe very well. Attempts to break these rules will result in the moderators taking action to void or retcon the offending scenes, but you (OOCly) will not be punished unless you deliberately or persistently try to circumvent these rules.

The other type of rules are rules you are completely allowed to roleplay your character breaking, but if done openly or if they are caught doing so, they will be liable for in-character punishments **(category 2)**. Characters with IC authority roles, such as Professors and prefects, may be alerted to rule-breaking using the @On Patrol ping. They may also intervene to discover and punish rule-breaking of their own accord in some circumstances. More detail is given on this page.

In-character punishments typically range from house point losses and detentions, to expulsion from Hogwarts. As a reminder: these are punishments for your character only and don't reflect or impact your OOC standing on the server.

### Category 1: IC and OOC Restrictions

These must be followed: breaking them will result in moderator intervention.

* **You cannot leave Hogwarts during term.** The exceptions are Hogsmeade weekends, or if you are given school permission and have paid a minor token for Unique Circumstances. On Hogsmeade weekends, seventh years can travel by Apparition to other parts of the world, but it's assumed that they'll find their way back before the end of the trip. Younger students cannot do so, even by Floo, since it would violate channel viewing and posting permissions.
* **You cannot enter another house's common room.** If you try to do so, even if you know the password or secret to getting in, NPCs will prevent you from entering, or throw you out. The only exception is if you have a special means of entering undetected, such as Polyjuice Potion, and have received admin permission via the #private-discussion-queue.
* **You cannot enter a different gender's dormitory.** Each common room has its own magic preventing this.
* **You cannot be harmed by a fall from a tower or window.** You can assume that either magic prevents any injury, or a house-elf is assigned to guard the hazard.
* **Notable items cannot be stolen or hidden.** This includes but is not limited to the Sorting Hat and past House Cups.
* **School property vandalism or damage does not last.** If something is not fixed by the end of the scene where it happens, it is assumed to be repaired or replaced by a Professor, or cleaned by a house-elf, before anyone else sees. The only exception is if an enchanted object is destroyed: that cannot be repaired.
* **The kitchens and the Room of Requirement are both hidden and secret.** You may roleplay your character discovering or entering these rooms, but need a reasonable explanation for how they made the discovery, such as being told by another character. The kitchens are accessed by tickling a pear in a painting of a bowl of fruit in a corridor in the basement, while the Room of Requirement appears in a corridor on the seventh floor if you walk back and forth three times while concentrating on what you need.
* **Dark magic is illegal IC and restricted OOC.** You cannot learn Dark magic without an application, and strict OOC rules govern its use. In-character, you must roleplay Dark magic study and use as secret and discreet; your character would be expelled from Hogwarts and in trouble with the law if the authorities found out. The full rules regarding Dark magic are given in this section below.
* **Dark items are not allowed IC and restricted OOC.** Similarly to the rules for Dark magic, items such as Dark magic books and cursed objects require an application. If your character brings one to Hogwarts, you do so at the risk of being caught and punished, and the item confiscated.
* **The Restricted Section is restricted both IC and OOC.** IC, you need either special permission from a Professor, or to sneak in at risk of being caught and punished. OOC, obtaining information from the Restricted Section requires a token payment and is locked to certain year levels, depending on the information. Rules regarding what can be found in the Restricted Section and at what cost are outlined on this page.

### Category 2: IC Rules

These may be broken but your character will bear the consequences if discovered.

* **You are not allowed to cast magic outside of school until your character turns 17.** Wix under the age of 17 are tracked by a spell known as the Trace, which alerts the Ministry of Magic if they or anyone near them performs magic outside of Hogwarts. NPC adults will not lie to protect your character from punishment, so if your character casts magic outside of Hogwarts, they will be caught, receiving a warning the first time and being expelled from Hogwarts on a second offence. Exceptions apply if the magic is performed with authorised permission (for example, as part of an apprenticeship) or in a life-threatening situation.
* **You are not allowed to skip class without permission.** You do not have to be present OOC for every live class, but your character is still assumed to be there, otherwise they will be ICly punished. If they are ill or have another good reason for being absent, a written note from a staff member, Head Student or prefect is preferred.
* **You are not allowed to be out of bed after curfew.** Adult staff members patrol the corridors at these times, so night-time roleplays outside the common rooms happen at risk of being caught. Anyone who is out of bed at night frequently will be caught at some point.
* **You are not allowed to enter the Forbidden Forest.** Any roleplay in the #forbidden-forest channel, or other scenes set in the Forest, may be discovered by IC authorities. Even scenes in #forbidden-forest-outskirts may catch their attention, although this is not punishable.
* **You are not allowed to brew potions without supervision.** The #potions-lab is the place where extra-curricular brews are allowed, and are supervised at all times by a staff member, teaching assistant or house elf. Any brewing outside of classes and the potions lab is against the rules and will be punished if caught.
* **First years may not bring their own brooms to Hogwarts.** They use school brooms during flying lessons, and are not usually allowed to try out for Quidditch teams. Successful applicants to join a Quidditch team in first year (which costs a Journeyman token) may be exempted from this rule.
* **All areas of Hogwarts are open to discovery.** If you set up residence in an abandoned room or some other corner of the castle or grounds, and leave open evidence of rule-breaking or illegal activity, you should realistically expect to be discovered. Even if it's well-hidden, authorities have the power to discover such things if they so choose.
* **Muggle weapons are banned at Hogwarts.** Swords are not permitted, while sharp knives are allowed only for eating and preparing potion ingredients. Official clubs, for activities such as fencing, are an exception to this rule, with the handling of weapons allowed only under teacher supervision. Personally owned weapons are not allowed under any circumstance.
* **Joke items are banned at Hogwarts.** This includes any items purchased from Weasleys’ Wizarding Wheezes or other magical joke stores.
* **Pets are only allowed in approved areas.** Parts of the castle pets are not allowed in include, but are not limited to, classrooms and the library. Other limitations apply depending on the specific pet. Outdoor pets such as horses are not allowed inside, and pets that are unpredictable or difficult to handle have strict limitations; for example, Nifflers are kept in an enclosure on the grounds and not allowed out without supervision.
* **You are not allowed to cast magic in the corridors.**
* **You are not allowed to swim in the lake.**

### Expulsion

The following offences, if discovered, will lead to immediate expulsion from Hogwarts, even if not done on school grounds. They may also result in criminal charges depending on the character's age.

* Murder.
* Attempted murder with a reasonable chance of success, if the intent to kill is provable.
* The usage of harmful Dark magic (such as the Unforgivable Curses, and curses that are life-threatening or permanently scar), if awareness of the spell's effect is provable.
* A second offence of casting underage magic outside of school.
* Deep-delve Legilimency without consent.
* Any other actions taken to knowingly cause major and incurable harm, mental or physical.

Beyond this, the Professors on the server use a **three-strike** system to determine expulsions. Incidents that require major Professor intervention will incur a strike, and after a third strike the student will be expelled. Examples of actions leading to a strike include:

* Intentionally causing harm to someone, or attempting to do so.
* Bullying or discrimination.
* Majorly endangering the Statute of Secrecy (potentially revealing the wizarding world to Muggles).

All of these consequences apply if the misbehaviour is either impossible to be realistically hidden (for example, dramatically attacking someone in the Great Hall), is witnessed and verified by an authority figure, or otherwise discovered and proven. If you want your character to avoid these consequences, it is recommended to roleplay their rule-breaking in such a way that it is realistically unlikely they will be discovered, such as doing so in an out-of-the-way time and place, and using stealth/protective magic to keep others from finding out. Bear in mind, as previously stated, that IC authorities may still have powers to discover your character's rule-breaking depending on the situation; refer again to this page.

In summary, if you decide to have your character break IC rules, you are doing so at your own risk!

## !learn Roleplaying Guidelines

Spell learns should be accompanied by some roleplay! Below is a list of guidelines and suggestions, accompanied by a few rules regarding the spell RP system. Please note that the vast majority of these are **guidelines** and can be tweaked to suit your tastes, they're not mandatory and mostly intended to be prompts on how to get the brain juices flowing!

* First learns should have some form of RP, these are recommended to be outside of learn room whether that be in a specific location, monologue or off screen scene. These scenes should work to establish motive for learning this spell; this can be as simple as ‘for class’ to as complex as it being part of a character’s life long goal, Later learns can be done in the learn rooms, but we do encourage some RP to go along with them, even if it’s basic.
* If you feel learning in a scene would break its flow you may !learn in #learns-and-trains, however you **must** link back to the channel with the RP by doing #channel-name with a search term to make it easier to find. The RP must also be done prior to you doing the !learn in this instance. This same rule applies to the s!train and c!frog commands.
* You can put multiple points in at once, so feel free to mix this up and base it on how much you feel they learned. You can put these points in any time, so take it at your own pace! Maybe one week they learn one points in Flipendo and the next week five in Diffindo, that’s up to you!
* Upper years and Professors may know more about spells than you; sometimes it can be a fun RP prompt to have them walk you through their own casting process and teach you a thing or two for a learn scene. This is especially the case for more difficult spells (you can see a spells ‘difficulty’ under !info).
	+ Speaking of spells ‘difficulty’ we recommend starting off with lower difficult spells and building up to the higher one's, especially with lower years. This helps show a character’s growth at spellcasting. However, this is not enforced! Go with what you feel is true to your character.
* Learn modifiers don’t necessarily make you a master of that spell. Some spells require additional knowledge outside your characters ability to cast the spell. One such example is *Episkey* which requires an in-depth knowledge of the wound you’re trying to heal on top of your learn modifier.
* As learns aren’t strictly tied to rolls this gives you a variety of ways to approach the in character learning, some such examples include:
	+ Maybe your character is a big reader; rather than focusing on the practical elements of spellcasting they might study and study and study *before* they even begin to cast, allowing you to input your !learn prior to doing any spellcasting at all. This means when it comes time to cast, they’ll be ready. Likewise in classes you may do !learn during your teacher’s theory of said spells prior to the casting practicals.
	+ Perhaps your character learns through succeeding; prior to inputting your learns you can do a !cast and see if they successfully perform the spell. RPing this situation out you then either apply the learns or leave them for another time.
	+ Or perhaps your character learns equally well - or even better - from their mistakes. In this instance you can do the same !cast, but even on a failure add some learn points to the spell. Maybe they figure out their wand movement is sloppy, or they’re pronouncing the incantation wrong.
	+ If you feel like your character has an affinity for a specific spell (maybe they grew up with it, maybe they have some sort of mundane talent that helps them with the magical side of this spell, such as a tattoo artist understanding Imprimo). You may put points into this spell to start off with, prior to any study or practise. However, you, you must still write some form of RP for these learn points showing *why* your character has a natural gift here.
	+ Using the above methods, if you so wish you may place negative modifiers on your !cast by doing !cast Lumos -5 if you wish your character to have a particularly hard time with a specific spell.
	+ The flexibility of our spellbot allows you to tailor your learn narratives to fit *your* character, so don’t feel constrained by these suggestions even, developing the method in which your character’s learn can help create some extra flavourful RP that helps show off who they are as a person.

## Dark Magic

Dark Magic, while able to be learned in the model, requires an application to be submitted before you start learning it. You cannot apply for Dark Magic as a whole: you must apply for one spell to start off with. To apply, use the Token Purchase Application form and choose the "Dark Magic" option for the question "What are you interested in applying for?" If you wish to apply for more Dark spells after this, you will need to use the same form for spells costing an Apprentice token or higher, but spells costing a minor token may be purchased in the #private-discussion-queue.

There are two things taken into account for Dark magic applications: whether your history on the model gives us cause to doubt if you'll use Dark magic appropriately abiding by the rules below, as well as whether or not your character has shown interest in learning these spells up to that point. It is recommended that you begin RPing interest prior to your application, as that will make the application process much quicker.

Besides that, there are two extremely important rules:

1. Your characters use and learning of Dark Magic must be kept secret IC, or they will risk expulsion. Secrecy is an important aspect of accessing Dark Magic, and failure to abide by the secrecy IC causing multiple infractions *will* lead to dire OOC consequences.
2. **OOC permission is required before you cast Dark Magic on someone else's character**. Casting dark spells (or spells tagged semi-dark) on someone's character without permission will result in an immediate warn, and further infractions may lead to you being removed from the server. You cannot push for consent either, you may only ask once, and if they refuse, *you must respect their choice*. If it comes to light that consent was pushed for after the initial answer, you will face serious OOC consequences.

Failure to abide by either of these rules will have your access to Dark Magic removed *or* a ban, depending on the severity of the infractions.