Application Guidelines

After reading the Getting Started page, use this page to help you put together your application!

## Application Image

Visit the References and Trackers gallery to find the blank .PSD file corresponding to your character's herd. Using Photoshop, GIMP, or another compatible program, add your character's image and basic text information.

   Please do not alter the base reference image in any way. This includes changing colors, changing the landscape images, or adding colors/background behind the reference.

If you don't have a program capable of working with PSD files, note the group or comment on the group front page. An admin would be happy to help you!

### Artwork

The fullbody drawing should not stretch significantly outside of the application image, or cover the text. The bust image may go outside the circle, but you may not change the dimensions of the reference image to allow more room. The bust is recommended, but optional.

The "Design Notes" and small color guide (the little horse on the right) are optional.

You do not have to draw your app art! Reference art may be a commission, a premade lineart, or generated with the SA Character Creator. If you did draw your own art, application art earns regular Astral Points! If the art was not drawn by you, it does not receive AP.

### Text

Fonts and text colors used should be clear and legible. If you like to match, the "official" Starborn font is called KellsFLF, and can be downloaded here!

Make sure the name you want is available from the Tome of Names. A character in SA may only have one name reserved to them (ie. Tony OR Stark, not Tony Stark).

Age should be characters age upon entering the game; “see below” is acceptable as well.

Rank is simply the rank your character is in. Please use the official names of the ranks; subranks (for example: Folk - Herder) may be indicated, but make sure the official rank is on there!

"Breed" in this instance refers to the SA breeds: Common Horse, Unicorn, Pegasus, Hippocampus and Kirin. Actual horse breeds do not exist in SA -- for instance, the word 'thoroughbred' means nothing to the characters in-game.

### Extras

There are two boxes to the left side of your reference. The upper one is your items box - this is where you add the official artwork for any and all items you have purchased in game, as well as catalyst items related to the character, such as an early access token or rarity roll. Please do not put anything else in this box, including any artwork of items made by yourself. This is for the official “proof of purchase” items only. Free herd items will not be added here, but rank and talent rewards are.

The lower box is intended for the familiar(s) of your character. If you do not have a familiar, it should be kept empty. Do not post item artwork or extra artwork into this box. It's acceptable for familiars to “spill out” of this box if they don’t fit in it, but they can not significantly cover the artwork of your character.

## Written Application

The following is the information required in the description of your image. You are welcome to exceed the word minimums (**but please notice there is a maximum length for histories!**), add more fields, decorative images, or extras like moodboards, relationship/RP trackers if you wish!

The written portion of a character application is worth **5AP,** regardless of length. The art, if drawn yourself, gets regular AP on top of it.

***IMPORTANT:*** ***Please keep all application info on the reference itself. Do not link to sta.sh, Google Docs, or other external files.***

```
Name:

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Age:

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Gender:

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Breed: (Common horse, Unicorn, Pegasus, etc)

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Coat Color:

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Herd Affiliation: (Aodh, War-Forged, Talori, Breim, Serora, Vagabond)

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Rank:

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Personality: (minimum of six traits and 250 words. Balance of positive and negative)

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History: (**minimum** of three paragraphs and 300 words, **maximum** 1.5k words*)

```

\*maximum length for histories installed as of 5th May, 2019

## Character Building Tips

* Please be sure your character’s history doesn’t ‘break lore’, meaning your character fits well into the world we’ve built. If your character doesn't fit into their herd's culture, we expect a strong, logical reason as to why!
* Starter characters must be born into their herd. The majority of your characters should originate/be born into the herd that they're a part of, as changing herds is fairly uncommon in the world of Hireath due to herd relations. For this reason, starters are not permitted to originate from elsewhere (unless otherwise specified on the available ranks page)
* Be mindful of the difficulty of travel within Hireath. None of the herds have a tourism culture of visiting other herds just for fun. If your character has traveled significantly, why?
* If you use multiple ranks/herds in your backstory, make sure you know and understand the lore of each one.
* Remember that your character must have at least one parent that is the same species as them. For example, a pegasus would have at least one pegasus parent.
* SA has a huge variety of herds, factions, and cultures to choose from. For this reason, we don't allow characters who are / were members of groups that don't exist in Hireath!

### Tropes to Avoid

We would like to see members try to avoid the following tropes, because of how common they've become, or because they break lore. That said, if you have a strong application with a great reason for including one of these things, you are welcome to try!

#### General

* Characters with limited rank parents/relatives, especially numbered ranks. Generally speaking ranks with a set number of members (ambassadors, councils) should be avoided in the backstory entirely unless they’re actual PCs and you have agreed on a connection with the owner, or if they can not be avoided due to rank, kept vague. This is to avoid conflicts with backstories between characters.
* Characters who have visited Mainland Talori and/or left with their memories intact. The Talori have always been remarkably isolated, and not open to non-ambassador visitors from other countries. Only exceptions are more recent canon events (like Serora coming to Talori’s aid during the war).

#### Aodh:

* Noble Parents. Only noble children should have noble parents 99% of the time!
* Previously freed slaves coming back to live in Aodh as normal citizens (does not apply to smugglers living in hiding). Outside special circumstances, this is extremely rare and dangerous, should the individual ever be recognized.

#### War-Forged:

* Stallions with feminist ideals. Meant to be uncommon, if not downright rare due to deeply ingrained beliefs.

#### Breim:

* Umare horses moving to join the Kawaru, or Kawaru horses joining the Umare. This is meant to be incredibly rare due to both factions deeply ingrained beliefs.
* Umare worship of Ignacio without a very good reason.
* Immediate acceptance of kirins, as Breimian are still incredibly fearful and wary of the equines that wiped out their nation years ago.

#### Talori:

* Sacrificed love ones. We essentially have banned this trope for Talori player characters, but you may note the group for approval if you have a very good reason.
* Truly traditional Talori who are pro-pegasi or pro-lgbt.
* Mainland Talori who worship Alya and/or Ignacio without a very good reason given. Both of these gods are widely vilified among Talori, and are considered to be evil.
* Mainland Talori visiting the Isles and vice versa. Only very few Rogues are allowed to step on the mainland soil, and even then its for official business only (receiving and delivering goods). Mainlanders don’t go to the Isles outside Guardians stationed at the prison. There is very little interaction between the two Talori factions.

#### Serora:

* Ignacio worshippers. New Ignacio worshipper apps will be asked to update to fit the lore unless they have a very good backstory reason (generally an aodhian expatriate.)
* Capitalist horses; Serorans don’t use money and Serora offers very little for someone with these ideals.

#### Vagabonds:

* Cultists may not have a mental illness to make them evil.
* Vagabond characters should not have traveled to every continent on the map (Mainland Aquore and Eithne are inaccessible to them).
* Vindicators may not have joined prior to Dinah becoming a Paladin (15 years).

#### Kirins:

* Kirins who did not participate in God's War or only did so in a non-violent capacity. The kirins, from baby to the oldest grandpa, participated in the violence, regardless of their own personality or skill. Children, infirmary and the elderly would have worked to kill the wounded or the ones trying to run away etc. The individuality of each kirin was snuffed out by the bond, and they had no say in this. Non-participating kirins are not allowed at all, regardless of reasoning.

## Submitting Your Application

Once you have completed the application image and written portion of your app, submit the application (and Astral Tracker) to DeviantART.

### Submitting Your First Character

Follow these instructions if you are not yet a member of Starborn Alignment.

1. Navigate to Starborn Alignment's front page
2. Click the JOIN button at the top (only accessible during openings!)
3. In the pop-up window, submit with the following information:
	* A link to your application

Your application will be reviewed then the admin is available, and a comment will be placed on the membership process! This will be either an acceptance message, rejection, or request for (minor) changes.

### Submitting Additional Characters

Follow these instructions if you are already a member of Starborn Alignment.

1. Upload your app and AP Tracker to your DA gallery.
2. Submit the app and AP Tracker to the appropriate folders in the SA group gallery (i.e. Aodh Herd and Aodh Trackers for an Aodh character)
3. Comment on the submission process with a link to your Character Slot tracker.

Your application will be reviewed on its way into the gallery, and a comment will be made on the submission process!

Submissions expire in 30 days - if this happens to you, please resubmit your application with a link to the expired submission - this will let the admin know you’ve waited longer than our 1 month goal! Sending an additional note about the expiration is not necessary.

Please note that resubmitting is your responsibility - admins may not remember to check back on expired logs!

## Corrections

Sometimes your application needs a little work before it’s ready to be accepted. Don’t be discouraged - many of our most iconic characters needed some corrections before they were approved!

If your application requires corrections, you will receive a reply from the reviewing admin. The submission will remain “open” in the group, meaning there is no need to resubmit once changes have been made (unless it expires). To speed up the process, make doubly sure you have all the required information on your application, as well as having your trackers in order and submitted as instructed.

If there is no need for corrections, the application will simply be approved without comment.

You may take as long as you like with corrections. However, your submission will eventually expire - if this happens, just resubmit it when you are ready with the changes, and link the original submission, so we can review if the changes requested were made. Note that a character that is resubmitted in this way is seen as being new to the queue and are subject to the same 1 month reminder as all other applications.

New members have a 30 day window from the initial admin comment to get back to us with changes. Let us know if something comes up, we’re flexible and would be happy to give you an extension! However, if we simply never hear back from you, your application will be declined, and you’ll have to wait until the next opening.

### Denied Applications

Sometimes an application is denied, meaning the submission will be declined, and you will be required to resubmit the application once changes have been made. We most commonly deny applications when they are incomplete/filled incorrectly, there isn’t a slot available for them, the breed isn’t unlocked yet, they are for a limited rank and/or require significant rewrites.

If you are a new member and your first application is denied, you must wait until the next opening to reapply. Applications from new members are generally only denied for incomplete/wrongly filled applications, or significant lore issues that would require a lot of changes to the application.

### Unlimited ranks and corrections

When applying for an unlimited rank, even if your application is denied, you may make the edits to the character and resubmit them for another review. You will receive a detailed comment as to what changes are needed.

Please note that in some cases we may recommend a different rank/herd for a character if something about their personality or backstory makes them difficult or impossible to fit in your desired rank/herd. If you do not wish to change their rank/herd, be aware that significant changes are likely needed before the character can get in.

### Limited ranks and corrections

Limited ranks are generally limited in number, and/or require a better understanding of the lore to be portrayed accurately in game. For this reason, limited rank applications are not allowed unlimited tries to get in. Minor corrections are done the same as with unlimited ranks, but for any major changes, the application may be denied.

As of the 4th of March 2020, if your application for a limited rank is denied, you will receive short, basic corrections outlining the general issues with your application. You will then have two options.

1. Based on the comment given to you, you may do corrections for your character, and then apply for the rank again. You may apply again in 30 days after the initial declination. If this application is denied, the decision is final. You may apply to the rank again with a different character in one month.
2. Edit your character into an unlimited rank. You may submit them again at your earliest convenience. If you modify your character for an unlimited rank, you may apply for the rank again in-character. Read instructions here.

Note that the opportunity to rework your application is not a reservation. If the rank has only a few spots available, they may be claimed before you have the chance to submit again.

### Competitive ranks

Ranks are called competitive when the rank is very popular, and only has very limited openings available, or when the rank is numbered (Councils) and requires excellent understanding of lore. True competitive ranks are usually single slot ranks (like Prophet or Trinity members), or simply very popular limited ranks (like Rogue Captains), or new and highly limited. When such ranks are open after closure or long time being filled, an admin will announce how many openings are available, and when the judging will start. This means that all the applications submitted before that date are in the running for the slots. If not all slots are filled, they will generally remain open for future tryouts until all are filled (without a judging window).

Admins may also choose to go with normal AC rank judging (competitive but not windowed) if the rank is not anticipated to be very popular, even if slots are limited. This is especially common if the rank has just recently been open, as less interest is anticipated.

Even if a rank is competitive, if it is listed as open on the available ranks page, members can apply to it freely. Note that not all competitive slots are announced due to the natural ebb and flow of characters in and out of the game (ie: Breim Priests are unlikely to have opening announcements even if a character retires, as there have constantly been empty slots)

In competitive rank situations even good applications may be denied simply because another character was a slightly better fit. You will generally be suggested either a non-competitive limited rank, or unlimited rank that your character can enter with minimal changes to their backstory.