Rules and Guidelines

## General

* Ataraxia is a multi-fandom roleplay group hosted on Discord. We ask that you create a separate Discord account for every character you have in the server and that you do not use personal accounts.

* + The browser add-on SESSION BOX is very helpful in that it allows you to log onto multiple accounts at the same time in web-based Discord -- we highly recommend it!
	+ Don’t want to make a million different emails for different accounts? Make a gmail account and you can attach several different Discord accounts to it. You can do this by adding “+charactername” to your email address. For example: If your gmail is “rpdiscords@gmail.com”, you could sign up as rpdiscords+naruto@gmail.com, rpdiscords+zelda@gmail.com, etc.
* You must be 18 years or older to apply in Ataraxia. We will be exploring some darker themes that may not be suitable for minors.
* Ataraxia as a group will be very story- and lore-heavy, and these developments will be greatly dependant on member interaction. As the story progresses, more mature themes will be introduced, even if they are not present at the beginning (violence, death, and many others that will not be posted here for spoiler reasons).

* + The mods reserve the right to vet applications and if you have a trigger that will be a central part of the story, suggest you not participate in the group for your own comfort. If the trigger in question is one you believe you can handle, we can discuss your participation, but we do not want someone to join the group only to be in an uncomfortable situation down the line.
* We do not allow the creation of member-run external servers related to Ataraxia. In an effort to create an environment that is as welcoming and inclusive as possible, we ask that if you want to discuss things in a more private setting, keep it to DMs, and do not create group servers related to the group. We find that these sorts of “microcommunities” leave people feeling alienated, confused, and uncomfortable.

* + One-on-one servers are okay, as this is essentially just a more organized form of DMs.
	+ For small in-server events that would require a more contained setting, mods will set up in-server channels for easy muting should people not wish to participate in that event.
	+ For larger events that may require more organization, moderators may set up an officially sanctioned and moderated side server that will be locked down at the conclusion of the event. Anyone in the group will be welcome to join, even if it is just to observe and not participate.
* We ask that all members exercise general common sense and courtesy. The typical things such as homophobia, transphobia, sexism, racism, general bigotry will not be tolerated. In addition, the typical roleplay courtesies should also be observed -- no godmodding or powerplaying, no forced relationships. We don’t ask that you be friends with everyone in the group, but we do ask that you respect everyone in the group.
* We ask that members not use aggressive, insulting, or berating language or rude/passive-aggressive tones in any asks sent to the masterlist -- even jokingly! The mods will return the courtesy in their replies to help foster a welcoming environment where everyone feels comfortable and open to communication.

* + Any asks containing such language will not be answered.
* Any questions, disputes, conflicts, suggestions, concerns etc. should all go to the mods to be dealt with.

## Reserves + Applications

* Reserves will last one week, and upon request we can extend your reserve for 5 days. You can have 2 active reserves at any given time.

* + You can extend your reservation once, but after that, when your reserve runs out you will have to wait one week before you can place another reserve on that particular character.
* The reserve form can be found HERE.

* + You may send in your OOC contact for a reserve separately if you would prefer to keep that information between you and the mods.
	+ Discord handles will not be accepted as a form of contact on their own. If you wish to provide a Discord handle for ease of contact, please provide a Twitter or Tumblr account as well.
	+ When sending in a reserve, please indicate whether your contact information is Tumblr or Twitter; simply saying “@(url)” is unclear.
	+ If your handle includes lowercase L’s in place of uppercase I’s or vice versa, please either indicate this or type the handle in a way that makes this visually clear.
* Applications must follow the form found HERE. You will be notified by a mod if your application was rejected due to not following the correct format, and you will be permitted to re-submit it after correcting it.

* + Anonymous applications will not be accepted. You must provide an alias and valid form of contact.
	+ Again, Discord handles will not be accepted as a form of contact on their own. If you wish to provide a Discord handle for ease of contact, please provide a Twitter or Tumblr account as well.
	+ We ask that if your Twitter/Tumblr/Discord (OOC or character accounts) are locked to DMs for any reason that you unlock at least one of these forms of contact so that the mods can contact you about your application if necessary.
	+ Do not simply copy and paste information from a Wiki. Only you can capture the little nuances in personality that make you love that character so much that you want to write them! Use your own words. Plagiarized applications will not be accepted.
	+ The mods recommend you save your application in Google Drive or a Word document -- Tumblr has a bad habit of losing messages, and we’d hate for all your hard work to disappear into cyberspace.
* The character cap is 4 characters.
* To prevent rapid-fire apping and dropping of characters, we will have a three day cool down period between when you drop a character and when you submit an application for a new one. You can still reserve new characters, but cannot send in your application until three days after the drop.
* You may submit to the askbox to request characters or castmates! Just send us an ask telling us what character/series you are requesting and we will get the word out for you.

## Characters + Series

* You can apply as characters from any form of media, but we do not accept applications for people to roleplay as real life people.

* + For example, you could app as Dean Winchester, but not Jensen Ackles.
	+ This includes YouTubers and k-pop idols! No real life people will be accepted to be applied.
* Original characters and fan characters are welcome! Fan characters do have some restrictions, however.

* + Fan characters cannot be related to canon characters. They may be aware of them, but not in any form of familiar or romantic relationship with them. So you may have a student at Beacon Academy from RWBY, but they could not be Blake Belladonna’s sister or girlfriend.
	+ Characters like Robin or Corrin from Fire Emblem, the Warden from Dragon Age, Shepard from Mass Effect, and Gran or Djeeta from Granblue Fantasy can be apped, but there can only be one of them at a time since they are essentially the same character, and changing the gender of the character does not greatly alter the story. So if M!Robin is already apped, you cannot app F!Robin. If M!Robin drops you are welcome to app in as F!Robin, but then no one can app as M!Robin.
	+ If a series has a protagonist where changing the gender of the protagonist alters the story and they have differing personalities to the degree that they are clearly different characters (i.e., Persona 3), they may both be apped.
	+ FFXIV fan characters can be apped, but NOT as the “Warrior of Light”, as this would cause issues with there being multiple Warriors of Light with the same memories.
* You may have 2 characters from the same series, and they cannot both be major characters. As a good rule of thumb, if their interactions are important in the series, you cannot have both of them!

* + There may be some exceptions for series such as Fire Emblem, Final Fantasy, and NieR/Drakengard, where installments are not inherently dependent on each other and characters may not interact across series. This will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.
* We do not allow members to app doubles without canon reason and permission from the current person playing that character.
* You may choose to age up your character up to 2 years with very good reason that must be included in the “extra info” section on your app. Wanting to roleplay NSFW content as a character who is canonically a minor is not an accepted reason. If we find you are trying to  use this rule for such purposes, there will be consequences!
* LGBTQ+ headcanons for characters are welcome! However, you may not apply as a non-canon “cisswapped” version of a character. Series like Adventure Time which have Finn/Fiona, Bubblegum/Gumball, Marceline/Marshall Lee are allowed, but for example, you could not apply as a cisswapped “female” version of Prompto from FFXV.
* Characters may NOT retain memories from prior groups. This group is very development and story oriented and that’s where the focus during interactions should be, not on continuing from past groups.
* ADDED 1 AUGUST 2019 -- There will be a two week “soft ban” on apping characters from newly released media. After the two weeks are up, we will take applications for characters from that media.

* + In addition, we may restrict conversations about newly released media to one ooc channel during this period so people who wish to go into the game completely blind can easily mute it. Regardless, please remember to use spoiler tags and be respectful of your fellow members!

## OOC

* Use the OOC chats to get to know your fellow castmates or to discuss what’s happening in character. It’s easier to get excited about writing if you are talking out of character with your writing partners.
* If you are posting any art in the server, it should be sourced properly. If you can’t find the source, don’t post it!
* In general for rules being broken, the moderators will issue a formal warning before taking other action. If behavior continues, we will exercise a “three strikes and you’re out” policy. In other words, you will get one warning. Formal strikes will be issued after the warning has been given (you will be explicitly told you are being given a strike, as well as the reasoning behind it, and the mods will make sure you know how many strikes you have.)

* + For larger offenses (attacking a member, roleplaying banned content, any sort of bigoted or hate speech), the mods will resort to harsher punishments as deemed necessary. This could include going straight to a strike or even straight to a ban depending on the severity of the offense.
* You must keep up with triggers listed in the #triggers channel. Triggers should not be discussed in any of the SFW channels, but may be discussed in NSFW channels with a proper warning tagged ahead of time. Images of triggers cannot be posted anywhere in the server! If you are posting a link that leads to a potentially triggering image, you must post the link between <brackets like this> so no image thumbnail will appear in the chat. Include a warning for the link as well!

* We understand mistakes happen with regards to triggers, and more likely than not we will ask you to delete the message or tag it properly if you mess up on this rule. If it is a recurring issue, we will give a formal warning, followed by our “three strikes and you’re out” policy.
* In general, please be respectful to your fellow group mates and everyone in general. Keep it classy. Don’t start trash talking other people or roleplay groups, even if they aren’t present in the server! As always, if there are any concerns with the way people are interacting OOC, don’t hesitate to bring it to the attention of the mods.

IC
--

* When you’re accepted, you will receive a friend request on Discord from PANDOR. After you accept it, PANDOR will invite you to the server. You may NOT interact in any of the IC channels until you have been assigned your roles. Feel free to start introducing yourself in the OOC channels, however!
* Most interaction happens in a chatroom setting, but there are prose channels for group threads (one-liner, paragraph, novella etc), and DM roleplays are acceptable for one-on-one threads.
* The same trigger rules that apply OOC also apply to IC chats. So does the “warning+three strikes” system.
* We do not tolerate the roleplaying of content such as incest, bestiality, or pedophilia. This includes sexual content involving characters who are minors, even if the ones doing the writing are of age.
* Characters will not have any of their powers, abilities, or weapons upon arriving in Epoche. These will be returned according to the RANK UP SYSTEM.
* Pets, familiars, and other creatures that would ordinarily accompany a character will not follow them to Epoche. They will have to be returned upon rank up in the same manner as weapons and abilities.
* Your character’s name must be contained in alphanumeric characters within your character’s server nickname or Discord handle. In other words, if your character’s Discord handle is not their name in alphanumeric characters, their name must be in the server nickname at all times.

* + If there’s a reason your character would hide their name, still put their name in parenthesis next to whatever nickname you choose. This way, people OOC will know who your character is. The name in parenthesis will only be able to be seen OOC, and not by characters in the chatroom.
* This is an 18+ group, but keep NSFW content in NSFW channels. Some people may be checking Discord at work or in other settings where they don’t want NSFW popping up on their phones!

* + NSFW chats can also contain SFW content. They aren’t just for NSFW discussions!
* Be conscious of what is happening in chats and consider before you jump in. If it looks like a serious conversation with some character development is happening in a chat, think twice before interrupting it with something irrelevant. By all means, step in if you have something relevant to add, but this is a development focused group with mature themes, and derailing these conversations, while not something we can moderate, may get in the way of this group working as intended. Be courteous of your other members and the development they are trying to achieve for their characters!
* While we appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm, for the sake of diversifying interactions, any one character may not be active in more than two IC channels at one time, including vocatum chats. At the same time, any one mun may not be active in more than three IC channels at one time. In essence, each character is limited to two IC chats at a time, while each mun is limited to three IC chats between all of their characters.

* + This does not apply to OOC chats. You can be active in as many OOC chats as you’d like at one time.
* Even if your character would recognize another character as fictional in their setting, do not break the fourth wall without permission from the person playing that character.

* + For example, Peter Quill from Guardians of the Galaxy knows that Mary Poppins is a fictional character, but if someone were to app as Mary Poppins, we would discourage the Peter Quill roleplayer from addressing this fact without explicit permission from the person playing Mary Poppins.

## Activity

* Activity checks will be conducted every two months and take place on the 5th of the month.

* + You will have had to be active in any of the server’s IC channels 10 separate days during the announced time frame for the check.
	+ If you were on hiatus at any point during the activity check period, this requirement is lowered to 5 days.
	+ If you joined after a specified date, indicated in the activity check announcement, you will still have to fill out a form, but indicate that you joined after that date, and you will be exempt.
	+ Viable chats for activity include IC citywide chatrooms, prose channels, and vocatum-specific chats.
	+ You will have one week to submit the form included with the activity check announcement, after which the mods will check your activity for you.
* You may put your character on hiatus for 4 weeks, or semi-hiatus for 2 weeks.

* + A hiatus and semi-hiatus will both exempt you from an activity check should the check take place while your hiatus/semi-hiatus is active.
	+ You may not post in-character during a hiatus -- this will end your hiatus.
	+ You may message the masterlist to end your hiatus early.
	+ Semi-hiatuses can be extended to full hiatuses at any time.
	+ Hiatuses can be extended on a case-by-case basis following a discussion with the mods.
* If your character was dropped following an activity check, you will have a three day grace period to immediately re-apply as that same character the first time that happens. If it happens a second time, you will have to wait a week before applying as that character again.
* If you were skipped from an activity check due to a hiatus, you cannot be skipped for the next one due to hiatus. If you are on hiatus during the next activity check, you will be considered inactive unless there has been a prior discussion with the mods.
* If you are concerned that these rules are being exploited and a character is being unfairly hoarded, you may message the masterlist and request a hoarding investigation. The mods will look into the situation and discuss whether the claim is valid, and what action should be taken (no action, warning to the member, removal from the masterlist).

* + Members who request a hoarding investigation be opened will remain anonymous to everyone except the mods.