[ ARCHIVED | complete crystals ]
In general, it takes at minimum four months for a crystal to become full of emotions and completed. Once this happen, the crystal will solidify and change its color depending on the character's Alignment. In addition, how "positive" or "negative" a crystal is will affect its color. If a crystal mostly has positive emotions, it will take on a brighter shade and even shimmer a bit. If a crystal mostly has negative emotions, it will take on a darker shade and appear more dull. If a crystal has an even mix of positive and negative emotions, it will retain the base color with no other effect.
❖ Guidelines
For the most part, determining whether a character's crystal is complete is determined by the player. After all, characters develop differently and some will faster or slower than others. However, we do have at least one rule and some factors you should consider.
» Four Months. Four months is the absolute minimum that would take a character's crystal to complete. No sooner, but it can of course take longer.
» Emotion Tracker. Commenting to the tracker is not mandatory in general, however we do require proof. For a crystal to be considered complete, you must comment to the tracker two times and they must be from separate months. For example, from a time period between January and April, you could use one link from February and one from March. You could not use two links from February. These can come from the main Emotion Tracker or they can come from the designated trackers made for events (example).
» Automatic Crystal. At six months, a player can comment for an "automatic" crystal. This means that the crystal is completed and no comments to the Emotion Tracker is required. This option is to help those who are less likely to comment to the Tracker for whatever reason and not be "punished" or feel like they are being punished.
» Events and Alignments. Emotion drops created toward an alignment will produce much larger drops than non-aligned emotions. This is going to hasten a crystal's progress. There are many events that are thrown once every month or so that cater to one emotion or all emotions, and these events are perfect opportunities to develop a crystal.
» Apathy and Emotion Drop Depletion. Emotion drops can be destroyed and lost. The main ways are through apathy and death. If a character goes through either, it could set them back by weeks or even months depending how much is depleted. The only thing that happens is the amount of liquid visibly decreasing. In addition, the crystal is not harmed in any way and still protects the character as it should.
» Keep or donate. It is up to the character whether they wish to keep their crystal or donate it to the Arehtei. As crystals can be beneficial in either scenario, there's no actual "better" option. If uncertain, "keep" is considered the default, and it can be donated at a later time.
» Player Discretion. As mentioned, this is still up to the player. As there is no mandatory tracker to be maintained, you will have to be aware of your character is developing and be reasonable about it.
❖ What Happens?
As mentioned, completed crystals are part of how characters will return to their world. However, the specifics of such have yet to be revealed in-game so this is only an OOC notice. We will update this section once it happens, but you can at least have that in mind.
So far, those who have given their crystals to the Arehtei have experienced visions of their home with each one becoming more vivid with subsequent donations. After the 4th or 5th crystal, we'd like the player to contact us for the next step.
❖ Replacement
Characters do have to replace their crystals, and that can easily be done by visiting the original temple ruins and excavating one from the underground lake.
❖ The Form
In order to actually consider your character's crystal complete, you must fill out this form and have it approved. This form will help both you and us see how the character has developed, and it also serves a stop gap to prevent players who might just rush the process.
Player:
Character: Character |
journal
Month/Year Joined: What month and year did this character join the game?
Month of Completion: The month the crystal is considered completed. This can be backdated in case you are filling this later.
Emotion Tracker Proofs: You must have two links from two separate months OR use the "6 MONTHS AUTO" option.
Alignment:
State: This is asking if the crystal is mostly positive, negative, or neutral. Indicate with one of the following symbols: +, -, |.
Development Report: We really only want a general summary (no more than 250 words) of how the character has developed.
Donated or Keep? Indicate whether the character is giving their crystal to the Arehtei or keeping it. Choose "keep" if uncertain. You can change this at any time.
Questions: Any questions you might have.
If a character has already completed one crystal and is ready for the second, use the following form. The "four months" rule is still at play, only instead of starting from the time joined, it's starting from the time the second crystal is acquired/first crystal completed.
All submissions will be automatically added to the spreadsheet. Characters can already assume their crystals are completed ICly.
For the most part, determining whether a character's crystal is complete is determined by the player. After all, characters develop differently and some will faster or slower than others. However, we do have at least one rule and some factors you should consider.
» Four Months. Four months is the absolute minimum that would take a character's crystal to complete. No sooner, but it can of course take longer.
» Emotion Tracker. Commenting to the tracker is not mandatory in general, however we do require proof. For a crystal to be considered complete, you must comment to the tracker two times and they must be from separate months. For example, from a time period between January and April, you could use one link from February and one from March. You could not use two links from February. These can come from the main Emotion Tracker or they can come from the designated trackers made for events (example).
» Automatic Crystal. At six months, a player can comment for an "automatic" crystal. This means that the crystal is completed and no comments to the Emotion Tracker is required. This option is to help those who are less likely to comment to the Tracker for whatever reason and not be "punished" or feel like they are being punished.
» Events and Alignments. Emotion drops created toward an alignment will produce much larger drops than non-aligned emotions. This is going to hasten a crystal's progress. There are many events that are thrown once every month or so that cater to one emotion or all emotions, and these events are perfect opportunities to develop a crystal.
» Apathy and Emotion Drop Depletion. Emotion drops can be destroyed and lost. The main ways are through apathy and death. If a character goes through either, it could set them back by weeks or even months depending how much is depleted. The only thing that happens is the amount of liquid visibly decreasing. In addition, the crystal is not harmed in any way and still protects the character as it should.
» Keep or donate. It is up to the character whether they wish to keep their crystal or donate it to the Arehtei. As crystals can be beneficial in either scenario, there's no actual "better" option. If uncertain, "keep" is considered the default, and it can be donated at a later time.
» Player Discretion. As mentioned, this is still up to the player. As there is no mandatory tracker to be maintained, you will have to be aware of your character is developing and be reasonable about it.
❖ What Happens?
As mentioned, completed crystals are part of how characters will return to their world. However, the specifics of such have yet to be revealed in-game so this is only an OOC notice. We will update this section once it happens, but you can at least have that in mind.
So far, those who have given their crystals to the Arehtei have experienced visions of their home with each one becoming more vivid with subsequent donations. After the 4th or 5th crystal, we'd like the player to contact us for the next step.
❖ Replacement
Characters do have to replace their crystals, and that can easily be done by visiting the original temple ruins and excavating one from the underground lake.
❖ The Form
In order to actually consider your character's crystal complete, you must fill out this form and have it approved. This form will help both you and us see how the character has developed, and it also serves a stop gap to prevent players who might just rush the process.
Player:
Character: Character |
Month/Year Joined: What month and year did this character join the game?
Month of Completion: The month the crystal is considered completed. This can be backdated in case you are filling this later.
Emotion Tracker Proofs: You must have two links from two separate months OR use the "6 MONTHS AUTO" option.
Alignment:
State: This is asking if the crystal is mostly positive, negative, or neutral. Indicate with one of the following symbols: +, -, |.
Development Report: We really only want a general summary (no more than 250 words) of how the character has developed.
Donated or Keep? Indicate whether the character is giving their crystal to the Arehtei or keeping it. Choose "keep" if uncertain. You can change this at any time.
Questions: Any questions you might have.
If a character has already completed one crystal and is ready for the second, use the following form. The "four months" rule is still at play, only instead of starting from the time joined, it's starting from the time the second crystal is acquired/first crystal completed.
All submissions will be automatically added to the spreadsheet. Characters can already assume their crystals are completed ICly.

no subject
Character: Emizel |
Month/Year of Previous Crystal: Jan 2016
Date of Submission: ~Aug 1st is when it completed... I wanted to wait when the notifs were working again but then it slipped my mind.
Emotion Tracker Proofs:
3/1
4/20
7/24
Alignment: Peromei
State: Very positive, though with some dark accents on the end since the year did not start out well. However the rest of the time has been pretty damn solid, probably somewhere between + and ++.
Development Report: Lots of cool things have happened this half year. There's been some cute times with the boyfriend, he's a representative, he's met more and more amazing Otherworlders, and much much more. Emizel may have had some doubts that anything will ever change after his blow out with Red, but eventually it was his friends that pulled him out of it. Zephyras also brought on a lot of changes because it was Emizel's first time of actually planning something big for a relationship, something he never dreamed of doing ever, and it somehow turned out well. He enjoys every single one of these love feelings he gets from Shun and can't imagine what it would be like without them now.
But Emizel has wanted to do something grand for Empatheias. He was never sure what that thing would be, but he certainly didn't think it would be getting hand picked to represent an Arehtei. Regardless of how much he sought after it when the opportunity was there, actually achieving it seemed too far of reach when others were probably more suitable for it. Regardless, it was a huge honor, and not one he wants to mess up. Thankfully hope is the patron emotion and has been the one thing driving Emizel most, that if he keeps it up not only will it give Peromei her light back, but he will accomplish anything.
Questions: For some reason Emizel's January crystal was never recorded. If it just got skipped over by mistake or did I have to correct something..?
no subject