[ 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 |![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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 |
journalMonth/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: Kevin Regnard |
Month Joined: August 2014
Date of Submission: ICly -- 6/14
Emotion Tracker Proofs: You must have three from three separate months.
9/17
2/04
3/20
Alignment: Peromei
State: |
Development Report: Kevin's time in Empatheias has been focused on healing, working through grief and anger, and starting to move on from the loss of his home and family. He has been unfolding from the restrictions of his old life and building a new one, and he's come to love and value the world he's found himself in as well as the people in it. Arriving as a broken mess of a man who could barely stand to be around people and refused to sleep inside for fear of breaking the walls with his nightmares and anxiety, he is now ready and willing to stand up to protect the things he cares about, and to start becoming the knight he’s capable of being.
I have marked his amulet as neutral because although he is depressed still and struggles daily with negativity, he has always been moving in a positive direction. Most of his notable emotional surges have been positive, and even his breakdown in February lead to positive results, in that it allowed him some closure and to start expressing all that pent up grief properly.
Questions: By rights, his crystal should be gray, but if possible I'd like the crystal to be dark with flecks of light floating around in it. For one thing, he associates his own emotional development as a night sky with stars in it, an image which has repeated itself for him multiple times -- the stars represent his hopes in the midst of his despair. For another, the Abyss he came to Empatheias from is broken, and he's destined to take part in restoring it to the state it should be in, which is a beautiful world filled with golden lights. Given that this is entirely poetical and cheesy on my part, I understand if you'd rather go with gray! I am aware that this would be special snowflakey.
no subject