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Announcement #1: Additions to the Group!
Hello, Luxians! We’ll keep our first announcement short and sweet but we have quite a bit to cover, so here we go!
First, thank you to everyone who’s joined this group. You all truly make the hours of conversation on worldbuilding between Isabella and I (we, the omnipotent moderators) so worth it. The fact that you all take time to enjoy the world we’ve crafted means so much to us. We’ll keep working hard with these updates and to add suggestions (please do make those, we want them!) that everyone makes!
Second, the group started with two cities with nobility and gangs in Voxthain and Asterath—respectively—and the Runalithe squad. As said, because of the activity, interest, and support you lovely people are showing, things have expanded and we’re working hard! We have added Cogworks (that doesn’t sound like Hogwarts, does it?) Academy, a school for both Asterath and Voxthain kiddos to attend! We have teacher claims, assistant claims, and student claims! We do request that students have a life outside the school, as the school is a daily attendance—not a boarding school. Feel free to make your students nobles, gang members, or just everyday citizens! Do some character networking with others!
Third, yet again—a new addition! Elizabeth (hiiii girliepop 🥰😘) brought a collaboration suggestion to the table about her noble family. This has resulted in the new police force in Voxthain: the militia! This group will act as the regular military/policing force for Voxthain even though they answer to Lady Katarina Hayden instead of the Council. There’s a lot of interesting room here for investigating the recent murders, as well as good old fashioned corruption because the militia is under a single household instead of the city as a whole.
If anyone asks why Asterath doesn’t have one, they have gangs. Those guys rule the place. It’s certainly not a plot hole of any kind, rest dutifully assured! Although we will say that Asterath is starting to feel a little left out. (We know this for a fact—Asterath told us.) If anyone wants to add to the worldbuilding and claims of Asterath, please let us know what you’re thinking! (This is desperation, can you see it? Do you see what we see? The neon-ified, creative Asterath is being neglected.)
Fourth, you can make noble families! It seems this option is overlooked, but it is an option we support. You are able to claim a family role and ask that claims be made for others to claim roles in the family! Additionally, we are making family crests! As the graphic designers we are (definitely certified, we have our degrees hanging on the imaginary walls around the group as well as the real actual walls of our house), we are making symbols (crests) for each family! Just give us a general vibe. Is the family ethereal and elegant? Maybe flower themed. Are they regal and snobbish? We sure hope not, but maybe they’d have a crown theme.
Fifth, that’s all! Fifth because one last huge, amazing thank you to everyone. Do not be afraid to reach out and ask questions, make suggestions—anything! That’s what we’re here for and we actively encourage it.
Announcement #2: Discord Server!
This link (https://discord.gg/KRU28sF6bj) is an invite to the Discord server we’ve made for our group! This is a place for faster communication as well as planning if we need to for our ideas and all, not for main communication! This will not effect the group’s activity at all. Please let me know if it doesn’t work for any of you, it expires in seven days and who knows if I’ll remember to renew it!
Announcement #3: More Updates & Maintenance
Hey, lovelies!! This message is just an update, a hello, some maintenance topics—but do read it! We haven’t sent one out this year yet and we need to make sure we’re keeping up with our beautiful group as it means a lot to us and hopefully means a lot to you all as well!
First, we’ve updated the claims and character list, but with all the checkmarks and information we have to put in, we are capable of missing things sometimes. Your character, if submitted and approved, should definitely be on the character list, but we might have accidentally missed changing the “✗” to a “✓” on the character claims. Go check that! Just hit ctrl+f and type your name, it’ll highlight everywhere your name is, and subsequently where all of your characters are. If completed, make sure we’ve added that good old checkmark.
Second, to make everyone fully aware, we have uncapped the character limit. You can have as many characters as you’d like, but with that comes with the trust that we can all regulate how many characters we have that can be in active roleplays and if our schedules can accommodate many characters. I (Rory) have twelve and many of them are in roleplay or have solid plans and connections to other characters, so that’s acceptable. We know this group is just a friend group, essentially, of avid writers writing together, so there’s no concern, which is why we uncapped the limit. It’s just an obligatory reminder. Side note here I forgot to add upon posting and sending the mass message, we have too many noble families and not enough claims, so no more of those! Try to make claims within other families if possible. There’s a lot of possibilities in there!
Third, we’ve added a casino to Voxthain and a fighting ring to Asterath, so they both now have their special places. For events, we are going to be soon starting a ball/gala in Voxthain! A masquerade event, more specifically, for some potential at adding drama. Because who could be behind the mask? A dangerous Asterath gang member who decided to show up? Who knows! That’ll be up to you guys. More details to come soon!! Keep an eye out. 😘👀
Fourth, we have a Spotify playlist topic! We have three playlists for Runalithe, Voxthain, and Asterath. Anyone is welcome to add to it! We’ll be adding more in the future if you guys would like to collaborate on a specific type of playlist.
Fifth, we have a topic titled Upcoming Tasks specifically for Isabella and I that anyone can comment in reminding us to do something if we haven’t yet or forgotten. We made it for a reason—don’t apologize or be too anxious to post there! We want to make sure we’re finishing things we need to!
Sixth and final paragraph and topic, remember we also have a Give Suggestions topic! Anything you want to see around the group, suggestions in general, those are also welcome! Thank you as always to everyone who’s helped make this group what it is now. Keep up the good work and keep Isabella and I in line, yeah?
Announcement #4: Map & More Maintenance
Greetings, Luxians! We’re back with some more group updates and future plans. As always, if anyone needs or wants anything to be added or you want to discuss ideas and such, this group is everyone’s! Even if you’re not involved in the active plot, we’re nowhere near done here. We have many opportunities for more involvement, I promise. Now that that’s said, here are some new additions to the group.
First, we’ve added a relationships web! Thank Isabella for that one, she did a lot of the work and is continuing to update it. Even if she can’t get to updating it immediately, please please please (don’t prove I’m right) post about your characters and their relationships so she can add them at some point. It’s a ton of work to go through every single collab that has been discussed and every profile, so that’d be very helpful! She is aware that new characters have not yet been added and the Militia was very sadly missed in the first go, but it will all be added, we promise.
Second, we’ve begun moving the plot forward! As said in the first paragraph, we’ve got so much to do and so many stories to fulfill, so keep an eye out for potential roles your characters can fulfill to be involved in the next bit of plot progression! As for a brief overview, the murders Bodhi had begun to commit are being blamed on Club Serpentine, as ruthless as they’re known for being. Caledonia Hayden, a Voxthain Councilor, has been frequenting the Asterath fighting ring under the disguise of Rosa, which has been revealed due to an unfortunate close proximity to Ceonrei, her Sister Councilor in Asterath. Of course, Club Serpentine aren’t behind the murders so when they caught wind of a Voxthain Councilor hanging out down in Asterath, they saw an opportunity and snatched it right up. Would she have information on who it is, if not them? Also, the Club Serpentine leaders are just psychotic anyways. (Keep an eye out for a future full Council meeting after this is finished as well.)
Third, reminder that we’re working on organizing the Voxthain gala soon for the nobles! One thing at a time, so once we wrap up the Caledonia kidnapping plot we have going on, we’ll start to work on that. Keep your eyes and ears out for a future announcement inviting all nobles (and their potentially non-noble plus ones) to the masquerade gala! And, along that same note, if anyone wants to offer up a hosting venue, let us know.
Fourth, we’re working on maps for Asterath and Voxthain! That being said, we need some suggestions for roleplay locations and/or areas you’d like to see on the map that are not currently existing as roleplay topics in each city. We’ll be posting updated maps as everyone offers suggestions, so once we do, feel free to keep them coming!
Big catch here—please get those suggestions to us within a week, so by probably Monday next week. Good map making websites and programs cost money, but we activated a free trial for a week starting today, April 22nd. We can edit the map after that but not with as much detail and precision as we can within this week. So, again, please get those suggestions to us quickly! We’ll try to post an updated map daily or every other day!
Announcement #5: New Claims in Voxthain
Hello our sweet Luxians! It hasn’t been very long since our last announcements, but we have several new exciting claims to announce. Which, great, right? It’s not like some of us are up to twenty characters or anything . . .
Before we get into the meat of the Character Claims, we are very happy to update that every single Councilor has been claimed and created!! Within the next few months we should be prepped and ready for a full Voxthain/Asterath Council meeting, so be on the lookout for that.
There is one more Delacroix claim open, who is the husband of Rory’s character Ender (who is the direct Delacroix descendent) and the father of the two beautiful twin siblings made by Isabella and Elizabeth. Their branch of the family are distanced from the main family and they also carry Grimcroft blood (again, through Ender and her mother who married a Delacroix man).
The Thorne family has also added a few more claims. There is now a brother and sister to the Thorne Matriarch, Nahilia Thorne, and both siblings are open to have families of their own. So far, the Thorne sister has been claimed (reach out to Kyleigh for collabs!), but her spouse and the other sibling are still open. And, again, both siblings can have adult children if you wish.
The Leclaire noble family has been added to the claims as well after making their name known in the Calico family tree. Elara Calico is a sister in the Leclaire family, and Elissa Leclaire is the mother of Alex Calico. Two of the Leclaire cousins are still up for grabs, both of whom are able to have claimed spouses and children. The Leclaire family was created by Aelin, so reach out to her with collabs!
The Lucke family runs and maintains the Lucke Museum in Voxthain. They have their immediate family as well as two employees who are passionate about history and would most likely enjoy being employed under this family. One patriarch (married into the family), the father of Rory’s patriarch Kyo-Hae (married to Kyleigh’s mother), and one Lucke employee are still up for grabs.
The Devoe family is another family present in Lux that was long awaited in the Character Claims. The birth family of Evelyn Delacroix, the Devoe family is wide-spanning and very open for new members. This family was just added to the claims page yesterday, so it is brand new and ready to go! Anyone labeled as a sibling on the claims page would be pretty old, probably 70s (maybe 60s). The Son and Daughter characters are of parent age, generally around the age of Evelyn, who is 48. The grandchildren are loose at the bottom right now as they can be children of any of the children. The grandchildren can be as young as you want up to mid to late 20s.
The Stormvales are a new family as well, known for managing the intercity trade and relations between Voxthain and Asterath. They are travelers and wanderers, most of the main family out of the house and living their own lives. The main head of the household is Isabella’s character, the Uncle, and most of the others are young or haven’t left to go on their own paths yet. There are claims here for every member in the group, as we wanted a family where everyone was involved. Everyone is able to make their own dynamics and create their character in any way they want! If you haven’t checked out the Stormvales yet, we really urge you to do so! We really hope everyone is able to get involved with this family.
The Secret Society, or as they’re mainly called, The Coven, are a group of women who practice magic and learn together. They are all women and all must carry Grimcroft blood, a long-forgotten family, no matter how distant it is. They are very powerful magic-users and have a powerful bond within the Coven.
We sent the announcement as a group broadcast too quickly, as we didn’t realize we’d be adding something for Asterath, too. They need more love and roles open, honestly, so we’ve added a protective force called the Blacklights. They strive to protect the common citizens of Asterath who just want to live their lives in peace without fear of gang violence. Go check out the claims for more information on them!
Announcement #6: Accepting New Members & Why They Go Missing Sometimes (The Lux Murder Mystery And It’s Not Bodhi This Time)
Hi, lovely friends. We just wanted to make a quick announcement addressing new members and why they are kicked from the group after a day or two of being here sometimes. We are private but publicly visible, so everyone on Goodreads can view the group, but we have to accept new members. This is to make sure our advanced writing and complex world is honored by those who care about it and not just commonplace roleplayers. That sounds harsh and clique-y but that is not at all the intent. We’ve built a powerful, stunning world that everyone in this group cherishes and works hard on maintaining, so letting one-liners into the group or those who refuse to read the lore and connect with this world like we all have endangers that. We have a safe space here that is easily disrupted.
We had a group question when requesting to join. It was Where did you find us and why do you want to join? If you do not answer this, your request to join will not be accepted. We have since changed it to If you aren’t willing to read information topics and take time to understand this group, don’t request to join. If someone answered the previous question, Isabella and I allowed them in to see if they could be part of this community. Someone used AI to write a character, others are incredibly young and haven’t reached the level of roleplaying skill that we have yet. That’s okay, as we all had to start somewhere, but they’re not ready for our group. That being said, it sucks when a good group is ran by people who think they’re better than everyone around them and refuse to let anyone at least have a chance.
So, we give them a chance and many reminders to read our topics and lore and when they don’t or make a character that demands multiple corrections, that’s it. We like giving chances, but not at the expense of what we’ve built here and the comfort of our existing members. That’s all. Thank you all for being here and making this group something so meaningful to all of us. 🧡🩷
Isabella & Rory
Announcement #7: The Group Aesthetic is Updated! (It only took twelve hours!)
Hi, all! Just wanted to throw out an announcement since it’s been a while and let everyone know we’ve updated the group’s aesthetic and the first comments on every topic. We worked immensely hard and sacrificed our only days off before going back to the mines for this. Be grateful or else.
We also wanted to remind everyone to please, please, please give us the descriptions to roleplay topics that are for your families or requested by you specifically. We know that the Seavey and Devoe estates were requested ages ago and we are working to get what you wanted as quickly as Goodreads lets us.
If we’ve forgotten anything that any of you have asked for, please let us know! There’s been a lot of moving around this summer and everyone’s been on different schedules so it’s easy to miss things. Without further ado, the list of descriptions we need:
Lucien’s office
Delacroix garden
Thorne parlor
Thorne infirmary
Thorne garden
Hayden training room
Hayden parlor
Calico dining room
Calico sitting room
Taja’s office
Announcement #8: Asterath Councilor Election Upcoming!
Hey, Luxians! As you can see, we are holding an in-character election for the position of Asterath Councilor #2, previously held by a member who is too busy to be as active as the Council will require in the coming months. Any current Asterath citizen is eligible to run for this seat, no matter if you the writer have another Councilor or not. There will be out of character priority for people who do not have any Councilors, but we still want this to be a fun election for anyone who may have an interest in running for office. Each Asterath citizen will be allowed to vote for who gets to be the newest Councilor, so it will be decided by them, not us the writers.
We will put out a link to a write-in poll and you will vote with each of your Asterath characters. Make sure you’re doing this with their character traits and values in mind, not your own! May the odds be ever in your favor!
Announcement #9: Autumn Vibes & Moving Forward
Luxians! Greetings! It’s autumn. (Shut up—yes it is.) So! We! Have edited! The group’s! Aesthetic! We’re all autumnally coordinated and ready to leap into a big ol’ pile of leaves—moving the plot forward! We’ve been planning that gosh darn gala for ages, but the plot has kept that from moving forward. We moderators (🤓) will be pushing to finish those up by the end of this month so we can get that up and going. Voxthain noble autumn gala!!
Not only is the aesthetic updated, but we are also going to be changing the season in the world. The season will officially shift to autumn after everyone wraps up important roleplays, so keep that in mind when describing the weather in roleplay in the future! Come October 1st, we’ll have the gala set up and topics ready to go for roleplays and showing us what your little nobles are wearing to it!
Announcement #10: The Asterath Election Campaign Trail
Welcome to the campaign trail!
On the road to the Asterath Councilor election, all nominees will have the opportunity to create posters to be displayed around Asterath, come up with a campaign slogan to be announced with their name, and be interviewed by the best interviewer available to us on this side of the Cerulean Sea: Caesar Flickerman! (Don’t ask me why I’m using that name 😭😭)
The poster will be up to the nominee to create and return to the Election Committee (us) for distribution around town within a timely manner. All nominees must be made aware that their poster will be more effective the earlier it is submitted. Wall space is limited, and you will have a better chance of reaching all of Asterath if you submit it to us as soon as possible. (Basically, if you want to make a poster on Canva or some other site, you’ll want to get it to us before voting opens up for it to be effective and seen by all group members. Go absolutely hog wild on the design!)
You can submit your poster in the Asterath Council Campaign Posters topic.
The campaign slogan must be a word, phrase, or sentence no longer than fifteen words. Keep it concise, keep it snappy. During the interview, Caesar will be asking you about why you chose your slogan, and he may have some thoughts of his own to add if he finds it to be lacking. Remember that your interviewer holds the trust of the public and could sway votes!
Questions posed in the interview will mostly be the same for each nominee and given out in advance so that each nominee has adequate time to prepare. The interview itself will take place in three weeks, so be sure that each one of you arrives at town hall in your best Councilor apparel! (For this one, we’ll post the questions and you’ll have that amount of time to post your answers in the corresponding topic. There will likely be some additional questions tailored to each individual nominee, so please include the questions with your answers! Try to have everything up by October 18th for the start of voting.)
You can submit your answers in the Asterath Council Campaign Interview topic.
This is Asterath, and we know this election will be feisty! Digs at your fellow nominees and smear campaigns are to be expected, and by some groups, encouraged. Say and do whatever you need to win this election. Best of luck to you all! (Seriously, I am begging on my hands and knees for you all to run smear campaigns against your competitors: posters, videos, written actions, slogans that counter your competitors, rumors to spread. Anything. This is Asterath, and many of the nominees are in gangs. Use that to your advantage. Make alliances, make enemies, switch sides, backstab and betray. Make this as exciting as Asterath itself is.)
The slogans and any and all additional material you want to post along the campaign process can be posted in the Asterath Council Campaign Trail topic. This topic is far more open for you to post anything you would like voters to know about yourself or believe about your competition.
Of course, as a reminder, none of this is a requirement. You do not have to complete any item on this list to remain nominated, and you certainly do not have to complete every item. They’re all just helpers along the campaign trail to being the next best Asterath Councilor. Have fun!
