ANNOUNCEMENT #4 | 10.01.2022

ANNOUNCEMENT

09.01.2022

Ongoing Site Plots!
This month, we are focusing on the overarching site plot of the Blights. One Blight is in Orlais, the other is in Ferelden. However, these aren't our only ongoing plots this month. We have one plot focusing on Antiva, and another focusing on the introduction of multiclassing. Please read more below to understand how all of this works!

The Blights
The Blights are going to be an on-going threat to the land of Thedas, just like in the games. However, we realize that’s a bit boring, and we’re spicing up how we handle these encounters. If there is not enough activity in these types of events, that area is lost to the Blight. This forces your characters to care, and hopefully helps you care about the Blights too!

The success of these encounters will be up to various variables, but primarily regarding participation. To successfully clear the Blight in these events, the opening post will tell you how many characters must participate to save the area. If participation is a failure, well, that area is lost to the Blight until further notice.


For the image, the “x” marked areas are closed, or completely Blighted.
The Anderfels: Completely Blighted
Nevarra: Completely overrun by spirits.
Tevinter: Closed to the public via a force field of magical means.

The areas of the map with arrows are listed below, and are part of the “Beward the Nevarran Overflow” sitewide, on-going plot:
Orlais: Most affected, as Nevarra is their neighbor.
Antivan/Rivain/Arlathan: Affected, but not heavily so, yet.
Ferelden: Spirits have gathered in Ferelden, and that presence is drawing the undead.
Free Marches: Minimally affected, only on landlocked masses.

The areas of the map with criss-crossed markings indicate where the Blights listed above are.
Ferelden: The Ferelden PQ+ is taking place in the Hinterlands. This means the following cities and villages are affected: Ostagar, Edgehall, Honnleath, and various smaller villages. This Blight has darkspawn and spirit/demon-inhabited undead.

Orlais: The Orlesian PQ+ is taking place in the Fields of Ghislain. This means the following cities and villages are affected: Montfort, Ghislain, Churneau and various other smaller villages. This Blight has darkspawn and spirit/demon-inhabited undead.

Change of Rulership
The King of Antiva, Francesco Campana, is dead. It is in his honor that the widowed Queen, Eularia Lovette-Campana, hosts a funeral for her husband. Everyone is invited.

Beware the Nevarran Overflow
As the month of Harvestmere draws nearer, pulling the spirits of Nevarra further into their frenzy, they break through all defenses and bleed into Orlais and Ferelden. They mingle with the Blights, a further threat to the people of these countries. Nevarra is in ruins, abandoned by both the living and the dead. Defenses are useless, and all countries are at risk of finding spirit-inhabited undead wandering their streets, looking for living people to possess.

October Event: Multiclassing
This event is to introduce our multiclassing, which was heavily requested by members! To multiclass, your character can learn from any archetype they’ve not mastered or chosen as their secondary type. However, they can only learn three foci from that archetype, up to 45 points per foci choice.

Example:
Primary: Arcane (mage)
Primary: Nature (mage)
Secondary: Negation (mage)
Multiclass: Assassin (rogue)

This character would then only be able to learn three assassin foci and be capped at 45 MP.

If your multiclass is Rogue/Warrior/Civilian please create a ticket in the maintenance channel on discord so Staff can add your new Archetype and Foci to your profiles!

If your character is a Rogue/Warrior/Civilian and their multiclass choice is mage: You must choose ONE magic foci for your character to experience. Create a new thread with your character experiencing this magic for the first time. At the end of your post please list your multiclass archetype and the three foci of choice. Then, create a ticket in the maintenance channel on discord so Staff can add your new Archetype and Foci to your profiles! We will add 5 MP to the foci you have chosen to experience.

This new foci is dangerous and unpredictable, your non-magic characters (dwarves excluded) do not have the training to control magic. We’re expecting dangerous outbursts, things catching on fire, etc. This multiclassing event can happen in any thread, in any event or quest. It’s meant to cover the entire site.

Note 1: To earn MP for each character's first multiclass foci, players must complete a Learning Quest. The dice roll will be waived for characters learning their first multiclass foci and as long as the thread parameters are met (2 characters, 3 posts each) your character will receive +5 MP.

Note 2: To opt out, simply don’t multiclass your character, and let staff know that you’re choosing not to participate in this feature.

Onsite Samhain Fun!
For our OOC event this Harvestmere, we’ve hidden five themed pixels throughout the site. You’ll want to look on threads, guidebook pages, anywhere on the site!

If you find the pixel, do not share the location with others. If you find the pixels and send a screenshot, you receive 20 gold to your OOC account, for each pixel found. Please send all screenshots via the proper maintenance button on the discord.





Quests & Events
If you are interested in running an event or a quest, please refer to the guidebook entries about each—quests and events. Valiant Hearts strives to create a world that our members have a say in; and these systems are part of that.

We have a couple of player-ran quests going on, such as:
— The Depths of Valammar This questline follows the dwarves of Belgond Knurla attempting to re-take a thaig. This quest is now closed to participants, and is ongoing.
— Frozen Flowers in this Heat? Morrigan is searching for flowers that are said to be crafted from delicate ice, with dangerous properties. This quest is now closed to new participants and is nearing the end.

And of course, we have some events:
— Orlesian Blight:  The Blight has found its way into the Fields of Ghislain.
— Ferelden Blight: The second Blight, coming from Orzammar, has made its way into the Hinterlands.
— Long Live the Queen: Eularia Campana is hosting a funeral for her beloved husband, Francesco Campana. He is presumed dead; but is that the truth or is it all a ruse?
— Beware the Nevarran Overflow  As the month of Harvestmere draws nearer, pulling the spirits of Nevarra further into their frenzy, they break through all defenses and bleed into Orlais and Ferelden.

Site Changes
The past month's site changes are listed below… We’ve focused on buffering our activity, though we have lax requirements, we still very much want to seem active to the partners we advertise with, lest we lose advertisement slots due to inactivity. Read the changes below to learn how we’ve done this!

Plot Update Threads
We now have a stickied plot update thread in each of the major kingdoms' general forum boards (Ferelden, Antiva, Nevarra, Orlais, Free Marches). This thread will be updated regularly to give you an idea of how the plots onsite are changing in areas you may want to thread in.

Ferelden Plot Updates
Antivan Plot Updates
Nevarran Plot Updates
Orlais Plot Updates
Free Marches Plot Updates

Activity
We recently altered our activity to be a bit more lax, since that seemed to be what you guys needed. Franchise, canons and vessels are required to make one post every two months. The activity for non-franchise, non-canon, and non-vessels has not changed from one post every six months.

Achievements:
Achievements are a fun way to reward your activity. They are ever expanding. If you have ideas for achievements feel free to message staff, even if you can't do the icons yourself, we can worry about that part on our end, we welcome ideas from you guys.

For completing each achievement you receive a badge and 10 gold. If you are unsure how to do an achievement or what it means also feel free to message staff.

There are different types of achievements. Seasonal can only be done during certain times of the year.
— In Character are only available to your IC accounts.
— Out of Character can only be claimed once and is done with your OOC account.
— Character Related achievements are related to your characters, but are done through OOC means. These are claimable per character account.
— LGBTQ are gender and sexuality badges for your characters and yourself OOC, if we are missing one let us know and we can add them, there were just too many to include them all this time around.
— Alternate Universe are for your OOC account done via the Alternate Universe board on VH.

You can turn in achievements, or suggest achievements here!

Discord Changes
The maintenance thread has been cleaned up, and instead turned into a series of selection dropdowns! Once you select the appropriate dropdown, fill in the little form, it’ll open a ticket thread with all staffers in it.


Achievements: This takes you directly to the ticket so that you can input your information.
General Maintenance:

Character Acceptance:

FC Directory: Taie has requested everyone use the new forum she has created, selecting the appropriate thread and filling in the appropriate form for all things FC directory. This is just easier for her to access than the ticket system.

Reservations: Takes you directly to the ticket.
Thread Oops:

I need help! Take you to the ticket to tell us your issues.