Announcement #8 | 5.5.2023

Hey friends and fae!

This month, it is with a heavy heart that I thank the founders and staff team of Nickpic Hosting for everything they’ve done over the last 7 years. NPH was one of the first image services available that were okay for roleplayers to use in all capacity (both admins and members). And it was one of the few that were free to use.

I remember when NPH came to exist, about 7 years ago, after IMGUR’s great purge caused a lot of sites to shut down because they lost their images and skin assets. It was terrible, and I’m hoping that the sites affected are able to find another host without too much issue.

On VH, we have created our own image host, so that everything for our site is managed by the staff team. You can find and register for our new image host here. While randomizers are allowed, if these randomizers require a URL to an image to work, we ask that you host your images on the VH host.

And please, do not abuse this host. We’ve seen what abuse and rampant destruction did to NPH, and how that’s affected over 800+ users in the RP community (that’s just the number in the discord server; it probably affected more).

If we want nice things, we have to be nice.

Scavenger Hunt!

Yesterday, we spent some time in discord searching the site for a Star Wars reference! Ultimately, Blue won! She received 5,000 gold to her account. Everyone else on the site received 2,000 gold to their accounts as well, because I realized I had picked a shitty time to release a scavenger hunt.

Moving forward, scavenger hunts will go live and last two days. On the third day, everyone will send their answers to me (Ivy) and I’ll hand out rewards based on submission times.

Changes to Discord:
This month we have added a few changes to our discord server. You can find these changes listed below.

• New Character Intro Channel - This channel is so we can introduce new characters, making it easier for members to see who’s just created characters and may need plots!
  
• We changed the maintenance category to “housekeeping”, to get rid of the confusion when searching for the #maintenance ticket bot.
  
• We have moved the questions forum under “I need help”, as well.
  

Changes to Site Systems:
This month we have added a few changes to the way our site works. You can find these changes below.

• Guidebook - The team is in the process of moving a lot of our extensive lore to a forum guidebook, to make it easier to read and easier for us to update. The old navigation guidebook will be staying as well, to give new users an overview of the site. We’ll be adding links to the navigational guidebook so that new members can more easily find the related forum gb pages.
  

Registration Update
On May 3, 2023: VH closed registration. We’re not going private, but until things die down with what happened with Nickpic, we want to make sure our bases are covered.

The settings have been changed, as of May 5, 2023, to allow for registration with email verification and admin verification. This means that you’ll need to verify your account, and then we’ll verify your account as well.

The reason this has happened is, the people who ruthlessly reported NPH and eventually had a hand in shutting them down, claimed to be looking into every member of the NPH server.

While this is unlikely, we want to ensure this remains a safe environment for you guys.

Wanted Ad Spotlight:
Remember, for taking a spot from an ad in the spotlight, you receive 1,500 gold to that character!

Deadly For Your Health - Love Interest for Avorra, Skxr’s character.

Rutherford Kids - The Rutherford kids for Aktaie and Bach’s characters, Lana and Cullen.

The Vultures - A new organization has opened up, thanks to Stringbat! This family consists of people who have taken the Arainai name.

Venatori in Ferelden - An open-ended advertisement for Venatori in Ferelden, the Tevinter organization has been infiltrating different Ferelden organizations for a while.

Family for Alfred - Family for Alfred, Bach’s character who is the Antivan Royals’ butler (and practically raised Francesco).

Wants for the King - There are a few family members left in Drake’s ad for Byron Wulff! Stop by and pick one up, if you dare.

Ratios & Rewards!
Every month, I tell you guys what ratio and reward we’re running! Well, according to this month’s ratio page, we’re running the following: 1,5000 gold for creating any of the below.

• Any character who lives in Orlais upon creation (and stays there)!
  
• Rivaini characters (living in  Rivain).
  
• Arlathan-based characters (living in Arlathan).
  

Map Release: Ancient Elvhenan
Thanks to the lovely Bach, we’ve released a color-coded map overlaying Ferelden, to give you guys who are writing Ancient Elves a way to tell where your character is from. There will always be outliers, but we thought this would help immensely! You can find the map on the site here.

Current Events:
Our current sitewide event is a mass disaster event, which ties to Elgar’nan’s revival in his original body. You guys voted for a disaster, and I decided it’d be a neat way to tie right into that plotline.

Upcoming:
Some upcoming updates and plots to keep an eye on:

• Flemeth will soon be available to play, in a body of her own!
  
• We’re updating site religions, including giving Rivaini their own burial ceremony!
  
• Mythal and Elgar’nan will be in play, in their original bodies by the end of this month.
  
• We’re adding Chasind, Alamarri, and Avvar vessels!
  
• We’re breaking the main site plotline into “parts”, and when one part ends, we’ll have a majority vote for the next part.
  

Ending Regards,
Thanks for reading, and thanks for writing with me, folx! I know RP’s a fun and sometimes frustrating hobby, but you guys are great. I spend a lot of time telling the other staff members how great our members are (and hearing it from them as well)!