Combat

These rules cover real fights: hostile, with an unknown outcome, between players or against a staff-run foe. Spars and fights whose ending everyone agreed in advance can ignore them.

You do not need to read this before making a character. You do before your first real fight.

Death-enabled

A death-enabled (DE) character can be killed by anyone in the thread, including newcomers.

• Attack and you are DE. If Bob throws a punch nobody agreed to, Bob is DE for the rest of the thread. Joe may dodge, block, flee or take the punch and stay safe. The moment Joe hits back, Joe is DE too.
• Aggression against one party makes you DE to all parties.
• You may declare yourself DE at any time, or declare your own character's death.
• Your opponents may waive your DE status. With several parties, all must agree.
• Outlaws are DE whenever recognized by someone who would reasonably know them, and hunters may join their threads.
• Death-enabled zones say so first in their forum guidelines. Any scene there is DE.

Thread types

• Solo: training, errands, personal story.
• Closed: invited players only.
• Open: anyone may join.
• Saga: death-enabled main-story threads. See Sagas.
• Challenge: a formal DE contest for a shard, a relic or a title. See Sagas.

Every location is a forum; each scene is a post in it. Tag scenes Open or Closed, and DE, Saga or Challenge when they are.

Death-enabled thread rules

• Any thread can turn DE, once a participant announces it. Everyone may leave in their next post. After that, escapes can be stopped as usual.
• Closed DE threads are allowed, unless the outcome would touch others' stories: killing someone's plot-relevant character, ruining a named place. Then they become open.
• Open DE threads close to new entrants after 72 hours. Appeal to three staff members with your in-character reason; a long delay or deliberate waiting weakens an appeal.
• Posting order is the order of joining. After 48 hours a player may be skipped, and a skipped DE participant may be attacked while absent.
• Link your ledger when you enter. Upgrades approved after you entered do not apply in that thread.

Named locations

• Every location forum is a named location. Attacking one needs an open DE scene.
• Ruining a named location (burning a city, breaking a palace) needs 72 hours' notice from the first attack, so defenders can answer, and staff approval.
• A ruined location stays ruined until a saga or a Cauldron's Boon restores it.

Staff moderation

Ask staff to step in at any point in a DE fight; any staff member may answer. Staff can:

• declare a breach of the rules of engagement;
• declare more parties DE;
• declare fatigue: who is tiring, and what that costs them;
• void an action beyond a character's abilities (a Beginner's gift does not level a city);
• rule an escape successful or failed;
• declare a character dead.

Fatigue has no numbers. It weighs experience, ability tiers, what each fighter has done and where the fight is happening. Staff step in only when needed, to stop power-gaming and to bring fights to a timely end.

Rules of engagement

Respectful counter-play

Fae have many ways to escape "certain death": a last-moment winnow, a sudden shield, a glamour decoy. Use such a miracle escape at most once every three rounds. More often, and staff will ask you to take hits. Counter your opponent's moves properly.

Non-combat NPCs

NPCs not run by staff cannot harm or hinder player characters in a sanctioned fight. Players may run NPC foes against their own characters in Errand and Task missions only.

Glamour and daemati

• A glamour or mind-working needs a sign: eye contact, a gesture, a scent, a sound. No invisible, instant illusions.
• It lasts only while its maker concentrates. Low tiers struggle to hold one under pressure.
• It deceives minds, never the world. A glamoured fire burns nothing.
• It cannot cause physical harm. Terror and confusion, yes; death by illusion, no.
• Mind shields resist mind-work. When a daemati meets a shield, the higher tier wins; on equal tiers the defender holds.
• Taking control of someone's body or will in a fight needs a daemati at Mastery or above, and lasts a single action.

Seers, truth-tellers, spell-cleavers

Bloodline senses grow by tier. At Beginner they are flashes; at Adept reliable; at Substantial Mastery they see through glamour of a lower tier. A vision never shows a player's private plans unless that player agrees.

Iron, ash and faebane

• Ash wounds on fae never heal by magic in that thread. Ash arrows are lethal to fae, but only in DE threads.
• Iron burns fae and blocks winnowing for anyone bound in it.
• Faebane silences a fae's gifts for three rounds per dose. It cannot be used outside DE threads.

Death

Death is final. Only a Cauldron's Boon (see Sagas) or life-gift forbidden magic (see Claims) can undo it. A character killed in a saga and brought back may choose the Remade path (see Sagas).

Dead characters go to #graveyard. Their Renown and Marks go with them, apart from an inheritance (see Market).