(IC) Year 1 Updates

[Guinivere Marcel]

First Week Announcement

It has been a busy and exciting first week here at Midsummer! We are concluding it with this announcement, as promised: the Iris Academy is now open! Classes will be open ASAP; your admin team will NPC any professors for classes that do not have them. However, we encourage our members to make instructor characters! As a reminder, these are the classes and the schools that can take them: 

Enchantment (All schools)
Glamours (All schools)
Wards (All schools)
Combat (All schools)
Powders and Poisons (Herbalism, War, Magic)
Decoration and Design (Tailoring, Craftsmanship, Forging)
Stonework (Craftsmanship, Forging)
History (War, Theory, Magic)
Philosophy (Magic, Theory)
Art and Adornment (Herbalism, Tailoring, Craftsmanship)
Strategy and Tactics (War, Theory)
Foraging (Herbalism)
Armorcraft (Tailoring, Forging)

***

Thanks to our wonderful community, we've also made some changes and additions to the site this week. 

 Application: Added an RP sample section and a place for characters' jobs. Also, to clear   up confusion, the "teenage years" section of the history has been changed to 13-18.   Finally, we have added the ability to amend a created character. 

 Lore: More information for mortals and the Undersea has been added. 

 Miniprofiles: New categories have been added to miniprofiles, including "written by" (so this no longer needs to be in your status!), "species", "job", and "age."

 Coming soon: Keep your eye out for a site timeline coming soon, as well as new lore   regarding the fae. 

School is officially in session! Happy writing


Jin-Hwa Mei, @cheshire, Gemini Enigma, Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov, Bran Viola, cerdian, Sutton Elizabeth Bane

[Guinivere Marcel]

October Updates

Happy spooky season, everyone!

In just a few short days, Midsummer will have been opened for one month. Woot! Welcome to the new members who have joined us as we grow and build this community—we hope you make yourselves at home. Now, onto business. 

With September now behind us, the site opening freebies have closed; it's applications only from here on out. Also, the Blue Moon Revel will be closing in two weeks, so be sure to make your posts and get in on the drama. Fear not, however; we have a new event for you, featuring some randomized character pairings and some properly haunted writing prompts.

Also, quick reminder: To those on Discord, we encourage you to use our ModMail bot to message the admin team. It makes it easier on us so that we don't have to play "telephone" or share screenshots, and it makes things clearer for you—plus, it gives you the option to be anonymous.

One last thing—your admins have been cooking up some exciting additions to the lore, so keep an eye out for a poll in the upcoming weeks. We want to hear the voices of our members and make sure that this is as fun for everyone as possible.

Wanted: We are in need of instructors for the Iris Academy. See the previous announcement for a list of classes. 

Jin-Hwa Mei , Gemini Enigma , @cheshire , Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov , Bran Viola , cerdian , Sutton Elizabeth Bane , michael , Calanthe Willowlace ,

[Gemini Enigma]

November Updates

Happy November! Halloween is now behind us IRL, and in Faerie, it is now winter, which means December has arrived IC and the North Court is growing in power. Time for some cozy holiday threads, or icy political intrigue? Who can say?

A few reminders-

1. It's time for our first activity check! Each character needs two posts. Please link those two posts in the activity check thread as soon as it's posted. Those currently exempt from the activity check:


Albert Alder Coult
cerdian
velvet
nero
morana

2. New plot: A Challenge of Heirs

With the death of the High King at the Blue Moon Revel, someone must replace him on the throne of Faerie. The natural choice is the Crown Prince, Ambrose Enigma, whose coronation is thrown together for want of a leader as winter begins. However, someone must have killed the High King. Suspects abound, but should one reveal themselves, they may very well challenge Ambrose for the throne. Then it will be up to their individual wits, skills, and the ultimate choice of the nobility—who will be next to take the crown of Faerie?

Keep on the lookout for mass threads, polls, and other exciting events as this plot unravels!

3. Random Thread Pairings

We had a great turnout for the Random Thread Pairings last month, and some of these character clashes look like a lot of fun! If you haven’t started your random thread, it’s still not too late. Consult your admins or one of the spooky prompts if you need inspiration.

As a reminder, the pairings are:

Cassie Eloise Enigma and Quinn Allegra Stone

Bran Viola and Gemini Enigma

Adem Agni Yadav and Annalise Lorelai Luce

Amaris Silvershade and Calanthe Willowlace

Guinivere Marcel and Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov

Sutton Elizabeth Bane and Luca Oleander

Tsukishima "Suki" Kagome and Teo Yadav

@jazspar and Jin-Hwa Mei

@cheshire and Talia Avedon .

4. Nymphs
Nymphs won the new race poll and have now been added to Midsummer! There is more information about them in our lore handbook with more to come. In order to make a nymph, all you need is at least three non-creature characters or at least 75 posts across all characters. Be sure to claim these in your application!

One last thing—best of luck to those who are also participating in NaNoWriMo this year! Happy writing!

Jin-Hwa Mei , Gemini Enigma , @cheshire , Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov , Bran Viola , cerdian , Sutton Elizabeth Bane , michael , Calanthe Willowlace , mithiriele

[Guinivere Marcel]

December Updates

As December rolls around for us, in faerie the seasons change and frost creeps in. The undersea becomes colder and even more inhospitable to the land fae, and relations become more complicated following the late king's death and the chaotic coronation. The challenge of heirs is officially underway. Make sure to have your characters claim support of an heir to get fully involved! The link and preview for that challenge can be found here.


From here on out members will no longer have to claim their own faceclaims. Admins will claim those for you when your character is accepted. It’s the same for all new character job registries, but if you want to change your character’s faceclaim or job, then you will have to post in those registries here and here.


Class requirements have been waved for this year so there is no need to worry about those. However, in the next week we are opening an open thread directory, and there will be points in the challenge of heirs for posting and taking open threads.

We also need more villains to fill the role of antagonists in this challenge. Nymphs have been officially added to the lore, so be sure to check out their information  here. The staff and support team at Midsummer wishes all of you a happy holiday and happy plotting!

Jin-Hwa Mei , Gemini Enigma , @cheshire , Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov , Bran Viola , cerdian , Sutton Elizabeth Bane , michael , Calanthe Willowlace , mithiriele , Marcellus Yong

[Guinivere Marcel]

January Updates

As the winter winds sweep in on the land, the fae sense a change. For one thing, the plants are dying faster, and the rivers seem emptier. For another, stone cracks and the weather is harsher than any point in recent memory. Whether this is from the land suffering from the poison that killed the high king or signs of unrest from the sea remain unclear.

For the challenge of heirs, villains are still needed. Julius Auyn, the dark mastermind behind a piece of this plot has been made, but more antagonists are always welcome, especially in the form of Ambrose and Maeryn Enigma-- though whether or not they are really villains will be for you to decide.

Everyone is encouraged to have at least one plot-related thread. If at any point you wish to have a plot related thread but don't know where to start, message any of the admins and they will get a thread going with you. Additionally, these prompts are available. 

Guinivere Marcel is looking for new allies-- and creating enemies
Julius Auyn is starting to watch some of his schemes unfurl-- and also come crashing down
Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov is struggling under his father's iron grip in the east, but even he can hear the winds of change.

Don't forget the activity check coming up. Other than that, Happy New Year and happy plotting!

Jin-Hwa Mei , Gemini Enigma , @cheshire , Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov , Bran Viola , cerdian , Sutton Elizabeth Bane , michael , Calanthe Willowlace , mithiriele , Marcellus Yong

[Guinivere Marcel]

February Updates

Happy winter, everyone! The weather is as icy as ever, but so are tensions between the fae as the challenge of heirs proves ever challenging.

There are several new updates this month, which are detailed below.

~~ St. Valentines day approaches closer, and with it comes the Red Masquerade
The sign up for this events have closed, and the pairing are listed below:
midsummer-rpg.proboards.com/thread/192/event-red-masquerade

Enjoy your pairings! If you can successfully find your mysterious dance partner, you will get a free character as a reward.

~~Additionally, the Challenge of Heirs event is ending. Guinivere Marcel is currently ahead, which you can see here. This is the final month for this event, so if you want to get involved, be sure to do it this month!

~~The January activity check is closed. If you lost a character, you are always free to re-apply them and the admins will get to it as quickly as possible

~~ The new nobility systems are also here.

Duke/Duchess: the ruler of a cardinal court, their parent (if their parent was a consort and not co-ruler), their heir, their spouse.

Count/Countess: ruler of a court’s siblings, consorts, non-heir children, and extremely close advisors, and valued advisors.

Viscount/Viscountess: a Count or Countesses siblings, consorts, non-heir children, or lower advisor of the ruler.

Baron: In charge of royal affairs. They oversee the Lords, Ladies, Knights, and servants.

Lady/Lord: still nobles but ladies and lords in waiting. Serve other nobles more than they have their own position.

Knights: particularly trusted guards and servants. Are not nobles.

The thread for you to register your characters under these new titles with a more in-depth description will be posted over the weekend.

~~ Speaking of nobility, the families in power for some courts have changed.

The Stones are now the ruling family of the West Court.

The Volkovas are now the ruling family of the North Court.

~~ We also have some new directories coming soon.

We have a new member directory, made by our lovely admin Cheshire, which lists our members and the characters played by each one. We will also be phasing out the faceclaim sign-ups in favor of listing faceclaims here.

We will also be implementing an open threads directory under the plotting board, where members can list their open threads in order to increase chances of them being taken.

Happy writing!

[Guinivere Marcel]

March Updates

As March rolls around, the East Court is coming into power. However, the seasons aren't changing like they usually do. The flowers are blooming in vibrant and exotic colors, and poisonous plants are everywhere. Medicinal trees and herbs wilt as the faewild is overcome by foxglove, hemlock, larkspur, bloodroot, dulcamara, sundew, and of course, belladonna. With this rise of these dangerous flowers comes the so-called Belladonna Queen and Poisoner's Prince.


Guinivere Marcel has won the challenge of heirs! The link to her coronation can be found here.

At her coronation, she declared Gemini Marvel Enigma, the forgotten son of the dead high king her ward. She also decided the fate of Ambrose Enigma, the fallen heir, by exiling him to the mortal world with his mother and keeping his young sister in her castle with the threat of her death if he ever returns. As this all continues, the young queen has collected two more nicknames: The Cruel and The Mad.


Whether her reputation is well deserved is up to you and your characters. She will be reorganizing the court of the old king and holding court with the heads of every lower cardinal court. These threads will be found over the weekend


As the reorganization of the high court progress, relevant characters can be called in for meeting with the Queen, her Heir, or her developing court. If you are interested, message either SeaJem or M. They are available on discord and on site. If you message them on site, message either Guinivere Marcel or Gemini Enigma and the admins will get back to you. If you have a relevant character, you will have a message in the next week from one of the admins.


As the Belladonna Queen prepares to meet with the heads of the cardinal courts, she is relying on limited information. But you have more than she. Updated lore on the four smaller courts can be found under lore . Additionally, lore on the undersea will also be released. Be sure to review that here as it will become relevant as the plot progresses.

Also, the admins have released a list of fae values. As the site has progressed, there have been many different families claiming to have "fae values," yet the values are all contradictory. As such, this is the official list of fae values celebrated in their society. This is not to say that your fae family or characters cannot have opposing values. This is only to say that those cannot be labeled as traditional values.

~ respecting elders
~ wisdom
~ power
~ trickiness
~ cleverness


The fae have no mortal sense of gender or sexuality. Open relationships and fluid sexuality is expected of everyone, not the exception. Monogamy and marriage is rare and personal. Marriage vows are not understood as one thing, rather, they are personal to the vows made. The fae also have no sense of modesty or shame for showing skin. If your character does have these values, they are rather odd and probably not exposed to fae culture very much.

Don't forget that there is another activity check in March. The link for that is here  , and it will be open for three weeks before the activity check is finished.

Finally, the Masquerade has been quite dramatic already, so the Admins have extended it another month. Can you guess the identity of your mystery dance partner before the music stops?


Happy Writing and Plotting!

Jin-Hwa Mei , Gemini Enigma , @cheshire , Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov , Bran Viola , Calanthe Willowlace , Quinn Allegra Stone , Marcellus Yong

[Gemini Enigma]

April Updates

Happy April Fool’s!

While we only have one day to celebrate pranks in the mortal world, it’s always a time of mischief in the Faewild. However, in the world of Midsummer, things have grown a bit more sinister, with shifting tides of political unrest as High Queen Guinivere Marcel takes the reins of the High Court.

However, the trouble in Faerie doesn’t only arise from within. In the mortal world, the fae-hunting Viola family are strengthening their efforts to take advantage of the political upheaval in Faerie, besieging the Faewild with a host of deadly iron weapons. Family owner Bran is looking for new members—more described in the want ad.

We will be having some additions to the lore coming up to explain “old magic”, a powerful ancient force lost to the deep sea, and specifically the monsters that this old magic sustained. Our next event is a monster hunt, the details for which are posted in this event thread. Damage is done to the monsters by by posting and completing challenges, which in turn reduces each monster’s health. In order to combat the Violas, the ultimate goal of the hunt will be to obtain dragon scales, which can protect fae against iron when worn as armor and shields.

Finally, the March activity check is now closed. For anyone who lost a character, feel free to re-app them. The Red Masquerade is also closed, and our plots admin Cheshire will be sharing results soon.

As summer draws to a close IC, we are approaching the end of one in-character year on Midsummer. Here’s to all of the adventures yet to come and the stories yet to be told.

- The Admin Team

Gemini Enigma ,Jin-Hwa Mei ,Adem Agni Yadav ,Bran Viola ,Calanthe Willowlace , Marcellus Yong ,@cheshire ,Sutton Elizabeth Bane ,

[Guinivere Marcel]

May Updates

Happy May Flowers!

As the weather in Faerie begins to cool off, and the season of Autumn begins, Queen Guinivere and her court have decided to enjoy what is left of the good weather by inviting the nobility from all of Faerie to a garden party on the shores of the South Court. This party will be a celebration of the end of the Interregnum period and a celebration of the treaty between the Undersea and the Land. As a show of goodwill, the nobility of the Undersea will be invited, and yes, this includes the fearsome Queen Kaimana Mei and her court. As for those who are not of the nobility, do not worry, this is Faerie, and there are other ways to get an invitation to this party. Forgery, perhaps?


But life is not all parties and celebrations. The tension between the East Court and the Undersea is still very much present as they try to recover from their Golden Heir’s blunder. Additionally, there are rumors swirling the courts that the next generation of the High Court and the Undersea may not see eye-to-eye. Will the young mortal queen be able to smooth over these threats to her legacy? Or will she eliminate them?

The Cardinal Courts are free from the terrors of dragons, as the Hunt has successfully concluded, with each dragon being courageously slain.

Congratulations to:

Quinn Allegra Stone , who slayed the West Court’s dragon

Calanthe Willowlace , who slayed the North Court’s dragon

Jin-Hwa Mei , who slayed the East Court’s dragon

Cassie Eloise Enigma , who slayed the South Court’s dragon

Gemini Enigma , who slayed the High Court’s dragon

Thanks to these courageous individuals, each Court now has an inventory of dragon scales, which are being given to armor smiths and knights and can be purchased by anyone else. For the right price, of course. These dragon scales protect against iron, and can be worn as an amulet by any faerie.

For May, there is another activity check. That link can be found here. Links from the hunts are welcome to be used for this.

Finally, the garden party link can be found here. Feel free to post through the month, but this is also a more casual event, focused largely on character interactions rather than major plot events. We hope to see you and your characters there!

Finally, 
- The Admin Team

Gemini Enigma ,Jin-Hwa Mei ,Adem Agni Yadav ,Bran Viola ,Calanthe Willowlace ,  Marcellus Yong ,@cheshire ,Sutton Elizabeth Bane ,

[Guinivere Marcel]

September Updates

It is autumn in Faerie, and as the fall continues, those in the West murmur of ill omens. Whether this are fear tactics or true prophecies are yet to be seen. 
At the Garden Party , Queen Kaimana treats with Queen Guinivere. This party is as rife with intrigue as it is crowded with flowers, but whether that shall result in anything is yet to be seen. Luca Oleander suggested a lighthearted game to calm these tensions, but he may have unwittingly sparked more. The High Queen seems to building an army, but whether or not this is truly her doing, and what she expects to face, remains to be seen. 
A greater threat may be looming from the mortal world, but the High Court's new supply of dragonskin could mitigate that threat-- if it is used well.

New history of the faewild is being released, but this is just a precursor to mysteries yet to be discovered.

Additionally, Juno Enigma, a villain for an upcoming Northern Plot, is needed.

Last year, class posts were waived. This year, if you have a professor at the Iris Academy, you must post at least one class post, and if you are a student at the academy, you must reply to at least one class. We will keep the requirements at a minimum as plots in the courts grow in magnitude.

Also, happy one-year anniversary! Thank you all for making this possible!

Welcome back!

Jin-Hwa Mei , Gemini Enigma , @cheshire , Nikolai Hugh-Sokolov , Bran Viola , cerdian , Sutton Elizabeth Bane , michael , Calanthe Willowlace ,