Important Announcement

[Vin]

This is cross posted from discord.

I'd like to start off first and definitely foremost by apologizing for the lack of communication from my end. While it's fair to say I've had a certain amount of stress to deal with, but I should've done better to keep you all in the loop. Going forward, I'll be much more involved communications-wise, so everybody understands what is going on at all times.

Now, to contest specific contest business. I know a lot of you have been waiting for prologues, I want to first thank you for your patience.

I've said from the beginning, I don't want this to be *my* contest, I want this to be a community contest. In keeping with that, I tried my best to create prologues that don't strong-arm the writers any one way, even going so far as to switch their format around entirely. At the end of the day, though, even that hasn't quelled my worry that why I'm writing is going against that. Even with something as seemingly simple as a speech, I'm finding things here that force certain story beats and world building that I may find interesting, but maybe the authors themselves won't be as interested in exploring. These characters are, in the context of the story, larger than life characters and they stand for specific ideals and virtues. I don't want to be the one to define how those characteristics fit into the framework of the worldview of the creatures who inhabit this world. Not because I don't think I can, but because I always wanted the authors of this contest to be the ones exploring that, wanted them to be writing their own story, not mine.

That's why I'm deciding to open this up for you guys and I decided that I won't be posting a prologue. What I do have will be retrofitted to the apps that make the contest before the contest begins, but ultimately I want this in your hands, and I can't help but feel that these prologues are taking that away.

Now, I know some of you who may be sitting on applications for The Ring and the Knights are probably wondering, but how are we supposed to write on a completely blank slate if we haven't seen these characters?

I won't be posting prologues, but what I will be doing so that you know what kind of character you are dealing with is writing a comprehensive background on the character, including a brief history, physical descriptions, and character motivations. After that, it will be up to you to determine how you want this character fits into the world you envision. The Ring and the Brotherhood, of course, aren't the only categories who can explore this, so don't feel like this is just for those categories.

I'll be writing those up today/tonight, but in the meantime while you wait, you can already put together some inkling of who the characters are and what they stand for based on the introduction post as I do describe them some. If you haven't already started thinking about applying for these categories, or you have considered it but we're waiting for the prologues, you can use that as a springboard to start brainstorming/refining while I get these backgrounds done.

[Vin]

Another announcement: today is the final day for submissions! You have until 11:59 pm mountain time to get your applications in. Good luck!

[Vin]

Cross posting from discord:

Last call before I head off to bed here. I'm going to move the deadline to tomorrow morning with a soft deadline of whenever I wake up. I'm not sure when that is, but I will likely be at the mercy of my cat. That means don't dawdle— she likes to wake up at 3 am.

Final spread before the final stretch:
Interpreter - 2
Ring -  2
Beast Master - 2

Ice Walker - 1
Knight - 1
Bone Rattler - 6

Submit applications here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScwOy8pCpb8LgdfkogdAhEJxr7HLKxilzkofNCcJg6XsKnJ7g/viewform?usp=sf_link