Code of Conduct

Omens in Ashes (OIA) is a Fantasy Roleplaying Forum set within the vast world of Noar; a tumultuous place that caters to arcane mayhem and political conflict within a medieval setting. Since the Administrators at Omens enjoy the full spectrum of writing, we've also classified OIA as an Adults Only website which isn’t suitable and doesn’t accept members under the age of 18 due to its graphic and mature content. Please be responsible and bookmark our site for a later date if you’re not quite old enough to join yet. Accounts created by anyone found to be under the age of 18 will be removed.

Additionally, we try our best to contain explicit content that would be recognized as Adult Material within identifiable tags, however, we are ultimately not and will not be held responsible for its viewing. Should users go looking for such material, as long as it falls within the site’s guidelines on mature content, that is at their discretion.


Forum Rules

i. No Harassment
noun
aggressive pressure or intimidation.

Here at OIA, we enforce a zero harassment policy. If someone asks you to leave them alone, please respect their wishes. Aggressive behaviour, including hurtful or spiteful passive-aggressiveness, will not be tolerated. Please do not harass our Moderators and Storytellers, who work hard (for zero profit) to make sure you get the most out of your time here. OIA is a community led forum, founded and maintained by volunteers, working for free, sacrificing their hobby time to create a great, inclusive, safe space for all members. Let us keep this in mind when operating on the site.

If you feel you are being harassed, please attempt to address the harassment as adults before getting in contact with a trusted Moderator (with evidence) and they will investigate the issue on your behalf. Understand that this does not include intentionally looking for evidence to use against another user by inciting them or creating multiple, fake accounts to try and catfish or blackmail them. Such conduct will not be tolerated and may result in warnings and/or bans for all persons involved, depending on the situation.

If it looks or smells like harassment, it will be treated like harassment. Please be informed that Moderators can only moderate what is said and done on this forum or in the associated Discord Channel. Anything that takes place outside of site related applications is beyond our control. In such cases, we suggest you make use of the block option.

We will not tolerate hate speech of any kind. This includes, but is not limited to, speech that offends, threatens, or insults anyone on the basis of race; ethnicity; national origin; religious affiliation; sexual orientation; sex, gender, gender identity; or disability.

Violations of this policy may result in the removal of the offensive content; a temporary site suspension of two weeks; the permanent ban of the offending account; and/or the permanent ban of the player responsible, including the deactivation (retirement) of any account(s) they own, and attempt to make in the future.

As this is an 18+ Forum, we expect all users to operate with mature behavior, even our staff. While we understand that writing is a passion for everyone playing on Omens In Ashes, we will not excuse any infringement of the Code of Conduct. Once our decision has been made, it is set in stone. We do not accept appeals for warnings and/or bans given and any continued arguments against these consequences may result in further disciplinary action. At the end of the day, if you know you messed up, own up to it. We are giving you fair warning now, so please take it seriously.

ii. No Spamming
verb
gerund or present participle: spamming
sending the same message indiscriminately to (a large number of Internet users).

This includes any nonsense, duplicate posts, plagiarism, and posts that advertise merchandise, unauthorized services, or other sites. All posts should be made in English. Any player who if found guilty of breaking these rules will be warned. Continued offences may result in temporary or permanent suspension (retirement) of accounts.

iv. Administration
OIA has a small, incredible Admin Team who have worked tirelessly to design, code, create, and maintain this site. All lore, information, stories, and content submitted by them to this forum remains the intellectual property of the individuals behind the accounts of Rune and Spire. Any misuse or plagiarism of said content is ill-advised and will result in the termination and suspension of all accounts of the individual found using it. Legal action may be taken in extreme cases.

Please treat the Moderators with respect. They have worked and continue to work incredibly hard to run and maintain this site. When it comes to the enforcement of Site Rules, please remember, they pay the bills. Play by the rules and you won't have any trouble. If a Moderator says no, there will be no further discussion regarding the denied request, topic, etc. A Moderator's ruling is final. Players are expected to respect this.

v. Storytellers
Storytellers are volunteer players, dedicating their extra hobby time to write stories with all OIA members. There are three levels a Storyteller can earn.

Level 1: Can moderate threads with up to 5 players.
Level 2: Can moderate threads with up to 10 players.
Level 3: Can moderate World Events and Gods.


Role-playing Rules

i. Plagiarism
noun
the practice of taking someone else's work or ideas and passing them off as one's own.

The Moderators on OIA take plagiarism very seriously and understand that all players maintain the right to have their work (published on this site) recognised as their own whether they are a part of the site or not (active or retired).

ii. Intellectual Property
noun LAW
intangible property that is the result of creativity, such as patents, copyrights, etc.

Anything you post to Omens in Ashes remains your Intellectual Property, regardless of whether your account is active or not. The work of any retired accounts is not to be tampered with. This includes, but is not limited to, editing, change of ownership, re-writes, and archiving.

It is against the Site Rules to:
i. Copy someone else's work. ii. Edit a post without the author's permission. iii. Claim someone else's work as your own, including changing the account it was originally posted by. iv. Use any of the lore found on the Omens in Ashes forum outside of the forum (don't write a poem/short-story/novel/etc. for another site using our lore). Legal action may be taken in extreme cases. v. Editing lore without the creator's permission. vi. Using inactive or retired characters as NPCs.

Our Creative Integrity Rule states that all writing done by you, for your character specifically, is completely your own when operating on this site. Anything that you contribute for world use, be that items, plotlines, lore, or anything which a number of people use for their own stories, is claimed, with credit to you, by Omens In Ashes.

iii. Word Count
The OIA Team does not expect players to adhere to an official word count per post, however, you are rewarded 10 gold Krowns for every 200 words you write. We appreciate and welcome all writers, no matter their writing ability, but we would like to emphasize that this is not a tactic to promote ‘fluff text’. Though detail in story is welcomed and sometimes necessary, overuse and unwarranted descriptions to increase your overall word count, thus your money per post, is considered cheating. If it is obvious you are consistently writing in a roundabout way, the moderators reserve the right to deduct coin from your character, with an unofficial warning, and cited references with your previous posts of where the overuse of ‘fluff text’ was noted and how it could be improved. Further disciplinary action may arise if this is a continued habit with multiple accounts of moderators stepping in to assist the player with their writing.

iv. God-Moding
noun
godmoding (uncountable) (informal, role-playing games, often derogatory) behaviour that gives one's own character an unfair advantage.

God-moding is when you attempt to move or control another person's character, effectively taking the choice out of their hands. It is not permitted on the Omens in Ashes forum. Do not attempt to write, move, control, or speak for another player's character without their explicit permission which must be posted as an OOC note somewhere in thread. This includes the use and movement of character owned pets and non-playable characters, also known as NPCs.

Reported instances of God-moding will land you in the Book of Shame. Repeated offenses may even earn you a warning. Please respect your fellow writers by allowing them to write their own characters, free to choose and move as they please. If you run into conflict in a story, in which the outcome is difficult to determine, decide together out of character (OOC) or use the Dice Rolling System on the OIA Discord Channel to govern the outcome of an action.

v. Power-Playing
noun
when a player manipulates their character's abilities, powers or skills so that their character always has an advantage in the situation

Your character is not untouchable. Most Power-Players, however, believe they are. Power-Playing is when you write your character in a way that makes them incredibly difficult to interact with. This usually takes place in fight scenes where one or both characters make themselves untouchable, invincible or god-like. All decisions to land a blow in battle should be agreed upon out of character (OOC). If an agreement can not be made, leave it to the Dice Gods to decide by rolling the dice in the official OIA Discord Channel.

Power-Play also commonly occurs in cases of character illness, when a character claims complete immunity to disease, illness and poison. They might also boast resistance to types of magic, which is not possible in OIA without the use of runes. Walk Around Characters, those who are never faced with a challenge they couldn't just step over, are dull to read and write. Challenge yourselves as writers, allow your character to suffer from time to time (within reason) and try to work collaboratively with other players. After all, this is a collaborative writing site.

vi. Active Accounts

Active:
To be considered an Active Member, you must complete a minimum of 3 threads a season or 1 thread every month. A thread is a solo story of at least 1000 words, or a story told with another player, where each writes 5 posts with a minimum of 200 words per post.

Activity Checker:
Players are required to post to this topic every season (3 months) to confirm their activity. The post submitted should only include a summary of what your character has done that season and should be written as an in-character narrative rather than an out of character explanation. The summary can be as long or as short as you’d like, however, this is a way for players to stay up to date with other characters in various cities. So it’s recommended that you include as much detail as possible, especially if you’re looking for writing partners.

Inactive:
An account that has not been logged into for three months. After 6 months of inactivity, an inactive account will be retired.

Retired:
Retired accounts are greyed out names that can not be used to post on the forum anymore. All Player Characters will be retired after 6 months of inactivity unless the Moderators are provided an explanation regarding the reason for inactivity before you go inactive. This can be as simple as “deployment for X months” or “health issues.” We do not need private details. After a year of inactivity (beyond reason), the character will be retired.

Maximum Amount of Characters:
Players are allowed a total of 5 characters. Of these five characters, the first two are free. The third character is a one off $25 donation, the fourth is $50 and the fifth is $100.

The more characters and content on site, the higher the upkeep costs are for the owners. Once you buy a character slot (3rd, 4th, 5th), you maintain the right to play up to five characters at any one time. Anyone found to be abusing this system (via proxy, etc) will have all of their accounts retired and find themselves permanently banned from the site.

There is a small admin fee of $5 to bring a Retired Character out of retirement. Any character can be retired for free.

Our reasoning behind these fees center around promoting character and story focus. We’ve designed Omens In Ashes to cater to the character’s story as much as possible, and we want to see players invest time in developing them rather than discarding them after only a few posts. Users should read up on the lore before deciding what character they’d like to play and take time to consider all avenues of possibility before settling on an idea. We want you to be excited about who your character is and how their future story might change them. If you’re not, the staff here are happy to help you figure it out.

vii. Writing a God
All gods, deities, celestial beings, titans (whatever you want to call them), are only to be written by a Moderator or an approved Storyteller (level 3). You can not have a god interact with your character, appear in your stories, etc, without explicit permission. Your character is allowed to pray to a god, however, you cannot assume that god's response. The gods within Noar do not tend to interact with mortals or their children.

viii. Writing a Divine
Each player is allowed one Divine character. You can never create a second, so choose wisely. Collaborate with a Moderator or Storyteller if you feel you need more information and ask at the Help Desk. Remember to read over all information listed for Divines before pursuing your character’s creation.


Discord Rules

i. General Rules
1. No Members Under the Age of 18
It is posted on the home page that Omens in Ashes is considered an Adult Forum due to its RPG Rating: Language - Swearing and explicit language are allowed in posts, Sex - Sexual content may be described in detail within story, Violence - Extreme violence is permitted in role-play. Based on this score, material posted on site is not suitable for those under 18, thus, anyone found to be operating accounts under false information will be banned immediately. These rules apply to both the site and its discord.

2. Limited Profanity
While in-character language is allowed, out-of-character profanity is restricted. We’re all adults here, therefore we’re all expected to hold conversations without excessive use of curse words. That being said, occasional explicit language is allowed, however, members should be mindful and respectful when speaking in chat. Excessive profanity will result in a temporary kick, a temporary ban, or a permanent ban from the discord.

3. Explicit Voice Chat
Members should understand that Voice Chat on the server is not currently monitored by the Admins. Though this is the case, the same rules and consequences apply for those using the chat. If it is found that players are being excessively disrespectful, inappropriate, profane, or otherwise toxic, the voice channel will be removed.

4. No Discussion of Highly Debatable Topics (Politics, Religion, Sexuality, Abortion, etc.)
Obviously, these kinds of topics, as well as others, incite passionate feelings from folks. Even if it begins as an intelligent, peaceful discussion, debatable topics can sour a chat quickly and cause a lot of unnecessary judgement. If you find yourself and another individual(s) veering into this kind of discussion, take it to DMs. Otherwise, a warning will go out to all necessary parties to change the topic or temporary kicks will ensue.

5. No Ban Discussions
If people get banned, they get banned for a reason. There are always two sides to a story, but at the end of the day, it’s no one’s business to know the ‘why’ of the matter other than whatever parties were involved. Ban discussions cause out-of-character drama, which is something that has no place on this site.

6. No Harassment
This rule is pretty straight forward. Harassment of any kind is not tolerated on site or the discord server. This also includes excessive passive-aggressive behavior towards specific topics or individuals. Given the situation, consequences for breaking this rule may result in a temporary kick, temporary ban, or permanent ban.

7. Username/Nickname Must Match Character Name On Site
We all like to know who it is we’re talking to in chat. By changing your nickname to your character’s name, we’re able to recognize who you are and why you’ve popped into the server. How you style your name is completely up to you, but please make sure the name is easy to identify.


Post Template Rules

i. Box Codes
The use of Box Codes is strictly forbidden; being that they distract the reader from the actual writing which, in our opinion, should speak for itself. Pictures may be used in posts, but they must follow the sizing rules of either 150x150 or 120x350 and must be limited in use. First posts to topics, introduction of new NPCs to the story, or setting details are among some reasons why the use of pictures in posts would be acceptable. Overuse of images within a thread, incorrect formatting, or gifs will be removed.

ii. Text Formatting

Font
Fonts can be difficult to read, especially when players start to get fancy with their font choices using the Google Fonts BBcode. Please be considerate of others when selecting the font you want to use. If we are unable to read it, you may find your font edited by a Moderator. This is a mobile friendly site.

Speech
Please try to use speech-marks whenever your character is speaking and remember that, when a second or third character speaks within a story, that speech should start on a new line. This makes stories easier to read. For example:

Incorrect:
Captain Jody shook his head. "I can't allow you to do that," he said. "What do you mean?" Asked Dante, "we have to fire the cannons or they will gain on us." "He's right, captain," said Alex. Jody scratched at his beard. "Very well then."

Correct:
Captain Jody shook his head. "I can't allow you to do that," he said.
"What do you mean?" Asked Dante, "we have to fire the cannons or they will gain on us."
"He's right, Captain," said Alex.
Jody scratched at his beard. "Very well then."

Colour
Some players like to colour their character's speech to emphasize the change in language or thought. We tend to discouraged this, however, it is not against the rules. Please refrain from using brightly coloured text, or shades which may clash with the existing forum template and make the text hard to read.


Banners, Signatures, and Avatars

Players are permitted to use a banner in their Character Sheet and a Signature on the board displaying their character or related content. Some players prefer to use their signature to display recent character wounds, existing scars and recognisable character traits. You are free to use either or, just be sure to follow the size rules posted below.

i. Hosted Images
The use of gifs is not permitted. Any images containing nudity or offensive slang is strictly prohibited and will be removed. Please try to credit the artist who created the image.

Avatar Specifications
All Avatars must meet the following criteria:

Height: 150 pixels.
Width: 150 pixels.

Signature Image Specifications
All images used in signatures must meet the following criteria:

Height: No higher than 120 pixels.
Width: No wider than 350 pixels.

Players must use image hosting sites like Imgur, Google Photos, or Discord for any photos used within posts.