"It’s a smile, it’s a kiss, it’s a sip of wine … it’s summertime!"
- Kenny Chesney
Syka has a theme for each season. This one is no different. However, you must wait until the Storyseed Section for the theme to be revealed. In the meantime, I understand this calendar is long, but please read each section carefully. There are some big changes to Syka this season because of the events of last season. If you TLDR it, you might miss out on some great opportunities!
I hope you all completely and utterly enjoy Summer!
Greetings Sykans!
Everyone within the confines of Syka awoke on the first of Summer, 522 with a feeling of renewed vigor. The sky was bluer, the palm trees greener, and overall their heath felt better. Any signs of their notable curses were completely gone (if characters met their 25k word count). Any lingering signs will fade as the summer season progresses.
Life in Syka is fantastic. Food is abundant in the jungle, in the Settlement, in the sea. Water is plentiful. The weather is decent. The whole season feels like the incredible freshness of life after a good rainstorm.
And miraculously, in the very center of the Syka Commons, a stone monolith carved with blooming jungle vines and animals appeared overnight. At its top was a watchstone. This monolith was significantly smaller than the Watchtowers throughout Mizahar, rising only about ten feet from the base to the top of its watchstone. Whereas most watchstones are enormous in size, this watchstone was four feet in diameter. It was, however, fully functional and glimmering a golden yellow to indicate summer.
Each animal, carved into its side, has a gleaming set of gemstone eyes made of watchstone as well. This gleam can be seen day or night, though its form in the dark simply looks like a monolith of glowing animal eyes. At night, this monolith illuminates The Syka Commons. If examined closely, the monolith is seen to have multiple symbols of Gods and Goddesses on it including Tanroa, Kihala, Caiyha, Eyris, Izurdin, Laviku, Zulrav, Yshul, and a strange but definitely God-like symbol of a slash of three huge claw marks made by a massive predator paw.
Randal, being ever the helpful builder, immediately put in some comfortable benches on two opposite sides set back from the monolith for viewing and meditation both day and night.
Buraga, in charge of the Rangers, also posted a formal announcement in The Syka Commons. Every single person skilled enough to survive in the Wilderness (E+) will be swearing a Ranger's Oath and joining the Sykan Rangers in order to provide a trained combat force that can rise to counter threats to the Community. This service will be mandatory and will allow for additional income (5 gm base pay + weapon's/magic skill bonus for levels above base) if characters participate in Ranger activities (training, patrol, escort threads - 2 pers season).
Others, not as expertly skilled, will be allowed to join on a volunteer basis and train as Reserve Rangers until they are skilled enough to be considered full Rangers. Reserve Rangers can draw a stipend at half the wages of a full ranger until such a time as their Wilderness Survival ability coincides with the requirements of a full ranger.
I, (name), do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend the people, ideas, and boundaries of Syka against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the Founders of Syka and the orders of the officers appointed over me. In Kihala's name, I pledge my weapon, my magic, and my life. And also in the names of (the Gods you follow).
The Ranger income will be on top of any job income outside of the Rangers your PC may hold. The Reserve Rangers can use a wide variety of skills, including but not limited to, medical, any smithing, tactical, tracking, hunting, animal husbandry, riding, investigation, stealth, archaeology, leather working, cartography, etc. Be creative.
- C. Day Lewis
Please keep these requirements in mind. Participating in the theme is always voluntary, but in order to get rewarded for your participation, the below list is required. Paying seasonal expenses and the expectation of earning coin is reliant on job threads. Those are not voluntary. They are required game-wide.
If you go inactive in Syka or take a break for a season or two, you lose your free claims (that have been awarded in the past) because you haven't contributed to the community. If you have purchased your property and it's paid in full, you can feel free to go inactive with no penalty. If you are still paying on it, inactivity isn't an option without the loss of your property for missed payments. Please be aware that job threads and placeholders can be no older than a season behind. Nothing will count or be paid for that is older. I do not pay partial wages. It's all or nothing.
The list below is things you need to include in your Spring threading.
❖ Start a post in this thread keeping track of how many requirements you have completed. It's a good idea to cut/paste this list into your own post below that you can work on as the season progresses.
❖ Craft a Storyline that's in line with the season's theme. Summarize your storyline here in a brief abstract.
❖ Get others involved in your storyline.
❖ Complete TWO job threads of at least 2.5K words if you want to be paid.
❖ Pay Seasonal Expenses of Common or higher.
❖ Be active.
❖ Work on one or more recommended Syka Skills (Wilderness Survival, Tradeskill, etc) and increase it by 5 points.
❖ Join The Syka Rangers in whatever capacity you can. Take the oath and complete two ranger threads for extra pay.
❖ Visit the new Watchstone Monolith.
❖ Pray to one of the Gods/Goddesses whose symbol is on the Monolith.
❖ Include one of the NPCs listed in the NPC Masterlist in one of your threads.
❖ Utilize at least 2 storyseeds in a creative way. The storyseeds can be used in whole or part or could even be used as an inspiration for a whole different story arc. Folks will just have to be able to see the connections.
If you complete all these tasks successfully and fulfill the requirements, then you will get an award in the form of Quest Coupons of your choice (minus the Artifact coupon). Incomplete threads do not count. These items must be completed by the end of the season.
Please note. These are Syka's challenges. The threads must be completed in Syka or The Outpost relating to Syka's business.
Overachievers will be rewarded. The first 25K you write (if you track your word count in this thread) will be applied towards your prize. However, for each 25k you write over your initial 25k, you will earn an additional prize. 50K? two coupons, 75K three coupons, etc. There is no minimum word count so if you plan to participate for a coupon, but probably won't go over 50K, no need to track your word counts.
"Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability."
- Sam Keen
Theme: Stories Of The Past, Present, or Future!
Everyone has a past, present, and future. On Mizahar, the past can be your childhood, or you can go back further and have a plethora of past lives. Wouldn't it be fun if one of your past lives involved Pavena? What about your future? Maybe you have a goal or have something coming that will change the course of history for your PC and maybe for others?
This season I'd like you all to craft stories about the past, present, or future. I'm hoping a whole host of you will pick past life stories, because those can be really truly fun. However, I won't limit it to past lives. Sometimes, that might not be your thing. Craft the story (I can give you help if you like) and then have an encounter with a ghost, be influenced by a vision, or somehow get a glimpse of the future and craft a story around that happening. Learn something from this event. If its a ghost, learn their story.... if its a vision, see it through. These can be your ancestors, future offspring, anything. The sky is the limit. I just want your character to LEARN A STORY throughout this season by investigation. Ask yourself these questions...
What is the story?
Who are the people, places and things involved?
How does this story relate to you?
What did you learn from this story?
The sky is the limit here. We are here on MIzahar to tell stories together. So roll up your sleeves and get into the heart of it. Your stories can interweave with others. You can plot and plan and have story buddies. This is the perfect time to interweave your plotlines with the plotlines of others and develop connections with other PCs and NPCs.
The storyseeds below are designed to help you with this season's theme.
Please remember, storyseeds are just ideas, hints, and nudges for you to craft a greater plot from. They are a starting place. Feel free to mix, match, and combine storyseeds and knock out more than one in one thread. For example, a survival situation could easily be combined with a deep-seated unbearable pain while hunting whales. Got it? Great!
❖ Have a ghostly encounter.
❖ Have a crazy very detailed dream.
❖ Have a vision of the past, present, or future.
❖ Investigate something.
❖ Discover an unusual plant with unusual qualities (medicinal, magical, etc)
❖ Pray to a new god or goddess.
❖ Give/receive a passionate kiss.
❖ Research a topic that is new to you.
❖ Discover a new place in the jungle.
❖ Befriend and ride an Ixam.
❖ Tell someone your story or hear someone else's story.
❖ Develop a major problem one must solve.
❖ Acquire an exotic pet.
❖ Invent a new drink or dish for Syka.
❖ Visit the Monolith.
❖ Share/learn a secret.
❖ Take/go on a date.
❖ Gain a personal antagonist.
❖ Go fishing on Mathias' deck and have a chat with him.
❖ Learn a skill that's new to you.
❖ Learn a new weapon.
❖ Acquire a new weapon.
❖ Use the rule of three. Set 3 things in motion for your character's story.
❖ Have an encounter with a wild predator.
❖ Misdirect someone about something.
❖ Be proudly unashamed of something you've done that might be shameful.
❖ Discover an abandoned Casinor on the beach and investigate.
❖ Get a bird to spy for you and relate all it sees to you.
❖ Have a profound amount of tension in a thread (sexual, familial, social, competitive, etc)
❖ Discover an artifact.
"If it could only be like this always —
always summer, always alone, the fruit always ripe."
- Evelyn Waugh
Summer in Syka doesn't vary much from the other three seasons with the exceptions of far longer days and shorter nights. The sunrises and sunsets are spectacular. And the beaches can get a little hot at straight-up noon. Syka is lush and warm all year long, but somehow in the lengthened days of Summer the weather feels perfect. Temperatures don’t even change much between night and day. The average temperature in Falyndar ranges from 70 to 95°F (21 to 35°C). The environment is fairly wet and it does rain daily (usually in the morning and afternoon) maintaining a high humidity of 77% to 88%.
Unlike turbulent spring, the storms that can and will roll in from The Suvan drop off to nothing making the weather steady and predictable in summer. There are light winds that crop up to cool off the beaches and jungle.
The humidity, however, can be crippling. Hydration is important for the denizens of Syka. Fresh drinking water is always critical as is its storage and portability. Humidity is caused by the super saturatedness of water being suspended in the air. Humans and most other sentient races rely on drier air wicking away sweat to help themselves cool off. When humidity is high, people have issues keeping cool. That's why Syka has adopted its clothing-optional attitude and has found ingenious ways to cool off multiple times a day.
The local Reimancer, Duncan, always adjusts the water temperature of the Community Pool to be less than the air temperature thus helping provide a place for the citizens of Syka to cool down. Volunteers also make sure there is plenty of readily available water at the Commons in the form of waterskins and
"Keep your face to the sunshine and you will never see the shadows."
- Helen Keller
I'm always willing to run a personal storyline for anyone who joins Syka for the season. People get such few opportunities to interact with their actual storylines in generic calendar situations within various domains, so in Syka I'd like to change that. I will be willing to run the following:
❖ Personal Quests
❖ Gnosis Threads
❖ Flashbacks & Future Foretellings
❖ Training Threads
Just let me know what I can help you out with. Syka might be small but we have had some really incredible storylines here in the past.
Happy Threading!
Goss
