[OOC] Ivory Heart

[Kesu]

Mirage, I know I'm relatively new to Lhavit, but I'm excited to hear that! Keep up the good work!

[Bridget Donovan]

This will no doubt prove interesting. Hopefully there will be a use for alchemists in the near future. Looking forward to seeing what happens.

[Mirage]

This is a quick announcement! From this moment on Books can no longer be purchased in the market. I will be doing location edits sometime soon, but for now OOCly all of you should know that books cannot be found anywhere but in the main Library and those that the PC's already have in their inventory

[Alses]

Right-oh . I look forward to all the new location and purpose changes you're bringing in, Mirage!

[Mirage]

Once again, Hello Lhavit!

I have combed through all of the lore that I could on Lhavit as a whole, and now I am going to begin fixing the very scattered and broken system of magic, and the regulation of magic, within the city. I realize that this will directly affect a lot of the players here, so please pay attention to this announcement in particular because it could be of vital importance to your character and your play in Lhavit.

For the longest time Lhavit has been upheld as THE place for magic in Mizahar. No matter what the subject Lhavit had the answers to it. It's library was huge and filled with long lost knowledge, it offers 'classes and lessons' on ANYTHING magic related, and there is next to no challenge when it comes to gaining magical knowledge of any kind. To be completely blunt and honest Lhavit has been taking a lot from the other cities in Mizahar as it has tried to be the PERFECT city in every way possible, and this simply is not how it was supposed to be. I will slowly be making changes to the entire city itself, but as I said I am going to start with the magic system.

In case anyone here is not familiar with the current lore of the city, yes Lhavit was founded with the help of magic, however, it was founded by 3 PARTICULAR magics which are central to its structure and to the 3 main families. The Dawn House are the keepers of the magic of Reimancy, and they use it to aid in the construction and self sustaining aspects of Lhavit as well as for Civil purposes like putting out fires and such. The Dusk House specializes in Auristics, with a history of Spiritism as well. They work very closely with the Wizard Registry and the Shinya as they are excellent at seeing what people don't want to be seen. Finally the Twilight House, which is where the biggest issues have come from. They specialize in morphing, and only morphing. These are the 3 founding magics of Lhavit, and the ONLY magics that are widely known and accepted. I know right now the lore says they will offer classes on these magics for a price, but that makes absolutely no sense. If one wishes to know and practice these magics in Lhavit they will need to either be born into one of these families, OR be directly involved with these houses most likely through the Wizard Registry which will be receiving an update before long as well. In this way if you hold one of these 3 main magics you will be put to use for the city by one of the 3 main houses, and not just left to your own devises to do whatever you want. Most likely if you are a wizard and you do not WANT a job involving one of these houses it will most likely be allowed, however, in which case if you are found using magic that is not regulated by the 3 main houses sever punishments will be dolled out by the Shinya as their main purpose in the city.

In Lhavit magic will be used for a purpose, and because of this some magics are seen as simply dangerous and without use in the city itself. The magics so far that will hold a place somewhere in Lhavit are Reimancy, Morphing, Auristics, Shielding and Magecrafting. The last will be under special circumstances which I will be revealing later on. Spiritism will also have a small part in the city as well due to its origins in the Dusk House and the history of this house in the creation of Lhavit itself. Magics that will no longer be recognized or allowed in Lhavit are Alchemy, Leeching, Hypnotism, Malediction, and Summoning to a certain extent which I will explain in a moment. These magics are either seen as dangerous and thus hold no place in Lhavit's more peaceful society, or they have no real purpose in the city itself. Summoning will be severely limited to very strict guidelines as this world magic in particular holds a deep connection with the stars and other worlds that exist. The magic itself will not be actively practiced, but its concepts and theories may play a role in some other areas of Astronomy and the cities exploration of the stars.

With all of this there will ALSO be big changes to the Bharani Library. It will no longer hold all of the knowledge of the world, and in fact it will not be teh go to place for ANY subject of magic and djed. Those books it contains will be almost strictly devoted to the 3 founding magics, and branch out to a few more common books on the lesser magics that are used in the city itself. I will be playing with the idea of the library being controlled in part by the 3 main families, and thus its knowledge of magic based almost exclusively on what they have contributed. This will be a project for later on down the road however. The library will not be the center of all knowledge in Mizahar any longer, because in doing so it takes away very important elements found in other cities that are specifically designed for this purpose such as Zeltiva or Sahova. I will be deciding and figuring out what exactly you can find in the library this season some time so stay tuned.

Finally magic is heavily regulated despite its obvious roles in the city. If one sees magic used in the streets it is done because of strict orders given for its use at that time. Even seemingly random acts of magic are often done for a reason by the governing body of Lhavit. Magic performed on the streets or on other people that has not been approved can result in punishment by the Shinya, with repeated offenses leading to exile or death as the use of magic willy nilly in the streets is a danger to all citizens involved. There will be some form of licensing for magical related business as well which states this individual is given permission to perform his particular magic for the benefit of his customers and his business, but again there will be regulations on what is and is not allowed.

All of this is a very brief introduction to the changes which will be going into place this season! More info and details will be provided as I have them, and locations will be edited and sometimes deleted as it is required. If you are practicing a magic that is not supported by the city it is recommended you look to the other cities in Mizahar which are known to support them . Thank you all for listening, and as always happy writing!

Question your Reality,
Mirage

[Sal Mander]

Er, I guess the obvious question then, will the new changes invalidate already finished and graded threads that will now contain inconsistencies to the lore?

[Mirage]

Sadly there are an abundance of threads that were done under the really broken system of Lhavit. I will not penalize or force regrades of threads already finished and graded, but from this point on everyone needs to be conscious of these changes and keep them in mind when they are threading. There will be an actual write up done at some point that will give greater details for the players.

[Phaethon]

Hm. Should I not have this character's main skill be Magecraft, then? You mentioned it's allowed under special circumstances, but I'm not sure how viable it would be for a new character.

[Ornea]

Mirage, maybe you're already planning to do this, but I thought I'd write it nonetheless. I'd like to suggest that you introduce the changes in the sesaonal calendars as IC events in the city.

New magic laws, changes the the library, changes to locations, perhaps even the closing of some locations, all this can be used as calendar events that gives us input for writing about a period of change in Lhavit.

You could start in the seasonal calendar for Winter 514 AV. For reasons still unknown to the citizens, the leaders have decided on an interdict and interim rules for magic in Lhavit. In effect from Day 1 Winter 514 AV.

I think it can be good to draw a line IC. This makes it easier for all to handle the issue of already done and graded threads with other setting and lore. They can just be seen IC as done in a more liberal and derailed period of time in Lhavit. Now comes a reformation.

Are there any locations that will be so massively changed or even closed that we ought to avoid using them in the winter season ?

...

[Mirage]

While I had considered something like that, no idea or plan I made that could be turned into an event even scratched the surface of the deeper issues that plague Lhavit. This city is broken in a way that cannot just be whittled away with care and gentle changes over time. It needs to be smashed with a hammer and built from the ground up lol. The inconsistencies in the city brought on by the many many mods that have come through is so great that I can't just say there was a change in policy and fix it all. I am going to have to rework a lot of the internal mechanisms of the city to make it function properly. Specifically its magical aspects and completely perfect Utopian style of life that barely holds water in the world of Mizahar. I admit the changes are going to be drastic, and will cause some trouble for the players while they are getting implemented. However, after the new systems are in place players will find it easier to function, to get jobs, to get their plots underway AND to get moderator support. There will be very clear and easy to follow guidelines for everything, and there wont be the issue all new mods of Lhavit have where they have to dig to find ANYTHING useful in all of the lore to figure out what the city is about. All in all these changes will make it so that Lhavit is much easier to moderate in, is more controlled, and simpler to understand and isn't a huge pot of random ideas thrown in with no design.

As of right now I have plans to completely get rid of several locations including the Temple of Time, Sakana's Alchemy Lab, Maeki Cho's Animation Studio and Elena's Studio of Enchantment. A few others like the The Bharani Library will be receiving serious edits so that they make more sense and do not simply supply seemingly random resources for players that anywhere else in the world of Mizahar they would have to spend significant thread time to learn and obtain. The city is unbalanced with the rest of the game, taking aspects of other cities and making them its own in a way that subtracts overall from what makes Lhavit ITSELF truly unique and amazing. I will be shifting through the fluff, the meaningless and random and poorly thrown together bits and pieces of lore to uncover the core of Lhavit so that no one will confuse it for Glittery magical eth city ever again. Lhavit is so so much more but no one can see it because of what is there.

So I will pull it all to the surface and give it mechanisms and systems that work and will allow future storytellers to work in this city without being so confused that they have no idea AT ALL what the city is about. I know it will be hard for this season as I get things set up, but believe me what I have in mind will make playing here even more fun because the city will finally come alive in a way it has never been able to before.

Bear with me everyone, I will make this transition as smooth as possible this I promise you and please feel free to bring any complaints or thoughts to me and I will carefully review them all and give them equal consideration. I want to hear from all of you, what your thoughts are, and things you believe need to be improved upon as well. First and foremost I am here for every single one of you.