"And at the end of the day, your feet should be dirty,
your hair messy, and your eyes sparkling."
- Shanti
Welcome to Summer in Syka!
This comprehensive guide is just a suggestion for things you can do as a writer. I like providing ideas and direction if and when PC's want it. Literally, the sky is the limit on what is allowed in terms of roleplay, outside of this guide. Sometimes, though, we need a nudge, and having a theme helps move the plot along. So, my job as a storyteller is to set an atmosphere, make some suggestions, and offer some goodies if you want to participate. Participation, as always, is optional. You can always do your own thing.
"There is no light without shadow, just as there is no happiness without pain."
- Fausto Cercignani
Greetings Sykans!
Unlike other places in Mizahar where summer is considered beautiful and pleasant, Syka's summer can be rather drastic. Temperatures rise, humidity spikes and it gets painfully hot at times especially when cooling breezes die. The one place of relief is the strip of habitation along the beach, under the cooling shadows of the palms. And this is only true if onshore or offshore breezes are blowing in the mornings and evenings. All other places - even out on the water and in the deep dark jungle- can be miserable at the sun high and beyond. To that effect, many Sykans restrict their mid-day activity, and extend their nighttime wanderings far beyond what they normally would.
The night is home to jungle predators in the way that the deep snow of winter in other places is home to wolves and bears. Jaguars and pumas and other big cats roam. Wild Ixam hunt the twisted vegetation. Wild boar grow more dangerous. Big pythons and anacondas come out of the deep water and look for food. Even the huge saltwater crocodiles that are common in the Syka River hit the land. Hippos come out of the water, and elephants often come down to the waterways to drink and bathe. The jungle is absolutely alive with creatures, mostly things that eat meat and have large impressive teeth.
So Sykans have to adjust to this change. This adjustment is easier for some than it is for others. Regardless, it's still an adjustment. Roleplay accordingly.
"Summer is singing joyfully, and the beaches invite you with dancing waves."
- Debasish Mridha
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 coins is reliant on job threads. Those are not voluntary. They are required game-wide. Syka offers all sorts of employment and Ranger opportunities for income. Talk to Gossamer and the Founders IC to set something up.
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. We will allow you to miss one season openly. At the end of a second season, your property is forfeited and goes up for sale. 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 Summer 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.
❖ Determine some key aspects of your Shadow Self.
❖ Get in touch, IC, with your PC's inner Shadow Self.
❖ Embrace or Reject the discovered Shadow Self.
❖ 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.
❖ 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.
"The eye is always caught by light, but shadows have more to say."
- Gregory Maguire
Theme: The Shadow Self & Shadow Work
In each of us, there is a shadow self. The shadow is the “dark side” of our personality because it consists chiefly of primitive, negative emotions and impulses like rage, envy, greed, selfishness, desire, and the striving for power. All we deny, reject, or loathe in ourselves — whatever we perceive as inferior, evil, or unacceptable — can become part of the shadow. Anything incompatible with our chosen conscious attitude about ourselves relegates us to this dark side. The personal shadow is actually the disowned self. This shadow self represents the parts of us we no longer claim to be our own, including inherent positive qualities. These unexamined or disowned parts of our personality don’t go anywhere, but remain inside of us carried around like added weight on our souls and shoulders. Although we deny them in our attempt to cast them out, we don’t get rid of them. We often viciously repress them; they are part of our unconscious mind, body, and soul. We can’t eliminate the shadow. It stays with us as our dark brother or sister. Trouble arises when we fail to see it. For then, to be sure, it is standing right behind us.
This season we will be getting acquainted with our shadow selves IC. We will delve into the dark sides of our personalities and shake hands with those aspects. That handshake and greeting... indeed the very acknowledgment of its existence is called Shadow Work. By Shadow Working, we can gain a multitude of benefits that overall strengthen our PCs. They can gain self-acceptance, enjoy personal awakenings, become more authentic, gain creativity, and understand more thoroughly compassion. Characters can also gain courage, emotional freedom, self-empowerment, gain sense of purpose, and enjoy heightened intuition. Health-wise, PCs can enjoy improved health, boosted immune systems, deepen relationships, increase energy, gain clarity of thought, and enjoy greater self-understanding.
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!
❖ Learn Meditation to center yourself and become aware of your shadow.
❖ Meet someone new and become friends - PC or NPC.
❖ Reflect on what triggers emotional reactions in your PC.
❖ Find something you used to own as a child washed up on the beach which causes you to reflect on your childhood.
❖ Visit one of the Jungle Locations
❖ Have a nightmare involving your shadow self.
❖ Adopt a new pet.
❖ Volunteer to help in a Settlement Doing (group hunt, 10-day, be creative).
❖ Visit Stair-Step Falls and go relic hunting.
❖ Build some sort of structure.
❖ Pray to a new god or goddess.
❖ Start an argument with another PC or NPC.
❖ Research a topic that is of interest to you as a PC.
❖ Learn a new skill.
❖ Observe yourself without judgment in the presence of someone else.
❖ Start an IC journal and fill its pages with your thoughts.
❖ Share/learn a secret.
❖ Use the rule of three. Set 3 things in motion for your character's story.
❖ Educate someone about something.
❖ Change part of your character's ideology drastically.
❖ Discover an artifact.
Shadow Work For Journaling And RP
The Past - The past always affects the present and can shape the future. It is important to understand and work through any past events that occurred in your PC's life.
- What past events do I feel is affecting my life today?
- Why is this affecting me and in what way?
- How can I work through this to heal?
- What positive childhood memories that have affected your life?
- What feelings are associated with these positive memories?
- What negative childhood memories have affected your life?
- What feelings are associated with these negative memories?
- How did these events shape you as a person and your life today?
- What steps can you take to come to peace with these events and memories?
- What are the elements of my younger self that I still embody?
- What are the elements of my younger self that I no longer embody?
- What are the elements of my younger self that I wish I still embodied?
- What would you say to your younger self in terms of advice?
- What would your younger self say to you now int terms of advice?
- Negative Emotions I feel are:
- I feel these emotions because:
- Positive Emotions I feel are:
- I feel these emotions because:
- Things I can do to work through the negative emotions:
- Things I can do to channel the positive emotions:
❖ Objects?
❖ Events?
❖ People?
❖ Places?
❖ Smells?
❖ Sounds?
❖ Food/Drinks?
❖ Other?
❖ Events?
❖ People?
❖ Places?
❖ Smells?
❖ Sounds?
❖ Food/Drinks?
❖ Other?
- Why do these things trigger me?
- What are the emotions they make me feel?
- What can I do to overcome these triggers?
- Methods I have used before that can help me?
- What patterns/habits are you repeating the most?
- How does this make you feel?
- What patterns/habits do you feel like you inherited from your family?
- What steps can you take to break these habits and patterns?
- What things do I struggle with the most from the habits/patterns listed above?
- How do you want to feel within yourself?
- What traits do you want to embody?
- How can you eliminate people and things from your life that no longer serve you in a positive way?
- What are the things you cannot change but must accept?
- Why is self-acceptance important to you?
- Things I like about myself?
- Why do you see these as positive aspects?
- Things I dislike about myself?
- Why do you see these as negative aspects?
- How do you feel others see you?
- Why do you think this?
"Capture a shadow, dance with the wind, stand in a rainbow, begin at the end."
- Mary Anne Radmacher
Along with the severe heat that sores into the 100's at midday, the nights drop into reasonable temperatures of high 70s and 80's. The sea enjoys significant warming so that the term 'bathwater warm' becomes a reality. This means that the extreme temperature swings can lead to intense wind storms that roll through the area. These storms resemble hurricanes that seemingly develop out on the Suvan and roll across Falyndar until they discharge their energy. You can feel free to include a storm day or two within your rp, but makes sure you let everyone know the date of the storm in the OOC thread so that others can join in or rp the same happenings at the same time.
"Find beauty not only in the thing itself but in the pattern of the shadows, the light and dark which that thing provides."
-
Junichiro Tanizaki
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.
Happy Threading!
Goss
