WELCOME TO SARYNDIL

If you are new to Role Playing but love original high fantasy and want to give Role Playing a chance to enjoy something you love, then this guide is a must read for you. We strive to be a welcoming and helpful community.

All you need to know in regards to Role Playing and navigating our forum, as well as fitting in with our community is explained here. We are aware the guide is rather large, but if you're committed and willing to learn you will be a competent Role Player and member of Saryndil in no time.

NAVIGATING THE FORUM - CLICK TO JUMP TO SECTION

- Navigation and Login

- User CP

- Categories, Boards, and Sub-Boards

- Header & Footer

GETTING STARTED - CLICK TO JUMP TO SECTION

- General Rules

- Questions and Concerns

- Staff Team

- Drugs, Sex and Violence Policy

- Timeline and Plot

- Map and Reigons

- Alignment

- Combat and Death

CHARACTER CREATION - CLICK TO JUMP TO SECTION

- Races

- Face Claims and Important Roles

- How to Make A Profile

- How to Make Affinities, Spells, and Talents.

- Add-ons

POSTING & THREADING - CLICK TO JUMP TO SECTION

- Where to Post

- Plotting

- Events

- Role-playing 101

COMMUNITY - CLICK TO JUMP TO SECTION

- Discord

- Community Nights

- Notifications

NAVIGATION AND LOGIN

At the very top of the site is a bar the spans the width of your screen. This bar is where the site navigation and login is located. You can access your private messages, login, log out and register from the navigation. For easy access back to the home page there, is also a home button. For each character on the site we require you to have a separate account for them. It does not matter if you register your account in lowercase or uppercase.

USER CP

THE USER CP IS FOUND IN THE NAVIGATION BAR AT THE VERY TOP OF YOUR SCREEN ON THE FAR LEFT HAND SIDE NEXT TO THE HOME BUTTON.

The User CP is where you will find everything related to your personal account such as account settings, your user avatar, user signature, recent posts, your threads, and more. It is well advised to give this place if you're not familiar with it a thorough look through.

There are useful tools under your User CP as well such as organization folders, user inbox for private messages, buddy list and ignore user options, and a place to save unfinished posts as drafts.

Unlike other forums though, we have no option for a user to change their name on the forum. If you join the forum and end up needing your name changed (all accounts are your character's first and last name) a staff member will do it for you after your character has been approved.

CATEGORIES, BOARDS AND SUB-BOARDS

Categories are the broadest form of separating boards on a forum. On Saryndil we have five general categories: Character Creation, Aelyria, Estlora, Deldran, and Ranzaugh.

Character Creation is where you will find everything relative to out of character (where no role-playing takes place) matters on the site, such as lexicon, resources, and character related registries. Then Aelyria, Estlora, Deldran, and Ranzaugh are the in character (role-playing as your character) categories of the forum.

Boards are all the areas you see on the main page under all of the categories we have. The boards are where you make threads/topics. Near the top of the page inside a board, and above all the threads inside that board lays the "Create Thread" button.

Then lastly inside some of the boards on the forum lay sub-boards. Sub-boards are exactly the same as regular boards just more specific and generalized areas. Sub-boards are used to classify certain boards into smaller areas for community organizational purposes.

HEADER AND FOOTER

Header is a term frequently used to refer to the "top portion" of the site. The site banner, and the update table Majority of things that we want members to see first thing when they visit are located in the header so please pay close attention to the header and watch for changes.

Likewise to header, footer is a term used to refer to the "bottom portion" of the site. The footer of the forum is for the discord (public chat channel) and other board statistics and credits.

GETTING STARTED

LINK TO GENERAL RULES

Our General Rules are VERY important. They are the first thing everyone needs to read even prior to joining if possible. The basics of our community and minimum expectations are talked about in the general rules. We are a very open, basic and easy going community with few expectations so we hold what is in our General Rules in high regard.

QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS

Like a regular business, Saryndil is open to all questions and concerns you may have prior to joining us or post joining us. Our members are our heartbeat, and without them and their satisfaction we are nothing but another website on the internet. Hence, we have a discord channel dedicated strictly to questions and concerns . You may post here asking anything under the sun and someone will post back promptly with answers for you.

STAFF TEAM

Saryndil prides itself on having an exceptional staff team with someone knowledgeable in every aspect necessary to run a successful forum. We have individuals specialized in numerous areas to keep a Role Play running smoothly.

If you need assistance there will ALWAYS be someone around to help you, however we encourage you to get familiar with what each staff member specializes in and if your question(s) or need for help is something specific to get in contact with the staff member who heads up the topic of your question.

ZODIAQUE: Skins, Coding & Everything

Discord - zodiaque#7925

AQUARIUS: Everything

Discord - Aaron#2817

AL: Member Assistance & Lore keeper

Discord - Al#7659

ALICE: Member Assistance & Lore keeper
Discord - dreamyalice#1504

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ABOUT OUR STAFF TEAM PLEASE VISIT OUR STAFF DIRECTORY.

SEX, DRUGS AND VIOLENCE

This is a forum that has no "Terms of Service" therefore our member's may make material as graphic as they like.

Due to the mature content that can be found on this site Saryndil has a policy that if you are to be involved in any threads containing sex, drugs, or extreme violence you must give your consent that you are over the age of 18 and willing to view and participate in these activities. Without your consent you will not be allowed to participate in any threads deemed inappropriate and will be removed from them immediately. In the User CP, go to the the area under 'Your Profile' and click Edit Profile. The Mature Content Consent clause will be the very first field to come up in the left  column. 

TIMELINE AND PLOT

Saryndil has a structured timeline that leads up to the current era. The world of Saryndil endured five eras Genesis , Vampiric, Cleansing, Aelyrian and Aether Touched. Telling the story of how the world began with four races during the Genesis Era to the complications and destruction that occurred with the birth of the vampires during the Vampiric Era. Though its devastation does not compare to the Era of Cleansing. Only treading upon recently the eras of Aleryian expansion and our current era of the Aether Touched. 

MAP AND REGIONS

Saryndil has detailed map filled with kingdoms, boundaries, environments and secrets. With plenty  of lore and information about the environments and important historical locations to encounter upon role playing in Saryndil. The regions of Saryndil are rgw verdant eastern reaches of Aelyria, southern paradise of Estlora, western marshes of Deldran, and Ranzaugh the delicate dance of fire and ice. Explore all the regions of Saryndil and discover the secrets left behind by those who came before.

ALIGNMENTS

Several alignments can be found on Sarnydil, each representing the characters latent abilities. The first of which is Non-Magical, races not bound by Aether. Second come the Magical races who were naturally gifted with Aether and its manipulation. Last we have Aether-Touched, which is a new alignment of once Non-Magical characters that are now able to manipulate Aether at their whim.

COMBAT AND DEATH

Combat on Saryndil revolves affinities, spells, and talents. When entering combat you can choose the style of battle. Be it free form combat, which focuses around plot based interactions then mechanical ones. Competitive combat, uses a system forged on Saryndil that provides a more engaging and mechanical battle with rolls and stats.  Every in character board on Saryndil is Death Enabled. If your character was killed from combat or other causes you have the ability to return that character to the living realm through chosen races [ Daevas and Spectrals ] and spells [ conventional spells ] that can restore the body and mind.

RACES

Joining the role-play your character has a plethora of options for their race. Starting with the prude Calaquendi elves, a hellish scourge known as the Daeva,  magical fae Fairies, children of the gods Humans,  bound by wild Kindred, the freed Moriquendi Elves, observers of Saryndil Skin Changers, the returned spirts of the Spectral and lastly the Vampires. We even have half races that can be found here.

FACE CLAIMS

To reserve face claims on Saryndil, join the discord and post in the face claim channel. In there you will find reserves and taken face claims. A reserve last about a week, and a characters face claim will be removed from the list if they fail to meet an activity check or purge.

HOW TO MAKE A CHARACTER PROFILE

We do not use a character application on Saryndil, instead we ask that you fill out the required information in the profile fields of your account. To access these fields, you need to click on the USER CP quick link found on the navigation bar in the header. Once there, you need to follow the link through the edit profile. In that section of the user control panel you will find the fields we request filled out. These fields are discord, personality, location. character name, kingdom, bio, region, gender, race, played by, age, weapons, affinity and talents.

To have your characters rank within their race applied to your profile, please respond to the rank-claim discord channel.

AFFINTIES, SPELLS AND TALENTS

Affinity is the particular nature of magic bestowed upon characters capable of manipulating Aether. The array of spells that any character has the ability to utilize must pertain to the type of magic determined by their Affinity.

Races that are born Magical or become Aether-Touched have the ability to manipulate Aether and can create individualized spells according to their specific Affinity. Spells rank from Novice to Master, with ranks between.

Talents are physical feats, and as such it cannot be elemental imbuements, or anything of the like. Basically, they allow a non-magical race to hold their own against magic.

MANDATORY PLOT THREAD

Once you have completed your character application, respond to the character-approval discord channel to have your character reviewed and accepted. With your character ready to role play, please respond to the mandatory plot thread to share various questions about your character and their presence on the role play. This is to prevent characters with no motivations and members from taking to many claims without dedication and effort.

POSTING AND THREADING

All in character posts made on Saryndil take place within the Aelyria, Estlora, Deldran, and Ranzaugh boards of the site.  Each board is divided into two sections, kingdoms and historic places. You can use these boards to roleplay in the divides between the major points of interest.

PLOTTING

Plotting is essentially the creation and progression of a character's story, presumably yours. For less experienced role players it is recommended you start small, and for all participants remember that the scope of your character's underlying plot line will likely not be the main focus of this role-play's overall plot, that is not to say you cannot play a consistent and major part should you put in the effort to do so.

You progress your personal character's story simply by "threading" (role-playing) with other members of the RP. This can be done spontaneously by joining threads which are designated [OPEN] by the original poster, or in pre-determined threads which are marked with character names after the title in brackets (ex. [BOB]) which are restricted to characters invited to participate in those threads by the original poster. 

Should you be involved in a pre-determined thread, you can be spontaneous, but it is highly recommended that you think about plot ideas in private with other player(s) with whom you wish to interact with a lot or with whom you already do.  Once you have found your partner(s) for a thread or have joined an open thread, it is as easy as just posting consistently and keeping everything flowing. You don't have to stalk your computer constantly, just TRY to stick to a reasonable timeframe between the time it is your turn to post and you actually posting, and the story should flow smoothly and quickly.

EVENTS

From time to time, we will have a SITE-WIDE EVENT in a certain kingdoms, possibly even multiple kingdoms. Posting within the event-enabled kingdoms in a context relative to the event.

A RACE EVENT is essentially the same idea but limited to characters associated with the various races of the role-play world and give players more reasons to join up with these race, while also serving to forward the story along with the site-wide events or just exist for a fun change of pace.

ROLEPLAYING 101

It is suggested that incoming players or at least players new to online forum-based role-play in general would look to our GENERAL ROLE-PLAY ETTIQUITE and BATTLE ETTIQUITE articles which are both also at the top of the site on the far right column for quick reference.

To sum things up as simply as possible, we try to avoid "special snowflakes" or characters abusing their powers, generally powers that they shouldn't even be capable of having. Relative strength is earned by the quality of your posts as well as by your commitment to your character. As far as combat is concerned, we adhere to a general no "god-modding" or "meta-gaming" policy.

God-modding is the act of essentially taking control of another player's character in one of your own posts without consent AND/OR out and out saying that your attack landed. You cannot declare that an attack has for sure landed on someone. Conversely, if you are role-played into a corner in combat and consistently Houdini yourself out of tight spots for little to no reason at all, that is also a form of god-modding.

Meta-gaming is the act of using third person knowledge (as the player) that your character otherwise wouldn't know, to directly influence a decision, your character's extent of their all-knowing state which comes from your own complete access to everything that can and will happen on this RP. If your character doesn't know something and has no reasonable reason to otherwise question something, use of meta to your advantage is strongly frowned upon and can lead to possible post revisions if it is bad enough.

Battles may be pre-scripted between two or more players in agreement about how events between their characters will turn out, but try to keep things realistic and relative to the strength of your characters. For all other organically occurring engagements assume that a sort of gentleman's agreement is in place, you can be as "in character" dirty as you want, but keep your posts clean and free of meta-gaming and god-modding and just be believable, if you put yourself in a position to win you should be able to roleplay well enough to close it out without having to try and bend rules or exploit too much grey area short of outright ridiculous cheating. If you lose a character to a fight, know that you put yourself in a situation that put you at risk and paid the price, it is not an indictment of you or your character, it is just something that happened.

As a quick reminder, make sure all posts at least hit our required minimum of 150 words. If for any reason you have issues hitting this number (it isn't all that tricky once you get used to this) remember to describe as much as possible then role-playing, or at least a decent amount. A couple good examples of how to spruce up your character role-play would include:

Include details of your character's surroundings - they are generally user generated in one way or another or can pull from real life landmarks or concepts. Anything can be useful here from the sound your feet make on the material that makes up the floor, to that cheesy painting on the wall, the smell of strong smoke in the air, or the cascading flow of moonlight through a room that casts many long shadows. You can literally take physical area descriptions as far as your imagination is willing to go, picture it in your head and then paint that picture for your reader.

Describe your characters thoughts or RP them out in the first person - Getting inside your character's head is super useful and is great for your would-be readers

Describe actions in some detail - It is easy to say "he swung his sword" but doesn't it sound much better to say "in one swift motion, he dashed forward in an attempt to part the air with the sharp blade of his long sword"