Info / FAQ

[expiationmods]

INFO / FAQ About Expiation⇁ Expiation is a pan-fandom adventure game with science fiction, fantasy, and subtle horror elements that explore the concepts of crime versus innocence, definition of atonement, and reflection of self. An overarching storyline will encourage characters to determine the truth about why they’ve been brought to this world and will be impacted by character discoveries and actions taken during the bimonthly events. Player-run events and plots are welcome during months where there is downtime. Characters are mysteriously plucked from their world of origin, dropped into the white nothingness of disembodied voices, and told they’ll be treated as 'all of the others' have been. They awaken in this newer world largely pleasant to the eye in the close proximity of a populated town. In hand, they carry documentation that accuses them of a crime, whether it be true or false, and they are instructed to simply wait until they face their sentencing. For prospective players, it is imperative that you understand Expiation is not a fast-paced game and the answers that characters are seeking will not be immediately provided to them. It will require players and characters alike to piece together potentially cryptic information that is supplied in events. The moderator team will provide as much information per situation as can be without releasing or spoiling the overarching storyline. If you are seeking a hasty pay-off, require a consistent feed of information or action, you may not find this game to be a good fit for you. For more information about what is happening behind the scenes, we suggest you read the Premise and End Game section of our April 2023 State of the Game. You may also find the remainder of that entry of interest and full of valuable information. Themes⇁ The ideas of what constitutes criminal behaviour versus innocence, and the shades of grey in between are meant to be a point of reflection and consideration that may differ from character to character. This is not a physical prison or inmate game, but more rather a metaphorical one. The crime that characters are accused of may have nothing to do with how they carried themselves in their original world. On the other hand, said crime could be something that the character committed. It is the notion of crime or actions taken that have resulted in regret or remorse experienced by said character. Expiation is an environment meant to give characters the opportunity to analyse and reflect on their past actions in an effort to define and discover their own self-atonement and forgiveness. They may also perhaps seek forgiveness from others that they may have wronged, inadvertently or direct. It is not necessarily rehabilitation, but rather dissection of character motivation and evolution, based on individual dynamic and relationships with others. Sentencing⇁ So if it’s not actually a prison game, why are characters being told they must prepare and wait for 'sentencing?' Not everything in Expiation is quite the way it seems. To the locals who are native to this world, they seem to define ‘sentencing’ as merely a very natural way of life, implying that it may not necessarily be equivalent to punishment or declaration of innocence. As the bimonthly events occur and characters discover more about why they are in Expiation and how they got here, the pieces will begin to fall into place and they may be surprised by the end result. On occasion (months opposite events starting approximately June 2023), players may submit their characters for sentencing (with a positive, negative, or neutral result, depending on player preference), and upon return from sentencing, they will be free to share their learned information with other characters in the game. Arrival⇁ Characters will arrive with inventory they may have been carrying, within reason. If they had anything in their possession that would be considered ‘world breaking,’ they will find that it is missing. Arrival will not always necessarily be in the exact same location. Monthly cycles of applications accepted will come with a different location that the newly-arrived will initially occupy. They will, however, always be within a relatively safe, if not slightly exhausting, walking distance of a populated town where the locals will probably be friendly. Probably. In addition to their base inventory, characters will all arrive with parchment detailing the crime they’ve been accused of. This parchment is indestructible. It cannot be cut. It cannot be burnt. It cannot be destroyed. There’s no sign of it being specially preserved, so to the touch, it feels strangely archaic and possibly out of place. Locals⇁ The locals are what have made the world of Expiation as comfortable and as welcoming as it appears to be. They’ve established simple places to eat and drink, lodgings, taverns, clothing stores, clinics, and just about anything else you might expect to find in a hearty little town. They rely largely on farming and fishing from the local land and bodies of water to provide sustenance for themselves and for those who are brought to this world. They are not excessively technologically advanced, but do have things like cameras, simple computers, and so on. The locals, as a whole, worship and revere something they refer to as 'Those Who Were There.' Different locals in different locations across the world of Expiation come with various cultures, traditions, and beliefs. More of these will be uncovered as the storyline of the game proceeds. Their government and life routine is a rather simple one. They operate under a council of elders and consider themselves a theocratic people, most large decisions made by those dedicated to their greater beings. This same council determines how to handle crimes committed in Expiation by or against locals and player characters. Bestiary⇁ There is no official page for the bestiary and though the moderator team is not planning to make one, that plan may one day change if it absolutely necessary and vital to do so. At this time, it is safe for players to assume that one month after initial arrival, some of the animals, beasts, and other creatures from a character's naturally-occurring homeworld will begin to appear on the Expiation continent. There will be no mass overpopulation of these creatures and they will seem realistically integrated depending on the environment they're found in. With regards to Shadows from the Persona verse or other creatures akin to, at this time, these will not be found casually in the world. Despite our real-world view of changes to an ecosystem when new lifeforms are introduced to something they ordinarily are not native to, that will not apply here. At present, there will be no ecosystem alterations as a result of this. In the interim, it is safe to think that these various creatures are acclimating well, and perhaps better than some of the Chosen are. We ask that all players be realistic about what will and can show up. If we notice anything that seems excessive, we will address it accordingly, though suggest if you are uncertain, you contact us for clarification beforehand. Network⇁ There is no global-wide internet or equivalent connector. As such, characters who may arrive with a mobile device or small personal computer will find that they are not able to acquire a signal, but programmes not requiring an internet connection will still work largely as intended, with the occasional mysterious glitch here or there. Locals will outfit all newly-arrived with a golden charm depicting waves of water. This charm is a moderate size and light of weight, can be fashioned onto a necklace, a bracelet, an earring, or even something as simple as a keychain like attachment. Use of this charm allows all residents of Expiation to communicate with one another as individuals and as a community. How does it work? Not even the locals know. If asked, they will simply cryptically indicate that it was a gift bestowed upon them by Those Who Were There. In contrast to many of the world’s more simple forms of living, this charm can accept speech and even translate it to text upon request. When video is used, it comes across in a strangely holographic presentation. This charm also allows for universal communication, eliminating the need for language interpretation and translation. If a character loses their charm, or in the unlikely scenario it’s destroyed, it will take one week for a new one to be crafted and procured, removing the character’s ability to communicate with others over distance. It would be prudent to treat the charms with respect. Currency⇁ The world of Expiation uses peculiarly shaped coins as their form of currency. Currency can be obtained by performing deeds for the locals. Help gather materials, assist on the farmlands, work in one of the shops or other establishments, keep the townspeople safe by slaying the wildlife that comes too close, and so on. Currency will not be tracked. Simply be realistic about what your character might have obtained. The moderator team will be keeping an eye on any spending that seems unfeasible. Death⇁ According to the locals, death too, is a natural way of life. Characters and locals alike can die, much the way they would have in their original worlds. A character who dies will come back a fortnight after their passing, however, under the caveat that something about them has changed, and they may not be aware of it. Upon death, it is not uncommon that locals, such as clinicians or other related fields, may be interested in partaking of some experimentation on the dead for medical or other advancements. For each death a human character incurs, a part of their body will be replaced with synthetic material. What happens when a character no longer has any organic matter left? Who can say for sure. We probably don’t want to find out. For each death a non-human character incurs (read: android or similar), a part of their body will be replaced with a like material, however, will occasionally suffer malfunctions such as short-circuiting, lack of function, or other strange and mysterious behaviours, at the player's discretion. Until characters make the discovery that death includes this or that the locals may be inclined to experiment, consider this information only OOC knowledge. This will be updated as necessary. If your character dies, please notify the mod team. Rewards⇁ Rewards with extra activity can be redeemed by using the rewards page. This includes approved inventory from home, the ability to run one’s own business, and other like ideas. Please see the page for additional details, how to redeem, and other requirements. Drops & Canon Updates⇁ Canon updates, drops, and hiatuses can all be submitted on the appropriate page. When a character drops, there is no great fanfare. They are simply gone, much in the way they arrived. The record of the crime they were accused of will remain since the parchment that contains that information is indestructible. Any inventory that isn’t on their person will also remain in the world or can be claimed by other characters with player permission. Characters dropped and reapplied for later will not initially retain memories of their previous time in Expiation (if played by the same player). They can regain these memories by submitting extra AC on the rewards page. Characters who are going to be updated in canon will be absent for a minimum of one week (or longer, depending on circumstance). Temporarily they will be extracted from Expiation, but upon return, they will not be assigned a new piece of parchment and will otherwise wake up in their lodgings. They will have no memory of extraction. It will be as if they simply had a long, extensive nap. Applications & Reserves⇁ This is a pan-fandom game, accepting monthly applications for video game, live action, book, film, and other related mediums, including original characters. We have a Player Cap of 70. We have a Canon Cap of 10. (This refers to the number of characters per specific canon.) Reserves are a first-come, first-served system and limited to two characters at a time. Due to our player cap, note that we will only accept as many players as we have player slots, however, we will review all applications submitted during the cycle. We will not accept child characters, though extenuating circumstances may apply (read: a younger physical appearance who may be thousands of years old, or a character who may be a construct in an age of single digits). Please consider the nature of the game and the age of your character. A literal child likely would not be suitable to the environment or the concepts we'll be exploring. We suggest teenagers and older. We will not accept applications for characters who we find are inappropriate for the atmosphere. There is a six month wait on applying for characters from a newly-released canon. For example, Fire Emblem: Engage released at the end of January 2023. We would begin accepting characters from it by the end of July 2023 / early August 2023. If your canon character has a lack of canon material / information and you are relying heavily and mostly on headcanon to the point where your character is likened to an OC, we will not accept the application. We accept CRAU characters with the caveat that they must still accurately represent the character in their canon state. If they are too far removed from canon, we will not accept them, but we do understand the desire to move CR without having to completely rebuild it from scratch. We accept malleable protagonists, such as the Warden from Dragon Age, Commander Shepard from Mass Effect, and the Warrior of Light from Final Fantasy XIV. That said, only one of these can exist [per applicable canon] and they must be applied for without preexisting relationships to canon characters aside from what base storyline dictates. (Exceptions will potentially be made for CRAUs and handled on a case-by-case basis.) Fandom OCs, such as World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XIV creatables will also be accepted, however, they cannot be the Champion of Azeroth, Warrior of Light, or equitable title if there is already one in the game, and thus will be treated as OCs who live in and come from these preexisting worlds. The same rules apply as above. They cannot have preexisting relationships with canon characters. (Exceptions will potentially be made for CRAUs and handled on a case-by-case basis.) We do not accept duplicates (for example: Leon from Kingdom Hearts versus Squall from Dissidia Final Fantasy versus Squall from Final Fantasy VIII). You can check the application and reserve pages for additional details, including cycle dates and other requirements.

Comments

[nullificates]

ok but are there ghosts do they exist in expiation?

if so, what's the ghost deal?

[alethiological]

I am very sorry in advance but I have a stinky map question and even stinkier polyglot questions and I play (dun dun dunnnn) ...A Nerd

1) Is the world map on the ooc post the Exact Same as the one you can acquire in-character? Because-

1a) If so, can someone suitably annoyed at the concept of poetic license and with a perfect means of measuring distance accurately math out the scale from Point A to Point B?

For context, I figure anything involving the forest/desert is a no because historically those areas were always kinda fudged (who wants to risk their lives on that sort of thing). BUT Aldrip and the meadowlands around it don't seem dangerous enough to stop this type of terrible hobby.

And for the stinky polyglot questions:

2) Cribbing off this question, specifically the learning a foreign language bit. How long would you guys like to see work put in on learning Aldrip's language? Cause like I took 5~6 months-ish to learn German, but I also had experience with the language + went to school for it. On the other hand, I play a nerd with photographic memory. pls help

3) Regarding the translation charms: if a user fluent in multiple languages consciously hops from one to the other (ie english speech to german speech), would the translator also swap what language they hear?

[expiationmods]

An intriguing question, to be sure, that is challenging for us to answer without giving too much information away regarding the source behind adversities, tests, and tribulations being divvied out to Expiation residents.

That said, the Chosen may witness things that appear to be apparitions or spirits or ghosts. Characters who are capable of sensing concepts like life (or death or other similar phenomena) are capable of feeling something, though it may not be a reflection of what they're normally accustomed to.

For all intents and purposes, the locals native to the continent and surrounding areas (like the archipelago) believe in ghosts. They are thought to exist. To the Chosen, these various experiences may be reminiscent or interpreted as ghosts.

But the simple way to answer this (and a subtle vague spoiler) is that no, technically there are no real ghosts or spirits, but Chosen would likely not be able to determine that (if they believe in the supernatural).

[expiationmods]

1. Correct. The world map page depicts the world map available at present from the locals. The information on the world map page at present is considered common knowledge and known by the locals and can be learned with relative ease by all Chosen.

1A. Theoretically speaking with the right measuring implements, one would be able to map out these areas and could eventually create a scale key that would adequately estimate the distance between various landmarks.

2. Pinning down Aldrip's specific language would likely be a complex situation as the charms used trade languages between characters and their individual worlds, not necessarily using Aldrip's 'primary language.' Technically, Aldrip does not have a home language. For the sake of overarching storyline, we're not able to currently go into further detail on that, but it will come up and be a repetitious subject that is visited.

That said, for a character to learn another character's home language, we would expect that to be treated realistically taking into consideration a character's capacity for learning, their exposure, how they learn, and other such related matters. There is no blanket answer for this, because it would differ from character to character, and their individual circumstances.

3. This is correct. The universal translator exists as a convenient way for all characters to communicate with one another. Without it, the mass collection of canonical languages from multiple fandoms, worlds, universes, and so on, would make communication considerably more difficult and insular between common languages. This is just our way of making it easier for players and characters to interact.

[redlines]

Meowdy mods! I promised I'd be here with some goofy questions and here's some of what I'm super curious about bc I'm simply a litle creechur who must press their face against the world like 👀👀👀👀👀👀

1) About how long would it take to travel from village to village, i.e. Aldrip > Rumpitur, Aldrip > Ketsora, Aldrip > Brorudun and so on assuming there were no complications to slow said travel down? What about a rough estimate to cross the desert and mountains? Especially by foot (since everything else can be mathed out personally w/ horseback/etc)

2) So! I understand that they have refrigerators/washing machines/dryers in Aldrip and that their clothing (if I was reading the previous question/etc right) evidentially spans from the 1700s-1980-90s, but what about technology/machinery as a whole? Given that technology advanced so rapidly in the near-300 years presented in that general timeframe, I'm mostly wondering what we, as players, have to work with in terms of those with more crafty and technologically inclined characters? (note: I'm thinking more along the lines of machinists/mechanics/etc rather than Straight Up Technology ala Tony Stark, just to clarify!) One example I can think of would be in terms of agriculture since Aldrip appears to revolve around that - would they have machinery powered by engines/etc ala certain ""modern"" combine harvesters, or do they primarily rely on livestock to till land/etc? Provided it were the former, would someone be able to create other machines using parts that the locals no longer need/etc such as vehicles (probably not cars but motorbikes, think possibly wwi-ii era in terms of appearance, tractors, etc?) I could see fuel being an issue with regards to combustion engines and all that, but I'm sure things can open up down the line in terms of regains/player involvement/the game progressing over time!

3) In the same vein as the above what would the tech/etc levels of Rumpitur be like, and what of their clothing? I read on the world info that they deal with game, hides, etc which gives me a fun mental image of the local population essentially being viking-esque nagas and w/ that comes with the thought of things being closer to the iron age w/ everything (blacksmiths, traditional leatherworkers, milling, etc). PLEASE CORRECT ME IF I'M WRONG ON THIS ASSUMPTION like I said I'm an awful gremlin who likes to delve into things!

4) If for whatever reason the Chosen chose (huehuehue) to not stay in Aldrip, how likely is it that other locales would let them stay there and/or open their homes to a new temporary roomie? (i.e. living in Rumpitur, etc as other places opened up and traveling back to Aldrip for other things and whatnot!)

5) How's the climate here? Obviously deserts are hot and full of sand which gets everywhere and the mountains are cold, but what about between the two regions? Would Aldrip be on the cooler side because of how close it is to the Critnot Mountains, etc?

[expiationmods]

We're sorry for the wait! There's a lot here and we wanted to make sure we had our ducks in a row before we attempted to tackle it. Hopefully, we can provide some interesting and practical answers for your world-building desires.

01. We really don't have miles or other units of measurement listed (though we were recently asked by another player if it would be possible for someone to develop these with adequate circumstance and implements for measuring).

We want to reiterate that the below are all purely estimates and based solely on the idea that it would be 'normal' or 'typical' travelling conditions (i.e., taking into account regular weather / climate and so on). They may take a day more or less, depending. This is purely approximation and should not be interpreted as an exact science or gospel.

Aldrip → Rumpitur: 1 Day
Aldrip → Ketsora: 3 Days
Aldrip → Tower of Narbeth: 1 Week (7 Days)
Aldrip → Gunma: 1.5 Weeks (10 / 11 Days)
Aldrip → Brorudun: 5 / 6 Days
Main Continent → Isles of Otero: 3 / 4 Weeks

02. Technology is an interesting topic in the world because the only technology the locals have is stuff that was given to them, or bestowed upon them by Those Who Were There. They haven't truly developed any technology of their own, though with the entrance of the Chosen and some of the worlds these individuals may come from, they are likely to inspire the advancement and development of technology.

You made mention of the fields and farmlands, which right now don't use modern technology like tractors or automated tilling implements, which means at present a lot of the work done is very manual labour. In a prior FAQ question that we were asked (dealing with washers / dryers), we explained that the locals tend to not use that kind of technology and prefer a more 'natural' way of life.

Because the technology that they do have is something given to them as opposed to something they've invented, most locals will not have a true understanding of why things work the way that they do. For instance, they have plumbing and artificial lighting, but it is very unlikely that any native to Aldrip (or at present, anyone on the continent) would be able to explain how plumbing works or how electricity works. These are things that they have taken for granted because they were gifts. All they know is that these things work and they don't bother asking for any additional information.

(There is, in fact, a plot reason for why this is and it will be explored as we proceed through the overarching storyline and adversities / tests / tribulations that the Chosen are pitted against.)

We loosely made mention of it above in terms of developing technology as a result of Chosen arriving in Expiation with advancements beyond what the locals are accustomed to, but with the assistance / information provided by the Chosen, it is feasible for new technology to begin development. I.e., motorbikes (Mizuki's, for instance), and other advancements are feasible with time and proper materials or akin to / similar materials as needed.

03. Rumpitur is less advanced than Aldrip and that is entirely voluntary based on their culture. Unlike Aldrip, they don't use plumbing or electricity, and prefer a much more natural way of life. They craft their own weapons, are responsible for their own tailoring, and so on. You could certainly liken them to viking-esque if you wished. They, at this moment, though on friendly terms with Aldrip, have no intentions of joining a more technologically advanced age. They likely, however, express interest and intrigue in these ideas from a purely objective standpoint.

04. Right now, Rumpitur would probably be open to having some of the Chosen stay with them, especially if it's a case of ambassadorship or representation for Aldrip. There would be use in having a diplomatic representative (or collective) responsible for fostering good relationship between these two settlements.

As for other settlements—
Ketsora would likely be open to this in the future. Right now, they are likely to look down on anyone who isn't a native to Ketsora.

Gunma is open to vagrants and vagabonds, however, travelling through the desert is no easy task and would be better suited for players who might be on hiatus for longer periods of time (i.e., a month). It wouldn't be feasible, at present, for characters to stay in Gunma long term if they wanted to be realistically active in person.

Brorudun is still very nomadic and at our current point in storyline, they're not really interested in getting to know other people or cultures, though in the future, we'll be forcing that and it will be another type of adversity for the Chosen to overcome.

05. This is an excellent question and should be considered a point of suspicion from an IC perspective. Unlike how we know the world with an equator and how the rotation of the world affects weather and clime throughout the year, Expiation's continent does not experience this, implying that there is no equator and there's no actual rotation (though something to be questioned as Expiation does experience day / night cycles).

Weather in Expiation is a constant overall, regardless of the passage of time (months, years). There is a cooler morning, cooler evening, warm / comfortable / potentially hot afternoon.

Aldrip, on the whole, would feel likely suspiciously comfortable, though the closer one gets to the mountain base and the Lorentia Caves, the colder it will become.

Brorudun and the Crinot Mountains are consistently covered in snow (also a point to consider, given that there's a dormant volcano in the heart of the mountain where the dragons reside).

About half of Rumpitur would be a similar comfort level to the parts of Aldrip not closer to the mountain base. The other half, closer to the peninsula, would be chillier.

Hopefully this information helps flesh some things out. Lots of good questions asked here. Let us know if you come up with any others that you find you need some additional details on.

[oracledriven]

Hi mods! Quick one this time. What happens to the statues of characters who have dropped? Do they still exist in the garden? Do they disappear?

[expiationmods]

These will still exist! Just because the characters may no longer be in the world doesn't mean they weren't still heroes to the locals. Those statues are here to stay.

[touchofcashmere]

So uh...what would happen if certain actions lead to the free house getting gutted by fire... Is there any sort of fire brigade? Magic? Fines? Community service?

[expiationmods]

We're not certain what you mean by 'free house,' but...

Although Aldrip locals can sometimes be a bit wary of magic, their clerics have access to various elements of magic and would be able to work on extinguishing fires (circumstance might depend on the specifics). They also have some technology granted by Those Who Were There that would assist in that regard. If for any reason the locals were having difficulty getting such things under control, the Chosen with various magical abilities would like also be able to assist.

If this is something that was deliberately done versus inadvertent, it would likely be treated as a crime on a more serious scale and would need to be handled by the council of elders and repercussions issued as necessary.

[touchofcashmere]

Oh I suppose I meant the sort of default housing they get offered until they get their feet under them.

But cool! Thanks!
And it's more like two people trying to cook badly

[emet_sulk]

Hi mods, I figure I may as well ask as part of this thread for consistency:

In your view, would Emet's familiar, Grani, count as a magical, summoned (thus temporary) creature or as a separate entity (requiring a large item regain)?

[expiationmods]

After some discussion, we've decided it would be considered a large item regain, based on its status as a permanent addition as opposed to something temporary. Thus it could be treated as a separate entity.

[eightfoldfiend]

So there are a couple of characters I am considering for when I can play again and this fellow is one of them but before I put any more thought into it I was wondering if Yuber here is appable on the basis of "If your canon character has a lack of canon material / information and you are relying heavily and mostly on headcanon to the point where your character is likened to an OC, we will not accept the application."

Playing him would involve using a metric ton of headcanon as we don't know who or what exactly he is (other than an immortal non-human) or what he wants (other than bloodshed and chaos). I draw from developer interviews but that can only get me so far. Despite him not having much known backstory, he has a lot of screentime. He's present in three games in the franchise, being one of the main villains in the third game. The manga adaptation of the third game uses him even more, and bills him as a main character in general. So we see a lot of the guy, his personality, and how he tends to interact with people and the world around him. His characterization is sparse but consistent. (For a creature devoted to blood and chaos, he actually spends most of his time working with others as their heavy hitter. The guy is a team player.)

Yuber is a character we were supposed to learn way more about and deal with directly in the last game in the series but that game never came. Suikoden has been famously dead for about twenty years now so unfortunately we will most likely never get any answers about this character from the actual canon.

[expiationmods]

Everyone on the team is familiar with Suikoden and we did some discussion on this since your concern is valid. Suikoden is such an obscure fandom that all of the characters in it kind of deal with the same thing where there isn't a plethora of information on them. (Some notably have more than others, but most other characters in Suikoden have the same treatment that Yuber has.)

We feel that while many things about him are a bit esoteric or difficult to have a firm explanation on incentives, motives, we see enough of his personality and how he interacts with others, that you can use all of that in explaining who he is as an individual. All of that to say that we would find him as appable as we would any other main / important character in the Suikoden franchise. This isn't a character we don't know anything about. He's certainly a prominent and important figure, even if his how's and why's aren't necessarily transparent.

That said, because of who he is and the complex nature of his person, his role, what he wants, and so on, we suggest taking some time to think about what you want to explore with him. His process through the games as an individual can be a bit chaotic and potentially difficult to navigate.

[eightfoldfiend]

I'm sure I can get a decent angle going on him if I chose to go with him. He's a character I actually have a fairly long history with. Thanks for the answer!

[individualized]

Hello! I'm considering test driving but I have a very...unique character and after reading all this over I have a few questions.

Echo isn't human, and while I'd like to play her post-death, the body she's in is part of this chosen race that usually has super healing abilities (nerfable of course) so essentially they only die when their body has completely run out of steam. Their actual death occurs by the body disintegrating into sand, and hers was starting this process several canon points before she died. Could she still appear here during or after that?

Another issue that's part of why I prefer this particular point is that she's actually living in someone else's body and it's basically a split-personality situation throughout the series. I'm not really interested in playing the other character, but they basically clocked out before her body was gone so only having Echo from that point is more feasible. Also her character arc reaches its peak just before that which I would prefer to play her after. But again, she was in the crumbling process by then and I'm not sure how that would translate into the whole "injured but stabilized" situation.

I also have a CRAU option for her so I could make it work if those things are issues, but I was just curious!

Oh, and one more clarification question. Sorry, she's complicated. Technically we don't know how long she's been alive and it's likely only a couple of years, but she was basically born 16 (tl;dr created "fully formed" by magic) and that's how old she and others consider her to be. That's okay, right?

Thanks!

[kiseijuu]

Hello mods! I have a question about a potential character with a Weird Situation. Shinichi is an unfortunate horror teen who comes with an alien parasite that biologically / anatomically is his right arm & hand, considering it "ate" and replaced them.... and without being attached to Shinichi, it would die. The parasite does have sentience / a personality, but I don't think it could count as an appable character on its own since it literally is Shinichi's arm & hand now. But I definitely wanted to check with you guys to see how you felt about that kind of situation.

Thank you for your time!

[beshackled]

Are their any limitations on the height of characters in this game? Characters from the unsundered Etheirys in Final Fantasy XIV are shown to be of substantial stature. The character I am currently considering normally stands at slightly under 18 feet. His transformation is much larger.

[expiationmods]

We've had others interested in playing the Ascians from FFXIV previously and the decision has uniformly been that these characters be downsized due to their drastically larger size in the game / canon (including any transformations akin to Emet-Selch's Hades). Whilst we haven't set a numerical limit, we would likely put the cut off to about 7 or 8 feet at maximum. This is likely larger than most of the other characters present in the game, but not so large as to be cumbersome.

[expiationmods]

Although we don't have any like characters in the game, the moderator team is familiar with other characters from other canons who experience similar situations (immediately coming to mind is Kainé from NieR Gestalt / Replicant). For the sake of convenience we would not consider the parasite to be a separate appable character.

As it is part of Shinichi's arm, we would consider it a part of Shinichi as an individual and you would be able to play and provide narrative and introspection for both Shinichi and the parasite.

[beshackled]

Thank you for the explanation.

They tend to be at about three times the scale of the standard height of PCs, so dividing it by three would put them neatly within your height range. Does that 7-8ft hard limitation extend to transformations as well, or would scaling them down by the same factor work?

[expiationmods]

There is quite a bit here and we've had to think about how we wanted to address this. Please see the following:

1. As we do not want any characters attempting to bypass the death mechanic in the game (since we want there to be consequences for deaths), we would request that she have enough of a form that it would be malleable upon any potential death. That said, we would permit the use of self-healing in most situations (especially dire), with the capacity that it may not always work as expected or intended.

2. If the canon point at which you want to play her requires or suggests that this other personality / ego exists, has sentience, holds presence, and so on, we would expect you to play her true to canon. If in canon this is an occasional presence or perhaps something not particularly overt, then we would leave it to player discretion when that situation would arise. We don't intend to police this, but we do expect it to be treated with accuracy and responsibility.

3. When it comes to establishing an age on characters that are constructs as opposed to conventionally biological, we are inclined to permit some leniency depending on mental age of the character. Sixteen is perfectly acceptable, provided that her mental capacity would reflect that.

Hopefully this covers the above in a succinct and comprehensive fashion. Let us know if you have any additional questions!

[expiationmods]

That includes the transformations as well. It is possible we may adjust that for special occasions (such as specific events), but that is circumstantial at best and not something firmly decided. Since the world of Expiation is a frequently-changing one, should that adjustment be made, we would make that announcement as befitting the situation.

[beshackled]

I see. Thank you for the clarification.