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HIATUS/DROP

Taking a hiatus and dropping is pretty straightforward.

HIATUS: IC: There's a strange phenomenon that occurs while traversing the palace—the path changes on you, leading you elsewhere. Turning back leads you not to where you began, but somewhere else. The experience feels a bit surreal, and somewhat whimsical, like a strange dream. The character could certainly notice that something's wrong, especially since there will be no sparkling stars in the ceiling (the evidence that the Constellations are watching.) While this occurs, your character is lost in this odd little maze for what feels like less than an hour tops—though it may have been days. When you take them off hiatus, they finally open the right door or make the correct turn.

OOC: You can hiatus whenever you need if you need an excuse for your character's lengthy absence; you can also wing auto-pilot if you'd prefer.

Should you hiatus for least 3 weeks, you can be exempt from activity for one month, but you can only do this once. If you need multiple hiatuses of this length over the course of the three months this game is running, I may urge you to consider skipping on this round and trying out the next.

DROP: IC: When a character is dropped, they vanish from the competition and its grounds; they're simply gone.. Their bedroom door is adorned with a "VACANT" sign, and their profile page will appear to be torn out of every book—literally, as there will be a part in the spine, where the page once was, where only torn paper remains.

OOC: Dropped characters can be reapped that round, or apped again in another round. More details will come the next time apps open, as reapps can only be submitted when apps re-open altogether.

Please fill out the following form for hiatus/drops.

<b>Hiatus or Drop?</b> <b>Character:</b> <b>Journal:</b> <b>Date Effective:</b>

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CONSTELLATIONS
!! Refer to the Playing a Constellation page if you play a Constellation

To regular lifeforms, the Celestrials is a tournament where lives and wishes are at stake.

To the greater lifeforms known as Constellations, it's their favorite live stream.

What is a Constellation?

Constellations are powerful beings with nebulous identities and all the time in the world, which they use to watch the live stream of the Celestrials—and like anyone else who watches live streams, they comment and simp, I mean, donate coins.

Game-wise, they're NPCs that players can app to play themself.

Where are they?

With no physical presence, you won't ever actually see any of the Constellations. They will provide unnecessary commentary and donate coins towards your plight (so long as you've entertained them,) but they won't ever give you the time of the day to visit in person. For real though, they're watching from very far away.

Sponsorship

Each Constellation wants to sponsor a competitor that intrigues or interests them; someone who might align with their beliefs, or simply someone who entertains them. For the competitor, sponsorship means receiving their stigmas and a bit more financial support. Constellations (usually) want their chosen to succeed!

Despite being as prolific and otherworldly as they are, they're not loaded; the Outer Lord restricts them with a budget, it's a shame.

Stigmas

It's the fanciful term for the powers they bestow upon their sponsored character. Each Constellation comes with three stigmas unique to them. Once the character accepts their sponsorship, they will receive all three stigmas immediately—and unlike their powers from home, these can be used for free.

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COINS AND ITEMS

Coins are an entirely separate thing from the points teams earn from completing trials. They're only awarded by the Constellations, at each Constellation's whim.

These coins are a special currency reserved strictly for the purchase of special opportunities—all things that can potentially help them during trials or simply make their time here a little easier.

★ The coin sheet for characters, that includes regularly available options.
★ The budget sheet for Constellations, that includes some references.


Mundane Items

There is never a need to purchase mundane things in Celestrials. Most random things can be found in apartments or somewhere on the palace grounds. But what if you don't want to go looking for it? And what about clothing? Random non-magic items? Simple weapons that aren't capable of mass destruction or stacking an absurd body count all at once? Turns out it's all free.

Requesting an item is as simple as filling out one of the "Item Request Forms" in the grimoire (nothing that needs done OOCly, just IC flavor.) Assume there's a catalog, too, if you want your character to have Options. Within seconds of submitting it, that item will materialize before your character's eyes.

But characters can only request 2 items a day.

If a character's asked for a brand new outfit thrice in a row, the third outfit will be either a giant flour sack, a photograph of the outfit, some other creative way of misinterpreting it, or nothing but a puff of smoke. The Outer Lord is a petty fellow who isn't above dicking people over if they get demanding or greedy.

That said, it's absolutely within reason for the Outer Lord accidentally mess up someone's valid orders of the day if you want to play with that for fun! You asked for a knife and instead got a putty knife. The wine glass you requested is one of those giant-ass glasses used for decoration. The Outer Lord won't do returns either way.

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Q&A

A work in progress! I still need to sift through the pages and see what kind of questions could come up. If you have any questions that aren't answered here though, just comment to this post OR fire off an email to celestrials.mods at gmail.

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Can my character change their wish during the game?

There's no way for them to change their wish. Once a character's agreed to it in their pre-arrival dream, they're committed to it forevermore—as if they signed a contract.

Do characters have their canon powers?

No and yes; characters do not have access to their powers and abilities, but they can gain access to it with the occasional coin purchase. (It's not a one-time purchase, but instead a purchase for each use.)

Does a character's illness or need for medication remain?

It's up to you. If you want for your character to NOT have this illness while they're here, it'd be within reason to say that the Outer Lord overlooked this in the body recreation process and "failed to include the illness."

If you decide to keep the illness, you can handwave (or sorta play out) the character acquiring any necessary medicine from the Outer Lord's delivery service, or assume their illness is "frozen" and currently doesn't require medication.

How does it work if my character's power revolves around an item?

When they make their first coin purchase on their power, the necessary item comes into existence and remains in their possession. However, just like normal powers, to use it as intended it will still require a coin purchase each time.

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SUGGESTIONS

Disclaimer: Being as Celestrials is a game run from the deep recesses of my heart, I cannot promise I will accept every suggestion, especially if it disagrees with what I have in mind for this game, but I will always give a suggestion thorough consideration.

Comments are not screened; if you'd prefer to suggest something in private, email me at celestrials.mods at gmail dot com.

★ If you'd like to see a certain trial run in Celestrials, or you're pining for a trial with elements of X and Y, please feel free to suggest it here!

★ For those who would like to run your own game—I mean, trial—in Celestrials, please hit me up on discord or fire an email to celestrials.mods at gmail dot com.

★ Any suggestions for the game of Celestrials at large are welcome. Just bear in mind that if I do decide to go "okay, yes, that's a good idea!" I likely wouldn't implement it until the next round.