Hello Everyone,

This is a very important set of updates regarding some standing Voice Policies regarding species. I wanted to get this out ASAP with some immediate changes, as well as news on things that will happen over the next month or so.

Grandfathered Species

The grandfathered species policy and removal of access to legends-only species have been a bed of intense discussion since its inception. Following discussion with the Grand Master and others on the DC we are going to be making some pretty drastic changes to how this works going forward.

Grandfather species will be going away, if a species is available in our system, it will be available for everyone. This process will take a bit of time, as several species need a bit more of a review and clean-up before we open them back to general usage. This also comes with some caveats.

Any in system legends species that appears in the new canon, and has a conflicting description that majorly changes the species, the new canon version is the one we will follow. For example, Omwati are canon but are very different than the legends-version in our system. They are being reviewed to change to be in line with the new canon.

To this end, several species that ARE named dropped in canon have been removed from grandfathered-only. Cathar, Coynite, Draethos, Echani, and Neti are now all available for anyone to utilize.

Additionally, our focus on species is keeping them all “similar” in terms of needing to be humanoid-based lifeforms, balanced as much as possible, etc. Others have the issue of just not being used at all anyway. Due to this several species will be completely locked out, namely Shards, Shi’ido, and Blood Carvers.

The remaining Grandfathered species are going to be reviewed and cleaned up over the coming weeks, and after GM/DGM approval, will be joining the others as available to everyone. Should any of them not be viable they might be locked out as well, but we do intend to see most of these be utilized. Once approved, I will issue a supplemental report to alert everyone that they are available.

New Species Approval

The policy for new species approval, is also getting changed.

We will now allow proposals to add legends-only species. As mentioned previously, any species that is legends, and becomes canon again, will be reviewed to keep it in line with the canon version. Policy now reads:

Preference to current canon species is given, however, legends species are acceptable for submission. The information for the species be it canon or legends must be more than a small stub. Please keep in mind that even with an extensive Legends article, the information introduced in Canon will take precedence and override Legend's information.

As before however, I want to highlight the point that regardless of legends or canon status, approval of a new species still resides with the GM/DGM/Voice. Should we feel a proposed species is not a good fit for any reason we hold the right to not add it.

I urge anyone with an interest in a not-in-system species to familiarize themselves with the Approval Policy before attempting to submit a species to be added.

LOREFEST October is also coming quickly, so check it out for a chance to earn some crescents and bonus Clusters of Ice!

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