Although Aetherius MUCK encourages its players to be creative with their own characters and stories, to start off with there is a central plot meant to foster activity and interaction, both between the two opposing groups and in general. As such, several characters have been created to fill the necessary roles. They all have general personalities and purposes, but none are fully developed, in order to give their players leeway to do so.
That said, just as there are rules for playing on Aetherius, there are additional rules for the players of feature characters.
Feature characters are expected to connect for a minimum of ten hours per week, and to spend a good portion of that involved in RP. More activity is preferred, of course, but we would rather you RP for ten hours per week than spend fifty hours idling about and doing nothing.
Feature characters, as stated before, are important to the plot. Therefore, the staff of Aetherius reserve the right to recast any of them should the player fail to meet connection and RP requirements. Exceptions will be made for extenuating circumstances—if you will be without internet access for an extended period, and notify the staff of this, you will not have your FC taken away. However, if you suddenly drop off the face of the game for two months with no warning, don't be surprised if you return to find that somebody else has taken over your feature character.
In addition to recasting characters as needed, the staff of Aetherius also reserve the right to NPC any feature character IF one of the following conditions apply:
That feature character has not yet been cast, and is needed for a plot-relevant scene,
or:
The player of the feature character has been absent for more than two weeks with no notice to staff.
Staff will not NPC a feature character for any arbitrary reason. For example, they will not do anything with your FC if you haven't connected for the last three days. If you play an FC and are on vacation, they may fill in for you IF you request them to; otherwise, they will leave the character alone.
In the event that you ask a member of staff to take over your feature character while you're away from the MUCK, you will, upon your return, be given a synopsis of what has happened with the character during your absence, as well as copies of any logs pertaining to the character. Staff will never kill or grievously harm your feature character while you are gone, and nor will they change any major relationships, beliefs, etcetera, but the purpose of NPCing needed characters is to progress the plot. Therefore, if there are things you'd like/would NOT like your FC to accomplish while it is being controlled by staff, please let us know.
Although a feature character may be NPCed by staff after two weeks, it is at risk of being actively recast after a maximum of 30 days have passed with no word from its original player.
Again, these characters are important and, as such, their players will be privy to any important plot points before the rest of the MUCK. As much of the direction the plot takes will be determined by the players, such points are few, but they do exist. We understand that people will do as they wish, but we do ask that you not spoil any surprises for everyone else.