Crafting Standards
Overview
NOTE TO CRAFTERS
- If ever in doubt, simply contact Amarisse! She will work with you to the greatest extent she can. The easiest way is to GIVE LETTER TO AMARISSE with your questions and she is usually prompt in responding.
- Crafting standards evolve. Just because something was approved 10 years ago does not mean it will now. While you are more than welcome to (politely) make your case for something via Amarisse, do know that if you only offer a public design from 5 years ago that is a single example of what you wish to craft, it will likely still be rejected.
Appearance Description
- Should not begin with a capital letter and can NOT end with a period.
- The appearance should not contain any commas.
- Also the appearance should be kept short (maximum of 50 characters).
- Don't make a sentence out of it.
- Don't write about any actions or reactions the item is having.
- Generally, if something requires capitalisation, it should not go in APPEARANCE. This is allowed on a case-by-case basis, and is usually reserved for org items or special requests previously approved.
- If it is an org item (house/city/etc) and it is not submitted by the org leader, it will likely be returned pending approval from said leader. If you wish to be proactive you can have the person GIVE LETTER TO AMARISSE with the explanation, but do not expect the crafting guild to go on a hunt to see if your design was accepted!
- If the item in question references a Divine, you need to have approval from said Divine. The Garden knows who works on crafting and will likely give them a heads-up, so if you do not have approval, it will likely be rejected. If the Divine is dead or dormant, then you have your answer (there might be very special cases where this is overlooked, but it would be rare and you should discuss with Amarisse beforehand).
Dropped Description
- It must be a complete sentence, with a period on the end.
- Dropped description should be kept to about one line. (maximum of 80 characters)
- No exclamation points, no question marks, no multiple periods.
- The main noun in the sentence must be the same as the pattern name.
- Things like "A cloak is hanging from a peg here." are not acceptable. If it were dropped on the highway there is no peg to hang from.
Examined Description
- Must begin with a capital letter and must end with a period. Use full sentences. Multiple sentences are fine.
- Be descriptive.
- Examined description should be a few sentences long describing what the item looks like.
FirstEaten & ThirdEaten Descriptions
- Maximum of 240 characters.
- Do not force actions upon the eater unless they really make sense.
- Include some version of the 'appearance' description in the thirdeaten message.
Smell & Taste Descriptions
Design Guidelines
General
- Descriptions should not impose an opinion on the reader or force a reaction from them.
- Do not force assumptions. Things such as "This dress was obviously made by a madman who loves seeing women dress provocatively", or "This piece was made by a tailor wreathed in chaotic power", or "This was obviously made with..." will be rejected.
- Nothing that a craftsman could not reasonably create.
- Clockwork is inappropriate for the Achaean setting and may not be used.
- Use appropriate materials. You can't make a shirt out of living skin or pure gold.
- Metal that may not be used is mithril, orichalcum, and bloodsteel.
- Subjective statements and/or marketing materials: be careful with this. Examples of things to not do: "This wedding dress is perfect and is perfectly suited for any chapel." "The earrings are so flashy they are a great conversation starter." "No greater declaration of love could be made by any jewel than by this diamond ring..." "This hat with fake bunny ears is the most adorable thing ever."
- Hyphens. Often overused, and used incorrectly! General guidelines: Yes in words, e.g. passer-by. No as a replacement for a comma e.g. "A gold rose blossoms on the face of the ring - shining lustrously in any available light"
- Nothing live/moving. Plants, flowers, fur, beads, splinters of wood, so long as they are firmly dead/inanimate, are fine. A pendant with a dried flower pressed between the backing and glass is fine. A crown of twigs and blooming rosebuds is not (the twigs are fine, the roses are not).
- Nothing magical or something that might be considered as such. "The rubies surrounding the diamond pulsate with a rich glow, as if it were a heartbeat." Rubies cannot pulsate on their own.
Cooking Specific
- The following anachronistic foods and terms are not allowed: pizza, tacos, hot dogs, pancakes, waffles, fondue, jellybeans, gummianything (bear, worm, etc).
- No ingredients may still be alive.
- Food may not have a face.
- No spilling or dripping, not everyone will eat messy.
- Do not force reactions to the food on the eater. Not everyone will find the dish delicious and slurp it up happily, etc. Stick to the food itself, not what the eater does when eating it.
- A working repository for discussion on the origin of certain foods may be found here.
Jewellery Specific
- Available base materials are, in order of value: Bone, Steel, Silver, Gold, Platinum.
Tailoring Specific
- Achaea does not have "modern" materials and clothing features like velcro, denim, polyester (or any synthetic fabric), zippers, sweatshirts, and so on.
Language
Spelling
- Use UK, not US spellings. (Except when using measurements, in which case use Imperial.)
Punctuation
- Organisation names should be capitalised.
- Commas
- If you have multiple adjectives in front of your noun, they usually need to be separated with a comma. (a long, blue nightgown). NOTE: commas in APPEARANCE are not allowed - save the detailed description for EXAMINED.
- A simple way to figure out if a comma is needed is to see if the word AND will fit between the adjectives. Not everything can be broken up with the word AND. In cases such as this, you do not use a comma. (a long hunting cloak)
- Emdashes
- These are used when you want to add something that expands upon what you have already written, and are especially important after the sentence should have been closed. (The flavour of the secret ingredient - garlic - lingers in your mouth.)
- Hyphens
- Some adjectives do not describe the noun. Instead, they describe other adjectives. When this happens, they should be hyphenated. (a red-hued cloak)
- When there is more than one word like this, you need to include all of them in the hyphenation. (a red-and-orange-hued cloak)
- When adjectives such as these come after the noun, the hyphen is not used. (a cloak with a red hue)
- This hyphen still applies if the adjectives come after the noun only to precede another related noun. (a cloak of red-hued silk)
- Semicolons
- Semicolons are used to join two complete sentences that are related to each other.
- The sentences must both be complete and must both touch on the same immediate subject.
- The second complete sentence is not capitalised. (The ring has different types of gems; sapphire chips surround small emeralds.)
Grammar
- The possessive form of common nouns ending in 's' should retain the possessive 's', example: dress's.