Information AboutSilklantern |
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A BRIEF OVERVIEW Silklantern is a Roleplaying community dedicated to Robert Jordan 's series, The Wheel Of Time . Started in 1997 by "Qirien Sedai," a student in San Francisco , it was originally called "The Netland White Tower", in reference to the White Tower, center of power and melting pot of cultures in the Wheel of Time series. Originally a collection of fan-written "biographies," detailing the lives of characters set in the Wheel Of Time series, it eventually became an interactive novel, similar to Thieve's World. Five years after its' creation, Netland White Tower experienced a revolution of sorts. Silklantern was the direct recreation of the original site, while several other groups broke off to form their own sites. Currently, there is another site labelled "Netland Towers" but it is considered among some of the site's userbase to be somewhat elitist, hence generally ignored by the greater population of Silklantern. The name "Silklantern" comes from the small lanterns of Chinese origin, that are often hung outside houses during festivals. One particular festival in the Wheel of Time world, held in the month of "Choren", is called the Festival of Lanterns. For a more in depth summary, you can read the About Silklantern page directly from the site. TIMELINE The Silklantern timeline, as presented by the site's authors (this scale shows the most recent first, the oldest last)
:The Netland White Tower re-launches as silklantern, a Wheel of Time news, discussion, and story writing site.
:Iliana, Dawnrider, Davian, and Qirien re-launch the Netland White Tower with a new design.
:Dawnrider re-designs the site.
:As studies and work make growing demands upon their time, Iliana and Qirien step down from running the site.
:Iliana adds a message board. The message board soon takes off and becomes the most popular part of the site.
:Qirien changes the name of the page to The Netland White Tower.
:Aes Sedai and Warders begin to write interactive stories over email. Qirien adds a chatroom.
:Emails pour in from fans asking to add their Aes Sedai to the list. Qirien collects the Aes Sedai and Warder biographies and posts them to her homepage. The list is titled "The Net's White Tower."
:The biographies of Qirien and Iliana are posted to Qirien's homepage on the World Wide Web.
:Letters and postcards are exchanged, signed by Qirien Sedai and Iliana Sedai. The Violet Ajah is created to study and develop angreal, ter'angreal, and sa'angreal. Qirien eventually writes a biography about her Aes Sedai, and Iliana follows suit.
:With the arrival of a new librarian, The Eye of the World appears in the library of a San Francisco school. Iliana is the first to check it out, although the school's Chess Club will discover it soon thereafter. In a few weeks, Qirien also reads the books. ABOUT THE FOUNDERS Iliana, Qirien, Davian, and Dawnrider are the owners and managers of Silklantern, and well respected members of the society. The dreaded thing known as Real Life has claimed much of their time, but occasional visits are still made. They all have biographies which can be found here THE SITE ITSELF The main page of the site has a simple layout, with a forum for Wheel of Time news. To the right is a datebook, on top of a quiz that is routinely changed. Popular rumour is that the site's mascot (of sorts), Tyrax, is actually responsible for changing the quiz, which is why he usually gets an entry to himself, regardless of his relation to the question. To the left of the news is the login panel, some links to information about the Wheel of Time series and its author, Robert Jordan, as well as a changing picture of the covers of the book series. Below the book covers are three final links: About Silklantern , Contact , and Web Tools . The final sections of the main page are the control panel for users to edit their accounts, and the navigation, allowing users to go to any of the main forums. The site has been open for a number of years now, in its present incarnation among others, which means many of the 'oldbies' at that site have come to know each other extremely well. It has come to the point where several members of Silklantern have met up and had 'socials', which is simply a euphemism for seeing the face behind the keyboard for a change. All of these have been quite successful, to the extent of some relationships being formed. Currently, the site is in somewhat of a limbo, or transitive state. A section called the Library, which used to hold many character drawings, and other related Wheel of Time pictures, is currently offline, due to the site being moved to what is known as "Silklantern v2.0" , where a different layout and style is planned on being used. However, this is a work in progress, with no fixed due date. The rest of the site remains fully functional at all times. OPEN FORUMS These are topical forums, where users can post question, receive answers, give their own opinions and even natter and gossip, or post pictures relevant to a certain thread. Anonymous posting used to be enabled on all areas of the site, but was removed at some point. Discussions One of the main areas of Silklantern is the Discussion board, simply labeled Wheel of Time. There, various theories regarding the past, present, and future of the Wheel of Time series come under the scrutiny of scholar and novice alike. Occasionally, when new books come out, there will be those who are unable, or unwilling, to read them straightaway. In these instances spoiler warnings frequent many threads, and will continue to do so until it is considered that most fans should have read the book already. The Tavern The other of the two main open forums is called The Tavern , and is a much more free-ranging discursive area, with topics ranging from the mundane to the personal, going through all the states from wacky to serious within. Of major note are threads which touch upon highly-sensitive areas, for example; religion, politics and war, which regularly invite strong opinions from all demographics of the site's users. Although most threads never go much further than a couple of pages (25 posts per page), there will be the occasional discussion that attracts more attention. However, with such a wide-ranging userbase, many threads risk going off-topic, in what is termed a case of "thread-jacking". This is generally frowned upon, though not always ignored. THE WORKSHOP This is a first stop for all those who have never written much in the way of fantasy or roleplay before, and it is considered good manners to spend a while here building your own and your character's skills and relationships before diving into one of the more serious sections. It isn't always necessary to do so, and some skip it altogether, but those that dive in at the deep end sometimes wind up ruining other people's stories. 101: Biography Critique One of the most intriguiging parts of creating your own character on Silklantern is the ability to write your own character's profile, and this is where users both new and old go to have their efforts appraised, corrected and criticised. Creativity is often in abundance here; one of the best biographies ever seen was a letter from a man's commanding officer in the Whitecloak army, asking the recipient of the letter to have him immediately eliminated. However, it must be noted that modesty is a virtue. All users are advised to be sparing with rare talents and unusual weapons or objects of the One Power. It's much more interesting to roleplay with someone who has vulnerabilities, than with a superhero who can beat the socks off you or channel your hair purple. 201: Introduction to Campaigning This board is where users decide where their first Wheel of Time scene will take place. Everyone is encouraged to just dive in-- a first scene does not have to be Nobel prize literature, and the best way to learn is from one's mistakes. A (usually) busy section, depending on the site's userbase and numbers of recently-joined new characters, the average post length rarely reaches a page, although that is the post length to be aimed for. Many character relationships all over the site can have their origins traced to this section. 301: The Power Player Quiz An alarming number of new users created on the site often turn out what are generally referred to as Power Players, or godmoders, stemming from the video game euphemism of being invincible. As the name suggests, these characters have been written as having more or too many unusual abilities or supernatural powers than is usual. While it may be fun to write as an all-conquering, ever-victorious Saviour or Scourge of Humankind, this tendency leaves very little room for characterisation, making posts monotonous and regular. As a new player, it can be easy to rely too heavily on one's grip of steel or magical ability, rather than strength of character, so this board is designed to help all users develop their characters. Posters are invited to write a scene in which they experience a difficult or dangerous situation, and post it here. Focus on your personality in responding to the situation is expected, rather than on the individual's physical strengths, talents, or special objects. 401: Leadership Seminar This board is for discussion about how the Silklantern interactive story writers can best welcome and teach new players to write well. Many reference posts are stored here, such as how to inject detail into one's writing, and what sorts of weaponry are on hand and available in the world the books are set in. In short, a guide for all those who have learned something and wish to pass it on to the other users of the site, which is available for all to improve upon. As the sidebar suggests, even if one has only learnt something yesterday, there is nothing to stop you teaching it to someone else today. CAMPAIGN Short Chapters This campaign is actually a collection of short stories based in the Wheel of Time world. A multitude of individual stories can be found finished and ongoing in this board, all of which are too individual to merit a full campaign for the user's posts. A high majority of irregular, serious posting goes on here, with posts under a page long being considered too short. Most threads have expectations which the creator should put up at the beginning of their post (e.g: no posts under two pages long), and should be adhered to. Posts in here must be checked for basic spelling, punctuation and grammar, since this is a serious part of creating a character and their story. The posts' cadence is ideally checked, but it is not as necessary as the basics. Short Chapters Full Campaigns This section of the site is where the various long and important stories of Silklantern go on, considered the crème de la crème of the writing crop. Main Silklantern 'canon' stories all go on here, and are adhered to and enforced as part of the story's history. This board is also used for holding focal points of the story, for example; the Novice Quarters, the White and Black Towers and internally, Ajah business. All stories which touch upon or would affect the continuity of these things are posted in here. Full Campaigns List #SILKLANTERN This is Silklantern's very own IRC channel and chat site, located in the AfterNET servers, using the X3 channel services Bot, who is on occasion, slightly overworked. It has been in operation for quite a considerable while, and is home to many users, both active and those who are not, fondly referred to as "Lurkers." The channel is generally a quiet one, rarely going above 20 users at any one time, often less than 15, although this was not always the way. The 'CR', as it is referred to, is not a wretched hive of scum and villainy, but a haven for those who have more time on their hands than they would like to admit. Interestingly enough, the topic rarely strays towards the Wheel of Time at all, although the occasional on-topic discussion will break out, only to be summarily halted as the realisation that this is happening sets in. The current Admin list is only a half-dozen long at present, as a crash of the CR happened, and ownership was transferred to one of the moderators, Jon, rather than the actual Owner or Co-Owner; Iliana or Dawnrider. The CR itself is not to be taken too seriously, and many words and euphemisms for actions are used at all times (see Silklantern'isms for details). The majority of users all know each other reasonably well, despite there being a few users who like to maintain reasonable anonymity. The atmosphere is generally friendly and relaxed, with mockery and wordplay constant themes in which users can fence. The actual written topic of the channel changes on an almost daily basis, from people mis-typing something, or taking a line out of context and finding it amusing, to an extremely funny quote of the day. A couple of quotes from here have found their way to Bash , which is a well-known repository of IRC quotes. The majority of users either log in with the Silklantern site's own Java applet, and a few use their own programs, usually MIRC , but varying to Trillian and Gaim . Affections run wild in the CR, with terms of endearment being used wildly. This abundance of affection, commonly known as "fluff" can take on both literal and figurative meanings, as CR marriages, while uncommon, aren't unknown. What goes on here rarely has any correlation with the users' own characters on the main site. Animals are another usual component of the CR, with many people opting to either being a cat in character or out of character, both housecat and big or wild cats (e.g: puma, lynx). Whole room "animorphs" are rare though, but often produce a startling number of nickname changes, from wolves all the way through gorillas, onto dragons. For more details, see the 'CR Transformations' section below. Despite the adherence to fantasy throughout the site and the CR, real life is usually what is spoken about, including anecdotes both funny and sad. SILKLANTERN'ISMS
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