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Legendary Quest

Main characters can complete a Legendary Quest by earning special story badges, to earn a Special Role in the final series of events - i.e. at Arcem Alva's climax
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Premise

The main purpose of the Legendary Quest is to canonise and make clear how a character's story can tie in to the climax of Arcem Alva's overall plot. In effect - we are asking you to help us give you a valuable Special Role at the end, and a satisfying end of story for you.

The achievements for this quest are therefore tied to story content rather than quantity of art, lit, etc. produced. For some characters who have consistently participated in the plot and kept their story up to date, it may in fact be pretty easy to obtain. For others who haven't participated much yet, this is your call to start getting involved! And for those who have been involved but haven't drawn or written it out yet, this is your call to start setting down that story!

The quest is completed using a special series of badges - the Arcana badges, which are themed after the Tarot. With these badges, a character compiles a 'spread' describing their story development.

Arcana Badges

The Arcana badges describe various aspects of personal development and main plot involvement. There is a badge per card - including both Major and Minor Arcana - with a different meaning and achievement assigned to each card. Questgoers obtain the card badges as matches their story, through submitting art, lit, etc.

Below is a brief summary of the cards and their Upright meanings. Each card also has a Reversed version - this and the more detailed descriptions can be found in the Legendary Arcana spreadsheet below, which is also used for quest submission.

Major Arcana

The Major Arcana cards represent different facets of personal development. These are focused on the things that make your character unique, and the things they have experienced that has developed them, or need to experience to develop as a person.

They are split into six categories: Basic, Self, Motive, Obstacle, Journey and Meta, and can be summarised as below:

BASIC

Strength

Strengths

Greatest strength, what others rely on them for

SELF

Empress

Inspiration

What stirs strong feelings in them

MOTIVE

Devil

Desires

Greatest selfish desire or impulse and how it drives them

OBSTACLE

Emperor

Mental Shackles

Concepts, rules, beliefs, etc. that limit their thinking

JOURNEY

Judgement

Karma

Mistake they made or good deed they did that has to come full circle

META

World

Future

An overall outcome or future you would like for them

BASIC

Hanged Man

Weaknesses

Greatest weakness, fatal flaw

SELF

High Priestess

Identity

How they define themself, what they are proud or ashamed of

MOTIVE

Lovers

Key Relationships

Relationships they would risk or sacrifice for*

OBSTACLE

Death

Barriers

Things they need to overcome, e.g. becoming stronger

JOURNEY

Temperance

Personal Compass

Constant they use to stay grounded in hardship

SPECIAL

Tower

Arcem Alva

Not part of the quest. Earned on reaching the end of the story :^)

BASIC

Magician

Special Abilities

Skills or abilities that make them unique

SELF

Chariot

Actions

How they face challenges and solve problems

OBSTACLE

Moon

Aversions

What they fear, hate, avoid at all costs

JOURNEY

Wheel of Fortune

Turning Point

Defining moment that shaped them or changed the course of their life

META

Fool

Themes

Story or aesthetic themes that define them

SELF

Justice

Values

Morals, values or beliefs that drive them

MOTIVE

Sun

Ambition

Greatest goal or ambition and what lengths they would go to for it

OBSTACLE

Hermit

Questions

Big question or uncertainty that plagues them

JOURNEY

Hierophant

Lessons

Life-changing lesson they learned or need to learn

META

Star

Scenario

A scenario you would like them to go through

* Only relationships with mod characters, NPCs, organisations or communities count for the Lovers card - because these are the only relationships we can control as mods for a Special Role. Relationships with other player characters are just as important! We just can't do anything about them.

Arcana Badges

Minor Arcana

The Minor Arcana cards represent the aspects of the main group plot that a character is involved and invested in. These are focused on the character's personal progression through whichever plotline is most important to them, among everything that happens in the Arcem Alva main story.

For these:

  • The card suits represent the plot areas that plotlines may be categorised under

  • The number cards represent character progression in context of a plotline

  • The court cards represent roles taken in context of a plotline*

These map as follows:

Card Suits

Cups

Gods & Higher Beings

​This includes:

  • Aurea, Atros and the Fae war

  • Therras, Mareus and Iridus

  • God Children and other demigodly entities

  • Fire god

  • Religion and religious Institutions

Wands

World Mysteries

​This includes:

  • World magics

  • Otherworlds

  • New creatures & races, e.g. oriads, dragons

  • Natural mysteries

  • Wider world history

Rings

Peoples & Nations

​This includes:

  • Military involvement

  • Politics, alliances, national relations

  • Saving, rallying civilians

  • Helping a city or national cause

  • National history

Swords

Important Figures

​This includes:

  • Mod leaders and NPCs

  • Mod guilds and organisations

Note: The angle here is to be involved with the plotline of a specific mod character/entity

Cards

Ace

Beginning

Start of meaningful interest or involvement, first encounter, new beginnings

2

Companionship

Making friends, influencing others, sharing with or helping others

3

Growth

Making progress, growing in commitment or competence, growing as a person

4

Mission

Taking part in a mission, taking up a responsibility

5

Conflict

Experiencing and/or resolving a conflict, with someone else or with themself

6

Knowledge

Having an epiphany, learning or realising something, teaching something

7

Change

Undergoing a major change of course, heart, mind, viewpoint, etc.

8

Mastery

Becoming skilled and/or knowledgeable, making a big achievement

9

Reward

Gaining something important, seeing the fruits of their labour

10

Dedication

Developing great and real devotion to the 'cause' or some aspect of it

Page

Supporter

Being a support, contributor, general helping hand*

Knight

Protector

Being a protector or defender in any way (e.g. physical, social, emotional, moral)*

Queen

Guide

Being a mentor, teacher, advisor, informant*

King

Authority

Being a leading figure, expert, one who is widely looked up to or otherwise important*

* The court cards can only be achieved if the character makes a real, lasting commitment to perform the role described. It doesn't need to be officially sanctioned IC, but it does need to be meant from the heart and meant to stay. Performing the role as a once-off, for a temporary period, or just in name without intention to actually do anything about it does not count.

Earning the Badge

Arcana badges can be earned in two ways - by gallery submission for most cards, or by secret submission if you feel the information contained is too spoilery to be posted publicly.

Gallery Submission

 

The normal way to earn the badges is by gallery submission. For this, you must submit a finished piece of art, lit, etc. to one of our galleries that:

  1. Claims the relevant badge in the submission form, and clearly states how the piece meets the badge requirements in the gallery description.

  2. Depicts or is otherwise on topic to the character's achievement. This can be a direct depiction of a scene or something more abstract, as long as the relevance is clear.

  3. Demonstrates personal flavour, e.g. the character's feelings, use of special skills, personal situations

  4. Demonstrates personal meaning, i.e. why it matters to the character

Old gallery submissions can be nominated for a badge. To do so, update the description with all necessary info and submit a Claim for the badge.

After submission, the mods will then judge whether the piece meets the badge requirements and leave a comment on the piece with the verdict. If the piece is judged to have earned the badge, it will be added to the character's profile.

Secret Submission

 

For card submissions that you wish to keep private (e.g. a hidden strength you don't want to reveal yet), you can send a confidential submission via the Secret Arcana form linked below. For cards of the Meta category only, this can be a written paragraph whose content meets the badge requirement via the same form. Remember to save the edit link in case you want to amend it later!

Please use secret submission only for pieces you feel need to be confidential for story reasons. Public gallery submissions are still the first preference.

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The Quest

The Legendary Quest consists of creating a series of gallery submissions with Arcana badges, which together describe the story development and potential for a character.

Eligibility

The Legendary Quest is open to:

  • Active main characters only

  • Members with no official warnings only

Each eligible character may complete one Legendary Quest each.

Doing the Quest

To complete the quest, take a copy of the Legendary Arcana spreadsheet and fill it out:

When working on it, please keep the following recommendations in mind:

Collect many badges...

You can submit any piece of art, lit, etc. for an Arcana badge, and we recommend doing so for every piece that contains story you like and/or value. This is to give you options, as only pieces with an Arcana badge can be used for the quest.

...But use only the best ones for the quest

However when you make the final quest submission, pick and choose only the ones that represent the storylines that matter most to you - i.e. the ones you actually want us to consider for the Special Role. At this point, story cohesion matters and more is not necessarily better!

Keep updating as story progresses

You may find that as the story goes on, things change for your character. Maybe a big conflict gets resolved, or their aims change. That's ok and that organic growth is great! Just keep the quest updated, so that when it's submitted it's still accurate. Note that you can keep important developments in there even if they're completed - e.g. a hard lesson they learned may become something they can teach instead at the end. There is value in tracking a full narrative.

You get what you put in

The quality of the Special Role you get will depend on the quality of the work you put into the quest. If you want a role that's more meaningful to your character, then aim to make a meaningful quest submission. That means the content being detailed, coherent and giving good insight into what matters to your character and their current place in their story.

Don't meta-game other peoples' quests

Because of the way some card prompts are, quests may contain information that’s secret in canon, meta only, or otherwise not supposed to be easily accessible. Please be careful not to metagame what you see. Don’t assume your character would know, and don't assume it's ok for you to insert yourself or your character - it will depend on the person and the subject matter so always ask and don’t pressure people if they say no or seem reluctant. If someone is unwelcomely pressuring you about it, please let the mods know.

Supplementary Material

If you feel it would be beneficial, you can also add supplementary pieces that you think are informative or helpful. They won’t count towards quest completion so there’s no limit on what supplementary pieces can be (e.g. gift art, doodles, twitter rambles are all ok) - however keep it succinct as they are just meant to be supplementary.

Quest
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Completion Criteria

The minimum criteria to complete the Legendary Quest are:

Major Arcana

3 distinct cards

from different categories, with at least one from the Basic category

Minor Arcana

5 distinct cards

of the same suit, with at least one number card and one court card

The full quest must...

  • Be cohesive in the plotline(s) included

  • Demonstrate the character's personal investment in some part of the group plot

  • Focus on things that can be relevant for the final event(s) - e.g. a challenge to overcome, a fatal flaw to expose, a strength to show off, a redemption/corruption plot to climax

The full quest may...

  • Include multiple plotlines (we will consider all options)

  • Include doubled up cards (e.g. for two plotlines in the same category, or a point revisited)

Quest Submission

There will be a set submission period for Legendary Quests, closer to when the final events will start. Until then, the full Legendary Quest can be worked on but not submitted. We are also planning to run set check periods for the quest, for those who want feedback - details will be announced when they happen.

F.A.Q.

What if I don't know what I want for my character?

Just fill out the quest with things you consider important to their characterisation and we’ll figure something out. No guarantee it’ll be satisfying, but an attempt will be made.

What if the story I want is not a heroic one, or it's not a good end?

That’s perfectly fine, and that’s what some of the reversed cards are for. You can fill the quest with the intention of letting your character fail their big test or what have you. If you’re after a bad outcome, just please let us know through the quest so we can plan accordingly because that will not be the first assumption.

My piece fits under multiple cards, which do I pick?

Check the Legendary Quest Guide for advice on how to pick cards. That said, don't worry too much as mods will advise via private note if we think there's a better pick.

Can I get multiple cards with one piece?

No, one card for one piece.

Can I change my mind about what card badge I want after I submit a piece?

No, for the sake of our sanity once you've submitted for a badge you can't change it.

I have a piece I really want to use for the quest but it doesn’t match any card. What should I do?

Ask in the #questions channel and we can either advise or consider adding something you can use. Otherwise you can always enter it as supplementary material.

I can’t fulfil this quest while keeping in character. Can the quest or badge criteria be changed to suit characters like mine better?

The short answer is: No, because the quest is written around what we (mods) need from you.

The long answer is: Not all characters are suited for or would benefit from this kind of Special Role. And that’s ok! Some characters are not supposed to care about bigger things, or undergo change, or be put through challenges. Some characters’ stories are self-contained and don’t really intersect with the wider group plot. That’s totally fine and valid - but those characters are the types who we can’t write a good Special Role for.

If you really want to do the quest, then you can start developing your character in a direction that makes them more able to fulfil it. Use the cards for ideas. If that feels off to you, then honestly just forget about the quest and Special Role and keep doing your thing. It’s still perfectly ok and perfectly possible to enjoy AA to the end without all of this.

Can I collect Arcana badges without intending to submit a Legendary Quest?

Sure, if you want to.

FAQ
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