April 2022 Roundup -- new prompt!

Anathema celebrated its first birthday! Lots of giveaways, including a raffle for a brand-new Ley Token, were held! Three story prompts were available for all characters. As part of the celebration, Anathema received a full coding facelift, new pages, and a brand new shop, along with other gameplay updates and revamps. Read on for more details, or visit the anniversary event bulletin for more info!

Thank you again to everyone who spent time with us during Anathema's wonderful first year. We are so excited for the future, and know this year will be even better!

🔮 new faction: the mage court

As Archon Miriam closes her fist around the Order and replaces its former leadership with loyal Witchfinders, there are Mages in Ivras who will not stand idly by. Though once political enemies, the mages Prince-Consort Sabora and Enchanter Guro have created a fragile alliance, rallying support from respected Mages across the continent to fight back against mage oppression.

The Mage Court is made up of a wide array of politicians, renowned scholars, industry leaders and respected artisans. This group of influential mages have very little in common besides a desire to see Miriam removed from power, and the Witchfinders' efforts sabotaged. To read more about this Faction, check out the revamped Factions page!

Characters old and new are welcome to vie for power within the Mage Court, and steer the Court's efforts to thwart Miriam's Witchfinders. This faction is now yours to shape!

📜 new codes and content!

In an effort to be ever-more mobile-friendly, legible, and easy to navigate, Anathema's website received a full overhaul of HTML and CSScoding! All of Anathema's information pages were edited, reorganized, and consolidated, to make information easier to find. An additional links menu was added to every page of the website for simpler navigation. The badges page and familiars and pets page were added! The item shop was recreated from scratch, item art was updated, and art and descriptions were added to our character folders. We also created a master PSD file of all Anathema profile image templates, and redesigned the informational channels in our Discord server. Whew! That was a lot.

🌑 new shop: the ley lodge + special character types

The unstable magic permeating Ivras has created passages to locations unknown. The Ley Lodge is a mysterious place beyond our world, accessed through doors that appear wherever magic and fear converge.

Anathema's new shop, the Ley Lodge is full of powerful new items that allow players to create new kinds of characters and access other valuable in-game rewards. The first six items (drawn below by mod Apel) are: Dented Helm, Radiant Chalice, Ruinous Ichor, Shattered Totem, Luminous Plume and Tattered Banner.

Along with this update come five new character types: Lich Mages, Paladin Mages, Veteran Mages, Cursed Non-mages, and Legendary characters. Check out the Ley Lodge page for more information!

✨ may 2022 story prompt

Every month, we provide a brief narrative prompt, with four potential choices for your character to make. Draw or write your character's choice, and receive double gold for your response! Mages will earn a mystery stat point based on their choices, which will be revealed with the next month's prompt.

Prompt responses should tag this profile, and must be worth at least 1 gold of art or writing. Collaborations and roleplay are not valid responses to the monthly Story Prompt.

Click here (or scroll down to this bulletin's comments!) to view the prompt for May!
To see the rewards for April's prompt, click here!

🐎🐖🐄🐫🐐🦌 april's new arrivals:

Meet all the characters who joined us during the month of April:

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May 2022 Story Prompt:

The Mage Court's first meeting was a complete disaster. Enchanter Guro and her extreme battlemages roared that now was the time for direct action to reclaim Namarast from the Witchfinders, while Prince-Consort Sabora's much larger crowd of moderates insisted that now was the time to lead by example, and show the panicked public that Mages were capable of a civil, organized diplomatic response. In the clamor of all sides wanting to be heard, nothing was decided. The meeting was adjourned with the hope that next time, organized efforts to respond to Archon Miriam and her Witchfinders could begin.

what does your mage do?

Come up with a plan to organize politically, and negotiate with Miriam. Though he's occasionally misguided, Sabora has the right idea: mages can't afford bad press, and surely Miriam could be made to see reason. Your character receives -1 Cost. If your character already has 0 Cost, you may choose to take +1 Corruption instead.
Orchestrate a demonstration of force. Guro has the right of it; Witchfinders must be shown that mages won't simply back down, and mages everywhere should know they have nothing to fear. Your character receives +1 Power.
Skip the politics and roll up their sleeves. If the mages of the court can't get things done, your character will go their own way to hinder the Witchfinders, or to bring help directly to those who need it. Your character receives +1 Discipline.
Fight the Witchfinders, and fight the Order. Negotiation and compromise got Mages where they are today. Mages shouldn't be trying to take back Namarast, they should be trying to burn it down! Your character receives +1 Corruption.

what does your non-mage think?

This is all very frightening. Even at their most organized, Mages bring chaos. Your character doesn't hate mages, but it is hard not to be afraid for the future.
The Order should crack down on this "Mage Court" before it gets out of hand, and more people get hurt. Magic and monsters are running rampant, and only the Witchfinders are capable of doing something about it.
Things are already bad for Mages, and they could get even worse. It's good that Mages are joining to have one voice, but what if they say the wrong thing?
The uproar among Mages is confusing. Why are they acting like Ivras is at war? Don't they want there to be fewer monsters? Why won't they just do what the Witchfinders say?

Prompt responses must be worth at least 1 gold (i.e. at least 100 words or at least an uncolored headshot).
Upload your response like any other art or literature submission, tag this character profile, and claim your gold; collect double your total count for prompt responses. Responses to this prompt should be done individually, one character per response.