Legends of Belariath

Distant Lands

Distant Lands are included in the game for the purpose of adding depth to the world of Belariath, and to provide convenient places to incorporate into character backgrounds but they are not without their regulations.

• They must be published on the web site or introduced by the Quests team before being more than personal background. Lands introduced in approved personal quests are considered temporary unless they are later developed and accepted.
• They must be extensively defined. 'Yeah, like ... there's this place where there's loads of sand and people fly around on carpets and the women all have jewels in their belly buttons' isn't quite enough. For a distant land to be accepted, we need a description of the place, details of society, religion and preferably something that makes them attractive and interesting, all while staying within the acceptable limits of the overall game world.
• They must be available for all players to create characters using the distant land as background
• The originator gives up copyright to the use of that land within Belariath and cannot demand its removal. We don't claim any rights to the writings and ideas outside use in this game but we also cannot have some player getting bad tempered and pulling the work which other players have used as a basis for their characters.
• The write up must not include any technology, races, classes or beasts unknown within the existing game without specific approval
• No character gains any status from the distant lands over and above the already existing ability to add such to their backstory, except in that special characters assigned by the admin to Ops may have backgrounds based in these lands if appropriate. Just because you create and add a new kingdom doesn't mean anyone in the Empire will take you seriously and bow down to you.
• No items may be brought from those lands without specific approval. No, you can't suddenly add the Sword of Mystic MumboJumbo to your inventory and claim it was given to you for rescuing the princess of GumboFumbo from a Slumbo.
• All visits to distant lands are held in the quest channel under supervision of quest runners. You cannot decide to take a group of characters off to another channel you created to represent that land and expect to avoid the anti-piracy rule, just because the place is suposed to exist on Belariath. Visits will be held in the Quest channel so that they can be kept within TLI and the characters can gain exp for their storylines. This does not restrict your right to play private scenes in PM or temporary channels but nothing which happens there can be brought back into current storylines within our own channels.