1.No Pini elves. Cutter, Rayek, Leetha and the others don't exist in the world our elves live in, so they won’t appear in any shape of form in this holt.

2. No High Ones. The High Ones are all missing. Perhaps we will run across one somewhere but if we do it will only be briefly and he or she won’t be available for adoption.

3. Don’t play another person’s character without permission. It’s no fun for the other person if you are controlling their character. _If_ you have a player’s permission you may play his/her character(s), but only then. Usually if a member is going to be gone for a while he or she will ask someone to play his/her characters or might ask the Holt to treat them as NPCs.

4. This Holt is R-rated. If you wish to join Survivors of a Lost Holt you should be at least fifteen years old. Violence and adult scenes will be a part of the rpg. This doesn’t mean it will be the focus of the game (yes, we do have a plot) but it may occur. These situations will be marked with an adult label in their subject line (in the Yahoo!Group and of course in the archived RPGs) so you don’t have to read them if you don’t want to. Artwork with nudity will have the adult label as well. NO pornography will be accepted. Violence shouldn’t be too graphic either; you will have to judge this by yourself. Keep things tasteful people!
No one will be forced to partake in adult situations or violent scenes in the rp. If you want to skip some part of the rp, say so and an alternative thread will be created for your character(s). The best way to avoid others' characters flirting with your character is to play a child. If your and someone else’s character end up in an adult situation and you feel it’s going too far “pull down the curtains”.

5. Magic will be limited. Your elf can have latent abilities, meaning later on they may learn how to use this magic, but in the beginning all magic wielding elves have been kidnapped by the trolls. I really want to keep it magic free for a while just to give the elves a challenge of surviving without magical help.
If you _really_ want a magic you may try for it, meaning that you see that it’s available on the magic list, create a character who possesses it, think up a interesting enough story and sent it all to me. Can't promise anything though.

6. Please be active. This is not the most fast-paced of Holts, but we still like to role-play and that is hard when someone doesn't reply for a long while. We're quite laidback about "attendance", but if there is a role call that you don't reply to in a week or if we haven't heard from you in a month or two (without giving us a reason before you disappear) I'll assume you've left. Your elves will then either be killed off or put up for adoption (if you have any special wishes for what happens to your elf if you leave the Holt, please tell me).
You can of course take time off from the rp. Real life has to go before the fictional ones and you can have as long a “vacation” as you want _if_ you tell us others that you are taking time off. Otherwise we might think you have left the holt.

7. Character switching. If you feel that your character for some reason is too hard or no fun to rp anymore, but you still want to be a member of the holt you can always create or adopt a new character. But the old character has to go somewhere. I’d rather not have all elves just disappear so here are three other options;
1. Put the character up for adoption, but let him/her remain in the tribe. While waiting to be adopted you can ask someone else to move the character around so s/he doesn’t disappear into the background.
2. Killing the character. It could be in a hunting accident, a battle or whatever suits the current rpg best.
3. We will run into other elf tribes. You can always have your elf grow tired of wandering around and stay with this new tribe.
(All this is more an idea than a rule).

8. There is no character limit. You can play as many characters you want, but please keep them all active. Also think about making adoptables rather than other elves for you to play. Running a whole family of elves might be fun, but it is much more fun if the family is played by a variety of people, it encourages interaction and such things.

9. Recognition is random; love- and lifematings are not. In other words: Recognition can only be decided by the Holtmistress while the players themselves decide with whom and when their characters mate. If more than one member is the owner of the characters who are going to mate the members agree with each other before anything happens. If one player is against the mating it doesn’t happen.
The only elves “safe” from Recognition are the children. All other elves always risk Recognition, no exceptions. Remember that Recognition doesn't have to mean elves loving each other and sticking together for life - especially now when there most surely will be Recognitions between elves from very different tribes and cultures. Most do lifemate though (getting to know every inch of someone’s soul can do that to you) so if you want your elves not to lifemate there has to be a reason for it; not a complicated one but a better one than “they didn’t feel like it”.
Also remember that the elves are rather open-minded in their relationships. Don’t limit your elves to male-female relationships. If you have a problem with this you shouldn’t join this holt.
If you want to conceive outside of Recognition please ask me, and depending on the situation and such I might allow it.

10. Everyone's allowed and encouraged to contribute ideas to the rpg's plot. A good Holt does not have a storyline dominated by one person. I need help with ideas and stuff. For the most part any stories that deal with your elf can be used, but if your ideas for a story involve major changes to the Holt you should check the storyline with me first. I wouldn’t like someone randomly stumbling across humans and starting a war without permission.

11. I have the right to change rules and such if I feel it’s necessary. Of course I need you all to have FUN!