Arborous is a text-based Discord roleplay server. We have built Arborous with three central goals in mind:

• For a small group of experienced roleplayers to be able to enjoy both the character experience and the Narrator experience without the impediment of strict rules that larger servers require.
• For members to be able to choose the experience they desire through the use of Narrator-run regions and organizations that offer a wide variety of experiences, ranging from cozy roleplay to high-risk encounters.
• For members to be able to roleplay without major time commitment without compromising on a fair and immersive experience for everyone involved.

We intend to accomplish this in a variety of ways:

• Through primarily asynchronous, play-by-post (turn-based) text-based roleplay.
• By optional, pre-scheduled and synchronous text-based roleplay.
• By allowing everyone to freely choose to occupy one, or all, of the roles of a Narrator (DM), Helper (Assistant DM), and/or a Player.
• By dividing roleplay into regions. The content of every region is unique and instanced on a holistic scale. If someone does not like the lore, magic system, plot, or style of those running a region, they may choose to never interact with it.

Arborous is a skyland world. It may be divided into three layers:

• The bottommost layer is the Aether, a sea of twisting clouds at the world's bottom. Nothing is known, with certainty, to exist beyond it.
• The middle layer is the skylands. These floating islands may be tiny, or the size of grand continents. These exist as the “land” in which nearly all plot and roleplay will occur on.
• The topmost layer is your typical sky with clouds, a yellow sun, a moon, and distant stars.

Arbors are 'world trees' and the indicator identifying Narrator regions. When someone wishes to take up the role of a Narrator, they must create a new Arbor. Arbors are gargantuan trees–each easily being the width of a large continent–that dot the cloudy landscape. The skylands orbit these trees.

The wider world of Arborous is generally set in a lite Industrial Revolution era. Technology and knowledge are encouraged to vary between Arbors. On average, the printing press is commonplace; and rudimentary muskets and trains are quite rare. Mass production and factory lines do not exist yet. It is necessary and best that the world maintains a traditional medieval aesthetic, even if steampunk vibes regionally arise.

Travel between Arbors occurs via steampunk airships. Travel time varies, but for roleplay purposes, it may be waved.

Narrators are any member who has chosen to create their own Arbor and essentially serve as a DM for that region. This process requires the naming of their Arbor and the creation of regional history, culture, races, a magic system, gods, lore, and plot. Note that gods are optional, and with another Narrator's permission, you may share the magic system of their Arbor. Gods and magic are region-locked, and do not possess any influence or power beyond their designated Arbor unless another Narrator has explicitly allowed them within theirs.

Helpers are any member who has gained permission from a Narrator to essentially serve as a lite-DM for their Arbor region. Their duties, responsibility, and authority are wholly dependent on the Narrator they have chosen to work with.

Players are any member who has created a character, without the purpose of serving a DM-equivalent role. They may freely interact with plots and travel between Arbors. If an Arbor is not to one's liking, one may choose to never interact with it again.

Staff act to maintain the server. We manage the wiki, update our FAQs, enforce the rules, and settle disputes when Narrators, Helpers, and Players cannot.

Arborous is wholly built on the ideal of trust. As such, new member voting is public. The consideration of new suggestions and rule changes are public. Moderation of Arbors falls on the Narrator and Helpers connected to it, with Staff only stepping in if absolutely necessary. Members are the backbone of Arborous. Everything that may possibly be done publicly, and with member input, is done so.

Arborous is a private server and all potential members of Arborous must be publicly voted in. To begin the procedure, someone who is already a member of Arborous must inform Staff of the potential member's interest. A 3-day-long poll will then be publicly posted, with a discussion thread for everyone to discuss their neutrality, favor for, or favor against, the potential member. After the poll closes, if the potential member was not accepted, they may appeal and write a message for the server to consider and debate upon further; if the potential member was approved, then they are abruptly brought into the server and welcomed. The discussion thread covering a potential member's entry will be closed following their entry, so as to insure peace of mind and genuine conversation without fear of retribution upon the member's entry. It is necessary we all speak our minds, including any concerns we may hold.

An Instanced Scene is a roleplay location that must be reliably and repeatably visitable. Examples include shops, homes, taverns, inns, churches, and dungeons. These locations often serve as roleplay hubs and possess a predetermined description and contents.

A General Scene is a roleplay location that does not need to be visited often. Examples include the wilderness and nonspecific parts of town. These locations are often temporary and plot specific.

To begin, choose the Arbor this character will originate from. They may be born in one Arbor and raised to adulthood in the next. Races are not region locked. Magic, however, is. If a character's race somehow grants them innate magical power, it does not function beyond the Arbor(s) that allow that magic system. That same notion applies to any magical abilities, knowledge, items, and otherwise.

Characters are not assigned traditional stats and levels. Instead, characters may be assigned as many notable traits, proficiencies, talents, and skills as the Player likes. To ensure balancing, these are then accounted toward a Power Level. A character's Power Level demonstrates how normal or powerful they are. The higher the number, the more exceptional. This is an essential calculation, as it may be used to suggest whether a character is an everyday individual, or a powerful being similar to what one may expect from typical RPG environments. Plotlines and roleplay scenes may be set at recommended Power Levels, so that Players can know which of their characters may be a good fit.

For every trait, proficiency, talent, and skill a character is assigned, their potential implications must be considered, and then they must be weighed as a positive, neutral, or negative number. They are then tallied, and the total number is that character's Power Level. Power Levels may, and are expected to, change over time as characters grow. It is recommended that you compare your character's Power Level with that of other characters, to see what the ever-changing standards and expectations are.

Characters with low Power Levels are typically best designed for casual roleplay. Characters with high Power Levels are typically best designed for fantastical roleplay. This is not a hard limit, but rather a suggestion.

The traits, proficiencies, talents, and skills assigned to characters should be those that mark them as above or below average from the everyday, generic person. Professions, hobbies, backgrounds, experience, cultures, races, fears, illnesses, flaws, and beyond should all be considered for a well-rounded character.

All items and currency will be logged in Discord character cards. The extent of this inventory may be limitless, however for the sake of immersion, please limit what your character actively carries to what is either normally on their person, or to things that they explicitly planned and brought beforehand for a particular roleplay. Items in the Inventory and not actively carried by a character are regarded as stored away, such as in a character's shop or home.

The use of items should be considered with immersion in mind. Food and drink and potions are consumable, weapons and armor and tools eventually break if not repaired, and a bag full of thousands of gold coins would get heavy quickly. These properties can be ignored for reasonable convenience, however, please uphold them where possible to ensure an immersive roleplay environment.

Characters may roleplay with Narrators and Helpers to acquire shops and homes. These may then become Instanced Scenes.

Characters may only die at their Player's discretion. Narrators and Helpers may strongly recommend, and work with Players toward, a proper death, however it is ultimately the Player's decision.

Significant injury that results in loss of limb or permanent maiming also follow these standards.

Magic is region-locked to the Arbor of their creation, and any additional Arbors that have explicitly received permission to share that system's influence.

Gods also follow these standards. Gods may be depicted as all-mighty creators, or a pantheon. Their lore may be limited to their Arbor, or they may be believed to have somehow created all of Arborous and the various other gods across its Arbors (Emphasis on belief. This is not, and never will be, true.). Furthermore, gods are optional. The culture(s) of an Arbor do not need to have religion if its Narrator and Helpers don't choose to write it in.

Narrators and Helpers may create filler, background characters during roleplay scenes. These are typically irrelevant as individuals and only serve to grant life and/or action to a scene. Generic citizens wandering through town, guards, a bank teller, bandits, and otherwise are all examples.

DM Characters are those that Narrators and Helpers create to uphold a reliable role. They are effectively equivalent to Player Characters, in that they should be given proper thought toward their backstory and Power Level. Named and important NPCS, be they the local tavern bartender to a god, serve as practical examples.