Guidebook

Introduction & Rules

Premise

Sonder is centered around the betrayals and tensions of court intrigue. Based loosely on the Jacobite rebellions in the 1700s, a queen from the Highlands is chased from her throne, launching the crownlands of Rionnach into turmoil. A new king, one from the mainland, currently holds the crown. Though some are loyal, rebels seek to usurp him and reinstate the true king—if there’s such a thing at all.

As of Autumn 1710: Rionnach has splintered in two, losing the Highlands—now dubbed Saora—to King Jacob. King Adamh now must suffer the embarassment of losing what his forefathers had once conquered. What remains of Rionnach is just the Lowlands and the Mainlands, but even that dominion often feels tenuous.

OOC

Genre: Sonder is a mature semi-realistic wolf roleplay focusing on the rise and fall of kingdoms. Blending in aspects of human society in the 1700s, wolves on Sonder bend realism by living in crumbling cottages, making fires, crafting teas, engaging in a food and medicine based economy, and enjoying a variety of professions. Additionally, wolves can interact with supernatural creatures such as leprechauns and the Fae through random events, further enriching and derailing their lives.
OOC Accounts: Every user has one OOC account that they link their IC accounts to.
Time: Sonder runs on liquid time and 1 IC YEAR = 48 OOC WEEKS.
Word Minimum: There is a soft 150-200 word minimum. This helps give your writing partners a little to work with.
Characters: Users are not limited on characters, but only 3 can be outlanders. Every outlander after your 3rd needs to purchase a +1 Outlander item from the shop and every character after 7 needs a +1 character item purchased from the shop.
Sizes: Avatars: 250x300 px. Tables: With the new code, to be mobile friendly, it is best to not specify a width and instead set a max-width to 600px.
Age Minimum: All users must be aged 18 years or older.
RPG Rating:
Thread Prefixes: AW: All Welcome (Anyone can join), M: Mature Content (Gore, Sexual content), P: Private (Post only if you have been invited to the thread), E: Event (Often used by NPC accounts. Usually "All Welcome" by nature).
Art: No AI art is allowed on-site or in discord

IC Rules

Respect and trust are core pieces of Sonder culture and as a result, we operate on an honor system. Users are trusted to update all aspects of their profiles (even achievements), not abuse any loopholes they may find, and to treat one another with respect and kindness. In return, users trust staff to operate fairly and to focus more on SWP events and fun festivals than any sort of policing. Just think of Sonder as a lovely, chill coffee shop—we're all just here to vibe ♥

Mature content must be marked with an M prefix in both the thread title and the discord tag. Sexually explicit scenes (graphic innuendo, explicit reference of genitalia, etc.) must fade to black. Pedophilia and incest plots of any kind are banned.

Theft is treated extremely seriously. Do not steal code, artwork, character content from media or peers, etc. If something inspires you, check in with the creator and see if they're okay with influencing your work.

Characters may interact with dilapidated castles, run-down cottages, cracked bowls, books, scraps of fabric, and other relics from the human world. As far as your characters know, humans have never existed and they have no concept of what they are. Note: In general day-to-day life, wolves cannot be adorned with items (such as necklaces, glasses, scarfs, masks). However, we often have magical realism events where wolves can don these exciting items throughout the course of the event.

NPC use is allowed within reason. You can have existing NPC family (such as prior children or a spouse), NPC friends and co-workers (such as a boss that employs you or little old ladies in your neighborhood), and you can kill and/or get into fights with NPCs (please don't become a serial killer that's hacking through them every day though)—whatever propels your story forward! Note: NPCs should enrich your stories with other writers and should never be used to avoid writing with all of our many friends on Sonder. Also, users cannot have pups with NPCs in the game (they have to have already been born prior to the character entering the site).

Inactive characters are considered offscreen. This means that they may be in the periphery of the storyline just watering their plants and going about their business. Though they may not play an active role in plots, they do not have to disappear. Be sure to work out offscreen details with your roleplay partners.

Threads are not unarchived. That said, you may write in archived threads for all eternity. The site automatically closes threads that it archives, but users have the power to open their own threads! Just have the person that made the thread look to the right of the title and there should be an "open" button. Similarly, if you want to close a thread prematurely, feel free to do so.

Staff Contact

We are but humble peasants laboring at the shrine of our god, the guidebook.

Claerie Owner

Saffie Moderator

Essie Moderator

Droid Moderator

Amphi Moderator

We also want to give thanks to the following users that have helped run events and/or served on staff and/or are on a hiatus currently! We dearly love and appreicate you all: Bean, Di, Evan, Jamie, Rilo, Supernova

Credits

Artwork: Skin Images — Redwood (Kulnifer), Royalist/Voxi/Jacobite (Claerie), Perth (Kulnifer), Fae Forest (Kalmansielu), Sussex (defineDEAD). Board Images — Highlands, Lowlands, Mainlands (Andiliion). Affiliate Buttion — Fall River (Warg), Snow (Claerie). Guild Flowers — (Claerie). Market Items — Corvid/Elixir/Scrolls (Sylvirr), Lock/Key/Taming/Scales/Merle (Claerie). Map — (Claerie).
Coding: Site Skin — Pumpkinspired. Retired Site Skin — oraegano. Misc codes (posting template, small guidebook bobbles) — bean