“Go, sit upon the lofty hill, And turn your eyes around, Where waving woods and waters wild Do hymn an autumn sound. The summer sun is faint on them— The summer flowers depart— Sit still— as all transformed to stone, Except your musing heart.”
― Elizabeth Barrett Browning
― Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Greetings Sykans!
One of the beautiful things about Syka is that it has a dual personality. On the outside, one sees a beautiful beach settlement prone to good weather and warm sunny days where food is easily accessible and life is incredibly easy. That's a true enough view. However, once someone steps food in Syka, they slowly start to realize just how thin the veneer of the paradise and turquoise waters is.
The jungle, just a few steps away from the beach, turns dark and unwelcoming to strangers who don't know it. The expanse of deep green sees any potential visitor as an outsider and fodder for its beloved denizens. One must work long and hard to earn the embrace of the world which tolerates Syka's survival.
That being said, this season's theme is duality. You know who you are, but there are undiscovered parts of yourself you need to expose and learn to embrace. This duality will be just one of the reflections in Syka's nature. Dig deep. Start to understand inherently that a person doesn't have to be just one thing... they can have many layers and some of those layers might be in direct contrast to others. People can have duality and thrive. Explore yours this season!
Good Luck! It is my hope you enjoy this season.
“Wild is the music of the autumnal winds amongst the faded woods.”
― William Wordsworth
Please keep these requirements in mind. If you go inactive in Syka or take a break for a season or two, you lose your free claims (that have been awarded in the past) because you haven't contributed to the community. If you have purchased your property and it's paid in full, you can feel free to go inactive with no penalty. If you are still paying on it, inactivity isn't an option without the loss of your property for missed payments. Please be aware job threads and placeholders can be no older than a season behind. Nothing will count or be paid for that is older. The list below is things you need to include in your Fall threading.
- ❖ Start a post in this thread keeping track of how many requirements you have completed.
❖ Set some major character goals. List them in the post below.
❖ Explore a duality in your character as per the theme of the season.
❖ Pay Seasonal Expenses of Common or higher.
❖ Be active.
❖ Work on one or more recommended Syka Skills (Wilderness Survival, Tradeskill, etc) and increase it by 5 points.
❖ Include one of the NPCs listed in the NPC Masterlist in one of your threads.
❖ Utilize at least 2 storyseeds in a creative way. The storyseeds can be used in whole or part or could even be used as an inspiration for a whole different story arc. Folks will just have to be able to see the connections.
If you complete all these tasks successfully and fulfill the requirements, then you will get an award in the form of Quest Coupons of your choice. Incomplete threads do not count. These items must be completed by the end of the season.
Please note. These are Syka challenges. The threads must be completed in Syka.
“If a year was tucked inside of a clock, then autumn would be the magic hour.”
― Victoria Erickson
Please remember, storyseeds are just ideas, hints, and nudges for you to craft a greater plot from. They are a starting place. Feel free to mix, match, and combine storyseeds and knock out more than one in one thread. For example, a survival situation could easily be combined with a deep-seated unbearable pain while hunting whales. Got it? Great!
- ❖ Face a major regret.
❖ Have an encounter with a flash flood.
❖ Blaze a new trail to somewhere undiscovered.
❖ Find yourself in a life or death situation of survival.
❖ Have an encounter with a more exotic NPC in the Masterlist.
❖ Dance in the rain.
❖ Learn a new skill.
❖ Encounter someone new and start a friendship.
❖ Watch, listen and learn from an NPC in Syka.
❖ Watch a sunrise or sunset with someone.
❖ Host a Tenday.
❖ Track an animal through the jungle.
❖ Get into a hand-to-hand/weapons battle for your life.
❖ Swim with dolphins or sharks.
❖ Forage for a whole new item that you've never eaten/utilized before.
❖ Pass through the Dovecote for a thread in The Outpost.
“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.”
― Albert Camus
Since Syka and its jungle naturally lies in proximity to the equator where it is hot and wet, this equatorial climate means there is more sunlight striking the land and sea than any other place. The intense heat of the sun warms the sea and land causing evaporation into the atmosphere. The warm air has the capacity to hold a greater amount of water vapor. As the evaporated air rises to the air, it cools. When it cools, it loses the capacity to hold a lot of water vapor. When warm air meets cold air, condensation occurs. This creates the almost cyclic rainfall during the morning and evening in Syka.
The rain is always warm and refreshing.
Condensation transforms the water vapor into droplets leading to the formation of clouds. The clouds fall as rain. Rainfall occurs for more than 90 days in a single year, and the sun normally shines amid the storms. This cycle repeats itself, which is why there is constant rainfall in Falyndar.
Thus, does not experience seasons like summer, winter, spring, or autumn. Instead, seasons in tropical rainforests are categorized into the dry and wet seasons. Syka is decidedly entering its wet season. The sun will shine daily and the heat will persist, but the cyclic rain showers will become more intense, and random rain showers will punctuate the scorching sun to cool the land. Nights will get chilly at times... though never as they do in other places. Chilly for Syka is a drop to the low seventies, flirting with the upper sixties.
Jungle denizens seem to move around more in the rain. The noise of rainfall often camouflages the movements of creatures, though mud often tells more tales that the dry season ground conceals. Plants grow more heavily in this season, spending time expanding over fruiting and flowering, though fruits can still be found. Numerous trees have over time developed barks that cannot rot whatsoever. These same trees feature buttress roots that grow anchor-like to help them stand firm to the soft yielding ground in order to prevent falling. The buttress roots also help them quickly suck up nutrients that would otherwise be swept away with the floodwaters that often come to Syka.
Fall is the season the jungle greens feed greedily from the world around it.
The wet drives insects back and causes many forest floor insects to seek higher drier purchases among the trees. Snakes are often found lofted rather than concealed in the warm muck on the ground. Mud is an issue, though not so much at the settlement as it is deeper in the jungle. River's swell with the added rainfall and often small peaceful creeks become rivers.
I'm always willing to run a personal storyline for anyone who joins Syka for the season. People get such few opportunities to interact with their actual storylines in generic calendar situations within various domains, so in Syka I'd like to change that. I will be willing to run the following:
- Personal Quests
- Gnosis Threads
- Flashbacks & Future Foretellings
- Training Threads
Just let me know what I can help you out with. Syka might be small but we have had some really incredible storylines here in the past.
Happy Threading!
Goss
