I just saw this. Happy to have gotten a chance to be a part of this place among iconic writers.

Hello BR community,

With the news of our impending goodbyes, Erica, Danielle, deathsy, and I wanted to talk a little about what we've been up to over the last two years. As many of you know, Erica and I published a book together last September. It is part of a larger collaborative project called Ao Collective Publishing.

AoCP is a small publishing house focused on collaborative worldbuilding and writing. Our aim is to take a writing process that has been intrinsically collaborative and transform it into a socially-driven reading experience, with the hopes of building a community that will add to and influence our existing and future work.

Our mission is to create stories that build upon, are inspired by, and intersect those of other Collective writers. To build worlds that are not static in time. To include diverse characters, settings, and ideas in respectful and sensitive manners, and create spaces for underrepresented voices to shine. To be an open and welcoming community, and work collaboratively, both in writing and editing to achieve a higher quality material than any one person is able to achieve alone. To motivate each other, and be the best authors we can be.

None of us would have found each other if not for BR, and the roleplaying skills we developed here have deeply influenced the way we co-author. As such, we want to extend an open invitation to anyone here who is interested in taking their writing to a professional level to come write with us.

We are looking for writers who:

-Like working collaboratively at every stage.
-Can produce at least an average 1000 words a day when working on a project.
-Are open to constructive critique and professional feedback.
-Have enough availability and drive to meet publishing deadlines.

If you are interested, please reach out to me, Erica, or deathsy on Discord, and/or fill out the form below.

https://forms.gle/jYVHKSY488yqKEeK9

If you're not sure but would like to join our author community on Discord, you can find us here: https://discord.gg/JzJJjQ6EZT

Thank you so much for all the words and all the amazing memories.

-DG, Erica, Danielle, Deathsy

It is not an announcement we make easily or lightly but after many months of monitoring thread activity, checking in on personal situations, and the overall creative unavailability of members, the HBC has made the difficult decision to close down Blood Rites.

We understand that this may come as a shock to many but also may come as a quiet relief to some, one less stress to handle during this stressful time. Eleven years is a solid time for a creative community like this to flourish and, while we know that all good things must eventually end, we also are very much aware that we've had an amazing time here.

What this means for the boards and the community:

Effective today, HBC will no longer be performing the usual administrative tasks for the boards, such as review/approving new characters, processing points transactions, or moderating the board. The site will remain active for one year, during which time writers will be able to continue writing as they wish, and/or save old beloved threads and character profiles to personal files. After that year, the board will be moved offline.

The Discord server will remain available for as long as we see a reason to keep it up. We know that many members are still using it to coordinate other activities and we don't want to deprive others of that connection.

We want to thank everyone, here and gone, for their contributions over the years. Blood Rites has flourished because of welcoming, eager, and astoundingly creative members like all of you and we are so grateful to have been a part of that vibrant community for so long.

If you have any questions about this announcement, please feel free to ping a member of the HBC through various channels.

We wish everyone the best of luck in all of their future endeavors. May the Darkness keep you.

Jamie, phinn, and halyonix

For the next two weeks, we will be accepting submissions for the Seasonal Icon Contest. The rules are as follows:

• You can submit up to two icons to be voted upon.
• The icon can include words but should be tasteful and not excessive. Should the staff dislike the text we will reply with a request to remove it.
• Size should be 170x75.
• Last, but not least, the icon should represent the season.

Once submissions have been made we will open voting. Depending upon the number of submissions players may be allowed more than one vote.

Reward: POINTS and PRESTIGE. 150 points to the Winner. 25 per entry for the runners up.
(Also 1 billion Prestige, which can only be cashed in with Blood Rites members and can be used for pumping one's ego to a new extreme.)

To submit an entry, please send your icon to hbc@bloodrites.net with a title of "Seasonal Icon Submission". You cannot submit more than 2 icons. All voting will be done without knowledge of who made what icon, so please do not reply to this thread with your entries!

Submission deadline is Sunday, March 28th. Voting will begin soon after that.

Enjoy!
BR Staff

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Previous Icons For Reference

WINTER 2020: Created by Rated Em


AUTUMN 2020: Created by Dany


SUMMER 2020: Created by Mischief


SPRING 2020: Created by Rated Em


WINTER 2019: Created by Rated Em


FALL 2019: Created by Rated Em


SUMMER 2019: Created by Rated Em


SPRING 2019: Created by Rated Em


WINTER 2018 Created by Myst


FALL 2018 Created by Dany


SUMMER 2018 Created by Starling


SPRING 2018 Created by Dani


WINTER 2017 Created by halyonix


FALL 2017 Created by Starling


SUMMER 2017 Created by Starling


SPRING 2017: Created by phinneas


WINTER 2016: Created by Starling


FALL 2016: Created by Jamie


SUMMER 2016: Created by Selene


SPRING 2016: Created by Caryn


WINTER 2015: Created by Jamie


AUTUMN 2015: Created by Jamie


SUMMER 2015: Created by Ariana


SPRING 2015: Created by Dani


WINTER 2014: Created by Dani


AUTUMN 2014: Created by Dani


SUMMER 2014: Created by Jamie


SPRING 2014: Created by Jamie


WINTER 2013: Created by Jamie


AUTUMN 2013: Created by Jamie


SUMMER 2013: Created by Jamie


SPRING 2013: Created by Dani


WINTER 2012: Created by Vivian


AUTUMN 2012: Created by AJ


SUMMER 2012: Created by Kri


SPRING 2012: Created by Jamie


WINTER 2011: Created by Jamie


AUTUMN 2011: Created by Blue