Community:Scholars of Novia/Contest 03

Prologue
At the time of the Cataclysm, there lived a druidess named Deellaakkanavaakka the Just. Deekka, as she was known, had gathered a great library devoted to matters of justice. Her collection was housed in an ancient four-floored tower that stood among the tall trees and was so covered with vines that not a stone showed through.

Each floor was filled with shelves, and on those shelves were kept thousands upon thousands of tomes, all concerned with justice. They were collected from throughout the world, and perhaps from other worlds, as well.

The first floor contained all sorts of books of laws, everything from ancient codes of conduct to royal edicts to local regulations. Even a book of the delightfully arcane and bafflingly convoluted by-laws of The Great Northern Deep Woods Society for the Admiration of Wisps and the Appreciation of Honey found its way into her collection.

The second floor was filled with records of legal proceedings — centuries upon centuries of courtroom cases, witnesses’ testimonies and judges’ rulings transcribed meticulously for posterity.

On the floor above, she shelved the many parables, fables and tales of justice she had acquired for her collection.

The fourth floor was divided into two tiers, and upper and a lower. On the lower tier were kept songs and poems of just and upright themes, what Deekka often called “Poetic Justice.” The top tier was reserved for philosophical treatises on justice, its meanings and its implications.

At the time of the Cataclysm, the Library of Deekka the Druidess was lost, as were many of the treasures of the world. It is believed that Deellaakkanavaakka herself survived, though in the catastrophe she lost her sight.

Recently, a mining expedition led by Speale of Holtrot and his brother Lonnacker turned up the buried remains of what was once Deekka’s Library. Much of the library’s holdings were lost, though several texts were recovered preserved, a few in near perfect condition, even. Scholars from throughout the world — Novian and Outlandish alike — have been working to transcribe (and in some cases translate) these fragments.

You, of course, could be one of them.

Contest Instructions (the basics)
Avatars of New Britannia, we, the Scholars of Novia, once again bring you a special request for your writing. This time can help fill the surviving ancient books that once filled Deekka’s library.

The types of texts that once filled the library are described above: 1) excerpts from law books 2) excerpts from records of legal proceedings 3) justice-related parables, tales & fables 4A) justice-themed poetry 4B) philosophical writings on justice. For this contest, all winning entries will be packaged as though they are the transcribed and/or translated fragments from recovered ancient books.

Since these books were written at the time of or before the Cataclysm, the "authors" of these books will either be theoretical ancient personages or will be anonymous. However, player-authors will still have the authorships of their submissions recognized, as the texts will be clearly labeled "transcribed [or translated] by name of entry author." For your attribution, you may choose your usual character/avatar name, your usual SotA Forum name, or if you wish to remain anonymous in-game, you may choose to have had the text “translated or transcribed” by Tenebrus Inkblot, the fictitious scrivener of the Scholars of Novia.

For this contest in particular, authors have a wide range of genres and styles in which to write, but we do ask that authors do their best to stay true to their chosen genre or genres — court transcripts should read as court transcripts and law books should read as law books. Authors are also reminded that because these texts are theoretically recovered fragments, they do not have to be complete works.

References to fellow Avatars, NPCs, etc., should not come into play as all of these books would have been penned long, long ago. While it is historically accurate that certain in-game personages (such as Lord British) would have been around at the time of the writing of these books, please remember that we cannot accept references to these personages without the permission of Portalarium. An exception to this rule would be referring to a point in time as occurring during Lord British’s reign, as his reign at some point in the past is a matter of in-game history. To ascribe any action to him, however, or to make any suggestions as to what his thoughts or intentions would have been will not be permissible. Player-authors should not include specific and direct references to characters or events from earlier Ultima games.

Since all winning entries will be included in a collection of fragments supposedly transcribed or translated into contemporary Novian, contestants are advised that for this contest, the Scholars will need to translate all non-English entries into English and to regularize certain spelling conventions and vocabulary choices so as to suggest contemporary scholarship. We may also need to come up with a single system for indicating lost words or sections as these works are to be thought of as fragments. It may be possible that in final packaging, a winning text is made to seem fragmentary whether or not the author intended it to be so. Certain genres, such as the court transcripts, may also need to be regularized in style and formatting so as to appear consistent with other submissions of the same type.

As these texts are assumed to be ancient, some authors may choose to use more stylized-Elizabethanish/Renaissance Faire-styled English to give them an old feel. This is not, however, mandatory. Older-sounding works will be designated “transcribed,” and more contemporary-sounding texts will be marked “translated.” None of this indicates the Scholars' preference for one formatting style or language over another, or even for one spelling convention of English or one historical iteration of English over another. It is simply to maintain the roleplay of our frame story of a rediscovered batch of preserved texts translated by contemporary scholars.

Entries should be 733 words or less. One entry per player-author, per genre please.

This contest is open to all player-members of the SotA Community, with the exception of those members of the Scholars of Novia who have agreed to work on this particular contest. Members of the Scholars of Novia wishing to submit entries to this Contest may do by publically declaring on this thread that they have recused themselves from all Scholars duties for the duration of this Contest.

Contestants will have an opportunity to work with the Scholars to produce a finalized version of their submission before final judging. Final judging will be carried out by a panel of judges comprised of the Grand Masters of the Scholars of Novia.

Reply to this SotA Forum thread with your submissions. Only replies made to this thread will be considered contest entries

Prizes for Contest Winners
Contest winners will receive free in-game publication by Portalarium of their winning texts. Winners will also have the titles of their winning submissions placed on the Scholars of Novia Recommended Reading List and will have their winning submissions copied to the Scholars of Novia Library area of the SotA Wiki. Finally, the Scholars of Novia will devise some in-game method for recognition after game launch.

Have fun! Good luck! Get writing!

The Fine Print for this Contest
Content: We are seeking submissions as would be appropriate to Deekka’s collection described above.

Content Consistency: Submissions should be consistent with the pre-Cataclysmic lore assumed for the SotA world. Entries on the SotA Wiki and references within the text of to the pre-Cataclysmic world may be helpful. The content of older Ultima games might prove a source of inspiration but should not be referenced directly.

Submission Word Count: Submissions should be no more than 733 words. Titles, subtitles, author’s names and the like will not be considered as part of the word count. There is no minimum word count.

Quantity: This contest is limited to one submission per player-author per genre as outlined above. A single submission can be either a single text or several smaller texts making up a series or compilation so long as the total word count is not exceeded.

Author Name: For this submission, all winning submissions will be indicated as having been written in ancient times (either anonymously or by a theoretical ancient personage of the player-author’s invention) and translated or transcribed in the present. The player-author shall have the following attribution choices for the translator/transcriber:

A player-author may use his or her avatar name or his or her usual name on SotA Forum. In this case, the character or avatar name will accompany the text in all publication places as described in the prize package below.

A player-author may choose to have had his or her piece translated or transcribed by Tenebrus Inkblot, the fictitious scrivener of the Scholars of Novia. In this case, only the name Tenebrus Inkblot and not the player-author's avatar or usual name on SotA Forum will accompany the text into in-game publication as described in the prize package below. However, when the submission is posted on the SotA Wiki, the avatar or usual name on SotA Forum will be included as part of the information associated with the text.

Submitting Entries: Entries should be made as replies to this Contest thread only.

The Review Process
The Scholars will review all submissions. They will select those with the best potential to include in the collection. Once these submissions have been selected, the Scholars will work with the author to edit the piece for grammatical, spelling, or readability issues as well as consistency with lore.

The Scholars will then present the finalized versions of the submissions to the judges. The judges will decide and declare the winning entries.

For this submission, the judges are the three Grand Masters of the Scholars of Novia. The number of winning entries will depend upon the total number of entries. Multiple winners are likely.

Announcing the Winners
The Scholars will announce the winners of the contest.

They will post finalized versions of the winning text on a Winning Finalized Submissions Thread within the Scholars of Novia area of the SotA Forum.

The author of the submission will be required to respond to the above post, quoting the finalized text, and giving his or her final approval to the version of the content as it appears. This will ensure that the author acknowledges the finalized version of the text as the version of the text to be published in various ways as described in the prize package below.

The Prize Package
Recommended Reading List: The Scholars will list winning submissions on the Scholars of Novia Recommended Reading List which will be available to the entire SotA community.

Publication on the SotA Wiki: The Scholars will copy the texts of the submissions into the Scholars of Novia Library area of the SotA Wiki. Reference will be made to the thread in the SotA Forum on which the submissions were originally made as well as to the SotA Forum name of the submitters/authors. Over time, other people may add cross-references to this wiki page such as is typical for all wiki pages.

In-game Recognition: As the mechanics of game-play are more fully revealed to the Scholars and the rest of the player community after the official launch of SotA, the Scholars may devise some additional in-game system for recognizing winners of Scholars' contests, including winners of contests as were held before the official launch.

In-game Publication: Portalarium has offered in-game publication at no cost to the contestant as the prize for all winning submissions.

The Even Finer Print
For all Calls for Submissions - See: Submissions General Rules