mINOR uPDATES & hALLOWEEN mINI eVENT

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Hey, everyone!! We know it's been pretty quiet around here since the anniversary event, but we're working hard behind the scenes to bring you something amazing for New Years. That said, we didn't want to go the entire rest of the year without anything going on at all, so we took some time to throw together a little something for Halloween. It's nothing major - just a collection of smallish updates and some simple spooky season activities, but hopefully it will be enough to hold everyone's attention for a the next week or two, at least! We may do a little extra something something on Halloween night, but due to time constraints and overall lack of availability for us and the mods/guest artists/etc, we're not going to promise anything. But if we manage to pull it together on time, you'll hear about it sometime on the 31st! As always, thank you for your patience! We appreciate all of the people who make up this community more than words could ever express!

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

➤ General uPDATES

We don't have too much for you guys in the way of updates this time around, but there are a few things we're going to take a moment to address collectively in this news post - mostly so that we can avoid any further news/update posts (unless absolutely necessary!) until our big update on New Years - since the less work we have to do in the meantime means the more time we get to spend on the big stuff!!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ SECRET SANTA SIGN-UPS

It's a little bit earlier than usual, but we figured we'd assimilate it into our current update rather than posting an additional update in what would ultimately end up being just a few more days away anyway. But our annual Secret Santa is back once again for 2024! You all probably know the drill by now, but for those of you who have only just recently joined up with Glowchus, every year we (try to) host a Secret Santa exchange where users draw each others' characters! Who gets gets assigned to who is a complete mystery until the art pieces are posted during the month of December. But in addition to suprise art, members who participate can submit their entries on site for special ARPG rewards and entries to our yearly premium voucher giveaway! If you're interested in signing up, simply click the link below and fill out the form. Assignments will go out on November 15th! That leaves a little over 2 weeks for the sign-up period.

>> Secret Santa 2024 Sign-ups <<

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ DONATION SALES

Those of you who have been with us for a little while, you may remember that, at one point, we had a character trade-in system, where users could trade in offcial and unofficial luminarians that they no longer wanted in exchance for radiance and other ARPG items. We've been working to bring that system back (and it will hopefully be up in its entirety by New Years).  While it's not currently up to date, we still have a handful of designs from back when the system was up and running. And in preparation for the updates we have coming on New Years, we've decided to sell a batch of the characters we've accumulated since then in our very first donation sale batch! The sale should have gone live as of this news post (but if not, you can expect it to pop up here very shortly) and can be accessed by clicking the link below!

>> Donation Sale #1 <<

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ ADDRESSING ISSUES, FEEDBACK, & SUGGESTIONS

We know this has been a long time coming, and we appreciate your patience when it comes to this matter specifically. Vesp and I finally took some time this past week to go through all the suggestions/feedback/etc that have been piling up in both our Discord suggestions channel and our annonymous feedback form. This section of the update is dedicated to our response to those suggestions (in addition to general feedback and issues that need addressing in general). The important bulk of this was meant to be covered in a discord announcement, but it ended up getting too long for that. If anything that was previously suggested hasn't been addressed here, it's because we haven't discussed the matter fully yet or the situation was addressed elsewhere. From this point forward, we will be closing discord posts in the suggestions channel with matters that have already been addressed to help us keep better track of the suggestions and feedback we still need to go through!

• General Feedback & Suggestions
  • Allowing sketches for prompt submissions
    • While there is still the possibility that sketches will be allowed for certain gallery folders and certain prompt types in the future, we want submissions made to the Glowchus on site gallery to adhere to a certain level of finish. Because sketches don't meet the requirements for that level of finish, it's very, very unlikely that they will ever be allowed again for the sake of (most) prompt submissions in the Glowchus community. We are still working on devising prompts/galleries that require less effort in terms of their submission, but it's something that's on the back burner as we have a lot of other systems/events/etc we're working on getting out first.
  • Anomalous Dire & Dwarf
    • This is something that we've been asked about a few times and that we've even discussed prior to it being brought up in the first place. After some lengthy discussion on the matter, we have decided that, for the forseeable future, at the very least, Dire and Dwarf will not have anomalous forms - our reasoning for this being that Dire and Dwarf are already essentially the anomalous variants of Alpha/Runt repsectively and the drastic differences in size that these mutations result in make character sizes difficult and awkward enough to portray as it is. That said, it's not entirely off the table as a thing that could happen in the future, but it's not something we can see ourselves looking into further at this point in time.

• Discord Feedback & Suggestions/Issues
  • Additional channels for the discord
    • Highlights - This was something we did consider, but after reading some feedback from other members, specifically members requesting that their messages and such were NOT shared in this channel if one were to be provided, we ultimately decided against it. But you're more than welcome to share chat highlights throughout the discord in general when they occur - there just won't be a specific channel for it.
    • Positivity - This is something that has been requested a lot in the past so that members didn't need to post their positivity in the vent channel, but the thing is, if it's not a vent, users don't have to post it in the vent channel. We're not entirely sure where the trend of posting positivity in the vent channel came from, but it was never something that was explicitly required or stated to do and users are free (and encouraged!) to spread positivity throughout the discord whenever the urge strikes them - there doesn't need to be a specific channel for it!
    • Art Tips - One thing we want to avoid when it comes to the discord is clutter through means of providing channels that won't be used regularly. That's not to say that an art tips channel wouldn't be used at all - we're sure people would find something like that very helpful! But if it's not going to be something that people are posting in on a regular basis, then it's something we'd prefer not to have. That said, however, the sharing channel would be a good place to share art tips without having a channel purely dedicated specifically to art tips!
    • Writing - In line with the reasoning above, we don't have many users in GC that are strictly writers or that write super often in general. That, of course, is not to say we don't have them at all, but if we're going to create a channel in our discord server, we do so only under the assumption that it will be utilized regularly. Because of the lack of writers in GC, we feel that a channel dedicated specifically to writing is unnecessary, especially when we already have two artwork channels where users are free to share their creations of all media (writing included!).
    • Spoiler Toggle  & Gaming Channel - Your wish is our command 🫴
  • Sharing photos/personal information for anyone other than yourself (especially minors)
    • Previously, we had requested that any pictures of others, especially minors, not be posted anywhere in the discord without the explicit consent of the individuals included in the photos. Because consent is not something that we can verify, we are revoking the "with consent" rule and asking that people no longer post photos of anyone other than themselves. This can extend to family members as well since we're going to assume that people would never do anything against their family's wishes and would always have those peoples' best interest at heart, but we ask that users no longer share photos of friends, coworkers, or anyone else - with or without permission because again, permission is not something we can verify. We are also extending that rule to include more personal information as well, specifically medical information. If someone you know is dealing with a medical condition, please refrain from talking about it here. Very surface level comments such as "my partner has the flu" or something similar is alright, but medical history is a protected class of information and should be treated as such! Anything more specific than "sick" should not be shared. If you want to talk in-depth about your own medical status (again, more than talking about simply having covid or not feeling well) please keep it to the vent channel. Further details on what is and is not okay for the that channel will be posted there moving forward - which brings us to our next topic.
  • Inappropriate or NSFW content in the vent channel
    • Users have probably noticed by now that the vent channel disappeared briefly (if it hasn't reappeared by now, you can expect it back shortly!). This was due to the nature of things people had been discussing - it had gotten to the point where things being discussed were completely inappropriate and borderline, if not entirely, nsfw in nature which is not okay given the rating of our discord. The fact that it's a vent channel does not cancel out the community rating and things discussed there should fall within that rating. We removed the channel so that we could take some time to write out some proper guidelines for its use, which users will be able to find in the channel's pinned messages whenever it goes live again. Please be mindful of what you share there and the amount of detail you go into when participating in this channel moving forward.
  • Venting outside of the vent channel
    • There's been a large lapse in moderation when it comes to venting outside the vent channel, and we apologize for this! It's mostly due to how busy Vesp and I have been and how little time we've had to actually read through messages, especially the past couple of months or so, but we are formally addressing this issue here and now - users may not post vent related topics outside of the vent channel. Doing so is extremely disrespectful toward your fellow community members, as you're essentially forcing people - people who have problems of their own and who come to the chat to relax and unwind - to deal with your problems. Life is is challenging for everyone at times, and you're not alone. But the general community channels are not the place to discuss it. Whether or not the vent channel is actively available, this is not allowed under any circumstances and it's something that users can expect to be actively enforced from this point forward.
  • Consideration and respect for fellow community members
    • There's been an influx of design sales in the community discord (both officially and unofficially) and make no mistake, we love to see it! However, we've noticed that sometimes members don't always tread carefully when it comes to whether or not they necessarily like a design they've received. So we're taking this as an opportunity to remind users to please treat each other kindly and respectfully! If you get a design from someone that you're not happy with, it's entirely unnecessary to make a show out of how much you dislike the design. Regardless of whether or not you like it, someone put their heart into making it and when users make comments like "it's not really my cup of tea" or "ngl I don't really like this," that can be really hurtful to the artist!
    • In that same vein, not everyone's designs are always going to sell. It happens to us too, and we know how deflated it can make you feel, especially when you worked hard on the design. That is not an excuse, however, to guilt people into buying your designs. People don't always have the money to spend on adopts and they aren't always going to jive with absolutely every design someone makes. Some designs flop, no matter how much work you put into them, and accepting that is just part of what it means to be an artist selling their artwork on the internet. We're not telling you not to be upset about it - something like that would make anyone upset. But taking it out on others and trying to guilt people into buying something they're not interested in buying isn't acceptable!

    • We've received some feedback regarding the art channels and wanted to touch on the etiquette surrounding them. While we don't want to force people to comment on each other's art, we ask that if you go to post something in an art channel and notice that someone else has posted something that has yet to receive any comments about it... please say something nice! We know that everyone in this community is a family and no one is intentionally trying to be hurtful, but it can be very disheartening for someone to post art that they're proud of and receive no feedback only to have someone else post over them. If you don't have anything to say about the art posted before you, you can check the other art channel to post in instead or simply wait until someone else makes comments first. This is not meant to be micromanaging, but simply a way to further instill and encourage positivity in all areas of the discord! As always, we appreciate everyone's willingness to make GC as amazing a community as it can possibly be.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

➤ mINI eVENT: sPOOKY sHENANIGANS

We didn't have anything major planned for Halloween this year, but we didn't want the holiday to go uncelebrated entirely within the Glowchus community! So we scrambled a bit last minute to get some smaller scale activities posted for everyone to participate in before the season was officially over. There's a bit of a shorter duration on these events than usual - members can partcipate from the moment this news post goes live until November 10th @ 11:59PM PST.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ HALLOWEEN GUEST SALES

You can expect some surprises to knock on your door Halloween night at 6PM PST! We originally weren't really planning on having any sort of design sale this Halloween, but our recently recruited GAs really stepped up to the plate and completely knocked it out of the part with these! We won't be revealing the designs until the sale actually goes live, but here are some previews in the meantime!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ HALLOWEEN FREEBIES

For the duration of the event, each user will be able to pick up a single goodie bag from the general store for free! These can be opened for Radiance, Festival Tickets, Seasonal Cosmetic Items, Potions, Eggs, and more! Keep an eye on the donation shop, too, for the potential for some extra spooky surprises!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ THE POTION MASTER'S TRIAL

Oh? What's this? It seems like someone has set up some kind of activity for any brave enough to test their luck. Eight potions are laid out before you, each of them with a different effect. From fortune to misfortune, these potions can grant it all, but it seems that one among them is particular special, as it will grant a super spooky subtype to anyone who happens to pick it out correctly from amist its peers. Are you ready to test your luck? This activity isn't meant to be particularly difficult [if it is, I'm so sorry] - it's more of a race than anything. Users will only be able to make one guess for the duration of the event and first user to make the correct guess will get the Undead Subtype for their character. Anyone who makes a correct guess following the first person will still get a consolation prize though! And each potion has a different effect, so even if you guess incorrectly, you may still get something...

In a line they sit, all eight in a row,
So many colors and scents, what a magical show.
One glass phial will grant the prize that you're after,
Who among you's on par with the true potion master?

The first thing to note is that most range in sizes,
It's these potions you want, if what you're after is prizes.
When it comes to size matches, there's a few choices to foster
The middle's neighbor grants fortune, but its twin's an imposter.
If it's thrills that you seek though, this spooky season,
The leftmost's your friend, while the rightmost holds treason.
That isn't to say that only one grants this power,
In fact there's another that lies on three left's third hour.
Two potions hold treasure, they're one in the same,
You'll find each to the right of a thrill seeker's claim.
If by now you're confused, don't worry - all is not lost,
Of those that remain, one has a most ghastly cost.
Identified only by it's own special neighbor,
That neighbor's unique in that it grants foraging favor.

You hold the key now, let your cleverness guide,
For the one that remains holds your treasure inside.

How to Participate:

1. When you're ready to make your guess, open up the new claims page.
2. Title your claim "Potion Master's Trial" and fill out this form in the comments:
   • Chosen Potion:
     • Please list your chosen potion by its corresponding number!
   • Character Masterlist Entry:
     • You'll need to link the character you want to use to receive the effects of the potion, but choose wisely! If you guess incorrectly, any resulting consequences will be hard to undo!
3. Click the blue "Submit" button and you're done!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ A SUPER SPOOKY EGG HUNT

Despite already having released a Autumn themed novelty pet during our anniversary event, we decided to be a little extra and do another - this one being limited and available only to the user who finds it until it's full, official release (which will probably be next year). This novelty pet is the Hellfire Companion! These companions are entirely skeletal with green flamey accents - you can expect an encyclopedia post for them soon! We've hidden the egg for one of these fiery beasts somewhere on site - the first person to find it can claim the prize inside [note that there may still be eggs hidden around site from the easter event. The egg that you're looking for is specifically a novelty egg - it has black spots, not green ones!]. Your only clue is that the egg is hidden on a page that's completely accessible through the site's currently active navigation pages (aka, it's not hidden on a page that there's no active site link to, such as the tutorial pages, questline pages, etc etc).

If you find the egg, submit a claim to, well.. claim it!

Snatched at the speed of sound......

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ TRICK OR TREATING

For the duration of this event, users can submit an image of their character wearing a costume to the Glowchus on-site gallery (just the general gallery is fine!) and then comment below with a thumbnail of the image in order to receive a treat... or a trick! Treats will be granted to the user, but tricks will be locked to the character participating. Be careful what you wish for - tricks are not easily removed from characters afflicted! This can be done as many times as desired per user and the user is free to use the same character in a different costume each time, or a unique character each time if they prefer.

Note that G1 characters can't be used!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ COSTUME CONTEST

And last but not least, tying in with the activity above, once the event is over, Vesp and I will gather together the images submitted for trick or treating and decide who wore it best, so to speak! The owner of the character with the best costume will receive their very own spooky potion! The decision for the winner will be based on a number of factors from the amount of effort put into the art piece (ie. whether it was fully rendered or simply flatcolored) as well as the overall complexity, uniqueness, and creativity of the costume itself.

Celebrating the first birthday of glowchus.com

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Yes, you heard right! No, your ears (or eyes, rather) do not deceive you! August 10th marks the official anniversary of the (re)launch of Glowchus.com, meaning the website is exactly one year old today! The year really flew by it seems. It feels like only yesterday everyone was excited to finally have the site up again - and we were all scrambling to register and get started. None of us can really believe that an entire year has passed since then! We got a lot done and there's still much more to come starting here and now with the biggest update of the year!!

Get ready for 10 full days of sales, discounts, events, giveaways and more during the Glowchus Anniversary Extraordinaire! Every three days starting from August 10th (that's today!), all the way through September 6th, we'll have something new and exciting to share with you all. This will likely be the last major update in 2024 - and very likely the last update for this year in general. During one of the ten days of celebration, you'll see the main reason why. That said, we worked hard to ensure that, coupled with this month long event, everyone will have plenty to do during the time we have left between now and the new year. So, without any further ado, lets jump right into it!

We have our event schedule outlined below. Every 3 days, this news post will be updated with new information, features, and updates, so be sure to keep checking in throughout the month!

Event schedule:

• August 10 (Day 1) - Item Sales/Raffle/General Updates
• August 13 (Day 2) - Event: Crystaline Encounters Part 1
• August 16 (Day 3) - Mystery Auction/Free Gacha Raffle
• August 19 (Day 4) - Floral Glowchu Sale
• August 22 (Day 5) - Adventures Abound Update
• August 25 (Day 6) - 30+ Design Glowchu Gacha
• August 28 (Day 7) - Primordial Pandemonium Update
• August 31 (Day 8) - Event: Crystline Encounters Part 2
• September 3 (Day 9) - Comic Status/Comic Team Applications/Staff & (Possible) GA applications
• September 6 (Day 10) - Ooo what's this? What could it be? So many possibilities. Guess you'll have to stay tuned to find out 👀

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

➤ DAY 1: August 10

Day 1 starts us off with a bang! Everything from item sales to design raffles with a little bit of other surprises mixed in. In order of the events and updates we'll be presenting today, we have a 20% discount on all ko-fi items, some new ko-fi items, and a donation system update. Following that, information on Vesp's birthday design raffle, a new site feature (Achievements), and we'll wrap things up for the day with some general site updates we've been working on for the past couple weeks and that will hopefully be enough to leave users with no shortage of things to do for the remainder of the year!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ 20% OFF ALL ITEMS ON OUR KO-FI (AND THE TEMPORARY ADDITION OF SOME NEW ONES)

From now until 9PM PST on September 6, all items available for purchase in the Official Glowchus Ko-fi Shop can be bought for 20% off their usual price. You'll also see the addition of two new items (also 20% off during this period) that will ONLY be available during the anniversary period. These items include:

• Enchanted Trait Potion
• Enchanted Subtype Potion

Enchanted potions are the new "one size fits all" of potions! The Enchanted Subtype Potion can be used to apply any subtype to a preexisting character while the Enchanted Trait Potion can apply any trait to a character of your choice (Disclaimer: be sure to read the item descriptions for information on how to use them!). These potions are anniversary specials and likely will not be making an appearance again until next year, but if you happen to miss out on any of these items during the sale, don't worry! Crafting is on the very near horizon and you should see both subtype items and trait items coming soon to a crafting table near you!

With this event also comes an update to the Ko-fi page and our overall donation system in general, the exact details for which are outlined below!

Ko-Fi/Donation System Updates:

• Following through on a previous announcement, due to the difficulty in manually managing lifetime rewards for something on this scale, reward passes have been removed from the game and it's not something we plan on revisiting in the future. If you had previously unused reward passes, they have been refunded for their equal value in Radiance (aka 100R).
• Because offering eggs in conjunction with vouchers of their associated rarity was a sort of startup promotion and it's now officially been a year since the site has been up and running, eggs will no longer be offered as a free gift alongside voucher purchases - they're available now exclusively through in game participation and as a Wish Shrine benefit for donors (or anyone with Star Tokens) a couple times per year.
• Discount coupons have been added to the game! These are mostly for donor perks, but there may be other ways for users to earn them in the future. For the sake of donations, the coupon granted will depend on the user's donor tier. For example, donating at the $5 tier will grant a monthly 5% off coupon. These coupons can be used on any item, purchasable with radiance, with the exception of Vouchers (they also do not stack). They're not currently functional on site, but you can still use them through claims!
• For the donation system overhaul, the Wish Shrine (essentially our donor currency shop) will also be receiving an update! You may have noticed some new items popping up for sale! This is because we're working on implementing a limited purchase system where certain items can be purchased by donors with their donor currency within a certain time frame. With the donation system overhaul, subtype items and trait items will be available exclusively for purchase by donors with their donor currency a limited amount of times per year. We're not sure of the exact setup we'll be going for just yet, but it will likely be something along the lines of all subtype items being purchasable once per year OR Enchanted Subtype Potions being purchasable a couple times per year. The shop is still open so that users can buy their usual Wish Shrine items, but new items may have a couple weeks yet before going fully into stock - it just kinda depends on when we can get our purchase limits up and running.
• New Ko-Fi Pledge Reward Table
  • Pichu - $5 tier
    • Discord Role
    • Pichu Bundle item, which can be opened for:
      
      • 5ST per month
      • 5% off coupon
      • 1 Wish Tag
  • Pikachu - $10 tier
    • Discord Role
    • Pikachu Bundle item, which can be opened for:  
      
      • 10ST per month
      • 10% off coupon
      • 2 Wish Tags
  • Raichu - $25 tier
    • Discord Role
    • Raichu Bundle item, which can be opened for:  
      • 25ST per month
      • 25% off coupon
      • 3 Wish Tags
  • All Tiers
    • Exclusive Glowchus related activities and events (as available).

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ VESP'S BIRTHDAY DESIGN RAFFLE

In a land far, far away, lies a village shrouded by mist. Within this village lived a priestess with a storm brewing in her heart. She bore markings and colors that resembled the people's spirit guardian, an ancient Milotic believed to protect their land from all outside harm, and thus held great responsibility as the connection to the spirit realm where this entity was thought to reside. And yet, she never quite felt like she belonged. Always longing to explore a world beyond the village she could never see beyond the mist.

One outing into the surrounding lotus fields led to a fateful encounter with a Pokemon she nor anyone else had ever seen before: a Vaporeon that bore a striking resemblance to a Milotic, just as she herself had. The creature did not speak in words, but the priestess could feel a pulling… a yearning, to follow the Vaporeon. Unable to tell if this feeling was some divine destiny or simply her heart's desire to find her own truth, she made the decision to leave with the mysterious beast that very moment, never looking back.

Surely everyone knows by now, but for those of you who haven't heard, it's almost Vesp's birthday! That's right, on August 17th, our very own beloved Vesperial (otherwise known as Staarbytes) will be celebrating her dramatic escape from the womb. To commemorate this event, we're holding a raffle featuring two gorgeous designs from Vesp herself!

If you're interested in taking these beautiful babies home, be sure to check out the activity post in discord here!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ ACHIEVEMENTS

Achievements are finally making their (re)debut here on Glowchus! They're more or less the same as when we had them the very first go around (all the way back in RS). Although I think previously we had them called "Medals" and they had more complex designs. Now we're just going with the traditional Pokemon "Ribbons" for simplicity. Ribbons will be earnable through a variety of activities and while we have plans for a wide assortment of them, we're starting things off small with the four listed below, all of which users can earn throughout the course of this event!

• First Anniversary Ribbon
• Generosity Ribbon
• Fifteenth Anniversary Ribbon - Purchaseable for free in the general store until September 6th!
• Raid Boss Beginner - Obtained through submitting a claim after participating in at least one raid boss battle.
  
  • You can just submit a claim titled "Ribbon Claim" [or something to that effect] and link your Crystaline Encounters part II submission in the comments until we have an official form for ribbon claims.

The First Anniversary Ribbon can be purchased once per person (for free) at the General Store for the duration of the event! After that point, the ribbon will no longer be available, so make sure to get it while you can! The Generosity Ribbon is given out to users who have donated a total of $100 (through purchases or straight donations) to the growth of the community/website and (will soon) grant access to the shop where Legendary Eggs can be purchased. If you're eligible for the Generosity Ribbon, it should have already been given to you. If not, please let is know in discord or fill out a report on site!

Stay tuned throughout the event to learn how to earn the other two ribbons!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ GENERAL SITE/COMMUNITY UPDATES

It wouldn't be a true update without some site changes, now would it? Here's everything you can look forward to both right now and in the (hopefully) very near future!

• Monthly Prompts
  August's monthly prompt is now live! September, October, November, and December are all uploaded as well but will be released on their scheduled dates. We're still planning on overhauling the monthly prompt system, but since it's not at the top of our priority list right now, things are still continuing as usual in that regard. But users can expect an update to the system around new years at the latest!
• Encyclopedia Entries
  The encyclopedia entries for (most) currently listed items have been fully updated - this brings some added clarity to the way specific items can be used, as well as their requirements to do so. It also adds some much needed cohesion to the overal layout/appearance of the site, although we're always making changes in that regard.
• Extra Markings
  Before non-chu Luminarians came into the picture, we allowed markings one would find on certain members of the 'chu line to be included on stages that didn't have them. These markings (i.e., Raichu's tipped feet on a Pikachu even though Pikachu doesn't traditionally have tipped feet) had the benefit of not being considered extra markings, and thus, wouldn't make a character uncommon on their own. With the addition of non-chu Luminarians, however, we have decided to retcon this rule because it can't always apply to non-chus the way it has historically applied to 'chus. So what does this mean? Tl;dr, any extra markings on any character (markings that they don't traditionally have) will be considered extra markings from this point forward, regardless of the rules of the past. If you had a character that previously had markings not listed as Extra Markings, there's nothing you need to do! Your characters have already been updated. In instances where the character was Common before the change, you can consider the upgrade on us! As far as G1 goes, Luminarians can still have the extra markings mutation, but it is limited to markings that present on stages of the 'chu line. The mutation page for Extra Markings should be updated with the relevant changes shortly (if it hasn't already).
• Color Variations
  In the same vein as the change outlines above - when we first started to allow non-chu Luminarians, we stated that the non-chus could keep their point colors (if they had them) and still be considered traditional. To prevent confusion and to fall more in line with developing Luminarian guidelines, this is no longer the case. The tips on Luminarians must always be black if they're Traditional and Brown/White if they're Chocolate/Alolan respectively. Points in any other color would make them Other, even if the color is in the non-chu's base palette! Again, as with the previous update, if you had a character with point colors that didn't match their established rarity, the character has been updated free of charge and there's nothing you need to do! The mutation page for color variations should be updated with the relevant changes shortly (if it hasn't already).
• Generation 1 Mains and Sides
  We know a handful of you have been waiting on this information for a long time and we're happy to announce that we finally have it - though it might not be what you were expecting - or necessarily hoping for. We did our best with what we were able to do, but we're not going to assume that it won't be disappointing to some people. But we decided the best course of action was ultimately the most straightforward one, which we have outlined below.
  
  • Main Character Status: We've decided to stop micromanaging things in this regard - as stated previously, users are now free to register their G1s as mains regardless of what they were previously (i.e. Mains or Sides). But in doing so, we're officially dropping the ability to create children for pairings with family size caps. All children for established pairings are going to be considered canon - no more of this some are, some aren't, someone only exist in the background thing we previously had going on. That means if your G1 character pairings (specifically for Originals) had children as sides beyond their base child cap, they need to be removed, relocated to a new family, or made into clones. But it's important to know that the difference between Mains and Sides in G1, in most cases, is purely for ARPG purposes and not necessarily comic purposes. There are a handful of Generation 1 Mains that the comic will focus on. That doesn't mean that others are non-canon or that they don't exist in the timeline, but by registering a G1 character as a Main, knowing that they most likely won't be a comic focus character, you are acknowledging and accepting that reality. Obviously, as far as the comic goes, we're going to do our best to ensure that everyone is included, but we do ask people to keep in mind that G1 specifically has a very limited story and a very limited focus, meaning not every character is going to get significant time in the limelight compared to G2. But of course, we'll do our best to make everyone feel included!
• Trait Voucher
  The Trait Voucher has been renamed to Trait Potion and has been removed from the General Store and relocated to Back Alley Oddities.
• Character Families & General Coding Updates
  The "Family" tab has been lurking on character profiles for a long time now and we're happy to say that some progress is finally being made toward it's full implementation on site. Ideally, the system will be set up so that users can request familial links to other characters on the masterlist and the request will be subject to mod approval. The goal is to have it set up so it can actually flesh itself out based on the links to characters already on the tree. For example, if a character has pre-established children and you set that character to your character's parent, your character's siblings will automatically fill out because the parent had pre-established children, which, of course, would then become that character's siblings! The family trees of pets will likewise be filled out automatically during the breeding process. It's a tedious process but we'll get there. If not on our own then with the help of the coder we now have officially lined up!
• Wish Tags
  Wish Tags are available for purchase again at the Wish Shrine! These nifty little things can be used to grant users a single additional ticket to any (applicable) ongoing raffle. Thier main purpose, however, is for participating in the Wish Tree. And if you don't know what that is, well... I guess you'll have to stay tuned and find out!

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

➤ DAY 2: aUGUST 13

Day 2 kicks things off with a smaller update as we continue to prepare the larger events on the schedule. While definitely not the most extravagant of the activities we have planned, if you're waiting for crafting, Tera Types, and prompts, then you probably won't be disappointed!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ CRAFTING

Crafting is making a tentative debut on the Glowchus website, starting with two simple recipes, one of which will be relevant to upcoming events! Crafting will be expanded and elaborated upon later during the anniversary event, but because it's relevant to the prompt, we're introducing it superficially today!

• Restorative Medicine - Crafted with one of each berry.
• Dye Kit - Crafted with three of each berry.

The feature is extremely experimental at this point and guidelines, recipes, and ingredients for recipes are highly subject to change over the next few months as we figure out a good balance for the system. Eventually, the process will be done purely on the user end of things - right now, however, it needs a bit of administrative involvement.

How does it work? Well, when users want to craft an item, they will submit a claim titled "Crafting." In the comments, they will fill out this form:

Recipe: The name of the recipe (such as "Restorative Medicine" or "Dye Kit") will go here.
Ingredients: The components of the recipe should be listed here.

On the claim form, you should see two additional fields labeled "Rewards" and "Add-ons." In the Add-ons field, you will attach all required components for the recipe. So if the recipe requires 1 of each berry, you will need to attach one of each berry to the claim. In the Rewards field, you can attach the item you're crafting. If you're crafting a Dye Kit, for example, you'd list one under the rewards. Then simply submit the claim and if it was done correctly, staff will approve it for you! You can also craft multiple recipes per claim as long as you attach all the required ingredients!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ TERA TYPE RAFFLE RESULTS

The results of the Tera Type raffle are in! The lucky winners of this new site feature are listed below.

• Winner 1: ConriAngel with the Stellar Tera Type
• Winner 2: bisflorescentia with the Ice Tera Type
• Winner 3: Lazuli-Heart with the Dragon Tera Type
• Winner 4: DragonseekerArt with the Fairy Tera Type

Congratulations to the winners - rewards have already been distributed so there's no need for the winners to do anything else. And for anyone who didn't win (and even those who did win, if you're not completely happy with the type you received), these are just the beginning phases of Tera Type implementation. There will be ways for everyone to earn Tera Types for their characters and even swap them out for different types if they're not completely happy with what they've got. In fact, it might be coming even sooner than you think!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ EVENT: CRYSTALINE ENCOUNTERS PART I

We bring things to a close on Day 2 with the launch of a new event type. Things might not seem too unusual at first glance, but keep in mind, this is part one! Overall, Crystaline Encounters will be a unique event, the likes of which have never been seen in all 15 years of Glowchus. Participating in part one will not be required to participate in part two, but it will grant the participating character special bonuses and rewards that will help them progress when part two rolls around two weeks from now! Click the banner below to be taken to the event.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

➤ DAY 3: aUGUST 16

Good morning, everyone! It's now day 3 of the Anniversary Extraordinare event and  we're about a third of the way through the activities today. Even though today's update may be small, it opens up the door for brand new potential features down the line - don't get to excited just yet, though! We're not promising anything - we mostly just kind of want to get a foot in the door here with other options/possibilities. We still need to gauge how well things go.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ FREE GACHA ROLL RAFFLE

We'll be giving away one free official roll for the summer gacha (on day 4)! The winner will be rolled first when the gacha starts.

This giveaway is specifically intended for those who can't afford/don't have the means to participate in any of the other design sales, to try and spread the design wealth around! However, entering or winning this giveaway DOES NOT bar you from buying anything else during this event, whether it's a design or anything in the ko-fi shop, nor does this prevent you from being gifted rolls/designs by anyone else (since we know we have so many kind people here); so please don't feel guilty for entering but then finding extra funds later. It's just the spirit of the giveaway and we trust you all with it!

>> Enter the Free Gacha Roll raffle here <<

The form is pretty simple! All you need to do is list your discord name (anyone can enter as long as they're currently in chat - even if they're not a member of the website) so we know who is entering!

AND ALSO. Everyone here is always so very kind and willing to help each other, a fact we'll always be so so grateful for. But we're going to call out three people in particular who have, again and again, graced this community with their seemingly endless generosity. DragonseekerArt, momodreamworks, and Oyasumii -- you three will get one free official roll each!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ THE (NO LONGER A) MYSTERY DESIGN AUCTION

If you've been following the anniversary event since day one, then you probably know that we've had a very special auction scheduled for today - one that's been a struggle to keep under wraps over the past 7 days! This 'chu is truly special, for they are the only one of their kind currently in existence - and possibly the only one in existence for the forseeable future. Can you guess what they are? Well, you've been waiting for 7 days, so we won't keep you waiting any longer! Allow us to introduce you to the one, the only... Torrential Thunder Above Raging Tides!!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

There's a rumor among sailors of a strange creature that speeds across the seas like a Sharpedo possessed, racing through the water just below the surface. Its features have never been made out clearly by any who might witness it, though these sailors know it's as striking a crimson as red tide in the sunset and has a tail nearly as large and fearsome as a Gyarados itself.

Those who know this enigma directly know he's nothing to be feared at all. Quite the opposite, in fact: he's a local hero! His rambunctious, often rowdy demeanor can be startling to some given his massive size, but he's got a heart of gold and protects the sea and each creature within it with every last fiber of his mighty being. He isn't shy by any means, but he tends to keep away from prying eyes due to the unique nature of his hybrid existence, and most not from his immediate domain know of him only through myth and legend.

Torrential Thunder above Raging Tides!!

Water/Dragon/Electric

Starting Bid: $100
Autobuy: [to be announced after 24 hours]
>> Bid here <<

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

You've all been inquiring about this for ages, and now: behold!! Glowchus' first official Hybrid Luminarian!

We are being incredibly experimental with hybrids -- if we continue with them, they'll start by only being obtainable via official sales from myself or Rii, and we will potentially open them to a wider extent after that. We have a specific vision of what we do and do not wish to allow in the world of Glowchus, so please be patient with us as we try to juggle that vision along with the desires of the community! ;o;

This may become the only official hybrid in the group or the only one for a long time. We're not saying that to instill FOMO, but rather to quell expectations so nobody things this is a guaranteed addition to the group just because one exists!

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

➤ DAY 4: aUGUST 19

Another smallish update today, but fear not! Day 5 will be another big one. Now you guys probably noticed that things got switched around a bit. Today was originally slated for the Gacha, but after some user input and last minute executive decisions between the two of us, we decided to flip things around a bit. The gacha is still happening, of course! But it's getting put off another couple of days in favor of the other sale, which is....

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ Floral Glowchu Flatsale!!

This will be a flatsale, meaning first come first served once opened. A new thread within ⁠advertisement will be created at the designated time, and as soon as it's made, you may post to claim a design. One design per person for the first 24 hours; If there are still designs leftover, you may claim a second. You can claim for someone else, but then you are using your 1 claim and cannot claim for yourself until 24 hours have passed.

Each design will be $30 for unofficial. If you want to pay the "full" price to make them official, refer to each individual price below. If you want to drop certain traits to lower the official price, that's fine too! I will make a less rare version if desired.

This sale will take place at 1pm EST on Monday, August 19th (in Discord)!

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

➤ DAY 5: aUGUST 22

One of our biggest updates of the entire anniversary event, get ready for Foraging, Questlines, and a sneak peek into another upcoming adventure feature - Expeditions! This update is all about character development and the adventure/exploration/collection aspects of ARPGs that communities like this are known for!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ Expeditions

Due to the unfortunate reality that we were unable to get the coding stuff we had planned done before the deadline [not to mention just a straight up lack of time], Expeditions are still a little ways off. That said, we wanted to give you guys a little preview of things to come! Expeditions will essentially be choose-your-own-adventure/DND style prompts where a group of characters begin at and must complete a base level prompt, and completing that specific prompt will unlock a series of additional prompts that will unlock another series of prompts until arriving at and ultimately completing the final prompt in the chain! For example, it's essentially something like the tree below:

Lower level expeditions will have smaller trees with simpler rewards, but the higher the level, the larger the tree and the more extravagant the rewards! Every ending will have a different outcome/reward, most of which will involve treasure-oriented collectibles and other high tier rewards that are hard to come by anywhere else! Expeditions will also require balanced party builds that users are encouraged to do collectively as collaborations with friends, but are also optional independently with a combination of a user's own characters/companions. Expeditions will be an activity that all characters can participate in and won't be limited to specific jobs/classes - which are another feature we plan on implementing here in the community. But that's a little further off.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ Foraging

Foraging is now officially live on Glowchus.com, starting off with a singular foraging location that doesn't require any tools/items/etc to participate. This activity comes in the form of a Foraging Prompt, in which users are required to submit art of their character exploring the area in order to successfully "forage." Foraging is primarily meant to be used as an activity for users to collect crafting materials, but there's a very small chance that anyone who participates will walk away with some higher tier items as well. We apologize if the system seems a bit bare bones and lackluster at the moment - Questlines took the limelight this update. But foraging is something we fully plan to keep expanding upon as the group progresses. More items, locations, tools, and so on will become available over the coming months.

For those of you who aren't interested in foraging if it requires artistic effort, not to worry! Simple click-based foraging is on its way to Glowchus.com as well! Once per day, users will be able to pick from one of several locations to forage, simply click the button, and wait a moment for the timer to count down before they can collect their reward. A sneak peek into that particular system can be seen below (ignore the stock image placeholder)!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ Questlines

Now for the moment most of you have been waiting for! Questlines have been fully implemented on Glowchus.com, starting with three basic questlines - the evolution questline, the marriage questline, and the beast taming questline. The number of questlines, as well as the quality of those questlines, is something that will be expanded upon in the coming months as we see how things play out, hear what members have to say, and so on.

Before you get started, there is something we'd like to address that we're sure you're all wondering about - Subtype and Herald questlines are not presently available. We had fully intended questlines to release with both the subtype and herald questlines among the options, but due to the complexity of the requirements and how they needed to be set up, we ultimately ended up needing a little more time than we first thought. But you can fully expect to see subtype/herald questlines by, if not before, the end of the year!

So without any further ado, if you're ready to get started, go ahead and click the banner below to be taken to our Directory of Questlines page!

Celebrating the first birthday of glowchus.com

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

Yes, you heard right! No, your ears (or eyes, rather) do not deceive you! August 10th marks the official anniversary of the (re)launch of Glowchus.com, meaning the website is exactly one year old today! The year really flew by it seems. It feels like only yesterday everyone was excited to finally have the site up again - and we were all scrambling to register and get started. None of us can really believe that an entire year has passed since then! We got a lot done and there's still much more to come starting here and now with the biggest update of the year!!

Get ready for 10 full days of sales, discounts, events, giveaways and more during the Glowchus Anniversary Extraordinaire! Every three days starting from August 10th (that's today!), all the way through September 6th, we'll have something new and exciting to share with you all. This will likely be the last major update in 2024 - and very likely the last update for this year in general. During one of the ten days of celebration, you'll see the main reason why. That said, we worked hard to ensure that, coupled with this month long event, everyone will have plenty to do during the time we have left between now and the new year. So, without any further ado, lets jump right into it!

We have our event schedule outlined below. Every 3 days, this news post will be updated with new information, features, and updates, so be sure to keep checking in throughout the month!

Event schedule:

• August 10 (Day 1) - Item Sales/Raffle/General Updates
• August 13 (Day 2) - Event: Crystaline Encounters Part 1
• August 16 (Day 3) - Mystery Auction/Free Gacha Raffle
• August 19 (Day 4) - Floral Glowchu Sale
• August 22 (Day 5) - Adventures Abound Update
• August 25 (Day 6) - 30+ Design Glowchu Gacha
• August 28 (Day 7) - Comic Status/Comic Team, Staff, & Guest Artist Applications
• August 31 (Day 8) - Event: Crystline Encounters Part 2
• September 3 (Day 9) - Primordial Pandemonium Update
• September 6 (Day 10) - The Conclusion

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

➤ DAY 6: aUGUST 25

At Day 6 on the schedule, we're a day over half way done with the event now! Things are beginning to come to a close but we're not done yet - there's still plenty we have to share with you all. Although it's another small event today, we're featuring another sale from Vesp! This time in the form of a....

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ Glowchu Gacha!!

@ 10am PST/1pm EST in Discord

In a previous update, we announced that we'd be raffling away one free official gacha roll, preferably to someone who couldn't afford to participate this time around. The winner of that raffle was AndyArtistics. AndyArtistics, alongside DragonseekerArt, momodreamworks, and Oyasumii will all be receiving free gacha rolls at the start of the event, before any other claims have been rolled. We're just an hour away from the start of the event now, and we're looking forward to seeing what everyone gets!!

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

➤ DAY 7: aUGUST 28

Anddd day 7 is finally here! We had to do a bit of a switch around due to not meeting the deadline for what was previously slated for day 7, but not to worry! That update is still coming. For now, however, we're going to focus on...

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ Comic Status & Comic Team Applications

It's been a busy and chaotic year but despite that, yes! We are still on schedule as to when we plan to officially launch the comic. We don't have a specific deadline in mind - we're not going to push ourselves to meet a deadline on what's already a daunting tastk to begin with, but we can guarantee that you will finally see the comic make it's appearance sometime in 2025. Ideally it will be early that year, but agian, we're not putting further pressure on ourselves by guaranteeing any sort of deadline. We want this to be fun, not just for the people who have been waiting for it, but for the people who are contributing to it as well!

That said, I know we've done this quite a few times, but due to the situation changing and the amount of time that has passed, we're asking people, once again, to please fill out our Comic Team Application form if they are interested in contributing to the production of the comic. I've updated the form with a bit of additional information regarding NDAs and the use of people's artwork in a comic that will, in some ways, potentially end up monetized. So we wanted people to go through that information and re-verify whether or not they're still interested in participating with that information in mind. I think most people already expected things like that, but we always prefer to err on the side of caution!

>> Comic Team Application Form <<

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ Staff Applications

In that same vein, we are also opening up staff applications! We will likely not be hiring at any point before new years due to the fact that our current staff are doing thier jobs perfectly and adding more staff at this point would probably just create an imbalance in the amount of work available for the amount of people we have on the team. BUT that said, with all the new site features and updates (hopefully) coming around new years, I'm thinking we'll probably need some additional staff options lined up just in case there's a spike in the workload. Staff Applications also include any art-related site work. So for those of you interested in doing site art but not necessarily site work, the form covers that as well!

For those of you interested in site work specifically though, we encourage you to look through our Administrative Pages just to get an idea of the kinds of things you'll be expected to do and the effort/knowledge required to fufill those responsibilities successfully!

>> Staff Application Form <<

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ Guest Artist Applications

And last but not least, we know people have been waiting for this for quite some time. We're still unsure of how we're going to handle official, long-term guest artist positions on Glowchus.com. That said, we are actively looking for guest artists for our New Years event! We're going to use the results of this event in order to gauge how well guest artists work for the site/community/etc and move forward from there. It's likely that if we do decide to implement long-term guest artist positions, it will be with the people who volunteer for our new years stuff and decide they want to stick around, so this is a good opportunity for you guys to get your foot in the door, at the very least!

>> Guest Artist Application Form <<

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

➤ DAY 8: aUGUST 31

Although fairly small in comparison to previous days, Day 8 on the anniversary agenda brings us into part 2 of Crystaline Encounters - and with it, a new event type, new features, new prompt rewards, and new possibilities for the future of the Glowchus website!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ EVENT: CRYSTALINE ENCOUNTERS PART II

The climax of Crystaline Encounters is finally upon us, and with it comes a new event type: Boss Battles! As with most systems released during the Glowchus beta phase, it's mostly a "try it and see how things go" kind of thing, where we test the waters with something new and see how well its received and how functional the overall process is. If people enjoy it, it's definitely something users can expect to see more of in the future. Click the banner to be taken to the event!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ BOSS BATTLES

For those of you who want to learn a little more about boss battles before jumping into the event - at surface value, boss battles are just standard prompts with slightly different bonuses, rewards, and guidelines. Depending on the type of boss battle (this specific boss battle is a a Tera Raid Boss), there will be different objectives that contribute to the rewards you receive, and by association, the amount of damage you deal to the boss. The amount of damage done to a boss is (with a few exceptions) equivalent to the amount of Radiance you earn for your submission. So if you participate in a boss battle and only receive the base value of radiance (30, in this case), that's the amount of damage that will be dealt to the boss for your submission - or attack.

Every boss comes with a boss tracker! In the case of this specific event, the boss tracker can be found here. The boss tracker keeps track of the boss's current health, the amount of damage dealt so far and by who, as well as milestones reached by specific users. Once the boss has been defeated, everyone who participated in the battle will receive additional rewards beyond what's granted as the default prompt rewards! These rewards can vary, but typically will contain things like subtype items (or subtype crafting items), Rare Candies, Tera Shards, raffle tickets, and more!

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

➤ DAY 9: sEPTEMBER 3

We're in the final stretch with Day 9 of the anniversary, which brings us at last [after some switch-arounds] to the Primordial Pandemonium update - the update completely centered around Primordial Beasts. With this update we bring you the initial stages of Companion Questlines, Companion Breeding, and 4 new novelty companion species [one for each season].

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ COMPANION QUESTLINES

Much like standard characters, it was always planned for Companions to have their own questlines as well! A handful of these questlines may mirror the ones we already have available for characters [such as the evolution questline]. But for the most part, questlines for companions will be unique ways to not only develop the stories, personalities, and relationships with your companions, but their power, skills, and capabilities as well! Click the banner below to be taken to the Companion Questlines page!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ COMPANION BREEDING

Companion breeding is now fully functional on site! While we do plan to have breeding questable for companions a bit further down the line, like the herald and subtype questlines for characters, it just required a bit more fine tuning before release [hopefully we'll be able to get that out before anyone reaches that point, but if not, Beast Breeding Passes are available in the General Store for anyone too impatient to wait]! Breeding between two companions can be done presently via claims with a Beast Breeding pass. There are a few things to keep in mind when deciding whether or not to breed your companions, all of which is outlined below!

• Primordial Beasts cannot be bred unless both parents:
  
  • Are adults
  • Are opposite genders
    • Genderless species can only be bred with ditto.
    • Legendaries, although genderless, cannot be bred at all.
  • Have available breeding slots
    
    • A single primordial beast can only be bred 5 times in its life. After that, it's breeding status will change to "Unbreedable" and it will no longer be breedable [although there are items that can override slot limits].
• Egg group has no impact on breeding.
• Each breeding will result in a single egg (this can be boosted with perks and items up to 3 max per breeding).
• If the parents are differing rarities, the offspring will have a 75% chance to be the species of the parent with the lower rarity, and a 25% chance to be the species of the parent with the higher rarity.
• Classes only have a small chance of passing to the offspring. The higher the class, the less likely it will be to pass.
  • Class 1 = 40%
  • Class 2 = 30%
  • Class 3 = 20%
  • Class 4 = 10%
• Regardless of the species or class, there's a 1/10 chance any bred offspring will be a hybrid.
• Hybrids can produce offspring of either of their hybrid species (i.e. a Charizard/Blastoise can produce either Squirtle or Charmander offspring).
• 2x hybrids can produce 3x hybrids when bred with another beast of differing species - but 3x is the cap.
• Breeding hybrids does not increase the rate of producing another hybrid.
• When breeding Primordial Beast subtypes, the parent with the subtype can pass its species, but only has a very small chance of passing its subtype.
• When breeding Ditto with any other species, the species will always be that of the non-ditto parent.
  • Note that these are preliminary rates and will likely be adjusted as things progress.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ NEW NOVELTY COMPANION VARIANTS

We know that one thing we've always been missing when it comes to Primordial Beasts is a lack of variety in the novelty varients. Well today, we're happy to announce that we have not just one, but four brand new novelty species [one for each season] for users to enjoy. We still don't have a proper page set up for all the available novelty species we have, but that's definitely something users can look forward to in the coming days.

• Noble (Spring) - Legends speak of a breed of companion lost to the ages, feared for their strength and intelligence. Originally, these companions were called "noble" but 'mons have since taken to calling them "Demons" or "Onis." The noble bloodline of Primordial Beasts were once known as sacred guardians of their households, but these prideful beasts demanded respect and the minute their houses failed to provide said respect, they would turn on them.
  
  • Inspiration: Think things along the lines of the monsters/diety bosses you face in Okami or just Onis from japanese mythology in general.
• Soot (Summer) - The soot line of Primordial Beasts are known for their endless curiosity and penchant for getting into anything and everything - food stores, crawl spaces, atop roofs, and, of course, chimneys and fireplaces. In fact, they’re a somewhat common nuisance (or pleasure, depending on the person) in Eternia when inhabitants wake up to find a soot ‘mon clogging up their chimneys or making nests among the ash of their fireplaces. They tend to be very small in size, but when several of them congregate, they can amass themselves into one singular particularly large entity.
  
  • Inspiration: Soot Sprites from Spirited Away
• Gourmet (Fall) - Gourmet companions truly are one of a kind. It's unclear where, exactly, they originated, but some suspect a similar origin to that of Alcremie. These companions look like all assortments of, well... food! Dessert breeds are especially popular for some reason.
  
  • Inspiration: Food oriented creature designs in general, but Chocolate Neopets are a good example of things you can do with them!
• Plushie (Winter) - Have you ever wanted a pet without the responsibility? Well then the plushie pet may be the pet for you! Engineered specifically for young children by toy corporate Kidscorp in Metropolis, these pets don't need to eat, drink, exercise, or any thing really. In fact, they're more than content to simply chill out on their owner's bed and wait for their nightly snuggles.
  
  • Inspiration: Plushies in general, but also plushie pets from Neopets.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

➤ DAY 10: sEPTEMBER 11TH

The final day of the anniversary is upon us at last [one day late, forgive us]. Admittedly, the final day of the anniversary was left ambigious because we had a couple options and we weren't sure what we were ultimately going to end up working with - the Prologue for G1 was one of the possibilities, but we unfortunately didn't make the time crunch, so apologies to those of you who assumed it would be the comic - although you weren't entirely wrong - as you'll see in just a moment! Another possibility was the free/radiance gacha, but we decided to save that for new years. Nevertheless, day 10 has no shortage of fun and surprises, so let's dive into it for the final day of the event!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ COMIC PROGRESS

It's been fifteen years... but those of you who have been waiting can officially expect the comic to go live sometime in 2025. Ideally, it would be new years, but we aren't the best with deadlines when it comes to art related things. And on top of that, we want it to be fun, not stressful. The one thing we can promise is that you WILL see it before August 20th at the very latest [because if we can't get it out on the year of the 15th anniversary I will simply die]. So far we have rough thumbnails of the prologue for G1 [depicted as some extra teasers below], a full thumbnail spread for Chapter 1, and another rough thumbnail spread for G2s prologue. We want to avoid as many spoilers as possible, but since I already teased the thumbnail spread for G1 in chat, I figured I could share the full one here [and I say full but already there's been some changes and additions so what you see above isn't the full, final prologue].

Once the prologues for both G1 and G2 have been completed, we'll start sending out comic team requests to those of you who expressed interest in helping out with things! We're super excited to finally be bringing this story to life after all these years. Hopefully it will have been worth the wait!

Also just as a side note, because I feel like this might come up and I don't want anyone to feel left out after fifteen whole years of waiting for this moment - this is the promotional image for the combined stories of G1/G2 Glowchus. It is NOT the comic cover. We tried really really hard to do the individual covers with a huge array of characters from both stories [I actually showed some wips in discord], but it was just taking too much time. That said, we promise you guys that the actual covers themselves will feature EVERYONE'S amazing, incredible characters [or as many as we can fit in anyway] - not just mine and Vesp's! We appreciate you all so much and everything that everyone has contributed to our community after all these years. We promise we fully intend on paying it back tenfold when the comic finally goes live!!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ PROXY QUESTLINE

While the Herald questline might not have gone live with the initial batch of character questlines, we put in a little overtime at the end of the event to bring you guys the Proxy Questline, at the very least! Proxies aren't something we've talked a lot about quite yet - they've only come up a small handful of times. But the best way to describe a Proxy is basically as a "Pseudo Herald." Proxies are non-herald Pokemon that have been singled out by Legendaries in order to act on their behalf, especially during times of absense of both an official Herald and the Legendary itself. Proxies are typically found in ancient bloodlines that have devoted their entire livlihoods to the worship and servitude of a specific legendary for generations [though they can pop up at random, too!] and are the only Pokemon [aside from heralds themselves] trusted with the knowledge of where to find a specific legendary's shine - the place at which offerings are made and where the legendary will eventually reappear back into the world if their previous incarnation happens to die. While it's not particularly common for lesser legendaries to have more than one proxy, it does happen - there's no limit to the amount of proxies a single legendary can have and the higher they are in the legendary hierarchy, the more they typically do have. Completing the proxy questline will also boost success rates for when/if users happen to participate in the herald questline.

If you're interested in participating, then head on over, once again, to the Directory of Questlines page!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ WISH TREE

The Wish Tree is something we've had on the agenda for quite a while, and while we wouldn't say that it's fully fleshed out quite yet [it will have it's own page eventually, ideally by the time the next raffle rolls around], there is a raffle that can be participated in right now that will run until October 31st, which is the raffle for this wonderful companion here. Since no one entered the event for him, we knew we were ultimately going to end up raffling him off in one way or another and finally we came to the decision that he would be the first of the Wish Tree raffles.

This is a little unconventional for the Wish Tree, because normally [save for special cases like this] the Wish Tree will allow users to participate and essentially "wish" for whatever they want when they win the raffle. But in situations where we have leftover designs from events that have passed, they'll likely end up there as well.

How to Participate
Wish Tree raffles will occur once a month [typically, but monthly raffles aren't guaranteed while we're still getting the page/system fully set up]. The raffle for the Poochyena specifically can be found here. The only way to enter Wish Tree raffles is via Wish Tags, which are purchaseable at the Wish Shrine for 1ST. Users can buy an unlimited amount of Wish Tags, but can enter a single Wish Tree raffle a maximum of 5 times. If users enter themselves into a Wish Tree raffle more than 5 times, any subsequent entries beyond the 5th will be removed and will NOT be refunded. The winner of a previous month's Wish Tree raffle cannot enter the subsequent month's raffle and if they attempt to do so, their tickets will be removed and will NOT be refunded. So make sure to pay attention to what you're doing when you're entering!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

➤ CLOSING NOTES

Because day 10 going live on September 10th [it ended up being the 11th] wasn't a guarantee [and also because we didn't know at what time specifcially it would go live], any events with deadlines dependent on the end of the event will officially end September 12th @ 2PM PST. This includes the birthday design raffle, as well as the Ko-fi shop sales. So if there's any last minute things you guys want to do before things officially come to a close, you still have 20ish hours to do so!

Otherwise, we hope you all enjoyed the event! And if you're already ready for more, you can look forward to some holidays/new years shenanigans up next on the agenda. But for the months in between, we're going to take some time off to focus on site work and the initial phases of comic work. Thank you all for being such wonderful, supportive people. We genuinely couldn't have asked for a better community than this one! <33

Hello, everyone!! We hope you're all having a wonderful start to the summer season. Thankfully, school is now over for the next few months and we'll (hopefully, barring any unexpected circumstances) have the entire summer to get to work on fleshing out the site more and bringing in new content for you all to enjoy! If we're especially lucky, we'd like to get the fall festival out this year, but no promises at this point. There's a ton of other stuff that still needs to get done and what will likely end up happening is that we won't have another festival this year, but we'll be able to refine the spring festival for next year and POSSIBLY add a new one on top of it. But we'll see! As for this months major site changes, please check out the information below.

Submission Guidelines & Currency Overhaul
We know you've all been waiting for a really long time, and we apologize for the delay, but our new Submission Guidelines & Currency Distribution page is now live - and with it comes some major submission and currency related changes. First and foremost, we've opted for a new(ish) system for currency distribution for prompts (currency distribution for general art hasn't changed), which grants currency at a base rate when the user makes the gallery submission for the prompt. This means that users will get the typical rate for their submission based on the level of detail, amount of characters, etc. for the submission when they make it and anything received through making the prompt submission will be for the sake of bonuses/exp specifically. The submission guidelines page also details information on character visibility, background requirements, and much more. That said, there's no longer any reason for users to not meet the minimum requirements for submissions and now that we have solid, outlined guidelines, any submissions that do not meet those requirements in the future WILL be rejected.

Undermining Guest Artist Privileges
Before we get into this, we want to make it very clear that no one is in trouble for this and no one specific person is being called out by this change (as it's happened multiple times now from multiple different people). On the contrary, we're very grateful that things like this happen, specifically because it helps us determine where lines need to be drawn and thus helps us clarify overall community rules and guidelines. But just to nip it in the bud before it gets out of hand, we want to make sure that users know that they CANNOT create designs to sell with the intent of making them official before doing so, as this directly undermines guest artist privileges. To prevent things like this happening in the future, registrations for new chracters now have a 60-day cool down, meaning that a character cannot be sold/traded/gifted within 60 days of its initial upload. If users attempt to bypass this rule by selling a design and then "gifting" a voucher so that that design can be made official, we will make vouchers account locked. So please respect our decision on this matter and don't make us take drastic measures in order to prevent it from happening!

Monthly Prompts

Due to a bit of a delay and also the fact that we want to avoid stressing about future prompts, despite the fact that it's only June, both June and July's monthly prompts are now live. We're still working on revising the monthly prompt system a bit, but major systems are taking the priority and we can't really promise right now when those changes will take effect.

Hi, everyone!! Sorry for the late news post. And since it's so far behind, we're going to be using it to cover both April and May updates (hopefully we'll be back on track by June!). It's another smallish update - there's not too much to report. We're now into the last few weeks of the semester and it's hitting us both really hard. But by the time June rolls around, we should be able to start getting ourselves back on track. Thank you all once again for your patience and we hope you're having a lovely spring season so far!

Suggestions

We know there hasn't been much going on in the way of all the suggestions left in our suggestions channel, but we do read them and take them into consideration and they are always in the back of our minds as we go about work with the site. We did, however, take some time to sit down and go through all the suggestions that had accumulated so far this month! A lot of them were things that we'd already gradually implemented across the discord/website over these past couple months (like some events and other minor suggestions such as channels/rule adjustments/etc. etc.). So we wanted to take this time to just let you all know that there will always be things that won't really make it to the table due to the specifics of how we personally want things to work, as far as site stuff goes. But that said, your suggestions and input are very important to us and we definitely want to do more with a lot of the things that have been suggested so far! So don't think that we're not interested just because something that has been suggested hasn't been implemented yet. Many of the things that users suggest are site related and we can't really change them overnight. But like we said, they're always in the back of our minds as we go about the development of the site and we're working hard to make sure that people get the things that they want - to the best of our abilities, within the scope of our overall vision for the site!

Monthly Prompts

There was a bit of a delay on our March-April prompts, but we're happy to say that the monthly prompts for March, April, AND May (a little bit early) are now live. We'll be working on overhauling them a bit in the future (potentially by the time June comes about, but unfortunately we can't make any guarantees right now). For now though - and until stated otherwise - they're running along the same guidelines/standards as usual.

Spring Festival

The April porition of the Spring Festival is now live! Due to the pretty big delay, the events will run through April and all the way to the end of May. Additionally, the February portion of the Spring Festival will continue for that same duration as well!

Minigames

The rewards for past minigames are finally in the process of being distributed. If you haven't received your rewards yet, don't worry! We're not done quite yet - it's a slow and tedious process, but we're getting there. Thank you so much for all your patience! We know you all have been waiting a long time.

Legendary Pokemon

Legendary Pokemon can now be created as official characters of the Glowchus arpg! These characters are distinctly separate from the "world governing forces" legendaries in that they are NOT "world governing forces" and they similarly cannot produce heralds - but they can be Luminarians! Similarly, they tend to be on the smaller side when compared to their diety counterparts (especially when it comes to larger legendaries) and are not immortal like said counterparts (although they do generally have a much longer than average lifespan - typically around the 300-500 years mark). Despite this, they are often very highly regarded by society, their social statuses being on par with royalty and and are often chosen as political/religious/societal figureheads. Because we don't want them all over the place, they can only be made with Premium Vouchers - but both the standard premium vouchers and the account locked equivalents can be used! Any legendary can be created with the exception of Arceus, Giratina, and also Yveltal, Eternatus, and Necrozma (for story reasons, but this could potentially change later).

It's the start of February, and we hope the new year has been treating you all well so far! Unfortunately with the start of the school semester for many of us, things haven't been as productive around here as we'd hoped. But we worked really, really hard to bring you something special this month, and that's the return of Glowchus's festival events! We'll be kicking things off starting with the Hearts Festival (February), which will go live at some point later today. We can't make it as grand as we would have liked, considering limitations on everyone's time at the moment, but for our first returning festival, we're fairly proud of the result! Additionally, as an unfortunate result of just a plain lack of time, a lot of the festival rewards/items/currencies aren't functional just yet, but that will (hopefully) be something you'll see within the next week or two here! Thank you so much for your patience! We appreciate you all more than you could ever know <3

https://archives.bulbagarden.net/media/upload/6/68/EggMS3.pngBefore we get started, as most of you probably know by now, one of our longest-standing and most beloved members, Mew, has been facing a lot of unexpected hardship recently. Last month, we put together a GoFundMe for her in hopes that it would provide some support in the midst of her current situation. The campaign is still running and members can show their community spirit by donating to the cause here or directly to Liz's paypal. We've raised a ton of money for her so far, but she's not entirely out of the woods yet. Remeber, every little bit helps! She's currently selling some of her own designs to help with moving expenses. These can be found here. And be on the lookout for one or two more Glowchus fundraising sales on her behalf - all of the proceeds for which will go directly to Liz!

Otherwise, it's going to be a pretty quiet month, but as usual, we've provided a brief outline of changes/adjustments/additions that have occured or that will actively be worked on during the month of February.

Radiance Distribution
Radiance distrubution for prompt has been increased since our previous announcement! Rewards went from 20R to 30R and 30R to 50R respectively depending on the prompt. Similarly, prompts now have a cap on the total Radiance that can be earned based on the base Radiance distrubution rates, which are as follows: 10 = 20, 30 = 50, and 50 = 80. Bonuses can be applied to (some, but not all) prompt submissions up to the cap. Once the cap has been reached, no additional bonuses can be applied. The cap allows for the Amulet Coin bonus, on top of one (or more, depending on the value) additional bonuses.

Monthly Prompts
Our next monthly prompt should be live at the same time the newsletter goes up! Last month the theme was Begin Again. This month, tying in with the theme of February, the theme is Love Yourself. Just as a casual reminder, there's no time limit on monthlies! You are more than welcome to participate in them at your leisure. While you may only make one submission per monthly, you can do so on your own timetable. If you missed January and we're already into December, you can still submit a prompt for January, as long as you haven't already done so! <3

Festivals 
Festivals are getting a revival this month, starting with the Spring Festival (although they probably won't be going live until later today)! Festivals will now be handled seasonally rather than monthly, with specific events that can only be participated in based on specific months of the season. We're going pretty minimal on them for now, but hopefully by the time the next one rolls around (we're skipping summer, so the next will be fall), events/features/systems/etc will be a little more ironed out and less chaotic. As always, we appreciate your patience!

A bit of a delay on this one, but that's because there's not much to post this month, I'm afraid! School and work have been keeping us all pretty busy, to the point where, as you've probably noticed by now, we weren't actually able to get around to the March events for this year's Spring Festival. As a result, we've decided (even if it's a bit late) to extend February's events into March as well and we're treating it as a new "cycle" of the event. What that means basically is that if you already hit your participation cap for the event back in February, you can participate again as though the cap were refreshed in March!

We're focusing on fleshing out more of the site's core systems now, like rules, design guidelines, character families, currency distribution information, crafting, foraging, etc, etc now rather than getting events up (since we have a decent chunk up already). But we're going to do our best to get April's festival events up at the very least. Thank you all again for your patience! <33

Hello, everyone!! Today we're going to be addressing something that we've been thinking about for a long time now - or since the revival of the website, at the very least. And that speficially is the limitations we currently have placed on G1 characters. Historically, G1 has always tended to be more exclusive, with G2 being where the main user involvement was centralized. But with the revival of the website, the rise in numbers in our community, among other varying factors, we've come to the decision that we'd like to remove the "exclucivity" aspect that has always applied to G1 and, like G2, have it be more open so that there aren't people who are barred from being a part of it simply because of a (mostly) arbitrary character cap. So, the tl;dr of it, to sum up everything that will be written below, is that we're removing the character cap and, moving forward, G1 is open to everyone (with a few exceptions/conditions/etc that are addressed below).

Character Caps
When we say that we're removing the character cap, we mean specifically as it pertains to G1 story mains overall. Certain character categories in G1 still have physical caps to the amount of characters that can be created for them (ex. 19 Originals) and certain families in G1 still have caps on the total amount of children they can have - specifically as far as originals go (ex. Water/Grass with their cap of 2 and Dragon/Fairy/Dark with their cap of 3). But the amount of characters that can be created for G1 overall no longer has a limit. This will allow people to have certain characters as mains that would have previously been treated as sides (such as half-glowchu children and predecessor offspring) otherwise, and also lifts the main character cap currently placed on all previous members.

Character Registrations (both paid and unpaid)
Throughout the history of G1, we have had alternating waves of payments for characters in exchange for "officiality" being required versus not being required. While G1 characters registrations before this point were officially unpaid, with the changes being made, they have been reverted back to being paid. Any characters that were unpaid that are currently registered will remain registered, but any characters that are registered down the line will require vouchers. Anyone who has a currently unpaid G1 main (which is basically everyone with a G1 story main at this point), will not be affected overall by this change, but unpaid characters will be formally account-locked and if traded, they will lose their main status and the new owner will need to pay to have them registered again (not that I expect anyone to actually trade their characters, but we want to address it just so the conditions are laid out regardless).

The Dividing Line Between Stock Preds/Preds and Side Clones/Clones
With this update, there is no longer a distinction between what were formerly known as Stock Predecessors versus Predecessors, or similarly, Side Clones versus Clones. The original clones/predecessors you associate with G1 are simply subgroups among a larger whole - kind of along the lines of the subgroups you commonly see in G2! It is important to note, however, that lorewise, Predecessors did not survive and the chance that we will end up including any others (aside from the original 10) beyond anything other than the prequel is very slim and therefore we would not recommend registering them as mains unless you're planning to port them into G2. Predecessors are the only G1 species that can be ported to G2.

Character Designs and Portrayal
Characters in G1 adhere to stricter design standards and overall characterization standards. This is something that will be elaborated upon later once we get the Creating a Character page fully updated. But in short, G1 characters cannot have mutations and must adhere to the standard of Glowchu designs (simple markings, no extra markings, normal colors, etc etc) - with few exceptions. They are also treated as being feral (more along the lines of what you see in the traditional pokemon anime) and we prefer that they aren't humanized (given full on clothes/weapons/houses/etc) in absolutely any capacity as they are still wholly beneath humans both in terms of intelligence and social hierarchy compared to G2 where they are the dominant species and more human-like in behavior/portrayal/social standing.

Character Trading/Selling/Etc/Generation Swapping
Because 90% of the characters in G1 are directly descended from the characters of others, we need to treat the selling/trading/etc of these characters a little differently than we would traditionally. If you pay for a voucher in order to create a character in G1, with very few exceptions, you are doing so only with the consent of the person whose character that YOUR character will invariably be tied to. For this reason, we can't simply allow people to trade/sell their G1 characters at their discretion, as it would directly impact the people whose characters that character is tied to. In situations where G1 characters are placed under new ownership, in absolutely any situation, unless the owners of the characters who are affected by that transfer are wholly aware and agree to said changes, the character will maintain it's officiality, but will be "demoted" to G2. We're not sure how we're going to handle the demotion process just yet, as it can result in some weird activity conflicts. So as of right now, it's not something users are volunarily able to do with their characters, but that's definitely something that's possible for the future!

There may be some points that we forgot to touch on or that will need more elaborating. If so, we'll add them as points on this news post as they come about! Otherwise, I think  we covered everything relatively well. But if you have any questions/concerns/etc, don't hesitate to reach out! <3

Happy New Year's Day, everyone! It's the beginning of yet another revolution around the sun and therefore, a fresh start not just for all of us, but for Glowchus as well! We want to take a moment to say, once again, how much we appreciate you all and how much fun it's been having the community actively together again - especially this past year or so. Things have been really popping around here and we've had so many new people join the fray - and not just new people either! This past year has definitely been the year of returning faces. Hopefully it will be an amazing one for us all - but as for Glowchus, we have a lot of things planned and updates to cover, so we're just going to dive right into it!

Beta Status

The original plan was for the website to be out of beta by the time New Years rolled around, but unfortunately, we're not really comfortable saying that we're officially past the beta phase at this point in time. We're getting there, but we're not quite there yet. We're aiming for sometime within the next few months here, with a worst case scenario of mid-late June. There are too many features that haven't been implemented and values that are subject to change, but we're actively working on them almost every day of the week.

Staff Pay

We have come to a mutual agreement that, as of New Year's Day 2024, website staff (founders included) will no longer receive staff pay. Members of the Glowchus administrative team will play the game and make their earnings through said participation - the same as everyone else. From this point forward, with the sole exception of those of you contributing art to the community, staff positions will be purely volunteer and will not receive benefits in absolutely any way.

G2 Main Story Events

Generation 2 Main Story Prompts are available for both Sun and Moon for G2-001 through G2-005. Sun has an extra two prompts and theirs go all the way through G2-007, but we're struggling to find some of the information for earlier RS events so we need to decide whether we're going to rewrite them or keep searching for what we had previously. But we're still steadily working on getting them all uploaded!

G2 Post Story Events

G2 Post Story Prompts are live, starting with New Beginnings! Those of you who have been with us for a long time may recognize this prompt, as it was the first one we ran back when we had the original website! It's been updated a little bit since then. It's Plot Point and two associated Mission prompts will hopefully be along here shortly, but we're still missing a lot of the information we had previously and, like the G2 Main Story events, we need to decide whether we want to keep searching for what we had or just start rewriting things entirely.

Monthly Prompts

Monthly prompts should have begun the minute this update post went live, starting with Begin Again! From this point forward, there will be a new prompt with unique themes to participate in every month. We're still opting for the more leisurely/laid back approach to ARPGs, so these prompts will have no deadline, but each one can only be participated in once per user.

Evolved Characters

Glowchus is an ARPG, meaning that every form of both character and user progression is earned through participation in prompts, buying items, etc. Characters registered on the website can start at either their base or baby stages - they cannot be fully or partially evolved. This is nothing new - this was a feature in this community even as far back as the beginning of RS. Nevertheless, we've had some characters sneaking through the cracks and starting their ARPG adventures at evolutionary stages they shouldn't have. We just wanted to post this as a general reminder that characters cannot start out at evolved stages and while some characters have managed to get away with it, we'll be really cracking down on that sort of thing starting this year!

Radiance Distribution

There was some talk about possibly increasing the gallery rate for Radiance, so we wanted to let you guys know that, what we decided on instead, was change the prompt submission rate for Radiance. Because the focus of the ARPG has always been the progression of the player/their character through prompt submissions, we figured that the best way to go about any increase in Radiance distribution would be through ARPG specific activity. So prompts have had their Radiance distribution boosted by x2 (ex. storyline prompts were previously 15R but now they're 30R). It's possible that we may do one more boost in the future, but we're going to wait and see how these rates hold up first. Remember, we're still in beta and systems/rates/etc are subject to change drastically throughout this time period. Once we're out of beta, things like this won't change (and if they do, it will not be without good reason).

Character Submission Eligibility Requirements

Eligibility requirements for Main Characters have been lifted. You no longer need to meet any goals before you can submit new Main Characters. This is not the case for Sides, however. They will still be following the same guidelines for the time being. We are, however, reducing the eligibility requirements for them to a 1 week cooldown + at least 1 gallery submission (not counting their masterlist art).

* * *

Once again, happy new years everyone!! We're so grateful for all the people who make up this incredible community and we're looking forward to seeing what this year (and hopefully many more to come) bring us!