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All characters on Orcrest must follow the Appearance Guidelines at all times. Updates to these rules and to the specific appearance guidelines for each race may be made at any time by staff - for clarity, to differentiate races further, to preserve the setting, or for any other reason. Any changes made will be announced, and existing characters will be given a small grace period to update their appearance to match the changed guidelines, but all characters (no matter how long they've been on sim) will be expected to abide by the updated rules and update their appearance accordingly. 

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1. Racial Appearance Standards

Every race permitted on Orcrest has a list of standard features, and some have an additional list of optional features. These features will typically allow for a large degree of variation, but every character must follow the standard features of that race. If you think a given race's feature list should be looser, feel free to discuss it with staff - we are open to adjusting these descriptions in minor ways. When the features of a given race refer to skin or eye colour, they refer to naturalistic, muted shades of that colour unless explicitly said otherwise.

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2. Magical Effects

• Characters who can control magic (Expertise in the Arcana skill) or who's racial standards allow for it may have subtle magical effects on their person (ex. Eyes with a soft glow, small magical effects dancing around hands, etc).

• Auras and other more flashy magical effects are permitted within reason for characters who can control magic, but only while actively casting in combat, rituals, or other similar situations where your character is outputting magic to the best of their ability.

• Weapons, armour, and items that appear magical are only permitted if the character has an accompanying in-system item equipped (i.e. You can use a magical sword only when you have a weapon of any quality with a rune attached to it). These effects must also be subtle during day-to-day use, but may be larger or flashier during combat usage.

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3. Equipment Representation

Your avatar and your equipped system items should be in sync. If your character is visually unarmed and in a night gown, you should not have your sword and armour equipped.

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4. Nudity

In general, assume most settlements have some basic laws or standards of decency. Being overtly or nearly naked in public areas of settlements is highly discouraged unless your character is in an emergency situation, swimming, bathing in a river, stream, or spring, or intentionally trying to create a temporary distraction. In general, it is preferred players police each other in character rather than out of character wherever possible.

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5. Character Age

• Your character has to look, be, and act at least 18 years old.

• If your character's race page mentions an age of majority, your character has to be at least that old.

• Any excessively young-looking avatars will be asked to be changed, regardless of how long that character has been played on the sim. There are some heads, skins, and body shapes that, when alone, are fine, but together bring a questionably underage appearance.

• Any small sized races will be held to a higher standard of adult appearance due to their size. They must have a clearly adult skin, muscular definition and/or weight to them, and developed breasts for female-presenting characters. "Femboy" or similar appearances for small size characters are not allowed (but they are allowed on medium races).

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6. Copyright Material

It is not the job of Orcrest staff to police copyright, but it is our (and everyone else's) place to keep SL a viable platform for creators. We don't care if someone has modelled something based on a game, but the usage of game rips is not permitted.

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7. Gender Identity and Intersexed Characters

Orcrest is for all people, and we welcome and embrace queer characters of all stripes (regardless of if the player behind them is or is not a member of the queer community). However, fetishization of these conditions, gender identities, or sexualities is not appropriate. (See Rule 6 below). 

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