phase one: the herdlands

Welcome to the First Phase of Evolution; unfortunately, this is by far the most difficult Phase to play, but in the end is by far the most rewarding of all the Phases, for within this Phase you are able to watch your character progress from a silent, simple creature to a thinking, speaking, reasoning character with desires and hopes and a bright, bright future.

In Phase One, you play a realistic horse character which cannot reason, speak, or think beyond natural urges (i.e. eating, breeding, migrating, etc.); there are specific milestones which you must reach in this Phase which are accomplished by trading in crystals, or the currency of Evolution. Crystals are the equivalent of money on Evolution, and should be treated as such; each character is rewarded with a certain number of crystals based upon activity, actions, abilities, etc. which are specifically spelled out HERE. Please refer to this page in the future for all crystal equivalencies and rewards which are currently going on in The Game.

For your writing ease, please acknowledge the following: Horses without Speech in Phase One can communicate through BODY LANGUAGE, which other horses will respond to and understand. However, other horses are certainly not able to "read" your thoughts through your body language - that ability, i.e. ESP, is far beyond the Phase One level. However, if a horse who has SPEECH speaks to another horse who does NOT have SPEECH, the horse without SPEECH will understand what is being said. HOWEVER, they must reply through BODY LANGUAGE.

required Milestones for Phase One

SPEECH: Something we have taken for granted for years on roleplaying games, and something without which it is very difficult to write. As The Owner, I would suggest that you spend your first 40 Crystals on Speech, so that you can spice up those posts beyond simple body language. However, as always, it is certainly up to you to decide just how you want to spend your Crystals.
COMPLEX THOUGHT: The ability to reason, and therefore the ability to think beyond your natural urges - essential for Phase Two, when Stealing becomes a part of gameplay, and it becomes necessary to reason out those silly riddles to prevent one of your Harem-mates from leaving you to go off with another.
RANK COMPREHENSION: Finally, after being referred to as no more than a member of a herd, suddenly within the Harem you're able to comprehend that you are the Beta Stallion or Mare, and therefore beneath another's rule - - this allows for further conflict within the Herd and/or Harem and/or Kingdom, and for the differentiation between Harems of different ranking systems.
FREE BREEDING: Unlike Phase One, where you were constrained by the Seasons, by The Owner (or her minions) in the Breeding Area regarding the gender, health, colour, due date, etc. of your offspring, and by your Herd Stallion, you are finally given some free rein regarding your breeding preferences; you are still constrained by the seasons and by the due date given by The Owner, but are finally able to determine the gender, health, colour, etc. of your child to your own liking.

optional milestones for phase one

BATTLE TACTICS: Stallions can finally challenge mares and mares can finally challenge stallions, bringing free mares and stallions without herds to oversee. This means the advent of the "Bachelor Herd" and "Mare Herd" in Phase Two, which brings some very interesting inter-character issues into light.
ROGUE: Don't want to be considered a member of a Harem, where you're still under the scrutiny of a Lead Stallion? Why not opt to be a rogue and wander wherever you wish? This is a very coveted Milestone, and as such has a very high price tag to go along with it ... mainly because we can't ALL be Rogues, no matter how much we'd like it.
WEAK ESP: We all do it, lets admit it - we're all guilty of "reading the thoughts" of another character and somehow applying them to our posts. Well, finally you can do that, with the constraint that the thoughts have to be SPECIFICALLY directed at your character; any other thoughts, however humourous they might be, cannot be read.

phase one completion

PHASE ONE WILL REACH COMPLETION ON SEPTEMBER 31st, AT 11:59:59PM

Created by Jessers September 14th, 2008
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