We are really excited to announce the imminent release of the fayad as a playable race (on Saturday!)

This also allows us to complete a project that we've had on the proverbial whiteboard and been visiting and revisiting for almost 4 years now, a non-binary pronoun set.

By virtue of the fayad wishing well, all players will be able to switch between one of three pronoun sets that will affect all aspects of Achaea, honours, denizen reactions, attack/defence lines, personal descriptions, and basically anywhere else a pronoun is found.

These three pronoun sets are:
He Him His
She Her Hers
Fae Faen Faes

Switching between pronoun sets will be via in-character interaction tied into the fayad lore, and will have a cooldown on use to minimise shenanigans.

This won't affect your character's mechanical sex in any way, just how you present your character to Achaea.

A big part of announcing this early is to share some insight into why we went this route (and to give everyone a chance to make sure their triggers are updated!)

Why not They/Them or fully custom pronouns?
Achaea is a written product and while they/them are the most common non-binary pronouns chosen OOCly, it also has struggles with verb conjugation due to its common plural reference (i.e he jumps out of the way, she jumps out of the way, they jump out of the way). It was not possible to fix this, and not addressing that would be a quality control issue that undoes the hard work of our team who pride themselves on their written work.

Fully custom pronouns were discussed, but were discarded due to concerns about them feeling too OOC, about the implications they have for combat, and for the quality control as mentioned above.

Why a (somewhat) unique pronoun set and not one of the singular formatted sets used OOCly.
We investigated a variety of pronoun sets, and consulted with a number of non-binary people and communities to better understand how they would react to different forms of representation and what they would like to see. We decided that to best achieve this in Achaea, and to grant our non-binary characters their truest representation in the game, we needed to create a pronoun set tied intrinsically to something in the game world.

This all serves to make Achaea's non-binary characters (denizen and player) truly Achaean, with basis in the Fayad race found in game, and with an origin story that wholly links into the lore of the world. This also serves to legitimise characters and better divorce them from sadly-common OOC tensions.

Why do we need this?
Representation is important in any creative and entertainment arena, while we would love everyone to properly divorce themselves from their characters, this can be very difficult. While the OOC world we share is often not very accepting it can be immensely validating to be able to find aspects of yourselves represented in your entertainment.

Character creation in RPGs and tabletop games can also be an important way of exploring parts of yourself that you might not be ready to bring to the fore OOCly. These venues serve as relatively safe spaces in which to experiment and help find what resonates best with you.

Why didn't you release this 3 years ago?
A lot of research and thought has gone into this release, it was important to us to handle this with care and to also maintain the polish of the project that we are so proud to create. A lot of different versions were discussed and dissected before we eventually decided on this, and then the actual implementation took time too. It was much more important to us to get this as right as we could, rather than get something out fast. We hope that this speaks to our love for the world we create and our desire to best legitimise non-binary characters within that, rather than rushing out a poorly executed bare minimum for the sake of representation.

Why are you posting this now and not just releasing the race?
For most people a non-binary pronoun option changes nothing about Achaea. For some it will evoke a reaction. We would prefer this initial reaction (which is not always kind) is directed at us (admin) and at worst at the non-binary denizens that might be encountered. We definitely do not want our players, and especially any possible new-to-Achaea players, to have to shoulder that reaction. This announce also gives people a chance to tweak their scripts so that when the pronoun options are available, everyone's triggers will already be updated!

We're really excited for this release and cannot wait to see the stories that unfold. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to let us know!

Penned by My hand on the 14th of Miraman, in the year 899 AF.