Gwenneth

Our deepest thanks to those of you who came out to support the Tournament this year, whether you were spectating or participating directly! You are the reason we do this, and it’s for you that we’ll continue striving for an improved experience each and every year: For Eorzea, for the Fury, and for our community. Thank you, everyone, sincerely. <3

Teadrinker, The ball is going to be moved back a week to the 9th, in order to give everyone a chance to recover after the excitement of the tournament! Date aside, it will be running until about 11:00 pm EST. Further official details will be released very soon! ~Gwen

Xaela are very much welcome to compete! While we've listed some major locations under which to compete, that bit is entirely optional, and we certainly shan't discourage your character from competing in the name of a home of which they're very fond!

Keiji, Thank you for the great questions! I'll take a look for the specifics on that Jousting ruling, and one of us will get back to you as soon as possible! As for your second question: You can compete in all four events if you choose to, since this year they're all on different days!

A reminder that registration for this year's Tournament is now open! Instructions on how to register for an event -- or events! -- can be found here.

This Sunday~

It's time, everyone! We're incredibly excited for this year's Tournament after how, well, grand things were last year! We hope to see you on the fields and in the lists!

((Very much looking forward to the next! For those who weren't able to make the first, it really was wonderful, and the participation from those in attendance made it that much more so.))

So very, very excited for this~!

(( In an effort to make sure we reach a broader portion of our RP community, I'm copying the original announcement for the Fourth Ishgardian Colloquy over from Tumblr! )) [align=center] [/align] [align=center][/align] [align=center]Distributed alongside the Third Colloquy notes in the Crozier, the Forgotten Knights, and other areas of high traffic… a very minimalist flyer, with naught beneath the woodcut illustration but the time and place for those who yet wish to debate Ishgard’s future to attend. [align=left](( The Fourth Colloquy will not be late after all! Please join us Saturday, September 3, at 9:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (6:00 PM PDT) for in-character debate on the political, religious, and social future of Ishgard, open to all who are interested! We will once again be using the basement of the house at Lavender Beds, Ward 10, Plot 27 to represent a rented conference room in the Pillars. The event will at last be set after all the cutscenes and associated governmental reforms of Patch 3.3. Therefore we will naturally be discussing all the spoilers that entails! If you would like your character to give a short speech, please contact me before the event, at @eggplant-squire / @hasty-touch, through @ardently-faithful, or in-game on Rosaire Ledigne. Please feel free to make use of the IC summary of the Third Colloquy to help your character prepare. We’ll be trying to enforce loose time limits a little better than last time. Please aim to keep speeches <= 15 minutes, and please trying to avoid standing up to address the assembly more than once if others are waiting for their first turn. I will look to be moving things towards a close around 11:00 PM EDT (or earlier if people have no more comments to make) but you may linger and speak further if you wish. This will most likely be the last Colloquy of Ishgard hosted, in-character, by Rosaire Ledigne. However, if someone would like to take the reins and continue the event series, I will of course be overjoyed to provide OOC support! And finally, please don’t forget that you may still submit feedback and suggestions via Tumblr or this Google form. Thank you so much for your support and interest, and see you soon!! ))[/align] [/align]

[align=center](( In an effort to make sure we reach a broader portion of our RP community, I'm copying the original announcement for the Third Ishgardian Colloquy over from Tumblr! )) [/align] [align=center]Distributed alongside the Second Colloquy notes in the Crozier, the Forgotten Knight, and other areas of high traffic:[/align] [align=center]Children of Ishgard, and her dear friends: the moons turn, and our city stands on the threshhold of an unborn age, full of hope and yet contention;[/align] [align=center]and so I pray you will heed the calls for empathy and understanding and once more join us in discussion of the form we wish this age to take.[/align] [align=center]And may it pass that, through examination of our plaints and disagreements, our common goals may be unearthed, for love for country does not divide us.[/align] [align=center]------------------------------------------------------[/align] (( A date and time for the Third Colloquy has been selected! Please join us Saturday, August 13, at 5:00 PM Eastern Daylight Time (2:00 PM PDT) for in-character debate on the political, religious, and social future of Ishgard, open to all who are interested! In accordance with feedback received, we will once more be using the basement of Lavender Beds, Ward 10, Plot 27 to represent a rented conference room in the Pillars, and the event will be set, in terms of IC timeline, after the Final Steps of Faith but before the full implementation of the reforms shown in the final 3.3 cutscenes. Major spoilers will necessarily be discussed! If you would like your character to give a short speech, please contact me before the event, at @eggplant-squire / @hasty-touch, through @ardently-faithful, or in-game on Rosaire Ledigne. This time around, there is an in-character summary of the Second Colloquy available for you to use as inspiration if you wish to pre-write some words for your character to say. Although we will not yet enforcing strict time limits, in the interest of giving more people a chance to be heard, I will try this time to ask you to keep your prewritten speeches <= about 15 minutes, and then I’ll plan to follow each speech with an open discussion of about the same span of time. After all (any?) prewritten speeches are given, we’ll have loosely-moderated open discussion until 7:00 PM EDT or until people have no more comments to make! Please do note that it is not too late to submit your feedback and thoughts regarding this Colloquy of Ishgard event series, either through the usual channels or this little Google Form I made. I am always eager for input and criticism, so please don’t be shy!! And once more, thank you so much for your continued and kind interest! ))

Goodness, things have been busy for the Bellworks! A little over a week ago, we had the honor of hosting a Grand Charity Ball as a follow-up to our tournament series, and we couldn't have been happier to see so many people present and enjoying themselves! [align=center]http://66.media.tumblr.com/6ce3069b007abcf0442efcc9a9e679a4/tumblr_oaf4qxX1Sc1ti4i0uo1_1280.jpg[/img][/align] I wish I had time to take more screenshots myself, but special thanks to Jancis for getting some excellent shots! They can be seen here! We would also like to welcome our newest members: Malliri Veinwright, Percevains Valeroyant, and Wu'rexa Norh! While we've two larger events behind us, our cogs won't stop turning anytime soon. Be on the lookout for our employees as we begin an earnest relief effort in Ishgard, continued supply runs out of our Coerthan and Ul'dahn offices, and at assorted public functions!

Ladies and gentlemen, Tomorrow evening, at 7:00 PM EST on the 9th of July, House Dufresne and its Bellworks, and House Pepin with its beauteous greenhouses and warm hospitality open the doors for the Grand Tournament of the Fury Charity Ball, that we might celebrate our championed unity and a brighter future for Ishgard and Eorzea! As a reminder, this will be ICly hosted at the House Pepin Greenhouses, though we will be using the Sanctum of the Twelve as its in-game representation. We ask that you please ignore any standing water and rain! Raffle Prizes and Programme The Charity Ball Master Post has been updated with a list of our prize-sets for raffle, as well as a rough timeline for the evening’s proceedings! We highly suggest that you acquaint yourself with the rules of the raffle in the Master Post beforehand, to make things easier for both our guests and staff tomorrow evening. Dancers’ Pool Pre-Registration As is also detailed in the Master Post, there are periods of the evening where we will happily pair you with a random partner for a dance, so as to help you meet someone new, or simply to add some flavour to your evening! Pre-registration for the Dancer’s Pool is now open! If you will be present for the first arranged dance at 7:30 and wish to be randomly paired with a partner, please send a message to Reima with your character’s name. Please do not pre-register if you cannot commit to attending! This is to ensure no one is left without a partner, and we thank you for the consideration! Remember: In order to keep our guests comfortable, if there is a person or persons you would not like to be paired with for any reason, and you feel they may be in the Pool, please be sure to let us know privately. While the dance is for socialization, we understand that there may be certain individuals whom you have an OOC or IC grievance with and wish to avoid in order for you both to enjoy yourselves. If you are leaving the ball, please inform one of the Floor Managers so that we can remove you from the Dancers’ Pool! This is to keep things running smoothly for both the guests and staff, and ensure no one is left without a partner! Your floor mananagers for the evening will be: Gwenneth Gilrouis Eliane Dufresne Hyrtwyda Eyhafrynwyn Brave Horizon Martiallais Heuloix Once again, we hope to see you in attendance for a night of merriment, for it is our greatest pleasure to have you as our guests!

For anyone who feels they may be a little shy or anxious on the evening of the Ball, or needs help breaking the ice at the event, I highly recommend checking out this post: http://oschon-scholar.tumblr.com/post/146958537458/grand-tournament-ball-buddy-system Cyril is sweet, funny, and easy to talk to, so if you find yourself needing good company or a little extra support that night, you should definitely get in touch!

Updated Master Post with some information changes and additions, including: Our policy on spoilers and the “timeline setting”. How the dancing will work. How the raffles will work. For those of you who utilize Tumblr, the Master Post is located there as well!

[align=center]The Grand Tournament Charity Ball[/align] [align=center] [/align] To the good people of Ishgard, and to our allies across all Eorzea, House Dufresne and House Pepin cordially invite you to attend a celebratory ball, that we might honour those champions of the Fury who performed so admirably in Her Grand Tournament, and to usher in, as well, a future of hard-won peace and unity for us all. The affair is to take place this 9th Sun of the Fourth Astral Moon, in the gardens of House Pepin whose greenhouses will so perfectly represent this new springtime for our people. Attire is to be modest, formal dress, and refreshments will be provided by our dear friends at the Shooting Star Bakery, whose talents in their craft are bound to please your palate. There are to be a number of raffles throughout the evening so as to raise funding for reconstruction and relief efforts throughout Ishgard, and our floor managers highly encourage all to participate in the dance. We sincerely hope that you might join us on this evening of merriment. Until then, may you go blessed by the Fury. [align=center]---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [align=left][align=center]OOC Information [/align] With the Grand Tournament of the Fury concluded, we’d to close out the festivities with a dress ball to celebrate our champions, and for a taste of something outside of combat! The event will take place on Saturday, July 9th at 7:00 pm EST, with organized events running until 11:00 pm EST, at the Sanctum of the Twelve in East Shroud. You are welcome to stay and socialize after 11:00 pm! The Sanctum will be serving as a placeholder for the Pepin greenhouses, as it is best suited to represent the setting and provides the space we require. Event attendance and participation is open to everyone, whether or not you’re Ishgardian! On Spoilers - While we will be unable to police spoilers for the event, we ask that everyone is considerate in regards to what is revealed during public roleplay. The event will take place after the “Final Steps of Faith” of Patch 3.3, but any aftermath revealed during the ending cutscenes should be considered “work in progress” so as to best keep everyone’s timelines at a happy medium. [align=center]---------------------------------------------------------------------------- [align=center]Entertainment [/align] [/align] Dancing - It’s a Ball, After All! Twenty-minute dance sets for the evening will be broken up into two alternating types: “Open Floor” and “Dancers’ Pool”, detailed below. Regardless of which type is currently in progress, we encourage you to invite a partner onto the floor! Don’t forget propriety! Be sure to /bow to your partner when you begin! Open Floor Dances Open Floor sets allow our guests to invite a partner of their choosing to dance. We will not be providing a partner for you at this time. Did you come with a companion? Or perhaps a certain mysterious someone has caught your eye during the course of the evening? Don’t be shy! Dancers' Pool Dances Maybe you’re a little shy after all! Fret not! We’ve set up the “Dancers’ Pool” to help break the ice and introduce you to what could be a bosom future friend! Whether you’ve come alone, with a companion, or as part of a group, interested participants may enter their name into the pool by contacting one of the Floor Managers at the event: [align=center]Gwenneth Gilrouis Eliane Dufresne Hyrtwyda Eyhafrynwyn Brave Horizon Martiallais Heuloix[/align] Our Floor Managers will randomly pair up the participants and announce who will be dancing together before a set begins. In keeping with our theme of unity and in the interest of socialization without restriction, the couplings will be made with neither gender nor orientation as a factor. In order to keep our guests comfortable, if there is a person or persons you would not like to be paired with for any reason, and you feel they may be in the Pool, please be sure to let us know privately. While the dance is for socialization, we understand that there may be certain individuals whom you have an OOC or IC grievance with and wish to avoid in order for you both to enjoy yourselves. When a set of dances is complete, the next will be announced so as to allow for partners to change accordingly. If you are leaving the ball, please inform one of the Floor Managers so that we can remove you from the Dancers’ Pool! This is to keep things running smoothly for both the guests and staff, and ensure no one is left without a partner! Raffles - We Promise It’s for a Good Cause! Guests will be able to purchase tickets before the raffle begins. The more tickets you buy, the more chances you have to win! Tickets will be sold for 500 gil per. Each guest is limited to spending a maximum of 10 tickets per item. Our volunteers will keep track of how many tickets each guest purchases, and how many you spend on a particular item (below). When the raffled items are announced, each guest will whisper one of the raffle attendants with how many tickets they’d like to spend on that item. Reminder: each guest is limited to spending a maximum of 10 tickets per item. The attendant will roll /random to set a Target Number, then ask for all interested in that item to roll. The number of rolls you make corresponds with how many tickets you’ve “spent” on the item. The closest number without going over the Target Number is the winner! If you’ve “spent” five tickets, and your second roll is the winner, you’ve still “spent” all five tickets. Just like a real raffle, once they go into the “box for that item”, they’re out of your hands! [align=center]----------------------------------------------------------------------------[/align] Please feel free to contact Gwenneth Gilrouis (Reima here on the RPC), Eliane Dufresne, or Martiallais Heuloix with any questions or for more information. [/align] [/align]

Oh my goodness, that IS amazing! Thank you for getting this shot!

As mentioned by Martiallais, there are regular Bellworks caravans moving with supplies in need of delivery. With the state of things in Ishgard especially, our recent focus has been on ensuring that their medicinal coffers are bolstered with shipments of herbs from the Shroud and what we’ve been able to secure from the Alchemists’ Guild in Ul’dah. However, the Bellworks’ charity doesn’t stop at Ishgard, and it won’t be uncommon to spot a supply escort en route to wherever aid might be needed--no matter the weather, and no matter the danger! Should you chance to spy one of our caravans on the road, feel free to flag us down! Often, our number will take its rest at a local way-stop to feed and water the chocobos (and ourselves), and so all are welcome to join us in the respite!

-Ellie

Hello everyone! We’re still looking for assistant judges to help our arbiters out! Having a few spare hands will help ensure these matches run smoother for everyone involved. All you need to do is keep an eye on a handful of matches and notify the arbiter in charge when a winner emerges. It’s super easy! If you are interested in helping out, please contact Eliane Dufresne or Draco Nobis (Aramis Dumas in-game), or myself (in-game as Gwenneth Gilrouis).

========================================================= Hey, everyone! Some quick OOC tournament/ball updates from the Lady Dufresne! First of all, because it’s looking like we might have quite a large turnout, we’d like to search for a few more (minimum 4) provisional volunteers, two extras for each tournament on both days. More are super welcome, of course. In fact, more are encouraged! We might -not- need you if attendance remains cozy, but just in case, we’d like to have you on standby. Basically, we’re going to need assistants for the arbiters. It’s the same thing as with the Grindstone…there are assistant judges who split off to watch matches and tell the official judges about the outcome. While the Arbiters will be running each match respectively, having assistants will help them to keep up with potential chatscroll hell and will help prevent them from having to split their attention too many ways. Your character doesn’t need to ICly be well versed in whatever’s going on (magic, jousting, etc) – all you have to do is watch a few matches, wait for a winner to emerge, and /tell the arbiter about the winner. If it turns out we get a measly turnout, you can just chill on the sidelines and not have to worry about it instead. Secondly, I’m pleased to announce we have some lovely prizes in the works for the champions, and possibly for the runners up as well! These are still in the planning/crafting stages so we don’t have a full list yet, but please stay tuned for details! And also, once again, a huge thank you to the absurdly generous people donating them (you know who you are). Thirdly, we’re likely going to be pushing the ball back a week so that it doesn’t land on Canada Day/4th of July weekend. This will place it on Saturday, July 9th instead. Venue is still TBA. If anyone knows of any IC singers, bards, or conductors, please put them in contact – we’d love to have them for flavor! It would have to be a classy/classical act, though – we’re Ishgardian, after all. Stay tuned for more, and thank you for everyone helping to pull all this together! We really hope to make it worthwhile.

While Reima is a Hearer and practices conjury, she no longer actively studies with the Fane due to her more whimsical traits and the joy of character development. She does, however, return there on occasion to keep up with word on the state of the Twelveswood, and to offer what assistance she can. I'd be more than happy to have her meet you, or know one another in passing!

Why, I think I've already said this, but welcome to Balmung~!

As someone who's a long-time tabletop roleplayer, I would absolutely love to check out the LS! I've learned a bit about the system through conversations with others who participate, and it's the sort of thing that seems right up my alley, if you're still taking members.