Commands (351)
A
Configure accessibility settings for screen readers and visual aids
accessibility [setting] [value]
Activate an inactive location you created
activate location
Manage activities, missions, and tasks
activity [arguments]
Add more copies to your most recent commission at the same per-unit price
addamount
Toggle away from keyboard status
afk [minutes]
Plan a follow-on afterparty from inside an event.
afterparty [create|status|go|cancel|join |invite ]
Observe and interact with activities remotely
observe [arguments]
Arrange a private meeting scene between an NPC and a PC (staff only)
arrangescene for meeting rp
Assert narrative facts about the world in an Auto-GM adventure
assert [type] [@target] [description]
Attack another character or set your combat target
attack [target]
Propose an action that requires the target's permission
attempt
Start and manage AI-driven spontaneous adventures
autogm [arguments]
B
Check your wallet and bank balance
balance
Open the bank interface for deposits, withdrawals, exchanges, and transfers
bank
View / manage the notice board in this room (alias for `notice`)
bb [ | post ["" ] | remove | info]
Stormbreaker: toggle a windswept appearance — wind blows constantly through your hair and clothing. Re-run to toggle off.
billow
Blindfold a helpless character to block their vision
blindfold
Create a small flower item of your choice with sharp petals.
bloom
Summon a dance of blossoms you describe into the room; lasts 1 hour.
blossoms
Remove someone from your event (host/staff only)
bounce
Bow to someone with a specific degree of respect
(degrees)bow [RP text] or (degrees)kbow [RP text]
Leave a searing handprint brand on a flammable surface (lasts 24 hours). Requires Searing Fist to have been cast recently.
brand
Send a broadcast message to all players
broadcast
Build and edit structures
build [subcommand] [args]
Find or create an apartment in the city and optionally claim it
build apartment [size]
Build a building at the current intersection
build block [layout]
Build a city/town grid with streets and intersections
build city [name]
Build a new location (building) with an entry room
build location
Create a shop in the current room
build shop [shop name]
View the business directory for this area
businesses [category]
Purchase items from a shop
buy - | buy
| buy
Purchase a house (requires web interface)
buy house
Purchase a shop (requires web interface)
buy shop
Purchase a vehicle (requires web interface)
buy vehicle
C
View the festival calendar for your kingdom
calendar [all|]
Toggle spotlight on a character during an event (host/staff only)
camera [count]
Cancel a pending arranged scene (staff only)
cancelscene
Open the card game menu to play cards
cards
Pick up and carry a helpless character
carry
Change your character nickname, forename, or surname
change name
Stormbreaker: override the local weather for an hour. Outdoor rooms only. Requires a recent Hail Storm cast.
change weather
Chat on a communication channel
channel OR +
List available communication channels
channels
Set your locatability (who can find you in the where list)
check in [yes|no|favorites]
Activate abuse monitoring for ALL players, bypassing playtime exemption (staff only)
checkall [duration_hours] [reason]
Cancel the abuse monitoring override (staff only)
checkalloff
Manage your clan membership and activities
clan [arguments]
Remove all graffiti from a room you own
clean graffiti
Close the convertible roof of your vehicle
close roof
Get combat information (enemies, allies, status, recommendations)
combat [enemies|allies|recommend|status|actions|help]
List all available commands
commands [category]
Commission a shopkeeper to craft one of your designs
commission
Manage your animal companion
companion [summon|dismiss|release|info]
Conceal visible items you are wearing
cover - [, item2, item3...]
Describe the shallow crater left where your target fell. Requires Falling Star to have been cast recently.
crater
Create a new event
create event [name]
Open the cultivation interface to craft pills and level up martial arts
cultivate
D
List the taxi dancers available in this ballroom
dancers
Add a decoration description to a room you own
decorate
Delete various items (bulletin, place, etc.)
delete
Clear your saved home location
delete location [home]
Delete the current room (must own it)
delete room
Delete a zone and all its contents (admin only)
delete zone
Explore procedural dungeons with time limits and fog of war
delve [args]
Deposit cash into your bank account
deposit | deposit all
Open the description editor to manage your character appearance
describe, customize
Create and manage your custom item designs (blueprints)
design | design list | design edit | design delete
Designate a character as an allowed performer for a society event (host only)
designate performer
Roll custom dice
diceroll d [+modifier]
Wreathe the current room in unnatural dimness for an hour.
dim
Start walking in a direction (continuous on streets, single step elsewhere)
List public buildings in this town
directory []
Configure Discord notifications for offline messages and mentions
discord [setting] [value]
Hide your identity behind an alias. Others will see you as the alias until they recognize you.
disguise []
Dismiss your current taxi dance partner (no refund)
dismiss
Toxic Mastery: discreetly doctor a drink or consumable in a target's inventory. Once per day. Requires Silken Viper active and >= 3 shared emotes with the target.
dose
Move down to a room below
down
Drag a helpless character
drag
Dress another character with clothing (requires their consent)
dress with
Drink a beverage from your inventory
drink
Drive your vehicle to a destination
drive to
Drop items or money to the room
drop - | drop
| drop all
Dry yourself off using a towel
dry off [adverb]
E
Move east to an adjacent room
east
Eat food from your inventory
eat
Edit room properties in a pop-out form
edit room
Perform an action or express emotion
emote , pose , or :
End the current running activity in a society event (host only)
end activity
End your event (host only)
end event
End your current arranged scene and return to the meeting location
endscene
Enter a location by name
enter
Join an active event at your current location
enter event
Leave the tutorial and enter the game world
enter game
View what you are wearing and holding
equipment
Check your estimated time of arrival during a journey
eta
View details about an event
event info [name]
View upcoming events
events [my|here]
Examine your surroundings in detail, or inspect an object, character, or feature
examine [target]
Exchange one currency for another at a bank or black market
exchange to
Show all visible exits from this room
exits
Reveal hidden/concealed items you are wearing
expose - [, item2, item3...]
Ignite your eyes with living flame for 10 minutes (cosmetic).
eyes of fire
F
Create items from patterns you own using appropriate facilities
fabricate | fabricate deck | fabricate [orders] | fabricate pickup
Every Jīnjiǎ unit raises its banner at dawn and re-swears its oath, deliberately during Sealing.
Every Jīnjiǎ military unit, militia, and guard formation raises its banner at dawn in its home square. Each banner is renewed if torn, replaced if fading. The unit's oath is re-sworn in front of whatever townspeople come to watch. The fact that Banner Day falls during Sealing, when the civil bureaucracy is closed, is the joke and the point. Jīnjiǎ does not take its orders from the seals. The other kingdoms find this in poor taste, and the Empire has periodically tried to move the date. Jīnjiǎ has periodically refused.
Living veterans walk in their old armour; behind them, draped on horses, the helmets of the recent dead.
A commemoration of the kingdom's war dead and surviving veterans. The kingdom's living veterans walk a slow procession through their town's main road in their old armour or its replica. Behind them, draped over horses, are the helmets of the recently dead. The captives of the festival name are the dead, taken by war and walked once a year through the streets that remember them. At noon the procession arrives at a temple, where the names of the dead from the past year are read aloud. At sunset the helmets are returned to the dead's families. A festival of deep dignity. Visitors stand silent on the roadside.
Children under thirteen walk the city unescorted; shopkeepers give small gifts; magistrates open their gates to questions.
A modern festival, only about two emperors old. On the first Sunday in June, children under thirteen may walk the city in groups without adult escort. Shopkeepers traditionally give them a small thing (a sweet, a paper toy, a coin) when asked. Magistrates open their gates and answer questions from any child who comes; the answers are sometimes recorded in a chapbook later sold at temple fairs. A child emperor's parent instituted it as a gesture of accessibility. Whether the gesture survived its original purpose is a question for the player.
Three days of floats, masked dancers, coin-rain from balconies, and a Carnival Monarch crowned by lottery.
The kingdom's signature festival. Three days of unrestrained celebration before Lunar New Year's family observances begin. Every Qiānjīn town becomes a parade ground: floats covered in fake gold (paper, painted wood, occasionally real gilt), masked dancers, beggar-monarchs crowned and carried through the streets, fire-eaters, stilt-walkers, and the famous Coin-rain ceremony, where city merchants throw real cash from balconies into the crowds. Drinking is constant. The kingdom's distilleries produce a special spiced rice wine sold only that weekend. The carnival is also Qiānjīn's traditional time for inverting roles for entertainment. The kingdom's governor briefly cedes the city to a Carnival Monarch chosen by lottery from among the city's beggars and prisoners-with-light-sentences. For three days the Carnival Monarch's word is held to be law, within carefully circumscribed limits: no actual orders are obeyed, but every shopkeeper smiles and bows. At midnight on Sunday the Carnival Monarch is "deposed" with a mock execution involving cabbages, and the governor returns to office.
A hiking festival: climb high, wear dogwood, drink chrysanthemum wine, visit aging parents.
People climb high places, wear sprigs of dogwood (zhūyú), and drink chrysanthemum wine. A hiking festival, a literary festival, and an occasion to visit aging parents and ancestral graves. The doubled nines stack yang energy in a way that is both auspicious and dangerous; the abundance can become corrosive. The climb is partly an evacuation of the household to the heights while the spirits of excess pass below. In Sìshuǐ this is the mountain festival; climbing parties book inns on Mount Wǔbái months in advance. In Táimí it is a forest ritual of moving to higher ground in honor of the woods. In Jīnjiǎ it is a martial pilgrimage where retired soldiers walk to peak shrines together. In Qiānjīn it is a picnic festival with carrying-baskets of chrysanthemum wine. In Tōngzhì it is the year's astronomy night, with high observatories opening their doors and eccentric great-houses hosting star-charting gatherings.
Dragon-boat races, lotus-leaf rice parcels, and plague-aversion charms against the season's venomous five.
The river festival. Boats race; rice in lotus-leaf parcels (zòngzi) are thrown into the rivers to feed the river-spirits. Houses hang calamus and mugwort against pestilence; children wear five-color thread bracelets and pouches of realgar against the season's five venomous things, abroad on this doubled-yang day: snake, scorpion, centipede, toad, and gecko. Sìshuǐ holds the largest races and is the de facto host kingdom. The imperial dragon barge appears once every seven years. Jīnjiǎ runs swimming and water-combat displays. Qiānjīn floats theatre barges. Tōngzhì races by torchlight after sunset. Táimí keeps it as a quieter ancestor-water rite by the forest streams.
Theatre barges float down the rivers performing the year's most pointed political satires.
Qiānjīn's contribution to Duānwǔ. While the rest of the empire is racing dragon boats, Qiānjīn floats theatre barges down its main rivers. Each barge is a small theatre, with sets, lanterns, and performers, and the day's traffic is a parade of plays passing by river-bank audiences. Plays performed on the Floating Theatre are traditionally political: the year's most ambitious satires, often parodying named officials of all five kingdoms, sometimes the emperor. The Empire has tried periodically to censor the Floating Theatre and has periodically failed.
Parades, banners, and a state dinner commemorating the joining of the Five Kingdoms; deliberately paired with Double Ninth.
The day commemorates the Joining of the Five Kingdoms under the first Àolǎng emperor. The official line is celebration. Parades of each kingdom's banners, ceremonial reading of the founding accord, and a state dinner where the five governors share one table. The unofficial reality is older and more political. Founding Day is when each kingdom's quiet resentment of unification is most visible. Sìshuǐ flies its banner half a length lower than the imperial one. Táimí's parade is conducted in silence. Jīnjiǎ marches its veterans through the capital in a display one wrong word from a threat. Qiānjīn turns the day into a carnival that bleeds the official ceremony of dignity. Tōngzhì alone seems to celebrate without irony, which is itself suspicious. The empire pairs Founding Day with Double Ninth deliberately: climbing the heights is a way to be doing something else.
Fourteen days the dead walk: river lanterns, joss-paper offerings, and a long list of taboos.
The kingdoms' most cinematic two weeks. The gates of the Below open on July 8, and the hungry dead roam looking for food and revenge until midnight on July 21. The fortnight has taboos: - No swimming. Drowned spirits drag the living under to take their place. - No weddings. A wedding's good fortune attracts the envious dead. - No moving house. Spirits follow the cart. - No whistling at night. Whistles are an invitation. - Never pick up coins or red envelopes lying in the street. These are spirit money, left for the dead; taking them is taking their inheritance, and the dead will follow you home to collect. Families set ancestral tablets on tables with three meals a day. At curbside, joss paper spirit money, paper clothes, paper houses, and paper horses burn to send their substance to the dead. Public getai (ghost opera) stages go up with the front row left empty for the spectral audience. On the night closest to July 15, kept on the Saturday for popular observance, river lanterns float downstream: paper lotuses, each carrying a single candle, guiding souls home. Shrine-priests perform deliverance rites at every major temple. In Qiānjīn and Tōngzhì the night also accommodates ghost masquerade: people dress as the various ghosts of folk painting (the lewd horned spirits, the unprovoked dead crushed under their own carts) and parade through the streets. For players: the fortnight modifies many systems. Certain quest-givers refuse contracts. Loot found on the road may not be loot. NPCs become more superstitious; paid bodyguards may refuse night work, ferrymen will not cross certain rivers at dusk, and unburied corpses in dungeons gain new mechanics.
A week-long open sparring tournament in every Jīnjiǎ town's main square; wagers legal only this week.
A week-long open sparring tournament in every Jīnjiǎ town's main square. There is no bracket. Matches run continuously, called by stewards, and any combatant may step up at any time. The total bouts fought through the week traditionally adds to one hundred per town; the actual number is whatever it is. Wagers are legal that week and only that week, illegal the rest of the year. The peak weekend is a public spectacle; the weekdays draw a quieter crowd of serious fighters and gamblers.
State pageantry, foreign tribute, and amnesty on the reigning emperor's birthday weekend.
Court fasting lifts. Foreign tribute envoys present their gifts. The capital hangs red lanterns and dragon banners. Every kingdom's governor sends a delegation; every guild sends a gift; every temple lights extra lamps. The day is also amnesty: the emperor traditionally pardons a small number of prisoners, and judges may commute sentences in their name. When succession happens mid-campaign, the previous Birthday falls off the calendar and a new one is gazetted, sometimes mid-festival-week. Old loyalists who keep observing the old date are committing low-grade treason.
Local schools and trade guilds sit their summer examinations; the Golden List goes up Saturday.
See Imperial Examination Days (Spring). The summer sitting is local and trade-guild driven; results post Saturday and parades fill the streets Sunday.
Local schools and trade guilds sit their spring examinations; the Golden List goes up Saturday.
Three times a year the empire sits its examinations. Local schools test their juniors; guilds test their apprentices; the Imperial Academy holds its provincial, metropolitan, and palace tiers on the dates aligned to seniority. Friday is the closed-door examination day. Saturday is the marking and the publication of the Golden List. Sunday is the Enróng Banquet, when successful candidates parade through their city. The custom of plucking flowers fills the air with garlands hung from windows along the parade route, thrown to graduates of every rank. The November exams are the prestigious ones; the palace exam falls in November in normal years. The March and July exams are local and trade-guild driven. For players: examination weekends offer crowd-cover, espionage opportunities, recruitment of failed candidates as henchmen, and theft from distracted households where the family's results matter more than the front gate. A failed candidate is one of the standard NPC archetypes: angry, educated, and available for work.
The year's prestige examinations; the palace tier sits in the capital.
The November sitting is the prestige one. The palace exam falls in November in normal years and decides the year's top placements for the Imperial Academy. The Enróng Banquet on the Sunday in the capital is one of the social events of the year; an invitation to attend, even as a spectator, is currency.
Lanterns burn nightly until the third Saturday of January, the year's great public courtship night.
Lanterns burn nightly from New Year's Eve through to their peak on the third weekend of January, the night the jade seals reopen. The capital becomes a Lamp Mountain: wooden scaffolds dressed with painted scenes and thousands of oil lamps, revolving "horse-running" lanterns spinning silhouettes across walls, riddles tied to every paper lantern with a small prize for the answer. Bonfires in the squares; rivers carry tiny floating candles. The festival is the year's great public courtship night. Riddles are answered between strangers; notes pass through the crowds; lovers slip away from their groups in the press of light and music. Half the love-stories in popular fiction begin "they met beneath the lamp tower." The cliché is older than the empire and has not yet stopped working. The Imperial Unsealing happens at sunrise on the Monday after. Petitioners line up before dawn.
Households visit elderly relatives, ask one piece of advice, and bring food the elders can no longer make themselves.
The counterweight to the Children's Walk, and the last warm festival of the year. Households visit elderly relatives, bring them food they cannot make themselves anymore, and ask them for one piece of advice. Many elders save up the year's advice for this weekend and deliver it in full. Some refuse to give any at all, which is a quiet message of its own. The state observes Lǎo-rén Day by reading out the names of all imperial pensioners who died that year at a public ceremony in each kingdom's main square.
Gazetted for the weekend after the year's first thunderstorm: incense, rain bowls, and family auguries.
The empire's most weather-dependent festival. When the year's first true thunderstorm rolls through a region, the local magistrate gazettes Lěi-shén Night for the upcoming weekend. Households open their roof-vents, set out brass bowls to catch the rain, and burn a single stick of incense per family member. How each stick burns is read as that person's augury for the year. Children stay up late to witness the storm; the first thunderclap heard is held to be the year's true beginning. The festival is informally regional. Sìshuǐ may observe it three weeks before Tōngzhì. The Imperial Almanac records each region's prior-year date, which has become its own kind of climate journal.
For one day in Tōngzhì, anything said is presumed false; contracts void, oaths unhonored, confessions inadmissible.
For one day, the social contract is suspended. Anything anyone says in Tōngzhì that day is presumed false. Contracts signed are void. Oaths sworn are not honored. A confession made on Liar's Day cannot be entered into a magistrate's record. The kingdom's tradition holds that the day exists as a relief valve for everything one must otherwise say or pretend to believe. The festival is observed informally everywhere in Tōngzhì and formally in the kingdom's main cities, where the magistrate's gates close and the bell that opens court does not ring. Outside Tōngzhì the festival is held to be in deeply bad taste, and is one of the standard reasons the other kingdoms find Tōngzhì insufferable.
A drunken intellectual carnival on the longest night, held together by rare-book races, token-thefts, and tall-tale tournaments.
Tōngzhì's signature festival, and the kingdom's loudest argument for the proposition that knowledge should be enjoyable. On the longest night of the year, the kingdom's great houses and academy halls throw their doors open and run the night as a single rolling party held together by a loose program of intellectual games. A typical Wake includes: - The Reading Race. Three readers compete to finish a chosen rare book aloud first, with the audience interrupting to dispute pronunciations, marginal notes, and the author's claims. Hecklers win small prizes for the cleverest interruption. - The Drunken Astronomy. A round of star-charting on the roof, where each new observation is toasted; observations recorded after the third cup are filed in a separate ledger marked "to be verified at sunrise" and are usually wrong, sometimes beautifully so. - The Theft of Tokens. Each guest arrives wearing a small marked token, a coin, a ribbon, a pin, and spends the night trying to steal others' tokens without being caught. At dawn, the guest with the most tokens is named Crow of the Year and given a paper crown. - The Lying Bracket. A tournament of tall tales scored on plausibility and grace. The audience boos out the rounds. The most accomplished liars are quietly tracked by the kingdom's diplomatic corps as recruitment prospects. - The Anonymous Confession. Guests submit unsigned notes to a sealed box. At midnight, the host reads them aloud. By tradition, at least one confession every Wake turns out to be politically explosive; by tradition, no one is supposed to ask which guest wrote it. - The Recital. Sometime before dawn, when the room has quieted to whatever pretends to be quiet, the year's best new poetry is read seriously, in one of the night's two genuinely solemn acts. The other is the sunrise porridge. Invitations to a Long Night Wake are status. Being invited to a particular house's Wake places you within that house's circle for the year. Players who secure an invitation gain real access. Players who crash one and survive the night with credit gain more. Players who crash one and embarrass themselves carry the story for years.
The Spring Dragon wakes; rain returns; the year's great new-looks festival opens.
The Spring Dragon, the great river-spirit that sleeps the winter beneath its mountain, wakes. Rain returns to the kingdoms. Farmers turn the first furrows. Everyone else marks the day with dragon foods: pancakes called dragon scales, jiaozi called dragon ears, longevity noodles called dragon beard, and popcorn called golden beans (recalling the folk-story that popcorn-blossom freed the Spring Dragon from beneath its mountain on the first Longtaitou). It is also the year's great new looks festival. The waking of the dragon is the kingdom's cue to reveal whatever has been quietly prepared through the winter: a redesigned wardrobe, a debut hairstyle, fresh tattoos and piercings, painted eyes and lacquered nails, new jewelry, a new walking-stick or carry-bag. Tailors, barbers, and cosmeticians do a year's business in three days. Some householders save the year's most striking outfit for Saturday morning specifically; a person who has been planning a major image change (taking up the family business, ending a long mourning, leaving an old life) typically debuts the new self on Longtaitou and is greeted accordingly. New hairstyles, sleeves, or marks often signal new availability for those seeking partners. Ashes are spread around wells to invite the Spring Dragon home.
A week of deprivation; the last three days every household fire goes out and only cold food is eaten.
A festival of deprivation. The folk-story behind it is a tale from the kingdoms' founding age, of a vassal who burned in the woods rather than break loyalty to an exiled lord who later, restored to power, set the fire to draw the vassal out for reward. All household fires extinguish for the last three days of the week. Only cold food may be eaten: cold porridge, mugwort-dyed qīngtuán rice balls, pickles, cold sliced meats, cold pastry, and dried fruit. The imperial court traditionally passes new fire candles outward on the Monday after, in a graded ritual from the palace to the homes of the Five Dukes. The order of receipt signals the year's political favor. In the kingdoms, the same gesture happens at smaller scale: the governor lights a brand from a temple altar and walks it to chosen households, conspicuously skipping others. The order in which lit brands reach the great families is studied like an academy essay. For players: a magnificent week to operate, because cooking is forbidden but eating is encouraged. Inns sell prepared cold food at marked-up prices. Smiths cannot work. Anyone caught with a lit fire on the cold weekend faces a fine and a real social shaming. Spellwork or alchemy requiring open flame is harder.
The family New Year: ancestral meals, sealed homes, a week of household-only time.
The older, deeper New Year. The solar New Year is the empire's clock; the lunar New Year is the family's. Households clean and seal the home, paste red couplets at the doorposts, and host an ancestral meal where the empty places at the table belong to the dead. The first three days are strict family time; the last four are visiting and gift-rounds. Banks and most shops close for the week. For players: NPCs go home this week. Generic shopkeepers vanish; named NPCs scatter to ancestral villages; travel between kingdoms chokes with people heading home. A good week to leave the cities and clear out a haunted ruin. Because the date floats, the empire publishes the year's lunar date each autumn in the Imperial Almanac, alongside Longtaitou's lunar mark, the Lantern Festival peak, and the three Examination dates.
A week-long permission to wear masks in public; the masked are held to be strangers, even when everyone recognizes the voice.
A week-long permission to wear masks in public. Qiānjīn's mask-makers do their year's business in the month before; every household commissions or makes a mask. The mask grants the wearer traditional anonymity: a Qiānjīn citizen in a mask is held to be a stranger, even if everyone recognizes the voice. The week is therefore the year's de facto window for things one would not do as oneself, including confessions, propositions, settling of old scores, and transgressions of caste. The Empire has never formally approved Masquerade Week, since the customary anonymity makes it a magistrate's nightmare, but the Empire has also never formally banned it.
A quiet rooftop evening: mooncakes, osmanthus wine, secrets shared by moonlight.
The intimate counterweight to the Lantern Festival's noise. Families gather on rooftops and in courtyards; mooncakes are eaten (folk-story says rebellion messages were once baked inside); osmanthus wine is poured. The moon is told to. The festival is for sharing secrets, for things that can only be said by moonlight to those who matter most. In Tōngzhì the festival has a transgressive variant: the night when secret societies admit new members under the moon and the year's political conspiracies are quietly seeded. In Qiānjīn the moon is an excuse for a long picnic that turns into an all-night party. In Sìshuǐ the moon over the river is the entire point; boat-parties drift downstream until dawn.
On every new-moon weekend, Tōngzhì cities open a lantern-lit market for rare books, banned editions, and information.
A Tōngzhì recurring observance. On the darkest nights of each lunar month, the kingdom's main cities open the Moonless Market in a single designated district, lit only by paper lanterns, running from sunset to dawn. Goods sold at Moonless Markets are not illegal, but tend toward the unusual: rare books, banned editions, foreign curios, alchemical reagents, information. The customary etiquette is anonymity; most attendees wear hooded cloaks or simple masks. The customary currency is hard silver, no copper. The market is technically watched. The watch tends to look the other way.
The longest day's vigil: villagers walk the Moss Way in silence by candlelight from sunset to sunrise.
The longest day's vigil. Táimí villagers walk single file into the forest at sunset, each carrying a small candle. They walk a marked path called the Moss Way until they reach a chosen clearing, where they sit in silence with their candles burning until dawn. The walk back, by daylight, happens in conversation. The silence is the gift the forest is owed; the conversation is what the forest gives back. Outsiders may join the Moss Walk, but the rule is strict: anyone who speaks during the silence must remain in the woods for one additional day.
The Sìshuǐ tea-mountains hold their first picking; the imperial tribute is cut and the second flush sells to visitors.
The Sìshuǐ tea-mountains hold their first picking of the year. The earliest leaves are tribute reserved for the imperial court, but visitors who arrive that weekend may walk the rows, watch the picking, and buy the day's second-flush leaves directly from the mountain. The festival has become a fashionable retreat for the courts of the other kingdoms. Jīnjiǎ generals and Tōngzhì scholars are both seen at the same inns, which is itself a minor scandal.
The year's great romance night, when the magpies bridge the celestial river so two star-spirits can meet.
The kingdoms' great romance festival. Folk-story tells of two star-spirits, the Weaver and the Drover, lovers parted by an angry sky-spirit who drew the celestial river between them with a single stroke. One night a year, the magpies of the kingdoms fly up and form a bridge across the river so the two can meet. The festival is for forming relationships, gift-giving, writing poetry, and skill-displays meant to impress a potential partner. Households hold qǐqiǎo ("begging for skill") contests: anyone who hopes to pair with a partner by year's end threads seven needles by moonlight, embroiders by touch, or carves melons against a sand-clock. Bowls of water sit out overnight in courtyards to catch the night's web from the Weaver. Tea, fruit, and cosmetics rest on a small altar. The stars are watched for the moment of reunion. In Tōngzhì the festival takes on a tournament structure, with suitors competing for a single named beloved through stages of skill and grace. In Qiānjīn the festival expands into a full night of street performances. In Sìshuǐ the festival happens on the riverbanks, with lovers exchanging woven river-grass tokens. Food: qiǎoguǒ, deep-fried lattice pastries of flour, oil, and honey, shared between would-be lovers.
Imperial offices close as the jade seals are locked away until midwinter ends.
The imperial astronomers fix an auspicious day near the solstice for the emperor's jade seals to be ceremoniously locked away in lacquered chests. The seals of every ministry, prefecture, county yamen, magistrate's bench, and tax-collector's office follow within the day. The government stops. Petitions cannot be stamped, executions pause, lawsuits freeze, and most contracts that require a magistrate's chop are unenforceable until Unsealing on January 15. Couriers race across the kingdoms in the last hours to deliver papers before the wax goes on. For players: any business with the state, including guild registrations, deeds, inheritance disputes, and criminal pardons, suspends for the period. This is when fugitives travel, smugglers thrive, and forgers do their best work. NPC clerks may accept "expediting gifts" to mark a document pre-dated to December 21.
A water-purification weekend of bathing pavilions, drunken poetry contests, and quiet courtship.
A water-purification festival drawn from the kingdoms' oldest spirit-practices. Shrine-priests set up bathing pavilions on east-flowing streams and pour orchid-infused water over anyone who comes, cleansing the spirit for the year ahead. Wealthy households host qūshuǐ liúshāng gatherings, where guests sit along an artificial winding channel, retrieve floating wine cups, and compose a poem or drink the cup as forfeit. Drunken poetry of remarkable quality survives from these. In the older folk-religion communities of Táimí and the river-villages of Sìshuǐ, Shàngsì is also the year's quiet sanctioned-courtship day. Unmarried people walk together under the temporary blessing of the spirits without scandal. Arrangements made at Shàngsì are honor-bound but not legally binding until formalized.
The civic year flips with public feasting, fireworks, and the first lanterns of the season.
The civic year flips. Families clean the house, paste new door-spirits at the threshold, and feast on New Year's Eve. At sundown the first lanterns of the season go up. Drums and fireworks at midnight; every gate-tower in the capital answers the next. New Year's Day is for visiting elders, paying respects, and beginning the year's first proper meal at noon. This is the secular New Year, distinct from the family-religious Lunar New Year. Officials take the day off; merchants and farmers do not, since trade and field do not know the calendar. Compared to Lunar New Year it is brighter, louder, and more public.
Every household carves a mask of its household spirit and wears it for the weekend; the mask is a person.
The kingdom's loudest festival. Every Táimí household carves a mask of the household spirit, the small woodland spirit that lives in the rafters and protects the family, and wears the mask for the weekend. Different households' masks are wildly different, since each spirit is its own thing, and the carnival is in part a chance to see what your neighbors' spirits look like for the first time. A mask is a person; a player wearing one is treated as that spirit for the weekend. Any insult given to a masked person is held to be an insult to the spirit and is remembered by the forest. At the end of the carnival the masks hang in the rafters of each home for the year.
Whole villages fish the spring stone-eel migration from causeways and pole-bridges.
Sìshuǐ's spring fish-migration festival. The stone eel, a thick black freshwater eel that runs upstream in vast numbers each March, is fished from causeways, weirs, and pole-bridges by entire villages working in shifts. The catch is smoked and dried and eaten through the year. The festival is the catch and the cooking at once. Outsider visitors are welcomed, traditionally fed for free, and expected to help haul nets.
Kingdom-specific festivals of Jīnjiǎ.
Festivals specific to the kingdom of Jīnjiǎ. ## The Hundred Bouts A week-long open sparring tournament in every Jīnjiǎ town's main square; wagers legal only this week. ## Banner Day Every Jīnjiǎ unit raises its banner at dawn and re-swears its oath, deliberately during Sealing. ## Captives' Walk Living veterans walk in their old armour; behind them, draped on horses, the helmets of the recent dead. Empire-wide festivals are also observed in Jīnjiǎ; see `help "Festival Calendar"`.
Overview of the empire-wide and kingdom-specific festivals of the Àolǎng Empire.
The festival calendar of the Àolǎng Empire is organized into three layers:
**Empire-wide festivals** (observed across all five kingdoms):
- Sealing the Jade: Imperial offices close as the jade seals are locked away until midwinter ends.
- New Year's Eve and Solar New Year: The civic year flips with public feasting, fireworks, and the first lanterns of the season.
- The Lantern Festival: Lanterns burn nightly until the third Saturday of January, the year's great public courtship night.
- Lunar New Year: The family New Year: ancestral meals, sealed homes, a week of household-only time.
- Longtaitou, the Spring Dragon's Waking: The Spring Dragon wakes; rain returns; the year's great new-looks festival opens.
- Shàngsì, the Spirit Bathing: A water-purification weekend of bathing pavilions, drunken poetry contests, and quiet courtship.
- Imperial Examination Days (Spring): Local schools and trade guilds sit their spring examinations; the Golden List goes up Saturday.
- Imperial Examination Days (Summer): Local schools and trade guilds sit their summer examinations; the Golden List goes up Saturday.
- Imperial Examination Days (Palace): The year's prestige examinations; the palace tier sits in the capital.
- Imperial Birthday: State pageantry, foreign tribute, and amnesty on the reigning emperor's birthday weekend.
- Duānwǔ, the Dragon Boat Festival: Dragon-boat races, lotus-leaf rice parcels, and plague-aversion charms against the season's venomous five.
- Ghost Fortnight and the Ghost Festival: Fourteen days the dead walk: river lanterns, joss-paper offerings, and a long list of taboos.
- Qīxī, the Bridge of Birds: The year's great romance night, when the magpies bridge the celestial river so two star-spirits can meet.
- Loyalty Festival, the Cold Fire: A week of deprivation; the last three days every household fire goes out and only cold food is eaten.
- Double Ninth: A hiking festival: climb high, wear dogwood, drink chrysanthemum wine, visit aging parents.
- Mid-Autumn, the Moon Festival: A quiet rooftop evening: mooncakes, osmanthus wine, secrets shared by moonlight.
- Founding Day, the Joining of the Kingdoms: Parades, banners, and a state dinner commemorating the joining of the Five Kingdoms; deliberately paired with Double Ninth.
- Lěi-shén Night, the Festival of First Thunder: Gazetted for the weekend after the year's first thunderstorm: incense, rain bowls, and family auguries.
- The Children's Walk: Children under thirteen walk the city unescorted; shopkeepers give small gifts; magistrates open their gates to questions.
- Lǎo-rén Day, the Elder's Day: Households visit elderly relatives, ask one piece of advice, and bring food the elders can no longer make themselves.
**Kingdom-specific festivals** (observed in the home kingdom):
Sìshuǐ:
- Stone Eel Run: Whole villages fish the spring stone-eel migration from causeways and pole-bridges.
- Mountain Tea Picking: The Sìshuǐ tea-mountains hold their first picking; the imperial tribute is cut and the second flush sells to visitors.
Táimí:
- Moss Walk: The longest day's vigil: villagers walk the Moss Way in silence by candlelight from sunset to sunrise.
- Spirit Mask Carnival: Every household carves a mask of its household spirit and wears it for the weekend; the mask is a person.
Jīnjiǎ:
- The Hundred Bouts: A week-long open sparring tournament in every Jīnjiǎ town's main square; wagers legal only this week.
- Banner Day: Every Jīnjiǎ unit raises its banner at dawn and re-swears its oath, deliberately during Sealing.
- Captives' Walk: Living veterans walk in their old armour; behind them, draped on horses, the helmets of the recent dead.
Qiānjīn:
- Coin Carnival: Three days of floats, masked dancers, coin-rain from balconies, and a Carnival Monarch crowned by lottery.
- Masquerade Week: A week-long permission to wear masks in public; the masked are held to be strangers, even when everyone recognizes the voice.
- Floating Theatre: Theatre barges float down the rivers performing the year's most pointed political satires.
Tōngzhì:
- The Long Night Wake: A drunken intellectual carnival on the longest night, held together by rare-book races, token-thefts, and tall-tale tournaments.
- The Liar's Festival: For one day in Tōngzhì, anything said is presumed false; contracts void, oaths unhonored, confessions inadmissible.
- The Moonless Market: On every new-moon weekend, Tōngzhì cities open a lantern-lit market for rare books, banned editions, and information.
For any festival, use: `help "
Kingdom-specific festivals of Qiānjīn.
Festivals specific to the kingdom of Qiānjīn. ## Coin Carnival Three days of floats, masked dancers, coin-rain from balconies, and a Carnival Monarch crowned by lottery. ## Masquerade Week A week-long permission to wear masks in public; the masked are held to be strangers, even when everyone recognizes the voice. ## Floating Theatre Theatre barges float down the rivers performing the year's most pointed political satires. Empire-wide festivals are also observed in Qiānjīn; see `help "Festival Calendar"`.
Kingdom-specific festivals of Sìshuǐ.
Festivals specific to the kingdom of Sìshuǐ. ## Stone Eel Run Whole villages fish the spring stone-eel migration from causeways and pole-bridges. ## Mountain Tea Picking The Sìshuǐ tea-mountains hold their first picking; the imperial tribute is cut and the second flush sells to visitors. Empire-wide festivals are also observed in Sìshuǐ; see `help "Festival Calendar"`.
Kingdom-specific festivals of Táimí.
Festivals specific to the kingdom of Táimí. ## Moss Walk The longest day's vigil: villagers walk the Moss Way in silence by candlelight from sunset to sunrise. ## Spirit Mask Carnival Every household carves a mask of its household spirit and wears it for the weekend; the mask is a person. Empire-wide festivals are also observed in Táimí; see `help "Festival Calendar"`.
Kingdom-specific festivals of Tōngzhì.
Festivals specific to the kingdom of Tōngzhì. ## The Long Night Wake A drunken intellectual carnival on the longest night, held together by rare-book races, token-thefts, and tall-tale tournaments. ## The Liar's Festival For one day in Tōngzhì, anything said is presumed false; contracts void, oaths unhonored, confessions inadmissible. ## The Moonless Market On every new-moon weekend, Tōngzhì cities open a lantern-lit market for rare books, banned editions, and information. Empire-wide festivals are also observed in Tōngzhì; see `help "Festival Calendar"`.
Alias for attack
fight [target]
Get detailed information about a character
finger
Solar Song: exhale a small stream of fire. Adjacent alcoholic drinks become a flaming variant. Roleplay only.
fire breath
Solar Song: make the flames in the room dance for an hour. Requires a recent Fire Dance cast.
firedance
Scatter a brief shower of dazzling sparks across the room (lasts 30 seconds). Requires Dazzle to have been cast recently.
fireworks
Solar Song: make all candles and fires in the room flare up briefly. Requires a recent Rising Flames cast.
flare
Quickly flash a concealed item (reveal then hide again)
flash
Weave a brief fan-dance through the room (lasts 30 seconds). Requires the Fan Dance ability to have been cast recently.
flourish
Stormbreaker: summon a thick fog in the room for an hour. Requires a recent Protecting Mist cast.
fog
Follow another character as they move
follow
Leave a smooth patch of ice in the room (lasts 3 hours). Requires Ice Zone to have been cast recently.
freeze
Make your breath trail in a stream of cool mist for 5 minutes (cosmetic). Requires the Swirling Blizzard ability.
frost
G
Gag a helpless character to prevent speech
gag
Generate content using LLM world building
gen [options] | gen jobs | gen job [cancel]
Pick up items or money from the room
get - | get
| get money | get all
Give items or money to another character
give - to
| give to
Give your phone number to someone
give number [to]
Flash a coin to send a private glint-message to one character in the room. Requires Radiant Bullet to have been cast recently.
glint
Make your eyes glow with radiant light for 10 minutes (cosmetic). Requires Blinding Eyes to have been cast recently.
glow
Teleport to a room by ID or to a character (staff only)
goto | goto
Write graffiti on the walls
graffiti
Grant access to a locked room within your property
grant room [access]
Set "got to go" status indicating imminent departure
gtg [minutes]
H
Get help on commands and topics
help [command or topic] | help system | help systems
Toggle voluntary helpless state for roleplay
helpless [on/off]
Search help files for matching topics
helpsearch [category]
Hidden Viper: melt into the shadows of an empty room. Requires Silken Viper to be your active style.
hide
Hide the description of an item from other players
hidedesc
Hire a taxi dancer for an hour
hire
Hold an item from your inventory or draw from a holster (visible to others)
hold
Head home to your home location
home
Host or manage a society event you are organizing
host society | host kickoff | host help
Manage active hostages.
hostage [args]
I
Solar Song: ignite a small flickering fire as a decoration in the room. Requires a recent Ignite cast.
ignite
Move inside or inward to an adjacent interior room
in
Manage your influence, estate, and financial affairs
influence
View your inventory and wallet balance
inventory
Invite another character past the curtain of your booth.
invite
Invoke a style ability for your next roll.
invoke
J
Join a society event in the current room
join society
Join a communication channel
join channel
Plan and manage world travel journeys
journey [to |party|return|disembark|invite |launch|cancel]
Juggle a trio of blades in a brief flourish (lasts 30 seconds). Always available while Radiant Edge is active.
juggle
K
Knock on a door to alert people in another room
knock
L
List public buildings across the whole zone
landmarks []
Allow or revoke permission for someone to follow you, or ask an NPC to follow
lead , lead stop
Leave the current dance at a society event
leave dance
Leave a communication channel
leave channel
Leave the current event
leave event
End your current Lotus Boat booth rental early.
leave session
Delete an item from your media library or saved locations
library delete
Lie down, optionally on furniture
lie [on ]
List all arranged scenes (staff only)
listscenes [all|pending|active|completed]
Look at your surroundings, an object, or another character
look [target] or look [character] [item] or look [character]'s [item]
M
Read and send memos/mail (use `letter` or `telegram` to pick channel)
mail [subcommand] [arguments]
Create meta-structures like events, societies, memos, scenes, and building elements (not physical items - use design for that)
make [options]
Set your current location as your home
make home
Apply makeup to yourself or someone else using the description editor
makeup [face area]
View various maps of your surroundings
map [room|area|city|mini|battle]
View the Floating Market stalls and their wares.
market
Propose marriage to another character
marry
List your raw-material stacks (gold, silk, jade, etc).
materials
Buy a material or secondhand item from a Floating Market stall.
mbuy [list | ]
Control media playback, sharing, and playlists
media [play|pause|stop|seek
Find the best times when multiple characters are likely online
meetup [character3] ...
Toggle how your messages are delivered
messenger [person|companion|hidden|secret]
Plan, join, launch, or cancel a stealth mission.
mission ...
Send a direct message to someone, regardless of location
msg
N
Toggle or configure text-to-speech narration and playback control
narrate [on|off|status|config|pause|resume|skip|current|clear]
View staff announcements and news
news [category|id]
Mock-cut your target with a bladed fan flourish. Requires an established rapport (≥3 shared emotes) with the target.
nick
Move north to an adjacent room
north
Move northeast to an adjacent room
northeast
Move northwest to an adjacent room
northwest
View, post to, or remove from the notice board in this room
notice [ | post ["" ] | remove | info]
Manage NPC spawn locations and schedules
npc [subcommand] [args]
Ask any question of an NPC and receive their response (staff only)
npcquery
O
Observe a character, place, or room to receive continuous updates about their actions
observe [character|place|room|stop]
Send a private OOC message to one or more players
ooc
Send an OOC contact request to someone who requires permission
oocrequest
Open the convertible roof of your vehicle
open roof
Display an orbiting flourish to impress onlookers (grants +3 performance context on your next non-combat roll). Requires Orbiting Spiral to have been cast recently.
orbit
View your pending fabrication orders
orders
Move outside or outward to an adjacent exterior room
out
Manage your saved outfits. Outfits have a class that determines what gets removed when worn.
outfit [list|save|wear|delete] [name] [class]
Whispering Winds: catch the next thing a target says on the wind. Once per day. Requires Snaring Storm active and the target in your current sight.
overhear
P
Solar Song: part the clouds and bathe the room in radiant sunlight for an hour. Requires a recent Infuse the Sun cast.
part clouds
Pause the current dance (host only)
pause dance
Pay the Mineral Springs Tea House front desk for a soak.
pay admission
Staff: Send a private emit to specific character(s)
pemit
Make a puppeted NPC perform an emote (staff only)
pemote OR pemote
Activate one of your saved performances in this room
perform | perform stop
List, view, edit, or delete your saved performances
performance [name | edit | delete ]
Kick off your performance within a running society event (must be designated)
performevent
Manage permissions and consent settings
permissions [character|general|consent]
Pierce a body position using a piercing-type jewelry item from your inventory
pierce with
Show all available places in this room
places
Coax a small tree into being in the current room; lasts 6 hours.
plant
Play a YouTube video as a synchronized watch party in the current room.
play
Pledge an item from your inventory as art for a society event
pledge art
Put a held item away or sheathe in a holster
pocket
Preview details of an item for sale in a shop
preview
Toggle private mode or perform a private emote visible only to you and your target
private, private , private to
View a character profile
profile [character]
Manage your properties, access permissions, and locks
property [list|access|lock|unlock|grant |revoke ]
Take control of an NPC to manually control their actions (staff only)
puppet
List all NPCs you are currently puppeting (staff only)
puppets
Q
Prime a qi regeneration tick to transfer to an ally the next time you assist them.
qi gift
Toggle quiet mode to hide all channel messages (OOC, global, area, group)
quiet
Leave the game and go to sleep
quit
R
Replace all decorations in a room you own
redecorate
Release a character you are dragging or carrying
release
Take off worn clothing or jewelry
remove - [, item2, item3...]
Rename a room you own
rename
Reply to whoever last OOC or MSG messaged you
reply [message]
View a PC's reputation tiers and linked world memories
reputation
Create a new character (only available when dead)
reroll
Change the dimensions of a room you own
resize room
Change the appearance of an item using a different pattern
reskin - [pattern name]
Resume a paused dance (host only)
resume dance
Roll dice based on your stats or dice notation
roll + | roll NdN[+/-mod]
Set or clear the status text displayed after your name in rooms
roomtitle | roomtitle clear
S
Save media from chat to your library
save as
Save a color gradient to your library
save gradient as
Save your current location as a bookmark
save location as
Speak to everyone present
say [adverb] | say to | say through ,
Trigger an arranged scene meeting with an NPC
scene
Set NPC instructions for an arranged scene (staff only)
sceneinstructions
Fill the room with a floral scent of your description; lasts 3 hours.
scent
View your character statistics
score [adventure|sport|art|all]
Leave a delicate ice sculpture in the room (lasts 3 hours). Requires Ice Armor to have been cast recently.
sculpt
Bind a door with briars; lasts 6 hours. Usable once per day.
seal
Search the room for hidden characters. Reveals anyone in hiding here.
search
Search world memories using semantic similarity
searchmemory
Seed an instruction into an NPC for their next action (staff only)
seed
Sell an item to the secondhand market or a material-buyer stall.
sell - [to
]
Toggle semi-away status (partially present but distracted)
semiafk [minutes]
Perform an action with automatic game command extraction
semote
Set the background image for a room you own
set background
Set seasonal descriptions or backgrounds for a room you own
set seasonal
Send a private, discreet message to any character via a shadow.
shade
Conjure illusory shadow constructs as atmospheric decorations; lasts 10 minutes.
shadow constructs
Open shop interface to browse, buy, and manage inventory
shop [buy - |stock|add
- |remove
- ]
Show an item to another character
show - to
Show the description of an item to other players
showdesc
Shuffle dance partners (host only)
shuffle
Enter the next room silently (suppresses your entrance broadcast for 15 minutes). Requires Dancer's Grace to have been cast recently.
silent entrance
Sit down, optionally on furniture
sit [on/at/in ]
Trace an arc with your meteor hammer against the sky (cosmetic flourish, 30-second cooldown). Requires Shattered Star active style and ≥3 shared roleplay moments in this room.
skywrite
Describe the ground cracking where your target was thrown. Requires Flying Strike or Side Swipe to have forced movement on the target recently.
slam
Smoke something from your inventory
smoke
Manage your society event preferences (likes and avoids)
society interactions
Touch someone and soothe some of their aches and pains.
soothe
Move south to an adjacent room
south
Move southeast to an adjacent room
southeast
Move southwest to an adjacent room
southwest
Challenge someone to a friendly sparring match
spar
Stormbreaker: arc lightning between your fingers as a flourish. Requires a recent Chain Lightning cast.
spark
Teleport to the staff room (staff only)
staffroom
Show or change your active combat style outside combat.
stance | stance
Stand up from sitting or lying position, optionally at furniture
stand [up] | stand at/by | dance on
Start an activity within the current society event (host only)
start activity [args]
Start a scheduled event (organizer only)
start event [name]
Shape a small stone statue as a room decoration (lasts 24 hours).
statue
Stop moving, following, observing, or cancel a journey
stop [following|observing|journey]
Stop the current dance and compute grants (host only)
stopdance
Remove all worn clothing
strip all | strip naked
Quietly observe another character to learn their combat styles.
study | study stop
Style your own or someone else's hair using the description editor
style
Perform a subtle action visible only to those nearby
subtle
Send a message summoning an NPC to your location
summon
T
Give yourself or someone else a tattoo using the description editor
tattoo [body region]
Set your default transport, or hail one to a destination.
taxi | taxi to | cab to | rickshaw to
Start or stop teaching a martial arts style to another character
teach


