Author Games: The River of Night

Divine Law

-As always, an entry is an entry, regardless of the author. I promise to score entries as fairly as I am able; for your part, I need you to vote based on actual writing quality, not the author you like best.

-Please submit all forms and entries to joe@vaccarofamily.org, regardless of where they may have been sent in the past.

-Entries in these Games will be scored out of fifteen, and all scores will be posted. Notes will be available upon request for the first task; after that, advice and responses will be reserved for the sponsored tributes only.

-Scores will be cumulative in these Games, and rankings will be determined by total score.

-Fail to hand in once, and you will go up for votes regardless of your place in the rankings. Fail to hand in twice, and you will be immediately eliminated, with a few words describing your tribute's hilariously idiotic end posted where the entry should be.

-No word limits, for I have far more creative methods with which I shall make you cry for mercy.

-I promise to give at least five days to write an entry, and at least 20 hours for voting. This is to lure you into a false sense of security.

-For the love of Ra, please don't give me a recycled tribute, from either pop culture or a past Games. It's just rude, and kind of defeats the point of the creative prompts I give you.

-Feeling invested in a character/entry? Go ahead and vote for it! Any reader may vote for any tribute they like. (I don't include fake accounts for the previous statement because they are not people and will end poorly for the creator if discovered.)

-If you've read this far, wonderful! Put "Until Dawn" in the Other section of your tribute form to receive -1 kills in the first relevant task.

-I and I alone will determine how many points you receive upon handing in late, if any. Contacting me beforehand is almost certain to improve your score.

-All tributes will receive ONE 24-hour no-questions-asked extension. Use it when you need it. Don't tell me why. Don't ask for another unless you're willing to spend lots of valuable time convincing me it's necessary.

-By popular demand, I will be reinstating ballot penalties! First implemented in Author Games: The Hero You Deserve by that handsome devil TheCatKing, kills will no longer act as negative points on one's score (except for during two specific tasks.) Instead, the tribute who received the largest number of ballot deaths will have to handle some sort of additional hardship for the following task. What form that hardship takes...well, that depends on the extent of both my sadism and my imagination. What could possibly go wrong?

- In an attempt to achieve both gender parity and something approximating flexibility, I will be implementing the following system. Pay attention. This is where it gets tricky.

As you may have guessed, you tribute will be one of two characters chosen by a particular Egyptian deity. However, I'm not breaking it up strictly M/F for each deity. That would be boring, and promote the gender binary (and we can't have that!)

Instead, you will select the deity you desire, AND THEN select a Gender slot from a pool entirely distinct from the deities. 8 tributes must be male (M,) 8 must be female (F,) and 8 may be whatever gender identity strikes your fancy, male, female, a bit of both, or something else entirely (N.) It is entirely possible that both deity slots will be female, or male, or other, but the total number of M/F/N will remain 8/8/8. I'm happy to clear this up in PM if you're having trouble with it.

-Don't be a dick, okay? I know that this is the Internet, which is by nature filled with innocence and rainbows and harmless fluffy bunnies, but somebody might still get ideas. I'd hate to get mean. (This is a lie. I'm a terrible person and I'm very good at it. Be polite.)