Sorry for the delay everyone, but very soon after we started it became quite apparent that with everyone busy during the spring semester, it'd be best off if we had taken a break while everyone waded through life.

And now we're back! The past few months will be treated as 1500 years has past, and the next week shall be a mere 100 years. In comparison. The reason for this: I want to do an alternating schedule, where we have one week of 100 years followed by one of 400. This has not been set in stone, but this should afford us a considerable length of time during our summer season. Please feel free to leave feedback on this.

Anyways, there's three pieces of order we need to take care of, starting with Events, followed by Technologies, and finally Subreddit News.

Events

The past 1500 years we'll be treating very loosely. Whatever you want, with approval of mods and affected neighbors of course, to show what happened to your culture in the past. However, there is also a major event recently:

The Dhuthchian Cataclysm

Many cultures near to the Island chain may have heard a far-off sound of thunder, and not have known what may have occurred. But the subsequent days without sunlight or a very, very early winter told the world that it was nothing good.

The Great Volcano of Dhuthchia, in light of increasing volcanism in the area for the past 50 years, has finally erupted and spewed out clouds of lava. The Dhuthchian culture has been scattered to the wind from this eruption, and many along the coast may find haggard refuges, who tell that a hellscape has replaced their villages. Thousands have perished, and ash now falls across the continents.

Many years will be without a true summer, and summers following will also be shortened in length. Starvation will take hold. But of course it's always darkest before Dawn, and those who survive this catastrophe will be treated to bountiful harvests - perhaps a foundation for what one day will become a nation.

Many cultures, especially those nearest to the former Culture 17, will be expected to make some small note of how their cultures are dealing with this event - the Cataclysm, the years without summer, and the Dhuthchian Refugees, and more - in this thread. However, there's going to be a new element to sweeten the deal - writing contests!

That's right - the theme of this week's writing competition will be Hardship and Rebirth. Posting here the links to the substantial RP will be judged based on how thematic they are and how well-written they are. And of course, there are prizes:

• Third Place shall receive the ability to found a more major nation in the following week and a bronze discord vanity role.

• Second Place shall receive the ability to found a more major nation in the following week, a silver discord vanity role, and input in deciding the next event.

• First Place shall receive the ability to found a more major nation in the following week, a gold vanity discord role, input in deciding the next event, and selecting a discord emoji of their choice.

These prizes will be similar to those in the coming weeks, and I intend on doing this every week.

Technologies

We'll be continuing the flavor tech system as has been done before, and we'll be posting a tech post with more details as soon as possible. For now, here's a short list of technologies that are now readily available:

• Bronze Working

• Horses

• Amaranth-Maize-Bean crop package, and therefore agriculture and irrigation in general

• Masonry, woodworking

• all basic tools of warfare, those with good justification may get more advanced bows and even swords

• Sailing and small boats (must indicate a style, but why not write it?)

• Cities in most places that aren't far north, Deep desert, or Deep Jungles

• Domesticated animals of your choice

• Writing and Numerals

Here are also some less common technologies that some may have:

• Small kingdoms and Confederacies

• Potatoes

• Cotton

• Iron Working (We are in the very early iron age atm - Iron weapons are the exception, not the rule, and Iron tools are becoming more common)

• Papyrus and Paper

Major trade shall be happening, so I better see some tech spreading. And remember, as your culture develops technologies, the technologies develop your culture. Make sure to keep in mind the variety of changes that will happen as the result of your progression.

Subreddit News

Now that all that is out of the way, time for a recurring segment: news. Most of the moderators right now are quite new, so please give YOUR feedback wherever possible. Naturally, we want to make Dawn as fun as it can be. There will be a few changes starting this week:

• We'll be doing these weekly writing competitions based on events happening in the world, with those weekly rotating prizes

• I'm going to be setting up Automoderator to ping relevant mods and parties soon, so it'll be easier than ever to ask questions and get posts approved. Please await further announcements on this!

• We'll be working on map updates as soon as possible, but please respond here with your cultural changes notes so that we know you're still active. I'll be doing an example post of cultural changes in a jiffy.

I believe that's all for this post, but please remember: Have fun!