The Journal Archive: Recording History Moment by Moment
The Journal Archive is an ongoing 'diary' of sorts, chronicling Avalon events as the history of the realm is actually written - in the moments or immediately after the events that make up the content of future legend. Its content is entirely subjective and edited person to person as people record events, facts, commentaries, observations, opinions, lamentation, lyric ballad, and indeed references to any and all noteworthy happenings within Avalon. The very subjectivity is its greatest strength, however, as the resources becomes not simply a bald litany of facts but an impression of a time, e..g. sometimes a dozen 'angles' on the same event are recorded and the sum is greater than the editorial of just one 'historian' however divine.
Logging something to the Journal Archive is also a way to ensure the details and your contribution do not go unrecorded and become preserved as part of Avalon forever. All you record has value. Every opinion has worth. Each moment you spend in Avalon is enriched by the occasional reflection and the tapestry woven of past contributions is the stuff of a hundred novels waiting to be written. When they are, we'll get in touch to talk about royalties.
There are two commands to add to the Journal Archive: one open, one closed. The JOURNAL command is the most commonly used and provides content not only for the Archive but also for forthcoming digest mail-outs. The DEEPLINE command is private and places the contribution in the secure archive, out of reach and impossible to snoop. The Creator alone can access the deepline files and there is no means to do so through Avalon itself - so do not fear repercussions from anything added to the DEEPLINE but show common sense when making your mark on the JOURNAL.
Syntax: JOURNAL <text>.
Logs the text specific to the Avalon Journal, ensuring it is preserved forever. Be as detailed, subjective or opinionated as you like.
Syntax: DEEPLINE <text>.
The DEEPLINE command performs an action identical to the JOURNAL save that it is only visible by Genesis.
Syntax: LIFESTORY LIST and PAST <text>.
You can look at people's life-stories and add evocative lines of descriptive text to your personal lifestory using the LIFESTORY and PAST commands. See HELP LIFESTORY for more info.
These commands are available to Gods, Demi-Gods, Princes, Cardinals, Barons, Field Marshalls, Chancellors, State Ministers, Prime Ministers (and Deputies), Guildmasters and Guildmistresses (and their Deputies), Head Tutors, Guild Elders, Priests and High Priests of Divine Orders, and finally anybody singled out as a professional "paradigm" or those Avalonians who've achieved the "legend" standing.
Some further reading on Avalon's unique history: HELP TIMELINE and check out the timeline on our website at http://www.avalon-rpg.com for a very nicely rendered version. Also the Help Sections 25, 32 and 33 are specifically focused on historical content - type HELP 25, HELP 32, HELP 33 for content index.
