INSURRECTION UPDATE #11

UPDATE ON ABSENCE RULES

Just posting an update for everyone that didn't happen to be in Discord while I was explaining! We have updated our absence system. Given the fact that we have gotten rid of Thread Monitoring, we are eliminating our partial absence! There isn't as much as a need for one when threads will not be archived until the three month point.

The full explanation for absences is here! It means that I went through our current absences and either kept them as an absence, or moved them to Announcements if it's just letting us know that you will be posting less! If you feel like I put your absence in the wrong spot, just let me know. But just recognize that we don't honestly have a need for a partial absence anymore, since threads aren't at risk of being archived for three months. Anyone that is saying that they will just be posting less will still be subject to Activity Requirements, and Activity Checks.

We hope that makes sense!

INSURRECTION UPDATE #12

END OF THE EASTER HOLIDAYS

Hey everyone! For anyone that hasn't checked the Hogwarts Handbook, and might not know, today was the last day of the Easter holidays. That means that boards have been changed back, and student characters will no longer be able to see boards outside of Hogwarts! This means that threads that took place over the Easter holidays have been moved to Threads to Finish, so that you can actually see them to reply to them! Here's what you need to know!

• Yo' girl was feeling lazy, so the last thing I wanted to do was go through every single board on the site. It takes like a good two hours, and I didn't wanna, okay? So what I did was go into every student who went home's recent posts, and checked them all for new threads. Those threads were moved! That should have captured most of them, but it would not have shown me threads that were started by adult characters for students! If you have any of those, please post them in Staff Requests to get them moved!
• If your student is an intern, as always, I left those threads alone since your character can see out of Hogwarts all the time anyway!
• If I missed any other thread, again just post in Staff Requests to get them moved. I tried to get most of them, I really did!

That's it

INSURRECTION UPDATE #13

MOVING UP A YEAR AT UNIVERSITY

This is a mandatory read for anyone that has a Lufkin University student! We have added a code here that must be filled out if you want your character to move up a year in school. This is because, unlike Hogwarts, it is really hard to know exactly when your character should be moved up a year. People take different amount of classes, part time or full time, summer classes, or nah. The options are endless, and because of that it's just hard for staff to know when your character needs moved up a year!

So you have to fill out the code on the above linked page for them to move up a year! I've linked the explanation below too, but you have to post on the actual page obviously! Just thought we'd show it here too!

Because everyone takes university at their own pace, we are also adding a code that you guys need to use in order to move your character up a year at Lufkin University! Pretty much there just isn't a good way to know when every character is ready to move up a term. Some of them are taking classes part time, some full time -- some started in the fall, some started in the winter -- some took summer classes, some don't! Because of that, there's just no good way for us to know when to move them up a year! So if your character has progressed to the next year in their schooling, please post the code below so we can move them up.

Student Moving Up a Year Code:
Character Name:
Major Moving Up:
Terms Completed:

Most of the code is self-explantory but let's take a second to break down the final question. If you're moving a student up a year, they need to have completed a realistic amount of classes to do that! If they're full term, that's just two terms. So for instance, now that school is out for the summer, you could post under Terms: Full Term- Fall 2017, Spring 2018, and that would be enough for them to move up a year. If you have your student being part time, it's sort of more up for interpretation. Maybe you think it would take them three terms to move up one part time, maybe you have them really only taking one or two classes and you think it would take four. As long as it's realistic, go for it, and we will accept it if we agree!

Hope that makes sense guys! Let us know if you have any questions!

INSURRECTION UPDATE #14

HOSUE POINTS AND GRINGOTTS BANK

As of today, we are officially adding in a Gringotts bank system onto the site! Now those of you that have been here a long time might remember that we did, in the past, have a system having to do with Gringotts. Mostly it just gave characters their own vaults, with money that... really, we didn't have a good way to use. It was a lot of work, for you guys to have characters with galleons in the bank and nothing to use them on!

The system that we're implementing is different! Instead of the character getting money, instead members will be getting the money. You will then be able to use them for perks and prizes around the site. All of the information for the banking system can be found HERE!
You can use the money that you earn to get prizes like a rush sorting, or an application revision, and more!

That means that house points are once again separate and can be claimed by student characters only, right here! You definitely can also claim for money instead of house points with your student characters, but not both at the same time. I.E., you can't claim May's posts for your student for house points, and then also go to the bank and get money for them! Try to do a good mix of both, though, otherwise our house points are going to get pretty stagnant!

Please let us know if you have any questions! And if you have any suggestions for prizes to add to our banking system, let us know! We'd love to have some more to offer you guys!

INSURRECTION UPDATE #15

SITE RESTRUCTURE

Hi guys! Since our restructure last year, we've had a lot of people that have said that it was hard to find things the way that we organized it. So today, I got in admin project mode, and have restructured the site for you guys. Hopefully this is a bit easier for everyone!

But if you want the lowdown, here's what we did:

• Site Information & Canon

[/i]
All site announcements will be pleased here, including newsletters
Magical Creatures Information, Insurrection Site Plots, Insurrection Site Rules, Hex Codes, Available Canons, Wizarding School Canons, Wizarding Governments and Country Canons, Member Creations, Insurrection Site Tree.

[li]Registration Department[/li]Subboard: Accepted Applications

[li]Hogwarts Handbook[/li]All claims and information for Hogwarts students will be found here
Hogwarts Student Roster, Student Internship & Summer Jobs, Class Schedules, Prefect Registration, House Points Claim, Hogwarts Club & Quidditch Registration, Elective Registration, O.W.L. & N.E.W.T. Scores, NPC Student Registrar.

[li]Claims Office[/li]All claims/information for adults, or those for adults/students are here
Lufkin University Student Roster, Magical Abilities Information & Application, Order of the Phoenix Sign-Ups, Pureblood Family Registry, NPC Child Registrar, Wand Application, Pet & House-Elf Registration, Board Registration & Directory, Prefect/Quidditch Alumni Standings, NPC Adult Registrar, Lufkin University Student/Alumni Sign-Up, Apartment/House Requests, Job Transfer Requests.

[li]OOC Claims & Information[/li] Claims that you make for yourself can be found here
Aliases, Activity Requirements, Submit Your Questions, Suggestions, Complaints, Available Jobs, Creative Team Applications, Wizarding Alumni Rosters, Open Threads, Gringotts Bank, Character Goodbyes, Play-Bys, Staff Requests.

[li]Newsstand[/li]All news articles are here, as well as Quidditch scores
[/ul][/div][/div]

INSURRECTION UPDATE #16

HOGWARTS HOUSE CUP

Congratuations to Ravenclaw House, for winning the House Cup with 1,799 points!

In second place, we have Slytherin House with 1,727 points!
In third place, we have Gryffindor House with 1,640 points!
And in fourth place, we have Hufflepuff House, with 1,576 points!

INSURRECTION UPDATE #17

NEW CODING TEMPLATES AND WORD COUNT

As everyone knows, we have all started venturing into the world of coding! If you're interested in doing that, a good place to check out would definitely be Adoxography! They have some amazing codes to check out. We have a section HERE to post the codes that we are using or making for those of us venturing into making our own!

Something important to keep in mind, though: some templates impact the word count! As in, if you're typing directly onto the site and looking at the word count, it will not always be accurate if your coding is in there too! It will add words to it and give you an inaccurate total. Please keep that in mind for your posts! If you happen to make a post that is under our word minimum without coding, it will not count toward Activity Requirements -- and yes, we will be checking! So keep that in mind! If you have any posts that you are concerned about, make sure you go back and check on them before the month ends!

And have fun as you venture into coding world! Let us know if you have any questions!

INSURRECTION UPDATE #18

THE SQUIB FLU

Guess what's here, ladies and gentleman... well, yes, you're right. The Squib Flu is here. Or, as it is officially known: Cleptavirinae Magicaevirus.

Yes, you heard here first... it's officially time for our site plot to shift focus to the pandemic that we have been gearing up for, for a couple of months at least! Put on your seatbelts, everybody, because we have a lot of information to give you. So let's first start off with the disease itself, shall we? And who it effects and doesn't:

• The virus does not affect people that have The Trace or have had The Trace within the last year. It therefore can only survive in hosts that are 18 years or older (people don't necessarily know this but may catch on as the first wave passes, depending on whether they have experience with health and medicine, epidemiology, etc.).
• The virus seems to affect men and women equally; however, it takes a greater toll on those that are older (same as above, people do not necessarily know this but may catch on as time passes depending on their level of education).
  
• Some people are immune. When a virus tries to occupy an immune host, it simply isn't able to survive. What genetic variation exactly confers this immunity is not yet clear.
• WEREWOLVES ARE IMMUNE TO THE SQUIB FLU. The change in their genetic makeup due to lycanthropy seems to confer some sort of strength whenever they turn; however, Art has a suspicion that it also results in an enhanced immune system overall. This mutation is likely different from the one that makes non-werewolves immune. They are similarly contagious as other immunes.
• METAMORPHMAGI, SEERS, CLAIRVOYANTS, AURA READERS, ELEMENTALS, AND EMPATHS WILL RETAIN THEIR ABILITIES. These are conferred by different genes in cooperation with that which allows people to perform magic (the Magi gene), so they are not fully reliant. HOWEVER, infected people might find that these abilities are diminished or less controllable, but they will not be altogether gone.
• ANIMAGI, LEGILIMENS, OCCLUMENS, AND WANDLESS WILL NOT RETAIN THEIR ABILITIES. This requires the magic conferred by the Magi protein, so it will be affected by the virus.
• VEELAS WILL NOT LOSE THEIR VEELA MAGIC. Veela magic is entirely different from the magic of wizards and witches, so it is therefore not affected by this virus. However, like immunes, they are still contagious if they come into contact with the virus for about a week.
• PART-VEELAS WILL NOT LOSE THEIR VEELA MAGIC BUT WILL LOSE THEIR WIZARD/WITCH MAGIC; HOWEVER, THEY WILL SHOW SOME RESISTANCE. Due to the combination of Veela and regular magic in Part-Veelas, their timeline of symptoms will be much more drawn out. So, for example, a part-Veela might carry the virus for 2 to 3 weeks before they start showing symptoms and their magic even begins to fade (as opposed to 2-4 days). Furthermore, even when the virus is done taking its course, part-Veelas will retain some diminished and uncontrollable magic, akin to what is seen in pre-Hogwarts children. This could mean that part-Veelas might not get sick in the first couple of waves. For those that are thinking of plots, this also makes them prime research targets, just like werewolves and Immunes.
• The virus DOES NOT AFFECT Squibs, Vampires, and Ghosts.

All right, so hopefully that clears up who is impacted by the Squib Flu and who isn't! Now let's move onto the symptoms, shall we?

• The first symptoms of The Squib Flu show up within 2-4 days of contracting the virus. These include a stuffed nose, sore throat, cough, and/or sinus headache.
• By 4 days, magic begins to fade. Difficult, immensely magical tasks (area spells, flying, strong curses, etc.) are nearly impossible, but some magic will persist. Patients often begin to develop a fever at this point. The fever and flickering magic will persist for approximately 7-10 days.
• After this, the remaining weak magic in the patient begins to flicker and fade into nothingness over the timespan of 1-2 weeks (less time for those that are older, more for those that are younger). The fever may worsen, accompanied with chills, cold sweat, earache, fatigue, and gastrointestinal issues (nausea, vomitting, etc.).
• Once this reaches an end, the patient's symptoms will slowly fade over the timespan of yet another week - but their magic will be gone. Unless, of course, there's a cure...
• Obviously, as far as symptoms go characters will not know what to expect during the first wave of sickness. Afterwards, perhaps, people will have a better idea, if Healers are on top of keeping track of the illness progression and making it known to the public. But PLEASE KEEP IN MIND WHEN YOU RP that your characters have no clue what to expect, at least in the first wave.

Now let's put on your lab coat, because if you want some of the more technical details, read on! It's not too scary, guys, I can understand a good... 65% of it, so give it a shot!

• The virus is not airborne and is only transferred via direct transmission, including coughing, sneezing, saliva, blood, and other bodily fluids. So make sure if you have Healer characters that they are being good Healers and taking all precautions, because as far as they know, its an airborne virus.
• This virus is what is called a Retrovirus. Examples of well-known retroviruses are HIV and HTLV (causes leukemia). The virus contains a template, of sorts, that can be read to produce certain proteins. Once the virus is inside a host cell (any cell of a healthy human), it can use the things in this host cell to turn this template into DNA. The virus DNA, named CLEPTA, then becomes part of the host cell DNA, which makes the host cell infected. The virus can exit the cell and go on to do this same process to thousands of other host cells. Now that the viral template for a protein is in the DNA, every time that cell replicates/reproduces, new cells will also be infected.
• In the Squib Flu virus, the template that the virus has is meant to produce a protein (which art has named Clepta) that blocks the expression of the gene MAGI. This gene produces another protein, Magi, that is responsible for people producing magic. Infected host cells will produce Clepta, which then stops Magi from being produced, therefore inhibiting magic in the patient.
• PEOPLE THAT ARE IMMUNE HAVE SOME SORT OF GENETIC MUTATION WITHIN THEIR IMMUNE SYSTEM. This basically allows their immune system to annihilate the virus before it can squish its way into your DNA. It is unclear what this mutation is, but logically speaking, it's related to the immune system. Immunes will have the virus in their system for approximately one week, during which time they are contagious, even if the virus isn't affecting them. So, children and other Immunes could pass the virus on to their susceptible relatives.
• Since The Trace seems to be a protection of sort against the Squib Flu for even up to a year after it's gone, Art speculates that it also confers immunity in some magical way, not a genetic way.
• ABILITY TO SPEAK FOREIGN LANGUAGES WILL NOT BE AFFECTED. This is purely a learning process, nothing to do with magic, just exposure to the magical world.

First of all, can we all give a hand to Celestina, who was smart enough to figure all of this out? Yes? Okay good. So, hopefully, this gives you all a clue on what to expect. But let's clear something up before we go any further: characters do not have this information. This is for you guys, so you know what to expect, but characters do not know any of this! In the first wave, people are very likely to think that this is the normal flu at first! How they can react when their magic starts acting up, is totally up to you! Honestly, most people in the first wave will likely go to the hospital because my magic isn't working, what.

In the second wave, people will likely know a bit more. They will more than likely realize that it is the Squib Flu and not just the normal flu and St. Mungo's or the Ministry will likely release information to the public to know what to expect as far as symptoms go. As more time goes on, more information will be released to the public. So if you have any questions on what your character would know at any given time, definitely feel free to ask! But at the beginning, it's certainly safe to say that they don't know much of anything.

Also good to note: in these beginning stages, this disease does not even have a name. It was Art and @wendy that named it the Squib Flu, so refrain from using that term until it too is released to the public!

A couple random notes when it comes to some do's and don'ts:

• Let us also note that, while we have no plans on who will find a cure and when, you can not just determine that your character is the one that found a cure. They are all welcome to try, but we have not yet determined who will be successful and so that will have to be approved!
• It is quite likely that the borders will be shut down in order to stop this disease from spreading outside of the United Kingdom. Once that happens, we will be locking down Around the World boards. We would rather this plot not turn into a worldwide pandemic! If you have characters that want to flee, and you have reason to think they would do so before the borders are closed, I suppose you can just let us know. But you have to be aware that the first wave will just seem like the flu, and by the general public knows what's going on, it will likely be too late to leave the country. Just something to consider!

Now, let's talk about immunity! We all have those characters that you just really want to keep magic. Whether because it's essential to them, maybe they'd rather die than be without it, maybe for the sake of a plot. We don't want to just leave you all in the lurch, and say 'well too bad!' So, we are allowing everyone to have a couple of preferences on who to keep immune. We are looking for a site average of about 30% immunity, with 70% of the population being sick.

We will be allowing everyone to pick their own immunity up to 25% -- not including werewolves, or those under eighteen who would already be immune. This will also not be including vampires, veela, squibs, ghosts. Let's do an example, shall we?

I'll use myself as an example. I have 26 characters. Two of them are under eighteen, so they are immune immediately. That means that I have 24 characters remaining. 25% of 24 characters is six. So that means that I can choose up to six characters to be immune. If you have a number that has a decimal, it will round up if it is .5 or above, and it will round down if it's under .5! So if it's 4.8, you get five, if it's 3.2, you get 3! Please note that you don't have to choose, for instance, all six. Maybe there are only three characters of mine that I want to keep immune, and the rest I want to leave up to chance. That is fine. You can pick any amount of Immunes up to the number that you are given! Please note that we need this to stay relatively equal across blood statuses! We will approve your Immunes, unless there is extreme favoring of any one blood status! It effects all of them so we need to make sure that we don't have too many immune muggleborns, or too many immune purebloods!

Also you should note that we won't accept entire played families as Immune. At least one member in a played family needs to be sick! You guys can either figure this out amongst yourself, and determine who you want to be sick or immune, or we will just do it based on who claims first!

After you have picked your Immunes, feel free to let us know if there are any people that you definitely want to be sick! Maybe for the sake of a plot, or seeing how they adapt, or anything in between! You don't have to choose people to be sick, but we definitely want to know if there are people that you want to be!

After we have done that, we will calculate how many more spots we have for Immunes, for the site ratio to be at around 30%. We will then randomly generate the remainder of the characters to see if they are sick or immune! Fun, right?

Now, that doesn't mean that everyone is sick right off of the bat. We will be PMing you when you are exposed to the virsus. Whether this is because your character works somewhere that was targeted, or because your character knows someone that was exposed. So everyone is still healthy until they get hit with a PM telling them otherwise!

ANYWAYS -- all of that Immunity nonsense will go down RIGHT HERE. So click it and fill this out as soon as you can! If you don't fill out preferences byyy... say, August 29th, we might have to just make the choices for you, because we will need be able to calculate with the most accurate number possible! If you don't think you can get that information in by then, just let us know and I'm fine with extending your deadline a little bit if I know you're too busy to fill it out this week!

Okay! So hopefully all of that makes sense. Before we go, and wow sorry this update is SO long. There's only one more thing to talk about before we go! We just want to get everyone excited about how many people can get involved in this plot. Ready for excitement? Go!

• CHARACTER GROUPS THAT WILL HAVE A ROLE TO PLAY IN THE DISCOVERY OF A CURE, TREATMENT OR VACCINE ARE: Magical Bugs and Diseases Healers, Unspeakables, Spell Inventors, Potioneers, Alchemists, Herbologists, Pharmacists, Surgical Healers (in the research process, perhaps), Potions and Plant Poisoning Healers (also in the research process), Spell Damage Healers (research), Apothecaries, Magical Naturalists, Magizoologists (research, if certain animal extracts might help), Werewolf Capture Unit (if you wanna take that route), this can also go so far as to have people hunting Veela or Immunes to try to figure out why they aren’t sick.
• CHARACTER GROUPS THAT WILL HAVE A ROLE TO PLAY IN THE CARE OF THE SICK: all types of Healers, Nurses, Pharmacists, Psychologists, Obliviators (depending on the severity of the situation), Magical Naturalists, Potioneers, Alchemists, Herbologists, Apothecaries.
• CHARACTER GROUPS THAT WILL HAVE A ROLE TO PLAY IN KEEPING THE GOVERNMENT GOING: Minister, Advisers, Senior Undersecretary, Heads of Departments, Aurors’ Office, Hit-Wizards, High Ranking Ministry officials, Order of the Phoenix, Formerly High Ranking Muggleborns, mediators (for peace talks), and we will likely eventually need someone to make a (hopefully nicer) Dolores Umbridge type person to evaluate the Ministry and Hogwarts (in peace talks, we find it likely that Muggleborns and Order members will want the staff at Hogwarts and the Ministry looked at so that it is not so Death Eater oriented), potentially werewolves and veela if they want involved since their magic was not impacted.

This is not an all encompassing list, and please let us know if you can think of anyone else that would be a help in any of these categories!

INSURRECTION UPDATE #19

THE INFECTED

Want to keep track of who got sick and when? You've come to the right place. But bear in mind, your characters do not have this information. This is OOC information for record keeping and so that you guys are also aware of your own people and what day they got sick, without having to delve into your PMs.

So, don't use this information in character! And if we see anybody purposefully avoiding friends and family members, we will get in contact with you! I know it's a little hard not to metagame sometimes, but that's why we're around to help you out! Anyway, that's enough of me rambling. Here, have the list!

	First Wave
Day 1 - August 27	Day 2 - August 28	Day 3 - August 29
@afro	@ellanora	@ares
Delilah Verity Graves	@emmaline	@belinda
@graham	Gioconda Corvini	@caterina
Rhaelle Senya Maenlarys	@mac	Elliot Lochlan MacGuffin
	@ophelia	@hyperion
	Victoire Molly Weasley	Issadora May Wentzell
	@vivien	Lucy Janet MacGuffin
		@philip
		@duke
		@van
Day 4 - August 30	Day 5 - August 31	Day 6 - September 1
@asher	@ladywatson	@andi
@aveline	@caerus	@carlisle
@donna	Cassandra Seymour	@cas
Emma Alice Longbottom	Cho Chang	Hesper Elladora Gamp
Felicity Amara Avery	Davina Rhiannon Yaxley	@isolde
@ginny	@dorian	@justin
@louis	@flynn	@lylasbisa
@pjpeters	@hazel	@wood
@sophia	@kalila	Rodolphus Azazel Lestrange
@tabby	@melanie	@sabine
@valentina	Mikhael Albert Travers	Sloane Cressida Rosier
		Theodora Lillian Mountbatten
		@zora
Day 7 - September 2	Day 8 - September 3	Day 9 - September 4
Demelza Robins	Amaryllis Avery Blackwood	@bryce
Draco Malfoy	Beckett Archibald Graves	@silverfox
@faith	@isobel	Flora Megaera Carrow
@oralee	@izzy	Marguerite Izolda Devereux
@pieter	@penelope	@ronald
Wardwell Jameson Laveau	Rabastan Ashmedai Lestrange	@saffron
	@oneandonlyzeus	Titania Galadriel Buchanan
		Watson Stroud
Day 10 - September 5
@alek
@avery
@kate
@claude
@fitzgerald
@imogen
@isaac
Medea Giovana Stone
@winona
	Second Wave
Day 22 - September 17	Day 23 - September 18	Day 24 - September 19
@allisyn	Carwyn Gruffydd Owens	Apolline Margery A. Dumbledore
@perenelle	Gemma MacFusty Wenlock	@hiram
	@flint	Megara Lucille Grant
	Ruth Papathanassiou
Day 27 - September 22	Day 30 - September 25	Day 164 - January 29th
Desirae Maribel Krum	@bonbonfils	@alex
@arianna	Dani Kopitar-Higgs
Naël Étienne Bonaccord	Elizaveta Zhivanevskaya
@narcissa	Finn Elliot Harlow
Petronilla Abigail Laveau	@starla
	@nillabean
	Willa Saxicor
Day 183 - February 19	Day 187 - February 23
@emanuel	Arthur Stroud
	@nick
	Violet Gertrude Stroud

INSURRECTION UPDATE #20

WORD COUNT

Hi guys! As you all probably guessed from the subtitle, I'm here to talk about word count!

Let's be honest, I don't have that much to say here! We had a poll in the September newsletter about raising our word minimum. Our word minimum grows as we grow (wow, sappy much, me?) We started the site with no word count, and then we decided to make one for 150 words! Now for you OGs, you know that was probably only a couple of months after the site was first opened! So, 150 words has been our minimum word count since 2015! But the poll was... nearly unanimous, which surprised me I'm not going to lie, in wanting to raise the minimum word count!

I was originally going to wait until October 1st and just usher it in with the new month, but you know what, I changed my mind. So, here we are! I'm announcing that you all have spoken, and we are officially raising our minimum word count to 250 words per post! For Owl post, there will still be nothing barring you from posting a five word owl if you want to! But if you want an owl to count toward AR, it has to be 250 words!

Yay everyone! I'm excited. And sappy sentence, proud of us all for challenging ourselves and upping our word count! So yes, announcement over, stopping before I ramble!