[Contest, all servers] Sacred Spaces 2015

EDIT:

• New end date for decorating: August 9th, 11:59 PM PST
• New start date for judging: August 10th, 12:00 AM PST
• New end date for judging: August 16th, 11:59 PM PST

All prizes should (barring real life conflicts) be sent out by August 24th. We will update the contestants via email if something happens to prevent their items from being presented by that date.

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The people of Norrath worship many different gods and goddesses. Some are good, some are evil, and some aren't part of the canon pantheon.

This summer, we want adventurers and decorators to build a shrine for their favored deity. Everyone is welcome, and up to 50 participants are eligible for a prize!

How It Works

1. Choose your deity.It doesn’t have to be Solusek Ro or Bristlebane; it can be anything in Norrath! However, we have a few exceptions:
   1. No duck mounts, palm trees, or “taters”.
   2. No real-life religious icons, people, or figures.
2. Sign up for prizes with an email to homesandtomes@gmail.com. You must sign up before 11:59 PM (PDT) on June 20, 2015 to be eligible for prizes.
   (If you need to cancel your participation, just email us again.)
   
   Make sure your email includes all of the following:
   1. Your main server name and character name, so we can contact you.
   2. Your homeowner’s server name, character name, and home address.
   3. Your preferred participation prize.
      (One item, 100 DBC or less, from the DBG marketplace.)
   4. This sentence: “I agree to the rules of the Sacred Spaces contest.”
3. Build a sacred space that pays homage to your deity.You can start building now, use a preexistinghome, or start from scratch! Your sacred space needs to have these three things:
   1. An icon of your deity (a statue, replica, painting, etc that represents your deity to you)
   2. An altar, with nearby space for worship
   3. A book that explains who or what your deity is, why you chose it, and how your decorations fit that theme
4. Publish your sacred space in EQ2.
   1. Include “(SS2015)” in the title for your house. If you don’t know how to do this, ask anyone in the Homeshow channel!
   2. Email homesandtomes@gmail.com letting us know that your home is complete.
   3. To be eligible for prizes, you must publish your house before 11:59 PM (PDT) on July 25, 2015, and your house must be available through October 24, 2015.
5. Tour everyone’s spaces, leave kudos, and share comments! Official judging happens between July 26 and July 31. We’ll contact the top three winners (judged on style and execution, with bonus points for lore relevance) individually, so that they can choose their prizes.
   
   Remember, you get a 100 DBC prize just for participating!
   • First Prize: One 2000 DBC card code and one Krono (must be able to make a character on Antonia Bayle in order to claim your Krono)
   • Second Prize: One EQ2 marketplace item, valued at 1000 DBC or less
   • Third Prize: One EQ2 marketplace item, valued at 500 DBC or less

For questions about the contest, contact Jazabelle (in-game on the Antonia Bayle server, through the HAT or EQ2 forums, or at homesandtomes@gmail.com).

For help with decorating, ask anyone in the Homeshow chat channel!

Some Ideas

• A gathering shrine to Qho, with plants, minerals, and other gatherables.
  (It also might involve a dungeon and sacrificial tools, if you’ve completed all of his quests.)
• The austere courtroom where you pay your respects to The Tribunal before you embark on a difficult raid, sacrificing lesser loot in hopes of greater rewards.
• A secluded forest grove, representing your devotion to etherwood lumber.
• The silliest Bristlebane Day celebration you can imagine! Maybe there’s a built-in scavenger hunt … or a riddle to solve?

The Official Rules
These rules govern who, and what homes, are eligible for either participation rewards or prizes.
We will use your email and other information you provide solely for the purposes of this contest.

DBG is not sponsoring and is not affiliated with this contest.

1. One entry per EQ2 account and email address.
2. You must be 18 years or older to participate. (You may have your parent or guardian submit an entry for you, if necessary.)
3. You agree that this contest is being governed by applicable U.S. laws. If this contest is not legal in your country or locale, you agree not to participate.
4. By entering this contest, you agree to waive all claims of liability. You also agree that prizes are awarded at the sole discretion of the contest judges, and that your entry may be disqualified for any reason.
5. Prizes are not redeemable for cash, may not be exchanged, and are final once delivered. Your odds of winning prizes depend on the number of participants.
6. All prize requests must be received by August 15, 2015. If you do not send your prize request or if we cannot contact you before that date, we may award the prize to a different participant.
7. Homes can be any size and located in any city on any server. You may use previously built homes for this contest if your sacred space is a substantial part of that home.
8. Homes must:
   1. Use a combined minimum of 50 items and building blocks
   2. Be either a prestige home, or have their upkeep paid through October 24, 2015
   3. Be published by July 25, 2015 before midnight PDT
   4. Have “(SS2015)” in the title
   5. Not include, portray, or depict real-life people, figures, religious icons, or other controversial/objectionable content (including but not limited to genitalia)
   6. Not have duck mounts, “taters”, or palm trees as their focus or primary portrayal

FAQ

I have an old house I'd like to use. May I use it?
Yes, absolutely! For this first Sacred Spaces competition, we're allowing old builds. However, you must make sure your build fits all of the rules listed above.

The build I have is a house, and I'd like to add on a shrine of some sort. Is that okay?
You may, but only if it's abundantly clear that the focus of the zone is the sacred space, not the house.

What do you mean by "deity?"
For the purposes of this contest, the "deity" is any Sacred Noun (person, place, or thing) tied to Norrath that you wish to build a shrine to. A halfling with a shrine to jumjum? Fine. Go more traditional, and build a temple to Erollisi? You betcha! Wanna praise Qho's mother for the pack pony? Go for it! Build a shrine to your character's ancestors? Give us a little history, we want to hear all about it! Gnomes building a Cathedral to the Sacred Wrench of Tinkering? Just make sure the judges don't blow up.

With that said, do not build a shrine to God, Allah, the Mother Goddess, Great A'Tuin, Edward Cullen, Paris, or cars. No real life or literary person, place, or thing should be your "deity." Whatever you've chosen, it should be Norrathian.

Do I have to build the Sacred Space from scratch, or can I do it inside a house?No, you do not have to build the Sacred Space from scratch. You can build it from scratch, reskin a house, or use a house's default walls if you prefer! This is your vision of a worship space for your deity. Go crazy!

Do I have to use the entire zone for my Sacred Space?
Nope! You can build a Sacred Space that is as large or as small as you'd like it to be.

Does my Sacred Space have to be a shrine, temple, or Cathedral? Can I do something else?
You can absolutely do something else! A sacred clearing in a forest to Tunare, for example. Or perhaps you'd rather build a Monastery. If something other than a traditional sacred space works better for your deity, then go for it!

Can my Sacred Space be for more than just one deity?
Absolutely! The Marr twins, jumjum and pie, Anashti and Bertoxxulus--if you can tie your sacred space together somehow, and explain why multiple deities are being worshipped in the same space, you're more than welcome to do it.

Do I have to use the layout editor/layout editing?
No. Decorate however is most comfortable for you.

Can I build in a dungeon instead of in a house?
No, I'm afraid that we aren't prepared to handle dungeon entries this time around. Maybe next time.

I'm not on Antonia Bayle, and I can't create a character on that server. If I win first place, can you buy me a Krono on my server?
I'm afraid not. The Krono has already been purchased, and is on Antonia Bayle. If someone who is unable to accept the Krono wins first place, they will have to forfeit the Krono, and the Krono will be saved for the next contest.

I'm not on Antonia Bayle, but I can create a character on that server. If I win first place, how do I get the Krono over to my home server?
You don't need to move the Krono over! Simply create a character on Antonia Bayle. I will trade the Krono to you, and then you will use the Krono. Because it's tied to account rather than character, the Krono will grant you 30 free days of game time on your account.

More FAQ answers as more questions are asked!

hmm considering that a few people didn't get their prizes from your last contest, and now you ask that they waive all claims, etc, i think i will pass on your contests. i personally knew people who didn't get their prizes on the butcherblock server, know from talking to one of your promoters that a person who won on butcherblock was one who helped buy the prizes, said she was a cohost, and her sister was judge. then she tried to confront us over our winners. how is it that someone who had a family member who was a judge and she herself was a promoter could even enter your contest?

after seeing how all of that worked last time, i consider myself warned and won't be entering and also will discourage others from doing so.

Hi Suka!

Thank you for sharing your concerns. It is of course your right to not participate in or enjoy our contests, but I would like to at least clear up some of the information that you're spreading - as one of the judges of said contest.

-Nobody- was asked to waive their prizes. Due to RL constraints as well as the fact that game mechanics allow a limited number of DBC gifts per day, gifting was taking longer than expected. Jazabelle was attempting to keep everyone up to date on this process, and one of the prize winners decided that they no longer wished to be involved in the process (for reasons unknown to me) and waived their prize. The prize was then given to the next highest scorer in that category.

As far as someone's sister being a judge, with the way the scoring was set up there really was no way that one person's votes could sway the contest in that person's favor. It's not revealing any secrets to point out that she did not even give her sister the highest of the scores she gave out. I'll also admit that I'm pretty clueless on who is related to whom, or who is friends with whom, so there was certainly no aspect of "So and So is a judge's sister, treat them well" behind the scenes. I personally didn't know their relationship until after I finished scoring.

Anyway, that's just one judge's opinion. I'm very to sorry that you are sour toward our contests and hope you will at least continue to participate in other cross-server events as they happen!

Suka, thank you for your concern. Let me take a moment to address what you've said. Hopefully you'll feel a bit better about things!

Waiving all claims of liability is common from a legal standpoint. In the extremely unlikely event that you win, and for some reason we are unable to give you your prize, you cannot sue the contest organizers. That is all that phrase means as far as this contest is concerned.

I am still granting prizes from the previous contest. It was our first contest giving everyone prizes, and so we were unprepared to handle the large number of prizes requested.

There were two problems with granting prizes last time, that we've learned from.

• Only two people granted prizes (with me taking on the bulk of the granting)
• Each person chose multiple items for their prizes

Daybreak has placed a cap of gifting 2 items per day. Each day that I am online, I have gifted two people their prizes. However, I have health issues that mean I am often unable to log in. Some days, I have dragged myself out of bed specifically to grant prizes. Unfortunately, I am unable to do that every day.

By the day after tomorrow, everyone will have received at least one prize. If I have calculated things properly, it will be another two weeks before everyone has received all prizes that they requested. Keep in mind that this is 14 days of me actually being able to log in, so it may be closer to a month. Everyone will receive their prizes, though.

To combat the issues we had last time, we will spread the gifting among multiple people, and each participant is only allowed to pick one item. This should drastically cut down on the amount of time it takes us to grant prizes.

Also, please note that this time, people are requested to ask for their participation prizes when they sign up. This is so that as soon as someone is finished building their home, and publishes it, they will receive their participation prize. This breaks up the prize-giving, so that it is not all at the end.

There is only one individual on Butcherblock who has not yet received a prize. That prize will be granted later today, when my gifting time limit lifts and I can grant two more prizes, along with an individual on Antonia Bayle. Tomorrow, two other people (Oasis and Splitpaw, respectively) will receive their prizes. The final person (Crushbone) will receive their prize the day after. Then the prizes will loop around, and people will begin receiving their second choice in prizes.

While I prefer not to talk about the prizes that have been granted, I think it is necessary to state that at this time, I have personally given over 4500 DBC worth of prizes, and by the time I have given all of the prizes for the contest, I will have given 9500 DBC for the Retreats of the Rulers contest alone.

Every individual who requested a prize will receive a prize, and I was very clear to the participants that gifting was taking much longer than anticipated, and that I was unsure of when everyone would receive their prizes.

Participants who chose to waive their prizes (and there were quite a few who did so, for a variety of reasons, from enjoying the contest and not caring about prizes, to choosing to forfeit because they didn't wish to wait) were not emailed updates explaining the situation, as once a contestant waived their prizes, I removed them from the mailing list so that they would not be spammed.

The individual who won, and who helped to buy prizes chose to forfeit her prize because she was granting prizes. The prize she would have been granted was instead given to the next in line.

I am not comfortable discussing the inner workings of the event--to be quite honest, it isn't anyone's business but the judges. However, you've brought up a valid concern. I am one of the only ones organizing the contests, and I am only human. It slipped my notice that a sibling of a judge was in the contest until after the judge had already judged the majority of the homes. To deal with that, I found two other judges who were completely unaffiliated with anyone, and the judge who was a sibling's scores were left out of the final total.

The fact that her scores were left out was known only to me until this moment.

Even with that (and none of the other judges were aware of who the sibling was), the sibling won.

As for the winner on Butcherblock being a promoter--people who promoted the contest had absolutely nothing to do with its organization. There were a lot of participants who chose to promote the contest on their servers with no backing from the contest organizers. To be clear, there were only two official promoters--Iosabella and myself.

I have no idea where claiming to be a cohost comes from. There is only one host for these contests: me. Yes, I prefer to state that Homes and Tomes is hosting, and that may be part of the confusion. However, when it comes down to organization and the running of the contest, I am the one who does almost everything.

That was actually one of the problems we have fixed this time. More people have been brought in to make sure that things run smoothly even if I cannot be around to do what needs to be done.

I am sorry you feel this way. I do hope my post has addressed your concerns adequately. If you have any other concerns, please feel free to speak to me privately, and if I cannot clear them up for you sufficiently, I am more than happy to state them publicly to receive input from others.

Happy decorating!

Jaz,

I am not sure if you know this or not, but you can actually gift more than two items per day. You may only have 2 gifting transactions is my understanding. If someone has chosen multiples of the same item, you can just adjust the number in the little box next to the buy/gift options. So for instance you could send 10 tiles to someone in one transaction, and then a gazebo to someone else in another transaction, etc.

I wasn't aware of this until I voluntold my husband to gift me some items and he was able to send me 2 bundles in one transaction, and another 2 bundles in a second one within moments of each other.

Now I know that doesn't help unless people have picked multiples of the SAME item as their prize.. but maybe (assuming you weren't aware) that will help in the future!

Linlainu,

Thank you for this information! Yes, we have been gifting multiples of the same item all at once. Even with that, it will take a minimum of two more weeks for everyone to receive their prizes from me, since a) almost everyone chose to receive at least two different prizes, and b) I'm the only one granting prizes for the Retreats of the Rulers contest.

Like I said, we learned from our mistakes with the RotR, and things should go more smoothly this time

kk i am sure you are unaware of some conversations that took place so i will send them in the pm to you since you need to be aware of certain things that caused my concern. when you read them, i think you will be surprised and will be able to prevent further problems. but for the contest, i have suggestions. you might find that choosing a prize to give instead of letting people pick prizes might make things easier. it is easy to get bogged down when people choose a lot of little prizes instead of a big one. another option may be to gift sc and let them spend it as they want.

give me a few minutes to gather the logs of the conversations and i will send them to you

i sent you some pms explaining to you what was said and how it reflected on your and your relationship with the person causing the problems

I will be sending my email: 1 AB server Linnlyna decorator 2. Meirril's Felwithe Mansion 3 my prize something from market place right now I am thinking of anything roses. 4 I most definitely agree to the rules of the SS contest.

Now time to get to work oh Tunare Mother of All, I so want to make you proud.

i can't seem to send you a pm on facebook without friending so i will send it here

Unfortunately, Facebook bugs out like that sometimes, I'm afraid. My settings should allow anyone to PM me. I've PMed you on Facebook, as it seems to be working in that direction, so you should be able to reply to it.

Updated the top post. Due to the generosity of two individuals, the prize for first has changed to:

• First Prize: One 2000 DBC card code and one Krono (must be able to make a character on Antonia Bayle in order to claim your Krono)

Krono, when activated, apply to your account rather than your character, so simply make a character on Antonia Bayle on the account you wish to claim the Krono on if you win first place, and you will be given the Krono to use! Presto! One free month of EQ2!

Added an FAQ to the original post. If the FAQ becomes too long, other questions will be answered here.

Does the Krono work even if you have an auto-recurring monthly payment set up?

Uwk

Yes. You "use" the krono in your character window, and it takes effect on the next billing cycle.

I will not be participating in this contest, but I can't wait to see all the entries! I'm hoping to see Rallos Zek in there somewhere. My bruiser on AB was a Rallosian worshipper.

God of War? Evil or Neutral?

Uwk

Rallos zek is evil. in the entire pantheon he is evil. however he is not unlike thor or any other god of war. but in the context of eq2 he is evil

One question I keep forgetting to ask:

"What's 'taters,' Preciousss?"

Uwk

I am halfway tempted to submit one of my houses. In it, I have a Shrine to Mithaniel Marr that I call "Marr's Landing" (I know, it sounds like a NASA mission to Mars, or a spoof of "Knotts Landing", lol!), but I have also put together a Drinal shrine. I'll have to think it over more, an see if I can somehow tie the two together.

Thanx Jaz for setting aside time and effort in putting these contests together!

Forgive me if I sound like a Grammar ****, but Týr is the Norse God of war, not Thor.

right- it has been awhile but thor with his big hammer comes to mind first