Family/Dynasty Rules

Being part of a family may be extremely important to some characters and their development. There also appears to be a driving need among some members to bond together with other members and characters, and some have found the best way to do this is through creation of varying degrees of FAMILY.

There are a few reasons why there must be some rules and regs on the creation of students who are family members.

Primary among them is to keep confusion about twins down. Some inexperienced members who have not read the rules thoroughly may register twins without realizing they need staff permission first. This is often hard for the staff to detect, especially during a busy registration weekend. When we see two students with the same last name, we must stop what we are doing, track the posts of those students back and try to read any indication about what their relationship is to each other, if any. If nothing can be found, the members have to be PM'd and the staff needs to wait until they reply back with an explanation. This all takes a horrid lot of time -- time the staff cannot afford during registraiton weekend.

Also, some members who are trying to create "dynasties" (many siblings coming to Hogwarts in a very short amount of time, aka the Weasleys) really bend the rules of believability and common sense. A new child born to the same woman year after year after year stretches the realms of believability (not to mention, medical science). The bald facts are, children in the same family are most often spread further apart, but some of our members are too impatient and want to band them all together like a bizarre "club".

Finally, some members may get their own relatives mixed up. Someone may be creating a cousin to a character, not realizing that this character has another sibling coming onto the board with the same last name. One of those characters would not be permitted. This is a way for the members to work out who they are related to.... and who they aren't.

Following are some rules and guidelines when having students who are relatives.

1. No two characters with the same last name can register in the same term.

If this happens, the character that was created LAST will be contacted by the staff, and offered the choice to either change their last name or be deleted.

2. No two siblings, half-siblings, or step-siblings can enter Hogwarts in the same term.

This rule also applies to siblings, half-siblings, or step-siblings who "don't know about each other" for whatever reason. If you wish to have this sort of plot, you will need to wait until your characters reach the adult world before they "discover" who they really are.

This does not apply to twins, of course, although members who handle twins must have gotten permission of the staff prior to registration.

3. For siblings born from the SAME mother, there must be at least one term BETWEEN each sibling. In other words, the siblings must be 2 years apart.

Yes, there are occasions when a woman gives birth 12 months apart, but these are rare. We are trying to operate off of averages, and medically speaking, it is more likely a woman will have children two or more years apart.
example:
If a student is a 6th year, they can have a sibling in the 4th year, and the 2nd year.

4. For half-siblings/step-siblings who come from different mothers, they can space their entrance to Hogwarts one year apart (one after the other). However, no more than 3 half-siblings/step-siblings can come to Hogwarts in a row; after that, there will need to be a "blank" year.
example:
A student is a 6th year, and they also have a half-brother in the 7th year, and a half-sister in the 5th year.

5. Cousins -- First and second cousins are counted as "relatives". Cousins may come to Hogwarts a year apart up to 3 in a row, then a "blank year" must take place between cousins. This counts no matter what "side" the cousins are coming from, or what their last name is. Cousins must still follow rule #1.

First cousin -- someone with whom one shares a grandparent but not a parent
Second cousin -- someone with whom one shares a great-grandparent but not a grandparent or parent

6. "God-parents" do not count as relatives.

7. Grandfathering -- if you already have an account that may not follow the guidelines above, don't worry about it. These guidelines will apply to accounts created from this point onward.

SPECIAL NOTE: The guidelines above are just that -- guidelines. If you slip up and register a character in violation of the above, you won't be punished or have an infraction against your record. However, the staff will be contacting you to change the status/relationship of your account to meet the rules. Of course, someone who continually tries to sneak by these rules over and over may face a violation. This guideline is intended only to provide guidance of what is "reasonable" for bringing on relatives, and to help everyone communicate better about who those relatives are.

Record-keeping

On order to share your information about your relatives with other members (and cause less confusion by the staff), we are requesting that people "register" their relatives. Those with new accounts will be asked if they have any relatives currently on the board through their role-call post. Those with existing accounts will be asked to register their families in a special forum created just for this purpose within the Character Library. This will help keep things clear not only for the staff, but for your relatives' handlers should they wish to bring on some relatives of their own.

For new accounts: In the "Verification Thread #4 (Character Role Call)" thread (in this forum), you will be asked to list any current relatives there.

For current accounts: Please post in the Family Tree forum, following the instructions there (new students will not be able to see this until they are First Years).