Hey, guys. First up are massive apologies for how slow we've been with the end of November's plot. Running through the hols turned out to be a lot more chaotic than we'd anticipated. Thank you guys so so much for bearing with us. This post will have November's event conclusion here if you just wanna skip right to that first, but since we're mingling with December's rundown, we have some announcements to punch out first. This is gonna be a long post ( she says as though all of her posts aren't long posts ), so please bear with me!

First up, December's plot event will be concluding Arc 3! You will notice on the calendar an oddly pink day, which we will be using henceforth as our post-story arc mod HMD! That means on December 7, we will put up an HMD meme solely for feedback on the last six months, the events we ran, what worked / didn't work, what you guys would like to see improved upon, and so forth. Responding to this will not be mandatory, but we are going to have some really important player polls on there so please do check it out when it goes up. It'll be under the !mod post tag, if you guys have that tracked!

On that note, our second announcement is that Arc 4 starts in January. The course of that story arc will depend largely on player votes to determine what the gods and the Travellers do as Ragnarok becomes a looming threat on the horizon again. These will be extremely important and determine the plot of the game as we work towards our projected end-game in December 2014, so please be sure to look for these polls on the mod HMD.

Thirdly, as our traditional yearly present to y'all, AC for all characters will be waived in December! We will still post the Activity Check and you will still be required to check in for all of your characters, but you will not be required to post any activity proofs. It's the holiday season and we want you guys to take it easy, so this one's on us!

Last but not least is a friendly reminder about our new buddy system! All of our newbies should jump on in there if they think they'd like an extra helping hand in finding their way through the game, and our oldies should be waiting in the pool to catch them! Or something. Sign-ups for this are always open, so if you ever think you would like someone there with you to help you out, come on over to this page.

That's it for now! There will be no Holes event this month because there's a lot in store for you all. As a reminder, AC closes at midnight on December 3, and applications will be opening at midnight tonight. Moving on to your events, we'll be starting with the conclusion to November's A House Divided before jumping into December's events. You can find your calendar here, as always!

The gods have been hard at work trying to figure out Thiazi's spell, but this magic is far beyond what the Frost Queen should be capable of and Odin's commands not to interfere fall on deaf ears. Following Thor's post to the network, the young Prince will be acting as the Travellers requested and dropping himself into the mirror!verse in a last ditch attempt at saving the Travellers trapped inside. When he arrives, the spell will be collapsing under its own weight and there will be no time for any finesse in this rescue attempt.

Thor will gather as many of the Travellers as he can reach in Gefion Park on Day 364 ( Nov. 29/30 ), and not a moment too soon as the spell drops of its own instability. The god will act out of sheer stubborn strength to physically support the section of the sky above himself and the Travellers, protecting them from its crushing weight while everything outside his protection is crushed out of existence. In the moments afterwards, they will exist in the nether space of Thiazi's pocket dimension; that is, the grass beneath them and the sky above them will be exactly as it was, albeit resting on Thor's shoulders, but the space around them will be a pitch black abyss of nothing. Any that step out of Thor's circle of protection will be unwritten and die instantaneously.

Just when it seems like Thor's strength might give out and kill them after all, a sort of shimmering will start to fill in the nether space like golden dust flecks painting a very slow picture of Gefion Park. The gods still don't know what exactly Thiazi did, so Odin will be doing some roughshod magic to meld the mirror!verse's pocket dimension into reality in the literal sense. The section of the mirror!verse that Thor is carrying will slowly melt into the real Asgard until he and the group of Travellers are standing in the exact same position as it was mirrored underneath the spell.

Travellers will be free to flee if they fear Thor's strength giving out before Odin can weld the mirror!verse down, but eventually the gods will accomplish it and the section of mirror!verse sky Thor was holding up will be sealed into the real sky. This section in Gefion Park will be permanently a section of the mirror!verse that still exists; though they can't drag anyone into a dimension that is no longer there, anyone that walks through this part of the park will notice their shadows swirling and twisting malevolently until they reach the other side and the sky will have a slight distortion when you pass between the mirror!sky and the real sky, like when there's a wrinkle in a window and you can see that odd wave of light if you look closely enough.

The event doesn't end there, though! There are still Fire and Frost Giants within the real Asgard, now incensed by both the death of their allies and the Travellers' successful escape from Thiazi's trap. The fighting will immediately continue to the despair of pretty much everyone ever because wow rude, but stay strong, Asgard. Not but a few hours later, the battle will cease when a bright red light flashes as brightly as the sun to the north of the city. Seconds afterwards, a thunderous boom will blow across the city, accompanied by a massive wave of heat. Think of when you open the oven after it's been on for ages and that burst of heat hits you directly in the face. Now magnify that by like a million.

This is where I get loopy in the mod post I apologise.

But I digress. A massive, physical heat wave that travels from north to south in much the same way as the wave from the Dokidoki Bishounen Return! event. Shield your eyes or run for cover; either way, it brings the battle to an immediate standstill as the Giants are stunned with bewilderment and fear, for anyone looking closely enough. They will flee the city for their lives, violently desperate to return to their homes.

Muspellheim has erupted, for the first time in Yggdrasil's history. Their homes may not be there for much longer.

There is a mingle log for the mirror!verse melting into the real Asgard over here. This has been one Hell of an event, so please don't hesitate to ask if you have any questions. Thank you guys so so much for your patience on this one. Now we can move on to December's events!!

A massive heat wave follows the eruption of Muspellheim's volcano, creating severe summer heat in the middle of Yggdrasil's winter. For the first time in the history of the immortals, Thrymheim is touched by warmth and starts melting; only slightly, but the notion is there and Thiazi's panicked cries of fear and outrage reach the border villages and Odin's ears by raven.

But that's not the only natural disaster changing the lay of the land. Two days into the heat wave, on Day 367 ( Dec. 5/6 ), another earthquake shakes Asgard - only this time, the tears formed are no longer in the veil between the worlds but in the world itself. Think 6.0 on the Richter scale: buildings will shift and splinter, glass panes shatter and there will be moderate to significant damage crumbling smaller structures; the Welcome Halls will not be structurally impaired but objects and appliances inside the buildings will be in varying states of disorder and/or destruction; a few slight cracks will appear in the earth around the city that aren't terribly deep but will still cause imbalances and dangerous ground in several places; etc etc.

Anyone that does not evacuate crumbling buildings or get to safe ground during the quake may receive moderate to severe injuries, but the death toll should be reserved to only a handful of Natives in poorly designed structures. Relief efforts will begin immediately following the quake, though by the wide-eyed confusion on the Natives' faces, it may become clear that nothing like this has ever happened before.

That very same day, characters that in canon had psychic / precognitive / telepathic abilities or that were highly in-tune with spirits and the likes will begin to sporadically hear indistinct whispers late in the evening. They'll be low and quiet, overlapping each other and seemingly repeating the same phrase over and over: "It won't stop."

These whisperings will continue to gather in volume and clarity over the course of about an hour until even those characters without psychic abilities start to hear them buzzing around their heads, not as though someone is speaking to them telepathically but almost as though it is one of their own thoughts in the back of their minds that simply won't calm down. The message becomes somewhat clearer, the same phrase on repeat growing louder and more forceful with its insistence, until at the strike of midnight, it peaks with a sudden silence and the clearest words yet: "This is only the beginning."

The overlapping whispers then silence entirely along with seemingly all other background noise that is not a part of the message: a woman's voice speaking clearly throughout the minds of every Traveller in the city to deliver a very important message.

"The End has yet to pass as it has been told from the Beginning. The sands are slipping through the cracks left behind. The world tree is decaying.

Nurture or burn. A decision must be reached, or the mother will decide for you. It will not stop, and this is only the beginning."

Once the message from the Norn is delivered, you will return to your regularly scheduled free thought and normal hearing. Did the gods hear it too? The Giants? What does mean? It's almost a triple rainbow. There are scarcely any answers to be found; for now, sleep easy if the night will lend its shoulder. The sky is still yet dark, and there is no telling if the promise of sunrise remains.

There will be a mingle log for the earthquake evacuations and disaster relief, but as always, you guys can feel more than free to post your own logs and things!

The heat will slowly recede over the next several days until Day 371 ( Dec. 13/14 ), when the winter season violently surges back into its place in the form of a sudden blizzard. The weather is nowhere near normal and nigh unpredictable, particularly after the last twelve days of blistering heat. As such, the gods will be sending out aid to those that are unprepared for the influx of cold in the form of a new coat in everyone's closets when they wake up if they don't already have one.

But Loki can't let an act of charity be so selfless and will be interfering midway. For the entirety of the storm, all coats/jackets/sweaters/hoodies/cloaks/clothing designed for warmth will be cursed to be really ugly sweaters a la the Ugly Sweater Meme. Any top intended to bring the wearer warmth against the sudden onslaught of cold will appear as one of these horrible things. This goes all the way down to t-shirts if you attempt to layer up a dozen of them. This is Asgard's first and only mandatory curse. Thank the gods the storm will be gone by morning the next day, and with it go the horrendous patterns, returning your clothing to normal, but the snow lingers, blanketing the city for the next several days.

And who would the Guardians be if they didn't take advantage of this newfound snow? The Rise of the Guardians cast will be joining efforts with the gods to bring a bit of holiday cheer to the city. On Day 373 ( Dec. 17/18 ), the natives will be helping them set up a psuedo-festival of sorts, with decorations and displays to get into the holiday spirit. This is not limited to Christmas events! There will be a top-level comment below for people to submit any winter holidays, whether real or canon-specific, that the cast will be welcoming to incorporate into their holiday plot. Whatever you want to see, let us know and it will be set up alongside everything else!

At the end of Day 373, late at night, the RotG cast and a few of the gods will be helping to deliver presents to all of the Travellers. They will be anything from an empty box to candy canes to stockings, all wrapped with a mystery inside! When opened, these mysteries will reveal themselves in the form of the owner's deepest wishes: anything they might've been hoping for in a gift or anything they've been wanting for ages now. Someone that desperately wanted a new bicycle could unwrap a candy cane and find a brand new bike sitting in the corner of their room seconds later. Someone that's been wishing for their refrigerator to stop making that awful sound every ten seconds could open a box to the sound of blissful silence at long last.

Whatever it is your character wants, they will receive! However, these things cannot be gifts from home. These are solely for material possessions within Asgard. No wishing for someone to fall in love with them and no wishing for a pair of socks you left in your dresser back home. They have to be things that could be attained within the confines of Asgard. If you're in doubt about your gift, we have a top-level comment below to run your gifts by us first just in case, though it is not necessary to do so beforehand if you believe your gift meets the qualifications.

Travellers will wake up to these gifts on Day 374 ( Dec. 19/20 ) along with a beautiful festival of food and drinks, songs and dances, and anything else you can think of - all exact to their respective traditions. Your holiday hosts went all out to make sure everything is as it should be, and from there on, the celebrations can begin freely. At night, there will be a terrific fireworks display, and you may even find a few of the gods themselves wandering around beneath the colourful lights.

The RotG cast will put up an OOC post closer to the actual event to finalise any submissions and plots, so keep an eye out for that! There will also be a mingle lot for the festivities.

And that's it for the rest of 2013! Thank you guys so much for joining us through this crazy year. It has been such a blast and we look forward to the mischief we'll be getting up to next year. As always, let us know if you have any questions / comments / concerns / dirty jokes in the comments sections below!