Arlathan Exchange

Gift Exchange
Name:	Arlathan Exchange
Date(s):	2022
Moderator(s):
Type:	fanfiction, fanart
Fandom:	Dragon Age
URL:	Website, Tumblr, Twitter, AO3
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Arlathan Exchange is an exchange in the Dragon Age fandom focusing on elven characters.

Rules

1) The Basics

All works in the exchange must be part of the Dragon Age fandom. For requests and offers, please use Dragon Age - All Media Types. When you post you should post with the tags that fit your work, i.e. Dragon Age: Origins, etc. Crossover works are not allowed. All ratings and kinks/fetishes are allowed so long as they do not violate your requestor's DNWs and they are tagged appropriately. The exchange allows dark fic, works which deal with substance abuse and other "problematic" themes, so long as a main character is an elf. Please be sure to list anything you do not want to receive in your requests. When fulfilling requests, make sure to tag "problematic" content! The exchange does not accept works featuring minor characters (under 18) in sexual situations. However, we will accept non-sexual romantic works featuring characters aged 16+, and gen fic featuring characters of all ages. Please do not alter skintone drastically from canon. In short, no white washing. If you have questions please reach out to moderators. Please do not change the sexual orientation of canonically homosexual characters (i.e. no pieces which depict Dorian with a female character or Sera with a male character) or make canonically trans characters cis. Other bisexual headcanons, trans/nb headcanons, and genderswap/sexswap works are okay.

2) The Works

By signing up you agree you will create one 1000 word fic or completed art piece (clean lineart) for your assigned giftee by the end of the exchange. There is no maximum word count. All works should adhere to basic readability standards. Stories and art should be created specifically for the exchange. However, they may be part of an ongoing series or collection you already have. (i.e. if someone requests Solas/m!Lavellan and you already have a series with these characters, you can make this a part of the same AU and add it to your own series/collection; please do not add works to personal series until after creator reveals). All fics should be able to stand on their own, though, so please don't create a piece which would require someone to have read your entire 150,000 word slowburn fic in order to follow it. Please do not add any collections or series to your work which would reveal your identity until after creator reveals. If the request is not specific you may use your own OCs, default/generic OCS, or the requestor's OCs to fulfill requests. Anyone requesting specifically their own OCs should have information available in their letter or available on social media so the gifter can find out more!

3) Problems/Troubleshooting

Questions about OCs, DNWs, or prompts should be directed to your recipient's tumblr ask box while on anon. If anon asks are not on or you are unable to find their tumblr, that is okay. Please reach out to the mods through DM on tumblr, twitter, or Discord DM, and we'll reach out to your recipient to get answers to your questions. If you cannot complete your piece, reach out to a moderator ASAP. If there is a conflict between participants which cannot be resolved or a problem with your assignments or gift, please reach out to a moderator immediately.

Moderators reserve the right to remove/ban any participants at any point for violations of rules or a lack of respectful conduct.

FAQ

Important Dates

• Nominations Open: Saturday, March 12, 2022 at 8pm EST
• Nominations Close: Saturday, March 26, 2022 at 8am EST
• Sign-Ups Open: Saturday, March 26, 2022 at 8pm EST
• Sign-Ups Closed: Saturday, April 9, 2022 at 8pm EST
• Assignments Received: by Monday, April 11, 2022 at 9pm EST
• Works Due: Monday, May 23, 2022 at 8pm EST
• Works Revealed: Monday, May 30, 2022 at 8pm EST
• Creators Revealed: Monday, June 6, 2022 at 8pm EST

1) What do you mean by "a celebration of Elvhen characters"?

Simply put, at least one of the main characters in the work should be an elf from Dragon Age. This could be an original character or an NPC/canon character. Your piece can be from another character's point of view as long as their friendship, relationship, or interaction with the elf character is an important factor. For example, you can write a piece from Anders' point of view about his friendship with Merrill or you can write a ship focused piece from Alistair's POV as long as he's romancing a Surana, Mahariel, Tabris, or other elf. 2) What about elfblooded characters?

For the purpose of the exchange, we'd rather focus on characters which are fully Elvhen, since in canon elfblooded characters take the appearance of the non-elf parent's race. You're welcome to reject canon and headcanon half-elves as having pointed ears, etc, for your piece, but a piece which didn't also have an elf character wouldn't meet the requirements for the exchange. For example, a piece where Alistair romances a Cousland wouldn't be acceptable for the exchange, but one where he romances a Surana would be.

Similarly, unconfirmed headcanons concerning canon characters/NPCs being elfblooded wouldn't qualify a piece for the exchange - i.e. elfblooded Varric or elfblooded Dorian isn't enough for this exchange. 3) How do I participate?

The exchange is being done through AO3. That means you have to have an AO3 account to sign-up or give treats. If you do not have an AO3 account and would like one, the mods have invites available! 4) What are the requirements for the exchange?

All participants who sign-up must create either a fanfic or fanart gift in the allotted time period for their assigned recipient. In exchange, they will receive a fanfic or fanart gift which matches their requests. Gifts do not have to follow a given prompt exactly, but should match the requested ships/characters and avoid the requestors do not wants. For more information on do not wants, please see the Do Not Want FAQ.

Fanfic: Assigned fics should be at least 1000 words. (We do allow shorter treats! More on those below.) There is no maximum word count. Multichapter fics are allowed but must be completed when submitted; you cannot plan to post updates after the exchange has closed. Fics may be included in another series or collection; however, please make sure any fic gifted can stand on its own. Your gift recipient shouldn't have to read your 150,000 word slowburn fic to be able to enjoy their gift! Fanart: completed, clean line art. Color and rendering are not required, but the piece must look finished and whole, with identifiable characters. No WIPs are allowed. Artists, please check out this faq on artist anonymity. All gifts should be allowed to be hosted on AO3. All gifts should comply with the requestor's do not wants. Smut is allowed (nay, encouraged!) as long as it doesn't contain a DNW in the request. All works should be rated and tagged appropriately. You must comment on gifts you receive, with a comment that's at least one complete sentence. Leaving comments can be difficult, so gif responses and memes are okay, but if you use those, please also add a few words to thank your gifter for their hard work!

If you create some other type of fan content (vids, gifs, rotoscopes, etc) and would like to participate, please reach out to the mods via tumblr, twitter, or Discord. We'll make sure that your content can be hosted on AO3, and if so, let you know what your minimum requirements would be for a main gift or if you would need to treat rather than gift a main gift. 5) What are nominations?

Nominations are where you help the mods create the tags you want to see in the event! Because ship tags may or may not exist, can be formatted in so many different ways, restricting the tags you can use to a tag set helps the mods ensure a higher possibility of matching requests with offers. But we have no way of knowing what you want and just slapping "canonical tags" on the exchange would limit us to already existing tags. Using a Nomination process for our tag set allows us to tailor this exchange.

Each account can nominate up to 20 tags for the exchange.

Nominations are not an agreement to participate in the exchange. They're only an indication of "please give me more content for this tag".

Please be sure to follow nomination guidelines carefully. 6) How do I sign up?

Once sign-ups open, start by clicking the Sign-Up Form button to the left or at the top. You must have at least 1 request and 1 offer to sign up, but you may add up to three ship/character tags per request/offer and have up to 10 requests and 10 offers in total.

▸ For Both Requests and Offers: Please use Dragon Age - All Media Types for your fandom, and mark whether you are interested in fanart or fanfic for your main gift. Please also indicate if you are open to treats and what type of treats. ▸ For Offers: In place of offering specific ships/characters, you may also be brave and offer to create for "Any" ship, by clicking the "Any" button.

You can find step-by-step guidelines for sign-ups here.

How to Ensure You Get a Match The easiest way to make sure you get a match is to check the "Any" option for Relationships on Offers in your sign up. The problem with this might be that you aren't comfortable with writing or drawing literally any combination possible. An option that allows you some more control is to keep an eye out on the Requests Spreadsheet that is posted during sign-ups, and offer for a few of the requests that are being made that interest you. You can edit your sign-up after it's submitted up until Sign-Ups close, so be sure to check back frequently.

7) What are Do Not Wants (DNWs)?

Very simply put, it's a list of squicks, triggers, or even just dislikes that you'd rather your gifts and treats not contain. It can be specific ratings, characters, tropes, kinks, themes, etc, particularly ones that aren't banned from the exchange. For example, if you aren't a fan of smut you can list rated e works as a DNW or if you're okay with rated e, but not a fan of works containing pegging, you can simply list pegging.

Since it can be impossible to be exhaustive, a phrase that comes highly recommended is "DNW: kinks other than as requested". This allows you to request specific kinks, and potentially avoid landminds of kinks you're not familiar with. 8) What happens after I sign-up?

Sign-ups close for everyone on Saturday, April 9, 2022 at 8pm EST. The mods will start making matches. If matches are not able to be made, we will reach out to you about potentially editing your requests or offers to help make a match. Please make sure to keep a close eye on your emails or DMs and respond to them ASAP.

When everyone has been matched you will receive an email with your assignment to complete. We hope to have those out (barring any major problems) by Monday, April 11, 2022 at 9pm EST. You can also watch the tumblr and twitter for a post verifying when all matches have been made.

You have from Monday, April 11, 2022 until Monday, May 23, 2022 to create and post your work. To post, click the "fulfill" button on your assignment and post your work as normal. That will automatically associate it with the Exchange without any extra work from you. You can create a dummy post with a placeholder for content, titles, descriptions, etc during this time, but all placeholders MUST make a reasonable effort to be filled by May 23, 2022. That means your content should be in place with tags and description.

You can edit your works from May 23, 2022 until May 30, 2022 at 8pm EST when they are revealed to the public. You can continue adding tags, proofreading your fic, finalizing your title, and updating your description during this time. Between those dates, the mods will check out the works to make sure they are complete and do not contain DNWs to the best of their ability. If there are any issues mods will reach out to you to take action ASAP.

Once works are revealed on May 30, 2022, you may NOT post about your work on another site (revealing it as your own) yet. During this time you can read and comment on works and make rec lists. Creators can respond to comments during this time and will automatically be marked as "Anonymous".

Creators will be revealed one week after work reveals on June 6, 2022 at 8pm. At this time you can post on other sites revealing which work is your own!

The collection will remain open for at least two weeks after creator reveals so that more Treats can be added to the collection. At that time we'll close the collection. 9) But I'm an artist, what about artist signatures?

We encourage artists to create two versions of their art for the exchange. The first one should not contain any identifying watermarks or signatures. You may use a watermark that does not contain your username to help protect your work from art theft.

Once creator reveals occur on June 6, 2022 at 8pm, artists are highly encouraged to swap out their unsigned/marked work for one with their signature. Our tumblr and twitter posts that reveals are complete will include a reminder to do so! 10) What are Treats?

Treats are extra works gifted to participants from people who may or may not have signed up for the exchange. While Treats must meet all other rules and requirements, they have relaxed rules on length and style. Treats should be complete at reveals or (if being added after reveals) when posted.

Fanfic: Treats should be at least 100 words. Yes! You can submit a drabble treat! Fanart: Clean sketches are allowed. You should still be able to tell who the characters are, but finished and polished line art is not required. Other Works: Must be complete, whatever that means for your media, and able to be hosted on AO3. If you have questions about that please contact the mods.

11) I can't complete my assignment. What do I do?

Let a moderator know ASAP, if you don't think you will be able to complete your assignment so that we can find a pinch-hitter. We will work to make sure the offer is fulfilled, either by a volunteer or by a moderator. 12) What's a pinch-hit and who can complete them?

Pinch hits are requests which need someone other than the original assignee to be completed. They can be completed by moderators or anyone from the community with an AO3 account willing to take on the challenge. You do not currently have to be signed-up to the exchange to claim a pinch-hit.

Pinch-hits are posted on the tumblr, twitter, and exchange Discord as moderators are made aware they are needed. Pinch-hit deadlines are established as they are claimed and may fit outside of the other exchange deadlines. 13) There's a problem with my gift/treat!

If your received gift/treat violates a rule of the exchange (including but not limited to violating your DNWs or not having an Elvhen character as a main character), please reach out to a moderator so we can review the situation and decide what action to take. You are always allowed to reject a gift/treat that meets the requirements of the exchange, but isn't quite what you wanted, even if it doesn't violate your DNWs. Before you do so, we encourage you to reach out to a moderator so we can review things.

Works for the exchange will not be revealed until everyone who signed up has a gift!