[Click here for our Ko-Fi!]

Quiet lately, huh?

---

... A little too quiet. As the saying goes, there's no rest for the weary, and something big is brewing behind the scenes...

Ambitious projects, however, come with ambitious goals - projects like new and interactive maps, fresh regional art, coding updates, site features… and while staff regularly funds much of the site maintenance and upgrades behind the scenes, we may need a little help with things going forward! As a result, we're re-opening our community fundraiser via Ko-Fi.

Donations are completely optional, of course, but every contribution helps us move forward with requested features, site improvements, and keeping this place going!

We also have a tiered rewards system to offer incentives - with thresholds of $20, $50, $100, and $150 minimum donations to hit each one. Details of these tiers are outlined below!

More than anything, thank you for supporting Vivarium and helping us continue to grow and improve! Whether it's through words of encouragement, donations, or simply continuing to write here, you ARE supporting us. You guys are the beating heart of this place, and we can't express enough gratitude for the privilege of having you here with us - watching your stories unfold over the last few years has been a true joy.

---

Click here for our Ko-Fi!

---

Donation reward tiers

- Tier 1, The Copper Quill- $20 minimum:

•  Special badge icon for your OOC account (The Copper Quill)
•  Glowing heirloom/item of your choosing for 1 character (within site guidelines)

---

- Tier 2, The Argent Quill - $50 minimum:

• Special badge icon for your OOC account
• Glowing heirloom/item of your choosing for 1 character (within site guidelines)
• Breeding/tree cooldown removal (1 time for 1 character)
• Discount on any 1 Skill for 1 character (-5 fewer points to earn)

---

- Tier 3, The Gilded Quill - $100 minimum:

•  Special badge icon for your OOC account
•  Glowing heirloom/item of your choosing for 1 character (within site guidelines)
•  Breeding/tree cooldown removal (1 time for 1 character)
•  Discount on pack formation (1 less territory thread required; cannot be applied toward recruitment threads)
•  Discount on any 1 Skill for 1 character (-5 fewer points to earn)
•  Mark of Mythris (for 1 character of your choosing)

---

- Tier 4, The Quill of Mythris - $150 minimum:

•  Special badge icon for your OOC account
•  Glowing heirloom/item of your choosing for 1 character (within site guidelines)
•  Breeding/tree cooldown removal (1 time for 1 character)
•  Discount on any 2 Skills for 2 characters (-5 fewer points to earn; you can choose to apply both Skill discounts to 1 character instead)
•  Discount on pack formation (2 fewer territory threads required; cannot be applied toward recruitment threads)
•  Mark of Mythris (for 2 characters of your choosing)
•  One-time age change for 1 character of your choosing without breeding penalty (increase or decrease by 1 year)
•  Choose one of your upcoming Leader characters to remain at the standard 60-post requirement for formation, regardless of your current total number of Leaders (note: all other Leaders will follow the normal increased post requirements)

---

We'll be keeping an eye on the Ko-Fi regularly, but please send Karleesi a DM either here or on the Discord when you donate with your name, how much you donated, and what tier you qualify for - including information as to which of your characters you'd like your rewards to apply to!

If undecided or not yet ready to turn in a specific reward, make sure you say so as we'll keep a log of what has and hasn't been redeemed for each person.

Note: Rewards CAN be reapplied each time if someone chooses to donate again at that specific tier.

---

Where it's going

For the sake of transparency, and because I know I like to have an idea of what I'm contributing towards, we've provided a thorough breakdown of our recurring & intermittent expenses for the site!

CLICK HERE

---

Recurring flat expenses:

---

• Inkarnate (map subscription) - $63.99 per year

• A2 subscription (website host) - $893.85 three-year bundle, equals $297.95 per year broken down

• FlatIcon (pack icons, weather icons, etc) - $12.99/month

• FontAwesome (profile codes, etc) - $120/year

Assuming no work from CJ and no new skill badges from Nopeita, our base yearly cost to run the site is $637.82 a year.

---

Upcoming and/or less frequent expenses:

---

• New regional art (to go with our upcoming updates) - $220/each (we've hired an AMAZING artist, trust us on this one!)

• CJ (coding, updates) - $30/hour
- 42.59 hours logged + paid (total balance $1,277.70)

• Nopeita art (skill badges) - $8-$9/each

Again, it must be stressed, donations are purely optional and even if no one chooses to donate, the site will continue to function as normal and we'll continue adding updates and improvements as time and funds allow us. The staff team loves this place, after all!

The added ability for our members to donate is simply a way for the community to help facilitate future improvements, desired features, and shiny new bells and whistles while also supporting the site's general upkeep and maintenance.

---

---