"Terms of service (also known as terms of use and terms and conditions, commonly abbreviated as TOS or ToS and ToU) are rules by which one must agree to abide in order to use a service." -  Wikipedia

In the following, species rules only apply to species that are marked as 'Original Species' on this site. 'Generic Species' do not fall under many of these rules as they are just my take on existing creatures.

Official Design Rules

Adopt/Design/species TOS by Cylunny. May apply to CYL and GA designs, if the GA chooses to link these terms. If the Artist has Terms listed on their profile/designs, the artist's terms always take priority over the below rules!

GENERAL

• You may NOT create a character of a Realms Away Original Species without owning a Make Your Own (MYO) slot, or create characters and claim they are part of the Original Species without permission.
• You may NOT use these species concepts/lore outside of Realms Away. You MAY of course create your own lore around dragons/faun/naga and all the other Generic Species.
• Realms Away's Original Species and concepts are Cylunny's intellectual property.
• All designs are a digital good and do not require shipping. You receive a .png or .jpg file of the adopt.
• The artist can refuse to sell you an adopt for any reason. They do not have to tell you the reason (Fortunately, this has never needed to be used, yet).
• If you want to adopt a design on Realms Away, you need to speak fluent english to avoid misunderstandings.

PAYMENT

• Do not send payment unless the artist specifically told you to.
• Payment is through paypal only, unless the artist specifies otherwise. Sales posts always note down which form of payment is accepted.
• In case of paypal, you will be given a paypal address to send payment to via Goods & Services.
• Payment on pre-made adoptables will have to be made within 24h-48h unless discussed otherwise with the artist. 
• Payment on custom adopts will be made after the custom is finished, unless discussed otherwise.

REFUNDS

• We don't offer refunds on finished, pre-made adoptables. You see what you get, so be sure of it before you buy.
• In case of a full custom adoptable, the artist may provide sketches and wips if asked to. We will do our best to match your wishes.
  
  • If discussed, you may receive a refund on sketch stage, but the finished design will then be sold on Realms Away as a regular adopt.

CREDIT

• You must credit the artist as the creator and/or designer of a design, without fail.
• Creator credit for any Original Species on Realms Away goes to Cylunny. A little note / mention would be nice, but generally, just don't claim the Original Species as your own.
• Please do not put Cylunny as creator of a design/character unless I designed it (my toyhou.se is so flooded xD)

THE BUYER - YOU

• Must always provide proper design credit to the artist, according to the above rules.
• May not claim the design/Original species as their own.
• May not trace/copy/steal/redistribute designs.
• May use the design in a private setting. No commercial use is allowed, unless discussed otherwise. You may not profit off of our art.
• May never remove an artist's signature.
• May not upload/repost the design they receive to Gallery-style art websites like deviantArt, Furaffinity, etc. without the artist's permission.
• May upload the design to toyhouse and the likes, with proper credit given to the artist (a link back to deviantArt or toyhouse account).
• May use the art as profile picture / icon / decoration as long as you do not claim it as your own art.
• Receives a .jpg or .png file of the finished commission. No .sai or .psd files!

THE ARTIST - US

• We hold all the rights to our artwork and the intellectual rights to the design.
• Cylunny holds creator credit for any Original species, as explained above.

TRADING/SELLING/GIFTING

• You are responsible for trading responsibly. If your receive a design on Realms Away or toyhou.se, make sure that there is proof of ownership from the other party.
• The masterlists on here will track ownership, but this cannot always be up to date for designs that are 5+ years old.
• Gifts cannot be resold or retraded without discussing it with the artist.
• Purchased adopts may be sold or traded.
• You cannot sell any design for more than you spent on it (eg. bought for 30 USD with no extra art, trying to sell for 50USD).
• Art can count towards a higher value (even your own), but stay reasonable.
• Vouchers are fine but value wise follow the above rules. You are responsible for your trades/sales.

EDITING

• You may edit your own designs however you see fit at all times.
• Small details on characters you did not design may be changed and are likely to be approved without issues. 
  
  • you may pick and change gender.
  • design new outfits / change makeup / hairstyle
  • do small marking changes, smaller singular changes in general
  • adding/removing traits
• Big edits on characters you didn't design should only be done if the original creator/designers terms specifically allow it. Ask if you are unsure!
  • Cylunny designs generally do not allow big edits.
  • Big edits include: changing species, changing the whole color palette/skin color, changing hair style, hair color and eye color at the same time...
  • In general, our view is that the character should stay recognizeable as the same one you obtained at all times! If you want to turn a character into what would essentially be just a new character with a new design, we would prefer you use a MYO slot instead to respect the original artist's creation.
• If your character has an irregular trait and you wish to update the design, you will be expected to make the appropriate edits for the irregularity to be removed.
• If you want to fully remove a design from the website, please send in a claim/DM so it can be voided from the masterlist. Note: this is not possible for Cylunny or GA designs.

AU DESIGNS

• You may create AU designs / alternate species designs of your character.
• IF you do, they MUST be traded/sold/gifted as ONE design.
• Make sure the other species's rules are also respected before you do it

MYO Design Rules

Please Note: For ease of uploading designs to this site, all character uploads go through MYO slots, even if they are not a Original species. This helps to keep work load managable, as well as giving players something to work towards as they play through lore related events to unlock new species, like in some MMOs! It also makes sure that we at least get to keep the masterlist clear of rule breaking content without it needing to be reported by a user.

MYO RULES

• You may never post an unnapproved MYO design of a Original species for the public to see, unless you use the specific WIP/Art channel on discord. 
• Approved MYOs are automatically posted to the masterlist with proper credit to the designers/artists.
• MYOs must be sent in for approval using the sites features (see note above as to why).

DESIGN GUIDELINES

• MYOs need to feature at least a clothed fullbody of your design.  Human MYOs do not have to follow these specifics as their fullbody will be assumed to be human. 
• They must be fully colored but do not need to be shaded. 
• AI Generated designs or maker designs (picrew, etc) are not accepted. The exception would be a maker officially hosted by Realms Away,
• Please refrain from using existing brand imagery/logos, as earth does not exist as a setting for Realms Away. You can make up fake brands though!
• Sometimes, an ankle/calf up can be acceptable if the rest of the design can clearly be made out.
• You can choose to upload transparent images or non-transparent images, but beware that backgrounds only work on transparent character images.
• Other than that, just try to follow the species guides and you should be good!

CHANGING SPECIES OR SUBTYPE

• Free human MYOs cannot be species or subtype changed!
• To change a character's species you will need a species modifier item, and  to change a subtype you will need a subtype modifier item. When attaching them to a design update request, they should allow you to edit the respective field. They can be bought from the Reflection's Crossroad.
• Once per user, you are granted a special free species modifier. It is also included in the shop above!
• The design of the changed character must reflect the new species and subtype as per the respective species guide.
• If it's not your own design, you are required to check the artist's TOS and respect their rules on edits before doing this.

REVOKING & REMOVING CHARACTERS

• If you want to remove a character from Realms Away, feel free to send in a claim or DM in which you link the character it concerns.
• A mod will turn the design invisible to all users and add a note that they have been revoked and are no longer usable for the Realms Away ARPG - unless it is an official design by Cylunny - they will stay visible for masterlist consistency.
• If you remove a character in such a way, the MYO slot initially used for its creation will not be refunded to you. You will need to contact mods if you want  to reverse this decision. We will allow one such reinstation of a previously revoked MYO.