Compared to many other games, especially those were players always create their own characters from scratch, players have somewhat less control over their characters on Blood of Dragons.
The key reason for this is continuity. Because of the CDB, characters never really disappear. What they are like, what they have done and so on becomes permanent parts of the game. If a player leaves a character that they have CGed, that character may very well end up being played by someone else. This is true both for characters created by the Admin and for original characters added to the CDB by players. To enable this continuous reuse of all characters, players are expected to keep their characters up to date. This includes, for example, adding significant Events and Relations.
Players who fail to keep their characters up to date may be warned by Staff, and if they still do not work to meet these requirements, they may have their approval to play a certain character revoked. Staff can also choose to revoke approval in instances of irresolvable conflict with the current player or if the current player has been logging in extremely infrequently despite repeated warnings. This is more likely to happen the more important the character is to the on-going roleplay on the game.
The importance of the character is a key factor in determining the level of involvement that Staff may have with how it is played. The more important a character is, the more interest Staff will have in what is done with the character. Examples include Lords, heirs and members of Great Houses as well as certain other Restricted, Limited and Elite characters. But all players, regardless of the type of the character that they are playing, are encouraged to keep Staff aware of significant developments with their characters. Its better to give Staff too much information than too little or to ask too many rather than too few questions.
Character death is another matter that is handled differently. If a player knows they are leaving the game, killing their character off is not an acceptable approach to accomplishing closure for the character or to keep it from being recast. If a player wishes to kill off their character, for example as part of a plot, they should first obtain permission from the Admin to do so by submitting (see +HELP JOBS) a proposal regarding the matter. In most cases, Staff have no issue with characters being killed off, death is very much a part of the setting, but this limitation exists so that it cannot be used to remove a character from play for OOC reasons.
Betrothals and marriages should also be proposed to Staff (see +HELP JOBS) before any significant steps are taken ICly. In most cases such proposals will be approved, but lords, heirs (especially to Great Houses) and members of Great Houses need to be aware that Staff do exercise more control over the alliances made with such characters and may even wish to arrange specific matches. For the most part this policy is there to maintain authenticity and bring to the attention of Staff any such unions which may prove unthematic (for example, the Lord of Highgarden marrying a commoner), but in terms of more important characters it may also play into specific ideas Staff have for the development of the game.
From time to time, Staff may inform the players of certain characters of events that are expected to happen within the next few months. Players may, for example, be asked to arrange a marriage for certain characters. This is done in order to nudge the storyline of the game in specific directions.