IMPORTANT Announcement about Cameos (Patreon)

Hello friends! Ari here. It’s time we talk about cameos as we move into February!

As many of you know, cameos have been an important aspect of Tamberlane’s history. From the beginning, Caytlin offered the opportunity to higher-tiered patrons to have their character integrated, whether visually or as a full-on character, into the world of Tamberlane. This was a great way to not only bring the community closer, but to enrich the story with your wonderful characters and designs.

Up until now, the main way cameos worked has been that a patron of a certain tier or above would have the opportunity to add an original character to Tamberlane. The design and specific characterization would undergo changes needed to fit the role and universe properly, and then the character would wait in stasis for their day to appear. The longer a patron pledged for, the more pages the character would be guaranteed. Guaranteed pages were always a minimum; either your character would grow big enough to go far beyond the promised pages, or they would at the very least fulfill their purpose in the story with the minimum amount of pages you were owed. It has always depended on the way the story and characters have developed.

As we move into the second part of the Tamberlane Saga (sounds so BIG when we put it that way) one of the main steps Caytlin and I have done as co-writers is figure out the long-term plans for the comic. While Tamberlane has many slice-of-life elements, there has always been a long-term story waiting to be told. And stories can only go on for so long, and include so many characters, before they become a hodge-podge of half-baked ideas, unable to be developed. Too many cooks and all that.

As a result, Caytlin and I made two major steps: we went through every single cameo we currently have outstanding and planned out their roles in the story, ensuring that each is honored to the best of our ability in terms of patron’s wishes, and with ALL of them guaranteed to appear in AT LEAST as many pages as they have accrued.

With that being said, we are formally retiring both page accrual and the traditional cameo system as of February 2023.

As we’ve said, we love the chance to bring new characters into the world, but it was fast becoming apparent that the system would be untenable before long; if we keep adding more and more and more characters, making sure each isn’t just a random one-off meaningless appearance, than not only would those cameos suffer as a result, but the characters we already have established in the story would as well.

So, what will the new system look like? What do people at these pledge levels receive, and what happens to cameos that are outstanding? What if you were to unpledge?

Well, first off, we have received concerns that people’s promised character cameos might not be honored. No story aspects have been changed by this decision. Your characters will appear, regardless of your further patron status. We have a spreadsheet with every page you are owed, and we will continue to honor it. While we can’t always give specifics about when characters will appear, we can certainly give ballpark estimates, so if you individually have concerns or questions about your cameos, don’t hesitate to contact us.

In addition, Caytlin has put together a finalized Cameo form, in case you'd like to add more detail on your previous submission -- or perhaps you forgot to submit at all. (There are some of you who have not submitted yet!) Please note you cannot change your character, but you are welcome to provide details!

In the future, there will certainly be times when crowd scenes are necessary with new faces. In those situations, Caytlin will always favor current patrons when looking for designs. There will certainly still be opportunities to appear in the world of Tamberlane moving forward, but in terms of our new system, Patreon will not be the route through which cameos will be given.

For situations with one-and-done roles that are necessary, Caytlin plans to offer those on her Ko-Fi. When those opportunities arise, higher tier patrons will be the first to know. These are not likely to be common, but when they do happen, you’ll be made aware of it.

The world of Tamberlane is vast, and there are endless stories to tell in this universe. We love to see the creativity the community brings and the ways they integrate their characters into the world. For the specific story we are telling in Silver Sage, we have had to make this change, but we are confident that current cameo patrons will be satisfied with their character’s appearances in the future. We cannot wait to share with you the exciting places this story will be going as we move into Chapter 5 and far, far beyond.

Thank you all so much for your continued support! We deeply appreciate your patience during this period of adjustments and changes.

Always,

The Tamberteam