Freshly created characters begin their life at Newborn level. They are born into one of the four cities and proceed through a series of hand-held (though increasingly independence-encouraging) stages: registration, academy novicehood, school courses, the guild search, guild apprenticeship, 'littlewho' status and then finally a fully-fledged guildmember, holder of a profession and mature character. By this final stage the individual is subject to all the dangers and unregulated unpredictable interactions that make-up the diverse life of an Avalonian. It is the duty of the city and the guild to guide a youngster through these earlier stages, to ensure as many as possible complete the journey from newborn to maturity... and, upon reaching the latter, are equipped (in knowledge and inventory and skills) to deal with the challenges ahead.
The Ministry of Public Relations (see HELP RELATIONS) is the city's frontline organisation for nurturing the newborn through these early stages in his/her Avalon career. Guilds, of course, have their own independent structures but since guild choice is voluntary, birth-city is a determined when a character is created. This requires a determination to be made, during a newborn's creation process, as to which of the great cities the individual will be born into. In an ideal world all four cities would share one quarter of the newborns between them. In reality, this is sometimes not the case. The state of a city's public relations ministry has a direct impact on the number of newborns. Although a public relations ministry does not need to be enormously populous it must retain a certain level of activity for the city to retain its full quarter share of newborns.
If the Minister for Public Relations goes dormant the number of newborns is reduced to 20% and then for each subsequent Avalon year, a further 5% goes elsewhere until - after four Avalon years - there are no more newborns in a city. That negligence leads to a permanent cessation of novices requiring divine intervention to recommence. If the Minister for Public Relations is absent from the land for a week, there will need to be sufficient aides to cover.
A city must reach certain thresholds for having aides (or minister) for public relations active in the land to gain its newborns. Falling below these thresholds will result in the novice being 'born' elsewhere. This effect is a short-term penalty and is immediately redressed by a modicum of activity helping the young. The dormancy of the Minister, however, should be taken extremely seriously and if ever your own city undergoes the permanent newborn reduction (or complete cessation) the leaders of the city will be required to act. An active Public Relations minister will need to be found, a ministry of aides rebuilt and then a suit placed before the pantheon to regain the privilege of new characters born once more, to repopulate the city's barren academies and empty schools.
