Okay, this has been a long time in announcing, sorry for the delay, especially for those who may have read about it in the IC Info forum, and were confused.

Rialt and I have decided that the way we originally planned on raising new members to the Red Shen was too complicated, and we have simplified it, hopefully this will benefit everyone, both IC and OOC. Traditionally, in the White Tower, it was unacceptable for Accepted to publicly announce their plans for Ajah before their raising, and this new system, while not returning to that, does not so blatantly disregard that tradition.

The rule about Accepted/Dedicated not choosing their Ajah/Shen will be bent, that way Red Shen members would know that they had second tier initiates who were interested in their Shen. The Accepted and Dedicated don't announce "We're going Red" in such a way, since that almost makes the second tier pointless for future Reds. Instead, they will train together, and council with the Reds, but not make an "official" statement.

They will also no longer have to do any testing together. From an OOC standpoint, that would have been difficult, tedious, and probably confusing. Instead, they will be tested separately, but very close together in time, and when both are accepted into the Red Shen, the Reds themselves will administer some sort of initiation or test to see how well they work together and trusts each other, since it's more Shen business than anything else. The extra Oath will also still be sworn when partners are made official.

I understand that might not make any sense, please ask questions if you have them. :)

Just curious, but what happens to potential Red partners if they fail the testing set by the Shen after they are formally raised? Are they just forced to pick another Ajah/Shen?

If they choose, they can still choose the Red Shen, but special arrangements would be made for a Red without a partner. We haven't really considered what those arrangements would be though. :look