Event Submissions and More!

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Shorah and happy weekend!

Mysterium is approaching quickly and we have a couple of quick announcements. 

Event Submissions Last Call

Event submissions are closing on April 29th at midnight, so if you have a presentation idea you’d like to share, please send that in! The morning of the 30th we will lock submissions and begin to finalize the schedule. If you have an event you’d like to submit, please check out the Event Submissions page.

Table Submissions Still Open

We still have openings for The Table (writing and art table) submissions! A perfect opportunity to show off your work without having to stand up in front of everyone. Please check out The Table submissions page for more information.

COVID Policy Update

As of April 18th, the FDA has simplified the COVID vaccination. Initial doses of the vaccine will no longer be available and US attendees will be considered fully vaccinated if they have received a bivalent dose as long as it was between the dates of September 2, 2022 and June 23, 2023. For more information, please check out the FDA announcement as well as our COVID Policy page.
Note: this change only applies to attendees from the United States. Attendees from abroad should follow the existing policy.

Another note: If you’ve already registered, you may receive an email from our registration system with the updated policy.

March Creative Prompt Winner

And last but not least, March’s “Idle Hands” prompt! We had a lot of great submissions, but Kefrith’s Gemedet set took the cake.

We’ve got a lot of great stuff in the works so please stay tuned!

Much love,
– Kelly “Rayne” & Drea “m13”
Mysterium Co-chairs

Mid-March Update

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Shorah!
Things are moving along very nicely on our end, and we have a couple of things we wanted to share with you real quick.

Early Bird Registration Closing Soon!

Just a reminder that early bird registration and shirt orders close at the end of March.
Starting April 1st:
– Other swag items may still be purchased until June 3rd.
– Regular registration will be open until June 16th. Regular registration is slightly more expensive, so if you’re on the fence about coming to Mysterium, now’s the time!
Head on over to the registration page to get started!

February’s Prompt Winner

We had some great submissions for February’s “Heart” prompt!
“Shadow” Dan submitted a fantastic Exile/Undertale crossover with pixel art by Kevin F. “Kefrith” Smith.

March’s prompt is “Idle hands” and submissions are still open for that one! Head on over to the “prompt-submissions” channel on our discord server if you have something you’d like to share!
That’s all for today. Have a spectacular weekend!

Kelly “Rayne” & Drea “m13”
Mysterium Co-chairs

Pins and Buttons, Oh My!

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Shorah!

The snow is melting, and we have some swag announcements to share with you!

Enamel Pins

We got a lot of fantastic pin submissions this year! We chose four designs to have available at Mysterium.

We all began this journey with the fissure! The Fissure design is by Katherine “Squeefruit” White. You can see her work here: https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Myst.

The Black Ships design is by Kelly “Rayne” Coston. Her website can be found here: Geek Girl Stuff

The Scarab design is by redwoodrroad. You can visit his website at https://redwoodrroad.tumblr.com/.

And the Clockwork Adjunct design is by Avior. You can see their other work at: https://twitter.com/avior_dev.

Buttons

We’re rolling out some brand-new swag items this year! One of them is 1.25” buttons, featuring art submitted by Neil Darbyshire and Kefrith. The buttons will be sold as a set.

The dome design was submitted by Kevin F. “Kefrith” Smith. His website may be found here: http://facebook.com/KefrithMyst.

The Miller Brothers and Scarab designs were submitted by Neil Darbyshire. His website may be found here: https://www.instagram.com/robaku.and.bear/.

The pins and buttons are now available for pre-orders in our registration system. If you have already registered, you can log in to your account and add these items to your cart for purchase. We will have a limited number of both sets available at the swag table at Mysterium.

Social Buttons

Speaking of buttons! We will have social buttons available for attendees, staff, and guests again this year!

Social Buttons

These darling little buttons measure 1.25” and the purpose of these is pretty straightforward. Wearing a green “yes” button implies that you are comfortable with people approaching you and engaging in conversation. A yellow “ask” button implies that you would prefer people to ask before engaging in conversation. And a red “no” button implies simply that you would like some space and to be left alone.

These buttons will be available at the registration desk at no cost. Just come up, snag one, and feel free to wear it on your badge, lanyard, or shirt. These are completely optional, just a nice easy way to communicate comfort level.

We do ask that everyone please be respectful with these. We also ask that the buttons be returned at the end of Mysterium so that we can sanitize and use them again next year. 

Stay warm, folks! We’ve got more announcements coming soon!

– Kelly “Rayne” Coston & Drea “m13”
Mysterium co-chairs

Mid-February News

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Shorah everyone!
We have a couple of quick things we want to share with you.

Writing and Art Table Submissions

We’re thrilled to announce the return of the Table and submissions are now open! Spearheaded by our very own Annacat, the Table is an opportunity for folks to submit their fan work for display. Head over to the Submissions page for more information!

January Creative Prompt Winner

The Discord community has spoken! For “beginnings”, this piece was submitted by Grayson aka redwoodrroad.

February’s theme is “Heart” and submissions are still open until February 28th! Head over to our Discord server if you have a piece you would like to submit.

Covid-19 Updated Policy

We’ve modified the wording a bit to clarify what to expect during the Cyan visit on Saturday. The policy now states:

Importantly, a modified policy will be in effect for the Cyan visit on Saturday. We cannot guarantee that special guests and Cyan staff will be masked or vaccinated. We’re looking into the feasibility of streaming content from the Cyan visit for anyone who cannot attend. If you have questions about Cyan’s covid policy, please feel free to reach out to Jeff Lanctot at jeff@cyan.com.

Please note that Mysterium’s Covid-19 policy remains unchanged. Please feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions!

That’s all for now. We’ve got more goodies to announce soon!

-Kelly “Rayne” & Drea “m13”
Mysterium Co-chairs

Updates & Musical Chairs

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Hello everyone!

We have some updates, some reminders, and one important piece of news. So let’s jump right in.

Covid Policy Update

We have added an FAQ to our Covid Policy page, to help clarify items in the written policy. In particular, we are now specific in the FAQ about how we will be verifying bivalent vaccines. Be sure to check it out if you aren’t sure if your last booster was a bivalent dose.

We have also updated the paragraph regarding the modified Covid policy while at Cyan HQ on Saturday. The new paragraph reads:

“Importantly, a modified policy will be in effect for the Cyan visit on Saturday. In particular, special guests and Cyan staff may remove their masks while presenting or taking part in a panel. We also cannot guarantee that all special guests and Cyan staff will be vaccinated. The normal policy as outlined below still applies to all regular attendees while at Cyan’s headquarters. We will do our best to stream as much as possible of the Cyan visit for anyone who cannot attend.”

Finally, we have been asked if we will be dropping our Covid policy given that the Federal government will be ending their Public Health Emergency on May 11th. The answer is: No, we will not be dropping our policy. We are a private event, and the end of the Public Health Emergency has no bearing on us or our policies.

Reminders

If you haven’t done so yet, be sure to go register! If you have registered, you may be interested to know that we’ve added an art print of our 2023 shirt logo to the swag shop. If you’d like one, you can log back into your registration account and add one on to your order.

Don’t forget that submissions for events and pin designs are still open, but act fast! Pin designs close in just over a week (February 12th)!

Also, in case you missed it in the excitement of reg opening last week, we have an accessibility survey open right now. If you have a couple minutes, we’d love to hear your thoughts on making Mysterium as accessible as possible. You can find the survey here.

Musical Chairs

Last, we want to let you know about a change in leadership for Mysterium 2023. Here’s a message from outgoing co-chair Taniith with the details:

Shorah friends. With great regret, I want to let you all know that I’m stepping down as co-chair of Mysterium 2023. I will also be winding down most of my involvement with Mysterium over the next year or so. Andrea Mountain (aka M13) will be stepping up to take my place alongside Kelly. Without going into great detail, I have a lot going on in my personal life, and I can’t devote the time and energy to Mysterium that I used to.

I have 100% confidence that Kelly, Drea, and the rest of the Mysterium team will put on an amazing con for all of you. I know they have some wonderful (and in some cases devious) things planned. You definitely don’t want to miss out!

It’s been a heck of a ride helping to run Mysterium since I joined the Committee in 2011. I hope to one day be able to attend again. You are all part of my extended Myst family, and I’ll miss hanging out with all of you. Until then, though, you can find me on Discord and all the usual places.

Stay safe out there!

-Taniith

No pressure or anything, right?

Thank you, Taniith, for your years of service and your guidance during this transition. We have a great team, and we will do our utmost to put on one heck of a show to celebrate 30 years of Myst!

-Kelly, Drea, and the Mysterium team