The Imaginary Historians Society

What is the Imaginary Historians Society?

IHS is an imagined world accessed solely through secondary sources, in the form of its historical apparatus. Participants contribute to the history through the writings and careers of character historians and scholars.

The central feature of the Imaginary Historians Society is the Journal, in which are published articles written by the scholars. Additionally, there are departmental memoranda, an archive, and a library.

How does a character become a member of the Imaginary Historians Society?

To become a member of The Imaginary Historians Society a character must submit a thesis which meets the following criteria:

• At least 2000 words
• Scholarly in tone and affect
• Well researched, citing established texts
• Contributing new knowledge to the field
• Not plagiarized or copied from any source
• Not written by or with the aid of generative artificial intelligence
• Not previously submitted to The Imaginary Historians Society

Submitted theses will be reviewed by an admissions committee of three. Each committee member shall make an evaluation which will be one of three possibilities:

• ACCEPT
• REJECT
• REQUEST REVISION

If all three members of the committee ACCEPT the thesis, the character is a member of the Imaginary Historians Society as a Student Associate, and granted all the rights and privileges thereof. If any one of the committee members REJECT a thesis, the thesis is not accepted and the character must submit another one. If one or more committee members REQUEST REVISION of a thesis, supplying suggestions and notes, the character may revise and resubmit. Revised theses will be re-evaluated by each committee member with one of the following:

• ACCEPT AFTER REVISION
• REJECT
• REQUEST FURTHER REVISION

Email Etiquette

All messages to the mailing list should be sent as a character, using brackets at the beginning of the subject line to indicate which character is sending the message (e.g. [Arvin Bolouti]). If you absolutely positively must send a message out of character, use [OOC]. Generally, the only messages non-member characters should send are those regarding submitting a thesis.

Participants cannot assume the role of other participants' characters without permission. It is likewise bad form to reference works supposedly written by participant-controlled characters which the controlling participant had not previously established.