Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives.
GMs: @Altered Tundra and @Dirty Pretty Lies
The Sands of Timeis a Roleplay set in the fictional town of Salem, Illinois (as seen in the American Soap Opera, Days of Our Lives). In centers around the core families as they go through the trials and tribulations of love and business (with the occasional dose of war). Much like the show, this rp will rely heavily on character interactions and the emphasis on family. It is, above everything else, a family roleplay. You [the player] will be choosing from the five families of Salem: The Bradys, the Irish-American catholic family, the Hortons, the Anglo-Saxon Christian family, the Castillo's, the Mexican-American family (also Catholic), the Russian-immigrated, Islamic family, The Zimas, and the African-American family, The Carvers (Catholics). There will be roles for you to apply from. For more information regarding that, I direct you to the rules. As for everything else, it will be explained properly in the appropriate sections.
Salem wasn't always a lively community with so many families who've engraved their legacy into its history. Believe it or not, it, like so many towns that have a lot of history, had humble beginnings. Just a five decades after the United States of America became an independent country of the British, Salem nothing more than trees sitting on rich soil and home to a lake that connected itself to the great lakes. Resting on the lake was a simple dock and an island.
Following the migration of a few tribes of Native Americans came Irish-Canadian immigrants who found themselves on a collection of a few fishing boats. They were looking for land to call their own and with the tribes, they forged a small community that had found its start as the town of Salem, Illinois, just fifty miles south of Chicago. Large enough to still be considered its own, small town, but still small enough to remain as close-knit as the original intent was. This group of Irish settlers were known as the family of Brady.
Over the years, Salem experienced an increase of its entire population. It expanded further around almost to the point where it began to evolve and progress like the larger cities around it did. Being just an hour out from one of the largest cities, Salem benefitted from getting jobs and more importantly, its name, out there. the more it made a name for itself, the more Salem saw its economy boom. By the time the Industrial Revolution had reached the midwest, Salem hit a peak. when the town had started evolve and become a city, it brought in more families; and with those families, came their businesses.
Before anyone realized, Salem was not only the home to the Brady family and various tribes of Native Americans, but families from all walks of life began to make Salem their permanent place of residence. These families represented various cultures, be it Africans from North and South Africa, various pacific island countries, the subcontinent of India, and even the larger Asiatic countries like China, Korea, and Japan. It only took 50 years into the 1900s, but Salem soon became a beacon for large corporations, worldwide business ties, and very profitable, albeit sometimes morally questionable, exchanges with third parties. That being said, Salem has always served as a town that housed both honest-earning families as well as those of organized crime origins.
And the perfect example of this is when rumored-cartel-run family out of Mexico City, Mexico, the Castillo family, led by Emilio Castillo, had found itself establishing its dominance in Salem as one of its wealthiest residents. Almost immediately after arriving sometime during the 1980s, the Castro family asserted itself in most major business practices in Salem. They brought more jobs to the city and had made it profitable, but one thing to note is the crime rate and the amount of drugs that began to surface in Salem skyrocketed in a matter of just a few months. As it was to be expected, this caused strife with the community and the Salem Police Department as that tried to figure out who was behind it and how they were going to pinpoint the cause. Eventually, they did find the source, but that didn't do much because most of the department seemed to be in the Castro's pocket.
And this ushered in a dark, dangerous age for Salem full of Godfather and Scarface-inspired levels of wars between the SPD and the Castro Crime Family. In the total time of twenty years, over one-hundred lives had been lost, not only driving a wedge between investors that once held pride in how Salem was as a city, but fortifying the tensions with the community and how corrupt the police department was. It wasn't all corrupt, but enough to not really do any good. Not even statewide law enforcement, who had joined with the SPD in task forces to help contain the problem that was the Castros. the closest any of them had gotten was getting some low level members of the family in Statesville, but that still didn't usher in any real change.
In the year of 2003, the tides changed for the better. During this time, another shady family had made its way into Salem. this family was equally, if not more, questionable like the Castillo family was. They operated under ambiguous business practices and brought equal amount of mystery, but the one thing that did benefit the city as a whole was that, when this family - the Zimas of Moscow, led by business tycoon, Dimitri Zima - kept the Castros at bay, it allowed law enforcement to focus their efforts on building their case with rock-solid evidence against the Castros. Even if the Zima family had proved to be equally as challenging, their unique business practices was a breath of fresh air. Besides, they made it their mission to act as a safeguard for the town of Salem and help out the local law enforcement. This was, if nothing else, a unique arrangement. They not only provided the goods on the family who opposed them, through independent contractors, the Zima's were able to provide more than enough manpower to combat the rising quantity of Castillo henchmen.
And with a good word from the Governor, who was doubtless in Dimitri's pocket, allowed the family to lend a hand in the matter. no matter how many select cops who weren't in the Castro's pocket didn't like it, they all saw it as the lesser of two evils. Within just weeks, the head of the Castro Crime family, Emilio Castillo, was brought in while at his own pool, and had been charged with over 100 counts of drug trafficking, bribery, conspiracy to commit murder, and other charges on a 5-page list of first-degree charges, with several other ranging from second to third.
Things have been relatively quiet since Elimio was put into prison. After five years of remaining in Salem Penitentiary and several stalling tactics from his nephew, Sergio, a highly esteemed lawyer from Mexico City, the judge overseeing his case finally decided enough was enough and the trial date was set. After months of back-and-forth from the prosecution and the defense, character witnesses, experts testifying to the credibility of the evidence, and various witnesses coming and going, the jury came back with a verdict after a full month of deliberating. In the case of the State of Illinois v. Emilio Castillo, he was found guilty on 10 counts of bribery and drug trafficking, set to serve 10 months per count, estimated eight years and three months. As for the murder charges, due to a distinct lack of evidence, they, the jury of Emilio’s peers, were unable to conclude that the prosecution had sufficient evidence to make their case. And because of double jeopardy, they couldn’t retry Elimio for the same murders.
Come 2016, after serving the entirety of his sentence, Emilio was released from Salem Penitentiary on the conditions that he remains on house arrest for an additional five years with a hearing set for 2021 that will reevaluate his conditions of an appeal to get taken off house arrest.
Outside the Castillo family drama, there was a distinct lack of excitement for the other families. Unless they were directly involved in the case of Emilio Castillo, their lives would go on as they usually did: the adults living their lives as only they knew how, the teens going to school and aiming to get good grades so they could graduate to attend college when they come of age, and the parents doing their best to make enough to support their families.
Following the migration of a few tribes of Native Americans came Irish-Canadian immigrants who found themselves on a collection of a few fishing boats. They were looking for land to call their own and with the tribes, they forged a small community that had found its start as the town of Salem, Illinois, just fifty miles south of Chicago. Large enough to still be considered its own, small town, but still small enough to remain as close-knit as the original intent was. This group of Irish settlers were known as the family of Brady.
Over the years, Salem experienced an increase of its entire population. It expanded further around almost to the point where it began to evolve and progress like the larger cities around it did. Being just an hour out from one of the largest cities, Salem benefitted from getting jobs and more importantly, its name, out there. the more it made a name for itself, the more Salem saw its economy boom. By the time the Industrial Revolution had reached the midwest, Salem hit a peak. when the town had started evolve and become a city, it brought in more families; and with those families, came their businesses.
Before anyone realized, Salem was not only the home to the Brady family and various tribes of Native Americans, but families from all walks of life began to make Salem their permanent place of residence. These families represented various cultures, be it Africans from North and South Africa, various pacific island countries, the subcontinent of India, and even the larger Asiatic countries like China, Korea, and Japan. It only took 50 years into the 1900s, but Salem soon became a beacon for large corporations, worldwide business ties, and very profitable, albeit sometimes morally questionable, exchanges with third parties. That being said, Salem has always served as a town that housed both honest-earning families as well as those of organized crime origins.
And the perfect example of this is when rumored-cartel-run family out of Mexico City, Mexico, the Castillo family, led by Emilio Castillo, had found itself establishing its dominance in Salem as one of its wealthiest residents. Almost immediately after arriving sometime during the 1980s, the Castro family asserted itself in most major business practices in Salem. They brought more jobs to the city and had made it profitable, but one thing to note is the crime rate and the amount of drugs that began to surface in Salem skyrocketed in a matter of just a few months. As it was to be expected, this caused strife with the community and the Salem Police Department as that tried to figure out who was behind it and how they were going to pinpoint the cause. Eventually, they did find the source, but that didn't do much because most of the department seemed to be in the Castro's pocket.
And this ushered in a dark, dangerous age for Salem full of Godfather and Scarface-inspired levels of wars between the SPD and the Castro Crime Family. In the total time of twenty years, over one-hundred lives had been lost, not only driving a wedge between investors that once held pride in how Salem was as a city, but fortifying the tensions with the community and how corrupt the police department was. It wasn't all corrupt, but enough to not really do any good. Not even statewide law enforcement, who had joined with the SPD in task forces to help contain the problem that was the Castros. the closest any of them had gotten was getting some low level members of the family in Statesville, but that still didn't usher in any real change.
In the year of 2003, the tides changed for the better. During this time, another shady family had made its way into Salem. this family was equally, if not more, questionable like the Castillo family was. They operated under ambiguous business practices and brought equal amount of mystery, but the one thing that did benefit the city as a whole was that, when this family - the Zimas of Moscow, led by business tycoon, Dimitri Zima - kept the Castros at bay, it allowed law enforcement to focus their efforts on building their case with rock-solid evidence against the Castros. Even if the Zima family had proved to be equally as challenging, their unique business practices was a breath of fresh air. Besides, they made it their mission to act as a safeguard for the town of Salem and help out the local law enforcement. This was, if nothing else, a unique arrangement. They not only provided the goods on the family who opposed them, through independent contractors, the Zima's were able to provide more than enough manpower to combat the rising quantity of Castillo henchmen.
And with a good word from the Governor, who was doubtless in Dimitri's pocket, allowed the family to lend a hand in the matter. no matter how many select cops who weren't in the Castro's pocket didn't like it, they all saw it as the lesser of two evils. Within just weeks, the head of the Castro Crime family, Emilio Castillo, was brought in while at his own pool, and had been charged with over 100 counts of drug trafficking, bribery, conspiracy to commit murder, and other charges on a 5-page list of first-degree charges, with several other ranging from second to third.
Things have been relatively quiet since Elimio was put into prison. After five years of remaining in Salem Penitentiary and several stalling tactics from his nephew, Sergio, a highly esteemed lawyer from Mexico City, the judge overseeing his case finally decided enough was enough and the trial date was set. After months of back-and-forth from the prosecution and the defense, character witnesses, experts testifying to the credibility of the evidence, and various witnesses coming and going, the jury came back with a verdict after a full month of deliberating. In the case of the State of Illinois v. Emilio Castillo, he was found guilty on 10 counts of bribery and drug trafficking, set to serve 10 months per count, estimated eight years and three months. As for the murder charges, due to a distinct lack of evidence, they, the jury of Emilio’s peers, were unable to conclude that the prosecution had sufficient evidence to make their case. And because of double jeopardy, they couldn’t retry Elimio for the same murders.
Come 2016, after serving the entirety of his sentence, Emilio was released from Salem Penitentiary on the conditions that he remains on house arrest for an additional five years with a hearing set for 2021 that will reevaluate his conditions of an appeal to get taken off house arrest.
Outside the Castillo family drama, there was a distinct lack of excitement for the other families. Unless they were directly involved in the case of Emilio Castillo, their lives would go on as they usually did: the adults living their lives as only they knew how, the teens going to school and aiming to get good grades so they could graduate to attend college when they come of age, and the parents doing their best to make enough to support their families.
Bars, Clubs, and Restaurants
Horton Town Square
Brady Pub
The Edge
Java Cafe
In the heart of Salem is a large, rather elaborate, plaza of sorts where every sort of boutique, cafe, restaurant, and knick-knack stores are found. It is surrounded by the beautiful Salem National Park, which one could access the town square just by walking straight from the parking lot from any direction. All around the square, beyond the green grassfields that make up the park, are the pillaring skyscrapers of Salem’s largest corporations.The square itself has a tree in the center of it with a brass plaque that celebrates the honor of the first Hortons who established Salem as a city of Illinois.
This town square hosts various shops. Most notably, the Java Cafe is among the most known spots. It is a popular hangout for the teen crowd, but also it’s known to make the best coffee in salem.
This town square hosts various shops. Most notably, the Java Cafe is among the most known spots. It is a popular hangout for the teen crowd, but also it’s known to make the best coffee in salem.
Brady Pub
Established in the late 1800s, it has gone through various remodels, location changes, but it always retained its family atmosphere and despite everything, the Bradys always made you feel like you were part of the family. Even if you weren’t, the way they smiled at you and the way their food tasted always made you feel that way.The Brady Pub finds itself not far from the Salem River, Docks, and Harbor. It’s close enough to get fresh fish from the Brady Fish Market, which also is owned and ran by Shawn, Caroline, and their children.
The Edge
The Edge is one of those nightclubs that looks a lot better from the inside than it does from the outside. Its exterior doesn’t give one much of an idea what it's mostly about. It’s located in a rather bad part of town where most of the criminals and lowlifes hang out, but surprisingly enough, it’s also a nightclub that has some of the most intricate, detailed design for a club of its kind that most don’t even have. When inside, one feels like they could either dance on the always-crowded dance floor or find an isolated corner where you can just relax with your choice of beverage. There are themed nights that appeals to certain crowds of people, but overall, whichever night one decides to choose to venture to this club, know that, when they do, they’ll be on the edge of their seat because it’s a time no one ever forgets.
Java Cafe
A small, yet popular cafe located in the Horton Town Square. It has a few tables set outside for those to enjoy their day while taking in their cup of joe or eating the daily special that happens to be on the menu. They could also opt to eat inside the cafe, though the weather isn’t nearly as natural. It’s noted that the teen and young adult scene within Salem frequent the cafe since it offers affordable coffee and a nice atmosphere.
Businesses
Castillo Co.
Zima Enterprises
Zima Enterprises
Educational Buildings
Salem Elementary School
Saint Luke’s Academy
Salem High School
Salem University
Quite simply, this is the place where the young children and young teens of Salem go to school at. It is the alternative to Saint Luke’s Academy. Here, you will find children ranging from grades of k to 8.
Saint Luke’s Academy
A school that is located within the same building as Saint Luke’s Church, the Saint Luke’s Academy is a school with a specialized curriculum where children from k-8 get the benefit of maths, sciences, language arts, and, should their parents want them to, a course about the benefits of the lord. Additionally, Saint Luke’s Academy teaches each and every student about how it is better to be kind than hateful. Everything you’d want your child to have ingrained into their memory and how they should act in most situations, more often than not, is likely to present in this academy’s curriculum.
Salem High School
Even though it’s not the only major high school in Salem’s vast landscape, it is the most popular and offers the best educational experience for the teenagers of Salem. It’s located relatively close to where the university is. Salem High School houses the infamous Panthers of Salem, last year’s national champion in Football and Basketball.
Salem University
Salem U has a large campus that houses several on-campus dorms, various buildings that attend to the vast amount of courses within its curriculum, as well as various sports that contribute to its second place average in the entire country. Students who attend Salem usually age from 18-22. It is located about a twenty-minute drive from Horton Town Square, which shouldn’t be surprising since most of the young adults who attend Salem U usually drift around the square.
Foundations
Hotels/Motels
The Salem Inn
The Salem Inn is a hotel that houses many guests at a time. These could be guests in town for business, for the sights such as Salem River. More often than not, it is a place where those who don’t want the hassle of apartments or don’t find themselves being the type of people to settle down roots with a house. Plus, with its varied prices and affordable ones, at that, it’s the ideal place for people to live out of.
Legal/Law
Salem City Hall
Salem Courthouse
Salem Fire Department
Salem Police Department
Salem Penitentiary
Salem City Hall is located downtown near where the Police Station and various law firms are located. It stands just one building over from the Salem Courthouse. Generally, City Hall is where city council meetings take place as well as where most of the members of City Council and the Mayor’s administration have their offices at. .
Salem Courthouse
Directly one building over from where City Hall is, the Salem Courthouse is, as one could expect, where the officers of the court - the lawyers and judges - all go to work. Be it for the lawyers who go to the judges to get warrants for their cases or the judges oversee cases with said lawyers, you will be able to find any sort of lawyer or Judge to help you out should you need it.
Salem Fire Department
Located between Salem’s Law District and downtown where most of the major corporations are located, the Salem Fire Department, while not large in the literal sense of the word, it does house most, if not all, of Salem’s finest firefighters who help keep the city’s fires in check.
Salem Police Department
Salem’s finest work within walking distance of the city’s lawyers and judges. It has various prestincts spread throughout the city. Anywhere from the First in central Salem to the Thirteenth in South Salem, the police force is a brotherhood of men and women who selflessly put their lives on the line for the betterment of their city.
Salem Penitentiary
Medical Facilities
University Hospital
The acclaimed Salem University Hospital was built not long after Salem established itself as a modest town. Over the years, as the town’s economy grew, so did the hospital. Due to an expansion of funds and needs, it moved to a different location. Originally, it was known for being located in the heart of town, but its new location has it just ten miles away from where Salem University has itself based out of.
The hospital itself has state-of-the-art equipment and care. They turn down no patient. To the staff and personnel, it doesn’t matter if you’re illegal, without insurance, or if you’ve committed a crime. If you require medical aid, you will receive it. There are plans available to all patients so that the bills are paid and that the hospital can maintain its reputation.
The acclaimed Salem University Hospital was built not long after Salem established itself as a modest town. Over the years, as the town’s economy grew, so did the hospital. Due to an expansion of funds and needs, it moved to a different location. Originally, it was known for being located in the heart of town, but its new location has it just ten miles away from where Salem University has itself based out of.
The hospital itself has state-of-the-art equipment and care. They turn down no patient. To the staff and personnel, it doesn’t matter if you’re illegal, without insurance, or if you’ve committed a crime. If you require medical aid, you will receive it. There are plans available to all patients so that the bills are paid and that the hospital can maintain its reputation.
Stores
Other Locations
Salem River
Smith Island
The Salem River connects to the Illinois and Michigan Canal. It is one of the few natural settings from when Salem was still a bunch of trees and mountain ranges. The river runs all around town and provides Salem with most of its natural water. Within the river’s path, you have the docks, where all of the personal boats and yachts are docked at, and the pier, where the river flows at a steady, yet gentle rate in order to create a serene, peaceful atmosphere. It is more controlled at this point, but when there are less obstacles, it flows freely, which is highly volatile. It is not recommended to swim in these rapid waters, for the deeper one goes down the river, the louder and closer one comes to crashing waves. At the end of the line, only a waterfall and death await.
Smith Island
This island has always been a staple in Salem. One can take a ferry on the outskirts of town that leads directly to the singular island that is mostly the greatest showing of mother nature that Salemites will be able to get to experience. On it are mostly trees, a couple of secret, watering hole spots that only those who know the lay of the land will be able to find with ease. Spread throughout the island are a series of cabins. Some of them are privately earned by Salem’s most famous families and some are owned by the Park Rangers who oversee Salem’s natural settings of parks, trees, and other landmarks within Salem’s unbothered scenery.
Current Salem Residential Buildings
This will remain empty until the character roles have been filled out so it will be represented by the characters.
Apartments and Lofts
Cabins and Cottages
Estates and Mansions
Houses and Townhouses
Names are important
This will be semi-linear/mostly-sandbox
Character Roles
High Casual Standards
Activity Requirements
Collab Posts
ICly Drama is Welcomed; OOCly drama isn’t
Themes to Expect
Final Words
As it is with most soap operas or soap opera-styled stories, names of the children of older characters are often named after people that mean a lot to them. This could be an uncle, a grandfather - whatever have you, the names are important because they carry on the names of loved ones in some way/shape/form. When thinking about your character’s names, consider this: are they named after someone? Do they have a namesake? What is the relation between their name and the person they might be named after? Everything is connected and these names mean something.
This will be semi-linear/mostly-sandbox
Stories in this roleplay and how they develop will be entirely dependent on character interactions and player involvement. Due to the way this roleplay will be set up, it will rely on your collaborations and how you communicate to create lasting arcs for your characters and bring out only the best outcome that there possibly could be available to you.
Character Roles
The availability of character roles will not follow the typical “first come, first serve” model. Instead, we, the GMs of Salt Shaker Productions, will instead implementing a system that the best bird gets the worm. We want only the best for this roleplay. As such, the characters that best fit our vision will be chosen.The goal is to have them filled out before the IC begins because every role is paramount to each family. This is because Salem is a family kind of town, so every child of each respective family needs to be accounted for before anything happens ICly.
High Casual Standards
It should go without saying that the GM team will have above-average expectations from every player. As it is with the norm of all high casual roleplays, all posts must be 2 paragraphs minimum. These paragraphs don’t need to be novel quality, but there’s an expectation of decent grammar and awareness of the English language. Do that and there shouldn’t be any problems with whatever you post.
Activity Requirements
We won’t be super strict about activity, because we, the GM team, completely understand how life sometimes interferes with the needs of roleplays. With that being said, joining this roleplay means you are committing to it. And by committing to something, you will be expected to hold up your end of the agreement. This, of course, means posting once every ten days(unless stated otherwise) and making sure you have a presence either in the IC or the OOC. If you are going to be away for an undetermined amount of time, please tell us so we can make plans in that event; don’t just ghost on us. It’s not fonz cool to do that.
Collab Posts
This is quite simple: there’ll be moments where collaboration posts between 2+ players/characters is necessary, but it will not dominate the IC. If either myself or any of the co-gms see that it might become a problem, there’ll be a time where those kinds of posts will be forbidden. We will reserve the right to reinstate that right when the time comes.
ICly Drama is Welcomed; OOCly drama isn’t
Soap Operas are all about maximizing the reveal of secrets at the right moment for the fullest drama potential. Speaking of, don’t hesitate to go over-the-top with the drama. This is the kind of roleplay where those kind of over-the-top encounters are meant to happen and coincidences are highly encouraged. If you like to let loose on those kinds of moments where the most outrageous things happen, this will be for you. But please don’t let the ooc drama leak into the IC and vice-versa.
Themes to Expect
Much like the show it is based off of, Sands of Time will feature themes of family quarrels, company politics, city-wide crime (including murder, sexual abuse/assault, etc), and other themes that are often present within this sort of story. Romance will happen and that’s a guarantee. As per site rules, if it goes past some sensual cuddling/kissing, fade to black. Or if you feel the spark with the person, take the chance to 1x1 that shit. It doesn’t happen often, y’know.
Final Words
It should go without saying that GM word is final. If there is a situation that arises to where it gets out of hand, the GMs will step in and regardless how it concludes, the decision will be final. It is in the best interest in all parties involved.
And lastly, this is the kind of RP where fun is the top-priority. So, in saying that, do have fun. Life is too serious, so we need to let loose by living vicariously through a bunch of drama queens.
And lastly, this is the kind of RP where fun is the top-priority. So, in saying that, do have fun. Life is too serious, so we need to let loose by living vicariously through a bunch of drama queens.
