1 Scope and existing rights

“Company,” “we,” “us,” and “our” mean Ascended Entertainment LLC. “You” means a person or organization relying on the permissions in this license.

When the company issues this version as its community-use policy, it applies to all company publications and all content on https://www.ascended-entertainment.com, including material already available at that time and later additions subject to Section 12. This includes Ascended Rules, Mithayre World Guide, other books and supplements, print and digital editions, downloads, and website pages. No separate title list or coverage schedule is required. Being covered by this statement does not mean that every asset may be publicly reproduced; the permissions below depend on the type of material and use.

The company grants only rights it owns or is authorized to license for the uses described here. Third-party contributions remain subject to their own rights and notices. A credit to another creator does not by itself grant community-use rights in that creator’s contribution. Material identified as governed exclusively by a third-party license is available on that license’s terms.

This custom license is not a Creative Commons license. It does not withdraw, narrow, or add conditions to any valid permission previously or separately granted, including a Creative Commons license. You may continue to rely on such a license for the material it covers, including any commercial or redistribution rights it grants, subject to its own attribution and other conditions. This statement does not assert that any particular material was previously released under such a license.

2 Definitions and asset boundaries

“Company Material” means the company-controlled content within the publications and website described in Section 1. A “Source Publication” is a particular book, supplement, downloadable work, or website page or collection from which that content comes. These terms identify sources; they do not expand the company’s ownership.

“Covered Text” means copyright-protected written expression in Company Material that the company owns or has authority to license under these terms. It includes rules explanations, setting lore, stories, descriptions of characters, creatures, factions, cultures, locations, and items, and protected wording in game entries and tables. It includes company-controlled website articles and other written website content. It excludes third-party text for which the company lacks that authority and the Reserved Assets defined below. Unprotected ideas, names, numbers, and methods of play do not become protected merely because they appear in Covered Text.

“Listed Play Aids” means the following categories of company-controlled aids, whether printed in a publication or supplied digitally: blank character sheets and campaign record forms, material expressly identified as player handouts, standalone game reference sheets, and official maps depicting places used in play. This category list supplies the designation; an additional asset register is not required. A sourcebook, chapter, atlas, or collection of reference entries is not a Listed Play Aid as a whole. A page does not become one merely because it would be useful during a session. Permission for a Listed Play Aid includes its integral labels and artwork only as part of the permitted private copy.

“Fan Work” means an original, unofficial adventure, supplement, campaign resource, or virtual-tabletop package that incorporates, quotes, or adapts Covered Text. It must add original material rather than reproduce or reconstruct a Source Publication. Actual-play performances and recordings are governed separately by Section 7.

“Connected parts” means installments, appendices, handout packs, downloads, or other components planned or presented as one adventure, supplement, campaign publication, or compilation. It also includes materials designed to be combined to reconstruct protected content from a Source Publication, whether released by one person or by collaborators. Separate works are not connected merely because they share an author, setting, rules system, or recurring characters. Dividing one project among files, websites, contributors, or release dates does not make its parts separate works for this license.

“Reserved Assets” means company-controlled illustrations, photographs, official maps, logos, cover designs, protected page or website design, audio, video, software, website code, fonts, and editable production or source files. These assets are excluded from the public Fan Work permission unless a separate notice expressly permits that reuse. The limited private permission for Listed Play Aids still applies. You may create original illustrations and local maps from Covered Text as described in Section 5. Reservations apply only to rights the company actually controls and do not restrict uses independently permitted by law or another license.

AI-generated visual elements are excluded from this license’s copyright restrictions and permission requirements to the extent applicable law does not protect them. We claim no copyright in such unprotected elements. Copyright-protected human contributions, including original drawing, editing, selection, or arrangement where protection exists, remain subject to this statement to the extent the company controls those rights. The use of AI does not establish that an entire image or publication is unprotected. This exception does not supply rights belonging to another person or displace applicable trademark, privacy, publicity, or other law.

3 Permission grant and independent lawful uses

Subject to the scope and conditions stated here, the company grants you a worldwide, nonexclusive, royalty-free license for the remaining duration of the applicable copyright, to the extent we own or may license those rights, to reproduce and adapt Covered Text, to use Listed Play Aids privately, and to distribute, display, and perform material as expressly permitted in Sections 4 through 7. The public notice and recipient conditions in Sections 8 and 9 apply where stated. Continuing permission, breach, and version changes are addressed in Sections 11 and 12. Each eligible user receives permission directly from the company; you do not acquire ownership or authority to sublicense the company’s material.

You do not need to register with us or seek individual approval for a use within this grant. This license governs only activities for which you need the company’s permission. It does not restrict fair use, other statutory exceptions, public-domain material, unprotected mechanics, ideas or methods of play, or rights under another applicable license. Names and titles are not claimed as copyrightable by themselves. Trademark questions remain separate from copyright questions.

Buying or reading a book, or visiting the website, does not by itself constitute agreement to a contract. A person relying on this permission must remain within its scope and applicable conditions. Any contractual provision is effective only to the extent enforceable under applicable law.

Copyright ownership is separate from ownership of a physical copy. This statement does not make the company the owner of your purchased books or other objects, prohibit lawful resale or lending, or give the company a right to confiscate them. Company-owned equipment, original artwork, inventory, and other physical assets are governed by property law and any separate applicable agreement.

4 Private gaming and virtual tabletops

For a campaign using a lawfully obtained source copy, participants may copy and adapt Covered Text into campaign notes, house rules, completed character sheets, rules references, and session handouts. They may share the portions needed for that campaign with its participants in print or through an access-controlled group or private virtual tabletop. The group does not need a separate purchased copy for each participant merely to receive these permitted extracts. Listed Play Aids may be reproduced in full for participants. No special attribution is required for private table play.

This permission includes the technical copies needed to store and display those materials through a private hosting service. Access must remain limited to the game participants and service personnel or systems needed to provide that hosting. It does not authorize a hosting provider to add the material to a public catalog or use it for unrelated purposes.

Do not provide participants with an entire source book, share purchase credentials, post source books to group repositories, or progressively assemble a substitute copy through extracts. Keep shared source extracts limited to the encounters, characters, rules references, and handouts being used. Your original campaign writing has no length limit. Participants’ independent lawful access and rights remain unaffected.

Participants may keep permitted play aids and campaign records in their private archives. Private permission does not authorize a public virtual-tabletop library, marketplace listing, or unrestricted download. Public Fan Works must satisfy Sections 5, 6, 8, and 9. Paid game services are addressed in Section 7.

5 Original public fan works

You may create, reproduce, display, and freely distribute Fan Works in print or digital form under this section. You may set original adventures in Mithayre, use and adapt covered characters, creatures, locations, factions, cultures, and items, and add original events, encounters, house rules, and game statistics. You may summarize covered lore and write the setting explanations needed to understand and play your Fan Work. These permissions allow meaningful adaptation of protected setting expression; they are not limited to mentioning names.

You may draw original illustrations and new local maps using your own visual design to depict elements described in Covered Text. This does not authorize copying, tracing, closely redrawing, or otherwise adapting protected expression from Reserved Assets. You may translate your own authorized Fan Work, subject to these same limits and any rights of other contributors.

Write explanations in your own words and direct readers to the Source Publications for their broader rules and setting coverage. Across a Fan Work and its connected parts, you may quote up to 500 words of Covered Text in total, with no single quotation longer than 150 words. Count quotations from all covered sources together. Required credits and license notices do not count toward these limits. Separating one continuous or substantially continuous passage into smaller quotations does not avoid the 150-word limit.

Translated quotations count toward these limits using the word count of the quoted original. A revision, translation, or alternative format of the same Fan Work does not create an additional allowance for new extracts. For connected parts, count their quotations together as one combined work. Identical quotations carried over between alternative editions, formats, or translations of the same part count once, but releasing successive versions to assemble different extracts is prohibited.

Do not reproduce a complete official table, spell entry, creature entry, or other independently usable reference entry as a substitute for the source, even if it fits within the word allowance. You may create original statistics and express mechanics in your own words. Numbers and unprotected functional terms do not count as quotations merely because they also occur in a source. Material used under an independent permission is governed by that permission.

The 500-word and 150-word limits are business terms of this license, not legal safe harbors or rules of fair use. Permitted summaries and adaptations of lore are not counted as quotations merely because they use covered setting elements. A covered character may appear throughout an original adventure. The limits below still prevent reconstructing the company’s publications.

This grant does not authorize copying an entire Source Publication or website, substantial reproduction of its protected expression, translation of a whole source book, chapter-by-chapter paraphrase, or a compilation that provides a comprehensive replacement for its protected content. These boundaries also apply to serial extraction, coordinated projects, linked downloads, and collections that reconstruct the source. A work may cross a boundary through the importance of what it reproduces even if the word count is low. These rules do not prohibit original competing works, unprotected mechanics, or a permitted Fan Work merely because it covers a similar topic.

6 Free access and money

An authorized public Fan Work must be available in its complete usable form without payment, a purchase, a subscription, a required donation, or paid early access. It may be hosted on a generally accessible website supported by ordinary advertising if the same complete work is freely accessible. A separate, optional general-support link or tip jar is allowed when a payment provides no additional covered content, priority access, or other benefit in exchange. A free download alone does not establish compliance if it is tied to another paid benefit.

This public Fan Work grant does not cover sales, pay-what-you-want checkout for the Fan Work, paid bundles, paid commissions to create a Fan Work for a customer, project-specific crowdfunding, subscription benefits, or payments from a sponsor to commission or promote that particular Fan Work. Those uses require a separate written permission only to the extent they need company-controlled rights outside this grant. General supporter acknowledgments are allowed. You may pay to advertise your otherwise permitted free Fan Work. Calling a charge a donation does not change its treatment.

Participants in a private game may share actual printing and shipping costs. You may give printed Fan Works away for free. Public sales of printed Fan Works, even at cost, are outside this public distribution grant. Section 7 separately permits game-service fees, event cost recovery, and specified monetized actual play. No payment requires company permission when the activity is independently authorized by law or another license.

7 Game services and actual play

You may charge to run a game, including at a convention, and recover event costs. You may use Covered Text and Listed Play Aids with participants as described in Section 4. For this purpose, permission includes displaying and performing the covered material within that game session even where the venue is open to the public. It does not extend to a general exhibition of book pages or assets to spectators. A service fee must pay for running the game rather than disguise a sale of source content or downloadable Fan Works. Service advertising may truthfully identify Ascended and Mithayre under Section 8.

You may publicly perform, record, stream, and distribute actual play using Covered Text and your own campaign material. A recording or stream may earn advertising, sponsorship, subscription, or audience-support revenue, including through paid access. This permission does not authorize charging for a written Fan Work or Source Publication. Using another fan creator’s original material in a recording or broadcast requires that creator’s permission unless independently lawful.

Keep source quotations incidental to active play and limited to what the scene needs. This permission does not cover an audiobook, a systematic reading of the rules, a presentation of book pages in sequence, or an extractable reference archive. The public Fan Work word limits do not govern spontaneous speech during an actual game; the prohibition on reconstructing Source Publications still applies.

Private permission to use an official map or other Listed Play Aid does not authorize showing it in a public stream or recording. Public use of Reserved Assets needs a separate applicable permission. Hide or replace such assets before broadcasting unless that permission exists. This license does not provide participant consent or rights in other people’s music, artwork, contributions, or platform services.

8 Public credits and compatibility

Include the following notice in a public Fan Work’s credits or an equivalent readily accessible place:

“An unofficial fan work for Ascended and Mithayre. Uses material from Ascended Entertainment LLC under the Ascended and Mithayre Community Use License, version 2.0, available at https://www.ascended-entertainment.com/legal. Not affiliated with, endorsed by, or published by Ascended Entertainment LLC.”

Identify your creator or publisher name and the source titles and editions you used. If a source has no edition label, its title and copyright year are sufficient. For website sources, identify the page title, URL, and date accessed. Retain the copyright and third-party notices applicable to included material. Identify your changes and additions as unofficial; do not present them as official setting canon. Include the recipient permission in Section 9 as well.

For public actual play, provide equivalent source credit and non-endorsement information in the program description or credits. You need not repeat it aloud during every session. An ongoing series may use a clearly linked common credits page. Private table play requires no special credits. Independent licenses keep their own notice requirements.

You may truthfully describe an eligible work or service in plain text as “compatible with Ascended,” “Ascended compatible,” or “an unofficial adventure for Mithayre.” Present your own identity clearly and avoid suggesting official publication, sponsorship, or approval. This permission does not authorize company logos, imitation of official cover branding, or adoption of Ascended or Mithayre as the name of your own publishing business.

Trademark rights are distinct from copyright. No trademark registration is asserted by this statement, and no broader trademark license is granted. These terms do not limit truthful identification or other trademark uses independently allowed by law, and do not cancel copyright permissions available under another license.

9 Fan ownership and recipient permission

You retain ownership of your original contributions, subject to rights in underlying material. This license does not assign your work to the company or give the company an automatic right to publish it commercially. Company use beyond the recipient permission below requires your separate permission unless independently lawful.

When distributing a Fan Work under this license, you must have authority to grant the following permission for your contributions and include this notice with the work:

“Permission from the fan creator: For the original contributions controlled by this work’s creator, recipients may download and print this work, use, adapt, display, and perform it within their own game sessions, and share complete, unaltered copies for free with all credits and notices intact. Game sessions may include paid Gamemaster services and convention play, but this permission does not include broadcasting or distributing recordings of the creator’s original contributions. This permission is worldwide and royalty-free, and continues for lawfully received copies while recipients comply with these terms, subject to nonwaivable law. Other public adaptations, translations, recordings, and commercial republication require the creator’s separate permission unless independently lawful. Ascended Entertainment LLC’s underlying material remains subject to its own applicable license.”

Recipients may make the private changes needed to play and share those changes within their game group. Permission to redistribute complete, unaltered copies includes the work’s original lawful credits and notices; a re-sharer need not add a new creator credit. A recipient who publicly releases a new or changed Fan Work must independently satisfy this license and obtain the necessary rights in the fan creator’s original contributions.

Do not include another person’s contribution unless you can provide the recipient permission stated above or that person has already provided at least those rights under compatible terms. Clearly identify any such separate license and comply with it. You may grant broader rights in your own original contributions, but cannot use those terms to enlarge permission for underlying company material.

Recipients receive the company’s permission directly under this license, not by sublicense from you. The company receives the same limited recipient rights as anyone else. Those rights do not include commercially republishing the Fan Work. A creator’s later removal of a download does not withdraw the stated recipient permission from compliant recipients of lawfully distributed copies.

10 Separate written agreements

For a proposed use that needs company-controlled rights outside this license, contact creators@ascended-entertainment.com. Describe the source material, proposed content, format, distribution method, and monetization. A separate written agreement may address authorized assets, commercial uses, fees, royalties, approvals, and other terms. No such terms are implied by this license or by silence in response to a request.

A commercial supplement does not need company permission solely because it is compatible with Ascended. A creator may rely on unprotected mechanics, original expression, applicable exceptions, and any other permissions already available. A separate agreement is needed only for company-controlled rights the proposed use actually requires and does not already have.

11 Breach notice cure and termination

An activity outside the grant, such as an unauthorized book upload, excluded-asset distribution, or sale of covered content, is not authorized by this license. Stop such activity promptly upon learning of it. A cure opportunity does not authorize that activity during the cure period or automatically excuse past conduct.

A good-faith mistake or omission in required credit, source identification, or the recipient notice does not automatically end permission for an otherwise authorized Fan Work. Correct it promptly after learning of it and no later than 30 calendar days after receiving our written notice. If corrected within that period, permission continues, and the company will not assert a copyright claim based solely on that cured mistake or omission. This protection does not cover deliberate or repeated omissions after notice.

Before terminating permission for a remediable breach, we will give written notice identifying the affected material, the problem, a practicable correction, and any proposed broader termination. You have 30 calendar days after receipt to correct the problem or withdraw the affected version. For breaches other than the good-faith notice mistakes described above, promptly stop the noncompliant distribution, display, or monetization while correcting it. Removing an excluded asset, disabling a charge, correcting a representation, or withdrawing a release may provide a cure, depending on the breach.

If you cure on time, your eligibility to use this license continues. If you do not, we may terminate permission for the affected work or activity by a further written notice. Termination of all permissions granted to you requires a material breach that is repeated or deliberate and must be expressly identified in the notices. Reinstatement after termination requires written confirmation, which we will consider in light of the correction.

Send and receive notices through a contact provided with the Fan Work or another channel reasonably calculated to reach its publisher. The cure period begins on actual receipt or receipt established under applicable law, not merely when we post an announcement on our website. Except for the specific protection for cured notice mistakes above, this section does not waive accrued claims. We may seek lawful urgent relief against ongoing unauthorized distribution or false claims of endorsement without waiting for the cure period to expire.

Termination does not transfer fan ownership, confiscate copies, or require destruction of lawfully made private campaign records. Compliant recipients of lawfully distributed versions keep their independent permissions. A creator may resume a corrected, compliant release after timely cure or reinstatement. Earlier or separate licenses operate under their own termination and reinstatement provisions.

12 Changes and continuing reliance

Once the company has validly offered material under this version, it will not revoke permission for compliant uses except as provided in Section 11 or required by nonwaivable law. Existing compliant Fan Works may remain available, and creators may make new Fan Works using that material under this version. Replacing a web page, removing a download, changing an edition, or adding a reservation of rights does not withdraw that permission.

This version applies by default to later company publications and website additions unless, before or when first releasing genuinely new material, the company expressly identifies a different applicable license or exclusion for that new material. A later version may offer additional permissions. You may choose it if offered for the material you use, but are not required to accept reduced permissions for material already covered here.

A revised publication can contain previously covered material and genuinely new protected contributions. New terms may govern the new contributions when clearly identified; minor changes or a new edition label do not erase permission for earlier material. The company will identify prospective changes clearly and retain adopted license versions at https://www.ascended-entertainment.com/legal. Keep the applicable version and source notices with your project records.

The company cannot grant rights it never held. A correction to ownership information does not create missing third-party permission or retroactively remove rights the company validly granted. Nonwaivable statutory rights, including applicable copyright termination rights, remain effective. Other applicable licenses remain unchanged.

13 Warranty and liability

To the extent applicable law permits, material and permissions supplied under this free license are provided “as is” and “as available,” without warranties of accuracy, uninterrupted availability, merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, or noninfringement. The company does not undertake to support or approve a Fan Work. Any exclusion of an express or implied warranty is effective only where, and to the extent, it is legally enforceable.

To the extent applicable law permits, the company is not liable under this free license for indirect or consequential loss, including lost revenue resulting from reliance on these permissions. This limitation does not exclude liability for fraud, willful misconduct, gross negligence, death or personal injury where exclusion is prohibited, or any other liability or consumer remedy that cannot lawfully be excluded.

These provisions do not change rights arising from a purchase, a separate agreement, or mandatory law. They are provisions of this custom license; the warranty and liability provisions of a Creative Commons license are not incorporated into it.

14 Interpretation and contact

These permissions are intended for worldwide use, subject to applicable mandatory law. This license imposes no exclusive court, arbitration requirement, or waiver of collective remedies. A separate commercial agreement may address governing law and dispute resolution. If a provision is unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue where legally possible without expanding the company’s ownership.

Questions, notices to the company, and requests for additional permission may be sent to creators@ascended-entertainment.com. The official statement is maintained at https://www.ascended-entertainment.com/legal. An authorized written agreement may change one user’s permissions without reducing other users’ existing rights.

You may reproduce this license and its required notices verbatim to explain or document applicable permissions. An altered license must not be presented as the company’s official license.