1. Who we are
The Flood Chronicles is operated by Xin He Ltd, trading also as Xin Publishing.
- Registered in
- England and Wales
- Company number
- 07087297
- Registered office
- Piccadilly Business Centre, Unit C, Aldow Enterprise Park, Blackett Street, Manchester, M12 6AE, United Kingdom
- Contact
- support@thefloodchronicles.net
In these terms, “we” and “us” mean Xin He Ltd. “You” means the player.
2. When these terms apply
They take effect when you pay for a turn. Paying a turn fee — whether at application or for any later turn — means you accept these terms as they stand at that moment. If you do not accept them, do not pay, and do not send a turn.
3. Who can play
You must be 18 or over. The Flood Chronicles involves payment and a continuing contract, and we do not accept players below that age.
Where you live. We welcome players from anywhere in the world. Our rulers currently write from the United Kingdom, Germany and China, and we would not have it otherwise. Wherever you are, you receive the same service, the same terms and the same information about what we do with your writing.
4. What we provide
Each turn, we undertake to read the letter you send, in full, before the deadline; resolve it alongside every other ruler's letter and the wider events of the world; send you a private result letter describing how your orders played out, so far as your ruler could plausibly know; send you that turn's issue of the Edö Messenger; and provide maps and other material as the turn warrants.
A human Game Master reads every letter and reviews and approves every result before it is sent. Artificial intelligence assists throughout — see Section 9.
What we do not promise. We do not promise that your schemes will succeed, that your realm will prosper, or that the world will treat you kindly. Adverse outcomes in the fiction are the game working, not the game failing.
5. Payment
£5 per turn, payable per turn. There is no subscription and no ongoing commitment: you pay for the turn you are playing, and you may stop at any time by simply not paying for another.
Payment is taken through PayPal or Wise. We do not receive or hold your card or bank details. Pay using the same name you gave on your application, so we can match the payment to you. A turn is resolved once its fee is received.
We may change the turn fee. Any change applies only to turns not yet paid for, and we will tell you before it takes effect.
6. Turn timing
The game is intended to run at one turn a week, and one week passes in the world for every turn played.
In practice the interval varies. A turn may take longer than a week — occasionally considerably longer — because of the Game Master's other commitments, illness, holidays, technical problems, or simply because a particular turn needs more thought than usual. We will tell you when a turn is delayed.
Timing is therefore a target, not a term of this contract, and a late turn is not a breach of it. What we do commit to is that every turn you pay for will be resolved and answered.
If we ever have to suspend a world for a prolonged period, we will tell you, and no further fees will be taken until it resumes.
7. Cancellation and refunds
Once a turn has been resolved and its result letter sent, that turn is not refundable. The work has been done, and it cannot be undone.
Your statutory cancellation right, and how it works here. As a consumer buying at a distance, you have 14 days to cancel. Because you will want your turn resolved sooner than that, paying a turn fee is your express request that we begin work at once, and you accept that once the turn has been resolved and its result letter sent, the service is fully performed and the right to cancel it is gone.
- If you cancel within 14 days but before we have resolved a turn you have paid for, you receive a full refund of that fee.
- If you cancel after we have begun but before the turn is finished, you pay a proportionate amount for the work done.
- Once the turn is resolved and sent, it is not refundable.
Beyond that, no refunds. We do not refund turns because a turn went badly, because a scheme failed, because the world was unkind, or because you have changed your mind after the fact.
Where we will refund. If we fail to resolve a turn you have paid for, or make a mistake serious enough that the turn did not happen in any meaningful sense, we will either re-run it or refund it, at your choice. See Section 12.
8. What you write, and what we may do with it
This section matters. Please read it before you pay.
The Flood Chronicles is a shared creative work. What you write becomes part of a world we are also writing novels and other material in, and we need clear permission to carry on doing that. In plain terms: if you play, we may use what you write.
You keep your copyright. Everything you write remains yours. Nothing here takes it away or stops you using your own words however you wish, including publishing them yourself.
What you grant us. By sending us a letter, a realm description or any other material for the game, you grant Xin He Ltd a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive licence to use, store, copy, adapt, translate, edit, publish and distribute it, and to create new works from it, in any medium now known or later devised. That licence covers:
- running the game, resolving turns and writing result letters;
- the Edö Messenger and any other in-world publication;
- processing by artificial intelligence, as described in Section 9;
- the continuing development of the fictional world of Isrogant — novels, short stories, artwork, games, films and any other creative or commercial venture connected to it, whether by us or by anyone we license;
- promoting the game, including on websites and social media.
Without attribution or payment. We are not obliged to credit you, and no fee is payable to you, for any of this. If we do use something substantial and recognisable and you would like to be credited, ask — we will usually be glad to.
Moral rights. So far as the law allows, you waive your moral rights in the material for these purposes, including the right to be identified as its author.
What remains ours. The world of Isrogant, its history, geography, peoples, lore, maps, names and the Edö Messenger, together with the game's rules, systems and written material, are ours and stay ours. The realm you invent becomes part of Isrogant. You may write about your own ruler and your own realm freely; you may not present the wider world as yours, publish the game's rules or systems, or run a competing game using them.
Other players' letters. Result letters, the Messenger and anything else we send you are for your own use. Please do not publish them or pass them on without asking, and never quote another player's private correspondence.
Warranty. You confirm that what you send is your own work and does not infringe anyone else's rights.
9. Artificial intelligence
The game is openly AI-supported, and we would rather say so plainly than have you discover it.
Your letters are processed by AI services that help resolve turns, summarise orders, translate, and draft the prose you receive. The Game Master reviews and approves everything before it reaches you.
Some of those services are outside the United Kingdom. They include companies in the United States and DeepSeek, a company in China. Material sent to DeepSeek is stored and processed on servers in China, may be used by them to train and improve their models, and may be accessible to Chinese authorities under Chinese law. We send the body of your letter only — never your name, your email address or any header — but whatever you put in that body goes.
We cannot offer the game without this. There is no version of The Flood Chronicles in which your letters are not processed this way. If that is not acceptable to you, please do not sign up.
Our Privacy & Data Protection Policy sets out everything we do with your information and the rights you have. Nothing in these terms reduces those rights.
10. How to behave
Play your ruler as villainously as you please. That is the game.
Outside the fiction, we expect ordinary courtesy toward the Game Master and other players. We may end your participation, without refund of an unresolved turn, if you harass or abuse anyone, deliberately disrupt others' games, attempt to obtain another player's private material, or use the game to distribute unlawful content.
Scheming, deceiving and betraying in character is not misconduct. It is the point.
11. Ending it
You may stop at any time by not paying for another turn. Tell us if you can, so your realm can be handed over gracefully rather than left in the hands of your advisors.
We may end a world — because it has run its course, because too few rulers remain, or because we can no longer run it. We will give as much notice as we can. Any turn you have paid for but not received will be resolved or refunded.
When you leave, your realm passes into the world's history. What happens to your personal information is set out in the privacy policy; in short, we remove you and keep your ruler.
12. Mistakes, and what we are responsible for
We take real care over this game. It is largely one person's work, assisted by machines, and mistakes will happen — a misread order, a contradiction between turns, a name confused, a letter delayed, occasionally a letter lost.
Tell us and we will put it right. That is a genuine commitment. Where an error has materially affected your turn, we will correct the record, adjust the outcome, re-run the turn, or refund it — whichever is fairest.
The limit of our liability. Beyond that, and to the extent the law allows: our total liability to you for anything connected with the game is limited to the fees you have paid us in the twelve months before the claim; we are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, loss of profit, or loss of opportunity; and we do not guarantee that the service will be uninterrupted, that letters will always arrive, or that email delivery will succeed — email is not a reliable medium and we do not control it.
Where a fictional outcome goes against you, that is not an error. A siege that fails, a spy who lies, intelligence that proves false: all of these are the game working as designed.
13. What we cannot and do not exclude
Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence; for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; for our duty under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 to perform the service with reasonable care and skill; or for anything else that cannot be limited or excluded by law.
If you are a consumer, you have statutory rights that these terms do not affect. Nothing here requires you to give them up.
14. Changes
We may change these terms. The current version is always on this page, with its version number and date. Changes take effect for turns paid for after they are published, never retrospectively. If a change is significant, we will tell current players by email rather than expecting you to notice.
We may also change the game itself — its rules, systems and the shape of a world — as it develops.
Complaints. Write to support@thefloodchronicles.net. We will answer. If your complaint concerns your personal information, Section 13 of the Privacy & Data Protection Policy sets out a separate procedure and your right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office.
15. Law
These terms are governed by the law of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction. If you are a consumer resident elsewhere, this does not deprive you of the protection of the mandatory law of your own country, nor of the right to bring proceedings there.
If any part of these terms is found unenforceable, the rest continues to apply.