We're looking for new characters to take part in the sequel to The Challenge. But this time, it's not limited to Shadows, Preventers, and Z-Force soldiers. This time we're looking for people from all walks of life - including civilians. So start working on your character profiles today!

Here's what we'll need from you:

Your character's stats. This includes their name, age, weight, height, hair and eye color, ethnicity, and the place they call home.

Where can your character be from? Well, there are all the countries on Earth. There are 7 LaGrange Points with thriving colonies. And there are the Terra Settlements. If you choose to have your character be from the Terra Settlements, you'll probably have the opportunity name said settlement and make up some sort of history about it.

Your character's abilities. What they can and cannot do. Likes and dislikes. A personality profile.

Your character's episode zero. Explain what their life has been like up until A.C. 225. It doesn't have to be long, but it does have to be written in narrative prose. No scripty-type stories.

NOTE: You will not need an intro story this time around because the format of the overall story is going to be different. Basically, your first story will act as an intro.

Mobile Suit Stats. This only applies to Shadows and Z-Force. Be reasonable and stay within the GW universe. No invincible mechs. And no echoes of Icarus and Autour, please. They are one-time phenomenons. Only Shadows can have gundams. For the Z-Force, all of the Zodiac models will probably be phased out, but the new Z-Force models will still be available for use by anyone.

Pictures of your character aren't required, but if you have them, send them in with your character profile. We have a lot of great artists already part of the Challenge, and they'd probably be happy to draw your character for you. Just ask nicely. :)

How It Will Work

Well, we're not 100% sure how the writing part of the sequel will work. But here are some basic guidelines for you to follow when creating your characters, and the writing requirements.

You must be willing and able to write good narrative stories. As far as grammar and spelling goes, we'll do our best to correct things before stories are posted, especially if English isn't your first language. Also, please use the spelling and grammar checks on your word processing program. It helps a lot.

If you know HTML, please code your stories before you send them. It saves us a lot of time. If you don't know HTML, we do have a guide available for download as a MSWord document.

You will be expected to be an active participant. If we never hear anything from you for months on end, and you don't respond to emails, we'll have to assume that you're not interested anymore. This won't require a huge commitment on your part (we'll probably only need one story from each member per month, at most), but if it looks like you won't have time to participate actively, or if you're no longer interested, please do us the courtesy of letting us know, and write your character out.

Original Gundam Wing characters must be treated in respect to Gundam Wing, Endless Waltz, and their roles in the original Challenge. This means that many original GW characters' fates will still be directed by the Challenge characters they interacted with in the original story. Respect the stories people have already told.

Original Challenge characters are the property of their creators. Several of the original Challenge members are sticking around for the sequel, and many of their characters will still be around as well. You need to respect them as well. We'll let you know which characters will still be around for the sequel.

Shadows must remain active at all times. To be true to the spirit of the Shadows as they are portrayed in the original Challenge, and so it doesn't get too messy, there will only be 10-12 active Shadows at one time. Your character can be a former Shadow, or can be hoping to become a Shadow. To start, the first ten Shadow applicants will begin duty at the start of the story. If you chose to become inactive, you must let us know so that we can promote someone on the waiting list to active status. Of course, if you want to be a Shadow technician, there are plenty of slots available for that.

Z-Force soldiers will be assigned to a specific unit. If you have a particular unit in mind, feel free to request it. At least for the very beginning of the story, we'll come up with some Lady Vitani-ish commanding officers for the units so the soldiers have someone to report to, but once things get underway, Z-Force soldiers themselves might earn command of their unit. So serve well!

Preventers will be treated similarly to the Z-Force in regards to where they are stationed. For the sequel, Chang Wufei will be the leader of the Preventers (as Lady Une is now). Original Challenge Preventers have first dibs on higher-up positions within the Preventers for now. But there's always the possibily of promotion!

NOTE: In the sequel, the Shadows, Z-Force, and Preventers are all on the same side. The opposing side will come from outside these organizations. We won't tell who it is yet, but if you've been reading the stories in the Database, you might be able to figure it out...

If you want to join up with the opposing organization you'll have to wait just a teeny bit before submitting characters. This is partly because we don't know how the bad guys are going to "work" yet, and also because it would be really chaotic in the beginning. Within the first couple months of the sequel, we'll open up submissions for the opposing organization.

You may only have one primary character, but may have a reasonable number of secondary characters to interact with the primary character. What do we mean by primary and secondary? Well, your primary character is the one you send us stats for, the one your stories are about. Secondary characters are people that you create to interact with your primary character, but they wouldn't have their own stats posted. For example: Katia Martin Nye is a primary character. Her adopted family members are secondary characters.

Please also remember to give us a working email so we can contact you. If you change your email, let us know. If we can't get in touch with you, we have to assume you don't want to be part of the story anymore.

Format of the Story

This time around, we're not going to have missions and sidestories. We're still batting some ideas around about the specifics of the format, but the story is going to act much like a continual saga. There will be one central storyline, and all the characters will have some sort of sub-plot within that. It's possible that several characters could never interact with each other - and that's okay. This time we want to look at the scope of the conflict, not just how it's affecting the people fighting. We want to see how civilians are reacting to the problems the entire Earth Sphere is facing.

Collaborations are still allowed, but make sure there is plenty of good communication between you and the person you're collaborating with. Never kill another person's character.

For at least the beginning of the sequel, current Challenge members are going to come up with a few higher-up characters for the different organizations that are in the same sort of role as Vitani and Lore - the fearless leaders anyone can use in their stories. But you can't kill them either!

Above all, be nice! The Challenge has been around for almost three years, and in all that time we've only ever had to ask one person to leave for being mean and rude. We'd like to keep that record.