The site administrators reserve the right to modify these rules as needed.

• Stories must include the proper rating, category/categories, genre(s), and warning(s). If administrators feel that your story includes an incorrect rating, category, genre, or warning, we reserve the right to re-categorize it. Our site rating descriptions can be found here.
• All stories rated R and above are expected to have warnings. Regardless of story rating, all applicable story warnings must be included at the time of first posting, except for those warnings that are the result of organic storytelling that the author did not foresee at the time of first posting. In these situations, warnings must be added as soon as the author is aware of the story's progression, and a note must be included at the head of the next chapter alerting readers to the new warning. The site administrators recognize that there is an audience for all stories, but authors must respect readers who do not wish to read certain stories by labeling these stories appropriately. Administrators reserve the right to edit ratings and tags for accuracy. Definitions for our current warnings can be found here.
• Titles, summaries, and story banners may not contain NSFW content, though Elysian Fields will allow for titles that have been censored with characters such as an asterisk (eg. Sh*t, etc.). Also, "Please read", "Untitled", etc. are not acceptable titles or summaries.
• Plagiarism will not be tolerated at Elysian Fields. Please do not attempt to add material to the archive that does not belong to you. This includes any material generated by an AI, such as ChatGPT. Anyone found to have added plagiarized material or AI-generated material to the archive will be banned from Elysian Fields.
• Elysian Fields does not permit unauthorized continuations or sequels of stories or narrative artwork created by other authors or artists, regardless of their publication or last update date. If you wish to submit a continuation or a sequel of another creator’s work, you must first receive written permission from the original creator, regardless of whether the work in question was/is published on Elysian Fields. The only exception to this rule involves the continuation or sequel of an Orphaned Work, as these works have been disavowed by their original creators. Additional exceptions will not be made for any reason, including the original creator’s failure to respond to a query. Creators come and go out of fandom, and we do not want to discourage any creator from returning to a WIP (or completed work) that they initially conceived.
• Works that are inspired by other works are, of course, allowed, as is fan art. We just ask that you include an acknowledgment of the original work and its creator when publishing.
• Stories may only be added by their original author or by site admins on behalf of an author who has given permission. Members may not add stories written by other authors even if they have been given permission.
• RPF (real person fiction) and self-insert stories are not permitted.
• Stories submitted to Elysian Fields are expected to be generally free of errors. The site administrators reserve the right to request corrections in submissions with multiple grammar and/or spelling errors.
• Stories submitted to Elysian Fields should be properly formatted and relatively easy for readers to understand. If the story is hard to read due to improper formatting or an unintentionally confusing storyline, we reserve the right to ask the author to make adjustments to their story.
• Submitting a story does not mean that it will be automatically validated and published on Elysian Fields. This is a privately owned site, and publication of fics here is a privilege, not a right. However, we will do everything we can to work with authors to ensure that their story is published on our archive.
• Stories with multiple chapters should be archived as such and NEVER as separate stories. Upload the first chapter of your story, then go to Manage Stories in your account to add additional chapters. If you have trouble with this, please contact the site administrators.
• Chapters must have under 15,000 words to be submitted.
• This is a Spuffy site, therefore all stories must prominently feature, in one way or another, a Spuffy pairing. This means the emotional and 'ship-focused narrative must always be blatantly Spuffy. This does not mean your fic has to be a Romance. The ship-focused narrative can manifest as friends, enemies, reluctant allies, lovers, or whatever makes the most sense for the story you're telling. Spike or Buffy /Other romantic or sexual pairings are permissible to the degree that they serve to move Spuffy closer together, not further apart. That said, if your story contains Spike/Other or Buffy/Other for ANY amount of time, you must use the appropriate warning. There are readers out there who are very opposed to reading such stories, even if the non-Spuffy pairing is temporary.
• Stories containing Buffy/Other or Spike/Other may not include explicit depictions of sexual encounters with other partners unless there is a qualifying exception. A qualifying exception is defined as limited depictions of canon couples (Bangel, Sprusilla, Biley, Sparmony), a threesome fic (so long as the rules regarding threesomes are otherwise followed), or a direct exception authorized by the Mods, in which case the author must contact the Mods to inquire and be granted permission. We recognize that stories with explicit /Other sexual encounters can be written and enjoyed, but this is a Spuffy archive and therefore not the place for them.
• Stories containing threesomes must be marked with a warning. This is meant to allow readers to avoid such stories if they so choose. In any story containing a threesome, the relationship between Buffy and Spike must be the main focus throughout, and no relationship should supersede theirs.
• Stories posted on the website prior to March 16, 2022, may not reflect current publication rules. These stories are considered legacy stories and will not be removed from the archive. All stories published as of March 16, 2022, must follow these rules. Eligibility for archival hosting will be determined based solely on that story’s content.

• Artwork and visual media submissions may take the form of images such as jpegs, pngs, or gifs, or videos such as fan edits. Artists may upload images for use on Elysian Fields to our site via Manage Images as long as the files meet the size criteria. Videos must be hosted on a third-party site such as YouTube and embedded.
• All artwork submissions must adhere to the site’s Spuffy prominence rule. We do not allow Gen Art submissions. All art pieces must be Spuffy-centric.
• That said, for visual media purposes, we do allow solo artwork renderings of Spike or Buffy They don’t always need to be together, but the piece must remain Spuffy-friendly (i.e., No Bangel, Sprusilla, etc.)
• All NSFW artwork pieces must be rated NC-17 or AO (Adult Only) and assigned NSFW Category and Genre tags. These must also be Spuffy only..
• Use appropriate warnings for every art piece.
• Artists are free to link to any artwork that does not meet the Spuffy prominence rule in their profile, as well as in the story notes. However, EF is not the place to host any such artwork. Any non-Spuffy artwork stored on our server will be deleted at our discretion.

Submissions found to be in violation of these rules will be subject to the following review process:

• Step 1: The author will receive notice from the Mod team informing them the story is in violation of site rules and may be removed. This notice will be issued both via the site Warning system and privately through the Elysian Fields email account. While under review, stories will be subject to manual validation.
• Step 2: After confirming receipt of the message (either through email or EF’s software, which will mark messages as read), the author will have up to three (3) days to address the concerns issued by the Mod team. This can be a discussion, by providing additional materials for the Mods to review, or however the author feels they can best address said concerns.
• Step 3: The Mod team will have 24 hours to consider if the concerns have been satisfactorily addressed. This period may be extended to allow for further communication between the Mods and the author, if necessary.

A story will only be removed if the concerns A) are not satisfactorily addressed, B) the author is incommunicative, or C) the author declines to discuss or otherwise cooperate with the Mod team. In all cases, story removal is considered a last resort.