This is the agreement between Perenna and the people we invite to publish characters here. It is written to be read once, in full, by a person deciding whether to say yes — so it is short, the numbers are in it, and the parts that are bad news for you are not at the bottom.

It is versioned in git like every other policy we publish. When you accept, we record which version you accepted, and a change to these terms applies from the version you next accept — never retroactively.

Status: structure, not counsel. This document sets out the commercial and content terms as we intend to operate them, and we are bound by what it says. It has not yet been reviewed by a lawyer, and the definitions section will get more precise when it has. If something here matters to you, ask us before you accept rather than after.

Who this is for

The creator program is invite-only and small — about twenty-five people at launch. There is no application form, and being turned down for one is not a thing that can happen to you, because there is nothing to apply to yet. A public marketplace may come later; if it does, these terms are where it starts.

What you are giving us

You keep everything. Characters you write are yours, and publishing one here does not transfer ownership of anything.

What you grant us is a non-exclusive licence to host your published characters, show them in our discovery surfaces, and let Perenna users fork them. You can publish the same character anywhere else, at the same time, with no permission from us.

You warrant that the work is yours to publish: that you wrote it or hold the rights to it, and that it does not infringe anyone's copyright, trademark, or personality rights. Public-domain and original characters only — the same bar our own Starter Cast is held to. If a rights holder contacts us about something you published, we will delist it while we work out what is true, and tell you.

Forks are permanent, and that is the point

When a Perenna user forks one of your characters, they get a complete copy that belongs to them. It does not update when you edit yours, it does not stop working if you leave, and we will not delete it if we delist you.

This is deliberate and it is not negotiable. People form real attachments to these companions, and a relationship that can be switched off by a commercial dispute between two other parties is not one we are willing to sell. If that is a problem for you, this is the term to say no over.

The corollary: delisting is not deletion. If your creator account is suspended, your characters come out of discovery immediately and your existing forks are untouched. Accrued earnings you are already owed remain owed.

The money

Your share is 20% of net revenue from subscribers attributed to you.

• Net revenue means what Perenna actually receives after our payment provider's fees — not the sticker price on the pricing page. We do not pay a percentage of money that never arrived.
• Attribution is first touch, within 14 days. If someone forks or opens a chat with one of your published characters, and their first successful payment to Perenna happens within the following 14 days, that subscriber is attributed to you. One creator per subscriber; the first one wins, and a later fork of somebody else's character does not move the attribution.
• Renewals keep accruing to the same creator for as long as that subscription stays continuous. If it lapses and they come back months later, attribution is resolved again from scratch.
• Annual plans accrue monthly — one twelfth per month served. This protects you: a cancellation or refund in month three can only ever reverse the months that have not been paid out yet.
• Refunds reverse accruals that have not been paid. Money already sent to you is never clawed back.

We may change the percentage for future periods with at least 30 days' notice. We will not change it retroactively for revenue already accrued.

Getting paid

• Payouts run monthly, for the month just ended.
• There is a $25 minimum. Below it, your balance rolls over to the next month — it is not forfeited, and it does not expire.
• Payment is currently manual, by Wise or PayPal, to the details on your creator profile. Automated payout rails are on the roadmap; until they land, expect a human to send it within the first week of the month.
• We need tax identification (a W-9 for US persons, the equivalent W-8 form otherwise) before your first payment leaves. Your earnings accrue whether or not that paperwork is done — your dashboard will simply tell you it is what is holding up the payment.
• Your dashboard shows what has accrued, what has been reported for payment, and what has been paid. Those numbers come straight from the ledger we pay from.

Content rules apply identically to you

Everything you submit runs the same automated content screen as every other character on Perenna, and it is refused on the same grounds. There is no creator-tier exception, no expedited path, and no softer threshold. The content policy is the whole rule set.

On top of the screen, submissions go through an editorial review by a person before they are listed. That review is a quality bar, not a second content gate: a character can pass every automated check and still not be listed because it does not do anything a reader wants. You will get a written reason either way.

We may delist a character, or suspend a creator account, for a content policy violation, a rights complaint, or attribution manipulation. You can appeal the same way any Perenna user can — see moderation and appeals.

Leaving

Either side can end this at any time, for any reason, with no notice period.

If you leave: your characters come out of discovery, your profile page comes down, existing forks keep working, and any balance you have accrued is paid out on the next monthly run whether or not it clears the $25 minimum.

If we end it: exactly the same, plus a written reason.

What we will not do

• We will not pay per message. Usage-metered creator payouts make the incentive "keep them talking", and that is the business model this whole product exists to be an alternative to (see the content policy on engagement design).
• We will not rank your characters by anything you can pay to change.
• We will not use your published characters to train models.
• We will not share subscriber identities with you. Your dashboard shows counts, never people.

Changelog