One thing about the SME universe that I see is that it tries to stick to the "Magical Girl" story within a logical framework. (No mean feat there) Yet at the same time we try to work in adult themes. (I don't mean lemons, though a corner of my brain whispers about the escapades of one ship's captain.) My original purpose in connecting the senshi with a wonder and the Ancients was to try and have their powers make some sort of sense and to make them believable. This gives it a hint of sci-fi yet leaves our universe open for magic. If their powers are inexplicable, that is because the Ancients are inexplicable.

I think Mark does the same thing when he takes the Dark Kingdom the same way I take the Silver Millennium and tries to make it make sense. His grounding of power is more along the lines of dimensional/magical but they do not conflict with mine and in fact build on one another. (The number of sci-fi/fantasy stories that involve dimension hopping are uncountable.)

Andy takes this synthesis of the overall SME universe and makes it work in his CT work. Providing a final blend of SiM, DKR, and SM that makes the whole thing work. His forward thinking has helped me to fill in some holes and expand on some SM concepts (such as the cats) that make for a more interesting SME universe.

Sam takes us way the hell out into left field and we are richer by it. (I know it has made me think out some funny situations and "The case of the missing Osaka" is now concrete in my mind, tying up some loose ends in the process.) By paying attention to such questions as, 'what do the DK residents eat" a huge amount of detail and atmosphere has been created. Strangely, opening up the sense of taste has expanded the realm of a written story.

With all this in mind, I feel that certain themes would be outside our universe. (And we are pretty wide open as it is.) So, I would like to start a little list to codify our universe. After we hash this out it would be a good addition to the web page.

1) Overarching Magical Girls setting. This implies that we tie our work to the SM magical girls themes. Inherent in that the main characters are basically good at heart. (Even Margo, who would vehemently deny that, grows into a likable character) Our characters might have additional goals, or have other reasons for it, but they basically stay on the straight and narrow. This just means that the good guys (and I mean gals when I say that) behave good. If you want to write about a psyco-lawful-evil Sailor Moon that uses her power to dominate Endymion, she'd better be an extradimensional villain.

2) No excessively gory stuff. No breaking spines, no gallons of blood, no explicit decapitations. Even when we kill people it should be a little sanitized. We should try and stick to the Magical Girls genre. (A prime example being Titanite's visit to the "Legends of the Overfiend" dimension. Mark, you have my admiration for keeping that one clean. (a feat I thought impossible.) )

3) Stick to magical girl themes. Giant robots, space battleships, buff GI-Joe types toting machine guns should not be permanent fixtures. (Villains? Yes. Plot devices? Yes. Seen unloading a moving van in the SME universe? No.)

4) Character development. The thing we are striving for here is depth of character (the very thing that draws us to SM in the first place). A lot of action is fine, but there must be a point to events where some character feels something. Events should not be without consequence and the consequence should be proportional. (Aw, Luna just got run over by a truck. Bummer. Who wants ice cream?)

5) Don't take it too seriously. Have fun. Go off in strange directions. Make the characters do odd things (but they have to have a reason that makes sense.)

(Part 6 added by Andy Combs)

6) Remember that the E in SME stands for Expanded. I see the main reason for SME's existence as an organized universe to be to expand on the original. In many, many places the anime give the barest details of what happened and why. We are here to fill in the cracks, the nitty-gritty details that the anime never had time for.

Just who are the Youma? Where did they come from? What is the Dark Kingdom?

What was life like in Silver Millennium? How did Beryl Rise to power? Why did she tear it all down?

What will life be like 1000 years from now? Before, during, and after the Black Moon War.

We try to answer those questions and many more. And through it all we try to tell good, entertaining stories.