There has been some internal discussion among both runners and moderators about rules surrounding The Blood Maiden. This is mostly relevant for "open world" categories, like the (obsolete) capstone categories, and several proposed categories, like level 1-60 or Tormented Lilith or Level 1 - Citadel runs.

As it stands, players competing in any category May not use/participate in The Blood Maiden. This is for a handful of reasons. Notably, there are concerns about an advantage while levelling (e.g. being likely to receive assistance from other players, removing the strategic planning + skilled execution required to be efficient at low levels). Relatedly, this would mean that there's a "time window" for runs to be likely to get off the ground -- notably, the beginning of new seasons, when lower world tiers are likely to be highly populated and the Blood Maiden will be well attended.

With the proposal of new endgame categories (1-Torment 4 Lilith, 1-Torment Citadel) in Season 6 and Beyond, there is some concern that prohibiting Blood Maiden may unduly restrict interesting strategies, especially those that rely on items from Zir, who is summoned using Blood.

There is a proposal that's been shopped somewhat, gathering opinion from runners and moderators, to change the way Blood Maiden is regulated, to allow participation under restricted circumstances.

Should Blood Maiden be allowed? Under what circumstances?

The two proposed restrictions are:

(a) Players may participate in Blood Maiden, if and only if they provide one or more of the baneful hearts for her summoning. Players may not use pre-farmed baneful hearts for this purpose, the baneful hearts used must be acquired during the run.

(b) Players may participate in Blood Maiden, but only after achieving level 60. This prevents any levelling advantage from being accumulated, while still allowing for target farming of blood for Zir.

Which of these restrictions should be imposed? Should Blood Maiden remain banned? Should both restrictions be imposed? Please keep in mind that finding a balance of opportunities for interesting strategies, skill expression, good decisionmaking from the runner, and ease of enforcement/moderation is the priorities that should be considered in any rule change.