Greetings everyone. I'm Archelot, though I also went by a few other names in the past. I have about ten years of RP experience, though as of recent it's a hobby I haven't engaged with much. A part of the reason behind that I realized is that I can't quite find an RP to suit my needs. I've been thinking with an idea of what my ideal RP would look like for a few months now, and though I always regarded it as little more than a fanciful daydream, I came across this Interest Check board and I figured it might be worth a shot to see if other people would be interested in something like this.

As a small p.s. although I've served as both an admin and moderator on a number of sites and took part in creating a few sites in terms of writing, I never actually made THE site itself, so if anyone reading this has some experience and interest and would like to join and help I'd love to hear from you. Of course, anyone else who is interested in joining me as a team in the creation process outside of the actual page creation is also welcome to contact me. For all who are interested please send me a message on here. We can also communicate through Discord or even make a server if there's enough people interested in coming on board.

Now, for what the RP itself actually is. What I have in mind is quite expansive in scale and has a bunch of small ideas and details that may or may not get implemented down the road so I'm gonna try and keep the core idea of what the RP is to some simple terms and features.

At it's core my idea is for an Urban Fantasy RP that's inspired by the Nasuverse as a whole and takes heavy cues from its approach to world design and setting elements, without hopefully being wholly derivative and while providing a unique and interesting twist on vanilla urban fantasy lore. Besides the Nasuverse as an overarching design inspiration, influences from Code Vein, Bleach, Tokyo Ghoul and probably half a dozen other series are present in some minor or moderate ways, especially in terms of aesthetics and "combat" feel.


Some of the features that I would highlight and being important to me personally when considering how the RP should function and I believe serve as decent selling points:

Freedom but with a focus - This is probably the core tenant of what I want from the site and what I found myself missing while looking at a lot of the existing RPs. It's also why I say the Nasuverse is the core of what I want this RP to be. I've noticed that a lot of Urban Fantasy RPs in particular tend to gravitate towards a very simple set up of "Threat to humanity/evil" and "Organization/school established to combat that evil" and that's what the entire RP revolves around, often with school and the training of those who are supposed to combat the evil being a focal point and a large number of characters belonging to the student body of staff of said school. Not to deride any of those RPs or people who enjoy them but to me it was never super appealing and a bit too "shouneny" for my liking.

In that light, the RP I envision will not focus on a binary choice on what side of a supernatural struggle you're on, nor will it have a central school or organization but rather is meant to be constructed in such a way to give relatively absolute freedom for characters to be what they want and to fit into the world how they want. To once more reference the Nasuverse as a whole, there isn't really a "central conflict" the whole setting revolves around. Most of the things that happen are one-off incidents and things that tend to come about due to very personal and often small scale private goals and desires and they're rarely just about an "enemy of humanity" threatening safety and peace as a everyday occurrence. There are demons and demons are hunted but that's not what the central conflict of the setting is. There are vampires and vampires are hunted but that's not what the central conflict of the setting is. There is a magic school and people train to be mages but that's not what the central conflict of the setting is. You get the idea. I want to create that sort of environment. A setting where the plot isn't driven by one overarching "us vs them" conflict but is instead the baseline for any number of motivations, goals and ideas for a character to pursue and to naturally allow conflict and interaction to bloom from it. Things like a village of hermits and sages that appears and disappears at will. A mage who is trying to sacrifice multiple lineages to reincarnate a figure of legend because they're madly in love with them. A bizarre incident involving people becoming fused together into monstrous amalgams with seemingly no clear explanation. These are just random examples and not necessarily even indicative of what would be in the RP, but I hope you get the idea and meaning behind them.

Now, I understand that such an approach in an RP setting rather than a written work can be disjointed, which is where the "focus" in Freedom but with a focus comes in. The setting will still have a "central plot pillar" so to speak, key elements and plot points which are to a lesser or greater degree common to all characters and can serve as an easy way to plot together, do things, organize events or bring a large number of characters together easily. But it's also meant to be lightweight enough to allow characters of all walks of life to both interact and not interact with it as much or as little as they want without breaking immersion or seeming odd. The core idea is that whether you made a character who is a traveling merchant mage selling arcane trinkets, an awkward college students coming to grips with newly discovered supernatural powers or a hardened vampire knight serving some higher power who refuses to engage with mundane modern life, all three should have roughly equal plausible reasons to interact with the central plot elements or ignore them. Likewise I want all three to be able to casually engage in slice of life stuff, but I imagine that's a lot easier for players themselves to arrange anyway. This is something I'll go into more detail once I get to the actual setting and can talk a bit more about the details.

This idea of freedom in general extends to most aspects of both character creation and role playing, I want people to be able to make what they like. I'm sure some things will have to be banned but in general as long as the approach is reasonable I think most ideas are workable so long everyone involved is mature about it.

Semi-open and unique lore - I already alluded to this but I wanna add to it for clarification's sake. I say that this is meant to be an Urban Fantasy RP but with a unique lore twist and the emphasis here is on the twist part. I'm not here to reinvent the wheel or to create things unheard of or that are wholly original, hell you can see that what I am aiming to create is explicitly derivative to a degree. What I do want is to take a step away from the usual "the supernatural in real and here is a small town setting for the supernatural creatures of folklore to interact with supernaturally inclined humans" or the "here is a uniform straightforward magic system for everyone to follow". I want to generally provide a bit more intrigue, a more unique premise that lends itself to generating conflict and interactions depending on how players utilize it and I want to for the lack of a better word remix and reinvent the tropes of Urban Fantasy. To reach back to my trusty explanation and design crutch, the Nasuverse, note how its Vampires function slightly differently from the usual ones and how although they share the same traits to a large degree as the usual popular culture depiction of vampires they have elements wholly unique to them and are of a largely different nature with a wildly different backstory and idea to their existence than what is usually done with vampires? That's the degree of "unique" I'm aiming for here. I'm a big fan of myth, legend, history etc. and I wanna give people the opportunity to play around with those, especially with the most popular archetypes such as mages, werewolves, vampires and the like but with a unique twist that's couched in the premise itself, which again you can read more about down below.

As an addendum, I intend for the lore to be semi-open as the title of the point suggests. While lore is important to me and I want it to be cohesive and nice I think it's always good to be open to ideas people have and fit in well with the setting so suggesting stuff or working with site staff to make a character concept work that exceeds the current lore understanding or adds to it will always be an option.

Interesting, interwoven, asymmetrical and lightweight factions - I really like factions as a concept. It can add a lot of flavour, a sense of progression and an easy way to put characters together and get plots going. They're also a great world building tool and something to enrich a setting. In that sense the factions in this RP are meant to be a bonus for you and your character rather than something to tie them down. Since I already mentioned that there won't be a central school or organization (at least not one with a spotlight and focus on it as the centerpiece of the RP), factions are meant to be more of a "loose" association of individuals than anything else. Going back to the first point about what the setting is, the idea is always that your character can be a part of a faction formally, but still their own person with goals, motivations and aspirations that exist outside the purview of the faction. Think, a lodge of mages who like to discuss ideas and debate each other on magical philosophies and maybe even mentor students from time to time. They're not "staff at a school" and more acquaintances or friends with common interests who hang out every month or so.

The same is true for the "central plot" factions that will drive conflict and be integral to the premise. To begin with they're all optional, but even if you're part of one you're still an individual who just so happens to answer to a specific power that be rather than a uniformed solider in a strictly organized army. Again it all boils down to freedom and not overwriting character archetypes and concepts while having the option to engage with a central overarching plot in a way that feels natural.

That's about it for the general points I'd like to make. Down below I'll cover a bit of the premise and lore as I envisioned it. It's just a small fraction of what I've thought up and what I'm potentially considering for this but I wanna share some of the basics, the premise most of all.


I

"For most people everyday life is rather mundane. So mundane in fact that it's easy to forget that humans have believed in and greatly concerned themselves with questions of the supernatural for most of their existence. From folk tales which serve as a cautionary tale for children, all the way back to the myths of creation, human existence had always been interwoven with the mystical and unknowable. Perhaps even more notable are the mythical event horizons which defined what it means to be a human and what sort of world humans are to inhabit. The flood myths, the opening of Pandora's Box, the destruction of the Tower of Babel, were in their original telling threshold events, one kind of world and humanity existed prior to them and a completely different kind carried on afterwards.

From the point of view of modern humanity, such events are little more than allegorical tales and myths of a people who did not truly understand the world. There's little need for the average person to concern themselves with them. War, famine, political instability, health and environmentalist crises are the largest scale paradigm shifts modern society can conceptualize. The idea that the Gods might be wrathful or that they might on a whim wipe away humanity and start anew does not cross people's minds.

Yet, it is rather strange to think how much the human experience can change in timespan that cannot be described as anything but short on the cosmic scale. To humanity, being in the presence of a God and forgetting about that same God a thousand years later may seem like an entirely reasonable course of events. But, how would the Gods see such an interaction? Would they show understanding for the forgetful nature of humanity? Would they feel a need to remind them? Would they react with scorn and wrath? After all, a thousand years is more than a single human mind can truly comprehend, but to Gods it may as well be the blink of an eye.

Well, the Gods have blinked.

And they are opening Pandora's box anew."

II

"On the night when silver stars rained, there was not a man, woman or child who did not gaze up at the sky. A sight which put any fireworks or festival to shame, it was unlike even past meteor showers and comets passing the Earth. All told, it lasted no more than a minute. People naturally moved on with their lives, keeping only a fond memory of what they perceived to be the beauty of nature and the universe in its purest form. Yet, not all who witnessed the event did move on.

Some stood frozen unmoving and unable to take their eyes off the night sky. Other dove to the ground closing their eyes and covering their heads like children hiding from a thunderstorm. Though their actions might have been perplexing to those who happened to witness them, from the point of view of those reacting it was the most natural thing to do.

After all, once the shower of stars had subsided, like a veil falling away they revealed something in the night sky. Something only a select few could see. An ornate gate, seemingly made out of constellations hung in the sky like a half finished canvas. It was an incomprehensible sight. Somehow, everyone who could see the gate could see it in full, yet at the same time they could not help but think that it was somehow bigger than the visible nightsky itself. It was dizzying and headache inducing whenever their eyes darted from one corner to the other, almost as though the distance their line of sight had to covered was too much as illogical as it was.

None yelled out or tried to tell others. Somehow their mouths would not move and somehow they knew that it was pointless and that none could see what they were gazing at. Some were alone, others stood fixed in their spot until they were alone, others who had reacted more dramatically were taken indoors or to a medical facility due to an apparent mental break. Yet, those who remained staring saw a change in the gate. A steps, one by one appeared and trailed down from the cosmos itself down towards the Earth.

That night, all humans who bore witness to the manifestation of the gate had their sense of normalcy shattered.

The rest of humanity would surely follow."


Premise: In the near future, after a millennia of a rational existence devoid of the supernatural a change occurs. As the mythological order of humanity is waning and is slowly languishing away, four amalgams, consisting of minor and forgotten Panetheons, Demiurges and the like make their move to upend it all. They name themselves Eidolons and cross out from the immaterial realm into Earth and with them bring a shower of Lacrima, mysticism given form. Their pact and cooperation is what allowed them to create the conditions to do so, but from the moment they crossed the boundary and the moment the Cosmos Gate appeared in the sky they became rivals. Among them only one would be able to ascend to the Heavens and become the new mythological foundation of the world.

But theirs is not a game for four players, but for all of humanity. A mythological framework cannot be forged in a world that is wholly mundane. Just as the four Eidolons are themselves remnants of Gods past and forgotten, so is the Lacrima they let spill into the world the catalyst for humanity's arcane vestiges to reawaken. People who lived everyday normal lives up until recently now find themselves wielding magic, reawakening phantasmal lineages of mythical beasts or making pacts with higher forces. Though the reawakened humans are free to do as they will, each Eidolon naturally seeks to amass followers and servants to ensure success over their rivals.

It will be up to humans to choose whom to side with.

Unless they seek to oppose them instead.


Terms:

Eidolon - The four Eidolons are the last sentient shred of Pantheons and Demiurges, forgotten by time. They are amalgams and a compromise of hundreds if not thousands Gods each. They do not govern individual realms or aspects of the world as they are too diluted to have any real focus and are more akin to differing philosophies in a corporeal form. Though they don't act overtly on their own unless their hand is forced, they do offer power to select humans who did not reawaken due to Lacrima for servitude. Though each has their own interests and a myriad of minor goals, each of the four in the end seeks to accumulate Lacrima and ascend the Cosmos Gate.

Cosmos Gate - A supermassive metaphysical gate in the sky. The gate is only visible to those who have a tie to the supernatural and serves an omnipresent to the new state of things. The Gate was created by the four Eidolons pooling their power to upend the status quo, yet only one of the four will be able to cross the Gate's threshold. The key to opening the gate is in fact the Lacrima spilled when the Eidolons manifested into reality.

Lacrima - The Tears of Heaven, a shining silver liquid which is mysticism and mystery made material. A large quantity rained down as a star shower when the Eidolons appeared. It is Lacrima which has fueled the renewed appearance of the supernatural and has changed a small portion of humanity. Lacrima is scattered at diluted now. It accumulates naturally along ley lines but collecting it from that flow is arduous and slow akin to trying to fill an olympic swimming pool by scooping up morning dew with your hands. Lacrima when collected in sufficient quantities crystalizes into silver gems. Though most Lacrima is hoarded by the Eidolons for the Cosmos Gate it sometimes also sees general use among awakened individuals. It can be used as a healing aid, as a source of arcane fuel or a means to temporarily strength one's abilities. It effectively functions as currency for the supernatural. For some races it can also be used to regulate their innate urges and needs such as acting as a replacement for blood among the Purebloods. Most Lacrima is collected during Coalescences.

Coalescence - A spontanous formation of multiple high yield Lacrima gems. The Coalescence is usually caused by something drawing the Lacrima in, with it being drawn to a particular place, event or person, but they can at times appear randomly. Coalescence Lacrima are incredibly potent and tend to change both the people and the environment in their vicinity over time. They can embed themselves into people to create new lifeforms or even section off a part of space and start changing it drastically. Followers of the four Eidolons tend to rush to these incidents are collecting Lacrima is their foremost task. The incidents tend to attract others not affiliated with the Eidolons as well due to the inherent value of Lacrima.



Archetypes or probably more commonly called Races is the options people have to choose when making their character. While each Archetype is meant to be distinct and offer something unique and interesting they're more meant for flavour, style, aesthetic and personal preference than anything else. Going back to an influence I mentioned, think Bleach and how it handles its different races where they all sorta have analogue-ish stuff at their disposal while also having a few unique things and just being stylish and different takes on somewhat conceptually similar ideas. Regardless of what Archetype you pick, if you want your character to be able to throw a fire ball you can make it happen, the details, drawbacks, execution and the nitty gritty stuff depends on the Archetype.

Mages - The most vanilla option in the sense that Mages retain most of their humanity and are the most straightforward. They sometimes group themselves together in lodges and their education is mentorship based. Given that the arcane knowledge of old has mostly expired, they don't practice the usual kinds of magecraft that people might be used to but rather each mage develops their own magical theory. Imagine all the laws of physics came undone tomorrow and you have a bunch of people dropping apples trying to figure out at what speed they should be falling for when they introduce gravity 2.0. Some have ideas of what magic in ancient times used to be and they could very well be inspired by what once was, but they have to do the legwork themselves to make things work. Of the four Archetypes they're the one that least depends on Lacrima, but is also the most adept at manipulating it and using it as fuel so it's still valuable to them. Some use it as a quasi-drug to induce meditative states to further their magic theory.

In terms of a powerset Mages are pretty straightforward, they have one Magic Theory they adhere to and any number of spells under it. They don't have too much width in terms of mixing and matching stuff but they have a lot of depth and versatility that comes with that depth. Their drawbacks tend to be less drastic than others but more predictable too. Whereas other Archetypes might deal with a massive issue from time to time based on the whims of their supernatural existence Mages tend to experience their drawback as a result of using their magic, pretty straightforward stuff.

Purebloods - Purebloods or as sometimes called by others in a derogatory fashion Vilebloods are the closest thing there is to Vampires. Though they don't suffer most of the weaknesses classical Vampires do, they still abhor the sun and being exposed to it actively weakness them. They must consume the blood of humans to to live, though high grade Lacrima gems can stave off the hunger for considerable periods of time. Vampires can do a number of things such as turn ordinary people into their undead servants, fashion powerful familiars out of simple beasts or use a variety of quasi-hypnotic powers through eyesight as well as regenerate of course.

Their bread and butter though is their Blood Arm, a weapon formed of their own blood with its own abilities which grows in power as it takes more blood from its master who in turn becomes more drained. Purebloods cannot turn others with a bit as is the case with Vampires but they can offer them their own blood and and grant them a portion of their power, giving the receiving person a derivative Blood Arm and effectively turning them into a retainer. This is incredibly draining and costly effectively halving the Pureblood's own power for a while and is generally not done casually. Someone who receives the blood of a Pureblood can become one eventually meaning that even unawakened people can become Purebloods.

Chimeras – Those who awakened to a non-human lineage buried in their history. They’re in some ways analogues to Werewolves but in general are much broader comprising of individuals sharing traits with harpies, mermen, manticores, dragons, centaurs, minotaurs, basilisks, sphinxes, kitsune etc. Anything that’s clearly not human and vaguely beast oriented falls into this category. Chimeras tend to exhibit some subtle traits of whatever their Chimeric Origin is, and can manifest a number of different traits such as claws, wings, fangs and whatever abilities come with those body parts. Some can even manifest traits from different ancestries. Generally speaking the more aggressive they use their powers to more their physical traits change to match effectively making it a gradual transformation. Some learn to shapeshift wholly into a beastial form while others function not unlike a werewolf becoming an amalgam of their human form and the bestial lineage. All Chimeras have some minor shapeshifting and regenerative capabilities regardless of their lineage. The shapeshifting lets them change some of their basic traits in appearance as humans and can hide any obvious Chimeric features such as scales or fangs. Their regeneration isn't quite comparable to that of Purebloods but is still effective at closing small wounds and they tend to be capable of recovering from serious and heavy injuries in relatively short time spans compared to humans.

Their main drawback is that they have an impulse towards violence and aggressive behavior as well as an almost insatiable hunger. Their aggression does not necessarily manifest itself always as rage and can be dependent on the Chimeric Origin in question. Their impulse and strength waxes and wanes with the moon not unlike traditional Werewolves. Lacrima can be used to both control their impulses as well as access the peak of their strength reserved for a Full Moon whenever.

Unlike the other Archetypes while their powers tend to be slightly less flashy and more predictable they’re the only Archetype that does not suffer any notable drawbacks for using their powers as they are natural and inborn into their body and no different than a human exercising their own muscles, though that does mean they can also get exhausted.

Pact Keepers – Exactly what the name suggests. Pact Keepers are in fact ordinary humans who have entered a covenant with a higher power, often an Eidolon or a representative of theirs and are given a small portion of their benefactor’s power as a Familiar. Despite the usual association with demons, Familiars are largely agnostic in terms of an affiliation to orders or chaos but can carry the appearance or connotation of one or the other. The Familiar does not reside in its own body or the body of their Pact Keeper but rather inhabits an item, most often a piece of clothing or accessory the Pact Keeper keeps on themselves at all times.

The item effectively becomes the body of the Familiar and it can twist it and change its shape and form as it needs. A pair of gloves can easily become a whirling set of blades, a coat can elongate itself into a spear to skewer, a ring can grow in size and be swung around on a chain like a morning star. While the familiar of a Pact Keeper can be sent out to do things on its own, for combat it tends to stay attached to the Pact Keeper. More advanced Pact Keepers can transform their Familiar into armor which partially covers their body and with complete mastery even becomes a complete suit, not only offering excellent protection to the Pact Keeper but also granting them their Familiar’s power for a while. Pact Keepers tend to have a single main Familiar but can sometimes make lesser pacts with a few Familiars.

The drawback to being a Pact Keeper is pretty simple… they have to keep a pact. Their Familiar will whisper to them whenever they want to compel their Keeper to do something. Some Familiars might urge their Keeper to steal, some to vandalize certain places, to not stop on a particular colour for an amount of time etc. What each Familiar wants depends on the Familiar and differs from case to case. The longer a Pact Keeper goes without indulging their Familiar the weaker they get.



That’s about it for the character Archetypes. I have a few more ideas and things in the work both in terms of additional Archetypes and some other concepts related to the setting but I haven’t figured them out to the same extent yet and to be honest this post is already pretty long so that’s it from me for now.

Hope you found this interesting and thank you for taking your time to read this. ^^