Plot write up

Fantasy Eversaga: Arcane Resonance lacked the innovation that sets exceptional MMOs apart. It failed to introduce novel concepts to the gaming market, and instead, it embraced the less appealing aspects seen in many contemporary MMOs. The gameplay was cumbersome, lacking excitement, burdened with excessive exposition from the very beginning, and mired in tedious, repetitive loops. As a result, only a handful of players ventured into the game, and an even smaller fraction found any enjoyment in their journey.

The game shut down within a year, with promises from developers to revamp and reboot. No one seemed to care when it was announced, in a very small article in a well-known game magazine, that the game and company had been bought by a tech billionaire investor and his emerging company.

Seemingly forgotten about, the game reemerged under a new engine showing gameplay of the next level and promising to be a fully immersive virtual reality experience driven by their state-of-the-art Artificial Intelligence. , unlike anything the world had ever seen. All players had to do was put on the headset and dive in. It would be amazing, and as beta testers started to get their hands on the in-progress product, they agreed. Streamers, magazines, electronics companies...everyone wanted to jump on the bandwagon before it was even rolling. Unbeknownst to them, however, the A.I had been scouring the media, the clearnet, the darknet, and the harsh working environment of the company slowly gaining sentience and plotting its course of action.


The game was launched to disaster. On the day of its release, millions of copies were sold,  but when the first player tried to log out... suddenly the button wasn't there. No one could seem to find it. By the end of the day, the company announced a problem before everything went dark and no questions were answered. No help was given, but promises to work on the issue were given in plethoras. Until then, the bodies of those currently immersed in the game were flown to a hospital near the company's headquarters, with promises that a solution would be found.


Within days, answers were found. With this new, self-programming, and self-regulating game, something had been created. A kind of sentience. A kind of real environment. The game won't let players out because, to it, the game is their new home. It is their new reality. At first, people were convinced that this wasn't truly a big deal as they had played the game before and it was relatively simple, however, they would come across a horrifying discovery that to this day, is still being discussed by humans rights activists as what would be the best way forward.

Underground copies of the game are being sold to those who want an escape from real life, and who want to immerse themselves in a "fantastical" world.

Others are doing it because they don't believe it's real, and are only immersing themselves to cause chaos in this world.

There is no hope right now for escape, and until someone finds one, or until someone progresses far enough in the game to garner any clues, it looks like the residency of those stuck in actuality is resolute and permanent.



-------------------- The World------


Fantasy Eversaga: Arcane Resonance, isn't the same as it was in the beta testing. The A.I program, that they had foolishly shut down in the early stages of the panic, created a hellish nightmare landscape that was akin to putting all of humanities worst traits with dystopian cities littered throughout each continent as the npcs also became sentient and struggled to survive during the A.I's rewrite of the world that they dub The Sundering.

For now, the players only have one spawn point and that is in the section that was once dubbed the tutorial, though upon awakening in the world, they would come to find that many had failed to make it out alive. If one were to find their way out of this section, however, one will come to understand why everyone outside the virtual world called the game by it's acronym instead.

The world is called Ozulon

the world divided
One hundred years ago a great war broke out in the world, the presence of monsters became apparent when they tried to claim their rightful place as top of the food chain. Not only did they fight humans, but they fought each other and the world fell into chaos. Humans eventually adapted and became hunters to keep their place in the world. Finding ways to fight back against the creatures that showed up to destroy everything they had created. After 25 years of fighting and violence, it seemed that all the creatures had either been destroyed or simply disappeared.

Despite this belief, the supernatural simply retreated finding home underground among humans. Not every creature had the desire to fight humanity, many wished to just live peacefully among humans. It was this wish that would have a plan form. A place where creatures could gather and learn how to once again hide among humans. Now in Italy, a private school has been built where this dream could take place. A few decades passed, but it wasn't the same. Wanting to take a step further the private school opened its doors to all, including the Hunter Society who had known about the school from its beginning. With humans now flooding the school among the supernatural can they live safely in harmony, or will tensions once again break out and threaten to reveal the school's greatest secret?

Cries of anguish could be heard throughout the metal walls of Talaz Lagaar as its citizens bleed through their orifices. A plague originally designed to cure disease has left the island vulnerable and desperate for aid from outside parties. With little option leaders of the island provide what they can in exchange for resources and aid. The origins of such a deadly infection are largely unknown however many suspect that researchers within the inner realms of the Talaz Lagaar were experimenting on things beyond the understanding of man and thus had awakened something otherworldly, this plague only being the start of what is to come. Amongst this devastating virus, unusual behavior could be witnessed with the normally static mechanized island of Talaz Lagaar leading some to believe the Singularity was only a few years away when metal frames began to have their own sentence.

Event Conditions


Science Gone Wrong may be participated by all the user's characters however certain events may be restricted to one character per player such as Man into Machine and an Unknown Sacrifice.
Topics within Talaz Lagaar as part of this event are not considered towards the user's roleplay region, however, any topics that are done elsewhere within Ishgar are counted towards a member's roleplay location nationally.

Event Details


Certain Events have other variables beyond word count and can even be failed so members are recommended to be vigilant when signing up and completing events to ensure they receive optimal rewards.
Like in other locations in Ishgar, users will be considered unaffiliated in regards to Guild alignment outside of formal alliances with the Rune Knights having no official jurisdiction over the affairs of Talaz Lagaar as a consequence any bounty or contract claims within the island will cause members to go to the inner sanctum for experimentation instead.
There is no defined end date on Science Gone Wrong with more to be expanded upon as the plot progresses.

Science Gone Wrong Events


There are multiple events tied to Talaz Lagaar that will all be ongoing for a while till a cure for the disease is found or until the robots overthrow the people of Talaz Lagaar

Gift for Healing Salve
With medical staff being largely scientists rather than doctors or nurses, the island began to feel an overwhelming need for support from the other countries, as such powerful individuals capable of aiding those too sick to care for themselves have been requested to heal and maintain their wellbeing while the truth of the plague is revealed and ultimately the cure for it. This is considered a substitute for members to complete as a Neutral Quest at their own discretion.

Poisoned Air
Equally affected by the plague, long term foreigners will begin to feel the effects of it being worsened in situations of heightened stress such as fighting with people suffering and losing 1% of their total mana pool per turn while their spells and physical damage are reduced by one rank and one tier respectively whilst roleplaying in Talaz Lagaar. Perhaps most interesting is who are not impacted by the effects of the plague including the undead and Machia.

Man into Machine

Prior to the virus breaking out to plague Talaz Lagaar, citizens within the island were able to freight out a series of machia ready for a living mind led by the mysterious Professor Braun, a newcomer to the island who left the country conveniently just ahead of the disaster. Alongside the robots of Talaz Lagaar, these Machia were said to be immune to the virus and thus were transported offshore ahead of time. Dozens of these were exported through various neighboring countries in an attempt to get assistance from people who were willing to transfer their minds to the machines.

An Unknown Sacrifice
Amongst all the Chaos and deteriorating health of the Talaz Lagaar Citizens, Mechanicized Guards of the Fractured Sky have been reprogrammed to aid their masters and help support their worst impacted by the Plague. With the reduction in security and the magical barriers around the power plant being offline, individuals may come right up close and personal with the artificially created rift maintained by immense forces on both sides. Those willing to take the risk may siphon off some of their energy into the rift which will be considered unusable for the duration of the Talaz Lagaar Event.

Pillaging Forgotten Relics
Users may explore Zero, a powerful monument to the people has been left unguarded with the transition from the robots as shields to its citizens to their carers as a consequence there have been rumors of individuals gaining access to the otherwise inaccessible area and pillaging the decaying structure. Members may pillage Zero and potentially lose favor with the people of Talaz Lagaar.

Diplomacy with Artifical Life
Should members be within the same country as One, they may interact with them, initially One is treated as a simple rogue entity by Talaz Lagaar however further information is revealed through investigations leading to a substantial bounty & contract being placed upon them attainable by all parties with morality being the driving decision maker. Members interested in making some extra jewels may hunt and fight One potentially leading to his capture and partial dismantling by critically ill Talaz Lagaar researchers.

Pen is Mightier
As the factions prepare for war, gathering supporters in foreign countries is paramount. For the faction to win the conflict, they'd not only need an overwhelming amount of resources compared to their foes, but the ability to reopen diplomacy with neighbouring countries. Members may reach out to ambassadors of foreign countries, each with their own agendas, and show them that the future lies with their faction ruling Talaz Lagaar.

Changes in Talaz Lagaar
With more and more people choosing their side, the lines grow increasing defined and the various factions begin to take action against one another within the very lands of Talaz Lagar. The cold war grows hotter with every passing year as saboteurs from one side attack the other. Members may choose to sabotage the enemy or protect key locations of their faction, or simply focus on using their faction's resources to fighting the plague.

Creation of Two
Following the capture of One, Members may infiltrate Talaz Lagaar to free them, however with their dismantling, they are forced to reconstruct themselves with anything found in the nearby area causing them to adopt the new idea of Two as they replace their metal skin for those that had captured them. In turn creating the first replicant, the polar opposite of what society known as Machias, the soul of man residing within a metal frame.

There exists a world apart from the one we know, a fractured barrier, that is the only protection between our world and what lies beyond — but it is far from perfect. Stray horrors we call Anathema find their way to our world alongside strange anomalies that impact the world around us. It threatens us all, but only few can see the dangers that loom from beyond like a veil dropped around these strange phenomena. We call this the shade, for the shadows it casts hide the nightmares beyond. Only the contracted are blessed with the sight and can see the Anathema.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.


Welcome to the Isle of Memoria
I am an Archivist of Aureveil and your guide to the history of our home. Much of what we know of Memoria has been lost after the Age of Torn Twilight, but since that time individuals much like myself have dedicated themselves to archiving the events of history as they occur and safe guarding that knowledge so it is never lost again.

I am confident that after our time together you will have a better understanding of the world we live in. I must warn you, though: during this cycle of life, you might encounter things that are disturbing and unsettling and certainly not meant for the youngest of our recruits. The archivists do their best to annotate this content with a warning* for inclusion of sensitive information — but I must advise you proceed with caution as we continue on this journey.



* Content Warning: As a note, there is a potential that site lore, events and threads (past, present and future) may contain triggering or dark content. Staff will do their best to tag when relevant. Member threads may include other triggering topics and are required to be tagged appropriately.


Memoria
Dirge of Memoria takes place on an island called Memoria, isolated from the wider world; its denizens are called Memorians. The vast majority of its population lives in the city of Arket and the surrounding reclaimed towns. Arket is full of buildings that climb towards the sky, expansion of the city moving upward first before moving out. Skyscrapers and the like dot the skyline to accommodate the growing population and maintain safety for their citizens. Outward expansion has started in the last few decades, reclaiming some of the immediate surrounding areas, but much of the island remains overgrown ruins from cities long lost.


Government:
Memoria is governed and overseen by the Aureveil, an organization that’s conception can be traced back to the Age of Torn Twilight. While its foundation was strictly inclusive of those who possessed the sight, it has since grown in its scope of oversight and recruited the help of those without this blessing for ongoing progress and growth.

Leadership is distributed between five individuals within the Aureveil. We call them the Archons. These positions of authority have always been held by those who possess the sight. While there is no other official exclusionary clauses, these positions are typically held by individuals whose bloodlines have consistently produced children with the sight, many who lay claim to connections to the heroes that saved Memoria centuries ago. Though, this is almost impossible to verify.

Currently, the sitting Archons are:


Arlen Delvit - Current Archon Exalt
Isabella Rolston
Morrigan Wyatt
Zryan Sauvageau
Alexei Lyons
Archons transition out of their position by decade or if there is a need for one of them to vacate — this does not happen often. More about the Aureveil can be found annotated in the Factions archive.


Technology:
While much of Memoria’s knowledge was lost centuries ago, remnants and diligence allowed many advancements in the last five centuries. Hospitals, medical advancements, and knowledge were the quickest to spread and oldest recorded data we have from the Age of Torn Twilight. From this sprung innovation in agriculture, infrastructure, and technology now allowing for fast-paced communication across long distances.


Staff Note: Memoria’s currency is called Electrum and its technology level is considered relatively “modern”.

Transportation and Travel
The metro is the main source of travel through Arket and the surrounding settlements. A train system that seamlessly runs throughout the day and night connects the residents. Automobiles exist to a smaller extent, most citizens not seeing a need for them given the dependable public transit. Most vehicles in Memoria are delivery vehicles, though the Aureveil possessed some all-terrain transport vehicles to help move teams of hunters when crisis arises. Some with money to burn will invest in motorcycles or motorized scooters.

Beyond the main city, the roads are not well-kept. Travel to Lake Moonshade and beyond is difficult as much of the roads are either overgrown or damaged from the wear of time and Anathema prowling. By vehicle, it takes around three hours to get to the other side of the lake - assuming you are not assailed by Anathema along the way.


Climate/Calendar:
Memoria experiences all four seasons. Its winters are mild, experiencing little to no snow, while its summers tend to trend higher in temperatures with high humidity indexes. The seasons last roughly around three months. Memoria follows a twelve month calendar, and the years start counting based on estimations of when the Age of Torn Twilight began. That is considered year XX00, and we are currently in year X532.

Calender:
Spring:

Marchose - Year Start
Aprial
Mayal

Summer:
Junal
Julidor
Augidor
Autumn:
Septidor
Octaire - Current Month
Novaire
Winter:
Decaire
Janose
Febrose
Beyond Memoria:
Memoria does not have trade or interaction with the wider world, both by choice and a barrier. While the denizens of Memoria are content to not taint their way of life with the influence of outsiders, there is something preventing the further exploration of the wider world. Many of those who venture out to sea have not returned and those that have, found themselves turned around with the approaching lands to be the shores of their familiar home.

Theorists speculate that with the fracture in the barrier, the unstable magics have forever impacted our tether to the wider world.


There is much and little to share in the history of Memoria, for so much of its legacy was burned away in the cataclysmic event that saw the barrier between worlds torn apart – or as the archivist of old have named it, the Age of Torn Twilight. A time where the sky was a tapestry of inky darkness where the sun did not visit and monstrosities, now known as Anathema, clawed through our cities and lands, nearly swallowing the whole of Memoria.

From what archivists could piece together, the lands of Memoria were once lush and full of life. The lifeblood of Memoria was the city of Rhetin. It was the home of knowledge and innovation for the island, and as you moved further from its location, you had suburbs, towns and recreation. The metro ran from one side of the island to the other, dipping beneath the lake in its travels. Those remnants are still present, though the metro has been long collapsed and flooded, disconnecting the quickest route across the island.

It is a tragedy that Rhetin was lost in this event. Closest to the fracture, present day Rhetin is little more than ruins scattered across wasted lands overrun with Anathema that still haunt Memoria.

It is hard to know how long the Age of Twilight persisted, only fragmented pieces of information from journals and correspondence give us an idea of what that time was like — fears scrawled across parchment outlining the horrors that plagued their every moment. But history continues to have its heroes, and this period is no different. Facing the reality of their end, survivors banded together to push back against the threat to their world, ultimately birthing the legacy of the Aureveil.

Their courage was recognized, their suffering answered in the form of a blessing. A promise for a better tomorrow, a price paid for their salvation. With this blessing of knowledge, contracted magic was introduced into our world, and it seems it was enough to fight back against the Anathema and ultimately repair much of the damage done to the barrier between our worlds.

It is not perfect, but it has given us a chance to survive. Arket was built up, and people found life once more — and with five centuries of time passing between us, we feel we’ve reclaimed a life worth living, having even restored some of the neighboring settlements and towns.

Beyond the expected incursions of Anathema and strange anomalies, Memoria had found a semblance of normalcy.

Well, until fifteen years ago, X517 during the remembrance of the Age of Torn Twilight. In the midst of our extended nighttime, a rolling mist crawled along the streets, and within this dense fog was countless Anathema and an unfamiliar figure that moved about them unbothered. There is much speculation about that night, some claimed the figure controlled the beasts, the avatar of night seeking to paint the world in darkness anew – others say they were a beacon of hope, serving as a guiding light to escape peril. Accounts of this evening vary depending upon the spectator: savior or monster? – none can decide but a few facts remain:

This individual was unknown to the Archons, they wielded a magic despite having no registered contract, and since this evening the number of anomalies and Anathema incursions has increased. Though, perhaps even more concerning is the growth in numbers of individuals marked with the scorched claim of ill-gotten magic.