The Victus Chronicles

Featuring @Jyoliod & @Stern Algorithm

Welcome

Greetings, greetings, I am Jyoliod (Soft 'J' fyi) your GM for this little adventure, a role I take very seriously. But in saying that, I do not view a Game Master as a synonym of 'Overlord' or 'The guy with the gun, so do what he says!' but as a title that commands a certain degree of dedication and effort from it. That said, my goal here is to produce a fun and engaging story equally with you, while trying to ensuring all criticisms, suggestions, ideas and questions are properly addressed, discussed and put into effect! To that length, I not only encourage these things but highly enjoy their arrival, no matter how minor, a question asked now no matter how minor, does not become a problem later. That's my motto, well one of them. With that said, let's move on to more important matters.

You are about to embark on a story whose underlying values will include story progression, character development and the Victus Magic System. The path laid out before you is one of infinite possibilities and where it leads is a mystery, whether that mystery is a series of harrowing secrets or fruitful knowledge, I've no bloody clue, but what I do know for sure is that the adventure will be an experience unlike any other, as we plunge into the Victus Magic System I hope you do your best to enjoy the system but also test the bounds! That said, if we find any gaping holes in the system, expect to be ready to implement 'band aids', little 'hazy' areas of our story aimed at 'covering a hole' and moving on with the fun!

Arc Vault

This little Missy is my bread and butter, here we'll store any current proposed story ideas as 'arcs' that have a well defined plot problem and goal. How we go about interacting with the proposed problem and achieving the goal is up to us as players! But I do hope that you do not hesitate from filling her up with new ideas when you get some!

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Arc Table

This baby is where current and past arcs are collected, it is the start and the end of their pilgrimage into the story by way of our hand. So to refresh yourself on what has happened and what our current goal is, look no further than the Arc Table. The arcs will be organized from newest to oldest, making the top most arc the 'recent' or 'current' arc and the bottom most arc the oldest(additionally, the first) arc.

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Journey's Start

Before our adventure begins, there is some vital pieces of information you should keep in mind before creating your character sheet! That is that the current arc, [Scribe's Grimoire] is built as a prelude arc, because of this when we achieve the goal of this arc, there will be a time gap in the story of one year! Additionally, the characters will never have experienced anything magical in nature before the end of this prelude arc, unless otherwise detailed and accepted by me in your CS. These are things you should keep in mind when writing your character sheet, especially in regards to age and bio.

Additionally, as this is a prelude arc designed to introduce our characters into the world of magic, it might be worth using this prelude to build a little background for your character in regards to how 'normal' their life may be. Although this is a very short arc, there is no need to rush! A path will be laid out for you to follow at your pleasure, anything that does not indicate the following of this path serves only to extend the prelude, but that is by no means a bad thing. Just take your time and have fun!

Please copy and paste what is written bellow, replace the parenthesis and their content with your own information, yadda, yadda, yadda, you know the run of things!

[b]Character Sheet[/b][sup][VICTUS STYLE][/sup]
[b][u]Name:[/u][/b] (First and Last, middle name aswell if your character has one.)
[b][u]Nick Name:[/u][/b] (What do your friends and family call you colloquially?)
[b][u]Age:[/u][/b] (Keep the above information in mind, additionally, ensure it is a high-school range age.)
[b][u]Gender:[/u][/b] (Either Male or Female, I'm not good with buzzwords.)
[b][u]Appearance/Physical:[/u][/b] (The stuff you can't change, figure, height, skin tone, hair style, ect.)
[b][u]Appearance/Attire:[/u][/b] (When not in a uniform or formal wear, what specific or type of clothing can you be seen wearing?)
[b][u]Bio:[/u][/b] (Take some time to help me get to know your character, what is [value:NAME] like in their day to day life?)
[b][u]History:[/u][/b] (What events have lead to the [value:NAME] described above? Is there anything unusual about [value:NAME]'s history?)
[b][u]Weaknesses:[/u][/b] (What are some of the areas this character can grow in? Do they have a crippling weakness of any kind or a phobia?)
[b][u]Strengths:[/u][/b] (Are there any ways this character might be able to carry the weight of others? Are they athletic and have high stamina, or maybe they house an unshakable will when faced by the unknown!)

Note: Weaknesses and Strengths are optional fields if you'd prefer that they be expressed in the RP, additionally, I will not treat them as if they are written in stone, if I see something contradictory, I will just assume you are taking a new direction or you have justified this action from the perspective of your character some how. Essentially I do not put much weight into these two fields, they are just to help give the other player a better grasp of possible development paths and how each character will view certain challenges put before them.

So there are five students in the arc description, should I play one or a couple of them?

Where is this high school located? (Generally speaking, are our characters American, or some other country?)

That is down to your personal preference, though the way Scribe's Grimoire is laid out at the moment you can only have a max of two characters, I could change it to increase the max to four but there is no need if you aren't interested in playing that many in the first place. Ideally a single character would be much easier to start things off, but I do have an arc in mind that would allow us to make two new characters closely tied to our own once they're quite good with magic use. (Think apprentices/students)

Good point on location, for the nitty gritty I think we're best off using a fictional location in a real country/state that way we can keep a more grounded reference of location as well as there wont be a mess of made up country names if/when things get a bit more global, but this is all far thought. As for the state and/or country, do you have any preferences? I can see some advantages for being somewhere in Europe, but the US seems like the most convenient location, as it's pretty easy to reference different parts of the US with its various culture types. (I.E. there is a certain degree of expectation when it comes to living in Mississippi for example)

Character Sheet^{[VICTUS STYLE]}
Name: Hoenhime Exentia

Nick Name: Hoen

Age: 15

Gender: Male

Appearance/Physical: Hoenhime is a rather tall teenager at the height of 5'9" and still growing, he has a bulky figure that is more flab than muscle, however, one wouldn't be able to tell this by his appearance alone. He is a fair skinned young man with a light Caucasian skin tone. His eye iris colour is a steel grey with darker cloudy streaks spiking from the pupil in thin transparent lines to the thick dark outline that borders his iris from the white of his eye. Hoen has very thick long black hair that sits partly past his shoulders, he often tames his mane by tying it back in a tight plat, however, when it is not forced back, his hair will often droop down in clumps of thick black spikes.

Appearance/Attire: Hoenhime doesn't often put much effort into his clothing, and so it can be quite common to see him in a pair of denim jeans, ranging from black and grey to blue, paired with a loose hanging shirt with some type of witty or gothic inspired design on the front. When he is trying to appear slightly more sophisticated, he'll often wear some black dress pants with a long sleeved button up shirt in either dark grey or black. His shoes are a fairly common brand and don't really 'draw the eye' of those around him, they're a simple black and white pallet. Hoen is nearly never seen without a silver ring on his right hand ring finger, left from the pinky.

Bio: Hoenhime is a relatively lacklustre person whose earned a reputation as a cold individual, at several periods in his life others have tried to garner reassurance from Hoen in regards to the loss of loved ones, however, Hoen has never positively engaged these people and sometimes has bought the other party to tears with his direct and insensitive responses. This has made Hoen somewhat unfavourable to others, however, he has managed to compile a few friends who look past his direct and insensitive nature and value Hoen for his harsh honesty if anything else.

Due to his upbringing, Hoenhime considers himself truly unique, yet he often day dreams about what he would do differently. This conflict in his personality has often times gotten the better of him and has created a mind set of cognitive dissonance where in he shuns certain aspects of himself as inferior while portraying others in an attempt to seem stronger than he really is.

History: Hoenhime comes from a wealthy family who has done little more than continue the work of their forefathers to amass and maintain their wealth. To this extent Hoenhime has always been gifted things in life, an aspect that would have no doubt created a selfish megalomaniac out of the young man if it were not for the existence of his older siblings, Marcus and Wayne, two extremely egotistical and spoilt young men who've abused their families wealth to further their own means many times.

Hoenhime considers his brothers the natural result of living such a lavish life style, a thought that has dwelled within his mind to such an extent that Hoenhime literally believes something within him makes him better than people like his brothers, by the very virtue of seeing what has created and not succumbing to their flaws. To this extent Heon has tried to humble himself in many ways, by going to a normal public school, by spending more time away from home then in and by refusing to call on his parents wealth unless he felt it necessary.

This has been the template most of Hoen's natural life has conformed to, resenting his families wealth, resenting his brothers and believing himself to be special due to his introspective nature.

Weaknesses: Hoen's cognitive dissonance has created a rift within himself, he has literally formulated a mind set where expressing weak emotions is a bad thing in his mind and it has taken it's toll on his psyche, often resulting in him becoming angry or lashing out in place of his sorrow or need to cry. Additionally, Hoen believes himself to be special, making him somewhat selfish. Hoen has a fear of power and especially fears what power could do to change the way he thinks.

Strengths: Hoen's mind set does carry a few advantages, his outlook on life has given him rather tough skin and has allowed him to maintain a rather stoic presence in life's slight ups and downs allowing him a clarity of mind in somewhat stressful or chaotic situations others do not have.

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Before I plaster this baby over in the Character Sheet tab, got any thoughts or criticisms? ~ I'm still personally on the drawing board with the name.

I have no preference for location really, and I asked my question because for a moment I forgot you lived in Australia (I'm from Southern California myself). I'm fine as long as it's a place with enough cultural diversity that we can pick whatever ethnicity we like.

I think the character is fine. The name is a little exotic, but rich people can be a bit eccentric.

I'll try to come up with a character soon and write up their CS. Do you mind if I have a picture in addition to a description of the appearance? Do you mind anime pictures? I know some RPers hate having pictures of certain types.

I do not mind a picture at all, additionally I do not mind anime pictures, I often used them when I used to RP, plus I believe they fit the aesthetic I envision of the story, so it wouldn't be hard for me to visualise from an anime picture.

We'll pit the location in Massachusetts, if I understand it correctly, in comparison to other countries America is quite easy to get into given you've got the funds, I hope this does not mess with what ever Character you have in mind. Additionally, let me know if you'd prefer another location.

Exotic and eccentric were just what I was aiming for, I want him to start off as a token rich boy trope, self centred and cold, I don't see too many stories where they don't end up developing much beyond being humbled by someone strong, which is pretty boring to me now as I see it happen all the time. That said I don't want too obvious of a posh name like, "Dick Charleston" or something. Eh, I'll think on it some more.

--EDIT:: Decided to just change the last name, I assume that Hoen will be put in situations where he is only recognised by his (rich)family name, and Valenon seemed a bit awkward. "Third son to the Exentia family corporation." seems a tad better, to me anyway.

---EDIT:: Also changed his age by one year to 15, that way by the end of Scribe's Grimoire, he will be 16. I figure it's a more fitting age.

Character Sheet^{[VICTUS STYLE]}
Name: Shelley (Shi Ling) Cao
Nick Name: Shelley
Age: 14
Gender: Female
Appearance/Physical: Shelley is rather petite and doesn't have much of a figure. She has black eyes like shining onyx gemstones and long black hair that she sometimes braids into a ponytail or into pigtails. She tends to play with the ends of her hair with her hands when she's nervous or absent-minded which looks an awful lot like fidgeting. Her skin is porcelain pale.
Appearance/Attire: Shelley prefers comfort and modesty, so wears loose-fitting or baggy clothes with dark, dull or subdued colors, which can make her look a bit trashy. She's been pressured into wearing contact lenses in public even though she doesn't like putting things in her eyes, so when she is at home, she prefers her big, round, thick glasses that make her look the part of her inner personality, that of a soft-core nerd. Shelley never got into make-up. Shelley tends not to attract attention and prefers it that way.
Bio: Shelley is quiet and non-confrontational. Shelley has difficulty connecting with other people but wants to help them. She has compassion but not empathy, which means that she can see that people need help, and she wants to help them, but she usually doesn't know how to help them and doesn't know how to comfort them. This makes her feel pretty powerless at times. On the one hand, she is motivated by approval and will do anything to please those around her, on the other hand, she has an instinctual fear of this desire to please being exploited, so she avoids social interactions so that she only gives her all to the people that are truly close to her. She cannot stand arguments and disagreements and deeply resents those who disturb the fragile peace of her life, which she will do all in her power to preserve. Shelley tends to take everything personally and does not respond well to criticism, often internalizing her emotions and pretending she's 'just fine'. Shelley is an 'external locus of control' person. Though Shelley has never been diagnosed (her mother believes psychiatric care is costly and pointless and that her daughter is 'just fine'), it is possible that she falls somewhere on the Autism Spectrum.
History: Shelley comes from an upper-middle class family. When she was young, her father had an affair, resulting in her parents' divorce. Her mother who was a pharmacist, raised her alone and couldn't spend much time with her. Shelley's grandmother (from her mother's side) also lived with them. Shelley's mother and grandmother often argued. Shelley developed an isolated independence and learned how to take care of herself in a very basic way (simple cooking, laundry, etc.) and contributed to house chores as much as she could. Shelley's mother was something of a typical Asian 'tiger mom' so Shelley was pushed to excel at academics. She did remarkably well in elementary and middle school, but has started struggling in high school. Shelley never picked up a musical instrument despite the stereotype. She has instead immersed herself in popular media as her hobby, enjoying comics, manga, cartoons, anime, etc. Being socially awkward, Shelley finds history and English classes as fairly pointless, and only sees utility in science and math classes, in which she does better than her other classes.
Weaknesses: Shelley is easily manipulated, and even though she may look stoic, is actually quite emotional.
Strengths: Shelley is dedicated and loyal, sometimes to her own detriment.

Approved! Feel free to copy your CS to the [CHAR] section when you wish. I particularly enjoyed the inclusion of the locus of control, I've heard mentions of it before but no proper definition until now. Adversely, I guess you could consider Hoenhime an internal locus of control person, in this he views the influence the environment has on one person as something that person willingly (ignorant or not) allows to affect them, though I might be mis-understanding the few titbits I read of the article, I'll give it some more time out of interest in the future.

One quick question, how do you go about pronouncing 'Shelley', at the moment I am assuming 'Shell-ee', just wanted to confirm that.

Like Mary Shelley, author of "Frankenstein", so your assumption is correct.

EDIT: Her full Chinese name is "Cao Shi Ling" (Surname: Cao, Personal Name: Shi Ling)

Okay, before we start there are two things I need to touch on real quick;

1.) As I've mentioned, by the end of the Scribe Grimoire arc, we each come into possession of a rare but weak medium in the form of a blank book attuned to one of the primary realms (excluding Vull) that means you can obtain either an Entropic, Ordered, Inner or Outer blank book medium, only one of these books of their respective types are up for grabs, so I'll allow you to have first dibs. Additionally, I know a way we could go about 'lucky dipping' it if you'd prefer that. Finally, in regard to this point, the book type you start off with is of course, no indication of what essent type I expect you to focus if you choose to focus on a specific type. It is merely to add a little diversity at the start of things.

2.) In regards to layers, going from one layer to another should never feel like a black and white experience, unless Rift layers are involved. What I mean primarily by this is that the layers just 'outside' of the Equilibrium, will have some features about them that can indicate "okay, I'm obviously in a layer close to the Equilibrium". This is the same for all the realms, that said, our characters first experiences in going to different layers will no doubt be layers near the Equilibrium.

These layers will appear similar to the Equilibrium/physical world expect there will be no definable day or night cycle and only organic, living brings will be viewable. Humans due to their ineptness at using their Victus forms will only appear as 'wisps', however, trees and other plants, fungi and animals will all appear very similar to how they appear in the Equilibrium. For this reason, a character who is able to use their Victus form will be able to see Victus creatures run through walls or pass through solid matter as if it were nothing. This is because you are viewing them from the Equilibrium while they are on a layer very close to the Equilibrium, where these physical items are not present.

~ With all that out of the way, I'm quite sure that's the only concept I've needed to cover since I threw that huge bulk of info at you. I had meant to cover it in 'Manifestation' but forgot, I've got a more detailed way of explaining it, but I'll save it unless you want to hear that specifically, it is quite a minor aspect of the system.

1. I might go for Ordered.

2. OK, thanks for elaborating. Though I'm wondering if physical objects are 'sort of' present in other layers? Correct me if I'm getting this totally wrong, but isn't 'physicality' one way Outer Essent presents itself? I can imagine that heading towards one of the other three realms, physical objects become less physical, and beyond a certain 'distance', become 'pass-through-able', though may 'slow' or 'impede' movement through it. Obviously, if one is entirely in the Inner Realm, physicality loses all meanings and only 'abstract concepts' remain. Again, please correct me if I'm not interpreting the realms correctly.

No you are interpreting the fundamentals correctly, though to expand on this point the physicality of Outer Essent presents itself by giving Victus forms a 'physical' way to react with one another. It is not the same type of Physical as found in the Equilibrium, an easy way to think of it is that they are both on the same spectrum of 'physical' but they are at different ends, they are different forms of physicality. But in saying this, physical objects that do not have a Victus form are no present in the surrounding realms just because of that; they do not have a victus form or any proper Outer Essent form that allows them to be present in other nearby layers as the Equilibrium is a by product of properties separating themselves from essent to become something new.

That said, a structure made out of wood from a tree that had an exceptional amount of essent within it would be present in these surrounding layers. Additionally, in the realm of Alchemy, substances infused with essent will also be interact able in these surrounding layers such at mediums.

To further expand on the original topic, a user can actually take a medium or essent infused substances anywhere into other layers. Although unless you've designed a medium or substance to specifically work in layers close to or within another realm, they will just become useless or work differently.

I hope I haven't made things more confusing, I'm going to require your patience as I've been really sick the past few days with the flu, so I don't want to start IC posts until I am feeling better.

I think you explained it quite well.

Don't worry, focus on getting better. I'm not impatient or in any way frustrated.

Thank you for your patience, I'll be doing an IC post sometime tomorrow. I'm currently working on some more Arc ideas to populate the vault with some more leisurely paced arcs geared towards basic use of victus magic. If you have any ideas of your own, or questions, feel free to submit them!

Hey Stern, I had an idea for an arc just wanted to bounce it off you.
The arc is more of a 2nd part to the Scribes Grimoire, it would be focused around our characters coming to terms with what happened and their new abilities after that year long gap. I'm thinking something about us seeing one another, or one of us spotting the others book could bring it on, what do you think?

Additionally, I'm going to be doing the first IC post soon, I'm thinking about starting our setting off at school on a Friday, we've just found a note or were previously approached by the fifth student with the four pointed star parchment and the mysterious note that came with it, *** and he's told us to meet him on school grounds the following day, eluding to knowing something about the odd parchments we ourselves received.

Just thought I'd give you a heads up, of course as to the fashion of what I've said previously, you can choose to lengthen this out by not going to the school grounds on Saturday, I'll work around it with the NPC's by making the fifth student increasingly persistent. As a final note you can take control of any NPC, including the fifth student, just thought I'd clarify that point.

***(NOTE: I wrote in the arc itself that his parchment had a pentagram on it, that was a mistake on my part.)

OK, if I think up any arcs, I'll be sure to share them with you.

I like the one year time skip arc idea. Who knows how our characters will develop. As a heads up, I plan to have Shelley tread a dark path (not necessarily evil, but more about coming to terms with having power, using power accidentally to ill effects, making irreversible mistakes and having to live with them, abusing power when cornered or desperate, etc.)

OK, Shelley will probably go along with it depending on her mood and who's involved. Should our characters already know each other or should they just sort of 'know of' each other but not really (I was complete strangers with people in my grade back in high school so it's not a big issue). I'll probably not take too much control of NPC's for the most part, but thanks for the permission.

As Hoen is kind of a jerk, he doesn't have many friends, so we should probably stick to the idea that they only know of one another through class activities or rumours rather than being friends or having a casual and frequent exchange.

Also I am completely fine with you taking that rout, the VMS is definitely capable of some dark things, especially in regards to Rituals, Alchemy and Summoning. As for Hoen, he'll probably take a very cautious path, wanting to become a pioneer in the field of Victus Magic, yet obsessing over the idea that he'd come to rely on it, resenting it somewhat. This'll likely push him to cases where he attempts to forego the use of Victus Magic if he is hubris enough to think he can do something on his own with his own body.

I'll be using the OOC a lot of pan out the plot as we go so we both know where we are at, as I imagine this can get a bit sandboxy (solo interactions) at times pretty early on. Since it'll be very relevant, I'll quickly drop a little bio of the other three students we'll be meeting up with in-story.

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Markus Little, the oldest of the students to receive a parchment he recently turned 17 years old and is in the 11th grade(does America use the number grade system? Or would it be something like '2nd year high schooler') being the oldest in his class. He has the parchment inscribed with the glyph of Outer Essent. He's your typical popular jock who often keeps to his own crowd. An approachable person he isn't that bright and keeping his attention isn't an easy task, as his teachers have found out to their dismay.

Sarah Smith, at 14 she is among the youngest in her 10th grade class. Often coined as a 'bitch' by her detractors she is the height of popularity in her year group, being a centre hub of school yard gossip. Though her position garners some hate, most of it is ill warranted as she is often kind to strangers, though she does have a weakness of judging people according to their popularity and what rumours she's heard about them. Your number of friends can determine whether she will be a kind friend or whether she will treat you as if you do not exist. She carries the parchment adorned with a glyph representing the Entropic realm of Quel.

Jonathan Hyre, a 15 year old considered the envy of many of his peers, he is the top of his class academically and in regards to sports. Despite his popularity he has a rather humble and kind nature, often helping those who have been bullied when he becomes aware of it. He considers himself a normal young man and despite his exceptional intellect and athletic skill, the rest of his life could be summed up as 'average'. He carries the parchment of the four pointed star along with the unusual note.

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This of course leaves Hoen with the parchment of the Inner Realm, Wistoh.

American high schools use the grade system and are actually 4 year institutions, going from grade 9 to 12, and are sometimes referred to as freshman (9th grade), sophomore (10th), junior (11th), and senior (12th). (I know a lot of countries following the British system like Japan and Taiwan have three year high schools, so America is slightly unusual in that regard. Feel free to change some of the character's ages if you would like) That being said, I'll probably stick Shelley in the 9th grade which will add to the fact that she doesn't know Hoenhime.

Thanks for clarifying for me!

Australian high schools actually have six, starting from year 7. But what primarily confused me was the terminology, I wasn't sure if using the term '10th grader' was accurate in place of the term 'sophomore'.

Yeah, 10th grader and sophomore are interchangeable terms.

That's interesting, never heard of such a system before. In America, we have preschool (optional), then elementary school is kindergarten, and first through 5th grade (6 years); middle is 6th through 8th grade (three years), and high is 9th through 12th (four years). How many years of elementary and middle school do you have in Australia? I also know that other countries sometimes use the terms grammar school and primary school, which I don't really know what that means.