Your vision blurs. Too much blood was lost, and your sword lays in pieces within you, having shattered from the monster’s blow with such force that it pierced through your own armor. Behind, beside, and beyond, your comrades continue to fight, mixed cries of rage and terror sounding everywhere. Celestial fires scour the field, mythic steel strikes scale, and the invocations of a dozen Nuclei resound, singular abilities manifesting to strike down the being before you. But that creature too, was unique. The first of its kind, the last of its kind, an Anomaly in the truest of sense, granting glory and wealth upon its defeat, but carnage and despair in its victory. Your hometown lies behind you, five thousand souls watching this battle from a distance, their fates balanced on a blade’s edge.

A head flies through the smoky air, bouncing, then rolling to a stop beside you. Your lover’s head, transfixed in a resigned, apologetic smile. Less than half the party was still alive, commands and orders turning into panicked requests and blame-shifting, even as the Anomaly devoured the last of the front-liners. The last bit of hope died with them, and you close your eyes, accepting your fate.

‘Welp, maybe someone else can deal with it.’

Your vision goes black, and you open your eyes to the familiar sight of your bedroom ceiling.

On a certain day of a certain month, Cacophony Concord was released, a VRMMO designed for a new console that boasted promises social media influencers derided as grossly overexaggerated and overhyped. Until then, no full-dive game was so bold as to claim fully-sentient AI and realistic physics, nor anything as insane as a whole continent for players to explore. An exaggeration, perhaps, for a nameless studio to grab some attention. Marketing hype, perhaps, when the reality of it would be like No Man’s Sky upon launch.

There was no lie. No fabrication.

Within the first month, 70% of compatible Full Dive Devices were subscribed to Cacophony Concord. In three months, sales of FDDs increased by 40%. Within half a year, the game boasted the largest active player population of any MMO game in the market, and had yet to require any patch or server maintenance. An in-game translator enabled seamless communication between players, regardless of their nationality, and there never seemed to be any server lag or glitches. The world of Cacophony Concord truly was like a real world, in both physical size and cultural complexity, and with thousands of different classes available to mix and match, the possibilities were endless for character creation. Sentient NPCs acted in a way almost indistinguishable from players, and the time dilation put into place enabled one to enjoy the game at whatever pace they desired. It was a second life in a fantasy world, a life where you could live out those dreams of your childhood…so long as you could afford it.

The game never crashed. The game never glitched. The game never sent players comatose, nor trap people within it. It continued to run perfectly, thwarting any attempts to hack it, and there were security systems put in place to prevent distasteful actions between players. There was neither any downtime nor any patches.

Thus, no one really noticed or cared when the studio that made Cacophony Concord quietly disappeared.


Beyond being able to possess six different Classes at once, Cacophony Concord has one final system in place to enable players to feel truly unique. That is the Nucleus System, a special item molded by the player’s personality and actions and granted to them after they’ve spent an unspecified amount of time in the game. This Nucleus, which can be neither be lost nor replaced, continues to evolve as one plays, seemingly without any correlation with one’s Level. As it goes from one stage to another, it obtains more abilities, molded to fit a combination of the player’s playstyle and experiences, and confers higher stat gains to its owner, which gives a massive advantage for more highly evolved Nuclei. Some have called it like “having a Stand”, and for the casual player, unconcerned of the vast scope of the game, simply having a superpower tailored specifically for them is enough of a draw to continue playing.

Nuclei can generally be separated into five categories:




The world of Cacophony Concord is set upon two continents bridged by an archipelago, upon which five noteworthy nations exist, each of them apparent facsimiles of real-world countries. Magic has bridged the gap between the medieval and the modern, though the extent of how much magitech has progressed depends on which nation one is in, varying from steampunk to high fantasy in both aesthetics and the commonality of magic in daily life. Of note, however, is that modern conveniences, such as plumbing and heating, exist in all nations, apparently for the comfort of players who’d rather not walk through streets smelling of human refuse.

Upon character creation, players are able to select one of five nations to become a citizen of, allowing them to partake in wars, join and establish guilds, receive merits and titles from the rulers of the nation, and gain access to nation-specific Classes. Though one can change their citizenship later on, they relinquish any titles or merits accrued, as well as membership of whatever guild they’re in. These nations are:


Lore and mythos tells of ancient civilizations, sundered by an alien force, and even now, ruins have been discovered around the world, holding treasures from another time. Vestiges of that civilization-destroying force persist as well, Anomalies that are predator and prey of the Players.

---

If you read all the above, gratz! This was largely inspired by ye olde Grimgar and the new flavor, Infinite Dendrogram.

I'm looking for a maximum of 10 players, capable of posting on a weekly basis. Characters should have some connection with each other (enough so that they'll actually party together and all), should start in the same nation, and will basically be newcomers to the virtual world of Cacophony Concord. There's some hella plot to this, and the virtual nature of the game will mean that death may come brutally and swiftly, but overall, I enjoy adventures and anime shit. After all, you are essentially going to become immortal Stand-users with superhuman capabilities and magical powers in a fantastic world where there are monsters abound and glorious quests to challenge. Also you can date and marry NPCs.

So hey, if you're interested, say so. Even better if you got questions and what-not.



Applicants
Madgalene Ross, by OwO
Jokson Verdona, by Versa
Nivlek Lee Rai Hong, by 71342
Nicholas Forgefane, by PrinceAlexus
Theresa Edward, by GreenGoat
Stanislaw Kaminski, by Psyker Landshark
Alys Kaleign, by Haha
Raymond A. Moreno, by Searat
Lewis Duval, by Cu Chulainn
Amelia Marescol, by Yankee

yes

Interest, yes.

ok

Interested in joining.

Also hi Rodey.

it me

I cannot ignore VRMMO Roleplays! As much as I want to stay in hiatus and be potato.

Interested

I loved Grimgar and I'm digging ID, so I'd be hella down.

Is this human only? Or are there multiple races?

Guess that's enough people to start helming questions then.

What nation do y'all wanna citizenship in?
Do you have any particular ideas for how characters would know each other out-of-game?
Got any character concepts you're leaning towards or set on?

Also, it's human only, but certain Classes, curses, or other stuff will change your race.

What nation do y'all wanna citizenship in?

I’m not really picky with the location. They all seem pretty interesting so, I’ll be fine with whatever the majority wants. If I did have a preference it would probably be Velonta or Erid just becaause.

Do you have any particular ideas for how characters would know each other out-of-game?

Are there Hybrid Types and Variants of the Nucleus, like in Dendogram?

Got any character concepts you’re leaning towards or set on?

Spellbow/Eldritch Archer type of character?

Where does the Grimgar influences factor in?

Erid sounds like a place to go for a good, relaxing time.

That said, I did have a sorta hax internalized Type-Territory Nuclei in mind. Thinking of how to word it first, but it's basically Avalon.

Oh right, I probably should clarify now, but Nuclei abilities and such will be made by me. So probably shouldn't plan too much for that specifically.

There are hybrids and variants, yah. Pretty sure I straight up mentioned hybrids up in there.

Grimgar factors in with the Goblin Spec Ops, terror of all level 1 players.

Been a minute since I've done something on here but this sounds legit and I have fond memories of playing with ERode in the past. Color me interested.

@ERode can we get some example classes- unless you've got some planned for the the main thread? I'm just asking for some reference in terms of how complex they can be.

What nation do y'all wanna citizenship in?

I'd say I'm leaning towards Deneb or Velonta, but Erid could be just as entertaining.

Do you have any particular ideas for how characters would know each other out-of-game?

Maybe they're public figures in the gaming scene? Pro players, streamers, game designers, announcers, and so on.

Oh, rough. Guess I'll be a monster-wrangling cowboy, if we're going Erid. Got a few other ideas for the other nations as well, if everyone else isn't interested in death.

Sure. As a general note, I'll be offering up possible class options for y'all, working off what's available in your region as well as what fits your character concept/what you're looking for. There generally won't be an exhaustive list of classes or I'll be dead.

Anyways, you could go for shit like the 'super irritating skirmisher' build, where you go for Scout [in combat mobility + evasion], Beast Warrior [physical transformation for enhanced physical ability], Legerdemain [quick item equip + illusion magic], Trap Hunter [crafting traps and shit], Visha Kanya [passively produce/exude poison effects], and Curse Chemist [reduce enemy status resistance + increase status effectiveness], where you go in and out constantly, focused on evasion, to passively poison enemies and actively mess them up with all the traps you could quick-use due to Legerdemain abilities.

Or, you could go another 'super irritating skirmisher' build, where you still start with Scout for increased mobility and evasion, but then you slap on Beekeeper [hella annoying bees], Chain Sculpter [quick creation of wood objects], Logger [greatly increase carry weight for Wood-based objects], Shinobi Weapon Master [buffs on improvised weapons + thrown weapons], and Titan Armorer [enlargement magic + hilarious temporary strength buffs]. So now you set your bees, start running away, and while you run away, you throw massively buffed wooden furniture at your target that you make on the fly.

In general, classes only have single-digit amounts of skills, but there are overlaps and such.

EDIT: Of course, not all builds need to be so convoluted and specific. You could literally just go...

Swordsman [you cut things], Greater Swordsman [you get more 'cut things' synergy], Blademaster [you get even more 'cut things' synergy], Spirit Slayer [you cut things that would usually be resistant to getting cut, also you cut mana], Knight [you can ride horses and get some nice defensive buffs to not instantly die], Keen Dervish [increase mental resistances so you don't get CC'd to death, also you get even more 'cut things' synergy].

@ERode what about stats and stuff? Is it going to be handled on your end or is it on the CS?