Setting
The Angel’s Eye Archipelago exists in the heart of the Net Ocean, the tumultuous aquatic domain of the digital world. Here the whole power of the world rests on it luscious green shoulders. The gateway that makes all other gateway’s possible, where the very soul of this digital universe lives. So why is it then that so few have ever heard of it...? Is it because the archipelago survives off its secrecy? Or is it because the knowledge of the divine should only be entrusted to few mortals? Maybe the very nature of being an unknown entity is sought after by the most powerful of manipulative forces. Whose to say, maybe you’ll get to meet the mastermind who works behind the scenes.
Until then, we should turn our gaze to the mysterious fog that has begun to roll in. Virtually undistinguishable from the natural, and a little too on the nose for a common trope, people who sail into this fog or encounter it on the archipelago’s islands return speaking of a great, dark ocean and creatures of nightmare gnawing at the edges of their vision. Some among these parties do not show their faces ever again in the waking world, others are so twisted and marred they bare no resemblance to their original forms. It is this very aberrant phenomena that lead to you being drawn into the archipelago in the first place.
Humans by their very nature are resistant to otherworldly powers and the laws of the digital universe, how else would we live so long without ever encountering the magic around us. Digimon make their homes behind the very screens we see day to day and yet we do not see the world that lives at our fingertips and thrives off of our dreams. So it would make sense that to fight against unknown powers you would need soldiers so existentially apathetic to their antagonistic forces that the very essence of it wouldn’t affect them, right? Well, only in theory. It’s never been tried before, new recruit, we’ll see if you can get the job done.
Welcome!
Welcome to Digimon Net Ocean: Nightmare Archipelago! A fandom roleplay set in one of the myriad of digital universes, inspired by unfulfilled plot lines in canon and the ever present occult nature of the stories that appear in the franchise. This will be a widely sea-faring adventure exploring the Archipelago and the mysteries within. You’ll be riding extravagant navel vessels, fending off pirate attacks, and encountering living forests. Don’t be fooled by the grand adventure that awaits as the mysteries within exist by the rules of cosmic level horrors and the equally unknowable essence of our very souls.
Your Story
You’ll be playing as a human brought to the Archipelago by KingWhamon, one of the three lords of the islands, and an island himself. The Lords have taken every precaution to keep the archipelago secret from the rest of the world to protect the source of the powers that be but have met their wits end. The otherworldly dark ocean will not show itself to them and they have been unable to investigate it themselves. Unnerved by secrets they themselves are not keeping, they sought humans as a tool to safely explore this unknown variable. Historically humans have always been brought to the digital world in great times of need, so the Lords of Angel’s Eye took a page from that book and have recruited a few chosen of their own.
Characters will manifest in the digital world with different tools at their disposal based on the states of their personalities and their subconscious. This is of course, a plot digivice to allow players to use whatever mechanics from the canon to design their characters. Enjoy the concept of armor Digimon? Want to punch bad guys in their faces? Want to become a Digimon yourself? All available to you if you can narratively justify it. That doesn’t mean the price you pay for your decisions is just time and creativity for a character sheet, your characters digital manifestations of power will greatly affect how the world and antagonistic forces will act against you.
Digimon and other Digital Entities
The nature of this digital world is an amalgam of inspirited computer files, an infinitely unknowable collective unconscious, and otherworldly forces taking advantage of a deeply manipulative medium to manifest and create life. It is different from the many other digital worlds in existence in that its sovereign entities and protective deities are not collectively responsible for the safety of the whole of the universe, but rather the many regions within, with the gods at the heart of the world unknown to all but the highest of orders. There is no king Yggdrasil, no Royal Knights, no Olympus XII, no recognized group of Holy Beasts governing each direction. Just a myriad of different deific energies controlling their respective regions, some vying for more power, and others content with their increasingly small domains.
The progression and regression of a Digimon's form in this world are greatly affected by the stimuli they feed off of and the nature of their root data. While most Digimon will follow a similar progression to what you've seen in the anime series, many may also follow the confusing interconnected tree(s) you'll find in some of the games. You may start an Agumon but by no means is it unheard of to end up a Lilymon when you follow the right psychological journey, it's just exponentially difficult the farther away from your base nature the desired form is and can takes months to years. Even more importantly, it seems the presence of human stimuli has a great effect on Digimon themselves, with human emotional data invariably having the greatest effect on their progression.
The world itself is wildly influenced by digital trends in the human world and the consciousness of humans that find themselves visiting for some grand task such as yours. Not only the world, but a human's very perception of themselves can alter their digitized forms from one moment to the next. This can range from the tame side of determining your outfit, to a more complex representation of your very own dysmorphic tendencies. The nature of exactly how much the human mind effects the world is unknown, volatile, and adherent to no observable rules. What that has to say about the rules guiding what exists beyond the ever-vexing fog is disturbing to say the least.
Other entities do exist in the digital world. Beings composed of digital matter but harbor no physical form to call their own are extremely common and have no more effect on the world than the breeze. There are natural elements of the world as well such digital copies of small animals such as squirrels and fish or plant lifeto fill up the landscape. Increasingly rare are other manifestations that take on human forms, possess willing hosts, and form the landscape itself.
Why play?
If you enjoy the darker or more complex themes in Digimon stories that appeal to its adult viewers I highly encourage you to participate. Possession, interdimensional travel, unconscious bias, the nature of self pity, Eaters, the dark ocean, and deranged deities are not uncommon to fans of the series, and they’ll not be uncommon in this story. I’m looking for a small to medium sized group of 3-8 characters that can shrink or expand based on extra-narrative needs.
I'm going for a more collaborative story here. There are several overarching narratives present in this world that you'll have the freedom to explore, but just like the effect of your character's psyche has on the world, your desires and writing choices will have an effect on my plots as well. The best stories are about the characters, not the setting.
