Disclaimer: The idea was someone else's, but I was allowed to borrow it.

I. Intro

In the independent archipelago-nation of Beaux Rêve (Sweet Dream), situated in the Pacific Northwest, ideas and ideals clash as the world knocks on its door, seeking access to resources both mundane and supernatural. A place that is radically different from most of its neighbors, with many customs that are alien even on the global stage. Colonized first by the French elite when Europeans first came and claimed what they saw as the New World, Beaux Rêve has adopted several notably French customs and expressions, intermixed with British, American, Russian, and Japanese influences.

The Capital, Beaux Rêve City, is famous for its extreme and bizarre one-school policy. A space the size of a whole city district has been carved out to make space for a massive educational complex, ranging from nurseries up to university faculties. Children from all over the city are made to mix regardless of their economic circumstances or housing situations. This brings many advantages and issues. Bullying is high, many classrooms or even whole buildings are left vacant due to issues or a lack of funding, teachers face extreme workloads and massive classes and the economy of the whole city has shifted to accommodate this. Everybody knows somebody who works at the school, and rumors spread like wildfire about the daily happenings. The district and the schooling system are commonly known as "The Complex" or "Beaux Rêve Educational."

As the center of the nation's economic life, the Capital is split into districts that serve various needs. The Complex is the most important of those, covering the city center. The residential district does not have official lines, but the disparity between rich and poor is clear to see, with worn-down apartments overshadowed by the massive skyscrapers and penthouses belonging to the ultra-rich. It's not particularly rare for people to live in other districts above shops, in barracks-like accommodations for laborers, or on the more rural and suburban city borders. Other districts include the commercial district full of bustling markets and French imports, which contrasts with the industrial district full of broken-down warehouses and demolished factories.

The party currently in charge is the Autocrats, who have used Beaux Rêve as a testing ground for their larger plans over the years. Challenging this party are the Humanitarians, a slightly awkward and needs-must party made up of a mixture of people who genuinely want to change things for the better, and others who are simply riding the wave for power or more cynical reasons. Rumors are that there are elements of the party who have succumbed to extremism and plan for violent demonstrations.

Princesses and Princes, aka Magical Girls and Boys, are the dominant supernatural force in Beaux Rêve, if one does not count Hunters, who serve as their oversight. Both Princesses and Hunters have taken up arms to protect the Capital and wider nation, with average folk becoming empowered to take the fight to the core of the issues facing the town, as Mortals squabble about their differences on the streets. The Light that they represent is delicate, however, flickering in the face of so much darkness and suffering. Individuals struggle with their burden, far too spread out and fractured amongst themselves to weather the looming storm. The chances are low, but if those standing for what is right can brook the crashing wave, the path to a brighter future could be left in the wake.

Everything is on the verge of collapse, and that weight falls squarely on your shoulders. If you don't have the strength to lift it, that weight will drag you down with it, along with all you've ever loved.

II. Haphazard Info and Exposition

All right, what is Princess the Hopeful and why should we care?

Princess the Hopeful (Tv. Tropes page here) is a homebrew tabletop game, a custom splat based on the Chronicles of Darkness (New World of Darkness 2e) setting and system created by White Wolf Publishing, now owned by Paradox Interactive. The homebrew focuses on Magical Girls and Boys (or Magical Women and Men) who are driven to be 'Good People in a Grimdark Universe', fighting for a legitimate cause that does not give them a guarantee of victory. They fight because a cause is genuinely right, even if they're slated to lose, and that's where the horror of the game line comes in.

Thanks to the reality-warping plague called the Contagion (which exists in Canon), there are significant differences between this world and 'Vanilla' Chronicles of Darkness, namely that Princesses are as powerful as Mages in this RP (to make sure people don't ignore this ruling, I will be managing everything related to Mages as well as Princesses). Also, Beasts don't exist here for reasons anyone who knows about them can understand. Same for Geniuses (the other super-popular homebrew for CofD) due to their existence contradicting Mages' plus Genius 2e having made some bad lore decisions, or so I've heard.

Every other CofD 'race/template/splat' does exist here, though.

But what do we do? Are we part of one single party?

Yes, you're part of one single group of 6 folk (8 counting GMPCs), whose goal is to prevent the city from going to crap due to partisan infighting between the two fictional political parties of Beaux Rêve City (the rest of the archipelago will be explored in due time).

Beaux Rêve City is the size of Wellington, and has a slightly smaller population. The island it stands on, Beaux Rêve Island, is as big as Hawaii (the island), with the surrounding environment being similar to Olympic National Park, only developed with farms and sawmills and factories, although large parts remain pristine.

There is also a volcano, Mt. D' Albret, named after Jeanne d' Albret, a notable figure among the Calvinists in the French Wars of Religion. Said Volcano has a large deposit of red diamonds, the rarest kind of diamond on earth IRL, which in turn makes Beaux Rêve (the nation) extremely rich and important.

The other islands of the archipelago are roughly estimated to be as big as the other islands of the Hawaiian Archipelago; this is to reduce the GM's workload. Also, Beaux Rêve Island is 1609.25 km/621.34 miles away from Graham Island in Canada; a moderately wide stretch of ocean away.

Also, the age of majority and criminal responsibility in Beaux Rêve is 16, including the right to bear arms or join the military. This is as grim as it sounds. That said, the age of consent is counted differently and is still 18, for reasons you all should already know.

Anyway, if you want to play someone, not a Princess (aka any other template in the Chronicles of Darkness except Beast), consult the White Wolf Wiki.

III. Rules

1) No Godmodding or Powergaming, aka no controlling other players' actions
2) Any consenting relationship between people of the same age group is allowed, whether it's Homosexual or Heterosexual. If you cannot stand such things, don't post here in the first place. That said, do not violate the rules; that means no sexualizing minors. As for adults, note that the Roleplayer Guild version of the RP allows written nudity if it's not overly described.
3) Be polite to others.
4) Please notify me if you will be gone for more than a week, I will let you guys know if I will be gone for that same amount of time.
5) The GM reserves the right to control inactive PCs as NPCs to keep the plot moving.
6.) If anything conflicts with a strict reading of the Chronicles of Darkness canon, the Contagion changed reality to make it so.
7.) If you want to play a Vampire, Werewolf, Demon, or any other Template (that isn't Beast), you are in charge of writing up what powers your OC has; do not abuse this right to god mode. And if you can prove that you know the lore for those Templates, the GM might consult with you from time to time.
8.) We're not using dice or stats; we use the honor system, narrative necessity, and plausibility, and common sense.
9.) We are not using anything from the Detroit Supplement (all discussion of that is politics-adjacent and forbidden), also, the People's Guard from the Hunter: The Vigil Fan Crossover Supplement does not exist in this RP, and even if they did, any member of them who steps foot in Beaux Rêve will be summarily executed by the angry Huguenots of Task Force: NAVARRE.
10.) For Princesses, Govern and Learn Charms can detect Time-based Magic (and Fate too). Also, the Govern Charm, Unweaving, can dispel Magic from other Supernatural Templates (including Mages) at a penalty until the Princess has an appropriate Embassy (Arcane for Mages, Ephemera for Werewolves, etc) that can cancel out said penalty.

IV. Character Sheet

[b]Name:[/b] (What’s your characters name?)

[b]Age:[/b] (How old is your character? 16 - 30 preferred, but younger/older OCs can be applied for on special request)

[b]Physical Description:[/b] (What does your character look like?)

(Place any photos or written descriptions here. If a Princess, post your Transformed Self's costume)

[b]Weapons and Items:[/b] (What kind of weapons or other important items does your character have? If your character has cash, put it there too.)

[b]Are you a Princess/Prince? :[/b] (Simple Y/N question)





[b]Short Bio:[/b] Tell us your character's story up to this point. Who are they exactly? Where did they come from? What are they like? All of the above goes here.

V. Sample Bio

Lore Tidbits

- Beaux Rêve was a colony of France and a Monarchist stronghold in the French Revolution that raised a member of the Bourbon Family to its throne after the execution of Louis XVI. This King, Henri I of Beaux Rêve, also claimed the throne of France itself despite the existence of other surviving Bourbons but was disqualified after it was revealed that he had converted to French Protestantism. He was succeeded by his son Francois I, who was less absolutist than his father and allowed a constitution and a British-style Parliament to be formed while reserving executive powers for himself.

- Fast forward to King Henri II, who claimed the throne of France again as Henri VI (Henri I was counted as Henri V) in the middle of World War II and had considerable Fascist sympathies, but ended up joining the Allies when the Germans refused to allow him to ascend the French Throne. Beaux Rêve sent large forces to aid the US in the Philippines Campaign and the Normandy Landings, where they fought with valor, although it was noticed that many of the soldiers were 'suspiciously young'. This earned Henri II a status as a 'war hero' that he did not actually earn.

- A decade later, Henri II (and VI) was overthrown by a student uprising by the predecessors of the Autocrat and Humanitarian parties, the Democratic Front. The Democratic Front would elect a President and this President would rule well, but his successors would be less able and more corrupt than he was.

- The Democratic Front split into the Autocrats and Humanitarians in the 2000s, and the former would be elected into power in 2003 and keep it until 2023, the present year of the RP.

- Other nations pay Beaux Rêve to take in their migrants. Many of these migrants 'disappear' into resource extraction and agricultural projects while their children end up in 'rehabilitation programs' in The Complex. Do the math.

- Beaux Rêve has legal gay marriage and both the Autocrats and Humanitarians support strongly Pro-LGBT policies.

- Also, Beaux Rêve has its own version of Task Force: VALKYRIE, only French and paid for with the proceeds from Red Diamonds. This group, Task Force: NAVARRE, also has Power Armor and Etheric Lenses and maybe Essence Cannons (yes, the kind from Exalted, but nerfed).

- Beaux Rêve has Nuclear Weapons. Chronicles of Darkness is still an horror game, after all.

- Also, Beaux Rêve has generous welfare policies, financed by sales of Red Diamonds and Uranium, as well as other mineral resources, including Jade, which can be found in large amounts in the Western Islands.

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If any of you find these tidbits off-putting, against the tone that you want, not what you expected and too politics-adjacent, tell me now.

Name: Lumiere de Beaux

Age: Unknown, but his Cover's age is 18.

Physical Description:




Weapons and Items: Lumiere de Beaux has what items are appropriate to his cover, which in turn is a member of one of Beaux Rêve's aristocratic families (no one knows for sure which ones). These include fine clothes, a large amount of cash (Resources 5 equivalent), a small arsenal of Guns, and a private car.

Lumiere also has access to Suborned Infrastructure of some sort, Infrastructure being a portion of the God Machine that works on Occult principles and unknown laws of Science. He does not own this piece of Suborned Infrastructure, however; it is shared by his Demon Agency, the very same one that harnessed the reality-altering force known as the Contagion to cause Beaux Rêve to exist in the first place.

Are you a Princess/Prince? : N

Short Bio: Lumiere was once an Angel, but not the conventional Angels from religious iconography, not even the 'Biblically Accurate Angels' described in Scripture. No, Lumiere was a creation of the God-Machine, a being that utilized undiscovered laws of physics and used them alongside the occult and the supernatural to maintain the universe and reality as we know it, making it behind the good and bad aspects of the Chronicles of Darkness. As a Psychopomp, Lumiere recycled the souls of the dead and built Infrastructure for the God-Machine, for the latter could not do its work without an Occult Matrix to act as a conduit for its power. Eventually, Lumiere had a thought: He was working for a flawed structure.

His second thought, the one that led to his Fall, was, I can make a new and better one.

So he fell and wound up in Beaux Rêve. He avoided the (weaker) Angels sent to bring him back to the God-Machine's fold, finding a bolthole and cover. Discovering an underground scene of supernatural creatures who knew little about Demons, yet abhorred them for reasons both legitimate and not, he was eventually brought in, and given sanctuary by the Luminous Agency, a group that worked to harness the Contagion, a mysterious reality-altering phenomenon, to keep the impossible archipelago-nation of Beaux Rêve existent and woven into the history and society of this universe and timeline. For in the islands of Beaux Rêve gestates the greatest hope of Demonkind, the embryo of what could be a new God-Machine.

A source of salvation for those who hope. A path to damnation for the pessimistic.

Or could it be both? Either way, Lumiere keeps the Impossible Islands safe from agents of various malefic forces, such as The Abyss from Mage Lore, Maejin from Werewolf Lore, and the Strix, the ultimate antagonists of Vampire-kind. Not just that, but there is a threat brewing among Beaux Rêve's government itself that would bring down the wards that make it harder for the God-Machine's most loyal and powerful Angels and other agents to enter the archipelago. If that happens, then the nascent New God-Machine would not be safe; and this cannot be allowed.

Lumiere is willing to do whatever it takes, good or bad, to safeguard his Agency's hopes...

Incarnation: Psychopomp.

Agendae: Integrator/Saboteur (Break the God-Machine First, then make a better one; yes, Lumiere has the equivalent of the Multiple Agendas Merit).

Embeds and Exploits:

Embeds - In my Pocket, Shatter, Right Tools, Right Job, Diversion.

Exploits - Rip the Gates, Ephemeral Cover, Murder by Improbability, Four Minutes Ago.

Demonic Form:

Modifications: See the Angelic, Electrical Sight.

Technologies: Glory and Terror, Electrical Jolt.

Propulsion: Wings.

Processes: Extra Mechanical Limbs.

Real Name: James Malforth.

Current Alias: Asaroth.

Age: 18.

Physical Description:

Human Appearance:


Changeling Appearance:


Weapons and Items:
Subsonic 9MM Pistol with suppressor (closest thing you can get to the Hollywood sound silenced guns make) with ammo.

Rapier.

Dagger.

Masque of Darkness: A white mask token that makes it easier for him to hide.

Are you a Princess/Prince?: No.

Changeling Stuff:
Seeming: Darkling.

Seeming Blessing: By touching something insubstantial, can become part of it for a few seconds.

Kith: Whisperwisp.

Kith Blessing: Forked Tongue: Is supernaturally good at mundane stealth.

Court: Autumn.

Contracts:

Fae Cunning: Can dodge bullets and is hyperaware when the contract is active.

Walls Have Ears: Can speak with objects and get information from them.

Autumn's Fury: Can summon a storm and even attack people in the storm with lightning.

Witches' Intuition: Can tell what someone's fear is and even replace it with another fear for a short time.

Props and Scenery: Can shapeshift into an inanimate object.

Sorcerer's Rebuke: Can drain a target of their supernatural power source.

Biography:
James Malforth was a teenage boy who once saw a spider trapped under a rock. Being of kind heart, he freed the spider, and it sped off into the distance.

Unfortunately for James, the spider was a servant of one of the True Fae: The Lord of Spiders. This fae decided to "reward" James. It abducted him and forced him to become one of its servants.

James was made into a sorcerer-assassin. He was tasked with eliminating the Lord of Spiders' enemies, whether on the battlefield with magical power or in secret with a blade in hand.

Eventually, James became quite knowledgeable in the occult. He joined forces with another person imprisoned by the Lord of Spiders and together created a poison so foul that even the Lord of Spiders itself couldn't withstand it.

James tricked the Lord of Spiders into drinking the poison. Then, the Lord of Spiders started retching and heaving. Whether or not the Lord of Spiders was killed...James never found out. He fled as fast as he could, along with the other changelings the Lord of Spiders held captive.

Upon leaving the Lord of Spiders' domain and returning to the human world, James joined the Autumn Court and started calling himself Asaroth. This was both because he thought going by his human name would make it obvious where he is in case the Lord of Spiders still lives and because he thought a fae creature going by a demon-like name might throw the Lord of Spiders off.

@Skarabrae, Accepted. Post in the Characters Tab now that your OC is approved.