♫ Those piled up "failures"...will become the key to "victory!" ♫
Failures, all of you.
They told you that yours was "the weakest generation" House Kaides had ever seen. Your generation was blamed for the fall of one of the Three Great Clans; for all their losses to their rivals in Houses Arkivum and Noxica. Since the time of the first Yllustrian kings, Kaides had served the Royal Family of Luzia as its strongest, most loyal sword. Because of you, that sword was broken. Because of you, the kingdom fell. Because of you, the Demons won.
It didn't matter that Luzia acted too late. The Elven civil war, the peasant revolts in neighboring Geviel, and the decimation of tiny Briterra right across the kingdom's border; none of these events provoked alarm, because the people trusted in the strength of House Kaides to protect them. The strength that your generation lacked.
Before the war, you struggled and suffered just to make it out of Kaides' Collegem Yllustre alive. From the age of 14, your days became an endless cycle of training, bullying, and failure. As one of direct blood to the House, you were expected to perform above and beyond the expectations of any Vassal Families---or, at the very least, better than those riffraff squires seen as little more than fodder to whet Kaides' appetite for battle. Yet even for those of you who came of age, reaching 21 years before the war, you never truly "graduated." You had not even managed to undergo the Awakening of your Aura. To House Kaides, it did not matter that a common warrior might train their entire lives to unlock that power---you were of Kaides, therefore to be the exception was to meet the standard. Some of you never finished Collegem at all. There was just no point in staying.
But the war came regardless. Some of you were still in training, others had tried to make ends meet however they could. A few of you were even banished from the House outright---others of you settled for licking boots and bearing the weight of indignity, so that you could keep a roof over your head. Then, in 1012 YC, an army unlike anything Luzia had ever seen marched on its borders. For five more grueling years, you went through battles that were more like meat grinders, over and over again. And somehow, where those stronger than you fell...you stayed alive. You lost so much. Friends, family---even those precious few things you thought you could hold onto, what little dignity the Kaides and other Houses had not stripped from you. The Demons ripped it all away. Still you survived, until the very end.
Until you witnessed the Demon King himself take the field.
You, and the rest of Humanity, died that day amidst flames and ruin. As you slipped into darkness, at least there was finally peace. No more hardship. No more pain. No more failure to live up to a legacy you had never asked for. Then you opened your eyes, and found the world to be familiar yet strange. A memory surfaced, yet the image of your past was identical to your present...had everything you experienced been a dream? No...Somehow, you have returned...
Ten years into the past...
If you've ever read stories like "A Returner's Magic Should be Special," "Swordmaster's Youngest Son," or "Return of the 8th Class Mage," you may be familiar with this genre some call "Regression," or in gamer speech, "New Game Plus." The essential premise is that the Player Characters have returned to an earlier point in time during their lives after death---and now, making use of the future knowledge and experiences they've retained, they have a chance to change their fates! Will you try and prevent the events that led to your kingdom's defeat in this great war against monsters and demons? Will you try to become stronger and throw off the title of "Failed Generation," or get revenge on those who disparaged you? It all depends on how you use your new advantages!
At the time of Character Creation, Players will give a summary of how certain things in their First Life went. There will also be a section where their abilities, such as their fighting skills or their "Aura," will be listed. Even if someone is "talentless," they have no doubt gained SOMETHING over the course of ten years, especially when they had to fight for their lives during this terrible war. Those [EXPERIENCES] will stay with you after you wake up in the past, and act like a sort of "currency" that your character can "spend" in exchange for greater strength! You will also gain [EXPERIENCE] and update your Character Sheet when you accomplish different milestones throughout the RP, which will be reflective of your character growing more and more powerful!
Don't worry, there aren't any dice or mathematics involved; this is solely a mechanic to merge narrative and gameplay, and allow me as GM to see a Character's abilities at a glance whenever I need to make comparisons. I've always enjoyed "NUMBER GO UP" in both videogames and RPs, so I choose to incorporate such things in my own games.
In addition, I plan for a big part of this RP to depend on the Players themselves---because everyone has freedom within certain boundaries to decide how their First Life went, I as the GM will be trying to link the pieces together to help flesh out a unified narrative. For instance, if one Player's backstory includes a particularly nasty NPC who was their instructor at the Collegem, and another Player's backstory talks about how they almost died during a survival training exercise, I might try to link those things together! Maybe that NPC was the instructor in charge of that particular survival exercise, and they INTENTIONALLY abandoned the Players to try and get rid of them! So, when that incident comes around AGAIN in the Second Life, the Players are extra motivated to not only get top marks in the exercise, but maybe bloody that NPC's nose a little bit.
Of course, there's the over arching story of the Demon King and his hordes making war against the Kingdom of Luzia...Even if your character just wants to use their Second Life to make things a little easier for themselves, it might be hard to keep your own peace when the world is being burned down around you...
Those of you who are interested, please feel free to ask questions, leave commentary, or critique!
