Gowi

Pariah Online: Prologue [ closed ]

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Pariah Online: Prologue [ closed ]

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N A M E /// N A M E

“Quotation here.”

O V E R V I E W

_{N A M E}

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First and Last.

_{A V A T A R}

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Your alias in the game world of Pariah.

_{A G E}

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16+

_{G E N D E R}

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Male or Female?

_{V I S A G E}

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Appearance description; supplementary to your very anime faceclaim.

_{P E R S O N A L I T Y}

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How your character acts, thinks, and feels. Also what their aspirations, doubts, and so forth are.

_{B A C K G R O U N D}

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Character history, experiences, and life. Their life leading up to the discovery of Pariah and so forth. Tertiary worldbuilding.

A T T R I B U T E S

_{R O L E}

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Pariah is classless but still has a designation system of your playstyle and by extension your abilities. Are you a Tank, Support, Utility, or DPS?

_{A F F I L A T I O N}

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As a resident of Pariah the first thing you were asked to do was choose a fraternity, a faction that allowed you to research, study, sleep, eat, and practice tertiary skills. Think of it like a “class hall” or a “familia”.

_{P R O F E S S I O N}

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What profession have you gone into to deepen your wisdom and experience?

_{W E A P O N O F C H O I C E}

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No guns, its medieval fantasy with flavor— so use your imagination within reason. Feel free to describe it in detail.

_{B E N C H M A R K S}

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Basically a simple and tertiary list of achieved knowledge and possibly abilities. No Kirito-types; keep it in a fundamental nuance of moderately experienced characters but not savants. To keep this under control give me 5 physical benchmarks (swift fighter, etc.) and 5 mental benchmarks (herbalism, etc).

_{R O U G H V I R T U A L H I S T O R Y}

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Kind of like your in-game backstory. Keep in mind characters should be within the same pool of experience.

Pariah Online: Prologue [ closed ]

Hanako Moriyama // Rael

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H A N A K O /// R A E L

“I’m often hired as a procurer of fine items. I can’t tell you who my clientele is though, sorry.”

O V E R V I E W

_{N A M E}

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Hanako Moriyama

_{A V A T A R}

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Rael xiel Vauxdvihl

_{A G E}

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18

_{G E N D E R}

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Female

_{V I S A G E}

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Hanako imagines herself as a more confident version of herself, with more flare and assertiveness— a fact that translated to her subconsciousness and her appearance in the world of Pariah. Whilst she still maintains the same petite frame, reddish brown hair and brown eyes, Hanako lacks the visual impairments of her real world appearance with no suggestions that away from Pariah she is nearly blind without corrective eyewear. Her hair is woven in a loose ponytail strung by a simple black linen band and her general appearance is not so flashy it is impractical with a dark red coat, white tunic, white leggings, and dark red boots. Many jokes have pegged Hanako’s avatar, Rael, for her preference of the color red; some of which that she has found endearing.

_{P E R S O N A L I T Y}

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As her choice in fraternity may imply— Hanako’s personality, even when in character as Rael, is determined by self-interest and voracity.

As the product of a sheltered upbringing, Hanako hasn’t really had many opportunities to be socially adept especially considering the enormous shadow of her incredibly renowned and wealthy parents who coincidently were also immensely overprotective. Her father insisted on private schooling and strict regulations for socialization for the majority of her life and her mother saw their reputation as too dangerous for Hanako to have a life in the public sector so as a byproduct Hanako gathered few friends and fewer social experience. To describe her as “socially awkward” would not be entirely inaccurate; but within such social ineptitude Hanako ended up directing her emotional and mental energy into creative outlets such as video games, short stories, and augmented simulators– and such efforts would eventually become immensely valuable.

It was through virtual social networking where Hanako felt like she could finally be social, and away from the eyes from her parents she could take her time away from her studies and finally act how she wanted to; and away from the expectations, rules, and restrictions she felt she could be herself without any filter to speak of. However such freedom could be seen as anarchic given as soon as Hanako immersed herself in the world of Pariah she chose quite possibly the most self-serving faction of the choices available— Draethir. In combination with that fact and her fanatical stance of being an “avid roleplayer” this has created a personality that represents Hanako’s avatar, Rael, as one who is an opportunist who while not unwilling to work with others is still all very cynical, greedy, loud, and arrogant.

As such in the world of Pariah, Rael is a wildcard and is notorious for that fact.

_{B A C K G R O U N D}

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Hanako Moriyama was born to an affluent family within the Tokyo Prefecture in Japan in 2094 CE, situated to be the prospective heir of the family’s wealth and legacy.

As a child Hanako had few friends, a fact that led to her social anxieties and ineptitude regarding interaction due to the steadfast efforts of her parents to protect their interests by isolating their daughter from the public sector of life as much as they possibly could to minimize any potential defamatory gossip or public embarrassment to occur. This would not change as Hanako moved through adolescence— a fact that would often make Hanako feel claustrophobic, restricted, and inconvenienced. Within that childhood Hanako found herself able to be creative and inspired despite lacking a lot of time in-between schooling, family expectations, and the few friends she spent trying to understand by socializing with. This creativity would lead to a variety of short stories and an interest in video games.

By the time of 2112 CE and Pariah’s launch, Hanako’s wealth allowed her easy access to the module— and the rest is history.

A T T R I B U T E S

_{R O L E}

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Tank

_{A F F I L A T I O N}

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Draethir

_{P R O F E S S I O N}

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Collector

_{W E A P O N O F C H O I C E}

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Spear

_{B E N C H M A R K S}

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Physical

Acrobatic Reflexes – In addition to her abilities as an evasive combatant, Rael is uncanny with her movement around an enemy thus making it exponentially more difficult to strike her or maintain a full threat assessment of her party given her tendency to jump, weave, and duck in the midst of battle. This benchmark has given her increased polish to her dodging abilities.

Dirty Fighter – Rael has always incorporated cunning into her attacks and using the environment against monsters and even resident opponents in duels. After doing this consistently for an amount of time she has found herself good at analyzing the environment for utility in battle whether it is a section of dirt, loose rocks, or weakened building supports. This has earned her a passive increase to temporarily immobilize her enemies.

Duelist’s Ethos – Rael is not a tank who blocks but there comes a time where she needs to meet an opponent’s weapon over simply dodging. However, instead of blocking Rael chooses to misdirect and counter instead; using her spear to shift an enemy’s weapon to the left or right instead of taking the brunt force of its blow. As such precision-based techniques in clutch situations come easier to her.

Evasive Combatant – As a tank who doesn’t bear heavy armor or extensive enchantments, Rael has had to take a different approach to combat; after conditioning herself to be faster than most of her peers she has achieved an agile and dynamic skillset that allows her to perceive things quicker and react in kind.

Provocative Presence – Intending to keep the attention of their enemies away from their allies, the rogue-like user has proven to constantly shift the attention of their enemy to focus on them by being agile and persistent. Due to this Rael has found herself emitting an inherent aura when in the heat of battle that attracts the attention of dangerous foes even when in the company of more dangerous allies that should be prioritized.

Mental

Decadent Dungeoneer – Dungeons are dangerous places in Pariah full of monsters, traps, and great treasures. After some time exploring and plundering these ruins and crypts Rael has found herself quite adept at pinpointing the best way to circumnavigate the dangers of their contents.

Herbal Savant – For toxicologists and alchemists, herbalism is the key to understanding the world; for Rael she just rather know if a field of flowers are toxic, carnivorous, or a non-issue and while she has little interest in making potions, she does find the creation of poisons a bit more apt to her interests. As such Rael has a basic fundamental knowledge of the common and uncommon variants of herbs that grow throughout the world.

Prudent Profiteer – After extensive trading through “alternative” channels consistently, Rael has made enough of a mark on the black market to know how to maximize her profits, seek valuable items, and barter efficiently with dubious vendors.

Scrupulous Scavenger – If there is an item that is worth having it tends to be one from the many dungeons, crypts, ruins, and caverns in the world and Rael has shown that she is adept in the procurement of key items. Coupled with her abilities to plunder in these instances she can spot items quickly and pocket them without issue. Knowing the value of items is key.

Venomous Apprentice – The study of poisons is fundamentally to manipulating your opponent in the long term and Rael knows it. Whilst she has not put countless of months into the creation of poisons and other toxins, she has put some time into it and thus can create decent grades of the craft with some competency.

_{R O U G H V I R T U A L H I S T O R Y}

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Rael xiel Vauxdvihl is a name that has been one with the community of Pariah since the beginning of the immergence crisis— where a variety of new residents came to settle within the confines of the realm from parts unknown. In the time since said crisis Rael has earned a reputation that is equal parts renown and infamy, a fact that has been a result of Rael’s arrogant brand of individualism, profession, ethics, and her record on not entirely playing well with other residents of the realm. However, this has not made issue with the fraternity that fostered her as the denizens of Draethir consider her living proudly by their pathos.

For those who are not denizens of Draethir or are disconnected with the socio-politics of the world at large, Rael is an arrogant opportunist who has connections to the illegal markets and their brokers. It is with this connection that led Rael to her current profession, that of a collector.

Serving as a middleman and agent of the illegal markets and their buyers, Rael has often been utilized as a purveyor of niche, exotic, and esoteric needs due to her skillful scavenging and looting of instances across the known territories; things such as lost artifacts, rare poultices, noteworthy items, and uncommon goods serve as Rael’s “specialty” and when tasking a dungeoneering group is too costly Rael’s services are usually acquisitioned. This can extend to her looting adventurer corpses before a cleric restores them, or even serving as a plant inside an adventuring party to swipe an item or three. Rael’s sense of guile and wit has often kept her alive in many instances.

Depending who you ask Rael can be seen as an expert in dungeoneering, a untrustworthy thief, a shrewd profiteer who works for the illegal markets, or a hardy combat rogue who is experienced with poisons.

Pariah Online: Prologue [ closed ]

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Ailanthus // DPS
Elian // Support
Enyo // DPS
Hawkwood // Tank
Graves // Tank
Mirage // DPS
Ochre // Tank
Rael // Tank
Redsky // DPS
Silvestre // DPS
Steel // Tank
Vulcan // DPS

Pariah Online: Prologue [ closed ]

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If you’ve stuck with my inconsistencies and scheduling issues, then you probably have an idea of what Pariah is in design, background, and style— if you aren’t, let’s give you the fundamental basics.

Pariah (or Pariah Online) is a semi-linear collaborative story based around the concepts of anime serials like Log Horizon, Sword Art Online, Overlord, Familia Myth, and the grandfather of the “trapped in a game” framework, .hack//SIGN. You’ll notice there is only one real outlier in these influences in that of my mention of Familia Myth, which I’ll admit has more to do with me liking how that particular serial looks at things like guilds, dungeons, and progression in an interestingly designed way. Anyway, as you can imagine the central idea of this roleplay is the whole “trapped in a game” plot device and the hurdles that comes with it. But as with inspired settings, this is wholly original— this is not set in any fandom and is not an amalgamation of them.

But with that said, I definitely still have ideas for Pariah— and I hope for those who are newly interested and those who have put up with me are interested enough to invest their time and energy into writing collaborative stories in this setting. So let’s get on to the stuff I definitely know is important. How the “game” works, what the setting is comprised of, and the character applications.

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2112 CE.

The ambiguous creator of Pariah defines the simulation as an experimental rejection of the status quo. Pariah— a virtual destination for denizens of all walks of life, designed with the newest of augmented reality technologies to cater to becoming the host of a whole new immersive world of opportunities and escapism.

Moving away from the contemporary virtual reality sensors and peripherals of the past, Pariah is based on a system that has become known as “integrated synthetic hypostasis”. Essentially the technology takes the framework of modern computer programming, artificial reality designs and matrixes, and once theoretical interconnectivity of the human sub-consciousness to allow the user to enter a dream-like state and thus escape the world for what feels like days at a time.

[[ This Section may be edited so it doesn't read like garbage later, but you get the idea. ]]

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Anyway, a character casts magic just as much as he learns a skill or practices with a sword. There are no digital spell lists as the game’s framework is immersive. If I had to presume how magic works based on a rough idea I have I would say that there is casting time for spells, regents for more extravagant spells, conditions for others. It varies. Magic runs on stamina of the user, so if you use more magic you tired yourself out and risk yourself losing consciousness or physical damage depending. It’s a system I’ve used before so I am comfortable with it.

Domains are the central elements of Dark, Holy, Earth, Wind, Fire, Storm, Fire, Frost, etc.

A good framework would be this video from 10:40 onward.

https://youtu.be/tWaw-FMVoa0?t=644

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Pariah is not like conventional virtual reality modules and as such does not use traditional levelling systems. Instead, Pariah holds a framework that is designed to allocate things with a state of the art progression system that revolves around benchmarks, achievements, and attributes. With this it can be simplified generally in an easy context— if you want to be skilled with a knowledge, item, or weapon then you need to put forward effort into experiencing the world with that aspect. With this system, level becomes simply a number used to mark progression and not an extent of a character's power. A character's power is entirely defined by the actions they took to reach a higher level. If the character spent most of their time using a sword and killing monsters then they will become proficient in using swords and killing monsters. Alternatively, if the character chooses to spend all their time baking bread then they'll make the best damn bread around.

The character will initially start with a basic level in all skills which will remain hidden. When the character begins to specialize into these skills by using them (i.e. swinging a sword, baking bread) the skill will become visible. Much like in real life, proficiency stems from practice and abilities are learned through experiment. With abilities, pressing a button simply does not work. The character must independently swing the sword or cast the spell and if the system registers their attempts correctly, it will perform the act.

This system heavily favors independence and allows characters to be specialized how the user wishes to specialize them. It might not be efficient or even good but it is possible. Want to be a plate armour-wearing mage? Go for it. Want to be a rogue that drags aggro, sure! Point is, the player is free to build their character how they wish to.

In terms of threat assessment given the nature of the augmented reality that is Pariah, there are no visual statistic boxes of the people or the icons within the world. But Pariah’s creator sees it more as another reality than a video game and as such doesn’t expect people to assess threat beyond their own common sense, research, and observational skills. Essentially the lesson is be wary of your environment, monsters, and hostile icons or players.

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A pathos represents one of the several virtue-oriented fraternities in the world of Pariah and serve as factions that the player affiliates with to not only serve as the central sanctum that provides shelter as well as esoteric information regarding the path the pathos represents. These pathos are conventionally defended and led by their followers.

The Pathos Fraternities

DRAETHIR: Sometimes the most essential pillar is the one that will get their hands dirty and not hide the fact. The pathos of Draethir is vicious, but admired for their conviction and dedication to getting results. Founded by a mercenary of the same name, the fraternity attributes its primary virtue as integrity. Represented by unyielding hireswords, self-oriented sorcerers, and pragmatic artisans if you are in a pinch and don’t mind a bit of consequence this is the fraternity to call on. If you choose Draethir you prescribe to getting the job done.

DROX: The pathos of service and humility, the Drox fraternity has stood indifferent of pathos politics and more concerned with the plight of the smallfolk; and in the current days of the world of Pariah this seems to be unchanged. The Drox fraternity has held many professions and roles in its history but most of all they have seemed to follow a trend of the ranger, warden, priest, and spiritualist. Their founder, Kieamiera Drox, was a fair-haired girl who did right by her gut and not her birthright; a sentiment that is carried in the virtue that has remained central to the fraternity— compassion. If you choose Drox you have the soul of a protector of some form.

QUEON: The creativity of spirituality, magic, and nobility is always a curious thing; a fact that the pathos of the Queon fraternity have kept in mind for centuries. Founded by the first “wizard”, Queon Toraendel, the fraternity has come to represent a pathos that has evolved with the times; much like their scientific knowledge. Represented by scientists, spellcasters, spiritualists, and craftsmen— the limits of the fraternity seem endless. But with a virtue like knowledge would the sky not be the limit? If you choose Queon you are a great thinker and possibly indebted to your curiosity.

SIKTH: As discreet as they are ruthless, the pathos of the Sikth fraternity are not for the weak-willed or naively idealistic. However, the followers of the fraternity are not full of assassins and spies exclusively, as anybody who believes in their paramount virtue of unity as defined by the fraternity’s founder, Sieana Kthar, can commit to their cause and beliefs. If you choose Sikth you have a keen practical and cautious mind that believes at all costs things must be bound together.

TYHRIEN: Out of all of the pathos that are followed it probably comes as no surprise that the Tyhrien fraternity has been the most significant and well-renowned. Named after its founder, Ser Tyhrien Toraendel, the fraternity serves as an icon to all residents of the world that only one virtue is important in life— honor. It is for this reason that one will find many devotees among the noble professions and individuals who are simple idealistic in their mission. If you choose Tyhrien you have the spirit of a knight and a hero.

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Section I: Character Creation

Hider

Character creation is limited, but still inclusive.

Players are expected to create characters that are reasonable in design. What this means is I will be accounting for depth, characterization, motives, and capabilities of the character extensively to see if they are appropriate for the vision and tone of the RP.

See the CS for more answers. If that is not sufficient ask me questions or stuff.

Section II: Writing Level

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The writing level I expect is somewhere around medium expectations (high school-level equivalent). This means comprehensive understanding of basic grammar and spelling is expected, characterization is important, narrative is important, and detail behind those are appreciated. I’d want maybe two paragraphs as a rule, though if it fits a post that there is enough to respond to and react with in one paragraph than that’s fine, but one-liner’s will definitely be off-base. Keep with the fluidity and enjoy yourself; though quality posts don’t have to be textbooks and I severely doubt I will require a “novel”-esque post.

A good guideline is this quotation that I adhere to for my own posts:

“Roleplaying should focus on developing interesting and complex characters that become part of plot-lines which catch the imagination and inspire the writer behind them to exercise creativity. It is mature, humorous, imaginative, tragic, terrifying, passionate, and rife with descriptive language and characters with real personality and relatable cares. Quality posting is far better than needless novels, yet one should never neglect detail when one feels the need. However, while word and paragraph requirements ought to be unnecessary, single paragraphs cannot contain enough detail to suffice.”

With that said, I will not be putting posts under extreme analysis nor will I be inciting a “word count”. So just use your personal judgment and we’ll be awesome.

Section III: Etiquette

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Rule number zero of my perspective is pretty simple; don’t test my patience or be a irredeemable jerk.

Generally, the idea here is a simplified version of any sort of rules since we are “veteran” members of RPG and we pretty much know the big rules— follow the host site’s rules, communicate, collaborate, and don’t be antagonistic towards others or at the very least keep the toxicity to a bare minimum. Playful banter and crass jokes are one thing; but actively making somebody feel unwelcome is another one entirely. There is a difference between being blunt and being tactless.

Within the framework of the RP we know that communication is very important, so we should consider a few things in the regard of IC interaction. I will not tolerate sentiments such as “figure out how to defeat my character on your own” as sometimes characterization is above the player’s own ability; so if somebody PMs or opens a discussion about wondering how to defeat your character, help them if it is a good story hook or adds depths to an arc. Though with that said, don’t metagame; even if you know the weaknesses understand your characters own ability as well as what would be best for the story.

Respect the GM staff and their authority.

Section IV: Applying

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Post your CS in the OOC as per the template. I will review it. I will tell you to put it in the CHAR tab if acceptable. Profit. Ask questions if needed.

Pariah (.hack//SIGN-inspired RP) — Discussion & Interest Check

Huh... I just dropped the key to said bunker at some guy named Shin's house. Weird.

Pariah (.hack//SIGN-inspired RP) — Discussion & Interest Check

Just waiting on Narc to finalize still. Just sayin'.

❤'s Wild [Interest Check]

@Crumbs

At any rate, I'll take a look inbetween my "RPG responsibilities".

❤'s Wild [Interest Check]

Sounds like someone is a big fan of Wild Arms, Trigun, and Grenadier. Heh. Neat concept, doubt I have time for it though. D:

Absolute Comics: A One Universe Roleplay

Because we (the superhero sandbox community) have such a great track record with posting that often, lol. Anyway, I'll give whatever Wraith does a shot.