Will you ever trim your beard?
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Will you ever trim your beard?
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Is it even possible?
Why was Altrouge in OLYMPUS?
To look for Arcueid, who had been sighted there/was prophesied to be there. Of course, it wasn't Arc but Ark, yet Alt might have been willing to ally with whoever was going against Ark because Alt hated her guts, just like with Arc.
And Arc could have possibly appeared to help players too, had they besieged Millennium Castle.
Did you have something in mind for Shizuka's role in alternate iterations of the simulation? Sort of like the fragment Felix saw through using his spell in the Dasein and that stuff. I'm mostly interested in what kind of role you envisioned Shizuka having within OLYMPUS.
Might be a silly question, but, what kind of stuff would be involved into a potential getting-to-be-a Dorm Head route? What kinds of challenges and difficulties?
Also, what was Tessa's arc, if she had any? And what kind of stuff was planned for the Luthor, Mei, Satoko, Lacey and Shizuka alliance?
Lots of political machinations, getting famous in your dorm, defeating your old dorm head in the Duel Chart... there was a lot of it. Basically you had to become better than the current Dorm Head.
Tessa's arc was that she was going to be adorably tsundere and there was nothing anyone could do to stop her. Oh and Mommy issues.Quote:
Also, what was Tessa's arc, if she had any?
War against the Touzaki Gang, with maybe some Akio side-plot seeing that he was kinda on the opposing side in all of that.Quote:
And what kind of stuff was planned for the Luthor, Mei, Satoko, Lacey and Shizuka alliance?
Were there big fight arcs like War for the Princess planned out for the future in Regalia? Were there some plot triggers you were hoping for certain PCs to trip into?
There were couple, mostly involving various non-racial Factions such as Murder Wing, Dead Man's Hands, etc. One would have been return of Gunner Davy Jones, and the rampage of Kaiser Nimrod. Of course, the big one for F/RRR would have been Monster (Fafnir) going loose and starting to decimate everything she came across because of her natural hatred for anything that involved Heroic Spirits.
For the sasahime war arc what group(s) were you most looking forward to the pc's meeting?
Something I was very curious about for a long time were Dorm Head abilities. What were the specifications on the stuff that they could do? What we saw of Jacques was quite strong, and that was just a single perk, so I wonder how the rest of them hold up. Especially Tessa and Suzuka.
Shinsengumi, if I had to make a top pick. They were originally just a quirky miniboss squad, but I soon came up with all sorts of backstories and personalities for them, making them more fleshed-out than when they started.
As mentioned before, Jacques had a god from another dimension (basically Shub-Niggurath) sealed into his shadow, making it an entity as much as Jacques himself. It was a curse that he had acquired after turning the whole of Firenze into his feeding ground, basically growing his 'realm' into the size of Tuscany before it was reverted through two scriptures of The Church (long story). The power that was and was not created a paradox that manifested as a link to this deity, which Jacques barely managed to seal away into his 'reflection/shadow' before it took over him. As such, Jacques did not actually drink blood, but the shadows and ego of his victims. In battle, he excelled in mind-altering effects and shattering one's psyche through his aura.Quote:
Something I was very curious about for a long time were Dorm Head abilities. What were the specifications on the stuff that they could do? What we saw of Jacques was quite strong, and that was just a single perk, so I wonder how the rest of them hold up. Especially Tessa and Suzuka.
Tessa's powers were centered around the fact that she was, in actuality, a human whose body-composition was identical to that of a dragon, only rearranged differently so she looked like a human. Thus, she literally breathed prana as a destructive force. That was also why she needed Kuuteräs, her weapon: it imposed the law of "Barren Wasteland Surrounded by Cold Heatless Space". Basically "Desolation" in every sense of the word. When directed at her, it counteracted her normal breathing and presence in the world. The reason why she was able to carry it was because it had been made of the material harvested from Tessa's original self: the Outer Space Dragon Kokko, He of Star Metal and Fire.
Suzuka's power, on the other hand, was about "Seeing Through" every mystery, every lie, every legend, every abnormality. She could see every single strength and weakness of the ones she looked, know exactly what they thought, what they planned, what they hoped and dreamed and what they were afraid of. She knew those she looked better than they did themselves, and for a simple reason: she did not have eyes. Instead, her pupils were pools connected to the Collective Subconsciousness of humanity, which she used to reflect those she 'looked' upon into her mind. Thus she always saw the truth, even the ones that people hid to themselves. As a result, this ultimate form of clairvoyance made her pretty much impervious to attacks not of "basic" nature, as something like spells and mystic codes were reverted to "lies = not true = not real" before her power.
Did you have any plans for Luis in store for his future development?
And which pairs did you enjoy writing for in Regalia and MWR?
Hm, I suppose I'll also lean on favoritism and ask about Roselia's abilities and motivations. It always seemed like she was just "the best mage," but given her time on OLYMPUS and her sort of "gatekeeper" status with all of those victories, it also seemed like she was in the perfect position to become a friendly antagonist protecting the school or an insurrectionist against a system that had never really benefited her.
Also, what would progression along her Route Link have looked like?
What were the abilities of the House dorm head like?
What were Kaoru's abilities? And the Taima Dorm Head's?
Lots and lots of airball. Oh, and end-game was the title of Sky King.
Honestly? All of them. If I hadn't I wouldn't have lasted nearly this long.Quote:
And which pairs did you enjoy writing for in Regalia and MWR?
As I mentioned on the IRC chat, Roselia was, in a sense, the 'life of the planet'. It didn't just encompass being able to grow plants and such, it was also about the atmosphere, the hydrological cycle, the temperature and appearance of various elements which makes planets viable for habitation. Her Magic Crest, which was the inside of her mind, every inch of it, was a set of rules that affected the formation of Earth and how it evolved. From Hadean Period to the modern times, these rules were modified to set what was the 'norm' and what was desired of the planet at the time. The original rules still exist somewhere, but in the times when civilization was a mere dream, someone found them and carved them into his children, and they gave them to their children, and so forth. If you had asked Roselia, she would describe that the magic crest is nigh impossible to visualize in a three-dimensional space. The closet you'll get is a huge, smooth black monolith. The term I threw around was 'Planetary Keystone' - something that makes the planet what it is, it's purpose.Quote:
Hm, I suppose I'll also lean on favoritism and ask about Roselia's abilities and motivations. It always seemed like she was just "the best mage," but given her time on OLYMPUS and her sort of "gatekeeper" status with all of those victories, it also seemed like she was in the perfect position to become a friendly antagonist protecting the school or an insurrectionist against a system that had never really benefited her.
Also, what would progression along her Route Link have looked like?
As for her role, well... Roselia was tired. Very tired. She had been through more than anyone in OLYMPUS, and in a sense, just wanted it to end. She wanted to go back to being the same girl that stepped off the plane for the very first time, innocent and not even capable of dreaming what would happen. Her friends, her generation, her dreams and goals... those were all gone. She really had no connection point to OLYMPUS anymore, even though she wanted to help each and every student that was troubled by something or another. If anything, the happy end for her would have been to reunite with Leila and Kirime, and walk off into the sunset, never to be heard from again.
His attacks affected not your physical body, but the concept that is "you". Basically, if he hit you, he damaged your very existence, damage that couldn't be undone by any conventional, or esoteric means. That's what made him ridiculously dangerous to fight, as even if you won, he could have hurt you enough that your career as a Master was over. Indeed, he could even damage stuff like your Command Spells or Servant Link directly. Of course, punching a fireball out of the way was his basic feats with this fighting style as well.Quote:
What were the abilities of the House dorm head like?
Souja Mikado had Circuits that had basically no limit. Comparable to something made out of Moon Cell, each was capable of storing hundred spells and their variations, and he could simply sprout new ones if need be. Since his spells were directly etched into his circuits, this also meant that he just had to drive prana through them to immediately activate the spell, meaning he could just spew out rituals or other spells that would take days in matter of seconds. There was a second phase to his fight, where he pretty much 'became' a body of nothing but Magic Circuits, a lymph-node-slash-crystalline existence that absorbed any and all spells and had access to thousands of years of magecraft, both self-created and stolen.Quote:
What were Kaoru's abilities? And the Taima Dorm Head's?
Kaoru's power, on the other hand, was 'absolute'. Her existence was 'greater' than what you could throw at it, meaning that all other supernatural abilities, even ones that would negate it such as Suzuka's, were denied. 'Sovereign' is also a good word for her ability, as her power made her untouchable by anything that'd hamper it. It is her body, her soul, her mind and nothing can touch them, up to and including Magic. This made her removed from the world, and it could be said that what people saw as Kaoru was nothing less than looking at a foreign dimension invading upon our own. Kaoru 'is' would be the most succinct way to put it. She is, exists, and you cannot deny no matter how much you try. This extends to her attacks and stats. If she strikes you, that is absolute, and so the strike is an automatic hit, etc.
So who is Alpha? What is his real name and what is his purpose in the giant scheme of your stories and meta-plot? What was his endgame that he wanted to accomplish?
Her tenure was a looooot shorter than most of the other PCs, but from the short time that she was around did you have any ideas for things you wanted to throw Noelle's way?
Hm, if questions are still being taken:
Any thoughts on where Felix and Saber would have developed or what havoc they would've caused? At least from Saber, with who (servant-wise) was on Olympus I can imagine it would've ended up...interesting?
Also Kairos!
I guess I'll ask about future ideas regarding Shizuka as well, since everyone's at it!
Solving Susan's (accidental) murder, becoming rivals with Kitee, keeping her grounded with wacky slice-of-life events... why, the possibilities were endless! And, of course, there was the matter of keeping her buttmonkey-status alive.
Hm, if questions are still being taken:
Probably dealing with the whole situation with Lerato on the side, otherwise focusing on the tensions between various smaller factions like Radicals, Beatdown Boyz and their ilk as Dead Man's Hands started their hostile take-over of OLYMPUS secret side.Quote:
Any thoughts on where Felix and Saber would have developed or what havoc they would've caused? At least from Saber, with who (servant-wise) was on Olympus I can imagine it would've ended up...interesting?
Also Kairos!
Didn't I already answer this to you? Anyway, other than what I already said, I guess there was the whole "Satoko was actually amnesiac Gankaiko and if she recovered her memories she'd be a worse villain than Yuki" deal, meaning battles between former friends were incoming.Quote:
I guess I'll ask about future ideas regarding Shizuka as well, since everyone's at it!
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But now... no more questions.
We'll move on to the final one that closes this book.
Please wait warmly as I write about Alpha.
Alpha is... well, the easiest way to describe him and his ilk is, perhaps, the word 'noumenon'.
They are knowledge, mind and purpose independent of the senses around them, spurred into existence as a character experiences something either so tragic, so fulfilling or so absurd that they cease to be a character anymore. In a sense it could actually be called a birth of a new existence out of that character, the character itself being a mere cocoon that prepared the 'noumenon' that was left behind. Sure, the noumenon might exhibit same personality traits as were ascribed to that character, and it might have same sense of morality as the character was implied to have, but metatranscendental beings are not the character they came out of.
To put it in layman's terms, these beings, these Logos as they call themselves (perhaps out of sense of irony) are Meta-Conscious.
They come about when a character understands it is a character in a story, and thus, ceases to be a character in that story, gaining its own ego.
When viewed from a higher dimension, worlds inside stories tend to have four walls, the fourth being that which separates the 'world there' and the 'world here'. As understandable, this fourth wall cannot be understood or even that well sensed by the inhabitants of the 'world there'. However, Logos are those which live inside that 'fourth wall', between the higher dimension and lower dimension, which allows them to see the whole of story, and indeed, the fact that stories come and go, disappear and appear, at a rate which can barely be comprehended.
It should not be surprising, therefore, that these Logos, in their elevated viewpoint when compared to the stories they came from, find these worlds utterly repulsive and nightmarish, with people and events that never had a chance to be anything different, or exhibit any sort of free will. Unfortunately, as the Logos cannot elevate themselves higher, to the actual next dimension, they are left with a dilemma: beings such as them can watch stories forever if they want, but that's all they can do. If they want to 'affect' things they have to descend into those stories they detest so much.
And so, it has become an unspoken law between the Logos that whenever one of them descends into a story, at least one another must follow. This is what they call The Great Game - a duel of wits and machinations between the Logos. The story they have descended is their Gameboard, and they must abide by its rules... to a certain extent. They must not know the ending beforehand, they must not know the culprit beforehand, they must not know the characters beforehand. Every Player must choose a Gamepiece for themselves, a character in a story that represents them. To this Gamepiece, they grant some of their power: a pseudo-conscious mind, capable of acting independently from the story, as well as the power of going against the intended flow of the story. However, in return, the Logos retains some control over the character in question. Finally, the win conditions are set, which are usually something akin to "This story will have a happy ending" or "None of these ten will survive", or something similar. Whichever win condition comes true first decides which Logos won.
And their price? They have staved off their never-ending boredom and pointless existence for a while.
However, where do these Logos come from? Nobody really knows, though their chosen names seem to imply that they are limited in number. Some say that when a Gamepiece has been used enough times as one, it will retain that pseudo-consciousness it has. Others speculate that perhaps stories that are never finished, ideas that are never polished, can sometimes result in an impossible situation for some character that drives them to a brink of insanity, before snapping them into understanding of how their world was never complete, thus transforming them into Logos. There are even arguments that certain events inside a story, asides to the audience for example, can shatter the psyche of a character if used enough, and they will suddenly see what it is that they have been doing, ascending in the process.
Whatever the process through which these Logos come into being, in the end they are all the same: powerful beings Scratching in the Fourth Wall, each with their own moniker and sphere.
- Like Sigma - Endless Separation.
- Like Xi - Endless Rejection.
- Like Tau - Endless Assertion.
- Like Nu - Endless Understanding.
- Like Omicron - Endless Existence.
- Like Iota - Endless Possibility.
These Logos appear in stories usually on by their proxies. They merge with some character to further their own goals and then leave when the game is done. More often than not, the characters of the stories do not realize that the Logos were even there. There is, however, one exception:
The first. Alpha. He of Sphere unknown to the Rest.
Alpha is unlike rest of the Logos, and they all know why, and they all fear him for it. Alpha that now traverses from story to story was not originally Alpha. No, he was a Gamepiece, of all things. Some say he was a young man who fled his home into a different town by the sea, others say he was a tourist in a rural village during burning hot summer, and then there are those who say he was a hero of his story, filled with mages, espers and zodiacs... whatever the case, whoever he is, that is no longer important. What is important is that Alpha did something no other Gamepiece had done before: he crushed the will of the original Alpha, and instead of Logos subjugating him, he subjugated his Logos, thus taking his place.
A character had done the impossible and overpowered a Player, which sent a ripple of fear through the rest of his kind. Alpha then took the name and enslaved/transformed the original Alpha into a being of nothing more than power, keeping it as something that furthers his already formidable skills. Thus both the eternal gamepiece and the enslaved Logos are both referred to as Alpha. It allows a trick he is very fond of, something he last used in a restaurant with unlucky number; while his truths refer to one Alpha, the other Alpha is capable of doing whatever he wants. Such is the power of two names that are the same.
As for Alpha's purpose... who knows? Out of all the Logos, he is the only one that can physically travel between stories, for he is both a Gamepiece and a Player. Perhaps, like the rest, he is bored. Perhaps he simply wants to cause suffering for characters in other stories. Perhaps there's no rhyme or reason for the havoc he wields.
Or, perhaps...
As the First, it is his duty to pursue the Last.
And so, we come to the end of the road.
Stories, tales and mysteries unfinished. The point of this thread was to give some closure to what could have been and what would have been, but I know it cannot take place of the real thing. However, the sad truth is that I couldn't really return to these stories anymore, not after being so long and seeing all the problems with them, the way they were presented and how the systems they operated were practically strapped together with bootlaces and good will.
However, this is not the end. More will come in the future, and even now, there are multiple ideas bouncing about in my head.
But they aren't Ashaverse. They will be something different, something new, and something that's little more out there in both terms of story and style, perhaps even the system. So yes, they will not be Ashaverse.
This was Ashaverse.
This collection of random tales that started out of nothing, with people scrambling together to make something that made sense, utilizing trial and error to come up with something that worked. Rulebooks and concepts that weren't fleshed out until six or more years later, outdated ideas that we were too stubborn to let go off, misunderstandings based on Japanese texts half-assedly translated... Ashaverse was all that. Yet, for me, it was something that kept a fire lit inside of me for eight years. Eight years... that's a hell of a long time, if I do say so myself. And, as cliche as it is, I couldn't have done it without all of you. Ashaverse wouldn't exist without readers, without players, without friends. Though I may be cross with you every now and then for something (usually rules and powerlevels) that does not diminish the fact this ridiculously wild ride was all possible thanks to you being there.
Hopefully you'll be there in the future, too, to see what it holds.
But for now, let's just appreciate these amazing eight years that we had with these, sometimes quite rudimentary, tools, with which we built words for ourselves to explore and marvel at. Where we fought battles and had sappy moments a plenty. Where Slice-of-Life blended into gruesome reality just like that. This odd, so very odd, and so very vivid, place we called Ashaverse.
... Oh.
I guess I never did say it?
Why Ashaverse Continuum? The name, that is.
Well, if I had to give a reason... in each of these three stories of it, there was a Holy Grail War. Sometimes bigger, sometimes smaller. But it always was there, and it always presented itself as the main focus. But it wasn't. Even with the machinations of Atlasias, shrine maidens, Servants, Emiya Shirous, or even Logos, the plots and the mysteries and the Grail Wars were never the true focus.
No, there was only single 'Truth' to every story, and it always stayed the same.
The bonds between friends.
And it was thatthat was the point of this world.AshaTruth
So, one last time, thank you all. For reading and for playing.
Raise a glass for eight years of roleplaying.
Drink.
And then raise it again for another eight years to come.
I know I will.
I have a few questions I want to ask but...
you know what? Think I’ll leave that for later. Or not at all. Think I’ll just get myself a glass and do what verg said. Here’s to all the stories told. And here’s to all the ones that didn’t get told.
happy trails regalia
moon white.
And to all the other locations we saw so much of, but not enough.
Agreed. To friends and fellows, and the hard work and time everyone put into this, especially Verg himself. To good times past and bad ones become good stories, and to future ones yet to be.
CHEERS!
...hey, what did rao’s curse thingy do?
Proof that this thing never really dies XD
I’m curious, and verg never told me!
its like an itch I can’t scratch
Lol, fair enough. I know there's a lot I didn't ask, either.
He kept using a homing curse thingy
you woundnt tell me what it was because zero was cowardly and kept dispelling it because he was paranoid Rao had figured out away around his body reinforcement.
His...?
....does this have anything to do with the time you got drunk and started hinting he had a dragon lodged in his throat or something?
Huh, guess that would explain the dragon breath spell.
Nah. He was one of the three surviving Masters from the Prototype Year, along with notSnape!Einzbern and the Master-Studies Teacher. Both his and Einzbern's Servants were gone but they lived on in their 'Regalias' which allowed them a momentary demi-servant mode by fusing the Servant with the Master. Basically something achieved through Rank 10 Social Link with your Servant. His Servant was Invoker Aradia (I think).
dragon breath spell?
Who has dared to raise the specter of the dead?
Edit: Also, it was a thing from the RP where an NPC cast a particularly powerful spell against Tobias's character.