This contest is in partnership with the (Bi)Monthly Rework-a-Servant Contest, and offers an alternative creative writing outlet to the Create-A-Servant Contest.
Each contest will have a prompt. This prompt is designed to offer participants a direction, it is not a restriction on the type of entries allowed.
As the name of the contest states, all entries are valid as long as they are not Servant sheets.
The goal is for participants to 1) have fun, 2) be exposed to sides of the Nasuverse they might unfamiliar with, 3) stretch their Nasuverse creative muscles that are not used in creating Servants, and 4) showcase their creative works.
General Rules
Submissions are open from the 1st of the contest month (1:00 AM PST) until the 22nd of each contest month (11:00 PM PST).
Each account can submit 2 sheets.
Voting begins from the 23rd of the month (1:00 AM PST) to the final day of the month (11:00 PM PST).
The sheet with the highest number of points when the contest concludes is deemed the winning sheet. In case there is a tie, the sheet with the most amount of 3 points will be.
If there is still a tie for first place, a one week runoff vote will begin between the sheets. The sheet that accumulates the most votes in that week is declared the winner.
If the runoff vote ends in a tie, I will break the tie to decide who gets to choose the prompt. Both sheets will be mentioned in the Hall of Fame as "equal first".
The winner decides the prompt for the next contest and is given their second category the day after they are declared the winner.
The prompt (by DM) is due 2 weeks (flexible) after receiving the second category.
A no-confidence vote on the prompt will begin 8 days before the contest begin and run for 6 days.
A prompt is vetoed when the number of no-confidence votes equals ⅔ rds (rounded up) of the participants in the previous contest. For instance, if there were 20 participants in the previous contests, there need to be 14 no-confidence votes to veto the winner’s prompt.
The need for vetoing will be reassessed after the first QTP.
Prompt Format:
A prompt is composed of keywords from at least two categories. The categories are as follows:
Personage: Specific characters, lineages, position (Burial Agent, Enforcer, Freelancer), a phrase describing a position or status
Locations: Specific Geographical Regions (Australia, Africa), General topography (the mountains, by a lake), Nasuverse locations (7th Labyrinth of Alcatraz, Avalon, Sea of Imaginary Numbers, etc)
Time Period: Calendar Dates (15th century, 90's, Age of Gods), Events (Post-Fuyuki HGW5, True Ancestor hunt), or timelines as well as descriptors of timelines (Land of Steel, world with a Moon Cell, During Extella Link)
Items: Specific items (Rhongomyniad, Walls of Troy), Class of item (Divine Organs, Catalysts, Seven weapons of Atlas), General items (a holy tree, haunted mansion, parallel world shifting cafe)
The examples given above are non-exhaustive. Each keyword chosen should explicitly be from the Nasuverse; however, if the keywords are presumed to exist in the Nasuverse (certain artifacts, locations, time periods, personages) it will be acceptable.
Originally Posted by example
My reformed orthodox rabbi, Bill Clinton, led the Arkansas Demon Hunter Organization during his tenure as governor.
Personage: Former President Bill Clinton is explicitly in the Nasuverse (Fate/Zero Vol 1)
Organization: Although the Arkansas Demon Hunter Organization is not explicit in the Nasuverse, it is recognized that Demon Hunting Organizations do exist outside of Japan (Tsukihime Dictionary: Burial Agency).
The winner will choose the first category and the second category will be randomized. This randomized second category must be distinct from the first category, for example:
If the winner chose Location, the second category will be Personage, Organization, Time Period, Abilities, or Items.
The winner then creates a prompt with a keyword from each category. This prompt can take any form: a question, statement, dialogue, couplet, prophecy etc.
The keywords are entirely up to the winner. The prompt does not need to be limited to these two keywords; however, it must include them.
Frame Story:
Each
Quantum Thread Primer
Spiritron Phenomena Contestation Anchoring Band
or Season will consist of one year’s worth of contests (usually, six) and follow an overarching plot. A number of these Seasons will be collected in a Cycle, a collection of those QTPs.
The overarching plots are meant invest participants into the contest as well as draw in new faces; there is no intent to restrict access or creative freedom. Although pains will be taken to ensure the frame story does not infringe upon the creativity of the prompts — if there is ever a time when the frame story and the prompt conflict, the prompt takes precedence. That is, I’ll make it work.
The glossary will be included in the frame story and serves as a leaping-off point for those unfamiliar with the topics at hand; it is in no way exhaustive and participants are encouraged to do their own research. Links to all sources used to produce the glossary as well as suggested reading where those concepts come up will be posted outside the frame story.
****
Inlet Sea=Alaya-Vijnana — Do Moonlight Margaret Dream of Storied Refrains?
Cycle — Unlimited Sheet Harvest
Quantum Thread Primer — Dead End Luminescent Bounding Sphere
The sheet with the highest number of points when the contest concludes is deemed the winning sheet.
What's the tiebreaker?
Originally Posted by You
A prompt is vetoed when the number of no-confidence votes equals ⅔ rds (rounded up) of the participants in the previous contest. For instance, if there were 20 participants in the previous contests, there need to be 14 no-confidence votes to veto the winner’s prompt.
Tiebreaker will be a one week run-off. Most votes in that runoff will win. If the runoff results are equal, I'll be the tiebreaker breaker. (I will add that into the OP)
The first round was already subjected to vote. Out of the 22 people who wanted the contest to go ahead 3 did not want the prompt.
Last edited by You; April 24th, 2023 at 12:15 PM.
Originally Posted by FSF 5, Chapter 14: Gold and Lions I
Dumas flashed a fearless grin at Flat and Jack as he rattled off odd turns of phrase.
"And most importantly, it's me who'll be doing the cooking."
Tiebreaker will be a one week run-off. Most votes in that runoff will win. If the runoff results are equal, I'll be the tiebreaker breaker. (I will add that into the OP)
The first round was already subjected to vote. Out of the 22 people who wanted the contest to go ahead 3 did not want the prompt.
why not just like the other contest, the one with more 3 point votes wins. If both have the same amount, then both deserve to win.
Will this be running in tandem with the Rework Contest, or will it now be on a 3-month cycle alongside the monthly?
In tandem with Rework. DelRey and I have agreed on this.
Originally Posted by TQG Imaginatorious
So this is the monthly contest for anything that isn't a servant?
Yes, the format of this contest was discussed in the former Monthly Make A Magus Contest thread. This is Make A Magus and everything else that isn't Servants.
Originally Posted by FSF 5, Chapter 14: Gold and Lions I
Dumas flashed a fearless grin at Flat and Jack as he rattled off odd turns of phrase.
"And most importantly, it's me who'll be doing the cooking."
Quantum Thread Primer — Dead End Luminescent Bounding Sphere (1/6)
A place, a time —
Below the Clock Tower, the Teaching Headquarters of the Magecraft Association, under the management of the Secret Autopsy Division, is the Spirit Tomb Albion.
Below the Mining City, Magisfair —
Below the Great Magic Circuit of the last Pure Dragon, Vein Corridor Od Vena —
Below even the hollowed-out Ancient Heart where the Twelve Lords sit to cast the Grand Roll —
— the oldest classroom in the Clock Tower hangs between the
mirage
boundary
of
fantasy
fairyland
and
reality
the Anthropocene
.
Carillon Observatory
"]
Towering above,
the Bell of Sealing waits to toll.
Illuminating the caverns below,
the Lux Carta endlessly elucidates.
These are the primary
Mystic Codes
formal wear
which belong to the Secret Judgment Division. Thus, there was truly only one function they could serve.
The proclamation of a Sealing Designation
The judgment of a mystery worth preserving, evermore.
The verification that a patent has been infringed upon
The judgment that a distributed formula will one day be mystery, nevermore
When asked about the Secret Judgement Division, those who know the true Principle behind the oldest classroom in the Clock Tower often remark:
If the Wandering Sea drifts into the mists of the past —
If the Atlas Temple laments the inability to transmute the certain future —
Then the Clock Tower clings to the remaining
light
mystery
in the present.
And so, it should be obvious the first classroom was created to distinguish what
light
mystery
is present.
That statement is contradictory. To judge a mystery is to analyze and quantify it, concepts that are all too common in the sciences. To define the character and calculate the amount of mystery is to define the past and calculate the future.
To study the past, we must only exist in the past — the gatekeeping of the Wandering Sea.
Technology that saves the future can potentially destroy the future — the pitfall of Atlas.
Measuring mystery dilutes mystery — the hidden flaw of rendering mystery as academia.
Yet, there was a destination to be reached, and paths untrodden. Magecraft is nothing more than actualizing a possible result with one’s own strength. If measuring mystery without diluting mystery was not possible, then it should be a potential route toward the foolish pilgrims’ destination. So, the Clock Tower measured mystery, and the fruits of the labor slumber beneath its creation.
One of the first to receive the honor of a Sealing Designation by Millieune Carillon. Its name has been long forgotten, so within this Observatory, it is only known as the Archivist. Its role is as the vocation implies.
All magi know it is not the dissemination of mystery that weakens it, but the ubiquity of its application.
If one person uses a mystery that makes them rich, they can use the full force of its power. If two people know it, then they can each only use half.
As long as the one being told is capable of selecting the topic depending on the person — not consciously, but due to their irrevocable fundamental nature, the mystery will not be disseminated any further. However, the primal nature of all living beings is to share information whether by communication, virtual spiritrons, or
blood
genetic material
. There is no way even one such an average, empty person exists. Therefore, dissemination is equivalent to application.
The solution?
To create an existence that only lives in the present. A living being born entirely of pure intellect, unable to recognize itself. The perfect Clock Tower magus, analzying mystery without ego for it could not have a sense of self as structure-bound, intellectual consciousness is its sole foundation.
Endlessly archiving the
Lux Carta
charts of residual light
, a brain and Magic Circuits drift through the dream known as the present, without knowing it has done so since the establishment of the Carillon Observatory.
The realm of processing requests and taking readings are not in the Archivist’s domain. Under the purview of the Observatory, those who perform such tasks are technicians who operate and maintain the instrument. They will never see the data that is produced and stored in magical Pinakes, popularly considered the first catalog system used in Western history, and the forefather of modern archive cataloging technology.
In the same way that one could create a Magic Formula on the back of an envelope that acts as an information recording medium similar to a compact disc, the hidden purpose of the Pinakes of the Library of Alexandria was to serve as backups for the texts. What happened to those Pinakes is a tale of the past. Coined by the Observatory technicians as
sheets
Pinakes
, they are never to be touched, never to be observed, never to have magical energy passed through them.
To look upon the sheets is to break the First Principle of the Clock Tower — the Concealment of Mystery. What is recorded on each sheet is not only the waveform and wavelength of the mystery, its essence, but after connecting with the Lux Cartas set up in the Clock Tower branches, a holistic snapshot of the target is recorded.
That is why the Limited Mystic Code is called the Observation Sphere, an empty fisheye lens that shows a single brain, the eternal, shining dream known as the present.
Except, on this day, the Bell of Sealing does not toll, the Lux Carta does not shine, and the Archivist does not dream.
Weep, for the darkness has arrived.
Reap, the harvest must be bountiful.
The enemy is unknown, the defense mechanisms have been breached, the Clock Tower has fallen.
In flurries of desperate activity, the technicians of the Observatory rummage through the sheets, passing whatever magical energy they have through sometimes millennia-year-old formulae. The taboo has been broken for they are no longer technicians, but Seekers of knowledge that is worth preserving. Any Seeker would tell you all knowledge, no matter how mundane, is worth preserving. Therefore, this can only be a type of triage.
Since ancient times, magi have raised their heads, gazing up at the stars, to divine their destiny. With ancient predation eclipsing the celestial canopy, the Seekers closest to fairyland look down at the
star
planet
, crying out,
、、、、、、、、、、、、、、、、、、、、、、、、、、、
“What can we save with our Grand Order!”
The calculated response does not come from the World, but from the head of the Secret Judgement Division.
“The
Representives of Mystery
seats
worth preserving number six. Find them.”
The First: The Barthomeloi forced the Head of the Zoology Department into exile.
座座座座座座
The brief hush of confusion, furrowing of brows, and luxury of glancing at a neighboring Seeker to ensure they weren’t the only one questioning the sanity of the Giver of All Sealing Designations.
The Head of the Secret Judgement Division inclined his head and . . . the moment passed. The oldest classroom in the Clock Tower was abuzz with activity once more.
The Department of Zoology — Chimera
Twelve Clock Tower Departments were named after the one who created them. The sole exception was the Department of Zoology. According to the Clock Tower above, the creator had been lost to the annals of time — the name “Chimera” had been designated. The three-headed beast of Greek Mythology seemed like the correct name for a Department that dealt with shapeshifting and the application of Phantasmal Species. Or, was the name the ultimate resignation to the fact that the vast majority of Magical Beasts that still persisted in the uncivilized regions of the world were nothing but
Chimera
crossbreeds
of once proud, pure species?
The Department of Zoology certainly had a unique history among the Clock Tower departments, but that alone should not render it a Representative of Mystery worthy of being preserved above all others. Moreover, the Head of the Secret Judgement Division did not ask the Seekers to find the
sheets
Pinakes
for the creator of the Department of Zoology. The statement centered on an incident, Zoology was simply the stage, and Barthomeloi an actor. . . or the orchestrator.
The Barthomeloi, one of the Three Great Families of the Clock Tower from who the twenty Lord families originated, had the greatest political power only moments ago. Their history dated back to AD when the genius Barthomeloi took the Clock Tower by storm and aligned twelve Lords with the twelve Departments. One could say that although the Barthomeloi were not the architects of the Clock Tower, they were the architects of the system by which the Clock Tower functioned. As for their relationship with the Zoology Department — it was well known the Lords that were currently in charge of the Department of Zoology, the Gaiuslink, were the Barthomeloi’s lapdogs. What apt naming.
But what existed before the Gaiuslink? What political forces were at play to engender such a power struggle and what did the Gaiuslink owe the Barthomeloi that generations of servitude were not enough to satisfy? These are certainly questions the Clock Tower that once stood above would find worthy of answering. Such answers would only serve as middling political curiosities. A representative sample of the Clock Tower would not preclude mundane political intrigue. But to designate that a “Representative of Mystery” . . .
Then, perhaps a third route, a mystery in the strictest sense, unknown to all, yet recorded in these Grand Archives. A lauded exile only served as the flap of a butterfly’s wings and the hurricane was felt centuries, millennia later. A force of nature that had been stored within these archives. Do such repercussions exist and can they be traced back?
The Lux Carta is only an Observation Sphere. You are a Bounding Sphere, clustering as much or as little data together as possible. All the answers already exist inside of you, so —
O’Seekers of Knowledge tell me a story. What was the dream the Archivist dreamt?
座座座座座座
Glossary Sources and Recommended Reading
If anyone has any additional canon sources they would like to be entered here, please post in the thread below:
Originally Posted by complete materials 3
Most Magical Beasts have existed since the Age of Gods, and are Chimeras formed from mixing different species. They live on currently undeveloped lands that cannot be reached by mankind. Furthermore, Phantasmal Beasts that have existed in the past have almost all migrated to a different world presented as the “Inside of the World”.
Originally Posted by fate side material
They are divided into three ranks: monstrous, mythical, and divine.
The vast majority of monstrous beasts are crossbreeds (chimera) living in still-uncivilized regions, but it seems that those of mythical rank and above have shifted to the far side of the world.
“For example, if the Barthomelois at the top of the Aristocratic Faction decide to make a move, the Gaiuslinks in charge of the Department of Zoology (Chimera) will have to follow, as they are essentially the Barthomeloi’s puppets. In that case, the Archelots of the Department of Botany (Yumina) will also follow,” my mentor said, listing out a few names that didn’t come up very often. Gaiuslink, and Archelot.
. . .
“Take the Archelots, for example. Though they are part of the Aristocratic Faction, they have a strong influence on media, and they’ve even been involved in the military in the past. The more members there are, the harder it is to distinguish the traitors. That is the Aristocratic Faction’s greatest weakness.”
“…Oh, okay.”
The Democratic Faction wasn’t even completely united, so the problems were even more severe with the Aristocratic Faction.
“Besides, the Barthomelois don’t act unless it’s strictly necessary. Their authority is absolute, and anything they do will send shockwaves through the entire Clock Tower. If they still somehow manage to lose, their extremities could be taken advantage of. Even though the main branch of the family will not be affected, their peripheries will inevitably be chipped away at. Adding to this mess, the Neutral Faction never has a solid stance. And that is why the Aristocratic Faction is not always in a position to win.”
“……”
I see. I finally understood the situation.
A united Aristocratic Faction would be unbeatable, but whether or not they could actually agree was unclear.
“Therefore, the Barthomelois avoid most Grand Rolls. They operate believing that regardless of what the people beneath them fight about, the Barthomelois still dominate the Clock Tower.”
"At the Clock Tower, transformation is within the Zoology Department's domain. In other words, he had been taught technique of this magecraft through Sir Davenant of this department."
"An advanced transformation technique. Even his [Dr. Heartless] clothes were transformed. Originally it's the Zoology Department's domain, but the former dean [of Modern Magecraft] was involved with quite an array of magecraft"
The Department takes the name of the creator, however, the creator of the Zoology department is unknown so it is called Chimera.
. . .
1000 AD: The prodigy Barthomeloi arrives at the Clock Tower. The groundwork for magus nobility, the Lords is laid down.
Originally Posted by Adventures Vol 1
“I would very much like to dispute that, but that can wait.”
As my mentor said that, he turned back to the instrument. Rin followed suit without any argument, holding up her hands at the bone fragment in the balance and closing her eyes.
“Should I tune Mana the same way as in class? We did Mana tuning with bones in classes in the Department of Zoology, but there are different techniques in the Department of Mineralogy, and Department of Spiritual Evocation, aren’t they?”
“Let’s use the Department of Spiritual Evocation’s technique. You should think of it as magecraft that infects the person connected with the bone rather than the bone itself.”
The thread title is tad bit confusing though. I thought for quite some time this is just Del's contest (the full title doesn't even appear in the front page). Just regular Monthly Create a Mage Contest would ring better.
Let's not premise it as just being in the shadow of the Servant contest.
I think the idea is that one could post a DA or an esper instead of a magus, for example. If future prompts allow it.
Anyway, I really appreciate how contextualized the contest is and the amount of source provided for even this very open prompt. Your effort isn't going unseen You.
the very first line of the OP clearly states the time of beginning. the prompt was announced beforehand. Due to the structure of the contest, the prompt will be known before the contest starts.
the very first line of the OP clearly states the time of beginning. the prompt was announced beforehand. Due to the structure of the contest, the prompt will be known before the contest starts.
Yeah, that's on me. I didn't notice the timestamp in the opening post until after I'd already asked the question. Probably should have edited my post. My bad!
Posting due to the discussion on this month's prompt. The prompt is not "make a former Zoology head who was exiled." The Zoology department is only one part of the prompt.
It is perfectly acceptable and even encouraged to tackle the prompt from different angles. For instance (examples and not exhaustive), making a Barthomeloi family member who was politically active during that time period, a descendent of the Zoology head that was exiled and wants revenge on the Clock Tower, or even an Enforcer or Freelancer who ensured the head of exiled. Please do not assume you are limited to "a head of Zoology" and the Zoology Department. All they need to be is what you would consider a
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Representative of Mystery
worth recording.
Last edited by You; May 3rd, 2023 at 11:39 AM.
Originally Posted by FSF 5, Chapter 14: Gold and Lions I
Dumas flashed a fearless grin at Flat and Jack as he rattled off odd turns of phrase.
"And most importantly, it's me who'll be doing the cooking."
Originally Posted by example
Reply With Quote
"]
