No story works without want.  Whether the object of one's desire is a person, an object, an experience, status, power, or something as simple as to survive or to be remembered, it drives every living thing -and some things that can scarcely be called living- to action.  Of course, this isn't a revelation—in fact, it borders on asinine overcomplication.  All the same, motivations are vitally important, foundational elements of characters of all shapes and sizes.  But what if I told you there was a machine that could makes such wishes reality?

For 3000 years, a city stood on a stretch of land in the middle of the ocean, two isthmuses connecting it to the bordering countries.  More than 500 square miles across, and situated in the middle of the most ancient part of the world, it is a city that has seen it all.  It's seen empires rise and fall, felt iron grip of totalitarianism, enjoyed golden ages of trade, culture, and exploration, and been home centuries upon centuries of art.  It's a place people have gone to find fame, fortune, family, and even themselves, and millions have lived and died there.  It's a place like nowhere else on earth, a pillar of civilization whose face changes and changes but never fades away.  Yet, today its streets are empty.  The rain spatters on cars abandoned in the streets, the storefronts' lonely lights have no-one to see them, the churches once alive with song now host a silent mass, and goods sit untended in the market stalls.

Only one little islet off the shore of the mainland still stirs: the land that belongs to the Inquisitional College.  Established as a joint venture between various governments after the world's brightest city went dark, the huge institute of sends its historical scholars and seekers of truth into the place now known only as the City of Echoes to find out what happened.  Years have passed since then, and the lack of any findings coupled with the eeriness of the anomaly have conspired to make the world want to forget the city ever existed.  Not long ago, however, the College began to turn up odd objects throughout the city, culminating in a singular, fascinating discovery: a device the size of a truck, nestled inside the Old Basilica, oddly shaped and of unknown origin.  When a man possessed by curiosity placed his hand upon the dial in its center, the machine turned on, and from it issued a proclamation the scholars would never forget.

[i][b]Thirty-three souls will mark the road to granting one's greatest desire[/b][/i]

Since then, the machine has been silent, but the light bleeding from between its metal plates has never dimmed.  All attempts to breach its exterior and determine what makes it tick have failed.  In the meantime, more anomalous objects have turned up throughout the City of Echoes, including a case of thirty-two egg-shaped devices to be worn as pendants.  The College's top minds, having brainstormed in secret for weeks on what the machine could have meant, finally hatched a plan: to bring together thirty-two contestants with hearts full of desire to fight and lay claim to one another's souls, so that the winner might find out for them what this 'wishing machine' could really do.

[center][h2]Welcome to the Crucible[/h2][/center]

In summary, the Crucible is a tournament being held by a creepy college investigating the goings-on in an abandoned city.  The premise revolves around the use of items discovered in the city known as phylacteries.  These pendants, when worn and activated, synchronize themselves to the soul of the wearer.  When a competitor is defeated, the soul of the loser is transmitted to and stored in the phylactery of the winner, and the grand winner of the tournament -having amassed the souls of every other competitor- will have the chance to use the Machine to grant his or her wish.

This RP will depend a great deal on the characters.  The title says multiversal, but do take note of the quotation marks.  In this story, you may make your own character or any character you've previously created, ever, from any universe.  You could have a character from the world of any game, movie, book, or whatever, including pre-existing RPs (this is your chance to revive an old character you liked from an RP that died).  However, this character does have to be your original creation.  There's one other way in which your character is important: in the sheet, there's a section called 'Echo' which will be explained in the sheet, that in essence I will use to create a zone in the ever-changing City of Echoes with personal significance to your character.  I hope that you will be able to enjoy the extreme freedom you have in creating your character to the fullest.  You could have a human, a dwarf, a robot, a golem, an animal, anything, from any era, whatever you please.

However, this does not mean that things will be entirely character-driven.  When you begin, your character will be randomly placed in an area in the City of Echoes along with a randomly chosen opponent.  You won't need to get to fighting immediately; there will be a lot to explore and do.  The maximum amount of players in this RP is 16, and every player can have two characters.  However, one character will have to be designated as your main character, and the other (if you make one) as a side character.  Side characters will become NPCs, and in the first round of the tournament, every player will fight an NPC.  After that, it's PvP.  College officials will be in the city to make sure that matches proceed in a proper tournament fashion; the first person to win a duel won't be able to fight again until there's another winner so that a 'Round 2' match can begin, for instance.

The other big thing to note about this RP is the manner in which PvP will be going down.  My own experience with PvP across many roleplays hasn't been great.  Some people, wanting to avoid things like unsightly wounds or consequences for their mistakes, don't let their character get hit.  Others autohit.  Some fights progress terribly slowly, with every little thing requiring input from both parties.  All of these are problems that I hope to solve with my system.

[h3]The Combat[/h3]

When two players get into a fight, here's how it's going to go down.  Each person will write a couple paragraphs about the fight, including the scenery, the interactions, the actual battle, and so on.  This includes taking control of the other character.  Hold on, hear me out: once each person posts their version of a part of the battle, all players (including the fighting players) will get the chance to vote on which one they like more using the Like feature.  The suggested criteria include quality of writing, coolness factor, handling of the opposing character, and overall flow.  After an amount of time agreed to before the battle, the votes are tallied, and the winning version becomes canon, with the losing portion being edited into a hider.  Then the next stage of the battle begins, with both players playing off what became canon, but the next portion could go either way.  The first to three rounds won is the overall winner of the fight, with that player's third round deciding the battle.  If players feel like they want to go on longer, the amount of rounds needed to win can be changed.  In terms of voting, I am able to jump in and make a decision if I feel foul play is going on.  So write well, write fairly, and judge fairly.

I mentioned before that defeating an opponent wins their soul, but the truth is a little different.  To get the opponent's soul, the easiest and fastest way is to kill the opponent.  After the loser dies, his or her soul is immediately stored in the winner's phylactery.  However, a soul can be 'extracted' from an opponent by linking two phylacteries—one is 'plugged in' to the other, and the one that's doing the plugging is the one that gets the soul.  Soul extraction, unfortunately, causes a lot of pain to the loser, and after the loser's soul is taken, the loser becomes the winner's ally, unable to view the winner as an enemy and compelled to do what the winner commands.  Death is a real possibility in this game for your character, but if you are so inclined, there are ways you can be revived, or you can make another character who can enter the city as a 'spectator'.  There's lots to do in the City of Echoes even if you've lost the tournament, such as find special Artifacts that the College found that will help your character (or an ally) fight, survive, or discover the place's secrets

One last thing: the phylactery has one other function.  If the wearer is in a high emotional state, usually from despair, grief, or anger, it is capable of transforming the wearer into a monstrous form if the wearer loses control.  The means of transformation and the resulting form varies immensely between wearers, but all transformations result in more power and a 'bloodlusted', insane state of mind, though the severity of the insanity can also vary.  This frenzy can only be naturally reverted by taking another contestant's soul.  If a frenzied competitor loses their soul but doesn't die, that competitor 'shrivels' down into a weakened and pitiful but still monstrous state, regaining some sanity but not all.  If your character has a transformation ability already, that ability will be locked for use with this mechanic

[hider=General F.A.Q.]
0. [b]Why did you make the combat this way?[/b] To make for more interesting, more engaging, more dynamic, and more complete fights that can tell a story and don't drag on and on.  It also eliminates arguments along the lines of 'that should totally have hit' 'no way you could have dodged that/seen it coming'.  Overall quality, entertainment, and character faithfulness become the focus rather than trying to trap, one-up, or pull one over on the other player.  There will be rules to prevent cheapness as well; if your only goal is to win, and not to write some cool and interesting stuff, your chance of actually winning will plummet

1. [b]Will there be enemies or dangers in the City of Echoes beyond the participants themselves?[/b]  Yes, absolutely.  There will be a lot of freedom for players to pursue subplots while not fighting in the tournament; some can stem from the players, some I will manage as the 'dungeon master'.  I will also try not to arbitrarily seal stuff off; if something exists (like, say, a tower the tournament announcer is in) you could go and do something with it

2. [b]What's the level of technology/magic/whatever in the City of Echoes?[/b]  The general idea is that it's nearly impossible to tell if the city, its artifacts, and so forth are all magic, crazy-advanced technology, or the products of such; after all, any technology that's advanced enough is indistinguishable from magic, right?

3. [b]Are characters who get their souls stolen without dying are still under the control of their players?[/b] Yes, but they are linked to the one who possesses their soul and subjugated to an extent, which depends on the amount of interest the winner has in controlling the loser.  Thus, a loser can be sent off as a good friend, or forced to serve as cannon fodder for the winner

4. [b]What's the possibility of teamfights?[/b] It's a possibility.  Instead of having four versions of the same fight, however, each team would need to collab their entry.

5.[b]Will there be consequences for breaking the tournament rules?[/b]  Yes.  If a character breaks the tournament process, say by killing anyone they come across even if they're not due for a fight, the College will intervene.  Its extensive inventory of artifacts makes its staff formidable, and while very difficult to defeat, they could be defeated.  Fights with me playing the College will be done in normal RP format, rather than the special format, so I'll have a substantial advantage.

6. [b]Is there a way to heal between fights?[/b] Yes, there are numerous ways to recover following battle, from a makeshift hospital run by a College nurse to findable potions to healing pods or saunas.

7. [b]Doesn't an opponent who wins writing your character into death sound a little harsh?[/b]  Well, yes.  On one hand, I want to preserve the potential high-stakes nature of this particular RP; its a competition as well of a story.  On the other, if you're really attached to your character, I can work out a way to revive you.  The City of Echoes is home to all sorts of mysteries

8. [b]Can I leave out part of my character sheet for spoilers?[/b]  Only the significance of your character's Echo.  Potential opponents need access to all the other stuff, including Frenzy and your character's Wish -which can really color an individual personality- to write your character better.

9. [b]How do you deal with voting ties?[/b]  In the case of a tie, I can break it by adding my vote, or by subtracting a vote I already did.
[/hider]

It's worth noting that none of the ideas I have are completely set in stone; if you have any suggestions, please do let me know.

[h3]Sheet[/h3]

[b]Name:[/b]
[b]Alias:[/b] (The name your character uses in the tournament)
[b]Race:[/b] (Not ethnicity, but what your character is, per se, like 'human', 'elf', 'wallaby', and so forth)
[b]Sex:[/b]
[b]Class:[/b] (a short descriptor that summarizes your character's abilities, equipment, and fighting style, like 'swordfighter', 'pyromancer', 'sniper', 'stand user', 'grenadier', 'mech pilot', 'alchemist', etc.)
[b]Equipment:[/b] (list your character's gear, not including standard clothes and/or armor)
[b]Abilities:[/b] (include both notable natural and supernatural abilities.  If your character starts out too strong, I may request limitations)
[b]Fighting Style:[/b] (describe how your character fights.  Don't list moves or spells or anything, but give a detailed approximation. This is a big part of how your opponents will know to handle your character)
[b]Personality:[/b] (this is also a big part of how your opponents will know to handle your character, so don't get skimpy)
[b]Bio:[/b]
[b]Wish:[/b] (what motivates your character to risk life and limb in this insane tournament)
[b]Echo:[/b] (describe and explain a place of significance to your character, perhaps relating to the wish)
[b]Appearance:[/b] (image or written description are passable)
[b]Frenzy:[/b] (describe your character's frenzy-induced monstrous form, and what abilities are gained in this state.  Note that it doesn't have to specifically be 'turns into a big monster'; a mage could surround himself in an avatar of lightning, or a robot could change color scheme)
[b]Inventory:[/b] (special items you have acquired.  The only one you start out with is a phylactery)

[h3]Interested Parties[/h3]

I would love to get the full roster of 16, but I'd consider 8 people interested enough to get started on the OOC.

[@Lugubrious]
[@Lazo]
[@Deadnaut]
[@Hostile]
[@Flamelord]
[@Hatakekuro]
[@DracoLunaris]
[@Banana]
[@Roughdragon1]

[9/16]