[center][h1]Digimon- [T̼͕͜h̢̟̼e͇̝͜ U͚͎n̦̘c͚͓͇a̠̫͎n̼͍͍n̻̻̙y͚̦͚ F̞͚͇r̢͜o̡͉͖n̡̢̦t̢̙i̺̼̟e̟͇͖r͓̫͔][/h1] [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DvZYge6afuI&ab_channel=CreatureFeature-Topic[/youtube] [i]Tokyo, Japan, 2019. Over the last fifty years, rumours have spread around the world about how the ever-forward march of technology has brought man into contact with beings outside of our understanding of the world. Perhaps among whispers of moth-like humanoids haunting small American towns and plesiosaurs who survived the K-Pg extinction event to thrive in a Highlands loch, you may have heard of Digimon; monsters of all shape and sizes from a world just out of our reach, where matter is digital rather than analog. The truth is, if you’ve heard of one, you’ve heard of the other. Though they long predate the Digital Age, recent technological developments have brought us back into regular contact with these beings, a state of affairs that the powers that be in both the Analog and Digital Worlds have come to an uneasy accord in order to navigate. Though this accord holds steady for now, the fact remains that both worlds fear this convergence as an omen of some great cataclysm; for as the boundaries of our worlds become blurred, so too do the boundaries between their inhabitants…[/i][/center] ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ [h2]The Rules and Such[/h2][list] [*] 1- First and most important rule, be respectful towards other players both in and out of character. OOC-wise, disagreements can and will happen and we're presumably all grown-ups here, so we'll only prod you if we think you're seriously crossing a line. IC-wise, besides the usual warnings about godmodding and powerplaying, if your character interacts with a character controlled by another player, please allow them an adequate chance to respond before moving your character on. [*] 2- Myself and [@RBYDark] are perfectly happy for everyone to get creative and passively build the world with their characters, but in return for this respect we expect that a) you check with us beforehand about anything that would majorly affect other players and their characters, and b) if we ask you outright to drop a certain idea or stop doing something, you listen to us (we're perfectly happy to hear you out 99% of the time, but we will be firm when we need to be). [*] 3- Like we said in the Interest Check, this RP is going to have a significant horror theme and approach some fairly heavy subjects, but we will be doing our best to avoid crossing the line from 'dark fantasy' to 'edgefest'. When in doubt, keep it PG-13, but generally try and keep away from excessive foul language, violence or grodiness for the sake of grodiness: you're welcome to ask us if anything you have planned or ready to post is inappropriate, but we'll keep to gentle reminders otherwise unless you're consistently crossing the line. [*] 4- Canon is wildly inconsistent with the power levels of certain Digimon and the official profiles from the Reference Book are prone to some pretty remarkable hyperbole. As such, certain Digimon may be nerfed while others might be buffed above their showings in canon material; please understand that this is for the sake of maintaining a steady internal balance and avoiding situations that might seriously derail planned plotlines.[/list] ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ [h2]Background and Lore[/h2] [hider=Digimon-Human Partnerships]In this world line, there are two kinds of Digivice and thus two kinds of Digimon-Human partnership; D-Tector contracts and the more informal partnerships enabled with the Digivice iC. D-Tectors are ‘the’ partnerships of the story in the same way a partnership facilitated with a Digivice is ‘the’ partnership in Adventure or Tamers. They are created when a contract is formed between a dead or dying Digimon and a human with the right mindset to perceive and accept them; the human accepts the burden of the Digimon's unfinished business and becomes a vessel to anchor their Digital Spirit to the world of the living, and in return they are granted access to the Digimon's powers by evoking them to assume myriad Spirit Forms. While dependent on the relationship between human and Digital Spirit, unfettered exposure to the volatility and transformative power of the human psyche will allow for the full potential of the Digimon to be released, and through achieving mutual understanding and purpose, heights of power seldom seen in either world since antiquity may become reality once more. Digivice iC's, meanwhile, facilitate a more 'traditional' Digimon-Human partnership. Similarly to how they worked in Savers, they are 'artificial Digivices' that do not bind humans and Digimon in contract, but rather but rather amplify the emotional energy of humans that Digimon feed off of to both allow spontaneous temporary evolution to otherwise inaccessible higher forms, and accelerate their natural growth if desired. While they are nowhere near as powerful as D-Tectors, only permitting evolution up to Perfect, they are far more common; in times past, the deities of the Digital World have summoned humans and equipped them with iC's so that they may solve disputes. While the increasing communication between the powers that be of the two worlds have seen these gradually disappear, the Four Holy Beasts who oversee the lower planes of the Digital World have provided the governments of the Analog World with Digivice iC’s, and a number of them have been replicated and sold on the black market over the years.[/hider] [hider=The Digital World and Analog World]While in most continuities the Digital World was created from human networks, that isn’t quite the case in this world line. While they fell out of more than extremely sporadic contact until the mid-twentieth century, the Analog and Digital Worlds have existed alongside each-other since time immemorial, with partnerships believed to have existed as far back as the classical period! It’s generally believed that the nascent Digital age of mankind is what brought about this current state of affairs, with modern technology and telecommunication networks providing more weak-points and openings for Humans and Digimon alike to cross from one side to another, but that isn’t a certainty: though they’re cagey about the matter, there are Digimon who have survived from antiquity who allude to similar periods of crossover without the same phenomena to bolster them. [u][b]The Analog World[/b][/u] In the Analog World, other than the governments we know in reality, the bodies responsible for maintaining order between the worlds are DATS and HYPNOS. DATS is a non-government organization largely made up of those who have partnered to Digimon and decided to contribute their knowledge and experience to keeping the peace between the two worlds, and was founded in the 90’s when those who had been pulled into the Digital World to solve disputes in prior decades organized between themselves to petition the Sovereigns for a better system. Rather than spirit away children without their knowledge or consent to resolve petty disputes and separate them from their partners when the matter is solved, they would monitor the Analog World for individuals of potential themselves and give them the adequate training to both neutralize and return Digimon that passed over and resolve disputes in the lower planes of the Digital World where the influence of the powers that be is at its weakest. HYPNOS, meanwhile, predates DATS and proper contact with Digimon. While it currently operates globally, it began in the US in the early sixties as a response to the first recorded Digimon incursions, monitoring disruptions in telecommunications that indicated the appearance of Digital Lifeforms and either working pre-emptively to quash the disruption before a breach occurred, or moving in afterwards to capture or otherwise neutralize them. While the UN now has a friendly if not massively stable relationship with the equivalent powers in the Digital World, and so HYPNOS isn’t quite as hostile towards them as they were before, they’re still not exactly the most trusting of or comfortable with Digimon crossing over. While they’ve ceded to allowing DATS to handle affairs on the ground level, they have continued to operate in the background by monitoring potential disruptions to limit the amount of Digimon crossing over and researching means of combating Digimon other than relying upon the ‘mercurial whims’ of humans who have partnered with Digimon and the good will of friendly Digimon. However, not all humans who are aware of or partnered to Digimon are members of DATS and HYPNOS; besides those who slip through the cracks, a number of Digivice iC’s have ended up on the black market and been replicated over the years, so there are now a multitude of rogue Tamers of varying moral alignments and attitudes towards both Digimon and the current state of affairs. Among these, there is an emerging third pillar of sorts in the form of the ‘Cyber Unit’, an 'agency' of Tamers and Digimon run by the Tenryu-kai, a Tokyo-based ninkyo dantai or yakuza syndicate. While they lack the central organization of DATS and HYPNOS, and don't have any explicit links to the government of either world, they have nonetheless become significant due to the power and ruthlessness of their contractors and informal role of internal balance for the growing underworld of rogue Tamers. While they are a criminal group often accused of simply misusing the power of Digimon to confound the authorities, the fact remains that their presence intimidates independent rogue Tamers and discourages them from acting out, as the Tenryu-kai underboss responsible for managing the Unit encourages his contractors to police their territory on their own terms and ‘pacify’ troublemakers by whatever means they see fit. [u][b]The Digital World[/b][/u] In the Digital World, there are three main governing bodies; the Four Holy Beasts, the Royal Knights, and the Heavenly Host. As in canon, the the Four Holy Beasts oversee their own domains as well as one of the four cardinal directions of the Digital World; and among the three bodies they are the closest to human-positive, having an arrangement with DATS. Those working for DATS will be generally kept safe from any Sovereign agents, but will be expected to answer calls from the Sovereigns to help manage affairs on the ground level. DATS meanwhile can call upon the Sovereigns in the case of rogue tamer incursions. Sovereigns mostly work to keep the digital world intact and have occasionally removed entire zones that ended up destabilizing. The Royal Knights, meanwhile, attend upon Yggdrasil and are largely neutral towards humanity: while each Knight has a personal agenda and beliefs, they serve Yggdrasil above that agenda and thus dedicate themselves to keeping the digital world stable. Overflow from the Dark Area, minor destabilization of regions, unknown assaults outside the Sovereigns' immediate territory, that sort of thing. Yggdrasil itself is able to detect massive surges in energy, sudden increases/decreases of population, and glitching, and dispatches Knights accordingly - or, if within Sovereign purview, may send a message to them via a Knight. The Knights have little concern with humans but are not hostile. Last is the Angelic Host - Seraphimon, Ophanimon, Cherubimon, and the angels directly serving them. The Angelic Host cares for digital life deeply and will try to ensure its safety. They're largely responsible for the firewall around the digital world. However, they take a poor view of humans and consider them as beings who should never be in the digital world. Approach a member of the Angelic Host with great care if human - you're totally safe and could probably even ask for a piggyback ride if you're a digimon, though. [/hider] ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ [h2]Character Sheet Templates[/h2] [hider=D-Tector User and Digital Spirit] D-Tector User Character Sheet: Name: Age: (Ideally between 14 and 20; anything higher or lower and we’ll have to make a value judgement based on the contents of the sheet?) Gender: Appearance: A faceclaim if you have one, otherwise a description plus a short blurb of how their general demeanour displays their character? Digivolution Line + Attacks: Spirit Lines differ slightly from regular Digimon lines in that instead of Baby I up through Ultimate II, they only have a Human Spirit, a Beast Spirit and a Double Spirit by default, with a seldom-seen Ghost Spirit as a failsafe for when a user is unable to revert to their human form. These forms are roughly equivalent to Adult, Perfect and Ultimate, with Ghost corresponding to Child. There is also a ‘Hyper Spirit’ which is analogous to a level above Ultimate, but due to the conditions needed to achieve it and the rarity of D-Tector users compared to informal partnerships, no examples of this form have been observed since antiquity. As a note, while Human and Beast Spirits correspond to Adult and Perfect, the fact that they work slightly differently and the specific theming of the forms means you’re welcome to treat an Adult as a Beast Spirit or a Perfect as a Human Spirit if it helps tie a line, pending GM approval. (We’ll probably be stricter on the latter than the former, but both of us have at least one character with something in this vein planned, so we’re not made of stone.) Special Equipment, Gear, or Skills: Do they have access to any resources or have any kind of skill or talent that you wouldn’t expect an ordinary person you’d meet on the street to have? Note it here! Backstory: It doesn’t have to be too long, but consider what we’ve noted about the psychology of those who form these contracts with Digimon. What is it about them that would put them in this kind of situation and give them the kind of mentality to approach a Digimon in a moment of life or death and shoulder that kind of burden? Miscellaneous: Anything that doesn’t fit anywhere else in the sheet, like character themes, habits or tics, or voice actors (if you’re that big a nerd)? Digital Spirit Character Sheet: Species: What were they when the contract was formed, and what do they manifest as in their spirit form? Gender: This can differ from that of the human they’re contracted to! Appearance: An image of the form they appear in by default and, as with the human they’re contracted to, a brief description of how their personality manifests when their spirit is idle? Backstory: (What led up to them encountering the human they formed a contract with, and what kind of unfinished business or motivation did they have to make them want to bind themselves to them in death?) [/hider] [hider=Human NPC/iC Tamer Character Sheet]Name: Age: (You have a much freer hand in terms of age, though as with D-Tector users, we’d need a good reason to permit someone under 14?) Gender: Appearance: A faceclaim if you have one, otherwise a description plus a short blurb of how their general demeanor displays their character? Special Equipment, Gear, or Skills: Do they have access to any resources or have any kind of skill or talent that you wouldn’t expect an ordinary person you’d meet on the street to have? Note it here! Backstory: As with D-Tector Users, doesn’t have to be too long; you do have a freer hand here on account of the various circumstances through which they could have come to possess an iC? Miscellaneous: Anything that doesn’t fit anywhere else in the sheet, like character themes, habits or tics, or voice actors (if you’re that big a nerd)?[/hider] [hider=Digimon NPC/iC Partner Character Sheet]Species: (What form are they in by default?) Gender: Appearance: An image of the form they appear in by default and a description of their demeanour, plus any deviations from the norm? Digivolution Line + Attacks: Special Equipment, Gear or Skills: Do they have access to any resources or have any kind of skill or talent that you wouldn’t expect an ordinary member of their species to have? Note it here! Backstory: [/hider] ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ [i]If any edits are made to the rules or content of this post, they will be noted here. Until then, good luck, and have fun, all![/i]