Dreamer's Sea: A High School RP inspired by the Persona Series
A city of ivory and steel spires, of gardens and cherry trees. A shining bridge, glittering with dew above clean seas. And a High School nestled in cherry blossoms, looking as though it was cut out of a visual novel. And on the three corners of this city are a Christian Church maintained by a local Priest, a Buddhist Shrine, and a temple dedicated to a Kami who resisted fusion with the Buddhas. Buses, Bullet Trains, and Electric Taxis drive through the streets.
A city of ivory and steel spires, of gardens and cherry trees. A shining bridge, glittering with dew above clean seas. And a High School nestled in cherry blossoms, looking as though it was cut out of a visual novel. And on the three corners of this city are a Christian Church maintained by a local Priest, a Buddhist Shrine, and a temple dedicated to a Kami who resisted fusion with the Buddhas. Buses, Bullet Trains, and Electric Taxis drive through the streets.
The year is 2025, and we are in New Amakusa City, in Kumamoto Prefecture, Japan, and it is from a history similar yet different to ours. Here, the Shimabara Rebellion held out long enough, and caused so many casualties, that the Tokugawa Clan was forced to grant concessions; it was helped that the local lord who sparked the Rebellion with his misrule, Matsukura Katsuie. was from a family that had annoyed the Shogunate with its overtaxation and misrule, and so was made a scapegoat.
Another consequence was that Shimabara and the surrounding region, including the Amakusa Islands, were the gateway of Japan to the wider world, and not Dejima in Nagasaki. So when Japan chose to open up fully, it was more prepared than before. But you're here for high school shenanigans, not a history lesson, right?
All right, here's the deal: New Amakusa City is a center of magical phenomena, due to the weakened barriers between the world we know, the material world, and the Sea of Dreams, a realm of spirit, thought, and Magic. In New Amakusa City, your dreams - The ones you have when you sleep - matter. If you know what you're doing, you can quest for an Icon, which is a symbol of a fundamental part of Reality, and pull it into our world, before binding it through one of three methods: A promise that you can never break, a bargain with one of the Faeries/Angels/Gods in the Sea to act as their gate to the material realm, or dedicating yourself to being so good at something that it becomes Magic (and you can make magic items too!).
Whether you're a native or called here from some other part of Japan, or even another country, your dreams are stronger, more ominous, as though they are calling you to a Quest.
Why should you accept it? Because there is a force that seeks to deny this History, a force that wishes to erase all timelines deemed 'deviant', and you, dear student, are the ones marked to stop it.
Welcome, friends, to my first new 'Custom IP' in forever. Long story short, this is a High School RP set in an Alternate History Japan, you are expected to be High School Students, and you're going to fight a foe who believes you shouldn't exist. Have fun!
Magic System
How does Magic Work?
All Magic comes from the Sea of Dreams, a realm where reality melds with imagination, and thought alone can reshape worlds. The Sea of Dreams is where Gods, Angels, Devils, and the Eldritch rest, although whether they created the Sea, were created by Humanity's beliefs, or both, is unknown. Everything imagined can be made real in the Sea, but genuine magic is how you can keep one's creations real outside of it.
To do this, a Normal Human initiates a "Quest" by dreaming so hard that he enters the Sea of Dreams. He then seeks out an Icon, a symbol representing a fundamental aspect of Reality, and drags it to the world. In this RP, Quests can only start when the IC/In-Character Thread has begun, meaning that you have to RP out getting your Icon. Obviously, the more powerful the Icon is, the harder your Quest will be, and you can die in your sleep if you fail. But if you succeed, there is one more step to becoming a full Dreamer, and that is using one of three methods:
Vows: A Dreamer commits themselves to a promise that they must keep, no matter what. As this is a High School RP, this promise must be kept SFW; examples are to care for a family member or a close friend, to protect a place special to you, or to find a person you cherished, but lost, no matter what. Stronger Vows lead to stronger powers, obviously.
Summoning/Anchoring: A Dreamer turns themselves into a tether/anchor/gateway for the Icon to manifest on Earth as its own separate being, albeit one dependent on the Dreamer to stay in the Material World. Basically, they are Pokemon/Digimon/Demons/Personae whom you call out for battle or other uses. The drawback, of course, is that the more powerful they are, the more they can defy your commands if you treat them badly.
Summons are a tier of 1 to 10, with 1 being a Pixie, 8 being Metatron or Satan, and 10 being an entity who can smite you for even daring to consider them as Mons' (God/The Buddha/Fate/Azazoth/[REDACTED]).
Art: A Dreamer can just form a connection to the Sea of Dreams by being good enough at an artistic skill and regularly practicing it with a genuine love for the art. This does not even have to be the traditional artistic skills of painting, drawing, and writing; invention and scientific discovery work as well. This has the advantage of letting you create permanent items (including blessed/cursed music in recordings) that anyone can use (Excalibur! Mechs!).
What does Magic Do?
When starting their first Quest, a human opens a Blank, an empty place in their soul that can fit a single Icon, which in turn can be bound to the Material World by taking a Vow, Ancestry, or Art. The general rule is the stronger the Vow/Art/Ancestry, the more you can use your Icon, and the more potent your Magic is.
Icons' domains can be anything from Fire (or any Element), to Life (which includes not just healing, but animals and plants), or something more complex like the concept of Systems.
However, they are bound by Three Natural Laws:
1st Natural Law: Magic can be attained by Mortals from the Sea of Dreams through Vows that bind, Bloodlines that invite the Divine, and the practice of Arts that create new things.
2nd Natural Law: All Mortals are free of mental interference as long as they do not give consent to it.
3rd Natural Law: The Domains of Destiny and Fate belong to the Highest Powers (whether God, the Buddha, or the system of Dharma). If you try and proclaim dominion over those without their consent, you will be struck down by your own Pride and rendered unto ashes.
Also, Icons can be, but aren't always, sapient, and can choose whether to let the Dreamer bind them. However, once they choose, they cannot withdraw their contributions unless the Dreamer breaks a Vow, cuts off their Ancestor from the world, or loses love for their Art.
Examples of Magic
You bind the Shield Icon with a Vow to always protect the innocent, and can project force fields that can take a speeding truck's impact. But then one day, you find out that you have to protect someone you hate, because they are innocent of a specific crime the authorities want to punish them for.
You are dedicated to making videos; you're good at it, in fact. But with the 'Memory' Icon, your videos can show scenes from the past, from before you were ever born. You can also replicate the memories of others, put them to film for viewing, and as you're not touching the originals, it does not count as mental interference. But when you make a bad film, do you despair so hard you lose your powers, or do you press on?
You can summon Hermes as your personal delivery boy. What do you mean he hates the job and is spreading slander about you to everyone and anyone?
Rules:
1.) No Godmoding or Powergaming, aka no controlling other players' actions, no defeating your enemy in one shot, and no shrugging off all hits without a magical shield.
2.) You can have multiple characters if you really want.
3.) Be polite to others.
4.) Do not make a Vow that creeps out other players or the audience, for example, blood sacrifices. Just don't.
5.) Romance is allowed, whether same-sex or opposite-sex; just keep it SFW.
6.) Yes, you can take multiple Quests over the course of this RP, but anything above three and I will raise the chances of death massively.
7.) Clarification: PCs start as Normal Humans until the end of the first IC day, then they go to sleep and do a Quest to get their powers.
[b]Human Character Sheet[/b]
[b]Name:[/b] What’s your characters name?
[b]Age:[/b] How old is your character?
[b]Physical Description:[/b] What does your character look like?
Place any photos here.
[b]Important items:[/b] What possessions are important to your character?
[b]Short Bio:[/b] Tell us your character's story up to this point.
[B]Personality:[/b]
[b]Skills:[/b]
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