Project Myriad is a placeholder name but will likely stay for the acc
See pinned post for details; "current focus" things will go below
✯ Personality/dynamic stuff, mainly involving Zindy
! ✯ Design concept for Eloise/Louise and other party members
✯ Fleshing out basically anything at this point tbh, lots of misc stuff
✯ Deciding on the kinds of zones/areas and where they'll be located
✯ Potential plot for the first area (which is forest, original I know)
✯ Since they're JRPG characters, deciding on the classes too
Sorry for disappearing for a period of time (though I do believe I already made a post about this which I deleted when I came back)
I'm gonna be making some drafts today so I don't make all the posts in 1 day, so stay tuned for those! They're lowkey things I was planning to make back in September and never did, so I'm catching up.
Last thing I was doing was working on potential designs for Eloise to send to some people for input. I've 100% seen my DMs, it's just that I didn't want to respond so late without anything to show, yk? Then it ended up taking this long and I still only have a little bit because I was working on other things (my main projects), so yea. I haven't forgotten about it, though! It'll be mostly text posts before drawings.
Someone said this idea, and I also thought of it, so the protagonist's name is going to be Zindy Merit (full firstname lastname). I also had the idea earlier of one of the options being a nickname for them, so I decided someone's probably gonna call them Skip (affectionate or otherwise, depending on the context I give it).
Bijou is a name that was on there because I was considering it for a lot of different things, so I'll definitely use it but for a character/thing other than the main character if that makes sense.
You see this little freak? They're gonna have the worst time of their life.
(/j, but y'know how I like to treat my characters)
[See, I did make 3 different versions over time!]
This is going to be the main character (they/them). I've already talked about them before in various posts, but now for the first poll... naming them. I haven't picked out their name yet!
Related posts:
- Lore: Rypurs (Species)
- Current info on: Protagonist (01)
Despite being a rypur, they don't know what those are at first. They woke up here one day without any memories other than their name.
When I first put this in my drafts, I wasn't biased, but since it's taken longer than expected my vote is absolutely on Zindy because that's what I've been calling them in my head sometimes. This is still gonna be based on the poll, though. I also have some people without Tumblr accounts who I might ask, so their votes won't show up here.
At the time of making this post (and the intro), they don't have a name yet. The name poll is gonna be the very next post.
I've drawn them several times, but the design isn't really "canonized" so to speak; each time has been something slightly different. The only fully established parts are the blue clothes (light blue shirt, dark blue shoes, grey pants) for their casual outfit, and the red/brown hair (been leaning towards brown, because most rypurs have red hair).
Imagining them being kinda short, being my best little freak. I never brought this up yet, but rypurs are generally human-sized so it's not like they're naturally shorter. This character is supposedly around 18—20ish, but they could be older like 30 and have a bit of that babyface look, the kind that makes you get ID'd even as an adult due to looking kinda like a teenager (especially because they're short).
They woke up here one day like it's an isekai and they don't really have any memories. I wasn't going to give them a "canon age" because they themself wouldn't be aware, but I wanted to at least clarify this is an adult. Likely a college-student kind of age as I said, but they could also be older than that and not even know. My point being that they don't look that much older, though, meaning they're probably not gonna be 50 or anything. Their body would be more broken-in if that's the case.
Not knowing what a rypur is, they just think they're some kind of weird creature at first. To be fair, they are. They probably assume they used to be a human, because they sure do know what those are. First, their goal is just to find out how/why they ended up here, such as if there was a purpose to this, and probably to figure out who they are. They know at least one thing coming in, which is their name. I picture it not being a rypur-sounding name (the poll options fit that criteria). Later on, they might no longer care about who they used to be. They decide that they don't want to leave behind this life they made here with all their friends just to go "home" to a place they can't even remember.
[More below the cut!]
There are multiple ways I could take this into a big plot-twist hook.
Both major ideas actually have a lot of insane potential that I could tap into, and I genuinely have no idea which one I want because I always feel like the "better one" is whichever ones I had big brain thoughts about most recently (so, shifting back and forth). Neither of them have the exact ideas pinned down, but that's by design so I can flesh it out here when I'm making actual scenes and stuff. These were mentioned in the intro post, as well. I'll explain them in more detail here.
[Idea A]
The protagonist has no memories because they were born just then, as a being sent/created by some special power for a higher purpose.
Basically, in this one, they will be forced to leave at the end once their purpose is fulfilled. After they already made that decision about not wanting to leave, of course. I picture them figuring out and being at the point of tears, not wanting to disappear (or "go home" to some kind of heaven place, either works). They would be despondent and would need to be dragged off kicking and screaming if that's when they ended up being taken away. However, I don't imagine it being that way. Whether it's directly caused by their reaction (giving them time to decide) or by it not being their time yet in the first place, they would be left with that information. After some time, they would end up coming to peace with the fact that they have to go. Their friends would all be there to send them off, either floating up into the sky or turning into dust or something. They're not dead, it's just that they aren't here anymore. Looking down on the world, perhaps.
High potential here for that one Tumblr post I like (found it!) about the mage and the knight, where the mage ends up becoming a god.
[Idea B]
The protagonist lost their memories somehow, but has always been a rypur. This one's potential comes from worldbuilding I haven't posted yet, so its segment will be a bit longer due to giving context.
It's pretty much built around that mundane, harsh revelation. They work so hard to figure out what happened, and you can easily tell that, deep down, they're hoping that it's some kind of big deal. There has to be an answer to this, right? Then, the answer boils down to "you're a normal person who's experienced amnesia" and there's nothing they can really do about that. It's really crushing, and in the end they just have to find a place to go. At least this one allows them to see their friends at any point instead of having to leave them all behind.
The main draw of this relates to the main antagonist; I already know I'm gonna reuse the Blue Order from my regular OC lore. In summary, lots of the soldiers they use are straight-up brainwiped and used to be regular people leading their own lives. I've had scenes where they see their old families and recognize them, but the language barrier keeps them from communicating (they no longer remember how to speak their first language). That's usually when it hits them: the panic. The Blue Order hates non-human people and has magic entirely forbidden within their kingdom. Their boss, Dr. Alabaster, has little tolerance for nonsense and will lead humanity to glory. They're all in a cult.
The most forboding place I have ever written is the Memory Ward. It's in the heart of the Blue Order's base, and only select few members are allowed within. Dr. Alabaster knows better than to waste good soldiers on untested operations, so they test all the operations on Cherrish war prisoners. There are empty hallways full of rooms, each populated by rypurs clutching their heads and not knowing what's going on.
Here, the protagonist is one of those test subjects. Not even escaped, just discarded like an old washcloth. That's why they wake up entirely confused, thinking that they're supposed to be a human. Recognizing the human form, but not their own "monster" hands. They're broken apart, and it has more weight to it that they're just some random rypur out of hundreds, having nothing special about them. The one thing that makes them special is that they've chosen to fight back.
Then, as I said above... that empty "now what?" feeling at the end of the hero's journey. They just have to keep on living their life with a big chunk of their past missing. It shouldn't matter, though, because they made so many new friends and have an entire life ahead of them.
––––––––––––––
No matter the option, the Blue Order will be involved. For option A, this wouldn't be the first time a higher power sent some kind of being over to "deal with" Dr. Alabaster and all that, making that their purpose. It could also be something unrelated, with the Order just being a major nuisance in the process. I could also ditch both options and go with "isekai'd person tries to figure out a way home," but you can see how that's really boring compared to what I want to do. Speaking of the Blue Order, the rypurs having psychic power and all, the protagonist could be a real menace trying to restore the people's memories and set them free. That's a concept I've used before in my normal OC story, but that could work amazingly here and I'm down to use it.
I'm not deciding on that yet, though. This post was just meant to be information on the protagonist before I made the poll to name them.
Feel free to comment/reply about those ideas (or send me an ask)! :)
[This is related to my main OC lore, because I'm using a similar setting and reusing a lot of stuff such as characters. Basically, this isn't new for this project.]
[Featuring some really old/bad art, because I wasn't gonna draw new stuff just for this explanation quite yet. Two of those pictures are related in a weird clone kind of way if you noticed them having the same face and hairstyle.]
Potentially messy post! This is a redo of another one, so if you already saw it you aren't going crazy. It's a very long "superpost" trying to hit as many bullet points as possible, so be wary of that going in.
Also, rypur is pronounced like "ripper."
Death mentions below! Certain parts may also read as body horror.
[Basic summary, getting to the point]
These red bastards* are basically this setting's stand-in for orcs. They have quite the reputation among the other people races, and despite most of them likely just chilling, this means they face a lot of that like, racist treatment out of fear. It depends on the area, though. Most of the rypurs who travel at all are bandits/brigands who cause trouble. However, most of their kind don't even want to travel.
*(affectionate)
Crystals grow out of their bodies, and they have psionic abilities. The abilities only work within a certain, tangible radius of the user, known as their aura. People and other living things can feel the aura when they enter it. Using one's aura to attack or defend is possible through intense focus, causing it to materialize into icy, floating crystals that can be used as weapons or shields. Rypurs can also use telekinesis through their aura, and can use telepathy to communicate.
You've also probably noticed those fluffy baubles on the sides of their heads, which are antennae. They're incredibly sensitive and output the rypur's aura around them. If damaged or covered up, the subject's aura won't be present and their psychic abilities will be disabled. The antennae are also prehensile, being capable of manipulating small objects as long as they aren't too heavy (they're not that strong).
[Appearance Info]
As you can already tell, the rypurs are quite a red bunch. They display a smaller range of colors than humans do. Note that my OC lore takes place in an anime-style setting where humans can have all sorts of hair and eye colors, so the lack in color variety is even more apparent. They have similar colors between their hair and eyes, mostly being reds and browns. Pinker colors are also possible, but leaning more towards red such as raspberry, watermelon, and coral pink. These colors can be dark or light, having a normal variety. Dark hair is most common.
They have similar skin tones to humans, having a lot of them overlap. Rypurs, however, always have ruddy tones. These range from normal-looking skin tones to the iconic badly sunburnt look. Darker skin tones often have a deep crimson color. On rare occassion, rypurs can have a grey or lavender complexion instead, resembling bruises.
Since they're able to reproduce with humans, half-rypurs exist as well. These hybrids tend towards duller colors compared to their bright red relatives, and are capable of having normal human skin tones outside of being perpetually flushed. Rarely, they display hair and eye colors that aren't even related to red or brown, such as black hair.
Patches of shiny, red crystal are apparent all over their bodies, mainly on the face and knuckles. These markings aren't scars or birthmarks, instead being natural markings of their species. Every individual has a distinct pattern to them, and if two people happen to have the exact same markings across their whole bodies, they're considered to be soulmates. It's difficult to tell an exact pattern without feeling around for it, because rypurs have fur covering most of their bodies.
Grey and/or lavender toned rypurs still have bright red crystals and spots.
Actual crystal formations, comprised of this same material, grow from certain parts of their bodies as well. These develop around the backs of the forearms, the backs of the shoulders (scapulae), and for certain individuals, their calves. With the size and location of these crystals being fairly consistent between rypurs, their clothes are tailored with them in mind. Almost all boots are made to accomodate leg crystals even if only about a third of the population has them.
Rypurs also have four arms instead of two. The upper pair of arms is always longer than the lower pair, which are relatively short compared to human ones. Both sets have crystals, but the lower arms have less to accomodate for their standing form with the arms at the sides. The six-limbed body plan is shared by quite a few other species from their homeworld, such as dragons with 4 legs as well as wings.
The fur on rypurs isn't very long, and is typically darker than the hair they have elsewhere (head, eyebrows, etc.). It covers most anything below the collarbones, but not the hands or feet. The backs of their ears are also very fluffy. There's often more sparse fur coming up on the backs of their hands and the tops of their feet, but it's not very prominent. The texture is known to be incredibly soft.
Their teeth are noticably larger than human ones, and they have large overbites to match. A rypur's frontmost 4—6 teeth stick out over their bottom lip. Most of them speak human languages with a slight lisp due to their mouth shape. An even harder sound for them to make is the letter T, which usually comes out as a "th" sound too.
[Antennae/Psychic Power Info]
On the sides of the head, behind and slightly above the ears, sits the large pair of antennae. They're incredibly sensitive and can sense any movement inside of the rypur's aura. With their thick covering of hair (not fur), they greatly resemble a twintails hairstyle. The ends of the antennae are left exposed, showing a little spiral of crystal.
They're often swivelling around to feel their surroundings, due to the poor eyesight that rypurs have. Generally, rypurs rely on their auras as their main sense to get around. These antennae can sense things even humans cannot, such as radio waves and traces of magic. It's possible for a rypur to recognize the color of an object just by dusting over it. In their society, it's a common greeting to loop antennae together. This gesture only lasts a couple seconds, but it's a very social interaction that allows them to tell what one another's been up to. Meanwhile, rypurs don't really touch people with their hands; it's seen as a very hostile or rude gesture to do so. They have a difficult time relating to humans due to the lack of antennae altogther.
Depending on the subject's age, a rypur's antennae can grow quite long. It's common for them to be tied up in ways that keep them out of harm's way without impacting their movement, such as pulling them together into a ponytail. Without blocking their aura, it's common for one's antennae to be accessorized with ribbons and jewelry.
The size of one's aura can vary, but it's always centered on the back of the head. Aura is typically invisible, but in higher concentrations it can appear as a faint, red veil. It looks a lot like migraine aura, and is often described as "shimmering wind." The abilities of a rypur can be seen as thin strands of smoke connecting to the recipient. They're capable of manipulating emotions, often using it to induce terror in people they don't want bothering them. Mind reading is common enough practice to communicate with other species that don't have telepathy of their own (like humans and animals), and for snooping around in people's brains without their consent. If their auras are suppressed, rypurs are nearly harmless— a feeling that's terrifying to them.
Aura technique is something that can be trained, with particularly powerful rypurs having even more abilities than normal. For instance, brainwashing non-rypur people to use them as puppets. The limitation most of the time being, of course, the range of the aura requiring the rypur to be right nearby. Simply walking a wide circle around them is enough to avoid the problem as long as they don't approach you. They can't wear proper helmets because it would suppress their aura; from a safe distance, the back of the head is always open to arrows or bullets if anyone wants to remove them manually.
If a rypur gets close enough to press the ends of their antennae to a person's temples, they can put the victim into a deep sleep. This state allows them full control over the dream this person is having until they wake up. This dream state can last indefinitely from a powerful rypur, not wearing off unless the victim get willingly freed, cured by magical means, or ends up dying asleep.
[Weakness Info]
Due to their strong senses and sensitive antennae, rypurs are known to have issues with sensory overload. Loud noises cause significant distress for most of them, with the remaining minority being the ones who get along better with humans. They usually don't mix well with other species in large settlements (ie. cities) due to the noise level. Rypur cities, on the other hand, are viewed as dead silent from the view of other species. They prefer to communicate telepathically through the "Network," as they call it, which is a near constant link between everyone's auras due to the population density. Some of them live as hermits entirely disconnected from the Network, but doing that breaks their trust with the others. Being jumpy, paranoid people for the most part (prey animals), the other rypurs dislike not knowing what the outsider might be thinking.
Not all rypurs live among others of their kind, though. Some either move away or even grow up without the touch of the Network (if their parents had moved away).
Rypurs may also have trouble interacting with other species due to being nocturnal. Obviously they're not the only ones, but in the case of humans, this throws a wrench in things. They have a hefty distate for sunlight and their bodies are wired to be sleeping when the sun's out. Rypur eyes can't really adjust to bright, overhead lights and feel like they're burning up. To avoid the light, most rypur settlements are built underground with people only surfacing at night to tend their farm crops. The surface where they live is pretty barren and rural.
They don't deal well with heat, either. Their fur includes an undercoat to keep their skin cool, there's only so much it can do. High enough temperatures cause rypurs to melt while they're still alive. Red "sweat" drips off of their skin and hair, and the pain is piercing. It doesn't result in death all too often, mainly because it's a slow process and the fact that rypurs don't put themselves in that situation to begin with. They build their homes in the coldest places in the world.
Also, rypurs don't have the proper stomachs to be carnivores. They're innately vegetarian due to their herbivore status. They'll eat stuff like eggs and cheese, it's just that meat makes their tummies hurt. Due to this, they have way less of a "hunter" culture than humans do, instead being very ingrained in agriculture where they don't really travel. They hang out underground and the surface is full of plants to eat. Rypurs can eat the stalks of plants as well as literal wood, so food's easy.
Every society has its exceptions, so of course there are rypur adventurers. They're just not nearly as common as other species may be. Most rypurs go from place to place through their underground train systems only connecting towns and cities.
If we're just talking game mechanics, they're weak to fire and holy.
[Other things that they do]
Magic isn't something rypurs tend to do, prefering to use their auras and physical tools/weapons. When they do use magic, however, it's usually ice or darkness. It's useful to prevent skin-melting heat.
Using their telepathy, they can communicate with monsters and wild animals. Rypurs are known to befriend these creatures and use them for help in work and combat. Different areas have different wildlife for them to use, creating slight differences in culture. However, it's very different than communicating with more intelligent beings, and one needs to specialize in this type of animal handling to be successful.
When interacting with other people, rypurs are quick to pick up new languages. They can associate someone's intent with the words they speak in order to figure out what they mean.
Rypurs enjoy intense emotions, mainly fear. They have more power if more people are thinking about them, and they have no power over anyone who keeps their mind completely clear. It's common for rypurs to work with psychological warfare, because a weakened opponent is ripe for an aura to pull on the emotions. Even when not malicious, they feel generally good when someone inside their aura is thinking about them. This doesn't need to be negative, fear is just "easiest" for them. It can actually be very wholesome, having someone love them. The fact that they hate light and enjoy being in tight places (underground) makes them basically a boogeyman race trying to get a reaction out of you. A kid could feel a weird presence in the darkness and then see a pair of glowing red eyes (those aren't eyes! it's the spiralled ends of the antennae) and be terrified of it. That'd be all the rypur would want out of them, too: being afraid. They eat that feeling up like honey.
As a race with human intelligence, they don't typically kill without a motive. The catch being that they're very prone to having outbursts (especially with their auras) and that sometimes, more often than even humans do, their motive is attention. Depraved, cruel rypurs are willing to do a lot for that taste of fear. Most non-rypur people only see that side of them, because your average rypur rarely leaves home. They have a reputation as savage, war-loving bandits or as horror movie slashers, which is not good for their treatment. Lots of rypurs do, in fact, love the thrill of battle, but that doesn't mean they go out and murder people for it. This widens the distance between humans and rypurs even further, making them never want to interact.
Considering how rare they are to see outside of their own territory, they'd be considered an exotic race. Those who live outside of the Network are either a lone individual, one family, or sometimes they have contact with one other family or individual. Most humans will never see them in person, or on rare occassion will have one rypur friend. It depends a lot on the area, because some places without them are likely to see them as monsters. The common way for other species to engage with rypurs is by travelling across their territory. However, those places tend to be associated with death and never being found again. "Don't go to the orchards in the mountains," they say. "The trees will be lined up too perfectly, and you should run."
Meanwhile, the rypurs are pretty much normal people. Some of them write poetry, some of them work on the farms, etc.. There are places where humans (plus other species) directly coexist with rypurs, not in the same settlements, but in the same area. These places definitely have strange phenomena going on, and I can imagine the folklore people make up there to tell their children. "Every road has another side on the bottom. The upside-down people walk there, a backwards lot, all of them... They have upside-down towns and upside-down houses down there, too. If you see one of them, leave them some chocolate," and if the kid asks why, they'd tell them that it's hard to grow chocolate trees in the cold with no sun. They're not afraid of the rypurs at all. Plus, it's kinda established that rypurs love chocolate.
The biggest rypur-populated country is Cherryland, and I've already stopped myself from using the adjective "Cherrish" multiple times in this post because I hadn't mentioned it yet. It's called that because it's heavily circus/amusement park themed. They can get all the thrill and emotion they want by putting people in big rollercoasters. Rypurs living there also love the constant revelry and going on the rides.
In the Cherrish mountains, there's a type of tree that "bleeds" red sap when you cut it. The syrup of these trees is used to make really sweet maple-like candy, and the rypurs basically live here because of those trees being delicious. Naturally, many humans who live nearby make their children behave by telling them that the trees do that because they're kids who got turned into trees for wandering off into the weird kale fields in the mountains at night, and that the rypurs turn them into trees to make their blood into candy. This also does well keeping the kids from approaching suspicious, four-armed strangers. Which, all things considered, is a good call when you consider how much the Cherrish tend to despise humans. They don't turn people into trees, but they probably wish that they could. Only about 60% of them feel that way, though, with the rest of them having an argument in favor of humanity (one which isn't going well with their government).
There's another country of rypurs that I have lore for, which is mainly steampunk themed. A good chunk of Cherrish gadgets are made from parts manufactured in this place. They aren't very fleshed out, though.
Technically this isn't all the lore, but it should be everything remotely important (and not super specific) unless I forgot something big.
If you have any specific questions, you can put them in the ask box. :)
I did, in fact, say I was going to post that poll today when I got home (not here, in a reply I made in a community). However, considering I got nothing done during the weekend and then didn't get home until 8pm today (30 minutes ago!) I don't think I'll be doing that quite yet.
It'll be tomorrow or the day after, though. This is because I wanted to post a little more info before I did the poll, such as what a rypur even is, considering I haven't even explained that on my main blog either.
for compensation, here's a picture I drew in my notebook while I was out and about (I had to stop early, but it was meant to be fullbody)
<3 my cheap color pencils
[The post is broken up into sections, so at least skim through it if you want context]
[For instance, what the project actually is, the kinds of things I'll be posting, etc.]
This project is a silly JRPG thingy I'm mainly working on in between my bigger, more serious projects when I get burnt out from staring at them for too long. Y'know, when I no longer have the energy to work on something for the 4th month straight, but I'll go insane if I'm not working on something during that downtime I have to take.
I'll still interact with, make updates on, etc. this project outside of that context, though! It's moreso that I wanted to mention that it's kinda on my back burner where I might set a poll for a week or make a post looking for replies and then let it simmer.
Basically, the idea is that this project isn't meant to be entirely serious in terms of being "cringe" or potentially turning out kinda silly/cheesy. I plan to put a lot of effort into it regardless, though. I view it as a sort of fanfic, considering it takes place in a variation of my normal story/OC setting and lore. I'll have to explain said lore for clarity, but it isn't meant to be entirely consistent with that story. Y'know, so it doesn't have nearly as much of the pressure. This is open to suggestions and ideas coming from everyone as long as you're respectful. Replies are turned on for the posts, and asks are also turned on. That's pretty much the point of this blog; working on this project together.
Short explanation: I used to make projects like this and develop OCs with my friends, but after losing said friends (unrelated event) and not really making any new ones afterwards, I finally ended up making this thing with the goal of meeting new people and getting to create something like those other projects again. It's a little weird to pitch it to strangers, but think of it like "I'm making a new OC, what should their hair color be?" but on a larger scale because it's everything. I'm not forcing anyone to contribute if they don't want to, because this isn't something I'm paying anyone for. It's just something I'm doing with RPG Maker (which I've been using for a long time so it's not as shitty as you'd normally expect) and I'm not gonna sell it for money. When I finish, I'll make a download somewhere and post it.
The blog description in the header (if you're viewing the blog) has a little section for "current focus" things, and that's for if/when people may want to check on this blog during their breaks between projects or something, but I don't have any updates at the time. So those are all generalized things that I "need" ideas for and I'll update it as things get resolved (even if by myself). It can also work if someone recently found this blog and wants to see what's currently going on.
In that list, I also decided to put a little exclamation point (!) next to anything that's gonna be relevant (such as having a poll) kinda soon, as if to show it's time-sensitive before you miss your shot to suggest something before I make a decision.
The genre is kind of a high fantasy adventure, but there's always been wacky sci-fi stuff in my lore too, like robots. It also tends to be quite... melancholy. My normal OCs that I'm using the lore from are meant to have a pseudo psychological horror thing going on. This project isn't inherently gonna be scary, but the other ones aren't that "scary" either. The writing's probably gonna be in a similar spirit so I felt the need to give fair warning for that. Picture it like a lighthearted campaign in a TTRPG with players named stuff like "Dr. McCool," but then it turns into something serious and heartbreaking (to a degree) and everyone ends up super invested. It's silly in more of that "I'll let it be cheesy and dumb if that makes it genuine" kinda way.
Some rules for suggestions would be:
✯ Don't try to get straight-up fandom stuff into the project, but things inspired by other media are absolutely fine
✯ Similarly, I'd rather people not give me their own existing OCs and/or story characters to make a cameo, because that would result in a bunch of guest characters that have nothing to do with this one
✯ Even if it's "nonserious," I don't want outright meme concepts or stuff in that LOL XD RANDOM variety, if that makes sense
✯ As an asexual, I ask that you not make any NSFW suggestions or suggest anything involving the characters being inappropriate. Some mature stuff is fine, I just mean, for instance, a sex scene is a "no"
I myself make dirty jokes, so you should probably know what distinction I mean by "mature stuff" vs. "that's just porn, guys." Fade-to-black is off limits for this one, too.
✯ No political stuff; naturally, there are governments in the setting itself, but I don't want things in the vein of "make a character based on the prime minister but make it an evil monster" or "namedrop this real charity in the fantasy story to raise awareness or else you're bad." Ethics themselves aren't counted as political here.
The charity thing is more about bringing a war/genocide/issue into this, not claiming that helping people is innately political, btw. Wanted that to be clear.
✯ This should be obvious but I don't want to interact with anyone racist, transphobic, homophobic, hates women, etc.. Y'know, hateful stuff if that wasn't clear.
These rules, besides the last one, aren't things that'll get you blocked or anything. It's just that those aren't what I'm looking for and I won't be seriously considering them to make canon. Not all suggestions are gonna be accepted, and that's just something you'll have to deal with. In the end, I get to choose what I do with the ideas given, and it's not meant to be maliciously targetted. Some concepts are just mutually exclusive, for one. Plus, there's only so much that can fit in 1 project.
Also, the dms on my main account (@ren-mcvivace) are enabled for people who I don't follow. I usually don't have it enabled, but I turned them on for this project specifically. So, don't consider my dms open unless you ask first or have something to send me.
This is the first post on the blog so it wouldn't come up yet, but I feel like I should also mention that fanart is allowed and encouraged if anyone wants to make any. If you mention/tag this blog, then it'll get posted on here because I eat that shit up! (If you don't want it posted here then you can just say so, but to be fair it'd be fanart of this, so...)
✯ Actual Project Stuff ✯
[These are for reference, because this is stuff I had just to start off without any of the contributions. I hadn't made this blog yet when I made these things.]
First off, this protagonist character. This image here is more of a design concept so it's really scrungly, but that's what I was going for.
I've already made 2 other versions of this that are "better" and show slightly different looks (most notably the skintone is redder, and one of them has brown hair). I like the clothes being blue, though, enough that all 3 of these have the same outfit so far.
Wanting to switch it up from normally having the main character as a human, I ended up making them a rypur instead. That's not a species "from" anything, being one of the original ones from my OC lore. Not capitalized because "human" isn't capitalized either, it's pronounced the same as "ripper." The wacky spelling makes it cooler, and more of a fantasy-style name than a plain monster/killer name.
Then, the idea with this little freak is that they woke up here like an isekai situation and don't have their memories. I seriously doubt they even know what a "rypur" is and they just see that they woke up as some kind of alien person creature thing and don't know how to feel about it. They wouldn't know any of their powers or anything at first.
Intro to the plot before conflict arises is standard, this idea of them trying to figure out how/why they ended up here, because something isn't adding up. Not to "spoil" potential plot twists here but I wanted to say that maybe they were always a rypur who lost their memory and are only convinced of this past they had as a human. They could also be someone without a past altogether, being spawned here by supernatural means and that was the moment they were born.
However, they themself wouldn't know this info regardless of the explanation. It would be something revealed to them way later on.
Edit: September 13 2025, the protagonist is named Zindy now
I'm also set on a party member, the first one and main companion, being someone named Eloise or Louise. I don't have a design for this character yet, but at the time of this post I'm already coming up with ideas in dms with someone. There's something here with her writing (dark) poetry, as well as with the possibility of romantic tension with the main character. They would know each other the longest out of the group, after all. At the time of this post, none of this is set.
More will come up in other posts, naturally. It's planned for the main character to interact with other rypurs, and there's plans for one of the areas to be a rainforest/jungle (not the one with the rypurs; they don't like heat or humidity). There'll be other party members, too.
I didn't have a place to put this, so here's a looping track for the first town in the game. The music is just as scrungly as the art. >:)
This kinda crunchy music with that first picture of the protagonist really have the vibes (to me) of a weirdass old game where you'd get jumpscared or weird creepypasta/ARG stuff would happen. I mean that in the best way possible, but note that I'm not planning to take it in that direction. It is meant to be a little bit offputting, though.
