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A fantasy/sci-fi/romance VN. A quick plot summary, and some background.

Quick description: Take Kamen Rider, Revolutionary Girl Utena(And Star Driver which is influenced by it), Higanbana(or perhaps Umineko if you haven't read it) and smush them together in an English University setting. There's a ton of other influences but that should get you close.

Iris is a girl who is transferring colleges after a bad experience in her old one. In her new college, she finds herself getting on abnormally well with others, and ends up with a number of not-so-secret admirers after her heart.

The college she transferred to is called the University of Elkrose, and both the campus and the surrounding village have a long list of urban legends and ghost stories attached to it. Soon, she starts to learn that one of the spirits inhabiting it, the Spider Youkai Dirodara, has been spinning a web to attract her and those connected to her by lines of fate. As it turns out, Iris is a Demon Hunter and it was easy to lure her in by spreading stories of Paranormal phenomenon.

Iris also has another "secret" - she is transgendered, and worries how her admirers would react if they found out. This is the source of much drama in her life, and on top of it she has a habit of feeling alien to most people in the first place.

To prove themselves to Iris, the different admirers make pacts with the resident spirits to give them great power, and fight amongst themselves and also with Iris herself. They are told whoever can beat Iris will be wed to her. In reality Dirodara wants to see different abilities in use, examine how powers of different source react and how people react under such pressure, and uses this information to be able to create her own monsters to challenge Demon Hunters like Iris.

As well as dealing with her own issues, Iris must prepare for the possibility of an Demon invasion as Dirodara's experiments threaten to to break a hole in reality, leading to one of the most brutal of their planes.

In this world, there are many forces which are not normally seen - those that we might call "Angels" and "Demons" would be subsets of "Celestials" and "Infernals". Unlike in some fantasy worlds, they do not represent the whole picture but are two forces admist many others such as spirits of the earth, mythological beasts, and of course humans and their ever advancing technology. Celestials are beings that often bear similarity to "white and gold" images of things like Angels, Greek Gods, but also often have an almost futuristic, alien look with many glowing colours making up the palette of their worlds. Infernals have imagery that is fairly self explanatory, tending to be either dark, grotesque or firey. However, neither Celestials nor Infernals are simple good or evil - and both sides, despite often competing, will recognise the heroes of the other and villains of their own.

Infernals however do not tend to have the stable society of Celestials and malign spirits tend to originate there - thus the need for "Demon Hunters" more than "Angel Hunters". Because Celestials often keep demons in check, the duty of these Demons hunters became increasingly to deal with wayward spirits, some of which may be corrupted by Infernals, or some which may be dangerous in their own right. Every culture has beings similar to the "Youkai" of eastern mythology, who are often referred to as "Demons", and it is understood these are often the target of said Demon Hunters.The word of Celestials was said to be created by lights in the heavens, whereas the world of Infernals was said to be born in flames.

Demon Hunters tend to be mostly human and thus often have very limited power compared to what they hunt, and require mystical artifacts to fight - Iris stumbles across a suit of "Celestial Armour"; armour made by both humans with their technology and Celestials with their magics, and finds herself able to use it. Her own powers being derived more from the earth, and being a Demon Hunter, possibly even Infernals, her strong compability with the armour remains a mystery, and grants her a wider range of powers than others.

The Celestial Armours are designed as part of project for humans to defend against supernatural, and use supernatural abilities to transcend their own threats such as Nuclear war - they are designed for soldiers called "Arms Knights". Other Arms Knights show up during the series - such as "Infernal Knight Firedancer", who eventually becomes a stubborn Ally to Iris.

And that's more or less where things start...

Characters:



Iris (Celestial Knight Iris/Demon Hunter Iris)


(Character Sketch, not in game artwork)

Age: 19
Height: 5'9
Hair: Dark Violet (Light streak when focusing Demon Hunter powers)
Abilities: Enchanced Strength, Enhanced Agility, Swordplay, Basic Spell-Casting(mostly granted by Armour); Celestial Armour amplifies these; not all of it's own abilities are currently known.

A principled young woman who often seems distant to others. Unused to receiving affection and is often quick to second guess other people's motives.



Queen of Spiders



Age: Unknown(appears to be in her mid 20s, could be anywhere from 20 to hundreds of years old)
Height: 5'7
Hair: Dark Silvery Blue
Abilities: Possess a variety of Arachnid & Insect themed magic abilities. Her body seems stronger than that of a human. Seems to have some degree of control over other spirits, and able to manipulate people's fates to some small extent. Her true extent of powers is unknown. Also an expert on various the Arcane and well versed in a number of scientific disciplines.

Her true intentions are unknown. She seems to help the heroes in some ways but also seems to put them in situations to test their abilities; and talks about setting up "experiments". Some people consider her manipulative and frightening yet she seems to try avoiding outright harming her "test subjects". Kind of a cross between Beatrice from Umineko and GLaDoS personality wise, with a bit of the Princess of the Crystal from Penguindrum.



Elise



Age: 20
Height: 5'5
Hair: Auburn
Abilities: Skilled Seamstress, Actress

One of Iris's love interests who keeps trying to recruit her for the drama club(even before she actually came to the University). Has a habit of wearing period costumes as her regular clothes. Grandiose but generous personality. On the Fuller figured side.
(She's meant to be a bit like Rarity from FiM now I think about it, if she were the head of a drama club).


Edd



(Pact Form)

Age: 20
Height: 5'10
Hair: Dark Green
Abilities: General tech head; skilled programmer & cracker, some engineering skills

Involved with the Computer Club, another one of Iris's love interests. Tried to bring out the geekier side in her. Is one of the first to see Iris's Arms Knight form and that's when he really falls for her. Fairly classy guy for a geek, also into arthouse movies which gives him common ground with Elise and Iris. A bit like that one cool "Older brother" type geek guy you used to know when you were younger(maybe like Dave's bro from Homestuck?).


Thread



Age: 18 (possibly)
Height: 4'11
Hair: Pink/Purple
Abilities: Telekinesis, super flexible "ragdoll" like body, some unknown form of magic/reality manipulation.

An unusual friend of Iris's, a small and endearing goth girl. High spirited and tries to help Iris come to terms with herself. Is also the main character in my other VN, set in the same world with some of the same characters.


Ken (Infernal Knight Firedancer)



Age: 22
Height: 5'6
Hair: Dark
Abilities: Similar to Iris's when using Arms Knights ability; though which abilities come from him and from the armour is unknown. As with the name, possesses some degree of fire-related abilities.

Real name Unknown except to the college, uses the nickname "Ken". A young Japanese man who's a transfer student like Iris. Does not seem to be part of her "Harem". Spirited and can often come across as psychotic until you grasp his sense of humour, but still very much a wild card. Teaches Iris about Youkai and the similarity many spirits haunting the college have to the idea.


Starla



Age: 19
Height: 5'1
Hair: Plum
Abilities: Artistry, Witchcraft?

Another love interest. Girl who likes to sketch a lot and often talks in a rather incomprehensible manner. Seems to be a bit of a loner as her antics put others off but seems to get increasingly more popular as the story moves along. Claims to have some kind of magic powers.


A lot of these names are not going to be final, most likely. Also all drawings are, obviously, quick sketches and probably not too representative of how they'll look in game. Since I can't really draw properly I'll probably spend a lot of time touching them up with vector type graphics, unless I can find an artist.

The story seems interesting! But I'm more into anime style characters so that turns me off abit. But besides that I'll keep a look out for this thread.

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Sounds like this will be interesting. I'll keep my eye on this porject~

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I have moved to a new account. Please contact me here from now on. T/Y~

It's project, not porject.

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He who doesn't care about the environment doesn't care about his grandchildren.

Gonna write a better summary at some stage...

Definitely an idea off of the beaten path... I'm really interested in how all of this is handled.




Is not really necessary to critique commentary. We're here for the game.

Also, it's a typo.

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Will edit/proofread for cookies.


I do free voicework! Click here for samples

Fixed the Firedancer drawing a bit... going to colour these. I might do higher quality character art at some stage but I'm very impatient and they won't look an awful lot better. The Thread picture is one of my better ones, to be honest, though I messed it up a bit when resizing.