Endgame Event Details

[simpathis]

— ENDGAME: DETAILS —

GENERAL INFORMATION

This is it guys, the final event for the game and we pulled out all the stops. THE ISLAND IS CRASHING DOWN!!! Here are the quick deets:

• Schedule: OOCly, the log is up today Friday, July 17 and will run until the rest of the month. ICly, the log is forward dated to the end of the month. There will be a finale log that is designated for final farewells posted a week later on Friday, 24th with an IC date of roughly a week after the event.
  
  
• Semi-opt-out: Anyone on the island at the time it decides to go nyoom will be forced to stay on it until the end of the wild ride. They will also have to deal with what happens after, but the level of involvement can vary from in the thick of it to hiding in a corner and crying to mommy.
  
  
• Open to all. As we mentioned a while back we made the game completely open. Characters can still freely come and go at this point, with details on how that works described below.

Pretty standard fare, and since this is kind of lengthy, here's a very quick tl;dr of what's happening in the log:

• Island crashes;
  
• Apatheia, a construct made entirely of apathy, appears to wreck shit;
  
• Survive Areta to get artifacts into place to help destroy Apatheia;
  
• Apathy apathy apathy.

ISLAND CRASH

We joked about it forever and now it's real. As described in the log, the old compass from Lavieti is about to spin and pulse lights like crazy and the giant floating crystal is going to respond in kind, turning into a disco ball as it flashes different colors. This results in the island suddenly picking up speed and jetting off in an unknown direction, leaving everyone momentarily helpless.

Since this portion is difficult to thread since it's basically hang on for your dear life, we're handwaving and writing out that portion in the log. But basically despite the breakneck speeds, everyone will have been encased in a protective bubble, keeping them from harm even during the final descent and crash landing. Too bad we didn't have Launchpad in game.

Somehow or another, the island does not break apart—in fact, although it's a rough landing, closer inspection will reveal that it actually settled in place atop a crater. The various attachments that had joined the island will have varying fates of being crushed and floating nearby. But while the people may come out mostly unscatched, the buildings and other structures will have weakened with some even collapsing.

Thus the main goal for the Verens section will be taking care of the aftermath. It's the usual standard fare of helping the trapped and injured and defending against threats, but there are of course a few extras.

Like having to deal with large amounts of apathy and black holes appearing everywhere. Fortunately, all the emotion and crystal tech, such as the emobytes, the enhanced weapons, and armor are available to help try and aid everyone.

APATHEIA

Apatheia hasn't made any real appearances prior to now, but its existence shouldn't be too surprising since apathy was always part of the emotional spectrum—it just never had a designated Arehtei since Simpthis was gone. It's first subtle reference dates all the way to post-Lavieti when an ominous shadow appeared over it after everyone left. More recently it is the culprit of the various giant sinkholes that have appeared on the surface.

Anyway, at first glance it may look like a giant, oversized black marble floating in the sky but this thing is basically Ozma a black hole. While it doesn't actively suck in everything in range, it does drain the skies of their color and even the land directly beneath it. Sounds are also muted. As it will remain directly above Areta, those in Verens won't feel as much of a direct effect, but those venturing through Areta will have gravity problems which will be explained in its own section.

Another special "attack" Apatheia will deploy is producing mini black holes. These will be in both Verens and Areta, but primarily in Verens. These black holes can appear anywhere, from on various surfaces to just randomly in mid-air. Some may even appear on a person's chest. They will start to drain color, sounds, and emotions within their surroundings, and anyone near them will become more apathetic. Bursts of emotion and utilizing charged crystals and other emotion tech will help dispose of the holes. Just be very careful: if someone stays too close to a black hole for too long they will disintegrate into nothingness.

—But don't worry, it's not real death. Should Apatheia be defeated, anyone who suffered such a terrifying fate will reappear with only vague memories of what happened.

So how does everyone deal with Apatheia? The Arehtei will inform everyone that the artifacts are key, and with some help and a giant beacon of light to guide them, brave adventurers must escort researchers into and through Areta to put them in their proper place. Unfortunately, when this happens those in Verens will share in some of the...experience our heroes will be facing, but it's fine, it's all fun. Probably.

ARETA

Ah, Areta, the legendary city that only existed in visions and dreams now finally found again. Just as crumbling ruins whose walls will disintegrate from even the slightest touch. As mentioned previously, Apatheia is hovering directly above the city, blocking most sunlight which makes the whole "muted, monochrome" setting even worse. No one can make a sound no matter how hard they try, but fortunately telepathy still works.

Although everyone will have some protection from both the Arehtei and any tech they might have grabbed, the apathy is heavy and will wear on them. Not only that, along with the random black holes that will blip in and out, gravity will be wonky while traversing through the ruined city. Sometimes it will be so heavy that people are pulled to the ground and unable to get up. Other times it will be practically non-existent, causing the affected to float straight up. However, there is a way to deal with it—those who are suffering opposite gravitational effects and are opposite in personality and/or emotions will potentially attract and will cling to each other. With teamwork they can progress through the city until the effect wears off. However, those who are similar will only repel each other. This can also work towards progression, but it might cause more problems along the way.

If that isn't hard enough, the city has a similar security system that Lavieti had: mechanical wheels that will hone in on any semblance of emotion and attack. They can be defeated, just watch out for the potential explosion at the end.

Should they manage to make it through, they will eventually find themselves in a temple of sorts with different rooms designated for each Arehtei. Seems straightforward, walk in the room and set the artifact in place. But of course, it's not so easy.

LEGENDS OF THE HIDDEN TEMPLE

Okay, not really, but each shrine has its own unique set of challenges related to their Arehtei. We say "unique" but in truth we've done our best to make callbacks to previous Arehtei events and pull out the fun bits for everyone. Those in the shrine will have to deal with most of it, but some of the effects will bleed into Verens as well. From Elios's yandere Icewalkers to Thras's D&D Final Boss. Should they succeed, their researcher partner will get the artifact in, and then...

Well that'll be detailed in the finale.

PARTING IS SUCH SWEET SORROW

For the finale log, or the "parting log," there won't be any prompts, just the final narrative depicting how everything goes down and the setup for everyone's departure, be it voluntary or not. We've mentioned it before, but characters will be given a special item that will allow them to go home once and come back without problems, kind of like a one time use return ticket. After that, if they go home they won't be able to come back to Empatheias.

If you have any questions regarding this portion of the mini event, please comment to this post.

Comments

[djbubbles]

"Characters will be given a special item that will allow them to go home once and come back without problems" "if they go home they won't be able to come back to Empatheias"

These two statements seem like they contradict each other. Could you clarify what you mean, or at least fix it to make it more clear?

[simpathis]

As stated in the original text, it's sort of a round trip ticket. So if Nino were to use it, he'd be able to return home and come back to Empatheias once. If after returning to Empatheias, he decides to go home again, he wouldn't be able to use the item to come back a second time, it'd be a permanent trip home.

[djbubbles]

Somehow I had missed that. My bad.

[spirialink]

So hey, aaaages ago back when the Arehtei were still being established, Lae and I spitballed the idea around of what if Kor performed a Spiria Link on one of the Arehtei. It was something we never got to really explore as the game shifted focus after a while and I never really seized the opportunity when I had it.

SO THE QUESTION IS..... what if Spiria Link on Apatheia........ Smacking giant emotion-sucking monsters from the inside is literally Kor's bread and butter.

[simpathis]

This is definitely doable! Whether it's a good idea is a different story. Upon creating the link, there will be an overwhelming amount of apathy, and he will also instantly feel his emotions draining out of him. It's a very real risk that Kor could become apathetic while in there to the point that he starts to fade away.

Before I dump everything that Kor would see and experience, is there anything in particular you have in mind that he might try to do? Keep in mind that ultimately Kor won't be able to do too much because he's basically facing a giant mass of soul energy sucking ball of apathy.

[spirialink]

Well, the basic idea I had in mind is that Kor and Sora are going to go after the giant black ball and try to do something about it. They're big dumb shounen heroes powered by friendship and emotion, it's what they do, you know?

Based on what you described, he definitely wouldn't be able to last in there very long and probably wouldn't have the opportunity to do much, but anything you can give me here would be great.

[simpathis]

/CRACKS KNUCKLES.

Although it starts as if they've fallen into an endless, black void, bursts of light will sporadically appear like shards of glass along with the sounds of laughter and joy, of hope and despair, jealousy and praise—basically they'll get a glimpse of everything along with numerous visions of people around the world living their day to day. But then these shards crack and shatter as they are replaced by warbled screams and sounds of war and destruction, and they all get sucked into the black void and slowly grow silent and dark. It all starts to feel as if everything is compressing around them, and Kor and Sora can resist against it and push back a little. However, not long after those first attempts that force will triple its efforts and an unearthly, almost grotesque sounding voice will echo around them:

Die. Die. Die. Everything must die. Destroy. Consume. Hurt. Pain. It hurts. Die. Tired. We're tired. Useless. All useless. It hurts.

Nothing. Return. Destroy. To nothingness. Release.

Disappear.

As the words echo around them, Kor and Sora will find parts of their bodies starting to fade out and disappear, the black holes that are popping around Verens forming around various parts. Fortunately they will be expelled before they're consumed, but right before they are they'll see the figure of Simpathis flash before their eyes. Like them, her body is dark and riddled with those black holes.

[lightofchaldea]

What are the IC dates the event is taking place? Can that info be added to the actual log for reference?

EDIT: I MORE QUESTIONS based on the final log--what if anything happens to characters who elect to stay? Like for example, will they now be affected by death normally (including old age)? If a married couple stays, could they potentially have kids? If someone stays for the rest of their natural lifespan, would they presumably automatically be sent back (permanently) after?

And FINALLY, given that the game's closing but there's still the meme/sandbox potential, is it fine to create logs now to continue to use for threads for however long people want to thread out post-game shenanigans of all sorts?

[simpathis]

We don't have a specific date, but it's about a week before the end of July. We made a brief reference in the log!

Characters who opt to stay in Emp will be treated like the natives, yes! They are basically now "bound" to the world, so death is permanent and children is possible (unless there's something about the character that prohibits it, but we leave that all up to the players). As for your third question, the remains would be in Empatheias. There wouldn't be much difference either way since the character does continue to exist in their canon world.

And yes! You are welcome to create logs now. We will just close membership to the game so that no new people can join unmoderated.

[lightofchaldea]

SORRY FOR ALL THE QUESTIONS but I just want to clarify for plotting/planning's sake, in the mod announcement post it said everything was forward dated by "several weeks" which would put the endgame/finale post ICly in August? Was this changed?

Do characters who stay get to potentially keep any powers they had or would that get nerfed?

Can characters who were previously played and dropped, or who came by as 4th wall visitors, potentially choose to stay?