Archive: Realm Operation Memories-1

Description

Welcome to The System.

A world that exists within an unknown computer mainframe, the System is a central hub connecting various digital cities, known as Drives. Each Drive is filled with digital architecture and customs influenced by the sorts of data stored on it, which in turn influences the programs that live in each Drive and the Drive Core Controllers who oversee the well-being and protection of their respective Drive.

The lifeblood of The System and its Drives manifests in an all-purpose energy simply called System Resources. Produced in small amounts in each Drive, the greatest source of these resources is the central hub; System itself. The DCCs of each Drive regularly fight one another in System, with the victor becoming the System Core Controller. So long as they control System, the SCC can control the flow of System Resources, directing them to their Drive to further the growth of their home and better the lives of their people. It seems inevitable, however, that whoever is acting as SCC will be dethroned sooner or later, and so no particular Drive has become notably more powerful or influential than its contemporaries thus far.

Recently the balance has been upset by a new turn of events: The System obtained an outside connection in the High Speed Cabletrain. This incredible transport rail connects the relatively isolated king-of-the-hill lifestyle of The System with the greater Multiverse through the digital Cyber Core. This inter-network connection, however, had its price, which came swarming into System from the Cyber Core connection and threatening the stability of System and its Drives: Viruses, malware, illegal and harmful programs that blend in with the regular residents of the mainframe. Monsters, villains, criminals and ne'er-do-wells, a crisis on a scale that the Drives nor their DCCs had ever had to contend with before.

As such each DCC has their own motivations in exploring the Multiverse beyond the internet connection: To learn what's out there, to find new ways to gather System Resources, to find the source of the viral incursions, to find and negate any new threats to their people, and many more.

Locations

The System Hub

The System Hub is the central structure of the entire mainframe. All Drives connect to the Hub through a high speed tram system called the Serial Bus. It also connects to the Multiversal Cyber Core with a high speed bullet train called the System Cablerail.

The System Hub houses several structures responsible for generating and storing the energy that acts as lifeblood for the System and its drives: System Resources. These are transferred from place to place along the ground and walls, in glowing lines called Resource Pathways. These pathways inevitably converge on the central spire, known as the Distribution Hub.

The Distribution Hub is where battles between the System's DCCs take place. The victor seizes control of the Hub, turning the spire's light beam, as well as all of the Hub's resource pathways, into that DCC's primary color. The DCC then gains the ability to re-route system resources as they wish, and most choose to route resources to their own Drive for the purposes of fostering growth and development for their city and their people.

The System Hub changes hands relatively often, usually every few days, though sometimes ownership remains for as long as a week.

A notable part of the System Hub is the location immediately beneath it. The very guts of the System, filled with nonsensical floating platforms and raw visible strings of code floating through empty air. This region is called the Duty Space, though it also has names like Fantasy Zone or Millennial Memory. Viruses often slip through the System and into the Duty Space and must be exterminated before they can cause damage, though the region is constantly in flux and only the toughest viruses can last long.

It's suspected that the fairly harmless virus Poochooze originates in the Duty Space rather than crossing over via the Cablerail.

Britannica - Silver City of Knowledge

As a Drive that contains textual data, Britannica is a city known for vast stores of literature both factual and fictional. While the city itself resembles an idyllic European mountain town, the presence of Resource Pathways and numerous large, high tech libraries give away its nature as well as give visitors access to these enormous information resources.

Britannica's Drive Core Controller is Lexicon. In Digital Divinity, she is known as Silver Soul. Not all in habitants of Britannica know they are the same person, and the general public opinion of Lexicon and Silver Soul seems to differ slightly from reality, with no influence from Lexicon herself guiding it.

Britannica has two Drive Core Candidates: Codex and Index. Spawned off of Lexicon's base code, she treats them like little sisters and is overprotective of them. Neither one is particularly strong or experienced, so they serve only as assistants to Stylono as priestesses in the Silver Cathoderal.

Cadenza - Amethyst City of Songs

The Amethyst Drive contains a vast collection of music files, as well as composing software. As a result the city is very ultra-modern by design with lots of neon lights and stylish, futuristic architecture. There always seems to be music playing in Cadenza, from dance clubs, music halls, basement parties, and the Resource Pathways always seem to pulse with the beat of the city's musical heart.

Cadenza's Drive Core Controller is Saltavi. In Digital Divinity, she is known as Amethyst Soul. Saltavi is Cadenza's idol, a diva who revels in attention and loves to perform. However, she's extremely quirky and seems to suffer more than a few disconnects from reality. Her diva-like nature leads to claims like 'being the main character'.

Cadenza has a Drive Core Candidate: Cantio. Spawned off Saltavi's base code, she's only similar to her elder sister in appearance. While Saltavi is very impulsive and irresponsible, Cantio strives to be responsible and strives to be a good role model.

Vector - Onyx City of Design

The Onyx Drive contains blueprints and engineering software, primarily focused on mechanical design. The city itself has a heavy industrial appearance, almost in the line of a city-wide factory with workshops and construction going on constantly. It lacks the rustic appeal of Britannica and the ultra-modern lines of Cadenza, but makes up for it with a sturdy, down to earth aesthetic of steel, concrete, pipes, and steam.

Vector's Drive Core Controller is Struo. In Digital Divinity, she is known as Onyx Soul. Struo strives constantly to push the envelope of mechanical design to create bigger, better, and more impressive weapons and vehicles. Though she personally prefers swords, she's known to build guns, tanks, and even robots. While a natural leader, her pride and confidence often isolate her from others and leads to rumors that she's a loner or has no friends. Struo is also a closet cosplayer.

Vector has a Drive Core Candidate: Conati. Conati looks up to Struo in many ways and works hard to live up to her sister's strict expectations, and always finds some fault in herself to justify not reaching that goal. She is her own harshest critic and has personal confidence issues. As Struo prefers swords, Conati is the one who tests the guns Struo designs and has been growing proficient in driving combat vehicles.

Arcade - Emerald City of Adventure

The Emerald Drive contains a large selection of video games. This has produced a city with an architectural sense that both makes a lot of sense and makes no sense at all. There are floating platforms everywhere, lots of bright colors in varying degrees of complementing and clashing, and many of the programs appear as two-dimensional sprites. It's rumored that the two-dimensional Malvader virus type originated in Arcade because of this.

Arcade's Drive Core Controller is Alea. In Digital Divinity, she is known as Emerald Soul. Alea personifies hospitality, reaching out and inviting others with an infallible politeness. Always the first to offer tea and content to chat, she is even cordial in combat. This does lead to an outward appearance of being aloof, though she's actually quite sharp and attentive. In her spare time, Alea designs and distributes her own video games, when she isn't playing games made by other denizens of her Drive.

Arcade has no Drive Core Candidate. Alea, however, regularly attempts to "borrow" one from her neighboring Drives as a way to tease her contemporaries.

Sapphire City of Legend

A Drive that existed before Britannica and crashed before Lexicon was born. A cataclysmic event in the distant past forced Sapphire Soul to team up with the original Silver Soul in order to overcome it. While the disaster was averted, Sapphire Soul was deleted and the Sapphire Drive crashed shortly thereafter. This event also mortally wounded the original Silver Soul, who created Lexicon to take her place and disappeared shortly after.

With the Sapphire Drive gone, Britannica is the oldest Drive in the System that still functions.

It's unknown what sort of Drive the Sapphire City was, though many speculate what it must have been like. Some even suspect leftover data of the Sapphire Drive may be found nested in the Drives that came in after the Sapphire Drive crashed, though all evidence so far has turned out to be false.

The System Tower

Within the System, there is a mysterious structure known only as the System Tower, consisting of an unknown (possibly infinite) number of floors. Each floor is a dungeon, infested with viruses and traps, which must be cleared to access the next floor. A pretty standard Tower of Trials. Except each time a Floor is defeated, the System Tower disappears, reappearing elsewhere in the System, oftentimes in an entirely different Drive. Or, once, the Duty Space beneath the Hub, where it appeared upside-down. What an afternoon that was.

When a floor is cleared, the entire Tower disappears. When it reappears in its new location, the floor numbers have progressed by one. Thus, the ground floor is always the "next" floor in the sequence. Despite the Tower's relatively small footprint, previous excursions inside have revealed the interior to often be much larger than the exterior suggests.

Floors currently come in 3 distinct types:

• Exploration - The largest floor type consists of an enormous and complex maze of corridors and rooms. The maze is populated by various viruses and other adventurous programs who had ventured into and promptly gotten lost while trying to escape. It's rare for powerful viruses to occupy Exploration floors, so most enemies encountered will be standard foes. To clear an Exploration floor, someone merely has to find and pass through the exit. This solves the floor for everyone inside and prompts the Tower to move.
• Discovery - The middle-sized floor type is several smaller rooms. Complexity lies in the room arrangement and, critically, the mechanisms and traps that must be cleared or found in order to progress. Discovery-type Floors are cleared when all of the puzzles are solved, regardless of the order in which they are solved. Virus presence in Discovery floors is very low and in some cases nonexistent.
• Exterminate - Extermination floors tend to occur at set points, normally every 11 floors. They are sometimes referred to as "Boss" floors. All Extermination floors encountered thus far have consisted of a specialized arena containing a small number of strong viruses or a single very strong virus. Clearing the floor requires the destruction of all enemies and usually demands teamwork and tactics. Aside from the "boss" encounter, virus presence is nonexistent in Extermination floors.