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.

Duty Space

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 Millennium 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.

Viruses who pass through into the Duty Space and manage to survive there for extended periods almost invariably come out far stronger. This is theorized to be the origin of superviruses such as Caerbannog, Troy, Majikone, and the Four Felons Seeker, Trapper, Blaster, and Keeper.

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. The city itself is a rustic-style mountain town surrounded by snowy wilderness, giving it an old-fashioned and cozy feel.

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.

System Resources from Britannica have an Ice affinity, reflected in Lexicon's preference for ice attacks.

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.

System Resources from Cadenza have a Light affinity, although many of Saltavi's attacks are normal physical attacks and techniques.

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.

System Resources from Vector have a Fire affinity, reflected in Struo's preference for fire attacks.

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.

System Resources from Arcade have a Wind affinity, reflected in Alea's preference for wind attacks.

Locus - Diamond City of Magic

The Diamond Drive contains many elements and aspects of magic in various forms. The city of Locus itself is spread across several floating islands above the base code, linked together via bridges and airship routes.

Locus' Drive Core Controller is an eccentric and slightly unstable individual known as Theurgus. In Digital Divinity she is known as Diamond Soul. Everyone in the city knows who their DCC is in either form, and most have opinions on how she acts, some are negative, some positive, but most people just find her cheerfully odd.

Locus' Drive Core Candidate is Arcana, a former LDF Analysis Program who was taken in and trained by the resident DCC. Treated more like an assistant than a sister, she is a bit shy and eccentric in her own right.

System Resources in Locus don't have a single affinity, mixing all elements together in a unique way, reflected in Theurgus' ability to change elements on the fly.

Mordion Gaol - The Iron Prison

The Iron Drive is the third Drive to come online in the System, following a cataclysmic viral event that crashed the Sapphire Drive and almost crashed the Silver Drive. The Iron Drive contains security software, antiviral utilities, and malware cleaners. Architecturally the drive has a rather spartan, industrial-style town crouched in the shadow of an immense and complex prison, the Mordion Gaol is the prison itself, while the town has no name of its own. Mordion Gaol is designed specifically to house and quarantine dangerous viruses while the System prepares to delete them.

Mordion Gaol's Drive Core Controller is Tutela. In Digital Divinity, she is known as Iron Soul. Tutela is a sweet, sleepy sort of girl who at least outwardly seems to shirk any kind of work and has a fondness for travelling around various Drives. This is actually her form of patrolling, however, and Tutela is always on duty. In Digital Divinity, her personality undergoes a dramatic shift into a much more violent, almost sadistic personality that unsettles other DCCs. Regardless of her form, Tutela has a strong dislike for viruses.

Mordion Gaol has a Drive Core Candidate: Cautio. Cautio balances Tutela's carefree exterior with a much more serious approach to her work. As she has proven herself to be very responsible and level-headed, Tutela often leaves Cautio in charge of Mordion Gaol while she is wandering abroad. It's rumored that when she was younger, Cautio acted very different, and there are hints to a wild imagination tucked neatly under her exterior.

System Resources from Mordion Gaol have a Lightning affinity, reflected in Tutela's preference for electrical attacks.

Gallery - Sapphire City of Art

A Drive that existed before Britannica and crashed before Lexicon was born. The virus Caerbannog forced both Sapphire Soul and Silver Soul to band together to defeat it. In the aftermath, Artifex's code de-resolved and Pedia was badly wounded. The Drive crashed soon after. Due to events around the System Tower, however, the Sapphire Drive has come back online. It resembles a mediterranean-style town with a warm spring climate most of the year. However, lingering corruption and the legacy of Caerbannog lurks in the terrain outside of the city itself, where powerful viruses lurk and the terrain itself is broken on a base level.

Gallery's Drive Core Controller is Artifex. In Digital Divinity, she is known as Sapphire Soul. Artifex is an anxious, skittish person with rather low self-esteem, harkening back both to how she was used and manipulated, as well as the things she was forced to do while under Caerbannog's influence prior to her purification. As Sapphire Soul, the effect Caerbannog had on her base code becomes alarmingly apparent. Aggressive, violent, more than a little unhinged, forceful, imperious, and excessively prideful.

Gallery currently has no Drive Core Candidate.

System Resources from Gallery have a Dark affinity, though Artifex does not use any such attacks herself.

The System Tower

The System Tower situation has been resolved and the structure no longer appears.

Through investigation, the mysterious System Tower was discovered to be the compressed remains of the Sapphire Drive. Through events involving the program Bunnabelle absorbing code from Lexicon, the Sapphire DCC was resurrected. Bunnabelle's true identity as the virus Caerbannog was discovered and, upon destroying the virus, her hold on both Artifex and the Tower came to an end.

The Tower unpacked and reconstituted itself into a new version of the Sapphire Drive.

Proelium

Coming soon