Idea originally posted by
@Verite
Murder Tale - Brand of the Hawk
Based on the hit manga "Berserk."
How much have you ever hated someone?
Have you ever hated someone so much, that this feeling alone would drive you to do horrific things? Have you ever hated someone so much, that your whole life was focused on finding that person and ripping him apart? Have you ever hated someone so much, that you would forget about your humanity, purge it all just to find enough power, for one, single fraction of a moment, one chance to get your revenge...
What would your eyes look like in that very moment? Insane? Terrified? Passionate? Happy? Or maybe... satisfied?
Would you dare to ever find out for yourself if you ever got a chance?
You wake up, and all you see are trees as far as your eyes can reach. A forest? That's not where you were last you could recall though, so what gives? However, you couldn't even ask yourself what you were doing in this dark forest with a number of strange, unfamiliar people, as your thoughts were interrupted by a hot, burning pain on your body. For one person, the pain might be coming from the back of their neck, or perhaps on their breast for another. Arm, leg, spine, everyone was feeling it somewhere at the very least. And upon checking the spot where the pain was coming from, you would all see that there was... a strange mark.
A strange brand was etched into your very flesh, as though a knife had cut into it and made it there. You feel a strange surge of emotion go into your head. A strange mixture of intense fear and rage vertebrates throughout your heads, as well as the sound of demonic laughter, like you were being mocked, humiliated, and so on, but in an instant, for a strange reason, you seem to calm down when heavy footsteps would approach.
In the distance, a rather large man, tall as a small tree and armored to the brim, would look upon you, his expression indicating that he had been expecting you, given that he certainly didn't look surprised or anything, and his features rather haggard and weary, like this had been a while.
Even when he opened his mouth to speak, you had no idea what kind of abyss that you were gazing into.
"Looks like the party's really getting started now."
Disclaimer: This will probably not be how the Tale would actually start.
Mechanics are subject to change if this ever happens.
Mechanics
This event will be, in a way, more focused on the relationships the characters will build with others than you might think, though of course, there'll be plenty of fighting to show off what your character can do if they're a fighter. After all, with source material called "Berserk," it's a given. It'll also be something like a cross between
When the Corpses Cry and
Restless in Rapture as well, or at least, that's how I envision it.
Throughout the event, your character will be plagued by the Brand of Sacrifice on their body, meaning that demons will attack often to claim your soul, and the brand will also affect your emotions to a degree; your character might be neurotic or angry than they ought to be in given situations because of the brand's influence, as to showcase how emotions of hatred and agony can overwrite emotions of hope and camaraderie. Despite the Brand in canon not particularly affecting a victim's emotions, an in-universe reason will be given for why it is so, as well as the fact that it thematically connects to things.
However, of course, this does not give you an excuse to have your character act in the IC purely out of what you think or feel OOC, so keep a watch on things.
Also, after every murder, rather than the practically standard practice of "murder, mid-chapter update, chapter update," it'll be "murder discovery = chapter update." So don't get tripped up too much by that. I'll explain why later.
Roles
Similar to
When the Corpses Cry, in this event, the system would entail one "Traitor" per chapter, though here's where it'll get a little different. Rather than assigning a "Maestro," I'll just be deciding on who will be doing the murdering based on character interactions / reactions / dynamics. A notable example of how I'd pick out a "Traitor" would be if two characters got into a heated argument and they leave that argument pissed beyond belief, and I would decide to pick out one such person to be able to commit a character kill of whoever they choose.
Similar to
Restless in Rapture, you are also free to volunteer (and I would actually encourage you) to submit a kill as well, though there can only be a maximum of one volunteer per chapter. However, there's a catch to all this. Kind of. Sort of.
There will be no mystery factor whatsoever.
As in, rather than spending time trying to figure out who the killer is, upon the discovery of the kill, the players would all discover the killer standing over the deceased, the dynamic all being in the repercussions of murdering someone, what drove them to kill, and so on. After all, why not take advantage of the drama aspect of murder for a change instead of mystery? Going back to the example with the two people in an argument, perhaps the motivation for one person killing the other was exactly because of the argument ending on a bitter note, or maybe if they chose someone else to kill, the motivation would just be that they were so blindly enraged that they killed the first person they saw / wanted to blow off some steam, etc.
Regardless, a motivation
has to be given. That all said, that's the reason why there will be no mid-chapter update thing, as the consequence of killing and everyone knowing will hopefully be stimulating enough.
Character Requirements
Well... Uh, basically, the main requirement is that your character has to be able to feel emotion, as the driving force between some of the story, as well as the interactions, are based on the characters' emotions being manipulated. And naturally make sure the character isn't too OP, unless you're fine with being nerfed to a degree of course.
More may be added as time goes by, but we'll see, won't we?
