GAME HISTORY.

[rubycitymods]

PRE-GAME HISTORY ⇝ THE WATCHER & THE INTERLOPER ⇝ THE SEVEN ⇝ PRESENT ERA ⇝

pre-game history: ruby city, once upon a time The long history of Ruby City is a thing still wreathed in mystery. As of now, there is no information available to player characters regarding this time in the city's past, but one day, this may change... BACK  TO  TOP ⇜ the watcher & the interloper One of the preeminent families in the ruling class of Ruby City just before its fall were the Levias. They were an old family, well-respected among the ruling class and much feared by the working class. The heirs to the family were two brothers: Beal, the elder, and Bel, the younger. While they were fiercely competitive with each other, they shared two traits: sadism and an unshakeable belief that their family deserved to rule the City. Despite the existing political power of the Levia family, when their father died and Beal came to power, he wanted to become the sole ruler of Ruby City, sharing no power with other upper-class families. In order to accomplish this, the brothers took over the death cult running the city and, once their power within it was secure, systematically eliminated those members of rival families that could not be intimidated into submission. After several years of bloody subterfuge, the Levia brothers had attained total power--and now the only person standing in Bel's way was Beal, and vice versa. Thus began Beal and Bel's era of vicious rivalry. Beal technically ran the city with "help" from his brother, but both were constantly taking potshots at each other and running various assassination attempts, from the mundane to the magical. Indeed, the increased reliance of both brothers on harnessing the magical atmosphere of the island for their own political and personal gain led to the first rumblings of the magical war that would leave Ruby City an empty city. Beal branded himself as the Watcher, the protector of the people of Ruby City, despite the fact that his reign was a period of unprecedented tyranny; Bel, meanwhile, was castigated as the Interloper. Soon the ruling class was worshipping Beal and Bel, their blood and rituals offered up to them. But eventually even that grew dull. Watcher and Interloper declared war on one another, and chaos of a decidedly more supernatural variety erupted. All citizens were forced to choose sides, for staying neutral would only lead to a quicker death. There was no sadism untouched, no cruelty forbidden. And it ended, as all things ended, in death: by the end of a decade, nearly every citizen was dead. BACK  TO  TOP ⇜ rise of the seven The NPCs we all know and love in the present hail from a world they were intended to protect, after its absolute annihilation. The cause? The vices and virtues themselves, seeking a greater high by tormenting and pampering their universe's residents in equal measure, attempting to feed their own unique needs by inducing certain emotions--their own sins and virtues--in the population. Some were lucky enough to lose their lives or their minds in the initial dip into chaos, but as the situation spun out of control, the reigning deities did what they do best: they ran. They came upon Ruby City, a potential gem nestled in the clutches of destruction, as their former home they were created to protect once was, and put down their own roots there. However, as most weeds are wont to do, they slowly choked the life out of the city's old hosts, easily deposing them and taking control, intent on restoring their old power and prominence. They inherited an island almost entirely deserted by war, though, and to survive, they began to draw people in from every universe they could reach, whether in individual numbers or heaping handfuls. The magic infused in the city fought back, in its own way. Opposites of the seven carrying the names of Virtues rose to counter and block the efforts of those they paired against. Infighting broke out, but it did not last long. The youngest of the Virtues, a girl with power beyond her control, sought a permanent end to the conflict and brought each half together as a whole. Each individual was shaken to their core personality, but each came through intact. BACK  TO  TOP ⇜ present era However, even handfuls grow difficult to keep a hold on when you've only fourteen hands in total, and so occasionally residents slip away--whether or not they're retrieved again is entirely up to fate, and whether or not they return by train or by the dark catacombs underneath the city appears to be controlled by the same whims. There's only so much they can do with a lowered population, though, and so not all of them are able to be conscious at once--in fact, at any given time, only a few are active, the others in a stasis too deep to break through ordinary means, only revived through an overwhelming presence of their specific vice or virtue in the city. As most of them tend to be ordinarily reclusive, this can go unnoticed for weeks or even months. In fact, most residents who haven't had extensive interaction with them wouldn't be able to tell the difference, and certainly not know the cause of the extensive periods of radio silence. BACK  TO  TOP ⇜

Code modified from bannertech.

✧ N A V I G A T I O N ✧