IC Guide

[trainmasters]

ic guide

After the initial welcome message when a new character wakes up on the Aurora, they have the option to view this IC Guide. If they choose not to view it at that time, it'll still be there as an app on the Chain's homepage. ICly, the guide is decorated with cute stars, helpful diagrams, and little drawings of the Prince of Stars, and has optional audio narration by him. It's colourful and sparkly and generally looks friendly! The actual text of the guide is as follows:

A Heroes Guide to Saving the Universe!

So you just woke up on a weird train with a robot asking you to be a hero. This might be a little confusing, so grab a snack, sit back, and let me explain!

☆ Who the heck are you!?
My name is Cardamom, Prince of Stars! I live far away in my castle in the Star Kingdom, along with my Circle of Knights. We're the ones who brought you here, and the ones who oversee your mission.

★ Where am I?
You're on a magical train called the Aurora, in your team's special carriage! The room you woke up in belongs to you for as long as you're with us. If there's anything weird in there, that'd be because the person who lived there before you bought it! There's no sense in getting rid of a perfectly good upgrade, so all your predecessor's science labs and bondage dungeons are now yours to enjoy. If you want a bigger or different room, you can buy that with sparks.

☆ I'm missing my memories and/or powers. Why?
Sometimes while bringing someone in, some data is lost. We can recover it slowly, but in the meantime we need you on the train. Since it costs energy to recover that data, we'll send you pieces of it as you generate sparks.

★ What are sparks? Sparks of Light are the currency we deal in on the Aurora. You earn them by bonding with other heroes, participating in Trials, and doing things to help purify the Star you're on! You can use them to make the train nicer or just buy fun stuff. We can get most things you want for you, it's hard for us to get things from your home world, so you'll have to pay extra for it.

☆ Okay, but why am I here and not at home?
Let's get the shock over with: your home as you know it is gone. Roughly a year ago, an unknown someone unleashed an evil force called Malice on the universe. Malice is a corrupted magic made up of negative emotions like despair, hatred, and fear. It took over the universe in a mere day. In most worlds, it happened so quickly you wouldn't have noticed. Plants and animals are turned into malicious creatures, but sapient people are almost always simply absorbed into the darkness and left as souls floating unconscious in the void.

You were one of those souls, but something about you didn't give in to Malice. Your powerful soul shone in the darkness, so we were able to locate you and regenerate your body. We placed you as a hero on the Aurora as part of our last-ditch attempt to purify Malice's corruption and return light to the universe.

★ How am I supposed to do that?!
With bonds and friendship! Because Malice is made up of bad feelings, it can be defeated by good ones. When you spend time with other people and grow your relationships with them, you radiate light and the area around you becomes purified. Since you're all powerful souls, your purifying effect is stronger, so we've sent you out with the Aurora to purify Prisms.

We've set some specific actions up that we think are great for strengthening your bonds with others. We call them... Bonds! You'll find a list of them here on your Chain or on a board in the Lounge. Some Bonds are for everyone, and some we've assigned to teams. You'll get sparks for doing those actions deliberately, so try it out!

☆ I don't even know what a Prism is!
Well let me tell you! A long, long time ago, Malice was threatening to universe -- although it was spreading a lot more slowly than it did this time. To keep it at bay, a magician made up a generator powered by positive feelings. That's what a Prism is: a source of magical energy and purification amplifier! There are one hundred Prisms placed in key places around the universe, creating a network that, until a year ago, kept the universe in equilibrium. If that sounds impossible to you, that may be because your idea of "the universe" is smaller than you think. The real universe is so incredibly big that the same rules don't apply to every part of it. Your universe is only a small part of the bigger whole!

But don't let that get you down. According to our plan, we may be able to save the universe by purifying only ten of those Prisms! Our hope is that by doing so, we'll start a chain reaction that'll purify nearby Prisms and lead to an ultimate victory. Of course that's not guaranteed, but it's the best idea we have right now so we're relying on you to carry it out!

★ That seems kind of risky!
It is! While you're out there, you're going to run into a lot of trouble. Malicious creatures seek to destroy the light, so you'll have to contend with monsters and weird nature that'll try to kill you or corrupt you. Just keep in mind that all the creatures you meet were originally normal plants and animals. A few of the strongest ones were even people once. Plus, good feelings and bonds are what destroy Malice. So instead of fighting fire with fire, do your best to fight negativity with positivity!

☆ All that and you're giving us Trials too?!
Yep! Trials are supposed to be exercises to make you think and get closer to the people on your team and on the train in general. Any official Trial is there to foster growth, so even if it's difficult, it's meant to help. Unfortunately, some of the Knights aren't quite human and have weird ideas of what's helpful... We apologize in advance if they go too hard! If that happens, they'll be reprimanded and we'll do our best not to let it happen again.

Of course, we ourselves aren't immune to corruption. In the past, one of our Knights was corrupted, and ran some rough Trials. In that case, our Heroes were able to reverse the corruption and save the Knight in question! There've also been incidents of an agent of Malice imitating the Trial system in a much uglier way. We're doing our best to figure out who it is and stop it from happening again, but should you encounter this kind of situation, please stay as calm as you can. No matter what Malice throws at us, both you and those of us in the Star Kingdom have to carry on.

★ I don't want to. Let me off this train! We're sorry, but we're not able to remove heroes from the mission. It takes a huge amount of energy to find and regenerate powerful souls, and we're in a dire situation. We absolutely don't like putting anyone out there without consent, but we simply can't afford to ask first. Remember you're part of a tiny handful of people who stand between the universe and complete annihilation. The only way to restore your home and return to it is by succeeding at the mission.

☆ You should go save the universe yourselves!
If we could, we would. Unfortunately, I and my twelve Knights are the only people remaining on the Star Kingdom. Here in the castle with us is the Heart Prism, the center of the Prism network. Should it fall to Malice, the entire network will be permanently corrupted, and the universe will be lost. Currently, we're doing all we can to protect it, find the source of the Malice, figure out a more efficient way of regenerating people, and keep the Aurora's systems running. We need every member of our team here, so this mission falls to you. You're our last and only hope.

★ What does the train even do, aside from being a place to live?
The Aurora is equipped with its own mini-Prism, made of a piece of my heart! As long as you're a Hero, the train can shield you from corruption, give you a safe space to shelter, and heal and revive your body if something happens. We're always learning, so sometimes Malice will get past our defenses, but for the most part if you're not up to dealing with monsters and whatnot, staying on the train will keep you safe from almost everything.

☆ Does it really have to involve teams?
Not really! But we thought teams would help jumpstart your bonds, and making them themed is funny. Every team is sponsored by and named after a Knight and the theme is chosen by them. No, we won't change your theme. Embrace it and have fun! ♥

★ Are you saying I'm not allowed to feel anything negative?
Negative feelings in moderation are healthy. Everyone gets sad sometimes, or scared or lonely. It's a normal part of life, and feeling those things helps you appreciate the good parts of your life even more. Happiness is found by overcoming sadness with your connections to other people. So it's okay to be down! It's okay to be mad at your situation! We only ask that you do your best to channel it into bonding with others, and keep an optimistic outlook. By relying on eachother, your bonds and good feelings become more powerful.

With that said, thank you so much for reading, and we wish you good luck!

☆ Wait! I still have questions!
And we have answers! You can use the Contact Construct app on your Chain to ask questions about the functions of the Chain itself and of the train. The Construct is the A.I. that runs the train, so it knows about all the basic concepts involved. It also has an advice function, so if you're feeling down and confused feel free to vent into the robot void! Unfortunately, it can't answer personal questions or anything about Malice and your mission that isn't covered here, but I'll do my best to keep you updated when we find out something new.
In the meantime... We're counting on you, Heroes of Distant Stars!

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