Shin Megami Tensei: Demonic Whispers From Your True Self [Discussion]

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to the world of demon taming!

Demon taming is a little like Pokemon, in which you "collect" demons and use them to fight, however it is more mature and a bit more complicated. All demons have personalities, and most can talk. You can obtain them by 'negotiating' with them to convince them to come over to your side or by 'fusion'. Be warned though, that each demon has an alignment and if it clashes with yours, that demon may not follow your orders at all and in the midst of battle, that could be detrimental—you must fight as well, or at least defend yourself. If it's one thing that's common among them, it's that they quickly lose patience with incompetents and extreme weaklings who aren't willing to learn. It also helps if you get familiar with the terms if you hope to be a strong, or at least competent, tamer:

(As we go on and new things are discovered, more will be added to the list)

Spoiler: Basic terms explanations  

Demon Tamer – One who "tames" demons and gets them to work alongside him. Though normal humans can only have one demon out at a time (the rest stored in tubes). Physically and mentally strong people can have two at most out at one time. A demon, once they come over to your side, are attached to you through a magical bond; they will drain your energy any time they choose/you order them to use one of their magical attacks so the tamer must choose wisely. Also, a weak demon tamer will not be able to control an incredibly powerful demon if they somehow obtain one and may die as a result of it.

Not everyone is a tamer in this world, and they are incredibly rare—though, that may change depending on the RP.

Demon Tube – basically the storage for demons when not in used. Each is coloured silver and shaped roughly like a pen. Every demon tamer needs at least one. If you mindlessly try to bring a demon over to your side without having a spare tube, they may take what you have given them and then leave.

Tribes – each demon belongs to a certain tribe. Demons of the same tribe work better with each other. It's recommended to fuse demons from different tribes together to obtain stronger demons.

Alignment – each tribe belongs to an alignment, such as "Light-Law" or "Dark-Chaos" to name a few. To explain them simply: "Light Law" means incredible and strict law abiding, iron fist ruling, strictness, adherence to law, with little-to-no freedom. Then on the other end of the spectrum, "Dark Chaos" means evil (dark), mischievousness, with full freedom and no laws. "Law" in SMT means more law abiding and less freedom, while "Chaos" isn't necessarily bad, it just means freedom and free will. A "Light Chaos" or "Neutral Chaos" demon won't be evil. Your personality can clash or work well with a demon's alignment. If they clash, the demon will disobey and usually will not help in any way.

Negotiation – the act of negotiating with demons. Demons will usually ask for things, sometimes they may drain your enemy, take money or items (such as drinks or snacks) before they join you. Sometimes they are tricky, taking these things and then attacking or running away. Other times they are incredibly intelligent and insightful, or they can be lazy or silly. It's impossible to tell, but most times it depends on how you talk to them and how they see you treating your demons. Some will like it if you keep a firm rule, some will like it if you're lax. It's tough to tell what they would like. Most tribes of demons are incapable of human speech, or they may be unintelligent, but still capable of speech.

Tribes like Foul and Wilder, cannot communicate at all (though they can understand simple orders). Tribes like Jaki can communicate, but primitively and brutishly.

Fusion – The act of fusing two or more demons together to acquire a new demon. Fusing two demons together is a "normal fusion" and almost any two demons can be fused together. Fusing three or more (up to 8 specific demons) are considered "special fusions" and need specific demons to acquire a specific result. Fusing is the only way to acquire demons that cannot be negotiated with and it is the only way to acquire the most powerful demons that you will never find otherwise. However, sometimes Fusion may not always turn out how you like it, and you may rarely acquire a unique or weak demon. Not to mention that the resulting demon may end up being a different alignment. It's a fun and surprising process.

To make things simpler for everyone (since fusion itself is a bit complicated and will take a very long time to explain), I'll have an NPC handle demon fusion. This NPC will tell you if your fusion will work, among other things. He/She will also mention to you if you can create a special fusion.

Dismiss – Self-explanatory; the act of letting go or freeing a demon.

Mantra – Every demon tamer has one. A Mantra is a set of techniques or magic that are obtained from tamed demons so that the tamer can use them himself. For example, you can take a healing spell from a demon and have it as your own, so even if you fuse or dismiss that demon, you still keep that spell. Each demon tamer can only keep four spells, moves or techniques at any time. Replacing a technique will make the old technique be lost unless you have a demon in your party that has that same technique. Since using moves from the Mantra are incredibly exhausting (aside from passive abilities, such as "Void Elec"), a Mantra can only hold four techniques (including passives).

Cathedral of Shadows - Known as the Heretic Mansion to some, this is the group/place where tamers go if they wish to fuse demons. The priests/priestesses of the Cathedral always dress in blue, and are always happy to guide tamers that come to their doorsteps. They keep a Compendium; records of the demon tamers and all the demons the tamers may have had. This makes them incredibly powerful, because they can summon the demons from the compendium at will, though they usually stay at the sidelines and be the guiding hands.

Compendium - A record of demons and demon tamers kept by the Cathedral of Shadows.

Now, there are special things that you should know about demons and their abilities. They all have strengths, resistances and weaknesses. Some may be weak to fire, some may be strong against wind, others may nullify the two completely. It also should be known that a technique used by a demon is stronger than if that same technique is used by a human. Demons also know only up to two or three moves (which will be listed on their "Strange Journey" stats portion of their page [example]) , and may only use some of them if you speak it in their language.

Just explaining what you might see on their moves list on their stats page.

Spoiler: Basic techniques explanation  

Basic moves:-

Garu – wind-based attack
Agi – fire-based attack
Bufu – ice-based attack
Zio – electric-based attack
Dia – healing spell
Mudo – "Curse" or "Dark" insta-kill spell with an incredibly low chance of hitting (unless the demon that's being targeted is weak to it)
Hama – "Expel" or "Light" insta-kill spell with an incredibly low chance of hitting (unless the demon that's being targeted is weak to it)

There are also unique moves, special physical attacks and status-inducing and status-curing abilities, but we'll get into that later since I don't think we'll be dabbling in them too much. If you have any questions, you can ask here.

Prefixes and Suffixes
Prefixes and suffixes are usually added to the normal name, which changes the amount of targets and/or the amount of damage. Usually the "Ma" or "Me" prefix means "multiple targets". Suffixes like "ga", "la", "lao(n)" or "dyne" shows the 'heaviness' of the spell. Though there are more than just these.

For example: "Zio" on it's own is just a light electric attack that hits one enemy. "Mazio" is a light electric attack that hits multiple enemies. On the other hand, "Zionga" is a moderate electric attack that hits one enemy. "Maziodyne" is a heavy electric attack that targets multiple enemies.

Another example: "Dia" on its own is a light heal; which heals small wounds, scratches and bruises. "Media" does the same, but for multiple targets. "Diarama" is a moderate healing spell, while "Diarahan" heals a target fully. "Me" in front of both of them changes the spell from single-target, to multiple-target.

List of Skills with descriptions
If you don't see a skill listed there, you may find it here. Use CTRL+f to find what you're looking for.

That should about cover it.

(You can use this wiki to further research SMT and the games.)


CHARACTER PROFILE
Post your characters here

Spoiler:  

Name:

Age:

Occupation: Your occupation before/during demon taming. You can also not be a demon tamer, just a normal person mixed up in everything, if you wish.

Appearance:

Weapon(s): You're going to have to defend yourself

Character Level: Starter level: 25 or less. Your character will level over time (I leave it up to the RPers discretion, but I'll be monitoring. You can't jump from a low level to level 70 in one post). This is mostly just to gauge how powerful you are, and which demons you can control. You can't control a demon over your level.

Demons: At the start of the RP, you receive one demon (depending on your personality, which coincides with the alignment) and two empty tubes. As the RP goes on, you will receive more tubes and more demons. You must choose from this list, however your starting demon cannot be above level 25. Also, demons can only use their Natural Skills (of which there is a limit of 3) NOT the D-Source skills. (Make sure you link to their "Strange Journey" stats section as well, since that's the one we're following). This is so that you can't choose an overpowering demon from the start. You can list them like so with their alignment and a brief description of their personality:

- Pixie - Neutral-Neutral - A flirty, naive and energetic little demon
- Empty tube
- Empty tube

You don't need to mention their levels, since we won't be dealing with stuff like that. If you aren't sure about alignment, the best demons to choose are "Neutral-Neutral"

Mantra Abilities: Up to 4, can only be taken from demons tamed, will need to be updated when you choose to have a new ability/replace others. Since the example above contains Pixie, we'll use her abilities, like so:

- Dia - Light healing spell
- Agi - Light fire spell
- Empty mantra
- Empty mantra

Strengths:

Weaknesses:

Personality:

History:

SETTING/STORY


The RP takes place in a fictional town that's not quite large enough to be a city, but not small enough to be, well, a town. It has a commercial district, a small industrial district as well as suburbs, with the entire thing resting on the edge of large expanses of farmland. There are schools, a single college, two or three police stations, apartment buildings and there are dark alleyways and slums. Just a very large town that's turning into a city situated on the coast; the industrial district being closer to the water. This means there are harbours and docks and all that.

The story revolves around rumors and whispers--they seem to warp reality. Rumors that get popular become true, and it's somewhat terrifying. There are also rumors going around that people are calling upon creatures to wreak havoc on others while they're set free and run wild over the city. They are little in number, for now, as rumors continue to swirl, will they get deeper and more devastating? Only time will tell. Can we uncover the truth and stop this from happening?

(The demons running around freely are those starter demons under level 25)

Around sunset of this day, your character receives a package from an anonymous sender, containing two empty silver tubes and one full one. At the same time you open the package, you receive an email detailing instructions of how to fight with your newly received demon, orders to come down to the train graveyard with much haste.

Don't forget to bring what you received in your package.


(uh, yeah, this is my first time doing something like this. And things may seem complicated at first. So you can ask any question or share your concerns here. Maybe it'll help me revise/change/simplify things. I'll be putting up my characters and the NPC that will handle fusion later)



CHARACTER LIST

- Ruki - Akari Hara
- insaney - Jeanne D'Estelle
- Sólsetur - Hokkaido Cadassi
- Kol Gaines - Mel Ryan
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NPC LIST
- Lili and Lulu - Twins who'll handle the fusion process.

Do we post our characters here or PM them to you first?

Oh, here is just fine.

Also added "Weapons" to the character profile, since you're going to have to defend yourself somehow I'll have my characters up sometime soon. Including the Fusion npc(s).

I'll add new characters to the first post

Shouldn't we have a levels section for our characters, since that's how we'd be following fusion and such? :>

I should have my character up sometime today/tomorrow.

Hmmm, I was thinking about it. But how would one keep track of levels/gaining them? I mean, you could find away to implement it, but then there would be stats and stuff; I tried to keep that pretty much out; I don't want it to get too... monetary.

I don't think stats would play too much of a role, and level would just be for demons and stuff.

And I think it could work similarly to the Pokemon RP, in which people could change levels as they please so long as it was reasonable.

Or they could run their new level by you via VM or something.

Originally Posted by Sólsetur

I don't think stats would play too much of a role, and level would just be for demons and stuff.

And I think it could work similarly to the Pokemon RP, in which people could change levels as they please so long as it was reasonable.

Hmmm, this could work. So we keep the level 25 starting, or lower it greatly to like 10, or lower? I mostly had level 25 for diversity reasons.

Also, demons don't need to level up, just the character?

I added "Character level" to the profile.

Thanks for the help

I think 25 as the maximum for a starting character could work, that way people could have weaker characters if they felt the need.

And I don't think demons would need to level up, since it would make more sense to switch them out with other demons (a la Devil Survivor) over time.

No problem. I love SMT, so I'm more than happy to help. :>

So I think we're pretty much good for now? :3 I put a little more in the level description. Level 25 or less, levelling up over time, etc.

Name: Akari Hara

Age: 19

Occupation: Student/historian (archeology)

Appearance: A young woman about 5'5" with long red hair and green eyes. She wears contact lenses most of the time, but when she is up late studying she will have her glasses on. She typically wears jeans and solid color t-shirts (or t-shirts with pretty designs) with jackets and sneakers. She absolutely refuses to wear skirts and high heels citing them as "difficult to move around in."

Spoiler:  

Fear my lazy Google image searching skills!

Weapon(s): Swords, bats

Character level: 19

Demons: Power-Neutral-Law- A serious, intelligent demon
- Empty tube
- Empty tube

Mantra Abilities:
- Hell Thrust-moderate gun damage to one foe
-Mahama -30% chance of killing all enemies with exorcism
-Empty Mantra
-Empty Mantra

Strengths: Even though she is constantly seen with her head in some some sort of "entertainment" device, that doesn't mean she isn't physically fit. Her parents have kicked her outside and refused to let her back in until she played. As a result not only does she have a good immune system, but she is fairly active.

She also has good people skills when she is actually interacting with others.

Weaknesses: She has trouble putting up with "stupid" people and can get irked really easily. (Although it should be noted that this is irked, not mad. It takes a lot for her to be truly angry.)

She is known to, and will, zone out whenever she gets bored, even in the middle of conservations.

When backed in a corner, she tends to act a lot more brashly.

Personality: She is a quiet girl who can always be found with her head poked into some sort of book (or video game) which leads people to think she is either very shy or socially awkward, which is not the case. She has good social skills and gets along with people well when given the chance, however, due to her reclusive nature it depends on another person approaching her.

She is easy going with a great sense of humor, although if she feels threatened or annoyed, she can a 180 turn.

She gets annoyed at any media which butchers history. For example, she hates The Scorpion King (movie) and Jeanne D'arce (PSP) for their rampant "creative" use of history.

She can be a bit of a dreamer and can have her head in the clouds.

History: Akari is a freshman college student at a local college. She has loved ancient cultures and their mythology since she was small. She is studying to become an archeologist, although she prefers the culture and the mythology instead of the actual history of the ancient culture more. She loves going to ancient sites.

Name: Jeanne D'Estelle

Age: 33

Occupation: English Teacher

Appearance: Stands at 5 feet, 8 inches. Dirty blonde hair, thick, shoulder length and wavy. Very light but bright green eyes, small nose and thin pink lips on a fair heart-shaped face. Her way of dress is very casual, usually a dark coloured/black jeans, sneakers and a t-shirt, sometimes covered by a coat or long sleeved sweater if going out.

Weapon: A very tough, light, but hollow, black metal cane with an ornate gold-coloured handle; shaped like a branch and ending with a large leaf, with intricate and detailed vine-like designs etched into it. She can also wield modern archery equipment and standard firearms, but do not possess these.

Character Level: 25

Demons:
- Lilim – Neutral-Chaos – A charming, smart, smooth talking demon
- Empty tube
- Empty tube

Mantra Abilities:
- Zio – Light electric attack for a single enemy
- Mazio – Light electric attacks for multiple enemies
- Charm Strike – Moderate attack that fires like a gun; has a moderate chance of charming an enemy and turning them against their allies.
- Empty mantra

Strengths: Somewhat quick thinking, calm and seemingly always on the ball and skilled/nimble with her hands.

Weaknesses: Not very fast on her feet due her limp.

Personality: Despite her way of dressing and limp, she carries herself with a sort of demanding grace. Very intelligent, and her way of speaking shows it. She is also very determined when she has a goal set in front of her eyes. Most times she would put others in front of herself, and her way of teaching revolves around 'fun and games' rather than boring lectures; which usually goes against the ways of the college where she teaches.

History: Born in France before moving to the new city with her English-speaking mother. She followed in her mother's footsteps to become a teacher. Though, around twenty years of age she was in a car accident which had disabled most of her body. After a while, she began to recover; doctors said it was a miracle, but Jeanne believes it was her own determination and willpower.

NPCS THAT WILL HANDLE FUSION

Given Name: Lili and Lulu

Role: Cathedral of Shadows representatives, Lili handles the Fusion and Lulu upkeeps the Compendium.

Apparent Age: Early 20s

Gender: Both female

Appearance: They're both identical twins. Very fair complexion, golden, piercing eyes and platinum blonde hair. Very straight and chin length. They both wear complete navy blue suits with a white undershirts. The only difference between them is that Lili wears a normal necktie, while Lulu wears a bowtie.

Specialty: Lili helps demons tamers fuse their demons along with giving them advice on things relating to it, while Lulu updates the Compendium, a large magical, blue book that records demon tamers and their demons. She is also the one who sends out messages and emails through her laptop.

Personality: They both seem very mechanical, but very calm and sweet with their words and tone, as if "service with a smile" is something they lived by. They never seem to move from their spots, and are always there and ready to help tamers at any time.

History: "Welcome to the Cathedral of Shadows."

Name: Hokaido Cadassi

Age: 30

Occupation: Cadass worked with a secret Japanese organization known as "JP's". They worked with all things supernatural in Japan. Tokyo branch.

Appearance: Stands at 5'10" and has blue eyes and black hair. His hair is cut thin, but it is kept long; his bangs are pushed to the side and the rest hangs on his head like a mop. It is about ear-lobe length. He wears a dark yellow shirt over dark blue slacks, and has ordinary sneakers for shoes. His build is medium, and while he has some muscle it is not prevalent at all in his body. His complexion is light, and his face is very 'soft' looking.

Weapon(s):

Akaron: A short sword with a gilded hilt that has been forged specifically for demon fighting. It has a curved, two foot blade, and is made almost completely out of silver. It has a "aura" around it, but no one has been able to distinguish what it is (because it was forged by the JP's long ago).

Sheeron: A handgun, also created by the JP's, that is designed to combat demons. It is capable of taking special types of bullets to work, and can act as a conduit for some spells.

Bullet Types: (each fight accounts for ten bullets of whatever bullet type he uses)

Normal - A normal bullet. (Unlimited supply not unlimited in a fight, but from fight to fight he'll mysteriously have more)
Heavy - A stronger bullet. (100)

(more will be edited in later)

Character Level: 23

Demons:

- Nekomata - Neutral-Neutral
- Empty tube
- Empty tube

Mantra Abilities:

- Agilao - Medium fire damage
- Diarama - Restores some health
- Mega Claw - Moderate Phys. damage/1 foe
- Empty Mantra

Unique Skills:

Equipped:
-Empty slot

Unequiped:
-Empty slot
-Empty slot

Strengths: Has some experience with demons, so he knows how to use them in a fight. Not only that, but he has experience with the sword. He's not new to the world of demon taming and fighting. Along with this, he's very quick.

Weaknesses: Sometimes doesn't think things through, causing him to do stupid things (using Agi on a demon who reflects fire, for instance). While he's quick, his reflexes sometimes fail him and he trips. This leaves him extremely vulnerable if his demon decides to take advantage, or the demon is defeated.

Personality: Has an organization complex, in which everything has to be done a certain way or it's not right - even if it's more efficient than his way. When the outbreak happens, this causes him to... freak out. He can't handle the disorganization, the unorthodox situations, and the way people act. It causes him to panic, and as such he's always rushing to get whatever needs to be done. He needs to organize the world - he must organize the world. That's all he can think about. This also results in the tendency to ignore people, though he has no malicious intentions towards them, so they get the wrong impressions at times. He zones out frequently as well, and is caught by surprise often. Fighting is one of the only "organized" things he has left as well, so he throws himself into it when he finds the chance.

History: Cadass joined the JP's at 24, and trained with them for two years before receiving his first demon (and his only Demon Tube). He was expecting to receive another soon, when the demon outbreak began - in Tokyo. The JP's branch called in all forces and closed off the city, trying to fight back the invasion of demons, and actually succeeded in doing so. Because of this, though, their leader was killed and most of the JP's members themselves were killed. The organization crumbled in on itself, and in the struggle for power that followed it completely collapsed. Cadassi's demon was killed during this time, so he fled the city. He settled down in a small city at 28 years old, and continues to live there peacefully.




Kudos if you catch the Devil Survivor/Devil Summoner stuff.

Name: Mel Ryan

Age: 20

Occupation: Traveling Musician

Appearance: Mel stands near 168.75 cm tall with shaggy shoulder length brown hair and contemplative hazel eyes. On a normal day, he is often found wearing a simple black wool turtleneck and faded blue jeans. Strapped across his back is a simple guitar case with his instruments within it. He is not solidly built but is lean and tanned due to constant travel.

Weapon(s):
Case Gun : A specifically modified guitar case that is modeled after an ITM Model 3. Able to fire .30 Short Russian bullets singularly or 9x19mm Parabellum in short bursts.

Hunting Knife : A simple knife kept for close range protection.

Character Level: 20

Demons:

- Karasu Tengu : Neutral-Law
- Empty tube
- Empty tube

Mantra Abilities:

- Hama : Light Expel spell
- Magarula : Moderate Wind spell (Multi-Target)
- Wind Breath : Light Wind skill (Random)
- Empty mantra

Strengths:
Mel is a fair shot with his Case Gun when under fire, but can't hit a thing when relaxed.

Weaknesses:
Mel is very laid back and can't be bothered to get up to do anything unless it will impact him greatly, like running out of money for food.

Personality:
Mel is a very laid back person, almost to the point where people will call him lazy. It takes a great deal to raise his ire, but when it is it doesn't fade for quite some time. His travels around the country have gifted him with an aptitude for tongues and a fair bit of wisdom, which he uses regularly. Most people don't look beyond the image of a traveling musician and often ignore what he is actually singing about, which he is well aware of, even if he hasn't found a reason to use it yet.

History:
Mel left home as soon as he graduated from high school to travel to road in a fit of wanderlust. He's often gone hungry and taken odd jobs to earn money as he travels. His passion is music in its many forms and has taken to listening to whatever he can, whenever he can.

~~~

Is it alright if I join up too? I'm well versed in the series and can never find a RP for it worth participating in. Well, until now anyway.

Yeah that looks good.

I've been caught up in some stuff lately rl and on the internet, I'll get the RP up soon.

I wanna know, would it be okay to do a system similar to Devil Survivors "Racial Skills" where we can create a skill/move and then equip to our character?

It would work similarly to Mantra's, except we could only have one equipped and can have two on "stand-by" that we can switch out between battles.



EDIT: Skills and such would need to be run by you before putting them on our characters, though, since they'd be new. And they should have a "type" (being Fire, Elec, Phys, etc.).

And we'd need to have a somewhat decent explanation next to it.

Quite possibly maybe it could be a skill we learn later on? I was thinking of Magatamas as well.

Bleh, I don't like the concept of Magatama's, but I could deal with it. My mean thing is like... how would we know what skills and such each Magatama has, it's benefits, how to regulate increasing skills and benefits, etc.

And yeah, I think that a skill we learn later would be cool. Main reason I'm asking is because I wanna be able to use my gun for some unique skills.

Lol I suppose my character's cane can benefit as well x3 I think it's a good idea, once it doesn't get too monetary or more complicated

Does that mean I can edit my gun some more? x3