Darth Wiki / Opa City

"I hate the soul of retribution. What the fuck is "my friends"? ??? Bitch im gonna kill you."

— The entire party

"wip" — the Soul of Retribution

Opa City is a tabletop-based roleplay following three friends, Pastor, Hester and Coral, who hail from the fabled Opa City - not that they know what a special place it is to everyone who lives outside of it. After getting caught up in a ritual they were never meant to see, its caster, the enigmatic Soul of Retribution takes... ''Something'' away from them, and they can no longer go back home.

Run by zalzaires

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Opa City includes examples of:

• Alternate Self: A defining feature of this campaign's universe. Somewhere out there, you are guaranteed to have at least one other alternate self.
  • Current confirmed alternate selves of major characters (other minor alternate selves will be covered in the character page) include...
    • Pastor: Lord Driftwood
    • Hester: Esfir [lastname]
    • Coral: [name]
    • Tyria: Puppetyria
    • The Soul of Retribution: Revelation, Rennuid Tathviel
• Author Appeal: It's full of characters and concepts that were picked to appeal both to the GM and the players as well.
• Black Comedy: Exchanged anxiously by the party in order to cope with the horror of “Man and the Sea” and what it’s trying to represent.
• Collapsing Lair: The aquarium began flooding with endless black blood after the dungeon’s final confrontation, forcing the party to either flee or drown.
• Composite Character: Everyone who lives in Opa City is actually this, representing their own innumerable alternates in the rest of the universe.
• Eldritch Location: The aquarium.
• Elemental Eye Colors: In this universe, eye color denotes your 'Aspect Shade,' the color that the specific 'you' you are is best represented by.
• Ethical Slut: All three members of the party are this, and constantly make adult-oriented wisecracks to each other.
• Fisher Kingdom: Whatever Soret and his friends did to the park, just being in the area was enough to sever the party from their whole selves.
• It seems Soret quite literally cut the park out of Opa City.
• Fish out of Water: The party, in most situations they run into, but they manage to keep things mostly light.
• Go-Karting with Bowser: The segment in which the party went to the copy of an Opa City amusement park with the Soul of Retribution. That all went downhill in the aquarium, though, after he learned Pastor's name.
• Hub Level: Tyria’s atelier.
• Identical Stranger: Pastor and Lord Driftwood, Hester and Esfir [last name to be added later], and Coral and [distinguishing name to be added later], tying into Opa City's concept of 'alternate selves'.
• I Know Your True Name: Unfortunately, the Soul of Retribution knows the party's, now. And he recognizes at least one of them.
• Mummies at the Dinner Table: Played with in “Man and the Sea.”
• Official Couple: Brain Coral and D. Van den Berg.
• Portmanteau Couple Name: Pastoret (Pastor x The Soul of Retribution), Hestoral (Hester x Pastor x Coral
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Puppetyria was 'made' when Tyria held a seance in her atelier (for fun, so it seemed), met a dead girl, and gave her another chance at life in the body of a mannequin.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: When Puppetyria's hand prop broke in a real life session, it was decided that she broke her hand while trying to write something down in the moment.
• Rule of Three: When all three of the party members found out they had dropped to 3 health after a boss fight, they received an extra lore note as a sort of ‘achievement unlocked’ reward.
• Show Within a Show: “Man and the Sea,” the film shown at the ocean theatre to the party, a dense and artsy mess in-depthly described by the GM. It was apparently co-created by the absent aquarium director and the theatre’s projectionist. The twist: it’s a symbolic biopic, representing the horrifying story of Revelation’s life.
• The Fog of Ages: Implied to have happened to the author of the aquarium notes. "i have forgotten your face. i have forgotten your voice. i have forgotten your shape, the space inside me carved to fit you. but, I could never forget your name."
• The Atoner: The entire party, after realizing they all share the unique experience of having seriously wronged an innocent person.
• The Power of Language: The antagonists faced thus far all draw power from this.
  • Particularly the remnants of the dead false god, Allegory, whose name being uttered causes strange things to happen wherever you are. Conversely, mentioning Allegory and belittling it in the same breath seem to keep it at bay.
• Void Between the Worlds: According to the Soul of Retribution, between worlds, there are two things: eons of darkness, and the light of Opa City itself.
• Wizarding School: Tyria attended a mage university, and her yearbook from it serves as a vital lead for the party in solving the mystery of how to go home.
• You Can't Go Home Again: After the Soul of Retribution severed the party from Opa City, Opa City itself seems to reject them for the time being.

Tropes relating to Opa City's cast:

Party Characters

Pastor

Having coral pink eyes and 61% of his original vividity, Pastor is a charming and courageous man who tried to leave behind his old life in the pleasant Opa City. That opportunity for a new start was taken away from him by the Soul of Retribution, who seems to remind him of someone from his past.

• Abusive Parents: Pastor's parents were emotionally abusive and physically neglectful.
• Adaptational Sexuality: In his base canon, Pastor is gay, but in Opa City, Pastor is bi. This is mostly because his roleplayer enjoys lots and lots of multishipping in roleplays.
• A Tragedy of Impulsiveness: Regards his past with Rennuid as this.
• Chick Magnet
• Color-Coded Eyes: Pastor's eyes used to be dark green, and he falls in line with the idea of green eyes signifying sexy free spirits.

• Even the Guys Want Him: Luckily, this works out, because Pastor is bisexual.
• Eye Scream: During the boss fight with D. Van den Berg, Pastor lost his right eye. Being a deity, no injury is truly permanent for him unless he decides it is (though they certainly can be physically painful and psychologically traumatic). He, unlike his younger brother, who lost his left eye to the abuse and torture he suffered, does not decide to keep that injury.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Pastor is an actually-green-eyed minor deity with a background of being abused and neglected, who, upon finding Allegory's temple and realizing immediately that the arrogant, predatory Allegory was not a god, eventually became bitter and jealous of everything Allegory had. Why did Allegory deserve a temple? Why did he deserve a congregation? Why did he deserve Rennuid's undying love? Allegory did nothing at all to get all the things he had, in fact - he did the ''wrong thing'', at every possible turn! It would have been one thing if he hadn't been such a disgusting monster, but this injustice could not stand. Tired of seeing how Allegory's abuse was traumatizing and destroying Rennuid, he took matters into his own hands and killed Allegory, proving that Allegory was not a god to begin with. Unfortunately, Pastor did not realize that this approach would make everything much worse for everyone. What would you expect to happen, good intentions be damned, if you were to worm your way into a cult's congregation and charm everyone into trusting you, and then just killing their 'god' for no apparent reason?
• Hollywood Autism: Averted, he doesn't have any special skillsets tied to his autism.

• Love Martyr: This is the reason he stayed with Rennuid for so long despite the fact that Rennuid was physically and psychologically torturing him as revenge for Allegory's death.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The feminine boy to Hester's masculine girl.
• Socially Awkward Hero: Despite being very charming, he has issues reading unspoken social cues sometimes.
• Sympathetic Murder Backstory: Pastor took it upon himself to murder his crush, Rennuid's, predatory and abusive partner, Allegory, who was an abberation masquerading as a god. Except his crush, essentially brainwashed by the abuse - and fairly wanting a little agency in his own life, did not actually want this to happen.
• Technicolor Eyes: After... Whatever the Soul of Retribution did to him and the others, his eyes are bright coral pink.
• A Threesome Is Hot: Pastor regularly, casually entertains the idea of sleeping with Hester and Coral at the same time. They seem just as into the idea as he is.
• The Stoic: But certainly not the joyless, judging by how willing he is to go along with Hester's shenanigans.

Hester McGillivrey/Frimaire

Having tiger orange eyes and 96% of her original vividity, Hester is an explorer to her core, which... occasionally proves a boon to herself and those around her.

• The Atoner: She hasn't elaborated on why, but she doesn't seem in a position to judge her companions for their past actions.

• Big Eater: Her appetite for food (among other things) is legendary.
• Curious as a Monkey: With often disastrous results.
• Death by Origin Story: One of the constants in her alternates' stories is the loss of an elder sibling named Ari or Alistair.
• Fiery Redhead: What she became instead of the proper lady her parents raised her to be.
• Masculine Girl, Feminine Boy: The masculine girl to Pastor's feminine boy.
• Multiple-Choice Past: As a side effect of her very high vividity, Hester has begun to remember the lives of some of her more distinct alternates.
• Nominal Hero: Began her existence as a very selfish one of these.
• Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: Her player is not good at accents.
• Oop North: At least one of her alternates is from Liverpool.
• Temporal Theme Naming: One of her alternates discarded her family name for the surname Frimaire, taken from one of the months of the French Revolutionary Calendar.
• Unscrupulous Hero: What she is attempting to become.
• Words Can Break My Bones: What her brand of magic draws upon. Which is... Troubling, considering that one of the setting's major villain's is a sentient word.

Coral

Having charcoal grey eyes and 33% of his original vividity, Coral is a doctor of currently ambiguous specialization who's also been taken away from his home in Opa City by the Soul of Retribution. He's a Keyblade wielder who's been out of practice for years, up until now.

• Adaptational Alternate Ending: His backstory differs greatly from the events of Kingdom Hearts Union x. For one, Ephemer dies much earlier than he was ever supposed to.
• Diagonal Cut: Coral has the move Zantetsuken in his command deck.
• Lightning Bruiser: He's well-equipped in terms of speed and strength, but has zero magic in his arsenal.
• Mad Doctor: He isn't a particularly evil or "mad" doctor himself, but he often takes on the aesthetic of one. His keyblade, Bedside Manner, certainly looks like the kind of weapon a mad doctor would wield.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Coral was never the same after he realized the truth about Brain and what he did to Ephemer. He couldn't bare to show his face in public again.
• Sympathetic Murder Backstory: (wip)
• Unwitting Pawn: He fell for Brain's story easily. However, the influence of the Foretellers and the already present panic over traitors certainly helped that.

Major Plot/Recurring NPCs

The Soul of Retribution

A mysterious “kind of elven” man, who bears dark designs on the fate of Opa City itself. Flanked by a number of undead eel-like monsters he calls only, “My comrades!”

Nicknamed ‘Soret’ by Pastor’s player, and later done so in-character by Coral.

• Eye Colour Change: Between his first and second appearance, Soret has gained an eerie yellow glow, overcasting his gray eyes.
• Important Hair Accessory: A hairpin, featuring four pins topped by round jewels. They're completely black. Sometimes they, uh, drip.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Soret has an affable demeanor, calm and friendly eyes, and a ludicrously long ponytail.

• Reality Warper: Certainly TRYING to be, anyway.
• Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Soret is all too glad to talk about his goals, methods, and the reasons he’s doing things. The way he talks, however...

• Undying Loyalty: Soret and his friends.

Tyria/Elata

A ‘Witch of Lavender,’ apparently. The party landed in her parlor after they were cast out from Opa City.

• The Hermit: Before her atelier was set adrift, Tyria was already this.

Rurik One-Faced

Thus far only heard of, not met directly. Some kind of artisan that looks to have had a very obvious - to the party, at least - crush on Tyria.

• Ambiguous Gender: Averted. Rurik is explicitly stated to be nonbinary. It isn't a case of them having an 'ambiguous' gender; they're very definitely neither female nor male.

Allegory

The dead beast. Bears a connection to both the Soul of Retribution, and Pastor.

• Eye Am Watching You: Allegory's symbol - and name - and true form - is four circles linked together, with dots in the middle of each representing a pupil. It can see through any depiction of this symbol.

• Speak of the Devil: Though it's certainly dead, when you say its name aloud... it feels like somehow, SOMETHING still reacts.

The Man in the White Dress/Revelation

• Buffy Speak: “Do you need some water? I have... A thing,” said as he gestured to a water cooler.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
• Eyes Always Shut: So it might seem, but...
• Extra Eyes: His “face” is merely a creased seam that sometimes opens to reveal.. eyes and eyes and eyes and eyes and...
• Genuine Human Hide: Well. Genuine Allegory hide is what makes up his white dress.
• Posthumous Character: Revelation makes it very clear by the end of the party’s conversation with him that he is no longer a living, or even truly extant creature.

Rennuid Tathviel (Puppetyria's World)

A member of the faculty at the Wizarding School Puppetyria attended when she was still alive.

• Alternate Self: Clearly one of Soret.

Lord Driftwood (Tyria's World)

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The financier and founder of the Wizarding School Tyria attended when she was still a part of her own world.

• Alternate Self: One of Pastor.

Principal Flotsam Jetsam (Tyria's World)

The principal of the Wizarding School from Tyria's world.

• Alternate Self: One of Pastor's old advisor when he was king of the Pearl Sovereignty, Arcane Ariatongue.

Minor NPCs

Puppetyria

An alternate self of Tyria, a soul bound to a mannequin.

• Wizarding School: She went to one, but not quite the same one as Tyria.

Alphonse Hayvenhurst

A celebrated Opa City “architect” (“Newmaker”?), who has become notably more reclusive and eccentric after the death of his husband, Austin. The fact that he’s famous for reviving Dying Towns may or may not be an omen.

• An Interior Designer Is You: One of his many talents.
• Berserk Button: His is having to create art, or more specifically sculpting. Despite having a very creative career, he functions best with guidelines and (what he thinks is) cold, hard logic informing his choices, so being commissioned to make an open-ended piece of art, as he’s been in the past, makes him go a bit feral.
• Bored with Insanity: Most of the time, he can barely muster up the will to be disturbed, shocked or tortured by the machinations of his own mind, it’s all become so dreadfully routine... Until recently.
• Byronic Hero: Hayvenhurst has always been artistic (in a sense), emotional and darkly eccentric, and he’s always struggled with an undiagnosed psychotic disorder. His recent loss has just kicked all this up a notch.
• Control Freak: Particularly with his work, which is why he works alone.
• Fatal Flaw: His tendency to bear all of his heavy burdens, whether regarding his work or his mind and heart, all by himself.

• Mad Artist: Has shades of this, when he holes himself up in his workshop for days on end without breaks until a job is done.

Bosses

The Manta-Masters

Encountered in the Manta Room near the beginning of the aquarium. The Manta-Masters are a set of 12 manta rays representing the enigmatic Masters of the Bazaar from Hester’s past: sinister, silent and quite defensive when provoked or accused.

• Shout-Out: To Fallen London's Masters of the Bazaar, representing part of Hester’s backstory.

Brain Coral

Encountered in the Kelp Forest in the middle of the aquarium. Brain Coral is the Darkling form of the Brain from Coral’s past that has grown alongside Coral in terms of age, but has not grown as a person at all - he refuses to see that he’s done anything wrong by Coral, or any of the other Keykids who suffered because of his actions.

• Multi-Stage Battle: When most of his health was knocked down, Brain kicked the fight up a notch by (uhhh WIP i forget actually. we can talk and ill remember)
• Ship Tease: Was spotted flirting quite dirtily with D. Van den Berg in the Ocean Theatre, and then he excitedly proclaimed “We can go on a date now!” as he collected the bet money he collected during “Man and the Sea”.
• Shout-Out: To Kingdom Hearts Union x’s Brain, representing part of Coral’s backstory.

D. Van den Berg

Encountered in the Kelp Forest near the end of the aquarium. D. Van den Berg represents a figure from Pastor’s background: his younger brother, to be exact, as a merman who is king of the Kelp Forest. He is thus enraged at the party’s destruction of it, their ensuing condescending behavior towards him, and Pastor’s ignorance of the suffering his little brother went through right under his nose.

• Bathtub Mermaid: This was suggested as a way of temporarily relocating him after the party drained the Kelp Forest, and he took great offense to it.

• Does This Remind You of Anything?: The procession of fish above the bubble is led by a clownfish in a crown, ripping scales off his own body and tossing them to his subjects, who devour them greedily. By the end of the boss battle, the kingly clownfish looked flayed, exhausted and empty inside, and the entire time, D. Van den Berg himself had been hiding from everyone while he breaks down inside an ink-filled bubble.
• Let's Dance: Said verbatim by the kingly clownfish to Coral before yanking him into a violent waltz with the kelp.
• Our Mermaids Are Different: D. Van den Berg is not a particularly beautiful merman despite his clear attempts to look that way, judging by his clothes and the clam he rests in, he looks monstrously thin and shadowy, with clumped-up blue kelp hair hiding his face.
• Promiscuity After Rape: D. Van den Berg is revealed to have become hypersexual after systemic, years-long psychological, physical and sexual torture at the hands of his father’s royal guard, all as part of a demented, senselessly cruel scheme of his power-mad father’s to ready him for the weight of the throne. He, unlike his older brother, Pastor, did not become healthily interested in having lots of sex with lots of people, but sex simply became another way to hurt himself when the active abuse stopped.
• Ship Tease: Was spotted giggling at Brain Coral’s vulgar gestures in the Ocean Theatre, and delighted at the invitation to a date.
• Shout-Out: To W@tchtower Grotto's Desiderius of the Sea, representing part of Pastor’s backstory.
• Sound-Only Death: After D. Van den Berg’s clam slammed shut with the last of its Hit Points taken away, the kingly clownfish swooned, belly-up, bemoaning how tired he was, and floated up to the ceiling of the Kelp Forest, too high to be seen, the clicking of the last of his scales falling to the floor being the only sign of his death.
• Wolf Pack Boss: D. Van den Berg didn’t do much of anything on his own but secretly commune with Pastor and explain the truth of his past. The real threat was the kingly clownfish (particularly his razor-sharp scales) and his procession of fish subjects.