Or at least, that was the intent. The thing with creating a largely blank canvas and letting everybody who wants to have a go at it with their brush has lead to Deep Forest being a place where elven wizards rub elbows with undead zombie hunters, where unicorns share their fields with the escaped creation of mad science, where metallic dragons share airspace with reformed succubi and alien craft, and where humans from Earth have an uncanny tendency to end more homo-sapiens-impaired than they had quite probably intended.
In short, it's Fantasy Kitchen Sink: The RPG
The Moderators of UV, primarily its founder, Gaeva Winged Unicorn, and its master plotter, Barbanis, have run a total of six major plots over the past eight years, and the forum is now into its seventh. Generally, the plots have involved Nightal Winter's attempts to conquer Deep Forest or lay claim to individuals or relics therein. Most involve epic battles, last stands, crowning moments of awesome, Good vs. Evil, and much tropalicious fun. After six plots, the Nightal Winter plot arc ended with a massive battle in the wastelands, and the Heroes of the Forest finally achieved peace... until one dull spring morning, the Mountains exploded.
That's where the plot stands now... Unicorn's Visions has undergone a soft reboot and is starting a new plot arc with a new staff, new central characters, and a new focus.
Still, UV also had a number of memorable side stories run by moderators and other players, woven into the fabric of Unicorn's Visions. After 8 years, the site, though smaller than it was during its heydays, is still churning out memorable characters and stories. And given all that it's been through, it looks like Deep Forest will have at least a few more interesting days in its future.
The site can be found here: http://www.unicornsvisions.com/forum/index.php
Unicon's Visions provides examples of:
- Adventure-Friendly World: Deep Forest's meta purpose: ADVENTURE!
- After the End: Several storylines have featured variations on this, including a few glimpses of a possible After the End Deep Forest.
- All Deserts Have Cacti: Subverted. The wastelands don't have cacti... it's a barren, miserable, sandy place.
- Anachronism Stew: Ho-boy... UV: Proudly screwing with your sense of space-time since 2002.
- Backstory: Everyone. Has. A. Backstory. The PCs. The NPCs. That slightly dehydrated bush over there. Everybody. Normally said backstories are filled with decent amounts of angst for future plots.
- Bamboo Technology: Juno is the master of this - he can make steampunk tech out of trees and vines, all the way up to and including skyships and tanks.
- Berserk Button: If you hurt one of Naira's friends, she will hunt you down and end your existance, natch?
- Just mention Juno to Norad - the loathing there is legendary.
- Call-Back: Characters reminiscing about previous plots is not uncommon - as are rivalries formed due to actions in those plots.
- Character Development: Many long-running characters have gone through several stages of development and refinement. Others... not so much.
- Cold Iron: Frequent weakness for the fey of Deep Forest - currently exemplified by Devon.
- Crazy Enough to Work: Any plan by Juno or Entropy will be this without fail. And they will work without fail, thanks to the magic of Rule of Funny!
- Duct Tape for Everything: A throwaway joke had Norad build a targeting array out of duct tape.
- Geographic Flexibility: Trying to figure out the exact size of Deep Forest will give you a headache — it varies from the size of a small continent to several square kilometres, depending on the plot.
- The Grim Reaper:
- Naira masqueraded as a grim reaper from Earth before her true background was found out.
- The Reavers — including Naira, Windra, and various characters from their plotline — are Grim Reapers turned up to eleven!
- Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Currently taking a vacation in the forest as minor characters — though Mort aka Death does show up on occasion as a Deadpan Snarker. Incidentally, Juno is the Fifth.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: A recurrent theme in many characters who have claimed sanctuary in Deep Forest. Whether they be runaway victims of science or lucky survivors of a Mythical-Creature-Open-Season, you're sure to find more than one character here who had been fleeing from the wrath of evil humans when they first stumbled upon Deep Forest.
- Inn Between the Worlds: Try an entire forest between worlds.
- Long Runner: Eight years and counting!
- Medieval Stasis: Many fantasy characters embrace this tried and true trope in their histories.
- Monumental Battle: Several. Tends to be annoyingly common to the inhabitants of the Forest.
- Mordor: The Boundary Mountains and the Swamp.
- Nightal's Darkworld as well
- The Multiverse}: Of which Deep Forest is an important crossroads of.
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Neutral Evil: Smokey Paradox, the forest's old King of Evil, was cold, distant, alien in thought, and quite evil when the opportunity presented itself. - Neutral Good: Most of the heros of Deep Forest are this: Gaeva, Naira, Ourana, Blackback, Neithird, Roose, Melai, and Art Dragonpaw are just some of the best known representations of Neutral Good in the forest.
- No Fourth Wall: Juno does this constantly. Other characters might join in if it's a comedic thread.
- Orphaned Series: Unfortunately, many side plots have a tendency to peter off and die instead of coming to a close.
- Our Elves Are Different: Deep forest plays host to dozens of different species of elves - some immortal and godlike, others more fey and mysterious, and others still little different than humans.
- Our Demons Are Different: There have been hundreds of demons who have come through Deep Forest, from shadowy monsters to fallen warlords to cold assassins to beings of chaos and entropy to countless varieties of inccubi and succubi. Most serve as minor villains and would be conquerors, others seek to redeem themselves, and still others just want to left alone to brood. And then there's Entropy, but she's special.
- Our Vampires Are Different: There have been dozens of vampires who have come to deep forest, stretching from nosferatu to modern Anne Rice-style undead.
- Our Werewolves Are Different: There are several werewolves in Deep Forest, most notable being Siltharyn Lithnotain, who maintained a hybrid form and was one of the forest's most powerful healers.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Scarlet is a former STARS agent who got zombified before winding up in Deep Forest - where she continues her job as a zombie hunter despite being completely insane
- Present Day: A surprising number of characters come from the decade we humans call the 2000s here on Earth.
- RPG Mechanics 'Verse: Some characters (Juno, Entropy, Leigh) seem to think this is how the world of Deep Forest works. Quite often the multiverse just spites them.
- Running Joke: This is an RP forum. Of course there's going to be several!
- *Thud* - A very useful word
- OOC: Gaeva is pink. Any insistence on her part that she is any other hue is just a product of her sadly deranged mind.
- Swamps Are Evil: The Swamps used to be one of two pro-baddie regions in the forest.
- The Rival: Juno vs. Norad. Juno vs. Darien. Norad vs. Roose. Sarah vs. Entropy.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Deep Forest's location is left very vague... aside from being against mountains in the middle of a wasteland, the world beyond is for players to fill.
- Wrong Turn at Albuquerque: Open the wrong door, head down the wrong path in the woods, hop through the wrong portal, and you could very well find yourself stranded at the Edge of the Woods.
- You Can't Go Home Again: Quite a common fate for those who find themselves in Deep Forest
