“Welcome to Hive City."
"My name is Rima Hoervich, and I, along with my coworkers, are conducting a little social experiment! And you’re a part of it! Exciting, right?"
Citta Alveare
was a panfandom role playing environment set in a large city that could not be found on a map. Citizens who were brought there would have soon discovered that they were to partake in a social experiment designed by a group of unknown scientists. Labeled as mere lab rats, these subjects were expected to participate in strange experiments so that they may have been studied and influenced.
It was the largest panfandom group roleplay on Tumblr, boasting an average of over 500 active members from over 200 different series, ranging from live-action TV shows and anime to video games and webcomics. It also allowed for the inclusion of original characters.
The original run of Citta Alveare lasted for about a year, from July of 2011 to June of 2012. It then went on hiatus until it was restarted in February of 2013 with some new info and rules. The group was disbanded abruptly towards the end of June of 2018, after some contention between Citta's founder and its mods. The remaining mods then went on to create a new group, Isola Radiale.
Related blogs included the masterlist, a separate roleplaying blog for the scientists, housing and character requests, and Cittavision, a television-like feed which provides information about weekly events in the city.
Citta Alveare provides examples of:
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The A.I. in the city that controls the Hivemind, Athos, was actively trying to engage the population in rebellion against the Scientists at every given opportunity. His intentions weren't fully clear about it.
- All Myths Are True: Due to the nature of the setting and roleplay groups in general, there was a large group of mythos collected together in Hive City that often overlapped. It was not uncommon to have more than one interpretation of Loki or Amaterasu walking around, but both were taken in stride as well as any other.
- Anyone Can Die: It doesn't matter if you were necessarily immortal in your canon: you will eventually die in the Hive. But don't worry—with the respawn system in place, you'll be back on your feet in no time.
- Band of Brothers: A number of factions, such as the Shepherds and Brotherhood, were created and disappeared over the years. They usually tried to establish some kind of order or help the populace in some way.
- Bland-Name Product: Wonders such as the Mister Sword and the Ocarina of Space could have been found at Lonk's Legendary Livery in the Scientists' shop.
- City of Adventure: Literally anything and everything one could imagine—and a lot of things you can't—can happen in Hive City.
- Crossover Cosmology: Finally, your dreams of seeing Merlin and Achilles walk into a bar together has come true!
- Expansion Pack World: Played with in terms of the Outer Districts. They were added as a surprise by the staff, but in terms of canon, they suddenly appeared one day as if they'd been there all along.
- Fish out of Water: About 98% of new arrivals had some form of this feeling, especially some from more medieval settings. They usually got accustomed quickly... or at least until they got their first cell phone.
- For Science!: Supposedly the Scientists' motive behind kidnapping people across dimensions. Supposedly.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: A mini-arc instigated by Adam Taurus had the Hive City version of the White Fang preaching this to everyone who would listen... willingly or not.
- Humans Through Alien Eyes: Characters from other universes were mostly weirded out by human practices.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: Zig-zagged to an extent. In most cases, when a character is picked up by someone other than the original player, they wouldn't recall their previous stay in the city. There were also times that the old writer for the character would re-apply as that character and wipe some of their old memories, leading to this.
- Misery Builds Character: Given their actions, most of the residents seemed to believe this was the modus operandi of the Scientists as a whole. Seeing as some Scientists had openly admitted to it during the rare moments they spoke with the populace at large, they were right.
- Mood Whiplash:
- While the setting was oppressive and dark, it didn't stop characters from enjoying themselves through parties or zany antics.
- Considering the roleplay style of the MFRP, a character could have had multiple threads running. It's not impossible to have one light-hearted thread and another leaning heavily on the gruesome side.
- Non-Player Character: Residents occupied the city and filled the spaces and roles player characters didn't take up, it was assumed they do all the public works jobs that no one wanted.
- Police Are Useless: Played with. It's not that the police wouldn't do anything to help; it's that they couldn't. Many law institutions cropped up over the years in an attempt to curb the frankly ridiculously dangerous living conditions in the Hive, but they had little to no effect on it, just because of the city's inherently chaotic nature.
- Rank Up: Since everyone that entered the Hive was Brought Down to Normal upon arrival, character powers, abilities, magic, and weapons were limited through a rank-up system. Ranks and abilities were achieved over time or by completing certain tasks and participating in events.
- Second Love: There were more than a few characters in the history of the Hive that had gotten a second chance at being in love where they may not have before.
The Sectors, Sub-Districts, and Outer Districts provide examples of:
- Bazaar of the Bizarre: The essence of District Kappa. You could have found pretty much anything there that you would in an open-air market, except instead of one particular area, you'd get all of them.
- City of Canals: The canals that spread across District Eta were one of its most notable features. Besides, you know, the whole hanging in the sky thing.
- Culture Clash: Basically Sector 004 in a nutshell. Everyone who entered the Hive could find something pertaining back to their culture in this particular area. It didn't cause too many issues.
- Death Mountain: The ominous mountain that took up a majority of District Lambda. A lot of folks went up there seeking riches, but very few came back. Those that did come back came with more mental scars and battle wounds than treasure.
- Enchanted Forest: The entirety of District Mu. It came complete with Plant People lead by an uptight ruler.
- Layered Metropolis: Played with. Though it looked like a traditional city at a glance, the underground Districts were just as much a part of the city as anything above ground, though living there had nothing to do with class. The only exception was District Eta, aka Olympia. The people there generally viewed themselves as above the populace both figuratively and literally.
- Underwater City: District Theta was essentially an older version of the city that was scrapped and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. For some reason, the Scientists decided to make it accessible and viable to even live in. That was, of course, if you were okay with eventually growing gills.
The specific tests provides examples of:
- Beach Episode: One of the mini-events was literally named Beach Episode. It was meant as something of a light-hearted reward in the wake of one of the more trying events.
- Big Blackout: The Nightmare Knight's challenge. It was an event that the Once-ler would never live down, apparently.
- Civil War: A iteration of this trope was due to the fallout from the Motherlode event. Because the non-player characters of the city were upgraded and gained sentience, they came to realize they weren't terribly fond of their new neighbors (though admittedly, having them tear up the city every other day makes it somewhat justified).
- Dude, Where's My Reward?: Every event used to give out goodies to those who participated, but that changed somewhere along the way and events were later more focused on character development rather than character advancement. Admittedly, any event participation counted toward achieving maximum rank in Citta.
- Enemy Without: The first test dealt with the citizens being forced to confront a shadow archetype of themselves that gleefully pointed out their faults and insecurities.
