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The epic legend of Demens' chosen

"SPEAK, MEMORY— Of the cunning hero; The wanderer, blown off course time and again; After he plundered Troy’s sacred heights..."

A long-running NationStates Portal To The Multiverse Play By Post Game. Originally created by Dabfia, ownership passed on to Swith Witherward and then eventually to Cerillium, who currently maintains it.

The story centers around a mysterious apartment complex known as "the Building" wherein individuals from all across the multiverse are drawn in by various circumstances to coexist. All Myths Are True and neighbors from Cthulhu Mythos, Warhammer 40,000, Star Wars, Star Trek, Jurassic Park, My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, Doctor Who, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., and countless other worlds and dimensions all call the place home. While initially focused on wacky Slice of Life play, it steadily becomes apparent that much heavier forces are at play: it is no coincedence that so many unique individuals have been brought to one location. The universe is in peril, and Demens—one of the Greater Beings, entities greater than gods who are responsible for the formation of the universe—is determined to use the residents to save it.

The location of the Building shifts at different points in the story. Originally set in a city known as Vafflehelm, it was most famously located on 42nd Subabsurdus Street in the city of Bielefeld (no, not the one you're thinking of...) before subsequently being relocated to Gallimaufry, Demens' personal world. Slice of Life still plays a big role despite the overarching plot, and side stories involding comedy, adventure, and romance can always be expected.

The official archive and wiki are the best places to learn about the universe and characters.


And now, I give you...

  • Anti-Magical Faction - The growing anti-abhuman sentiment.
  • Arc Welding - The setting every time someone wants to do an invasion or some other nonsense that would be easily defeated due to current characters/things in place/current tech. In some cases, we don't succumb to Arc Welding, such as the Innovators wanting their tech to be superior, because doing so would open the door to "Dani Spanks the World Part IV".
  • Aristocrats Are Evil
  • Affably Evil - The Raptors are quite pleasant when not murdering random people for food, building weapons of mass destruction, or plotting to take over the world.
  • Afraid of Blood - Chrys.
  • Agent Scully - Willow claims to not believe in several things that the Building actually has.
  • Almighty Janitor: Literally.
  • All Myths Are True - Heavily implied, especially here.
  • All Nations Are Superpowers
  • Alternate Timeline - The most notable being the "Fallout Bielefeld" timeline, a Crapsack World timeline in which the first Drone Invasion was successful, but was subsequently met with resistance by Chaos, the Nifid, Cthulhu, another attempted invasion by Raptorkind, thus taking the world itself through a Trauma Conga Line, resulting in the deaths, corruption, and assimilation of several characters.
  • Amnesiacs are Innocent
  • Anthropomorphic Personification - Just about every last Chaos avatar and the gods themselves.
  • Artifact Title - The roleplay was originally a branch-off of the "Meanwhile, in your nation..." thread, intended to solely star characters who were literal or metaphorical personifications of their players' nations. However, people quickly began to introduce more original concepts and characters based on other franchises and genres outside their NationStates canon, until the actual "personifications" were inevitably outnumbered. Thus, not only is the title "Personification Life" an artifact, but as are many of the names of the older characters (Bran, NVE, Swith, etc.).
  • Artistic License - Often necessary due in order to keep the peace between the various, widely versatile genres in play.
  • Badass Adorable
  • Badass Family
  • Battle Butler - Scarface.
  • Batman Gambit
  • Beatnik - Willow Streaks.
  • Big Brother Instinct - Despite mostly treating her as a regular friend and often arguing with her on the grounds of Romanticism Versus Enlightenment, Word of God states this is how Willow feels toward Giovenith underneath it all. Noticeable in that he often tends to take up a nurturing face when she is in some sort of difficult situation, such as poor health or heartache.
    • Gio actually tends to evoke this feeling in a lot of people, so it's not terribly surprising her own roommate would also take it up.
  • Bizarre Alien Biology - Most aliens played are this in some way
  • Black-and-Gray Morality
  • Blue-and-Orange Morality
    • The Raptors
    • The Luxans
  • Boyish Short Hair - Giovenith's hairstyle, with sidelocks.
    • Nivea's hair is like this.
  • Brainless Beauty - Pippa-Michelle, given that golems in their classic mythology are, traditionally, of very low intelligence, coupled with the fact that she is built (literally) like a supermodel.
  • Break the Cutie - May as well be the bread and butter of this game.
  • Brown Note:
    • Erich Zann in the God Eat God arc
    • Bones' new musician.
    • Equestria is this for all of raptorkind.
  • Canon Welding
  • Character Aged with the Actor - Whether due to originally being self-inserts or just closely held by their players, several characters' ages and birthdays sync up with their players', thus aging along with them as thread progresses. This can sometimes get confusing due to the fact that a single day in the thread can easily be expanded into several weeks, depending on the progression of the story and the schedules of the players.
  • Child Soldier:
    • Tora was kidnapped by her nation's rebels and forced to help them. After they were crushed, the military recruited her.
    • Cinnamon is more of a child pilot but still fits. She was put into training for the government military at the age of 6.
    • Romulus when he first enlisted as a Cadet Officer at the age of 16, after attending the Major General Academy in Hackory for 8 years prior.
  • Clap Your Hands If You Believe - Klaus and his Men
  • Cloud Cuckoo Lander - Neil thinks waffles come from the waffalo (a waffle/buffalo hybrid) and Gretta is only marginally saner than him.
  • Clingy Jealous Girl - And how?
    • How Tsu can get with the people she has dated, especially Torii, going on occasion into full-blown Yandere.
    • Torii herself towards her sister, Katya, when she began dating Yoshi, and to Bran, who has served as a father figure to her.
    • Giovenith, of all people, showed a rather disturbing side of this when her older brother began dating, to the point of making up stories about the woman assaulting infants just to antagonize her to the others. Word of God states she has behaved this way to every person her brother has ever tried to have a romantic relationship with.
  • A Child Shall Lead Them - Implied with Gio.
  • Cute Critters Act Childlike - Averted with the ponies. Sterling and Willow make it clear many times they are legal adults who lived alone and held jobs before coming to Bielefeld, assert their authority to characters under 18 when the situation calls for it, damn things to Tartarus, and get drunk. Willow enjoys drinking strong coffee brews, is a Deadpan Snarker, has an aversion to young children, and at times considers himself Gio's de facto legal guardian by virtue of living with her. Sterling has received higher education, and runs his own library.
  • A Darker Me - Dab with Evil Dab and a Few of the Raptors counterparts from other universes and definitely clone NVE.
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Death is Cheap - Almost every character has died and been revived, either through some local divine intervention or the resident mad scientists.
  • Death's Hourglass - Readouts.
  • Deconstruction
  • Did You Just Scam Cthulhu? - Neil does this often.
  • Eldritch Abomination
  • Eldritch Location
  • Embarrassing First Name - Cinnamon Thompson
  • Embarrassing Tattoo - Dora, thanks to Larry. No longer applies, as she has a new body.
  • Even Evil Has Standards - Most of the people who are involved with Chaos have standards against hurting those that are innocent or defenseless. Especially true with Rudolf and Hans, who are both avid animal lovers, to the point where Hans became comatose for several days over his guilt of having been forced to mercy-kill several woodland creatures who were harmed during a battle.
  • Evil Lawyer Joke - Subverted with Amanda Bela: As an attorney she has the power to win any case only if the side she's arguing for is truly in the right.
    • In the Hearth's Warming Eve story, an underhanded and chronically lying character is rhetorically asked what sorts of role he expects to play in his rigidly militaristic society if he continues his behavior. One of his responses? "A court-martial attorney."
  • Expy:
    • Kelly Regina, when played to her more serious side, is practically a giant walking homage to Clint Eastwood.
    • The Wilhelm Imperium is essentially an expy of the Imperium of Man, while also being based on other real world empires.
  • Eye Color Change:
    • Chrys and Luce, using their powers.
    • Applies more generally to Conservators, but hasn't been seen.
    • Anyone who becomes Tainted gets pretty new purple eyes. Ei
  • Exposition of Immortality - Septimus, Hans
  • Fake Nationality - Given this roleplay is hosted on NationStates.
  • Fantastic Drug - Wa N Ts
  • Fantastic Racism
    • Raptorkind generally looks down on mammals, even if they normally act friendly.
    • The anti-abhuman sentiment of Bielefeld.
    • Ponies toward one another before the founding of Equestria.
  • Fantasy Kitchen Sink
  • Fate Worse than Death:
    • Insidious’s telepathy seems cool, until you realize she can’t turn it off
    • Minerva has eternal life but dies and rots every 12 hours. Ew.
  • Fauxlosophic Narration
  • Festering Fungus - Venla's 'species' is a mix of two species working in symbiosis. One just happens to be a fungal infestation that may or may not be a Puppeteer Parasite. No way to know!
  • Flat World - Romy's whole dimension, but differs in that it spans to infinity with no end at any point, and continues on forever.
  • Foe Romance Subtext - Minerva and Klaus had this going on for literally eons before finally becoming a true item.
  • Foil - Naomi and Swith.
  • Forever War- Romulus' dimension is full of this on a grim infinite scale. It's no surprise that the Imperium's entire MO for thousands of years have been to conquer and subjugate all its neighbors forever, given that there'll always be more places afterwards to move towards conquering next.
  • For Happiness
    • Giovenith
    • Naomi
  • For Science!
    • The Raptors
    • Venla and her Species
    • Likely others
  • Funetik Aksent - Totenkopf, Jaluk
  • Genre-Busting
    • The Velociraptors and co.
    • Bones and co.
    • Willow, when he notes that the villains in Sword and Sandal and other fantasy war genres are usually rich, effeminate men, specifically citing 300, Gladiator, and Hercules (2014) as examples. He states, "Because apparently nothing scares grown-ass testosterone junkies more shitless than the idea that a guy who appreciates fine jewelry etching and exotic birds could somehow be in a position of power over them."
  • Glowing Eyes - Venla
  • God-Emperor
    • Thriller works hard to avoid becoming one, mainly due to being a Christian himself.
    • Sideur is THE God Emperor of Man
    • Princess Celestia is basically this to the Equestrian ponies, though all the alicorns qualify.
    • Wilhelm from the Wilhelm Imperium in Romy's dimension.
  • Golem - Pippa-Michelle, a golem made out of paper mache.
    • Scarface, while not a literal golem (being made by SCIENCE!!!! and not magic, and prefers something more akin to "Frankenstein's monster"), essentially serves as one to the Von Eldritch family.
  • Hammerspace
  • Happily Married: A pleasant abundance of couples are this.
  • Hard-Drinking Party Girl:
    • Dora
    • Kei
    • Insidious (+ with drugs)
    • Chrys
    • Katya (once)
    • Minerva, as Lust's cultist leader
  • Healing Factor
  • Hollywood Tactics
  • Homoerotic Subtext - Chancellor Puddinghead and Smart Cookie.
  • Hot God - Swith/Charumati
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl - Relatively, with Dia (7'5") and Chrys (5'1").
    • Volturius and Tipper.
    • Ceril and Naomi.
  • I Am X, Son of Y:
    • Sigtrygg Karlsson Snjalli
    • Mezran, Son of Jag'oth, of the House of Sto H'raQ
  • I Just Want to Have Friends - Bran.
  • Identity Amnesia - Snowskeeper.
  • Immortality Bisexuality:
    • Dora
    • Kei.
  • I'm Taking Them Home With Me - Giovenith's first meeting with the ponies.
  • Immune to Drugs - The Luxans and most of Chaos.
  • Insane Troll Logic:
    • Bones
    • Neil
  • InstantWinCondition - Most of the Arcs have this.
  • Intergenerational Friendship - Most of the younger and older people have a peer-like sense of respect for one another.
  • Interspecies Friendship - There wouldn't be a story if not for this.
  • Interspecies Romance
    • Septimus and Neste
    • Fortu and Monique
    • Played with: Brit seems to have something of a half-developed crush on Willow. She enjoys his personality, but doesn't feel attraction full-force due to him being, y'know, a sentient equine. To be fair though, she tends to crush on a lot of people in the Building, fully human or not.
  • It Amused Me:
    • MB
    • Baen
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold - Several characters are this.
  • Kiddie Kid - Gio facilitates between this, and Wise Beyond Their Years, depending on the gravity of the situation.
  • Killed Off for Real - While in theory (and by theory, we mean the threats of Cer) this could happen to any character, it almost always is averted. Characters are constantly being killed and resurrected by one method or another.
  • Le Parkour - Torii is adept.
  • Local Hangout - Chaos.
  • Noodle Incident
  • Mad Artist
    • Insidious.
    • Giovenith would be a relatively harmless, non-evil example. She can get extreme and wacky with her projects, but she would NEVER hurt anyone with them.
  • Mad Scientist - Many residents fall under this category. Some outright where it as a badge of pride.
  • Mama Bear - Venla, especially towards Rmw. Directly done with Venla coming to Rmw's rescue against the Skritarii
  • Married in the Future - Marcus and Gio are implied to possibly be.
  • Meaningful Name:
    • Neil Von Eldritch stands in conjunction with the acronym "NVE" which also stands for New Velociraptor Empire, the name of the nation
    • Chernaya Varona's name translates out to "Black Raven" in Russian and take into account her callsign, her name comes out as "Black Shadow Raven"
    • Sinyaya Ptitsa's full name is "Sinyaya Ptitsa Schast'ya" which also translates out from Russian into "Blue Bird of Happiness"
    • Neste - NST 3v1. Portuguese for "into", in reference to her "Ghost in the Shell" existence.
    • Minerva Blackwater - "of the mind", referencing one of her potent (seldom seen) powers: mind control.
    • Malaise Abondante - Ogoti's clinic nurse. Abundant malaise/illness
    • Naomi Cerillium - Naomi means love, Cerillium is the thade word for "sound logic". Naomi is love and logic combined.
  • Me's a Crowd - Often happens to the raptors after some mad science.
  • Mind over Matter - Primordial's main power
    • Neste
  • Mini Mook:
    • Chi
  • Motherly Scientist - Venla fits this well, especially given her story (Last Chance for the Xo) is focused around her trying to "save" the species she's been researching.
  • Mysterious Past - Dora explaining something about the Conservatores to Giovenith
    • Rodney and Neste, and Minerva, Klaus
  • Modesty Shorts - Gio is mentioned to wear these.
  • Multinational Team - Considering every resident originates from someplace outside of Bielefeld, any and all groups are pretty much this.
  • Mysterious Waif - Giovenith was this in her original appearances, having been found on the street by Bones and Co. in a state of artificial insanity.
  • Mystical White Hair
    • Giovenith. Described as a running trait among the females in her pantheon.
  • No Name Given:
    • Bane is not that entity's real name. It doesn't have a name.
    • The deities known only as the 'boss-couple' among the Conservatores.
  • Oh, My Gods!
  • Older Than They Look
  • The Omniscient:
  • Only Known by Their Nickname
  • Only One Name
    • All Conservatores. So far, at least.
    • Zarkani, for the brief time that he existed.
    • Herean
    • Baen; he doesn't remember it, anyway
    • Jacob/Albert
  • Pals with Jesus
  • Paper-Thin Disguise
  • Parody Sue - Emperor King Lord Sir General Nuke McBadass NotHitlerButHitler Awesome the Third, the star of a non-canonical oneshot who serves as a parody of the countless overly badass and smug male dictator characters often found on NationStates, as well as the poor writing habits that often accompany them. He is described as, "[A] a suave, dark, learned gentleman who was never caught off guard or perplexed, always walking about with a self-assured smile upon his lips and even had the decency to refrain from sighing whenever he calmly explained his superiority to upstarts. There was no question for which he didn't have the answer, no atrocity or battle plan with which he did not regard with total casualness, no extreme he did not see as merely an everyday reality of walking in his shoes. He was the man that Hitler and Napoleon and Stalin's bastard three-way love baby conceived in a mass grave on Halloween night aspired to be, and he looked damn good in a suit while doing it," and has an irrational hatred for democracy, veganism, and Equestrian ponies. The setting, however, does not play along with him and he promptly gets his ass beat by Giovenith.
  • Physical God - Several characters.
  • Powered Armor - Romulus wears a full suit that wouldn't appear too out of place in Warhammer 40,000.
  • Powers That Be - Constantly referenced, occasionally seen. Includes Elohim, Demens, Pearlelei, and the other Greater Beings, as well as Chaos and others.
  • Psychic Radar - Chaos forces, especially Tipper, Siduer and Ogoti
    • Neste
  • Raven Hair, Ivory Skin
    • Dani
    • Prim
    • Neste in her human form
  • Reality Warper - Swith
  • Real Life Writes the Plot - In instances where a player leaves, has to take a break from, or is kicked from the thread and/but their characters have a thoroughly established relationship with other characters.
    • When Tsu's player left, it was played as the character simply abandoning the apartment without telling anyone. Due to this, and previous concern voiced by other characters, the character's girlfriend Torii viewed this act as the last straw in a neglectful and abusive relationship, to the point that when the player did return, Torii the character gave Tsu a scathing "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
    • Due to technical difficulties, the von Eldritch family was wrote as taking an extended vacation while their player was getting a new computer.
    • When Dani's player returned after a long hiatus, it was played as the characters not having seen her for a long time.
    • After New Asksarben (the player) made the choice to leave the thread Giovenith (the player) was given permission to write his characters out of the thread. The citizens of New Aksarben (the nation) and those in Bielefeld under it's permission were carted away by Octavian, Sigtrygg was written as being transported back to his era and dimension by Loki, and Sterling was brought back to Equestria by Screwball after having been decided he was no longer needed on Earth (with no chance to inform Willow, much to the other pony's shock upon finding out).
  • Really 700 Years Old
  • Romanticism Versus Enlightenment - Often the basis of whenever Giovenith and Willow get into a debate or argument, with the former usually taking the side of Romanticism and the latter siding with Enlightenment, though on rare occasions, they have been known to switch positions. Interestingly, it never has anything to do with their work as artists (both seem to have a fair and balanced respect for all artistic philosophies and movements), always having to do with regards to approaching life in general.
  • Running Gag
    • Cactus Bran
    • Indonesian Prime Minister
    • Flying tea trays
    • The ponies are mistaken for Slaaneshi.
  • Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training - Cinnamon is a great pilot, but a not-so-great cook.
  • Sadistic Choice - Bran was given the classic choice of either switching a trolley to a rail that would run over Rylli, or a rail that would run over Naomi, Natiya, and Gio. He chose to step in front of it himself.
  • Save Your Deity:
    • Naomi, Ceril, Neil, Torii going to help get Swith to a new matrix
    • Swith, Thriller, Bran and two others saving Kei's space-station-based essence thing
  • Shout-Out:
    • Dia addresses some of the teenagers as such when he finds them fumbling around.
    "I see a bunch of kids, but no meddling dog. Or rabbit. Or whatever cute furry creature might be 'round you or about you."
    • MB eating part of the Eiffel Tower is a reference to GI Joe: Rise of Cobra, with the Eiffel Tower being partially destroyed by metal-eating nanomachines.
    • Caer Gloriana, the ancient society of Equestrian unicorns, has several references to The Last Unicorn embedded in their culture: Their motto is, "From Adam's choice to Amalthea's regret," and a temple of theirs has the lyrics of the animated film adaption's titular opening credit song by America carved into the floor. The series of stained windows Smart Cookie encounters in said temple are also a reference to the famous "The Lady and the Unicorn" tapestries, with five of the windows and tapestries depicting the five senses, and the sixth and final vaguely depicting, "À Mon Seul Désir", which roughly translates to, "my one/sole desire." In real life it is unknown what the sixth tapestry is meant to represent, though Caer Gloriana's sixth corresponding window pretty clearly represents magic.
  • Sissy Villain - Fram.
  • Starfish Alien - Venla and her species, among other aliens mentioned in PL.
  • Sugar-and-Ice Personality - Dora, especially when others get too attached to her.
  • Super-Soldier
    • Conservatores
    • Deuce
    • Volturius
    • Romulus, and generally any soldier in the Wilhelm Imperium that has a regeneration organ implant.
  • Stone Wall
  • The Alcoholic - Flint, like any good Stalker of the Zone, has a taste for vodka. She, however, takes it a step further due to her high alcohol tolerance.
  • The Jailbait Wait - It was very briefly implied that Pan was doing this for Gio, until she enlisted the Luxans in conjuring up what amounted to a magical restraining order against him.
  • They Killed Kenny Again - Yoshi
  • The Lad-ette - Torii
  • The Spartan Way - How Cinnamon was raised.
    • All pegasi in the pre-Equestrian era.
  • This Is My Boomstick - Slightly inverted, in that the ponies come to a technologically advanced society rather than receiving a visitor in their own.
  • Those Wacky Nazis
  • Time Abyss:
    • All Chaos avatars excluding Naomi
    • Krieger
    • Purna
    • Bane
    • Rodney
  • Tome of Eldritch Lore
  • Universal Translator - Most characters that can't speak the common language (English) have some kind of this. Either Translator Microbes or a machine variant. For example:
    • Hectaros
    • Rmw
  • Trapped in Another World - Though most residents come into Bielefeld without knowing how they got there, a few seem to be unable to leave as opposed to the others who just vanish as quickly as they came.
  • Truly Single Parent - Pearlelei.
  • Tyke Bomb - Zarkanian Secret Policemen.
  • Victor Gains Loser's Powers - How demon hierarchy in at least one version of Hell works, according to Superbia.
  • Villain Has a Point - The unnamed darkness-boy from one of the earlier threads brings up the valid point of the apartment-dwellers having no more reason to trust Giovenith than they did him, saying they only do so because they met her first, and her being "cute and innocent-seeming". Despite the fact that in the end he did turn out to be evil (on the side of the God War that wished to delete existence), and that they were right to defend her, many of the people did not know any of this before coming to Gio's defense, giving some partial weight to what he said.
  • Vodka Drunkenski - Though technically not Russia, the Zone might as well be. As such, Flint fits (maybe a bit awkwardly) into this trope.
  • War God - Klaus and Atosh, who are both avatars of Khorne.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever? - Dora, to Torii, during Hastur's invasion and the associated nightmares.
  • You Are Number 6:
    • Alpha; before he was assigned that nickname he was called exclusively 101.
    • Colonel 187
    • All members of the Zarkanian Secret Police.
    • Fortu (42)
    • Monique (MNQ)
    • Neste (NST 3v1)

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