Narcissia - The Moebius Syndrome (Modern Fantasy, 5e setting possible!)

[Kyubey]

Narcissia - The Moebius Syndrome

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What is real?
If you feel as you do in the real world...is it truly any different from that cruel world?

As you forlornly gaze outside of your classroom window, you cannot help but realize just how pleasant your life is. You're about to graduate, and soon you will be going into University. Or would you be taking to cram school? You don't really know. All you did know was that April was fast approaching, and your options were limited. You even took note of that letter you got, talking about a potential secret admirer. High school life was so idyllic...Almost like it was out of a fantasy itself.

The humdrum soon dies out, as you find yourself seated on the front row. First, it was the Principal. Declaring how you, a fine student of Hyakuji Highschool, were to now graduate into the world. Followed by an eccentric fellow named Satoshi Kinoshita, who raved about just how pleasant it was to be with you and your classmates. Formulaic, yet you were simply looking forward to the day, when you and your friends would be going out to try that new Ramen shop. Yet, as you close your eyes, you could not help but remember those harrowing images in your mind: needles, drugs, even violence...you had much to be grateful for, to be sure...but when you open your eyes.

WELCOME TO HYAKUJI HIGHSCHOOL, FIRST YEAR STUDENTS!

You could hardly believe what you see. Seated in that same spot, you watched as that same eccentric fellow, a supposed 'Upperclassman' tells you of the wonders that await you in the most illustrious days of your life in Hyakuji Highschool. Suddenly...like weights falling in your heart, you begin to realize. How often had these signs been here,  whether you tried to ignore it or denied it...

And then, you see it. The faces of some of your students fading into static, their bare forms stripped to wire frames, only for static to cloud your vision, as everything came back anew. It all made sense now. It wasn't that you were losing your mind...but clearly, you were trapped in this reality. Forced to relive those idyllic four years in highschool, having forgotten everything about the real world...

And then, it comes to you. Those terrible visions of a bleak life? Trauma? Cruelty? This place...Narcissia, the realm of illusion, was your escape. An escape from an ignorant, harsh and cruel world. Yet, to know that you lived in a fake, fabricated world, you summon the resolve to break free from this false reality, especially as the eyes of those in control turn towards you and the shapes of some students warp into hideous beings...

Now is the time to fight. Now it is the time to break free.
Welcome...to Narcissia.

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Plot Summary: Since the breakthrough in VR technology, more and more people find their way inside the virtual simulation game Narcissia, a place where anyone can escape their painful and broken lives in order to live an idyllic fantasy as Highschool students in a Tokyo Private school. Yet, more and more people eventually forget their own realities, and you are one of them. Awakening to the realization that you are trapped in this lifeless paradise, you summon the strength from within, Conceptualizing your inner strength as you seek to break free from this gilded bird cage. Opposing you would be none other than the system itself and it's enforcers: the Septentriones, bent on preventing you from leaving this place.

Themes: Higschool, Anime, Escapism, Trauma, Trapped in VR, RPG format (Optional), Dice rolling (Optional)
Dice/Combat style: DND5e format, if desired. Optional.
Warning: This story will touch upon very sensitive, dark and often times controversial themes. All characters, even PC characters, will have this aspect of their backstory, even if their 'avatars' are typical Highschool Anime characters.

[Kyubey]

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NPCs

The Unawakened. The Slumberers. The confined. All variant names used to refer to the AI attendants and those who are unaware of it’s true nature that exist within Narcissia, blind to the reality of this lifeless Utopia. Within the warm and illusory comfort that Narcissia offers, broken hearts are soothed through the distractions that the virtual reality offers them. Those within have taken on different yet ideal appearances to become “the person they wanted to be” and repeat a romanticized and idyllic high school life that never ends. Many of the Human NPCs there have not realized Narcissia is not the real world, and unnatural occurrences have become unrecognizable in their gilded paradise. A fight could be occurring, yet the NPCs will think nothing of it at all.

To those who have awakened, NPCs (used Colloquially for AI attendants and those who have not awakened) appear with flickering glitched faces and body parts, wire frames visible occasionally to reveal the true nature of the simulation. Human NPCs are not subject to this, though they can become discordant also. Objects are often missing textures or glitch occasionally, yet remain solid to the touch by any means. NPCs are prone to become Discordants upon sensing the prolonged presence of the Awakened or by the will of the Septentriones and the Administrator Polaris. Even when slain in their Discordant forms, all NPCs will respawn the next day without any memory of what had occured.

A strange occurrence is observed between anyone who frequently interacts with the Awakened: Human NPCs who interact with Awakened eventually gain sentience, until they too are Awakened. A sign of gradual awakening comes when the NPC begins to notice the flawed foundations of Narcissia gradually.

[Kyubey]

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The Awakened

And from within, you summon forth the resolve to move forward and the strength to break the chains of this gilded bird cage. Those who have awakened come to the realization of Narcissia’s true face: a lifeless facade of comfort, far from the real world.

Many look to the comfort of this illusion.
Very few surge forward, embracing the uncertainties of the future.

The Awakened (or referred to by the system as Rogues) are able to perceive the flawed nature of Narcissia. They also awaken to the traumas and the darkness in their hearts that caused them to take solace into the false warmth of this virtual paradise. They also gain the ability to bring forth a Locus: the manifestation of their resolve and courage, the crystallization of their entire being in the form of a weapon used to fight against whosoever may stand in your way. Curiously, the obsidian black material that composes the Locus is very similar to the mineral-like mutations that Discordants have. They also gain incredible powers that exist within the frame of Narcissia. With these, they stand against Narcissia and it’s most devout servants, fighting against the odds to triumph against the system.

The system naturally oppose the Awakened, taking to the forms of the Discordant to combat them at every turn.  Strangely enough, the Septentriones themselves too are awakened: yet instead of yearning to break free from this prison, they fully accept their place, averse to the reality on the other side. For what reason do they do such? Only time will tell...