Azure Striker Gunvolt-1

Earth, 21XX. The emergence of Adepts, humans with great powers, has thrown the world of the future into war. As groups fight for control and supremacy, QUILL attempts to save it.

Type: Blossom

Active Characters

No current characters.

Overview

In the not-so-distant future of the year 21XX, humanity is rapidly evolving. Adepts, humans born with powerful psychic abilities such as elemental powers, warping space and time, resurrection and so on, begin surfacing through the world, upsetting the balance of power. Dwarfing even the most advanced of technologies available, these Adepts face significant discrimination once discovered, making it hard for them to live in peace.

While much of the world declared open war on Adepts, seeing them as threats, the Sumeragi Group fully embraced the opportunity to capture, control and study these Adepts, going as far as creating artificial ones to acquire even more power. In exchange for their loyalty, Adepts can live in Japan and benefit from Sumeragi's studies, which promises them even greater powers.

By using the power of a young girl named Joule, which manifests as a virtual idol called Lumen or "The Muse", Sumeragi is able to track and hunt Adepts in and near Japan, as her songs cause their powers to increase and become difficult to hide. With her, they hope to achieve total control over Earth's Adept population, whether by enlisting them, brainwashing them, or killing them.

Outside Japan, the supremacist group Eden seeks to create a utopia for Adepts by wiping out humanity, rallying smaller bands of Adepts into a functional military force.

Standing in the middle, a resistance and human rights group known as QUILL is attempting to combat the unfair treatment of Adepts, both by targetting unruly Adepts but also by targetting the Sumeragi Group's operations. Unwilling to compromise with either, they do their best to restore order to a war-torn world, seeking a unified world.

Integration

With the discovery of new worlds, many Adepts have seen fit to flee this Earth, seeking refuge and safety elsewhere, where they won't be persecuted. Others, yet, have seen in that the opportunity to go places where they will be more powerful than the locals.

The Sumeragi Group would have their Earth become isolated from the Tree again at all costs, wishing to gain control of Earth without outside interference, and without a haven for Adepts to run off to or call allies from.

Eden, meanwhile, sees the outside world as both a refuge and a place to call for allies, as well as new technology. Their own conquest of Earth took a step forward, not backward.

QUILL is neutral, seeing in it great risks but also great potential. For now, they'll focus on fighting off Eden, Sumeragi and other threats.

As for the population and the rest of the world, it depends on where you go. Some countries are especially closed to outsiders, especially in wake of Adept uprisings. Others are a bit more welcoming and take advantage of the economics of other worlds and tourism. Some countries have actually turned peaceful as a result - seeing their Adepts flee to other worlds, they became thankful of the situation and embraced it.

Technology in this world is rather advanced: there are space stations and assorted superweapons, advanced battle armor and weapons, robotic drones and flying cars, etc. For ease of reference, it's very similar to what you'd find in the various main-timeline Mega Man worlds, Batman Beyond, Prequel-era Star Wars' Coruscant (minus the space travel, obviously), etc.

Timeline

This world begins before the first Azure Striker Gunvolt game. The Muse is still under Sumeragi control (pending a Gunvolt applicant wanting to use that as his intro scene).

Eden, from Azure Striker Gunvolt 2, is around already (to make their characters relevant and playable). Their Grimoire technology is equivalent, instead of superior, to Sumeragi's Glaive technology, since they don't have the Muse fragments to power it yet. Their entry into Japan has been caused by off-world interference, allies and technology, rather than by Sumeragi's defeat (since that hasn't happened yet).

Terminology

The Lifewave is a force of nature that connects all living beings of this world. A living being's connection to the Lifewave essentially dictates its intelligence and abilties. The Lifewave is composed of seven individual, gradually more powerful waves or "stages".

Most humans and animals are born connected to the first, second or third wave, with humans leaning towards the third and animals towards the first. However, when a being is born connected to the fourth or fifth wave, they may possess psychic abilities. These are the shamans, psychics and mystics of Earth's history, or the unusual monsters that would be spun into great legends. A being connected to the sixth wave possesses powers beyond even that.

Then there's the seventh, "Septimal", wave. Beings born connected to the seventh stage of the Lifewave possess incredible powers - control of electrons, warping space, bringing the dead back to life - christened "Septima" after the name of the wave. Children usually awaken their Septima before the age of 10. Humans connected to the seventh wave are usually refered to as "Adepts" in an attempt to dehumanize them.

The Sumeragi Group designed devices called "Glaives" using historical and mythological blades as basis. By transfering an Adept's "Septimosome", the source of their powers, into a Glaive, it becomes possible for them to have a normal life without being detected as an Adept, at the cost of being unable to use their powers without Sumeragi's authorization. Eden is working on its own similar technology, "Grimoires".