JoJo's Bizarre Adventure: Seeds of Darkness-1

A late 20th century modern Earth in which people manifest ghosts made of psionic abilities -- Stands. But unseen hands grasp at the foundations of all that is, seeking to remake it in the image of one long dead.

Type: Blossom

Active Characters

No current characters.

Overview

There exists a great deal of supernatural powers in the world -- magic, psychic abilities, etc. Amongst them is the Stand, a poltergeist that may or may not be under full control of its user. Another? Vampires.

The worst of these was not Dracula, as one might suspect, but DIO, a vampire who was made in the late 1880s when a man named Dio Brando placed a Mesoamerican stone mask upon himself that transformed him. He was defeated by Jonathan Joestar at the cost of his life.

But DIO's defeat was only temporary. He slept at the bottom of the sea for two hundred years until he was brought up from the surface and unwittingly released by some greedy treasure hunters in the 1980s.

For a handful of years, Dio remained active in secret, gathering his strength. During this time, he required blood. And so he sent his minions out to find him young women. But it wasn't always blood he sought. For when they brought him back a woman with fire in her soul -- in his words, women who were "cross", "short-tempered", "with no refinement, a foul mouth, and with no knowledge of manners" -- he had another fate in store.

These women he left with child.

Eventually DIO was destroyed by Jotaro Kujo, as his mother had become sick with "Stand fever" (a critical inability to control her Stand to the point it was killing her), and the only way to cure it was to kill DIO, since her Stand was connected to him getting one.

But the "seeds of darkness" the vampire DIO left behind -- his children by the women he had chosen to spare -- remained, and the Speedwagon Foundation (conceived by the friend of Jonathan Joestar, the first man to defeat DIO) remained ignorant of them. DIO's followers knew, however.

Twenty years have passed since DIO's defeat... and the minions of DIO have begun to move. To search. It didn't take long before the Speedwagon Foundation noticed this movement. Here on the World Tree, more things were possible than in their world alone. It won't take either group long to start asking for offworld help.

So... who will win this race to find these children to their side -- the Speedwagon Foundation with their desire to keep them safe and out of harm's way, or the minions of DIO to use them to somehow resurrect their master?

Pseudo-Stands (IC)

It doesn't happen to all off-worlders, but this world can sometimes have an odd effect on the powers of those who come in from other worlds. Sometimes off-worlders may find their powers and abilities transferred into a "container" of sorts. This "container" may or may not be humanoid, but it usually takes a form relatively important to the person, and gives itself a name that the person always knows instantly. The Speedwagon Foundation is currently studying this effect, however they have called it "Pseudo-Stands".

So far, no instance of powers being transferred to a Pseudo-Stand has actually changed, strengthened, weakened, or further limited those powers in any way save the way they already are. If, for instance, an off-worlder couldn't use their fire abilities in the rain, their Pseudo-Stand would either not be able to use the ability in the rain, or would not be able to manifest at all when it rains. The only thing that changes is the origin point of the powers -- when an off-worlder develops a Pseudo-Stand, the origin point of the powers tends to shift from the person to their Stand.

This is not an exact 1:1 change/transferrence however. It is not unheard of for even Stand users native to this world to retain supernatural passive abilities -- a sense of smell equal to that of a dog or wolf, for instance. Thus off-worlders may also find that their hyper-keen senses, analytical abilities, and other such passive abilities may or may not be transferred to their Pseudo-Stands.

Once actualized, Pseudo-Stands tend to change very little. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule -- off-world users can change and grow like native Stand users, and their Pseudo-Stands will change and develop in turn.

(OOC: This is just a fun little mechanic to allow off-world players to cast their powers and abilities in the frame of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and to be just as hammy and ridiculous as the characters in JJBA tend to be. This is NOT mandatory for play in this world. Players who do not wish to use this mechanic or don't feel like they're familiar enough with JJBA should feel no obligation to use it. Those who do may page or @mail Theodore Rabanne if they want help in framing their Perks in a Pseudo-Stand.)

Pseudo-Stands (OOC)

There are a number of things to keep in mind if you're thinking about utilizing the Pseudo-Stand mechanic for your character. Please think about the following:

* First of all, and this cannot be repeated enough, the Pseudo-Stands mechanic is NOT mandatory in any way, shape, form, or fashion. There's no penalty to a character for their player choosing not to utilize this mechanic. It's just a bit of hammy, ridiculous fun, that's all.

* The Pseudo-Stand mechanic is not intended to make Perks stronger or weaker, to limit Perks in ways that they're not already limited, remove limits that previously existed on those Perks, or to grant characters Perks that they don't have. The way that the character's Perks function does not change. The only thing that changes is the origin point -- they come out of/originate from the Stand instead of out of the person. This is not an excuse to be stronger or better somehow. It's just an excuse to be hammy and ridiculous.

* Passive abilities may or may not transfer over. A robot would still have their sensors, someone with a particularly keen sense of sight or smell, the ability to recall things from memory with exact precision, increased perceptive abilities, the ability to sense ghosts, etc., would generally still have that; their Stand wouldn't have to be the source of that.

* Pseudo-Stands generally aren't sapient; NPC Perks like Pokemon/Digimon/other pet abilities wouldn't transfer over either; the Pokemon/Digimon/other pet would exist unchanged.

* A Pseudo-Stand only lasts as long as a player is inside this particular iteration of JJBA world, and does not persist after the character leaves the world; once a character leaves the world, everything with them goes back to normal. There are ways to make a Pseudo-Stand into a permanent Stand, but this would require an approved update application.

* Characters' Pseudo-Stands generally stay the same ICly. This doesn't lock players out of making retroactive OOC changes if the player gets an idea that they like better for their character's Pseudo-Stands during subsequent visits to the world. However the appearance and name of the Pseudo-Stand should not ICly be ever-changing.

* If you would like help designing a Pseudo-Stand for your character, or any of this is unclear, page or @mail Theodore Rabanne. Ultimately all this is presented to give players a way to have hammy, ridiculous, silly fun with the world that is JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and none of it's required in any way.

Integration

This is a typical Earth-like world in the late 1990s, with all the typical culture one would expect. The Speedwagon Foundation has been slowly introducing the idea that theirs is but one "dimension" of many. The going is slow -- it's very difficult to get a whole world of people to accept that they're just "a" world instead of "the" world.

Accordingly, DIO's minions are also aware of the World Tree, and they're searching for a way to bring their master back to life. They're not going to be limiting themselves to just the methods available to them in their own world, either, and may approach others from other worlds who might be able to help.

(OOC: Page Theodore Rabanne if you'd like to do something with this.)