Hopeland Heroes-1

A world where a few people have awakened magical powers, and warriors of hope defend against the darkness.

Type: Blossom

Active Characters

No current characters.

Overview

At first glance, it looks like just another world called Earth in the timeframe of the present day. However, within the past 50 years, certain individuals have randomly awakened powers which can only be described as magic, and the existence of the supernatural has slowly returned to the forefront of public consciousness. The greatest powers are those fueled by emotion: hope, love, joy, and the emotions associated with friendship, which always seem to win in the long term; and hatred, anger, and despair, which are more powerful in the short term.

But there is another layer of secrecy. Demonic beings born from negative emotions called Curse Phantoms manifest behind the scenes, draining the energy and hope from the populace. Humanity's defenders are two types of magical girls and boys: Star Paladins, who fight using Star Gems granted by an alien race known as the Starbringers; and Heart Mages, who gain the ability to fight Curse Phantoms entirely through their own abilities. While transformed, both types have enhanced speed, strength, and durability, and supernaturally-fast healing.

To the world's general population, the existence of an entire multiverse is simply another strange magical phenomenon. The magical warriors tend to be more wary, however, due to the strange interactions between the powers of various worlds; the Starbringers in particular are worried about how much extra work it will cause them and their charges, although some of them are curious as to whether people from other worlds can use Star Gems. Pretty much everyone realizes that it's going to get harder and harder to keep the fight against the Curse Phantoms a secret, especially now that they've noticed that the rate of Curse Phantom attacks has mysteriously begun increasing. The epicenter of the phenomenon appears to be the city of Brighton, Massachusetts.

Star Paladins

The Starbringers are starfish-like creatures who travel the universe because Curse Phantoms appear wherever there is life capable of experiencing emotions. They shapeshift into animals which look like creatures native to a given planet, and distribute Star Gems, transformation crystals which allow their wielders to instantly transform into a Star Paladin; Starbringers also serve as case workers and teachers for Star Paladins, explaining all the ins and outs of fighting the Curse Phantoms and providing emotional support. You don't have to have an existing ability to use a Star Gem, and not everyone with an existing ability is able to do so; in general, if you're already capable of fighting, whether via magic or otherwise, you can't use a Star Gem. The Star Paladins have the benefit of more-or-less constant contact with the Starbringers, who can communicate with each other and can help organize fights against the Curse Phantoms. The Star Paladins view themselves as having more focus and better support than the Heart Mages; among certain Heart Mages, the Star Paladins have a reputation for being stuck up, stodgy, and too bogged down by rules. Their costumes tend towards being more subdued and noticeably simpler than those of Heart Mages, and they always show a star emblem somewhere.

Heart Mages

Only those who have a preexisting magical ability can become Heart Mages. The most common way to do so is to spend a great deal of time developing your ability, then filling yourself with your own magical energy until the power overflows. The Heart Mages do not have any particular organization or network, and operate mostly solo or in small groups. Heart Mages are slightly more vulnerable to fluctuations in their emotions, inasmuch as their abilities come entirely from themselves, but as a group they have a markedly broader range of abilities. Some of them don't entirely trust the Starbringers, but they will admit that there is no evidence of any actual wrongdoing. They view themselves as being more flexile and fewer constraints than the Star Paladins; among certain Star Paladins, the Heart Mages have a reputation for being flighty scofflaws. Their costumes are more flamboyant and brightly-colored than those of Star Paladins, frillier and more ribbony in the case of dresses, and they usually have heart-emblems somewhere; Heart Mages can also customize their outfits more.

Curse Phantoms

Eldritch demons born from negative emotions. Even if hope is said to always win in the end, it seems that there needs to be something for it to win against. Curse Phantoms are always the same throughout the universe: they take the form of strange bodies made out of geometric shapes, sometimes with something resembling a face, and they nest in strange dimensions called Distortions, from whence they send out an eerie dark curse-power which causes ordinary people to become exhausted, or weak, or hopeless; at extreme levels, they can be lethal. Both Curse Phantoms and their Distortions are invisible to ordinary people, visible only to those with a certain level of magical aptitude (or any other aptitude in the case of heroes from other worlds, i.e. someone with a Quirk or a Stand, or in general anyone who isn't perfectly ordinary and thinks they ought to be able to see it); however, they can drain the life and emotion from everyone around them, sometimes as broadly as an entire city. Their Distortions tend to be populated by smaller creatures called Curse Imps, much weaker creatures who a hero could tear through en masse. Over the course of a vast number of encounters, the Starbringers have determined that neither Curse Phantoms nor Curse Imps have any intelligence; they're just clusters of raw negative emotions. The Starbringers measure the threat level on a scale of 1 to 6, from least to most dangerous; even level 1 threats are dangerous enough to require the attention of magical girls. The number of incidents has been increasing, to the point that even civilians have started noticing when areas of cities suffer from the effects, and they've begun calling it the Drop Effect.