2) Explanation of Persona, Arcana & Social Links

[Aigis]

Ah, welcome back to the Velvet Room! ... I see, allow me to explain. A Persona is a representation of your own psyche; it can be described as a kind of mask that protects you from hardships. Not everyone has the potential to call forth a Persona, however. How will you know? You will be able to experience the Dark Hour, and you will hear a voice within you. But I digress. Persona are summoned by use of a device called an Evoker, which holds the appearance of a silver gun. All you must do is place the Evoker to your head and pull the trigger; it is truly a much simpler process than in the past. As you fight in battles, your Persona will gain the same experiences you do, and grow stronger with you.

When you arrive in the area of Iwatodai, you may notice a strange disease they call 'Apathy Syndrome'. Curious, yes? Apathy Syndrome is what happens when a Shadow-- and I shall explain those in a moment as well-- succeeds in luring a normal human into the Dark Hour, and drains them of their minds. This is a direct result of the Dark Hour.

The Dark Hour is a period between two days; at midnight every night, the moon turns yellow, the sky green, and pools of blood appear most everywhere. Electronic devices cease to function unless specially built, and most people are transformed into coffins, lining the streets and oblivious to the world around them. During this hour, Shadows roam freely, preying upon the minds of whoever they can awaken from their coffins.

Now, Shadows are a curious manifestation. They represent a variety of emotions, each with different properties and skills. While a Shadow can be defeated by a normal human, if they are skilled enough, they can only be truly destroyed by a Persona user. Both the Shadows and Persona are classified by thirteen Arcana, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Please, remember that.

There is another phenomenon during the Dark Hour, known as Tartarus. It is a mysterious tower that builds itself from the ground up every night at the beginning of the Dark Hour, and would appear to be the source of the Shadows. What purpose does this tower serve? For what reason was it created, and how did it come to be? Perhaps you will learn these things...

Persona rules;

1) Only one Persona may be held at the beginning. There may be a way to increase the number of slots you have available in the future.

2) Canon characters retain their signature Persona, and it cannot be used by another character.

3) Your Persona has its own life force; if it is defeated, then you must wait five turns for it to recover, and fend for yourself.

4) You cannot use a Persona until it is approved by a staff member.

5) Persona can only be summoned through the use of an Evoker or other means. If your character should already have an Evoker, you may PM a staff member to have it added to your inventory.

6) Alternate ways of summoning Persona are allowed, provided they are approved by a staff member. You will be given a free custom ability or item for your character to be used as the summon sequence or device.

[Aigis]

The Arcana

I'm certain you have been wondering what an arcana is, haven't you? It's a simple matter. A detailed explanation is in this booklet; please, look at it when you have the time.

Arcana
All Persona have an Arcana, which determines what skills they will be able to learn, as well as offering bonuses to certain skills.

0; FOOL
Persona of the Fool Arcana have no specific affinity for elements. Unlike most Arcana, the Fool can learn most skills, but they will not gain any bonuses to those attacks. Fools have a higher resistance to critical hits than other Arcana, and tend to deal them more often.

I; MAGICIAN
Persona of the Magician Arcana have an affinity for magic based attacks with elemental properties, though they are unable to learn many physical attacks or spells of Light and Shadow elements. Persona of the Magician Arcana are granted a boost to the strength of elemental magic attacks, equivalent to that of x1.5 to that ability. However, missing attacks with the Magician Arcana will cause them to backfire and harm the caster, which will always remove ten health from the Persona. They rarely deal critical hits.


II; PRIESTESS
Persona of the Priestess Arcana specialize in boosting the combat effectiveness of the group. They are the only Arcana that can increase the speed of the party, but in terms of combat are limited to basic attacks, and they are incapable of learning spells that deal damage. The Priestess Arcana grants a boost to support spells of x1.5.

III; EMPRESS
Persona of the Empress Arcana specialize in Ice-based attacks and base-level healing spells. While attacking, the Empress Arcana deals an additional effect of slowing the enemy for the next two turns, and Ice spells such as Bufu are strengthened by x1.6. Persona of the Empress Arcana take additional damage against Fire attacks, which are strengthened to x1.6.

IV; EMPEROR
Persona of the Emperor Arcana excel in Electric spells and physical attacks. When attacking normally, the Emperor Arcana has the additional effect of dealing five points of damage to the enemy the next two turns. Electric spells such as Zio are strengthened by x1.6, but in return it is weak to Wind skills and Piercing attacks, which are strengthened to x1.6.

V; HIEROPHANT
Persona of the Hierophant arcana have no particular strengths, but likewise they don't have a particular weakness. Because they do not specialize, they cannot learn ultimate skills; however, they have no penalty for missing their target, and have a higher critical hit chance than other Arcana.

VI; LOVERS
Persona of the Lovers Arcana are specialists of healing and recovery spells. They gain a x1.5 bonus to all healing skills, but suffer from a weakness to physical attacks, which are boosted to x1.4. Persona of the Lovers Arcana cannot learn physical skills, and are limited to Wind skills in terms of damaging spells. Their healing spells will never miss, and they don't suffer a penalty for missing in attacking.

VII; CHARIOT
Persona of the Chariot Arcana specialize in all-out physical attacks. They can only learn physical skills, but gain a x1.5 bonus to all attacks made. Persona of the Chariot Arcana have a higher chance to critical hit with physical skills, but have a higher chance of receiving critical hits. They suffer a penalty of taking no actions on their next turn if their attacks miss.

VIII; JUSTICE
Persona of the Justice Arcana specialize in Light-based attacks. Weak only to Shadow skills, the Justice Arcana can only learn physical skills and Light-based magic in addition to Dia; however, their light skills will critical hit more often. Shadow based skills are powered up by x1.5 against it.

IX; HERMIT
The Hermit Arcana specializes in inflicting psychological trauma to enemies. Confusion, disorientation and spells inflicting it have a duration of two more turns. They take x1.5 more damage from physical attacks.

X; FORTUNE
The Fortune Arcana is known to bring forth luck, and Persona of the Fortune Arcana are skilled in Wind abilities. When the summoner is using a Persona of the Fortune Arcana, they have a higher chance of receiving rare items at the end of a thread, and will receive more rewards for doing so. Their Wind skills are magnified by x1.4, and they are weak to Zio skills, which are magnified by x1.5. The Fortune Arcana has a higher critical hit rate, but it also suffers from a higher miss rate, and they can only take one action on their next turn if their attack misses.

XI; STRENGTH
Persona of the Strength arcana are known for their defensive powers, and are also known to have an affinity for physical attacks. Normal attacks and physical skills used against the Strength Arcana do half their usual damage, while magic attacks will always critical hit against it. If the Strength Arcana misses an attack, the Persona will be hit by a critical hit the next attack.

XII; HANGED MAN
A Persona of the Hanged Man Arcana is strengthened against attacks. While it will not learn high-level magic skills, all attacks against a Hanged Man Arcana are reduced in effectiveness by ten points, which can be increased with a certain item. They may channel their health into another Persona to heal it at the cost of their own.

XIII; DEATH
A Persona of the Death Arcana is skilled in use of Shadow skills, and is weak to Light. In addition to Shadow skills, the Death Arcana is also compatible with most physical skills. Shadow skills are powered up by x1.5, while the Persona will take x1.5 extra damage from Light.

XIV; STAR
The Star Arcana specializes in Fire-bases skills, and is weak to Ice. Fire-based skills are powered up by x1.5, while the Persona will take x1.5 more damage from Ice attacks. Upon dealing a physical attack, the struck target will take five damage every turn for the next two turns.

XV; DEVIL
The Devil arcana specializes in Shadow magical skills and charming their opponents. They do an additional x1.25 damage with magic involving darkness, and magic that inflicts status ailments such as Charm last for an additional two turns. In return, they take an additional x1.5 damage from Light based attacks.

XVI; SUN
The Sun arcana specializes in the elements of Light and Fire. Both elements do an additional x1.25 damage when used. In return, they take an additional x1.5 damage from Shadow-based attacks

XVII; MOON
The Moon arcana are capable of learning any spell or skill listed in the ability list save Scan, and gain a x1.15 boost to physical attacks. As a drawback, they cannot learn ultimate skills, and do x.8 damage with all spells used. Spells that inflict statuses last for one turn less than usual.

XVIII; TOWER
Persona of the Tower arcana gain a passive boost to both Strength and Defense at a rate of two points for each level of that Persona. They have no weaknesses, and gain no further benefits.

[Aigis]

Social Links

A Social link is created whenever you make a thread with someone, the type depends upon the Arcana of their currently equipped Persona. As it's unrealistic to demand it always be with the same person on this kind of setting, with people coming and going as they do, you can increase the rank of your social link by having a thread with anyone of that Arcana. The ranks go like this:

[atrb=border,0,true] Rank 1: 1 total threads. Rank 2: 2 total threads. Rank 3: 3 total threads. Rank 4: 4 total threads. Rank 5: 5 total threads. Rank 6: 6 total threads. Rank 7: 7 total threads. Rank 8: 8 total threads. Rank 9: 9 total threads. Rank 10: 10 total threads.

Once you have ten threads with any one Arcana, you may make a Persona of that Arcana equal to that of your current level if you have a slot open. Items to increase your number of Persona openings are available as rewards for certain quests and most plot events, so keep your eyes open for them. You may not take a Persona that someone else already has without a valid reason approved by the staff.

[Aigis]

Purgatory

Purgatory is the realm that Persona and Shadows inhabit outside of the Dark Hour. Depending on actions both here and during the Dark Hour, the state of Purgatory will change to reflect it. While your character is at school or elsewhere during the day, their Persona may interact with other Persona and work towards further solving the mystery behind Tartarus and the Shadows. In addition, your Persona can learn unique abilities here that cannot be bought in the shop, as well as gather special items that cannot be found otherwise during the Dark Hour.

This area cannot be entered by Humans; only Persona are allowed to reside here. While during the day, your Persona is capable of speaking with you internally, they cannot interact with your world, and vice verse.

Quests will appear from time to time for your Persona to undertake in order to gain more experience and items; as during the Dark Hour, if the Persona falls in battle, they are out of commission for the next five turns. However, if you are undertaking a quest and your Persona is defeated, they are warped to the location they were before beginning the quest. The defeated Persona is allowed to keep the experience and items earned for undertaking the quest.