Hello friends, and welcome to a new year! Faith here back at it again with the event descriptions for January. As we stated previously, we're starting on Arc 2 of Asgard Genesis and things will be kicking up a notch as Asgard continues to face the unknown challenges of the Wanderers' presence in Yggdrasil. Much of this arc will involve venturing out into the world for various purposes rather than solely remaining in the city, and there will be opportunities for exploring new territory, vanquishing threats, meeting new life forms, and other means of impacting the setting of the game.

If you have any ideas or requests for things you think would be fun to run into, or if you'd like elements of your character's canon to be used in upcoming events, please always feel free to reach out to us on the plot request page!

That all said, some reminders and announcements before we move on to January's events:

• January AC is now open! It will close January 31 at 11:59PM EST, so be sure to post your AC proofs before then.
• The next Test Drive Meme will be on January 15. Reserves will open on January 25 at 12:01AM EST and close on January 31 at 11:59PM EST. Applications will open on February 1 at 12:01AM EST and close on February 7 at 11:59PM EST.
• A new location just opened in Mimir's district called Stiarna Sjón: Asgard's new science museum and observatory. Finn posted on the network about it after helping Mimir design part of the museum to display your character's canon star system. This location is now available for use; there's a log for the grand opening here. We are always seeking to add new locations and build upon the city, so if you ever have any ideas or suggestions, feel free to let us know anytime!
• As of this month, Asgard has electricity available throughout the city in a limited supply. Lylith has had Peter Quill working on this one since practically the beginning of the game, and with the help of several other Wanderers, natives, and the gods, there is now an operational wind farm located within the forest nearby. There is a plotting post for any ideas you might have about what to do with this new electricity source here. And again, if you've got any ideas for things you want your character to get up to, please let us know!
• There are some other big updates and announcements to be made that were meant to go in the mod HMD that I just have not had any time to work on at all. weeps But I'll keep working on it and hopefully finish it soon, stay tuned and thank you as always for your patience.

And here are our first major events of 2020! I want to apologize again for these going up late; the timing is a little wonky now, but hopefully this will carry us through to February. Without further ado:

❧ january 14-22: the devil is in the details.

On January 14, the gods summon everyone to the castle ground to announce that Asgard is moving out to face the newest threat on the horizon. Looking for traces of the same twisted magic that summoned the White Walkers to Yggdrasil, Odin found signs of a gruesome tree growing several days' travel from Asgard. The Devil May Cry cast will recognize this as an awful reminder of home and post on the network to explain the situation on January 14.

That same day, what seems like the whole of Asgard prepares and departs the kingdom. From the youngest to the oldest of the able and willing, all hands are needed as this mission serves two highly critical purposes: to defeat the current threat and to build outposts that can be used as midway safe houses on missions like these. These goals will comprise our main event and our opt-out event for characters that are less combat-oriented or simply want to avoid walking face first into Hell.

From January 14 to January 16, everyone will be travelling through the strange landscape of Yggdrasil in winter before making camp at what the gods deem the safest point between the kingdom and where the Qliphoth is growing. This is where the event will split; for those participating in the opt-out event, you can jump ahead to here!

content warnings: violence, death, blood, bloodletting, gore, gross stuff, like super gross

Those that proceed ahead of the encampment will travel through rocky and mountainous terrain, passing solitary homes and small settlements along the way that are all empty and destroyed. While there are clear signs of a struggle, there are no bodies and no other signs of life to be found until you continue onward.

A smell will reach you first, the stench of iron and rot that some might recognize as the telltale signs of carnage, and it won't be long before you find the source. Wicked vines as thick as a humanoid body appear snaking up from the ground and winding around the mountain pass, covered in nasty thorns and pulsating masses of blood that harden for protection as anything approaches. As you follow the trail, you begin to see human corpses impaled upon the vines' thorns, frozen in suspended horror, that turn to dust and fade away if touched.

It isn't long before the crux of this nightmare comes into view as a massive tree rises into the sky and is lost behind a raging storm of thunder, blood, and destruction. The city that was here - and it was itself a developed city, not a settlement or encampment as the minor signs of life you've encountered elsewhere in Yggdrasil - is decimated entirely, the ground ripped up and buildings obliterated by violence untold. The environment becomes increasingly hostile the further in you go as the vines (now more clearly presumed to be the roots of the tree) thicken, corrupted plantlife bare angry teeth, and gravity loses its stable hold.

All throughout the city, you will come across strange red clusters of what appears to be stone but is far more organic in nature upon observation. Touching or striking the clusters produces glowing red orbs that are immediately absorbed into your body upon contact. Perhaps alarmingly, considering their dubious source, you feel your vitality enhanced and your hunger abated by absorbing these red orbs that seem to have a mysterious aftertaste of steak or chicken. These function as the only source of food and water present in the city.

Even more mysteriously, there are payphones scattered around (despite there being no other technology visibly present) that connect to each other. These payphones will be the only method of communication in the city, as the bracelets' network function is not operational this far from Asgard.

It quickly becomes apparent you aren't here alone, either. While the only signs of human life you find are gore and death, other beings stalk through the ruin searching for new victims. Demons patrol the city, taking various forms like walking nightmares bent on destruction. Their goal is to find more humans to feed the tree with their blood, and they will attack relentlessly on sight, only stopping once they've been destroyed. If you are caught or incapacitated by them, they will lift your body onto one of the vine's massive thorns and blood will rapidly begin draining from you until you are freed or dead.

❧ combat details.

These are the enemies you will generally find for this event. If you're familiar with Devil May Cry canon and want to use other demons that exist within the franchise, feel free to do so as long as they are not a notable NPC or major boss. If you have questions, please let us know and we'll be happy to help you design whatever demonic fate your character meets.

• Hell Caina: One of the most common enemies, they attack with a scythe and are fairly easy to defeat. They can be knocked to their knees and beheaded. (video)
• Shadow: One of the more common enemies, they are fast, agile, and tend to stalk their prey, attacking after being attacked. Long range attacks are best for dispersing their shadowy bodies and melee attacks must be used to destroy their glowing cores.
• Soul Eater: One of the less common enemies, their gaseous tendrils solidify only once your back is turned to them, at which point their latch onto your body and begin draining your life force. You must turn around swiftly to strike them before they catch you, or else rely on someone else's aid to kill it before it kills you.
• Sin Scissors & Scythe: One of the more rare enemies, they can move through walls and attack with massive, rusted scissors or scythes. Their bodies are ethereal and take no damage; their masked skulls must be destroyed to kill them, making long range attacks particularly effective. (video)
  • Very rarely, fiery versions of these enemies appear adorned in large skull masks that attack with more fury and speed. Your own vitality is weakened when their masks begin to glow, and a haunting laughter echoes around you as you fight them and continues after they die.
• Fury: One of the rarest enemies, these appear from nowhere to strike from behind with blades that protrude from their bodies. They teleport rapidly and must be knocked down to keep it still long enough to attack. (video)
• The Qliphoth Roots: The tree itself is a force to be contended with, as the roots are more than grotesque channels of human and demon blood. They rise up to attack those that pose a threat to their vulnerable core which can be destroyed to kill a section of the vines. (video)

Please note that characters that die in this event will receive one death consequence. Depending on when they die, they may be resurrected before the caravan returns to Asgard. Let us know if you have questions or if this is your second death consequence!

Once you've made your way into the city and assessed the present threat, it's unclear where to go or what to do next. Making way towards the tree at the center of it all seems an obvious course, but with demons lining the path and these violent roots twisting into the city with ominous intent, there may be more to contend with than simply the tree itself. To reach the conclusion of this event, your characters will spend the next three days searching for answers and trying to survive in a hellish landscape.

Brought into this world without a demon king to lead them, the demons slaughtered every available human in the area to build the tree in an attempt to summon a new leader to them. This created a bridge between Yggdrasil and Hell itself, so the tree must be destroyed to sever the link and dispel the vile magic at work here. There are nine total seals that must be found and broken throughout the city. Not all of the seals have fully formed given the limited availability of human blood - but they could certainly be completed if they are not stopped in time.

This part will require coordination and teamwork, so we will be reading the comments section of this post to determine the success rate of this event. Plot around with your fellow Wanderers to explore the city, solve puzzles, defeat demons, and cut down this eyesore of a tree before a demon king can be introduced to Yggdrasil.

We have created three different paths your character can follow, divided more or less by difficulty or the nature of what you'd like your character to face. The blue path will be largely puzzles or exploration tasks. The green path will be a mixture of combat and puzzle solving. The red path will take you straight to the Qliphoth itself, making it fraught with the most deadly obstacles you will face in this event.

We have more details on each path on this thread, where you can post what your character will do and plot with other characters that may take the same route. Please respond to the header for each path your character will take by January 14 for their efforts to be counted towards this event. Working together to accomplish your objectives (and even just to keep each other alive) will guarantee a better conclusion than if any one route is left unexplored. Remember that this is a three day event, so your characters will also have to find shelter and sustenance while seeking out these seals, and they can participate in more than one route.

Ultimately, when the seals are destroyed and the Qliphoth withers, all demons present will fade away along with the hellscape that has infected the land, leaving behind a decimated city with no survivors. Your characters will trudge their way back to the encampment and rejoin the others on January 20, at which point everyone will pack up and make their way back to Asgard by January 22.

❧ january 17-19: (un)safety measures.

Those that remain behind to help build the outpost will get to work right away. They have a limited period of time to construct something to serve as a safe point for Asgard and anyone they rescue on these excursions. Temporary housing and medical facilities will be needed, alongside defensive measures and anything else they deem necessary to protect this space for future use. Honir and any willing volunteers will be scouting the area to make sure it is safe - but they will not be able to account for threats that don't come from above ground.

content warnings: claustrophobia

On the morning of January 18, your characters will wake up to discover that some of you are missing. Surely they were there when you went to sleep, but an odd number of Wanderers and native Asgardians alike seem to have vanished in the night. Searching the encampment and the surrounding area turns up nothing of use, awkwardly delaying construction between the need to finish this project within a few days and the absence of those that came to build it. A scant few more disappear suddenly throughout the day without anyone seeing or hearing anything more than a vague crunching sound.

At night, whether you're still up looking for the missing people or trying to get some fitful sleep amidst the heavy labor and stressful conditions, you begin to hear banging sounds and muffled voices coming from beneath you. Characters that have disappeared up to this point are buried underground beneath a thick layer of solid earth and stone. More people begin disappearing, this time in plain sight as stone shifts and pulls them into the dirt. Screams fill the campground as people try to save their friends or find the source of the chaos.

What happens next is up to what your characters want to do in this situation! There are creatures in the earth dragging people beneath it for purposes unknown. Do you start digging up your friends? Attack the ground? Try to entreat for a stop to the kidnappings somehow? What are the buried characters attempting to do, if anything? We'll be reading the comments section of this post to determine how Asgard interacts with these new life forms.

A few things to note in your plans for how to deal with this:

• The buried characters are only buried; they are not injured or harmed in any other way. They can still breathe although they have no access to food or water for the duration of their burial.
• They are buried between 1-3 feet deep, making some easier to retrieve than others. Excavating them will have to be done carefully so as not to injure them in the process.
• If you begin attacking the ground, it begins to fight back. Rocks and sand will be projected back towards any hostile assailants without any noticeable intent to harm; it's more like it's trying to get you to go away.
• If you successfully stab or injure one of the creatures, you will hear a presumably humanoid cry. If you kill one or injure it badly enough, you will see a reddish brown begin to seep through the dirt, indicating where the creature is hiding.
• Trying to call out or speak with the creatures will only be effective if no one else is showing aggression towards them, meaning everyone will have to let the dust settle (zing!) to attempt this.

Please respond to this thread to discuss what your characters would like to do in this situation. Some teamwork may be necessary depending on which route you'd like to take, and the buried characters may surely appreciate some assistance. We'll read what you've come up with on January 14 when the log is scheduled to be posted.

Regardless of how you handle these unseen visitors, everyone will be released from their underground prison on January 19. Depending on if you fight the creatures, chase them away, or manage to entreat with them, you may have new allies or enemies on Asgard's radar moving forward. Construction of the outpost continues with a more wary eye on the horizon. Those that left for the Qliphoth return on January 17, and everyone leaves together to arrive back in Asgard by January 19.

❧ january event summary.

january 14-22: the devil is in the details

• On January 14, Odin announces that Asgard is leaving the kingdom. The Devil May Cry cast will post on the network to explain the threat from their world.
• From January 14-16, the caravan is travelling to a safe location where those not participating in the combat will begin building an outpost. (See the opt-out event.)
• From January 17-19, characters have to traverse through a demon-infested hellscape to find and destroy several seals.
• We will be reading comments on this post to determine the success rate of your efforts. Please see this thread for more details and to discuss your plans with each other by January 14.
• On January 20, they return to the encampment and everyone begins travelling back to Asgard, arriving on January 22.
• Characters that die in this event receive one death consequence.

january 17-19: (un)safety measures

• On January 17, construction of the outpost begins.
• On January 18, characters wake up to find others missing. More vanish throughout the day.
• By evening of January 18, it is discovered that the missing people have been buried underground by unseen forces.
• We will be reading comments on this post to determine how Asgard interacts with these new life forms. Please see this thread to discuss your plans with each other by January 14.
• On January 19, all buried characters are released and construction resumes.
• On January 20, the others return to the encampment and everyone begins travelling back to Asgard, arriving on January 22.

And that's what we've got for January! We hope you enjoy this style of "go out and accomplish an objective" event, as it'll be the main focal point of this story arc. The world is much larger than Asgard's little corner, and we're seeking new opportunities for exploring and impacting Yggdrasil overall. There will of course still be events located within the city, but let us know what you think about these excursions beyond it and if there's anything you'd like to be changed or improved! As always, you can leave any questions/comments/concerns/dirty jokes in the comments section below or reach us on the mod contact page. Thanks again, y'all!