![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
AMPLITHEATER: THE LITTLE MARINER
AMPLITHEATER: THE LITTLE MARINER
Every month the Amplitheater puts on a grand story which the characters can enter and leave at will. This month the stage is The Little Mariner - an island nation surrounded by open and haunted waters. Characters may be warned by NPCs in 7 that items taken into the Amplitheater will take on the relative technology level of the scene, but if they simply arrive inside the Amplitheater after their bubble bursts they will instead find that all their belongings now fit the nautical/piratical theme and a medieval-fantasy technology level. Their belongings will change back to the appropriate appearance and use once they leave the Amplitheater.
The interior of the Amplitheater does not appear to be a sphere. It appears to be an entire world. The exits to the city of 7 all have the shimmer of a soap bubble and can be found in odd places: in puddles, under rocks, in boots...feel free to have your character locate an exit anywhere should they need or want one or have fun with them having more trouble finding an exit. Any exit in the Amplitheater will randomly deposit your character somewhere in the city of 7 regardless of where they entered. You can use this to get your character into city-based prompts they might otherwise not want to join if you like. Or just to dump them on someone else. Go wild. And yes, these exits to look similar to the soap-bubble memories characters find themselves arriving in.
Please note that just as exiting is random so is entering. Your character may show up on a ship, on the island city, or underwater. This is regardless of whether or not their role is suited to that location so feel free to mess around.
Whenever they leave or enter the Amplitheater characters will hear a voice asking them "What are they guilty of?" Before them will flash the faces of one person of each role found in the Dramatis Personae section. They will know that by the 25th they must assign at least one vice or virtue to one of the roles found within this world.
"There once was a beautiful island kingdom known as Aurelia. Though Aurelia was a small kingdom it sat the the middle of many busy trade routes and ships would often come to the port city in order to trade goods or take a rest on their planned routes. Only minor troubles burdened the people of Aurelia.
This peaceful circumstance was mirrored beneath the waves where the kingdom of Atlantis was found. There the merfolk lived peacefully. While these two kingdoms existed quite close to one another both had little to do with the other. The merfolk feared what the people of Aurelia might do to them as there were sailors who sought to capture merfolk as prizes while the people of Aurelia feared the sirens and sea witches their sailors had met on expeditions...when they even believed these stories to be true.
Most merfolk and most people of Aurelia. One particular merfolk became curious about the world above the waters in which she dwelled. She watched them with her friend the porpoise who followed her faithfully and cautioned her against the world she did not understand. Despite these warnings she chose to visit the sea witch to ask for help to see the world she was so curious about.
A deal was struck. The permanent loss of her voice for a single treasure the sea witch had crafted. The merfolk princess was given a scale pendant that allowed her to shift into human form when she left the waters of Atlantis and stepped onto dry land. Happily she went to Aurelia and walked through the markets and saw how they lived...and there she met the mariner.
They struck up an easy friendship as they learned to speak without her voice. The mariner offered to take the merfolk princess sailing and taught her how to work the sails and how to navigate above the waves while the princess taught the mariner how to find and call the sea creatures she had grown up with.
One day the mariner used that knowledge to call up the porpoise who came to him full of trust - and then he fished the porpoise up. Angry and heartbroken the princess dove away from the ship and went to the sea witch begging for some way to bring back her friend. Magic that brings the dead back to life never comes at an easy cost but she was willing to give anything at all.
She would have to apprentice to the sea witch and give up a portion of her own soul. The cost caused her to become cursed, doomed to never be welcomed in the waters of her homeland again even as her once beloved porpoise friend chose to join her in exile. The porpoise swore to find a way to lift her curse at any cost to itself though she did not regret her actions.
The mariner came to regret the loss of his friend almost immediately and set sail in search of her to apologize. Against the advice of older and wiser sailors he took to the seas in the dead of night and his ship was taken by one of the cursed crews. Aboard the ship he found himself starved enough to take a bite of an apple...and then another, and another.
He lost all track of time and for a long time was part of the ship and the crew. In his free time he would sing to the empy waters of his sorrow and how he regretted the hurt he had caused not only to his lost friend but to the porpoise she had so treasured.
One night long after he lost track of all time she came from the water and offered to him a piece of soggy bread taken from the marketplace. Upon eating it he regained himself and leapt from the ghost ship, the princess helping him to swim to shore. There he asked her to come ashore but she told him she would not, and dove back into the waters to join her companion in the sea caves. In time she would become a sea witch and would never be seen again by the mariner."
NPCs from the city of 7 can be found in the Amplitheater filling out various roles the same as PCs can. There also seem to be NPCs that are part of the setting itself that move about in specific patterns through their own little internal stories. It's usually easy to tell the two apart.
MARINER
Sailors and citizens of the island nation in this setting. If you want to be a random sailor? Cool. If you want to enter and be royalty? Also cool. The logic of the Amplitheater can be messed up and adhere more to dreams and emotion at times so it's possible to have five kings to one nation and seventeen captains to one ship. Mariners will be (mostly) human. If your character is not typically human they can potentially be humanized for this role if you like. They also may remain inhuman if you prefer!
POWERS: Inherent knowledge of sailing & navigation, land/air animal companion optional
COMPULSIONS: Sailing, singing sea shanties, finding buried treasure
WEAKNESSES: They can't breathe underwater :(
CURSED MARINER
Cursed mariners are obligated to remain either in the water or on the various ghost ships sailing around the setting until/unless they either exit and come back with a new role or break their curse while in the setting. The curse can manifest in their appearance as a ghost, skeleton, zombie, or sea-urchin encrusted monstrosity. We're not nitpicking this, do whatever you want. Cursed mariners will find that ghosts and other cursed NPCs in the setting are chill with them instead of trying to scare them. After all, they're bros now. Ghost high five!
POWERS: Inflicting the cursed status on other non-cursed people and animals, not needing to breathe, dramatic ghostly musical cues
COMPULSIONS: Inflicting their curse on other people, capturing merfolk, attacking normal ships, burying treasure
WEAKNESSES: Incapable of going on dry land, may be incapable of leaving their ships
MERFOLK
Merfolk can come in the common or royal variety and have no standard look besides "part fish". Which part is fish and which part is human (or whatever) is up to you. If you want your character to be a top-half fish mermaid they totally can be. As long as there is part human (or whatever) and part aquatic animal going on the world is your oyster. Hey, maybe you can be an oyster merfolk! Your character will be transformed for this role but the degree to which that change takes place is up to you.
POWERS: Summon aquatic animal friends, fish-speaking, mysterious musical backups, alluring song, breathing underwater
COMPULSIONS: Singing dramatic musical numbers, acquiring human legs
WEAKNESSES: Can't remain out of water for very long, no sexy human legs (unless they have no sexy human head)
CURSED MERFOLK
There are two types of cursed merfolk: Merfolk who have simply lost anything thanks to the rampant sea witch problem or merfolk who are some variety of ghost, skeleton, or zombie sea creature. The latter is what any character assigned this role on entry will start as, while someone assigned to be a normal merfolk can change into a cursed merfolk throughout the course of their time in the Amplitheater. Sea witches can also become cursed merfolk if you like.
POWERS: Breathing underwater, summon zombie aquatic animal friends, fish-speaking, eerie ghost singing
COMPULSIONS: Spreading their curse to other people/creatures, drowning mariners, singing haunting songs in the dead of night
WEAKNESSES: Can't remain out of water for very long, instinctively disliked by non-cursed sea animals, smells like rotting fish
SEA WITCH
A variety of merfolk that practice sea magic and deal-based magic. As with normal and cursed merfolk a sea witch can be any variety of merfolk you like and we don't care which half is human (or whatever you started out as) and which half is fish. You can be a very standard looking sea witch if you don't want to think about it or you can play around with it if you do. Sea witches are disliked strongly by the setting-native NPCS but the 7 NPCs won't really care much about "good" or "bad" roles since they're more interested in the vices and virtues a soul is guilty of.
POWERS: Extracting any price from an agreed-upon deal no matter how intangible or odd - souls, voices, sandwiches, etc.; fish-speaking, breathing underwater, some magic, evil fish companions
COMPULSIONS: Making deals, cackling maniacally, singing songs about being an evil sea witch
WEAKNESSES: Can't remain out of water for very long, terrible singing voices unless they steal one, must be totally honest about the terms of their deals (can use legalese and loopholes and technical truths however), instinctively disliked by all mariners and many merfolk
PORPOISE
Congratulations, you are now a fish. Or an aquatic mammal. Or...something that lives under the sea. Maybe you're a crab. Or a sea slug. Or a clam. There aren't hard and fast rules here beyond the fact you are now a sea animal living your best sea animal life. Or maybe your worst sea animal life. What does that look like? Whatever you want it to! Maybe your porpoise wants to be a real human girl or boy and makes a deal with a sea witch and changes categories? Or maybe your character goes "fuck this" and finds an exit to try to be something other than a seahorse.
POWERS: Breathing underwater, summon aquatic animal friends, swims real fast
COMPULSIONS: Helping merfolk, offering advice (does not have to be good advice), providing back-up vocals
WEAKNESSES: You're a fish (or something)!
The underwater kingdom of Atlantis surrounds the island nation of Aurelia. There the Merfolk and Porpoises live in often musically-accompanied harmony. Coral reefs can be found all around the island and many of the corals grow into the homes the Merfolk live in. The grand palace is almost entirely constructed of corals although there are some shells and stone as well. Atlantis is a true underwater city so you can find any variety of shops, eateries, and entertainment...though all of this takes place underwater so obviously everything sold, eaten, or done must be water-appropriate. And also most of it is catered to fish and other aquatic life. So there's that! Cursed Merfolk and Sea Witches are not welcome in Atlantis.
Currently there's a grand musical celebration being planned, but the royal princess is nowhere to be found! If you happen to be a Merfolk who is royal they don't mean you. They mean...your sister? Your brother? Your second cousin twice removed? The Amplitheater's dream-logic will fill in something at random. Or maybe you ARE the missing royal merfolk and you have run away for dramatic teenage reasons or just left the area for normal reasons. Whatever the case, all of Atlantis is trying to find you and you may need a quick getaway. If you're captured they will force you to sing a solo for them in their musical celebration regardless of whether or not you can actually sing. If they can't find a royal Merfolk for this they may settle for a Porpoise. Not only are you a fish, now you have to preform! Fun.
There are various shipwrecks to be found from the many nautical battles above the waves. Some of these ships are now home to Merfolk or Porpoises but many are there to be looted by whomever wants to loot things. The VRealists are diving down and mapping the shipwrecks by persistently exiting and entering the Amplitheater until they get roles that make this possible, so you'll see many Merfolk, Cursed Merfolk, Sea Witches, and Porpoises wandering around these wrecks. They won't usually initiate combat but may ask you to search with them for various lost treasures. These range from mystical artifacts such as a gemstone that when broken will release a storm to a fork that when dipped into water can purify it. A small volume of water, anyway. Feel free to make treasures up! These won't be removable from the Amplitheater.
Also around these shipwrecks are meetings of Porpoises. Since the Porpoise role includes any aquatic animal this means...lots of sea creatures! There's various interest groups here (shiny hooks and why you should or shouldn't avoid them; what is this piece of human debris I found and if I had hair could I comb it with it; are fish friends or food?) which you might be drawn into if you try to swim by. These are the real topics that matter to real animals.
In the sea caves under the city of Aurelia are the Sea Witches. There's more than one of them. The Sea Witches are magical deal-makers who can offer you anything you can think of. Or, well, not game-breaking go home things, but anything within reason that suits the technology level within the Amplitheater. So an undersea giant transforming mecha isn't a possibility but if you want a transforming suit of armor made entirely of shells that shoots out blowfish darts that can totally happen for you. The catch is the price of the deals. Sea witches can ask for anything in exchange for these wishes, be it voices or souls or a really good sandwich. It's up to the witch in question. If you approach the sea caves you may be asked: "What do you wish for?" You may feel compelled to answer the question though you will have to decide whether or not to make a deal on your own. As a note, Sea Witches can cause curses as a result of their deals if the prices aren't paid or if the terms have it that way - and they can also offer to curse curses for a price.
The island nation of Aurelia has a ghost problem. Every evening the ships of the dead take to the seas...or the skies in the cases of a few flying ghost ships. While some of these ships are translucent and can only be interacted with by cursed creatures and ghosts many can be boarded by the living and uncursed. The boarding does not have to be willing: characters can find themselves on a ship either from exiting their initial memory or from entering the Amplitheater from the outside. Or they can be kidnapped by ghost pirates which is again a very big and common problem in Aurelia. Mariners are particularly susceptible to kidnappings, while Merfolk and Porpoises may find themselves fished up to be kept captive or threatened with becoming sushi.
These ghosts ships will frequently attack the ships of the living once they descend. The nightscape of Aurelia frequently has nautical battles and canonfire as a part of it, although some areas are less fraught with the obvious dangers of ghost pirate to sailor combat and instead full of less obvious dangers...
If you're a Cursed Mariner and a part of the crew you will find yourself preforming tasks around the ship. These tasks range from legitimate ship tasks such as hoisting and trimming sails seemingly at random to the less legitimate burying treasure on the seabed or even on dry land wearing very fashionable buckets of sea water as shoes. Characters who are not Cursed Mariners may find themselves drawn into the crew if they happen to eat anything from the ghostly feast on any of the ships. If they eat something from one of the feasts and stay on the ship through the night they will become a Cursed Mariner. Taking the character from the ship and feeding them uncursed food will cure them - or any other cure for a curse that characters can come up with.
What feasts, you ask? Elaborate ones with any food characters could imagine...including all their favorites, however esoteric those might be. Ghosts walk through the walls of the ship. There are floating candelabras and sometimes the food set out for the feast will disappear from the plate. Occasionally out of the corner of their eyes the food found at the feast might look different - rotted and in dark shifting colors but that only happens sometimes...and it tastes absolutely perfect regardless. The ghost chef will serve up more and more food no matter how much a character eats. "Don't you want some more? You can't leave the table until you've finished all of it." No matter how much they eat characters will still feel hungry. Worse, the more they eat the more they themselves will begin to change into something more Cursed.
Many times a deep fog will roll out over the sea. Sometimes those who enter the fog will find that they lose something to it. Often this is their voice but it can also be a memory or some sort of item they had or even one of their powers of skills. These things will turn into golden balls of light which dance over and under the ocean leading other people on like will-o-the-wisps. Catching one of these balls of light will immediately give your character the thing that was lost - even if it wasn't theirs! You might find yourself speaking with another person's voice or viewing someone else's memory or suddenly having a new ability until you give it back to them. This can be accomplished by picturing it leaving you and flowing from your hand to theirs. Or by just handing an item over if what was lost was an item.
The island nation of Aurelia is one city on a sunny island with various fields and beaches and mountains and coves thrown into the mix. The city is very large and busy with a huge port for ships and a lively market. The castle where all the royal people live (or Mariners who happen to be royal) is on a nice cliff overlooking both the sea and the city. There are many shops in the market and plenty of eateries and food stalls, and there's a large stage near the biggest plaza where there are frequent plays and performances put on. Anyone who stages their own performance - of whatever they like! - will earn golden coins that when taken out of the Amplitheater will disappear and register as credits to their account.
Currently the city is preparing for a royal wedding. Mariners (royal or otherwise) can be as involved as they might like in this and can be cast as anyone in the wedding party or any of the celebrants. This wedding takes place every single day come rain or shine at the sunniest part of the afternoon. It often takes place on a boat but sometimes takes place on the beach or in the palace itself. None of the Amplitheater-native NPCs seem to realize they're playing out the same storyline with variations. City of 7 NPCs will mention this is normal if asked and seem to enjoy trying out different roles and doing different things from day to day. Occasionally this includes things like Blood-Drinker Cursed Merfolk attacking the wedding ship one day to spread their curse or another day Combatants commandeering the wedding ship for a battle. Yes, Wrath devotees are often a problem, why do you ask?
There's also beach fun to be had! You can go swimming or sunbathing if you like, or be dragged along for fishing and sailing by any of the various ships around the port. Or maybe you will find some buried treasure? There's a Cursed Mariner sloshing around in bucket boots who seems to be burying the treasure, and if you catch him at it he will offer to not curse you for the price of: "Y'wanna help me bury it? Otherwise..." If you say no he will curse you. He isn't even sorry about it. But if you help him he's happy enough to go on his merry way after making you promise not to unbury the treasure. You are of course free to unbury it after anyway if you like to find magical artifacts along the lines of a scrying glass that can show scenes around the Amplitheater, a wand that can call up a sea storm, or slippers that let you walk on water. None of these items can be removed from the Amplitheater.
Sailing is a major area of interest in Aurelia for obvious reasons. The seas during the days are sunny and bright while at night they tend to be choppy and foggy. During the days you might hear Merfolk singing. The songs during the day are alluring but in a more positive way - you just want to stop and listen. During the night you might be listening to Cursed Merfolk who call sailors to them in order to run them aground or into rocks so they can attempt to drag the sailors to the depths of the sea.
Every month the Amplitheater puts on a grand story which the characters can enter and leave at will. This month the stage is The Little Mariner - an island nation surrounded by open and haunted waters. Characters may be warned by NPCs in 7 that items taken into the Amplitheater will take on the relative technology level of the scene, but if they simply arrive inside the Amplitheater after their bubble bursts they will instead find that all their belongings now fit the nautical/piratical theme and a medieval-fantasy technology level. Their belongings will change back to the appropriate appearance and use once they leave the Amplitheater.
The interior of the Amplitheater does not appear to be a sphere. It appears to be an entire world. The exits to the city of 7 all have the shimmer of a soap bubble and can be found in odd places: in puddles, under rocks, in boots...feel free to have your character locate an exit anywhere should they need or want one or have fun with them having more trouble finding an exit. Any exit in the Amplitheater will randomly deposit your character somewhere in the city of 7 regardless of where they entered. You can use this to get your character into city-based prompts they might otherwise not want to join if you like. Or just to dump them on someone else. Go wild. And yes, these exits to look similar to the soap-bubble memories characters find themselves arriving in.
Please note that just as exiting is random so is entering. Your character may show up on a ship, on the island city, or underwater. This is regardless of whether or not their role is suited to that location so feel free to mess around.
Whenever they leave or enter the Amplitheater characters will hear a voice asking them "What are they guilty of?" Before them will flash the faces of one person of each role found in the Dramatis Personae section. They will know that by the 25th they must assign at least one vice or virtue to one of the roles found within this world.
TALE: THE LITTLE MARINER
"There once was a beautiful island kingdom known as Aurelia. Though Aurelia was a small kingdom it sat the the middle of many busy trade routes and ships would often come to the port city in order to trade goods or take a rest on their planned routes. Only minor troubles burdened the people of Aurelia.
This peaceful circumstance was mirrored beneath the waves where the kingdom of Atlantis was found. There the merfolk lived peacefully. While these two kingdoms existed quite close to one another both had little to do with the other. The merfolk feared what the people of Aurelia might do to them as there were sailors who sought to capture merfolk as prizes while the people of Aurelia feared the sirens and sea witches their sailors had met on expeditions...when they even believed these stories to be true.
Most merfolk and most people of Aurelia. One particular merfolk became curious about the world above the waters in which she dwelled. She watched them with her friend the porpoise who followed her faithfully and cautioned her against the world she did not understand. Despite these warnings she chose to visit the sea witch to ask for help to see the world she was so curious about.
A deal was struck. The permanent loss of her voice for a single treasure the sea witch had crafted. The merfolk princess was given a scale pendant that allowed her to shift into human form when she left the waters of Atlantis and stepped onto dry land. Happily she went to Aurelia and walked through the markets and saw how they lived...and there she met the mariner.
They struck up an easy friendship as they learned to speak without her voice. The mariner offered to take the merfolk princess sailing and taught her how to work the sails and how to navigate above the waves while the princess taught the mariner how to find and call the sea creatures she had grown up with.
One day the mariner used that knowledge to call up the porpoise who came to him full of trust - and then he fished the porpoise up. Angry and heartbroken the princess dove away from the ship and went to the sea witch begging for some way to bring back her friend. Magic that brings the dead back to life never comes at an easy cost but she was willing to give anything at all.
She would have to apprentice to the sea witch and give up a portion of her own soul. The cost caused her to become cursed, doomed to never be welcomed in the waters of her homeland again even as her once beloved porpoise friend chose to join her in exile. The porpoise swore to find a way to lift her curse at any cost to itself though she did not regret her actions.
The mariner came to regret the loss of his friend almost immediately and set sail in search of her to apologize. Against the advice of older and wiser sailors he took to the seas in the dead of night and his ship was taken by one of the cursed crews. Aboard the ship he found himself starved enough to take a bite of an apple...and then another, and another.
He lost all track of time and for a long time was part of the ship and the crew. In his free time he would sing to the empy waters of his sorrow and how he regretted the hurt he had caused not only to his lost friend but to the porpoise she had so treasured.
One night long after he lost track of all time she came from the water and offered to him a piece of soggy bread taken from the marketplace. Upon eating it he regained himself and leapt from the ghost ship, the princess helping him to swim to shore. There he asked her to come ashore but she told him she would not, and dove back into the waters to join her companion in the sea caves. In time she would become a sea witch and would never be seen again by the mariner."
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
NPCs from the city of 7 can be found in the Amplitheater filling out various roles the same as PCs can. There also seem to be NPCs that are part of the setting itself that move about in specific patterns through their own little internal stories. It's usually easy to tell the two apart.
MARINER
Sailors and citizens of the island nation in this setting. If you want to be a random sailor? Cool. If you want to enter and be royalty? Also cool. The logic of the Amplitheater can be messed up and adhere more to dreams and emotion at times so it's possible to have five kings to one nation and seventeen captains to one ship. Mariners will be (mostly) human. If your character is not typically human they can potentially be humanized for this role if you like. They also may remain inhuman if you prefer!
POWERS: Inherent knowledge of sailing & navigation, land/air animal companion optional
COMPULSIONS: Sailing, singing sea shanties, finding buried treasure
WEAKNESSES: They can't breathe underwater :(
CURSED MARINER
Cursed mariners are obligated to remain either in the water or on the various ghost ships sailing around the setting until/unless they either exit and come back with a new role or break their curse while in the setting. The curse can manifest in their appearance as a ghost, skeleton, zombie, or sea-urchin encrusted monstrosity. We're not nitpicking this, do whatever you want. Cursed mariners will find that ghosts and other cursed NPCs in the setting are chill with them instead of trying to scare them. After all, they're bros now. Ghost high five!
POWERS: Inflicting the cursed status on other non-cursed people and animals, not needing to breathe, dramatic ghostly musical cues
COMPULSIONS: Inflicting their curse on other people, capturing merfolk, attacking normal ships, burying treasure
WEAKNESSES: Incapable of going on dry land, may be incapable of leaving their ships
MERFOLK
Merfolk can come in the common or royal variety and have no standard look besides "part fish". Which part is fish and which part is human (or whatever) is up to you. If you want your character to be a top-half fish mermaid they totally can be. As long as there is part human (or whatever) and part aquatic animal going on the world is your oyster. Hey, maybe you can be an oyster merfolk! Your character will be transformed for this role but the degree to which that change takes place is up to you.
POWERS: Summon aquatic animal friends, fish-speaking, mysterious musical backups, alluring song, breathing underwater
COMPULSIONS: Singing dramatic musical numbers, acquiring human legs
WEAKNESSES: Can't remain out of water for very long, no sexy human legs (unless they have no sexy human head)
CURSED MERFOLK
There are two types of cursed merfolk: Merfolk who have simply lost anything thanks to the rampant sea witch problem or merfolk who are some variety of ghost, skeleton, or zombie sea creature. The latter is what any character assigned this role on entry will start as, while someone assigned to be a normal merfolk can change into a cursed merfolk throughout the course of their time in the Amplitheater. Sea witches can also become cursed merfolk if you like.
POWERS: Breathing underwater, summon zombie aquatic animal friends, fish-speaking, eerie ghost singing
COMPULSIONS: Spreading their curse to other people/creatures, drowning mariners, singing haunting songs in the dead of night
WEAKNESSES: Can't remain out of water for very long, instinctively disliked by non-cursed sea animals, smells like rotting fish
SEA WITCH
A variety of merfolk that practice sea magic and deal-based magic. As with normal and cursed merfolk a sea witch can be any variety of merfolk you like and we don't care which half is human (or whatever you started out as) and which half is fish. You can be a very standard looking sea witch if you don't want to think about it or you can play around with it if you do. Sea witches are disliked strongly by the setting-native NPCS but the 7 NPCs won't really care much about "good" or "bad" roles since they're more interested in the vices and virtues a soul is guilty of.
POWERS: Extracting any price from an agreed-upon deal no matter how intangible or odd - souls, voices, sandwiches, etc.; fish-speaking, breathing underwater, some magic, evil fish companions
COMPULSIONS: Making deals, cackling maniacally, singing songs about being an evil sea witch
WEAKNESSES: Can't remain out of water for very long, terrible singing voices unless they steal one, must be totally honest about the terms of their deals (can use legalese and loopholes and technical truths however), instinctively disliked by all mariners and many merfolk
PORPOISE
Congratulations, you are now a fish. Or an aquatic mammal. Or...something that lives under the sea. Maybe you're a crab. Or a sea slug. Or a clam. There aren't hard and fast rules here beyond the fact you are now a sea animal living your best sea animal life. Or maybe your worst sea animal life. What does that look like? Whatever you want it to! Maybe your porpoise wants to be a real human girl or boy and makes a deal with a sea witch and changes categories? Or maybe your character goes "fuck this" and finds an exit to try to be something other than a seahorse.
POWERS: Breathing underwater, summon aquatic animal friends, swims real fast
COMPULSIONS: Helping merfolk, offering advice (does not have to be good advice), providing back-up vocals
WEAKNESSES: You're a fish (or something)!
UNDERWATER
The underwater kingdom of Atlantis surrounds the island nation of Aurelia. There the Merfolk and Porpoises live in often musically-accompanied harmony. Coral reefs can be found all around the island and many of the corals grow into the homes the Merfolk live in. The grand palace is almost entirely constructed of corals although there are some shells and stone as well. Atlantis is a true underwater city so you can find any variety of shops, eateries, and entertainment...though all of this takes place underwater so obviously everything sold, eaten, or done must be water-appropriate. And also most of it is catered to fish and other aquatic life. So there's that! Cursed Merfolk and Sea Witches are not welcome in Atlantis.
Currently there's a grand musical celebration being planned, but the royal princess is nowhere to be found! If you happen to be a Merfolk who is royal they don't mean you. They mean...your sister? Your brother? Your second cousin twice removed? The Amplitheater's dream-logic will fill in something at random. Or maybe you ARE the missing royal merfolk and you have run away for dramatic teenage reasons or just left the area for normal reasons. Whatever the case, all of Atlantis is trying to find you and you may need a quick getaway. If you're captured they will force you to sing a solo for them in their musical celebration regardless of whether or not you can actually sing. If they can't find a royal Merfolk for this they may settle for a Porpoise. Not only are you a fish, now you have to preform! Fun.
There are various shipwrecks to be found from the many nautical battles above the waves. Some of these ships are now home to Merfolk or Porpoises but many are there to be looted by whomever wants to loot things. The VRealists are diving down and mapping the shipwrecks by persistently exiting and entering the Amplitheater until they get roles that make this possible, so you'll see many Merfolk, Cursed Merfolk, Sea Witches, and Porpoises wandering around these wrecks. They won't usually initiate combat but may ask you to search with them for various lost treasures. These range from mystical artifacts such as a gemstone that when broken will release a storm to a fork that when dipped into water can purify it. A small volume of water, anyway. Feel free to make treasures up! These won't be removable from the Amplitheater.
Also around these shipwrecks are meetings of Porpoises. Since the Porpoise role includes any aquatic animal this means...lots of sea creatures! There's various interest groups here (shiny hooks and why you should or shouldn't avoid them; what is this piece of human debris I found and if I had hair could I comb it with it; are fish friends or food?) which you might be drawn into if you try to swim by. These are the real topics that matter to real animals.
In the sea caves under the city of Aurelia are the Sea Witches. There's more than one of them. The Sea Witches are magical deal-makers who can offer you anything you can think of. Or, well, not game-breaking go home things, but anything within reason that suits the technology level within the Amplitheater. So an undersea giant transforming mecha isn't a possibility but if you want a transforming suit of armor made entirely of shells that shoots out blowfish darts that can totally happen for you. The catch is the price of the deals. Sea witches can ask for anything in exchange for these wishes, be it voices or souls or a really good sandwich. It's up to the witch in question. If you approach the sea caves you may be asked: "What do you wish for?" You may feel compelled to answer the question though you will have to decide whether or not to make a deal on your own. As a note, Sea Witches can cause curses as a result of their deals if the prices aren't paid or if the terms have it that way - and they can also offer to curse curses for a price.
GHOST SHIPS
The island nation of Aurelia has a ghost problem. Every evening the ships of the dead take to the seas...or the skies in the cases of a few flying ghost ships. While some of these ships are translucent and can only be interacted with by cursed creatures and ghosts many can be boarded by the living and uncursed. The boarding does not have to be willing: characters can find themselves on a ship either from exiting their initial memory or from entering the Amplitheater from the outside. Or they can be kidnapped by ghost pirates which is again a very big and common problem in Aurelia. Mariners are particularly susceptible to kidnappings, while Merfolk and Porpoises may find themselves fished up to be kept captive or threatened with becoming sushi.
These ghosts ships will frequently attack the ships of the living once they descend. The nightscape of Aurelia frequently has nautical battles and canonfire as a part of it, although some areas are less fraught with the obvious dangers of ghost pirate to sailor combat and instead full of less obvious dangers...
If you're a Cursed Mariner and a part of the crew you will find yourself preforming tasks around the ship. These tasks range from legitimate ship tasks such as hoisting and trimming sails seemingly at random to the less legitimate burying treasure on the seabed or even on dry land wearing very fashionable buckets of sea water as shoes. Characters who are not Cursed Mariners may find themselves drawn into the crew if they happen to eat anything from the ghostly feast on any of the ships. If they eat something from one of the feasts and stay on the ship through the night they will become a Cursed Mariner. Taking the character from the ship and feeding them uncursed food will cure them - or any other cure for a curse that characters can come up with.
What feasts, you ask? Elaborate ones with any food characters could imagine...including all their favorites, however esoteric those might be. Ghosts walk through the walls of the ship. There are floating candelabras and sometimes the food set out for the feast will disappear from the plate. Occasionally out of the corner of their eyes the food found at the feast might look different - rotted and in dark shifting colors but that only happens sometimes...and it tastes absolutely perfect regardless. The ghost chef will serve up more and more food no matter how much a character eats. "Don't you want some more? You can't leave the table until you've finished all of it." No matter how much they eat characters will still feel hungry. Worse, the more they eat the more they themselves will begin to change into something more Cursed.
Many times a deep fog will roll out over the sea. Sometimes those who enter the fog will find that they lose something to it. Often this is their voice but it can also be a memory or some sort of item they had or even one of their powers of skills. These things will turn into golden balls of light which dance over and under the ocean leading other people on like will-o-the-wisps. Catching one of these balls of light will immediately give your character the thing that was lost - even if it wasn't theirs! You might find yourself speaking with another person's voice or viewing someone else's memory or suddenly having a new ability until you give it back to them. This can be accomplished by picturing it leaving you and flowing from your hand to theirs. Or by just handing an item over if what was lost was an item.
ISLAND CITY
The island nation of Aurelia is one city on a sunny island with various fields and beaches and mountains and coves thrown into the mix. The city is very large and busy with a huge port for ships and a lively market. The castle where all the royal people live (or Mariners who happen to be royal) is on a nice cliff overlooking both the sea and the city. There are many shops in the market and plenty of eateries and food stalls, and there's a large stage near the biggest plaza where there are frequent plays and performances put on. Anyone who stages their own performance - of whatever they like! - will earn golden coins that when taken out of the Amplitheater will disappear and register as credits to their account.
Currently the city is preparing for a royal wedding. Mariners (royal or otherwise) can be as involved as they might like in this and can be cast as anyone in the wedding party or any of the celebrants. This wedding takes place every single day come rain or shine at the sunniest part of the afternoon. It often takes place on a boat but sometimes takes place on the beach or in the palace itself. None of the Amplitheater-native NPCs seem to realize they're playing out the same storyline with variations. City of 7 NPCs will mention this is normal if asked and seem to enjoy trying out different roles and doing different things from day to day. Occasionally this includes things like Blood-Drinker Cursed Merfolk attacking the wedding ship one day to spread their curse or another day Combatants commandeering the wedding ship for a battle. Yes, Wrath devotees are often a problem, why do you ask?
There's also beach fun to be had! You can go swimming or sunbathing if you like, or be dragged along for fishing and sailing by any of the various ships around the port. Or maybe you will find some buried treasure? There's a Cursed Mariner sloshing around in bucket boots who seems to be burying the treasure, and if you catch him at it he will offer to not curse you for the price of: "Y'wanna help me bury it? Otherwise..." If you say no he will curse you. He isn't even sorry about it. But if you help him he's happy enough to go on his merry way after making you promise not to unbury the treasure. You are of course free to unbury it after anyway if you like to find magical artifacts along the lines of a scrying glass that can show scenes around the Amplitheater, a wand that can call up a sea storm, or slippers that let you walk on water. None of these items can be removed from the Amplitheater.
Sailing is a major area of interest in Aurelia for obvious reasons. The seas during the days are sunny and bright while at night they tend to be choppy and foggy. During the days you might hear Merfolk singing. The songs during the day are alluring but in a more positive way - you just want to stop and listen. During the night you might be listening to Cursed Merfolk who call sailors to them in order to run them aground or into rocks so they can attempt to drag the sailors to the depths of the sea.