Cult of Ustream (Canon)

The Cult of Ustream canon(often shortened to CoU) is a collaborative, primarily chatplay-based roleplay canon set in the Manaverse, specifically Ustream, Euthora. The canon has gone through at least two phases of forum-based roleplaying, both of which were considered failed attempts. The canon has also been "rebooted"; that is to say, restarted due to inconsistencies and the poor quality of "oldcanon".

Overview

The Cult of Ustream canon acts as a proverbial "melting pot" of other Manaverse canons, including but not limited to Euthoran Song, Oblivion Phantasy, and Hirasu Legacy. Most of these are canon to CoU only to a point, after which they diverge into their "main" paths, with CoU being a sort of alternate timeline. For example, the beginning of Fyreborne is the cutoff point for Euthoran Song, and Forsaken Malign's background plot splits off into CoU before the actual roleplay begins. Hirasu Legacy is an exception to this; its creator specifically tailored parts of it to directly fall in line with CoU canon.

Plots

Cult of Ustream canon is segmented into "seasons" marked off by major plots and themes, with a short era prior to the first season which was developed "offscreen". This period of time, as well as any plans for the future, are vastly subject to change as new developments occur in the chatplay itself.

Prologue

As this era of the canon was never roleplayed in the reboot, and barely roleplayed in "oldcanon", nobody quite knows what exactly happened during this period of time, which includes the formation of the Cult of Ustream and its first few major conflicts involving the man Drake Kuro.

The currently accepted line of events is as follows(with some headcanon additions from the main author of this page).

Prior to the formation of the Cult, Jason Shaver and Lord X-Giga-X had a brief encounter in the nearby forest. This encounter was instigated by the latter accidentally shooting his Gamma-X Ray into the trees, nearly hitting the nearby Jason and startling him into bolting away in his wolf form. This led to a chase, only for Lord X-Giga-X to be annoyed he seemed to simply be chasing a wolf, and attempted to kill Jason(even after discovering the wolf was in actuality a Shapeshifter). After a brief fight, which Jason lost, Mimring Thunderscale appeared, interfering in the fight and thus saving Jason's life. An extremely brief conversation followed and the two parted ways.

Sometime later, Jason came across an abandoned Seotaran military outpost that would later be repurposed into the Cult of Ustream Headquarters. Needing a place to stay, if only briefly, he settled in, and ended up staying to "take in" lost or injured travelers and help them regain their bearings- including Lord X-Giga-X himself. While some of them ended up going their own way after getting a grasp of the area, most remained in the building and eventually became known as the Cult of Ustream. Jason automatically took the role as leader, mainly because of his role in helping everyone else who came across the building. Lord X-Giga-X became his Second-in-Command.

Not much time went by before Jason caught word of the Shadow Drakes, a trio of dragons "guarding" Ustream from any threat, one of which was part of the cult himself- Deathstorm, under both Jason's and Lord X-Giga-X's control. His curiosity getting the better of him, Jason directed the rest of the Cult into finding the other two Shadow Drakes, Cassiel and Charos. Their searches for both were unsuccessful, but they did manage to pinpoint Charos's castle, where they found signs of a struggle. The next day, Deathstorm was found to be missing, and when the Cult searched for him, he met them coming down from the Casrshai Range in the north. He told of a dracomancer named Drake Kuro in a castle in the mountains, who used his three dragons to capture Cassiel and Charos in an effort to harness their power. Jason promptly had the Cult attack the castle and free the two Shadow Drakes; the resulting struggle ended in Kuro and his dragons fleeing the scene. The Shadow Drakes then became allies of the Cult.

Some time passed before their next encounter with Kuro; an exploration of the Chasm of the Unknown(then known as the Hole of Ultimate Doom by the Cult) gone awry led to them meeting the counterparts of the Shadow Drakes- Pyrros, Kuthian, and Ilatrya. A brief brawl between the Cult and Kuthian, born of a misunderstanding, ended with Pyrros breaking up the fight. The leader of the Chasm's Shadow Drakes promptly ordered the Cult to be on their way, and the group complied, with the dragon acknowledging that the Cult had to find one of their members- Fallen- who had wandered off and gotten separated from the main group before encountering Kuthian. They eventually found out what happened to him- one of Kuro's dragons, the Pyrespine Helix, had brutally attacked, killed, and then eaten the Cultist. Understanding now that the Chasm was in danger, the Cult rushed back to the trio of Shadow Drakes, only for the Chasm to begin collapsing. With the Shadow Drakes' help in escaping, the Cult managed to find its way back to Ustream, where they encountered Kuro and his dragons- Helix, the Golden Firedrake Volant, and the Plated Firedrake Faryx. Another difficult battle ensued, during which Kuro managed to very briefly take control of Jason and Mimring, but ultimately ended in Kuro's death. Lord X-Giga-X took the corpse for whatever reason, and after a brief encounter with Fallen's spirit, the Cult returned to Headquarters.

The next day, as Lord X-Giga-X was attempting to find a way to revive Fallen, Kuro's own spirit managed to find its way to his body, and he immediately took control of the Cult's Second-in-Command. When Deathstorm informed the Cult of this, they sought Lord X-Giga-X out and tried to fight him, only for the dracomancer to teleport them away. However, instead of teleporting them somewhere dangerous, Lord X-Giga-X managed to regain control of himself long enough to send the Cult to the edge of the Chasm. Taking the opportunity, the Cult decided to get help from the Shadow Drakes- instead running across Acento Bane, Lord X-Giga-X's more powerful counterpart. After convincing Acento to help, the Cult returned to Ustream and began a long and mostly fruitless search for their Second-in-Command, eventually finding him, Kuro, and Kuro's dragons back at the castle. Once again, they battled, only managing to prevail with Acento's help against his Ustream counterpart. With Lord X-Giga-X distracted by Acento, Jason was able to break Kuro's concentration long enough for Lord X-Giga-X to break free and throw Kuro into a black hole, effectively killing him for good. Kuro's three dragons were spared this fate and fled.

Season One

After a brief two-week break, during which Lord X-Giga-X began to rebuild his destroyed lab, a disturbance shook the immediate area as Shadow Version 27 and Espira Xirro appeared seemingly out of nowhere- the former injured, the latter dead. The cult took immediate action in treating Shadow's wounds and attempting to revive Espira; however, before Shadow could check on his friend, Ziolang Hirasu stopped and challenged him on the grounds that the Diclonius was weak. Two one-sided battles, the Cult's general protest, one kidnapping, and one escape later, Shadow finally managed to see Espira, fully healed(thanks to Starr), as she interfered with Ziolang's second attempt to take Shadow away(this time to train him in Deveron). The Demon still did not back down, but conceded Shadow's stay in Ustream for one day, which would supposedly be extended on the condition that Shadow show improvement combat-wise during that timeframe. The Cult pitched in as one to help Shadow train, and by his next battle with Ziolang, the boy showed enough improvement by the Demon's standards to stay with the Cult.

General developments and relationships formed before the next major event. While at the Cult, Shadow quickly began to fit into its daily lifestyle, even forming a friendship with a previously unapproachable crippled dragon named Fricai. CrazE began to show disturbing signs of another being inhabiting his mind; a clone of Jason turned up in Ustream before promptly being chased out of the Headquarters' basement by Fricai. Jason obtained an egg that would later hatch into Zephyrus, before he and Shadow had a conflict with Starr regarding her experimenting, ultimately ending in Jason revealing a debt he had with Death and the reason he always sheltered the injured. Brief scuffles and battles were had here and there; Starr briefly leaves the cult for a time before returning to open arms. More people begin to learn of Jason's debt as it starts to become more immediately relevant, culminating in a pink-robed, feminine version of Death. Stephanie Roseasillmillaan, also known as "Gaga", was introduced during this time, along with Emma Isokoski("Four") and Valen Scarletburn("Five"). Zephyr hatched; Pink Death joined the Cult; Valerie Knight, crazE's cousin, was introduced and soon punched Shadow out of a third-story window(later actually becoming friends with him).

This (relatively) quiet period was soon shattered with the arrival of the Black Assassin.

Season Three

This season is almost completely unplanned; the only confirmed plot is the one that begins it- the Beatlegod Arc.

Dramatis Personae

See also: List of Characters in Cult of Ustream Canon

As the canon takes place on Euthora, many of the characters figure prominently in Euthoran Song, such as Mimring and Starlight Thunderscale. However, many main or primary characters from other canons also have roles of varying significance, including Oblivion Phantasy's Shadow Version 27 and Slash, Messenger's Memoir's Judas Numidius, and Hirasu Legacy's Ziolang Hirasu.