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).

Cult's Formation

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.

The Original Arc

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.

Battle for the Chasm

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 Dark Traitor

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

Diclonius

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.

A Brief Respite

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).

Black Assassin and the Debt

This (relatively) quiet period was soon shattered with the arrival of the Black Assassin. This robotic adversary was sent to kill crazE and any blood relatives of his- including Valerie and his as-of-yet unhatched offspring with Starr, Rye and Ringo Starkey. Espira- and quickly Vale- fought the Black Assassin after it attacked Valerie and crazE(and Shadow after he tried to interfere). They defeated it after a long struggle, and it appeared to have been destroyed. A brief period of rest followed, during which Espira had Lord X-Giga-X "analyze" a sample of fabric the Black Assassin wore, along with its decapitated visor, with little result other than the fabric "absorbing" a glove.

For a time, things quieted down; brief battles occur every so often and crazE and Starr manage to find the time to conceive their children- this results in a fight between the former and Shockwing, during which crazE is injured and Shockwing is begrudgingly forced to treat him, upon Jason's order. Shadow's friendship with Fricai grows stronger, which proves vital in the climax of this arc. The Black Assassin soon makes its return, however, and certain members of the Cult manage to fight it off once again(though not before learning it has acquired Lord X-Giga-X's achlympery, resulting in an irate Espira telling him off the day after; he futilely tried to to fix the error by providing Jason with a map that allows him to track the locations of all achlymperists in Ustream). Jason manages to glean a small amount of information on the Black Assassin from crazE, but not enough to be very helpful.

The next break the Cult manages to find(during which Jason and Lord-X-Giga-X have minor conflict) is broken by something entirely different; the being within crazE's mind, identified as Darkside, breaks free. While he is subdued relatively easily, the Cult finds itself with another problem- that of Jason's debt, apparently unresolved despite what the pink one had claimed. By holding Zephyr hostage, Death managed to trick Jason into offering his soul again, causing the Shapeshifter to panic and restart his four-year flight from the inevitability of death. He is finally cornered after he and Mimring cross part of the Mithril Sea to the west, and as Mimring makes the trek back to Headquarters. Nearly dying when he gets there, he is given Demon Energy by Ziolang to sustain him while Jack Evans and Deathstorm go to Hell in order to rescue Jason, with Pink Death's help. As Jack and Deathstorm distract Death, the pink one escorts Jason out of Hell, allowing him to rejoin his body and come back to life. Even when Death attempts to reap Jason's soul again, he finds that he cannot, and promptly vanishes. It is revealed that Pink Death sold her immortality for Jason's soul, turning her into a human by the name of Destiny.

The day after after Jason returns to the land of the living, crazE, Starr, Valerie, and Vale return from a "vacation" they had taken to the Euthorica Islands, now with Darius tagging along. Almost immediately, the Black Assassin attacks again, in what proves to be the final battle: Darius, Jason, Mimring, Starr, and Lord X-Giga-X were all killed; Espira(although thought to have been killed), Grodisflare, crazE, and Fricai were seriously injured, and ultimately Shadow was the one who destroyed the Black Assassin permanently, by destroying the visor. In the end, Shockwing managed to heal everyone, even using Starr's training to revive the dead.

Euthorica Islands Sideplot

While Jason and Mimring were fleeing from Death, and later when Jason was being rescued, crazE, Starr, Valerie, and Vale took a brief break from the Cult, going to Azuma Island to have a sort of vacation away from the stress. This sideplot was primarily for character development, during which Shadow destroyed a rollercoaster in panic and Vale was the one imprisoned for it. The group also picked up Darius along the way, bringing him back to the Cult just in time for the final battle against 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.

Trivia

• The Hole of Ultimate Doom had its name changed to Chasm of the Unknown, both in and out of character, when it was brought up in a meeting between the Cult of Ustream and the Station of Seotara and everyone realized just how ridiculous the name was. Zaiek was the one who came up with the new name.