Project Zero

**Project: Zero** is the game that the main cast of Zerospace participate in. It is a reality-altering video game that requires twelve players in order to produce the prize of the complete generation of an entirely new universe. The ‘game’ was created by The Meister, creator of the Twelve Denizens of Existence. The game takes the form of a PC game that can be understood and played by aspect-bearing lifeforms of various planets across an infinite span of universes. This renders the game as the universe’s natural reproduction system.

## Entry

To enter The Field(the playing field of Project: Zero), all players of the session must have the server and client copy of the game downloaded. One player (the first player to enter) will be the session host. The co-players will join the session via entering an access code.

The server player's role is to assist their assigned client player in solving two riddles that are vital for entry. The solutions to the riddles are bound to certain objects(that have some sort of philosophical relation to the player) around the client player's house. The client player must successfully search for these two items and place them in the input slot of the Keyforge. The Keyforge is a machine deployed by the server player that uses the two artifacts the client collected to create the Aspect Key. Once the client player has retrieved their aspect key, a countdown begins and the search for the Grand Chest begins. If the player fails to locate and unlock their Grand Chest in time, they will be killed by the imminent meteor impact. If the player succeeds, the Rift that spawns the monsters will change into the Well; the player's escape from the meteor and gateway into the Field. The meteor will not impact the player’s home and will instead be transported into The Field, hurdling towards Olympus.

## Denizens

Every player is assigned a Denizen according to their bound aspect. The Denizen's role in the game is to ensure their patron player ushers their Planet's mission, as well as providing the players with information and guidance. In addition, the Denizens must also be defeated in order to retrieve the CORES, twelve crucial items the Space player of the session is responsible for overseeing.

After the player enters their first Well, they find themselves in a void-like space. They meet with their Denizen for the very first time in this area. The Denizen introduces themselves to the player and informs them of their duty. After the intervention has concluded, the player must enter their second Well that leads to the starting point on their newly generated planet.

List of Denizens:

Aion, Denizen of Time

Thesis, Denizen of Space

Heno, Denizen of Blood

Aura, Denizen of Breath

Chaos, Denizen of Void

Syn, Denizen of Light

Psyche, Denizen of Heart

Athena, Denizen of Mind

Thanatos, Denizen of Doom

Hebe, Denizen of Life

Nemesis, Denizen of Rage

Dionysis, Denizen of Hope

## Planets and Consorts

Each player has their very own planet generated by their Denizen. Denizens oversee their patron's planet. The appearance of the planets may vary in land structures and biomes as the general terrain and theme of the planets are based upon the player's personality, desires, life challenges and bound aspect. Each planet will also include consorts; inhabitants of the player's planet who provide the players with certain quests to gain experience and levels, and eventually, *Mythos*. Planets also have a main mission the player must complete in order to progress in the game efficiently.

The Space and Time players of the session will have special structures on their planets. As the Space player is responsible for keeping the CORES in check, the Space player's planet will always contain a Genesis Crypt deep within the layers of their planet. To get there, the Space player must seek their planet's Grand Elder consort in order to be properly guided to the Crypt. The Time player's planet will always contain a locked away laboratory that contains a machine called the OTHER. The OTHER establishes universal connections from the current Project: Zero session to an alternate universe. The Time player is responsible for establishing these connections. In the case of an emergency (such as an unstoppable Mythos 4+ NPC), the players along with their planets will be transported to the new universe where their associated Others are located.

## Dream Moons

Among the many session constants found in the Field are the Dream Moons; Prospit, the Moon of Illumination and Derse, the Moon of Tenebrosity. Like Homestuck’s SBURB, the Dream Moon a player dreams on is fully dependent on their personality. Dreamers of Prospit are more optimistic and accepting, while Dreamers of Derse are more pessimistic and skeptical. In rare cases, in which one’s personality can be so contradicting and fluctuating, a player may be classified as a Dual Dreamer; a player with two Dreamselves.

The Moons of Illumination and Tenebrosity are filled with Carapacians, non-player character inhabitants of both moons. The leader of Derse and Prospit (carapacian names are unique to all sessions) commence a war with one another when one player’s dreamself awakens on any of the two moons. The fight for Olympus, the main source of energy and power within the Field, will always be won by Derse. As Prospit is defeated, the players must assist the Prospitians and Dersite refugees in securing Olympus from Derse.

## Dreamselves

The Dreamself is the converse of the Trueself, or the basic vessel that the players are most accustomed to. When a player experiences either a traumatizing or revolutionary event, they will awaken their Dreamself on whichever of the two moons they dream on. The Dreamself is a completely different person compared to the Trueself as they possess differing cognitions and memories. In other words, the Trueself does not share any memory with the Dreamself (except for some special cases, see Cass and Luna).

The Dreamself is important for many reasons. It is essential that the Dreamself remains alive for the player to successfully achieve Mythos. In the event of a Dreamself’s death, Mythos is no longer possible for the Trueself. In the event of the Trueself dying, however, then the Dreamself will wake up automatically. The Dreamself can either continue the game as a Dreamself, or they can locate the Ruins of Mythos hidden deep within their Dream Moon. As it is not an easy task to locate the Ruins, the chances of the Dreamself surviving are relatively low. In the case they do survive and locate the Ruins, they will have the opportunity to undergo Mythos, fusing with their Trueself’s body and effectively reviving them.

## Mythos

Mythos(the god-tier equivalent in Zerospace) is the god status that a player can achieve after meeting certain requirements. When a player is in Mythos, they will have enhanced control over their Aspect’s power, as well as the ability to utilize their Class with respect to their Aspect.

There are two methods to achieving Mythos. The first method involves the player completing their Planet’s main mission and reaching the max Level (100). Every Planet has a Ruins of Mythos located somewhere on it. After reaching the specified requirements, the player must locate their Ruins of Mythos and stand on the platform to activate the sequence. The other method is achieving Mythos via reaching the Ruins of Mythos on a Dream Moon. This can only be done if the player’s Trueself is dead. There are many hostile NPCs on the route to the Ruins in this method, rendering this method to be very difficult. Note that this method cannot be done if the Dreamself is dead.

Conditional mortality does not exist in Project:Zero; a Mythos player cannot die unless their heart is impaled.

There are six levels of Mythos a player can achieve. The levels are as follows (Mythos Levels 3-5 are in RED to notate the dangers of these levels):

Mythos 0: The default Mythos Level a player has upon recently going Mythos. The player has basic control over their aspect by using their Class. (e.g. a Prince of Space being able to use Space to destroy, or being able to destroy space)

Mythos 1: The player begins to learn special abilities they can use based on their Aspect, regardless of class (e.g. Space’s Warp Rift ability, or Time’s Timeline Leaper ability)

Mythos 2: The player is able to used ENHANCED versions of their Mythos 1 abilities.

Mythos 3: [DANGEROUS] The player is able to utilize their Aspect in a way that is adjacent to the power of their Denizen.

Mythos 4: [MILDLY DANGEROUS] The player is able to use their Aspect to exploit the very rules of Project:Zero (not to be confused with a Knight’s ability.) (e.g. A Mythos 3 Hope/Light player being able to exploit the rules so a player can go Mythos despite having their dreamself dead)

Mythos 5: [VERY DANGEROUS] The player is able to change and bend the code of Project:Zero to their very own pleasure. This includes being able to initiate an OTHER without the use of the machine, or having the power to completely annihilate an entire session.

## Endgame

After Derse has won the fight on Olympus against Prospit, Prospit will retreat as their leaders are now dead. The leaders of Derse will have their forces take over Olympus. The leaders will travel into the depths of Olympus to use the two Cores of Olympus, which sustains the tranquility of the session. Anyone in possession of these Cores of Olympus will be granted immense strength and power. With this power, the session will no longer be in a tranquil state and chaos will emerge. This event is known as The Tyranny. The players have limited time to complete their various tasks and defeat both rulers of Derse on Olympus. In addition, the meteors that were initially hurdling to the players’ home are now making their way to Olympus, adding to the time limit.

The goal of the Players is to travel to Olympus (can be done with a Space player’s Rift or by flying there manually). There, the Players must secure their victory by defeating the two leaders of Derse before the countdown ends.

Once both rulers of Derse have been defeated, and all 12 Aspect Cores have bele collected, the Hero of Space will transport these Cores to the Genesis Crypt on their planet. After five hours, the Cores will have been fully harvested and the Genesis Key will be created as a result. The players must then travel back to Olympus and locate the locked portal that will lead to their new universe.

If the Genesis Key is lost or destroyed, then the session automatically becomes doomed as there is no way to escape from the meteors that are hurdling towards Olympus. It is vital for the players to keep the Key in the right hands at all times to avoid such complications.

## The Meister

The Meister, commonly referred to as simply “Meister”, is the creator of Project: Zero and omniscient overseer of an infinite span of universes and game sessions. Meister resides inside a pocket dimension which contains his study called The Observatory. Through what seems to be an infinite range of DVDs, Meister can observe a session that correlates to a certain disc. Given that he is the creator of the game, he also created the twelve Denizens. As such, he ensures that all iterations of the Denizens stick to the script in each session.