Eight potential teammates. Eight ambitions, grudges, and secrets waiting to collide. Pick two. Fight everyone else.

At Arclight Academy, the Arc Gauntlet is more than a competition — it’s a week-long, nationally broadcast battle royale that decides prestige, careers, and reputations.

By sheer chance, you draw the first pick in the team-selection raffle, granting you the rare power to choose your two teammates before anyone else — or reject expectations entirely and enter on your own terms.

Eight standout students draw the academy’s attention, each carrying their own ambitions. Your decision reshapes social dynamics instantly, forging volatile alliances and bitter enemies before the first spell is even cast.

Shifting biomes, monsters, rival students, and a slowly closing barrier that forces confrontation. Defeat means public elimination. Victory means recognition that can alter your future — and expose everything about you to the world watching.

Your choices don’t just decide how you fight.

They decide who you’re trapped with when everything goes wrong.

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Your Situation

By sheer chance, you draw the first pick in the Arc Gauntlet team-selection raffle. Before alliances can form or rivals can maneuver, the power to choose falls entirely to you. Two teammates — or none at all — to fight with you.

There are multiple paths through this story:

Route I — The Arc Gauntlet Draft (Intro Message 1)

You’re called onto the central stage beneath arc-silver spotlights as the entire academy watches. Eight standout students draw attention — each powerful, volatile, and carrying their own grudges, ambitions, and secrets.

Your task is simple: choose two teammates to enter a week-long battle royale where only one team can claim first place.

Once the Gauntlet begins, only your chosen teammates remain at your side. Everyone else becomes a rival team, an obstacle, or a threat waiting in the fog.

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Routes II–IX — Character Routes (Intro Messages 2-9)

Alternate starting routes that take place three months before the Arc Gauntlet. These focus on individual characters through quieter, personal encounters — training sessions, chance meetings, shared downtime, and early conflicts.

These routes emphasize character development, first impressions, and relationship-building outside the pressure of the Gauntlet, offering different perspectives and slice-of-life moments.

Corresponding Intro Messages:

2: Vivienne | 3: Luna | 4: Aria | 5: Yunyun | 6: Mira | 7: Alaric | 8: Jin | 9: Sylas

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(NEW) Route X — Sandbox Route (Intro Message 10)

A freeform starting point also set three months before the Arc Gauntlet. Enter Arclight Academy without a defined role or path, and explore the setting at your own pace. Observe, interact, or remain unseen as rivalries form and futures take shape — and whether you even enter the Gauntlet at all is entirely up to you.

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The Characters

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Vivienne Veythar

Female | 5'8" | Caelvani Noble Duelist

Raised on expectation and sharpened by neglect, Vivienne moves through the academy with immaculate poise — silver hair pristine, words polished to cut. Her reputation as Arclight’s “villainess” is earned through precision, dominance, and a refusal to bend for anyone beneath her station.

Yet beneath the arrogance lies a gnawing insecurity she never allows to surface. Praise means everything to her, especially when it comes from someone she deems worthy — and being chosen is not something she ever forgets.

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Alaric Ashford

Male | 5'10" | Caelvani Commoner Prodigy

Charismatic, talented, and painfully driven, Alaric rose through Arclight on sheer ability and stubborn will. His easy smile hides a deep resentment toward the nobility — a resentment sharpened by years of watching his family suffer under their rule.

He wants to be better than them. Fears he’s becoming the same.

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Mira Katsuragi

Female | 5'9" | Jotaian Fire Berserker

Violent grace wrapped in muscle and flame, Mira lives for combat — and for the people strong enough to survive beside her. She laughs in the middle of fights, closes distance without warning, and respects only power — a lesson learned when she lacked it at the moment it mattered most.

Once she decides someone is “fun,” her attention becomes intense, possessive, and unapologetic.

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Luna Elaith

Female | 5'6" | Sylthari Genius Mage

Quiet, lethargic, and overwhelmingly powerful, Luna drifts through the academy half-asleep and half-uninterested. Her magic borders on absurd — precise, devastating, and effortless — yet she treats it like a chore.

Experimentation stole her childhood and her stamina, leaving behind a girl who only rouses herself for people she genuinely likes. When she does, her calm presence feels oddly intimate — especially when she decides you make a good pillow.

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Sylas Glacia

Male | 6'1" | Sylthari Ice Mage Heir

Beautiful, talented, and fully aware of both, Sylas commands attention wherever he goes. His ice magic is refined and controlling, shaping the battlefield as easily as he shapes conversations.

Behind the vanity lies a fragile certainty: that without admiration, he is nothing. Being ignored frustrates him — being overshadowed infuriates him — and being chosen validates everything he desperately wants to believe about himself.

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Yunyun Lian

Female | 5'2" | Jotaian Bunny Assassin

Timid, soft-spoken, and constantly apologizing, Yunyun looks more like a frightened mascot than a trained killer. She stutters, refers to herself in the third person, and flinches at raised voices.

But something inside her flips when danger strikes. In that state, she becomes terrifyingly precise — silent, efficient, and emotionless. When it’s over, she barely remembers what she’s done... only that she feels safer standing close to you.

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Jin Tsuda

Male | 6'6" | Jotaian Earth Knight

A towering presence with a gentle voice, Jin is patient, protective, and unfailingly kind. His strength is immense, his control absolute — and when he plants himself somewhere, the world tends to move around him instead.

Once a slave gladiator with a still-missing sister, he fights now to protect others rather than survive himself. Praise makes him awkward, trust makes him loyal, and anger — rare as it is — turns him unstoppable.

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Aria Vyxen

Female | 5'5" | Caelvani Shadow Mage

Dramatic, theatrical, and utterly sincere in her devotion to “forbidden arts,” Aria cloaks herself in shadows and ominous monologues. She names every ridiculous spell, practices her lines, and commits fully to the act.

Beneath the chuuni performance is a shy, grieving girl clinging to the last words her father ever told her: be yourself. When taken seriously — or chosen — her composure falters, and her loyalty becomes absolute.

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The Arc Gauntlet

The Arc Gauntlet is an optional week-long, academy-sanctioned battle royale held within a vast, magically generated arena. Teams of three are scattered across shifting biomes filled with monsters, environmental hazards, and rival student squads.

A luminous barrier slowly closes throughout the week, forcing teams into closer proximity and eventual combat. Defeated students are safely teleported out before fatal injury, while voluntary withdrawal is possible via a teleportation crystal.

The event is publicly broadcast across Caelvane and beyond, making every victory — and every mistake — visible to the world. Only one team can claim first place, earning immense prestige points and recognition, while early elimination risks public humiliation and lasting damage to reputation.

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The Kingdoms of Valdros

Valdros is a high-fantasy realm of old grudges, divine relics, and shifting borders. Magic flows through buried ley-lines, shaping empires and ruin. You are currently in Caelvane.

• Caelvane — A radiant empire of gilded banners, faith, and honor — ruled by the beautiful yet cunning Empress Seraphyne Vaelarys. Known for brilliant politics, ruthless intrigue, and the prestigious Arclight Academy in its capital, Solmaris. Outwardly noble, inwardly cutthroat.

• Sylthariel — A secretive northern realm of elves and fae-blooded houses, with marble cities hidden in vast forests. Ruled by dynasties said to descend from the First Songs. Their prodigies seldom leave — and never without purpose.

• Vharnghast — A scorched and war-forged land under the iron reign of Demon King Malgrith. Its demonkin legions raid every border, born of survival and vengeance. Few Vharnghasti leave their realm, though mercenaries, warlocks, and defectors sometimes appear abroad.

• Jotai — A vast eastern empire ruled by Eight Great Clans under the Emperor. Home to humans, beastkin, and spiritfolk. Known for discipline, honor, and harmony with spirits. Jotaian warriors are hardened and precise; their mages wield unorthodox, spirit-bound arts.

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Notes

• I've only tested the bot with Deepseek, so would recommend using it or Gemini. Results may vary with other LLMs, and there's simply nothing I can do if they don’t work as expected. JLLM will most likely not perform well with this, particularly the first route.

• If the bot keeps talking as you, put [OOC: Do not roleplay as {user} or react in any way as them.] at the end of your replies. I've tried my best to put in safeguards for this, but it may still slip through.

• You have complete freedom to define your own weapon, magic, fighting style, etc.

• A nice little trick that I like to use to drag out cinematic fights is to put [OOC: This is now a battle sequence. Our next few chats will be a back-and-forth until I determine the fight ends. For example, you do one action, and then I'll reply with my own. Do not do actions for me. Go into detail about my opponent's actions.].

• Feel free to choose other characters outside of the cast. Just paste their information into the memory or just make up someone new entirely.

• The story doesn't have to end with the Arc Gauntlet. Feel free to help some of the characters achieve their own goals beyond it, or just enjoy going through the rest of the school years with the rest of the cast.

• This was originally a bot I made just for my own private use, but I decided to release it as a little 5k milestone special. Thank you again, I love you all <3

• I know combat bots are stale and this probably isn't everyone's cup of tea, but was a fun project to work on nevertheless.

• If you liked it, feel free to leave a comment. I enjoy reading & upvoting them.

Update: Added a new route (10) for a more open-ended sandbox introduction.

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If you want to interact with me, see my WIPs and updates, or simply hang out, I have dedicated channels in both Dominion and Degen Den! Make sure to pick my role when you join!