Revision as of 10:36, 24 June 2015

Theme Profile: The Beat is not just a concept. It's a place, a world from which all rhythm in the universe emanates (or at least, a good part of it). It's inhabitants range from the simple tap-tap of a wood-and-skin drum to the advanced Wub of electronically produced music. There exists a threat to The Beat, however- a force known as The Static, an intelligent form of universal entropy that hates rhythm and melody. It seeks to destroy The Beat, plunging the universe into arrhythmic chaos mixed with deadly silence.

Luckily, The Beat has defenders. Drawn from various worlds for their talent in music, they use the forces of Rhythm and Melody to combat the servants of The Static and save The Beat. The chosen ones from Earth are three exceptionally talented EDM artists, members of the Tokyo-based group 'The Foundation'. Known as the Subsonic Warriors in their role as Defenders of Time, Space, and Deafening Bass (or the Beat Defenders, for short), they are beings of neon and frequency, battling the forces of The Static whenever they attempt to strike and producing sick tracks in the meantime. If only they could stop getting all those noise violations..

Theme Details: Music is emotion given voice, the soul given a chance to communicate directly. It allows us to express ourselves in ways mere words could never achieve. Is it any wonder that music has a dimension all its own, a place where it is a physical thing? The Beat is that place, and The Static is its opposite, and like all forces in opposition, one works against the other. Both sides have their champions, the Static attempting to silence The Beat, to reduce the universe to a meaningless cacophony, an expression of chaos without intent or soul, the Beat resisting this, championing the beauty of expression.

Though The Beat is not purely a world for electronic music, its chosen champions on Earth are specialists in that area and so their powers and forms reflect this. It is entirely possible for Beat Defenders from other worlds to specialize in other sorts of music.

How are Beat Defenders chosen? They must be of exceptional talent and drive, with abilities far above those of average musicians. More important than that, however, they must be driven by a love of music, by a pure desire to express themselves through that most beautiful of mediums. If one does not truly love their art, one can never be a Beat Defender. All Beat Defenders, no matter what world they are from or what style of music they become avatars of, wear their hearts on their sleeves: no musician is afraid to show their emotions because music is emotion.

Their polar opposites are Champions of the Static. Similarly drawn from worlds across the galaxy, these are repressed individuals who can't stand music and free expression. They wish to bring silence to the universe, for every person to be insulated in their own cage of emotion and never be able to express themselves to anyone else.

Only with the power of music can the Beat Defenders and more specifically, the Subsonic Warriors of Earth, fight off the Champions of the Static in order to be sure that the ability for people to share their emotions freely continues to be a right throughout the universe!

New OC Guidelines: Beat Defenders is a theme which welcomes additional OCs! However, in order to be in keeping with the established lore of the theme, it's important to be aware of some guidelines when considering apping a new original character into the theme.

1) Each significant world which is a battleground between the Beat and the Static has its own team of Beat Defenders. Earth's team are the Subsonic Warriors, Mizudori, Kurota and Akino. As a result of this, without a very specific reason (please discuss with Kurota before coming up with such a reason) any other Beat Defender OCs will have to be from some other world. However, it is possible for them to draw their powers from any sort of music, it does not have to be EDM.

2) There are a variety of options for someone wanting to app an antagonist in this theme. Similar to how the Beat selects Beat Defenders, the Static has servants as well, and they are as numerous in the cosmos as Beat Defenders. They are structured thusly: Just as each world has a team of Beat Defenders, each world also has a team of Static servants. Unlike the Beat Defenders though, the servants of the Static have a clear hierarchy. On each world there is appointed a single Emissary of the Static. The Emissary for any given world is the leader of the Static's forces there, and usually the most powerful of its servants. Beneath the Emissary there may be any number of other empowered servants of the Static, generally called Champions. Static Champions have magical powers and fight in the service of the Static, but are bound to follow the commands of their world's Emissary.

The Beat is a world, but it is not sentient, in that it itself does not have a will or a voice. Rather, it has many intelligent inhabitants who are manifestations of different aspects of music. Wub, the Subsonic Defenders' mascot, is one such. In contrast, the Static is an intelligent, if abstract force. (A good comparison is to The Dark One from the Wheel of Time series of books). Although it cannot directly effect the universe, it can speak to its servants and grant them powers to work in its behalf. Generally, the Static only speaks directly to Emissaries, and being spoken to by the Static is considered a great honor by its servants, many of whom treat it as a god.