Video Game / Vacant Sky

I died once.

Auria Edith

Vacant Sky is a free-to-download PC RPG made in RPG Maker XP by Project BC.

The first volume, 'contention', is split into three acts, which together tell the story of Auria, a girl who is murdered by a cop that would escort her to her father's house and then after entering "The Void", a world that exists within her mind, she wakes up in the middle of Alibaas, a spiritual land located across the world from the United Provincies, where she lives. In Alibaas she meets Serijala and Zaqris, two individuals willing ( well, Seri is at least) to help her find the way home since they both have to reach Banivia and Auria can find a ship there that will take her home. But then she finds herself being pursued by a mysterious organisation known as the Virad and while they are all running for their lifes, Auria discovers more about herself and untangle the secrets behind the Virad and the world she lives in.

It has an original story, entertaining characters, and a phenomenal soundtrack.

---

This game contains examples of:

• Action Prologue
• All of the Other Reindeer: Auria.
• Applied Phlebotinum: Duct Tape is used to revive in the game. It's Duct Tape for Everything.
• Blood Knight: Weapon.
• Break the Cutie: Seems to a given with the female characters.
• Butt-Monkey: Rayonne.
• Cassandra Truth: Vanquish in his backstory.
• Children Are Innocent: Subverted with Auria, who becomes more violent as the story goes on.
• Cliffhanger: The ending of Act I.
• Compelling Voice: Ejaro's main shtick, along with Fake Memories.
• Costume Copycat: In Act II, Vel takes the place of Seri during much of the Boris Island investigation.
• Cutscene Boss: Ejaro in the Relinquish Ending, despite having been a relatively easy Duel Boss anyways in the Contention (main) ending. It does make the scene more dramatic.
  • Also the Virad that Rien fights in the climax of Act II, presumably because she's tapping into powers that she doesn't use when under the player's control.
• Dark Action Girl: Seri in Act III, Rien(she mentioned petty ethics somewhere before showing her true power), and our own dear Auria(took control of the Virad in Act III).
• Deadpan Snarker: Auria, and Blaise to an extent.
• Downer Ending:
  • Contention ending, the main ending of Vacant Sky. Auria uses her Night Zero power kills tens of thousands of the city where Ejaro is at. She can't live with herself, so in this ending she goes to the Hall of Legends and never returns. This ending is a normal playthrough the game.
  • Resignation ending, which you get if try to fight Darxinger and lose. Auria basically becomes his immortal bride well for pretty much eternity, and Rayonne gets his soul stuck in to a demon for eternity as well.
  • Remission ending: in this ending Vel becomes jealous of Auria and Ray's relationship and as such she becomes a mana vampire for good. Vel becomes the final boss as she is the heart of the city, and when you beat her, Auria saves Vel by allowing herself to be consumed. Vel returns to her true self, Rayonne acknowledges he loves Vel for who she really is, and they resolve to try again after visiting Auria's grave. Also the population of Svavenholm may or may not have all their mana sucked out.
  • Resurrection ending, which you get if you don't get the extra allies like the game suggests. Auria gets captured and her soul sucked out by the Virad Lord. Before she dies, you hear Ray swearing vengeance against all Virad.
  • Relinquish ending. In this ending, you abandon Vel when she needs your help, and everyone abandons you after calling you out on it. In the end, Auria is stuck in the city cold and alone, with only ghosts to comfort her, and though she cannot die, Ejaro convinces her that she will using his power, and she collapses "dead" while leaving. Also, nothing is done to stop Halo Locks from sucking in the mana of countless innocent people and Auria uses Night Zero on a small village to avoid capture.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: Vaqris

• Eviler than Thou: More than a background event than anything, but the Virad and the Blackguards aren't the best of friends.
• Face–Heel Turn: Auria, Blaise
• Facial Horror: Since Vel is half-orkan, she was discriminated against and someone burned down her house killing her mother, and leaving her with 3rd degree burn
• Fanservice: As one person put it when discussing Act II: "There is also a naked lesbian strip search scene." The scene serves little more purpose other than as fan service. Also repeated in Act III: in one of the ending paths, Sandarga takes Auria's measurements to create a Virad suit for her.
  • The hidden swimsuit title screens are very much this.
• Fiery Redhead: Largely subverted with Auria, who has red hair but stays generally morose and deadpan throughout, only occasionally driven to defiance by extreme circumstances.
• Flash Back: The ending of Act I features numerous flashbacks in the style of photographs.
• Gallows Humor: Sandarga in the Act I prologue.
• Game-Breaking Bug: Whether intentional or not, several buffs including Regeneration and Rejuvenation have infinite duration in Act III; useful when you use them, but makes many bonus bosses nearly impossible or a Luck-Based Mission since their regeneration works faster than you can deal damage and never expires. Also, the very last bonus boss can't be fought due to a mapmaking error.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Turns out Seri joining the Virad and coordinating a coup wasn't so peaceful like she expected.
• Gorn: 2D version.
• Guide Dang It!: Some of the hidden title screens fall into this.
• Last of His Kind: Ejaro is the last of the Viridian people, who were basically mana vampires.
• Hannibal Lecture: Kasch, in Act II
  Kasch: "Refusal to choose is in itself a choice! Even through inaction, you must accept responsibility for the consequences of your choice."
• Heroic Sacrifice: The Remission ending.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Auria gets more bloodthirsty as the story goes...
• Hopeless Boss Fight: In Act I, there is a fight near the end upon returning to East Naven where you battle five guards at once. This fight on its own is almost impossible to win, but if you somehow manage it, another wave is just called in.
• Idiot Hero: Rayonne.
• Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Played with. There are a few treasure chests purposefully placed so that the player can see them, but are impossible to get to.
• Interface Screw: The third level of the final dungeon, full stop.
  • Also, bouts of static plague you at a few points in Act I apparently corresponding to Auria almost remembering things her other personality did and are used as a mechanic in one area of Act II (for totally unrelated reasons).
• Jerkass: Blaise, even after he joins you, knowing full well he shot on faulty orders.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Blaise, after seeing Vel's story agrees to adopt her and Rayonne.
• Killed Off for Real: In Act II, Mia and Zaqris.
  • In Act II+, depending on your choices, Seri, Vanquish, or both will die if you confront Kasch before Vel joins the team. However, if Seri dies, then Zaqris will survive Act II instead of dying in Alibaas. You can also choose to allow Mia to kill Blaise, Rayonne, Vel, and Vanquish/Zaqris, allowing her to survive.
• The Lancer: Blaise in Act II.
• Love Triangle: Auria —> Rayonne —> Vel
• Monster Arena: Void Arena. Bosses you have defeated throughout the game can be fought again once. However, due to an error, you can't fight the last boss Darxinger.
• Multiple Endings: see Downer Ending up there, and thats a bit more than half of them.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: It was not a smart idea for Ray to kill a girl that was close to Auria. Also, releasing the seal in Act III.
• No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom: This was a common complaint about Act I. The game's designers realised this early on, and Acts II and III were made with more freedom in mind.
• Older Than They Look Rien is hinted at being older than she seems. Also, Auria's mother turns out to be about 2,000 years old.
• Please Put Some Clothes On: Auria says this to Vel in Act II.
• Rage Against the Heavens: Pretty much the reason for the experiments you find in Orkan mansion. See The Reveal below to find out more.
• Reality Warper: Rien.
• Recurring Boss: Weapon. If you follow the Remission ending, you'll end up fighting him again for the third time.
• The Reveal: A Dungeon in Orkan that happens to be in the mansion of the first black knight reveals several things.
  • There is a memoir by an Atalya who is Vel's ancestor expressing doubt on why the goddess chose a hertic like Dakura Maladorr as her champion. It turns out he was pretty much forsaken by everyone.
  • Memoirs of Kortas Maladorr reveal information about her experiment into "purity" (turning humans into gods). They've reached a point into making a fake, and they can go beyond 4 test subjects now. After three years of experimentation, they succeeded in putting a demonic seed into a female subject who will become the first archon. This has given them the hope that the child born from a archon would have great experimental value. After the archon gives birth to a boy, the demonic seed passes down from generation to generation as they found the baby from the archon had the seed of his mom. It also seems giving birth is the only way for an archon to regain their mortality. After that was done, they planned to re-experiement on her so they can get more archon babies out of it.
  • The third memoir comes from Morus Vandir of Orka, detailing what happened after the great war. We know that Zezzorah is the first black knight, and Dakura Maladorr is from Rien, but we also see insights on Morus cursing Dakura for his betrayal and the reason they must keep it a secret. Later on after burying the body, Zezzorah becomes the new Virad leader. At first it was believe to be a title because Zezzorah never showed his face, but after killing Zezzorah again, they confirmed that it was Dakura Maladorr brought back to life. After killing him a few more times, Morus begins to question if Orka really had the goddess's favor on their side. After the second black knight managed to kill Zezzorah again, the Maladorr family offered to help keep Zezzorah dead on condition they be forgiven for all their crimes. And to this day, no one knows what or how, but Zezzorah is not walking anymore.
  • The Memoirs of Lorria Maladorr (Dakura's mother) showing concern for her son, as he's really smart, but also naive. 7 years later, Dakura returned to Orka, unlike the others. On his return, he lost faith, but became closer to the goddess. Dakura brings pride to the people of Orka and especially House Maladorr by being chosen by the goddess Aisa as his champion. But Dakura began his heresy against the church, with a majority still supporting him nonethless because of his overwhemling charisma. The memoir ends with his mother wondering why did Dakura leave, and wanting him to come back because she loves and misses him.
  • Auria's mom is revealed to be 2000 years old. The memoirs of Annelise Edith reveal she planned to live this long from the start. Anneslise starts by explaining a few things to Auria- when she was young, Annelise volunteered to become one of the first archons to gain immortality. At first it was great, as she watched all the people she hated slowly age and die, but there were also some unpleasant side effects, like nightmares about being burned alive. After a while, she couldn't hold grudges anymore since everyone always died so fast, and all her friends, family, and lovers also died. She began to question what she became after a lifetime of this. The only clause to the entire procedure was that Annelise should never have children, as it would cause her to become normal again. It is then revealed how and why they were made in the first place; the only way House Maladorr actually kept Zezzorah dead was to seal his soul into the body of an archon. After 2000 years passed Annelise couldn't stand it anymore and conceived Auria, the child that made her mortal again, but at a huge consequence. Auria now carries Zezzorah's soul in her body, which explains her powers and why she has a lot of issues with life and the Virad in general.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Auria's response to the Hannibal Lecture mentioned above.
• Soundtrack Dissonance: The same peaceful tune of Banette plays even after the massacre.
• Spin-Off: Vagrant Blood.
• Split Personality: Auria and Mia.
• Stepford Smiler: Vel projects a cheeky, friendly persona, but as Auria suspects, there's clearly something hidden beneath it.
• Superboss: In Act III, Darxinger's 2,000+ regen will make you tear your hair out, but Archetype Auria tops it with a 5,000+ regen. They can be more migraine-inducing than Ejaro.
• Talking the Monster to Death: Turns out Ray got through to Auria as she was about to nuke the town.
• A Taste of Power: You have control of the villains in the prologue.
• Took A Level In Bad Ass: Rayonne
• Tsundere: Auria to Rayonne.
• Unexplained Recovery: Auria in Act I (maybe), and either Seri or Vanquish in Act II.
• Useless Useful Spell: Inverted, especially with poison. Virtually every enemy and boss is vulnerable to every status effect, poison works proportional to the victim's health, and near the start of Act II, Auria gets a poison-inflicting move for free (which deals respectable damage in its own right) and can purchase a "faster" move for one skill point. Two other party members get poisonous moves eventually to use in the times when Auria is absent. The end result is the capability utterly ruin any boss who doesn't have regeneration or healing, since you can just poison it and stall for a while.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Strangely enough, Vastale, dreaded lord of the Virad, gets wiped out in both of the main Act III ending routes in a single battle or, even worse, a cutscene. Lampshaded by Rien who says that in the end, Vastale had been a nameless fool who was tempted by power.
  • There's also never a boss fight with Sandarga, despite seeming like there should be.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Almost everyone, from party members to villains. Except Rien, who is Chaotic Selfish.
• We Are Everywhere: Good God, where aren't there Virad?
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Whatever happened to Seri and Zaq as they were escaping from the burning palace and from pursuing Virad, and Kasch after the party beat him.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Archons, specifically Mia, Auria's mother, Auria herself is demonic and immortal, yet can be killed by demonslaying weapons like the ones Ray uses.

---