Persona

Personae are manifestations of a character’s personalities, given form as mythological and fictional entities. They are the mirror to shadows: tamed and disciplined materializations of one's inner thoughts and personality, and are key factors in facing and defeating the dangers the persona users must face.

Shintai
Shintai are items used to summon a character’s persona. They are a bit like personal talismans. No two are the same, and each shintai carries some important meaning or relation to its user, though the user doesn't necessarily have to understand why. They should be small, fairly durable, and easily portable - the kind of thing a persona-user could carry with them everywhere.

Persona Growth and Social Links
As a persona user matures and grows, so too does their persona. A persona’s evolution is a dramatic event, and is triggered by both gradual and sudden developments as a person.

Self-Link / Persona Growth
A persona’s growth is directly linked to the user’s. As characters grow, their self-link increases, and their persona transforms. At self-rank 5, your persona can evolve for the first time. At self-rank 10, the character achieves their ultimate persona. For more info, please see Social Links.

Multiple Personae
Because we're writing our own story, the evolution of the persona shouldn't be linear like in the games. While you must apply with a starter persona in mind, you should pick multiple different personae for it to grow into, representing the multiple directions your character might grow. You don't need to have these ready for application.

Yin/Yang Path
The self-link also incorporates a yin/yang value. This value is a representation of your characters actions, feelings, and decisions, and therefore, the path they are on. The form a character's personae takes is influenced by their yin/yang value.

Evolution Paths
All personae evolve up to 3 times. However, your pool of possible personas can be 3, 5, or 7, depending on your personal preference. Please note that you will never be able to access all of these possible persona (choosing 5 or 7 does not give you 5 or 7 growth steps).


 * 3 - Your character has a starter Persona, and a single and ultimate upgrade. You must provide us with a starter, and one persona for both the ultimate yin path and ultimate yang path.
 * 5 - Your character has a starter persona, an upgrade, and an ultimate. You must provide us with a list of a starter, two rank five "upgrade" personae and two rank 10 "ultimate" personae. The two at each stage can correspond to a yin/yang path of development.
 * 7 - This is the maximum number we will allow. In this scenario, the upgrade persona chosen at rank 5 begins another branching path ending with two separate ultimate personae to choose from. See the diagram for details.