Sburb Arc

This arc began June of 2015, themed specifically after the game featured in the webcomic Homestuck. The Arc itself involves predestined players meant to play a game which puts the individual characters at odds a dangerous and complex series of puzzles, battles, and choices that could change their lives forever.

The Game Mechanics

Unlike the 'true' version of SBURB known in Homestuck, the version of SBURB in BLN is a demo version with many of its features simplified down. Normally SBURB is a game which means to create a universe through the destruction of the homeworld of its destined players. No homeworld destruction comes about from the demo and no universe is created at the end of the game. Aside the First Guardian created specifically for the purposes of guiding the players, the demo also allows room to have an experienced player with the full version of SBURB to enter the game with the players of an individual session. These players are called 'Mentors' and cannot directly help the players win the game.

Players upon starting the game enter with a perfect copy of their homes, leaving the original building unmolested back on Rigel Prima. Kernelsprites no longer created a sprite to guide the characters through the game but instead only performed its function of taking the form of an object placed within it and passing that form in prototyping to the enemies of the game itself. After prototyping the first time the sprite disappears. Where in normal SBURB prototyping after entering the game is a horrible idea, in this version it is impossible to prototype until the player is already in the game.

Players during the game must solve the puzzles and quests of their custom-made land and make a Choice upon reaching their Denizen. Lands in this version of Sburb exist on a singular game planet which orbits Skaia, a larger celestial presence that hosts the battlefield where the players must help the kingdom of Prospit defeat the dark forces of Derse. Prospit and Derse are two other celestial locations in the game serving as the factions the game hosts as well as the secondary lives each player has, known as 'Dreamselves'. While Prospit orbits close to Skaia, Derse orbits at a far distance near the endlessly dark Outer Ring, an out of bounds zone in the game which houses dark monstrosities called Horrorterrors. During the game players can collect 'grist' and 'boondollars' which count as separate currencies for the game's functions. Grist is a unit which when collected allows the players to build and create things in their land but has no actual monetary use. At the end of the game grist is poured into Skaia to create the new planet. Unlike the normal version of Sburb, building up the houses is not important as the Denizens release their grist hoards directly into Skaia for endgame creation. Boondollars are a monetary unit meant for exchange with the NPCs of the game. These NPCs, or consorts, populate the individual lands of the players and sell either powerful weaponry or special battle techniques to the players.

No reckoning happens in the demo version of Sburb. Because of this no players are intrinsically created for the game's full purposes. Players are chosen 'at random' from the planet Rigel Prima prior to the game's start. If any player neglects to join then the session is doomed and the game cannot finish. Players who join often do because they reap the benefits of gaining a Sylladex, a chance for immortality, or a chance to find out something more about themselves on a personal level for spiritual growth.

This demo however is extremely buggy which was revealed after the second Sburb arc. The game after every session is caught in a perpetual loop of trying to perform its true function of creating a universe, however because of its parsed down and badly edited code the most the demo can create at the end of the game is a single planet.

Players

Over the course of the Sburb Arc's annual initiation, a plethora of characters have made their way into and through the game. Each session also hosts a Mentor.

1burb Players

In the first session Rose Lalonde served as the players' Mentor.

Player	Classpect
Hueco Mundo	Prince of Hope
Sasuun Vongola	Rogue of Life
Marie Mjolnir	Sylph of Space
Jenny	Maid of Breath
Sunset Shimmer	Sylph of Time
Astra L Bolt	Prince of Mind
Alton Sutcliff	Maid of Life

2burb Players

In the second session Jade Harley was the Mentor guiding the players.

Player	Classpect
Crona Makenshi	Maid of Heart
Ragnarok	Prince of Blood
Ryou Bakura	Sylph of Blood
Yami Bakura	Thief of Space
Blu Scout	Rogue of Mind
Barris Ki'Teer	Prince of Doom
Monello	Bard of Life
Joanne Inarison	Maid of Light
Ozpin	Heir of Time
Bahamut	Mage of Void

3burb Players

The third session features John Egbert as the Mentor.

Player	Classpect
Koki	Mage of Time
Appleslice	Rogue of Light
Franken Stein	Heir of Mind

1burb Arc History

The appearance and activation of a mysterious game, known as Sburb.EXE, appeared in canon to a set of specific characters meant to 'play'. Hueco Mundo, Sasuun Vongola, Marie Mjolnir, Jenny, Sunset Shimmer, Astra L Bolt, and Alton Sutcliff were selected to enter the game and complete it as intended. All the characters involved with the arc were transported away from their homes by a computer program which copied the building they were in on time of activation and replicated it ingame. In addition to these characters entering the game as Players, Rose Lalonde also entered during Alton's entry into Sburb.

The prototypes which the factions ultimately gained were the forms of Hueco and Alton, a sword, a Trixie plush, glass, a frog, and an object that created electrical pulses.

Of these characters, only Sunset and Alton godtiered in the session, both at the hands of Rose Lalonde in a bid to ensure the game's end would be successful. Others, such as Hueco or Jenny, fulfilled their classpects in actions they performed or chose to do, such as Hueco's departure and neglect to return to the game, creating a session that had little hope to win with his absence, and Jenny who 'breathed' motivation, comfort, and assurance back into Rose following the ascension of Alton into Godtier. Fulfilling his role to 'destroy hope', Hueco prototyped himself at the start of the game, giving the Black King a significant power boost. He later vanished from the game when summoned out via his demon powers. Following that he neglected to return, Hueco eliminated a core source of strength that would have been invaluable in the Black King fight.

Specific players, namely Sunset and Marie, were focal in keeping the game running towards a successful end as Sunset kept the timeline in check during the Session and Marie as the Space Player created the frog that would bring the new planet forth at the end of the game.

The experiences through the game had become a trial for many characters involved. Some characters worked on improving their Lands for their consorts which were NPC creatures that lived in the generated lands themselves. Jenny, Marie, and Alton were all shown onscreen to put forth concerted effort in helping their consorts before facing their Denizens. Some characters worked on fighting and clearing the land of monsters and obstacles. Sasuun, Sunset, and Astra were focused primarily on this task.

Of all characters, Jenny is the only one who did not make a Choice that would let her go to the Battlefield and instead stayed behind in the game planet instead.

1burb Lands

Mirrors and Melody (Sunset)
Rhythm and Frogs (Marie)
Freedom and Quartz (Jenny)
Bottles and Bones (Hueco)
Gardens and Smog (Alton)
Waves and Harmony (Sasuun)
Blades and Form (Astra)

2burb Arc History

The second session began May 2016 and continued clear into the following year. This session's players included two players who had an additional player as a part of themselves, namely Crona and Ragnarok as one pair and the two Bakuras at the other pair, making ten total players destined for the game. Aside those four the other players included Jo, Blu Scout, Monello, Bahamut, Ozpin, and Barris. The mentor of this session was Jade Harley who took a more proactive approach in helping the players of this session compared to Rose in the first. Jade's Green Sun powers enhanced her ability to help, as she was capable of teleporting around the game's medium to the individual players to offer help.

The prototypings of this session included: a pillow, laptop, illusory crystal, copper pocketwatch, candy cane 'toy', fire extinguisher, a 'Dad Mask' from the game Dark Souls, bandages, cough drops, and a hamburger. The prototypings ultimately proved little issue except the laptop which both allowed the enemy forces to spam the players on Pesterchum with chat (preventing communication for the first half of the arc) and allowing the Black Queen to hack the White King and Queen of Prospit to make the endgame much harder for the players to handle.

This arc featured more alchemizations, more fighting, and more of nearly everything. Because of the nature of the amount of players and the volume of what needed to be done, the arc easily cleared a year's worth of content. All characters except Bahamut managed to Godtier in 2burb though onscreen both Bahamut and Ozpin were rarely seen doing anything significant in the arc. Most players also performed their Quests, the exceptions being Ryou Bakura, Crona Makenshi, and Bahamut.

Because the Holy Grail, an object Jo brought into the game with the power to grant any wish, the game itself registered the players as 'cheating' following a wish to completely retcon and restructure the consorts of Bahamut's land. This incentivized the Dersite Kingdom to start playing dirty instead of by the rules. This extended into the Dersites attempting to kill all the players Dreamselves and hack the Prospitian royalty to give Derse an extremely unfair edge.

During this arc one player was also infected by the Horrorterrors and became Grimdark, a condition where the player succumbs to the will of the Horrorterrors and performs their bidding. Blu Scout had in this state nearly destroyed Monello's mansion on her Land before being snapped out of his horror hysterics by Jade. The reasons for this abrupt hijacking of Blu's consciousness was out of fear by the Horrorterrors regarding 'THE ONE WHO IS ALREADY HERE'. They bid Blu Scout to destroy the Wayne Manors holding the source of their terror: an inconspicuous and creepy puppet called 'Lil Cal'.

This session featured two ectobiology creations by the Dersite agents, one using a 'NE1GHNE1GHP0NYP0NY' code from Monello's room, Monello herself, and a cueball to create TR, the First Guardian or overseer of the SBURB sessions. The secondary ectobiology session never was revealed but included a Lil Cal puppet, a cueball, and the code 'T1CKT0CKT1CKT0CK8R8KH34DSH0NKH0NK'.

2burb Lands

Land of Body and Soul (Ragnarok and Crona)
Land of Body and Balance (Ragnarok, separated)
Land of Sand and Soul (Crona, separated)
Land of Caverns and Illusion (Barris)
Land of Lightning and Forts (Scout)
Land of Clockwork and Emeralds (Ozpin)
Land of Rivers and Bridges (Monello)
Land of Deceit and Dragons (Bahamut)
Land of Fire and Tales (Jo)
Land of Frogs and Jam (Yami and Ryou Bakura)
Land of Frogs and Fear (Yami Bakura, separated)
Land of Tea and Jam (Ryou Bakura, separated)

Trivia

Areanu was involved with the start of 1burb but was not active during the rest of the arc. This led to her existence in the Arc becoming retconned out.
Her Land was entitled "The Land of Clockwork and Dissonance"
Out of the created reward planets, the 2burb session has the richest with incredible sources of ores and potential in sustaining life. This is due to the outrageous amount of grist the players obtained through a Holy Grail wish.