🩸 Core Lore (What It Is)
Carnivial is a traveling carnival unlike any other. It doesn't roll in on trucks or pitch tents in city parks — instead, it shifts between dimensions, appearing in different worlds to lure new guests and performers.
Once someone joins the staff — willingly or tricked — they can’t leave. Not really. Some vanish trying. Some become part of the props. Others forget who they are entirely. Every role, every act, every costume becomes as much a curse as a job.
It’s part hell, part dream, part interdimensional parasite. The longer you stay, the more you become part of the Carnivial.
🎟️ "Come One, Come All!" (Public Face)
To outsiders, Carnivial looks like the most magical, wondrous place imaginable:
- Giant Ferris wheels that scrape the sky
- Twisting tents that change shape when you look away
- Candy that whispers secrets when you eat it
- A tunnel of love that knows your regrets
- Fire breathers, puppet masters, beast tamers, illusions too real
But stay too long... and it changes you.
🕰️ Temporal Weirdness
- Time does not work properly here.
- A guest might spend an hour inside and find a year has passed outside.
- A performer might live fifty years within the carnival and only age a week.
- Some don’t age at all anymore. Some forget they were ever human.
👁️ The Ringmaster
Nobody knows their true name. They only appear in mirrors, megaphones, and dreams. Their voice is velvet and static. They never leave the central tent. They make the rules — and decide who breaks them.
👨🎤 Roles & Workers
All performers are assigned acts — and those acts reshape their identities over time.
- Clowns become more warped the longer they perform — laughter echoes from their mouths even when they cry.
- Beast Tamers start to grow teeth. Not always in their mouths.
- Acrobats lose their shadows and begin floating even when they sleep.
- Concessions workers get stuck on loop — always offering popcorn, never blinking.
- Ticketmasters know things they shouldn’t. Prices change depending on your sins.
Each role is a curse disguised as talent. The longer you serve it, the less you remember your name.
🧵 Escaping?
There are rumors of a way out:
- A secret show only seen once per century
- A contract hidden deep inside the Funhouse
- A mirror that shows your true form — and the way home
But every escape attempt comes with a price. Some succeed… but they’re never quite themselves again.
🫀 Emotional Core / Themes
- Identity loss
- Exploitation & performance
- Glamour hiding horror
- Found family… in the wrong place
- Desperation disguised as a show
- "The show must go on" — even if it kills you.
💡 Bonus Ideas
- A boy made of smoke who juggles people’s memories.
- A ring of fire that reveals your past lives if you jump through it.
- Backstage is a place of shifting geometry and wandering “retired” performers.
- A guest-turned-performer struggles to hold on to who they were before.
- Carnivial feeds on attention and belief — if no one watches, it starts to unravel.