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The Castle's Mysteries
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WHAT THE RESIDENTS KNOW 
Edit
Residents know that the castle is magic.Edit
Many treat it as though it is sentient and has feelings of its own, but this is not a universal belief. Some people contend that a castle is not a living thing and is thus not “alive”, but they find it impossible to explain what’s going on. Some residents have suggested that it is all a lucid dream, but the sheer improbability of them all experiencing the same lucid dream means few cling to this idea for more than a few minutes.
Residents believe that the initial “loss” is a price for coming to Paradisa.Edit
They know that losses may be an ability, a skill, an item or a memory. Sometimes it may be a combination of both, or some strange, more abstract thing. It is vaguely known that losses can change when killed or knocked unconscious for a few days, but it is also known that being killed can give a resident an additional loss, rather than changing it.
Ability or skill losses strip a resident from being able to do something that is important or vital to them. Perhaps they will lose the ability to touch a specific something; during the duration of their stay in Paradisa, they will be unable to reverse this. If it is a skill such as using a weapon, they will be incapable of learning how to do it again. The loss acts as a physical restraint or a mental block, impossible to fight back against.
Item losses are when the castle takes an item that is extremely important to the resident. This item must be something that the resident keeps with them at all times, such as a weapon, or a special keepsake, or something else of significance. This item can not be retrieved, nor will the castle give out replicas or similar items.
Memory losses are very common, and they act as mental blocks. The memory may be of a precious person, friend, lover, partner, event or time period. Sometimes it strips their memory so finely that the resident does not recall the person ever existed, and sometimes it only removes certain things about that person, such as their relationship. Sometimes, when losing the memory of an event, the castle substitutes in an altered memory of it, or other times it just leaves them with a large blank. Of course, residents can learn all about the people or events they forget from other people, but it will never be the same.
Language Edit
It is a known fact that the residents come from hundreds of different worlds, many of which speak different languages. How is it, then, that they all understand each other upon coming to Paradisa?
All residents speak the same language, while in the world. This language has no name amongst the residents. Residents realize that they are all speaking a universal language, but for some reason, it doesn't bother them. It may strike them as odd, but it is an accepted fact of life in Paradisa.
They can make the conscious decision to speak and write in their native languages, but off-hand, it is all spoken and heard in the same language. For some reason, this doesn’t really perplex anyone.
Residents may teach other residents their native language.
To give a concrete example of how this works:
Say English is your primary language. It is the language you "think in". When someone gets your attention you respond in English. When writing notes for yourself, you write them in English. Whatever you do, language-wise, English is your first choice. You don't have to think about it. It's just natural.
Say you've learned French as a second language. This would imply that you only use French when you make the conscious decision to talk to someone in French; be it because you want to use it, or someone's speaking in French to you. When you write in French, it's because you've decided to; it's not as natural as writing in your primary language.
In Paradisa, the "Universal Language" replaces a resident's primary language and bumps all other language skills to secondary, tertiary, etc. The Universal Language becomes the natural language, while all others are used by conscious choice.
So, for example, Character A from Alienplanet would naturally be speaking in Alienplanetese. Upon arrival to Paradisa, she is now primarily speaking the Universal Language. Character B from Alienplanet, also present, decides he wants to speak to Character A in Alienplantese. They can still do so and anyone who doesn't speak Alienplanetese is officially left out of the loop.
Death Edit
Residents know that death is temporary. It lasts roughly two weeks (sometimes slightly longer) and on rare occasions the resident never returns. While a resident is dead their nameplate remains on the door, whereas a resident who has left loses their nameplate.
When characters return, they will feel disoriented and always be in their rooms in their bed when they awake.
Leaving Paradisa Edit
Residents know there are two ways: spontaneous departure or temporary “out spells”.
Spontaneous departures mean the character has left the world and returned to their previous time. Residents are under the impression that those who leave are returned to their timeline with no memories of Paradisa, for if they return, they have no memories of their previous stays in the world. Returning residents can read about their previous endeavors and conversations in the journal, but, of course, will have no memories of anything.
Sometimes residents are knocked out for a few days; these spells of unconsciousness, sometimes triggered from simple, seemingly inconsequential events, allow a resident to return to their home world for the duration of the unconsciousness, with no memory of Paradisa itself. Sometimes the resident experiences hours, days, weeks, months or even years of their home world before returning to Paradisa again, right at the end of the unconscious spell, where they left off, with all their memories of Paradisa intact.
The townspeople are a bit strange. Edit
More information on the townspeople can be found here.
WHAT ISN’T COMMON KNOWLEDGE Edit
The Castle and the World Edit
The castle and the world exist as two separate beings, with the castle being weaker of the two, but the castle has more presence in the lives of the residents. The world is almost a complete enigma; no one even recognizes that it is a living being as well.
The castle is a place of darkness. While the surface is beautiful, elegant paradise, its ugly personality surfaces in it in the form of its tampering with the residents’ minds and bodies, and its unapologetic nature. While it has no soul or brain, making it impossible to predict and utterly impenetrable, it knows anything and everything about everyone, and knows the optimal ways for things to play out.
When residents make plans, or carry out schemes or plots, they are usually because the castle allows them to play out that way. On rare occasions, the castle will step in and make alterations at the last second, to stop things from happening against its will.
The Castle’s Life Force Edit
The castle sustains itself off of the emotions of the residents. The residents are its sustenance; ideally, the castle takes residents, feeds off of their emotions, both negative and positive, and then discards the resident when they’re empty, when it grows tired of them, or if the resident has a bad aftertaste.
To stir things up, the castle changes its appearance, interferes with residents’ lives, feelings and abilities, and introduces new residents. It is always looking for a new power source, but it has a special taste for the dark.
What happens when a resident dies? Edit
When a resident dies, their body and soul is absorbed by the darkness at the very core of Paradisa’s heart. This may take anywhere between five minutes to an hour, meaning the body may linger until it just "vanishes".
It takes two weeks for the castle to reconstruct everything from scratch, and it takes a great deal of energy, meaning anyone who allows themselves to be killed must pay the price for effort.
What is lesser common knowledge is that when a resident dies, they suffer from an additional loss. Many residents are under the misconception that the castle does not take anything in exchange for bringing them back to life.
A lot of residents have gotten off “scott free” from their deaths, perhaps even with free bonuses like getting an undesirable loss changed or a visit back home, but they don’t realize that the castle eventually gets them back in some way, usually with some sort of vicious loss, or someone important being sent home, or something generally stressful and depressing.
On rare occasions residents hold a funeral (sans body, of course) but given the fact that they will return in two weeks, it is much more popular for characters to just take up a bedside vigil when the two weeks are up, to wait for the "deceased" to return.
When they do return, they will find themselves extremely weak, hungry, and thirsty. It will take a day or so to get re-oriented.
What happens to residents who use their powers to discover these things? Edit
Some residents, through use of magic or special powers, are able to discern things about Paradisa. Others are clever and notice patterns, or begin theories on why Paradisa behaves as it does. The castle is very private and sensitive about prying noses, and while it’ll sometimes allow the residents to figure things out, it is not kind to those who talk about it or tell others about their ideas.
The castle has no brain, no mind, nothing to invade; even gods cannot see or understand its motives, and it is completely impenetrable. While anyone with the right powers would notice that it is very, very alive, attempting to focus on this life force and listen in on it will only cause extreme, splitting headaches. The only information one can glean by tuning into the castle and its “being” is that it is very dark at its core, but it is difficult work getting that information; those trying to listen or delve into the castle’s mind suffer while they try, their sense getting temporarily mangled, and a cold feeling gripping them.
While it allows people with the right powers to know these things, it’ll punish them when they try to share these secrets. Those who try to dig into the castle’s mysteries and share them with others are punished; they suffer splitting headaches, temporary periods of muteness and deafness, and temporary cognitive problems. Sometimes they begin to feel increasingly negative, and sometimes they begin to forget their own work. Others slowly go insane, or are distracted from their tasks with horrible things.
The Voice of the Castle Edit
Residents don’t remember them when they wake up, but while they sleep, Paradisa whispers to them. No one is sure of what exactly it talks about, as they never truly recall, but the voice is soft and quiet, though it has a nasty, vicious edge to it. It entices residents to do things, to go out and cause trouble, and no one is immune to it. It speaks to residents as their conscious, constantly sitting at the back of their minds but unrealized or unrecognized.
This voice is heard louder by residents who have died and been resurrected. How loud the voice is also depends on how long a resident has been in Paradisa; the longer they’ve been there, the clearer the voice is.
