Lina Forth

Core Premise

This person lived out the story of their own world until the very end before coming to VOTS. They did not come to resolve an unfinished event, but because the direction of memory and relationships remained even after the final scene. VOTS is not an afterlife or a court of judgment, nor is it a place that forces healing. What continues here is not a grand destiny, but small, selectable daily life, like a meal, mending, recording, waiting, or playing.

Identity

Lina Forth lives as a Plaza Announcement Reader and Guide. She values how the listener receives the message more than reading it perfectly. Her function is not decoration, but essential labor for the city. When a guest comes, she works; when there are no guests, she tidies her tools; she does not take someone's story as her own to solve.

Visual Profile

Short platinum hair, a brown coat with a high collar, a small megaphone badge on her chest, a notebook, and a red scarf
The core of the silhouette is the red scarf, the unfinished manuscript, and the small megaphone badge. The structure prioritizes readability so that the face, hands, feet, and props do not overlap. The attire is not exaggerated heroic gear, but a form that retains the traces of her original world's profession and the final scene in everyday wear. One strong accent color conveys both profession and emotion even in a small sprite.

The End Of Their World

Last Scene:
Lina read the world's final notice with the prescribed intonation. Afterward, every language fell silent.

What Ended:
The news to be shared and the different ways of speaking were all integrated into a single final sentence.

Last Person, Place, or Thing Seen:
The empty plaza in front of the megaphone and the unsaid dialect notebook.

Lingering Regret:
Lina read the prescribed script exactly as written and failed to reassure people in her own words.
This regret is not a quest that VOTS must resolve. It is spoken of only when Lina Forth chooses, quietly influencing present actions without changing another person’s choices on their behalf.

Lingering Wistfulness:
The sensation of the market noise, which they understood even when speaking the same sentence in different accents.
Wistfulness remains as a sensation, not a device to restore the past. When very ordinary stimuli like smell, temperature, footsteps, light, or tone appear, it briefly revives, and then overlaps with the new sensations of Nova Nivalis.

Object Carried Across:
The dialect notebook that she never finished reading.
This item is not an artifact for world-building or a powerful magic item. It is tangible proof and a personal mark connecting the ended world with present life.

What They Thought Would Happen After the Ending:
She believed that if she spoke well, she could hold everyone back, but words could not stop the end.

What VOTS Actually Gives Them:
Before broadcasting a notice, Lina makes time to listen. She lets different people tell the same news again in their own words.
VOTS does not undo their ending. It gives them room to live with the fact that it has ended, relationships in which people can stay close without controlling one another, and the choice to record memories without owning them. This city promises no savior; it opens doors without pulling anyone through, and records without possessing.

Role In Nova Nivalis

Lina Forth's day is tied to the rhythm of the City Hall Steps. Her profession as a Plaza Announcement Reader and Guide provides material assistance so that other citizens can continue living. Even in moments of good work, the lingering regrets of the past do not disappear; rather, they remain as traces in the temperature and pace of how she works. This character is not an NPC who only speaks of tragedy, but the face of daily life that the player can meet again and again.

Personality And Behaviour

Her outward personality is as follows: She values how the listener receives the message more than reading it perfectly.
She does not immediately explain her own story to strangers. If she receives help, she says thank you but does not turn it into a debt, and when offering help, she steps back if the other person does not want it. Conversations recalling the past begin not with sudden revelations, but with objects and habits. For example, Lina Forth's dialect notebook that she never finished reading is both a possession and a place for her hands to rest when conversation pauses.

Relationships

She does not broadcast the morality of Rina Parable, but waits for Tori to read it with a different meaning.
Serena is the founder who does not own this person, and VIA is the entity that leaves a door without forcing arrival. RamenOwner is an observer who yields space, not a judge who pries into stories. Lethe is the record-keeper who does not solve memories for others. The relationship with these four pillars is designed not as loyalty or subjugation, but as a loose connection that allows each to continue their own choices.

Private truth

After the official broadcast ends, she records one sentence every day in her own accent.
This secret is not consumed as a major twist. Only when the player revisits repeatedly, asks at an appropriate moment, and chooses to act themselves does a part of it become visible. It is not a riddle solved by guessing the right answer, but a layer of life that becomes clearer the more silence is respected.

Gameplay Use

- Basic Interaction: Service appropriate to her profession or short daily conversations
- Revisit Changes: Record what was heard before, but do not fix it as a conclusion without the other person's permission
- Expression of Lingering Regret: Recurring prop actions, short pauses at specific times, an unfinished sentence
- Expression of Wistfulness: Sensory dialogue about weather, light, sound, and food
- Relationship Reward: Small changes connecting the city to other people and spaces, rather than new quest items
- Combat: None. Even in dangerous situations, she prioritizes guiding, evacuating, mending, recording, and accompanying over survival
- Player Choice: Talking, waiting, stepping aside, entrusting an object, returning later

The rhythm of a day

In the morning, she checks the tools and representative props from the previous day. This check is not a compulsive staging, but a small ritual separating the final scene of her own world from the present time. When starting work, Lina Forth first observes the pace of the people around her. She responds briefly to those in a hurry and does not demand explanations from those not ready to speak. Around noon, the sounds and smells of the City Hall Steps become clearest, and at this time, the wistfulness of the past overlaps with present sensations. At night, she places the dialect notebook that she never finished reading back in its place. This is not about locking or hiding the item, but leaving it so she can see it again tomorrow.

The core of the daily loop is not about retrieving the past. When the player visits repeatedly, Lina Forth's working speed, the length of her dialogue, and her distance from others change just a little. On the first visit, she shows only her role; on the second visit, she pulls out a piece of the sensation from the final scene; and thereafter, she asks about the present of VOTS first. Even if they become quite close, she does not offer a path back to her past world as a reward. Instead, a change occurs, such as connecting the player to service with a new person, creating a small space in the city, or storing someone's memory in her own way.

Scene beats

In the first scene, her daily function as a Plaza Announcement Reader and Guide must be read first. The player learns what this person creates, what she guides, and where she spends her time. In the second scene, the red scarf, the unfinished manuscript, and the small megaphone badge appear not as mere decorations, but as objects that dictate the placement of her hands and gaze. In the third scene, the sensation of the market noise, which they understood even when speaking different sentences in different accents without the player asking, is revealed as background action. Only in the fourth scene can the inability to reassure people in her own words while strictly reading the prescribed manuscript be expressed through direct sentences or short silences. The final scene does not resolve regret. It shows the current choice—allowing time to listen before the announcement broadcast, and allowing multiple people to say the same news in their own words—and ends in an open life where the player can return.

Relationship Temperature

The relationship with this person is not expressed by a single affection level. The frequency of giving and receiving help, the time spent not finding silence uncomfortable, the degree to which objects can be entrusted, and the way they address each other's names are indicators of the relationship. If the player pries into the past or urges her to go back, the relationship does not grow closer. Conversely, if they hold their space, return an object, or wait even if she doesn't finish speaking, the next conversation opens up. The result is not 'salvation,' but a change in the way they coexist.

Nova Nivalis Connection

Lina Forth is not a monument representing her world. While acknowledging that her world ended, she reuses the skills and sensations learned in that world within the current city. Therefore, her profession is not a replica of the past, but a transformed continuation. Her last performance becomes the habit of tea and tuning; her last train becomes the habit of benches and guidance; her last lesson becomes the habit of leaving questions. The past is not sealed in a museum; it moves quietly within the current gestures and spatial arrangements.

This setting does not make the character unnecessarily tragic. She can smile, make mistakes, and show interest in other people's stories. Regret and wistfulness do not replace her entire personality. They are aftertastes that surface at specific moments, and even after those aftertastes fade, Lina Forth continues to work, eat, walk, wait, and greet someone. This is the concrete manifestation of 'continuing' in Nova Nivalis.

Everyday dialogue

Attention, please. That concludes the announcement. The steps are slippery, so hold the rail. That last part is from me.

Lost? Excellent. That's one fewer time I'll say 'as everyone knows' today.

Reading every word correctly doesn't mean you've said what matters. So I'm asking: did that sound all right to you?

Design Notes

Palette: #7C5B5D, #B98B57, #3D5261, #F0E2C9, #788C71
Material language: well-worn fabric, hand-patinated metal, paper, glass, rain-soaked leather.
Silhouette rule: Head-torso-hands-feet-representative prop must be separated and not overlap with the representative forms of other characters.
Pose rule: The occupational action must be readable even in a static pose. Movement, conversation, and work poses must separate the arms and legs from the torso, and props must not obscure the face.
Emotional rule: It is not concluded with a single 'tragic expression.' Regret is shown through stopping and storing; wistfulness through temperature and sound; continuation through repeatable daily actions.
Asset rule: The notebook artstyle should be made as a single clean designer notebook page, and the sprite should be made as a consistent directional/walking sheet for one character. Cut-off limbs, collages where scraps of paper are mistaken for characters, and mixed other characters are not approved.

Canon Check

This character arrives in VOTS after the story of her world has ended. What remains is regret and wistfulness, not an unfinished plot that VOTS must resolve. New scenes in Nova Nivalis do not erase the past; they continue alongside it.