Law of Talos OCT

Summary
Law Of Talos OCT launched on July 29 2008 by Sins-Of-Angel on DeviantArt. The premise was that competitors were given the chance of getting a wish from the Law Of Talos Machine in the Grand City of Taitle. The competitors had to depict an audition where their character(s) arrive at the Grand City of Taitle - the battlefield of the tournament. The tournament was single elimination, invite only and had 32 competitors.

The winner was BlackLillian with the characters Annie and the Professor. Unknown-Person with Karl was the runner up.

Premise
An old man lives in the great city of Taitle - a Victorian Steampunk styled city full of abandoned buildings. The city was unpopulated for a long time. The Old Man invented a wishing machine which works under a new strange physical law named The Law of Talos.

The Wishing Machine can grant one wish.

The Old Man's Nephew then proposed the idea of a tournament. Each contestant is given a set of tools, including a boiler, the gas tank, and the engine parts. Metal, pipes, chimneys, everything else could be scavenged elsewhere.

The goal is to be the last one standing, brought in front of the wishing machine and given the chance to make your deepest desire come true.

Premise Transcript
Premise copied from the Law of Talos introduction journal

The grand city of Taitle, once bustling with life and thought and steam-powered inventions, stands deserted save for the stray passing inventor salvaging scrap metal from its workings and a stubborn old man who has lived on the same plot of land his ancestors have all his life. He didn’t mind the old abandoned buildings, the winding Victorian architecture that was crumbling in places, or the almost rhythmic release of steam from street vents. No one knew where the vents went, or why they were there, or even how to properly begin to repair the city’s maze of architecture to make it living again, but the vents are there, leading to nowhere, and the city is there, and had, at one point, worked for the people in it.



All it works for now, other than the old man, were the little robots, left behind by careless people passing through and repaired by the old man, set free to wander the city and make their own homes for themselves. The city itself is like a time capsule, fallen into disrepair but stuck in this era of steam-powered technology, stuck in the same culture it has been since it was last bustling with signs of the lives of its citizens because of the influence of a strange new physical law, dubbed Law of Talos by its discoverer, the old man.

The city functions only on steam power, despite its neighbors having modern technology already. Said technology stops working within the city grounds, and there is a presence that is nothing short of magical in the air.

The Law of Talos has been around ever since the first person had set foot in the city, it seemed, even while it was bustling with the life of its inhabitants, before it was abandoned. Since then, the city has been unpopulated. That is, until now. Now the town is overrun by people scouring every inch of the city for all the broilers and gas tanks and engine parts that have been left lying around, and building high glass domes on metal stilts. All in preparation. The town was going to be alive again, but not for its usual purpose. It would live for a tournament.

The stubborn old man had finally done it. In his workshop stood the world’s first, and, indeed, only wishing machine. Steam and smoke poured out of the contraption, and things spun at seemingly random times, and a small gauge on the front, going from 1 to 10, was now pointing at 1. Whatever it was that was making the machine work (for the old man wasn’t sure of it himself. When pressed, he'd simply answer "Oh, it must simply be a use of the Law of Talos, but of course," but never expands on said law.) was allowing for one more wish. And the stubborn, but nice and friendly old man, had decided that now since he had hair again and had his fun wishing, it was time to give the last wish, however big or small it may be, to someone who is willing to go to any length to prove he/she deserves it. And it was his nephew, hanging around the shop one day, who suggested the idea of a tournament.

So the city had become alive once again, bustling with the sound of workers preparing for said tournament, ready to welcome the competitors and building observation domes for the spectators at either end of the city. Because, as the nephew pointed out, a little monetary profit never hurt anyone.

The idea was simple. People who heard of this machine, be it by technology like the internet or carrier pigeons, were told to gather in the city if they were interested. Bring yourselves, it said. Bring courage and the will to win. And bring your greatest desire, because fulfilling it is your prize. Once it starts, step outside Taitle, and you’re out. Be defeated by your set opponent and you’re out. And when you’re out, you forfeit everything you have collected over the course of the tournament to the winner of your match. Since it wouldn’t be a proper tournament in the old man’s eyes if it didn’t allow for some inventiveness, he will give each contestant a set of tools, the most unique and important of these being the boiler, the gas tank, and the engine parts. Metal, pipes, chimneys, everything else could be scavenged.

But those parts you could only get by defeating your opponent, and it is with those parts that you can build bigger things, or many small things, whichever you prefer. And it is those parts you forfeit when you lose a match. Do you have to use the kit? No, of course not. The old man simply wanted to give everyone the fair option to. Just keep those vital parts close, because even if you don’t want them, leaving them would give a huge advantage to whoever finds them. The goal is to be the last one standing, brought in front of the wishing machine and given the chance to make your deepest desire come true.

Judges

 * Sins-Of-Angels (Host)


 * Wixed001


 * Skylord


 * Pinumbra


 * LabrysWaltz

Competitors and Competitor Characters

 * Auryn with Joshua Bell


 * Terriblenerd with Annie + The Professor


 * Cailencrow with Eric Pockets


 * Cirihtt with Mizuno


 * Clairvoire with The Brave


 * Conmandamned with Morrow Stone


 * Concentrationmoon with the Chimbley Sweep


 * CyrilTheWizard with Murphy


 * DevilChicka with Femke + Marion


 * Endling with Lilith


 * Del-Borovic with Rellik


 * Gottschalk with Saph


 * HaveConquest with Faust


 * IrisZeible with Dembe + Yan Qian


 * Izuma with Lucia Albatross


 * TheJohnsonDesign with Lester Mole


 * Kilo-Monster with Ayshia + Todd


 * Lanhao with Mika + Ramy


 * Lan-kun with Greg + Renfield


 * Lunacat-chan with Nerida Hayle


 * Manic-Pixie with Kit Bates


 * Marcks with Euria


 * ProminenceFlare and Garagos with Antonius, Eli + Keith


 * Rave8259 with Kato Kuromizu


 * Rikyo with Thomberry Gange


 * Rockaaar with Jinam Vinalli


 * CubeWatermelon with Steffi


 * Unknown-Person with Karl


 * Zen-Dragon-Pyro with a currently unknown character


 * Zeurel with Spoiler/Black Ace


 * ZombieBunnyPro with Moth


 * Zombiesmile with Ko-omote

Rounds
There were 5 rounds in Law of Talos.

Round 1
Round 1 began in August 2008 and had 16 matchups

Round 1 ended with Spoiler, Ayshia + Todd, Lilith, Ko-omote, Greg + Renfield, Annie + The Professor, Karl, Murphy, The Brave, Steffi, Euria, Rellik, Keith, Kit Bates, Eric Pockets and Chimbley Sweep winning their matchups.

Matchups

 * Spoiler vs. Thomberry Gange
 * Faust vs. Ayshia + Todd
 * Dembe + Yan Qian vs. Lilith
 * Ko-omote vs. Kato Kuromizu
 * Morrow Stone vs. Greg + Renfield
 * Annie + the Professor vs. Lester Mole
 * Karl vs. Mizuno
 * Murphy vs. Lucia Albatross
 * The Brave vs. ??? (Zen-Dragon-Pyro's character)
 * Steffi vs. Nerida Hayle
 * Mikah vs. Euria
 * Marion + Femke vs. Rellik
 * Moth vs. Keith
 * Jinam Vinalli vs. Kit Bates
 * Eric Pockets vs. Joshua Bell
 * Chimbley-Sweep vs. Saph

Round 2
Round 2 began in 2008 and had 8 matchups

Round 2 ended with Chimbley Sweep, Rellik, Karl, Annie + The Professor, Murphy and Eric Pockets winning their matchups. Due to several double forfeits, past eliminated contestants were randomly selected to return in Round 3. These ended up being Mizuno and Joshua Bell.

Matchups

 * Lilith vs. Euria
 * Ayshia + Todd vs. Murphy
 * Eric Pockets vs. Ko-omote
 * Rellik vs. Kit Bates
 * The Brave vs. Greg + Renfield
 * Spoiler vs. Chimbley Sweep
 * Karl vs. Steffi
 * Keith vs. Annie + The Professor

Round 3
Round 3 began in 2008 and had 4 matchups Round 3 ended with Chimbley Sweep, Karl, Eric Pockets and Annie + The Professor winning their matchups

Matchups

 * Joshua Bell vs. The Chimbley Sweep


 * Rellik vs. Karl


 * Annie + The Professor vs. Murphy


 * Mizuno vs. Eric Pockets

Round 4 (Semifinals)
Round 4 began in 2009 and had 2 matchups

Round 4 ended with Karl and Annie + The Professor winning their matchups


 * The Chimbley Sweep vs. Karl


 * Eric Pockets vs. Annie + The Professor

Round 5 (Final)
Round 5 began in 2009 and had 1 matchup Round 5 ended with Annie + The Professor winning their matchup


 * Annie + The Professor vs. Karl

Impact
Law of Talos, along with Unknown-Person's Karl have gained popularity over the years, with characters featured in Unknown-Person's entries being in fanart and fan animations even 15 years after the tournament.

Trivia

 * ConcentrationMoon (Chimbley Sweep's Creator) and Unknown-Person (Karl's Creator) were previously paired up in Endzone OCT, it was also a previous tournament Chimbley Sweep was a part of.


 * Law of Talos was one of the first popular examples of an OCT having a wish as the in-universe prize.