MROU Heroes

''This article is about the first MROU-centric RP and Discord server. For other uses, see MROU (disambiguation).''

MROU Heroes, also commonly called MROU1, was the community's 2nd server, and the first with a MROU-centered roleplay. It's the Discord server where the regulars from SiIva Forces came together after its downfall and grew closer not only as writers, but as friends.

Origins of MROU Heroes
A couple months before SiIva Forces collapsed, Brett made a small server for his own miscellaneous RP endeavors, which a couple of friends were invited to if they chose to be a part of it in SF. However, when the end of SF came, he decided to repurpose it as the new server for everyone to move to, so he sent out invite links, and a good handful of members joined initially. Some regulars of SF didn't join for a couple of weeks, however, as they were still attached to the original server and hoped it could be salvaged. Despite their efforts, SF would be abandoned for the most part, and everyone would move to the new server.

Name and Logo Origins
At first, the server's name was as simple as "MROU: Multiversal Realm Observation Unit," but once everyone from SF migrated over to it, the name "MROU Heroes" was chosen, as an homage to SiIva Forces also being named after a Sonic game. Unlike SF, however, MROU Heroes didn't take any inspiration from Sonic Heroes; the name was simply suggested and stuck. A couple months into the server's lifespan, one of the community's artists, Kirb with Crocs (Kirb) designed an original icon / logo for the server that would occasionally be altered for various events. A noteworthy example of this was the Discord anniversary event in which many servers changed their icons to fit Discord's "Blurple" color palette.

The MROU Heroes Community
MROU Heroes differed from SiIva Forces in many ways. One of the most major differences is that MROU Heroes was not a fully public server. New members could be invited, but these were typically people who were friends of certain members. Very few truly brand new people joined at this time. Because of this, the existing group of both, the SF regulars and people Brett invited to join the MROU server upon its initial creation got to know eachother better than they did in SF. Because it was no longer a server solely based on SiIvaGunner alone, more diverse interests began to shine through during this time, which led to more cultural diversity, but also led to some conflict in the RP. Another noteworthy development of MROU1 is that it hosted several channels and categories, some of which were dedicated specifically to the arts, which led to pre-existing artists in the community sharing more of their works, and new artists being inspired to begin drawing more. This would establish the MROU community's creativity they still have today.

Popular Activities & Interests
Unlike SF, there were less things in MROU1 where nearly everyone had a shared fondness for due to the open nature of the server. However, some popular subjects among the group back then included...


 * Art & Design (As people began to share and create more works of art, thanks to the server organization and RP)
 * Voice Chatting (Many more people began to feel more comfortable sharing their voice at this time, thanks to the tight nature of the server)
 * Videogames (There were eventually roles dedicated to fans of various properties such as Sonic, Kirby, Pokemon, etc.)
 * Anime (A dedicated media+anime channel led to more people discussing media beyond videogames alone)
 * Roleplaying (A vast majority of MROU1 members roleplayed and frequently discussed arcs and concepts; there were very few members who didn't RP)

Server Roles
MROU Heroes somewhat followed a hierarchy like SF did, though it was significantly more loose. There was a group of moderators and an owner who handled any moderation in both, the server and RP. However, unlike SF, eventually the server would experience an overhaul in which roles were not ranked by importance / ranked, but rather by interests. Some examples include...


 * Dreamcrafter / Leader - Brett's role. In late 2017, Brett became overwhelmed with leading the group, and had to take a break for a bit. During this time, Sani took over as the server's leader.
 * Helpers / Moderators - There still wasn't a formal way of deciding moderators at this time, so it was volunteer-based. If someone had experience and believed they could handle the stress of dealing with drama, they were promoted. Sometimes moderators would step down as well when things got too stressful as well.
 * Gensokyians - Touhou fan role.
 * Hedgehogs - Sonic fan role.
 * Puffballs (later renamed to Squeak Squad) - Kirby fan role.
 * Pokemon (later renamed to Pokemon Trainers) - Pokemon fan role.
 * Artists - For illustrators / members who draw.
 * Writers - For authors / members who write.

There were many other roles that followed this general format. These are just a few examples.

MROU Heroes Roleplay
The roleplay in MROU Heroes was still a major part of the server as the server was a followup to a dedicated RP server, so many members partook in it.

Style and Tone: Endless Possibilities
MROU1 is often remembered as having an incredibly vast variety of emotions, tones, and writing styles based upon who was in charge of leading an arc. For the most part, the tone of MROU1 was lighthearted, with serious undertones. However, unlike SF, it tended to stray away from more meme/joke filled RP scenes, as they were relegated to a shitpost RP channel, generally no longer a part of the main RP. Character-wise, MROU1 offered the same level of freedom as SF, but many people opted for using many more original characters than before there. It can be theorized that because the RP was no longer limited to a single channel or world, that more people were motivated to introduce a wider cast of different, unique characters.

Plot and Setting: Universes Collide
MROU Heroes had the first roleplay in which anybody writing and pulling off their own story arcs for others to follow was significantly more accessible, and as a result, the characters went through dozens of very different adventures together. Because many members were younger and didn't feel nearly as pressured or weighed down by fear of being overly criticized, there was an incredibly large variety of arcs from several members. Brett had his own series of arcs that most agreed upon to be the "main story" of MROU1, though they weren't particularly more prevalent or more advertised than others' arcs; they just typically involved the group's leader, Aqua, among other important characters.

The basic premise of MROU Heroes is one that has become a staple in many of the community's roleplay universes. The standard method of joining the RP was for your character(s) to receive an invitation to join a brand new group of rookies in the multiversal problem solving organization, MROU. The particular group they were invited to join was in a base located in the city of New Boston, on the planet Neo Earth. Neo Earth had many locations inspired by real life, but had much further advanced technology and cities, as well as more fantasy settings, such as Stardust Plains.

The setting wasn't only limited to New Boston, or even just Neo Earth, however. When Brett left the server and left Sani as the new server leader for a short time, the group in the RP moved to a new MROU building in New Shibuya, led by new leaders for the time they were away, so Sani wouldn't have to use Brett's characters and could instead use new ones. Not only did the main setting change occasionally, but arcs took the group to several other worlds and universes, such as...


 * Planet Mobius, from the Sonic the Hedgehog series
 * The Mushroom Kingdom, from the Super Mario. Bros. series
 * Gensokyo, from the Touhou Project series
 * Planet Azorinthia and The Ethereal Dreamscape, the main setting for many of Sani's arcs
 * Grandiose City, modified and adapted for MROU1 from SF by Spooki
 * Poly Plaza, from which Squik and Kirb's characters Squik and 2quik came
 * And many more...

Server Controversies and Collapse
Due to a wide variety of factors, MROU1 was plagued with a lot of tension among members at times, all of which combined to lead to the ultimate collapse of the server, and nearly the end of the community entirely.

Roleplay Controversies
Because of the much less restrained RP that allowed for anybody to tell their own set of story arcs as they please, there was inevitably some drama and debate that sparked from it. Some of these controversies have resulted in some old members of the MROU community becoming significantly more nervous and less open to sharing their ideas via arcs, or even participating in the roleplay at all. Some of these issues were...


 * Quality Control - Some members believed the roleplay should be more or less serious/detailed than it was. Though the RP was literate and never reached overly casual levels of writing, some believed that it should be much more formal, and spoke very openly about this.
 * Over-Analyzing/Critiquing - Early on, most arcs that people did were welcomed with open arms. However, eventually, some people began to criticize arcs, or even over-analyze them and complain that they weren't up to par with writing from more formal publications like novels and books.
 * Creator Favoring - Some people were more interested in certain arcs than others, resulting in an imbalance of attention / characters participating in others' arcs. While some arcs had upwards of 10 characters present, some would have only a couple. Some writers of these arcs felt insecure because they would assume nobody wanted to participate because their work wasn't good enough, while others took a more violent approach and began to lash out at people over it, resulting in more Over-Analyzing and Quality Control issues.
 * Timeline Breaking - Being the 2nd RP to exist in the community, a new issue came about of whether or not it was okay for characters to be aware of the SF universe's existence. Generally, all characters were reset if they returned in MROU1 from SF, meaning SF was not canon to MROU1, and it was seen as taboo for a person's character to act as if they're aware of SF's existence, or to try and connect the two. 4th wall breaking also became a taboo subject as well, as some people saw it as too immersion breaking.

Community Controversies
As mentioned before, MROU1 members had a much tighter sense of friendship and bond to one another. Many of them grew close as friends and began to hold one another in special regards. Due to this, when any drama occurred within the group, it would typically affect everyone and cause the entire server to grow tense; no longer did drama occur behind the scenes and only affect a few people as it often did in SF. At first, the tone of the server was lighthearted and fine, but as most members were teenagers going through difficult parts of their lives together, emotions became more unstable and the overall atmosphere more tense. Some things that made this issue worse included...


 * Venting - Many people felt more comfortable venting their personal lives and feelings at this time, as they felt closer to eachother. This was a generally good thing, as people were often there to comfort one another, but sometimes it led to guilt when people felt they couldn't help, or tension when people spoke out about negative emotions toward one another.
 * Poor Relationships - Some people got along better than others. Those who didn't get along as well would often clash in ideals with others, and vice versa, resulting in arguments over even the most mundane of things, like the RP.
 * RP Hyperfocus - Some members tended to take the RP too seriously, putting it above the health and wellbeing of others, to the point where they threatened to leave or would start fights if anything got in the way of their ability to roleplay.

The End of MROU Heroes
Due to a combination of these events, MROU Heroes eventually had a major server collapse occur in mid 2018 when the community tension rose to a maximum, and several people broke out into fights and left the server. At this time, most members were hopeless for the future, and believed that to be the true end of the community. However, two new servers would be made not too long after the fall of MROU: One was focused on starting a new RP and keeping the roleplay community alive, while the other was focused on the friendships everyone had made and keeping them all together, regardless of the state of the RP. These two servers would be the Dream RP server and Phoenix Revolution respectively.

Trivia / Fun Facts
Some other interesting tidbits of interesting regarding MROU1...


 * MROU1 lasted roughly 8 and a half months, ironically staying afloat for almost the same amount of time as SF. Unlike SF, however, the server's roleplay is heavily archived and easily accessible. The non-RP channels, however, have been deleted and are no longer accessible.
 * Many of MROU1's settings have been remastered or reimagined into canon locations in the current MROU universe. One such example is Stardust Plains, a location that originated from a short, non-canon introductory arc performed by Sani and Brett early on in MROU's lifespan.
 * MROU1 would be the final server to have proper moderation / staff teams and member hierarchy until MROURes, as the following server gave all of its members equal administrative powers, treating the server more like a group than a proper server.
 * There was a bizarre, opposite version of MROU in the RP at one point, entitled OURM. It hasn't returned since, but was a reflection of MROU, in which characters similar to those of MROU's were its members, and they were antagonists instead of heroes.