Rewrite, Chapter 5

The black faded away, allowing me to see the meadow I had started out on again. Now, without anything to occupy my mind with, the look on the Guard’s face returned and my hands started to shake. There was an intense rush within me, causing me to stumble to my knees, as the shaking of my hands started to spread, enveloping my whole body.

“Calm yourself, young one.” a voice I recognised as Alkmene told me, making me swallow, even as I remembered mental exercises to combat panic-attacks. Deep breaths, counting to ten and focusing on distinct things. It could be a physical sensation or it could be a memory, in my case, I went with the memory, bringing the symbols I had seen in the last test to the forefront of my mind, especially the silver one. Just remembering the calmness I had felt when touching it slowly returned, allowing me to focus on my breathing, getting it to a normal rate. Part of me wondered if it was possible to hyperventilate in a virtual world, but shook off the thought as meaningless.

Standing, I turned around, giving Alkmene a nod, which she returned, before her face returned to the polite customer-service mask she had worn before.

"Welcome back, traveller.” she greeted, as if her earlier words had never been said.

“I see that you had an impressive performance in your testing.” she nodded, looking me up and down. I felt my eyebrow rise and I was about to ask what she meant, when her mask slipped for a moment, the smile on her face giving me a distinctly mischievous impression.

“Why, the gods themselves judged you. Quite the honour, for a mortal. And you impressed some of them, a rare feat. But then, they might have expected the performance of an average mortal, so being impressive for a mortal is akin to being a particularly large ant.“ she continued and I thought I heard a soft chuckle at the end, while my forehead creased into a frown. I didn’t like the feeling of being looked down upon. Before I could express my displeasure, a blue window opened, giving me more information than I had expected, given the previous dearth of instruction.

• Name - Morgana
• Race - Undefined
• Class-Level - 0
• Health - ???/???
• Stamina - ???/???
• Astral Power - ???/???
• Divine Power - ???/???
• Strength - 10
• Agility - 12
• Dexterity - 12
• Intelligence - 15
• Intuition - 15
• Charisma - 10
• Courage  13
• Endurance - 11
• Vitality - 12

• Special Ability gained
• You gained the Special Ability: Overflow
• For having Intelligence of 15 or higher, you gained the skill Overflow. Overflow allows you to let your Astral Power burst out, overcharging spells and magical abilities. But beware, not every spell can handle vast amounts of power and might fail to contain it, causing backlash.

• Special Ability gained
• You gained the Special Ability: Bullet Time
• For having Intuition of 15 or higher, you gained the skill Bullet Time. Bullet Time allows you to boost your mind to the maximum, decreasing your perceived flow of time, giving you more time to plan out your actions. The duration depends on your Intuition, your Intelligence and your remaining Stamina and is not known beforehand.

Checking over the stats, I felt pleased with myself, flattered even. Earlier, it had been said that a ten was about average so getting told that I was above average in most aspects made me feel good, even while a small voice somewhere in the back of my head reminded me that part of selling a game was to make the customer feel good. Who knew if the attributes were truly fairly distributed or if there was a player-bonus of some sort, making everyone exceptional. After all, when I had played Craft of War, my character had received a Hero-Class and was equipped with a legendary artifact - as had been almost everyone else. Later, over the course of the game, they had added more and more appellations, giving the characters more and more grand-sounding titles, trying to impress upon you that “your” character was the hero of the story. Only that everyone was the hero of “their” story.

Shaking off my skeptical self, I focused on what I couldn’t easily place, Astral- and Divine power? I had no idea what those were, but given the other values, I had to guess that at least one of them was akin to the Mana I was used to.

Maybe Alkmene could tell me more. "Can you tell me what Divine Power and Astral Power are?" I asked, looking up from my character-screen.

"Certainly.” she replied with a nod, before going into lecture-mode.

“In simple terms, Astral Power is extracted from the astral rivers that flow all around Mundus, it's by mortals to cast spells. It can also be given to the gods in prayer, hoping that you gain some of their power for yourself. And that is Divine Power, power that a God lent you, allowing you to perform small feats of the Divine Glory. Ultimately, what those are depends on the God you serve.” she explained, before looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

While I couldn’t be certain, her explanation sounded as if Pantheon had split spellcasters into two groups, the Mages, Sorcerers or whatever you wanted to call them on one side and the Clerics, Priests or Paladins on the other. It made me wonder about the all-crucial balance-aspect but, for now, I was lacking in information to find out more.

Before I could continue asking questions, Alkmene spoke on her own. "Sadly, natural aptitude for true magic is extremely rare amongst mortals. They need extensive study and research before they are ever able to perform more than the smallest cantrip. That means, most don’t even try to learn, instead training their physical bodies or, if they are truly foolish, knocking on some Deities door, licking their boots for scraps from the table.”

The disdain in her voice made my eyes widen, I had rarely heard that much venom in a voice. Part of me wanted to inquire but the look on her face, combined with the earlier venom and a newly appeared blue box made me think better of it.

Your performance during the tests gained you traits.

• Trait gained
• You gained the trait: Natural Mage
• Natural Mages have an inborn connection to certain elements, which allows them to gain an understanding of the nature of that Element, expressed through Magical Runes. Those expressions of Understanding allow them to create spells comprised of that element, using their will to mold the runes.

• You gain Special Abilities: [Rune Meditation], [Rune Comprehension]

• You gain Traits: [Rune Affinity: Ice], [Rune Affinity: Darkness], [Rune Affinity: Blood]

• Special Ability gained
• You gained the Special Ability: Rune Meditation
• Runes are the visual expression of certain Aspects of an Element. By meditating on a Rune’s meaning, you may slowly learn more about the nature of its element, maybe even learn new runes. The ability to infer runes depends on your Affinity and the specific Rune-Magic Skill.

• Special Ability gained
• You gained the Special Ability: Rune Comprehension
• Allows you to gain understanding on the meaning of Runes. You need to either draw, see or meditate on the runes to understand them. The complexity of the runes you can comprehend depends on your elemental Affinity and the specific Rune Magic-Skill.

• Special Ability gained
• You gained a Special Ability: Rune Triangle
• For  being a Natural Mage and reaching 10 Intelligence, you gain the ability to link three Runes into a single spell. This is the basic form of rune-magic.

• Special Ability gained
• You gained a Special Ability: Rune Pentagon
• For  being a Natural Mage and reaching 15 Intelligence, you gain the ability to link five Runes into a single spell, increasing their possible uses.

• Trait gained
• You gained  the trait: [Elemental Affinity: Ice]
• This trait signifies your innate connection to the Element Ice, allowing you to understand its runes and wield Ice-Magic with less difficulty. The element Ice stands for freezing, solitude, calculated action and eternity.

• Trait gained
• You gained  the trait: [Elemental Affinity: Darkness]
• This trait signifies your innate connection to the Element Darkness, allowing you to understand its runes and wield Darkness-Magic with less difficulty. The element Darkness stands for concealment, uncertainty, devouring and change.

• Trait gained
• You gained  the trait: [Elemental Affinity: Blood]
• This trait signifies your innate connection to the Element Blood, allowing you to understand its runes and wield Blood-Magic with less difficulty. . The element Blood stands for sacrifice, regeneration and the cycle of life. 

• Trait gained
• You gained the trait: Ruthless
• You don't hesitate to do what you have to do to reach your goals.
• Your allies are less likely to trust you to guard their back.

Once I was finished reading the boxes, I looked over to Alkmene, who gave me a friendly nod, before continuing to the next step of character-creation.

“Well done, indeed. Before we continue, you need to make a choice. My Mistress told me that only humans managed to build a civilization on your planet. On Mundus, the world you are about to enter, that is not the case. There are many different races with their own civilisation and many of those have sub-races, divergent from the rest by virtue of location or culture. While you can choose to enter the world of Mundus as a human, you might want to consider something else.” she explained, making me nod in agreement.

The idea appealed to me, to shed my human skin, so to speak. In addition, in every game I had played before, humans were the jack-of-all-trades, the boring option for those who thought vanilla ice-cream was too spicy. Not that I had anything against it, but I wanted to try something different.

“Can you show me a few races that would suit me?” I asked, curious what Alkmene would do with a task that, in my opinion, required subjective judgement.

“Certainly, what do you think of these?” she asked, and a large, blue box appeared in front of me, giving me quite a bit to read.

Suggested Races

• Moon-Elf - The Moonelves dwell amongst the ancient forests, they worship the moon and natural order, they value community, piety and continuity. Within their forests, they create fantastical feats of magic, in symbiosis with nature. To attack the elves is to go to war with the forest itself. On average, they are tall, slender and graceful. They defend their ancient trees and seldom venture from their magic kingdom.
• Naga - Naga dwell in the shallow parts of the oceans, they are creatures with a human torso and a snake-like lower body. Their cities are under water, protected from sea-monsters by artificial shallows or hidden within underwater caves. They are masterful swimmers and tend to stay close to the ocean. Their natural affinity to the ocean and its magic makes them the best navigators and sailors.
• Firn-Elf - The Firn-Elves are not true elves, as elves view those things. They are the outcome of an experiment by a mad god. He crossed the Svartalfar with Jötun in order to create a highly magical race of loyal soldiers. His experiment failed, Firn Elves are highly magical but also independent, headstrong and ruthless. They don't form tribes but individuals wander the northern reaches of Mundus.
• White Kitsune - Kitsune in general are magical fox-beings, they value secrecy,  intrigue, magic and sensuality. The White Kitsune live in small, tight-knit communities in the high mountains, secluded from the world. Little is known about their internal workings, only a few venture forth to study from foreign teachers. The study of magic and martial arts is their main path, pursuing balance in all things. 

Reading through the text, I had to give it to Alkmene, she had selected interesting options, especially when looking at my previous actions and the traits I had gained. All four options seemed to have a magical affinity, which suited me quite well while the Firn-Elves might have been added just because they were described as Ruthless. The idea made me smile, even while considering them a little more, not quite sure what to make of them.

“Can you show me the other options?” I asked, curious how many there were. And I wasn’t disappointed, a window named Overall Races appeared, with a thin scroll-bar. I couldn’t easily count them, they were not numbered to my annoyance, but if I had to guess, it was north of two-hundred, maybe more. It started with Amazonians, an all-female warrior-race that abducted males from other races for the purpose of propagation and went from there. Curious how far they went, I simply gave the scroll-bar a hefty shove, causing the races to speed past me, too fast to get even a glimpse of what they were before the window stopped, showing me the race of Ophelians, a sort of serpent-like humanoid, with venomous fangs and some cannibalistic tendencies. Shaking my head, I gave the bar another shove, only for it to stop at the end of the options, with the Zorans, fish-people that seemed to mostly live in large rivers, able to swim up waterfalls to return to their homeland. I would either have to read for a long time, to make an informed decision or go with one of Alkmene’s suggestions.

Given that I had already spent quite a while on character-creation, I wanted to continue without reading through what looked like a few hundred entries, so I looked at the original box, with the suggested races, again.

They all sounded interesting, all for their own reasons. But they all had something that disagreed with me, again, different for each of them. Moon-Elves sounded very much like the hippy-types, living in one giant forest-commune, worshipping the moon and enjoying their shrooms. Just that idea made me recoil, shaking my head. No, Moon-Elves were out, especially as I wanted to explore the world of Mundus, not stick around in a forest.

Similarly, White Kitsune lived in “tight-knit communities”, no idea how that would turn out in-game but what made me think twice was the fact that they were “fox-beings.” The idea to have a tail or many of them felt funky to me, and not all that appealing. I wasn’t sure I wanted to try out new appengages. Which automatically disqualified the Naga, simply due to the whole lower body of a snake. I liked my legs, they had carried me quite well for over twenty years, I had no desire to swap them for a snake-body, even if it would likely slim me down quite a bit.

Lastly, there were the Firn-Elves, the failed experiment to make magical shock-troopers for God, or something like that. Which was my biggest hold-up towards them, without more information, I couldn’t tell if that meant they were hard-core on their religion, trying to get granddaddy god to notice them or if they went the other direction, discarding their religion, just as their god had discarded them.

After one more glance at the overall-race list, I decided to go with what appealed to me the most, the Firn-Elf. Now, I just had to see where that got me.

“Alkmene, I think my Avatar will take the form of a Firn-Elf, I think it fits me best. Can you show me how I would look as one, maybe alter some aspects of it?” I asked.

“Certainly. I think you will make a handsome elf.” Alkmene replied, her voice almost teasing.

An editor appeared before me, to show me my looks as a Firn-Elf and customize them. There was quite a bit of temptation there, especially a certain slider, but after foolishly sliding it to the max and nearly dying of laughter, I reset it to default, still snickering. Those things had been larger than my elven upper body. Another temptation was the height-slider but here I managed to resist, simply because I had no desire to disrupt my coordination.

Finally, I settled on sharpening my facial-lines, making my face a little more mature, while changing the details, just in case of recognition. My hair, the favourite part of my physical body, stayed the way it was, falling down most of my back in its natural raven-black. I had considered making it some crazy colour, but decided against it, especially when I realised just how well the black hair worked with the almost translucent, pale-blue skin of the Firn-Elves. Similarly, my natural green eyes worked out very well and silvery-blue lips finished out the look. Stepping back from the editor, I asked Alkmene if she could apply the changes without making them permanent, which she could. She even anticipated the need for a mirror.

Looking into the mirror, I liked what I saw. It was me, quite clearly, but it looked better than I ever had, the parts simply fitting together, like a puzzle.

“That works, I like it. I will make my way on the Road to Purgatory as a Firn-Elf.” I confirmed my choice, and blue boxes appeared in front of me.

• Race gained
• You belong to the Firn-Elves.
• You are one of the few remaining Firn-Elves, product of the experiments of a mad god shortly before the cataclysm. Little is known about your secretive people, least of all their numbers and the locations of their settlements. Rumours have it that the mad God not only used the blood of Jötun in his experiments but also his own blood that has spawned many monsters in the past.
• You gain Attributes: +2 Intelligence, +1 Intuition, -1 Charisma, +1 Agility, -1 Constitution, -1 Strength. 
• You gain traits: [Frost-Resistance], [Lowlight Vision], [Denizen of the Dark], [Denizen of the Eternal Ice], [Heat-Sensitive], [Glare Sensitivity] 

• Trait gained
• You gained the trait: Frost-Resistance
• You are used to a cold and chilly climate. Arctic cold is no danger to you and magical cold deals reduced damage.

• Trait gained
• You gained the trait: Lowlight Vision
• Your Ancestors lived underground and did not need light to live. That trait is weaker in you but your vision is strong enough to make you able to see normally in dim or gloomy light. Total absence of light or magical darkness robs you of your sight like everyone else.

• Trait gained
• You gained the trait: Denizen of the Dark 
• Your people lived in the Darkness for a long time, they became accustomed to it, melding with it, taking it into their very souls. All magic with the Darkness-Attribute requires less Astral Power to use.

• Trait gained
• You gained the trait: Denizen of the Eternal Ice
• Your people lived in the eternal Ice of the North for a long time, they became accustomed to it, melding with it, taking it into their very souls. All magic with the Ice-Attribute requires less Astral Power to use. 

• Trait gained 
• You gained the trait: Heat-Sensitive 
• You are not used to hot climates. In hot climates, your Stamina consumption is increased and all magical heat deals more damage.

• Trait gained
• You gained the trait: Glare Sensitivity
• Your eyes are used to lowlight conditions, sudden, strong glares will disorient you and cause debilitating pain. Your eyes are unable to adapt to extremely strong light sources. 

“Now, Morgana, we need to talk about the path you want to walk. The decision which path to walk is a monumental one, your path can't be changed and while it is possible to stray from your predestined path, walking on the path will always be faster and smoother.” Alkmene explained seriously, once I looked up, after reading through the blue boxes. Before I could ask what path she meant, yet another blue box appeared before me, giving me even more to read. Letting out a soft sigh, I began, happy that it was a short one.

• Please select your path
• Martial Path - The followers of the Martial Path believe in strength of arms above all else. They are the warriors on the battlefield, the knights leading the charge, the general at the head of an army. But they are also the ranger in the wild, tracking and hunting dangerous game with spear, bow and cunning.
• Divine Path - Those who walk the Divine Path, believe in something bigger than themselves. They are pious believers in their chosen deity and further their Deities will whenever they can. They are the proud Paladins protecting the faith, the inspired Preacher tending their flock but also the ruthless Inquisitor rooting out heretics.
• Arcane Path - The Arcane path might be the most complicated path, each branch being a narrow path of its own. Followers of the arcane path seek to improve their magic and uncover secrets above all else. They are the hedge-witches, the  guild-mages, the warlocks and the sorcerers. They delve into the unknown in search of knowledge, as for them, knowledge is power.
• Civilised Path - The Civilised Path might be the widest of them all. All walks of life can be found on this path, the greedy merchant grabbing for coin, the talented crafter plying their trade, the sly diplomat furthering their lords goal but also the sinister assassin stalking the shadows.

After reading through the options, I considered things, if only for a moment. Paths seemed to be a lot less specialised than the classes I was used to, pretty much dividing people into Martial Fighters, Divine Casters, Arcane Casters and everything else. What results a choice would have, I couldn’t quite say, again that lack of information, but the choice was relatively simple in this case. There should be some sort of class-selection afterwards, so maybe the path simply narrowed things down. The only realistic options for me were the Arcane- and Divine-Path, at least if I wanted to go down the spellcaster-route as planned.

Given that my selected race had that whole “discarded divine shocktrooper”-thing going on and that the idea to follow some sort of creed or rule-set, dependent on some unknown deity didn’t appeal to me at all, my path seemed to be quite set. Not that I really minded, the description sounded interesting, maybe there would be a system I’d be able to really sink my teeth into.

“I will embark on the Arcane Path.” I stated, selecting the path with a flick of my hand. I was surprised when there was a visible look of relief on Alkmene’s face, causing me to raise an eyebrow in question.

“It would have been sad if you had chosen to become one of the many sheep, blindly following a cult. Walk your path and later you can still look for the divine on your terms.” she answered my unasked question.

“And here I thought that you, a servant of Hecate, would be happy to induct a new follower.” I replied, feeling a little amused.

“Yes, I'm a servant of wise Hecate, and a proud one at that.” Alkeme told me, and suddenly I felt a chill running down my spine, the friendly woman in front of me making me feel dread. She hadn’t physically changed, but it felt as if she was towering over me, like I was merely an ant about to be crushed under her feet.

“But do you think that She who guards the crossroads would take any Traveller into her cult? Only those who are worthy may join and only the Mistress herself is able to make that distinction.” she thundered, her voice filling the world around me.

“So if you want to join, you will have to seek her out yourself, casting your powers into the endless Astral, to find her. Maybe she will grant you an audience, maybe she will reject you or maybe infinity will be too much for your mind to bear, cracking it like an egg.” she continued on, her voice still booming, before everything went back to normal, in the blink of an eye, leaving me wide-eyed and wondering just what had happened.

“Enough about the Mistress. The next step you need to take, before embarking on the Road to Purgatory awaits.” Alkmene told me, her voice friendly and casual again, the earlier “customer-service”-smile back on her face.