The darkness that had surrounded me suddenly dissipated, blown away like mist in the wind. In its place was now a glowing sphere of light, its edge licked by flickering tongues of flame. The sun? But no, it was far too bright. A different star, perhaps.
As I continued to watch, its center flashed white, the pulse flaring outwards in an incandescent ring; when it cleared, the sphere was dimmer than before, and there were words where the flash had first appeared. They were words written in shadow, their various strokes pulsing outwards in a vain attempt to fight off the sphere’s encroaching light.
ARIA: The Ardent Realms of the Illadic Age.
The words stayed in place for only a few moments before they faded away with what sounded like a sharp intake of breath. The sphere – clearly a star at that point – flared again, though not as brightly as the first time.
I imagined that it may have been laughing.
Without warning, my vision propelled forwards, and I hurtled straight towards the center of that star.
I instinctively tried to close my eyes, but I could not; the game would not let me.
As I drew closer and closer to the star, I began to feel its heat. It was not directed on any specific part of my body. Rather, it warmed my entire being.
When I had come close enough that the light filled my field of vision in its entirety and the heat threatened to consume me...
The star completely disappeared.
I now found myself hovering in the air, facing a massive cathedral nestled on a mountaintop. The cathedral looked eerily out of place, as it was the only building that I could see amidst the mountains that surrounded it. Moreover, the rock upon which it stood had weathered over time, and appeared dangerously close to breaking off and falling to the valley below.
The cathedral was abandoned, and its black, buttressed walls reached into the skies as if crying out for comfort; they had been left alone and dying for far too long.
As I floated there, contemplating the meaning of this scene, a woman’s voice began to speak, one that I did not hear, but instead felt reverberating throughout my entire body.
“Child. You gaze upon the Altar of Creation. Where Man was born, and to which Man will return at the End of Days.”
The voice was laced with an incomprehensible wisdom. It was gentle, yet at the same time forceful, demanding of the utmost respect. It was the kind of voice that dug into your very being, the kind you simply could not ignore.
“Unguarded since the start of the current age, it has been left to rot away. Not unlike the souls of the peoples of this world. It is as a mirror through which the children of Man may see the state of their affairs, through which all may be made aware that their days are yet numbered.
“It is into this broken world that you have been reborn. You, a child of light, ignorant and pure. Where your heart takes your soul is your choice alone. Will you do the will of the gods, and act in their stead? Or would you break bread with darkness and bring desolation upon the land?
“But no matter which you choose, be warned: a great enemy approaches that neither holy nor unholy can comprehend. It is this that you must remember. This, that you must work to defeat…”
I could hear screams. The sound of metal striking metal. The sounds of fighting. The sounds of death.
“Go, my child. Go… and survive.”
And with that, both the voice and the scene faded away.
In the background, a classical guitar began to play a lively, yet haunting theme.
A menu popped up.
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言語を選んでください
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“Pick a language.”
Right. I was in Japan, so the text defaulted to Japanese.
In games like this, menus and such were operated using thought alone.
Uhhh…
Eigo. English.
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Please confirm your selection.
Note that your chosen language will determine your character’s starting region.
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I read the words, but I didn’t quite register them all.
Confirm.
The menu flipped over.
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Welcome to ARIA Online! While world servers are not yet available, you can create your character in advance. Please note that appearance is randomized. The options you are presented with are the only ones you can change.
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But damn.
I did nothing for a moment, trying to make sense of what had just transpired, before the menus had appeared
“D.K. D.K., are you there?”
“Yeah man. What’s up?”
“The vision with the star and the cathedral. That was the intro?”
“Yeah. Crazy, right?”
“I could feel the heat from the star. I could really feel it.”
“Yeah, it’s sick. The tech for this shit has progressed so far, man.”
I was playing this game on the same Ether VR system my army buddies had bought me six years ago.
It was all due to the wonders of server-side rendering; with the dawn of VR, graphics cards and such were no longer necessary. The Ether system was only responsible for connecting a player’s conscience to a game’s central servers, where everything else was done.
“I still can’t comprehend this stuff. That vision could’ve been real, for all I know. How do they do it?”
“Hey, you tell me man. You’re the one that messes with computers for a living.”
“Right. But if I knew the answer, I’d be making a thousand times what I make now.”
I shook my head. Or I would have, had I not been disembodied in that moment. The theory for how all of this worked was there, readily available for anyone to look at. It took an extremely rare group of people, however, to understand the system, let alone create it.
Well, back to the task at hand: character creation.
The menu had a single button under the text I’d read before, one that said, rather simply, “Start.”
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Start.
The menu dropped down and was swallowed up by the bottom edge of my vision, revealing a small deck of cards that had been hidden behind it. Accompanied by a swell in the music led by strings and a drum, four of these cards removed themselves from the top of the deck and spread out before me. As they did so, I saw that they each had their own unique text and image.
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Race Selection
The world of ARIA Online contains a number of playable races and sub-races. Each of them has a rich history spanning hundreds, if not thousands of years, and each brings along with it a unique set of both strengths and weaknesses. Choose wisely: your selection will affect far more than just your character’s appearance.
To begin, choose a racial class.
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The four cards detailed (and depicted in rather abstract paintings) the four selections that were available to me: Humans, Elves, Beast-bloods, and Daemons.
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Humans
The most numerous and prosperous among the races of ARIA, Humans, the Great Conquerors, are known for the sharpness of their minds and the strength of their spirits. What they lack in magical and physical ability, they more than make up for with their adaptability, endurance, and technological ingenuity.
Racial class traits:
Divine Spark - Gain 40% bonus job EXP
Brains for Brawn - All damage output takes a 10% penalty (e.g. 100 damage spells only deal 90 dmg). Gain 18% bonus combat EXP
Elves
Elves were once known as the Wardens of the natural world. An old and proud people, they have since been driven to the wilds after centuries of war with the Humans and Beast-bloods. Though they are lithe in combat and skilled in the magical arts, their inability – or perhaps unwillingness – to adapt to an ever-changing battlefield hastened their fall into obscurity. Those who chose to remain among the humans live almost exclusively as second-class citizens.
Racial class traits:
Arcane Artistry - All magic is 20% more effective
Set in Our Ways - Gain 1% less combat and job EXP from all sources
Beast-bloods
Blessed, in their own words, with the “Blood of the Beasts,” these demihumans are the youngest of the races in ARIA. Strong and hardy, theirs is a people that stresses combat from an early age. Thus trained in the ways or war and aggressive by instinct, Beast-bloods are uniquely capable in physical combat. This does come at a cost, for they are not only below-average mages, but make for poor craftsmen as well.
Racial class traits:
Feral Instincts - Physical damage output is doubled. All magic is 35% less effective
Unsteady Hands - Gain 60% less job EXP
Daemons*
Daemons are Humans and Elves who have made a pact with the supernatural, either holy or unholy. Though their powers are greatly magnified, they are bound by their vows not to attack creatures of the same alignment; they are similarly forced to kill Daemons of the opposing alignment to grow stronger.
Racial class traits:
Mandate of the Gods - Damage output is tripled. Gain 99% less combat EXP unless fighting other Daemons. Gain 100 times the normal amount of combat EXP from killing Daemons
Chains of the Covenant - Unable to engage in combat with creatures of the same alignment
*Daemons are geared towards the most hardcore of PVP players. While this class opens up new facets of the game, it also closes the door to a great number of others. Not recommended for your first character.
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Now this was interesting. Every MMO I knew of had a number of races for players to choose from. But never before had I seen one where the races varied as much as they did in this game. It had likely been a balancing nightmare. That is, if balance had been a real concern at all...
In any case, I knew right off the bat that I wasn’t interested in Humans or Beast-bloods. In the case of the former, humans: not only did it feel like a rather “plain” choice, but I also wasn’t impressed with their apparent focus on job skills (which I assumed included mining, smithing, and the like). If I was going to play a VR game, the last thing I wanted to do was go through the tedious repetition of an actual job. Add on the combat penalties?
Pass.
As for Beast-bloods… I liked how their traits favored physical power at the cost of trade skills. On that merit alone, it should have been a perfect choice for the way I wanted to play. Unfortunately, I was not a fan of the aesthetic. While I could appreciate the look on others (I’d seen some crazy Otome Neko cosplays before), I cringed at the idea of having cat ears and a tail on myself.
That left Elves and Daemons.
Elves were clearly meant to specialize in magic, while the Daemons’ traits effectively limited them to PVP-oriented play. A very specific kind of PVP, at that. Holy and unholy Daemons, duking it out with each other while ignoring the rest of the world.
It had a certain appeal to it, for sure.
But at the same time…
“Not recommended for your first character.”
And as a player who revolved around his guilds, there was no way D.K. had chosen to go that route.
Elf.
The four cards representing the racial classes flitted back into the deck, and three new cards flew out.
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Like Humans and Beast-bloods, Elves are not homogenous, and can belong to a number of sub-races.
Snow Elf*
The most ancient and rare of the various Elf races, Snow Elves make their homes among the snow-capped mountains of the Great Beyond. As powerful as they are beautiful, Snow Elves are perhaps the only sub-race of Elves that Humans deem equal, or even superior, to themselves.
Trait:
Ancient Knowledge - Begin the game at level 25. Earn 9% less combat EXP (additive with Elf racial class’s 1% penalty)
*Recommended for press accounts and showcasing the game. ARIA Online’s level cap is 100; going from level 0-25 requires about the same amount of EXP as going from level 25-30.
Wood Elf
Once the rulers of all the Realms, the Wood Elves have since been driven back to the forests from whence they came. There, they have again set their roots, and work religiously to protect the sanctity of their homes.
Trait:
Woodland Paths - 2% boost to Agility; bonus increases to 5% when in forests
Sea Elf
The result of either a potent magical experiment or a pact with a sea god, Sea Elves are a sub-race of Elves that are capable of breathing underwater. Their settlements are located primarily on islands and continental shores in and along the Sea of Greed.
Trait:
The Ocean’s Gift - Can breathe underwater
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Like Humans and Beast-bloods, Sea Elves were an instant write-off. From what I knew, underwater breathing was generally useless in games like this.
I assumed agility boosted ranged skills.
But wouldn’t that come into conflict with an Elf’s innate magical ability? Why use a ranged weapon when the race’s entire shtick was being good at magic?
Perhaps it wasn’t that simple? It sure was boring, though.
I tried to furrow my brow.
Well, if nothing else, the Snow Elves’ trait was certainly unique. Getting a short-term boost in exchange for a hefty long-term penalty. Maybe if I played long enough as a Snow Elf, I would start falling behind and lose interest in the game. A surefire “out,” so to speak.
It didn't hurt that their card had a strictly cooler image. A fur-clad figure holding a blood red banner in one hand and casting a ring of fire with the other. Compared to the Wood Elves’ card, which featured an archer hiding in a tree.
Mmm.
Snow Elf.
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Class Selection
Classes in ARIA Online determine your character’s preferred combat specialization, but are in no way final. For example, mages may eventually choose to fight with swords instead of staves, thereby becoming spellswords. Conversely, warriors may choose to forgo a sword and shield, instead wielding a staff as a knight-enchanter. The possibilities are endless.
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There were three starting classes: warrior, rogue, and mage.
Since I had chosen an elf, the choice here was pretty obvious.
Mage.
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Because this is the first character created on this system, you must choose a player name. Note that this is separate from your character’s name, which will be generated randomly.
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The easiest choice yet.
Akagi.
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Player name: Akagi
Character: Snow Elf Mage
Confirm?
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Confirm.
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Please wait while your character is generated.
0%
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“Hey, D.K.”
“Yooo, you done?”
“I think I just finished making all my choices. I can’t change my appearance, though?”
“Yeah. It’s randomized, sadly. There should’ve been a message about that in the beginning of character creation.”
“What about gender?”
“You’re pretty much forced to play as your own gender... there’s only a tiny chance you won’t be.”
“What does that mean? A tiny chance?”
“Doesn’t matter, ha. It’s not gonna happen. What’s going on in your game right now?”
“It says it’s generating a character.”
“Ah yeah, that’ll take a bit, I think it took a few minutes for me. What did you end up choosing?”
“Snow Elf Mage.”
For a number of seconds, there was silence on the other end.
“You saw the trait, right? You did, didn’t you? 10% less combat EXP? And you still chose Snow Elf?”
“Yeah. If I’m going to be honest, I don’t see myself playing this for all that long. Even though the game seems like it’s going to be amazing. Might as well skip the early grind if that’s the case.”
“Bro, don’t do this to me… You can hit level 25 in like, 3 days...”
“I'm... I'm sorry."
I tried to change the subject, if only a little.
"What did you choose?”
“Human. On that note, do you have any idea how important jobs are? No, of course you don’t.”
I didn’t respond.
“You fucked up, Soren.”
He sighed.
“I’m sorry. You made it pretty clear you didn’t know jack about the game, so I should’ve gotten you up to speed. Well, at least the snow elves look nice. Really nice. And I can’t shake off this feeling that you’re about to get lucky as hell.”
He really liked doing that. Saying things that needed explanation and never explaining them.
“It’s fine, D.K. But what?”
“I feel like you’re about to get lucky as hell.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
He sighed again.
“It doesn’t matter. I lied, you probably won’t get lucky.”
“Ah.”
I was thoroughly confused.
We returned to silence, and I set my focus back on the loading indicator.
It was almost done. 95… 96… 97… 98... 99...
100%.
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Akagi, your character has been generated!
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