Help Text: New tool forms can be created using materials in the inventory, magically incorporating tissue from creatures, or even copying items similar to the currently chosen default form, and new forms can be artificially evolved from old ones using various processes.
My arrival in this world was not coincidental, something had intentionally brought me here. While the reason for that was unknown to me, my mere presence here had set events into motion around the entire world. Far to the east of the Blue Forest, at the Holy Citadel, home of the North Tome Shrine, the monks, priests and priestesses were frantically trying to decide how to handle my presence. The temple venerated the heroes, and held them in high regard, passing down their teachings for two thousand years. Many of the members argued over whether or not I should be regarded the same as those heroes, or if I would be the one to gather a new set of heroes.
Meanwhile, members of the South Tome Temple had received word of me as well, and were preparing to send their own people north to capture me. Apparently they had a vast network of informants, including mages that could communicate over long distances. They planned to capture me, and indoctrinate me into their beliefs to use me as a political pawn.
The two faiths had long been in conflict over their differences in beliefs. This led to several armed conflicts in the past, to the point that the royal family had given up on being involved in it entirely. They would only step in if either group began harming civilians, who for the most part didn't want either side to be destroyed, but also didn't want their lives disrupted by them. Both temples had advanced the standard of living in the Empire, but their conflicting views had made it impossible for them to peacefully coexist.
The feud dated back to shortly after the death of the final hero, David. His assistant, Shimon, convinced him to seal away the tools to prevent the two factions from wreaking havoc, and to keep them out of the hands of other dangerous individuals. Shimon would go on to found the original incarnation of the religion, using a book he had written containing things that the heroes had taught him as the foundation. In the process also teaching that the Heroes were not deities, but instead that they were teachers wishing for people to improve themselves, and to make the country a better place. This was adopted by the royal family as the national religion at the time, but political leaders seeking to gain favor from the family commissioned writers make changes to Shimon's book to include the worship of the royal family and the heroes as divine beings, and changing the name to the Heroes' Tome. Shimon voiced his disapproval of this to the royal family, but the leaders at the time accused him of treachery. With the situation growing out of hand, the two sides of the conflict would amass their own armies, Shimon's in the north, and the politicians' in the south. The main difference between the two armies was that Shimon gathered volunteers, people who willingly joined him and believed in his cause, while the politicians conscripted anyone they could, forcing them to fight. In the end, fearing a revolt as a consequence of the conflict, the royal family decreed that both religions would be recognized, declaring Shimon the head of the North Tome Temple, while a puppet was chosen by the politicians to serve as the South Tome Temple's head.
The cycle of conflict between the two had become almost like a spectator sport for the people of the Empire. After the first, the royal family declared that only members of each temple could participate in their battles, and that the battles could not take place in areas that could bring harm to cities and villages. Each of the temples had developed their own style of weapons, armor, and martial arts to combat the other. Each of their martial arts followed the same basic principals, but nearly two thousand years of conflict left them incomparable to one another.
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Meanwhile since I had arrived in the Two Tomes Empire, their neighbors, the Middle Kingdom had been alerted to my presence as well. Originally in the ancient past the Kingdom had designated the area of the empire as a prison colony. They would send dissidents and other people they deemed undesirable there to develop the land as a form of punishment, or to serve military installations as slaves. After the eight heroes arrived, their actions inadvertently led an uprising, then a war to secede from the Kingdom. Initially they found themselves in a situation similar to my own, but when they arrived at where the platform stood today, they were greeted by monks who believed the place to be a holy ground. The monks were the ones that had planted the tree that stood there, however it was behind a massive temple that they had built to worship their deity away from the watchful eye of the kingdom.
At the temple the heroes would learn to use magic, and craft mystical items, which led to them creating their tools. After spending enough time at the temple, they would leave and make their way south in search of information that could help them return home. They would eventually end up in conflict with the Kingdom when one of them was attacked by a soldier over a disagreement. For several years the heroes would amass their own troops, and eventually lead a revolt against the Kingdom, but not before the temple was destroyed. In memory of the monks one of the heroes used their magic on the tree they had planted to allow it to grow massively, which then served as the base of operations for the heroes, and their military. After a long and bloody conflict the Kingdom surrendered the land that would become the Two Tomes Empire to the heroes, but had also branded them as demonic beings, forbidding their people from contacting them ever again.
The Kingdom became more akin to a dictatorship as time passed. Laws were enacted which allowed for citizens to be executed for even the most minor crimes. Their economy had become so unstable that commoners were forced to live in abject poverty, while corrupt nobles wanted for nothing. After the death of the last hero many of the Kings ordered troops to clear the dungeon at the peak of the mountain, but every attempt resulted in failure, and mass casualties. The current king was rumored to be a great sorcerer that could see the flow of energy in the world, that used this ability to keep track of movements in the kingdom and the world at large. As it turned out there was some truth to that rumor, as when I arrived in this world he immediately dispatched troops from the capital to make their way towards the Empire. Many of his generals warned against such a long march in the summer, but he declared that this would be a trial for his soldiers to overcome for the glory of the Kingdom.
Though he was not the only one to take notice of my arrival, or at the very least not the only one to notice something had changed in the world. A small portion of people had started to gain abilities never before seen in the world. New ideas entered the minds of philosophers and inventors, new types of magic revealed themselves to wizards and sorcerers, and even new physical laws manifested themselves. The world was changing, and my arrival was heralding a new age that would change this world, and beyond forever. At the time though, there was no way for any of us to know that was happening. We were just four people resting peacefully in an ancient holy site, that had once helped change the fate of the world.