Excerpt from “Modern History I: The Post-Information Age”:
In 2112 [8 years ago] the Liar’s Paradox worm activated after three years of harmless distribution. Dissimilar from other worms, the Liar’s Paradox did not seek identity information or attempt any kind of ransomware. Instead, the Liar’s Paradox corrupted knowledge itself. Highly aggressive, extremely intelligent and adaptive, the Liar’s Paradox seeks out sources of knowledge about any subject and corrupts it with misinformation. Online encyclopedias were the first to notice the problem but were unable to correct the misinformation. The Liar’s Paradox exploits any security flaw it can find or make to corrupt knowledge.
Public sources of information had all long been digitized so the average citizen was left with nothing but what they learned before the activation. In the wake of this catastrophe private interest groups began, once again, to publish books, created in sealed systems, and charged whatever they wished for the now prized knowledge. This led to a fracturing of knowledge-bases as each domain became covetous of their knowledge. Public education molded itself around the new politics and students were shunted into isolated tracks of knowledge while private education included the membership fees of the relevant knowledge domain societies in their tuitions.
Today, the effects are still being felt in many aspect of life. Economists...
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“But, I don’t even know you.” Hermes had a silly expression on his face. I’m not sure if it’s confusion, panic, or a kid who found five dollars on the floor of the candy store.
“So? That’s what adventuring is all about. You find out more about your traveling companions while working towards your own and their goals.”
“But, if I leave here my clan will kick me out and I won’t have an income for my alchemy experimentation.”
“And? The whole point of us partying would be to go and get the materials ourselves. Who needs money when you have feet and hands?” I think I’ve got him. There’s no way someone would want to be “The Treasurer” of this podunk town.
Hermes is thinking about it seriously now, “How do- nevermind.” Hmm, wonder what that was. “What would be your goals in the party then?”
“I’m thinking, no long term objectives. For the immediate and foreseeable future I want to study magic and crafting. Kinda figure out what my class is all about. Obviously I want to have fun. Probably smash up some monster face, earn some sweet drops, that sort of thing. That sound like someone you want to go with?”
“I’m feeling yes, but aren’t you worried about not having a tank?”
“We’ll make it work. At least we have a healer.” I shrug.
I access the menu and select the create party function.
Create party with [Hermes]?
Y/N
Come on game, why is there a confirmation there? You don’t need that, it’s impossible to accidentally try to create a party.
EF-
Party invitation sent to [Hermes]
“Fuck. I should be more careful what I think.”
[Hermes] has accepted your party invitation.
You have been set as [Party] leader.
“What happened?”
“Oh, I just found out a way to use slash waste magic to automate the game menus.”
“That’s really weird. I’m not aware of any other magic affecting the game menus.”
“That’s not really our biggest problem right now though. This is-” I share my prompt with him.
Please select a name for your party: “______”
“Oh geeze. Umm…”
Parties in Hraken are more than just a temporary gathering. They’re more like mini-clans. As you adventure your party naturally does stuff. So, the system rewards long-lived parties by giving buffs based on what you’ve done. Obviously there are famous parties and such but no-one tries to make those these days. You’d have to be egotistical to think…
“Anyway, maybe something about what we plan to do. We’re going around looking for stuff, so what’s a cool way to describe prospectors?”
“Maybe we shouldn’t try to describe who we are but what we do?”
“Hmm, looking around the terrain, ground, moles, angles, head down, pain in the neck- wait! Yeah, Pains in the Neck!”
“Heh, I like it. The double meaning gives us room to grow. Did you plan that?”
“Nope.”
Your party has been named. Creation of [Pains in the Neck] is complete.
“So Mage, where do we start?”
“Hmm, first could you tell me how to access my inventory? I feel like carrying everything in this little bag is going to be troublesome.”
“Inventory? That’s a high-level space magic spell. Why would we have that?”
“But, on the forums I read-”
“Oh no,” he interrupts me quickly. “The forums got hit by the Liar’s Paradox three years ago. Between the amount of information on how to play the game, who the famous parties and clans are, and the very reality relevant crafting information the worm decided it needed to actively monitor the forums. Now only trolls write there. Although I did hear rumors of people being able to talk with encrypted text but seriously. Against the Liar’s Paradox? I don’t think so.”
“Well, shit. That means I know basically nothing about this game. Wait, that means we have to figure out how to carry whatever materials we find? Plus, we have to carry whatever crafting tools we need.”
“Off to a rocky start.”
“Herk. Well, we’ll solve that problem eventually first we need to coordinate schedules. What times to you play?”
“8am to 12pm server. Not really any wiggle room during the week but weekends are generally open.”
“Ok, I’m on whenever during the 8am to 9pm stretch but I can’t guarantee a schedule. I should be able to put some certainty onto your time but we should be careful about traveling long distances.”
“Sound good. So, about this inventory problem.”
“We’ll need a pack dog or two.”
“Dogs? Aren’t they a little small? And weak?”
I’m already distracted thinking about the dogs. “Hmm, what oh no. Gimme a sec, I’ll find the video. It’s an old design but it should be possible.”
I get to work with the in-game browser.
“Design?”
“Ahh, here we go. Check this out.”
https://youtu.be/cNZPRsrwumQ
I pull a card while I wait for him to watch the video.
Four of Wands - Teamwork
Good; possible but only with the two of us working together.
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
EF+
I’m starting to love that message. I still have some time and -wow he’s making a weird face- so I go try to find the kitchen to see if there’s more tea. Now that I’m not pretending to be a bound demon I take a good look around the hall. Hermes seems to be using some old gear as decoration.
I pass a rack of wands with a nice finish and check the first room I come to, having skipped the room across the hall from the office. Bedroom, very dusty, nope. The next room is back on the left. Ahh, the kitchen. It looks nice. Kinda weird not seeing any appliances except a cast iron stove in a kitchen but cabinets aren’t a new invention apparently.
There’s a kettle on the stove and it’s still warm but no sign of the tea. I feel kinda weird poking through what is essentially a stranger’s cupboards so I’m stuck. For some reason I feel less squeamish about opening doors though so I go back in the hall and finish exploring the house. Further down the hall I find a bathroom, similarly dusty to the bedroom. The room I skipped is some sort of workshop. There’s a desk (with what is probably the tools for alchemy), a bunch of trunks, and a couple wardrobes.
I’m gonna have to do something about the two wasted rooms.
Hermes finds me looking into the workshop. “You do realize this is a fantasy game, right? Maybe we should just buy some mules or horses.”
“Aww, come on. It’s not that hard. We just need the frame, the drive, the fuel, the computer, and the packs.”
“All of those things are things we don’t know how or can’t make.”
“Oh and the software to run the thing.”
“You’re not going to give this up are you?”
“No.”
He face-palms and groans before asking through his hand, “Where do we start?”
“I need you to teach me magic. Then I have to figure out how my fate magic interacts with that. Then I need to learn crafting. Meanwhile, you have to develop a fuel with alchemy. Along the way we’ll share knowledge and problem solve.”
He drops his hand and a slow smile spreads across his face. “Make a fuel with alchemy?” He’s staring off into space. I wonder if this is going to be a regular thing.
I wave my hand in front of his face and he snaps out of it. “What?”
“You need to teach me about magic first.”
“Well, I can’t teach you everything about magic. I only know Priest style spells. For that I use a kinda prayer type thing and the Goddess of Harmony uses her mojo to activate the spell.”
“That was incredibly vague. Alright, where did you learn the spells?”
“From a spell-book, some I bought, others I got as quest rewards from the Temple.”
“Great, are they one use items or do you still have them?”
“Oh, no. They’re complete garbage now. Liar’s Paradox got into the game shortly after the forums and corrupted all the spell and skill books. Now the only way to learn spells is from other players or NPCs.”
“Geh, LP got into the game? So, can you even take notes about alchemy?”
“Nope, I have to remember everything and write it down outside the game by hand.”
“Hmm, then we need a new approach. Are there any conditions to me learning Priest spells from you? That would at least get me something to experiment with.”
“Well, using my spells is either Ritual Formula or Ritual Enactment; both are sub-skills of Worship. So, maybe I can just teach you a simple spell and you can try it and see what happens? I’ve never tried to teach someone who didn’t already have those skills.”
Hermes pauses for a moment to think about his spells. I like the way his eyes kinda unfocus and he plays with chin while he’s thinking. I wonder if he knows he’s doing it. I bet he makes a mess of his face when handling materials during alchemy research.
“Ok, I’ll teach you the [Harmony] spell [Simple Heal]. It has a fairly short chant and you just need line of sight on your target. But it does cost two concentration to cast, so I’m not sure if it’s going to work for you. Anyway, the chant is ‘lothron harmonui tul-galas’ then you activate it with ‘[Simple Heal]’.”
“Lothran harmoni tul-glass?”
Hermes smiles, “No, lothron harmonui tul-galas.”
“Lothron harmonui tul-galas?”
“Yes.”
“Lothron harmonui tul-galas. Lothron harmonui tul-galas. Lothron harmonui tul-galas. Ok, let’s try this. Lothron harmonui tul-galas [Simple Heal].” I look at Hermes while chanting and… nothing. Sigh. “I didn’t really expect that to work.”
“Me either. Let’s go to the kitchen and think this through over some tea.”
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I discovered the tea cupboard is just above the sink and has quite a few options.
“I think the mechanics of the situation is very important to how I cast my magic.” I start after blowing on my tea a little. “My current skills are [Magic Projection] and [Entropic Alteration].” I share the details with him.
Magic Projection - Ability to create magical forces in the environment by first creating them within the self.
Entropic Alteration - A sub-skill of [Magic Projection] - By bringing the possibility of something within your domain you can then change the possibility of an event happening in the immediate future.
“Those are some weird magic skills. What’s a ‘domain’?”
“I think it might be something like understanding? Maybe, if I can understand the reasoning behind the way something is I can change it to a different reasoning. Or ask it to be changed? I’m not sure the lock was more of an asking kind of situation while the tiger was very making-ish.”
“I guess we could consider the source of your magic power. Like, for me the source of my magic is the Goddess of Harmony’s willpower. I don’t do anything myself she just answers my requests. Which sounds like what you’re describing with the lock, but not the tiger.”
“Hmm, a source of power that’s not asking someone would just be your own power or maybe exploiting an environmental power… redirecting maybe? How do other classes cast?”
“In some of the groups I was in there were different types of mages. I never really went into magical theory with them so I’m not sure how they cast. The actions were very similar to mine except- yeah. Sometimes they would manipulate things like fire or water. That’s not something I could do. My magic is more… transactional. Does that make sense?”
“Yea, it kinda does. So, we have the transactional magic like yours, and the manipulation magic- actually that seems like it would fit with my [Entropic Alteration] if you see the tiger’s combat AI as a force changing direction and having different effects and whatnot. Then, I just manipulated it in a specific way. It wasn’t any kind of continuus manipulation like you’re describing but it still seems like a manipulation. Any other kind of magic? Or was the lock also an alteration? I mean if we break the game’s fourth wall a bit I essentially understood the game design, which probably was auto-generated by an algorithm, and changed the force holding that design in place and instead made it so the design was now ‘character will enter tower’ instead of ‘character needs key to enter tower’ and the game fixed the world so I could advance…”
“That’s… complicated. If that was true then your fate magic is like… I dunno. A cheat maybe? You’re essentially changing the game mechanics at the developer level.”
“That does seem too powerful. There must be restrictions somewhere. Like, what’s stopping me from insta-killing people. I would only need to identify a system keeping them alive and alter it? Is there passive health regeneration?”
“No.”
“Hmm, can’t make that negative. Maybe I could change the damage value on my weapon.”
“Weapons don’t have damage values. It’s all calculated based on materials and physics and such.”
“Well, I’m not a god. That’s good. Cheating is boring. But this idea of altering systems is worth exploring. What’s the system in your [Simple Heal] that I need to affect?”
“Well, you’re not paying the concentration cost. So you have to figure out how to pay it with, what was is you use.”
“[EF]”
“Yea, that.”
We both sit in silence for a bit, thinking, while we sip our tea.
“I don’t think I can. If my magic is alteration of the flow of a force or structure of a system then I can’t use transactional spells like that.”
“Does it have to be a game system?”
“What?”
“Well, I was just thinking there are two reasons why spells work in a game. First, because the game code says they do. Second, because the world lore says they do. If you can’t change the first way maybe there’s a way with the second.”
“Woah, never thought of that. So, what’s the lore behind magic in Hraken?”
“No idea.”
…
Sigh.
“Well, it’s a good idea. We’re running out of time before you leave so maybe we should make some plans. While you’re gone I’ll try to get a handle on my magic. Geh! What am I going to do about the villagers freaking out about me?”
“I can call an assembly tomorrow to let them know that you’re not a threat. I guess until then just stay away from them. There’s a low-level monster field before the woods to the south-east of the village. Maybe you could learn to fight instead? Just stay out of the forest; there are some nasty monsters in there.”
“Anything I should know about fighting?”
Hermes grimaces. “Well, fighting is pretty realistic… as is looting.”
It takes me a minute “That sounds messy.”
“It is. But monster corpses decay after half an hour. Oh, and the respawns are dynamic load-based so you won’t run out of stuff to fight.”
“Is it ok if I use your house as a base while you’re gone? It doesn’t look like you’re using the bedroom and I might need a place to keep stuff.”
“I guess we did make a party. Yea that’s fine. Just don’t go messing around in the workshop.”
“Works for me. Well, I’m gonna log and get something for lunch and bio and stuff. Cya tomorrow?”
“Yea, cya.”
I wave before accessing the game menu.
Log out of Hraken
Y/N
I very specifically don’t think about how annoying it is to have to confirm this action while I’m pressing “Y”.
Logout Complete
Would you like to exit your capsule?
Y/N
Yes, yes I do.