What greeted her behind the door wasn’t what she had expected. Instead of a bloodbath and the wailing of lost souls, she was met with a square, barebones room made of tastefully cut black granite blocks, with nothing but a small pedestal beneath a small, floating orb of carmine light that pulsed softly in sync with her breathing. Spurred on by her curiosity, she extended her hand towards the light.
Surprisingly, it didn’t feel cold. On the contrary, Alice could feel a warmth she had never experienced coming both from the orb and the walls around her which now that she looked closely, held mysterious relieves and unintelligible patterns dyed in different shades muted of crimson and black.
The room didn’t have a ceiling, a seemingly endless void instead occupying its place. Thick, rusted chains that rustled along some form of ethereal wind dangled from some unseen place within that same blackness, gleaming with a sort of playful malice that put her teeth on edge.
Making a mental note to never touch the chains, she approached the orb as what she could only describe as a ‘tugging’ sensation started pulling at mind. Alice stopped, and the feeling intensified.
A look around the room indicated that she wasn’t going to get anywhere unless she started to climb the chains towards the ominous abyss that made up the ceiling of what she desperately hoped wasn’t her soul. Steeling her resolve, she took a decisive step towards it, her fingertips brushing the warm core of light.
A prompt of ‘commencing Profession selection’ flashed across her vision, and subsequently, the crimson sphere split into three parts.
“One less than the Classes,” she murmured to herself as three objects materialized in front of her, floating perfectly still at eye level.
One was what appeared to be a simple letter, stamped in bright red wax with an undulating crest that kept changing with each second, never settling into something concrete.
Initiate Courier [1.1]
Who needs magical, instantaneous messages when you can have someone that will be a lot more discreet for the right price?
[+2 Agility, +2 Vitality, +1 Reaction, +1 Perception, 3 Free.]
[1.1 Always on Time] Enhanced ease of movement when traveling to deliver a package.
[1.1 Always on Point] Enhanced sense of direction.
— "Don't shoot the messenger!"
The next one seemed to be some kind of spyglass. A long, brass-coloured tube with pure glass lenses that gleamed a strange blue and white. When she tried to grab it Alice grunted in surprise, not expecting at all the weight it possessed.
Initiate Explorer [1.1]
Chase the horizon with a smile on your face. Your home is the wilderness, your comfort; the unknown.
[+2 Agility, +2 Reaction, +2 Perception, 3 Free.]
[1.1 Wanderlust] Enhanced ease of travel when navigating unknown terrain.
[1.1 Northstar] Enhanced sense of direction and intuition when navigating unknown terrain.
— Never lost, never found.
Letting go of the spyglass, she grazed the last object with her fingertips. It was the most unique of the three, with it constantly swapping between a heavy bound tome of an apparent antiquity that she couldn’t even begin to guess, to a small, scratched golden key.
Initiate Field Researcher [1.1]
Untomb the unknown, discover the forgotten. Always pursuing that last piece of the puzzle.
[+3 Reaction, +3 Perception, +3 Free.]
[1.1 All the Dust] Enhanced speed of movement when researching ruins.
[1.1 The Grand Picture] Enhanced pattern recognition to connect loose pieces of ruin-lore into a coherent whole.
— Ash to ashes, memories into oblivion.
Alice was torn by indecision. Past years filled with TTRPG sessions gradually floated to the forefront of her mind, slowly coalescing into a coherent whole. Taking a deep breath, Alice grabbed her indecision with both hands and smothered it, discarding it.
Slowly, methodically, she went over each object, or Profession, as it were, as many times as she needed, trying to discern every nugget of information she could, both from the objects themselves and from the blue prompts.
Courier she discarded almost immediately. The spread of stats was nice, but she didn’t really want to be a delivery girl, even less so if someone entrusted her with the care of an important package.
She didn’t deal well with outside expectations, so that was out.
Field Researcher… called to her. She liked it, and she was sure that the book held secrets that she wanted just by pure virtue of them being secrets, but there was something still holding her back. She liked the feeling of discovery, yes, but not so much the process. She didn’t want to have to pore over meaningless tomes in search of the smallest nugget of truth.
And thus, she turned towards the Spyglass, hand stretched. The brass-like metal was surprisingly warm to the touch, and it almost felt as if the object itself had been made exactly for her and only her. The object itself called to Alice, and as it did so, she grabbed ahold of it, bringing it closer to her chest.
In a display of light, the orb pulsed and absorbed the leftover items, the sphere now shining even brighter than before. With the utmost care she placed the small telescope upon the black plinth, and what she was now sure was her own soul pulsed in agreement.
A prompt of ‘Class and Profession selection complete’ was the only thing that she saw before unconsciousness claimed her.
—❈—
“—wake. Are you awake now?”
The first thing she heard was Narum’s voice calling to her. As she blinked rapidly, trying to come to terms with the instantaneous change of scenery, the guide’s crinkled face lit up with a wide smile, and as he did so, Alice noticed that various people were glancing at her. It seemed like she had been the last one to come out of her strange soul-space.
“Perfect! Now that we’re all here, I assume you understand if not intuit the reason I told you that this would decide everything about how you would go forward, yes?”
The other world-travelers that had been looking at her turned towards Narum, and she relaxed the tensed muscles on her back she hadn’t noticed she had clenched. She hadn’t been as subtle about it as she liked it though.
“Hey, you okay?” asked Julian in a half whisper. Alice thought about not answering, but that’d be rude, and Julian had been nothing but polite since the start. She gave a terse nod accompanied with a whispered response.
“Yeah, thanks for asking though.”
With a nod of his own, both of them turned their focus towards Narum, who was now in the middle of an explanation.
“—you’ve just been through is something that every sapient living being goes through once they reach enough development. There’s not really a set age, as it appears that the system itself chooses when you are mature enough to handle its power and the consequences thereof, but the lowest age we’ve been able to find is around twelve years. Now,” Narum clapped his hands, and the sound echoed across the whole atrium.
“Most of you should be wondering ‘but where do I sleep’ or ‘how can I get food’, yes?”
A series of nods all around greeted him, and he repeated the gesture. “Figures. Now, you’re in luck, because Aspen provides a one-month citizenship to every single fresh outworlder, coming with all of the basic amenities and necessities for you to attain real citizenship.”
A couple of hands rose up amongst the crowd, and as if Narum had been expecting it, he prattled off a couple of what seemed to be pre-canned answers.
“A month is twenty five days of twenty five hours, and each hour is fifty minutes of fifty seconds a minute. A year is fifteen months divided in three seasons. No, obtaining citizenship isn’t hard at all. I understand that any metrics I give you right now will be suspect with nothing else to compare them to, but I assure you that more than ninety percent of outworlders obtain citizenship that first month, and a remaining nine percent do so afterwards.”
He was met with a question about the remaining one percent by a tall, lean asian girl, and he simply shrugged. “Can’t help those that don’t want to be helped. As far as I know, most of them just leave Aspen.”
Julian turned slightly towards Alice, a question on his lips. “What are you planning to do?”
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Alice thought it over, and came to the conclusion that she still lacked information. “I don’t know, really. What I do know is that I want to see how this world is different from our own, however, and in how much it truly differs.”
Julian nodded, a faraway look in his eyes. “Fair enough. So, what did you choose?”
Alice stilled, and breathed out slowly. “I’d prefer not to say, if that’s okay with you.”
“Sure thing. I was just asking out of curiosity. But, do you want to stick together though?” His gaze panned across the entirety of the hall and the multitude of already coalesced cliques, and his face scrunched in something she didn’t recognise. “I really don’t want to barge into an already formed group, and given that we’re the only two weirdos left out…”
Now that he said it, Alice noticed it too. Out of the hundred or so people inside the almost barebones stone hall, they were the only ones without a group. Reluctantly, she nodded. She may be a bit of a loner from time to time, but she needed human company like everyone else all the same.
Their attention snapped back to Narum once he clapped his hands, and the hall quieted.
“And to finalise your introduction, a couple of things more. If you repeat the process you went through earlier, either by saying or thinking ‘Echo’, or by grazing your soulspace, you will be able to pull up your own Echo, with all your skills and relevant information inlaid therein.”
As he said that, Alice saw dozens of eyes glaze over, as if looking at a faraway thing only they could see. She wanted to pull up her own Echo, but apparently Narum wasn’t finished.
“If you look behind you, you will see a set of double doors that lead downstairs and into the main Hall of Mistfall. The government building, as it were. Inside, you will be able to find trainers and guides in every matter imaginable, all of whom will help you acclimatize and grow in this month you have. If you don’t manage to be up to standard within that month, you won’t have access to them anymore. Basic amenities like food and shelter will still be provided for though, so don’t worry about that in particular. Anything else in terms of information will be provided to you by various trainers and tutors.”
A hand rose up, belonging to the same girl that had asked about the one percent that didn’t meet the apparent quota and left Aspen. “Is someone going to tell us why we’re here, or how? I think I speak for everyone here when I thank you for not leaving us destitute, but…”
Narum smiled, a small thing tinged with a hint of fondness. “Ah, yes. You see, that’s the work of our Goddess, Nuram.” He held up a hand, the corners of his lips twitching.
“Yes, I’m named after her and I am, in fact, one of her most devout priests. She chooses people that she feels have the will and grit to push through, to live anew, and to motivate us into doing better, and pulls their souls in the exact moment of their death.” He shrugged. “Functionally, she’s giving you a second chance because she feels every single one of you has the potential to elevate humanity in Aethas to a new level, and because she doesn’t want us to slack off too much, thus introducing new blood and fresh ideas.” With this, his tone shifted into a grave intonation. “Stagnation is death, and that is unacceptable.”
His smile returned, albeit diminished ever so slightly. “Now, hop hop! Blaze into your new lives with that shine in your eyes I can see in every single one of you. The Goddess is always watching, and she rewards those who excel and innovate.”
With that, Narum clapped his hands, and from one moment to the next, he was gone. There was no transition nor flash of light. Simply, he was there one moment, and not the next.
It made Alice shiver. If a priest could do that, what could she do in time?
With that thought, she finally opened her Echo with but a thought.
Echo
Name
Alice
Age
19
Tier [Class]
[1]
Level [Class]
[1]
Tier [Profession]
[1]
Level [Profession]
[1]
Class: Acolyte of Pain
Profession: Initiate Explorer
Identity: Curious Acolyte of Pain
Resources & Regeneration
Health
100
64/d
Stamina
125
80/h
Ether
165
100/h
Attributes & Bonuses
Attributes
Base
Class
Profession
Gear
Points
Total
Strength
4
4
Vitality
5
3
8
Agility
7
2
9
Reaction
7
2
9
Perception
6
2
8
Presence
4
4
Power
8
4
12
Control
6
1
7
Will
9
9
Unspent Points: 6
Identity
Class: Acolyte of Pain.
Bonuses +3 Vitality, +4 Power, +1 Control, +3 Free per LV.
— You can’t run from yourself.
Profession: Initiate Explorer.
Bonuses: +2 Agility, +2 Reaction, +2 Perception, +3 Free per LV.
— Never lost, never found.
Class Skills
Profession Skills
[1.1 Mindtap] Minor ease of access and use of Psi Ether for broadcasting purposes.
[1.1 Let Them Scream] Your agony is theirs.
[1.1 Wanderlust] — Enhanced ease of travel when navigating unknown terrain.
[1.1 Northstar ] — Enhanced sense of direction and intuition when navigating unknown terrain.
Spells
Active
Passive
None.
None.
General Skills
Active
Passive
None.
None.