The Empire was a prosperous and powerful land. Fertile soils, climate and the abundance of resources, coupled with the magical might it possessed made it the uncontested dominant force among the nations.
Previously separated into six warring kingdoms, the Empire united centuries ago to appear as a strong entity before the Daemons of old, who were said to be wanting to expand their own lands. The rumor proved to be untrue but the kingdoms had felt very positive effects from the alliance and kept it as it was. Soon, commerce and knowledge about Magic spread and developed at unseen speeds, surpassing what the Elves had build in their long lives.
Towers and academies were founded to open the Empire to those gifted in the Magic arts, the armies, strong of hundreds of thousands of men was reinforced by magic imbued armors and weapons. Terrifying inventions like magic cannons and magi-activated muskets were invented whereas more peaceful ones, like the 'magi-walkie' were sold to important individuals and thoses who could afford them.
Magic was also the force that allowed soldiers, mercenaries and adventurers to repel raging beasts out of the imperial lands. It was a gage of safety. Magic was a pillar for society.
But even the strongest, sturdiest pillar needed to be put under surveillance, and the six rulers of the Empire knew that. Magic was a destructive force too, and one action could turn the sacred foundation of the Empire into a dangerous ruin hanging above everyone's head. And so, the Empire created the laws that harnessed Magic and imposed them to the world.
Nobody could protest. Not the Daemonic races, who weren't interested into this power to begin with, nor the arrogant Elves, who had fallen behind after a few centuries, nor the insignificant Dwarves, who were busy collecting their dumb rocks.
The only ones who raised their voices were magicule-less subjects of the Empire. Magical objects and commodities that balanced their inaptitude were already expensive and hard to find, but with the birth of the rules that restrained certains aspects of Magic, the prices soared even higher. That lead to several disputes and strikes but eventually agreements were made to lower prices for people who could prove they weren't able to use Magic.
And despite these internal strifles, the Empire thrived. It even managed to spread its arms into DaemonVille, the heart of the Daemon realm by implementing a branch of 'The Adventurer Guild'.
That was a necessary precaution. The Empire's greatest fear was still a Daemonic invasion. That's why most of its fortified places were build in the Western territories. The place was a geographical chokehold. It would slow down any attack, stop them even by forbidding large armies from marching together and spreading.
The Elven Council also participated in the construction of most forts and the materials that were used came from the Republic of FrostMen, who graciously lent what they called the 'Blizzaroc'. A cold hard stone, very resistant to any kind of attack, be it piercing, blunt or slashing.
And in recent years, the branch of the Adventurer Guild in the Daemon capital. Even the tiniest bit of gossip about troop movements or war preparations would be seen by a drunk individual with a big mouth. Yes. The Guild was some kind of spynest. But for the past forty years since its foundation in DaemonVille and several other Daemon towns, nothing had happened.
Some would consider this overly protective behavior absolutely paranoid, which wasn't false in itself. The two kingdoms had tense relationships but neither side wanted to start an official full-scale war.
Daemons were strong and tough, Humanoids, Elves included had magical firepower and more advanced tactics. A war would be devastating for the East and West, and the generations of rulers of the two nations knew that.
Still, all this wait was nerve-wracking for some high-placed individuals. About thirty years ago, they had received reports about a Dark Elf who was skilled in crafting and smithing being invited by the king of the Daemons after settling in their capital for some time. The equipements the Empire had the chance to get their hands on were of exceptional quality... with far better metals than what the East continent could produce.
Of course, the Six Crowns and the court demanded explainations from the Elven Council, who after half a year of commercial embargo, spilled the bean about banishing a woman for training under Dwarves. Her name was even a taboo in the Western part of the Council, where she lived before.
Following this, the Elven territory suffered heavy penalties regarding education and military support, much to their chagrin. At the time, they didn't seem to understand that even though it was non-magical equipment, armor was still armor and a blade was still a blade...
Since them, the allmighty Empire had tried to get into contact with the banished Elf while presenting various privileges but nothing had swayed her and they gave up after 20 years. The rulers of the Empire weren't Elves, and had to step down due to old age or wounds.
Still, even without her equipments, the Empire was standing strong even today.
----------------------------------------
"Miss! You have to be clearer! I cannot make any sense of your whimpers. And until you give me an explaination about your state and where you come from, I can't allow you access to the city. Just... How did you even pass the frontier to begin with?" A soldier half-shouted, half sighed to Flora.
Him and the squad guarding the central southern gates of Mana, the capital of the Empire had been searching for any irregularities in carriages and belongings of travelers who wanted to enter the city. Up until a few minutes ago, the were inspecting a merchant's cart until one of the guards put his hand in a blanket was was bitten by something.
After surrounding the carriage, the threat revealed itself as a very pale and sweaty foxgirl with torn clothes and panicky eyes. For the past five minutes, she had been waving her hands and making bestial unintelligible sounds while trying to push the soldiers around. No-one here could speak the foxmen's native langage but they knexw that wasn't something coherent at all. To say the guards were annoyaed was an understatement.
Now she was searching frantically in the numerous pockets of her shirt.
"Please Miss. For the last time. Calm down and answer our questions. Or give us some kind of identification that would allow us to proceed further... Hm? What's this?"
It seemed that she had finally found something noteworthy. A half torn letter of admission in one of the Empire's academies. The text didn't matter. The stamps of the six rulers were here.
"You're about a week late for admissions but that... works. Welcome to Mana. I'd advise you to go see a healer. You don't look like you feel good."
The soldiers dismissed the girl as she was trying to protest for some reason and went back to the long line of people who had piled up.
Sigh...
=
Kill!... Bite!... Maim!... Tear!...
N-no... Shut the fuck up. I'll get rid of you. I'll get...
"-ey, watch what you're doing girl! Ouch! Why did you bite me?! Come back here little punk!"
Nononono... That's fucking bad... I need to find a purifier...
Ahahahaha! You'll be too late! The people you bit will die soon and the guards will make the link. By the time you find your healer, you'll have do what I ordered you to do if you don't want to get tortured and killed~
SHUT UP! It's all your fault you bitch! You killed Kazu and you want me to kill people for you! You're fucking sick! I'll denounce you and you'll be the one to die. You're not even an Alpha, you're an impostor in a corpse.
You can talk back, that's good... not! Maybe I should have released more toxins to make you really obedient? I'm actually impressed you managed to regain some sentience. Yeah. Let's activate the rest. I don't trust you little bitch. You'll be remembered as 'Flora, traitor of the Empire'. So much for wanting to be recognized~
Wha- NO?!
Passerbys stared at the red-haired foxkin who suddenly stopped in the middle of the street. One kind soul approached her and waved his hands in front of her blank face. A second later, the individual was screaming in pain, with fangs deep inside his forearm.
Before anyone could react, the girl's physique had dramastically changed. She was now hunched over, drooling and growling. Her fangs and claws had grown and sharpened, just like...
"Koblod!" a woodworker's scream resonated in the street.
=
"Your puppet made a carnage in Mana, pointed-ears. That's good." Wrathborn stated while he read the official demand sent from the human capital.
Sigh...
"So much blabla to just say they were attacked by a Demi-human who was controlled by a Lupinox. And now they want compensation. Compensation my ass. Three hundred sets of armors?! What the fuck is that insane demand?! Can your forges even produce that much in a month?"
Tsk
"... I have already told you... to stop calling me that. It's a degrading term."
"You're no fun. Where's the old Victoire who'd chuckle every now and then? Everyone's noticed you became even colder after the attack. Are you okay? Even though we don't look like we are, we're concerned about you. I know you don't consider us as friends but if there's something on your mind..."
"... I'm fine. Now... drop the questions. You should focus on your own work. I've done mine while you were slacking off. There's not much time left for preparations. And remember this, ultimately, we're only... coworkers. Nothing more."
"You think I should send a letter too? What do you guys think?" the regal Oni questioned his generals, who shrugged or pretended to do something else to avoid answering.
"How did this guy even become king seriously...?" they heard the Elf mumble as she went away.
"..."
"Well, it's as you said. She's even more glacial than before. But this time you deserved it. Calling an Elf 'pointed-ears' is just a bad move."
"Still, it kind of hurts to see her like this."
"Heh. I get the feeling. You're going home after a mission and out of nowhere, guys from the country that banished you come up to you and threaten you to go with them. Then a wyvern comes up and starts toying with you for no reason while you're weak and can't do shit.
No matter how you look at it, it really show the glaring lack of internal security in the realm. You did promise her she'd have no trouble with Elves in your territory, after all!" exclaimed Lady Crimson, while chugging down a keg of mead and pointing towards the Daemon King with her tail.
"So we're losing her trust? Is that what you're saying?"
"... Maybe? Not necessarily but we can't brush this concern aside. I don't think she'd have shown her amazing inventions to us if she didn't trust us but she's at least showing that she's dispeased with the situation. Just like everytime she suggested things and we ignored her. I mean we were assholes at the start, let's be real."
Three nods were the answer Crimson needed. That was true. When Victoire became Master Smith about twenty years ago, her supporters were very few. Apart from the king and the Daemon nobles who held territories with a lot of mining resources, many saw her as an hindrance at best, an Elven spy in the worst cases. Even the Generals themselves did. At the time, the Elf's rise in status and power in the court had scared them. It was only logical for the group to try to rough her up.
But now, all they could think of was shame about their deeds. The majority of what Victoire said and predicted turned out to be true. What she said she'd do, she did it and a not-so negligible amount of reforms that were made in manufactures, transportation and security came from her brilliant mind.
The woman really needed some kind of reward... but what reward exactly?
Gold? She had already boatloads of it and it was useless in her eyes. All of it ended up being smelted into strange alloys.
Men? Women? Well nobody knew Victoire's orientation regarding this matter. Huge chances she'd rather have a relationship with a golem or one of her creations than with an actual living person...
What could she possibly want...?
=
"... They still haven't replied, I believe."
"Patience. DaemonVille is far away from here, even near the front. The missive might not even have entered the city."
"Still, why can't they invest into our magic relays? They're so far behind us it's not even funny. Everything is slow and painful when dealing with them. I don't care about their answer, why did we have to only demand so little compensation? If they can't even prevent a slave from escaping, how bad are their guards? We should've asked for more armor and weapons from that Elf... fifty units was still an acceptable amount."
"You're too rash Rampo. Calm down for a bit. That may be exactly what they want. Us making very high demands they won't accept. Then tension will rise until this escalates into one of our countries declaring they have been wronged by the other side's actions. And then-"
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"War. Am I right? What's even funnier is that the Elves are basically begging us to start a war with them. Fucking pussies hiding behind us... They really thing we can't see through them? They just want the smith back."
Another voice interjected further away in the throne room, yet it was clear as crystal.
"It seems... we are the one who's late this time. Apologies. Unlike you three, we live our lives cutting down these uncivilized beasts, not scheming with big words in a fancy castle and partying with nobles."
"... Celeste. Your tongue is still as sharp as your blade it seems. But to say that while you bunch are wearing the most ridiculously trimmed and decorated armors I've seen is... ironic. How much is that armor? How do you even move with these frills and a veil around a battlefield? Seriously, to most people you look like complete jokes, it's as if brides had been invited to fight against Daemons.
In any case, you criticize our work but our plotting and scheming has been ensuring you three don't get killed or kidnapped in an ambush.
Let me tell you girls. You are giften with the sword, we can't deny that... Compared to a soldier that is, but in front of an armored Bullman... that's a whole other matter. Being giften doesn not mean you're invincible.
Remember, Maria got her seat merely as Elder Crown Manook stepped down because he couldn't stand his injuries anymore. Had he been not so reckless at the time, he would still be in power... and she would still be a pissy poor, dirt-crawling, quarter-blooded noble."
Said girl glared at the young Crown, red in the face from embarrassement and anger. Her companions held her back, glaring at the man too.
"Heh.... Be mad, you know Madrik's right. And if you came here just to insult our dignified asses~ ."
"Shut. The. Fuck. Up. Ronsen. I don't want to hear anything from you. You're a disgrace to your heritage. A family of swordmen who ended up with a scrawny smartass as their heir."
"... Yet they are proud of me. But it matters not. Well, gentlemen, it seems... that inviting these harpies to our meeting was merely a waste of time.
Go back to killing Daemons, Celeste. At the end, the greatest weapons are the words that commands arms. Not the weapons themselves. You girls will hopefully learn that one day..." Ronsen stated while turning back to the other male members of the Six Crowns.
=
Celeste and her comrades were all fuming. The nerves these guys had. They didn't even realise their hypocrisy. Being smart but weak was worse than strong and idiot. It took strengh to raise your men's spirits and leand them to victory. All that big talk was for nothing. Enemies couldn't be exterminated by words alone. A sword and a fireball had been much more effective, ancient times proved this countless times already.
The three girls were now entering the camp to prepare their horses but noticed a rather odd commotion. Soldiers were startin to unpack stored weapons and others were checking siege equipments in a hurry.
"H-huh? Maria, Celeste, look at that."
Rose tapped the two other girls on their shoulderplates. Both of them looked at her with an inquisive gaze.
"Rose, what's wrong?"
"Look. Up there. It's a..."
"Catapult. What's it doing...? It's not one of ours..."
"No fucking-"
They now understood why the whole camp was in chaos. On the other side of the giant hills that separated the humans and the Elves from the Daemons, outlines of siege machines could be seen. Daemons weren't uncivilized to the point they didn't use things like this, after all.
"Well, our attempt was unsucessful. I guess we won't be able to get these precious pieces of armors... A shame."
The girls turned around and saw the male members of the Crowns. They scoffed in sync.
"So much for words and brains. See how it turns out?"
"I wonder why... we didn't ask for much, but the missive they themselves sent is quite interesi-"
"We don't care about that... how many machines are there? We can't even see all of their forces with that hill covering everything.... And, do we even have the time to prepare our forces? The Daemons are way too close and our troops will at least need two days to arrive."
"Celeste, if you took the time to listen to others and not cut them off, you would know by now that the Daemon King gives us five days starting from today to prepare our forces. The missive we just received contains this information. But I'm quite intrigued at the fact... that the amount of armors we were supposed to ask has been modified.
Ronsen, Rampo and me had agreed for thirty sets. Why does the letter speak about... three hundred? Do you have knowledge of this, Misses?" Madrik asked sweetly while narrowing his eyes.
"Huh? Ain't that obvious? We changed it! What do you want to do with thirty sets? We can barely equip a squad with that. Now we'll get to have a lot more men with nice gear."
"..."
"I'm almost speechless. Crown Ronsen... May I... trouble you to report this matter to the Elder Crowns? A soldier will find you the fastest horse in the fortress."
Said man nodded before going away with his escort.
"No, seriously, did you not think about it when you saw the document? Now look at the consequences."
"What's that supposed to mean?! I didn't know this was an official letter! It looked like a contract to me! Just sitting on a shabby table by itself."
"And none of you girls tried to stop Celeste...? I see. And there are people out there you ask us why you're never invited to events... Dumb as a rock... And now we're the ones who'll have to fix your mistakes. Looking at the amount of machines they gathered, I don't feel like they're going to back down after some heartfell apologies. That's such a mess dammnit... We asked for swords, but not that way..."
Madrik turned around and went back towards the fortress. He stopped and looked sharply at the initiators of the catastrophic diplomatic incident.
"Byt the way, don't think you'll come out unscathered by this affair. Being royalty won't shield you from your acts and responsabilities. You can be sure of that. Rose and Maria can expect lesser sentences since they're merely imbeciles who follow you around like mutts, but you, Celeste, shouldn't expect anything less than being stripped of any status. If you manage to survive this conflict, that is.
Our relation with the Daemon Lands was already very fragile to begin with. Apart from fighting with rogue Daemons, no major conflict has arisen agains the other side since the creation of the Empire. In recent years we even managed to create commercial routes, but now...you just ruined everything.
All the fortresses we built will sadly serve their purpose. Be prepared for the consequences of your stupidity." the male member of the Six Crowns stated before storming off somewhere.
----------------------------------------
TALES OF IRON AND MAGIC MEGATHREAD; TESTS, GUIDS, TIPS & MORE.
⌊- Future player here. Didn't get the chance to be selected in the Beta, how's the game? Looks very promising.
⌊ - Tester here. Game's fun, very optimized and gameplay has lots of depth in it, story has exceptional narrative. 'Real-fantasy' is an intriguing concept. For those who played traditional RPGs, don't expect crazy overpowered level-ups mid-fight or some kind of system that'll guide you. Everything happens in real time and you'll die if not careful. It's up to you to do your things.
Early game's crazy hard. But once you get into it, you're basically living a 2nd life in fantasy world.
First tip, you'll get launched somewhere between the two continents of the world depending of whatever you wrote in your charac bio. Don't go overboard in the lore! You can end up in a very bad spot.
Spawning in Daemon lands is just end of playthrough. Tested it myself. There's going to be a carriage attack near your location, rush ASAP! You NEED to save as many humans as possible. They'll make early game fucking easy. One of them's a war vet and he's going to be very useful to get fighting experience.
Don't try to save the Deamons, they'll stab you in the back. And making a Daemon char doesn't work either. Stick with a humanoid.
⌊- StarrySkiesofSaturn
What's humanoid? Furries gotta be Daemons, right?
⌊- Forgot to mention that game over's true game over. Once char is dead, you have to create another one. World's still the same for everyone so you can get your loot if you remember where you died, but the game's smart. It doesn't allow for exact same char, and twins don't work. Other players can steal your stuff too. It's like real world.
Also, Magic's strong but don't expect OP stuff like in most games. Slow start, you need to pass the wall of getting training. Otherwise you're stuck and you'll suck. 2 ways to improve, by getting tomes in the human side via ruins exploration or finding hidden NPCs who can train you.
⌊- bruh, what's the fucking point then? I don't want to play a chore simulator in a fantasy world :/
⌊- Don't play it then. Dumb.
⌊- So Magic's not very useful at the start? That's a nice change I guess. What are the general limitations? Don't really want to end up like a sitting duck -_-'
⌊- For starters, the conjuration speed. Don't worry about spells taking a lot of time to chant. It's up to you to train your character, like irl. For the first few in-game days, you really should focus on your phys and strengh training. A sword is always an easy way to defend yourself from something unexpected. Plus, physical endurance is also a factor at play for casting Magic. The more you have, the easier it'll be to fire more spells.
⌊- BTW, speaking of spells, it's not your traditional Magic skills. No such thing. It just doesn't suddenly get more powerful. A fire spell can be a 'carnage dragon breath' in form, but it'll be a wave or a ball of fire in terms of power, unless you train and train and train.
What's funny is that because of the lore about the Empire restricting Magic usage and knowledge, you're already some kind of experienced adventurer so you definitely know your stuff compared to the average NPC. Anyways, good luck!
⌊ -See +1,243,259 replies.
Forums sure were lively. They had been for the entire week. With the announcment of Tales of Iron and Magic's release, the game's popularity flared up again and attracted crowds of people who were remotely interested in such games. There were tips, concerns, praises, critics, hate. All of what you could find in Solarnet, which didn't change much since the internet.
But the forums were not what was worrying.
A tall middle-aged man sighed while slumping in his chair and stared helplessly at the many holo-displays of data around the room. That was Johnathan Sunday, childhood friend and ex-coworker of Victor. Problems had been piling up for the three last days and Johnathan felt like he was sinking in a quagmire.
First, his best friend's death by robbers. Second, tasks that had to be distributed to the other devs following his death. Third, the appearance of irregularities in the game's code and now a game that booted literally by itself.
Seriously, combined to the psychological impact Victor's death left on the little team, everyone's workload had seemingly doubled for the past three days. The game was finished now but a few tests there and there didn't hurt anyone. Or at least... that's what was supposed to happen.
Johnathan had innocently uploaded the last files Victor had saved from his pod, to put the lead dev's character as an NPC, as an hommage... and as soon as the data got linked, not only the game compiled completely unknown stuff in a lot of areas of the code, but it also didn't turn off when the power went off.
Just today, the teams had left the game at 12 am, in-game time and to their surprise, after coming back from, lunch, the many monitors of the pods were still active, displaying the game world about to reach night-time. Everyone checked but power had indeed been cut off before going away.
Still, thes weird happenings didn't seem to cause any crashes or bugs that threatened save data or server integrity. And the parts of code didn't seem to want to be erased at all. At this point Johnathan hoped not getting rid of the irregularities wouldn't come back to bite them in the ass.
"Why does this have to be so difficult, goddamn..."
----------------------------------------
'What do you see? Something interesting?"
"Well I'd never have imagined the settting I created to be reproduced to such extreme. Even tiny details are here. You see these girls. I made them as rulers of the Empire. I think they were in the first batch of characters I created. So they're old. I've made them so dumb a goldfish could pass off as a Nobel-prized scientist in front of them. And looking at them with my spyglass, they indeed inherited the traits I gave them in description. Loud, annoying, clueless, impatient and muscleheaded. Unable to listen to others too unless bested by a blade."
"That's quite a lot of negative points. Why so much hate ?"
"I was full of cringe when I was a teen. I mean, you've looked at mangas I've read. They all have this 'cold and beautiful sword princesses with a tragic past, who doesn't listen to anyone' trope. It's so fucking-"
'Annoying. Yes. But still, why did you picture these girls the exact same way?'
'Because I wanted to make players feel like this type of character was an hindrance in a story. This type of character serves nothing in the plot, fanservice not included. I made them that way because I thought my game's algorithms would deepen their behaviors and players would realise that loner cold sword princesses aren't useful. It's an overused concept."
'Aren't you pushing your beliefs in your game? People could hate that more than the tropes you're trying to ridicule.'
"I know Vic. At the time I put a side-warning for people who can't stand this kind of things but I realized a few years ago that it's not enough. On the other hand, I would have had to either delete them, which would have created inconsistencies and holes in the story, or overhaul their character to make them less cliché, which you have created even more plotholes and weird stuff."
'Stuck between a rock and a hard place, is that right?'
"Yeah. I really didn't want to chase for inconsistencies in the in-game lore and archives I set up. So I left the girls alone."
'So what do you plan to do now?'
"I don't really know. I'll have to see how much forces the humans can gather. Then I'll adjust the number of artillery I'll place."
'Why do we need to get traditional old siege machines then again? I didn't catch that when you explained it to WrathBorn.'
"Well I don't know if there are more of these reincarnated dudes on the human side and I don't want any leak to happen if they suddenly see a weird contraption that doesn't belong here. Everything on this side of the hill is just a cover for my bad boys. Plus, that'll distract the humans adn their prying eyes."
'Okay~ Thanks for the answer.'
After a long pause, the Elf's spirit continued.
'By the way, do you plan on participating in the war? I'm asking because of...'
"Our arm... No. I really need to slow down on dangerous stuff. Activating the nanodroids is... something I want to avoid. Having a nanoprosthetic on half of our torso is already too much. I don't want it to spread further, else I'll become an Elf-droid. But... I'll be commanding my bad boys for sure. I don't want that taken away from me."
Yawn...
'You're tird. We should get some good rest tonight.'
"Yep."
----------------------------------------
Of course it had to bite them in the ass. What did Johnathan expect to begin with?! The game was already doing stuff by itself. So why not change the original plot too?
The prologue with the carriage interaction had been completely axed and instead the code now acted in a way that put... the player as a mercenary hired to... fight in a war against Daemons if they chose human or Elves or whatever humanoid they could come up with?! What the fuck! Wars were endgame stuff, no?
... Well Victor always said that unknown risks and situations should be the stuff that spiced up a game. But still! That didn't include sending fresh newbies into a hellhole! They didn't even have proper gear. Launch was going to be a carnage...
"-ah. Really can't rollback the code. I'm trying but it's doing the opposite actually. It's forwarding data in there and I'm not too sure about trying to mess with this stuff even more. And even without me touching anything, there are already so many actions happening right now. This game's been possessed by Victor, I'm telling you guys!"
"Awww shut up Chris. But seriously, what should we do? We can't really change the data and the game is preatically living by itself. Releasing a statement about this would make it look like we did some emergency fixes and annoucning that the original setting has been changed won't sit well with the Beta testers and the people waiting for launch."
"But what else can we do? Staying silent has proven to be a really shitty thing to do. Players won't like it if they realise what's happening after loggin-in. We might face less backlash by making this announcement. Without getting into details, we tell then that the starting point is harsher..."
"Can we at least try to give them equipments? Since the setting says they're being officially recruited, temporary gear should be available. Else this is going to be a total slaughter. Not free, but with very reduced prices at least. So in a way, that gives stuff for the players who can survive this whole mess."
"Already on it. This should be easy. That part of the code hasn't been tampered with. For now."
"Then let's hurry. I'll get in touch with the communication branch. How much time does yours need?"
"Might be able to complete this in five hours, give or take. But we'll have to push our hardware to its limits."
"Urgh. Honestly, it's such a mess. Everything that could go wrong with the launch is going wrong..."
"Nah, don't jinx it, please."