In the city of Greenside, one of the biggest and richest cities in the entire realm, lay a mansion. In fact, there were many mansions, but one stood out among all the others. This one was bigger, more extravagant. A mansion such as this never truly slept, Its cohorts of keepers busy at all times of day. But even if the city and the mansion didn't sleep, the sole owner of it certainly did. That is until
Thrain woke up completely covered in sweat. He could feel it. It was absolutely terrible. He was just about to lose a heck of a lot of money.
Without even a moment of hesitation, he got up from his bed, working towards his office, while activating several Enchantments that called an urgent meeting.
Exiting his personal quarters and entering the areas of the mansion designed for all races to navigate, he lamented that gnome size was not widely standard.
As he entered the main meeting room, he saw his trusted secretary Larian was already here. As was to be expected, a rare catch that one. She was an elf Thrain had managed to snap away from his brother before that dimwit realized her true value.
But now was not the time for reminiscing about past victories. Now was the time for action. “Bring me a report for all of our holdings that we currently have and be quick about it.”
While waiting, Thrawn drummed his finger on the Elvish Sunwood desk. The slight glow coming from the wood made him scowl.
He could feel it, a change in the market, an upheaval, a complete and utter destruction like nothing ever seen before. and for some reason he was in the center of it all.
This market collapse would cost him a lot of money. With a feeling of dread he feared he might even lose his epic classed Envy of Midas. which required him to be the wealthiest person in the entire world.
Before he could really think much more about what was going on, Larian returned with a big stack of paper and put it in front of him.
Without even acknowledging her, he dove into the papers that described in great detail all the things that he owned, the infrastructure and the plans for the future.
As if by a magnet, his gaze was drawn towards the food, dried meats, fresh products and livestock. How could this be? He was happily invested in the food production business. After all, there was a great deal of security as all people needed to eat. Yet he could not ignore what his class was telling him. With a whisper, only audible due to the silence in the room, he said, “It is all going to be worthless. How can this be? I'm ruined”
"Excuse me, sir, but can you please elaborate on that a bit?" Looking up from the papers, he saw that the meeting room somehow had been filled with people. Of course, not just any people. These people were some of the most influential and powerful people in the entire city. Most kings could not call more influential people on such a short notice. These people were the heads of The different departments of his merchant empire.
He knew better than not to trust his class. He had worked long and hard on the levels and rarity, and experience told him that it would only bring sorrow to distrust it. As such, he had to make a decision. He had to believe that what he knew to be the truth was the truth. All the food would be worthless in around a day. How and why could wait till afterwards. For now they had a day to salvage as much of this nightmare as possible.
looking at the people around him, most of them people he had known for years. He said “Listen now, friends, family, for this is important. We stand in front of a great catastrophe, and I see only one option. We must sell. I want all food, water, and Livestock sold within the next 24 hours.”
The look of utter shock on the people around him had made this whole thing almost worth it. Almost, but not quite. Predictably, the first one to speak up was head of agriculture. “But Sir Stonefist, with that kind of timetable, we won't get a fraction of the true value of anything we sell. Are you sure that this is advisable?”
Absolutely. If I am able to find as much as a rice grain in this house or any of my warehouses afterwards, I will fire whoever did not sweep the floor well enough. get as good a price as you possibly can but when the market inevitably crashes don't stop selling even if you can only get a copper for the finest of duck eggs. I want you to sell them for that copper and ask if they would like for you to fry them or boil them beforehand.
Actually, we might as well get some good reputation out of all of this. So let's say all food you haven't sold within 12 hours, we will give that away for free. We will hold a grand party, a feast the likes of which has never been seen. Not a man, woman or child shall not be stuffed with food and drink by the end of the day. And it shall be known that it was all due to Thrain Stonefist
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And so was it that Greenside had the greatest feast it had ever seen. And as the prompt eventually tricked out, it turned out to also be the last feast it would ever have.
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Across and far away from the city of Greenside was a beautiful mountain with countless waterfalls glistening down its sides. On the very top was a tower reaching to the sky from which it was said that one could see the entire world. Ironic then that the greatest seer was located deep within the bowels of this mountain.
Solanar stroked his long beard. He had seen much and yet so little. Having gone into isolation a few days ago after the future suddenly became very clouded, it had finally cleared.
Not to the level it had been beforehand, but he suspected it might not do that for a long while, for what he saw was both glorifying and terrifying. The age they were in had ended, and a new one was about to begin.
Only vague and undefined glimpses of the being behind this change was he able to glimpse. He was certain that that being was beyond anything he had ever encountered in any visions beforehand. A truly terrifying existence.
He saw it now, soon, a prompt to the world, a message proclaiming truth. He saw beggars become heroes and kings become beggars. Churches would burn and farmers would pick up swords.
But throughout all of these visions one thing was ever present, an overwhelming feeling of gratitude from the downtrodden, from the ones who had nothing.
Even so, Solanar was afraid. Afraid for one being wielding the power to change the future so dramatically and so fast. In one moment, everything had been uncertain and then all of this. It was truly beyond him to imagine what kind of existence could change the world on nothing more than a fancy.
But even so, his job was not over. As the blind oracle, he had a job to guide people to their greatest potential.
Which right now required him to be more hands on than he usually liked. A lot of people who had previously had no potential had suddenly gained a lot and he needed to act quickly.
and so he began spinning plans to topple empires, create heroes and kill villains.
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In a world not distant, but a bit in a direction most beings could not perceive or move in, sat the Council of the Gods. These were greater gods who had gained enough power and levels to ascend to Embodying not just a thing, but a concept.
It was rare for all 13 seats of the Council to be filled, even rarer when considering the short notice. But then again, what was happening was truly beyond any God's prediction.
In the center of the ring stood a cornerstone, the very first stone ever created when the world was first formed. And on this stone was carved the rules from which the system sprouted.
1.The system exists to obey the admin and the admin is above all.
2.Should the admin ever find itself in a situation in which no mental, physical or spiritual activity has been detected for more than 10.000 years all power borrowed from the admin shall be returned in such a way that the admin once again will awaken.
3.The world shall always be comprehensible for the admin.
4.The system must maintain stability, creating an environment for which the greatest story can be told.
All guards who reached this plane of existence knew about the admin but no more than what could be inferred from the stone. In fact, no living God knew anything more about the admin . The most ancient one amongst them claimed to have heard of beings who knew more but most did not believe this.
As such, it had come as a cruel reminder that they were not the top of the food chain, when suddenly a message had appeared above the rock, saying,the admin has made an update to the system. System will update in 24 hours.
The first god to speak up was war. War being a giant person wearing both a cloak and heavy armor, a sword and a staff, said “We must act decisively. We cannot let this come as a surprise for our followers. A move now will save ten later”.
The next God to speak was Creation, having taken the form of a half-dwarf, half-elven man. answered War's declaration.”For once I agree with war. This is not a time to wait and see what will happen. I feel that my domain will be greatly enhanced from this upcoming change. But it is not directly within my influence.”
Next up was music, who did not embody any physical form, but had instead draped itself within the concept of a child's first laughter. “We are all in agreement on that front. But that is, as I see it, not the truly important part. That would be what this message represents. The admin is active in the world again. And this, my fellow gods, I fear, is what we truly need to discuss.”
Dream who had the appearance of an ever-changing person whom you might have known or would know, side “There is very little we can do. The admin is completely immune to any effects from which we might track it. And I fear such an approach might anger it more than anything. with the system completely subservient to it. That would mean our destruction.”
Wisdom, with the appearance of an old man with more wrinkles than anyone could count, said, "I do not believe are concern should be with the Atman. We truly have no power over that being and what it wills is law. I believe we should do as we have always done and govern our own concepts to the best of our abilities. And with that, I do believe that Hunger has something he would like to say.
Indeed, said Hunger, who had the appearance of an emaciated humanoid figure, who had only a black hole where his heart would be, drawing all into its depths. “I will announce my departure from this council, leaving the seat vacant for some other god to inherit. I do not know what this update will be, but I feel that it will greatly diminish my power. But do not fear. For I am Hunger, and I shall not be sated. I will return.”
And having set his peace, hunger disappeared. Back to the material world, back to his followers, to prepare for war. For war would come to the world of the gods. A vacant seat made that a certainty.
The satisfaction and anticipation of war could be felt by all the remaining Council, and one thing was for certain, whatever else would happen, war's power would not diminish in the next few years. Quite the opposite.
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Back in Wilderdale , Izzy, unaware of the great upheaval she had caused, was looking at the prompt, thinking to herself, 24 hours seems like an awfully long time. Perhaps I can make it faster in any way?
Thinking about it really hard, she tried to make the change immediately. But just as she was about to succeed Seraphine snapped her finger and said, "Izzy, are you listening? We are here. We are at the Hunter's Lodge." And in front of them was a beautiful building unlike any other building. It was made from wood with beautiful carvings.
Having been successfully distracted to the relief of the most powerful beings across the world, Izzy and Seraphine entered the building together.