How many times had I seen this opening on my screen? Waking up in the cell, picking a race and customizing looks before moving on to everything else; all within the confines of a tiny prison cell. Easily more than fifty times, maybe even past a hundred?
Maybe, it's not like I had been counting. Regardless, it was quite one thing to see it on a computer screen, and quite another to feel like a floating bit of soul staring at a lifeless doll of a being and becoming aware you can change and mold that doll to your will.
I paused for a few minutes here on the edge of panic - the state just not fully kicking in; maybe because I didn't have any biology at the moment to feed into it? I did find my racing, anxious thoughts to be of a help analyzing this situation.
Did I sign up for some kind of secret experimental government program? I don't remember doing that but then again if it was truly a secret experiment would I?
Aliens? Probably not.
Psychosis? A strong possibility. And would I be able to know if I was in the midst of psychosis? No, also probably not. Therefore, let's discard this theory since we can't prove it or disprove it on any level.
Dream? Probably the strongest possibility if I'm being honest. I could be in a coma right now due to a stroke or an aneurysm and have no idea, and what a frightening thought that is.
On one hand I could be laying in a hospital bed (or worse on the floor of my computer room) slowly dying as the world passes me by but on the other hand -
There's nothing I can do about this. So.... I've always strongly accepted I could die at any moment (comes from working as a groundskeeper at a graveyard) and long ago came to the realization that the best thing one can do in any given situation is to just roll with the punches and live the best they can.
And right now, that looks like just doing what seems to be expected of me.
First, I examined my racial options. A mishmash of things that were familiar but different from what I was expecting, but seemed to fit in (to my knowledge) as part of what was added in The Forgotten Codex.
Several different variations humans seemed to be available to me. Caster variant, Warrior variant, Thief variant. Not really anything interesting here but I did have a predilection for casting and if I'm going to be stuck inside a world stuck on a super hard difficulty I'd rather be standing off and not getting hit, so I put a pin in the Caster variant of humans here as a possibility.
Orcs of course, what a fantasy staple - though they seemed to have been given a bit more flavor and even have some kind of shamanistic casting tree, they're still physical focused. Pass.
Elves of many stripes. Need I say more? Pass.
Lizardfolk! Now, this is a good one. The extra ability to explore combined with natural regeneration is always helpful and could be a key part of success and survival in wherever I'm going. I put a pin in this again, because it has potential but still doesn't call to me as I'd like.
Catfolk! Another staple. Perfect for a stealth archer build but I'll be damned if I have to speak about myself in the third person in real life (or whatever approximation of it I'm about to have).
Vampire!? Oh, there's options to begin as a Vampire of any of the base races..... interesting. There's options for the same in Werewolf next. The templates for them both are intriguing, and I know both have received a bunch of major balancing tweaks making them stronger in many ways, but weaker in others. Could allow me to survive and demolish things at a lower level before I've gained many perk points, but on the other hand if I'm caught and revealed....
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Oh? What's this? Necropolitan? Interesting. This must have been added in one of the many mods in this pack. The skin on the male doll for Necropolitan was a pale, almost bone white with eyes that seemed faded, as in death. According to the lore, Necropolitans were a hidden race much like Vampires and Werewolves. They specifically seemed to focus on death - which catches my eye immediately, I always loved playing as a necromancer and many of the benefits offered could really help with that. It's not a complete focus on the magical arts, but...
Yes, yes I think I'll go with Necropolitan. The danger of being revealed is very scary of course, but this only buffs every single thing I'd like and has minor drawbacks for my situation, getting revealed aside.
Necropolitan
Lifestyle Bonus: Hunger reduced by 50%
Thirst reduced by 50%
Bleeding reduced by 50%
Fatigue reduced by 50%
Stamina increased by 10%
Climate Resistance increased by 50% Lifestyle Malus: Hidden Race!
Sunlight Weakness (all statistics 25% weaker while under the Sun)
Senses reduced by 10%
Speed reduced by 10% Skill Bonus: 20% Conjuring
10% Illusion
10% Alteration
10% Enchanting
10% Heavy Armor
Yes, I like that. I usually wouldn't go Heavy Armor, but a 10% buff to learning speed could be key here. I'll have to see how it works later, especially with enchanting and alteration mixed in. It's a little different then vanilla with the racial choice not just adding to the starting level of skills, but that's part of the class system now. If it's in this version of The Forgotten Codex, I'll have to make a custom class to stack bonus' and hopefully really compound my advantages.
Now, on to looks!
Well, this is a tough one. I'll go with a male body, only because that's what I'm used to. I can't exactly see if it's 6'2 in height exactly, but I'll set it to something that looks about right. A lean build (opposite of my thicker linebacker/powerlifter kinda build gained from physical labor in my normal body) because I kind of don't want to stick out here, right? On that front, I'll make my looks better then average but not too much - a kind of lean, clean looking face with a strong jaw (think Robert Pattinson and you'd be close) and I'll give myself... sigh upon put upon sigh kind of elvish looking long hair, with enough hanging across my face to look a little sloppy but most importantly kind of hide it. Natural camouflage can't hurt, right?
I take a mental step back to look over what I've done... a nice looking guy with long messy hair, face mostly hidden. Perfect. Just gotta combine that with some illusions or more realistically a cloak and I'm probably sitting pretty with my choices so far.
Next up, on to classes.