DAY 1 – PREJUDICE
I was awoken by a fanfare of trumpets, like waking from a dream one minute I was finishing my character creation and the next I was incorporeal and flying over a hillside landscape, near the edge of a ginormous forest. Granted I could actually be sleeping but I was pretty sure I wasn’t. What solidified that idea was the voice of an old, wizened man you might hear in during a bad fantasy movie (to be fair some of those were bad movies are my favorites, if you haven’t seen The Tenth Kingdom, I would give it a look).
Nearly three centuries ago, back when the scrounge of orcs and trolls scoured the land, invading from the south, the high elf’s of Tearial, were all but defeated. Down to their last stronghold in the crescent moon valley the final stronghold of queen Tifanni. The call for add to her neighbors fell on deaf ears, the forest sprites were far too nomadic and disorganized, the mountain dwarfs were dealing wither their own incursion from the goblin, what they lacked in strength they made up for in numbers. The humans to the north all but ignored them choosing to shore up their defenses in the thoughts that the elves were all but lost.
If not for a single guild of adventures lead by the hero Deucalion all would have been lost. Three hundred adventurers of all races and guilds flowed down the ravine leading to the queen last stand, Hero, and Guild master of the Arknights Deucalion Arkan lead from the front of the lines as his holy light glimmered upon his long sword and a Lion crested his armor. Nearly broken and overrun the adventurer’s made it to the Elf’s Stronghold just in time to save Tifanni and what remained of her people.
As thanks for coming to their rescue and saving her people Queen Tifanni named the Hero Deucalion a lord of a province of land near the south border of her kingdom hoping Deucalion would continue to be her shield. From here Deucalion reigned for eighty years, building up his people and nation to be a shield against the forces of evil from the south. He passed off his title and lands to his only son before shrugging off his mortal coil and the Light Pantheon honored him by allowing him to ascend to Godhood as minor deity of Protection and Heroic Acts.
Unfortunately for you, elves have long memories and after watching the humans raise their beloved forests to the ground and poisoning the ground with its ugly cities, it soured a large faction of elves to the Arkan Provence. That same faction rose to power and prominence after Queen Tifanni passing to the Void nearly 200 years ago. Since than a cold war between the kingdoms has started causing a rift between the two people.
Hundreds of years have passed, and rumors now spread throughout the kingdom that it would have taken years for the elves to be able to protect this land and would have lost it all together to the hordes of the southlands anyway. People often whisper that the Queen was quite happy to have a human meat shield between her nation and her most hated enemies. The Provence of Arkon has stood as a bastion of the north protecting all others from the hordes of the south.
Your mother died in childbirth; she was a High Elf Adventurer who fell in love with the Captain of the Guard in the capital city of Arkon when he saved her party from a horde of Bugbears. The distrust of elves in the kingdom was so strong that your father was asked quietly to leave the service of the gueard after taking an elven wife. He retired from the guard to live on the edge of the province in a small, fortified town called LaVallee, where he raised and trained you to the best of his abilities, until he too got sick and passed away.
Your fathers prestige and previous work allowed him to afford a quite decent life for himself, but that is all gone now as you have been forced to sell nearly everything you own trying to pay for healer services to heal your father but to no avail. Your creditors had given you one week to pay back the debt or clear out before they come to collect. Unable to find any work your time is up, and it’s time to go, will you do so quietly or will you fight.
As the enthralling speech occurred my cloud of consciousness floated over the centuries old forest filled with enormous trees, the trees eventually broke-+ into a large plain splattered with small corpses of young trees. From my vantage point I could see many small villages or towns in the distance. The plains eventually gave way to three small mountains and hilly region before them were covered once more in trees, but this forest looked much younger. As I descended through the mountains, I looked past the small range and noticed that the mountainous region continued to the south where truly monstrous mountains stood casting long shadows on one another and a sickly-looking forest that surrounded it. Nestled in a basin between two mountains was a slowly bending riverbank.
The river feed into what looked to be a wide but shallow lake. Near the lake, smoke rose up from a small, fortified city, complete with wooden palisades surrounding a smattering of two hundred roughly wooden and stone buildings and in the center of the city was fortified manor house that stood out in contrast due to the tall stone walls surrounding it. I continued floating lower towards the city, as I approached outer palisades, I could start to noticing smaller details of the city, a I could hear a blacksmith shop ringing with the sounds of a hammer on anvil and the people milling you about. I also noticed that two construction crews were making repairs to a large portion of the palisades along with building a wooden watchtower.
My consciousness floated over the walls and towards the center of town noticing thatched roofs and brick buildings, including a small seedy looking tavern, crossing through the center of the city was the Church of Light, reminiscent of a mini-Parthenon with its large marble pillars. I passed through most of the city and I noticed I was floating towards the lake, as I approached the outer the far side of the city I found myself surrounded by several well-constructed building. I was definitely in the much nicer part of town, than what I saw before.
My conscious seemed to be nearing the end of its journey, nearly at street level I approached a large household with a well-manicured backyard. Phasing through the walls, I saw my character standing in the middle of what appeared to be an empty dining room sans of all furnishings one would expect in a bustling home. My character stood in the darkened room staring at cold and fireplace and as the narrator finished his speech, I felt a yank at my core. Even in the dark I could tell that this house was extravagant. Dark wood panels adorned the walls with lighter colored inlays and a mosaic tiled floor.
For the first time since I woke up, I actually felt something affecting me, much like gravity as I flew towards my avatar. My conscious slamming my new body as we melded together. Once I got my bearings, I could feel some newfound control as a rush of false memories flooded my brain, before I had a chance to do anything, I heard a shout.
“Come on out we gave you an entire week to straighten your affairs, its time you moved on. You’re not going to make things difficult for us, are you?” yelled the gruff voice floating in from outside and as soon as he stopped a quest prompt appeared in my vision.
Quest Received: Will you go quietly?
Your house has been sold to cover the expenses of an ailing family member. They have given you a week to figure out your next move. Will you go quietly, or do you wish to take a harder stance.
Quest cannot be declined; your choice will determine the outcome of the events. Quest rewards: Variable.
I let the quest prompt fade away as I took stock of my situation, thinking of the inventory option pulled up a small 3x2 inventory window along with little gold silver and copper markers, all with big fat zeros next to them. The inventory they provided us with was small but remembering that in some season of the game inventories didn’t exist at all, I wasn’t going to complain. I noticed I was already wearing a thick leather jerkin and some durable if plain leggings.
“I said move it, don’t make us come in there and remove you by force!”
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“Jeez, they aren’t messing around are they. This starting quest is weird they obviously are not going to let me keep this place so what is the point of resisting. “
“Be right there, sorry for the inconvenience.” I shouted back as passively as I could. I was curious to know if their attitudes were because just because of my mixed heritage or if it was because of my low charisma score. As I walked out of the room, I noticed a bladed boar spear leaning near the front door and grabbed it as I exited what I could only have assumed was my characters childhood home.
“Halt! In the name of Lord Calvington.” I recognized the stern voice coming from what I assumed to be the leader of a three-guard squad. He was around the age of thirty-five and wore a chain hauberk and blue tunic emblazoned with a black and white badger. I assumed it either represented the regalia of the city or the city lord himself. I raised my hands showing that I was non-hostile but in doing so I realized that I just exited the building holding a weapon.
Oh boy, here we go.
“I was hoping that he was wrong, but I see that our presence here was not in vain. As you can see your outnumbered and highly out classed, so please don’t make a fuss.” Strained their leader seemingly more board than worried.
“I want this man arrested!” screeched a smiling seedy toad of a man standing slightly behind the trio of guards, he wasn’t actually a toad, but his short squat stature and smushed face gave him that appearance. “He is trying to go back on the deal he made with his lordship. Look he is even brandishing a weapon at you fine guards.” His voice reached an annoyingly high octave as during his last sentence.
“Sorry,” I said hastily as I banished my spear into my still open inventory window to the surprise of the guards. “I don’t mean to cause a scene I was just packing up the last of my items.”
Not that they left me with much.
“I said for arrest him, you guards are here to protect me, and he is obviously a threat I don’t want him coming back here threating me.” shouted the toad in a very whiny Karen like manner. He stepped around the guards to address there leader. As he showed his back to me, I was surprised to see that his long greasy black hair didn’t leave a trail of slime down the back of his impeccably crafted if not overstuffed pourpoint.
Seriously what is his problem.
“Now listen here,” stated the guard. “We work for the lord of these lands not YOU!” he punctuated the last word with a stern poke the smarmy man’s chest. “We are here to keep the peace, and he has done nothing but that. Corporal Slater please escort this man out of here while we guard the perimeter.” he once again adopted an air of boredom choosing to completely ignore the sniveling man who continued to drone on, but his cries fell on deaf ears.
The guards glowing white name plate had changed from City Guard to Guard Slater walked over to me, he was an older gentleman with close cropped grey hair, maybe around fifty-five years old and wearing a chainmail shirt under his blue tunic. “You best come with me son.” He stated and as we walked away a prompt filled my vision
Quest Completed: Will you go quietly?
Quest rewards: 50 experience and a slight increase to your reputation with the local guards.
It was quite obvious that I really didn’t have a choice, so I was curious in why I was even given one. If I had chosen to resist, I would have been arrested and thrown into the local equivalent of a jail or palace dungeon. Maybe it was a test to see how I wanted to play this game if I was arrested maybe I would have met up with some less than savory types in jail and that would be my in with a local crime lord or thieves’ guild.
I had played plenty of games where I had chosen that very route but not this time, plus who knows if the System would take away points for bucking society. I mean sure stealing and ripping off your fellow man is a quick way to get ahead but it was detrimental to society, and it was basically testing us on our abilities to survive and thrive together while making a new community.
I was curious about how I was treated and why that man had shown such disregard for me even though we had never met. I would just have to chalk it up to the deep-seated fear of budding war with the elves and my low charisma score. Right now, I couldn’t do anything about either of them so I would just have to just play it safe.
I needed to know what my options were going forward. So, I decided to milk the guard for information as we walked down the street. In most games you could get the basic layout of the town or even a quest from a local guardsman, if you were lucky that is. Before I asked the question I realized that the System had uploaded basic information on the town into my consciousness, so I recognized the route he was taking me, and it made sense considering my character would have grown up in this town and would have no issues getting around inside of it.
“Who was that back there?” I asked pensively to Guard Slater as we walked towards the poorer side of town.
“Which one, cause I assume you don’t mean my other guardsmen?” Guard Slater asked with a chuckle.
“Both?!”
“Our leader was First Lieutenant Sharp; he is a close friend of Lord Calvington and second in command of the City Watch, the first being as you know Captain Knauer.” He stated the first name was new to me but the second caused a tickle of recollection in the back of my mind, must have been more inherent knowledge I had from my character having lived here all my life.
Well, that answers two of my questions, I guess.
When I stayed silent, he continued with a sigh. “The other man was Alfred Prescott the Financial Advisor to Lord Calvington himself, though why he keeps that weasel around I will never know. He is sharp as a whip and somehow all the investments he makes seemssd to turn to gold, but he is wicked as a snake and as poisonous to boot. He is not someone I would want to get on my bad side. But seeing as you already have, I guess you’ll find out.”
I thanked him for his candor and was surprised he shared as much information as he did, considering that I was sure that the weasel in question could make life difficult for the guard if it ever got back to him. We continued on in silence only pausing once we neared an intersection at by the docks. On one side stood the docks with its large ships and warehouses and on the other was the Slums, the cheapest oldest and most rundown houses in the city. Guard Slater placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Your old man was a Hero, and regardless of what other people might think, he was no traitor. Unfortunately for him and you these are troubling times. While a war with the elves has certainly worried some for as long as any can remember, it seems as if for once it might actually happen.” He continued in a somber voice.
“I knew your father; he saved my life more than once in the Capital. He is why I came out here after retiring from the army and it’s the reason I volunteered to escort you from your home. Your family deserved much more than the way you have been treated, and I know about the pitiful sum of money offered to you by Alfred. It was barely enough to cover the cost of your father’s failed treatments, made even worse by the fact that the house was worth nearly ten times as much, not that you had much choice. I don’t know why but I have a feeling that conniving snake had something to do with this.” A tear fell from his eye, and I felt my eyes starting to water as well.
Holy crap!
“I would normally offer to sponsor your way into the Watch to make sure you can afford a decent living and at least three hots and a cot, but with war on the horizon you would never be accepted into any military service. Your only hope is to level up and join the Adventure Society, they pay good coin to anyone with the skills needed to complete quests kill monsters and delve dungeons. For now, I am going to leave you with this,” he said as he passed me fifteen silver coins, on one side was a depiction of a lion and on the other side there was a stag. My inherent memories told me that that the silver coins were called shillings.
“I am sure you have heard of the Anxious Lily Tavern. It is down this road and lies between here and the trading district, Mrs. Gwyndel is a friend and owes me a favor. Tell her I sent you and that you need a place to stay.”
Quest received: A place to lay your head!
Corporal Slater has let you know of a safe location where you can stay. Head there and inform the owner of Slaters request. Accept or Decline. Reward: A safe place to rest.
Well, it’s not the greatest quest in the world, but I guess it’s a start.
By the time I had read through the prompt and accepted the quest and threw the coins in my inventory the old guard had about-faced and was marching down the street towards my old home. I searched my newly integrated knowledge for its location and headed in the direction of the tavern and after a few blocks I noticed the buildings once again started to resemble actual homes rather than run down huts. While noticeably large it seemed as if many families were relegated to one building as they had multiple entrances on the main level.
The size difference between these houses and their tight proximity compared to what I was just forced give up, made me realize how much I just lost. I grew angry at the thought of what just went down until I realized that this was just a game, the immersion of my backstory this season was so smooth it had me forgetting that none of this was real. This was just a game and having the game hand me an expensive house or a huge sum of money in the beginning wouldn’t really make sense, not only that but this was just a starting zone, so I am most likely never to set foot in this town once I leave in a month or so.
The imbedded memories of my fake life felt so real it was hard to differentiate the difference and it’s crazy to think about how much I have been drawn into the storyline already. I have to give it up to the AI I guess, she really out did herself this time, it was at this time that I decided that if this going to be my last life I might as well make the best of it and embrace this life as it came about. I was starting to come to terms with that last part at least a little bit.
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