When World Saviors was announced, Faelyn couldn’t have been more excited. He had always wondered about other planes, and the opportunity to safely visit one was not something he would ever have dreamed he would have. For it to not only be opened to him, but for it to be risk-free, allow for him to experience a different system, and have small bits of experience transfer over to his real body…it was nothing short of miraculous.
The premise was interesting as well; in the span of the next few years, the plane they were to visit was set to experience some sort of calamity, one that was supposedly ravaging another plane at that very moment, and they were being called in to stop it. Supposedly, the threat, something called “the swarm”, would spill over into other planes if the players of World Saviors failed, but…there were whispers that there was more to it than that.
After all, this was a completely unprecedented way for the gods to handle the situation; normally, this sort of thing would fall to a summoned Hero, or, in the absolute worst-case scenario, the gods themselves would deal with it. And, as much as the priests of certain gods denied it, saying it was just an attempt to strengthen the populace while solving a problem, the silence of others was deafening.
Of course, the public at large simply took it at face value; in their minds, if the gods were saying it, it must be true. The gods had yet to steer the people wrong, so this wasn’t something Faelyn could really blame them for. But, as the plane’s foremost adventure streamer, Faelyn was different; he had to know everything about World Saviors that he possibly could, and that meant keeping an eye on all rumors and chatter about the game.
Adventure streaming was a relatively new form of streaming, enabled by advances in magitech that allowed for an internet connection from nearly anywhere, so long as the user had the proper gear and enough Mana to fuel it. In essence, adventure streaming was the act of streaming the exploration of untamed wilderness and dungeons, things that were too dangerous for most people but remained a subject of curiosity nonetheless.
And, thought it was framed as a game, the reality was that World Saviors did take place on an entirely separate plane, and Faelyn’s community was nearly as excited to see Faelyn “play” the game as he was to play it himself. It was an exciting time, but there was one slight hiccup; in order to watch any streams about the game or discuss it, you had to be confirmed to be a player, and logged in to a special website the gods had set up. The only way you could talk about it in the real world was if the only people around you were also logged in to the game or its forums somewhere. Even those peeking over the shoulders of someone who was logged in to the site would just see blank screens if they weren’t logged in.
That was another puzzling restriction, one that pointed to something more going on. After all, everyone was supposed to have access to this game, so why make it so it can only be discussed in the game itself? It felt like Faelyn could only see half of the situation, and it was driving him mad. Still…that in and of itself could be content, couldn’t it?
It was abundantly clear that there were a significant number of mysteries surrounding this project, so if he framed his stream as “unraveling the mysteries of World Saviors”, then that would bring in people by the droves. That, however, would have to wait until another time; for now, it was launch day, and he needed to be out there, filming the start of the game.
He took a deep breath, then started his stream. “Hey everyone, it’s your favorite elven explorer, Faelyn!” He said, giving the camera his trademark winning smile. “As you all are no doubt aware, today is the launch day of World Saviors! Now, if you’ve been living under a rock, you might be wondering what World Saviors is, and why I’m playing a game on stream instead of going out and exploring, it’s because I am going out and exploring!
“World Saviors is a game made by the gods themselves, one that’ll take us to an entirely different plane, with no risk to ourselves! So, if you’ve ever wanted to go and explore, now is the time! I’ll be creating a group so we can do group quests and explore together, but if that isn’t your cup of tea, I’ll be streaming the entire time I’m playing!
“Now, this game is different from normal games, so unfortunately you won’t be able to just watch stream like normal, but the process is to watch is, fortunately pretty easy; all you have to do is log in to the World Saviors site, and you’ll be good to go. From what I hear from the priests I’ve spoken to, as long as you’re logged in anywhere, you’ll be able to see the forums and my gameplay, so those of you that like to watch me on a TV or with friends aren’t out of luck.
“And I’ve even been told that when you’re inside the game, you can use a system window to browse the forums or watch streams of people playing the game, so you don’t need to pick between watching me and playing for yourself! If you don’t know how to log in, you can type exclamation point WS or exclamation point blackscreen, all one word, and a bot will link you to a page that has instructions for logging in. If you’re a minor, I’m afraid that it’ll require a parent or guardian’s permission to make an account, and you can’t just cheat it like you can normal things, the gods have taken measures to prevent that. Now, I’m gonna give everyone ten minutes to get ready, and then I’m going to log in, so in the meantime, let’s just chat, shall we?”
Faelyn kept one eye on his chat as he continued to speak. “So, if you’ve seen the promotional material, you know that there’s supposed to be a lot of freedom with the sort of abilities you get, a lot more than our current system, and I’m betting a lot of you are wondering what my plans are.
“I’ve given it some thought, and I decided to try a build as similar to my normal build as possible, with some optimizations to fit the way I do things. That’s probably a disappointment for some of you, but I want to be as competent as possible, and that means familiarity. Besides, I think it’d get old seeing me flail around after only a stream or two.”
As he took a breath, his text-to-speech program activated, broadcasting a telepathic message to him and an audible one for anyone watching the stream as a donation came in. “Smash or pass, swarm leadership?”
Faelyn rolled his eyes. “Guys, this is supposed to be a world-ending threat, can we not be horny for five minutes?” He paused for a moment, then chuckled and continued. “But, fine, I get it, they’re in the shape of attractive women, of course you people are going to be like this. Discounting the whole ‘threat to all sapient life’ thing and going purely off of appearances, smash…no, pass on the Queen, smash the other two.
“I’m not a huge fan of beastkin, but if the woman is attractive enough anyway, I’ll go for it. That being said, something about the Queen just isn’t doing it for me. I think it’s the knots on her tails? It kinda makes it seem like she doesn’t take care of herself, you know? And the other two…well, the vampire looks great, and the tall one is almost too beautiful to be real. But, again, that’s only if we discount them being threats to all sapient life, if we don’t it’s a hard pass on all three.”
He spent the next ten minutes just interacting with chat, answering questions and bantering with them as best he could. And, after what felt like an age, the ten minutes was up and it was time to start. “Alright, everyone, ten minutes is up and I’m going to get started! Remember, if you still haven’t logged in somewhere, you won’t be able to see anything, so make sure you’ve done that if you haven’t yet. Three…two…one…let’s explore!”
Faelyn started the game, and his vision instantly went black, the sensation of the chair he was sitting in vanishing as a small system window containing his stream chat appeared in the top right of his vision. There was a moment of stillness, where Faelyn could feel nothing, hear nothing, smell nothing, and see nothing save for his chat, and then a hazy figure appeared in front of him.
“Hello, player.” The figure said, his voice digging deep into Faelyn’s soul and leaving him with the knowledge that it was the God of Space speaking. “On behalf of the gods, I would like to thank you for choosing to play this ‘game’. And, while this is, nominally, a game, I would remind you again that you are being taken to a real plane full of living people. There are no ‘NPCs’ as you would normally think of them, and while you are unable to harm them outside of self-defense, your actions will have direct impacts on their lives.
“As such, please know that, should you attempt to abuse them, you will be punished with not only a permanent ban, but real-world consequences courtesy of our cooperation with your governments. You are here to save these people from a terrible fate, not to become a replacement for that terrible fate.
“Now, as you have no doubt noticed, you currently do not have a normal body. Before you can begin, you will be given the opportunity to create your body, your ‘avatar’, and sculpt it to your liking. Please know that this is not a choice to be made lightly, and that changing your avatar in the future will require significant effort on your part.
“Thanks to the magic built into the game, your soul will be temporarily adapted to the body you create, so feel free to shape it as you wish; you will not feel uncomfortable, nor will you find yourself unable to walk, swim, fly, or perform any normal tasks if you choose a body shape that is not your own. Should you have questions on how to operate the avatar creation system, we have a short tutorial built-into the system, simply focus your mind on viewing the tutorial, and it will appear.”
The hazy figure that was the God of Space vanished, and a character creation menu popped up. And, almost immediately, another text to speech message was broadcast into Faelyn’s head. “Can we get a female character this time? We’ve been staring at a man for years and I’d like to stare a woman for the next few.”
“Really?” Faelyn ventured, unsure if his voice would be heard. Fortunately, some sound seemed to be made, so he assumed it was audible on stream as well. “Are we really doing this? The God of Space just said to take this seriously, so, we’re going to take this seriously, alright?”
Faelyn began designing his character, ignoring the calls from chat to make it female. “Look, chat, you’re just doing that thing you do where you get hyper focused on one specific thing and don’t actually think about the long-term consequences. And, no, your donations aren’t going to change my mind, this is the body I’m going to be in for the next who knows how long, I’m going to make something I’m comfortable with.”
Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.
Faelyn did have to admit he was curious what it could be like to be a woman, but it was a curiosity that could be satisfied by a temporary transformation. Actually…that sounded like a good concept for a stream later on down the line. But that was for later, for now he just focused on bantering with his chat while he finished his character. It ended up being remarkably similar to his real body, with a couple of tweaks to fix some of his features that he didn’t like. There was, fortunately, a tool that imported his real appearance, so the process had only taken a few minutes.
Once he finished the creation process and hit confirm, he was greeted with a flash of light. Suddenly he felt the sensation of his body again, and when the light faded, he quickly took stock of his surroundings. He was in a large domed room, light streaming in through the glass above. It was positively filled with people, the sounds of excited chatter filling the air as the players talked amongst themselves.
Get Your Bearings
Main Quest
Description:
You’ve been dropped onto an unfamiliar plane and placed into an entirely new system. Read the system tutorial to get a grasp on things! Start by opening up your status, and you’ll get your next task!
Tasks:
Open your status: 0/1
???
Reward:
100 Credits
“Okay, you guys can see the window, right?” Faelyn asked. “I’ve been told that stream should be able to see my system windows, but I want to make sure.”
After chat confirmed that they could see the window, Faelyn opened his status, and was greeted with two separate windows
Name: Faelyn Galenas
Race: Player (Elf)
Level: 0/300, 0/100 EXP
HP: 100/100
Stamina: 100/100
Mana: 100/100
Strength: 10
Defense: 10
Dexterity: 10
Magic: 10
Magic Defense: 10
Mental Fortitude: 10
Title: Player (Lim)
You are a being from another plane, called to help this one in its time of need. You are unable to intentionally injure its inhabitants outside of self-defense, and if you die you are resurrected in the Ark of Players for Lim without any non-soulbound gear. As a Special Title, the effects of Player are always active.
Titles:
List truncated. Open ‘Titles” for more.
Skills:
List truncated. Open “Skills” for more.
Get Your Bearings
Task Complete: Open your status
Viewing your status, you may notice that some stats may differ in name from the ones in the system you are used to. As a quick primer, here are the broad effects of each stat:
HP: A representation of your physical health. If it hits 0, you die.
Mana/Stamina: Resources used for magic and physical Skills respectively.
Strength: Your physical strength.
Defense: Your resilience against physical damage. Also affects your resistance to physical status effects such as Bleed.
Dexterity: Your speed and maneuverability.
Magic: A representation of how strong your spells are and how difficult they are to resist.
Magic Defense: Your resilience against magical damage. Also affects your resistance to magical status effects such as Slowed.
Mental Fortitude: Your resistance against mental attacks, mental tampering and mental status effects such as Confused.
Next on our list is the Credit Shop, where you can spend a special currency obtained by clearing quests, defeating certain monsters, or trading with other players. To open it, simply focus on it like you would focus on opening your status. Do so to get your next task!
Tasks:
Open your status: 1/1
View the Credit Shop: 0/1
???
Faelyn obliged, and briefly flicked through the shop before continuing. It contained mostly consumable items like potions, food, and water, but there were also a few “big-ticket” items. These were things like items that would give you a specific Skill once used or an item that could be used to bind a piece of equipment to you, allowing you to keep it after death instead of it staying with your body.
Faelyn followed the rest of the tutorial, but the only other sort of interesting thing was the options menu. Specifically, it contained a setting that allowed you to tone down the pain you felt, but Faelyn chose to leave the pain at full. His chat called him a masochist for it, of course, but he was more worried about going soft; if he got used to ignoring wounds in-game because they didn’t hurt like they should, that could have severe consequences when he went back to exploring in his real body.
He began using his starting credits to buy some food and water, but his shopping was interrupted by another window popping up.
Private Message (High Priority)
Sender: Airis Luden, High Priest of Hearth on the plane Lim (Verified)
Faelyn, my apologies for interrupting your stream, but do you have a few moments to talk? I need some aid, and you seem like the perfect person. If you’re interested, I’m waiting outside the entrance to the building we all started in. And, yes, it’s fine to stream our conversation.
Faelyn didn’t have to think on that for long at all; helping out a High Priest was not only just a generally good thing to do, it was great his public image and great for views. If they needed outside help, it was generally because of something big, and “something big” was usually the sort of thing that drew in the views. So, with the urging of his chat, he sent a reply to the priest, and headed out of the building. Within just a moment, of exiting, he was flagged down by a dwarf in robes, and he quickly made his way over to him, turning off his text to speech so as to not be interrupted during the conversation.
“High Priest Luden?” Faelyn asked.
“Ah, yes, that’s me.” Luden said. “Thank you for taking the time to meet with me.”
“It’s my pleasure.” Faelyn replied. “What can I do for you?”
“I know you’re a busy man, so let me be brief; I have received a quest from my goddess, but I do not believe I alone am capable of completing it. Given the contents and the fact that I am allowed to seek any aid I so desire, I thought it would be best to contact someone like you.”
“You’ve piqued my curiosity.” Faelyn said. “What’s this quest like?”
“Let me share it with you.” Luden said. “Give me a moment…”
True to his word, a few moments later, two windows popped up.
Airis Luden has shared a quest with you, would you like to accept?
Uncover the Truth
God-Sponsored Quest
Description:
The Goddess of Hearth is upset with the way she has been portrayed in World Saviors’ promotional material. Delve into the untamed wilds and undergo Hearth’s Trial. Take the video you receive at the end and post it online (this video can be posted onto the public internet, with no need for a World Saviors account to view). This quest may be shared with up to five people.
Tasks:
Locate Hearth’s Trial: 0/1
Complete Hearth’s Trial: 0/1
Post the video from Hearth’s Trial: 0/1
Reward:
The Truth
Truthseeker Title
Hearth’s Helper Title (rewarded outside of game as well)
50 Mana and Stamina, 20 Defense, Magic Defense, and Mental Fortitude
Now that was interesting. The promotional material hadn’t featured her much, but the in the bits she did appear, it was made abundantly clear that she thought the threat was real and that something needed to be done. For her to be unhappy meant that either, somehow, critical context had been lost, or that her opinion had changed since she said those things, both things that confirmed Faelyn’s assumption that something more was going on behind the scenes.
Really, there was only upside to this for Faelyn, so he gave Luden a smile. “I would be happy to help, but let me just confirm one more time; there’s no issue if the entirety of this quest is livestreamed, right?”
“No issue whatsoever.” Luden confirmed. “In fact, I got the distinct impression that my goddess would be pleased if this was to reach as many eyes as possible.”
Faelyn nodded, then accepted the quest. “In that case, consider me officially on-board. I’ll keep you posted on any clues I find as to the location of Hearth’s Trial, and I’ll put finding it as my priority for the time being. I’ll likely need to do training and stuff along the way, but the end goal will be to find it as quickly as possible.”
“Much obliged.” Luden replied, relief evident in his voice. “I will likewise update you with my findings. May I be so bold as to add you as a friend, so as to facilitate easier communication?”
“Of course.” Faelyn replied, sending the priest a friend request. “Anything else I can help you with?”
“You’re already doing more than enough, so please, do not let me keep you any…actually, do you have any recommendations for other people I can contact for help? As you saw, I can share the quest with four more people, and I think having as many trustworthy people working on this as possible will be ideal.”
“Ah, yes, good call.” Faelyn said, pulling up a message and beginning to draft a list. “I have a few friends that I take with me when I’m raiding difficult dungeons, they’re all exploration streamers as well, and they’re plenty competent. I’ve got a list I’m making here, I’ll let you vet them yourself, but they’re people I trust to have my back in tough situations.”
He sent the message, and Luden nodded. “I got the message.” He confirmed. “Thank you, Faelyn. If you ever find yourself needing my aid, please, do not hesitate to give me a call. Now, for real, I will not keep you further, please, go on with your business.”
“It’s my pleasure.” Faelyn replied, walking away from the priest and turning his text to speech back on. “Well, guys, it looks like we’ve got ourselves a goal. Let’s get to training, shall we?”