The King of Games

Prologue: The Lord of Neutrality and the Old God

The world was still, the sky and the earth both bleached and the white on bone, fields of ivory grass spreading out marked out by streaks of black, shivering and fading pulsating like lightning through the earth, stretching ever onwards and outwards, towards the horizon, a single black line over which a blue sun rose, clear and pure as saphire, emitting from itself and eerie light, casting the crowd and the creature before them in blue...

  "Welcome one and all; I am your host - my name is Tarveil - I am a god." The creature spoke and its' words were punctuated with the rattle of chains and the flutter of paper, two hands each ten metres across placed upon its chest just above its heart while the other two were pressed firmly against its gut. From its' waist a pair of wings bloomed, folding downwards to cover its' legs and it knelt before them, several eyes blasted hodgepodge upon its' head swivelling around as it spoke its words defying common sense as it lacked a mouth to speak them. "I have called you here, a force numbering three-hundred-thousand-four-hundred-and-thirty-two; for a very important purpose. I ask you to save the world." The creature spoke swinging its' arms forwards towards the crowd, its' body creaking, skin like petrified wood cracking with each slight movement, rattling the chains embedded within its' wrists and shaking the paper talismans strung along its limbs. And slowly a sense of understanding began to descend upon them all, alongside fear and dread and so many other emotions beside, and as one that living sea began to undulate, bodies pressed tight, pushing forwards and backwards, but for a few; a few individuals who stood calm before the self-proclaimed god, and soon enough its' eyes latched upon them, one by one and then it spoke. 

  "Do not be alarmed, do not be frightened; I am sure many of you have at least some inkling of what is to follow, and I'm certain many more wonder why I have summoned you in particular: allow me to elaborate, from the beginning." The creature let out a deep sigh bringing its' arms up above its' head a pallid red light emitting from each, four points of light clear amid the void slowly spreading outwards, to form a box within the air above, drawing out images and pictures changing and shifting in fast succession. The beast began to narrate.

  "Once long ago there was a war. Humans battled elves and dwarves and giants and dragons and the very gods themselves each to claim the magic residing deep beneath the earth. Old friendships were forgotten, ancient alliances were left to rot and past debts were abandoned as the world descended into a war which scorched history black; an age that none now living may remember. It was nine hundred years later that all of this changed, the races weakened and ruined from their many battles, and generations of suffering came to the field of Tarm the sight of the last well of magical power and according to some the birthplace of magic itself. They had battled their way through the ancient forests that surrounded the field, a stretch of land filled with creatures strange and wild and arrived at the field of golden grass only to find it strewn with remnants of stone scattered through the grass the great tower that had once stood at the fields centre having collapsed and the final well of magic having sunken deep into the soil of the earth. The war was over, but no one had won, many races had fallen and died in the long battles since its beginning, and all of it was for nought. The gods could no longer maintain their immortality and so descended to the earth to live out their remaining existence among their people, those ancient dragons could no longer find the magical power to bring more of their kind into the world and slowly they began to vanish from the face of the Alneir, and as for the other races; they secluded themselves within their kingdoms, raised their borders and set to rebuilding what they had lost, left lamenting the folly which had driven them to this end. So the Long War ended, so the final battle drew to a close without the shedding of a single drop of blood and the old magic that imbued the land did die." The creature hung its head a chill breeze blowing in the restless crowd remaining silent stunned by this creature who proclaimed itself a god, as the pictures faltered showing various creatures returning home to till the soil and raise new foundations amid the ashes of their world. 

  "But time passed as time must and the races once again emerged into the light, with new cities founded upon a new power. In the absence of the magic that had once allowed them to thrive, the people began to learn, they started to adapt and so gave birth to the rise, of technology, iron and steam and engines these became the driving forces in the continent of Laodemass until once more magic resurfaced within the land."

  "A wizard came from a distant land, a small island hidden somewhere out amidst the sea where they were able to harness the meagre remaining magic inside their own bodies allowing them to transfer objects and animals into physical containers, into cards each embedded with a small crystal. Once again the world had changed and magic began to flourish through the land used in all ways and walks of life; and something strange began to happen, the magic which had built up beneath the earth unused and untapped began to rise, it formed vaults beneath the earth within which could be found new cards, inside of which were contained the monsters, weapons, spells and heroes of the ancient past those had had fallen during the nine-hundred years of war an eon ago. So these cards flooded the streets and markets and the courts of kings, and magic itself began to develop a new meaning. Now this is where you come in." The crowd shifted, and the uneasy silence which had followed the mass panic of their sudden realisation dissipated, leaving each and every one of them in rapt attention.

  "Now the king of Orgile lies upon his death bed; a good man, a wise man who brought the many human nations together and began trade amongst the other races of the world; and now the question arises who shall take his place? The order of winged words, his ministers and magicians who helped him govern. The Iron fist nobles, who supported his endeavours with military might. The Crown head; the princess, the kings’ illegitimate daughter behind whom the knights have pledged their cause. The Pillars of the temple, Orgile's religious faction, who help the weak and down-trodden and whose aid first allowed King to expand into other nations without need for violence or upset. Or perhaps the red banner kin a band of refugees fleeing the ever-growing war to the north who settled in the slums at the edge of the kingdom and who, when the kingdom was in peril from those same northern invaders rose to defend their surrogate walls and by whatever grace fate allowed drove back the offending army when the nation would have otherwise fallen. Who should claim the throne? Does this sound familiar" The god opened its' eyes at last slowly lowering its' arms a quiet acceptance, and a silent outrage rising up to meet it as dropped its arms down to rest beside its' knees and it continued its' explanation; "I am the god of reincarnation, and I have brought you to this world to play a game. Each and every one of you played the card based RPG known as Kings Game, a game which I created and distributed out into your world. I am the last of the gods, only I refused to shirk my duty of protecting this world, and I am truly sorry for what I have had to do. You were selected; the best and the bravest to prevent the coming of another war, of a battle which will start in the heart of humans lands and spread outwards to encompass the world. I ask you to stop this war from ever taking place and as such I shall send you forth; each of you shall receive a new deck of cards to match the value of the ones you lost, I will grant you the last of my magical power and provide each of you a place to call home but first there is more matter I must attend to." The God spoke slowly pointing upwards towards the empty sky and the sapphire sun which had, in the brief time they had been waiting, moved to rest above them finally touching on its' zenith: "I shall select your leaders, the strongest members of each faction within the game, not those who won most often, or who had the strongest deck but those whose resilience, patience and intelligence had earned them their place at the peak of gaming!" The God laughed as slowly the ground beneath them began to shake, violent tremors rising from the soil, five pillars each no more than one meter across rising upwards into the air; and a rattled voice rang out; "Behold your lords, Ozmar of the pillars of the temple, Ferdinand from the crown head, Usuck of the iron fist nobles, Le Morte from the winged words and Hon of the red banner kin. They are the strongest among you, now look down for their upon the palm of your hand now lies your name, rank and affiliation and mana capacity. Hereby you are constrained: only be able to use the cards of the class written their upon your palm. Now go, decide amongst yourselves through battle, or through trade, or alliance who shall become ruler of Orgile and keep this world safe from harm, go; become heroes!" Tarveil screamed the ancient god swinging out his arm, the pillars crumbling down to dust the so called lords standing at their tops vanishing and becoming dust, as slowly the crowd began to thin and one by one they popped out of existence, would be heroes and aspiring rulers alike. 

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  And as all this transpired, as this game of heroes and gods unfolded, only one thought crossed his mind, one question; what in the hell was going on?

  "This is total bullshit, send me back home!" Rian flinched the burly man beside him letting out a vicious cry rushing forwards through the slowly diminishing crowd before collapsing, falling down into a pile of dust which let off a bright sparkling effect before vanishing forever. He really didn't understand what was going on, he'd heard whatever that thing had said, he'd heard it loud and clear but that didn't explain a thing. Were they supposed to understand what Tarveil was saying? The so called god had just been going on about some random nonsense, like out of some fantasy board game intro; he'd played plenty of those games as a child, he'd dreamed about appearing in such a fantasy world himself, but that was a long time ago; he was forty-five years old now. Just five more years and he was planning on retiring, he'd been working as archivist for the past thirty years, he was old and he was frail, so why was he being brought to another world? He reached up rubbing the sides his head, his skin cold and clammy beneath his touch as he swallowed those around him slowly vanishing one by one in a twinkle of light. Tarveil had mentioned something about his palm before hadn't he? Rian brought his hand down in front of his face his eyes fixing on his palm, before abruptly turning it over and back again. Something was wrong. 

  He swallowed hard and checked his other hand; it wasn't there either. He couldn't find it; the god had claimed that everything was supposed to be written down on his hand hadn't he? The old man grit his teeth slowly stumbling forwards before taking in a deep breath and raising his head. This was probably just a dream, he'd just end up blipping out of existence like everyone else and he'd wake up in his own bed. Rian nodded casting his gaze about the field, the grass and the sun and the earth itself slowly crumbling away into flakes of glowing light. They'd all gone, everyone else had vanished already, he was alone. 

  "That's strange..." The old man muttered, a cold sweat slowly breaking out across his forehead, as he turned he turned looking through the empty expanse once more before a dull crash following by the rattle of iron chains turned his attention backwards. 

"Strange indeed." A soft voice replied Rian turning to face Tarveil several eyes looking Rian up and down from high above, before giant turned slowly to look down at his arm, the great limb having tumbled down towards the ground, slowly breaking away into tiny pinpricks of light. "That is strange; you played the game didn't you? Otherwise you shouldn't be here." The god sighed turned his attention back Rian standing awestruck for a brief moment, his mouth moving all on its' own. 

"Y... Your arm, are you-"

"Its' fine, I did say I was giving everyone the last of my power didn't I?" The Old God sighed, pale blue lights continuing to rise upwards from his body gathering near the sapphire sun above "this is just what happens when a god runs out of magic; it is nothing to worry about. Please answer my question."

"You mean about the game?" Rian murmured, biting down upon the side of his thumb, his thoughts slowly whirring back. "My nephew mentioned he was playing it, I visited him on his fifth birthday and he asked me to get the game on my phone so we could play together next time we met..." 

"Indeed, Will Lion your' sister’s son he played the game as well."

  Rian paused his arms dropping down to his side as he looked up towards the god.

"Does that mean he was here as well?" Rian questioned his voice somewhat steadier, his knuckles slowly creaking as he made his way in the direction of the thing that had summoned them. 

"Meaningless..." The god wheezed eyes spinning inside its' head as it slowly lowered itself down slumping onto the earth. "Another requirement for you to be summoned, you must be meaningless. Those who were brought here will soon be found dead on earth, as long as their deaths would have seriously impacted another they were not brought here. I cannot say for certain he was not summoned but, if someone cared for him or relied upon him then he will not be here." Rian paused letting out a momentary sigh of relief; Alicia, his sister, loved that kid, she doted on him since the moment he was born, and even more so far after her husband left her: William would be safe. 

  "Please answer my question now, my time is running out. Why is it you are still here, which faction did you join in the game, what happened?" Tarveil pushed placing his head down looking Rian eye to eye. He looked happy... No maybe content fit better. Seeming him up-close it was obvious, this god was old, over a thousand years old at least, he must have been through a lot.

"I didn't choose a faction that's all." Rian laughed rubbing the back of his head, "I was still working my way through the introduction, and I never really had time to actually start playing."

"Is that so?" Tarveil questioned, a soft laugh slowly escaping the old God its' eyes closing as it pulled itself back, another arm coming free of its' body as he slowly broke into a long laugh, his body creaking and cracking with each breath. "How entertaining, humans truly are the most interesting race; so unpredictable. Ah I'm sorry." 

  "Sorry?" Rian questioned

"Indeed, I'm sorry, it seems you are at somewhat of a disadvantage compared to the others, as it is surviving in Alneir may pose a challenge... I already sent the others to their faction head quarters and since you don't possess a faction a doubt any of them would willingly take you in." The God sighed with a brief shake of the head sending another torrent of lights upwards into the air 

"Then why can't you just give me a faction?" Rian questioned; he wasn't sure whether what he was experiencing was a dream, reality or the result of one of his co-workers slipping something into his coffee but he desperately wanted it to be over. 

"I don't have enough magical power to connect you to a single elemental faction. But I suppose I do have enough raw magical power... Then its' decided, you shall become the fifth faction of this war, a one man army if you like!" The god laugh, Rian nodding along, his instincts telling him that things were slowly starting to spiral out of control. "You shall be the Lord of the neutral faction, which I hereby name Grey Land! Ah, and as for a working deck I suppose I ought to give you a little help oughtn't I? Now let's see, I'll give you one card pack; that's five cards, and I guarantee that at least one of them will be ranked legendary." 

"Are you sure that's alright?" Rian questioned the God pausing once more to look at the old man, "Isn't it unfair to give me extra help?"

"Everyone else will have at least two legendary cards in their decks."

"Oh" 

"And each of their decks has around fifty cards in it with the majority of them being ranked at least silver."

"Then please go ahead." 

  The God out another Round of Laughter, raising up a hand towards the sun. "Do not worry friend; having five combat cards will place you a cut above the common soldier; you shall have no trouble living a normal life. Though if you can I ask you help out where you see fit, keep the peace and protect the people. I had planned on sticking around a little longer to watch how things played out, but I suppose that just wasn't in the cards for me: I'll give you the very last of my power and as a thank you for entertaining me I'll do something about your bald patch too. Good luck out there Rian Ecker, I wish you the best oh Lord of Neutrality." The God laughed bowing his head and rising upwards on shaking legs, his two remaining hands reaching upwards to plunge themselves deep into the core of the sapphire sun, a wave of bright blue light exploding outwards and bathing everything in light.