Year 24 SPA (Since Player Arrival)

Novae Terrae Online. The game was massive, introduced in 2051 it was the first game of its type, people had been talking about something similar for years a true VR-MMO. There were attempts previously but they were always limited in scope with small worlds that got overrun by players or massive with no detail, NPC's that only reacted to set commands and other such flaws. Then a small company came along Novae Tech. There was no fanfare nor any announcement, just one day a website appeared selling their new system with a single game installed. Novae Terrae Online. The game was revolutionary, a massive open world filled with realistic details, NPC's with full AI control that acted and interacted with players. Complete with 24-hour time dilation, one hour of gameplay was a full day in-game world. The first year was hectic starting cities built massive prisons to deal with the player crime. Hell, there were a number of full-blown wars where NPC's attempted to eliminate the players who were systematically destroying the city. players hunted a number of low-level mobs to extinction. The issue was simple there were no consequences for players. Get killed, respawn with a slight loss of levels but NPC's had permadeath. Get arrested make a new character and pick up where you left off. By the end of the first real-world year, twenty-four in-game years, the Player base were referred to by NPC's as The Scourge. Kingdoms had been wiped out and NPC's had been almost completely wiped out

The world had been reduced to rubble with four massive mega guilds battling over the remains. It became a total war the four sides battling for control over of the continent, the forests were burnt down, iron mined, near the end of it, the game looked more like a post-apocalyptic wasteland than the medieval fantasy. Eighteen years after the players arrived the last tree was burnt down on a raid by the Purification of Honour Guild destroying the last forest of the Bluefall Alliance, after that well things when to hell, metal became the only useable resource but with no wood the only way to smelt it was three volcanoes that dominated the centre of the continent and the Dwarven island, with no animals left leather quickly ran out, by the end of the last two years you saw four class, the paladin the plate wearing healer, the knight the tank, the barbarian as the lack of armour made it a cheaper class to equip and the wizard for the only range support left. The assassin, scout and bard saw some use but without any leather armour were hopelessly outmatched by other class and without wood to make bows and arrow the rancher became much too expensive to equip.

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Then there was my class the Adventurer while the other class was designed with a purpose in mind, the Adventurer was an everyman, a spell sword. Able to cast basic spells and cast lay on hands to heal and some charisma abilities. Able to wear only light amour the class was designed a light-footed. The other classes were focused on party play and teamwork this was a solo character's class, the ability to do everything other classes could do but worst. Even before the resource wars, it was unpopular doing everything but worst made it a nightmare to fit into party composition combined with the stigma attached to solo play. The deleveled areas did not make it any easier with unlevelled zones it was not uncommon to run into something much higher level than you and without support to help escape these fights became a death sentence for single players, with low-level mobs having been wiped our around year four only early starters were able to level a character without party support, and those that played long enough to level a character past level thirty ended up joining a guild as soloing dungeons was insanely difficult. With most players switching classes shortly after joining a guild. By the end of the eighth year, I was the only player with an adventurer character past level fifty. How you might ask if as I described solo play was so difficult? Simple NPC’s, you see most players fell back on old habits despite it being a world with full AI controlled NPCs. People still loathed escort quests and companions don't tend to stick around for long if all you do is ask them to carry all your stuff or give them a share of the loot. Sure, there were a few parties with an NPC or two but there were very few players that had a full NPC party like me. I know it sounds sad, but they were my friends they were my companions and when they died well, I wept for days. I suppose that's the start of my story, the day it all went to hell.