I awoke knowing something was not exactly as it should have been. I was laying face down, and the ground beneath me was hard. Was I supposed to be sleeping on something hard? I didn’t believe so, though I couldn’t remember. Maybe this was how it should have been, thought for some reason it did not feel right. I inhaled deeply, and immediately regretted it. The dust, or dirt, that came into my mouth made me convulse in a fit of coughing. As my coughing subsided, I pulled myself to my knees, looking around me.
I was located on a large dirt hill that overlooked even more dirt in every direction I turned. There was also a statue a good 10 feet from where I knelt. Pushing myself to my feet, I brushed the reddish dust off the front of the blue jeans and black shirt I wore. Both were now more a reddish-brown color than their original blue or black. As I was cleaning the dirt off me I realized I had no shoes. That struck me as odd. I should have shoes, people wore shoes. Shouldn’t I have shoes on, didn’t I own shoes? I couldn’t remember. I was starting to panic, over shoes.
“Hello.”
I spun around, trying to isolate where the greeting came from. There was no one on the hill that I could see, other than the statue. I did another full turn, my head and eyes swiveling in every direction, trying to find the greetings owner. There was no one. I must be going crazy, and I had no shoes.
“Are you broken?”
I started the spinning and looking in every direction at the same time all over again, this time I started walking around. As I walked, turned, and glanced in every direction, I realized that at the center of the hill, off towards the statue, the ground was different. It didn’t hold the deep red color of the rest of the hill. I made my way towards the different colored earth, to where the strange statue was. I continued my attempt to look every direction at once, the whole time seeing nothing.
As I approached the center of the hill, the voice spoke again. “Just great. The first one to activate and it is malfunctioning, better not be setting a precedent. Maybe it’s what I deserve for doing business with a Finare. The Provost is going to be so disappointed if this batch malfunctions. I could just blame the selector though, say that the species was not compatible to begin with.”
The voice still sounded like it was coming from no where at all. It was high pitched, and the words were very fast, quickly strung together with no room for breath in between. I was still looking around, though I had lost hope that I was going to find the speaker. As I approached the center of the hill, I did what I should have probably done when I first heard the voice.
“Hello?” The word was fractured, my word sounded rough and dry, cracking when it came out. It also made me cough again. Swallowing that bucket of dirt was not good for speech.
I could clearly hear the voice as I doubled over coughing. “Oh? Maybe it’s just slow. It’s been some time since I greeted it. It’s going to be very, very troubling if they are all this slow. That’s even better though, I can fully blame the selector if the entire batch is like this one.”
I straightened as my coughing subsided. I swallowed a few times and spoke softly as to not bring on another fit of coughing, “Where are you?”.
There was a long pregnant pause after I asked my question, the silence was followed by a torrent of chittering and clicking, and then words that felt like they were full of amusement, “I’m not even going to need to make anything up. It’s an idiot, and the selector is going to be fully to blame. Did they even test the species before they harvested them?”
As the voice spoke, I noticed movement for the first time. It came from the statue that was now only 5 feet away. The statue was of an oversized ant, its head reaching 4 feet off the ground. It stood on its 4 hind legs while the rest of its body was upright. It also had on a coat and a top hat, that were both the same color as its entire body, a dark gray. The movement that caught my eye came from the antenna on top of the statue. I closed the distance to get a better.
As I came upon the statue, I leaned down, placing my face a good 6 inches from the gyrating antenna. By this time the voice had stopped talking, though the antenna continued to move. After a moment of staring, I reached out a hand to feel them. As my hand came close the head of the statue moved, its gray mandibles clicking at my fingers that were only a few inches away. I stumbled and fell backwards as I pulled my arm away. I was now on my back pushing myself away from the overly large ant statue that was now very animate.
It took a few steps to the side, while placing one of its… legs? Arms…? One of its front arm-legs on the side of its head and pointing the other one in my direction. “What is wrong with you? Antennae touching is only for the hive, and why would the first thing you do be to reach out and touch someone? Are you all like this? Do your kind communicate through touch? It’s not what the selector has down here, they put down you primarily use sound, so why would you try to touch me?”.
I stared across the hill at the statue turned very irate ant. This wasn’t normal. At least, I didn’t think this was normal, though I couldn’t remember quite what normal was, and I knew that not knowing what normal was, was strange. Looking across at the ant, while thinking about how I didn’t know what normal was, my eyes came to rest on my feet. My feet without shoes, toes now covered in the reddish-brown dirt.
“Why don’t I have shoes?” Even as I asked this, I knew it probably wasn’t the right question. At least the right question currently. I did want to know why I didn’t have shoes, I also wanted to know why there was a very large ant in a top hat speaking to me. I should probably get my priorities in order.
There was another instance of clicking, this time it sounded annoyed. Can clicking sound annoyed? “That’s what you want to know? Why you don’t have shoes? Are you simple? I can work with simple. You don’t have shoes because I didn’t give you shoes. There. That’s done. Now, let’s get this introduction over with, I can feel another one of you starting to activate. I’m required to say this only once, and that is all I’m going to say it because I don’t think I like you. You have been harvested to serve in the expansion of the Ethnor Empire. If you miraculously develop your Prism before it is corrupted, you will find yourself under the care of House Nar. I’m going to skip over what happens then because I don’t think you’ll get to that point. As for developing your prism, there are four sections. I’ll activate the first in a moment. Once activated, the prism will attempt to put itself together. As it tries to put itself together, the corrupting elements of whatever aspect that section of the prism has taken on will try to assert themselves. Your job is to defend against the corruption. If you fail, and from what I’ve seen so far, you will, your prism will shatter, and you will cease. Now, before I activate the prism, what class would you like, and what sort of companion should accompany you to your eventual end?”
I tried to follow along the best I could. The ant’s speech never paused, there was no delay in its words. I didn’t understand what it was asking, and I couldn’t figure out if I should understand. Maybe I was simple, like it said earlier. “I’m confused.”, I said, I didn’t even really know what I was confused about, where was I before this? As I thought about that, I realized I didn’t know. I should know where I was before this, or even who I was before this. I couldn’t even think of my own name. Amnesia? “I don’t understand what’s happening, why can’t I remember anything?”.
The answer from the ant came instantly, “I said I’m not repeating anything, but as to why you can’t remember anything, you can. Well, you can remember everything that doesn’t have anything to do with yourself. The Provost within House Nar, in their infinite wisdom, deemed self was something that restricted a Prisms growth. A Prism remembering who they once were had a potential to cause resentment, and that resentment would eventually cause issues. Almost all the houses remove this aspect from their harvested Prisms. You will find you still remember things from your world, things like shoes, you will just not be able to remember what kind of shoes, or how many, or if you cared if you had shoes before. It seems you care now, a bit too much really, though before the harvest you may not have cared at all. That part is kind of a hot topic within the Empire, a lot of debate around what still comes over after the self is cleared from a sentient. Primal urges should still be there, things like not wanting to die, but that falls under self-preservation, and if self was removed, why would a prism want to preserve it? Really too much deep thinking for me though, and for you, I’m sure.”
The ant’s antennae had continued to twitch, though the rest of it had stopped moving, again resembling a statue. I was still laying on my back in the dirt, trying to follow along as the ant’s words continued in a rush.
“A few more things I’m required to go over in the introduction before I can activate your prism. It will take five full cycles for each of the four part of your prism to activate, towards the end of the activation, the corruption usually pulses stronger, trying to take control. Roughly 80% of new prisms fall during this period of activation. Though if you even make it to that point I’ll be surprised. After this first section of the prism is activated, the success rate goes up due to the prism being able to assist you. That assistance will change depending on the aspect the Prism has taken on. You’ll need to figure that part out yourself, it’s almost always unique. It really won’t matter, you won’t get to that point. As you defeat the corrupting elements, you will gain essence, you can use that essence to level, or you can use that essence to purchase items from your prism. The items, and how far you can level, are dependent on your prism development. I believe that’s everything I’m required to tell you. Yes. All boxes checked. Do you have any questions?”
Yes, I did have one or two questions. “You removed who I am? How is that even possible? Why would I help you defend this Prism thing after you did that? What even is a Prism? And how do you expect me to defend something against corruption? I should probably want to go home, but I don’t even remember what my home was like…” I sighed, staring at the ant. “What do I get for helping you? And why wouldn’t you want to give me more information, wouldn’t it be better if I knew more? What is the Ethnor Empire, and why would I be in House Nar? are there other houses? Also, why do you speak so fast, I can’t follow along, and why are you wearing a hat? It looks ridiculous.” There were probably better questions, and I probably shouldn’t be insulting the ants clothing choices. I just felt lost and confused and was beginning to be a bit frustrated.
The ant paused after my tirade of questions, then spoke extremely slow. “I’m only required to answer three questions after I’ve gone through the introduction. One; Yes, your sense of self was removed before implanting you within the prism. Two; To defend the prism, you will need to destroy the creatures that the corruption manifests. Three; What you get for helping me, it’s not really me you’re helping, I don’t care. What you get for defending your Prism is to live. You are housed within the Prism, if the Prism becomes corrupted, it will be destroyed.”
There was a pause after the ant answered the three questions. Then it took a step forward and continued talking. “I’ll also answer two more, just because there are a few more moments left. I speak fast because I usually am talking to other intelligent sentients, and my hat is extremely fashionable. Now, I’ve given you the required time to make a choice, and since you’ve refused I can pick for you. I’m not allowed to pick a non-combat class for you, because then I would be accused of intentionally causing you to fail, instead I’m selecting random for both, with the hopes that you get something like Cook, or Tailor. Ohhhh, and I hope your companion is a linguist.”
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When the ant stopped speaking, colored boxes appeared directly in front of me, causing me again to flinch and crawl backwards. I heard the ant clicking and clacking.
After the initial bout of fear subsided, I realized the boxes that appeared in front of me contained text. I started to read.
Class: Obelisk Mage
An Obelisk Mage is a caster that falls into the category of summoner. Like most Mages, this class holds an emphasis towards both Wisdom and Intelligence. Due to falling into the Summoner category, Wisdom will grow at a higher rate.
Initial Starting Statistics:
Constitution: 10
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Dexterity: 10
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 12
Unallocated: 2
Skill:
Summon Obelisk
Summons an Obelisk – Area of Influence 5 feet from Obelisk + 1 foot per point of Intelligence.
· 50 mana to summon.
· 15 mana drained every 5 seconds per imbuement.
You may select one of the following spells:
Imbue Obelisk: Lightning
· Every 5 seconds Obelisk will shock the closest enemy within the Area of Influence.
· 10 base damage + 1 damage per point of Int.
Imbue Obelisk: Regen Health
· Every 5 seconds Obelisk will pulse with regeneration.
· Restoring 10 health + 1 point per Int.
Imbue Obelisk: Aura of Fugue
· Every 5 seconds Obelisk will pulse with an aura inflicting all enemies with a loss of awareness.
· If an enemy is affected by 5 pulses, they will suffer hysteria.
I had no idea what was going on, what I did know is that of the 3 options, only one of them would hurt someone. And I really wanted to hurt someone right now. The only problem was I didn’t know how to select the option I wanted. I reached out and touched the screen, as I tapped the Lighting option, the screen vanished, instantly replaced by another. This box only had four lines of text.
Companion Selected
Class: Death Knight
Race: Gnome
Name: Gronnex
I continued to not know what was going on. I reached out tentatively and tapped the screen, it disappeared just like the first. Just like the first, it was replaced by a third box.
Prism Aspect Discovered
Aspect: Darkness.
It will take the Prism five cycles to rebuild itself with the aspect of Darkness.
Defend your Prism from the corruption of the Darkness aspect.
I reached out and tapped the screen, making it vanish so I could again see the Ant standing on the hill. It was clicking excitedly.
“Well, that’s got to be one of the worst initial aspects to get. I’m quite pleased, and what’s this, a Gnome!? Oh, very pleased. What class did you get, please tell me it is a crafting class, it would really make for a great story.” The ant had resumed speaking quickly, I was barely able to follow along.
What I did notice is that the ant didn’t already know what class I was, and I wasn’t going to tell him. “The screen said the class was Cordwainer, is that what you mean?” I held my breath, hoping the thing couldn’t tell if I lied to it. I’m still not sure why I was lying, I just felt like I shouldn’t tell this creature anything, because it was a jerk.
The ants head tilted to the side, its antennae twitching, “That’s new, I don’t know what that is, what did it say you did?”
Perfect, “It said I make shoes.”.
It took a few minutes for the excited clicking to stop.
“Make, shoes. Just the best. Who says the expanse doesn’t have a sense of humor? If only you had the material to make them, you could solve your shoe problem. And it looks like the corruption is starting to manifest, so I’ll be taking my leave. Darkness, how unlucky you are.”
With that, the Ant just… vanished.
I was still laying on my back, staring with my mouth open at where the ant had been. Where did it go? I pulled myself into a sitting position, crossing my legs as I continued staring at where the ant had been. As I stared I realized that the I couldn’t see as far in the distance as before, not that there was anything to see, just the reddish-brown dirt stretching through the distance. As I squinted, trying to figure out if I the distance I could see really was decreasing, a voice sounded up directly behind me.
“I’ve never been able to stand Wasmannians, there even more insufferable in groups, if you can believe it. Each time I’m awoken, I hope they are among the species that are no longer around, and each time I’m thoroughly disappointed.”
As the voice spoke, I was jumping to my feet to run in the opposite direction. As a raced forward, I felt a little bit better that I could tell where this voice was coming from. I turned to see who this new intruder on my hill was. I laughed at myself with that thought. My hill.
The new addition, that I had fled from in terror, wasn’t even as tall as the ant had been. It stood 3 feet high, standing on two legs, and only had two arms. The only thing that was strange about the creature was its huge bulbous nose. Well, and that it was here at all, and that it was only 3 feet tall.
“Are you going to be this skittish about everything? It’s going to be hard going if you are.” His voice was higher than mine, but not as high as the ants had been. He also talked at a more reasonable pace.
“What are you?”, the short blinked at me a few times, then just stared. That wasn’t that bad of a question. I did want to know what he was. I told myself I was not simple.
“I mean, why are you here? Can you tell me what’s going on? The ant wasn’t very helpful, you’re not the ant in disguise, are you?” There, those were questions someone that wasn’t simple would ask.
There was a very exaggerated sigh from the short guy across from me. “I’m your companion. Names Gronnex, and yes, I’m a Gnome Shadow Knight. I’ve heard all the jokes, so you don’t need to make any unless you really want to start our partnership off on the wrong foot. As to why I’m here, you picked me, not the other way around. And what’s going on is that we need to get your Prism up to snuff before the corruption takes hold. Also, no, I am certainly not the… ant. I think I like that name, I’m going to call them that from now on.”
Gronnex sighed again, “Why don’t you know any of this? You new?” The gnome shook his head, “Doesn’t matter. Your class looks good, the first 5 aberrations will probably be a little rough for us, but after that it should be smooth sailing.” With that he turned to look out from the hill. “The aberrations are already forming, they’ll just meander around down there for the first day or so. Once the Prism has put itself together enough they are going to sense it and start wandering up here. We need to have ourselves ready by then or it’s going to go poorly in a quick way.”
I moved by gaze off the Gnome to where he was staring. A good 30 feet from the bottom of the hill there was movement. It took me a moment to realize what I was looking at as it shambled forward a few feet, then changed direction and shambled that way. It was a skeleton. As I stared at the creating moving back and forth, Gronnex kept talking.
“The good news is this prism has the hill as a natural defense, and we’re lucky that you got darkness as the first aspect, and then it’s manifesting as undead. Undead are dumb, at least initially. It won’t take too much to put together a good defense. First thing before that is we need to destroy a few of these so you can get me a shield. Also, what’s your name?”
I tore my gaze from the skeleton that had meandered even further away from the hill to stare at the gnome. I thought about it for a bit, then responded with “I don’t know.” Gronnex turned to look over at me with a blank stare. Yeah, he was going to think I’m simple, just like the ant did.
“I mean, I can’t remember. They deleted my sense of self.” I decided explaining something I didn’t understand was hard.
“Ah, they are still doing that? Thought that trend would die out… Okay, open up your character sheet, you get to choose your own name.” I was again, confused. On the plus side, it seemed Gronnex knew about the whole no sense of self thing, on the other he was telling me to do something I had no idea of how to do. Seeing my confusion, the gnome gave more instruction. “Just think Character Sheet really hard.”.
I gave it a try, and to my credit only jumped back one step when a screen flashed up in front of me.
Character Sheet
Name: Unknown
Class: Obelisk Mage
Level: 1
Hit Points: 100
Stamina: 100
Mana: 110
Statistics: Unallocated: 2
Constitution: 10
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Dexterity: 10
Intelligence: 11
Wisdom: 12
Abilities
Spells
“Okay, now just focus on your name, think about what you want it to be, and that should be that, if I remember right.” Gronnex mumbled the last part.
Well, what did I want my name to be? Naming myself just felt off, do people normally name themselves? “I don’t know what to name myself.”, I admitted out loud.
I sat there staring at the line that read Name: Unknown when Gronnex started speaking again. “I think you look like a Charles. If I get a vote, your name is Charles.” The line changed from Unknown to Charles.
I blinked, rereading it. “What? No! That’s the worst name!” I panicked and focused on the line that held the name Charles, willing it to change back to Unknown.
Gronnex huffed, “Well you don’t need to be rude about it, and you don’t need to pick it, it’s just what I think of when I see you. Charles. It’s a really grounded, simple name.”
I almost cried. “I don’t want a simple name… and I can’t change it.”
“What? Oh, ha! See, I was right, you are a Charles. It says so right on your character sheet. I have an intuition about those kinds of things. Now, let’s go get us some essence so you can get me a shield.” With that, I heard him start moving his short legs down the side of my hill.
I moved after him, the screen with my character information blocking a good portion of my view. The slope was relatively steep, and I had to focus so as not to fall as I tried to get the screen to go away. I tapped it a few times, like I had the other screens to get them to go away, this one was being a bit more stubborn. I snuffed my pride and called out in front of me, “Gronnex, how do I get the screen to go away?”. I was sure this was a side effect of being named Charles, I doubted they had much pride.
“Just think about closing it. They really should teach you these things before binding you to a Prism.”
I did as I was instructed, and the screen vanished, showing that we were at the bottom of my hill. Looking back, I realized my hill rally wasn’t that far off the ground. The top of the hill was only about 15 feet up a very steep slope. I realized the top my hill wasn’t very wide either, only about 25 feet across, it was also the only landmark on the otherwise flat plane.
“Stop gawking, we’ve got work to do if you want to keep existing.” Gronnex called from a distance, he hadn’t stopped moving in the direction of the skeleton.