Gob opened his eyes. He was back in one of the armchairs next to the fire in the White Orcs livingroom cave. The White Orc watched him from across the fire.

"You were out for quite some time" he growled, "We're going to have to improve that, we can't have you passing out during a battle. We'll keep working on it though… your strength and magic resistance were exceptional! Not so much your toughness. Sorry about your leg."

Actually Gob hadn't even thought about his broken leg, he must have been out long enough for it to mostly regenerate. His head still throbbed terribly.

He felt confused and angry. It was time for some answers. The questions poured out of him:

"wy cant i gro? wy iz dere a blessin dat maks mi big but den i srink? wy my hed aways hert? wy did da vois of krunch tel me to find yoo? wot iz alined meen? wy duz jervayz won mi statz? wer is cragtop? do yoo now krunch? hoo iz yoo orc?"

The White Orc held up his hands,

"Whoa there Gob. Look, this is complicated. There's a lot you don't know. There's a lot I don't know. Let me answer your last question first. I'll tell you my story, and then, maybe, some of this might start to make sense."

Gob shut his eyes against the pounding in his head and listened.

"As you can see, I'm white. I'm an albino if you want to put a name to it. No curse, no enchantment, just a genetic divergence that means I was born white with red eyes. As you probably noticed, Orcs are green or brown, sometimes black when they're from the Shadowlands. But not white. Never white. White is not orky. So, I was a reject. And as a reject I made sure everyone knew I was a misfit."

"i git dat." nodded Gob, wincing with the effort, "i iz a runt trol. dat sucks."

The White Orc rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Interesting. Sure, being different sucks. But it can also give you great opportunity. I can't remember much about growing up really, I was alone for as far back as I can remember, but my formative years were spent in single minded savagery. I had no choice but to fight to live. I fought a lot, and as I got better and stronger, then… then, I lived to fight.

I never got given a name that I know of, but I was known as the ghost for a time, because I was white, and because I could appear and disappear at will in the caves I haunted. I only ever lived underground, I liked it here in the dark, away from the sun. Away from others. It's protective, it's hidden. And, well... I burn easily." he chuckled quietly and pulled a cob pipe out of inventory, filled it with some dried leaf and lit it. He took the first draw and settled back.

"I was a wild and dangerous creature of darkness. I loved being feared, and I feared being loved. No one got close to me unless it was on the receiving end of my hammer. I sought out only brutal, savage violence. I thirsted after the blood, the thrill of the fight, the crunch of metal on bone, and the craving of the high... of beating bigger and harder adversaries. No one and no thing could best me. I was stronger, tougher, more ferocious, more driven. I went looking for the biggest, fiercest monsters, and I killed every one. I explored the dungeons. Deeper and deeper.

One day I was at the bottom of some nameless place and I came upon a group of three adventurers. I saw them long before they knew I was there. I set up an ambush for them. I had all the advantage; time, knowledge of location, initiative, so I thought… I was convinced I had them for sure. I was invincible after all. But it turned out I wasn't. Because they had something I had never had. Never even dreamed of having: each other.

They were a tight team, and together they handed me my first real defeat. I'd never seen a group fighting together like they did, they were coordinated and pre-emptive. They had powers I had never seen before, didn't even know were possible, and they used them not just for themselves but to complement the moves they seemed to know each other were going to make and when, buffing each other with every strike and debuffing me of any benefit I had for knowing the caves so well… it was less like fighting four opponents and more like fighting one opponent on four sides at once… by the end, apart from being nearly dead, I was fascinated!

I fought them hard though, it was a long, exhausting, epic battle and I remember thinking just before I lost consciousness, ‘what a shame I'll never get to learn how to fight like these.’ Can you imagine that as the final thought of one who spent his whole life fighting!

But I didn't die. In fact they brought me back right from the brink with some of the very same amazing powers that they had just been using to attack me. When I was somewhat recovered, though bound of course, they told me they were impressed with how hard I fought… but I think maybe they were just more fascinated in what I was… maybe the only time in my life being 'the reject' ever gave me a save!

So instead of killing me, they had tied me up, fed me my first ever replenishment pill, and as soon as I was coherent enough to answer, battered me again, but this time with questions! I was just as keen to answer as they were to ask, and then I started firing questions back at them. We quickly formed a connection unlike anything I had ever formed with anyone else before. By the end I was untied and eating a meal with them, and for the next few years I never left their sides.

They taught me about the paths to progression, about Might and Magic. They helped me align my skills and boost them to an unparalleled level. I became a stronger Warrior than any Orc I had ever seen, my skills with my hammer ascended to MIGHT… and over time, I manifested a MAGIC power of my own and double-classed as a Warrior Mage. We were a legendary party, a force to be reckoned with in the deepest dungeons of The Realm.

However, they were two humans and an elf. And there came a time where they needed to go back ‘up there’ he pointed and glanced to the ceiling of his cave.

But me being what I am was always going to be a limitation in their world. My place is destined to be down here. I'm neither Orc enough to be accepted by Orcs, or un-orc enough to be accepted by anyone else...

So, we said our farewells, and parted ways as excellent if unlikely friends. Since then, I've spent my time improving my mind, and now," he gestured around the cave at the benches with their equipment, the books and the cabinets, "dabbling in some CRAFT as you can no doubt see… I have become quite proficient at alchemy. My MAGIC however, has reached a bottleneck, and I had the sense a little while ago that to move it forwards I needed to… get out more. While the Crude Mages are more commonly, and deservedly, displayed as a quagmire of insanity and green horrors, there is incredible depth to it for a committed Mage to discover if they can retain their sanity along the way. It was the Elven NEFARIOUS Warrior, Leőn, who I met that day in the dungeons who taught me that, believe it or not.

I need to keep exploring it to improve it, and that was why I checked my own stats recently for the first time in a long, long time… and that was when I saw the quest titled: 'Find the tiny troll' with a time limit of 'Before Gervais does'.

I mentioned the Elf I met in the dungeons that day was named Leőn. There was also a Human Warrior named Dan, and a Human Mage, whose name was Gervais Stormbrow."

Gob was stunned. The White Orc, who Krunch had told him to find before coming to Cragtop, to help him, was a close associate of the same Mage, Gervais, who he had to beat to Cragtop?

"but… how… wy… hoo…" started Gob, but didn't know where to go next.

"Exactly." said the Orc, "But, why, how and who. The answer is, 'I don't know'. I don't know why Gervais is involved. I don't know who Krunch is, or if he even is who he claims to be, or how he might know us, or how he might be influencing the situation.

I'm inclined to think there's an opportunity for both of them in this. There must be some sort of quest they're both be involved in of which you are a key component. Maybe the færie knows, maybe she doesn't. I suspect she may not, Gervais is a strategist, and a very private operator. He always has been. He didn't let people get close to him easily. He's always wanted to progress to be among the most powerful individuals in The Realm, so whatever his intentions are, he won't be mucking around to achieve them.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

But you should know something about Gervais. He isn't evil, or powerhungry. Not the Gervais I knew at least. He is essentially a good, balanced Mage. Powerful, yes. Ambitious, yes. But not lopsided as some become at his level. Not elitist like the Humans 'High Council'. Gervais is the sort of Mage who still gets his hands dirty with the people he leads. He spends time in the dungeons, improving his own stats with direct practice, where others of his level sit comfortably in their towers commanding expendable low-levellers and making small 'levies' from their stat progressions through the use of complex contract blessings. In short, this doesn't make sense to me. I need to know more. And I think we'll only work it out by… doing what the quest says: Get to Cragtop, before Gervais does."

The Orc stoked the firepit while Gob thought through all that, and set the cauldron over it again refilled with stew. Gob was keen for it. His headache had receded, and his shoulder and leg seemed to be almost restored. He was hungry. He rubbed his leg.

"dat woz a strong hit from yor hamma on mi leg. wy yoo frow it?" he asked.

"Ay, it's a good one isn't it!" said the Orc as he handed Gob a bowl of steaming hot stew, "I've fought with hammers ever since I defeated my first dwarf and took it from him. It was the first real weapon I ever had and I practiced and practiced with it. Eventually I was able to throw it accurately like a ranged attack, but obviously only once because then it was gone… but I liked the skill, it was a useful finisher and I got in the habit of using it in every battle when I knew my opponent was done for... I must have thrown that hammer a thousand times. Then one day, I felt something right on the edge of my conscious. After throwing it one day, I felt like I could reach over to it and pick it up, even though it was across the other side of the cave I was in. But I told myself that was stupid… this was before I ever met Gervais or Leőn or Dan. I had no idea about Might or Magic then. I had no concept of what was possible, only what was provable. I ignored the feeling a few times before I eventually put my pride aside and tried. I just tried to 'pick it up' from the other side of the room… and it came back to me! It came back so fast that it broke my fingers! It was my very first skill: yankhammer. I worked on that skill for months, I couldn't tell you how many of my own bones I've broken yanking a hammer back to myself! But I never cared about a few broken bones! I was a scrawny youth back then, but dangerously driven and very unstable. I saw your instability stat, that's another thing we'll need to work on.

Eventually as I used it more and more, and learnt to listen to those feelings on the edge of my consciousness, yankhammer levelled up to boomeranghammer where I didn't just throw and retrieve, but I could now throw and hit, and have the hammer return to me without it ever touching the ground. I used that for a very long time and it was only much later, after Gervais, Leőn and Dan worked with me, and I aligned to SAVAGE Might that it ascended to become a Mighty savagefeat:whirlhammer, which now lets me hit multiple targets within a circular radius before the hammer returns. Then I found this beauty."

The White Orc took out his rune hammer, and activated the runes that spiraled, glowing, up its handle and shaft.

"I took this from the rotting stomach of a giant undead corpse golem in a necropolis we were clearing. The Golem was the boss, and it was a long and brutal encounter. I asked the others to leave him to me as I had that feeling... I knew was on the brink of something. He nearly had me a few times… but I got him! And this time it wasn't a skill that levelled, it was this runehammer that came to me. I've rarely used another weapon since.

The runes on the hammer are runes of speed, runes of hardness, and weight and of debuff. It gives my feat incredible effectiveness. This hammer is exceptional at close quarters, but when I throw it out, it flies faster than most opponents can even see, hits hard, and ignores a lot of bonuses."

Gob had finished his stew, but was so deep in thought he was still clutching his bowl. He put it down. He felt like he was starting to understand the 'structure' of things.

Zzt!

emergent:comprehension +2arcane enlightenment

He still didn't understand alignment though.

"wot iz aline-men? wy wood krunch say neva aline?" he asked.

"Good question. I've studied this a lot. I don't know how or why 'krunch' would know I know this, but here's my understanding:

The ancient cultivators, mostly Elves, worked for hundreds of years before manifesting magical blessings or mighty feats, and it was at about the same time the ancient Dwarf Wrights were breaking through the invention barriers, crafting the first runic gear like this hammer.

They weren't 'aligned' - they had to learn to manifest the hard way, much like I was doing down in the dungeons before I met the others. It's gruelling. And dangerous, depending on what forces you're playing with.

So they mapped out the stats that emerged from their grinding, and they calculated the stat formulas. Let's look at intelligence as an example.

You can't directly 'practice' intelligence to improve it right? But the ancients discovered that intelligence=the average of the MIND base stats (perception, awareness, memory + the BODY base stat, brain). And you can practice those.. except for brain. So if you have 10 points of each of the four, you'll have intelligence(10). If you practice perception and bring it up to say fifteen, then your intelligence will increase to eleven. It always rounds down by the way.

That's an easy one, but it's a good example for you, because emergent stats get very complex, and traits, skills and manifestations can be pages long. You have a trait:neurogenesis that I've never seen before… show me that one on your scroll."

Gob unravelled his scroll and thought about neurogenesis.

trait:neurogenesis: diverged from trait:regenerativegrowth. Whenever you get damaged, replenishment brings you gains! For most trolls it's more size, but for you it's extra brains! +0.33brain per point regenerated. +0.33intelligence per point regenerated.

"Interesting..." said the Orc. "And a good example. That trait:neurogenesis improves your brain, which will improve your intelligence by formula, as well as improving your intelligence directly… so you get gains in two ways from this trait for the same stat!"

Zzt!

+2comprehension

"By the way," said the Orc looking at the new notification, "you can mute that… you may not want to be showing everyone your stats all the time. I think Kylie was probably muting a lot of yours before."

Gob nodded, "i moot den"

"Just show me the juicy ones when they come." said the Orc.

"So as you've, obviously, now comprehended, stats are complicated. And the more stats you get, the more intertwined they become… infinitely so. Which is where alignment came from.

Alignment was proposed as a way of 'categorising' stats in order to refine the pathways to acension… essentially making progression predictable, and reducing the time spent on years following paths of emergence that may ultimately lead nowhere. Alignment is like a manual… you pick a path and you follow it. It prevents you from following useless or dangerous pathways, like mixing the NEFARIOUS Might of your Vampire with BRIGHT Magic that needs light affinities, or let's say… BRIGHT Magic with a FIRE affinity, as it becomes dangerously unstable as it progresses.

But it isn't just a manual. It is a limiter. An override. Once you've aligned, there's things you can't do. Stats you can't get. Those stats are stripped out of your Spheraxis when you decide to align. Due to the complex nature of interactions between the stats, the stripping can really hurt. BODY, MIND and SPIRIT: there is actual pain in the stripping as part of you is taken away. Most aligning is done during childhood for that reason… less stats means less refinement. Less pain. I was an adult, and a strong one, when I aligned to SAVAGE might. I was laid up for days as the physical, spiritual and mental stat changes tore parts of me away and sharpened others.

I was stronger after though. It was a more focused strength. I could throw the hammer even better, and that perfection of the swing of my arm later became the same movement skill from which my crudeblessing:vortexshield eventually manifested… the magical one I tried against you earlier!"

"so wy not aline?" asked Gob.

"Well that's simple" answered the Orc, "alignment is a limiter."

Gob looked at him blankly.

"You can't rule the world with limits."