The Dominion Online title hovered in the center of the screen, etched in steel blue and encircled in gold and silver. The border was enclosed in the sharp edges of a dragon symbol, also in a muted golden hue. The background was a birds eye view of a lovely green land, surrounded by massive white mountains beneath a clear blue sky. Dark birds flew by dotting the distant horizon, as they floated by the sparkling ocean in the backdrop. It was a lovely image.

Devan hit the mouse and a box popped up asking him to select a shard. There was a list of about twenty different shards, all with different names and the population varying from full in red script to new in green script. Assuming a new shard was for beginners, Devan selected the Broken Light shard and hit the enter world button.

The next screen asked him to select his race, but there was only one option. Male or female human. He went back and forth through both options, exploring the available customizations. He had a choice of twelve different body types like small and skinny, tall and fat, or squat and muscular, with a scale allowing various looks in between. The overall art style was anime and cartoon-like, but realistic enough and Devan liked it. Between the two sexes he had a choice of forty different hairstyles, twenty skin tones, and twenty hair and eye colors. Some other additional changes included tattoos, scars and piercings.

He eventually settled on a female figure that was short and cute, with green long hair and oval eyes, sporting a cream complexion. The next screen asked him to select a class and he had a total of five roles with each having two choices. He went through each role and class.

Tank.

SOLDIER: A frontline fighter, with high armor and health. The soldiers weapon of choice is the spear and shield; she can wear mail and plate armor. The soldier excels at blocking damage, and slowing and knocking down enemies; she is strongest when focusing her damage into one foe.

WARRIOR: A frontline fighter, with high armor and health. The warriors weapon of choice is the one-handed axe and spiked shield; she can wear mail and plate armor. Warriors are experts at combat; parrying, dodging and instantly returning enemy damage. They are skilled at rooting and stunning enemies, and perform best when outnumbered.

Healer.

PRIEST: This mid-range healer has medium armor and medium health. The priest utilizes one-handed maces and carries tomes of power to cast a variety of holy spells. The priest can heal multiple allies, but is strongest when focusing her power into a single target. She is also adept at shutting down enemy spell-casters and curing her allies of diseases and bleeding wounds.

WITCH-DOCTOR: This long-range healer has light armor and medium health. The witch-doctor uses two-handed staves to control the elements and ancestral spirits. As the spiritual beacon of her tribe, the witch-doctor is strongest at removing poison and supporting her entire party with heals, and by tapping into the power of the spirit she can control her enemies actions with various spells.

Melee DPS/support.

PALADIN: This close quarter skirmisher has medium armor and health. The paladin weapon of choice is the two-handed warhammer. This warrior of light uses massive blows to crush her enemies, while simultaneously creating protective barriers to reduce her parties damage taken. Though the paladin is an aggressive fighter, she excels at knocking back enemies to control the battlefield and keep her allies safe.

BLOOD-KNIGHT: This close quarter skirmisher has medium armor and health. Blood-knights are experts with the two-handed sword. Tapping into the use of blood magic, these gruesome fighters slash and hack their way through enemies, while incrementally healing their party from the blood she sacrifices. She controls the flow of battle by pulling enemies toward her and placing them in precarious positions.

Range DPS/assassin.

RANGER: This versatile combatant has light armor and health. The ranger prefers the two-handed crossbow and daggers to do her work. This agile killer can expertly maneuver the battlefield to scout out enemy weaknesses and setup traps, eradicating her foes from range or up close with sudden burst of damage. By utilizing camouflage the ranger ensures that her party always has the upper hand.

DRUID: This versatile combatant has light armor and medium health. The druid is an expert marksman with the longbow and a deadly skirmisher with fist weapons. Using their powerful connection to nature, the druid infuses her arrows with elemental power to destroy her enemies from range. Being one with the earth allows her to utilize animal companions and even combine with them to transform into a more powerful adversary.

Spell casters/support.

WIZARD: This scholar of the arcane arts has light armor and health. She empowers herself with wands and magical artifacts like globes and gems. The wizards powerful abilities are designed to obliterate as many enemies as possible. Being an expert in all things magic, she is also capable of defending her party against magical attacks and removing negative spell effects.

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WARLOCK: This master of the dark arts has light armor and health. She uses one-handed swords and fetishes to control the power of the void. The warlock cripples her opponent with powerful curses, while blasting them with shadow magic. She is also reckless enough to call upon nightmarish creatures of the void to assist her in battle. No foe can maintain magical enhancements once the warlock enters the battle, because she is an expert at negating such spells.

Selecting a class produced a 3D image of the character in a fighting stance above the description. Using his mouse, Devan could turn the model around and view it’s armor. After reading about the first class and highlighting the model a small box at the bottom read. “Soldier in full tier-0 dungeon set.” Devan was not sure what that meant, but the armor looked nice on the character model he created. He went through each class reviewing the various tier-0 sets and then hit the back button to remake some different body types to see how the armor changed. Some looked better than others, between the female and male choices.

Learning more about the classes and roles made Devan rethink his original model. He went back to the creation section and changed to male. He then picked a ranger, soldier, warlock, druid, blood-knight and then went back and changed to a female. He selected a wizard, priest, warrior, and paladin. He went back and changed back to a male, selecting witch-doctor, warrior, soldier, druid, warlock and wizard.

Devan went back and forth several more times, getting more and more confused and unsure of what he really wanted to play. The many options were dazzling and felt unlimited in scope. A skinny female druid, turned into a short male priest, into a muscular tall wizard. When he glanced at his phone, he had several missed messages, but he was not interested in that, he was interested in the fact that he had been reviewing character customization for nearly forty-five minutes.

Devan sighed, feeling annoyed that he could not make a decision. He hunkered down and started over, determined to finalize his character. He went with a male, that was medium in build with tan skin and short, dark hair. His character had blue eyes but then changed them to brown and sat back in his chair to review it. He liked the youthful determined look of this one, so he went forward to select his role and class.

He went through the different classes, analyzing his character model in the tier-0 set. Warrior, priest, witch-doctor, druid, and warlock. He decided witch-doctor and druid did not look right for his guy. Warrior, priest, warlock, paladin, and ranger. The warlock and ranger felt too fragile to him, so he eliminated those options. Warrior, priest, paladin, blood-knight, wizard. He had the same reaction to the wizard as he did with the warlock and ranger. He decided that class would not work.

Warrior, priest, paladin, blood-knight, soldier. He really liked the look of the paladin and blood-knight, and decided that the warrior and soldier were a bit much for his youthful looking character, he was not sold that a man with a face like that would be in the frontline of a battle in heavy plate armor. He decided against those two and was now down to his three favorite looks.

Priest, paladin and blood-knight. These three seemed to perfectly fit his characters body type and look. Determination always came to mind, it was the look in the eyes. After looking closely at all three, he removed the blood-knight as a class he would play. The blood-knight seemed too dark for his characters taste. He had a serious, determined expression, and that did not jive with the blood-knights emo, gothic aura.

Determination. This word perfectly fit his characters eyes and the feel of both the priest and paladin. Devan noticed that both of these classes had lighter colored armor; a mix of white and silver, with gold trim. They both used hammers, which he liked. The hammer reminded him of justice and solidarity; of strength.

The paladin was essentially a warrior of the light, taking the fight to the forces of evil. His priority was the destruction of his enemies, and protecting his allies seemed important but secondary. The priest was a healer who would heal and cure his allies illnesses. His priority was his party, dedicating his power to keeping them safe, keeping them clean of all the foul things in the world. This suddenly resonated with Devan. He was not an aggressive person, he thought as he swung idly in his chair from side to side. If he felt anything at all, it was a profound hopelessness and sadness. He felt abandoned.

As he stared at the priest on the screen before him, glowing in yellow light, it reminded him of the sun. Everyone gravitated toward the light and they were better for it when they did. What if he could be that beacon, like the priest on the screen. What if he could cleanse his family of their diseases. If for one moment he could truly be a hero would he be the paladin or priest? He realized then that he would not want to fight, he never did. He realized that he was not an angry person, but a person who just wanted everyone around him to be happy and healthy, even though most times he felt a profound sadness in his heart.

Shyly he raised his eyes, unsure why he suddenly felt awkward and he stared at the priest. He looked deeply at the character before him and everything around him receded into nothing and all he could see was that face, lightly shadowed beneath a pure white hood, trimmed in golden runes.

That was who he was. He was always the priest.

Devan blinked and looked away, snorting audibly. “The fuck are you doing,” he muttered to himself with a forced smile. Without looking or thinking about it, he quickly grabbed his mouse and clicked “next”.

His character reverted to its normal state without the tier-0 armor. He wore a simple off white smock over linen pants and black sandals. He had a brown rope tied around his waist with several small pouches and a smooth, wooden club in his right hand. There was a highlighted box at the bottom of the screen requesting a name.

That should be easy Devan thought as he typed his name in and got an error message that it was already taken. He tried another name going with, Holydiver. Rejected. He tried, Holyrider. Rejected. Holydriver? Rejected. Hammertime. Rejected. Goldenangel. Rejected. Gofuckyourself. Approved. He deleted that last one out of frustration.

He leaned back thinking. He truly wanted to embody this character he created because he put a lot of thought into it. He looked at his phone again and it was coming up on an hour since he pressed play, and yet he was not playing yet.

“This shit is cray,” Devan whispered. He leaned forward and tried a different take on his name. Dehvan. Rejected. He tried changing a single letter.

Dehven. Accepted.

“Yes!” he exclaimed feeling a jolt of excitement like he overcame a momentus challenge.

The next selection was “Enter World”. Devan nodded his head, satisfied with what he had accomplished and decided to grab a snack and a drink before he started playing. He went into the kitchen for a pop-tart and a glass of pepsi. He returned to his room lit by the lights of the game and took a bite and sip of his drink. He tucked his right leg up beneath him in his chair and pressed, “Enter World.”