The Calibration program I completed the week before explained that, to minimise disorientation where possible, the system would have the user transition from their body to their virtual representation in the same physical position, which is why I found myself lying down in the entrance hall to my virtual space, which matched the room I had lain down in. The two pods side by side, their lids missing, with the console at the head linking the pair of them.
I sat up, now dressed in a simple shirt and trousers. I was still impressed with just how real this space looked. I had used previous iterations of the technology, but none of them had quite this level of fidelity. As I stood up, I could feel the socks on my feet pressing into the plush carpet beneath. I stretched out my back as I crossed over to the door.
Opening it revealed a corridor. On the left was the door to my virtual office. I had spent a few hours playing around to make it look like an executive’s corner office. Opposite, though, was a door which hadn’t been there the day before. It bore the logo for Velkaria.
I stepped up and pushed it open. The door opened up to reveal a path on what appeared to be a cliff top, leading towards a platform not too far away. As I took my first steps along the path, the game's theme music, the same I had heard from its trailers, started playing. A slight breeze brushed past me, prompting me to look around at the scene before me. To say I was looking out upon the world would be saying it lightly. On one side, there was hilly terrain as far as the eye could see, and on the other, it looked more like wide open plains before giving way to a towering mountain range. Another seemed to descend towards a coastline, with the look of what to my inexpert eye looked like sandy beaches. No matter which direction I looked, it was breathtakingly beautiful.
I wasn’t here to admire the scenery, though, as tempting as that was. So I resumed my journey towards the platform where three pairs of statues greeted me.
“In your journey across Velkaria, will you do so as a Stalwart Human, an Elegant Elf, or as a Vibrant Felge?” a voice spoke out from seemingly nowhere. The statues were arranged around a circle, with each pair standing back to back to each other, though facing slightly out of the circle. The human pair were to my left, the elves to my right, and the third race facing away from me on the far side of the circle.
I knew I was going to be picking Human, but I wanted to take a moment and look at the other races. So I took a step towards the elves.
“Besieged by their enemies, the elven kingdoms found themselves being pushed further and further from their ancestral lands. A threat so great it did what Elven scholars had been convinced could never happen. It united them like no other. They became the Kin. Though there were once many races of Elf, all were now kin to each other.”
“Sadly, though, for their homes, it was too late. All that it did was stall the fighting, and it was clear that the costs of this stalemate were too great to be sustainable for anything but a stopgap measure. The greatest minds of the Scholarium came together to undertake a desperate endeavour. Mastering the arts of their ancestors and sharing secrets long hidden, they came across a chance. Ancient passageways known only as the Ways. Risky and dangerous, knowledge of the safe pathways had been long lost to history. But it was something which offered the Kin a chance, one of the few that the Farseers’ prescience indicated might be the species' salvation.”
“Dive into the unknown. Find a new place to call home. Lives were lost trying to find a way through the ways, but a place was found. Now the Kin are sending their people to Velkaria in the hope they might have found the sanctuary they so crave. Are you a Kin forerunner? One of the volunteers to first brave this new world? Expand the lands for your people? Reach out and touch one of the statues to start your journey across Velkaria, as one of the Kin.”
The male Elf was taller than me, slender, almost delicate, but his posture carried quiet strength. He had a longsword on his hip and a longbow in his hand. The female, shorter and lithe, a faint spell forming between her delicate seeming fingers. Between the statues, there was a small pedestal displaying ‘High Elves’ as the current selection. Beneath were options for ‘Wood Elves,’ ‘Drow,’ ‘Snow Elves,’ ‘Moon Elves,’ and ‘Astral Elves.’
I reached out and touched ‘Wood Elves.’
There was a flicker passed through the air and the statues reformed, the pointy ears grew out as the height reduced to around five and a half feet. The male's bow became a short bow and both seemed armed with daggers. Hitting the Drow text made them taller once more, but gave their features a darker aspect. A quick perusal of the others showed me almost stereotypical representations of the different flavours of elf.
Moving on, I eagerly strolled around to the third race, the Felge.
“The death of their homestar took the Felge by surprise. The sun's initial explosion knocked one of that system's inner planets into a collision course with their own world at such a pace that it knocked their own out of orbit. The impact and aftermath killed almost all life on their planet; only a few of the Felge nests survived. The survivors are not entirely sure how they managed to do so in those initial days of seismic catastrophe. Stories are passed down to each generation of the great culling. When the planet fell apart and when the skies and oceans froze. As a huge cloud of dust covered the sky and then when it finally settled, their homeworld had been moving further and further away from the life-giving energy of their sun.”
“They told the tale of approaching a gas giant before being slung off deep into space and of the decision made to go into hibernation and hope one day to find a new home. As the surface became colder, some of the Felge survived by digging deep into the mantle, others by diving deep into the oceans and surrounding heating vents. It soon became apparent to them that this was no life to live, merely endurance, and with heavy hearts, they slowed themselves to enter the deepest of sleeps. Awakening rarely and consuming as little as possible.”
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“An aeon passed for them this way. Generations of their species living and dying, hoping for the day their frozen prison would thaw. Their world hurtled through space at a relatively slow speed for the distance travelled.”
“It was one of the ocean sleepers who was awoken by the fall of a bit of ice landing on his leg. It took days for them to realise this had been caused by the melting of the surface as their rogue homeworld had entered the system of a new star.”
“They soon discovered their home had been pulled into orbit with this new star, and while initial jubilation was strong, it soon fell away once they realised that their orbit wasn’t stable. The planet would move dangerously close to the system’s sun at one point, and then would move back out far enough that the oceans would start to freeze once more. One of the more engineering-minded among them created a model of the star system and much to their united chagrin, discovered that there were only 50 orbits until their path took them worryingly close to one of the system’s gas giants. The system's 5th planet, though, seemed like it could sustain them…if they could get to it.”
“At the time of the catastrophe, they had just started exploring their local space, and making use of that knowledge, they launched world tree seeds at what they hoped would be an intercept course for this habitable planet. Each seed contained some of their magics, and if able to take root, would allow them to create bridges between the worlds. They then sat back and waited months for those seeds to cross the space between them. They got confirmation that one had successfully survived the landing and initial seeding. They were able to use their nature magic to send one group of their kind through to this new world before their orbit put the star between them, blocking the connection.”
“It took 5 months for Velkaria’s orbit and their own before the Star no longer blocked the connection, and word returned. The first group were successful in creating a nest on this new world and were even able to get other seeds located and growing. They sent word requesting additional members of their people to help expand and grow their territory, as there are many hostile lifeforms which needed to be defeated.”
“Are you a Felge Pioneer? A child of the seed looking for a new homeworld to set roots in? Reach out and touch one of the statues to start your journey across Velkaria, as one of the Leaves of the Wandering Branch.”
The first of the two statues reminded me a lot like someone had made a just sufficiently legally distinct copy of the tree hero from Guardians of the Galaxy. The second was what I could only describe as a dryad, graceful, bark-skinned, and faintly luminous. Between them, the pedestal had ‘Treekith’ selected. Below that were options for ‘Swampkith,’ ‘Oceankith’ and ‘Earthkith.’ Hitting ‘Swampkith’ made the ‘male’ look like someone was trying their best to not rip off Swampthing. ‘Oceankith’ gave both a distinctly mermaid/merman look while still being unmistakably plantlike and the Earthkith made both look like they were made of petrified wood...they looked interesting enough, but I was glad none of my friends had pushed for this species in the discussions. With a nod, I made my way around to the final option.
“The North fell to them first. The shambling hordes of undead sent the people of those cold lands fleeing for their lives. Walls held them back for a time, but their advance was inevitable. The central kingdoms thought they had stalled them by building the great wall across the northern edges of their lands, only to be surprised by more shamblers coming out of the western seas well south of their defences.”
“Each undead was hard to kill; decapitation didn’t always work, the jaws still snapped, hands still clawed. They could be killed if enough damage was done but, it was risky; any contact with them usually resulted in an eventual long, painful death and then conversion into one of the undead. In the early days of the war, many were lost as they pulled their friends back only to find them rising the next day as one of the enemy.”
“When Hallica, one of the largest of the central kingdoms, fell, the remaining nations saw the end was nigh. With each death, the horde grew, and one of the fears had been confirmed true: that the zombie bodies could regenerate. To unite their nations, the heirs were married to each other and tasked by their fathers with taking as many of the people to the ‘New World,’ a continent that was far to the east, across the great ocean. Explorers had returned with tales of wondrous sights, carrying strange items of mysterious power, and supposed magic powers. It gave the leadership hope for their children’s futures.”
“Every ship that could be was seized and outfitted for the journey. Priority was given to those with the necessary skills to get them there and rebuild once there, and they were spread amongst all the vessels they had available. A lottery was then instituted for the remaining spots. The first wave then set sail to set up a new home for as many of the survivors as possible, while the armies of the remaining kingdoms fought a losing battle across what remained of the central kingdoms. The second wave of ships embarked two months after the first, larger than the first, but made up of older vessels, anything seaworthy that could be found.”
“A month later, most of the first wave returned, with tales of ancient cities and lost civilisation, Magic weapons and ways to cast spells. The dwindling hope rekindled that Humanity might find a way to survive.”
“The final fleet set off, a ragtag motley of vessels of all kinds, even barges being pulled by bigger ships, only leaving behind the people who had taken wounds or who refused to abandon their friends and loved ones and the old who refused to abandon their homes. The last two kings stood side by side, watching the last ships of their lands departing…before turning to face the shambling hordes as they moved towards the final cities’ defences. Are you a Human Voyager? Were you one of the lucky ones who won a place on a ship or skilled enough to have earnt it? Reach out and touch one of the statues to start your journey across Velkaria, as one of the Folk.”
The male stood with a cocky tilt, a longsword in one hand and a flintlock pistol in the other. The female’s stance was poised, a stiletto dagger in one hand, while the other seemed to be casting a spell. Both were decked out in what could only be described as a steampunk style of clothing, brass buckles, straps, and a slightly modern twist on a Victorianesque appearance. There was no pedestal between them. So I guessed these were the only options you had.
I wanted to play with magic and my friends already chose the human faction, so I reached out and touched the spellcaster.
