Author’s Note I suck at building a game world. Therefore, I decided to ‘borrow’ the necessary details from the Bethesda game and their lore. The elder scrolls content is seriously fantastic, and I believe the games don’t do it enough justice. The game world content is totally them and not me. Seriously. I hope they don’t sue me. Also any resemblance to any character , living or dead, fictional or not, is purely coincidental. I will be using the elder scrolls lore and world, and also city and places, however I think I will add VRMMORPG elements where necessary. So don’t worry, read and comment on my story!

And to all the readers out there, leave a review! I know it’s slow going, but I need to know how’s it going anyway!

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EPISODE 3: IMPERIAL CITY

Arthur’s POV

I materialized in the middle of a road. My clothes had been replaced by the traditional beginner outfit: A ugly rough hewn white shirt and pant. The shoes too, were quite uncomfortable. I decided to look around and see where I had landed.

My breath caught in my throat.

My dad’s interest in role-playing games was deep. He had played the Seven Dragon’s Saga, the D&Ds, the early precursors Ultima and Wasteland and Fallout. And he loved all of them. Our company had started when he had started selling his own take on the computer version of Dungeons & Dragons from his garage, right when he was still in school. Computers then were big, bulky and expensive. However, we lived in the Silicon Valley, where all agreed on one thing; computers were the future.

When I was young, he used to tell me, “I believe, Arty. One day, son, there will a game so real, so beautiful, that you wish that you lived there, instead of here on Earth. You would yearn to go on the dangerous, rescue princesses and slay tyrannical dragons. And then you will understand, Arty, of what I have understood all along.”

I understood that now.

Imperial City was breathtakingly beautiful. I could see a crystalline spire rising along a distance. It looked a diamond the way it refracted the light. The spire was surrounded by six smaller towers with different colours of the rainbow. The people were of various races, milled about. Wherever I was, it was quite busy. I caught sight of a high elf, two dark elves, and even a orc. It felt real. I felt like I was a boy again, and I once again thought of my Dad’s saying.

I was standing on the side of the street on a stone paved road with buildings on both sides of the road. And all the buildings were different shades of blue. I noticed that the hue was progressively darker as one would walk further down the road. Something about that felt strangely familiar.

A guard, who had noticed me staring, slowly made his way to me. I say a guard, but he looked similar to a knight. Full body armor, with a long spear that extended past his shoulders, this man would have inspired fear on the battlefield. His chest piece contained an emblem of a glowing Sun with a dragon entwined around it. He reached near me and opened up his visor. I could see blonde hair with striking blue eyes. He was like a handsome football player that drove a Lamborghini and dated supermodels. This guy was a guard? Looks like they clicked the beautify button for all the NPCs!

“Welcome to our world, Adventurer! It is indeed a high honor that the Goddess has allowed you to travel and battle through our beautiful realm. It is a beauty, is it not?’’The guard, obviously having seen my fascination, decided to broach the subject.

“It is indeed beautiful, Sir. Can you please tell me more about the city?” I asked modestly. Every job had a weapon. This one required the use of my tongue. Besides, offending someone without knowing him intimately was never a good idea. The best insults are the ones that strike you personally. I speak from experience, of course.

“Of course! I am very sorry. You are the first one to arrive in our realm and hence I forgot my manners. I am Kent Den. You can call me Kent. And let me formally introduce you to our Imperial City, capital of Cyrodriil and the jewel of Tamriel! Please, let me guide you through the city!”

A window popped up.

Kent has invited you on a tour of the city! Will you join him?YesNo

I simply nod. The system identified my movement as a nod of assent and the request is automatically accepted.

“Excellent! Let’s get started. Follow me!”

I started walking beside him, thinking about the window that had just appeared. That style of quest message was

actually started by Dad, during the company heydays. Most other games would have phrased it in the style of a quest, with various penalties about what would happen if you refused spelled out for you. Also, they would show the rewards as well. In short, it was like a trade market. Do this job, and get this in return. Dad hated this style. He said it destroyed the inherent sense of adventure. In our games, the NPCs might make requests, which the player may choose to accept. However, they would be going in totally blind, with no idea about the reward or losses. This ensured that a player did the quest because he wanted to do so, and not because he had a chance of a good reward.

There was no quest log. Pop up messages did appear when something important had occurred, but it was up to the player to correctly deduce the meaning and advance on the quest. Every player had a Journal, which the player had to write themselves about what clues or hints they considered important. Depending on what was written in your journal, the game would show different messages.

All this ideas were pioneered a decade ago by my dad in various different games. In those days, the execution of these ideas had failed due to limited variables and A.I. However, it looked like in Fable of Fantasy, those ideas could successfully come to life.

While I was musing in my own thoughts, Kent was guiding me throughout the city. The city was shaped like a wheel with outer and inner spokes. At the exact center was the Imperial Tower, where the King resided. The inner spoke was separated from the outer spoke with a circular moat of a radius of about 100 meters.

The inner spoke contained the Mausoleum of the Kings, the Elven Garden, the Dragon’s Maw, just to name a few touristy spots. All in all, only the privileged could gain access and live in the inner spoke.

The outer spoke had been divided into 6 districts, which of which rivaled the town of a small city. The buildings were also color coded according to the hues of the rainbow, so every district had a different color associated with it.

Going anti clockwise, from where I began, they were –

Market District – Containing all the shops for adventurers and heroes. It was colour coded harmonious violet.

The Elven District – Years ago, the high elves used to be accorded one district in Tamriel for themselves according to the peace treaty. Now, you can say it was the rich folk’s home. There was a significant number of high elves in this district, I noticed. This district was bluish to green.

The Talos District – This district had the gate that led to outside of the city. Because of this reason, most of the inns, the merchant offices, and a few residential houses were located here. I saw that this contained the maximum no. of unsold houses. I suspect that they want this district to be populated by the players. This district was totally green. It gave off a fantasy world vibe.

The Temple District – Contained all the temples for all the major and minor deities. The Art and Crafting guild was located here. While I expected the district to be yellow, it lacked any dominant color.

When I asked Kent the reason for this, he laughed and said, “Well, it seems like you are a curious one, aren’t you? This district was yellow, however different Gods wanted their temple colors to be different, so the various buildings were painted differently. Over time, the original color had been completely lost. Haha ha he ho huh”

He had a peculiar style of coughing while laughing. Or was he laughing while coughing? It was hard to differentiate.

The next two districts were the Lower District and the Arena. The Lower District was, politely speaking, where all the poor people lived. It was suitably orange.

The Arena, on the other hand, was similar to the Roman coliseum. The people who fought here were the gladiators.

Fittingly, this district was red.

Three spokes of the city had roads leading out of them, making a triangular symbol. The Market District road lead to the Legionnaire Headquarters (the army and the police in this world), the Talos District to the outside and the Lower District led to the Arcane University (Mages!!).

Every spoke had a guard tower between them. They were smaller than the Imperial Tower, however.

Taken all together at once, it was beautiful.

“You know, you too can participate in the Arena. The rewards are quite good and it is a good place for training oneself.

And besides, the Goddess would revive you, right?” Kent was fishing me for information.

“Training is good and all, but where can I get myself sorted? My inventory is quite empty, you know?” I asked, closing my journal. I had been taking notes of all the details as Kent had described them to me. At first, I thought he would laugh, but instead he had given me an appreciative nod. His disposition towards me had definitely increased.

“Ah! That’s the last part of the tour. Come, let me take you to the temple of the Goddess.”

As we went, Kent explained, that we after the tour was over, the adventurer would have to pray to the Goddess, to receive her blessings and our chosen equipment. Then we were free to do whatever we wanted to do. Until the goddess had blessed me, I had to stay in the city, and Kent had to take care of me. I hoped that the process would be over quick.

One the way, I had seen several guards on their way to the complete circuit till the Arena, with the noobs trailing behind them. I had a considerable head start and I didn’t want to lose that.

We quickly reached the temple. It was relatively small. I looked at Kent and he hurriedly spoke, “The Goddess does not like displays of vanity and greed. She thinks it petty and small. Please go in.”

It looked like I could agree with this Goddess.

The room was pitch dark, except for a small area illuminated blue with softly glowing stones. I made my way to the altar. Most possibly in the real game the Goddess would be the Overseer A.I. Here, it seemed like it was going to be a scripted event.Once I reached the glowing spot, I heard a soft voice.

Kneel, and look at thyself.

I knelt and thought -look at thyself?- How does that work? After a second, I figured it out.

“Stat window!”

StatusWindowName:RedLevel:0Class:???Race:HumanGender:MaleStrength:10Endurance:15Dexterity:30Agility:20Intelligence:25Willpower:15Personality:10Luck:15Health:150Magicka:250Fatigue:150

Looked like I had named myself Red while I had been musing about the past. I thought about it for a moment and let it go. Red was a good name. That was the first game I had played, after all.

Well done.

Your level has been raised by 1!

Now come back when you have known thyself.

Known thyself? Looks like the tutorial would not be so easy to get rid of. I dusted out my pants and went out join Kent.

Hmm, I better explore the city, and see if a trainer exists for what I have in mind. That might be the meaning of –Know yourself-.

Humming to myself, I decide to explore Imperial City.

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