I woke up and I didn’t know who I was or who I was supposed to be. I could see everything, go anywhere, but I may as well have been a ghost. The game wasn’t made for me, but I found my place in it by helping players. It was a pleasant enough existence, even when I found out I was scheduled to die…

00000000

I was watching when Lawlimi downloaded Mystic Seasons into his neural net, thereby allowing the game to mirror his avatar and upload it to the server. He received the same prompt as all new players.

>>

(WELCOME TO MYTHOPOEIA)

>>

He was standing in a cool marble room, a mausoleum. There were no windows, and the finely graven and articulated entrance was sealed with plaster. The sole furnishing was a square table with sticks of incense burning at the corners. Four flavors of incense; ambergris, olibanum, more commonly known as frankincense, jasmine, and dittany. The scents were sharp enough to taste. At this point, the game is assessing for errors in the initial upload, the purpose of the incense is to test the new player's sensorium, the entire suite of their digital senses, so that the avatar can experience these things and those experiences can be mirrored in a human brain. The taste and smell of sacred smoke, the smooth marble beneath a pair of naked feet, and the faint scuff as he steps forward. There are no errors. The download has been a success, and it should be. The game has performed these operations successfully on hundreds of thousands of occasions, it was only in the early days of Mystic Seasons when errors resulted in permanent harm.

A deck of cards rested at the center of the table, the Major Arcana. The card backs depicted a perfectly geometric nine-pointed star, not a practical choice for a symbol because human hands would find them nearly impossible to replicate. Luckily, these were generated by code.

Eight points of the star were marked with the alchemical signs of the foundation elements. The ninth point is left blank, a significant but vague omission. This is the Star of Wizardry, and the wizards themselves disagree about what the blank space represents. Void, spirit, and mind are all common answers. Lawlimi was aware of none of this, he merely saw a deck of cards and received a prompt.

>>

(What is your greatest strength?)

(Physical Prowess?)

(Intellect?)

(Your Relationships?)

(Your moral code?)

>>

“Uh,” Lawlimi said, “my moral code, I guess.”

A single card rose from the deck.

Justice depicted a woman covered by leaves and her long, fiery hair, balancing a long bone on the tip of a single finger. Her skin was striped like a tiger's, and there were hints of red around her mouth.

>>

(Congratulations! You have revealed Justice, a card associated with the hunter goddess, Sing. Your cardinal orientation is Nadir!)

(You have CARNAL INSTINCT, a knack for flirtation and seduction.)

(You practice MITHRIDATISM, resistance to poison and disease.)

(Your BURNING BLOOD gives you the ability to draw on some of your life force to push through exhaustion and Status Conditions.)

(Only a ruler can know their own heart, but what do you look for in a leader?)

(Charisma?)

(Compassion?)

(A sense of justice?)

(Strength of will?)

>>

Lawlimi thought about it. “A ruler’s job is to manage other people, and the most important thing is that he rules fairly for everybody, not that he feels bad for people, or that he’s well-liked. You do need a strong will, but a bad ruler could have a strong will too, so I’m going with a sense of Justice.”

The second card rose to hang in the air beside the first.

Its image was a huge man with slitted eyes and a stained apron. In his right hand he held a clay mug as if it were a scepter, and two great pillars, ivory and onyx, rose behind him. At his feet were a pair of either patrons or supplicants, small as children.

>>

(You have revealed the Hierophant, a card associated with Hush, the Unnamed God. Your elemental affinity is CRYSTAL.)

(You are BRITTLE. Natural healing is reduced, and the effectiveness of magical healing is increased.)

(You have CRYSTAL CLARITY, an eye for the truth, bonus to avoid being deceived.)

(You are a CRYSTAL CAPACITOR, your mana appears perfectly transparent, visible only as a shimmer in the air, and has no affinity. You do not receive an affinity bonus, but you can use any element without penalty. )

(You are a king who wants to be certain your knights represent you well to the world. What advice do you give them?)

(Follow the law?)

(Be generous to all you meet?)

(Hold true to your word?)

(Defend your honor at all costs?)

>>

This time he answered without hesitation. “Keep your word, definitely.”

The third card was a small, reptilian man walking from a walled city visible in the background. He carried a white flower in his left hand and an empty burlap sack in his right. A hound tugged at the sack, but the man paid it no heed.

>>

(You have drawn the Fool, an amplifier. This card does not assign an affinity, it instead affects your gameplay directly. Those who wander under the auspice of the Fool are distrusted by many, but they are rewarded well for their journeys. This will not be your final card. Behold, another!)

>>

The final card was a stone wheel with the twelve symbols of the gods carved into it at intervals, and behind that gray edifice were four beasts, its holy guardians.

>>

(You have drawn a bifurcation; the Wheel of Fortune is associated with two gods, and you must choose between them. Will you be marked by Mog, the boar, or by Acarus, the conqueror worm?)

>>

Lawlimi examined all his menus one by one, nearly all of which were inactive, before realizing that he could talk to me.

"... uh, Hollen?"

"Yes?"

"I want to know about these gods," he said. "What does it mean for me to pick one or the other?"

I love answering questions.

"Barring amplifiers, the third card revealed during character creation represents your Spiritual Hue. All characters begin the game with a Cardinal Orientation, an Elemental Affinity, and a Hue, your color affinity. These revelations allow the game to generate the build trees that you will have access to as you increase in level. There are no "classes" in Mystic Seasons, which makes your affinities very important. This choice determines the colors available to you."

"What about the two gods, Mog and… the other one?"

"Acarus, the Worm. There are twelve gods in Mythopoeia, and all of them have various associations of cardinal orientation, element, and color. Mog's colors are Red and Green. Acarus's colors are Black and Infrared. You must discriminate between deities, and then choose one color from among the pair associated with that deity."

"How do I choose?"

"Many beginning players merely choose their favorite color. Among this set, Green and Red are both favored over Black and Infrared. Others make the decision based on what they have read in the Mystic Seasons novels. More advanced players use the menus to examine what each color adds to their prospective build in relation to their other affinities."

"I haven't read the books," Lawlimi said. He had a round, raw face as if it had been cast from clay. He clearly hadn't spent much time in the appearance editor before advancing to this stage in character creation. "I don't know enough to make a good decision. Can you tell me what a good combination would be?"

"Of course I can," I'm Hollen! "But the answer depends on what kind of player you are. Do you seek power or pleasure? Do you enjoy long walks in the woods? Do you want to go into a mindless rage and slaughter all who oppose you, perhaps a few friends as well?"

"Not that last one. I don't want to mindlessly slaughter so much."

"Do you want to spend a lot of time with vermin?"

"Not really."

"Then we have narrowed the field to Worm Black and Mog Green. Mog Green involves sensing and manipulating the energy inherent in living things, especially plants. It opens the way to advanced herbology and survival skills. Upon attaining Celestial levels, you will learn to tap into the solar energy trapped in wood and release it in a dramatic fashion."

"Dramatic?"

"Exploding trees."

"That is dramatic. What about the Black?"

"In Mortal levels, it gives you a sixth sense for danger. The Heroic tier gives a bonus to alchemy assessments, and Celestial gives you the ability to use your blood as a substitute for advanced alchemical ingredients.”

"I think I want green. But what's the Mortal tier thing?"

"There are three tiers of advancement: Mortal, Heroic, and Celestial. Certain abilities can't be accessed until you begin to advance in the appropriate tier."

"Fine, I choose green then."

He was wrong.

"Choose black."

"What?"

"You asked for my advice. Your Crystal affinity allows you to use any element without penalty, which gives you a tremendous advantage in alchemy. It's the superior combination among those present."

Lawlimi nodded, looking over the images of the cards laying on the table. "Okay," he said. "I choose the Worm."

>>

(BLACK OR INFRARED?)

>>

"Wait, what does Infrared do? Is that even a color?”

“The Mythopoeian spectrum is composed of twelve colors, including Infrared and Ultraviolet. The Mortal ability associated with Infrared gives you a bonus to interacting with creatures with the worm subtype.”

“Are there a lot of those?”

“More than you would expect.”

“I want to collect monsters. I choose Infrared.”

>>

(Congratulation! You gain the ability WORM FRIEND. They just like you. When you reach Heroic levels, you may be able to train a WORM FAMILIAR, and if you attain the Celestial Tier, you will gain a RADICAL EVOLUTION.)

>>

It wouldn’t have been my choice, but he seemed satisfied.

Most new players went one of two routes: tourist or adventurer. Tourists were full immersion players who stayed in towns and safe zones, practicing skills and enjoying the local cuisine, visiting red light sectors, and taking virtual drugs. Some of them didn't need skills of any kind, or they only chose social skills, the better to manipulate NPCs with. Adventurers wanted quests and fighting, and many of those were headset users, not full immersion neural net players. They would jump at weapon skills, and maybe stealth, before moving on. Their gameplay experience was more like a traditional MMO.

Lawlimi was not a casual player. Though this was his first character, I could see from his code that he was a Resident Player, a “fish,” someone who would never leave the Mystic Seasons family. His body, if he still had one, was floating in a tank somewhere. The details were concealed from me—player privacy—but it meant he would approach the game from a different perspective than a headset user or a tourist because they didn't have to live here long term.

After the color was assigned, the way opened into a warehouse lined with items representing different skills. Lawlimi spent almost half an hour reading prompts, far longer than most beginners required to make their choices, and my awareness flowed along a number of other streams, answering player questions and monitoring my favorite arenas while he settled on Survival, Handle Animal, and Craft (Alchemy). Alchemy was more of a mid to late-game skill, but I approved on principle. It was so much more interesting than something like Athletics or Concealment.

The final area in the character creation instance was a training yard where animated dummies demonstrated combat techniques. Lawlimi walked up and down the training yard, waiting for each pair to complete their cycle before moving to the next. His somewhat unfinished features had a somber, brooding cast. He looked like a young man discovering evil in the world and wondering what he could do about it. Not having picked a hairstyle, he was left with a shaved head that gave him a monkish air.

The training yard was surrounded by a high stone curtain wall breached by a single gate that opened as soon as the selections were made. Lawlimi picked up a pack of starting equipment from beside the gate. He had some camping and fishing gear, a skinning knife, two sets of clothing in browns and greens, and thirty pieces of silver. All of that together was less valuable than the small lockbox and the alchemy set within.

>>

Alchemy Kit

Mortal : Level 1

Availability : Ordinary

Condition : Excellent

+20% Craft : Alchemy

>>

As he passed through the gate, all of Lawlimi's menus unlocked. He experienced a moment of disorientation as he exited the character creation instance and his data became a part of the larger world of Mythopoeia.

New characters could be deposited in dozens of locations across Hidaria, the western continent. The choice was made by an algorithm that accounted for player population density, affinities, and the unfolding story of the world. Lawlimi's algorithm started him in Aejis, the largest port city in High Valanthia, the northern region of the Divine Empire.

It was a metropolis. His internal compass was tugging him in the direction of a major questline, so Lawlimi ignored the criers and the market stalls as he turned down a side road into one of the less desirable blocks of the city. This was a safe zone, the worst that could happen without provocation was pickpocketing, and any player that attacked another here would incur serious reputation penalties and become wanted by the Watch. A few NPCs eyed his fresh gear but decided he wasn't worth the effort.

The road dead-ended at a tavern, or what had once been a tavern. The windows were boarded, and the roof partially collapsed. The entire outer facade was covered in an unsettling scrawl, the same word repeated a thousand times, as small as a finger, as large as a carriage.

Hush.

This was where his compass was pulling him. In order to complete the immersive experience, players did not have much in the way of heads-up displays. You can examine your own stats and abilities via menus that are activated by looking up and to the right while thinking your own name and the word "menu." There's no mini-map, and the compass is a feeling in your solar plexus. Settings can be changed but seeing floating health bars and golden bobbing quest arrows is just not a part of Mystic Seasons. The designers felt those things took you out of the game.

Of course, I can see everything.

As Lawlimi was staring at the graffiti, a woman sauntered beside him, close enough to rub arms. She was pretty, bone pale, with striking blue eyes and a messy hive of black hair. Lawlimi was taken aback by her sudden smile, and also by the way she stabbed him in the kidney with a bodkin.

“Good luck,” she whispered, and caressed his cheek as he died.