Oh no, what’s Sayooshi getting carried away for? He should be staying entirely focused on his opening step for his grand project, rather than getting all so unnecessarily philosophical about how ‘real’ NPCs are and how Players can relate to them. More importantly, how will they exist in player-run society? Anyways, it’s too early to consider that…probably.

What Sayooshi needs right now is not useless imagination but rather a fresh new canvas for him to structure the formation of a Player Government.

Options menu…

Settings…

Audio…

And let’s lower down the music, voices, sound effects, and ambience. No, actually I’ll keep the ambience sounds a little higher. Hearing footsteps on snow or the crackling of fire in the distance doesn’t really bother me, it’s already inconsequential as it already is.

Perfect! Now it’s all nice and quiet. I can concentrate…

Sayooshi is still sitting on the side stone of the frozen fountain. His chubby elf character is staring at one direction almost motionless. Besides the fact that NPCs are still going about doing their daily routines in the background, such as selling ‘freshly baked’ bread buns to others, chopping wood for their fireplaces, children running around town playing tag, old men conversing with others about their opinions on the conditions of their city, foreigners showcasing wares from distant lands away in the south, and so on, Sayooshi began to treat them and the rest of his surroundings all as irrelevant background movements in preparation for the task he was beginning. This sensation is similar to when he sees the animated wallpaper background on his computer’s desktop from the corner of his eyes or when he listens to his chosen playlist of songs which thrill his emotions and sooth his ears. Except, he was still inside of Divine Mortality, so he couldn’t pause the game because everything was in real-time motion, supporting an entire living virtual online world. It’s not like he was playing a single player RPG and pressing the ESC key to pause the game mid combat to fiddle with something on his desk in the real world. So, if anyone in Divine Mortality wanted to get his attention at any moment, they easily could. Thought right now, Sayooshi’s perspective was not through the eyes of his ingame character. Instead, after pressing a certain tab within the options menu, a white box appeared in the center of his visual screen catching most of his attention. The rest of the visual screen’s resolution which wasn’t taken up by the white box depicted his perspective a little farther from his character in third person, higher up above the ground, while blurring the rest of the graphics from the game. What Sayooshi did was opening up an actual white canvas within Divine Mortality, to help him with crafting out his ideas for a Player Government.

Inside the game’s community, this virtual white canvas is informally named the Netnote and it pleasantly serves various minor functions available to every Player at any moment. The Netnote isn’t a very important aspect of Divine Mortality, but it’s nonetheless a handy quality-of-life feature added for convenience’s sake. You can type out a simple text message, attach an in-game screenshot to it, draw anything on it with access to handy tools using a toolbox and palette, record your voice audio, and link quests or community board posts or guides. It could also be used to copy-and-paste information from your character’s Journal tab which allows you to manually write anything down in the notes section and also check out your own autobiographical journal, which the game automatically creates to record anything notable your character has accomplished ever since it spawned inside the game. All these features in the Netnote could either be used just for yourself or sent instantly via the game’s mailing system to any other Player. Eventually the message is quickly received by the other person or the group of people. That is, unless the Player who had received the message didn't already select the choice to block messages sent by certain users who were set on "IGNORE" or if they had already chosen a general setting to block all messages sent by random users. And there are many other settings available for the Netnote and the rest of Divine Mortality which allow Players to customize their game’s layout to fit their personal tastes and needs. Whether those changes are to do with the user interface or with other types of textual information. Also, because Divine Mortality is a vast online world there are going to be all sorts of Players active, with their own personalities mixed in a single server. Because of this there are bound to be many types of individuals which the average Player might dislike, find annoying, get harassed by, become interested in, or become friends with. So, all sorts of nifty options are in place in a convenient manner for any user to scroll through swiftly and easily to check out and change things that interest them.

But now returning to Sayooshi.

…

…

…

If I’m going to create a Player Government, I should review everything I already know so far. Most of all, I should go back to the basics. And so, before I go asking for Krafty’s help or go find Remix and see what they’re up to, I need to answer these questions right here and now! If I don’t, then what good are the promises I made to myself so far? What will be the point of this whole endeavor if I don’t commit myself to even bother choosing a path I should follow? The first step is important just like how first impressions are (I can’t say I’m good at first impressions to be honest), but it isn’t the deciding factor because there is always a chance for improvement and change.

Initially I should choose what I like in a Player Government, and then I will see what realistic options are available for me to pursue in order to model it into something unique. But it seems like I’ll need to also take off my VR helmet and sometimes use my PC too because I need to look up videos and community board posts about what’s been done before. The Republic of Adventurers, they’ll likely be inconsequential to my Player Government later on since they’re located all the way down south near the center of the map, but just in case I should already treat them as potential competition.

Sayooshi’s character continued to sit on the edge of the frozen fountain, in the center of one of the multiple small market squares dotted around neighborhoods in Kurajur. His character is still continuously staring towards one direction, sometimes it's at the ground and sometimes it's up high towards the stars. And his body still appears very motionless, especially for nearby NPCs who sometimes look for a moment before walking away. But they don't react too strongly by his motionless state, since it has already become common enough for NPCs to spot Divine Spirits behaving this way, even in the middle of public. At the same time, the number of NPCs in the market square have been gradually decreasing. Many of them have already begun heading back into their homes, and soon many of them plan to sleep as late nightfall was soon approaching. You could say, NPCs unsurprisingly often follow a strict schedule for themselves. But since there are no such things as curfews in the cities, towns, or villages in Divine Mortality, it isn’t uncommon to see some NPCs, who aren’t either guards patrolling or nighttime scoundrels fooling around, still awake and operating as usual at nighttime. It's even less surprising considering that the winter season has brought out a longer nighttime, which even the NPCs aren't going to obediently abide all the time. In some other parts of the Overworld, many NPCs who operate shops often stop doing their jobs by now. However, in the northernmost locations in the Overworld like in places such as Kurajur, the native people are already accustomed to the darker days so less of shops close at night. As the farther north you go the farther away from the planet's equator you are from. On the opposite end of the playable areas in the game world, in the southern reaches of the region known as the Remnants of the Lunar Empire, day-times are slightly longer even during winter. And while unrelated, Divine Mortality tries to reflect realism wherever it can according to known real-world science for the sake of allowing their lore to make sense to a wider audience. But very often when fantasy is prioritized, or because of mere laziness, science in Divine Mortality is followed just enough to keep up with some semblance of logic for consistency's sake.

So, the main question for me to ponder for now is... What kind of country do I want to create?

I’ll first see what already exists. There are numerous NPC factions spread out all over the world, but I’ll be excluding them since they are not nations. According to the Divine Mortality Wiki, technically a Player Government and an already existing AI-run nation are more or less the same thing mechanics-wise. But of course, those existing nations are super powerful with properly designed societies fit exactly for them to function and self-sustain. I can’t imagine any of them being taken over by a Player Government anytime soon. These nations even have regions aptly named after them, for goodness sake! But then again, the Republic of Adventures is actually semi-officially recognized by other AI-nations such as Orchard Hills, so technically the land they are on is seen as land legitimately belonging to that republic. Anyways I'll focus on reviewing the AI-run nations first.

The Holy Lands, basically the spawn where everyone starts their adventures from. A.K.A “The Noob Lands”. It’s also pretty much the center of the Overworld. Besides the fact that there is a crazy chain of mountains to its direct south, you could go in any direction in the world from there.

A few big rivers connect the Holy Lands to other places. The river west goes into the “divine lake” which resembles the Lake Baikal from the real world. And pretty much the eastern side of the divine lake belongs to the Orchard Hills. Sounds like a lovely place, but I’ve never been there. And from the things I’ve seen and heard about it, it seems like the most foresty area in terms of tree diversity. So, a lot of green nature loving people go there, especially Players that want to play as druids.

To the opposite direction, if you take a river towards the east from the Holy Lands you’ll be heading upstream and gliding down the sides of other parts of the Holy Lands until reaching the Remnants of the Lunar Empire. But the bank across the same river also connects the Holy Lands to the Free Counties and eventually also to the Chiefdom of Visiwend. Besides Visiwend, both the Remnants of the Lunar Empire and The Free Counties are similar in the fact that those ‘nations’ aren’t united, but decentralized messes. The Free Counties is more cheerful about it, and it’s smaller and appears to be the most developed region so the second most popular region in the game is The Free Counties. On the other hand, the Remnants of the Lunar Empire is larger and also messy, but a grumpy or sad type of messy. I don’t know much about it and it’s probably the least known area of the Overworld, besides the literal neutral wildernesses across the map such as the High Peak Mountains. All those areas, like the Remnants of the Lunar Empire, are dangerous for most Players for several reasons but the simplest one is that pretty much only high-level Players or those who like to fool around go there. When it comes to mid-ranged difficulty, hmm… it definitely has to be the Chiefdom of Visiwend and the Kingdom of Graypine, maybe also here too (the Marchdom of Sonder). Ironically, the similarity both those nations have is that they are led by absolute rulers, and they are both in the mid-ranged difficulty category (which I just made up) for most Players.

In the end, so far, I’ve only been to The Noob Lands, Graypine, and here in Sonder. Like most people, I’ve quested a bit initially in the Noob lands on its western part but soon enough after seeing enough people I went briefly into the Free Counties to cross into the Kingdom of Graypine. That’s where I spent most of my time playing this game. I didn’t go into any of the big cities, instead I stuck to the countryside and each day I kept improving my character by going village to village completing any activities I could. I think by the end of that journey I was called the “Little Hero” by the local NPCs, despite the fact that my character is anything but little (chubby and tall).

During that time, I also hopped guild to guild, and along the way my desire to get involved in the Player Government grew because even about half a year after this game’s release…there have been barely any Player Governments successfully created in this game! I’m pretty sure it’s obvious to anyone that has paid attention that one of the highlights of this game which every has forgotten about or doesn’t care…are the Player Governments! Yet, in Isilia and other servers for this game, a total of 6 (or was it 7) Player Governments exist, and only one here in Isilia.

Damn, I must’ve been really annoying for everyone by the end of it now that I think about it. And it was just yesterday since when I’ve got kicked even by the 5th guild in a row, the freaking Chocolate Milk Kittens! No wonder RemixHorizon laughed at me, that guild was seriously child friendly, so of course a weirdo like me would potentially ruin it by demanding the whole guild invest into nation building… hold on I’m wandering off into a bad direction! Back to Player Governments…and also the Chocolate Milk Kittens actually. Since I shouldn’t forget about the geography of where I’m at. West of the Marchdom of Sonder is plenty of wild land that is ripe for a new country, and I wanted my previous guild to claim it. But they were too small, ah- that’s another thing I should remember…I need a lot of people for a successful new state. That’s the next question I will tackle soon enough, but before that I should finish with reviewing everyone else.

The Holy Lands: A neutral state. A Theocracy. Is blessed and supported by the High Gods according to the story, so that means this nation is supported by the game developers. It’s small and is in the center of the map, it has a lot of new Players in it too every day. Probably the easiest zone to explore and play in. Besides spiritual powers, it’s weak in the magic and economic department as most of its land is rural with NPC shepherds grazing everywhere and poor medieval cobble villages everywhere. As a potential threat, unless they start a holy crusade against me which they likely wouldn’t since they’re supposed to be peaceful fellows now, I can disregard them.

Orchard Hills: Also, a neutral state but I know only a little bit about them. I think its ruled by a monarch or some sort of council, not sure. They are actually economically stable, surprisingly even the Player market from there suffers little inflation. Not many farmlands so not a very high NPC population but of course there are many orchards and things like grape vines. It’s also tucked away in the southwest so it’s doing well for itself. I also don’t think this nation will ever be a threat to me, since I probably won’t ever found a nation right next to it.

Remnants of the Lunar Empire: I seriously don’t need to concern myself with these dudes. Literally even in the main story they are considered to no longer pose a threat to anyone since there was a big empire, but it split apart. It’s a dysfunctional state with many feudal lords who are basically like semi-warlords. Since it’s split up in so many pieces, gauging its total economy is pointless as it’s more likely that a few powerful AI countries might be formed later on in the game’s life span.

The Free Counties: So, this is probably the last ‘nation’ on the list of nations which won’t disrupt my nation building, since it’s a decentralized place with many tiny city states or counties and baronies ‘working together’. Economically they are prosperous and pretty much everything goes through them, generally speaking. There are many large and small rivers flowing through and past it, farmlands for days, many Players and many quests. Trade must be possible; it would help my future nation in becoming a part of the Overworld’s global market. It’s also important for this place to survive, since it’s the place which keeps this Overworld in balance (besides The Holy Lands which is mostly powerless).

The Chiefdom of Visiwend: Oh jeez, the first one in the list that’s likely to stomp out my chances of creating a new nation. These dudes are for wild-lovers, people who like “bad*ss” stuff like big axes and wolf riding. Technically they should be a decentralized state too, but its ruler is power and has managed to centralize the power for himself with the ‘aid’ of the tribes he united. I didn’t worry about the politics of the other regions/nations in the world too much because their ideologies didn’t really concern me with my goal. But Visiwend is the type of place which ‘values’ liberty but always needs something to prove itself or prove that others are deserving of that liberty. So, I’m almost certain there will eventually be some sort of conflict with them in the future. As they are also expansionist colonizers against other tribes to their west and north, the tremendously large region known collectively as “The Hinterlands”. The same place I am planning to settle in. In terms of economy, Visiwend isn’t really rich in the traditional sense. They have a lot of resources (yes, Divine Mortality is almost like a strategy game with literal resources like timber), a lot of manpower, rare and epic items on their side, but they do not have a lot of coins from what I know. I’ve never been there either, so I don’t really know how it’s actually like.

The Kingdom of Graypine: I actually like this place, despite the fact that I hate the authorities there. Hmm, maybe me and that dwarf I met early who I accepted a quest from have a thing in common. Anyways, it’s a pretty big country and it’s well defined. Very bureaucratic, also with a lot of manpower, but with a lot of money as well. King Erbaethal Narin is the ruler there. I won’t ever be able to forget his name because almost every damn NPC who wasn’t a simple villager always mentioned it for one reason or another. The game really wanted me to know that Erbaethal Narin was the king of Graypine, great! But I guess one good thing does come out of this, it’s the fact that I do know a thing or two about this NPC character ruler more than any other. This dude is an old man, what a shocker. Inherited a lot of wealth, also, what a shocker! But most of all, this guy really liked building roads. So, I’ve now known that half the roads I saw in Graypines countryside were probably commission by him. Okay, Erbaethal Narin is the absolute ruler. But as I already know there are also a lot of bureaucrats, those are the closest thing to a middle class in that society. Almost every else is a poor commoner, a peasant if you will, and the ones who are the most powerful in combat are also the wealthiest and the most noble blooded in society. My gods, if I wasn’t so well informed in political science and other related stuff, then I would’ve become an enthusiastic communist without a second thought…even for the heck of it.” Down with the aristocracy!” That’s what I would’ve said at least. But yeah, for a video game which is one half a ‘low medieval fantasy’ and on the other half a ‘high fantasy’ (but without sci-fi except a bit of renaissance and steampunk sprinkled here and there for good measure), there’s not much variety that can be done in a feudalistic period world. This actually brings me closer to answering my question, which has slowly been brewing away in the background like a tasty soup should.

The Marchdom of Sonder: Ah, we’re finally here. The northernmost nation in the Overworld, one of the only obstacles in its way are the maze-like everlasting crystal mountains which are probably the borders of the Overworld. And the other obstacle is the fact that it’s a vassal state under the Kingdom of Graypine. Well, it isn’t necessarily a full-on vassal state, or else it would’ve been a dutchy inside of Graypine. Either way, not owning some of your autonomy is generally a pretty bad thing. And it doesn’t seem like half of Sonder is approving their status. On the social side, most people are also commoners and are poor but because there are less people and more resources it’s pretty safe to say that the average NPC here is doing better than the average Graypine peasant, remarkably enough for a small country. Even the Players, while there are plenty of low-level to mid-level Players, there is also a substantial number of elite Players here as well. Mostly because of either the Magical Academy of Sonder (MAS) or the Crystal Mountains I just thought about, since there are all sorts of dungeons available over there. That’s also where I’ve fought the most in the past month. In fact, my surprise PVP duel with RemixHorizon was the first of its kind in a while. Now that I think about it, I haven’t really ever fought a true Player vs Player fight. Players who focus on that content obviously exceed at it compared to the average Player, and these people are usually either ‘regular adventurers’, part of a mercenary faction, in a guild, or joined the armies of preexisting nations. I assume it’s almost guaranteed that my future country will be required to participate in AI involved wars and PVP content, whether it’ll like to or not. Oh, and that brings me to my final thought about the Marchdom of Sonder. Actually, it’s quite possibly the most important thing for be to consider right now and strategize for a solution...as soon as I declare a Player Government west of here, The Marchdom of Sonder will almost certainly stomp on my festival and either completely destroy my attempt or force me to devolve into merely a guild or some form of organization.

The AI nations, as much as their leaders may actually respect and honor us ‘Divine Spirits’, they are also very cautious against us forming together and engulfing their authorities with our awesome powers. So far, the current balance of power has satisfied all of the nations. I know this not from reading an online article or watching a video from the internet. Nor checking out the latest rumors in the community board’s forums (which I do), but instead I heard it from a Celestial Orb back at my old guild. I can’t believe that an ingame radio which doesn’t play underrated songs, is actually very useful in an online video game with AI societies.

I’m also surprised over the fact that the Republic of Adventurers was both recognized officially by the Isilia server’s staff and also by the actual NPCs in this world. A patch after its founding after the first ever Invasion Quest was completed with the slaying of the Ogre King, a bunch of guilds which were involved in that Invasion Quest formed a government right on the spot. And now, I sometimes even see NPCs in text chat casually mention “the new government of Coldpass” or “Republic of Adventurers?”. I didn’t actually believe that the game developers are really this serious about Player Governments, enough to implement them instantly into the game’s lore. And that’s exactly part of the charm with these Player Governments, because Guilds and Organizations created and run by Players might get mentioned by an NPC, but that only happens if the NPC has a direct relationship to those things. Like if they work as a laborer or they offer a quest out to an entire guild. But Player Governments? Those practically make you famous across the Overworld! Nonetheless, I assume because the Republic of Adventurers only controls a small portion of territory and is basically a hub nation for Player guilds, they then pose little threat to other powers. Even the Orchard Hills officially recognizes them, but I get the feeling they treat the Republic of Adventurers a little bit like a pawn. Like how the Kingdom of Graypine treats us here in Sonder. Which is a bit scary if you think about it, that the AI are capable of doing that because someone out there managed to program this in. Makes you wonder how many more wacky surprises the AI could do. And how skillful are the programmers for this game?

There is at least one thing I already know for certain regarding the direction of where I want to take "my" Player Government in, which is not the same way as the Republic of Adventurers. I preferably don't want it to become like an exact copy of that Player Government.

For it to survive it needs to be powerful enough to ward off against Sonder and potentially Visiwend too. But in any case, I will require a lot of Players and maybe even NPCs to make it into reality.

Most of the powerful countries or factions in this game appear to be authoritarian. Visiwend is like a tribal federation with a dictator for a High Chief. Graypine is the basic but effective absolute monarchy with a feudal system for its society and economy. The Free Counties are a bunch of riverland city-states or small counties, I guess you could call them a confederation of sorts. The Holy Lands are a poor small theocracy, but they are very respectable and neutral and are basically protected by the Gods. The Remnants of the Lunar Empire are all sorts of things that I don’t know about, partial anarchy partial dictatorship partially feudal partially revolutionary, etc. Meanwhile Orchard Hills is just tucked away in the corner, either an oligarchy or monarchy, I forget. And Sonder is like a small version of Graypine, I guess, but maybe more unitarian?

If I check off a list…

Theocracy – Nope

Dictatorship – No (nobody would want to join that!)

Commercial City State – Maybe, but only if I were rich. Yet, the areas around Sonder isn’t very rich...

Monarchy – I find the idea of a Player becoming a monarch to be a bit ridiculous, yet that isn’t farfetched. Though I doubt I'm the type of guy who is inspiring enough for a foundation myth and divine right to rule other Players. Only disgusting roleplayers would do something stupid like that!

Republic – I guess so? Maybe that's my only option. But what kind of republic? I haven’t ever been consistent enough with any of my definitions or thoughts over any of these things so far. But I should try to at least be a bit specific with what my Player Government should be.

…

Hold it, “what my Player Government should be” … Hmm.

Am I an idiot? What am I even trying to do? Establish something complex like a ‘socialist democracy’ in Divine Mortality? No way!

If there is one thing that the Republic of Adventurers has done right, in my opinion, is that they’ve early-on realized that they are... normal Players, in a fantasy world full of adventure. I’m not saying that I should follow their path, forming an 'adventurer republic'... whatever that is and how something like that works. But the “whatever that is” , is exactly what I should be theory crafting. A new concept for a government, well fitted for an online world.

I’ve been rambling about in my mind, deep in thought, that this whole time I’ve kept straying away from the original question too much!

Sayooshi got fed up, he thought “enough mind reviewing!” because now it was time for him to properly start researching. He took off his VR headset, which he even forgot he was using. During the time he was lost in thought, he was simply doodling drawings related to all the nations he was thinking about.

He got off his bed and stood up in his room. He stretched a moment before hopping onto his reclining chair next to his desk to use his computer. There he read the Divine Mortality’s Wiki for pages relating to Player Governments and all sorts of relevant information. He also watched recently uploaded videos on the internet and read community posts from people who are citizens of the Republic of Adventurers. He was finally truly researching information in a proper way. By writing down his notes, then examining, and then comparing them with the previous thoughts he just had.

He spent over an hour doing all of this this. A relatively short amount of time but blazing in productivity and focus. Eventually his ideas finally started to click with each other, inside of Sayooshi’s mind. They weren’t pretty ideas, actually rather ugly and messy. But it was something, some genuine substance was to be had.

The first step was taken, and many more will follow.