Jim stepped into his new, digital existence, unable to move. He attempted to look around and view the world he’d been transported to, but the muscles in his neck, back, or any other body part that could rotate refused to acknowledge his existence. Instead, Jim was forced to look down into a rippling pool of water. A vague reflection of a face manifested before him, but Jim was unable to make out any details. After a second of focussing on the reflection, a somewhat-intrusive user interface transitioned from clear to opaque.
At the top of his vision, just before details faded into the periphery, the words “Character Creation” appeared. In the centre of his view, blocking the view of his face, Jim was instructed that he would first need to select his bloodline.
The instructions intuitively disappeared when Jim finished reading the text, and the rippling puddle before him became clearer. The sunken face of a frail, old man looked back at Jim, shocking him. Jim found it difficult to reconcile the appearance of the 66-year-old in front of him with how he remembered his 46-year-old bathroom mirror reflection. Before he could study himself in detail, the user interface appeared again. This time, the text details the benefits of being a pure-blooded human.
Jim read the limited description of the human race selection but did not choose to read on. He instead focussed his gaze upon his reflection, which had been shoved to the side of his vision when the user interface had blocked it. He found so few recognisable features there. His cheeks were gaunt and hollow; something his love of food had never allowed him to see on himself before. His complexion was much paler than usual and looked so lifeless and grey that the much thinner and much greyer hair he hadn’t expected barely warranted mentioning. No, the only familiar thing he saw on that face were his eyes. It wasn’t that he recognised himself in the eyes before him, but rather he recognised his father. As lost as Jim felt in the world right now, it felt good to have that fleeting connection with his dad.
Jim blinked away the thoughts and shook his head, finding that his neck muscles had begun to respond. The image of the pure human option flowed downstream to the left.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
A slightly brutish, and healthier looking, version of himself stared back at him next.
Jim shook away this option and decided to view the options before getting bogged down in the details.
The unique blood magic of the Ogre bloodline intrigued Jim, but it seemed counterintuitive to select a unique magic type when he would also receive reduced intelligence to use such magic. He continued looking and found, in total, 12 different options he could take. There seemed to be two races for each of six, key attributes: Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intellect, Wisdom, and Charisma. Spread throughout these races were also a variety of magical affinities, though many of the different species seemed to be limited in what magic they could wield thus turning Jim off those species. The most mystifying of the differences was the social groups that each race used. Jim read several of the bloodlines’ deeper descriptions but was unable to determine what difference this modifier would have on his gameplay. From what little he could find, Jim wanted to avoid being a ‘Solitary’ or ‘Pariah,’ however.
Jim eventually settled upon a Reptilian bloodline. Many of his reasons were gameplay related – he’d be able to choose different magic types; he’d be able to function within a society, and he’d been attracted to the premise of “ancient, terrible power.” However, his ultimate reason behind his selection was vanity. He thought that the faint scales beneath his skin and, especially, on his prominent cheekbones, looked the least bad on a 66-year-old man. He looked forward to seeing how he could change his appearance and possibly remedy his aging features.
James selected the oldest species’ bloodline with a thought.
“I will.”
All Race Selections – Readers may skip this.
