1 The Artifact
In the near future-
The world is no longer the simple human world we once had. Of course, in reality the world was never simple, but now, it is infinitely more complicated. How is it more complicated? Well to explain the future I have to tell you about the past...
Have you ever heard of the 'Flood'?
You know the biblical catastrophe…
Yeah, that happened, but there is so much more to that story, which coincidentally was mostly wiped out except for one source.
So, how is this relevant?
Just this, all the races of mankind share a common ancestor, but anyone that has gone to Sunday School knows this. What most people don't know is that there used to be so much more diversity to humankind than there is now. For instance the Alfari, known by most as elves. The Dvergr, the surly Dwarves of fantasy. The Jotunn, the enigmatic giants, and even the Asgardians and Vanir, they all really existed and many more.
In that first Age of Mankind they were known as the Patriarchs, but after the Fallen's arrival they began separating their families by tribe. Once segregated they established small kingdoms, and to organize their efforts and to try and prevent skirmishes a Council of the Races was created. However, the Fallen from heaven quickly corrupted the Council with promises of forbidden magics, knowledge of science, and in the span of two-hundred years humanity leapt from the Stone Age to a technological and magical Golden Age.
Some rejected the Fallen and the temptation of their magic and science, but not enough.
It was truly an Age of Wonders, but also, it became an Age of Violence.
By the time the Fallen began openly manipulating the Races, they were too blinded by their own greed to see that they were being manipulated against each other into waging wars on a scale never before seen. Those who weren't killed by the wars soon succumbed to the rampant lawlessness while millions more died by famine or pestilence. Amid the turmoil, the Fallen began bio-engineering new hybrid-Races able to reproduce at astonishing rates, based on human and animal mixtures combined with their own supernatural genetics, and forced together with magic and science with only one goal in mind. Fight their way into the Garden of the Creator and seize the fruit from the Tree of Life. In the end, war consumed everything and everyone until a Great Cataclysm was prophesied to wipe out everything.
The Council of the Races then switched priorities and threw all of their newly acquired knowledge of science and magic into creating a way to escape. No one knew if they ever achieved their goal…
A little over a hundred years ago a discovery was made under the Sphinx in Egypt. A hidden room, and very soon afterwards the authorities were called. An investigation was completed, and coincidentally the archaeology team was assassinated soon after. The room was once again hidden, and ever since then only one government agency has ever seen or had access to the room and the 'Artifact' inside. That is, until someone somehow leaked the 'Artifact's' blueprints to several newspapers, science magazines, and conspiracy newsletters.
The blueprints of a science-fiction 'Gateway' combined with a D&D fantasy 'Portal' possibly built by aliens with many panels covered in complex hieroglyphics, runes, and a strange sanskrit that matched no known language on earth that seemed eerily familiar. It was a pandora's box. The Agency disappeared into the ether while subtly insinuating that the 'Artifact' was nothing but a hoax, urban myth, and conspiracy. However, to some scientists the 'Artifact' became an intriguing topic of what if, and brought together mathematicians, physicists, astronomers, linguists, archeologists, and even scientists of far less repute. When no one could figure out how to make it work, it quickly lost its popularity and became a topic of scorn and condemned as an impossible puzzle and a waste of time.
It wasn't until years later a young D&D game master researching for a campaign for his club came across his fathers notes and schematics of the 'Artifact'. Seeing an opportunity, he decided to create a new computer based D&D RPG centered around the 'Artifact' as a portal to another realm, but then, for the first time in more than four thousand years...something happened!
The game was called 'Dimension', or so it was when I was alpha testing it…
——(!)——
More than 50 years previous -
December 12, 1989 - Midgard Time
I still remember that fateful day so many years ago, waiting for my IBM 80/486 to load and the DOS prompt to appear. I sat there in eager anticipation and soon was typing 'Dimension.exe' in the command prompt. While the game was loading I went and poured myself some coffee and ordered a pizza from Pizza Hut. When I returned, there it was, the login screen!
A magical rune-inscribed gateway to another world on a simple black background and the title of the game over head...
Dimension…
Mousing over, I double clicked the 'Gate' and was presented with my first major decisions. My new character creation…
With great diligence I made my selections...
What Dimension would you like to visit? There were five options available, all of which were question marks. The sixth option was (Random). Making notes I described the error for my report. Returning to the game, and since I had no idea what the question marked locations might be I chose (Random).
What Sex would you like to be? There were only two options; (Male) or (Female), so of course I chose (Male).
Your Race will depend on your Dimension. Would you like to choose your Race? Oddly, again, there were over a thousand question marks for this answer, but only two choices were highlighted that I could choose from, (Human) or (Random). After making more notes on the errors, I continued and chose (Random).
With a deep sense of disappointment I pressed (Enter) to continue.
From this point on you may choose a Class and Profession. However upon choosing the (Random) option, there is a slight chance that a Class can be upgraded to an elite class or have an added Sub-class. The same is true for Professions. Would you like to choose your Class and Professions?
Selecting the option to choose my profession, I was immediately moved to the next page and presented thousands of question marks for selection options. With a sigh, I made more notes and then selected the return to the previous page icon. Given the opportunity to possibly be upgraded, I like this option better anyway, and selected (Random).
What would you like to name your Avatar, or have a name randomly generated? This one took me a little while to think about, but in the end I typed in (Viridian).
Once my character choices were made, it was with great expectation that I hit the (Launch) button. The computer CPU fan revved up, the runes and hieroglyphs began to glow and dance across the surface of the Gate, and when the runes stopped moving a swirling rainbow of color filled the space inside the Gate…
Then everything went black… *fn-A1
——(!)——
Bauda bum…
Bauda bum…
It felt like I didn't have eyes to open anymore, but at the same time I was aware that wherever I was, it was completely dark. I felt warm too, not too hot and not too cold. The most uncomfortable thing however was that even though I couldn't see anyone, I felt pressed in on from all sides.
Bauda bum…
Bauda bum…
I could hear, almost feel a constant low drum beat. It never stopped. It was always present. Sometimes it would race really fast, but most of the time it was steady. It sounded so familiar I knew I should know it, but for the life of me I couldn't remember.
Bauda bum..Bauda bum..Bauda bum…
The drum beat was racing so hard! I was starting to feel a little worried that it was going to break. All of a sudden I was being propelled forward. To where I didn't know. Everything was still completely pitch-black, but I was definitely moving forward even with the incredible press of other bodies all around me. I was moving at a crazy speed, flying somewhere so fast I was beginning to panic about the impact when I finally arrived wherever it was I was going. Suddenly, the press of bodies all around me was gone. I was flying free. The black void, that was all I was able to see until it lightened to a dark burgundy only momentarily and then everything was black again.
I flew for what seemed like hours with nothing to see but darkness. I felt like I was on an airplane ride from hell. There was nothing to do, nothing to see, just darkness and waiting. I lost track of time, wherever this was it had no meaning here.
Some indeterminable amount of time passed, and then the first change in my surroundings was smell. I didn't notice it at first, but when I did I recognized it immediately. It smelled like fresh snow on a cold winter day, it smelled like freshly baked sugar cookies, licorice and lavender, and it smelled like spring rain, and so on instinct I turned towards the source of such a fragrant aroma.
How long I flew, I had no idea, it could have been forever or seconds, but I had nowhere else to go so I figured I might as well keep going towards whatever smelled so good. At some point the next change was that I started hearing music. A wonderful almost celestial sound that invitgerated and rejuvenated me. In a surge of energy I flew faster than ever. Wherever I was going, whatever smelled and sounded so good, I was headed towards it as fast as I could fly.
The darkness spread out before me in an unending vastness, and then, finally, there was a tiny pinprick of light. As time passed the pinprick steadily grew larger and I sighed in relief. Finally, I was finding my way out!
The pinprick grew into a small glowing ball of light, and as I flew closer the smell that I had smelled, and the music I had been hearing for so long were getting stronger and louder. In a frenzied panic to finally arrive at this new...destination…I sped up!
Before me loomed a giant blue planet!
Excited, I didn't slow down. Instead I was a hurtling meteor flying at supersonic speeds when I hit the atmosphere!
I was burning up…
It felt like my body was burning away…
There was so much resistance, whatever transportation I was in, it was coming apart…
It burned up and just as I broke through the atmosphere I was ejected from the vehicle to continue plummeting to the surface…
There was a vast glowing blue sky. I had no idea where I was going, but wherever it was I travelling there very very quickly. I was sure this was a planet. However, as I flew through the endless blue sky I hadn't seen the ground yet. Then, a giant purple sphere appeared in front of me. It wasn't a big deal at first, but as I got closer I could tell it wasn't a planet. I didn't know what it was but at the speed I was traveling, when I hit I was going to go 'Splat!' Had I a voice I would have been screaming in terror! When I hit the giant purple planet, instead of splattering across the surface, I punched into it like it was jello!
I had time to laugh that I was still alive, and then the world exploded…
——(!)——
Nine months later-
September 5, 1990 - Midgard Time
Pressure…
Intense pressure woke me up. I felt so confined, and then squeezing. I was being pushed…somewhere, and then the darkness suddenly became a brilliant blinding light. I was so warm before, I hadn't even realized, and now it was so cold!
When my eyes cleared...the first thing I saw was a humongous glowing white breast. I was suckling the softest, the warmest, the tastiest nipple ever!
Cutting my eyes to look up, I broke away from suckling to look up in awe at the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. Her skin glowed faintly white like the moon. She had a sharp jaw, a plump bee-stung mouth, a small turned up nose, long pointed ears, and eyes that were black orbs as vast and unending as the universe and filled with tiny filaments of light like stars and galaxies.
"Hello my wonderful little boy," She purred in a soft musical voice, "Welcome to the world my son, you are a child of love and commitment. The son of Summerset Vale, and I am your mother, Glenna Moonlilly, a priestess of the Moon Goddess Seline. And you my beautiful boy, with such beautiful vibrant green eyes, I name you Viridian… Viridian Vale." *fn-A2
'What the hell?' I thought to myself. I just experienced conception! Not only that, but I also remember my entire previous life. All twenty-three years. My previous childhood, my mother, growing up without a father, school, being a nondescript teenager in middle-school, and a D&D nerd in high-school.
Actually now that I think about it, I died a virgin. I died, right?
Because here I am...reborn...
Looking into my new mother's starry black orbs, I understood every word she said. However, when I tried to answer her, all that happened was that I turned back to her lovely soft breast and sucked until I fell to sleep… *fn- A3
