(Hiatus)Rise and Fall

Year 2025 seven of March

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Ten hours later.Rise and Fall the game of my dreams had finally downloaded on my computer.I smiled finally an mmo were rather than just aimlessly grinding you could achieve a goal. I still felt a bit guilty about the amount of money I spent and the amount of time I was planning to invest away from my university.I looked at the time it was ten o clock at the morning and I should be going to university. But I have waited far too long to start playing this game and what is the harm of not going to uni for once anyways.I clicked the launch button and the starting screen appeared i wrote in my user id and password.From there I just needed to make a character. Normally you would first need to choose a server but this game decided on one world wide server without realms quite an ambitious project if I say so myself .I clicked the button to create my character first I need to choose my class.They were many traditional choices such as a warrior,wizard, priest and so on.I choose a wizard.Then I need to pick my race i ended up using a human. After that I took a picture of myself and i allowed the software to make something which looked close to me.Of course it changed my body from someone at an alright weight which doesn't exercise to someone who does.Plus it fixed many minor aesthetic deformities normal humans have such as zits,minor irregularities, patches with more hair and so on. Finally I needed to choose a name I wrote down Sophocles Androktonos

After that I directly joined the game and spawned In the main city of my region Constantinople.

Immediately my regional chat was spammed with a mix of Turkish, Serbian, Bulgarian ,Greek Croatian and English all of the messages had a common sentiment to try their best to recruit members for their faction.But i ignored the chat for now and instead took a look at my stats.

Name Sophocles Androktonos

Title:None

Race Human(Ordinary)

Gender Male

Class Wizard(No School Chosen)

Lvl 1

Health (There is no health in the traditional sense the system is semi realistic were getting hit in the vitals means death)

Mana 80/80

Equipment: Civilian clothing sandals

Money:0 Mithril, 0 platinum, 0 gold,1 silver,0 copper (The average food cost for a day is 10 copper)

Inventory two days rations ten pieces of parchment an inkstick and a quill

Stats

(Note an average person has a score of ten)

Agility 8 (As a wizard you spent a high amount of time inside reading and experimenting as such your reactions have grown slow)

Toughness 8 (As a wizard you spent a high amount of time inside reading and experimenting as such your body has grown frail and it is easier for a foe to subdue you)

Strength 8 (As a wizard you spent a high amount of time inside reading and experimenting as such your body has grown weak and is hard for you to finish task connected with raw physical strength)

Charisma Lowborn 7 (You tend to speak in complex terms making the common folks unable to understand you .They might even detest you for your privileged upbringing and assume you are just acting pretentiously)

Charisma Merchant 10 (While closing deals doesn't happen often in your life. You are an eloquent speaker with some bartering experience.Thanks to the constant need for expensive research materials )

Charisma High Born 13 (The eloquent way you speak and the knowledge you hold tend to impress nobles and other high born personnel making it easier for you to be hired as an advisor or be given a fief)

Wisdom Common Sense 8 (Living in a bubble surrounded by riches have made you insulated from basic knowledge.As such it will be harder for you to find common goods and you also lack basic knowledge about commoners traditions )

Wisdom Academic Non Magical 12 (You have a vast array of knowledge in different fields. From which flowers can be used for a medicinal solution, to general knowledge about historical battles to the orbits of different stars and even some more practical skill such as how to make a farm produce the maximum amount of produce)

Wisdom Magical 13 (While you have vast magical knowledge in comparison to the average joe you have only scratched the surface of the world of Arcana)

Magical ability 12 (While not as naturally talented as a sorcerer your series of experiments and the average amount of talent you possess have allowed you to slowly improve your abilities at the point were you can sense mana and cast some basic spells)

Spells:

Minor telekinesis(Able to lift objects weighting up to a half a kilo and move them around at your will) Costs 5 mana per second per object,

Elemental sphere (You can concentrate either water,fire,earth or air to form an elemental sphere and then hurl it towards an opponent) costs 20 mana per sphere.

System Evaluation ( A little hatchling taking his first steps in the world)

After checking through my stats. I skimmed through the chat and soon the four main factions in the region became apparent. Specifically the Slavs, Bulgars ,Byzantines and finally Ottomans with each of them having their main ethnic groups supporting them.With the ottomans being made up mostly of Sunni Turks.Slavs being mostly made up of Slavs and the Bulgars you guessed it being mostly made up of Bulgarians.The weird exception was the Byzantines. While it was still mostly made up from Greeks it had the most foreigners by far. With most of them being Byzantine fan boys.As such the Byzantines were the most international faction and as a proud Byzantine fan boy myself I choose them unhesitatingly.

Ding congratulations to player for picking a faction. Now giving him the title Byzantine Recruit. Changing relationships with other factions Ottomans Hostile,Bulgars Peace,Slavs alliance.Your first quest line has been started called report in and join the fight for Byzantium .You must report to the headquarters to finish your first quest .Awards for completing the quest will be given depending on which branch of the government structure the users joins.

After that a green arrow pointed me towards the North eastern part of the city. As i walked there i soon saw a magnificent looking building complex made out of red and white bricks.The complex looked more like a castle than a government hub. With four strong walls made in the style of the Theodosian walls and with four guard towers situated in the corners. In front of me was a large gate house with a raised steel gate. With each of its sides adorned with a large banner a red one with with a golden one headed eagle looking east holding a scepter symbolizing state authority and another golden banner with a black one headed eagle looking west holding a cross symbolizing church authority.The gate was filled with crowds of players going in and out. Inside the court yard were eleven buildings. With ten of them being equally split half east and half west. With the last building a keep standing alone in the middle imposingly.The keep had a giant golden cross hanging above its gate the main material used in its construction was the same old Theodosian Brick. Through that gate lays the site were the upper echelons decide the future.

Each of the ten side buildings represented an organization of the government. With the east having The Cataphract recruitment center ,The Varangian recruitment center ,The Imperial Army recruitment center which contained the four sub choices the Scholai, the Exkoubitoi,The Arithmos and The Hikanatoi regiments , The Naval recruitment center and finally the Magos General association recruitment center.On west there was The Orthodox Priesthood recruitment center,The Scholars general association recruitment center with different sub schools such as philosophy or engineering ,The Order of the Dragon recruitment center,The Craftsmen General association recruitment center with sub guilds for the different craftsmen and finally the Merchant Registry.I soon made my decision and joined the Magos General association.First it was an association as such I expected less strict rules and secondly I am a wizard i don't really have any other choice in the matter.