The Godforged happily served the Imperator of the Flame Legion, Gaheron Baelfire, mutilating themselves to boost the power of their fire magic and zealously willing to sacrifice their lives to hasten his ascent to godhood. These ashen Charr cared not for themselves, but only for their goal of raising up a new fire god to lead their group to its proper place in ascendancy over the other Charr Legions.
So you can imagine their horror when a family of four crashes their hover car into the man they worship, get out, and eat him, thus supplanting him in the sacrificial ritual that ninety nine devout brothers are locked into, feeding their magic and their lives to the empower the divinity of these terrible strangers.
Yeah, it was one of those days for these fire flinging kitty men.
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I was pretty stoked about how my day was going. This is a magically saturated world, so the Oghma Infinium dropped mad knowledge onto me. Even the warriors operated using magic in this world where anyone can become powerful by committing themselves to one of nine archetypes. Well, it is more like the difference between a black belt and an untrained person but just a bit more exaggerated until high tier gear gets involved.
And I had knowledge of all of it.
Sure I'd have to pick an archetype and spend some time crushing fools and questing to be able to access all the nifty skills, specializations, and traits but it wouldn't take too long considering the baseline prowess of my body.
People in this world were not created equal, not even close. Some people were just born with more powerful magic and bodies, enabling them to take on teams and even armies of component adventurers, and we were on the army end of that spectrum.
The various crafting disciplines of this world also had me salivating. With everything here containing its own innate magic, the crafting disciplines created objects of incredible self born power. That meant I could take magic items out of this world and they would still operate as they did before, as the magic is all innate and not something added on after the fact.
It was time to enter into hardware development mode again boys.
All I needed was to run another classic scam and I'd have access to a Legion of minions to gather everything I need for the greater glory of the God Emperor of Krogankind.
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"Why the fuck did you think this would work!" Jack shouted as she chucked a Charr warrior into a fiery crag and we continued our escape from the Citadel of Flame.
"This kind of shit always works!" I shouted as I punched a Flame Legion Shaman till his head spit open and his brains leaked out, "I don't know why they didn't buy that I am Gaheron Baelfire after ascending to godhood!"
"Holy shit!" Jack cursed as she kicked a Charr with two swords in the balls, "You forgot you aren't a giant lizard man anymore."
"No!" I denied reflexively but she was totally right.
My lizard body was shaped in a very similar way to these Charr, just scales and plates instead of fur. I totally could have BSed my way into becoming the Imperator of the Flame Legion if not for this incredibly sexy primate body. Damn my god-like good looks!
"You totally did!" Wanda teased me while she used her new fire magic to toast a pair of Flame Legion Assassins.
I yanked a greatsword out of a warrior's hands and cut him in half at the waist with it.
You may be wondering where my ultra awesome hammer is, and where is Jack's super emo sword. In honor of us once again being in swords and magic setting, I thought it would be cool to have my nanohive bury the family car and all our stuff and cement the area around it so only the nanomachines themselves could dig the area up. This would give us the chance to experience this world the way God intended it rather than fuck everything up with plasma cannons and divine relic weapons.
I probably should have done that once we left the heart of the Citadel of Flame, but I was excited. Sue me.
I quickly dedicated myself to the Guardian archetype and grabbed up a shield, wielding the greatsword in one hand.
"Oh shit boys!" one of the warriors shouted, "He's wielding a greatsword in one hand! Does that mean it's a greatsword or a regular sword?"
"Why not both? I asked as I chained three strikes in a row to activate the Wrathful Sword Wave combo, the last attack coming as three waves of sword light that applied the Might buff for each enemy struck. One of those hit was the chatty Cathy, who clutched the wound on his chest.
"So cool!" he cried out then died.
We would have been homies if I was still a giant lizard man.
I activated the Symbol of Blades ability to teleport to a nearby foe in a flash of blinding light and branded a magic symbol on the ground that radiates damage to enemies inside it and grants the Fury buff to allies. I chained this into the spin to win Whirling Wrath that turned me into a lethal Beyblade and sent arcs of sword light out to wreck nearby enemies.
"Okay. How the hell are you doing all of that!" Jack yelled as she used a Charr's horns as handles to snap his neck.
"I'll teach you later!" I shouted back to her, "Kill now!"
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Killing our way through the Citadel of Flame and across the bridge over a river of lava netted me a lot of advancement as a Guardian, and I had finished leveling my first specialization, Radiance, picking up Right Hand Strength, Radiant Fire, and Amplified Wrath to boost up my swordsmanship, and firepower. One might realize that I do not carry a torch and thus loose utility with the Radiant Fire trait, but worry not. I am a torch.
If I ever get the chance I will plow Suzan Storm then shout flame on and jump out the window while on fire. That should make some people wonder.
I started working on my Virtues specialization next to gain even more striking power through the use of the three virtues Guardians are empowered by, Justice, Resolve, and Courage. I picked up the trait Unscathed Contender, and would later gain Inspiring Virtue and Permeating Wrath to pick up more strike and fire damage respectively.
The trend with all my choices is DAMAGE! I intend to be the most brutal Guardian to ever be, and after I add Zeal to the mix for Fiery Wrath, Zealous Blade, and Symbolic Avenger, I will be.
"We are off to a great start in this world." I said to my companions while thinking about the fire and violence my build will bring to this world.
"How the fuck do you reckon that?" Jack spat as we chilled in a region of the world that is similar to a hellscape. Smoke, ash, fire, and lava everywhere.
"I stole a bunch of bags of holding from those guys." I grinned and emptied a sack full of pouches for everyone to see.
"Thank God for small miracles." Jack shook her head.
After investigating our haul, which was substantial considering the Citadel of Flames hosts the highest members of the Flame Legion, guys in charge of thousands of warriors who are always pushing the fight against… well everyone. The Flame Legion had beef with everyone and took anything they could get their claws on.
After explaining the Archetype system, Jack had me teach her how to be a Warrior because it was time for her reign of terror as the Barbarian Queen. Wanda chose Necromancer cause it sounded real edgy. I played a lot of Necromancer in my time and can confirm. I can also state that a Valk set Reaper can carry a shit team through a lot of the content. Medusa picked Ranger cause she wants to be friends with animals. Powerful pets are dope, just ask the people who make Pokémon.
We all agreed that we wanted to leave the hellscape known as Fireheart Rise as soon as possible, and so we headed west to the Frostgorge Sound, you know, cause it makes perfect sense on Tyria to have a scorching hot constantly volcanically active region right next to the bitter cold frozen mountains.
Either way we traveled through the region dispensing justice to the Flame Legion and their wicked elementals and constructs while hitting all the points of interest indicated on some of the maps we picked up in our new bags of holding.
One might think that as demigods of fire - or is it quasigods now - that the Fireheart Rise would be an ideal location for us, but that would be very wrong. Why the hell would anyone want to live in a region where the very air is a poisonous fume and ever present ash tries to choke the life from you? The only people who would do that are trying too hard to sell the image of a Dark Lord.
If I was the Dark Lord I'd live in a palace by the sea that makes the heroes rethink their life choices cause evil is so cush.