"The world of DO is large and vast."
"With over 60 nations, all with a past."
"Where logistics decide the outcome of wars."
"Allowing the victor nations power to sour."
"Months it can take to get from one place to another."
"So much so that one cannot help but miss their brothers."
"As differing cultures create a melting pot."
"The flames of war burn forever hot."
James Larant, Creator of Dynasties Online.
….
After linking up with Aldorus, an odd set of system notifications appeared before Railius.
[Congratulations to player Rising Pelican of Loyalty for completing the main quest escape from the Chavarian capital. Rewards will be given at the end of the Dynasty History Event if your dynasty survives.]
[Received new main quest 'Escape From Chavaria']
The system notifications said before a new quest screen opened up in front of the young player detailing the new quest's details.
….
Escape from Chavaria: (Main Quest)
Description: Before being ambushed and killed, your father, Lucius Aurellion, managed to get an emergency evacuation signal back to his family in the capital, prompting them to escape.
To aid in the escape of your house, your forces split into two, and you went to escape with your father's friend Leon Mantalon, the only grandmaster that serves your dynasty.
After a gruelling battle with imperial forces, you were saved by Aldorus, Leon's loyal subordinate and first commander of the Pelican Guards, with only 25 men alongside Leon surviving from the 300 that you originally split with, the rest dying while doing their duty.
This led to you successfully escaping from the capital. However, now you must leave the empire that wants the extinction of your dynasty if you wish to survive.
Quest Clear Conditions: Escape from the Chavarian Empire alive, fleeing to a country that will not extradite you while keeping your true identity secret to prevent them from sending assassins.
Quest Clear Reward: Somewhere safe from your dynasties enemies for you to start in.
Quest Failure Penalty: Destruction of your dynasty or a start fraught with danger.
….
Railius looked at the new quest and saw how important it was to succeed because the thing that a fallen noble house needed was somewhere safe to hide out and build up their strength. Failing this quest would either lead to all his effort being wasted or a much more challenging start where people would be hunting for him from the get-go, which would put him in a lot of danger with the limited resources that would be at his disposal at the start of the game, for he would have an entire empire after his head.
The best thing for his dynasty in the short term was to find somewhere to secretly hideout until it was ready to reveal itself, for right now, it had a child lord who needed somewhere relatively safe to grow up and learn about the world and for the world to forget about them or think they had died out or disappeared as then Railius could build up his resources without having to deal with old enemies.
While thoughts flowed like a river through the young player's head, a final notification caught him by surprise as the world once again swirled, and he found himself in his lobby as the system appeared to have logged him out of the game without any form of explanation.
[Due to how large the Chavarian Empire is, your event will be fast-forwarded to the next crisis point. Please stand by for a bit and discover the virtual world more. The Friend System will tell you when you can return to the event.]
After taking a few seconds to calm himself down, Reginald, who had just been forcefully logged out of the game, decided to confirm his assumptions in an attempt to fully understand the strange events that had just unfolded.
"Friend system, what is going on? I assume this is a way to speed up the event."
Reginald asked into the void of his lobby, knowing that the ever-present friend system could hear him even if it were not directly present.
"Your assumptions would be correct, for the Chavarian Empire is vast, being one of the biggest nations in the world."
"It can take months to get from one side of it to another, so for you to get through your dynasty history events in time for the games, small temporary time skips like this are necessary."
The Friend System said, appearing in front of the young player in his familiar suit in the human form he had created for himself so he could be more than just a computer that appeared out of the wall to the players, hoping to instil a sense of sentience about himself in the humans. But the information that Reginald had just heard made his eyes widen slightly, breaking the calm appearance that the young player always tried to maintain.
'Months? Just how big is the world of Dynasties Online and for it to be so detailed too….'
Reginald thought to himself for the Chavarian Empire was only one of the 60+ nations in Dynasties Online, which would make the world massive! The young player could only imagine how much this would make coordination problematic for the players and their guilds if they had to consider supply lines that could stretch for months.
It may also lead to a much-lowered player count. For who would want to spend hours, maybe even days or weeks, just trying to get from one side of a country in the game to the other?
"Will there be ways to teleport from one place to another?"
Reginald asked, wanting to know if such abilities would drastically affect the game and how it was played.
"Potentially, such marvels are possible with magic. However, no nation has yet wanted to make such an array between their nation and another, for if such a thing were to exist, then it would be possible to teleport armies through it."
The Friend System said with a smile as Reginald quickly saw through the implications that could arise if a hostile army appeared suddenly in a nation's capital.
"Tell me, if you were the king and leader of a nation…."
"Would you want it to be possible for a potential enemy to suddenly teleport an army into your capital?"
There was only one obvious answer that any sane or competent ruler could come up with for that question, which was a big resounding no. No nation, no matter how closely allies with one another, would allow that to be a possibility, as one could easily use it to make a country fall within hours.
"But despite all of its obvious risks and extremely high cost, there have been times when such means have been used."
The friend system said, a sly smile appearing on its face. The words the system said piqued the young player's interest, but unfortunately for him, the ever-secretive system didn't go any further into the topic, only telling him one of the many reasons that the AI kingdoms were likely never to employ such means unless in extraordinary circumstances.
"It also stops factions, which may contain millions of players, from abusing such mechanics to suddenly bring an army of players to take over a kingdom. Instead, this army would have to be fed and likely found out before it could be used, for you should never underestimate the power of AI kingdoms and empires, or you will likely fall victim to their schemes."
"Unlike other games, potential exploits like this in Dynasties Online are already patched and are not easy to find or use."
The friend system said seriously, for players would have to pay a hefty price or get very creative for them to gain such considerable advantages. It was one thing if players gain powerful advantages from a quest or spending years in a game preparing big moves and another for someone to suddenly gather millions of players in a nation's capital to take it over, easily establishing their own country.
Then again, equipping and feeding an army of 1 million men was no easy feat in of itself, as players like NPCs need to eat in-game food for their characters to survive and would need weapons to fight properly unless they were all experts in unarmed combat.
A few players revel in such realistic systems while others curse it for being annoying, but one thing was clear. If anyone wanted to make money off this game, then they would need to adapt to its realism.
Just as Reginald was processing everything that the friend system had said and the many different applications for magic, his attention was snapped abruptly back to the friend system from his mind's rampant thoughts.
"The next crisis point for your dynasty history event has been reached. You may enter the game at your own convenience to continue your dynasties journey."
The Friend system said, disappearing in a flash of light and leading to Reginald immediately entering the game and finding a familiar system notification appear.
[The next crisis point for your 2nd Dynasty history event, 'The Fall of House Aurellion has been reached. Would you like to enter the game?]
[Y/N]
Reginald selected the Y yes option and was transported into the game. Upon entering, he was given the familiar rundown of events that had transpired while he was away like he had whenever he had taken a break from the game previously, if ever only short, becoming more familiar with the Dynasty History System.
[Three weeks have passed since your noble house, House Aurellion, has been declared traitors by the emperor of the Chavarian Empire.]
[By now, all landed noble houses within the empire have been informed of your alleged treason, becoming hostile to your dynasty.]
[The 'Landed Martial House' Inheritable Dynasty trait had been replaced with the 'Fallen Martial House' Inheritable Dynasty trait]
[Your regent and mother, Thorilsia Caskarm, has been killed and replaced by the Grand Commander of the Pelican Guards, Leon Mantalon, with no objections, allowing for a smooth transition of power.]
[You are currently in the Duchy of Plantarion, a rich duchy with rich farmlands and forests on the border between the Chavarian Empire, The United Beastmen States and the Iravian Confederacy, which was formerly part of the Kingdom of Nadron before its conquest by Chavaria. ]
[You and those loyal to your house who survived the escape from the capital are travelling in a low-profile manner as all tabards and insignias of the house have been removed to make them look more like a mercenary group rather than the remnants of a noble house, having previously used the chaos in the empire to seemingly disappear.]
After reading through the system notifications, Reginald's attention went towards his new surroundings, where giant-like trees stood shooting up into the night sky, which crackled with thunder; the leaves which sprouted from their bark branches created a makeshift canopy over the Aurellion camp, helping to stem the tide of rain that fell from the heavens.
Exiting his tent, which was bigger and more luxurious than the rest that dotted around the wooded camp, Railius felt a droplet of water fall onto his head, soaking into the locks of his brown hair and looked up to see clear drops of water falling from the green leaves.
Wanting to know more about what was going on and the moves his men were planning to take, the 10-year-old boy began walking towards the command tent, a tent as large and opulent as his own.
As he passed patrolling Pelican Guards, each knight loyal to his house bowed to their lord respectfully, who was the last of his line alive that they knew about. As Railius approached the command tent, he could hear the commanders and vice commanders of his Pelican Guards debating their loud discussions, cutting through the rain and sounds of nature that surrounded them.
"Grand Commander, we should make for the border of the Beastmen United States and from there travel to Nathia."
Vice commander Nathos said one of the few men who had set out from the imperial capital and survived the battle with the imperial guard, a small scar on the side of his head remained as a stark reminder of his loyalty to House Aurellion which was received while protecting Railius from the emperor's loyal swords.
"By now, the borders will be reinforced and alert as the emperor has long told the empire of our alleged treason. We should hide out and wait for the storm to blow over, and in about half a year, they should have lowered their guard enough for us to get through."
Another vice commander said this was Myrdin, an elf and Aldorus' right-hand man, a cautious man who had lived a long life of 100 years so far who came in the service of House Aurellion after Lucius had freed him and his family from slavery and has been serving them loyally ever since.
It is unknown why he was so far away from his homeland, but his ice-blue eyes and snow-white skin showed his heritage from the most northeastern lands where summer lasts but a month and a half of the year snow falls, covering the land in its icy cold embrace the cold winds killing many crops and plants.
Peeking into the tent through its front flap, he could see five men standing around a table looking at a map, each man in deep thought as they tried to find the best route to escape from.
"Do we even have 6 months to wait? Our supplies won't last that long, and sooner or later, it will be suspicious if we keep buying large amounts of food for no reason, as we don't have the manpower to challenge any powerful nobles in the field."
The final vice commander said this man was smaller than the rest, standing just taller than a dwarf, but anyone who underestimated this halfling was in for a rude awakening. He was also stationed with Aldorus and had accompanied him to save Railius and Leon from the imperial forces. A skilled scout and bowman, in the entire empire only Archtorius was known to have the ability to best him in his skills at tracking and staying hidden, his small size allowing him to blend seamlessly with the environment.
While Chavaria was an empire dominated by humans, plenty of other species were within its borders. For while many preferred to keep to their own kind, there were still plenty of people who went out to see the world as even countries have been made by multiple races using their unique skills together to build powerful and long-lasting nations.
The Kingdom of Nathia, where Leon wanted to evacuate to, is one of these nations with over 2000 years of history, but the only known way of getting to it from the empire without the help of the Iraviens, who could fly and their confederacy was through a small mountain pass that would be impossible to break through.
The discussion between the vice commanders was cut short when Leon banged his sword against the table. His eyes were closed as if the man in his mid-forties was meditating. Relaxing himself with a deep breath, and just when Railius was about to sneak away, his regent's soft voice echoed through the tent into his ears, making the small boy halt.
"My lord, why do you skulk in the shadows? If you want to take part in the discussions we have, you have but to ask."