"The Stator Rebellion showed players that their actions have consequences."
"Even a few tests they do for fun could have drastic consequences for the entire player base if they do not have the right justification for it."
"Experts would later think that the majority players' progression in the game was put back months if not years because of this event that forced them to build up trust and relationships with many NPCs before they could advance properly."
"Of course, nobles were the exception as it was a lot harder to find obvious signs of one being a God's Favoured and only access to their territories accounting books may give any indication as the NPCs know that many Gods Favoured needed or wanted to send money to a far off place."
"Either way, it opened many of the player's eyes who began to treat the game much more seriously as, unlike other games."
"In Dynasties Online, your livelihood and prosperity in real life depended on it."
James Larent, creator of Dynasties Online.
….
Time in the game passed quickly, and before Railius realised a whole three months had passed in-game, time had passed nearly half a month in real life. It was near the end of February, and the game was so realistic that Railius had even begun to lose his sense of time. He was surprised when he checked the date on his phone, which was a Samsung, because he did not use it much except for calling people, watching videos, and doing the occasional Google search.
It also helped that it did not cost £700-1000, which is a bit much for Reginald's current budget. So, the cheaper Samsung was used, though once he has exchanged his first set of in-game gold for money, it may become much more feasible to buy one.
The Stator Rebellion had come to a swift end, lasting only a week and a bit in-game, but its echoes reverberated through every player's experience. Unlike Railius and a handful of astute players who managed to keep their identities as God's Favoured under wraps, many were not so fortunate. They found themselves under the watchful eyes of NPCs, their every move scrutinized with a newfound suspicion.
Before the Stator Rebellion, the players who had revealed their identities as God's Favoured were treated very well and got many job opportunities from countries and nobles who wanted to harness their talents. This was especially the case for players who came from commoner or part of the lower and landless nobility as the powerful counts, dukes and representatives of the many countries in the game world aggressively recruited them, something they routinely did with talented people of low birth and just like Railius wanted to gain their loyalty.
This is how quite a few people from commoner backgrounds, both player and NPC, managed to become powerful ministers, as the nobles and other people of power would bring them into the governing body of a nation to expand their faction and influence. Whether that is a king's court or a republic's council, it is a starting point for many commoner families to gain influence and power, and sometimes, after several generations, they may even be accepted by the nobility more than a commoner upstart, especially if they initially attached themselves to an old influential noble house.
It was also not uncommon for a liege lord to take and employ a talented retainer of their vassal, and quite a few were willing to take the chance to claim the social ladder as serving a vice count, or count was usually far better than serving a baron who was likely to only have a small castle or mansion and a few hundred men under his command.
However, once The Kingdom of Oovere released the information it had gathered from The Stator Rebellions participants, the treatment of the players referred to by the NPCs as the Gods Favoured changed dramatically throughout the entire game world.
For many, they turned from people of virtue blessed by the gods to selfish, ambitious people who think only for their own benefit, suffering from the bigotry that many have had to suffer due to their connection to a particular national or ethnic group.
Such a thing is unfortunately natural as, more than anything else in the world, humans trust and judge by their own experiences, and if you had a particularly poor experience or lost someone you care deeply about due to radicals or a particular nation, it would not be unusual for you to hate a specific group or hold misguided views on them.
Countless people have suffered from such injustices, even during World War Two in America; those of Japanese descent living in America found themselves being suppressed in all sorts of rather barbaric ways all because America was at war with Japan, suspecting them and other Japanese who wanted to live in their country peacefully of espionage and using it to take away many of their rights.
This sort of bigotry is where many racists get their attitudes from, assuming that just because a few radicals of a certain group are bad people and want to kill them, then all people of that collective do.
This sort of behaviour, rooted in a human's innate ability for pattern recognition and tribalism, is not the easiest to overcome, especially if you have had more than one bad experience with that group. It will take time for you to open your eyes and see that not everyone is the same.
Just because one person in a group is terrible does not mean everyone in it is bad or was born bad.
As a result, the game forums were chaotic, with many complaining about Stator and his recklessness. The suspicious NPCs discriminated against the players and prevented them from gaining opportunities for advancement.
It would take a while to heal the wounds that Stator inflicted on the NPCs, and even some of the players who had already been hired found themselves on thin ice, constantly watched by their new employers to ensure that they did not have rebellious intentions as Stator did.
Many turned to the game company for help, wanting them to interfere and 'fix' the NPCs. But the game company was mostly silent, saying that because the problem originated with the players, so it was they who had to deal with it and deal with the consequences of their own actions and that of the player base as a whole. The game company had a very hands-off attitude regarding their interference with the game, only interfering or changing things if they felt it was absolutely necessary.
This was especially true when a player's actions had a large-scale impact like this, with the game company wanting to make players take responsibility for their actions, the kryptonite of many, from the most powerful politicians to the pettiest of people.
Responsibility.
This was, of course, if they used legitimate means to do something, and while what Stator did was technically an exploit, it had already been planned and accounted for by the system and so did not need to be fixed.
After all, the results speak for themselves, and the balancing systems initially designed to prevent a sudden increase in the population of a certain area or kingdom came into play to help stop the players from suddenly taking over the NPC nations. Without the strength of a levelling system, these nations would find themselves overrun with new players, who, in theory, could band together and rebel continuously.
In fact, the company even intended to use the event as a warning and lesson for the players, repeatedly emphasising that DO should be treated as another world and not as a typical game or VRMMORPG, hoping that finally, the majority of the player base will actually listen to them this time and not do what many gamers like to do and push a game system to its limits.
The company mainly intervened if bugs were found or hackers tried to hack things, making sure to fix the bug or punish the hackers who, after having been 'rehabilitated' by the Friend System, suddenly decided they never wanted to hack into DO for one reason or another. They became just one of the many villains who posted about their crimes on the DO forums, apologising for their actions while praising the Friend System to high heaven.
This was quite disturbing for the player base, who began to treat the Friend System as the devil incarnate. Even the game operators who monitor the many situations that happen in the game and see some of the worst atrocities committed in the game found what the Friend System did to these hackers in hell to be rather cruel, with some shivering when they thought about it.
Even after tens of thousands of hackers did this, a stubborn few still thought they could outsmart the humanlike supercomputer. But like the rest, they ended up suffering in the depths of hell, one way or another, and forever changed by the experience.
But regardless of anything else the Stator Rebellion made one thing abundantly clear to the players.
They had to be careful of their actions and consider their impact on the NPCs, who each had their own distinct personalities, feelings, and desires. This further emphasises their humanlike nature as if the players rebel too many more times without proper justification, then the NPCs may turn on them for good and decide to systematically exterminate them whenever they are found.
As a result, after barely a week of the servers opening, the attitudes of the player base of DO changed dramatically, and it was all thanks to the Stator Rebellion, an event started on the whim of a streamer that had a profound impact on the game to the point of changing the attitudes of all within it.
Over the last three months in the game, Railius had been training hard with Jordis and Aldorus in an attempt to improve his close combat capabilities, and his months of hard work were finally starting to pay off. He had even upgraded his archery by one rank to the novice rank as the only thing that the young lord could easily train while he was travelling so much was his riding and archery skills, focusing mainly on how to properly handle a horse as now his character's skills began to more appropriately represent his actual abilities rather than being artificially increased by the game system and being nothing more than a set of skills with little to no practical use.
"Good."
Aldorus said as he blocked one of Railius' strikes before counter-attacking his dull blade, hitting Railius' helmet, which clattered to the ground currently, the Pelican Guard Commander had taken charge of Railius' training, teaching both him and Jordis to help pass down some of his vast combat experience.
The young lord was progressing very quickly now that he had actually put his all into something, and his hours of training with the sword were finally starting to show. While he was not as good as an elite soldier, he was far better than a raw recruit as Railius' unique style continued to develop.
There were even a few times when Aldorus was caught off guard by Railius, his eccentric swordsmanship becoming one with his odd ways of thinking that could stump even the greatest minds in the world.
"Let's end it here for today."
Aldorus said, seeing Railius once again drenched in sweat to the point that his clothes became damp and he was breathing heavily. This was a regular occurrence these days as the noble continuously tested his limits. If one looked closely, one would even be able to see muscles developing all over his body and arms alongside a mix of light bruising from being hit during his marital arts lessons.
Not only would this get him used to pain, but being able to have a battle where he was hit would help him to improve rapidly, so it was his opponent, not him getting hit and constantly whacked around like a pinata.
After a few more months of training, it was likely that Railius would see an increase in his physical attributes, the basis of all strength in DO, as there were many examples of people with high attributes defeating opponents above their skill rank relying on their naturally high physical attributes like Norfaelor did though this only really happened below the expert rank as by then you would have enough experience to be able to deal with those with exceptional physical attributes, and so they would start to be less important than someone's rank in a particular skill.
"You're making good progress, my lord, as is the young lady. In a few years, you will be as good as any of the elite soldiers that roam the battlefield."
Alodrus commented on Railius' remarkable progress. They had always known that if their lord could just get over his lethargy and laziness, then he could become great. Sheathing the dulled blade into a sheath before throwing it at a nearby Pelican Protector, who skillfully caught it with one hand, was a member of the currently 100-man group responsible for the personal protection of the lord of Aurellion and his heir. Even when training, they watch over their charge, ensuring that nothing bad happens to him.
Unlike the other Pelican Guards, who mainly listen to the arrangements of the Grand Commander or one of the nine other commanders, these men could only be moved by Railius himself, and even a regent would be unable to order them around if they were unwilling.
Because it was dangerous, Railius never trained with a real sword, only using one to get used to its weight. Usually, if he were sparring like he was with Aldorus, he would use a blunted blade and protective clothing to ensure that while being hit hurt, it would never be fatal. But because there was the ever-present threat of assassination, Aldorus always kept a real sword at his hip, ready to unsheath it and protect his lord at a moment's notice.
Currently, Kaila is busy doing business while learning to defend herself, unlike Railius, who is idle and has little to do. She had to negotiate, take inventory and manage their business, which took up much of the day. She has done remarkably well as manager of Railius' business over the last few months, making solid profits for House Aurellion that would be the foundation of their future expansion as the money they make from being mercenaries or teaching martial arts would not be enough to pay for the Pelican Guards expensive equipment. By now, they had made nearly 10,000 gold in profit. She was even planning to begin building shops throughout Nathia soon, and not once had she done something suspicious and, because she could now realistically afford it, doubled the guards of the caravan from 10 to 20 Pelican Guards as they would be better than most mercenaries that could be found.
Not to mention that they were realistically free apart from their food and other necessities, as the only reason that she does not have 50-odd guards accompanying her convoy is because it would be too suspicious for her to afford it.
Even that Minataur fellow they picked up, Vamak, had behaved himself well though he was still under constant watch. Apart from that, he was treated no differently from anyone else. It had already been established that he had no family living.
Well, not any family that he cared about anyway.
Railius sighed as he went to his room in one of the inns that his family secretly controlled as part of its intelligence network, exhausted after his day of military-like training but knowing that it was for the best; it was just a shame of how long it would take for him to get near the master rank finding out for himself why it was so rare for people to be a master let alone a grandmaster by 25. He didn't even have to pay, just giving a golden pelican made out of melted-down golden coins to the bartender and getting a room and anything else he required.
House Aurellion agents used many of these golden tokens as a kind of proof of identity and a way to get access to whatever resources House Aurellion had in that area. This, alongside a password, helped to secure the intelligence network, but as with anything, there were ways of infiltrating it. Railius currently had ten with him, giving them to the various tavern owners and innkeepers that serve his house as the owners of a network of safe houses that spanned throughout the kingdom over the eight years that House Aurellion has been secretly active in Nathia.
By day, he trained with Aldorus and Jordis in remote areas, while he was looking around and investigating the situation within the various noble territories within the Kingdom of Nathia. He once again read through a letter he got from Leon around two months ago, wanting to confirm for himself if the information was true.
By night, he pondered and read through the information he had collected in his travels while accompanying Kaila on business throughout the kingdom. Having travelled from one side to the other, it would still take another two months to confirm everything he wanted to know. The Kingdom of Nathia was large, and with a caravan like this, it could take as long as one month to get from one side to the other and two weeks by a fast messenger.
Because of these long communication times, it was not surprising that empires and large kingdoms of the ancient world invested people with a large amount of power and autonomy, preferring to make them noble lords sworn to them so that they could deal with territorial matters independently, allowing the royal court and the central government to focus on other things.
Ancient China had powerful border generals and governors who had a significant amount of power. Some even had so much power that they were like kings in the territories they ruled over. Either way, this form of decentralised government was the only sort that would work efficiently in an age where the flow of information was slow and relied more on merchants and other travellers spreading it more than anything else.
But none of this was on Railius' mind currently; instead, he opened a large chest in his room. Inside, it was stacked with documents, each written in his own scrawly hand, as Reginald's handwriting had never been his strong suit.
'What was it that Amulius said?'
Railius thought to himself as he had long been told of the Chavarian war ministers' visit to Leon that had led to Vice Commander Oswan leading 300 more men to join Alodrus and the others even though the vice commanders were not of the master rank, each of those who had survived the crossing to Nathia was near it and at the top of the expert rank in all likelihood in a year or two they too would ascend to the master rank if they fought enough people of the same level.
Now, a team of guards was even posted outside Railius' door 24/7, as it was not uncommon for Railius and his companions to book an entire floor to themselves while the majority of the other secret guards camped outside in small groups so as not to attract attention from the authorities who would ask a lot of questions if 500 well-armed men appeared suddenly from seemingly nowhere.
'That was it. Nathia is likely to fall within the next 50 years and….'
'I have to agree with him on that one.'
Railius thought as he reflected on all he had seen over the last few months.