In the original lore of the Isekai-inspired immersive game of Worldcraft the term 'the Old World', sometimes rephrased as 'the Ancient World' or translated as such from foreign tongues, is a direct reference to an era dating back roughly four thousand years in the history of the in-game world of Hammeth - and although this planet is but a flat plate, it's diameter is a grand total of one and a half million kilometers, a vast expanse of land divided into six continents ruled by champions of legend each. During this era existed no lords, no greater dragons, no heroes nor any rogues for that matter. It were times in Hammeth's history were the inhabitants of this world were far — far inferior to those that exist in the current era. Believed to have been born into creation without cause well over six thousand years prior to the modern age. An almost unbelievable thought since later existed lords of almost all kinds - vampire lords and demon lords are but a few of many. Many species fell not behind except for humans, the likes of which were trampled under the feet of others as serpents, down at the very bottom of the food chain. Humanity, as stubborn as it ever was, survived the collision with nature through the summoning of otherworlders those being the playable characters, whom for some unknown reason had near limitless potential allowing them to grow into heroes - though some wandered away from that path and became rogues in its stead. When all interest is directed into the roles of power, a clear distinction can be made by the titles the otherworlders are able to achieve and the titles the forces native to Hammeth can achieve. It were likely the case that nature intervened when needed and restricted the possible. The first rule should be that no otherworlder nor any dragon can ever achieve the title of lord regardless of the power they have accumulated. For otherworlders exist only the titles of 'hero' and 'rogue' which are achieved after level one hundred (lvl 100) - dragons however can only achieve the title of 'greater dragon' once they surpas the requirement of eight fully upgraded skills out of as many as they may have, regardless of their levels - although such a feat is difficult to see through without an abundance to experience which makes it unlikely to spot an underleveled greater dragons, although possible. For all other species, the requirements for the title of 'lord' were rather simple but extreme - at the very least twenty skills in stock, four of which are fully upgraded and lastly a level surpassing ninety-five (95). Despite the spine-breaking conditions placed on acquiring these titles there still existed six demon lords, three vampire lords, a single insect lord, five greater dragons, another lonesome slime lord, two rogues, nine heroes and yet another alone-standing fairy lord in the game's lore, of course not counting the millions of players as either heroes or rogues. What about the humans native to Hammeth, you ask? Well their kind was mostly unfortunate, unlike virtually every other species the humans have limited potential, although not without cause. People of Hammeth believe in the Law of Nature, a force equivalent to evolution of the species which dictates the food chain and seems to turn away from hierarchical systems. Before the Law of Nature could intervene in the events of the sudden emergence of the lords and all, humanity survived through their use of summoning magic which they used to summon the otherworlders, possessing of that 'infinite potential' spoken of earlier. Though this is the believe of all, if not most, the hero Thomas Grainsworth - claiming to be native of a foreign land by the name of America, believes otherwise. For him, the Law of Nature is far too intelligent and powerful to be seen as simple evolution, an invisible force no different than gravity or magnetism. Through the use of his 'appraisal' skill he saw that all creatures had no level cap as even animals as simple as dogs had lvl ***/??? written on their information screens, which explained the reasoning for something as insignificant as an insect becoming a lord. However for the human race the information screen shows **/85 - meaning it is not possible for the humans to evolve beyond level eighty-five. Thomas' studies showed that those restrictions were placed only on humans from Hammeth as he himself and all other summoned ones, whom were all humans, have the three question marks, thus meaning unknown or infinite potential. He deduced it to be the cause of something similar to a study of his original world: 'powerscaling', a real world term introduced into the game as a method of making the in-game heroes truly seem as if they were from the real world, which states that summoners are scaled directly to the capabilities of their summons over their own. The humans from Hammeth already summoned the heroes whom were relatively equal in power to the lords, which meant equalizing them to the power of the lords would only make them vastly stronger. This explanation was Thomas' argument for the Law of Nature's vast intelligence. The Law also had power to spare in order to grant all beings unlimited potential other than the fact it has influence even in other worlds, the argument being that the humans not from Hammeth already had unlimited potential and if they hadn't the humans, be they from Hammeth or not, would likely have been able to become lords as well. Thomas believes thus that the Law of Nature is an all-powerful being whom simply wants equality of all species and thus equalizes them accordingly. As sound as the argument may seem it was denied by the masses as they claimed they would know if a god existed and they had never before worshiped it. As to be expected, Thomas is reluctant to say the very least, however he was enlightened by the question of a royal wiseman: 'If the Law of Nature is alive as you say, why did it suddenly introduce the concept of lords and greater dragons into the world? Were all beings not equally limited before?'. This question made Thomas believes that there was likely a cause, as all effects are demanding of one, that forced the change in the species and rather the Law of Nature only corrected this change. But to prove his argument to be valid he had ventured the continents and dug up a long lost forgotten history of a world not his own. With that, the main plot of the game was explained in the most miniscule details to the players before their first in-game tutorial match which was also part of the game's overall lore.
The Milltown, a small backwater village across the grass fields northwest of the Ozmen kingdom that financially survived through the brewing of mead and the fermentation of sweet wines. Not since the great war, an event which drew its conclusion well over six centuries ago, had they seen firsthand the terror of a demon lord, albeit a new one. A slim-waisted demon, greyish skin and preying teeth, brutally attacked the villagers in an attempt to draw out the heroes of the Ozmen kingdom. His lack of proper thought had him act impulsively and destroy the village, killing all except for one - a young girl, blonde waist-long hair with emerald green eyes. An though she was mildly injured, the girl was in great pain at the loss of her beloved family whom she loved so dearly. As luck would have it however, the hero Thomas Grainsworth, silently walked the demon toward, standing in-between the hellspawn and the innocent girl, likely still in her early teens - a near perfect set-up for the following tutorial match. The 'appraisal' skill active, revealed the demon to be Balar, a level ninety-six grey demon. Balar showed no sliver of guilt for the numerous murders he commited moments before and explained in a rant that which he wanted: to face the heroes and kill them, becoming stronger faster as it got increasingly more difficult to level up the higher an individual's levels were and kill the already well-established demon lords thereafter. Thomas simply laughed as a response to Balar's naivety before he encouraged the grey demon to activate his 'appraisal' skill. Before long Balar was bewildered into a state of speechlessness as he read the following:
*Titles: hero, perfect warrior, war-god, sword saint, world cutter, man cleaver —
*Level - 989
*Skills: blunt force resistance, temporal resistance, void resistance, magic immunity, heat immunity, cold resistance, weariness immunity, poison resistance, death resistance, plague resistance, radiation resistance, pain immunity, psychic resistance, stab resistance, slash immunity, old age immunity....
Thomas explained he acquired the skill 'Baldr', named after a Norse god immune to all forms of harm, which grants him resistances to all phenomena he is exposed to and passively increases them the longer he is exposed to that phenomena until it evolves into an 'immunity' type skill. He also explains briefly that the reason the demon lords and heroes no longer level up is only partially because of the fact that the required experience is far more thus making the process much longer, but that the only true opponents were themselves and that all well-established demon lords and heroes neared levels fluctuating between nine hundred and one thousand. The result of a simple one-on-one duel could put all of Hammeth at risk, which was the true reason the war ended.
[See...if you were smarter and hadn't massacred all of these innocent people I would have let you return to the continent of Bhuiggh'dri..but alas..]
[W-wait!! No please..I beg y—]
The demon was hacked into pieces before the words could be completed, a death as cruel as those he brought the villagers - keep in mind this was an in-game lore cinematic and not the actual gameplay. Thomas returned his sword to his scabbard thereafter and slowly approached the young girl as not to intimidate her. He handed her a vial, filled with a blood-red liquid and sealed of with a leather skin pressed into place by a wooden cork. He handed her the vial gently as he lowered himself to his knees. The young girl was at first reluctant to accept the potion from a complete stranger, never before had she met a hero nor seen any trustworthy images of them other than some exaggerated depictions.
[I mean you know harm.. it's a healing potion, see? Although I would appreciate it if you drank it with a little bit more haste. My friend Akimitsu Ryukyu is a greater alchemist, you see? If he saw me using such a high grade potion so early on my travels on such minor wounds he would kill me]
The girl is persuaded into consuming the potion by Thomas, but still appalled by the one-sided duel she witnessed, uncertain of the actions that took place. From warriors of such scale she expected a battle of epic proportions and was, although grateful, greatly disappointed.
[How did you...do that?] she inquired of Thomas, her words spoken underneath her breath.
[Well...of all twenty-eight higher powers I am likely the third in rank in terms of speed. I am so fast in my actions.....effect comes before cause to those whom lack keen sight]
Appalled by an answer that differentiated man not from god, but in fact molded the two in one, the girl adapted a glare of confusion.
[You should head toward the castle, explain the situation. The king is likely to make amends]
With that Thomas left for his journey across the continents unable to experience weariness. The girl, her bottom seated on the mudded floors she she left them, still bewildered at a glimpse of true power.
[W-wait please! Hero, sir! How do I become as strong as you!?]
[As powerful as me, éh? Well I won't say it's impossible..I suppose your best option is to become a summoner]
His last words as he faded behind the crests of the hills ahead, beyond the horizon into the unknown. The girl was left touched at the heart, determined to become a summoner whom will inevitably summon the players into the game. The game's design left much to be desired from the development team for the larger portions of players outside of its story. Most notably was of course that all playable characters were human which led to the creation of inhuman mods by the players with either the same or vastly different attack animations, the result of which would be the game developers shutting down all of Worldcraft's servers just five years after its launch. If so...than explain why...
The in-game storyline established by the game developers was not a forced option the players had to take, rather they were confronted by the choice to either follow the main continuity or not. A display of diversity as some players choose the safest option and continued with the game's original storyline as heroes whilst other embarked the path of the rogue. Revealed later on by the game's system was that players that choose the option of hero were unable to divert from the main storyline and similarly to their counterparts, the rogues for that matter, they too could not partake in the main stotyline missions. This caused somewhat of an uproar, thereafter solved by the players themselves. Four max level rogue-class players globally announced via Worldcraft's chats that they would come together as a strikeforce posing themselves as the ultimate boss for rogue players to defeat, gifting the rogue players a purpose in doing so. The four of them created the narrative of being monstrous villains and acted as such by being the very first of Worldcraft's players to download inhuman mods. The first of these players donned a rather unique name, Beliander Ma'aat. Her avatar was a small feminine figure, doll-like with a pallet of greyish-brown skin, messy waist-long blonde hair and pure black eyes complimenting her avatar's golden irises. Her avatar's race was a forsaken walking puppet with the ability to create marionettes modeled after other players that could be maneuvered by will through a web of strings and wires connected to her fingers. Her marionettes were stored within her personal inventory and could be accessed at anytime, a feature that made her one of Worldcraft's best at pvp combat as she could choose a marionette depending on the opponent's class in order to have the upperhand at all times. The second player was her boyfriend who joined her in the game as a rogue and adapted the modded avatar of Raijah, a large preying mantis of an anthropoid design with bladed claws and ragged spikes sprouting from certain parts of its body cloaked in a black mantle. The mod as an insectoid gave him additional functions perfect for the role of assassin. Third of the original clique was Bhaiputl with the mod of a gnome although with the class of a witchdoctor whose face was hidden away behind the veil of a mask made from a ram's skull. His skin was a swamp's green in color with numerous white hand-drawn markings across the body and a staff on which position a three-eyed crow. He was by far the best debuffer in the game. Lastly was Jaddafine, a small pixie only several inches in size. She summoned a four-armed tree golem, an archer, that destroyed enemies from far away in a bombardment of arrows fired in repetition. In time players grew to love the idea, however defeated the four of them rather often if they advanced in large parties consisting of high level players. The urge for wanting the unoriginal quest to continue in the players was strong however, thus they joined the four and established a large and powerful guild, becoming a fearsome boss in the game. In order to join the guild however the players had to meet two requirements set by the four original members, a level higher than eight hundred and an inhuman avatar to keep to the monstrous image. Much later the guild was in turmoil with its own members stepping own their toes during battles. With the number of rogue players the guild had accumulated it became increasingly more difficult to assign each member with a proper role or to think of newer tactics. That was when they had posted yet another notice in Worldcraft's chats for an urgent need of a tactician. I applied, and although I was underleveled at only level four-hundred, I was allowed to join as the thirty-sixth member of the Ashethborne guild seen as I would rarely succour in battle, the Rat King: Ekeroth. My avatar was an anthropoid elderly white rat, as to be expected from the name, with a long, white and well-kept beard dressed in a king's attire with a large red fur over the shoulders and although I wore no crown, I had several golden rings on my fingers - or on that of my avatar at the very least. Although I was not one of the guild's original members I was treated as such along with all other members and was trusted not only with effectively distributing the players and thinking of effective battle strategies but also the high grade items the guild acquired which I safely stored in my inventory. I was tasked with effectively maneuvering these throughout the players who could best make use of them. All in all it was a well thought out execution. The hero players simply followed the game's story whilst the rogue players created parties, leveled up and took on the Ashethborne guild. This changed in later years however as many other rogue players tried to replicate our method, starting of with various mods which inevitably led to the game's end as I had mentioned. But even so...why am I here? I found myself in a forest of unnaturally towering trees, vines, grasses, bushes and pillars of light, likely from the moon, piercing though the crowns of the trees above me. Although it was stunning, it was an experience that left me appalled at the fact that it was real and that I was in the body of a person utterly unbeknownst to me. A young boy of pale skin, blonde hair and eyes the sky's blue, likely of European descend - I imagined at the time I, within the body I inhabited, hadn't even a double-digit age.
Where in the world was I and how did I suddenly get there!?hey