Name: Rain
Prestige: Champion
Lineage: [Chaos]
Bloodline: [Primordial]
Nature: [Chaotic Will], [Unhinged], [Fated Chaos]
Talents: [Uncertain Existence], [Fickle Strength]
Relics: [Glorious Pebble], [Ideal Protection], [Fate Shard], [Ego's Brace]
"None of this makes any sense."
No matter how many times he stares at what looks like his personal summary, that's how he feels. For starters, his Lineage...Chaos. It's his understanding that every Lineage is supposed to derive from one of the gods associated with the otherworldly realm of Asphodel. However, Chaos is not the name of one of the seven known gods. Does that mean his patron deity isn't Fate or Death like he thought, but an entirely unknown one?
The next anomaly is his Bloodline. He's absolutely certain that he's aware of all the Bloodline rankings, and that Primordial isn't one of them. What does it mean? Where does it fall between Paragon and God in terms of potency?
His Nature is a little weird, but not crazy. Nature is a just a collection of attributes related to a Marked's Lineage, which have some kind of unnatural influence over their life. There's always at least one negative attribute, called a Quirk, but there can also be positive attributes. Normally, a person only has one or two, but having three isn't unheard of.
Finally, there's his Talents, or godly powers...while the rest of his summary is confusing, that part is just plain unbelievable. When Marked grow stronger walking the path of Ascension, they unlock a single new Talent each time they raise their Prestige, starting with the transition to Champion. In other words, Rain should have gained one Talent, but he clearly has two.
'I mean...I won't complain about having two talents. Actually, this trial was way more dangerous than it was supposed to be, so maybe it's like a bonus from the Echo for doing so well?'
Somehow, Rain doesn't quite buy that explanation. Still, no matter how many times he looks at his summary, the runes don't change. This is his situation, so it's probably a waste of time bemoaning how strange it is. There are plenty of flashing attributes...it's best to just see if the descriptions provide him with answers. He activates the runes for his Lineage attribute, Chaos, and the black rock's runes rearrange themselves.
Chaos
Death looked upon Chaos, and he asked forlornly, "Chaos, why do you loathe me so?". Chaos cast his gaze upon Death, his eyes darkening as existence itself seemed to stall under the weight of his disdain. "Because," said Chaos, "without life there can be no choice, and where Death reigns, there is no life. Therefore, Death is as untenable to Chaos as water is to fire." Confused by his harsh response, Fate inquired of Chaos, "If you loathe that which is against your nature, Chaos, then why do you cherish me so? Is Fate not that which constrains Chaos the most?" Chaos smiled at Fate, and the fabric of reality seemed to ripple with its fervor. "Not at all," said Chaos, "Death is the end of all things, within which Chaos cannot exist. Yet, Fate is what gives Chaos meaning...bounds. It cannot be appreciated unless one first knows the burden of Fate. Thus, Chaos needs Fate, as Creation needs Destruction, and I love you as they do."
As he reads and re-reads the lengthy description, Rain's head spins from the implications. At the same time, he can't help but roll his eyes.
'What kind of flowery prose is this...whoever wrote it sounds like a pretentious prick...'
That aside, the passage seems to tell a story about Chaos, capitalized, as though it's an entity talking to the gods Fate and Death. The tone of the conversation suggests that Chaos is powerful, and has a very familiar relationship with the two gods...like Chaos is also one. More interestingly, though, the passage seems to reference Creation and Destruction as if they are living entities as well. Yet, like Chaos, Rain has never heard of them. Are they all three unknown gods?
'That's...way above my pay grade. Maybe I can ask other Marked when I return to the normal realm...I'm sure most of them are more informed about this stuff than I am.'
Rain returns to his summary from before, then pulls up the description for his Bloodline attribute, Primordial.
Resonance: 54 / 10,000
Blood Rite: Chaos Blade (Dormant)
"Okay...so there's the resonance thing that the Echo has been mentioning..."
Inspecting the Resonance attribute, Rain grows more convinced that it's some progress bar for strengthening his connection to Chaos and unlocking the full potential of their Lineage. Also, if it's done by absorbing Egos from Fel, and he already has 54...
Working through the Fel that he killed in the Labyrinth, Rain comes to a conclusion about how his Resonance was calculated.
"So, Egos from Fallen and Harbinger Egos gave me two and four Resonance points, respectively. In that case, since I wasn't even a Champion at the time, maybe absorbing an Ego gives me one point if the Fel is at the same Prestige as me, and it doubles for each level above me?"
In addition, it doesn't seem like he got any Resonance points from the Curse he slayed, and he didn't find an Ego in its corpse. Since that's the only kill that gave him a Relic, it's safe to assume that he can only get one or the other. If so, that's another solid piece of evidence that Relics are created from Egos of comparable Prestige. In that case, four of the seven known dead gods' Egos are accounted for among the God Relics of the world. It's curious...
The other part of his Bloodline description, though...he's never heard of a Blood Rite. His is labeled as dormant, and there's no description available. Rain lets out a defeated sigh.
'Just another thing I'll have to bother someone else about...'
Next, he goes back and checks the descriptions for each of his Nature attributes, Chaotic Will, Unhinged, and Fated Chaos.
Chaotic Will
Your being cannot be controlled or understood. You are immune to others perceiving, manipulating, or predicting your thoughts, actions, or circumstance.
Unhinged
As a being of true chaos, sometimes your thoughts and actions are beyond even your own control. You are prone to acting on strong desires or impulses.
Fated Chaos
As the only entity truly free from the strings of Fate, you are also the most intrigued by them. You are inexplicably drawn to people and events with great relevance to Fate.
Rain purses his lips thoughtfully as he considers his three attributes. Unhinged is clearly his Quirk, and it seems like it makes him unable to suppress any strong urges. That sounds...problematic. If he gets mad and has an intrusive thought about strangling someone, will he be forced to do it? That doesn't seem like something he wants to test out – best to just work on keeping his emotions in check. The thought makes Rain apprehensive.
'I've never been particularly good at keeping my emotions in check...'
As for Chaotic Will, that's nothing short of a blessing. It sounds like he's basically immune to all manner of psychic abilities, like having his mind controlled, his future predicted, or his attributes revealed. Given all the weird stuff in his summary, that's probably for the best.
Finally, there's Fated Chaos. That one is a little confusing to him, but his first impression is that he'll tend to find himself in really important situations, good or bad. That certainly sounds like a headache that he'd rather not have, but it's not a second Quirk either.
Confident he understands his Nature, Rain allows himself a small smile. It's finally time to learn about his favorite part of the summary...his Talents. He eagerly pulls up their descriptions.
Uncertain Existence
As long as Ichor is available, you can shed the corporeal properties of your body, allowing you to pass unharmed through anything you desire. However, attacks that deal damage directly to your soul can still affect you.
Fickle Strength
When activated, your body and any Relics bound to your soul have a chance of briefly jumping to a higher Prestige for the duration of any strike. Talent does not consume Ichor.
'Huh...alright, so the first one means that I can basically become nigh-invulnerable temporarily by using Ichor. That could be pretty useful, depending on how much Ichor it consumes to keep activated.'
Rain doesn't have any real experience with Ichor expenditure yet. He can sense it inside him, and he could feel it drain slightly when he summoned Relics, and replenish slightly when he dismissed them. But he didn't have any active control over it during the trial. That's something he'll have to experiment with back in the mortal realm. The second Talent, however...
'If I'm understanding this second one correctly...while it's active, anytime I'm about to strike something, there's a chance that my body and Relics will temporarily ascend to a higher Prestige without consuming Ichor. A whole Prestige level is an absolutely tyrannical leap in strength. But if it's truly random...that's going to be hard to rely on in battle, especially if it's infrequent.'
Rain sighs dejectedly. Assuming he's deduced everything correctly, Chaos is kind of...nuts. Pretty much everything that the patron deity has given him has come at some inventively absurd cost. Honestly, the only two things he's seen that seem like plain blessings are Chaotic Will and Uncertain Existence. However, he wouldn't be surprised if those have some kind of hidden drawback, too...it'd fit with everything else so far.
Putting aside his distrust for the enigmatic deity, he turns his attention to the final unknown on his summary – Ego's Brace. It's the new Relic he got when he killed the Curse. Rain runs his hands over the rune-covered stone, selecting the summary for the Relic, then looks at its attributes.
Item: [Ego's Brace]
Prestige: Demigod
Type: Charm
Effects: [Soul Guard]
Ego's Brace
Chaos found a Demigod of Fate in Nether, without his mortal body. Chaos looked upon him and asked, "Why is your soul laid bare before the ravage of Nether, begging to Fall at Death's hand?" "My soul was separated from my mortal vessel against my will, my soul made more beholden to Death without my choice." the Demigod replied. Chaos smiled sadly and said, "There is indeed no thing more terrible." and Chaos granted the Demigod a charm to protect his soul in Nether.
Soul Guard
Your Ego is heavily fortified by the charm, granting you high resistance to soul damage, and immunity to Falling.
Rain reads the mysterious passage carefully, with a perplexed expression. Nether is something he's vaguely familiar with. In Asphodel, there are supposedly access points to other realms. Stable, artificially designed ones that humans can use are called Bridges, while unstable ones like those that bring the Fel directly to Earth are called Rifts. Bridges have been found and colonized in Asphodel that connect to the mortal realm – Earth. Bridges to several other realms that contain ruins of ancient civilizations have also been found, and each seems to be associated with one of the seven dead gods.
Some Bridges have runes referencing their connection to a realm called Nether, the domain of Death, but nobody has accessed them and returned alive. It's believed that Nether is the original source of the Fel, via Rifts forming between it and all the different realms. That's led to speculation that Death is indirectly responsible for Earth's current peril, hence Death's poor reputation.
There are a couple of other elements about this Relic's description that don't make much sense to Rain, though. Specifically, the reference to Falling, capitalized. Based on the effect description, it seems like it might be some sort of special phenomenon, like soul damage. He's never heard of it though. It seems like it's intrinsically connected to Nether, so is it also connected to the Fel? Is Falling, whatever it is, the reason nobody has ever explored Nether and lived to tell about it? Every single Relic and experience Rain has encounted in the short span of his Trial has raised ground-breaking questions...
'Chaos...just what exactly are you getting me mixed up in...'