Fantasy Online

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AxisLight
Posts: 23
Joined: Tue Mar 19, 2013 3:33 pm

Fantasy Online

Post by AxisLight »

NOTE: While I will be continuing on my own story path, I highly recommend, if this inspires you at least, to use the openness of the universe to write your own stories based in the same universe. I've never been one for RP, but I have always loved the idea of creating a universe that inspires people to write their own stories set int he same universe! Like a sandbox universe.

Also, BEWARE, this is a rough, mostly unedited version, so forgive my grammar.

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Fantasy Online

A world where dreams not only come true, they define everything.
Fragment One; Creation

Fantasy Online, a world where everyone dreams together or at least that’s how my friends describe the game. They were all first in line to get this, but I was left without a copy for months, and had to sit back and listen to all of them about how it is sooooo amazing. I guess that’s what I get for not pre-ordering, eh? Well, here I am, finally with my copy, ready to load it up and “start dreaming” as the company who developed the game, Rise Corp, says. But perhaps I’m moving too fast, let me break down the game for those who have never heard of it.

In Fantasy Online(usually referred to as simply ‘FO’) a player makes their own unique avatar that will represent them within the game world, and while most games lets you have many characters, FO only allows you to have one. This is mostly to blame why none of my friends have allowed me to play on their accounts yet, but I digress. Rise Corp says they chose this as a ‘feature’ to make a player character feel more personal, and alive. Back to the topic at hand, a player uses this virtual avatar to travel through the many “Dreams” as they call them, to go on quests, fight enemies, and even just socialize.

FO uses a unique ‘Dream’ system that allows any and all players to purchase, or even rent server space, and what they do with this space is of their own will. They can turn it into a personal home, a giant arena, or make an open field for other players to come quest and fight in. While to make an entirely unique area a player will have to have some skill in programming, however basic level areas come with a free world editor program. Using this, players can alter terrain, fauna, or even take from a pool of resources made by rise corps devs and players a like to create their own area. This allows pro’s and noobs to create their own “Dreams”.

While creating areas, a player can even input NPC’s, and choose from a list of premade quests to assign to that very same NPC. Inserting a quest to a NPC will also allow you to select spawn for monsters or objects related to the quest, allowing you to virtually create your own personal questing area. While most pre made objects and quests are made by the actual game developers, some are made by players. If an object or quest is made by a player, that player has the option to either make it an open item, where anyone can download it and use it in their area, or a for sell item, which is when a player will have to buy it with in game currency (Cor) to be able to use it.

A player can also set the area they made to private or open. Private areas are places only the creator and friends of the creator are allowed to enter. These are normally home instances and just small hang out areas or even personal leveling areas so a player can level up and get stronger in his own domain. Open areas are places anyone is allowed to go to at any time, and are usually very large areas involving a lot of quests, and are more like fields in other MMO’s.

However, I have strayed from the topic of characters a bit. I suppose I should say a little bit about leveling and skills in this game. Every character, once made, starts out at Level 1, with basic gear and items. Characters also have 5 skill slots, which can be used to level up player skills to make a player stronger. These 5 skills can be anything from swords, to shields, to daggers, and to armor, they basically define what the character will use in combat. As a player level ups, he/she will get basic Health and other stat upgrades, but certain skills can give bonus parameters when leveled up(Skills level up by repeated use) a small example might be that a high shield skill will give a bonus to the Endurance parameter. These 5 slots are made only for skills created by Rise Corp, and do not include the one Auxiliary skill slot. This special slot allows player to use a single player made skill type.

Player made skills are an entirely different matter from objects or quests, or monsters, or areas. While all of those can be bought, or even given out freely after creation. Skills have to be approved and tested by rise corp, which can often take up to six months. Also, once chosen by Rise, a skill cannot just be selected form a list like the others, it has to be obtained, not by questing or becoming stronger, it has to be given as gift from the creator of the skill itself. Because of the skill and time it takes to create a custom skill, it’s apparently rare to see anyone with such a skill, or so I’ve heard, and even rarer to see a person who has obtained one of these as a gift. I imagine my character won’t be getting anything like that ever.

Well, in the time it took me to explain all of that, the installation and updating of the game has completed. I am finally ready to play Fantasy Online, where dreams not only come true, they define everything. I snort out a small laugh at myself, thinking of how ever dramatic I get about games, and this one in particular. The character creation boots up and without even a start screen I am forced to begin the creation of my character.

First choice, Male or Female. Despite the lust in me wanting to see what the female models are like, I know that if I get stuck with a female avatar for life, the insults will be endless. I reluctantly chose male and continue to choose option after option.

While most character creations bombard you with sliders and color wheels that almost make it impossible to create a good looking character, which, in the end won’t matter because it’s likely no one will ever pay attention to your face, FO actually gave me a series of questions, like body type, facial structure, hair style, hair color, among other things. As I answered one by one the model to the right of the questions slowly updated, slowly adding more and more detail.

I heard a rumor that for each answer to each question, there are hundreds of options that could come from it, and the game choose one out of all those at random just for you. Of course, most of these are player created as well (Once a player is in game, if they have the skill they can recreate their character from scratch using self-made resources only). Once I was done answering the flurry of questions, the end result was actually to my liking, considering all the body parts were effectively random(besides the little input I gave with my answers).

My character model stood at a tall 5”10’ and had broad shoulders, but his waste was thin, creating an almost hour glass shape you might expect from female characters. His arms and legs had medium sized muscles but the texture was really quite toned and strong looking, and his neck was slightly longer than average with a head that was rounded but had strong features out lining it with bright green eyes and dark, almost brown but more blonde hair that curled down to the bottom of his neck,, it appeared almost wild and out of control but I personally liked it. Truth be told he looked somewhat similar to my real life appearance, except he had better muscles then I did, by far.

Next comes clothing choices. Again, tons of player made ones. After scrolling through page after page of shirts, jackets, shoes, and pants, along with some accessories, my finally product was on I couldn’t help but be proud of. With three small rings in his left eye brow, a dark brown trench coat that went to his knees, armor plated gauntlets and boots that were a shiny silver color, a black shirt with a red smiley face with a stitched smile, and dark black pants, I could describe him as no less then badass.

For name, I went with my usual alias, “Axis Light” and clicked “Start Dreaming” which I assumed meant to start playing. I was presented with a list of “Dreams” to join, but I was looking for one in particular. A dream a few friends of mine pitched in to buy, one they all had power over and could all edit. Since this was an old Rise Corp account I’ve had forever, and am already on their friends list, I should be able to join the dream any time. Eventually, after a careful search I found the right dream and joined it. While the screen was loading I took the time to put on my VR goggles, which plugged into my neural usb in the back of my head (Hey, it’s 2030, everyone has one.), then came my heads and mic, and then came my controller.

As I entered, the slowly began looking at my surroundings, but was drawn to what was directly ahead of me. It was night, and a million stars shined behind one gigantic full moon that lit up the area and bathed me and my area in its light. The grass I stood in was a deep, and dark red that flowed softly in the breeze and climbed a gently sloping hill that led up to a tree covered in purple flowers that silhouetted in the moon light. The tree bark wrapped and warped into unimaginable shapes, and all the same, it looks beautiful.

Under the tree stood four dark figures, who all slowly stepped into the light so that I could see them. The first, all the way to the right wore long green robes that covered his entire body, lined with yellow trim all around. His face was that of a cat, and his fur and was a dark orange, while a long tail wrapped nearly three times around his waist, this was Regi, the smartest of our group, to his left a female figure. She wore a purple hoody and blue jeans. He pants were lined with armor plates, and her boots were spiked, it looks like getting kicked by one of those would leave a pretty big gash. He face was gentle and Asian, with long dark flowing hair. She was Sylvi, a girl we had met a long time ago, who just stuck.

Next to her was a tall knightly looking fellow in all gleaming silver armor, with a giant axe strapped to his back. With his face and hair colored I could see no more, other than that he was a leviathan in size, and looked like he could squash me with a single strike. He had a leader type aura about him, and I knew instantly who he was, it was Ty, the “leader” of our group. Next to him, the final member of this little party, another girl. Her top was a simply plate bra, with plate shoulder pads held on by leather straps that formed and ‘X’ across her chest and back. He arms were beat, and to her side she had a blade strapped. Below that, she had a skirt that hung down to her knees, and just like me, her hand and feet were covered in metal armor. She was Alice, the person I cared about more than anyone else in the world.

As they stepped closer I was able to examine them, and see their in game names, which they would surely prefer to be called by form her on in. Regi was Altlas, Sylvi was Varis, Ty chose the name Altimore, and Alice, well she just chose Alice. No one knew why that was her name in game, but it always has been. These were my friends, the people I’ve spent years with, and here we all are, ready to finally play this fantasy together.
Fragment Two; Teachings part 1

As the group approached me, a small white window, what appeared to me some form of menu, appeared before Atlas. He quickly manipulated the options and soon the moon fell quickly, and just as quickly was replaced with a large bright sun that lit up the whole area around me. It was a plain with rolling hill after rolling hill, and to my left was what looked like a small village with four houses, a well, a chapel, and what might have been a few stores. To my right was a not so dense forest with trees that had blue leaves and dark shadows moving within them. The sky was a bright orange and the sun itself was white, everything here was beautiful.

Altimore approached me and put his hand on my shoulder, “Welcome to Fantasy Online Axis!” with his other hand he lifted his helmet to show a strong face, which I laughed at considering in real life he was actually kind of chubby. He could sense this I suppose, as what he did next was slap me upside the head.

“Alti, why you gotta be so mean?” I spoke in a joking tone, clearly irritating him.

“It’s ALITMORE. Axis No Light.” He responded with anger in his tone.

“Whatever you say Alti.” I laughed and turned to the others.

“Atlas, I see you’ve had time to play with the area editor.” I spoke directly to the feline character in front of me.

“Yes well I have had months without you to build this place. Actually, this area has gone through six transformations since we bought it.” He played his part well, his tone and posture reminded me of a scholar or scientist.

Alice chimed in, “Axis, you should have seen him when he first got his hands on the editor. Even though we all paid for the area, and all have edit privileges, he forbid us from touching his ‘artwork’ calling this area his masterpiece.”

I laughed at the cat figure as he momentarily lost his posture and looked irritatingly at Alice. She only smiled and blew a kiss at him, an act she was famous for in our group.


Varis stepped in, with a serious look she said, “We should hurry up. If we want to get him ready and see the finals we need to get going.”

Alitmore spoke, “She’s right. Alice, you and Atlas teach him the basics. Varis and I will go ahead and buy our tickets. Sound good?”

Alice smiled, “Yeah alright, here my cut. I’ll pay for Axis too.” Both Varis and Alice began manipulating the menus in front of them; I assumed they were sending Cor to Altimore. He was going to buy tickets for the arena, to see the final match for who the next champion will be. I had heard them talk about it a lot, and if I remember correctly the current champion is someone named Truth. I had never actually seen a fight, because there is almost no footage online of this game. This is mostly due to the fact that because you have to use special goggles to for visuals, it’s harder to record. I was almost excited to see a real fight.

Atlas motioned towards me, “Come on, I’m going to teach you about stores and NPC’s while Alice gets set up in the forest.” With a simple smile and a wave Alice was already headed down hill to the area with all the trees. I followed Atlas close behind him.

“Wow, this area is pretty huge. How much did you pay for it?”

He smirked, “About five hundred USD.”

My jaw dropped, “Are you kidding me?!”

He smiled and threw his hands in the air, “nope! This is actually the most expensive area size. You can get areas for about twenty USD that are only big enough for a single house though. Compared to that, this area can hold three small villages, three large field areas, four dungeons, and one large city. Where we’re headed is the first village we made. It’s our base of operations really. If you head north you’ll find the city, and west of that is the second village, along with a second field. This field and that field both contain one dungeon. The final field area and village are still being built, and we are planning on more dungeons.”

I was astonished, “Wow, you four have done all this? That’s amazing!’

He sighed, “Well, it’s not so hard. We mostly get our resources from the resource pool, and a few things I make personally. There are areas that are the same size, but have been dedicated to being just one gigantic futuristic city. Those are the really amazing areas. I’ll show you a few some time.”

I was amazed at how big this game could be, I had no idea! We were reaching the village and when we got the center, where the well was, Atlas pointed to a small flat area with nothing in it, “once I have the time, that’s where your house will go.”

“I get a house?” I replied surprised.

“Yupp! We all do. I’ll show you around later, after the fight.”


“Aright, sounds good… So what are we doing here?”

He motioned me to and NPC standing outside the chapel, I walked up and looked at him wondering what he wanted me to do.

“Do like this.” He took his middle finger and index finger on his left hands and moved them up wards in a horizontal stroke. This summoned a white window. I did the same, and a small menu appeared before me with tons of options, ranging from Gear, to Stats, to Interaction.

Atlas continued, “In the bottom right there should be a little check box that says ‘spectate mode’. Check that.” I did as he asked, and he moved closer to me inspecting my window.

“Alright, now I can see your menu. To interact with NPCs touch the interact button when near one, if you wish to talk to the NPC, which will give you quests and advice, press “Converse” and if you wish to buy items, which will be greyed out on NPC’s that are not merchants, press “Barter. This is a quest NPC only so get her quest and then we’ll get you geared.

I did as he asked, and when I pressed Converse the NPC lips started to move and a gentle feminine voice came out, “Please help me! Monsters have stolen all of my food and ran into the woods!” The menu changed, and gave me the option to accept or refuse this quest. I pressed the green accept button and she continued, “They ran off in that direction, please get my food back!” she pointed to the forest full of trees with blue leafs.

“Alright, that is how you accept quests; turning in quests will be basically the same thing. Let’s head over to the shop and get you geared, but first, what skills are you going to use?”

“I… Huh, I hadn’t thought about it yet.”

“Well, there’s no reason to rush and chose all five right off the back. Just choose A weapon type, and maybe a special skill or two.”

‘Alright…” I opened the menu and pressed the ‘Skills” button. The box expanded and I was presented with six grey circles, each with a plus in the center, except for the final circle that had the word ‘Aux’ instead of a plus.

“Those five with pluses are your main skills, and the ‘Aux’ one is your Auxiliary skill. None of us even have one of those yet.”

I mostly ignored him, to enthralled by all the skills I could choose. I pressed the first circle and was presented with a choice of skill types. They were Weapon, Craft, Special, and Mobility.

“Weapons are you basic fighting styles like swords and shields. Craft is what people use to make custom objects so you can just ignore that. Special are mostly Misc. stuff like taming or scanning, and mobility is for easier movement across large areas. However, some areas forbid you form using your mobility skill. You should pick a weapon, special, and mobility skill for now.”

I selected weapon and began scrolling through the long list of weapon types. Tomahawks, long swords, great axes, bow and arrows, pistols, rifles, energy swords, daggers, basically any weapon you could possibly imagine. I scrolled until I found one that sounded interesting, “Particle Saber”. I pressed on that and in front of me millions of tiny blue lights forms and came together forming the shape of a bright line of light that slowly lost brightness and eventually solidified into a sword. It had a black metallic handle that I know held, and even though the blade was made of a bright blue light, as I touched it, the light slowly faded and it became a transparent, almost glass dual edged sword.

“ahh.. You chose the Particle Saber. That are your starting weapon. Don’t worry about how it looks, we’re about to go buy you some better gear anyways. Try sheathing it. Any way you like, back, sides, whatever.”

I put it over my back in a diagonal angle and a brown leather strap appeared over my chest. The sword was now held in place by a sheath on my back.

“FO Has a smart sheath feature that lets you put your weapons away any way you like. There are even some people with special tattoos that people pull their weapons out of. When you take them out the sheath will be reset and disappear, so if you decide you want them on your sides, you can do that at any time.”

I pulled the sword and tried this out, he was right; I could sheath it literally anywhere on my body. It was really pretty awesome. I gave the sword a few good swings and decided I really liked how it felt. I moved on to choose my next skill.

This time I pressed the “Special” skill option. These were things like Perception, Acrobatics, Taming, Shield less Blocking, just all kinds of things. Some of them didn’t even really make sense. I kept scrolling until one in specific caught my eye, “Energy Burst”. I selected that one and unlike with the swords, nothing appeared in front of me.

“What did you select?” Came from the cat man next to me.

“uhhh… Energy Burst.”

“Oh! That’s a fun one. Alright, let me show you how this works.” He walked towards a small pile of crates and stacked them on top of each other.

“Alright, put all your focus onto the top crate, and draw your swords.” I did as he said and entered into my own battle stance, with my sword in front of me, handle down and blade up with my leg spread and both hands on the weapon.

“Alright. For this skill you need to focus. Put all your focus onto this one crate and the game will target it. A red diamond should appear above it.”

He was right. After about five seconds of focusing on the crates they were targeted and a red diamond appeared on top of them. I spoke, “okay, their locked.”

“Now, Energy burst is a skill that uses your weapon to send out a gust of energy, and do long range damage with a melee weapon. The damage done will only be a fragment that of your weapons and skills attack power, but once you level the skill up, the attack will become more powerful. To use the skill, take a position like you are about to swing your sword, and hold it for five seconds. Your blade will begin to glow, and the skill will begin to charge. Once you feel it at full charge, swing, if you swing to early the attack won’t have much power but it is a good a distraction, and a good long range attack, albeit somewhat weak.”

I took position, and held. He was right, after a moment the blade began to glow, and I could feel the energy rising. It was like heat coming from the blade, the hotter it got, the stronger the blast. I held it for as long as I could, and then swung the sword with all of my strength, and a giant gust of blue energy went flying towards the crate and then Boom! The all but exploded into a million pieces!

“Wow! That was awesome! Can I do that whenever I want?!”

“yes, but remember, five seconds is a long time in battle, more than enough time to for someone at close range to kill you. So use it sparingly and smartly, or that very skill will be your death, and, remember it only does fifty percent damage at full charge. “

“Alright… So what’s next? Mobility?”

“Yupp. Go ahead and pick one, I’ll tell you how to activate it shortly.”

Just like the other lists, there were near hundreds of options, flight, super speed, super jump, even teleportation. I eventually settled on ‘Winged Flight”.

“Alright, I chose one.”

‘Okay, to active mobility, do this.” He took his index and middle finger on his right hand, held them out straight, and swung them, quickly, to his right until he was holding them out to his right side. Immediately his feet began to give off sparks, and before I knew it he was gone. I felt a tap on my shoulder rand I turned around but there was no one there. I turned back around and there he was.

“W-what is that one?!”

“I chose super speed. Isn’t it great? Show me yours!”

I did the same action as he did, and a great Swoooosh sound came from my back. Two giant white wings unfolded from my back and I was hovering above the ground. I focused, and began flying up, and turning, and practiced landing. It was great; I could actually feel the wind on my face. Eventually I landed in front of atlas and asked, “So, what do you think?”

He just shook his head and said, “Figures, you’d choose the same thing as Alice.

I laughed but he continued in front of me, pulling me towards a shop NPC, “Go ahead and but some better gear with this.” A small window appeared in front of me that said, ‘Atlas has given you 1,500 Cor!’ I thanked him and bought a few pieces of armor (Which did not change my appearance to my relief. Wouldn’t want to lose my coat.), and a new Particle Saber. This one was a cloudy grey color with a black handle, and the curved spikes on one side of the blade made for tearing an opponent to shreds.

“Alright, do you remember the way the NPC pointed you to?”

“yeah… Why?”

“That’s where Alice went. I’m going to meet up with the other two at the arena while she teaches you more about combat and your first quest. See you in a while.”

And with that, and a bright swirling light around him, he was gone. I sighed and activated my wings. As I thought to me self, “I really am going to love this game.” I headed towards the forest, ready to be alone with Alice.
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