Hey readers! So, what is up with this? Isn't this like, the second part of the fic that I've just posted (as of writing this) the very first chapter? What is going on? Well, what is going on is that I have adult ADHD, and the Ritalin Goblins have crept into my mind and scrambled things around. Or some such.
Basically, I was laying wide awake the other night, thinking about this story, and started thinking about all the writing I'd have to do to reach the point where this fic covers the material based on events from the Overlord Canon. As I did so, I could feel my motivation to write the first part just evaporating away. So I ended up deciding "to hell with it!", and started writing the second part. Once I get enough of this out my system, I'll go back to writing the first part. I know it's an unusual way to write out a story, and it could very well be a mistake on my part, but hey, this is just a Fic put up for free on the internet for shit and giggles, not Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.
Edit: Holy crap! I loaded this on another computer, and there was so much red from all the mistakes I failed to catch! Got to remember to make sure the spell checker is on! I'm sorry to any one who tried to read this as it was!
So, to point out some important things:
-There is no Nazarick and no Momonga/Ainz in this world.
-Virtually all of the native nations, factions, and characters from Maruyama's New World will be present along with my own additions. The various states are, for the most part, located in very different positions from each other. The layout will be covered bellow.
-Despite having no Nazarick and Ainz, a number of events mirroring those in Maruyama's story will happen, but the cause for most of these will differ (cuz, you know, no Nazarick, and especially no Demiurge). Here are a few of said events:
-The Re-Estize kingdom is going to be having a VERY, VERY bad time.
-Roble Holy Kingdom is going to be targeted for an ultra violent makeover by a fiery Demon Lord named Jaldabaoth, thought the origins of this one will be different. Will this Jal also be able to get his hands on a fancy new club to play around with the kingdom's inhabitants?
-The Lizardmen Tribes are going to be facing a fight for the survival of their race against an Undead Army.
-Groups of Workers from Baharuth are going to be sent exploring a newly discovered dungeon, and are going to find out too late that they bit WAY more than they could chew.
What you'll find bellow in this chapter is essentially a synopsis of what part 1 is going to be, followed by my best attempt at a description of the layout of this version of the New World. After that will be a bit setting up the next chapter. Most of this story will follow a dynamic Father/Daughter duo going to places where stuff happened in Maruyama's Overlord.
Now, with that out of the way, please enjoy:
Overlord: Records of the Black Emperor's Wars
"So this is the last of it?" Charles Ahriman Anastasias, Emperor of Arkaydia, asked the young male clerk that was picking up the documents he had just finished going through and signing.
The clerk nodded, "Yes sir, these where the last ones."
Charles had established very early in his rule that, when it came to government work, the clerks and government employees he worked with didn't need to refer to him with honorifics or constantly bow to him. He was just trying to do his job, damn it! So they could stop with all the genuflecting and pageantry when they were supposed to help him with the paperwork!
He really needed a break from this. A good old vacation! And, barring any unforeseen circumstances, he was about to get one!
About damn time!
As the clerk left, he took out his pipe, filled and lit it.
"Has it really been sixteen years already, since we came to this world?" He said out loud to no one in particular as he let a cloud of smoke leave his mouth. He started reminiscing.
Before being sent here, back when he lived in the crappy real world, he had been the Guildmaster for Guild Arkaydia, a great big bunch of zany gamers who would run amok, like the filthy gaijin nerds that they where, all over the Japanese's most glorious DMMO-RPG, YGGDRASIL. His Guild had been somewhat famous, or infamous, depending on who you asked.
Then, after doing an in-game reunion party the night the server where to shut down and staying until the very end, he somehow got transported to this world as his character, along with the guild's most powerful NPC, Celestiana, and his Trunk of Holding, Gary.
Thanks to Gary, who dropped off from the skies like a meteor to slam into the ground and smashed through five levels of an underground dungeon, he hadn't been in this new world for more than five minutes before he first met the woman who would be his wife: Nadia Varlock, an half-elf archeologist. After rescuing her and her exploration team from some killer golems, she somehow took a liking to him. Sure, he saved her, but who in their right mind takes some weird studmuffin they just met in a dungeon back home, with a clear plan to invite him to sleep in your bed, with both people wearing no clothes at all that very night? Nadia, that's who. And so yes, they had sex. He might have found it weird, but he still was a man with a sex drive substantially higher than that of a potato, plus she was cute and had a nice body.
He learned that people that get transported into this New World, referred to as "Players", were a hot item to the right people in certain circumstances. Kind of like encountering an ultra rare shiny Pokemon. You know you simply gotta have it. He'd later learn that others viewed them more as a high level threat. But as far as Nadia was concerned, she was obviously set on sticking with him if he'd let her. Beside sleeping with him, she also helped him find more about this particular world, to get his bearings.
He found out that he was in a country called Escadia, which had once been part of a now dead empire called Iskandar, a country created by, and named after, his second in command of their old guild, Simeon Iskandar, who had been sent to this world some six hundred years prior. Escadia and the other dozen or so countries that had formed after it's collapse where still fighting for supremacy to this day. He also learned that a whole bunch of his other guildmates, probably all of them, had also been sent to this world, all at different times. And, as it turned out, Nadia was a descendent of both Simeon and another of their guildmates, Ariel the High Elven Sorceress, or as she was known here, the Sorceress Queen Ariel. Yes, she was descended not only from two different Players, which helped explain her interest in him somewhat, but also from two ancient royal bloodlines!
Ignoring all this, he built themselves a new house with material from the game, furnished it with stuff from the same origin, and then decided that what he was meant to do in this world... was farming! Not the treasure and xp acquiring kind, but the genuine, food growing kind. The village Nadia lived in was plagued with poor soils and other problems, and so suffered from poor harvests repeatedly. So, having maxed his farming skills in YGGDRASIL and having all the equipment needed to practice it inside Gary, he got to work. Other than helping the people around him, he soon got additional motivation when he learned Nadia was pregnant!
In due time, he had more than enough food for their own use, and started giving the surplus away to people who needed it. He even had a flock of sheep, some pigs and milk cows, and a couple of cattle he lovingly named Beef Bowl and Hamburger.
All this overabundance soon attracted attention, however. First he stumbled on a group of hiding animal eared Demi-Humans, led by a fox-eared and tailed man named Cedrick Sylvester, when he rescued a couple of their hungry, vegetable snatching kids from slavecatchers.
Then, he got acquainted with the local bandit lord, a rowdy, red haired Half-Giant named Kaspard Samson, who had an affinity for giant two-handed sword. When Charles first saw him fight a Giant Dire Hell Bear, he had the song "Hai Yo" from Berserk blaring in his mind the whole time. When the bear was put down, deciding it was time to assert his dominance, Kaspard challenged him to a fight, which Charles won. Kaspard had broken his blade (again), and so, Charles gave him a new, better one, and in so doing, made friend with the guy. He later met with his two siblings, the rest of his gang, and his mother, Roxanne, who would later become instrumental to Charles strategies as leader of the Crimson Scarves.
Finally, a tax collector from the kingdom came snooping around. The poor bastard managed to piss off Gary by insulting it, so the semi-sentient Trunk of Holding promptly swallowed him whole. Charles later learned the man's disappearance was blamed on Kaspard's gang.
You may be asking, what was Celestiana doing? Stuff, like helping in the house, learning to cook, watching the fields, a lot of scrying to get a sense of what the world was like and if anything looked like a threat. Also, she was emitting significant amounts of mana into the environment, which was, according to her, weirdly lacking in magical energies. Strange for a fantasy world, huh?
After a bountiful harvest in the fall, winter came. Right in the middle of it, one of the Little Sisters, Maya, showed up at their door, later informing them Celestiana was like a big beacon to them, and that another Sister, Saya, was holed up in the old imperial capital, where they worshipped her as a saint. For some reason, she couldn't leave. Maya was accompanied by Lydia, Nadia's old mentor, who was know the world over as The Grand Librarian, and was the leader of the Lydianites, an order of researchers and scholars. He learned that she was in fact a really old and powerful dragon who usually went around in human form, and that her love of books and lore was her substituting piles of gold and treasures with piles of books and scrolls.
Spring came, and with it, his first born daughter, Amalia. The family bliss was soon marred when civil unrest broke out, because of course, the kingdom he was in was ruled by incompetents, chief of them the king. Then, a friend to the heir to the throne thought it would be a good idea to kidnap Nadia's niece, the young village healer and herbalist Zalia. Something about securing succession. Apparently she and her younger brother Axel were descendants not only of Simeon like Nadia, but also from Escadia's second king, and from another, far older bloodline of a long destroyed kingdom. Axel was apparently some sort of prophesied druidic messiah, said to herald the restoration of said kingdom.
Well, in any case, the other idiot's plan didn't help the kingdom's much. While they where busy rescuing Zalia with the help of both Cedrick's and Kaspard's people (Zalia was the lover of Kaspard's younger brother Ryan), the unrest which had been brewing the kingdom burst into full on civil war following the imprisonment of the country's top general, Nathaniel Warfield. He learned that the Warfield family was actually descended from yet another one of his Guildmates, Konrad Totenkopf, the skull-faced Blackguard, who had inspired the family's fighting philosophy, as well as their fashion sense, down to this very day! After getting Zalia back, Charles, despite his misgivings, decided to pitch in and help the villagers.
It was at this point that he realized his fancy vegies were like some sort performance enhancing drug, but one without any evident downside! Apparently, beyond the excellent nutritional value, which helped a LOT, the output of his farm also gave the ones who ate them "bonuses" that helped their development, allowing to attain greater strength, endurance and agility than would otherwise be possible. It was like an experience or skill training bonus in an RPG! You could say that even in death, Beef Bowl and Hamburger where still fighting!
They fought off Nathaniel's nephew, Azrael, then linked up with other rebels, won a few battles, then went and freed both Nathaniel and his men, who joined them in bringing the fight to the king. Azrael, who had been missing, reappeared to join them, along with his sister, Lilith, who had one ambition: See the creation of a country that was worthy of her family's services. Most nobles also rose up now, led by wine-making Count Devlin Perignon. They took the capital, then the royal castle, the king dying during the fighting.
Charles, who had been ready to go back to the farm as soon as this was over, was informed by Lilith that she and the nobles had decided he would be the best choice to put on the throne. He accepted, on the condition that Nadia would be recognized at the queen if they married. Lilith had more pull than he thought, and managed to get the other nobles of the land to accept an half-elf as their ruler's queen consort. And since Nadia said yes when he proposed, he was stuck as their king. Well, so be it, he'd give it his best shot. One rushed fancy wedding-coronation later, he's king of a country!
He renamed the kingdom to Arkaydia, after his old guild, gave it its Black Flaming Phoenix flag, placed Lilith as prime minister, reformed the administration and army, made Azrael field commander and Kaspard a general, made Cedrick Spymaster, and put in place agricultural reforms, spreading the superior products of YGGDRASIL all over the land like some sort of benevolent fantasy Monsanto. And good that he did, because the country would soon need all the vitamins they could get to face what was coming.
That was, of course, invasions from their neighbors, starting two years after he took over. First came Taraxia, the kingdom to the east, who demanded no less than a fourth of Arkadia's lands in exchange for peace. Screw that noise! So they invaded in mass, only to be quickly sent back by an Arkaydian blitzkrieg of raiding and sabotage on their camps and supply lines.
Then it was the turn of Bastengard, the kingdom to the south, to invade. Turns out, the young, newly crowned king of that country was somehow convinced that Charles was responsible for murdering most of his family. Azrael, with Celestiana's help in transporting their armies across hundreds of miles with Gates, managed to fight that kingdom into submission, but Bastengard's ruler was assassinated before he could sign a peace treaty, so Arkaydia took it over.
Next was Farken, to the South East, who wanted Devlin Perignon's lands. Charles' troops pimp slapped their mercenaries back to their kingdom, but didn't invade, because Taraxia was back! So they went to work on that menace, and would finally bring that kingdom to heel also, their king dying while laughing like some madman and claiming that Charles was some kind of demon who would herald the end of the world! How rude! Charles took control of that country also, helped by the pleas of the eastern noble to save them from the bloodthirsty bitch from Asgard that was about to lay into them!
He then met with Vergundia's Masked King, who turned out to be Axel and Zalia's father, and Nadia's brother, Artamis Varlock. He suffered from amnesia, however, and didn't recognize his children or sister. He got better with Celestiana's help, then eventually signed an alliance treaty with Arkaydia. He finally met with one of his old guildmates in person, the cockney accented Halfling Master Thief William F. Killgore!
Then, they dealt with Farken, who was not only not responding to Charles' requests to sign a durable peace treaty, and had even, amusingly, called upon Saya over in Old Iskandar for help against Arkaydia. She told Farken's envoys to take a hike, and sent Charles a missive asking him to stop running around everywhere like a silly chain smoking goose, and come see her pretty damn pronto! Farken was taken over in a couple of weeks, basically as a matter of course as Charles obliged her and was making his way to Iskandar.
Once they got to Iskandar, they met with Saya, and found out that Simeon was still around as a spirit bound to a lamp like some kind of annoying genie, and Charles was promptly handed the old Imperial crown by Saya, who told him that he ought to take the rest of it over, so that she'd be free from watching over it and all the insufferable fools the land contained like she promised the last Iskandarian Emperor. Lilith thought that was a phenomenal idea, but Charles told them to hold off their horses. If he claimed the Imperial crown, the remaining countries would be sure to attack them!
But as it turned out, he didn't even need to lay claim to the a crown for this to happen. While Arkaydia had been busy laying down the law in their corner of the continent, another group had also been going around spreading peace and love to all in their own neighborhood! Yeah right!
Just his luck, Charles now had to deal with a bunch of totalitarian, human supremacists religious zealots : The Morrathian Holy Alliance, who, with the might of armies led by their order of Templar Warriors, supplemented by magical beasts and constructs, and headed by King Maximillian August, had been busy bringing together the other half of the former empire. And "cleaning" the place of "un-human filth". They were literally convinced accomplishing this would solve all their problems.
They were also helped by a mysterious religious figure known only as the Divine White Prophet. She was even ruder than Taraxia's king, claiming that Charles was somehow the re-incarnation of this world's Satan or some such!
Charles had been like, look, just because he had moment of edginess and had named his game character after an old evil god known as The Black One and The Destroyer, and he had a contract with a Spirit of Primordial Darkness, didn't make him the second coming of Lucifer! Right!? Anyone?
War with the Holy Alliance soon broke out, with the Holy Warriors' opening salvo being a massed surprise attack on Arkaydia's forces. They where repelled, but at the cost of the lives of a number of soldiers, including Nathaniel Warfield and many of his veterans. Charles would have revived them if he could, but they had been dead for too long for it to work. Old Nate's death became a rallying cry for Arkaydia, who went a counter-offensive.
As the two sides fought in many places, Lydia and the Prophetess met. The Grand Librarian tried to reason with the other woman, who Charles later learned was one of the last few remaining "Ancients", a race said to have been tasked with looking after the world by it's creator. Long story short, they had failed, and had mostly died out.
Something had driven the Prophetess over the edge a long time ago, and it was clear she wanted to make the rest of the world as miserable as she was. So she proceeded to summon a magical crystal meteor in orbit, and set it to fall on Old Iskandar. Most of the city and its millions where saved only through the intervention of Celestiana, who, in her most magnificent Phoenix Queen Form, absorbed and deflected most of the damage from the meteor. If most people didn't think Celestiana was a god or divine being before, a whole lot of them sure did now!
Then came the inevitable showdown, and Charles set up a hit team led by himself to take down the crazy Ancient woman, before the next attempted genocide! They found out then that she was effectively immortal and indestructible, being able to regenerate any kind and amount of damage, which she called a curse upon herself, which I guess would be true, if you wished to die. At his wits end, Charles called upon Celestiana to use her ultimate power, [Dark Soul Pyre]. Back in YGGDRASIL, it had been as rare skill that would drain players and monsters of their Levels, making them weaker the longer they stayed in the area of effect. He had hoped to at least weaken her so wouldn't be able to do as much damage. It worked beyond his best hopes. Here, where Levels as they existed in YGGDRASIL didn't exist, it did exactly what the name implied, burn someone's soul away! And that is what happened. When Celestiana was done, the Alliance's Prophetess's body had crumbled into a pile of salt. The golems, homunculi and other magical creations she controlled stopped working. Most of the Alliance's soldiers stopped fighting when they heard about it, either surrendering or fleeing, with some tasking their own lives. As for King Max, he attempted to get back to his capital, but was killed on the way by a human farm boy who blamed him for the death of his cat-eared girlfriend and her whole family.
And so, peace finally returned in the lands of the old Empire. Lilith wasted no time in establishing a new one, with Charles as it's Emperor. With Arkaydia now an Empire, the original Kingdom of Arkaydia was re-named back to Escadia, with Axel as it's king (hey, prophecy fulfilled!). The crowns of the kingdoms they had conquered before fighting the Alliance where given to capable people related to the previous rulers. The founding kingdoms of the alliance where entrusted to rulers unrelated to the old ones, while the two kingdoms taken by force by the alliance where returned to their former rulers.
A year after being crowned Emperor, Nadia announced she was pregnant with his first son, who'd be named Richard. Not wanting his children to be burdened with succeeding him, Charles named Cedrick as his crown prince and designated successor, furry foxy ears, tail and all! Cedrick only accepted on the condition that, if he found someone as suitable or better, he could put them forward instead. To this day, he doesn't seem to have found one, thought he did mention Richard showed promise. It was still a bit early, his first son was only 10 after all.
The rebuilding took a long time and a whole lot of effort, but it was now paying off. Finally!
"Yup." He though, "Hell of a road we took to get here!"
He got up, and walked towards one of the walls of his office, where a very large and very detailed world map was hanging. It had been a gift from Nadia. You could say it was a work of art in and of itself. It showed the three continents forming what was effectively the Known World of this New World. The continent the Arkaydian Empire was located on, Orlandia, was the northernmost, with Vandalia to its south-west, and Ashkaron to the south-east. In the exact center of it all lay Midland, home of the Slane theocracy and, according to legend, had been the place where the World Tree had once stood. Separating all the major continents where three seas.
To the far north of Orlandia, often considered separate, was Nordheim, the lands of the Northmen containing all you would expect from a Viking based fantasy setting. Separated from Arkaydia by the Northern Sea, it was made up of half a dozen kingdoms that have a long history of raiding the lands to the south and west.
The largest and furthest of these to the east was Asgard, ruled by the Half Giant Queen Sonia of Maraskovia, who was married to none other than Charles old companion, General Kaspard Samson. The Kingdom was part of Arkaydia despite most of their lands not having been part of the Iskandarian Empire. This came to be because of a series of calamities that struck that kingdom at the same time, two years after Charles was crowned as Emperor: Two simultaneous invasions, one from the other Northlander Kingdoms, one from the monster tribes of the northern wastes, a civil war, really bad weather leading to an disastrous harvest, and a plague. Sonia was a capable and strong willed leader, but all of it had just been too much, so to save her family and her people, she asked for help from Arkaydia. But she needed far more help than any sovereign kingdom could ask for and receive and still be seen as independent. So she subbmited her crown to Charles. This served as solid justification for what would have been seen as a probably regardless goose chase by the kings under him had he intervened simply out of the goodness of his heart. So Sonia's kingdom survived, and started the long, hard task of rebuilding. Charles fully expected it to one day secede. In the meantime, they kept the other northern kingdoms in line, and their many mines provided a great deal of minerals for traders to buy and sell down south, especially the much in demand Manacite Crystals.
To the Northeast of Asgard was the World Peaks, the world's highest mountains, under which, according to ancient lore, was the long ruined Lost Empire of the Dwarves.
Immediately south of the World Peaks was the Orlandian Spine, which ran down all the way to the south, effectively cutting Orlandia in two, but with the eastern section being much smaller. It served very effectively as Arkaydia's Eastern border. Somewhere under the southern mountains had been what was left of the Dwarven Kingdom, which had maintained a brisk trade with the Iskandarian Empire, but now, no one had heard from them in quite some time. All attempts to re-establish contact with it only yielded reports of abandoned mines, ruined settlements and destroyed outposts.
On the eastern side of the mountains, and south east from the World Peaks was a land of great forests, glaciers and badlands that made up what was known as the Hordelands, where humanoids, beastfolks and monster roamed and from where they raided the human nations to the south of them. These are the Great Kingdom of Re-Estize, and their century long rival to the east, the Principality of Korvar, with whom they wage war every year for the past few decades, the main battle ground for these wars being found at the Katze Plains. South of the Katze Plains was the Great Forest of Tob, and south from this was the Azerlisia Mountains, these marking the border between the two states.
Separated from Korvar by another mountain range branching off from the southern tip the Azerlisa's was the Argland Council State, a nation of Demi-Humans. Formed during the Era of the Evil Deities, its numerous races have since lived side by side in relative harmony under the leadership of the Five Dragon Councilors. It hosts the Lydianites' Grand Library, which is said to be the world's largest library, along with the the HQ of their research and lore-seeking operations.
Back to the far western side of the continent, separated from the Orlandian mainland by a wide body of water, where the Avalonian Isles, AKA the Green Isles, the homeland of the Halflings. Or, as Charles referred to it, Hobbitland! Together, the five main islands seemed just slightly larger than the whole of the Real World's British Isles. If one never got a chance to visit the Hobbiton set in New-Zeeland before getting sent to the New World, all he had to do was go to Avalon and he'd get a very similar experience, only a hundred times better! If you liked poneys, ale, pipeweed, bloody good fish and chips, or just wanted to stroll trough a probably very accurate representation of 16th to 19th century English countryside, that was the place to go. The Halflings' patented militia, the Shires Minutemen, were famous the world over for successfully fighting off regular Northmen raids for well over a millennia. The country was also home to a number of gnomes settlements, and hosted the last known population of Hill Dwarves, who busied themselves with mining and smithing.
To the south of and a good distance from Avalonia, sitting on a peninsula attached to western Orlandia, was the Holy Kingdom of Roble, currently ruled by the young and reputedly very beautiful Holy Queen (or, officially, Holy Lady) Calca Besarez, recently ascended to the throne. The Holy Kingdom's border was marked by the 300 kilometers long Great Wall, which the kingdom had built some time ago to protect their realm from the various demi-humans who raided from the Abelion Hills. These were a vast area of wilderness and great rolling hills that laid between the Holy Kingdom and the Arkaydian Empire. The Great Wall was only partially successful in preventing intrusions, and needed vast amounts of manpower to achieve even that. To the East of the Hills, serving as Arkaydia's western border and apparently a much more potent deterrent than the Kingdom's wall, was the Gorgon Canyon, a wide gash in the land some 1200 feet deep and almost as long as the Great Wall. Said to have been formed by a cataclysm that also created Mt Gorgon, a huge, currently dormant volcano, that straddles the canyon at about the mid point. The area, at least on the Arkaydian side, had some great hotsprings resorts.
Now with Arkaydia itself, the world's largest, wealthiest and most populous (nearing half a billion people) and yet (apparently) loosest empire. Conceived by Charles and Imperial Chancellor Lilith Warfield as a federal, constitutional monarchy, it was composed of 13 semi-independent kingdoms, each with their own rulers, united under the Imperial Crown. Charles himself was King of Iskandar first, Emperor Second. Iskandar, as a kingdom, was at the very the center of the continent, was made up of the lands around the seven Orlandian Great Lakes. It was very much the bread basket of the continent, and also where the world's largest city could be found. Great Iskandar, populated by 2.8 million souls as of last census, had been the seat of the long defunct empire that bore its name. Now it served as the capital of the Arkaydian one. While the previous Empire had disintegrated around it, Iskandar very much hummed along, losing only a fraction of it's population. It was, after all, the continent's no 1 emporium and as great a center of manufacturing and crafting as you could find in the New World. It controlled all the important fluvial trade routes in an out of the interior and was at the junction of several land routes.
The other twelve kingdoms where, from the top and clockwise, Taraxia, Asgard, Vholand, Kataria, Morrath, Orelia, Illerya, Berial, Vergundia, Bastengard, Escadia, and Farken. Probably because of the Iskandarian empire's influence, most of the kingdoms cultures had the same kind of traditional, medieval-ish fantasy flavor, though there WERE differences, mainly between the northern and southern halves: while the former clearly gave vibes of Medieval Northern Europe, like Northern France, Germany and England, the later looked and felt more like Spain, southern France, Italy, and Greece.
Immediately south of of Berial and Illerya was a chain of mountains separating them from the Great Forest of Evasha, AKA the Great Sea of Trees, controlled by the Kingdom of the Elves, ruled by the Elf King, whom, by all accounts, appeared to be an import from YGGDRASIL. The Elves where fighting a protracted war with the Slane Theocracy. So far, the Elves where holding their own, no thanks to their Mid-Boss of a king. The Theocracy itself was just south of this, with Kami Miyako right in the middle of the lands they controlled. Opinions of the Theocracy varied vildly between it being the protectors and champions of humanity, to them being a malignant tumor on the face of the planet that couldn't be chopped off and sent into the sun soon enough. Charles saw them mostly as a bunch of religious nuts who where high on their own supply and who had way too many fancy toys at their disposal for their own good. One of these day, he's probably going to have to deal with them.
Moving on, this time to Vandalia. That continent was dominated by the Baharuth Empire, which controlled almost a third of it and was located in the north-west portion of it landmass. It was the world's second empire in terms of size and army strength, but third in terms of wealth and population. It was the land of the knights legionnaires, classical architecture, and until recently, high stakes political intrigue amongst aristocrats. Its current ruler, Jircniv Rune Farlord El-Nix, AKA The Bloody Emperor, had risen to power ten years ago, a few months before Charles took up his own imperial crown. He had been twelve at the time. Before that, he had all his family killed to secure his throne, and after he ascended to it, he purged all nobles, army commanders and other notable people who stood against him, hence why he got his nick-name. Once he had secured his position, however, he had shown that he could rule his realm without having to shed rivers of blood every other month. Indeed, he proved quite effective, and now relied almost solely on his intelligence and charisma to govern, and his empire and the people in it prospered like never before. It seemed Jircniv was intend to make an empire that stood the test of time, and he might just make it happen, so long as Baharuth didn't go to war with Arkaydia while Lilith was Imperial Chancellor and her brother Azrael was Warmaster. Lastly, he had abolished the ubiquitous Adventurers Guild, and instead put in place the "Workers" system, where the people who went and completed a job received payment directly from the person who requested it.
South of the Baharuth Empire, beyond the Atlan mountains, was the great Dolor Desert, the world's largest. Many small nations, city states and tribes existed within it. It also contained a number of lost cities and many other ruins. Nadia once said that going there ruin exploring would be her idea of a dream vacation. Well, some of the oases could be quite nice indeed, if you didn't mind all the giant man-eating scorpions and the nice, friendly sand worms!
Directly south of the Dolor where great expanses of savannas, roamed by tribes of centaurs, gnolls and other. It contained two great lakes that drained northward. Bordering this region of savannas on the west, south, and eastern side, where great bands of dense jungles extending to the coast on all three sides.
If one followed the two rivers that drained from the lakes mentioned above, one would eventually arrive to Khemi, the land of the Twin Great Rivers, both ending in vast deltas, one on the northern coast, the other on the Eastern one. It was an old country, and was perhaps the greatest Beastmen state in the world. If was made up of many such races, like gnolls, Jackalmen, Fenek Kobolds, various feline tribes, and, around the great Karnak lake near the north coast and West of the Northern Delta, the assorted tribes of the Lizardmen. The various races where united in a loose confederation. Khemi had actually been created by one of Charles' former guildmates, transported to this world over two thousand years before current time. His character's name was Belixarses, and he had been a Leonid Savage Berserker. To this day, his descendants still led the Leonid clans and served as Khemi's kings, thought the role was now largely ceremonial. Belixarses had managed to conquer almost half of the known world before dying. Charles suspected that this played a large part in explaining the permanent animosity between most human nations and beastmen ones.
Speaking of which, we now move on to the continent of Ashkaron, whose north-western corner was occupied by the Dragon Kingdom, a human majority nation despite its name, but one which was ruled by the half-dragon Queen Draudillon Oriculus, AKA the Dark Scale Dragon Lord. That nation was currently facing intense invasion from the Ashkaronian Beastman Country. It, errr, wasn't going very well for the Dragon Kingdom to say the least, in fact it was to the point where even the Slane Theocracy was helping them out. That was probably because that particular nation of Beastmen had a ferocious hate bonner for all of humanity, and their stated intent was to "domesticate" all humans and have them serve as their livestock. Indeed, all human nation had heard the stories of the "feasts" the beastmen held each night in the conquered cities, some of which he knew where true from agents Arkaydia had in the kingdom. Lydia herself was currently in that kingdom and trying to help the queen hold it together.
East from the Dragon Kingdom, occupying the northern middle section of the continent, was the Karsanas City-State Alliance, a country made up of twelve city-states. The alliance's population was very multi-racial, and humans, while they where the largest single race, did not make up more than 45 percent of the population.
To the east of the Karsanas City-State Alliance, controlling the lands of the north-east corner of the continent and those south of it all the way to the southern Jungles was the Ral-Farsian Empire. The third empire in terms of size and army strength, it was above Baharuth when it came to wealth and population. It was the land of spices, camels, silks, belly dancing girls, premium coffee, and fancy carpets. Before Charles' agricultural reforms, the Ral-Farsian farmers produced more food per hectare than anywhere else in the world. It was ruled from great Shambara by the elderly Shah Ardash Malrak, with his eldest son, Harshan Malrak, taking a more active role as the years went by. Half a millennia ago, they held over half of Ashkaron under their dominion, including the Karsanas Alliance territory. Now, they where focused on keeping the lands they had. The western part of Ral-Farsia where mostly deserts up to the mountains.
The center of the continent was dominated by the Jorans, a series of high and sprawling mountain ranges that spread out in every directions from the center of the landmass like the legs of a spider. Rikka, Cedrick's Monkey Demi-Human wife, came from a kingdom dominated by her race that was located near the center peaks. For the past thousand years, it had isolated itself from the rest of the world, successfully enough that the kingdom was thought to be just a legend. Charles very much suspected that her country had been founded by the Monkey-King, an incongruous extra boss from YGGDRASIL, based on Sun-Wukong, that had been said to randomly appear to fight players, especially players that specialized in fighting other players, and where very successful at doing so. As is fitting for the Monkey-King, he had been absurdly powerful, and couldn't really be "killed", only fought off. Word was the dev had put him in to go after players that did almost nothing other than target other players, to take them down a peg. In any case, according to Rikka, her country's founder had disappeared around the time the country had closed itself off. Not one knew if he was dead or alive. But since he had ruled the place for five centuries before buggering off, he might just still be around somewhere.
Finally, South West of the Joran Mountain range and south of the Beastman Country was the Great Minotaur Nation, dominated by its namesake race. Two hundred years ago, a fellow called the Minotaur Sage became prominent in this nation. Charles was certain he had been a Player, since he had been the first person to propose and promote the creation of modern day techniques and appliances from the Real World. Oh, and he also upgraded humans in his nation from livestock to slave, a state of affairs that held to this day. Hey, one can't deny that it had been an improvement, especially compared to their northern neighbors!
Charles re-filled his pipe, and lit it.
"So much world out there." Charles thought, "And I've not even seen a third of it. Well, we're going to be working on that, won't we?"
That was because the "vacation" he was planning to go on was actually some adventurous escapades into some other country, with his eldest daughter.
Amalia had always been a wild tomboy, in part because of her hectic and unconventional early childhood, and also because, according to Lydia, children like her, born from "players", where generally stronger, faster, had more stamina, and had a much higher potential than most people. Some called these children "God-Kin" This, however, meant that she really struggled to fit into court life. She liked to run and jump around when going somewhere, always stuffed her face at every meal, often spoke too loudly, laughed often and like a drunken sailor, also swore like one, and was an open book thanks to her expressive face. Thankfully, she didn't have anger issues. That would have been a real nightmare.
However, all the rest still meant that most of the other young noblewomen and girls regularly laughed behind her back at how "un-ladylike" she acted and spoke. Charles could though it out when it came to people's opinions of himself on this sort of matters (he was often referred to as the Grand Snarker, for example), being a grown ass adult, but Amalia, being a young girl on the cusp of puberty, was clearly miserable before and after there was any official event she attended. It got to the point Charles had considered just letting her stay in her rooms instead if she so wished, but that would just be giving up and not really fixing anything. So around when she turned 10, Nadia had recommended having her take fencing lessons and regular practice, if only to help her vent her frustrations. It worked fairly well in that regard, thought it didn't help her lack of manners and etiquette.
By all indications, she actually enjoyed her fencing and swordsmanship lessons quite bit. She took to it so well, in fact, that after a year she started to sneak around and seek people to spar with her at the Palace's training grounds. Charles was immediately aware of this, but okay'd it, on the condition she didn't get in the way of other people's training. And next thing he knows, she's the training ground mascot! So maybe she wouldn't make it as a poised and graceful high noble lady, but she might just turn out to be good war leader material. Who knows, she might be the right one to take up his crown!
Over the next couple of years, Amalia had gotten skilled enough with the sword that most of the regulars of the training grounds were no match for her. That presented a pickle: Cedrick trained at night, Azrael was always too busy, and so where most of the other soldiers and officers who could handle her. So, Charles started sparing with her himself. He didn't mind at all, in fact he quite liked doing so. Why wouldn't he? He got to spend some time with his Munchkin and teach her some sick moves, had a good work-out, and finally, it gave him a good reason to get out of his office and the constant deluge of paperwork! Everybody wins! Well, except Lilith and her clerks. When he was away from the desk for too long, one could usually judge how pissed the Imperial Chancellor was by the amount of static in the air. If you started hearing the rumbling of thunder and yet the sky was perfectly clear, it was best to run for cover anyway, because you where in the danger zone!
After the first couple dozen sub-lethal zappings Charles received, Lilith relented and re-arranged the schedules and work loads so that he could train with Amalia in the morning. That did mean he was stuck at his desk later in the evening.
Then one day, sometime after her 14th birthday, Amalia announced after their regular training session that she wanted to be an adventurer! Charles wasn't really surprised by this, but he wasn't sure she truly understood what being an adventurer meant. After all, she had only heard the good side of the trade, the glorious fights and heroic deeds bards sung of, the piles of gold and other treasures made and recovered from ancient ruins and monster lairs, the people helped and saved, the celebratory nights spent eating and drinking! Did she realize the flip side of that coin was constant danger of harm to mind and body, failed quests and loads of money squandered in lost equipment and used supplies, finding the bodies of people you just couldn't save, having to live off dried rations and spring water for days on end, or simply having to go without anything to eat at all, and having to travel and camp in all sort of un-sunny weather?
He didn't plan on trying to traumatize her with the worst of it, but he decided to test her by taking her down into Iskandar's sewers, where he gave her a quest: Slay 10 monsters, specifically any combination of giant roaches and/or rats, for Papa!
It wasn't her proudest moment, that's for sure. First she hit the back of her head on the sewer's wall when she backed off from a lunging rat, then she slipped when chasing after a couple fleeing roaches and fell into the garbage filled waters. Then her sword got stuck in the bellyof a really fat rat, and when its friends came at her, she had to grab a broken-off chair leg lying around to smash their heads in. Despite all this, she persevered, and managed to kill all ten pests.
He had to admit, the fact that she went through with it made him proud. He'd bet that none of the young, haughty noble ladies up in the citadel would have managed to go through this! After he acknowledged her success in completing her quest, he handed her the reward: Ten Silver Bucks**!
It was much more than people would pay for exterminating some vermin, but there was a reason for the amount: It was the sign-up fee to the Adventurer's guild! Once she realized this, she'd been overjoyed and, had he not stopped her, she'd probably have gone over to sign up right then and there. Never mind the fact she was covered with filth and blood and her hair had been a mess. There where other things that needed to be taken care of first.
No one in the guild would ever give an imperial princess any quests or monster to hunt, since if something happened to her, they knew full well the guild couldn't handle taking responsibility for it. So, if she wanted to play adventurer, she'd have to do so under another identity.
Thus, the next morning, instead of sparing, they first visited Celestiana, who assisted them in fine tuning an enchanted ring that would change her appearance when she wore it. And so, the black haired and red eyed tomboy princess Amalia Anastasias was transformed into the crimson haired and emerald eyed tomboy adventurer wanabee Loremia Gonza. They even slapped a bunch of freckles on her for good measure, and changed her voice a bit.
After she had finished looking at herself in a mirror, Charles put on a similar ring of his own that transformed his own red eyed, black haired and fair skinned self into the brown haired, brown eyed and bronze skinned veteran mercenary named Antonio Gonza, Loremia's father!
Wearily, she had asked him why he needed to change his appearance too, which led him to inform her that he was, in fact, signing up with her. After all, why should he let her have all the fun, freedom and adventures? And of course, he wanted to tag along to make sure she was alright. While unsure at first, she soon came to like the arrangement.
And so, they went and signed up at Iskandar's Adventurers Guild later that day, and their career as a father and daughter adventuring team began. They had been limited in what requests they could undertake, but they slowly built up their guild record, so that they had finally both become silver ranked a couple of months ago, just after Amalia's 16th birthday. Being silver ranked meant that you were recognized by the guilds in other kingdoms of the Empire... as well as in the guilds in other countries outside of it!
Thus, due to a mix of wanderlust and weariness of his day to day humdrum, combined with things finally settling down and running more smoothly across the empire, at least enough that he could actually bugger off for a while without things falling apart, he had decided that he and Amalia were going to go to a foreign country. He only got his Chancellor to accept to play along by adding that he hoped to find clues about where the remaining Little Sisters where, and maybe even find some more info on this Uroboros sect. Nadia, Lilith, Cedrick, Azrael, and the few trusted others who knew they had been running around playing adventurers where the only ones who would know where they'd really be. Officially, they would be taking an extended vacation in a hotspring resort near Mt Gorgon. All that remained was to choose which country to go to. Wherever they ended up, it sure as fuck wasn't going to be the Theocracy... at least not yet.
His eyes drifted towards the far north eastern corner of the map. Hmmm. Yes. Perhaps they should go and see how old Willy Killgore is doing with his special assignment in Re-Estize. He picked up a small bell laying on a desk against the wall, and ringed it.
A young woman with long blonde hair and turquoise eyes, dressed in a maid's outfit opened the door.
"Is there something you need, your Majesty?" The maid asked in a quiet, polite voice.
"Yes, Miss Tuare." Charles said, "If you please, can you go and tell Amalia I'd like her to meet me here ? I want to discuss our upcoming trip."
"Yes sir, I will do so immediately."
So, there it is!
Feel free to comment, give some critique and other input, or ask me questions about the story!
Edit: Holy crap! I loaded this on another computer, and there was so much red from all the mistakes I failed to catch! Got to remember to make sure the spell checker is on! I'm sorry to any one who tried to read this as it was!
See you next chapter!
*Silver Buck: A medium sized silver coin, named after the head of a male deer with a 16 point set of antlers shown on one of its faces. It's the main, everyday currency in the Arkaydian Empire. Normal exchange rate is 16 coppers to one buck, and 8 Bucks to one Eagle/Phoenix gold coin.