Forums → Forum Games → Cycle Online - Aerie's Prophecy
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Prologue
A knight wearing light grey armour trudged through sand, the wind was biting, filled with silt and hot like a dragon exhaling. His boots sunk into the sand with every step, moments after each step his sheathed sword and backpack would bump against his armour. He trudged on, approaching a massive temple build from blood red stone. Up ahead he saw two guards.The knight prepared to fight, and he prepared to talk as he did so. He slipped off his helmet and dropped it in the sand. It wasn't going anywhere. With a hissing of metal, the Knight's blade was drawn. The knight took something from the pouch on his belt with his free hand. It was a glass vial vial filled with a bright red slightly metallic liquid which he held to his face, pulling the cork out with his teeth and spitting it aside. He drank it. It was incredibly cold, filled with splinters of ice, and its taste ; with the delicacy of tea yet heartiness of soup. It tasted bemusing.The knight coughed as the elixir caused the sand in his throat to flow upwards, he spat out a pinch of gritty pink mud. The potion cooled his insides, moistened his throat and the blisters on his left foot faded. Both of the guards had spotted the Knight, they were running towards him. The knight stepped forwards to meet them in battle, but he didn't summon the Fiend inside his sword, he would never kill a Non-Player Character.
Two worlds. One real, the other not. One circles a yellow sun, the other circles a blue sun. The sky of one is slowly being blacked out by pollution, the other's sky is already filled with ashes. Save a single band of light, a sliver of blue and green. A curved ring enveloping the planet ; Cycle.
Four In The Morning; The obscure hour that had earned more cultists than the Lunar Eclipse and whose cult served fresher coffee than the Midnight sect. Apollo had glanced over the horizon to see his sister Artemis leading the moonlit hunt on over the opposite side of the world, the one Apollo had just fled. The cold mist of the night settled down and moistened the grass. The real assassins were just getting to sleep, too tired to lose any of it over the nights work. The business men who were often the assassins targets and the lawyers who usually worked for the assassins woke up and got into there roadsters and drove of to there monotonous days. Maxwell's uncle included. This was were Max had gotten the money to buy a Cycle account. It hadn't been cheap, or rather, His uncle seemed to think money bought more for a teenager. Or Delinquent as his uncle liked to say. Not the best nickname Max had somehow acquired, second worst to Gravity-Guy perhaps.
Max looked away from the window and back to his computer, instinctively he turned up the contrast to discover it was at its brightest. It was his eyes that were dull. Max blinked his bloodshot eyes, which didn't seem enough, so he did so several more times and thought about missing family members, bringing on a few tears, for good measure. He glanced back at the computer screen. The Arena for his duel at Morescarn was still loading.
This was the last time he tried playing C.O. on this old computer, he would be getting a laptop for his birthday in a week. His uncle has already told him this, and Maxwell didn't take is for granted.
His character loaded. Her name was Chthonia. A slight Sidhe Druidess wearing dark robes speckled with glittering point of light. She held a large oaken staff with a cat head carved at the top. On the opposite side, yet to be properly rendered was Morscarna. An Afrit, A combination of a Daemon and a Djinn, it looked like a red skinned Minotaur from the waist above, semi-corporeal golden serpent below the stomach line. He held a massive trident forged from Lite, an alloy of silver and Imperial Frost.
The loading finally finished and the words indicating it was a boss fight filled the screen.
Morscarna Labyrinth.
The O in Morscarna exploded with blinding light, the writing melted away from the screen.
The Minotaur took on a more realistic sheen, his veins could been seen beneath his skin, and several scars mottled his bare chest. The Lite Trident in his hands began to emit shining red light any player of the Fighter class dreaded. The light was an enchantment on the Trident, it caused the opponents weapons to rust. Chthonia knew this, when Max right clicked the trident and ran the mouse down to the Examine option. Chthonia, his character a tall blond woman, of a Geomancer Type class knew an enchanted weapon when she saw one. But that wasn't rightâ¦NPC's were only ever a single class. She hadn't heard any tales of the Minotaur making any friends before, just killing them off. In-fact she realised the ground that had taken so long to load was gravelly with ground bones.
Max thought a moment. Oh⦠Morscarna couldn't be an NPC or a player (he wasn't a playable race), So he must be a Moderator, like princess Gildiana or that extremely helpful team of people in the Tu'torial Pit.
Chthonia was doomed.
Nobody had killed a Moderator before, they were just too... powerful. It was over, instantly, what a waste, his character gone along with all of his equipment, A house in the Regna Kingdom was no longer his. Max realised all of this before it happened.
The trident skewered his character before he had a chance to become invisible, He had thought that Morscarna would have been slow and lumber, but he hadn't, he had been quick, a spirit of the fastest caliber for crying out loud. Max imagined the moderator sit back in his spinning chair, placing his mineral water on the desk well away form his expensive computer and laughing evilly.
I might as well start making a new character while I'm online, he thought grimly. Loosing a character was vexing if not harrowing.
(Worse still if the character is merely crippledâ¦Poor Elbon.)
It took ten minute to load the character creation screen.
Max typed out his new name : Crowre Talrlus, Then choose a race, Sidhe, again, it had served him best in the past. Not a druid though, he realised they weren't suited to the amount of dangerous situations he got into. He ran the mouse down the list then clicked : Sorcerer . Immediately powerful, direct but long ranged attacks, and magically shielded, He liked resilient classes. He remembered his first character, a Tuatha De Danann Paladin, subclassed as a Fythre, his placing of Attribute points was a little novice on the character, but it had lasted a whole week, which was pretty impressive for someones first character.
He decided to Subclass as a Chthonist, having never seen an Ex-Ul and/or Chthonist in the game before. Its description sounded like it would have a lot of stun Powers and high speed enhancement.
The character surprised him with the base armour chosen, grey-red Dragon Leather, rather than the usual blue Wlen cloth and black Bonded leather of most Sorcerers. The Chthonist subclass seemed to have hijacked his armour style. He had kept a blue dyed Wlen Cloth cape though. He left the armour as it was, mostly, swapping the cape for a red scarf. Knowing from the guide sites. (Fan made forums, the company that had invented Cycle didn't actually offer any help in playing effectively beyond the basics, which sort of made it more fun, finding the good fan-made sites each with original and probably incomplete tips and advise.) that the base armour given was statistically just a tiny bit under best possible for the given Race/Class/Subclass combination. And he wasn't the sort to try squeezing all the damage points he could out of a customisation budget. Max went into the armoury, curiously the sorcerers bronze dagger had disappeared and the left hand equipment slot was made of black stone rather than the usual bluish marble. Curious, he dragged a bronze dagger in the invent from 'Rogue Weaponry', onto the animated figure of Crowre standing on an ancient stone dais covered in the swirly carvings (that were obviously Tuatha de Danann architecture). Crowe, as expected drew the dagger from a small dagger sheath on his belt that had smoothly faded into existence. But it was black and glossy not the usual reflective brown. He scrolled back up to class descriptions and found Chthonists, laughing aloud when he saw Chthonists knew a little Necromancy. Still driven by curiosity, he clicked a button for his character to do the attack emote. The blade trailed shadow. He tried his ranged-attack emote and again laughed when he found the purple ball lightning of the Sorcerer had changed into liquid gold orbs.
Maxwell continued making the character, choosing items, refining his appearance. Smiling brightly at the computer screen.
It would be so much better (and healthier) when he got the laptop.
Max didn't know it yet but he had found his niche. The event was legendary in the fan-made forums, it was said those who found there 'niche' quickly went into the top scores. Not all, but most. Many dismissed this cyber-superstition. But those who had found their niche believed in it utterly.
But at the moment the number one character on the high scores ; Mort Celeritas - Meaning death swiftness in latin - was logging on. He was to continue searching a Fomorian Pharaohs tomb. Soon to find an artefact known as the Aerie's Prophecy. The fifteen year old girl named Octavia behind the adult male Tu'Danann in glowing blue Lite gladiator armour - A feared P-Kill warrior all over Cycle.
Mort copied the script down. Octavia was later to post it on the forums she had made anonymously. Her account was aliased 'Anonymously Swift'. The forum itself was called. 'Death of the RuleLawyer'. Strange name, some said, most said, but the information the site was known for brought clarity. The site had no advise on good armour combinations based on statistics, nor did it tell you the best way to force gold drops from monsters your level. Unlike the majority of fan-made sites. And none particularly fun to look at. Just dull grey or annoying clean white. But Octavia's site was different. She had posted a picture of her character Mort Celeritas using her high level version of Punishing Strike, it showed trails of demon souls coursing out of her enchanted Lite Sword. People asked her how she had got the pict of the high scorer; to which she said that she knew Mort Celeritas, to which everyone reacted sceptically. One person had even called her a stalker. Outraged, Octavia had almost revealed that she WAS Mort Celeritas.Octavia scrolled down the list of new threads, deleting the contradictory-to-site-name Rule Lawyer threads without a second thought. Then scrolled up to the top and started her own thread.
Thread : A new group Quest?
I raided the tomb of lord Stygias today. > Although I couldn't find lord Stygias⦠O_o
Lots of large feathers (Roc-bird?) lying around, a few guards that tried to kill me. I convinced them to join my cause, but sadly they perished when we met a Dust Wyvern. :'(
After giving them the traditional desert-folk burial (covering them in cloth before burying them so they do not 'sleep' touching sand.) I pressed onwards.
Eventually I found a curious item, a stone template, its icon is outlined blue like a quest item, yet it doesn't give away anything immediately helpful on examination. I put the script in my characters translator and turned it from Copern to Temni which we all know resembles slightly archaic English, thine sword shoppe, etc. Here is what I got:
The prophet of Aerie is here.
Felling Kigoran prince of the lich.
With the key and the sphereâ¦.
Before time runs thin, find your Niche.
When the blinded fighter fells a foe.
And death comes swiftly you will know.
The Blackguard is known by all.
The Chooser of the slain will awe.
The Bow of Fen is notched.
And She with dire blade joins nine high in epoch.
Sounds pretty epic right guys? XD Rhythm needs a little work, but then, its translated. >, But I think I've found a group quest. Its the first time I've found an ingame indication that this is a game. Finding 'your Niche' would be tricky without reincarnation... Has anyone found something similar? Will check in the morning. :3
Anonymously Swift [Site Owner]
"I'm unidentifiably quickâ¦"
I'm sixteen⦠Thought Max, as he returned to his room.
All the guests to his birthday party had left, and feeling slightly ill having eaten too much party food, Max lay down in his bed to rest. The next moment he opened his eyes; the sun had almost vanished. He smiled grimly and checked to discover his new laptop had successfully installed the client for Cycle. He opened the game, banished the updates window. (Player owned Pets? Coolâ¦
Max logged in, saw his three character slots, one empty, one contained Max's crippled Drakonyan Seer-Acrobat who had quit adventuring after bringing a smuggling ring to justice. Now Elbon Tsorek worked as a curator at the library at Humanth Fief and supplied Max with meta-info at the cost of spending about a few minutes a day programming his character to fix and sort books. Minor things like what were programable, but it was impossible for characters to acquire quests on auto-pilot.
His mouse hovered over the third character slot : Crowre Talrlus who looked unexpectedly happy. Max clicked on Crowre, eliciting the sound of a dagger being drawn and a blue spotlight to cast down on Crowre; then pressed the shiny silver "Enter Cycle" button.
A telluric planet covered in clouds except for the equator of harmony (a jagged strip of land and sea circling Cycle that was no longer shrouded by deadly vapour) appeared in space. The sounds of immense winds filled the speakers, his view zoomed towards Cycle, down onto the continent of Lurce, to the land between the Icewelk and Havihal forest, rushing past trees, into a cave. Max heard the sound of dripping water. The Tutorial pit slowly rendered around him. This was how most players began.
The view came to rest on a familiar looking statue and Maxwell started. Colour flowed into the statue and it came alive, becoming Crowre. A statue he had already seen on his last visit as Chthonia, it had the appearance of his character but the lack of colour and a philosophical pose comparable to a famous statue had meant it didn't register consciously. Suppose he had based his character on the statue without knowing it?
Crowre stood, dazed in a dark cavern filled with clay statues constantly being excavated by Fomorians, grey haired men and women with rams horns, and Dharven : a short stocky people. Both races wielded master-crafted pick axes courtesy of the latter race.
He wandered along towards the exit of the pits, a woman wearing a linen shirt bearing a lanyard with the name "Mod Alixi" came into view. "Welcome back Crowre!" She said. Mod Alixi was easily excited. "Back?" Said Crowre confused. Max unwittingly found himself roleplaying his character.
And with that, Max led his character through the tutorial pits and came to the surface, relieved to breath in fresh air.
(Simultaneously a zephyr crawled out of the almost night sky into Max's room.)
In the distance, down a path he saw the beginners town of Newrook. Mod Alixi handed Crowre a faded scroll - which he accepted bemused, then parted back into the cave. "See you soon!" Alixi called chirpily. Max flinched at the suggestion that would Crowre die soon. He never hung around the tutorial area, some players were always asking him for alms despite having beginner packs themselves.
Anyway; adventure was ahead.
[Intro End]
Welcome to Cycle Online : The most technologically advanced MMOHR (Massively Multiplayer Online Hyper Reality) on Earth.
Code of Conduct
1. Make sure what you write is inoffensive, appropriate and relevant. Thank you
(Armour Games already covers these rules and more thought right?)
Common Knowledge
The game is set on a world mostly covered by darkness, except for a band of mostly clear sky which curves along the surface of the planet in a ring.
The game is Nintendo Hard meaning if a player's character dies (game over) the character and all its powers are deleted and its items are loot-able - and in some cases, NPC's will grieve. A person may have up to three characters at a time, however the characters belonging to a single person may not interact so far as trading items or influencing each other positively.
Expect your first characters to die quickly. Be prepared to except mistakes such as stumbling into high-level-monster spawn zones and the domains of Player-Kill obsessed. It may be a while before you have a thoroughly developed character. Experiment, Its fun.
When posting for your characters 'Real Life" outside the game , write your actions in a more novel-ish manner if you choose and make the text Bold.
In "Real Life" mode you can control the actions of your character and may create characters such a relatives and peers rather independently unless it involves conversation or interaction with other players or NPC created by myself. (Cycle Conventions may occur occasionally.)
In the game, write commands, EG I use Scold on the Pooka. I open the rusty gate, I want to travel to Newrook; how far away is it?, How do rations work?, etc
And I will reply in turn.
If an attack hits (The Pooka's scales burn, it shrieks and back away.).
If you can open a door (It doesn't appear to be locked, but you have to put all your weight into it, and it makes a horrible scraping sounds).
Or how long it takes to get from one location to another (3 Hours, steady pace.)
If you encounter anything along the way (You are stopped in your path when a panther slinks out of the shadows.)
If you never mention eating the Rations, it is assumed you do so in travel time; but If you are constantly in action for over a day you will actively not eat unless otherwise described (As you interview the duchess, your stomach rumbles. "The attacks started about a month ago" She said, firmly.)
If I write a paragraph without a Player-sheet above it, and in Bold : All players should read it.
Post special text in Italics.
To have your character write threads and send 'Private Messages' to other players on the Cycle Fan-Site "Death of the Rule Lawyer" use the following format.
To PM, put this at the beginning of a paragraph.
PM : Name-Of-Player's-Game-Character
-Type Message text here-
To post a thread which anyone can add to, put this at the beginning of a paragraph.
Thread : Thread-Name
-Type thread text here-
Death of the Rule Lawyer.
I have actually made a real forum by this name which may supplement the game by listing non playable races, additional pantheons and polls for new game content. However, it does not contain a copy of Octavia's thread, because I would like to keep most game-changing conversation on Armour-Games.
And before you post any warnings about the danger of links, I will warn everyone myself. It is said on the forums that you shouldn't post any Trust Links because in some cases links lead to websites enabling hackers to access your computer. So don't post ''Don't click there" or something like that, everyone has read this right?
[url=http://deathoftherulelawyer.com.shivtr.com/]
That said, If you do apply for this game, you may realise It wouldn't do in the slightest for the computers of my players to become encrusted in viruses.
Its your choice in the end of course, just keep it in mind when you decide you want to optimise your fourth character a few weeks into playing with a new race, class and deity. This DOES also give you the opportunity to submit ideas; Any material posted may receive the 'Talonwood Seal of Approval' and will be considered part of the game. This may include : new uncommon playable Races, Classes and Pantheons. The TSOA is more likely to be given to the ideas of veteran players (And thusly those who define a larger part of Cycle) than not. When a new race enters Cycle it will be posted once, but not every time a new player joins.
Powers In-Game
Power Types :
[Passive] : Costs nothing, happens automatically.
Basic Power : The Majority of powers are of this type.
(Power-name Cost)
Gaining Power
(Power-name Definer : [G=Gain] Cost)
Unleashed Power
(Power-name [U])
Complex Powers : You may gain Complex powers at higher levels if you show interest in non-basic powers. They usually are both Gaining and Unleashed powers.
(Power-name [G=X] [X=U])
Powers Terminology :
Cost : A cost without any prefix subtracts energy form the energy defined by the Power list it is in, this cost is set by the power in question. When you use a power, subtract the appropriate amount from the energy defined by your class. (Stamina, Concentration, Magic, Divinity)
For example, to use the power "Adroit Strike 4" given by the Combatant class, you would subtract 4 from your Stamina. (Stamina : 35/35 becoming Stamina : 31/35)
A prefix means the Power costs energy form another list. S = a Stamina cost, C = Concentration, M = Magic, D = Divinity, H/HP = Hp. SC would mean Stamina & Concentration, SCMD would mean all energy types.
[G=?] : The amount of energy you may gain from using the power, unless otherwise specified with a prefix, the energy gained goes to the power source the spell costs. [G=S5] would mean you gained 5 Stamina.
[U] : Unleashed-Cost : Unless otherwise specified with prefix, the cost is from the list defined energy. [U] is not set, any amount of energy from the defined source can be ramped into an Unleashed Power in a single usage of the ability, the more power used the more, the more effective the power may be. Some Unleashed powers may have a minimum energy that must be used, that looks like this [10
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