I didn’t know where I was, and it didn’t seem to matter. Crystallizing after being cut off yourself is a bit strange. I knew I was part of Aelryinth, I’d been cut off him, but I also knew I wasn’t him. After all, there was a lot more to him than there was to me, as I could remember exactly what and how I was cut off right up until the moment it was happening. He had been way out in BF nowhere in Creation. I didn’t know if I was tumbling between multiverses now or was passing through one. It was all kind of timeless and I had no points of reference, nor could I Cast. On the other hand, I was made of a bunch of Karma. If there were no rules, I could just invest… Nnnn. Or maybe not. I was tumbling through a not-whiteness, which seemed to be populated by spheres, squares, and lines of various sizes and hues. Having no frame of reference, I didn’t know how big they were, how far away they were, or why I was tumbling through a geometry student’s worst nightmare. There was definitely some kind of current, and I was sweeping towards that sphere all dark with sparklies on it. At least, I seemed to be, as it was growing perceptibly bigger. It… just took a long time to get there. Because it got bigger, and bigger, and bigger… I finally had an idea how big things were here when that sphere was taking up everything in front of me after who knew how long, and the sparklies inside it looked like little galaxies. So, big. If not infinite, not a bad level next to it. And I definitely was not big. I was very, very small, but I seemed to be moving very, very fast, more conceptual speed than anything physics could explain. When I passed the membrane of the Veil, I felt… huh, ethereal for a moment, spirit moving into a world of substance. Abruptly I was sliding along the Veil, but I recognized that pressure immediately. This was another Mortal Plane, just not one I knew of. I was a drifting fragment of a soul with no anchor, but full of Karma. I had no idea what the proper dispensation of such a soul was, but it seemed I was being dragged there, as I certainly wasn’t guiding anything here. Felt completely helpless, actually, no idea where I was going or why. Welp, could only hope I wasn’t going to be a passing snack for an ectovore or soul-eater or something, although I probably ‘looked’ like a chopped-up french fry someone had tossed away from the real meal. Heh. Given the Death Curse trying to eat Aelryinth, that probably wasn’t too far out. Galaxies spun as I moved, passing through them at faster than light speeds, watching galaxies spin like tops as I covered distances I couldn’t comprehend at speeds with too many zeroes for me to calculate like I was now. Obviously I was going somewhere. It was surreal watching galactic superclusters, ultra-nebulas, strobing pulsars, and exploding supernovas slide on by, wondering if someone was doing this just to show off their creation. A dot far in the distance wasn’t moving. Like this black sphere, it grew with time, more galaxies popping into view, expanding around me, zipping past me, stars that looked like dense clouds actually light years apart and looking like just more distant lights and blurs in the sky as I was pulled through and past them, no star in sight for more than an instant. I didn’t think I passed through any of them, but it would have been so quick, how would I have known? But that one dot ahead was only growing, not moving. A dot like any other star grew into another galactic cluster. The cluster expanded around me and became another group of galaxies still separated by a million light years and not looking like a cluster at all… and I was heading for one of them. Galaxies swelled in size as I passed by, and then they dropped away as an arm of the spiral in front of me began to grow… and I seemed to be slowing. Nope, definitely slowing, or I’d already be through this galaxy. That meant I was closing on something, probably around a star. That star? Seemed to be a medium yellow… Speed was definitely slowing, the star ahead now growing in size instead of zipping by in blurs like the ones to the sides, like the Power of Ten slide shows where celestial scenes are focused on a dozing person in Central Park in New York or whatever… Arriving, slowing, and suddenly I was slow enough I could actually see a gas giant of a planet tumble past in ocher and reds, and there was a flitter of an asteroid field, like moving through a rain of mountains I could barely see as they flashed past. There was a shadow against the sun ahead, a tiny dot right in the middle of my vision - Send Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. If I could have blinked, I would have as the reverberated through me, depositing its message into and through me for reference. Well, that all might be useful… A blue world ahead of me, a marble of white clouds and dark lands and sapphire oceans, a-gleam... Wait, was that whole world -? Was it looking at something? And because I could without turning, I looked back. The stars were looking down at me. An eye formed of galaxies, a wing of the cosmos brushing across infinity, and something vast, vast as the heavens, was looking down at ME. I stared as I fell down onto that world, and the vision was gone, but the sight would remain with me forever. Ael hadn’t even known he had the Bloodline, never tried to open it before he cut it loose. How were we supposed to know? But there it was. Our Bloodline obviously knew us… The Void Phoenix sent me spiraling down into the blue world below. Clouds sped by in a blanket of white and gray and the darkness grew into the tiny points of lights, and I fell towards one of them… ===================================== And so begins our descent into the Known World of D&D. The BECMI (Beginner, Expert, Companion, Master, and Immortal Sets) of Dungeons and Dragons were a different game from AD&D and its successors, including the present 5e, and are the core of the current OSR (Old School Revival) movement. The tone was lighter, the game was simpler, there were fewer spells and class abilities to worry about, and the rules were a lot looser. One of the main differences is that non-human races were intrinsically magical, and so they were defined by the magic of their race, not by their classes or professions as humans were. Thus all elves were warriors and magic-users, all dwarves were doughty fighters, and all halflings were surprisingly good survivors and sneaky gits. They received far more racial benefits than mere humans, and their saving throws started out better and actually reached a maximum about level 10! Humans wouldn’t reach the same levels until 30 or so, but long term made better spellcasters and warriors because they could advance further. Demihumans could learn to fight skillfully, but basically topped out hit points and stuff at 10. A lot of this was later added onto with gazetters and other gaming supplements (and plenty of online additions). Elves were able to pick between magical improvement or fighting improvement. Dwarves could become dwarf-clerics. Halflings could become druids (but only in the Five Shires). Humans were initially restricted to the classic four (Fighter, Cleric, Magic-user, Thief). This was later expanded to include Mystics (monks), and a number of side-classes (Merchant, Merchant-Prince, etc) which could be leveled up separately from the main Class. BECMI was also unique in that it was designed to take you from low power to lordly power, guiding people into becoming lords and ladies, rulers of dominions, and waging war with armies where required upon invaders or to expand your lands. Eventually, however, you became so competent that it was time to become legendary, standing atop the world as its Masters, and then taking the steps towards Immortality. Immortality was a whole separate tier, at the bottom of a new totem pole, but with so much upscale. You got your own small dimensional plane to mess around with, you could take over more, expand your own, and of course increase your own power as you messed around with rival Immortals and other godly creatures in bids to increase your power and that of your Sphere. The Multiverse of D&D is different from AD&D and its later Editions. The gods made famous in AD&D do not exist in the Known World, although some of the gods of our own myths are Immortals there. The main forces in Conflict are the spheres of Matter, Energy, Time, and Thought, which are all rivals, and all are opposed by Entropy/Death. Good and Evil were not ‘Alignments’ in BECMI, only Law, Chaos, and Neutrality (despite being referenced in spells?…), so the world is primarily a Law/Chaos conflict, as opposed to Evil/Good. This means it is considerably grimmer overall, as there are no ‘good guys’ in the setting, especially among the Immortal Spheres. There are heroes and dastards in every Sphere, even if it tends to cater to one Alignment or another. The ‘Race as Class’ and longer lives of demi-humans mean they have more broad, low power than humans do, but humans dominate the higher levels in BECMI completely. BECMI D&D could also be ‘won’. If you started at level One, worked your way up to the most powerful of Immortals, Hierarchs of your Sphere, then dispersed your power and started over at Level One and leveled all the way to the apex in a new Sphere, you were pulled out by the Old Ones, what in AD&D would be Greater Gods, to join their number, and your character was officially retired! BECMI is far less complex on a personal level than 3E D&D, and so much less than Power of Ten, whose foundation builds on those rules. This is fairly easy to justify, as it is a feudal society where magic is hoarded, not shared, broken into warring kingdoms with no overarching goals or unity, a situation that existed in our own world for thousands of years. Our MC coming into BECMI is thus like a skilled engineer arriving in ancient Rome, armed with the knowledge of how to build from simple to complex, and thus able to accomplish what the natives are not from a higher knowledge base. This doesn’t mean the world doesn’t have its own unique things to offer, but its magical development is generally much, much less than the Power of Ten. There are still some tropes I’m going with. Races give Health, and Classes normally give Soak. Good is an Alignment, but is not a major player here. Law on Law, Law on Chaos, and Chaos on Chaos are the major conflicts, with the Neutrals alternately trampled on, bought off by, siding with, or playing off the two opposing sides. There are no active gods, only interested Immortals and some philosophies. Immortals do not pursue Alignment goals, they pursue the goals of their Spheres. So, Warriors and martial might vs Religion vs Magic vs Mortal technology and innovation, all vs Entropy/Death. Immortals tend to have highly individualized interests, and because they are not dependent on mortal followers for any of their power, merely profiting slightly if they do have some, they do not cater to them as gods pursuing the Alignment Wars might. Immortal projects are meant to have real results, more akin to scientific experiments, not profound ones. This, in turn, leaves mortals to decide much of what goes on in the mortal world, while the Immortals watch and intervene only rarely, when they will not be caught by their opposite numbers. ---- This story is going to rise to power fairly quickly, as the MC is coming into the world with the standard Shard bundle of nine sets of Levels at Nine, when she only has one nominal Class to put that Karma into! The world also has none of the alternate Karma dumps so common to the Power of Ten, so even if she somehow access other Classes, there are simply fewer places to put her Karma… and, in addition, the cost of Karmic levels per Level remains the same above level 10! Thus, you become more competent at making Karma and actually advance further and faster after level 10… if you survive! BECMI Levels are less powerful than AD&D Levels, and certainly less than 3.5 Levels. A BECMI character is about 2/3 as powerful as an AD&D character, and probably only half to a third as strong as a 3E character. Thus, levels will be gained swiftly, but in keeping with the character of the setting, grinding and video game combat against endless hordes is not what is going on. Powerful characters become involved in the fate of nations, and all of that will be incorporated into the story, along with finally messing with Artifacts and the goals of the Immortals at the Master tier, and what will the Biracial Edgelord who Can’t Make Immortal do then?...