A Jaded Life

Right after Alkmene's rant about cults, she went on: “Well, you have chosen your path. But the path is just the general direction, by choosing your class, you can specialize. Trying to spread your power over the whole path will lead to being spread too thin. There are many classes fitting the Arcane Path and each class can specialize later. Choose wisely.”

It wasn't a truly long list, I guess all hybrid classes are on one of the other paths so after skimming the classes, I got it down to five:

Mage Mages are those belonging to the official Mages Guilds. They learn from their mentor and afterwards become indentured to the guild. Few Mages ever leave the guild and those that do without permission from the Guild Council are hunted as traitors. Their official status makes them equivalent to low-ranking nobles of their country.

Necromancer Those who seek eternity often find themself on the path of Necromancy, studying Life and Death and experimenting on souls. The easiest experiments create mindless undead or simple curses, advanced scholars can call souls from the Realms beyond and create truly marvellous beings or horrifying plagues. On the other hand, Necromancers are amongst the few mortals who can allow those who can afford them reprieve from death by various means.

Summoner The Astral Realm is inhabited by all sorts of spirits, quite like the Nether. A skilled caster is able to create shells for the spirits and by using his own connection to the Astral can entice spirits to inhabit the created shells. The strength of the Summoners magical Aura is responsible for guiding the spirits to Mundus and his created shells. The combination of shell and spirit is mostly called a Spiritgolem.

Sorcerer Sorcerer are those few true Spellcasters that did not seek guidance on their path but struck out on their own. They are the trailblazer, the few who advance the state of knowledge. Most sadly die on their path to greatness but the few who make it, often found their own traditions of magic.

Warlock Some learn from their elders, some choose different ways. Warlocks sacrifice to the various Netherspirits to gain knowledge and power. Each spirit is different in their preferences in sacrifices, some prefer the blood of innocents, other take the Astral Power of the ritualist. However no Netherspirit will give power without cost.

The Guild-Mage was mostly on the list because it was apparently the standard caster in Road to Purgatory but if I'm honest with myself, nope not gonna happen.

Necromancer on the other hand sounds interesting, being able to create my own minions could be incredibly valuable but there was the yuck-factor to consider, I hadn't done terribly well during biology class when it was time to dissect frogs, my only non A in a STEM-Class during high-school to my eternal shame.

Summoner sounds better in that regard but the part with 'magical Aura is responsible for guiding the spirits' means, if I remember right, that the class is strongly Charisma-based and choosing a class based on one of my weakest attributes would be foolish.

Sorcerer on the other hand sounds incredibly high risk, high reward, making my own way without guidance? Well it's the beta and from everything I heard, all character-progress will be wiped for the true release with beta-testers mainly gaining the knowledge advantage, some traits depending on their beta-progression and cosmetics. So if this character becomes a total lemon it's not too bad and I know what to avoid with the true release.

The Warlock sounds a bit intriguing but at the end of the day, it sounds like some cleric with terrible publicity. No, if I wanted to use some higher beings tricks, I'd just roll over and play the priest of some random douche-god. So, No, thank you.

Again, applying the exclusion-principle, I've got my class, Sorcerer, I choose you!

Class gained: Sorcerer

Sorcerers don't have class-skills. They are however able to define their own skills by trial and error, formalizing them and gaining class-bonuses on such self-created abilities.

You gained a Special Ability: [Spell Crafting]

Special Ability gained

You gained the Special Ability: Spell Crafting

This ability allows you to create and formalize your own spells. A formal spell can be auto-casted and gains bonuses, depending on the relevant skills. A spell can be based on runes, gestures, chants or for very advanced Sorcerer even thought itself.

After choosing, Alkmene regarded me with a bit of interest. “Interesting choice, maybe some day a new Traveller will be able to walk down the Path of Morgana, following in your footsteps. Now, you can chose some traits, but remember, there will be a balance if you only choose positive traits some will be assigned to you, so chose wisely.”

It was a long, long list, some sounded interesting, others, not. I ended up choosing Magical Hair, Astral Power III and Astral Regeneration III which all increased my magical power and something called 'The Road is my Teacher', allowing me to learn skills and special abilities faster and easier without a teacher but greatly lowering my ability to learn from teachers. To balance things, I got something called Unbound, Outsider, Child of the Wild and Lone Traveller.

Trait gained

You gained the trait: Magical Hair

Your hair is able to store up to 33% of your total Astral Power, in effect increasing your pool by that amount. You need to have at least twenty inches of hair to store the maximum amount and if your hair is cut, you lose the stored power.

Trait gained

You gained the trait: Astral Power III

You can store extra Astral Power within your body. This increases the maximum stored amount of Astral power by 33%

Trait gained

You gained the trait: Astral Regeneration III

Your connection to the Astral Rivers flowing through the world is especially close. You regenerate Astral Power 75% faster. That regeneration always occurs.

Trait gained

You gained the trait: The Road is my Teacher

You are able to learn skills 25% faster without a teacher.

You are able to learn Special Abilities by using them without a teacher

When learning from a teacher, skills train 25% slower.

You are unable to learn Special Abilities from a teacher.

Trait gained

You gained the trait: Unbound

You belong to no Country or Creed.

Maximum starting reputation with any large faction is Neutral.

Trait gained

You gained the trait: Outsider

You don't belong. Even among your own people, you are the one who doesn't fit. People are more suspicions of you, making you the prime suspect if something bad happens.

Trait gained

You gained the trait: Child of the Wild

You were quite literally raised by wolves. You don't belong to any family, tribe or community.

No starting faction.

Trait gained

You gained the trait: Lone Traveller

You walk the world alone, without any like you at your side.

When in a group with other Travellers, you gain 10% less experience.

When alone or in a group with natives, you gain 10% more experience.

Now, Alkmene was looking at me with true curiosity in her eyes. “Well, you are convinced to make your own way, are you not? No Creed, no country, no family, no tribe, you will be all alone in the world of Mundus. I guess you will either die somewhere in the wild or you will become one of the brightest shining stars at the end of the road. It will be interesting to see which, I will have to ask the Mistress to keep up with your progress and maybe let me watch. Now, due to your traits, there is nowhere you call home, so you will start somewhere in the wilds, don't worry, I will not place you in some frost-wyrm lair, that would be boring. Why don't you look over your final character sheet before I send you on your way?”

Basic Overview

Name Morgana

Race Firn-Elf

Level 1

Health 84/84 Stamina 88/88

Astral Power 224/224 Divine Power -

Strength 9 Agility 13 Dexterity 12

Intelligence 17 Intuition 16 Charisma 9

Courage 13 Endurance 11 Vitality 11

Social Overview

Tribe None

Country None

Guild None

Creed None

Regeneration

Health Regeneration .55% per minute

Stamina Regenration 1.1% per minute

Astral Power Regeneration 2.8% per minute

Divine Power Decay -

Please note that the regeneration-rates above is for being idle, outside of combat. Different activities can change the regeneration-rate.

Trait Overview

[Rune Affinity: Ice], [Rune Affinity: Darkness], [Rune Affinity: Blood] [Frost-Resistance], [Lowlight Vision],[Denizen of the Dark], [Denizen of the Eternal Ice], [Heat-Sensitive],[Glare Sensitivity], [Unbound], [Outsider], [Child of the Wild], [Lone Traveller] [Magical Hair], [Astral Power III], [Astral Regeneration III], [The Road is my Teacher]

After looking over my character-sheet and chuckling at the slightly pathetic Social Overview, I said “Yes, Alkmene, looks good to me, send me in.”

She answered me with “Very well, Traveller, a lesser daimon will help you with the first few steps on Mundus but don't expect any true help from it, it will only pass some obvious information. I wish you farewell and good luck.

With that, the meadow, Alkmene and everything vanished.