YGGDRASIL. It utilized a new state-of-the-art module with neural implants, being one of the first attempts to optimize this level of nanotech for a multi-layered and interactive gaming purpose. And from it spawned a digital universe.
YGGDRASIL featured a hitherto unseen level of player freedom, from individual customization to the sheer size of its open world. It was a game the likes of which players had only been dreamed about for more than a century. Gone was the basic knowledge of the traditional massive multiplayer online franchise and instead people were introduced to a new generic mold where everything was learned anew, save for the exception of specific player controls. The developers were very hands off with the game''s content allowing any expansions to fall into the creative hands of its playerbase. YGGDRASIL became a world of its own making.
YGGDRASIL - worlds that seemed to grow and adapt over time. Third was the playerbase itself in the forming of guild communities and the conquering of dungeon systems sprouting the formation of guild bases across the nine worlds. This led in turn to the Guild Wars - a competitive time where capturing other guild bases and even player killing became common sights among the nine worlds.
YGGDRASIL was a game that appealed to everyone: from hikikomori who want to roleplay in a world unlike their own, to a frustrated salaryman venting their frustrations within this sword & sorcery setting, to creative minds using the game worlds as key visualization and inspiration material, to even weirdos with tendencies unthought of and more.
YGGDRASIL forever changed the digital market, even outside the boundaries of the game itself. Its reception was so great, that the company responsible for the production of the neural module - until then just a curious invention - had its stock emptied overnight and continued to be empty for months onward. Production even years afterwards would still be unable to keep up with the astronomical spike in demand. Soon after - the widespread use of neural interface technology became commonplace in the real world, most digital traffic going through it than any other device and the more traditional mediums such as computers and mobile devices fell to the wayside.
YGGDRASIL had truly become mainstream to half the world. But not all things can last...
YGGDRASIL player - Lord Serra. He was one of the few fantasy writers who could claim to make profits from their works of fiction in today''s market. His gamer tag was not only a pseudonym but the name of one of his main characters of his fictional series set in the worlds of YGGDRASIL. His works were not widely circulated since many of his readers no longer played the game. But he preferred it that way. There was a time where he became an in-game celebrity but in all honesty, he considered that period to be extremely tedious. It got to the point where he had to stop pushing out new material and constricting access to what was currently online.
YGGDRASIL had been his greatest source of inspiration and it came out at the perfect time for him, while he was still fresh out of school in a world that had long lost any appeal. His mind already lived in a past mythological setting and the short stories he had written were those of an old Japanese culture now forgotten. But traversing through this digital universe inspired by old Norse mythologies was a most welcome change that expanded his mind into new horizons.
YGGDRASIL made available. And scrolling through these took up another couple days, but eventually he came to a decision.
YGGDRASIL, the game was going through a period called the Great Prosecution where the griefing of heteromorph players was at its all-time peak. However "angels" were one of the few hetero species that were not killed on sight.
YGGDRASIL, even if said player did not have any affiliation to one of its members. And lastly, "angels" did not count as "monsters" when they got above a certain racial level threshold. So in other words, player-killing them did not count towards certain achievements and titles. And oddly, killing enough "angels" became detrimental, something Seraphim used against PK''ers.
YGGDRASIL. Although his rank and position was not among the guild''s inner sphere of its thirty elite members, Lord Serra had reached the pinnacle of YGGDRASIL''s end game and thus began to write in earnest of his journey to the top. This is when he started to write his compendium of short stories detailing the long road of his in-game adventures as an ongoing fantasy series. Soon these began to circulate among the player community and earned himself an in-game celebrity status through his works. Even the top members of Seraphim were fans and began saving him raiding spots for even the hardest of dungeon encounters, them becoming novellas in their own right.
YGGDRASIL meant that to be at the top meant you had to stay at the top. And that meant most times money (in the real world) being spent. Lord Serra had avoided the use of the cash shop but he found that its use was virtually needed for these upper tier dungeons. And alot of in-game farming for rare materials. What followed was a very liberal use of the cash shop for not only premium items but spending yen at the gashapon for a chance at its best rewards, much of which amounted to a useless spending venture. That in of itself became the basis of another story which was quite relatable to the player community.
YGGDRASIL soon became the sunset of its player community. The megacorporations got wise and caught up to the early advantage the YGG development team had enjoyed. The game''s original premise seemed aged compared to the numerous virtual consoles now hitting the market. YGGDRASIL no longer had its monopoly.
YGGDRASIL started at its center with its zones branching outward like a tree. So the further away from the World Tree you are, the more dangerous the zones and its mobs become.
YGGDRASIL. Seraphim became an introverted mess that no longer coordinated their efforts towards any goal. The Fall had not only reduced the members of their inner sphere but it sapped their remaining number''s will to explore any more of the game then they had become accustomed to. Serra realized it quicker than many other players - YGGDRASIL was a dying game.
YGGDRASIL''s final shutdown. He could only lament this fact that he would lose so much of this visual work in a matter of minutes. And there was still so much that there could have been done and created here. Heck, even many of the character sheets he set aside had yet to be filled out among this city''s populace.
YGGDRASIL novel series. And this end result was truly a modern work of art.
YGGDRASIL''s typical floating islands were not uncommon in its nine worlds but most of the time these areas were just empty ruins with a treasure chest hidden somewhere on its grounds guarded by high level mobs. In the rarest of cases those chests could have something very valuable inside, like a World Class item. This floating island looked to be the old ruins of a small elf kingdom with a castle town in its center. Not at all out of the ordinary as this was Alfheimr, the land of the elves.
YGGDRASIL nowadays since most had already been completed with few being the known repeatables which were still kept active by the devs. But scouting the island further revealed that this "oppressor" was an Ancient Dragon in the castle ruin''s courtyard sitting atop a treasure pile.
YGGDRASIL jackpot as Ancient Dragons themselves were practically a goldmine worth of loot and it was sitting atop another pile of drops. This was certainly not a repeatable event, or at least not one that was known since this Ancient Dragon did not have 90 total levels. Serra likely found a dev easter egg for newbie players, the kind that were a few hundred all over the nine worlds when the game was still young. However by some miracle, this Ancient Dragon was still untouched.
YGGDRASIL, having this type of combo came with its own respective perks and penalties - being a hybrid build meant that there are some abilities that were locked and could not be used, such as specialized spells and skills of the highest tiers, but the tradeoff was being able to use a rather unique spellcaster weapon called the spellbow. This weapon served in many ways like a staff to many mage classes with the spellbow being able to use arrows to launch spells, in addition to its traditional counterpart.
YGGDRASIL''s player base (though in its lower half) and a step behind optimized [World] class users.
YGGDRASIL commenced. The battle went about as smoothly as it could have. He had never fought one of these dragon mobs before and even with the level and numbers advantage, Serra could see how this would be a difficult encounter back when the game was young. More than half of the fight was done while having to use some form of flying mechanic. Without it, the fight could have lasted over 30 minutes but since his team had numerous ways to deal with the dragon when he was airborne, those phases were done rather neatly.
YGGDRASIL for over six years and this is the first time a message like this was active on his screen. True Lord Serra was already a member of Seraphim, even still the top guild in the game, but his heart raced with possibility - a story nearing its end yet now finding a new beginning. His inner muse was singing. Thoughts were becoming lines and those lines started to form into plots, characters, even stories. This is when his mind realized - this had potential.
YGGDRASIL may not be done yet. His selection box was on Yes.
YGGDRASIL''s player base and it even went uncontested during the Guild Wars. In fact the last player to visit this location in Alfhemir did not even notice its existence. That would make this area at the very least an obscure target and buy himself enough time to create a suitable defense system.
YGGDRASIL''s nine overworlds. Eventually these utilities got removed by the dev team due to a "small" imbalance created by guilds monopolizing entire zones for months to years on end.
YGGDRASIL players had yet to ever touch one of these before. But now one resides in his own inventory.
YGGDRASIL''s nine worlds. Entire zones could be changed, mountains grounded to dust, a high stone road raised through a treacherous swampland, or a volcano transformed into a snowy peak. Heck, this WCI could probably be used to naturally seal off a guild base from the overworld by moving it deep under the earth or piling a mountain on top of it.
YGGDRASIL. And yet at this period of downtime, he just found the skeleton key to the future of his series. A new saga was ready to be born.
YGGDRASIL, Serra leisurely wandered through his greatest creation absorbing all the sights he could behold before before the game''s end. What once was a sad excuse for a city ruin was now the majestic Celestial City - homeland of the Tel-Quessir (or moon elves) and the gateway to the divine realm of their savior and resident deity, Lord Serra.
YGGDRASIL game servers. In fact he was still recording now so he could not say that it was all in vain or even been wasted time, because he probably had the most fun in his gaming life creating this Celestial City. It long served Serra as a new source of almost endless inspiration - but damn if this final shutdown did not hurt his soul.
YGGDRASIL. Thus nearly every city resource could be found somewhere in one of these streets. In the lore, the regular lv.40 guards that spawned from the Great Bridge would do their daily patrols in this area, keeping its relatively quiet peace in good order. Serra even included a few non-elf settlements in this area as his own version of Easter eggs. There was even a hidden Shadow Street that led to the Undermarket, a city''s black market grounds where exotic goods could be found to purchase.
YGGDRASIL game while others were dab hands of other gamer accounts he found online relating to YGGDRASIL and its mysteries. But this hall was considered a most sacred place and was headed by a special high sage singled out for a love for all things lore, a beautiful sagesse who wears the moniker - Historia. She too is another lv.100 implant and was written out to be the Head Librarian and the leader of this intellectual branch of the Faith of its lv.40 city spawn sage NPCs.
YGGDRASIL. The nesting grounds itself is guarded by two lv.100 elder owl griffons with 9th tier capability. Collectively these owl griffons were known as the *sacred beasts*.
YGGDRASIL events were written out to be a common sight in their arena, with many a play featuring the Lord Serra himself. Thousand Hearths was a massive double walled keep that functioned as the city inn and true to its name - there were 1000 rooms available for their guests. Stretched out over a half a mile and almost five stories in height, Thousand Hearths could be considered the greatest wonder of elfkind, anywhere to be found in YGGDRASIL.
YGGDRASIL shutting down its servers for good.
YGGDRASIL, even comparable to the World Enemy mobs themselves. Coupled with the dimensional shift (trap) built into the throne room, it was a nightmare encounter for even a hardcore raid of players.
YGGDRASIL hung in a full display. The top most room was a zenith, the most richly decorated room within this instance. The stone walls gleamed like a diamond, the ceiling was looked as if it was made of crystal, the dim lights from the magic candle wall ornaments refracted all throughout the room to make it seem aglow. And at its head a stylish pink divan sofa with its delicate golden framework depicting cute little cupids and an elegant swan. From its terrace the light of the golden lands that laid below and beyond - although the zone limit was but a bare meter away from this balcony.
YGGDRASIL''s high level dungeons and in the valkyrie''s case, a divine-class player-made warspear that cost Serra a small fortune to make.
YGGDRASIL were plagued with the same recurrent thoughts and pangs of emotion. He really did not want to see anything he made just disappear like a puff of smoke but the cold reality was he had to accept the fact that there was nothing he could possibly do to stop what was coming.
YGGDRASIL was still unclear.
YGGDRASIL but in an all new light.
YGGDRASIL character save for certain emote functions. Heck - he could even feel his own body looking at her in a gaping stupor.
YGGDRASIL shutting its servers down*. After all, the best fibs are the ones that have a sprinkling of truth in them. The other three occupants of the room visibly tensed to his statement, to which he continued.
YGGDRASIL game world become real memories in the minds of the NPCs. What about all the stories he wrote? Did they too become akin to a *real* timeline or an alternate reality?
YGGDRASIL have fallen to the Ragnarok. And I doubt we are on any world we have current knowledge of." Which was another way to say, a DMMO-RPG we were in shut down its servers so it is unlikely that we will find ourselves in any of the worlds found therein. But this answer was enough for the Overlord as he merely bowed and made to excuse himself from the room.
YGGDRASIL the game. This was getting confusing.
YGGDRASIL.
YGGDRASIL. This was a good thing because that meant his guild base and the Celestial City still has built-in protections against outside hacks.
YGGDRASIL such as normal looking clothing that could be stronger in durability than a full plate heavy armor and for absolutely no logical reason.
YGGDRASIL''s side. Nothing pointing at maybe a tech upgrade or even a potential beta test of a sequel. Everything just felt too real which should still be an impossibility given the laws regulating virtual reality.
YGGDRASIL could get to being naked... before shutting his eyes to try and remove even that. A felt a slight breeze on his privates.
YGGDRASIL, has just suffered the fate of the Ragnarok." There was an audible hush to the Prince''s words.
'' engage any natives in combat but only to be on the lookout. If the three meet any resistance, they are to use the sacred beasts to make a hasty retreat." The Azure nodded to the Prince''s accentuation of the word *not* in his command.
YGGDRASIL has just suffered the fate of the Ragnarok."
YGGDRASIL anymore." Breathless voices could now be heard.
YGGDRASIL.
YGGDRASIL overworld. And despite their larger stature, they were also swifter in the air, being able to outmaneuver most adult dragons with ease and could soar for long periods of time without rest. And they were quite resilient and ruthless when the circumstance demanded it, being able to take alot of damage while dishing it out with growing ferocity.
YGGDRASIL the riders recognized.
YGGDRASIL. Although these looked like their more savage cousins wearing crude-looking armors with some carrying large weapons.
And a radiant figure hovered above them all.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.