World Questworld

[OrganicIntelligence]

I. The Beginning of Questworld

In 2104 AD Micronics Inc, the foremost nanotechnology manufacturer in North America began developing their next generation self-replicating nanotechnology swarms.

In 2106, during trial runs of their new nanites, Micronics engineers discovered key flaws in their software that was causing them to resist shutdown commands. Despite their best attempts to reign in the swarms, the test facility and most of the surrounding building was disassembled and absorbed by the nanites in a matter of hours.

By 2107 nearly half of the continental United States of America had been consumed by the self-replicating plague. Micronics Inc, working together with the United States military, developed countermeasures that eventually halted the nanites, but left half of the country remaining as inhospitable wasteland. This area known as the nanowastes was declared off limits for fears they might still reactivate in response to attempts to remove them.

In 2108 following the nanite disaster Micronics was hit with an avalanche of lawsuits and fines from what was left of the United States government, leading to the corporation having to declare bankruptcy. In the ensuing sell-off, a rival corporation, ZeusCorp Ltd, snatched up all of their IP and assets.

In 2124 ZeusCorp, having grown into the largest and most powerful megacorporation in the western hemisphere following the reorganisation of the United States into the Corporate Holdings of America, finally cracked a way to regain control of the nanites and rendered most of them inert. When reclamation efforts began the following year ZeusCorp's heads of R&D realised that they could reprogram the nanites to terraform the wastes to make them habitable again, most of which Zeuscorp had bought up on the cheap the year before.

At the same time, the head of the ZeusCorp entertainment division was looking for ways to continue developing their series of fully immersive holiday destinations where guests could transfer their minds into a host body of their choosing and spend a weekend in a world inhabited by bioroid NPCs. These destinations had proven popular but were limited in scope, being no larger than a small city block and based around enclosed environments such as haunted houses or starships. Upon hearing about the reclamation efforts they had a flash of inspiration, and made a proposal to the board of ZeusCorp for taking the concept to the next level in terms of scale: a massive, open, immersive environment built in the former wasteland where the fantastical was made possible thanks to the sheer saturation of nanomachines. The richest and the luckiest billions of people living in the massive arcology-cities along the western and eastern coasts would be able to spend a few days, weeks or even month exploring it in the body of their choosing.

The board agreed to the proposal and ZeusCorp set aside a 100 by 100 kilometre square area where they set about using the nanomachines along with conventional earth-movers to terraform the interior, creating small mountain ranges, lakes, forests, grasslands, swamps and even a desert biome to the south. The nanomachines would then be used to create a defensive perimeter, appearing as a mist atop the mountains that formed the park's borders that would aggressively burn and dissolve anything that tries to pass through, and would also used to generate the holographic VFX and physical effects of 'magic' within the world they were creating. An entire fantasy kingdom of cities, towns and fortresses was constructed and populated with tens of thousands of bioroids based on fantasy staples like elves, orcs and dwarfs, as well as monstrous dragons, giants and other creatures that would provide guests with foes to fight. Each NPC host was designed with a fully simulated personality matrix, designed to believe they were living in a real fantasy universe and provide realistic responses to the actions of guests.

Once complete, the park was opened in 2130 to the public, with thousands who could afford it flocking each year to it's gates to get to experience the fantastical adventures held within. And the creators of this new work christened it with a name: Questworld.

It is now the fall of 2146, and a new season of storylines are just beginning for the recently arriving guests...​

 

[OrganicIntelligence]

II. Welcome to Questworld​

So, you've been slaving away in the bioreprocessor plants under the watchful eye of your AI managers for years just to save up enough to spend a week in Questworld. Or you're so rich that a month's stay is barely noticeable on your balance sheet. Or you've just won a lottery with a trip to Questworld as the prize, or you're a ZeusCorp employee just making use of their company perks. You might be from one of the huge American megacities like Neuvotropolis or Gran Cali, or from further afield like the British Republic, Japan, China or EuroFed. You might want to go on a mighty quest, or just enjoy the more carnal delights offered in the seedier parts of the park.

But the question you want answered is, how does the process of entering Questworld work?

Picking the right package for you

Questworld guests have the option of several different packages at multiple price points, each one offering a variety of different perks and privileges depending on which one you go for. Ranging from a few thousand to millions of dollars, your choice of package can affect:

• The length of your stay, from a few days to several weeks to entire months at a time - with some particularly rich individuals spending almost all of their time in the park.
• How many characters you can have at once - at the most basic packages a guest can have only one character for their whole stay, whilst premium packages allow you to keep in storage a whole menagerie of characters you can swap between at your leisure.
• How many respawns you have for each character - the absolute cheapest packages offer only a single life and once you die, that's it, whilst the wealthiest guests can afford for their characters to be effectively immortal.
• Class and race availability - At the basic package level, only the standard selections of playable races (humans, elves, dwarfs, orcs, goblins and gnomes) are available. Basic packages also offer only the standard assortment of classes (Fighter, Mage, Thief, Cleric). Guests can purchase as more expensive add-ons to their package more exotic race options such as tieflings, drow, half-giants, hobgoblins, lizardfolk and beastmen, and a wider assortment of classes such as Ranger, Barbarian, Druid, Bard and Paladin. At the highest price points, guests can opt for a custom race or class based on their preferences.
• Narrative options - certain narratives and storylines will only occur for guests who have booked premium packages at certain price points and above.

Preparing for your trip

Once you've selected your package and booked your trip you will receive an invite to a web portal through which you can create your character(s). Beyond your selection of races and classes that are determined by your package choice, you are free to design them any way you wish, from their facial features to their body shape to skin tone to sex and gender. Your real life gender and appearance doesn't matter - you can pick whichever you want! You will also be able to adjust your character's physical stats, which will be elaborated in a future section.

You will also be asked to fill out a list of preferences for what kind of adventures and content you wish to explore in the park, and what also which ones you don't. Would you prefer something more standard and heroic, fighting monsters and protecting the innocent or be the one bringing darkness to the kingdom? Do you wish to avoid such topics as war, murder and slavery, or do you wish to deliberately seek them out? Answering these questions will help guide you in the right direction for the experiences you want.

Lastly you will be given the requisite legal paperwork to sign before making your trip. ZeusCorp does not accept liability for any emotional damage or trauma suffered as a consequence of experiences guests may endure during their time in Questworld...

It'll be a few weeks until you'll be ready to make your trip, during which time your character's body and any backups will be fabricated in ZeusCorp's cutting edge bioroid production facilities, each one fitted with a cortical stack that will ensure even if your character dies, it won't be the end of you.

Making your journey to the park

On the day of your journey into Questword, guests will take a train or flight to ZeusCorp's special processing facility on the edge of the nanowastes for new guests, where you will undergo standard security checks of both yourself and your luggage. You will then travel on an underground pod to the park's central administration facility (or just Central), a sprawling complex hidden underneath and into the Tower of the Gods, an enormous marble landmark at the centre of the park. There you will be given quarters to rest and recuperate from your journey, including the options of enjoying the bar, restaurant and open sky spa (located at the top of the tower).

Becoming your character

Once you are ready to enter the world beyond the walls of the tower, guests can make their way to Central's resleeving facilities. There ZeusCorp's highly professional medical staff will undergo some routine tests to ensure nothing will go wrong when your real body is put into stasis before setting up your character to receive your ego. The resleeving process is quick and painless, requiring only that you and your character's bodies each be seated in a specialised chair with an adjustable headset that will connect your brain to ZeusCorp's patented EgoBridge module and transfer your consciousness across.

During this process an encrypted backup of your mind is created in case of the rare event of damage to your ego-data whilst in the park, and there is an acclimatisation period afterwards in which you are given time in a safe environment to get used to your new body. It is during this time that you will have the rules and guidelines of guest conduct explained to you, as well as any potential consequences for breaking them. Your real body, meanwhile, will be placed into stasis for safekeeping. Once you are physically ready to proceed, you will be given your character's clothing, gear and equipment, including a pocket guidebook for new travellers in Questworld.

Beginning your adventure

Once you are all ready to go, you and any party members you are setting forth on your adventures with will enter the immersive environment through one of several access points disguised as shrines throughout the park. You will be welcomed into the world by a host as one of the anointed of the gods, and from there you free to seek out adventure however you wish, be it by talking to the many hosts you will meet, following world events, checking notice boards in every town or exploring unique locations suggested by your guidebook. Excitement awaits!

 

[OrganicIntelligence]

III. Live and Death in Questworld​

So you're here, in Questworld. Now what?

Seek an adventure, of course!

Interacting with the hosts and the narratives

From the moment you enter the park, the vast majority of people you will meet will be NPCs, or hosts. Hosts are highly advanced, lifelike biological robots that come in all shapes and sizes, from humanoids to animals to the fantastical monsters you will encounter as you explore the park. Each one is programmed with a fully realised personality matrix allowing them to provide you with realistic responses and to improvise as you interact with their narratives. No need to worry about accidentally slipping up with an anachronism or a reference to the unreality of their world - all of Questworld's hosts are programmed to ignore or dismiss any such breaks in immersion, although the staff does request that players not try to push this programming too far.

All hosts have a narrative loop that they perform. How long these loops last depends on the complexity and length of that host's respective loop; a gang of goblins patrolling a dungeon may have an hourly loop, whilst shopkeeps and other minor characters might have a daily loop they perform each day. Other characters may have loops that last an entire week, or an entire month in the case of those hosts linked to the park's most epic narratives! As you explore the park, you are encouraged to seek out interesting characters you hear about - Questworld has literally thousands of interwoven narrative threads for you to find.

Hosts will remember guests they have met across loops, although they will still offer the same narrative threads each time, if with some improvisations to avoid total repetition. Occasionally, the part administration will alter narratives to move the grand overarching story of the park forward - guests are encouraged to return to see what has changed!

As well as talking to hosts, guests can seek out adventures by checking noticeboards in towns offering bounties or warnings of strange going-ons, and players can also check their guidebook for suggestions on locales to explore!

Stats and Skills

Now you may be asking yourself, how can I go on adventures, swordfighting and flinging spells and picking locks, when I don't know how to do any of those things in real life? And the answer is to not worry, as all characters come with the requisite skillsofts installed in their brains that you need to play your chosen class!

All characters in Questworld, including both guests and hosts, have six physical stats: Strength, Dexterity, Agility, Stamina, Constitution, and Attunement.

Strength (STR) is a measure of raw physical strength
Dexterity (DEX) is how good your hand-eye coordination is
Agility (AGL) measures how quick and nimble you are on your feet
Stamina (STA) is how long your character can run and fight in heavy armour without getting exhausted
Constitution (CON) measures how hardy you are to damage
Attunement (ATT) measures your natural sensitivity to the supernatural, which affects how easily you can control magic

Stats (for humanoid characters) are rated on a scale of very poor, poor, low, average, high, very high, and exceptional. These stats will increase (slowly) the more you use them!

Hosts also have an extra four mental stats - Cunning, Wisdom, Charisma and Logic. Guests of course bring their own mental capabilities from the real world!

Violence against other guests and the Inner Kingdom

Strictly speaking, there is no rule against initiating violence against another guest within the park. However, the park is split into two sections - the Inner and Outer Kingdom, divided by a circular mountain range. Within the Inner Kingdom, closer to the Tower of the Gods, unprovoked or non-consensual violence against another guest will result in you being hunted down by powerful angelic hosts dispatched from the tower, who will kill you and loose you one of your resurrections on sight. Beyond the mountains, in the Outer Kingdoms, there is no such punishment for attacking another guest - so new adventurers are forewarned to be careful before travelling into those dangerous lands!

ZeusCorp does not accept legal responsibility for any long term mental issues incurred as a result of traumas experienced within the park. By entering Questworld as a resident you waive all rights to sue ZeusCorp for any and all damages incurred due to the actions by other guests.

Although damage against other guests's physical bodies is not against park rules, attempting to destroy their cortical stacks in any way will result in th eperpetrator being handed over to outside law enforcement for arrest.

Can I die inside of the park?

Yes you can, but don't worry, thanks to the modern technological miracle of cortical stacks, death is rarely permanent! As one of the anointed, your character has the Mark of the Gods located on the nape of their neck, a golden mandala seal that is placed conveniently over the location of the cortical stack. If one guest dies, other guests are expected as a courtesy to extract their cortical stack and deliver it to the nearest shrine. If not, then nearby NPCs will extract and deliver it or if they are unable to it will be recovered by park staff.

No need to worry about your stack getting damaged - ZeusCorp utilises the latest in it's Lazarus series of stack designs, each one a small, coin-sized disc encrusted in a super-hardened diamond-like material. These stacks are designed to withstand everything up to direct nuclear blasts and intense temperatures, and can easily handle anything thrown at them in the park. The only thing that could threaten them would be a nanoswarm breaking them apart slowly, but luckily all the swarms in Questworld are full under Zeuscorp's control!

Your stacks are conceptualised by NPCs as soul gems possessed by the anointed few. Under extreme circumstances where even the park staff cannot retrieve a stack, a nanoswarm will try to directly access and transmit the ego-data it contains, although this method is fraught with the risk of data loss/corruption as it is transmitted through the nanite mesh.

After retrieval, your consciousness will be uploaded into a virtual environment. You will be given the option of returning to your real body and spending some time in the park's state-of-the-art relaxation facility located in the upper layers of the Tower of the Gods, or jumping straight back in into a replacement body or character.

If you're worried about your stack getting lost in one of the dark recesses of the park - don't worry, all stacks and their current position (along with all guest activity) are monitored at all times through the mesh, ensuring that there's no risk of the park administration loosing track of you.

What about when I'm finished or want to go back to the guest facilities in the tower?

Simply travel to any shrine and ask the warden there to grant to passage to the underground inner sanctum. There you will find transport leading back to the park's guest facilities.

 

[OrganicIntelligence]

IV: Character Creation and Races​

Creating a character

When creating a character for their trip, guests to Questworld will first select a race & class - their available selection of course depending on if they went for a basic or one of the premium packages. At the highest tiers - those coasting upwards of the hundreds of thousands of dollars - one can design your own custom race & class for your character. Players may then adjust their appearance however they wish, including their skin tone, hair and eye colour, facial features, genitalia, sexual characteristics, height. Their physical stats can then be modified by dropping one stat down a rating level so that another can be increased by a level. This can be done as many times as desired - the default stats for each race represent only a typical example of their kind.

Races

By default, all guests have access to the below races:

Spoiler: Humans

By far the most common people encountered in Questworld, humans are a hardy folk who have spread across the entirety of its biomes. Humans are as divided as they are varied, with some worshipping the Gods of Light of the tower, whilst others out towards the edges of known world worship the Dark Gods instead, and yet others worship local nature spirits in and around their villages. Whilst they don't excel in any particular area physically, they are highly adaptable and are good in most classes. Most humans speak some dialect of Angolic, the common tongue of the kingdom.

Trait: Humans get 1 free increase to any physical stat.

Default stats:

STR: Average 4
DEX: Average 4
AGL: Average 4
STA: High 5
CON: High 5
ATT: Average 4

Spoiler: Dwarfs

The stout inhabitants of the mountain holds, dwarfs are skilled craftsmen, warriors and social drinkers. Culturally they are split between many dwarf holds throughout both the inner and outer mountain ranges of the world, each one with a unique culture. They are known as traders amongst the people of the lowlands and fighting as mercenaries in the armies of the kingdoms and warlords alike. They also greatly despise elves, orcs, and goblins, and aren't known for liking humans or gnomes much. Or other dwarfs, for that matter. Most dwarfs can speak both Angolic and Dwemish, the dwarf tongue.

Trait: Dwarfs are more resistant than most races to magical hexes and mind-altering attacks.

Default stats:

STR: High 5
DEX: High 5
AGL: Poor 2
STA: High 5
CON: Very high 6
ATT: Low 3

Spoiler: Elves

The longest-lived inhabitants of Questworld, with some having said to have been alive when the old elven kingdoms fell. Today, the elves are culturally split between four tribes; the high elves of the Inner Kingdom, the nomadic wood elves of the forest realms and grasslands, the pale grey elves of the northern Outer Kingdoms, and the darker skinned sun elves who dwell primarily in the southern regions. There is also a splinter race, the blue and grey-skinned Drow who dwell in the realms beneath, but most elves refuse to acknowldge their kin. Highly dexterous and agile, and naturally attuned to magic, elves are known for being thieves, rangers and spellcasters. Elves of all tribes can speak Angolic, whilst high elves and grey elves also speak the elf language Mindarin, sun elves speak Nivarrin and wood elves Sylvrin.

Trait: Elves have greatly increased senses of hearing and vision.

Default stats:

STR: Average 4
DEX: High 5
AGL: Very high 6
STA: Low 3
CON: Low 3
ATT: High 5

Spoiler: Orcs

Typically possessing green or grey skin tones, orcs are one of the largest and physically strongest sapient races in Questworld, aside from half-giants and some smarter breeds of ogre. Whilst orcs can be found throughout both the Outer and Inner Kingdoms as renowned members of society, they are still often stereotyped as threats to civilisation and warlike savages, as often in times gone past it has been hordes of orc warriors pouring out of the badlands that have lain waste to the great cities of the past. There are many orc clans throughout both the badlands and the rest of the Outer Kingdom, with most professing worship to the orc war-gods whilst others worship the Dark Gods themselves, although a select few are known to be devout followers of the Gods of Light. Most can speak Angolic, and also Oggrath, their own language.

Trait: Orcs have enhanced healing.

Default stats:

STR: Very high 5
DEX: Average 4
AGL: Average 4
STA: High 5
CON: Very high 6
ATT: Poor 2

Spoiler: Goblins

The only race in Questworld that can claim to match - or perhaps exceed humanity in terms of sheer numbers, Goblins are diminutive, green-skinned beings who are known for living pretty much everywhere in the Outer Kingdoms, perhaps even moreso than humans. They can be found living in tribes on forests, in swamps, in the jungles, high up in the mountains and deep underground, with many, many sub-cultures unique to each biome. They are almost as scorned as orcs, although in those more stable parts of the Outer Kingdoms they are known for being highly productive and clever workers. There also exist a notable subrace of taller, stronger goblins known as hobgoblins. Aside from those that can speak Angolic, most goblins can speak one of their many mutually intelligible tongues known commonly as Gobbene.

Trait: Goblins have night vision and strong hearing.

Default stats:

STR: Poor 2
DEX: Very high 6
AGL: Very high 6
STA: Average 4
CON: Low 3
ATT: High 5

Spoiler: Gnomes

Perhaps one of the more uncommon races of Questworld, gnomes are the much shorter kin of elves who have mostly migrated over the ages into the Inner Kingdom, although a few hardy communities still dwell in the Outer Kingdom or are wealthy enough to hire other races to protect their settlements. They are known for being wild spirited, highly intelligent, and very good with their hands - in more ways that one. They can typically speak Angolic, Gnomlic, and Mindarin.

Trait: Gnomes have enhanced vision, and a free increase to any one physical stat

Default stats:

STR: Poor 2
DEX: Very high 6
AGL: Exceptional 7
STA: Low 3
CON: Poor 2
ATT: Very high 6

Some of the more common, but by no means only, races restricted to premium packages include:

Spoiler: Tieflings

Said to be the descendants of couplings between humans and demons, tieflings have long been the targets of prejudice and fear throughout the known world. Although this is steadily decreasing in the Inner Kingdom, they are often treated with suspicion throughout the Outer Kingdom - at least in those parts where they aren't worshipped as children of the dark gods, of course. Typically have red, blue or purple skin, horns and long pointed tails. They can speak Angolic and Ba'allian the demon tongue.

Trait: Enhanced resistance to fire attacks, darkvision, prehensile tail

Default stats:

STR: Average 4
DEX: Average 4
AGL: Average 4
STA: Average 4
CON: High 5
ATT: High 5

Spoiler: Drow

The fifth tribe of the elves, the Drow - also known as dark elves - are the red-eyed, blue or grey-skinned inhabitants of an underground kingdom beneath the surface of the known world. Infamous for having fully embraced the Dark Gods, they now rule their own kingdom of debauchery and violence, occasionally attacking the surface world to take prisoners to the depths below to work as slave labour. They mostly know Angolic, Mindarin and their own language Vyxirrin.

Trait: Enhanced hearing and vision, darkvision, vulnerability to bright lights

Default stats:

STR: Average 4
DEX: High 5
AGL: High 5
STA: Low 3
CON: Average 4
ATT: High 5

Spoiler: Half Giant

Hybrids of humans and the ancient godlike race of giants that once walked the lands, Half-Giants or Jötun as they are often known, dwell high up in the mountains and hills, tending to their herds of gigantic auroch cattle. These eight-feet-tall pastoralists are rarely seen amongst the civilised peoples, but when they are they often turn heads. They are also known as great fighters and those that can speak Angolic can usually also speak the giant language Thrund, as well as sometimes some Dwemish.

Trait: Resistance to frost damage, extremely thick skin.

Default stats:

STR: Exceptional 7
DEX: Poor 2
AGL: Poor 2
STA: Very high 6
CON: Exceptional 7
ATT: Poor 2

Spoiler: Talos

Artificial beings constructed in ancient times by the old race of giants, Talos have bodies made of clay, stone and metal and minds powered by a crystal inside of their skulls that radiate with arcane energy. They are very rare beings, with the secret to their construction long lost, and the only ones in existence having been excavated and reactivated from ancient ruins. Although once they were slaves to their master's programming, being rebooted after such long slumbers have freed them - although it also robbed most of them of their memories of their prior lives.

Trait: Artificial body is highly resistant to damage, cannot be healed by regular means but requires visiting an artificer to fix. Can go without sleep, eating or breathing for an extended period of time, only requiring an occasional ether potion to recharge.

Default stats:

STR: High 5
DEX: Average 4
AGL: Low 3
STA: Very high 6
CON: Exceptional 7
ATT: Very poor 1