[ Now entering Character Creation. Please create an avatar for your time living in Erendria.
Please Note: Post character creation, it will become difficult to change aspects about your appearance, and skill growth will happen through actions. ]
[ Please select a race.
Race will have a miniscule effect on stat and skill growth rate. Each race has a unique starting zone, and will provide unique reactions to different races. Most races will have unique passives, and several will have unique actives. ]
A slider appeared along the bottom of my vision. I saw myself change as I swapped from option to option. I was surprised when I couldn't feel anything as my body shifted from form to form.
But it wasn't just the lack of sense from the swapping, I couldn't feel anything around me. My sense of touch was empty, as though I existed within a void. I saw my arms and legs moving in third person, but there was no feeling of air on the skin, no sense of touch as I put my hands on my hips.
"Why are all the races defaulting to female?" I laughed. "Don't tell me, this is some woke nonsense?" I poked at my currently orcish oversized breasts, they jiggled even though I couldn't feel them.
[ Players are matched with characters matching their own gender to maximize comfort. ]
I gulped. Sure, I almost always played women in role playing games. They were prettier, had smaller hit boxes, and quite frankly I liked the attention I got as I played them. But there was a clear difference between talking about playing a woman, and feeling yourself in the body of a woman. I poked my breasts again, then flushed as I started to feel awkward.
"Uhhh... I think you got something wrong with your software. I'm a guy."
[ Acknowledged. Reprocessing neurological scan. ]
While I waited for the scan to complete, I kept looking through my racial options. The dwarf women had beards -- I cringed. It wasn't cute at all, and I couldn't see why anyone would want to play someone with that much of a beard. Even in real life I always stayed clean shaven, I couldn't stand the feeling of my peach fuzz, let alone stubble. It was the absolute worst!
There were a ton of options for races, even monstrous options, from goblins, to naga, to even demons and angels.
I was tempted by angels. I'd always loved the ephemeral strength combined with alien beauty that they had. But the angels had more eyes than sense, and looked more like an eldritch abomination than what I thought of.
However, I had a go-to choice whenever it was an option.
"Sweet, there are elves."
[ Elf Variants Available: Arcane Elf, Void Elf, or World Elf. ]
"What are the differences?"
[ Arcane Elf:
A race that descended from spirits of magic. They have an innate connection with magic, and are natural spell casters.
Provides bonuses to various Mana, and Memory related skills. Provides a small penalty to various Fortitude and Strength related skills.
Unique Passives: Longevity, Arcane Font. ]
[ Void Elf:
A race that descended from spirits of death. They give up a natural connection to arcane magic in exchange for being conduits for the divine.
Provides bonuses to various Awareness, and Faith related skills. Provides a small penalty to various Memory and Strength related skills.
Unique Passives: Longevity, Reincarnation. ]
[ World Elf:
A race that descended from spirits of the elements. They have an innate connection with the world, with monsters, and spirits.
Provides bonuses to various Agility, and Awareness related skills. Provides a small penalty to various Strength and Fortitude related skills.
Unique Passives: Longevity, Natural Understanding ]
[ All elves share some cultural background even though they do not agree on many things. They will often form enclaves of Elven settlements, and still look down on short lived races much more than they do upon each other. ]
"Arcane Elf sounds pretty neat."
[ Acknowledged. Arcane Elf Selected.
Increased growth rate(+) applied to:
Stats: Mana, Memory
Skills: Alchemy, Concentration, Divination, Enchanting, General Mana Control, Mana Regeneration, Manipulation, Metamagic, Purification
Decreased growth rate(-) applied to:
Stats: Fortitude, Strength
Skills: Axes, Blacksmithing, Masonry, Polearms, Swords, Thrown
Longevity: No natural life span. Can only die by external threat. No degradation of stats over life span.
Arcane Font: Naturally collect ambient mana in the air. Spells cost less mana. Scales with Mana stat. ]
"Sweet. Sounds perfect for being a mage."
[ Neurological scan reprocessed. Female brain detected with 96% confidence. Female automatically assigned as sex. ]
"What? What about male?" I knew I didn't normally play them, but why couldn't I keep being a guy? I felt like God was playing some sick joke on me.
[ Error: Male not available due to incompatibility with female brain.
Note: You may play with a male body, but it will not change your identity as a woman. Be aware that transition magic is a high tier and specialized magic. Playing a trans character will involve additional hurdles, as well as will change the attitudes of some characters towards you.
Alternatively, you may undergo brain and memory editing by the System to change base brain structures to match stereotypical male brain patterns.
Warning! This will fundamentally alter character personality, desires, and individuality. This is an experimental procedure and has a high likelihood of creating a non-functional neural system. ]
I froze. The System could do that? It was already stealing my memories, so why not? What's one more step to change who I was?
"Uhhhh...." Maybe this was some bug, some defect?
Or was this God giving me permission to reincarnate as a woman? It was something I'd always joked about, that if I could have the chance to be a woman, I would. Well, here was my chance. It wouldn't be like being trans. I was starting a new life, it was a new beginning. It was fine, not a sin. The system was telling me that I had to be a woman... Then I wasn't doing anything wrong, was I?
"I don't have a choice in this matter, do I?"
[ Incorrect. Please choose one of the following options for body type:
Cisgendered Female
Transgendered Female (Options available for various types of transition) ]
I'd had plenty of dreams about being a woman, about what it would be like to get pregnant, to get hit on, to wear dresses, to go to dances. But that's just your everyday dreaming. All guys did that. But just because I dreamt about it, didn't mean that it had been okay for me to do anything about it.
My faith had pretty clear guidelines about what was right, and what was wrong. And while we were all tempted to sin, it was only a sin if one gave into it. I grew up on stories about queers going to hell, how no one loved them, getting disowned, expunged from the church, and bullied. It was a warning to others, so we wouldn't fall into that.
But this was a new life, and the System had given me permission. I wouldn't be one of them by accepting this... Right?
I took a deep breath. It was okay. It wasn't my fault.
"I'll be a woman then."
[ Clarification. Do you mean, Cisgendered Woman, or Transgendered Woman? ]
"Just a woman. Regular woman."
[ Error. That does not clarify. Do you mean, Cisgendered Woman, or Transgendered Woman? ]
I rolled my eyes. "Cisgendered."
[ Acknowledged. Please design your appearance. ]
From there, I got to select everything I wanted about my body. This was way better than having to accept what I had been born as. I got to sculpt a precise image of myself.
I spent an iteration making an overexaggerated sexualized figure with an impossibly thin waist, hips for days, and physics defying anime boobs. But it fell into an uncanny valley that I didn't relate to. It felt awkward and ungainly as I moved around in this perfectly sculpted body designed for a man's fantasy.
I still wanted to be hot. Who didn't want to be hot? Especially as an elf. They're supposed to be the hottest race around. It was why people played elves right? To feel pretty, when in reality you hated your hideous appearance -- like it was just a layer of sunscreen you could never wash away.
I scaled the proportions back a bit, but still on the tall and lithe side -- within the constraints I was given by the system. No matter what I did, I always looked a little bit alien. My face and limbs were longer than I would've expected. Everything was perfectly symmetrical, and my skin was silky smooth.
God, if only it could be so easy to have such perfect skin in real life. No stubble. No Acne. No complicated skincare routine.
As I continued to choose my form, I felt my sense of touch slowly returning. I no longer felt like I existed in a void, but I was starting to settle into this new body.
I hugged myself, and felt comforted by the existence of my chest. I didn't know why. It wasn't sexual arousal. It was just a sudden sense of relief. That these extra bits of flesh somehow gave me a baseline of calm. There was a reassurance that they were real and not just a dream.
The world wouldn't see it that way. It would objectify me for having breasts.
I panicked. I had no idea how to deal with that. That would be a later problem -- I was sure it would be nothing.
I continued to flick through the options. There were sliders for everything, and if I got to choose how I was going to look, I wanted it to be perfect. I spent the entirety of my earth life being jealous, and feeling inadequate. Not this time.
In the end, I choose a form on the shorter side, but still lithe and skinny. I didn't have muscles, but given the limited options for that, I guessed muscles would come from stats, and not my base form. My breasts were on the smaller side, anything too large felt unwieldy, like they were tacked on rather than a part of me. My face was long, but soft, with full cheeks under violet eyes that seemed to flicker and glow with mana.
I chose a mid back length hair style with French braids around the crown to hold the rest in place. For color, I chose a deep magenta hair color with frosted tips. My nails grew a bit past the edge of my fingers, and I selected a matching magenta for them.
Would my nails always be like that? Would I have to redo my nails?
I'd never done my nails before, it was something that's always looked fun, but I had no clue what to do. Did nail polish exist in this fantasy world? Or was it a spell? That would be another future me problem.
There were options for tribal markings and tattoos, but the prescribed palette didn't appeal to me. I had fresh clean skin, and I would enjoy it. I might decide to get some later, if cosmetic modification was an option within the world. But when I did that, I wanted it to mean something.
[ Please select your Archetype. ] The system prompted me when I finally accepted my new appearance.