Finally the day is here! I've been waiting so long for this game to finally be released. Uh, breakfast? Eaten. Shower? Mmmm taken yesterday before bed. Anything else I need to remember? Oh! Connecting the nutrients bag to the VR pod.

Having finally checked, double checked and triple checked and making sure everything is in order for at least a week or two worth of game time, Asena notices it's only 30 minutes until the game is launched.

"Welcome back, Asena. What would you like me to do?"

"Thank you AI, please launch ASCENSION."

"Command accepted, best of luck."

Everything is silent and her vision fades to black as the game begins to load. Slowly like someone is turning on lights in their apartments, stars can be seen glimmering into existence at a rapidly increasing speed. Is this the game intro? So far nothing impress-woah. Nevermind. As she was about to complain about the unimpressive intro, a world is growing into existence before her very eyes. Starting of as just a huge spherical earthen coloured ball, with each passing second it's rapidly changing, evolving. Blue water is sprouting up across the planet, and continents begin to form, going from barren to lush with vegetation, rivers, and lakes. 

The continents takes shape into the 5 continent-spanning nations of ASCENSION, taking the shapes of mythological creatures: The Phoenix Empire in the west, The Dragon Kingdom in the east, The Angelic Theocracy in the north, and the Faerie Kingdom to the south. In the middle of it all is the Unknown Continent. Huh, the continent-nations has their name displayed on them, that's, helpful. Although, what's this about Unknown? Oh, character creation is finally here.

"Welcome to ASCENCION, my name is Alacant, and I am the games' administrator and artificial intelligence. Any inquiries about bugs, glitches and the likes can be sent to me through the help menu. Before you start of your journey, you will have to begin with creating your character. Do you have any questions?"

"Uh, Hi Alacant, nice to meet you. What are the restrictions placed upon character creation? Like, in regards to deleting and creating a new character if you don't like your current one. As the game is new I'm assuming there's going to be a lot of experimentation and failed build-paths."

"This game has been designed with total freedom in mind, thus you can make anything work for different purposes, but not everything will be a master crafter, or a War God/Goddess. As such there is only one character creation per lifetime. I'd like to think actions have consequences and caution is advised."

"Hm, that's definitely interesting. Okay I'm ready to start, thank you."

"You're very welcome."

Alacant is turning to mist before my eyes and are replaced by a mirror-esque frame on my left, displaying my current avatar, while options are forming on the right.

Race, Primary Trait, Secondary Trait, Tertiary Trait, Avatar Appearance

Hm, that seems pretty straight forward. Let's start with uhh, race. By merely thinking about the option the rest fades away while a list of different races are displayed.

Human: A regular human being with an average lifespan of 70 years. While extremely adaptable, humans are social creatures that thrives in groups. Bonus: +10% boost to all attributes in a full party of humans.

Phoenix-kin: A humanoid being with ancient bloodties to the undying phoenix. Phoenix-kin are extremely durable and are estimated to live up to 200 years. Bonus: Once a day you can survive any non-instant death attack, both physical and magical, that would kill you, surviving with 1 HP.

Dragon-kin: A humanoid creature with scales protecting the arms and legs, these creatures are descendent from the mighty dragons said to live eons ago. Average life span of 350 years. They are tough and resilient, with claws as their natural weapons. Bonus: For the duration of 1 hour a day, can transform your hands into dragonlike claws, equal in durability and damage to a Rare slashing weapon.

Angeloid: A result between descendants of humans and angels. Angeloids thrive in the sun, and has a natural resistance to fire and darkness elements. As long as they are devout and do not stray from the righteous path, they can live up to 500 years. Bonus: Once a day you can cloak your weapons in Holy Fire, dealing burn damage over time for 1 minute. These flames can not be quenched by normal means.

Fae-kin: Beings of faerie and elf. Fae-kin are fast and agile, and due to their long lives of up to 1000 years, they have immense knowledge in magic and arcane arts. Bonus: +40 flat attribute increase to WIS and INT at level 1.

???

"Um, Alacant, are these question marks a bug?"

"Mmm, no. That is an unknown race, only displayed towards players whos affinity with said race are above a certain threshold. You are the first one I've seen with this race unlocked. It can either be better than the rest, or worse."

Great, mystery elements and experimentation already at the character creation. Hm, Phoenix-kin and Fae-kin seems like the choices I'd go for, buuut. Mmmmm. Nope, I just can't resist. Especially considering what she said about affinities with the race.

**Race Selected: ???: Confirm/Decline**

Mentally thinking confirm, the mystery race is selected. Looking towards the avatar "mirror", no visible changes can be seen, which somewhat annoys Asena.

Okay, next, appearance or traits? Hm, traits. Mmm, hmm. Okay so traits are broken down into affinities? 60% affinity, 35% affinity and 15% affinity respective of their trait ranking. 

Traits: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Darkness, Light, Order, Chaos. Note that certain elemental traits can be combined and evolved into enhanced forms. Examples of these are Ice, Holy, Spatial. There is no one way to evolve an element, and there are many undiscovered evolved forms. Do take caution, for there may be required catalysts to have opposite elements mixed, or evolutions may require difficult conditions.

Soo, typical RPG esque elemental affinities, except they can evolve into new elements. One big question pops up in my mind though.

"Hey Alacant, can we only have affinity with 3 elements, or can we obtain affinity for more base forms?"

"..."

Great, selective responses from the AI, that's, great. Okay let's think about it, what would be good combinations and evolutions? Preferably I'd like synergy between the elements. But what exactly is Order and Chaos? Oh, pop up description.

Order: The natural uninterrupted way of life, borrow the powers of the planet to keep the balance of life.

Chaos: Bend the very natural laws do obey your will, may or may not have consequences.

That's, yeah, not very helpful. They seem to be evolved forms or extremely powerful, but why would we be given affinities of those kinds of elements this early? Hmm.

**Primary Trait: Water**

**Secondary Trait: Earth**

**Tertiary Trait: Chaos**

**Confirm/Decline**

Well, that's traits selected, I guess last is, appearance? Oh, that's new.

Displayed in the avatar "mirror" is a young woman of around 160 cm. Raven black hair that shimmers under the faint artificial moonlight. Her facial features mirroring the serene calmness of the moonlight, with skin that faintly glows with a silvery gleam. Asena is quite beautiful in real life, and her looks, apart from a different colour scheme, is reminiscent of her real self. Her eyes are probably the biggest change from he real self, as her avatar's right eye is a clear ocean blue, while her left is deep green reminiscent of moss. The avatar looks almost majestic under the moonlight.

Hm, glow, glow, glow. Aaand I can't find an option for that...glow thingy. Oh well.

**Do you wish to create your character with selected options?**
**Confirm/Decline**

Confirm