The world dimmed as we loaded into Celestine. Natural dirt pathways and calming nature were replaced with a stunning starry sky, with a singular bright sun in the distance, shadows stretching towards it.

“The realm of thought. Where ideas grow and the shades linger, amorphous. It goes by many names- the Inverse, the Sea of Shades, but none quite as ubiquitous as Celestine.”

The narrator’s voice was that sort of soothing, slightly Welsh accented type I’ve heard more than a dozen times in various fantasy games and films. You know the one- talking about ages long past, wars and evil artifacts forgotten and lost to history, yadda yadda. 

What I didn’t expect, however, was the figure of a tall, imperious woman- all sharp angles and tanned skin- to step out from the void to look me over. I felt like I needed to cover myself, but quickly found that I was more of an idea of a person than anything with an actual physical body.

Right. Character creation, probably.

The narrator let out a soft hum, stepping close- her mouth didn’t move as she spoke, her words still echoing in the space around like she was everywhere at once. God damn, they really nailed the ambiance here.

“A pair of lost shades- fret not. I am the shard of Virtue. Tell me, from whence do you hail?”

She stepped back, and the world grayed out slightly as a series of windows popped up- each a fresco representing a different nation in the realm of Celestine. 

“That is one hot goddess.”

I would glare at Rae if I had a face, “Could you stop flirting with every woman you see for like, five minutes?”

“Not my fault I was blessed with incredible game, maybe you ought to pull that stick out of your ass and give it a shot.”

“Yeah, well, we can’t all be so lucky as you- c’mon, let’s figure out where we want to spawn in.”

There were… quite a few options, to be honest. Someone clearly had a thing for weird fantasy, because the first place on the list- an island kingdom called Velyr- looked like if someone tried to recreate the sea floor on land. A vast, rocky place with plantlife closer to kelp and coral looking things than trees and grass. Then there was Tervyn, which was a floating city above an apocalyptic desert wasteland- some might think living on a floating island would be terrifying, but honestly it’s such a goddamn cool aesthetic. 

“Oooh, the Inner Seas look pretty cool- wanna be pirates?” Rae spoke up again- honestly, might be fun, and they were pretty close to Tervyn- I was nearly tempted- but one other place seemed just a bit closer to what I wanted to do in this game.

“Honestly, I was thinking something more conducive to classical roguery- here.” 

I pointed at- well, crap, tried to point at one of the options, I didn’t exactly have hands still, so instead I just spoke up, “The Rashkel Empire- noble houses, ash covered city from an active volcano, an evil god-emperor just waiting to be toppled- doesn’t that sound exciting?!”

Rae hummed, “Well, never let it be said that I’m not down for attacking and dethroning god. On the same continent, too- maybe we can turn pirate once we finish that up?”

“Pff- okay, yeah. We can do some piracy later.”

Color leaked back into the world, and the windows faded. The narrator- I guess I should call her Virtue? Was that more of a title, it sounded like a title- beamed at us.

“A harsh homeland, indeed- but you seem just the type it needs. Survivors, through and through- Aegis and Raze are lucky to have you under their care.”

I had… no idea what that was even supposed to mean. Probably one of those things I’d look back on after a few hundred hours in-game and be like “Oh snap, the LORE was there all along!” or something. I wasn’t gonna complain- I was sort of a nut for some good lore, but the lack of context was definitely gonna sit in the back of my brain for a bit, chewing at the prison bars of “not enough information”. 

Someone was going to make some kind of wiki for this world, I hope. There was too much here for me to know all about just by myself.

“Your shades hum to the rhythms of the Lights,” Virtue spoke again, snapping me out of my thoughts, “What manner of endowment blesses you?”

The world grayed out again, and this time we were presented with what seemed like class options- six of them, depicted almost like tarot cards. Two of them stood out to me- mostly since the backgrounds featured the massive volcanic mountain of the Rashkel Empire. 

I mean, if I was gonna be from there, I might as well see what the people there could do, right? I clicked on the first one, labeled “Ashbound”, and the card unraveled.

“The Ashbound- named for the volcanic ash from which they distill the liquid Light that powers their abilities. Simple, yet effective- each shade resonates with an axiomatic pair. Whether they be flying through the muffled night with a flick of their mind, tugging on the thoughts of others, or pushing their bodies to superhuman limits, the life of an Ashbound is one of intrigue, subterfuge… and violence.”

Virtue’s words echoed as I read through the six further options presented- the gist was, each Ashbound had two abilities they could fuel by drinking what basically amounted to liquid magic.

My eyes immediately locked onto the pair labeled “Push and Pull”- directional telekinesis, controlled through mental tethers that were affected by the practitioner’s and the object's masses.

It might be pretty basic, but I always loved the games that let you experience flight. This was more like… potentially advanced jumping if I could pull it off right, but still- I knew what I liked.

The game seemed to sense my intent, as the choice glowed briefly before fading away. A second later, the rest of the cards faded as well.

“So, what are you playing?” I asked- it wasn’t like I could see Rae making her choice.

“Don’t worry about it~!”

Ugh, why is she like this, I just wanted to start planning some teamwork stuff, come ON-

“I can tell you’re throwing a tantrum in your brain, man,” WOW okay, rude, “Just relax and let it be a surprise! Jeeze!”

“I hate surprises.”

“You hate fun.”

“Fuckin’ hate you sometimes, god damn.”

“Lmao, no you don’t.”

Well, I was getting pretty damn close, at least. Virtue took no notice of our bickering- this was probably one of the few bits of pre-programmed dialogue in-game. It’s not like you could really do much interaction when you don’t even have a character yet.

“To think one of mine own blessed finds themselves lost in the Celestine- worry not. The shade remembers what the physical forgets- I will help you return soon. You only need to remember who you are.”

Virtue smiled last time- but instead of the world graying out, the stars faded away, one by one, until all that was left was empty darkness, before a shimmering reflective mirror faded into view.

Alright, here it was- the hardest part of character creation yet.

“Thank god for the time dilation here, it takes SO long to tweak physical appearances sometimes.”

Rae didn’t say anything, and I frowned.

“Rae? Nothing? Don’t you have a smartass comment or something here?”

Silence- huh. Guess this part was actually instanced. Hmm… actually, that probably made sense. The default character in the mirror was just in his boxers, and I wouldn’t want Rae getting an eyeful of what I wanted to look like- well, not THAT intimately, at least.

So, I was going for a sort of roguish, street-smart type yearning for revolution. Navigating options and sliders with mental commands proved easy enough- dark hair, sort of choppy but in a cool way, lean build- I wanted to keep my height for the most part. Maybe like a couple inches shorter- no telling what Rae was gonna look like when this was all done. If she went the boring route and looked like herself, I could be risking being smaller than she was-

Maybe that’d be okay, though? Honestly, I didn’t hate the idea- I wasn’t really tall or short, just… medium. Average height. It honestly kinda blows, like couldn’t my genes have picked a side to be interesting with, at least?

Y’know what, I’ll lean into it. Short, but wiry. Like an acrobat.

The moment I decided that, I looked back to the mirror- oh, damn something must have gotten crossed when I was thinking about Rae because that was definitely a woman. The features I had already picked out were still there, and-

Hmm. Honestly… it wasn’t a bad look.

I mean, I usually played guys but, well- hm! Maybe this could work? The dark, brooding guy archetype was kind of a tired trope at this point anyways- this could freshen up my roleplay a little.

Yeah. Yeah, this could work. I made a few more little tweaks- going for a steel-gray eye color, adding a splash of freckles like I had, giving the ears just a little bit of a point to them-

Damn, this was actually going by pretty quickly. Not a bad job, for something so quick! I might not have had a physical mouth yet, but I could feel myself grinning.

With a final mental command, I locked in the look, and one last screen popped up:

Enter Name:
_______________

…There was one name that immediately came to my brain. While this game might be new, I was more certain than anything in my life that I wouldn’t be the only one with this thought as well- especially considering where we were starting.

But still, it was a SOLID pun. And at the very least, I could put in a little effort with the surname to at least trick myself into thinking I was just a little clever.

“Welcome back to the world, Ash Caldera. Life before death, your shade becomes yours once more.”

With those final well-wishes from Virtue’s disembodied voice, the dark void of character creation burst into white.