That-Shop-That-Was-Not-There-Yesterday Quest

[Vocalend]

Mechanics Section​

Preface

1. In essence, this Quest is one ran narratively. All the mechanics, in the end, are made in order to give some sense of consistency and book-keeping to the Quest.
2. The QM is a believer that most things are not set in the stones. Background events could pass by, narratively or no, without being noticed or until the repercussion is that of a whirlwind.
3. Perhaps most importantly, the rules are not set in stone either. I am someone who is basically starting off from scratch to make a workable system from bits and pieces. Feedback on these rulesets are welcome and even if there are none, expect changes to appear.
4. Lastly, have fun~ If at any point the mechanics are not clear or if parts of my story needs clarification or if you're just curious what some of the terms mean, ask away.

Paradigm Mechanic

Paradigm, in its absolute simmered down form, means 'a pattern'. In this Quest, this is the main adhering mechanic that ties everything together. Every character has Paradigms. Paradigm is their traits, hopes, prejudices, and overall worldview reduced into one or more whole. It allows them to view through the world in their own ways, solving a problem often unsolvable or hard to accomplish than with other Paradigms... and would often seem weird when others try to view things from a different Paradigm.

As a trader, interacting with people with different sets of Paradigms comes easy, though by no means simple. It's your job as a shopkeep to figure out the needs and wants of your clientele and establish a relationship of parasitism mutualism with one another.

In the current state of the game, there are four main Paradigms types:
1. Social Paradigm: This Paradigm governs ones overall stance with interaction with fellow human (or not) beings.
2. Ambition Paradigm: This Paradigm governs ones greatest desires and how far would one go to reach it.
3. Analytical Paradigm: This Paradigm governs ones capability and method of understanding the world, the mundane and magical.
4. Combat Paradigm: This Paradigm governs ones propensity towards... disagreeable conflicts and methods to end said quarrels.

In terms of gameplay, these Paradigms act as a sort of interface... though as a reduction of a whole, these would not be able to encompass the whole complex and often contradictory nature of human (or not?) beings. To help with this, each Paradigms are given a sub-category of Notes, a small one-two line snippets that help to establish the more complex nature of your clientele.

That said, a way of thought could be changed. A revelation would turn a sinner to a saint. A stroke of luck or misfortune would upend one's life forever. A bad day could drive a man to evil. Regardless, Paradigms could be changed through effort.... or other influences.

Appraisal Mechanic

As a trader, one needs to know all manners of details about the items that would be bought and sold. As such, you are to appraise the items in question. To appraise an item, Analytical Paradigm is used. This would reveal details and Qualities regarding the appraised item in question. Depending on the Analytical Paradigm used, different details or Qualities may be revealed... or give complete misinformation.

In the current state of the Quest, aside from narrative benefits of the items themselves, there are two relevant stats attached to Qualities:

Price: This dictates the 'worth' of an item. Though the seller sets the price of the items, this stat works to identify if the selling price attached to the item is higher or lower than its closest 'objective' worth.

Desirability: This dictates the overall 'want' factor of an item. Attached to an item, this stat is dependent on a person's Paradigms. For example, a rogue would have no need for a battle axe, but a warrior would, and to a lesser extent, a woodcutter would buy it if given no alternatives. That said, though different Paradigms modify whether someone would be inclined to buy something for a huge price tag, if the price is right (and low enough), anyone would buy anything.​

 

[Vocalend]

Artennova

The Floating Spires of Lark Castle
​

"Well then. I never expected that the experiment would turn me into a God... Okay then. Well for my first edict, time to sort out this distorted world. Let The Flourishing Begin Anew!"
-Lark, Ascended God of Magic​

Artennova is the widely-agreed-upon name of the spherical planet orbiting a blue star. It has two widely-agreed-upon celestial satellites, The Godly Palace and The Mourner. It has three widely-agreed-upon continents, housing all the major polities in the planet. It has four widely-agreed-upon major polities residing on Artennova.

That's the end of where all of the widely-agreed-upon things ends. For Artennova is a chaotic world infused with magic.

History
No one has an idea when or where the first intelligent beings began to emerge in the world. It's a question that is unanswered to this day even to other Gods, for The Mourner continued his eternal mourning. But it's agreed-upon that the first societies were formed sometime five thousands years ago, belonging to the Dragonkind. They built the groundworks for many of the 'younger' races to claim their right. The Dragonkind often times bonded with the fondly-remembered younglings, serving as advisors to the younger races and to help them in their times of need. In time, perhaps a Golden Era where all the beings could unite as one despite their differences.

But The Flourishing crushed that dream.

For numerous reasons, Artennova began to be flooded by an intolerable amount of ambient mana, to the point of become a stifling miasma that choke and kill beings not attuned to the magical elements that permeate the world. Many trials and tribulationns occurred during The First Flourishing from the crushing blow of Months of Insanity to the Great Massacre of Cascan. Many of the races find their numbers lessen or mutate into differing forms and shapes. The lands and even times themselves are distorted. Lands fly off to the air, water turn to gas in an instant, entire wars and conflicts changing the fate of the world happen out of sight in The Hollowed History. It is somewhat-agreed-upon that this period of the Flourishing occurred for close to two thousand years, enough for the races to develop an identity distinct from one another.

This changed when Lark, a human wizard, became the Ascended God of Magic. In one fell swoop, he changed the circumstances governing Artennova, doing anything on his part in The Renewed Flourishing to mend the bridges between the conflicting races, paving the way for the The Golden Age where a resemblance of the unity shown in the times before The Flourishing emerges.

Magic
It's hard to talk about Artennova without glancing at the impact magic has to society as a whole. The widely-agreed-upon consensus of the permeance of magic in Artennova is the quote from Lark (also widely-agreed-upon to had been appropriated from an unknown source inside the Hollowed History) himself:

"Every trace of everything is imbued with mana. Mana is imbued in everything from the rays of the sun to the eternal skeletal remains in Cascan. To claim that magic is not a fabric of reality, is to simply spit in the face of the fundamental rules of the world.

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There's countless branches of magic in the Artennova with countless restrictions and rules besides. Lark Castle functions as the foremost authority in magical knowledge, what being governed directly by Lark himself. His style of governance is one in which he awaits for his priests and acolytes, which in essence is covers all mages in the world. Magic, to put it simply, is volatile to the point of being extremely dangerous. For this specific reason, Lark decides to promote to usage of magical items throughout Artennova instead. The effects of an item imbued with magic is often times weaker than the effect of a directly cast spell but provides consistency and without the risk of miscasts.

That said, despite Lark's best efforts, the expediency of casting magic directly outweighs the benefits of magical items ｰ though it is widely-agreed-upon that without Lark's push, magical items wouldn't be as popular as it is now ｰ to the point of creating the most important institution in Artennova, the Subjugation Calls.

Technology and Quality of Life
It is agreed-upon that the civilizations of Artennova found themselves in a great spot after The Renewed Flourishing. From the magocracy that is Lark Castle to the magophobic democracy that is Alten Republic, the poorest of citizens have access to cheap daily food, free clean water, and healthcare services amongst others. The advances in technology correlates directly to Lark's push in making magical items accessible to everyone. Even Alten Republic couldn't deny that despite the citizenry's hatred to magic, opting to try inventing technological analogues to known magical spells and items. This led to numerous works that are aimed to improving the overall standards in Artennova. From the Skyfleet of Mysert to the Ruination Golems, Artennova heads to an Enlightenment Era, one that hopefully continued on the advancements of the Renewed Flourishing.

 

[Vocalend]

As were the Glimpses of Things to Come. It's a pity that we'll not find out what those were about. And I would have loved to learn more about the setting we are in currently, as well as read more settings and people you'd come up with as the story continued.

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Seeing as I am not going to use the notes as I did, I might as well give out the explanations of what would've been. Consider this a sort of a last explanation I can give ; v;

Worldbuilding: TL;DR: Shit's fucked big time. Humanity feared the dark ever since they huddled in caves of yore for Darkness made form....well, forms. In particular, the reason for the whole madness is because the Moon is alive and hates the children of the Spirits.

But humankind have always been adaptable. On the lands of the West - analogous to European Continent - people huddle within cast-iron walls and underground cities dug deep against the rays of the Pale Dark Moon. In these lands too, Fire Clerics became an institution. Basically, they are paladins with firebending but without armours because the claws of the Darkness-spawns tear through even plate mail and all the assorted layers to the bone. Any thicker armour just means you'll swarmed by all sides. Tenders are about as lightly armoured as a skirmisher but they can cast flamethrowers from their fingertips each and also the capacity to tap into the rich ore veins all around the continent and forge them to their will. I'd say an even trade ;v

To the East (why yes, I am a rather schlock writer ;v), the lands are.... more prosperous. Basically, most of the humans live in a big Pangean super-continent divided by avery much unnatural mountain ranges with the average height of Everest and the taller ones about the size of Olympus Mons. While the West are blessed with fire, the East is blessed with water. While the West builds tall, the East builds wide. Waterways carved out in intricate manners work as a subcontinental-wide array of Darkness-spawn weakening ritual.... but ones that would have frayed and get broken by the time Alicia done got isekai'd

As for the Glimpses of Things To Come?

"Child, I beg of you, stay." The wizened old man calls out hoarsely from the bed. What bare skin peeking out of his bloodied bandages revealed patchworks of raw scars and sutures. Despite having no arms, not any more after yesterday, he still tries to reach out to the much younger man, currently on the process of wearing his chainmail armour.

Not that it'd be help against the Abominations.

"I cannot, grandfather. Not after hearing what has been said by the Fire Clerics. If what they say is true..."

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This is the knight that Alicia encountered. My notes on him are about 2000 km away from me so I am typing most of these from memory but essentially, he just started his journey to see if he is the successor of the world's Charlemagne. The Firelord who beat back the Darkness and made human civilization on the Western part of the Pangea actually a civilization. He has to go to the East and to the Great Mountain Ranges though. That's....tricky, to say the least. A lot of the Darkness-spawns are there. Luckily, there's Alicia. Having the knight as a clientele would be the backdrop of getting to know all there is to know about the Western side.

The swordsman gurgled his last breath, his throat drowning with his own blood from the slice on the neck that he sported. He tumbled to the ground dead as his killer moved on to the next warrior in line.

The warrior yelled, making a charge at the killer. "Die you filthy abomi- hurk." A charge that failed as his lungs are pierced through, crimson blade jutting out of his back. Without a sound, the blade slides back out and without support, the body fell.

It's the twentieth body that fell dead tonight. The night is young and the Undead Moon is still up high. More must fall before It slumbers once more.

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With the threat of extinction not a threat, the Eastern countries expanded wide....and carried their own sets of problems. The usual squabbles that came when existential threats did not occur, you know the types. And just so happens, someone disagrees with this state of affairs.... violently so. The wandering ronin is a man touched by insanity and wisdom in equal measure who made it his life goal to purge the nobility of their foolishness.

And yes, he would be the primary clientele for Alicia. I had great plans which...well, has to be squandered sadly.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" The faint girlish voice sounded from behind him. Two figures cloaked with garments as black as the night walked in silence, ensconced as they are in the dense forestry.

Suicide, is what they are practically doing.

"No. This isn't, my niece. But we must fulfill our duty. Even unto death, where we become Wanderers."

The niece said nothing in return, where they reached a clearing in the forest, where no trees nor vegetations grew.

Only a patch of cold sand where a chained body laid, trashing against the bindings that held it.

"Let us perform the Work."

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For all the talk about Abominations and Darkness-spawns...there are always those who would serve darker powers. Some people believed that the Darkness-spawns are either the forms of deceased humankind or the next step in human evolution. Understandably, this viewpoint gets you called a heretic by the people whose main powers tends to revolve around burning stuffs.

The niece here would have been Alicia's clientele and sort of expounds on the whole that is the Darkness-spawns. She also, has for a lack of better words, a lot of Bad End potentials. If she succeeds though.... well, that'd be interesting.

In the afternoon sunset atop the mountains, the festivities continued. Cheerful villagers chanted their hymns and songs, the great firepit, tended by the eldest amongst them, light up in a comforting heatwave.

"Are you ready, Chosen?" The eldest of the Tenders spoke out to the young man in front of him, barely eighteen summers, who looks positively excited.

"I am ready." The eldest Tender nodded and hand him the molten dagger.

"Then do it."

With the command, the Chosen sank the blade to his own heart.

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Remember what I said about the fuck-off impassible mountain range? Just because it's impassible doesn't mean it's uninhabitable. In the skies above, the Moon and the Earthly Spirits have an...unusual interaction with one another. Those who lived in places where one can touch the clouds are touched in a way different than those who lived in the lowlands.

I will be honest, I have not fleshed out this bit as much as I need to and with the loss of the notes, I am just as much lost as you would be ; v;

The shipwreck washed ashore in the cloudy morning, carrying in tattered hulls two people, cold and barely hanging onto the wreck. The two who were the sole survivors of the journey. Their arrival was watched by three masked people, standing on the beach.

"P-Praise be!" The first survivor, an old man, nearly bones by now, wept tears of joy as one of the watchers made their way to his side, carrying with him a jug of water and a piece of warm bread.

"W-Why? Why must I be only one to survive once more?" The other, a much younger man, cried tears of anguish instead, lamenting his cursed luck. The second watcher made their way to him, carrying the same thing as the first one did.

"Because it is fate." The third watcher spoke, the masculine voice muffled behind the bleached white mask, as he made his way to the survivors. "The journey is long and treacherous to reach the Court Beyond The Sea. Do not be sad that others did not make it. Remember their sacrifice instead." He carry with him two masks, both bleached white, and offered them to the two survivors.

"Remember that here, the King will guide us to salvation."

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This one... is the 'last' of the things. Remember your costumer?

Ah, a new costume-

Power overwhelming. The Herald cometh. The Inner Fire is kindled.

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As you thought of the restraint mandala, the customer raised a placating hand. "Peace, shopkeeper. I mean no harm." You proverbially put your mind-finger off the trigger and to look at your customer more clearly. A fair-faced man with yellow hair and matching set of eyes pleaded on you. "My curse must have startled your sensibilities. W-whatever it is that you were going to pull on me, I implore you to not do it."

You have to admit, it's rare that a customer managed to startle you so. You...haven't exactly heard of such a curse, but it's not even the weirdest thing you've heard. "My bad then." You relaxed. "Must've been one hell of a curse, to be that impacting."

He chuckled wryly. "Y-Yes. Very."

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From the top of the tallest building on the spire, you looked down. The shop had truly disappeared then. The entire space around the Wizard's Shelf had truly been displaced. You note the unfortunate man that had crossed to close to the threshold. He's entirely without his left arm now. He'll live though, nothing this world's magic couldn't fix.

"Well then, I guess we'll see each other someday, Miss Alicia." And with that, you vanished.

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He's the King in Yellow, in the flesh. This will be the last chain of 'quest' that will get you travelling to other worlds and start expanding your wares there.

And that's it, the biggest of the post-mortem explanation. A closure to the experiment in detail.