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.
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..."
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.
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."
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.
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."
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.
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."
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.
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.
