The host of immortal souls (who happened to have been gathered almost entirely from the Nerima ward of Tokyo) blinked as they found themselves standing on a large earthen plateau, floating in the midst of what looked not unlike the inside of a gaseous nebula. This was the astral plane, though some might call it the Twisting Nether. Their floating plateau was fairly large, as it had to be, seeing as several thousand people (or souls of people still maintaining the self-image they had of themselves in their last life) had to stand on it. They were all crowded to fill about 3/4 of the space (and those near the edge were very grateful for the handrails) while the final 1/4 was corded off with felt theatre ropes on poles. In this space stood Athena, and behind her, nearing the edge of the plateau, a massive gateway of sandstone. The gate was framed on each side by massive statues of robed figures, each holding a large sword by the hilt, with the points resting on the ground. The eyes of the statues seemed to glow red beneath their hoods, and at the apex of the gate was carved a coiled snake, also with glowing red eyes. Through the archway the souls could see a much more pleasant scene of green grass, tall trees, and pristine mountains in the distance. A slight wind seemed to be sucked into the gateway as though it were a vacuum.
All in all, the gateway was quite intimidating... or dramatic, depending on one's perspective.
Athena grinned at the wide-eyed souls gathered, and raised her voice.
"The time of choosing is upon you, mortals. Who shall you be? *What* shall you be? And how would you prefer to live your life and make your way in this new world? The choice need not be permanent; I figure I'll give you the option to choose again every 60 years or so... maybe 70 when I can get that expansion software from Skuld..."
Athena shook her head to clear it of idle thoughts. "Never mind that. Here are your choices for what race you shall be in your first life on Azeroth." With a wave of her sword, 16 figures appeared in a long line with the goddess in the middle. Each figure was paired with what was obviously the opposite sex of its species, making a total of 8 separate races being represented.
"The basic politics of this world are divided into two factions, known as the Horde and the Alliance." She waved her sword to each side of her in turn. "I wish to point out to you that, despite the Horde appearing somewhat more... beastly, neither side of the conflict is evil. There had been in the past long wars that pitted each side against each other, some of the Horde races being spurred on by demons. Now however, the demons have been beaten back, and the Horde lives for itself again. Despite this, the hostility between the two sides remains, though it is mostly simmering at the moment. Open war is being avoided, but small skirmishes when Horde and Alliance come across each other in the wilderness are common. Neither is particularly good or evil, but each side... each race really, has it's own philosophies and cultural opinions."
Athena left her centre position to walk down the line of unmoving beings. "When you become one of these races, you will keep as much of your current features as the race's archtype permits, so you should still be mostly recognisable to each other... in some cases more than others." She smirked as she affectionatly patted the muzzle of the huge bull-like creature. Obviously, such an inhuman-shaped head wasn't going to allow much commonality with the features of the presently human souls.
Athena reached the end of the line. "Let be give you a quick introduction before I start bringing you up in small groups to make your choices. Starting here are the Orcs. Orcs are the backbone of the horde, the centre of the faction's organisation. They are a race of born warriors, and their culture places a lot of value on the pursuit of glory and honour in battle, regardless of one's roll in the battle. Frankly, I think they're at least partially inspired by the Klingons in that Star Trek show that used to run on your mortal televisions.
"Next up are the Trolls. Nimble and resilient to damage, their culture is more along the lines of a savage jungle tribe. They are, however, quite intelligent and cunning, with a surprising aptitude for magic, from the arcane arts of a mage, to shamanism and even a priesthood. About the only mystic art they don't practice is Demonology.
"After Trolls are the largest of all the races in Azeroth, the Tauren. These bull-men are a tribal culture of hunters and gatherers, deeply in touch with nature, something akin to the Native peoples of Earth's North American continent, or even the Ainu of an older Japan, for that matter. Dispute their size and strength, there is nothing brutish about their culture or beliefs. In fact, if not for the friendship and debts of honour they have with the Orcs, they would likely be quite acceptable allies to the alliance races as well. They are the only race who have no rogues or thieves among their numbers.
"Finally for the Horde side, are the Forsaken, or Undead. In one of the last wars I mentioned, the demons raised an army of undead humans to do their fighting for them, but when those demons and their servants were defeated, their control over the undead broke. This left a large number of these walking corpses regaining their memories and personalities of being alive, and the free will to choose their own fates. Now free, they banded together and named their group the Forsaken, as they were pretty certain they would never be accepted by their friends and family still living. They did not choose to become undead, but since they can't become human again, and since the humans they once called brothers would typically try to destroy them on sight, they've allied themselves (tentatively) with the Horde. It's a shaky alliance, without a great deal of trust in it, but it seems to be holding."
"This then is the Horde Faction, proud and noble, brutal and strong. They struggle to make their way in a hostile world." Athena summarised. She was trying to put the best spin on them, as they were unlikely to be the most popular choices. In fact, she anticipated that if the soul population of the factions became too unbalanced, she was going to have to removed the choice from the latter half of these souls, especially in the case of the Forsaken. Walking, half-rotted corpses were not something everyone could see themselves as easily.
She continued on to the Alliance races. "Let's go shortest to tallest. Gnomes are an ingenious people, brilliant in technical and arcane fields of study. In counterbalance to their small size, they have advantages in wielding magics and machinery. Their engineers are among the most innovative in all the world... which is not to say that the things they make don't randomly explode now and again. Their brilliant minds tend more towards realism than blind faith, however, and they are the only alliance race with no priests among them.
"Next we have the stalwart Dwarves. Strong, tough, and sturdy, they are traditionally great miners and blacksmiths, and have created many great works of stone and metal. They do not, by and large, have a use for magic, being a more earthly people, though faith and religion have their place in their culture, as reflected by their priests and paladins.
"Moving on to the head of the Alliance (mostly because they say they are) we have the Humans. Humans are fairly well balanced and can do most anything well, if not excellently. They are a prideful and sometimes extremely arrogant people, full of their own importance. Despite that, they do have much to offer, and their diplomatic talents are what originally brought the alliance together." Humans, Athena reasoned, would be the most obvious and likely choice for the human souls to live as, so she downplayed them a bit to help spread the souls around.
"Finally we come to the most recent joiners of the Alliance, the Night Elves. Quite possibly the oldest cultures on Azeroth (or at least filled with the oldest individuals) the Night Elves were immortal until recently, and are now learning to live as mortals along with the rest of this worlds races. They are a druidic society very much in touch with nature and the forces of the world's life, and religion-wise, worship the moon-goddess Elune. They make their homes in living trees shaped and hollowed out by magic. They once lived separated and unknown to the other races of Azeroth, considering themselves an evolutionary stage above, the other peoples of the world. In the recent wars against the demons, they not only lost their immortality, but were forced to swallow some of their pride and admit that they needed the help of the humans, dwarves, and gnomes, (and in that battle at least, the orcs, tauren and trolls as well)."
Athena turned, sweeping a hand to encompass the four more humanoid-looking races. "This then is the Alliance faction. All claim to serve the forces of light and goodness, but the fanaticism and ethnocentrism of some of them (mostly the taller two) twists their good intentions at times. Still, do not judge any entire race by the words or actions of some of the higher-placed, more arrogant individuals. You souls should not have to worry overmuch about the politics of the world, as your only involvement in them will be peripheral."
Athena returned to her centre position in the line-up and addressed the masses. "Now then, that's your basic overview of the main races of Azeroth. There are some others, but either their intelligence is too low, or their involvement too limited for me to place you into their shoes... those that wear shoes anyway. These are your choices. Each have their advantages and disadvantages, strengths and weaknesses. Altogether, there are nine possible classes, or occupations, to choose from, but no race is able to choose from all nine. I think I'll bring you forward in small groups to answer specific questions about whichever race you're interested in, and then move you on to selecting your class from the choices available to that race. Hmm... You three, the former sisters. Come on up here."
Somewhat nervous, the souls formally known as Kasumi, Nabiki, and Akane Tendou stepped forward...
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(Posted Thu, 20 Apr 2006 02:28)
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