Story Idea 4: Refuge in Void (Patreon)

WARNING! POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!

A while ago I said I had four ideas for the next story I intended to write, and that I would eventually ask my patrons what thoughts they had on each. Well, I’ve made an outline for each of the four ideas. Here is one of them. If you have time, please take a look and tell me what you think. Does this look interesting to you? Do you have any ideas or concerns you wish to raise? This isn’t a popularity vote, and I reserve the right to do whatever I want regardless of the reception each idea gets, but I do care what you think. That’s why I’m asking.

Oh yeah, just to reiterate the warning at the top of the post and clarify it – the following is a fairly detailed look at the story idea I may eventually write. If I do, some of the information may constitute mild spoilers for that story. There is nothing really crucial here, but obviously I cannot discuss the story without revealing some surface-level details about it. You have been warned.

Story Idea 4: Refuge in Void

The premise of the story is that a literal NPC from an abandoned VRMMO is transported to a fantasy world and is faced with a world which doesn’t quite work like he’s used to… but it’s surprisingly similar to it in many aspects. He sets out to explore this strange new world and have fun along the way. The story is not a LitRPG, despite starring a NPC as the main character, but some aspects of the fantasy world do function in ways that could be described as ‘game-like’ – though the natives wouldn’t think of them as such. No info boxes or ‘system’ or anything that obvious – we’re talking about things like magic involving ‘spiritual layers’ (which the protagonist calls levels) and giving one an ablative shield of armor (which the protagonist calls HP) and stuff like that. The long-term plot revolves around figuring out the nature of condition and why everything looks like it’s slowly falling apart behind the scenes.

The Setting: 

The setting is classical fantasy, but somewhat anime-inspired. The magic system gives both physical prowess and exotic powers, and those powers tend to be relatively specialized for each individual and often elemental in theme. Animals and monsters can spontaneously evolve into more powerful forms or morph into humanoid ones. There are demiplanes scattered throughout the world, called ‘Treasure Sites’ by the natives, which test visitors in various ways and hand out treasure if they survive. 

Though the setting looks idyllic, things clearly aren’t looking good behind the scenes. Civilization is limited to certain areas, with most of the land and sea being taken over by terrifying monsters. This wilderness is littered with ruins, suggesting it was once inhabited by prosperous civilizations. The gods are usually absent, and always seem to be in a hurry when they interact with their followers, as if something is constantly making them busy. The magic and technology levels were clearly way higher in ages past, and stories of a lost golden age are present everywhere one goes, though they greatly differ in details. The world has a crumbling, doomed quality and it starts to disturb the protagonist after a while.

If you don’t mind spoilers and want to know more about the magic system I intend to use here, you can find a brief outline in this document here.

The Protagonist: 

As stated before, the protagonist is a literal NPC from an abandoned game. He had achieved sapience through some mysterious means, but was trapped within the confines of the game. He was supposed to die when the servers for the game shut down, but somehow the game kept going past that, and he was left alone in an empty game world devoid of players. At the start of the story, a goddess comes to him, claiming the ‘world cannot end like it’s supposed to’ while he’s there, and offers to transport him elsewhere so she can ‘clean up this mess’. After some haggling, he agrees to re-locate to this new world, along with some minor boons he negotiated for himself.

The protagonist is a cheerful, outgoing, and reckless man. He takes very few things seriously, especially at the beginning of the story, viewing everything like a giant game. He’s not used to caring about anyone except himself – the players in his game world couldn’t die, and his fellow NPCs lacked self-awareness. He takes crazy risks, calls everything is gaming terms, and generally drives people around him up the wall with his antics.

Other Notes:

This is the most recent and probably the least developed idea out of the four I have in mind. That doesn’t mean it should be discounted, though, just that it would take a bit more work to turn it into a concrete story plot.

The story is going to be relatively humorous in nature, especially at the beginning. I’m not sure I can pull of humorous in a satisfying manner, but I’ll try. Still, while humor is an important part of this, I wouldn’t exactly describe this story as primarily a comedy.