Story

## Summary

Citizens of this world fall under 6 different Aspects, each having a unique culture and way of life. The Aspects are not hostile to one another, they of course have differences in opinions and some conflicts may arise from that, but there is not any sort of war or larger conflict going on. Most people of this world tend to cooperate and get along, potentially there is a "shared city" that is central that belongs to all Aspects with different areas that get more densely populated with their respective Aspect followers as you travel out. In this world the main threats include a variety of beasts, and the occasional problematic citizen.

The player character starts out in neutral territory, maybe the potential "shared city" that is central to the world. They are not subscribed to a certain Aspect so the player has freedom to choose. The character travels around and picks up party members, one for each Aspect. These party members will have a forced starting class, but the player is free to do any class combination off of that. As the player explores the world and learns more about the various Aspects they start to uncover that there is a larger truth that seems to have been long forgotten.

It turns out that the Aspects were all part of an original single force, currently named The Primordial. The Primordial can be thought of as a permeating force that subtly influences or drives the beings on the planet towards the mindset of peace. One day, an event that came to be known as the Rain of Stars happened, where celestial objects rained down upon the planet. This had many outcomes, from changing the landscape, to adding deposits of a special ore, and varying effects on the living beings on the planet. More importantly, the event caused The Primordial to shatter in to the fragments we now know as the Aspects. Since The Primordial was already a sort of force that influenced the beings, the result of this was that people were now free to pick one of the Aspects to follow. This came with various minor issues as each Aspect is an incomplete part of a larger whole, and as such contains flaws (outlined on the Aspects page). However, since The Primordial was not really observed or known by the people prior, they were not aware that anything was wrong. Unfortunately for the beasts on the planet, the effects were worse. Some became corrupted by the shattering, being more violent. Some tried to restore The Primordial, which was incorrectly perceived as hostility by the people.

The player character and party go out with their new found mission to gather the Aspects and restore The Primordial. The character will need to solve a large scale abstract puzzle relating to each Aspect in order for the Aspect to "manifest" in a physical form. This will be in addition to dealing with any potential conflicts, like the Aspects people not being onboard with the party's goal. The player will have to address these conflicts by doing tasks or quests for the various cultures, potentially having to fight some, while also figuring out how to get the Aspect to reveal itself. Once the player collects all the Aspects, they will do some "final challenge" to restore The Primordial, ending in a final boss fight against The Primordial.

Another idea is that instead of the Aspects being represented by a physical object, the player is granted an "ultimate skill" that will go to the party member for that Aspect.

## History

TBD - pre Rain of Stars, may not be relevant

Clarification on the history of the Aspects and Cultures: when The Primordial was fractured in to the 6 Aspects, all 6 Aspects were present at that moment. However, it took time for the people to slowly start embracing their Aspect more, eventually giving them the names they have and recognizing themselves as distinct groups.

After the Rain of Stars event, the people of the world were left shaken. The first Aspect to "materialize" was Protection (maybe one single person stands out as the first "leader"?). They worked to try and rebuild society as it once was, while building up barriers and order. This almost immediately caused a divide, and the 2nd Aspect to show itself was Harmony. The followers of Harmony (at the time also including Instinct) did not agree with fortifying and thought the people should move to a lifestyle of respecting nature. They ultimately went off to build their societies in the forests (or whatever) while the Protection Aspect built cities scattered across the land.

After some time had passed, the next Aspect to reveal itself was Curiosity. Some people under Protection most likely already had the values of Curiosity, but the split that caused them to become their own was due to the discovery of Eldritch Magic. The Scholars of the time eventually turned their focus to the source of the Rain of Stars, the cosmos beyond the planet. This more dangerous style of magic, in addition to their "reckless" pursuit of knowledge, caused tensions with the now Kingdom of Protection (not the actual name). Eventually the Scholars went off and established their own (academies? observatories?), cementing them as the next distinct Aspect of Curisoity.

Slowly over the course of this time, the Instinct Aspect started to distinguish itself from Harmony. There may not have necessarily been any conflicts, most likely just a slow separation as the Harmony followers became masters of Nature/Spirit Magic and the Instinct followers went their own path of respecting nature. These followers of Instinct, being more independent, went their own way, some being nomadic, and some eventually establishing small hunting villages.

Might is TBD. Unsure if they also just slowly split off, not agreeing with the overly restrictive order of the Protection Aspect, or if there was some sort of battle since Might is an aggressive Aspect.

The last Aspect was Cunning. There had been people who followed Cunning for a while, but due to their sneaky and adaptable nature they were able to keep living under Protection, until eventually Protections overly strict rules started causing strain. There had been natural disagreements with how Protection and Cunning handled stuff, until eventually enough was enough and Cunning went their own way. Most likely they will have established "Cunning" areas of some of the Protection cities, maybe a part of the map that was known for housing these sorts of people. With the split and whatever conflict arose from that, the Cunning maintained a hold on their already established territory and remained there.

Throughout this whole history, the central hub city was slowly growing as a central point for the people to come and trade. Overtime this trade hub grew in to a neutral city. Needs more work on why it isnt under the control of Protection. I don't want Protection to be labeled as "the bad guys" or give them a conquest kind of vibe.. so maybe the city just slowly developed and by time it was large enough most of the Aspects had already established themselves. That would make sense since the concept of a trade hub makes the most sense once the different cultures are more separate and would need to trade.