Chapter 5.1 NPC Species and Lore

NPC are beings who live in the world, and interact with their environment and the player. Some are able to take and give orders. NPC is an in-world acronym that they use to describe themselves, and they canonically understand they are different from PCs. There are 3 total NPC categories.

• N - Nimhs

  • A common creature based being that has higher Intelligence, with personality traits, and speech

    • They have evolved from fauna from the far past, they take on the visual traits of animals

  • Are capable of crafting, skill leveling, and reading blueprints attached to workstations if their skill proficiency is high enough

  • Are faster than Craxes, but not as strong, and are slower at smithing crafts

Species: Alari (birds fast flight), Vayns (dragons slow flight), Oculiths (speed boost and strength debuff, hellhounds), Ravarcos (goblins of Alari, Vayns, and Oculiths, intelligence and leveling debuff)

• P - Phantoms

  • Ethereal beings powered by favor/disfavor that do the bidding of deities, or prayers and crime by NPC or PCs

    • Can be spoken to, but has much less dialog options

  • They are common or rare depending on various factors, such as world events, crime rates, or deity favor/disfavor

  • Deity aligned imps can alter stats, traits, and evolutions of resources

  • Crime imps appear in areas of crime and will steal and will save a hoard of stolen items

Species: Imps (ecology or crime), wild fireflies (appear in places that lack frequent player activity), ethereal themed beings that balance game features

• C - Craxs

  • A common, material based beings that has higher intelligence, with personality traits, and speech

    • Appear as humanoid, but are animated statues and puppets, with visible cracks/openings in their forms (hence the name). They have orb cores in their chests, similar to players, but is hidden inside them

    • Most will appear humanoid

      • Some stonen will show more natural features like shades of gray skin

      • Some husks will show doll/puppet joints, on arms, legs, and faces

  • Are capable of crafting, skill leveling, and reading blueprints

  • Have higher defense and strength than Nimhs, but are slower
    

Species: Stonens (stone buff to smithing and mining), Husks (plant buff to farming and ranching),

NPC Lore Overview
Magic fire of dragons spread across the land, destroying humans, their items, constructions, and history. The dragons lost the fuel that once fed their hoards. Although humans continued to another life and another realm, time went on. The dragons split between the ones who would tend to an ecosystem, making these their new hoards, and the dragons that waited for these ecosystems to spawn new creative life, that they could steal from once again. And so, they slumbered, and waited.

Nimhs - Lore
The deities learned to create flora and fauna. The fauna eventually evolved to become Nimhs. The Nimhs evolved to be crafters, reshaping the lands. But their crafts attracted monsters, and their progress stifled persistently. Not knowing how to go against their creator, some researched the myths of the Dragon's Fire. These Grand Nimhs grow in power and influence, using other Nimhs as minions to craft and build. Forever unable to be content with their hoard. Nimhs are humbled by the power or creativity of the humans before them, so they rely on them in their new forms as leaders, or Grand NPC that have touched the dragon's fire.

Phantoms - Lore
After humans were destroyed, some dragons claimed the ecosystems as their hoard, eventually becoming deities. They created Phantoms to tend to the land. Fireflies were their first creation, and later created Imps that served them throughout history. Both of which retained ethereal forms that had no need to evolve like flora and fauna over time. Their intelligence stayed the same for all of history. Some Imps became influenced after touching remnants of the Dragon's Fire and started to hunger for items and hoarding. These imps will appear in areas with weak crime protections, using crime areas as their pseudo ecosystem. Other Phantoms turned into Monsters, a mix between servitude for a purpose, and unending hunger.

Craxs - Lore
When the dragons destroyed the lands over a millennia ago, their magic fire was left burning in hidden areas. Some fauna touched these, and the masterless magic attached to creatures to become monsters. Some Nimhs and Phantoms gained a need for power and hoards. Other Dragon Flame left burning for centuries. These remnants of magic, left alone for so long, slowly gained intelligence of its own. They possessed many objects crafted by Nimhs, before settling on statues and puppet husks of humans that survived the dragon's fire. They created a core to house their hidden fire body, and used the form of the statues to become crafters. They feed their fire with their own hoard, either as crafters, or Grand NPC.

NPC - Dragon Fire
Due to NPC's history with dragon fire, or deities controlling or manipulating them. NPC will not create their own fire, unless they are a Grand NPC, (Covered in a future section.) They will often rest in the dark, and prefer to travel by light. Due to their reverence, players can direct NPC with fire sources, and light campfires for favor. NPC can automatically use player made firesources to refill their torches, lanterns or fire sources if the need arises and they have access to it, they just won't create their own if they run out.

Player Characters (PCs) - Lore
In the Nimhs' desperation to keep up with the monsters, they researched human history. The Nimhs united the Phantoms and Craxs, orchestrating the methods to create a form for humans to return to the world. They unified together as "NPC".

With guidance from the Nimhs, the Phantoms worked together, the Imps opened a rift into the ethereal world the humans were trapped in, and the Fireflies became a vessel for their souls. The Craxs created a core to weigh them to the world. Nimhs called the new human forms Phantom Cores (PCs) in honor of the power held by Phantoms and Craxs that made it possible.

Nimhs and Craxs believe PCs to be their necessary leaders, regardless of where they are lead to. (Whereas Phantoms already have deities/monsters as leaders.)

The humans are back, although they live between two worlds, turning to a firefly state when their original world beckons them. Then returning to the world of Spirit Relics using their cores. Once their roles end, they leave their core behind, and the legacy they created. Their firefly, pulled by their soul, enters the sky, becoming a star.