This chapter serves the purpose of acting as an information center for the story that is to be told. While in general, certain things here will be re-mentioned and told in the story, this serves to give greater clarity for terms and events that led to the creation of the story. If you want to understand the system and how it functions in accordance with the standard that is to be followed, this is the best place to start. So let's start from the beginning of how the world became like this, and how people got the power to wield abilities only the gods can use.
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Before the Modern Era, in a time so old that Roman Pantheons stood tall as the greatest architectural masterpieces to be created, gods from every pantheon held a part of the world as their territory.
The Greek gods were amongst this set, known as the most Powerful of the gods. Below these gods were humanity, birthed by not only Prometheus, but by other gods from many respective Creation Mythos, all in one collective effort. From this, Humans were made to worship the gods, living by a set of rules for most of their life. But this, in turn, led to endless struggles for humanity.
While the gods lived care-free, eating sacrifices given to them by the humans, wishing for their eternal boredom to come to an end, one god from the Greek Pantheon saw something the others could never. The answer to their boredom lay within the beings they had created. Humans lived through hardship and got stronger each time they experienced them.
In his eyes, humanity deserved to know what the power of a god felt like, so one day the gods could have something to alleviate their boredom. A win-win for both sides. Gods get something to have fun with something that could rival them, and humans get the powers only gods held.
There was one problem with all of this, however. The Other gods would never agree to such a thing.
Taking matters into his own hands, this rogue god went to the different pantheons and slaughtered each and every god. He took their essence and used them as part of his master plan. From those who remained before their death, He became known as the One Unforgiven.
The Greek Pantheon was last fall.
On the day they did, The One Unforgiven took a human bride, known as the Bride of the End. From her and the pact he made with her came a new era for humanity.
One that embraced the powers of Godhood, given to them in the form of a game-like system, called the Periodic System.
[The Periodic System]
A magical system created by the One Unforgiven that allows a person, when chosen and given a Periodic Affinity, to develop game-like abilities through leveling mechanics. There are three main cores to the Periodic System: the Weapon Skill Tree, the Armor Skill Tree, and the Periodic Skill Tree. This system makes the world around a person feel more like a soulslike game, inspired by and based on the Elden Ring mostly. Only 3000 people every 18 years are chosen to be a part of it.
There are six main categories for stats in the Periodic System:
Vitalis(Vitality) - User Health
Fortis(Endurance/Durability) - User Durability
Celeris(Evasiveness/Speed) - User Speed
Arcana(Magecraft/Intelligence/Archery) - User's Intelligence
Potentia(Strength) - User's Strength
Anima(Stamina) - User stamina
Leveling up goes from level 1 to 150. Some levels give universal passive abilities to each person who reaches them.
Level 2- User Periodic Affinity unlocks.
Level 5- Periodic Skill Tree unlocks, Weapon/Armor Skill tree unlocks.
Level 20 - Gain 3 Periodic Skill Tree resets(Think of this like re-doing your specialization)
Level 50- Weapon Custom Creation/Armor Creation
Level 100 - Marked by the Crow- Lower-level systems users that fight you will automatically have this debuff placed on them. Lowers resistances and attributes of the enemy 50%. Immune to all debuffs by those lower level than self(includes wave enemies but excludes bosses)(if both are level 100 and above, cancels out)
Level 150- Enemy of God- Unattainable by anyone; no one has reached level 150. If you reach this level, all abilities receive 100% increases to damage, all weapons and armor become S-ranked, and each weapon gains ignore defense and critical damage upon striking an enemy. Armor gains a reduction to damage taken by 99% from all periodic affinities other than its own affinity.
[Periodic Affinity]
When a person is chosen by The Periodic System, they are given a certain element from the natural elements in nature. This is their periodic affinity, and based on that affinity, their system will allow them to level-up themselves up with traits that pertain to that element specifically. Ie. A Titanium Periodic Affinity will allow a person to have skills pertaining to Titanium's natural traits of being very sturdy, resistance to corrosive elements, and other facets. Weapons and Armor also have periodic affinities.
[Periodics]
People who are chosen by the system, which happens every eighteen years after the last Periodic of that generation has been killed, or manage to beat the system(which has never happened). Every person in society is born with a crow as their birthmark, but when chosen, their birthmarks are changed to take on a design matching their Periodic Affinity. Periodics are the only people who can see and access Gateways to Raids and Waves.
As classified by the Wave Hunter's Association(the main recruiting agency to help develop those chosen), Periodics can be classified into seven ranks:
Rooks
Squires
Knights
Royal
Regals
Generals
Lords(Only seven can exist at one time during each Periodic Era)
This is the grade of proficiency used by the Wave Hunters.
[Lords]
Only seven Lords can exist during each new era. These are the first Periodics to awaken. When they do, it is usually 3 months before all the other Periodics normally do, and they are given special treatment by the system. They are allowed to access raids early, level-up incredible fast, and get one Divine Rarity Weapon each. Their job is to be the best of humanity, gain weapons, armors, and teach the rest of the Periodics about their gifts, while giving them spoils of the battle they have won to jump start others that come after them. "For Humanity" is essentially their motto.
[Raids and Waves]
The first five months after the last Periodic is chosen, Raids gateways open up around the world. These are the main sources of leveling up that come with the system. When a person enters the gateway, they are brought to a recreation of a place in history or sometimes a full fantasy world, where their objective is to beat a boss from history, i.e., say a demigod like Hercules or some variant. Waves are gigantic versions of these raids that begin after the 5 months are over. These waves are when the True gods from different pantheons around the world show up and seek to destroy humanity(within the jurisdiction of the One Unforgiven). Each God for each wave is different per continent, and sometimes multiple gods can appear in one Wave.
Raid and Wave ranks go from:
F-ranked
D-ranked
C-ranked
B-ranked
A-ranked
S-ranked(Depending on Boss can sometimes be even more difficult.)
[Weapons and Armor]
Weapons and Armor can have their own Periodic Affinity. When matched with the right User, weapons can change rank and their rarity. Very Few weapons carry the essences of gods in them(particularly the souls of those the One Unforgiven hated the most). These weapons have trials that a user can complete to enhance the weapon's rank. These trials are set by the specific gods of those weapons, and can feature bosses that can be just as strong, if not stronger than Wave Bosses.
Weapon Rarity goes from:
Regular
Star-lit
Somber
Potent
Awakened
Divine (These are the gods' weapons, and very few exist; they are wielded mostly by Lords).