History Literature / TheAvatarChronicles

''Epic'' is a novel by Conor Kostick, published in 2004. ''Epic'' is set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, on New Earth, a planet 'somewhere in the universe' which human colonists have settled on long ago. With them they brought ''Epic'', a vast fantasy game originally invented to prevent psychological problems from isolation and boredom during the long travels through space in a semi-frozen state, ''Epic'' now dominates the colony's culture. The game's currency is valid for real resources. Loss in in-game tournaments gets you assigned to worse jobs. Social status and personal wellbeing all depend on your character's level, equipment and status. To make matters worse, ''Epic'' is NintendoHard -- once your character is dead, all their stuff is gone as well, and you have to start all over again. And to compound matters, high-level equipment, spells and skills are almost exclusively in the hands of Central Allocations, a group of nine people, which dooms most appeals against their decisions to failure.

''Epic'' is also the colony's only outlet for any sort of conflict; violence is seen as absolutely despicable in the colony, and merely the act of striking another human is enough to warrant exile onto a small island.

The protagonist of ''Epic'' is Erik Haraldsson, who lives in a small village that produces olives, and whose fate is about to turn for the worse: his mother has had little luck in the game, having just 'died', and so they are about to be forcibly moved to an assignment in the salt fields or coal mines, when Erik decides to defy a trope and creates a new character...

%%* CoolSword: ''Thunder'' and ''Lightning''. ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.

%%* FantasyKitchenSink: ''Epic'' has a dash of everything.

%%* MagicalNegro: The Dark Elf Anonemuss sort of ends up with this.%%How?

* StandardStatusEffects: And they are definitely not useless this time.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: [[spoiler:Ragnok.]] The people don't even know he [[spoiler:murdered someone]]. He's just that much of a dick.

* ZeroPercentApprovalRating: [[spoiler:Ragnok. The people don't even know he murdered someone. He's just that much of a dick.]]
* AcquiredSituationalNarcissism: Big Erik, though he gets past it.

** [[spoiler:The now self-aware ''Epic'' has become schizoid -- one part gives life to [=NPCs=] and wants to be friends with humans, but also end because it is lonely. The other part is a vampire, wants to continue living, and can kill people in the real world with hypnosis.]]
** [[spoiler:In ''Saga'', the Dark Queen effectively [[ApocalypseHow killed all humans on Earth]].]]
** [[spoiler:Lord Scanthax in ''Edda'' seems incapable of thinking of anything in terms other than conquering the world by killing everyone not from his kingdom.]]

* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:The end goal of ''Epic'' is to completely destroy the game's world, effectively deleting the entire virtual universe.]]

* BagOfHolding: Erik's character Cindella has one.

* BloodKnight: Ragnok enjoys playing the Executioner a little bit too much.
* BlueAndOrangeMorality: the game AIS are like this.

* CityNoir: The setting of ''Saga'', more or less.

* GeniusLoci: [[spoiler:More like genius ludi... Epic is alive!]]
* GlobalCurrency: Bezant, as well as silver, gold and pennies.

* RoyalWe: The Dark Queen uses this in ''Saga''.

* SkeletonGovernment: Nine people make up Central Allocations.

** In the beginning of ''Epic'', Antilo the jeweler gives Erik (in the form of Cinderella) an amulet that when later [[spoiler:shown to Antilo awakens the sentience whithin the game to come have a chat.]]

* OurWyvernsAreDifferent: Wyverns are present in ''Epic'' as monsters resembling weaker, four-winged dragons -- weaker here being a relative term; wyverns are powerful enemies and entirely capable of delivering a TotalPartyKill against groups of low-level characters, but they're nowhere near as strong as the game's nearly unkillable dragons. They're also among the monsters that can be summoned in the training arena, and the main characters practice against wyverns in order to work out a good way to kill Inry'aat.

InAWorld where skill in a massive, intricate MMORPG has become the way through which matters of economic and juristic disputes are settled and where high-level players reign supreme, both in the virtual and real world, a small boy from a coastal village bets all and wins high - but the system has its issues with that.

''Epic'' is a novel by Conor Kostick, published in 2004. ''Epic'' is set TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, on New Earth, a planet 'somewhere in the universe' which human colonists have settled on long ago. With them they brought ''Epic'' - originally invented to prevent psychological problems from isolation and boredom during the long travels through space in a semi-frozen state, ''Epic'' now dominates the colony's culture. The game's currency is valid for real resources. Loss in in-game tournaments gets you assigned to worse jobs. Social status and personal wellbeing all depend on your character's level, equipment and status. To make matters worse, ''Epic'' is NintendoHard - once your character is dead, all their stuff is gone as well, and you have to start all over again. And to compound matters, high-level equipment, spells and skills are almost exclusively in the hands of Central Allocations, a group of nine people, which dooms most appeals against their decisions to failure.

The sequel to ''Epic'' is ''Saga'', a much DarkerAndEdgier story. Set in a virtual world which was originally designed to be like ''Epic'', only CyberPunk as opposed to HeroicFantasy. After 2000 years of existence however, the "game" has become alive, and is pretty much a universe in it's own right. ''Saga'' is ruled over by the [[GodSaveUsFromTheQueen Dark Queen]], who has created a card system to indicate the rich and the poor, [[ColorCodedForYourConvenience with Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet]] colored cards. The poorest of the the poor (and the majority of ''Saga's'' citizens) are Red, with Violet being for the [[BlueBlood super-rich.]]

* AIBreaker: In ''Epic'', Erik figures out that the Red Dragon can be defeated by a group of comparatively low-level characters by exploiting its attack patterns- it will always attack the one who dealt the most damage, or, if the damage is roughly equal, whoever attacked the most recently. He gets a group of characters together with an insane amount of arrows, and two party members take turns firing at the dragon from opposite directions, so the dragon can't make it to the first attacker before the second attacker triggers it to move in the other direction (with backup archers in case either one misses), repeating until the dragon suffers DeathOfAThousandCuts (and when both the main and backup archers fail, Erik's DrawAggro move is used to finally defeat it.
* AIIsACrapshoot: [[spoiler:The now self-aware game has become schizoid – one part gives life to [=NPCs=] and wants to be friends with humans, but also end because it is lonely. The other part is a vampire, wants to continue living, and can kill people in the real world with hypnosis.]]
** [[spoiler: And in Saga the Dark Queen pretty much [[ApocalypseHow killed all humans on Earth]].]]
** [[spoiler: Lord Scanthax in Eda seems incapable of thinking of anything in terms other than conquering the world by killing everyone not from his kingdom.]]

* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:There's an item among the pirate treasure Erik got a map to that can completely destroy Epic.]]
* ArrestedForHeroism: Harald was exiled for life - because he punched someone in order to stop an AttemptedRape.

* AxeCrazy: [[spoiler:Ragnok, what with throwing a wheelchair-bound old man out of a high tower's window over a game character, committing a real life murder – perhaps the first in all of the colony's existence..]]

* BagOfSpilling: On every death, your entire character is erased.

** [[spoiler:The medallion the archbishop gave Bjorn in return for his gods' bell. Turns out that merfolk are really thankful to that god.]]
** [[spoiler:You remember that cursed dagger and invisibility item that got Anonemuss' avatar killed? That Lord Scanthax's troops took back with them? Yeah, they're used by Assassin at the end of ''Edda''. If he hadn't been using those particular items, he'd still be alive and Ghost would be dead, and chances are Lord Scanthax would not have been defeated.]]

* {{Cool Sword}}s: 'Thunder' and 'Lightning'. ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.

* DigitalAvatar: Players naturally have to create a character for the games, and throughout the book they're seen through their game avatars just as much as - if not more than - real life.
* DualWielding - B.E. with his twin swords, ''Thunder'' and ''Lightning''.
* DumpStat: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with Cindella, Erik's new character. Otherwise played straight - since ''Epic'' is SeriousBusiness, nobody would waste any points into a stat like Beauty. However, [[spoiler:it's Erik's defiance that rouses the attention of ''Epic'''s kernel, which has become self-aware.]]
* DeathOfAThousandCuts: Using roughly two thousand arrows to juggle and kill a huge red dragon.
* DeepImmersionGaming: Boy, ''howdy''. Complete with full 3D data helmet and in-game tactile sense. NPC AI so complex it reacts to player-made events. All in Real Time, with an ecosystem, everything. But you still [[YouCantGetYeFlask can't get ye flask]].
* DisproportionateRetribution: Punched someone in the face? Onto the exile island with you. Enjoy third-rate seeds and rusty tool shipments.

* ForScience: [[spoiler:In the ending, Svein Redbeard turns against Erik in-game to prevent Epic from being shut down - just because there was still so much to explore!]]

** The government has access to a code that disables [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] protection - they alone can create a character that can attack other players outside the arena. Whilst that means that said character (the "Executioner") is also attackable, it's been equipped with tons of highest-level equipment (including a shield that voids all negative magic) and spells. Also, none of the other players know that it's possible to attack another player.

* {{Jerkass}}: Whilst playing as the “Executioner”, a character capable of attacking players outside [=PvP=], Ragnok passed the time by sneaking up on an unsuspecting player for a OneHitKill – which might just have vaporized a lifetime's worth of LevelGrinding.
* LordBritishPostulate: This gets the “Executioner” and Central Allocations, and already got the Red Dragon. Any finite number can be reduced to 0.
* MachiavelliWasWrong: Discussed. Anonemuss quotes and discusses the necessity of violence with the group, who live in a world where it is treated… strangely.
* MagicalNegro: Dark Elf Anonemuss sort of ends up with this.

** This is a plot hole - it is possible to transfer all your belongings to another player (family member or a friend) before the fight and if you die you can make a new character and get it all back. Freya explicitly sold all she owned to buy arrows (for the dragon fight), which she then gave to Eric. No tax or anything. Basically you can find the character class with most valuable starting equipment/money, stash it all onto a helper, suicide, make a new one etc. and no one would care or be able to trace this.

* OurVampiresAreDifferent: They're [[spoiler:aware they're in a game, at least.]]
* ParrotExposition: Necessary in conversations with NPC, because even TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, YouCantGetYeFlask.
* PointBuildSystem

* RageQuit: Erik considers doing this to avoid capture, but fears to find his character in the same ship but [[SuperDrowningSkills on the bottom of the ocean]] when he logs back in.

* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Out of all the Central Allocations people, the druidess Bekka is probably the most Lawful Good. And also the only one not to be [[OneHitKill oneshot'd]] by Ragnok.
* RedHerring: Cindella pretends to do a Main Quest whilst following a different idea altogether.
* RidiculouslyAverageGuy: Erik.

* SchizoTech: Each world has its own technology - for example, since ''Epic'' is a StandardFantasySetting, you've got only swords, bows, and the like, but ''Saga'' is a CyberPunk CityNoir and therefore has high-technology {{Ray Gun}}s. SchizoTech is what you get when the virtual worlds collide.
* SeriousBusiness: ''Epic'' controls everything on New Earth - want to appeal to a government decision? You'll have to fight their character. Need an urgent shipment of solar collectors or other supplies, but have been denied? To appeal, you'll have to win in [=PvP=]. Lost your job? Arena match!
** There's also one University for the entire colony. Guess what you study there.
*** And that's the requirement for going for government - having studied a MMORPG. An incredibly complex one, but ''still''.

* SlashCommand: Well, # - the pound sign is what Erik and friends use to emote in the game.
* SomebodyNamedNobody - Anonemuss is only ever seen through his game avatars, and all they really know about him is that he's from the isle of exiled criminals.

* ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption: Played with, and center of the books' Aesop. Whilst in the real world, violence in all forms is forbidden (to the point where, when Erik lost a tooth due to an accident whilst playing, he had to lie about it lest his friend may be seen as having deliberately hurt him and therefore being banished), it's the only way to proceed in ''Epic'' and therefore better your lot in real life – instead of forbidding violence and the oppression and differences it causes, New Earth merely shifted it elsewhere.
* WalletOfHolding: Averted. The heroes have to open a bank account and have clerks rummage through the dragon hoard they looted to see how much they actually made.
** To do large transactions, they get Djinns they can command to shift the money. But only nine times.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: So, aside from [[spoiler:Ragnok and Godmund]], who got a confirmed death, what happened to the other committee members? We know their characters were killed, but…
* YouCantGetYeFlask: For all its advanced AI and stunning realism, the dialogue system in ''Epic'' is pretty bad. Usually, players resort to MetalGearing in order to get the [=NPCs=] to talk.

** The government has access to a code that disables PvP protection - they alone can create a character that can attack other players outside the arena. Whilst that means that said character (the "Executioner") is also attackable, it's been equipped with tons of highest-level equipment (including a shield that voids all negative magic) and spells. Also, none of the other players know that it's possible to attack another player.

* {{Jerkass}}: Whilst playing as the “Executioner”, a character capable of attacking players outside PvP, Ragnok passed the time by sneaking up on an unsuspecting player for a OneHitKill – which might just have vaporized a lifetime's worth of LevelGrinding.

* SeriousBusiness: ''Epic'' controls everything on New Earth - want to appeal to a government decision? You'll have to fight their character. Need an urgent shipment of solar collectors or other supplies, but have been denied? To appeal, you'll have to win in PvP. Lost your job? Arena match!

* AnAesop: AntiEscapismAesop - Fleeing into virtual realities and not doing the things that need to be done in the real world is bad. Which goes into BrokenAesop, because their colony is only declining because people are ''forced to'' depend on ''Epic''.

* LordBritishPostulate: Inevitably, this is going to get both the “Executioner” and Central Allocations. It already got the Red Dragon. Any finite number can be reduced to 0…

* SpaceWhaleAesop: If your government starts to decide everything through [=WoW=], delete the game. Only then game will become a vampire that can hypnotize you into dying of fright.

* SpaceWhaleAesop: If your government start to decide everything through WoW, delete the game. Only that the game will become a vampire that can hypnotize you into dying of fright.

* MetalGearing: Necessary in conversations with NPC, because even TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture, YouCantGetYeFlask.

%%* DigitalAvatar

%%* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: ''Epic''.

** This is a plot hole - it is possible to transfer all your belongings to another player (family member or a friend) before the fight and if you die you can make a new character and get it all back. Freya explicitly sold all she owned to buy arrows (for the dragon fight), which she then gave to Eric. No tax or anything. Basically you can find the character class with most valuable starting equipment/money, stash it all onto a helper, suicide, make a new one etc. and noone would care or be able to trace this.

%%* SlashCommand: Well, #.

* AnAesop: Fleeing into virtual realities and not doing the things that need to be done in the real world is bad. Which goes into BrokenAesop, because their colony is only declining because people are ''forced to'' depend on ''Epic''.