"Ruin or Greatness"...
"The stars were against me..." Norbor thought as he spent the last night on his Clan's farm sitting outside the Western field staring at part of some ancient ruin his family had farmed around for eons but never dared dig inside. Somehow it was his favorite place, more because the jeers of his 'brothers' were not so prevalent.
He looked at the sky on a beautiful night - the mid-summer's twilight lit by a full moon. The moon was so bright and he could see it was lush and green with its pine trees and even the reflection of its small oceans. Some said it was a fantastic place but Man had not visited it since the days of the "Wonder Tales" they printed in the Capital and surely the Men there might be very different now.
"It wasn't the stars, it was that prediction..." it had been a family tradition to have an Astrologer do a reading on each family member upon becoming able to do children's duties. They were never told until later but most were smart enough to pretend not to care then listen in or learn from others. Norbor was merely playing but heard the commotion which had ended that family tradition...about his fate...
He faced complete ruin in his life - all the points had shown he'd fall short, fail, not achieve... Fearing for his life the Astrologer left, dropping some equipment, but he had told it could also mean a grand destiny just not the one the family would want for him. There was arguing and his mother was weeping but the family had tried to distract him.
He found in the trash heap a part of one of the Astrologer's scrolls - the map of his life... It was an odd pattern from those of other family members. He had no idea what any of it meant, but it was like every single dot touched a dot no other of his Clan had and the symbols interpretedclashed with perfection.
It had proved a fulfilling prophecy. He was reasonably smart and certainly strong enough to pull more than his weight - he should have done well in his farming clan family where one would think all he needed was an endless willingness to work and basic courtesy to his fellows. But - things didn't fit in somehow. He had a brown thumb. Equipment tended to break in his hands and he didn't get along well with his peers. Surely he'd be starving and constantly begging charity from others and what unfortunate woman was chosen for him if any would weep daily. However even that would not be his life. His own brother had started the fight, that was not in question, but with the anger of years of hurtful words he had fought back too hard and they had to spend a lot of money on advanced medicine in the capital Cain's Sin had never been committed in his family in any of their histories and it surely would someday...if he were to stay.
So, at a time he should be cutting his own section of land with an arranged wife Norbor was sitting with his few belongings and some money he had saved, preparing to leave. His thoughts moved to his Uncle from his Dad's brother by marriage - he had had rapport with old Gornham... The man had been a traveler and served in the High King's guard and taught him to fight both in a military unit and in unfair combat and told him a lot about the lands outside the pastoral lands his and other clans had farmed for thousands of years.
Old Gornham had died of old age a few years back, but he told him about his reading. It wasn't failure, it was that his fortune had to be his own. It could be a recipe for failure but if he would seize his own fortune it is a recipe for greatness. It was not the easy path, far easier to scrape a living from the soil and pay the Duke for protection, but live life ignoble and humble. Yet that was not his choice, only the road ahead which would lead to ruin or greatness.
Norbor had stayed up almost all night looking at the ruins. No last minute jeer and save ceremony no one to wish him goodbye. His brother was pretty popular, still he was glad he did not kill him. He had built a large fire since there was much deadwood but none gathered to party with him one last time. It was no bother, the light added to the bright moon to illuminate the ruins he'd take one last look at especially the giant statue of the tilted King.
Most of the time he had been by these ruins in his recent years it was to plant, tend, harvest the crops and everyone else wanted to be done and quick so he had not really had the time to study them. His family had discouraged him from playing around in the ruins for fear of curses and worse. It was some ancient King with some heads of perhaps his advisors or companions on pillars around him in what had been once a great capital. His family only cared that the endless shifting of time left most of it deep enough for a few feet or more of soil that they could plant on for the stone it was made of was some wonder material not easily cut.
He studied again the giant carving of some great warrior king of thousands of years ago, now slightly off angle as the Earth had shifted several times. Who was he, this Ancient King, he had asked time and again from his youth? They cared not, there were dozens if not hundreds of such statues within a few weeks walk. Earth had many kings and tyrants and grand rulers going back to the first days. A few like this one left statues on what now were the ruins of their palaces - but also were guarded by curses and traps and monsters of the Dark who would destroy those who tried to plunder their treasures. It was a lesson they said to live a humble life, that if you struggle for greatness and somehow triumph the weight of time will only wear your works down. All you would be for all the risk and danger and fear and responsibility would be a fading statue somewhere known to none. Even with that warning Norbor had always admired the visage of that ancient king, regal on his throne, staring at eternity even as it would engulf him. When he dared a closer inspection countless carvings at the base showed the king on his throne, surrounded by courtiers, dancing beautiful women, magicians or in Great Battles. The main statue was just the king on his throne, so bold and simple and powerful. His face was rugged and real.
The king's stare seemed to pierce through the Eons to humble Norbor. In his despair at his lot in life and resignation to a path perhaps of beggary but perhaps adventure or fortune elsewhere he expected this idol to somehow stare at him and say words of condemnation. He saw no such ill thought in the statue's face, rather the same determination against time itself.
"If there were monsters hiding here, surely they'd have attacked us by now..." Norbor thought and investigated closer... He had always noticed some lines beneath the King's feet but his brothers had shouted at him to get back to work and not disturb this cursed place. He'd risk dying by some unknown trap, it was his life not his Clan's now and if he met his fate in this manner scavengers would remove all trace before they returned to harvest. They always grew crops in this area that took little maintenance, afraid of this ancient icon from the far past as they were so content to live in an eternal present.
A closer inspection revealed that this space beneath the king's legs seemed to be perhaps a hidden compartment, but how to open it without spending days chipping at this rock like material that could shatter a pickeaxe but was worn with countless years? It was not the lines that signaled a compartment that had drawn him but the symbol - he was never allowed to be close enough to read it. It resembled his own Astrological reading...! It was from an earlier time - they always had the fifteenth and twentieth wandering star but he noted only the symbols for up to the fourteenth? Still it had his own scattered reading, every symbol leading into another leading into a dead end or rather the absence of fate. To the sides were words - an ancient dialect but just enough of the language had remained - "Ruin - choice - Greatness...!"
Norbor touched the symbols of the words and the box glowed in the twilight...the container gently pushed out from beneath the King's feet. He should perhaps have run in fear, lest there be a trap, but not this time. Somehow he knew it was meant to only be opened under Luna's full light by the right person. After all these Eons surely nothing should remain but in it perhaps was an enchantment that had frozen the passage of time in that small space. The stone vault opened to reveal a sword of eqsuisite works, a bag of coins and gems, a book in an ancient language and a few maps. There was also, in a tiny cloth bag that had somehow survived the years and looked new an odd gem that looked like an eye floating inside a crystal sphere...!
The first page of the book - though he could not read it had the ancient symbols for farming and harvesting - crossed out - and an arrow towards the symbols for journey and adventure and a drawing of the ancient King's Crown...!
Norbor looked again at the carving of the Ancient King - and he realized that all these years the monument of the King was not an image celebrating his rule and power however brief against the infinite arrow of time. The King had reached through time to give one last gift, not to the last of his worshippers, but to his successor! It was nearly dawn now but the moon still shone brightly so he packed his things after dousing the fire and made his way out of the lands he had never left in his life.
----
Many old Fairy Tales started when a young man of Noble Birth was set to "Seek his own fortune" - this was a tragic beginning. Normally the middle ages had tons of "Petty Wars" where the noblemen had their own children KILL each other's so only the strongest and smartest would LIVE to inherit the throne. When they didn't do that they faced the land being split again and again until it was nothing but peasant huts with one "King" in each and of course be laughably swiped off the map by others. The Holy Church did away with this as there was too much suffering caused by this petty warfare and they feared a wave of Muslims coming in or Huns.
Thus there were many young men who had nothing to do and nowhere to go. Many Bandits were of noble birth due to this.
It is a sad cruel whim of fate that many people are not able to handle the station they are born to. They either fail to fill it or they seek more or different instinctively and can not be content with it. The results are usually tragic but sometimes the best of Man's accomplishments have come from this.
Thus in the Far-Far Future - the "Far Tomorrows" we have that age old story of those on the path of adventure. Often they are starting out as failures or exiles and have no path but the road ahead. This is as old as mankind.
It is also "The Hero's Journey" - though the call to adventure be perhaps not so noble.
In a TTRPG game the DM should consider all Player Characters to be set on this path; Ruin or Greatness. Some factor in their lives clashed - from true tragedy they were not in fault of to sensing a greater destiny to truly failing and needing cash in desperation so they become mercenaries who raid ancient ruins.
The course of their lives is to delve into the cave - again and again - to emerge into the light changed and to keep the road onwards and improve until they become truly heroic truly great.
In the Far-Tomorrows mankind is locked in an eternal cycle and live on the legacy of the endless past. Earth will abide man many times even this far future a thousand-thousand years nearly ahead of our time and near a thousand times that. And due to ages of "Wonder" and strange things in the sky there probably is even something in place to stop the sun from burning the earth far into that future. What can any man do to challenge those works? What can the greatest man do but be another statue that even of some matter not quite stone that breaks a mattock still is corroded by endless time?
The heroes - the Player Characters - are those people.
Man's true spirit is in a long respite waiting for one final evolution so that far into this future of the future man will at last truly ascend. It will take a very long time but the "Wandering Heroes" are a crucial component of this!
What does this mean for the Campaign, how the game is played?
This is a recommendation not a rule - Unlike those trying to ruin the hobby as this is typed I certainly shall NOT tell you how you must play the game or what your politics must be. This is a suggestion but a strong one;
The players must NOT be able to 'retire' until they reach level 10. If they do they'll lose their wealth - by squandering, by invasion or disaster, by local political power growing fearful or jealous and they have to run. Whatever set them on the road is still in them and must be satisfied.
Look no further than the Arabian Nights - the Seven Voyages of Sinbad the Sailor!
He was a Rake - a spoiled rich brat who inherited a fortune from his Merchant / Noble parents and squandered it in a few years. He had just enough to eat gruel until he died of old age. He knew he could not do it so he invested in a ship to trade and started his life's adventures. But when he finished the first voyage and came back wealthy he again partied it all away. So he did it again and came back... After Seven Voyages that in TTRPG terms are pretty deadly and certainly worth greater than 1 level per adventure he finally calmed his restless spirit and retired in wealth and fame.
A modern critic would call him the WORST sailor ever, a rich elite who should be ... But I am SO sick of those types, no?
Quoth the late Harlan Ellison "Boy, he sure knew how to LIVE...!" - from his preface to Corben's contribution from the 70s/80s.
Again I suggest - the PC's goals should be to get wealthy and retire (or regain the .... throne, restore faith to the land...) but even if they roll good on "Random Loot" tables they do NOT get to just settle down or something will happen and they'll have to pick up the sword or staff again. Once they go 10th level or higher they can return, be it to be a King or a Village chief with perhaps one last adventure to justify it. Then in a later campaign they are "Powerful NPCs" that can be beneficial (within sane reason) to newer PCs the character plays!
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--from upcoming "Orange Sun" / "Far Tomorrows" project
written by Maxx Feral
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