Loremaster of the Amaranthine lands

Now that you have hopefully read the first chapters of the four possible entries, I feel like it's only fair to share a bit more about them to alleviate some of your concerns or questions. Regarding Project Cain and Marik, I made a declaration that it was not meant for the faint of heart and weak of stomach to leave myself enough creative freedom as needed.

I'm not saying that they are going to become a gorefest drenched in blood and torture, but you have to understand that both of those stories are meant to play out in what is pretty much an Inquisition-styled grimdark world. Witch hunts are a thing, and so is slavery, and unequal treatment. Anyone who knows what the Dark Ages were like from history or other books would understand that it was necessary to make such claims.

They would be a work of fiction and they have to be treated as such. They wouldn't mirror my own beliefs in any way, but if I want a story to be fleshed out right, things have to be written a certain way to reflect my vision for the book the right way.

With this out of the way, let's talk about the other elephant in the room. CARDS. I know that some of you feel an instinctive revulsion against any book that uses cards in any way. You have the right to have your preferences like everyone else. If you decide that you don't want to vote on or read my work because of the card factor, then so be it.

For the rest of you who are willing to entertain the thought, let me give you an explanation of how I envision my use of this dreaded style. When you see the word 'card' in the description of a book's style, most of you would likely have the same thought as I tend to do. You think of people running around with decks made up of dozens of magical cards, slinging spells or showcasing incredible powers thanks to them. You think of people stabbing each other in the back for a rare card or an MC hiding the fact that he has some kind of OP legendary card the entire world would want.

NOT IN MY BOOK!

To be fair, I've read my share of card-based stories and most of them fell into the same pitfalls I just mentioned. Instead of wanting to do the same thing as everyone else, I asked myself an important question. How can I screw over my MC? How can I make the cards truly important while simultaneously restricting them in every possible way?

I found the answer in the most unlikely place. Old video games. Remember those old games where you had to find key cards to get access to a door that would lead to another part of the game? That became my answer. In most LITRPG stories the characters gain access to a system and all of its functions.

NOT HERE.

Here, our hero would get branded with a sigil that is the basis of the system, but that's about it. At first, they would be unable to do anything besides gathering their world's equivalent of EXP. They'd do so thanks to the first card that came with the sigil. And yes, the cards are only physical for as long as you get them, after that they become a part of your system and you can't lose or trade them. They are one-time use stuff which then perma-binds to them.

At first, the sigil bearers are just EXP harvesting slaves/conscripts in a war. Then a certain event would have them upgrade their sigil. This would come with a second card known as the 'Tower' card. This would let them access the system, but only in the form of opening it and examining its contents. From then on, they would have to make choices and sacrifices.

I won't spoil everything, but it should be enough for you to know that a sigil bearer starts with a set number of free card slots between two and five. From then on, every level opens up the previous level +1 slot and there are only four ranks. This means that you can at best have twenty-six cards. Three of these will be taken up by the reaper, tower and your personal card which forms out of your natural talent and whatnot.

Since I based my cards on the tarot cards, there are 22 Major and 56 Minor cards. Both the reaper, tower and the MC's card are from the major card set, so no OP rare legendary cards for the MC. These major cards are each meant to unlock a piece of the system. I won't spoil it, but when I say that pretty much everything is locked, I do mean it.

Our MC gets one of the major cards that everyone else could also get, along with three of the nine attributes semi-unlocked. From then on the MC will have to be lucky enough to even get their grubby hands on a card, then decide if they can have/want it or not. After all, the slots are limited and so are their future prospects.

This forces every sigil bearer down a path which they can only slightly alter. The minor cards are where the abilities come in, but even these are common. There won't be any cards worth hunting down people for unless you are really desperate or corrupt AF.

Well, that's about all I can share without spoiling too much. I hope that I have at least somewhat cleared up things for you. If the poll ends with one of the cards using stories as the winner, then so be it. If not, again, so be it. I win either way since I got to write.

Now about the other two projects.

Project Einar was, as mentioned, partially inspired by the newer God of War series and the Monster Hunter series. Despite having a Viking style, it would play out in another world where the descendants of Earth's Vikings were sent there by Odin and the other old gods of Asgard to save at least some of their people from the impending Ragnarok.

Einar has the blood of frost giants and humans in him with a tinge of dragon blood due to some events on his father's side. He is a tall kid who, as you have read, became a God-marked. This is basically this world's equivalent of a sigil-bearing system-boosted hero. The story starts with them being summoned by the high king of the Viking-owned islands. They then sail on toward the islands of the gods to prove themselves and possibly become demi or even true gods.

Of course, there are many nations and many gods in this world, so you could expect cultural clashes as every God-marked youth gets sent to a chain of large isles to battle it out between each other. This story would feature fights against people and beasts/monsters of many kinds with the goal of the MC becoming as close to being a god as possible.

Now for Project Devlin.

This one, as mentioned in the entry chapter, is meant to be a kind of paranormal/Eldritch detective story. A bit of Alone in the Dark with a tinge of colour-blind-induced noir. This Earth is what remained behind in the Loremaster multiverse after Regis and his group left for the Shardlands for good. Unlike the Shardlands where magic was more on the elemental side with arcane and demonic on the side to add some spice, Earth will devolve more toward the Eldritch, ritualistic and hard-to-explain type of magic.

There will be a system to the madness of it, explaining the kind of 'magic' that gets stuck on certain items. These items will have unique powers, but most of them will have a cost. Some are small annoyances such as a need to take a piss after using them, and others downright demanding your blood or the soul of your enemies. As for Devlin, he and his unwanted Eldritch narrator are forced to work together in hopes of navigating the increasingly power-battle-riddled secret world of Earth where Illuminaty-like secret powers are trying to take control of the mystical resources and objects.

And that's about it. You have the entry chapters, some hopefully helpful explanations and a few days to make your choice. The vote will last until the afternoon of next Monday when I'll post the results. Even if you don't want to leave any comments, if you have a preferred entry, then please vote. Everyone's vote counts.

May the best one win!