Background Overview

After determining his bloodline, profession, and growth path, Xia Ze turned his attention to the final option—the starting location.

Where would you ultimately arrive?

Westeros, Essos, Sothoryos

Looking at the choices, Xia Ze could not help twitching his lips. He could understand Westeros and Essos, but what the hell was Sothoryos doing there?

That was a hellish place uninhabited by humans and covered in poisonous miasma. Even the greatest explorers could not survive there.

If a player started there, wouldn't that be a literal instant death upon landing?

After thinking it over, Xia Ze selected Westeros. The original work described this region in greater detail, and he believed that his knowledge would allow him to develop better in the early stages.

Then, more detailed locations appeared.

The Crownlands, The Riverlands, The Stormlands, The Reach, Vale, Dorne, The Westerlands, The North, The Iron Islands, Beyond the Wall

This time, Xia Ze chose The Riverlands, mainly because it connected in all directions. No matter where he heard of a tournament taking place, he could get there at once.

However, just as Xia Ze prepared to choose a specific city, the system did not display any further options.

That surprised him somewhat, because it meant that each player's exact starting point would be random.

That meant players who had agreed to form alliances could not begin in the same city. They could only head to their previously agreed meeting place after spawning at random locations.

Of course, this would not give Xia Ze any advantage, since meeting up would only cost them a few days at most.

After confirming once more that there were no mistakes in his selections, Xia Ze pressed the confirm button.

Please enter your name.

"Name?" Xia Ze repeated, then casually entered Ian.

Please customize your appearance.

"Huh? You can customize your face too?" Seeing the preview of a Sellsword Knight clad head to toe in armor, wielding a Hand-and-a-half Sword, and riding a Trained Horse, Xia Ze froze for a moment before trying to alter the knight's face.

Before long, Xia Ze discovered that he truly had no talent for character creation. The face he made was so ugly that it looked just like one from Mount & Blade.

So he placed his hopes on random generation. After three minutes of effort, he finally confirmed a typical blond Andal youth with above-average looks.

Character creation complete.

Soon, a complete background story appeared before him.

Background Overview:

You possess the blood of both the First Men and the Andal. (Strength +2, gained skill: 'Common Tongue Spoken')

Your father was a farmer in the Vale, while your mother was a maid at the estate of a local landed knight.

In 281 AC (Note 1), you were born into this world as the eldest son of your family. Your father named you Ian. It was an unusually warm late winter, as though spring had arrived early because of your birth. Yet at the end of the year, winter's chill suddenly returned to Westeros, and snow fell everywhere. That year became known as The False Spring. (Starting funds +200 Silver Stags)

When you were one year old, Jon Arryn, lord of the Eyrie and liege lord of the Vale, raised the banner of rebellion and declared war on the Targaryen royal house. Your father was summoned by the local lord, took up arms, and headed south, never to return.

After the war ended, your mother had no choice but to sell the family mill in order to repay the debts your father had incurred purchasing equipment before the war. She then brought you to the knight's estate to raise you. Clever as you were, you earned the knight's wife's affection, and she arranged for you to become a companion to her son, who was the same age as you. (Willpower +1, gained skills: 'Etiquette Basics' and 'Common Tongue Literacy Basics')

At the age of eleven, you and your young master were sent to the earl's castle, where you began studying swordsmanship, riding, and lance work under the master-at-arms. Your performance was exceptional. (Strength +4, Agility +4, gained skills: 'Swordsmanship Basics', 'Riding Basics', and 'Lance Basics')

Two years later, during a tourney, you defeated your young master and earned the right to serve as a squire to one of the earl family's knights. (Strength +5, Agility +5, gained skills: 'Swordsmanship Novice', 'Lance Novice', and 'Riding Novice')

At sixteen, you distinguished yourself during a campaign to suppress the Vale's Mountain Clans. After the battle, your master knighted you. That night, after being anointed with the Seven Oils, you kept vigil in the sept. (Strength +10, Agility +10, gained skills: 'Swordsmanship Intermediate', 'Lance Intermediate', and 'Riding Intermediate')

Not long afterward, you married the daughter of the steward at a landed knight's estate. She was not particularly beautiful, yet you were utterly captivated by her.

But on your wedding night, your former young master burst into your bridal chamber drunk, accompanied by four guards. Still bitter over his defeat at your hands, he declared that your bride was his subject and that he would exercise his sacred right as lord—the Right of First Night.

However, the Right of First Night, a tradition originating with the First Men, had long since been abolished during the reign of the fourth monarch of the Targaryen Dynasty, King Aerys I, on the advice of his queen, Alysanne.

You therefore regarded his command as a provocation and humiliation. You loudly called for your squire and friends to come to your aid, and a fierce battle immediately broke out.

After a brutal fight, you killed your former young master and his guards, but your wife and companions also died in the chaos.

The battle started a fire, and the estate where you had spent your entire childhood was soon swallowed by flames. With no time to worry about anything else, you hastily gathered your belongings—an unmarked Hand-and-a-half Sword, a full set of old unmarked chainmail, a Trained Horse, and 200 Silver Stags—then fled the Vale overnight. You drifted into The Riverlands and began your life as a Sellsword Knight.

After the background story came the detailed character sheet:

Ian: Strength 21, Agility 19, Willpower 1

Skills: Etiquette Basics, Common Tongue Literacy Basics, Swordsmanship Intermediate, Riding Intermediate, Lance Intermediate

(PS: Literacy skills in the same language directly overwrite spoken-language skills. The spoken-language skill is displayed only if you can speak but cannot read or write.)

"Notice: The bodies used by players are androids deployed into this world by the organizers. They essentially appear out of nowhere, and this world's natives will have no memories whatsoever of player characters." After confirming that Xia Ze had finished reading the information, the AI Annie spoke.

"However, based on players' customized choices, the system generates a reasonable background story for them. Players can obtain knowledge and memories matching that background, allowing them to better integrate into the world of A Song of Ice and Fire under their new identities."

"That's pretty considerate, isn't it?" Xia Ze could not help nodding. This would indeed be a great help to players. After all, even players most familiar with the original work and its history would surely miss many details about the real day-to-day life of a certain profession in that era.

But this clearly created a problem as well: it would become much harder for players to identify one another. If they disguised themselves well enough, two players might sit in the same tavern, chatting and laughing, without realizing the other was a player.

This obviously conflicted somewhat with what the receptionist had said about players falling into fierce competition and even killing one another from the very beginning.

From a game designer's perspective, if they wanted players to slaughter each other from the start, they should not have designed a mechanism that helped players conceal their identities.

That was unreasonable. Xia Ze silently noted the issue down in the little notebook in his mind.

"You have now completed every step of the creation process. You only need to press the confirm button to officially transmigrate," Annie reminded him. "Although you cannot act before all players have completed transmigration, you can use this time to learn the full game mechanics and the functions of the Auxiliary System."

Xia Ze felt Annie made a good point. After all, the organizers required that the detailed game mechanics could only be learned after entering the game.

If he used the preparation time to analyze the mechanics, he would not waste even a second once the game officially began.

With that thought, Xia Ze stopped hesitating and pressed the confirm button.

The instant he pressed it, he suddenly felt as though he were melting. His sight, hearing, and sense of touch vanished one after another, and the entire world turned into a vast expanse of white.

Note: 1. AC (Years after Aegon's Conquest) means "Years after Aegon's Conquest." It begins with the year Aegon the Conqueror, Aegon Targaryen I, was crowned king of the Seven Kingdoms. It is Westeros's common calendar system, also known as Aegon's calendar.