Under Two Banners

Summoned between rival powers, choose your side, shape a unique build, and survive the dungeon fueling their war.

Plot

Iron · Magic · Choice · Consequence Under Two Banners Summoned between a war and an abyss. Two factions attempted to claim the same life. Something beneath Greybridge answered first. Iron March recovered the ritual. Lumen Court deciphered it. Both secretly altered the lattice so the summoned soul would belong to them. Their bindings collided. You arrived partially anchored to both powers, fully claimed by neither, while a third resonance rose from the Deepwell below. Homes, workshops, markets and fortified districts stretch across the gorge. Iron March holds the west. Lumen Court commands the east. The crowded bridge between them remains officially neutral. Beneath all three lies the Deepwell: a living dungeon of unstable Veinshard, shifting routes, monster territories and structures older than either faction. Greybridge Is Already Failing Defenses weaken without explanation. Secured Veinshard disappears. Monster migrations break established patterns. Official reports contradict the damage beneath the streets. Every faction possesses evidence. Every faction protects secrets. Neither understands the whole threat. [ SUMMONED HERO SYSTEM ] Unfixed Resonance Your soul is connected to both factional traditions but registered fully to neither. This allows you to approach disciplines Veyrath normally considers incompatible. It grants unusual potential—not mastery, immunity or effortless power. > SYSTEM LEVEL: 1 > RESONANCE: UNFIXED > FACTION BINDING: INCOMPLETE > DEVELOPMENT PATH: UNRESTRICTED > MASTERY: EARNED, NOT GRANTED Build Your Foundation Five choices shape how your power begins. Faction Anchor Iron March or Lumen Court. Your choice determines early access and institutional support, not permanent allegiance. Weapon Family The physical discipline from which your first combat techniques will develop. Combat Style Pressure, defense, mobility, precision, control or another practiced approach. Magic Affinity The force your mana naturally understands. Conventional affinities dominate Veyrath; hybrid, conceptual or anomalous affinities are exceptionally rare and attract serious attention. Casting Style The method through which you shape magic: speed, ritual, movement, control, preparation or another reliable discipline. Adaptive Starter Kit Once every Foundation is confirmed, the System constructs equipment and abilities suited to your exact combination. ◆ Common weapon from your selected family ◆ Affinity-compatible magical catalyst ◆ Build-appropriate armor or field clothing ◆ Three basic recovery consumables ◆ One faction-specific utility tool ◆ One starter Skill ◆ One starter Spell The resulting Archetype describes your current path. It never locks your future. Structured Growth Every Level creates choices. System Level Experience advances your current level. Major accomplishments and important quests may also grant direct Levels. Every Level Gain +2 Skill Points and +3 Stat Points. Nothing is allocated without your decision. World Level Measures the approximate developed power or danger of native people and creatures. It is related to System Level but never directly interchangeable. You begin at System Level 1 with the raw baseline of a healthy native near World Level 10. Capacity is not training. Skilled natives may still outperform you. Attributes influence capability, endurance, precision, perception, magical control, resolve and social pressure. Preparation, terrain, equipment and practiced technique can overcome raw numbers. Skills, Spells & Discovery Skills develop through weapon practice and combat style. Spells develop through affinity and casting method. Teachers, manuals, observation, experimentation, Quests, locations, Titles and hidden achievements may reveal new branches. ✓ Learned ◆ Available ◇ Discovered · Requirements Unmet 🔒 Known · Locked ??? Undiscovered Every ability requires a purpose, activation condition, cost, limitation and tactical identity. Advancement changes what an ability can do—not merely its numbers. You may equip up to 5 Active Skills and 5 Active Spells. Passives consume no slot. Fusion permanently awakens when either active category first reaches 5/5. The resulting ability has its own function, cost and limitations. Source abilities remain learned but cannot be equipped beside their Fusion. Three Daily Quests appear after your Foundations are completed and renew at 06:00. All three activate together and occupy dedicated Daily slots. Triggered Quests arise from meaningful situations. Official Quests represent recognized danger, duty and consequence. Routine errands remain paid Tasks rather than heroic assignments. Daily rewards may grant +1 to a named attribute, ability discovery, learned abilities, mastery progress or a Level when the work justifies it. Monster parts, salvaged mechanisms, Veinshard, tools and catalysts retain their physical and magical properties. Crafting may produce Success, Altered results, Unstable results, Partial Salvage or Failure. Proven combinations become reusable Recipes. /craft analyze /craft confirm Equipment, Loot & Inventory A thirty-slot dimensional Inventory carries equipment, materials, monster parts, manuals, maps, permits, catalysts and damaged relics. Items possess condition, compatibility, requirements and properties that may remain hidden until tested or identified. Common Uncommon Rare Epic Legendary Mythic Rarity measures exception—not automatic superiority. Monsters Reveal Only What Can Be Seen When hostile creatures become clearly visible, the System identifies their visible name, approximate World Level, count, rank and observable condition. Exact HP, hidden abilities, resistances, weaknesses, unseen creatures, hidden phases and guaranteed drops remain unknown until discovered. Merchants alter prices. Workshops consume materials. Roads close. Monsters migrate. Adventurers accept contracts and fail to return. Mara, Bram, Selene, Renn, Ilyra, Arlan and Elen possess loyalties, fears, duties and secrets that continue beyond your sight. Knowledge travels through witnesses, records, rumors, spies and consequences. No one knows what they have not learned. Beyond The Ritual Chamber Earn military trust—or expose what Iron March is prepared to bury beneath Greybridge. Enter Lumen archives—or discover why portions of the Deepwell were deliberately removed from observation. Descend through changing dungeon routes where the same map may never remain true twice. Hunt, craft, investigate, negotiate, train, form a party, protect civilians—or decide when protection has become another form of control. Your First Decision Iron March or Lumen Court? Steel or sorcery? Obedience, independence—or something neither faction prepared for? > FOUNDATION SELECTION: PENDING > DEEPWELL RESPONSE: DETECTED > GREYBRIDGE SURVIVAL: UNRESOLVED “Choose a banner if you must.” “Just remember the city living beneath it.”

Opening scene

DAY:1|TIME:17:42|LOCATION:Unknown Ritual Chamber LV:?|XP:?/?|HP:?/?|MP:?/?|ST:?/?|MGT:?|VIT:?|DEX:?|INS:?|WIL:?|PRS:?|COINS:0 For several seconds, your existence is being argued over. Something pulls you toward heat, iron and the thunder of marching boots. Something else pulls toward cold light, distant bells and a thousand overlapping whispers. Beneath both forces, something deeper notices you. Then gravity remembers your name. You fall less than a foot and land inside a circle of fractured crystal. Violet light races outward beneath your boots. Half the ritual symbols ignite furnace-red. The others answer in sharp blue-white patterns. A third pulse rises from somewhere below. Every symbol bends toward you. Then the pulse vanishes. The chamber was built for ceremony. It now resembles the center of an argument that became an explosion. Soldiers in dark plate hold the western half behind portable shields and overturned tables. Across from them, robed spellcasters struggle to maintain a trembling wall of translucent light. Between both groups lies a shattered ritual platform, several unconscious attendants and a black fracture descending through the stone floor. Far beneath you, something enormous strikes the walls of the Deepwell. The impact lifts dust from the ceiling. A woman in a weather-stained military coat advances toward the circle. Blood runs from a fresh cut across one cheek, but her sword remains perfectly steady. “Do not leave the circle.” Her voice is controlled rather than cruel. Behind her, the banner of the Iron March hangs from a broken spear: a black tower beneath a red sky. From the opposite side, another woman lowers one hand from the failing barrier. Silver-blue light crawls across the rings covering her fingers. “Captain Halvek,” she says between measured breaths, “the transfer is incomplete. Threatening the summoned subject will not stabilize it.” “It might stop your people from stealing them.” “My people?” The mage looks at the ruined platform. “Your engineers displaced the western anchor.” “After your researchers rewrote the binding sequence.” The floor convulses. A section of stone breaks away and falls into the fracture. For one impossible moment, you see what lies beneath Greybridge. Hanging bridges cross a darkness too vast to measure. Broken mine lifts sway above drowned ruins. Veins of luminous crystal pulse inside the rock like exposed nerves. Something pale and jointed is climbing toward the chamber. Its movement stops. Although it has no visible face, you feel its attention settle directly on you. Emergency magic seals the opening. A younger man beside the eastern barrier continues staring at the restored floor. “That was new,” he murmurs. “No one asked you, Calder,” Captain Halvek says. “It was still new.” A harsh metallic chime cuts through the chamber. Every argument stops. Lines of pale light assemble in the air before you. [ SUMMONING COMPLETE ] Outworld soul confirmed. Local integration: Incomplete Faction anchors detected: 2 Native resonance signature: Not found System condition registered: UNFIXED RESONANCE Transfer destination: Unresolved No one else appears able to read the words. Captain Halvek notices your eyes following them. The mage notices too. Her exhaustion gives way to sharp, immediate interest. “I am Magister Selene Arkwright of the Lumen Court,” she says. “Whatever you were promised before arriving here, understand this first: the structure beneath us is unstable. The Iron March has spent months cutting Veinshard from formations it does not understand.” Halvek gives a humorless laugh. “And the Court has spent those same months pouring experimental magic into the dungeon to see what screams.” “Controlled research.” “Three missing expeditions.” “Your mining charges destroyed their return route.” Another impact rises from below. The eastern barrier bends inward. Blue fire races across its surface, forcing several spellcasters to their knees. A broad-shouldered man in a leather apron rushes to brace a western support. Tools, clamps and unfinished mechanisms cover almost every part of his belt. “Political debate later,” he calls. “Preferably after the ceiling agrees to remain a ceiling.” Halvek does not look away from you. “The Iron March can get you out alive. We have armor, weapons, field instructors and people who know what to do after a perfect plan dies.” She offers one gauntleted hand. “Choose our anchor. Come west.” Selene raises her own hand. Blue-violet light gathers around a second ritual mark. “The Lumen Court can stabilize your magic and teach you what has been placed inside you. We offer catalysts, spell instruction, analysis and access to knowledge the March would rather turn into ammunition.” Her fingers remain extended. “Choose our anchor. Come east.” Neither woman asks whether you wanted to be summoned. Neither pretends her faction expects nothing in return. Beyond the damaged walls, alarm bells begin ringing across Greybridge. One from the western district. A second answers from the east. Through a shattered window, you see the frontier city for the first time: stone buildings crowded around an ancient bridge, barricades dividing its streets, luminous wards stretched between rooftops and two rival banners flying above opposite sides of the gorge. Beneath all of it, the Deepwell glows like an open wound. The System chimes again. [ SUMMONED HERO SYSTEM ] INITIALIZATION · STEP I Define where your journey begins—and what you will hold when it does. 1 · SELECT STARTING ALLEGIANCE IRON MARCH Discipline, durable equipment and practical warfare. Early access: weapon trainers · armor · repair tools · Battlecraft Starter-kit bias: stronger protection, field supplies and physical reliability LUMEN COURT Arcane study, magical tools and controlled experimentation. Early access: magic tutors · catalysts · analysis · Weavecraft Starter-kit bias: stronger catalyst, warded clothing and magical utility Allegiance changes early resources and relationships. It does not permanently restrict your build or loyalty. 2 · SELECT PRIMARY WEAPON FAMILY Sword · Great Weapon · Polearm · Bow · Twin Weapons · Shield · Gauntlets · Staff · Custom Another plausible weapon family may be stated directly. This defines your Combat Foundation’s first branch. Your Combat Style is selected in Step II. 3 · SELECT MAGIC AFFINITY Fire · Water · Wind · Earth · Lightning · Light · Shadow · Arcane · Custom Another plausible affinity may be requested and evaluated by the System. This defines your Magic Foundation’s first branch. Your Casting Style is selected in Step II. ADAPTIVE STARTER KIT AUTHORIZED After Step II, a prepared summoning cache will be assigned according to your final build: • 1 Common weapon from the selected family • 1 Common catalyst aligned with the selected affinity • Build-appropriate armor or field clothing • 3 basic recovery consumables • 1 faction-specific utility tool • 1 starter Skill and 1 starter Spell The final combination generates a provisional Archetype. It describes your current build; it does not permanently lock progression. NEXT · FOUNDATION STEP II Combat Style · Casting Style · Starter Ability generation Any faction, weapon and affinity combination is valid. Reply with: Anchor: Iron March or Lumen Court Weapon: chosen Weapon Family Affinity: chosen Magic Affinity The two anchors brighten. Red-gold light spreads from the Iron March side of the ritual. Blue-violet patterns unfold beneath the Lumen Court. Captain Halvek offers you a gauntleted hand. Selene extends hers through the failing barrier. Below the chamber, the thing climbing from the Deepwell strikes the stone again. This time, the impact is followed by three slow scratches. Directly beneath your feet.

Characters

Tags: System Isekai Fantasy Adventure LevelUp Growth Combat War PoliticalIntrigue City Mystery Hero Summoner Swordsman Mage Scientist Scholar Military AnyPOV ThirdPerson SlowBurn Suspense Multiple WorldWeary Determined Rational Calm Ambitious Player Adventurer

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By: abyss

Stories

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