For eternity the Asana have ruled the stars, their powers beyond human comprehension. Only their ships could traverse the vast emptiness of the void. Only their weapons could destroy the mysterious things which lurked in the hearts of the Shattered Planets and the Dead Stars. And while they generally did their best not to remind people of that, they did make a single request: If you have a dispute with another planet, come to us. We will determine how it is settled.
And if the only settlement the planets would accept was war, the Asana had an answer for that as well. Scattered about the stars are human worlds without spacecraft. Some don’t even have steam engines. Some don’t even have fire. And when all other options are refused, the Asana send a human from each side of the dispute to one of those planets, with a single instruction: Uplift.
You are one of those humans. Now you are here, deeper inside one of their ships than you have ever been, you sit, staring at a form. It’s pretty brief, but you are wondering why the Asana are having you fill it out. They probably already know everything there…and they have those impossible machines which could just take it from your mind as well.
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Planet of Origin:
Description:
You fill it out anyway, there’s no sense wasting time, and the wall whirls open, the metal vanishing into a faint vortex which fades away entirely, revealing a table with a few pieces of gear on it. There’s also a sign, which says “Pick Three.”
[] A long black sword which is ice cold to the touch.
[] A bronze helm with faintly glowing runes on it.
[] A living strip of skin. Touching it lets you feel some sort of mind.
[] A wooden hammer which feels surprisingly heavy.
[] A tome with words you can’t quite read, with a gear and musket on the cover.
[] A pen. As far as you can tell it’s perfectly ordinary.
You wonder why the Asana make their tech look like that. It might help you blend in, you suppose…
You take your equipment, sneer at your rivals, and then you are falling, falling, falling…
And you awaken on the hard stony ground. What do you do?