YGGDRASIL was a Japanese DMMO-RPG (Dive Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) released in 2126. Players accessed it through a Neural Nano-Interface, a device that connected directly to the user's brain and allowed them to experience the game through full-dive virtual reality (in essence a large virtual-reality chair).
YGGDRASIL had remained in service for twelve years before its servers were scheduled to shut down in 2138. It had become famous for its enormous freedom, unusual complexity, extensive character customization, and the sheer amount of information that the developers had deliberately left for players to discover themselves.
The game had been heavily influenced by Norse mythology, particularly through its central setting: the Nine Worlds connected by the World Tree, YGGDRASIL.
Genre: DMMO-RPG.
Platform: Neural Nano-Interface.
Release: 2126.
Service Life: Approximately twelve years.
Level Cap: Level 100.
Setting: A vast fantasy world divided into nine major realms.
Character System: Racial Classes and Job Classes.
Magic System: Tier 1 through Tier 10, followed by Super-Tier Magic.
Primary Design Philosophy: Freedom, customization, experimentation, and player discovery.
YGGDRASIL had been unusually interactive for a DMMO-RPG. Players could explore enormous environments, acquire equipment, construct guild bases, create NPCs, design items, customize appearances, and build characters around extremely specific combinations of classes and abilities.
The game deliberately concealed large amounts of information. Players were frequently expected to discover mechanics through experimentation rather than simply reading an in-game explanation. Some classes, items, quests, dungeons, and abilities had obscure prerequisites that could take considerable effort to uncover.
This had resulted in a large player-driven culture of experimentation, optimization, exploration, player-versus-player combat, and information sharing.
YGGDRASIL's main setting consisted of nine enormous worlds, based loosely on the realms of Norse mythology.
The nine worlds were:
Asgard
Álfheim
Vanaheim
Midgard
Niðavellir
Jötunheim
Niflheim
Helheim
Muspellheim
The worlds were connected through the game's larger mythology and were associated with the World Tree, YGGDRASIL.
The game presented these worlds as enormous environments rather than simple zones. Exploration could involve cities, wilderness, dungeons, special areas, world events, and dangerous environmental conditions.
Players created characters by selecting a race and then developing their character through a combination of Racial Classes and Job Classes.
The system allowed an enormous number of possible combinations.
A character's final strength therefore depended less on simply reaching a high level and more on how the individual levels, abilities, equipment, racial characteristics, and classes had been combined.
Two level-100 characters could have radically different capabilities.
A character could specialize heavily in one role, such as:
Warrior
Magic Caster
Cleric
Assassin
Archer
Monk
Paladin
Necromancer
Summoner
Alchemist
Crafter
Support
Or combinations of several roles.
Strong classes generally came with prerequisites, restrictions, weaknesses, or other costs. YGGDRASIL's character system was designed around trade-offs, making unusual builds possible while preventing every powerful ability from being taken freely.
YGGDRASIL divided playable races into three broad categories:
Humanoid races included humans, elves, dwarves, and similar races.
Humanoids did not possess racial levels in the same manner as Demi-Humans and Heteromorphic races. Their strength instead came primarily from Job Classes.
This gave humanoid characters access to a particularly broad selection of Job Classes and made them highly flexible.
Their disadvantage was that they generally possessed weaker natural racial abilities and statistics.
Demi-Human races included races such as goblins, orcs, ogres, lizardmen, and many other non-human peoples.
Demi-Humans possessed racial levels and racial abilities, placing them mechanically between Humanoids and Heteromorphic races.
They generally possessed stronger natural physical characteristics than Humanoids while retaining access to substantial Job Class development.
Heteromorphic races were monster-like or supernatural races such as undead, vampires, demons, slimes, angels, elementals, insects, dragons, and many others.
Heteromorphic characters generally possessed the strongest racial characteristics and could acquire powerful racial abilities.
However, racial levels occupied part of the character's overall level budget and could therefore reduce the number of Job Class levels available.
Heteromorphic characters also faced practical disadvantages within the game. Certain areas were hostile toward them, and killing Heteromorphic players generally did not incur the same player-killing penalties associated with killing humanoid characters.
Because of these disadvantages, Heteromorphic characters were frequently targeted by player killers, particularly during the earlier years of YGGDRASIL.
Despite this, Heteromorphic races remained capable of producing extremely powerful builds.
The maximum character level in YGGDRASIL was 100.
Levels could be divided between Racial Classes and Job Classes.
Racial Classes represented the character's species and supernatural development.
A race could evolve through several stages, with increasingly powerful racial classes becoming available after meeting the appropriate requirements.
Racial classes generally fell into different levels of rarity and power. Basic racial classes could usually receive more levels than rarer advanced racial classes.
Job Classes represented the character's profession, specialization, training, or combat role.
They included conventional classes such as Fighter, Cleric, Wizard, and Ranger as well as highly specialized and sometimes extremely obscure classes.
Job Classes generally consisted of:
Base Classes
High Classes
Rare Classes
Base Classes could generally reach up to 15 levels, High Classes up to 10, and rare classes could have much lower maximum levels.
Many advanced classes required specific combinations of previous classes, statistics, abilities, alignment, equipment, actions, or other conditions.
This encouraged players to experiment with character builds rather than simply selecting whichever class appeared strongest.
YGGDRASIL used a highly structured magic system.
Magic was divided into ten tiers, from Tier 1 to Tier 10.
There was also a separate category known as Super-Tier Magic, which existed above the normal ten tiers.
YGGDRASIL contained thousands of spells distributed among numerous magical disciplines.
A magic caster's access to higher tiers depended on their class levels and build.
The general progression was:
Tier 1
Tier 2
Tier 3
Tier 4
Tier 5
Tier 6
Tier 7
Tier 8
Tier 9
Tier 10
Super-Tier Magic
There had been no Tier 0 in YGGDRASIL. That classification was associated with magic systems outside the original game.
Magic could be highly specialized. Different builds could emphasize elemental damage, necromancy, divination, healing, defensive magic, summoning, mental effects, movement, buffs, debuffs, or other magical disciplines.
A player normally learned a limited number of spells through leveling. This meant that even characters with access to high-tier magic could have substantially different spell selections.
Some racial abilities, special classes, and other mechanics could provide additional ways of acquiring spells.
Super-Tier Magic was a special category above Tier 10.
It functioned more like a powerful special ability than ordinary spellcasting. It did not consume normal MP in the same manner as conventional spells and was subject to significant restrictions.