"Auxiliary system successfully activated. Welcome to A Song of Ice and Fire: Royal Battle. Hello, Mr. Alex. I'm your AI assistant, Annie."
"Uh... hi."
"First, we'll proceed with creating your in-game character. You have a total of three hours for this stage. Please take your time and explore carefully."
"Three hours?"
Alex found the time allocation oddly ominous. For a video game, three hours felt excessively long just for character creation. But in a life-and-death survival scenario, it suddenly seemed far too short.
Annie didn't answer the question. Instead, Alex turned his attention to the text that had popped up on the screen.
---
[Choose Your Bloodline]
Andal: +1 Strength. Unlocks profession: Hedge Knight
First Men: +1 Strength
Rhoynar: +1 Agility
Ironborn: +2 Strength. Unlocks profession: Castaway Pirate, gains trait: Sea Adaptation
Braavosi: +2 Agility, +1 Trade. Unlocks profession: Wandering Assassin
Valyrian Freehold Descendant: +1 Trade
Dothraki: +2 Agility, +1 Riding
Qartheen (Yi Ti): +3 Spirit
Ibbenese: +3 Strength
Note: 1. Players may choose one primary and one secondary bloodline. The primary determines appearance; the secondary only applies stat bonuses.
2. Bloodlines affect all aspects of gameplay.
3. Players automatically gain spoken language skills of their primary bloodline's native region.
---
"Uh..." Alex muttered, falling into contemplation.
"Reminder: Until character creation is finalized, all choices are reversible," Annie chimed in at just the right time. "You may freely explore all options before committing."
Alex nodded and tapped [Next].
---
[Who is your father?]
A retired soldier
A farmer
A … [options loading]
[Who is your mother?]
[Where were you born? (Time/Location)]
[What did you do during childhood?]
[What did you do during your teenage years?]
[What did you become afterward?]
[Where did you arrive at the end?]
---
After glancing over the structure of the questions, Alex began testing combinations to find the optimal build.
He quickly noticed a pattern—locking in one choice would automatically narrow down the options for others. For example, choosing Ironborn as a bloodline would make "farmer" vanish from profession options. After all, We Do Not Sow (House Greyjoy's motto) wasn't just for show.
If he picked Craftsman as his final profession, then he was required to have an apprenticeship background during childhood or adolescence.
A common design choice—to ensure character backgrounds remained internally consistent.
He spent nearly an hour and still hadn't explored even a third of the choices. The sheer variety was overwhelming.
Parental backgrounds, for instance, included every realistic option short of nobility. Even eunuchs and Silent Sisters were on the list.
Faced with this, Alex shifted strategies. Instead of building from birth upward, he started from the bottom—by examining which final professions had the greatest influence on starting resources, equipment, and game board positioning.
Soon, he narrowed it down to the five most competitive professions:
Hedge Knight
Mercenary
Castaway Pirate
Brotherhood Tracker
Traveling Merchant
Of those, the Hedge Knight and Traveling Merchant were top-tier.
The Hedge Knight's stats were a bit lower than the other combat-based classes (for balance reasons, perhaps?), but he came with a tamed horse and a full set of armor—nasal helm, gorget, old chainmail, mail gloves, and greaves.
To Alex, that was a huge advantage. Equipment mattered far more in the early stages than a few stat points.
After all, the greatest swordsman in the world (as Arya would say), Syrio Forel, was killed by that numbskull Kingsguard Meryn Trant—just because Trant had a bloody suit of armor (as Sandor Clegane would say).
Meanwhile, the Traveling Merchant started with a whopping 100 gold dragons, four servants (non-combatants), four old packhorses, two wagons, and seven mules.
The dream starting class for behind-the-scenes strategists.
If only their average stats weren't a pitiful 5, Alex might've chosen them on the spot.
These two were clearly Tier 0.
Then came the Tier 1s:
Mercenaries: Decent stats, great combat capability, but only started with a shortsword and leather armor.
Castaway Pirate: Balanced stats, came with 10 gold dragons, but required Ironborn bloodline. Given the Ironborn's reputation, you'd better choose them as your secondary bloodline—unless you wanted to be treated like scum wherever you went.
Brotherhood Tracker: No glaring strengths, but the only ranged class available. A solid choice for archery fans and sneak-attack lovers.
Tier 2s included wandering red priests, river pirates, ascetic monks, and the like—none particularly impressive, but passable.
And then there were the joke picks—displaced peasants, pickpockets, escaped slaves, flea-bottom beggars, or bankrupt inn "companions."
Alex suspected the developers were just trolling at this point.
This was a hardcore survival game! Who in their right mind would joke around with a build like that?
After analyzing the professions, Alex began testing backward combinations—and found some surprisingly good ones.
One route involved picking Andal and Dothraki bloodlines. Father: mercenary. Mother: a maid from a knight's manor. Childhood: training dummy for the young master. Teenage years: squire in a castle. Adulthood: knighted for battlefield valor. Final path: hedge knight.
A solid fighter with decent stats and a full loadout, especially skilled in mounted combat.
Another route: Ironborn and Ibbenese bloodlines. Father: pirate. Mother: salt wife taken from the Ibbenese. Childhood: worked on the ship. Teenage years: joined raids. Adulthood: full-fledged pirate. Final event: shipwrecked, forced inland.
Started with over 30 Strength—basically a berserker.
Though... Alex had one question.
"Wait. Don't the Ibbenese and humans have reproductive incompatibility? How the hell was this guy born?!"
After weighing the options, Alex aimed for balance between early- and late-game potential.
He ultimately chose Andal as his main bloodline—to unlock the Hedge Knight—and First Men as secondary.
Why? Because of a note in the bloodline screen: "Bloodlines affect all aspects of gameplay."
Alex guessed that included the eligibility to learn magic.
Based on his years as a game designer, he knew that in a fantasy world like Westeros, giving players access to magic was inevitable.
So, what magic existed in the world of A Song of Ice and Fire?
Most famous was the Red God's resurrection ability—completely broken.
But players likely wouldn't get that directly. Recruiting Thoros of Myr or Melisandre was probably the intended path.
Aside from that, the Red God's spells were either long-cast, low-impact, or came with heavy costs.
Then there was the First Men's Green Magic.
Leaving aside the Three-Eyed Raven's OP time-seeing powers, green magic offered warging (mind-controlling animals) and green dreams (prophetic visions)—incredibly useful for scouting, survival, and combat.
Best of all, the drawbacks were minimal compared to other magic.
The catch? Green magic probably required First Men blood.
As for the fan-favorite dragon-riding ability...
That required pure Valyrian Dragonlord blood.
Even mixed heritage wouldn't cut it—and Alex suspected the "Valyrian Freehold Descendant" tag was just players flattering themselves.
In the end, Alex picked First Men as his secondary bloodline.
Better safe than sorry when it came to magic eligibility.