He Who Fights with Monsters

by Shirtaloon

Jason Asano is an Earth human summoned to a world of magic, monsters, and an RPG-like power system. His abilities are blood-and-shadow themed, his personality is abrasive, and his path blends progression fantasy with the humor of someone who refuses to take cosmic power seriously.

63 characters, locations, and items in this world codex.

Characters

• Jason Asano — An irreverent Australian outworlder whose dark essence powers and sharper tongue have made him the most dangerous — and most annoying — adventurer on
• Humphrey Geller — Sixteenth generation of the Geller adventuring legacy — a man born to lead whose friendship with a wisecracking outworlder taught him the world isn't
• Clive Standish — A former eel farmer turned magic scholar whose obsessive intellect and devotion to the Celestial Book make him Team Biscuit's secret weapon — and Jaso
• Sophie Wexler — A celestine former thief who earned the name Nightingale in Greenstone's fighting pits — now the fastest member of Team Biscuit and the one most likel
• Neil Davone — An elf healer who left a bully's team to join a good one — proving that the hardest fight is sometimes just standing up and walking away.
• Belinda Callahan — The brains of every operation she's ever been part of — a trap specialist and illusionist whose resourcefulness makes her the person Clive envies and
• Farrah Hurin — An outworlder volcano mage who died protecting iron-rankers, was resurrected on Earth by cosmic bargain, and came back angrier and more powerful than
• Rufus Remore — A gold-rank adventurer with a voice like dark chocolate and a family legacy that could fill a semester — the man who saw potential in a wisecracking o
• Shade — An ancient shadow entity who addresses his master as 'Mr. Asano,' reads butler fiction for pleasure, and knows more about the nature of reality than h
• Gordon — An Avatar of Doom who fires beams of annihilation, enjoys musicals, and can't play video games because destruction rays aren't great for controllers.
• Colin — A Sanguine Horror whose two purposes in life are adorable little dances and devouring every living thing on the planet — and Jason won't let him do th
• Dawn — A diamond-rank celestine who serves as the primary vessel of the World-Phoenix — ancient enough to remember what the world was before it needed protec
• Danielle Geller — The Time Witch of Greenstone — a gold-rank mother who enjoys watching Jason irritate people almost as much as she enjoys bending temporal and dimensio
• Zara Rimaros — A celestine princess of the Storm Kingdom who mourned a fake fiancé to dodge an arranged marriage — then the fake fiancé came back from the dead and c
• Emir Bahadir — A gold-rank treasure hunter with impeccable fashion sense and a cloud ship that puts palaces to shame — the man who bankrolled Team Biscuit's early ad
• Gabrielle Pellin — A young acolyte of the goddess Knowledge who was present for Jason's very first day as an adventurer — and whose goddess took a personal interest in t
• Gabriel Remore — A gold-rank fire adventurer who jumps off boats before they dock and does unscheduled fire dances at his son's graduation — theatrical in the best pos
• Arabelle Remore — A gold-rank healer turned therapist who patches broken bodies and broken minds with equal skill — the person Dawn trusts to put Jason back together af
• Thadwick Mercer — An arrogant noble's son who chased power so recklessly he lost his soul to the Builder — and the hollow vampire that replaced him might actually be a
• Landemere Vane — The Builder cultist whose botched summoning ritual accidentally dragged Jason Asano into Pallimustus — and the first person Jason ever killed.
• The Mirror King — A diamond-rank ruler whose meta-magic lets him turn your own powers against you — Victor Volaire built a kingdom on the principle that the best weapon
• Trenchant Moore — The Siege Sword of the Sapphire Crown — a gold-rank commander whose family has served the Rimaros dynasty since the Storm Kingdom's founding.
• Purity — The god of purity whose church has an ironic habit of allying with the most impure forces in existence — including the undead and the Builder's cult.
• Hiro Asano — Jason's uncle, the family's black sheep, and the first person Jason contacted on returning to Earth — because sometimes you need a man with criminal c
• Erika Asano — Jason's sister, a TV chef who can conjure magical knives and imbue food with supernatural effects — because in the Asano family, even cooking is comba
• Taika Williams — A human turned outworlder with garuda essences and golden wings — Jason's Earth-side muscle who punches with the authority of a demigod.
• Estella Warnock — A celestine spy turned Team Biscuit auxiliary member — four aura abilities and a talent for reconnaissance make her the team's eyes in enemy territory
• Soramir Rimaros — The diamond-rank founder of the Storm Kingdom — an ancestral celestine whose power and longevity make him the cornerstone of an entire nation's politi
• Elspeth Arella — Director of Greenstone's Adventure Society branch and daughter of one of the city's three biggest crime lords — a woman who walks the line between law
• Jack Gerling — A Network operative on Earth whose actions pushed Jason past the point of forgiveness — the man responsible for killing Kaito, Greg, and Asya.
• The Builder — A Great Astral Being obsessed with physical reality it cannot inhabit — building a stolen world in the deep astral one kidnapped dimension at a time.
• The Reaper — The Great Astral Being who advocates for the finality of death — and whose ancient assassin order's martial art is now practiced by an irreverent Aust
• The World-Phoenix — The Great Astral Being that fosters dimensional integrity — protector of the boundaries between worlds, with Dawn as its mortal vessel.
• The System — The Great Astral Being that manages essence awakening across the cosmos — accidentally created by Jason Asano when he restored the Sundered Throne.
• The Celestial Book — The Great Astral Being that promotes understanding of magic's underlying nature — venerated by scholars, researchers, and one obsessive former eel far
• Knowledge — The goddess who knows everything anyone in her world knows — and who took a personal interest in Jason Asano from the moment he arrived.
• Death — The god who guides souls into the astral and controls the viability of resurrection magic — the divine gatekeeper between life and what comes after.
• Healer — The goddess of restoration who personally endorsed Neil Davone when her own clergy acted corruptly — proving that divine healing includes cleaning hou
• Dominion — The god of authority whose domain encompasses rulership, command, and the structures of power — the divine patron of kings and tyrants alike.
• Liberty — The god of freedom whose principles align naturally with Jason's core character trait — an unyielding refusal to submit to authority he considers unju
• The All-Devouring Eye — A Great Astral Being of annihilation — the cosmic source of Gordon's destruction beams and Colin's hunger, lurking at the edge of reality.
• Stash — Humphrey's dragon familiar whose submission to the Adventure Society accidentally named Team Biscuit — proof that familiars should not handle paperwor

Locations

• Greenstone — A port town in a low-magic zone where Jason's adventure began — split between the wealthy Island and the criminal-run Old City.
• Pallimustus — An alternate version of Earth where thinner astral barriers saturate reality with magic — the world Jason was pulled into and the stage for most of th
• Storm Kingdom — A celestine-dominated maritime nation founded by diamond-rank Soramir Rimaros — where succession is won through contest, not birthright.
• Vitesse — A major city and silver-rank adventuring hub where Farrah was born and the Remore family runs a prestigious academy.
• Rimaros — The celestine capital of the Storm Kingdom — where gold-rank politics and family dynasties collide with hurricane-force intensity.
• Earth — Jason's homeworld — hit by a magical incursion that dragged Australia, organized crime, and three competing magical factions into a war nobody was pre
• Astral Space — Pocket dimensions attached to worlds — the spaces between reality that the Builder steals and adventurers delve for profit and survival.
• The Grid — A world-spanning detection network on Earth — built by the Founder to monitor proto-space emergence before the incursion made it critical infrastructu
• The Old City — Greenstone's original settlement — a maze of narrow streets where the Big Three crime lords rule and adventurers like Sophie learned to fight before t
• Castle Bluff — The Adventure Society's Greenstone headquarters on the Island — where new adventurers are assessed and careers begin or end.
• Asano Compound — The Asano family's base on Earth — where Australia's most dysfunctional magical family coordinates their response to an incursion that made their worl
• Proto-Astral Space — Unstable pocket dimensions that can collapse into reality without warning — the most immediate threat of both Pallimustus's magical landscape and Eart
• Adventure Society — The world-spanning guild that manages monster threats, ranks adventurers, and provides the institutional backbone of Pallimustus's defense against mag
• The Network — Earth's strongest magical faction — founded by a mysterious individual whose 'new magic' seeded secret societies that eventually unified into a global
• Team Biscuit — A gold-rank adventurer team from Greenstone whose name was submitted by a dragon — and whose roster includes an outworlder, a former thief, an eel far
• Geller Family — Greenstone's founding adventurer dynasty — sixteen generations of ranked fighters whose legacy Humphrey carries and whose political influence shapes t

Items

• Cloud Flask — A soul-bound growth item that creates buildings and vehicles from clouds — Jason's portable base that scales from a cottage to a palace to a weaponize
• Hegemon's Will — Jason's primary growth weapon — reforged from the broken sword Dread Salvation after his resurrection, evolving alongside his power.
• Awakening Stones — Magical artifacts that unlock latent essence abilities — the keys to an essence user's full potential, each one granting a specific power based on the
• Dark Hydra Robe — Jason's signature armor — a robe that provides protection through dark essence synergy, fitting his affliction skirmisher style of fighting alone and
• Reaper Token — A divine artifact from the Reaper — the token that connected Jason to the ancient assassin order's legacy and shaped his essence path.

View full codex at Simulacra.Ink