Story mode (Slave Pits)

The story mode is the heart of Slave Pits: a single heroine, a fixed beginning and end, and choices along the way. It is told in her own voice.

The heroine

A peasant woman from a village in the north, raised among the True Worshippers. The Empire attacks the northern villages; hers is destroyed, and she is taken as a slave. Her only teacher is the memory of the Old Warrior:

I never paid as much attention to the Old Warrior as I should have. I always thought that his teachings were not that useful for farming or working the land. But now I will never be a farmer or a peasant again. Now the only things remaining are his lessons and... My vengeance.

She has no name in the game. The crowd gives her one: "No step back!".

The story so far

As the game's lexicon tells it:

When	What happened
More than 400 long cycles ago	The Star Worshippers assimilate the Crafter lowlands.
For 250 long cycles	The Crafters live as lower subjects of the Empire.
More than 150 long cycles ago	Konrad leads the uprising and frees his people.
A little after	The True Worshippers beliefs rise in the north.
Lately	The Emperor bans the heresy and oppresses the northern territories.
Now	A captured slave is bought to the fighting pits.

On the saga's timeline, Slave Pits takes place in 2503.

Three chapters

Spoilers for Slave Pits

The Pits. Sold to the slave fighting pits, she fights other slaves in the mud for a crowd that bets on who falls first. The chapter ends with a slave revolt and a fight against the pits' master.
The Caravan. An imperial caravan master buys her and takes her east, to fight in the Crafter halls of the border. On the road come raids, an assassin, sickness and hard choices, up to a duel with the raiders' leader, the Storm daughter.
The Coliseum. In Polis, the capital, the coliseum is ruled by three Houses: the House of Fire (Worshippers, headed by Sarah), the House of Iron (Crafters, headed by Rishi) and the House of Fortune (mercenaries and outcasts, headed by Bastien). Above them sits the Prince, the Emperor's warmongering son. She fights her way up to him.

How it ends is on the Ending page.

Choices

Between fights come events, conversations with the other slaves and decisions. They move her on two scales, the factions:

Star Worshippers or Crafters: loyalty to the True Worshipper ideals, or the fight against the corrupt Worshipper ways.
Justice or Vengeance: what is fair for others, or the most direct road to the goal.

The scales decide which events she meets, and which House of the coliseum takes her in.

Options

Difficulty: Normal, Hard or Hardcore. Every difficulty leads to the same story and the same content.
Legendary: she cannot lose a single fight.
Heroic recovery: up to three times in the story, she stands again after falling, with half her life, stamina and balance.
The tutorial can be skipped.