10 Years Before AAC

10 Years Before AAC is a series of short tales. @ArcheAgeChron places it ten years before the player's story in AAC begins, and announces stories of people, secrets, and events whose traces remain in that world. What these posts have published reaches as far as Billy, Helge, Lorea, and an abandoned lottery shop. Zacharia finally tells Billy the truth: somewhere in this city, someone runs a secret network of bets on the deaths of the powerful; for whoever is behind it, the name of the Architect is whispered. Another post shows a different shore and a different person, with no name and no memory, whom the surf leaves on the shore. It looks like Billy's story all over again. It isn't.

The series, still open

The announcement says that the first tale would be told that same night, and that more would come out in the following weeks. It speaks of people, of secrets, and of events that have left a trace in the world of AAC. The image bears the caption Stories from 10 years before AAC, over a path of fog and a house in ruins.

GAP: the series is still open; only Billy's tale carries an episode number (EP.1), and the posts that follow do not close the arc.

GAP: the posts use the acronym AAC and do not expand it.

EP.1 The Nameless Man

Billy wakes without memory in a lower district covered in fog. He keeps only a broken image: a shadow that asks, in a low voice, “Is Emrik dead?”, according to @ArcheAgeChron. Billy does not know who Emrik is. Someone, outside, already wants him dead because of it.

The post does not say who is speaking, who Emrik is, or why that question weighs on Billy.

Helge

A stranger named Helge corners Billy and calls him an assassin. Before Billy can think, his body moves on its own and disarms a trained assassin, as if it already knew how. Whoever he was before, the post says, he was not only a settler. It does not say what he was.

Lorea and the Crossroads Union

Everyone said that Lorea, enforcer of the Crossroads Union, was cold as ice. Billy finds her with her arms sunk in machine grease. She offers him protection, at a price. The post states that she knows more about him than she says. It tells neither the price nor that knowledge.

The lottery shop

In the back room of an abandoned lottery shop, Billy finds a board of code names already erased and a strange engraved coin. Someone has been running a secret game there, and Billy may already be a piece on the board. The post does not explain the game, the names, or the coin.

Zacharia and the Architect

Zacharia finally tells Billy the truth: somewhere in this city, someone runs a secret network of bets on the deaths of the powerful. For whoever is behind it, a name is whispered: the Architect.

The post does not say who Zacharia is or who the Architect is.

GAP: the post speaks of a city and does not say what it is called.

GAP: the post does not say when it takes place, nor that it is ten years before AAC, nor does it give it an episode number.

A different shore

A different shore. A different person, no name, no memory, washing up in the surf. It looks like Billy's story all over again. It isn't. Someone else is about to learn the same hard lesson he did.

The post does not say what that person is called, which shore it is, or what the lesson is.