Lore introduction – Dev Blog 34
You awake in the cold in the darkness of a cave. You have no idea who you are, or where you are. You see some other people waking up around you, looking similarly confused. There seems to be light coming from outside, and as you get to your feet you move towards the entrance of the cave. As your eyes adjust to the brightness of the light reflecting on the snow you try and understand what you see. The sky is wrong and looks like nothing you’ve seen before – it seems to be both above and below you simultaneously. All you can see for miles and miles is a frozen tundra, dotted with trees. There is no sound except for the booming silence. As you look around the cave entrance the world suddenly goes dark, and you look up toward the sun, only to see a massive island drifting silently past.
Fringe Planet takes place in a different dimension, a place full of floating islands, eldritch entities and magic older than time itself. The floating island the peons find themselves on is drifting through an area of space known as The Void. The Void is vast and endless, and is full of untold millions of floating islands, all drifting in random directions with no rhyme or reason as to why. Some of these islands are inhabited – either by creatures native to this dimension, or by things that have been pulled from other dimensions and trapped here. Some of the islands themselves have also been pulled from other dimensions and times, chunks of planets the size of a city ripped from one dimension and placed here, to drift for eternity.
As the peons explore their new home, they will often uncover artifacts which are not native to The Void. They will discover clues to why they were sent to this place, and what exactly they need to do to escape.
Monitoring the peons every move are The Aspects. These other-worldly creatures are omnipotent and vastly ancient – with their own goals and desires. The incursion of the peons into their dimension displeases them greatly, and though the could easily crush the peons as one may crush an ant, there are rules and forms that must be obeyed – a game that is older than time itself. The peons will face constant challenges, not just from the harsh environment they wake up to – but also from the challenges The Aspects will unleash on them.
The peons will rapidly discover that both science and magic are the same thing in this dimension. Being able to harness the magical energies which flow through out The Void is key to the peon’s survival. The peons will need to discover ancient rites to harness the occult energies which will allow them to defend themselves from The Aspects. Wielding this magical power is incredibly dangerous, and no power can truly be wielded without extreme sacrifice.
Though The Aspects are a great threat to the peons, there are other entities who take equal offense to the peons existence. One of these creatures are known as the Formless. The Formless are not composed of matter, but rather they seem to be made of constantly shifting shadows. They drift through The Void with no need of a home. They seek life in all it’s forms – be it alien or peon. When they discover life they send out a signal to all the other Formless around – causing a gathering of these shadowy creatures. When enough are present, they combine – becoming darker and darker and more solid. At the darkest point, this gestalt entity will grab whatever creature they have been surrounding, and both the formless and hapless creature will vanish into thin air.
Shockingly, the Formless are not limited to The Void – they have been seen here in the real world – talk of shadow creatures or thin men are often encounters with the the Formless.
There are more benign creatures that inhabit The Void – an example of one would be the ManyEyes. This insect like creature (roughly the size of a small dog) scuttles around on multiple tentacled feet, seeking food in any form – be it animal or plant. Once some food is found, it will use it’s multiple feet to mush the food into a fine paste, which it then consumes. However, this food is only partially digested. The ManyEyes will return to it’s nest and secrete some of the partially digested food into a central pouch located inside the nest. The partially digest food is full of ManyEye eggs (indeed anything the ManyEye eats/touches/bites may also contain these tiny rice-sized eggs). The eggs will start to hatch inside the warm central pouch, and thus more ManyEyes are bred. This starts the cycle again, with the nest gradually growing in size to accommodate the increasing population. If left unchecked, the ManyEye population will grow exponentially – consuming every scrap of food on an island.
There is a lot more to the lore that surrounds Fringe Planet – and we will be releasing more detailed information over the coming few months – we hope you enjoyed this small introduction to the storytelling side of the game.
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