Campaign 1 “shadow chains”
In the underworld of Oberon’s court the souls of the recently departed arrive in a desolate world devoid of their former identity and personality. However certain traits and memories remain. These are the chains that bind the soul to the underworld, and define its shape. In the first campaign the player assumes the role of disembodied leader/incarnation of a fresh soul, lost and wandering.
Not much makes sense other than that there is conflict and resources, old graveyards and battlefields provide blood which provide sustenance, and the earth itself absorbs and returns a green substance called essence which fortifies any soul’s abilities.
Further on the player recognizes there is a third resource contested, bone. This resource both makes the souls stronger and more solid, but also chains them more firmly to the underworld.
The player has two options in the game, the first is following Oberon, a being that communicates to the player and seemingly acts as a guide, but it’s agenda is unknown for the first Campaign. Conquest and survival seem the immediate shared goal. The chaining of Other souls not to the underworld, but to the will of the player.
"All is lost, night is coming. Time for carrion to dream, the dream eternal. Surrender or rise a Shadow"
There is also a secondary layer to the game, as the game progresses the player will find that there are more coherent souls/shadows in the world, some have gone completely obsessed with consuming the souls of others and growing to grotesque proportions, (the cleaners), others have banded together to create a hyve like consciousness allowing them to reason and explore, their goal is to escape the underworld (the mechanicians), and surrender their being, their memories and chains to the void.
Escape becomes a secondary objective, or primary based on the motivations of the player.
Because each soul has strength equal to amount of bone they contain. The more chained and grounded a soul, the stronger it becomes. But those souls who are able to withstand the lure of the bone will grow weaker but less chained to the underworld. Those souls brought to the mechanicians without any bone value will be able to leave their shadow behind and leave the underworld. Besides strengthening a soul, which is eminently useful in survival, the player will find sections of the underworld where a soul might release its bones, and it’s chains to the underworld. Relinquishing his memories to the void. It is up to the player to become a shepherd or become a tyrant, Do you allow others to escape or yourself to survive.
Please let me know if this makes sense.
cheers
tomas
