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This is where characters arrive, all wet and existentialist. You'd think it sounds like a fun party, but it's really not. It's mostly just wet. And sandy. And wet sandy. Ugh, that's the worst.
Characters could be awake, asleep, in the middle of a great battle, a "great battle" in bed, in the bathroom, or any other kind of situation when they feel a hitherto unseen tide sweep them away an suddenly they are submerged into an unknown ocean. Even if they usually live in the ocean, it's very clear this is NOT their ocean, until they arrive on shore and see the colorful mess of an island before them.
It hardly seems real. It seems more like a living painting than anything substantial, but the salty air on your face and the aforementioned sand beneath your feet offer tactile feedback, and assure you that this is in fact actually happening, for whatever value the definition of "actual" might be in this strange and bizarre new world...
This is Beach, the point of arrival for all things lost adrift on the eddies of time an space. You are a Castaway, thrown overboard of your world by some unknown force, and have wound up here. There is plantlife and coral around you, at least you think there is, it looks like an impression of such at least. The sky seems to swirl colors, and you get a little sick if you stare at it too long. If you turn to look at the horizon behind you, there is no other object or island in sight...
The only place to go is forward, unto the Island. Welcome to the Cleft of Dimensions, Angelus Errare.
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Going further into the island, things don't get any less weird. The entire place looks like Van Gogh and Escher did a collab. It all feels very impressionistic, with very little in the way of traditionally solid shapes, and pathways that have no meaning or destination. You could easily become impossibly lost if you keep wandering the island, as you never seem to be able to traverse the whole thing, even if you see another shore from a higher vantage point.
The place is littered with colorful plantlife, luminescent trees and flowers, large springs and small mountains. What is notably absent, however, are animals of any kind. If you were in the mood for some meat, you won't find any, at least none that wash up already butchered and prepared in refrigerated crates at the beach, which is weird on multiple levels. But not a single bird, monkey, or small rodent can be found anywhere.
Which isn't to say there is no non-plantlife. While your character won't notice them at first, maybe even for days or weeks, eventually they will catch glimpses of the island's only non-castaway inhabitants, the Shadows. The name isn't meant to sound dark or spooky, there's just no real other way to describe them. They form a vaguely human-like shape, but are mostly just semi-transparent shadows that wander around. They don't speak, eat, or sleep as far as anyone can tell. And they, for the moment, ignore the presence of the castaways. No one knows who or what they are, or what purpose they serve.
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If there can be considered any real, consistent landmark on the island besides the starting beach, it's the Great Tree. This massive, sprawling, ancient tree houses two important things.
The first, is that this is the only source of readily edible fruit and drinkable water in the game. While there appears to be fruit and various springs dotting the island, one does not obtain any kind of actual nutritional fulfillment from eating them. Only the various fruits in the tree, and water from the spring near its roots, actually sustains organic life on the Island. And while edible food can wash up on shore, this is where you'll be getting most of your nutrition. Unfortunately, the food and water can, at times, bring with it strange and unusual side effects. But if you've got no other choice, well...
Also important are the treehouses littering the branches. It's an entire village's worth of housing, plenty for everyone at the moment. They all come prebuilt, but are exceptionally low-tech. Characters are going to need to find their own means of, say, generating electricity. But non-electric appliances and amenities are all present and accounted for. Hammocks for sleeping, pantries for food storage, and wood burning stoves and places for ovens. The branches seem infinitely strong and can support a ridiculous amount of weight, so park your giant robot up there, too, it's all good.
The Tree is your home, for now. At least until further notice~...
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errare_mods) wrote2016-06-19 11:36 am
