Arx
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Okay, as I have time I’ll do some lore posts that will give a hint about the theme of the world and what changed, though it is still medieval stasis adventure-fantasy. So starting areas, beginning with Arx itself.
The Necropolis
“One stands before us in Durance. Speak thy name and testament.”
Arx is a city of history and memory. If one wished and spent time in the Great Archive, they could learn of each different age of the world. Of how the Great Necropolis of Arx was built, of how the Compact of Arvum rose with the now city of Arx as its capital, and how the Compact spread through all the world. In these walls, you could learn of the Sixth Age and how this place came to be the greatest city in all the world. We have no shortage of memorials with the names of deeds of the great heroes from those past ages, and there are reminders all around us of how many spent most of their all-too-brief lives here. Near all rest here, in our Necropolis. We built a golden age, an empire with Arx as its crown jewel.
That was before the Penitent’s arrival and the Shroud over Arx.
To this day, we don’t know who the Penitent is. Or was. There were always guesses, and the most popular was that he was the god of Justice descended in mortal form, the Sentinel made manifest and come to Arx to shield the city from what was to come. The Sixth Age ended with the Penitent crafting the Shroud over Arx, a great gray haze of a barrier that prevented all entry. The Penitent was near never seen, but we felt his eyes upon us always, and those inside that threatened the city were struck down by the Penitent’s magic without a word. Not quite without warning, his statues would turn to give notice, but near enough for most. We wouldn’t quite call it a prison, not when the Shroud only blocked entry to Arx, but any could pass through if they chose, never to return. It was, we were told, a safety measure against the end of the world, for the greatest city that ever was, a city of three million people, to ride out the apocalypse. Most at the time thought it would pass quickly.
It has been a thousand years.
“As Arx endures, we remember.”
Years winnowed us. There were the Great Callings, when the greatest among us would be gathered by the Penitent and ride out through the Shroud, never to return. Over the years, more and more stifled under the Shroud’s gray sky and the unceasing watch of a being we know nothing about, and traveled to see what world remained beyond. Age after age passed, underneath the Shroud, and we kept and honored this city despite a malaise that tested us all. Few who were born here did not at least consider leaving, even knowing that we could not be certain anything at all existed beyond the barrier. Of the three million when the Greatest City was sealed, there are under fifty thousand living within Arx today. But at least we were safe.
And then came the Vanishing.
Five years ago, during the Eclipse of Mirrors masquerade under the Blood Moon, a great mist entered the city and with it came the demons. Those with magic to fight, our Gifted, were not great in number in our current age, as how many could stand to remain and languish here when possible adventure called beyond the Shroud? But few as their number were, every last one of our puissant was killed or taken from us on one night, shocking us to our core and breaking that lifetimes long lethargy from us. We could see cracks in the Shroud now, fractures in the gray sky, and not a word from the Penitent as our city was gutted in a surprise attack.
We still know not what directed the attack, who the demonic foes were, or where those captured were taken. Some believe the city could have been massacred, and know not why it wasn’t. Some left the Shroud to seek answers, never to return. And we started to see beasts, corrupted abyssal things prowling the lands around the city. Minor foes we could handle, but more proof they could penetrate the weakened Shroud.
“Still Here.”
And now the Shroud has broken completely. The sound of breaking glass, like a million mirrors all shattering at once during the night. The lands are open to us, and as we are to them. Those with strength to do so gather to go forth. Others panic and pray, hoping that the Penitent will answer, despite that he has never done so during the past thousand years. We were born and raised in a city of ghosts and echoes, a Necropolis that has been the resting place for the greatest men and women of every age. But if one cares enough to read their stories, some believe they know what the gods will ask of us.
Because most of the heroes were born here too.
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@kalakh Stop pulling levers… actually pull them all. Send it. I’m here for it like the little chaos demon I am.
Also… squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
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Welp, I’m hooked.
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Okay, that’s badass. I am here for postapoc Arx. I like that it’s moving away from the L&L stuff that can cause a lot of interpersonal bullshit and cause massive theme drift. I also like that it is far enough removed from OG Arx that the theme is recognizable, but lore hounds from the original game won’t be at TOO much of an advantage. Good way to level the playing field. And I love that you have made systems to keep running the game sustainable for staff.
I’m looking forward to this.
Are you willing to answer personal metaplot lore questions that we never got a chance to uncover in PMs? Not a need-to-know. Just have one or two that I’ve been curious about since I stopped playing a few years ago. And I totally get if the answer is nah, fam. I’ll live, I promise.
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@Apos I’m gonna ask a juicy question:
What’s the biggest secret in the original Arx run that nobody uncovered?
Proud Member of the Pro-Mummy Alliance
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@MisterBoring Biggest is kind of subjective. Like if we are talking about mechanical clues, out of 4904 researchable clues, 125 were never discovered. At a glance, the majority of those were written in response to some player investigation and they never completed it, so didn’t see what the GMs came up with, like someone looking into the Stonewood, or about their character’s secret, and so on. Some were clues seeded in response to major events, like there were clues around Esera’s disappearance that were never found in season 1, for example.
But for biggest, in terms of ‘how would this change how people perceived the world’, I think it would have been a lot of the backstories of major historical figures and how things developed the way they did. Like I don’t think people found out why Onyx was kind to mortals, or what was behind some of the disputes or wars or things like that. Like I’m not sure how many people would guess what in Arx 1 would lead to the cataclysm hinted at in the above lore, though some probably would.
But turning back to Arx 2, what I think I’m going to do is post a bit about mechanics/design and then follow up with a
very unreliable narratorlore post, and probably keep at it for the different major starting areas every so often. So for the game design post of today:When making systems for Arx’s reboot, I separated systems largely along three different axes.
One is Player to Player, and for that all the systems around relationships, making social scenes feel very meaningful to character progression, the ties that strengthen characters and yield benefits and drive story, that’s one axis.
Second is Player to GM, and this is going to be primarily GM tables, where GMs (whether player or staff), have tables of groups of players to run stories from, manage the stories of the PCs at them, help guide them on adventures, keep track of what they need to do and what can happen. I didn’t like how often people stalled out in Arx 1, and specifically I think the ambiguity of whether a next step existed at all caused way more harm than good. I think we can make enough mystery without not knowing whether a story is over, or if it’s waiting on it to be written or if a PC needs to do things first in order to advance.
Third, and which was basically completely absent from Arx, is player to environment. I am just a huge believer in a living grid. This is what I missed the most in Arx 1. A PC, or group of PCs, being able to go just do things on grid, whether that is breaking into a place and do an automated crime heist, checking out a shard haven in the wilds, doing a spy mission, tinkering with alchemy and seeing if you are eaten by a demon, managing a domain, anything. The goal here is to have strong enough automated tools where people feel they can make meaningful impact upon the game world without needing to go through staff, and it to feel fair both to them and the stories of everyone around them. This has been a not inconsiderable percentage of my time working on the new Arx. Special shout out to the first PC to opt into doing something extremely high risk and dying. Risk, for obvious reasons, will be extremely clear and opt in.
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Next on starting areas, though I consider this a rough draft.
The Holy Revolutionary Republic of Luxen
“One stands before us in Durance. Speak thy name and testament.”
Every day the threat grows greater. The Afflictions ravage the land with a cost that continues to mount in the villages consumed, the people infected and slaughtered by slaver demons. And we hold the other realms of Catenys accountable not simply for a failure to act to stop this madness, but all too often a complicity in their dabbling with the Abyss, of being so foolish and arrogant as to think they could use the tools of demons against them and somehow escape unscathed.
The People of Luxen know better. We saw it first hand in our good King Alairre, Shepherd keep him. Blinded by his pride and notions of tolerance, he was betrayed by those closest to him, and if not for the Church rising up to cast down the usurpers, all of Luxen would have been lost. It became clear that the sin of pride would lead us all into destruction, and the Abyss and all its works must be confronted with force and burned out root and branch.
And so it was insufficient for us to stop here. We cannot rest until every tyrant that consorts with the Abyss has been overthrown, and their lands liberated. This starts with the Umbral Emperor, and if one ever needed proof of our war’s necessity, they only need look at the great Affliction that rose and stopped our righteous advance upon Umbral lands. Once that is consigned to flame, we shall do what is necessary.
“Extremism in defense of the Revolution is no vice.”
From the highest Blessed to the lowest Sinner, all in Luxen know our cause and how the survival of our Republic, our continent, even all of Nitera rests upon it. Still, knowing the dangers of the sin of pride, self-honesty might force us to confess there has been excesses. To keep the white cities safe, it is true that the Inquisition can be overzealous. Some of the most soft-heartened might wonder, quietly and in secret, if the Sinners are treated too harshly.
Those sorts have seldom wandered into the cumberwards of Salvation, nor have they seen the risks of loosening the leash that has bitten us time and again, from the very start of the founding of Luxen until now. When we liberated these lands from the Chimera Empire we did so to avenge the loss of the Daeva and drive the imps into the sea, but also to guarantee that we could never again fall under the chains of a great tyrant or his minions. King Alairre lost sight of that, and it killed him.
But the Church of the Shepherd has never forgotten.
“No crowns or tyrants here.”
Luxen stands alone, surrounded by enemies. The Blood Kingdoms of Ariwn to the East have never been our friends, nor can we tolerate the murderous predation of vampires or lycans here. The Umbral Empire has vowed to crush the Revolution and would seek to install the betrayer queen upon King Alairre’s throne, and force us all to kneel. The imps in the sea would murder every last one of us, and drag their old lands back into the Abyss.
Within, there are those who would destroy the Revolution. The savages of the Revanche who leave carnage and destruction in their wake, and are forever hunted by the Inquisition. The traitors who once had rank and title and humbly accepted the Church’s grace, but treacherously seek to regain what was lost. The proud and weak of soul who hear the whispers of the Abyss and consort with the darkest forces, and the malcontents proud enough to say their lot is insufficient, and would do anything to change it.
We are unafraid. We shall meet these challenges and overcome them.
Or else all the world is lost.
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@MisterBoring I am sure someone figured it out but Donrai despite having faked his death the first time, did get killed and replaced by a Ruby controlled mirrorborn before he could do anything. Which did cause confusion in the “is he really dead?” question.
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Second is Player to GM, and this is going to be primarily GM tables, where GMs (whether player or staff), have tables of groups of players to run stories from, manage the stories of the PCs at them, help guide them on adventures, keep track of what they need to do and what can happen. I didn’t like how often people stalled out in Arx 1, and specifically I think the ambiguity of whether a next step existed at all caused way more harm than good. I think we can make enough mystery without not knowing whether a story is over, or if it’s waiting on it to be written or if a PC needs to do things first in order to advance.
You probably already have a solution in mind for addressing this, but Pathologic 2 and 3’s Mind Map might have some ideas to steal: https://www.gamedeveloper.com/design/pathologic-2-mindmap-a-questlog-people-actually-read
Pathologic are games built around philosophy, mysticism, and mysteries, and the Mind Map works really well as a quest log for that atmosphere as well as the word heavy narrative. Unfortunately, the Mind Map is built heavily around the GUI so some work would need to be done in translating it into something that works on a MU*
EDIT: Maybe have some sort of GUI on the website? But that makes the player have to leave the MU* client to go look at their “quest log.”
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I can think of some history related things that I’m not sure were ever made clear to players, such as how the war between the elves and the dragons started, Tyrval’s mom, wtf the Thicker was (I don’t know what the Thicker was), that the Primordia were all female, why Diamond lost his fool mind.
There’s a lot of stuff that I think only a few characters knew, like the entire deal behind the Castle of Yesterday, the origin of the spirit’s hatred of blood magic, White Bear’s existence, or, iirc, that the bottom of the ocean led into the Abyss.
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All I hear is I’m going to fuck around with alchemy and find out by a demon eating me because I can never leave well enough alone.
I’m in.
Unless SOME PEOPLE try to give me visions of the violent death of my soul less teddy bear again.
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@Apos Halfway through this turned into a Bloodborne narration in my head and I am buzzing.
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