Zone: Olbion Basin

Olbion Basin

The Olbion Basin is a lush, peaceful region that has never seen war or drought. Although perfect for settlement because of its abundant plant and wildlife and its easy access to fresh water, it is a rather poor strategic outpost. No Desian race has been foolish enough to build a settlement at the bottom of this green bowl, as it is difficult to get out but easy to fire into with any sort of weaponry. In essence, the Olbion Basin is a military death trap.

The topographical difficulties in escaping the Basin are compounded by the presence of a particularly territorial tribe of Stalkers dwelling in the forests lining the rim of the Basin. Unfortunately, one lone escape pod has had the bad luck to land directly in the bottom of this deep hole. While the pod's crew have all they need to survive inside the Basin, Garry has dispatched his army to seek and destroy all of the Human escape pods, leaving this particular crew in a precarious position.

Zone: The Darklands

The Darklands

We don't go to the Darklands... Mostly because we can't.

The appropriately-named Darklands is a haven for nocturnal creatures; there is no daylight in the Darklands. The entire region is covered by a strange purple fungus which only grows in perpetual darkness. To maintain its health, the fungus grows large pustules which burst and release particles into the air which block out sunlight. As a result, the Darklands, drenched in a heavy fog that extends skyward for miles, has not seen sunlight for thousands of years. The fungal covering of the Darklands has developed an entire ecosystem around it; nearly every creature in the region entirely depends on the fungus for shelter and/or food. Much of the animal and plant life in the area have also developed bioluminescence as a means of either navigation or luring in prey, much like the anglerfish of Earth.

Only two of Desia's races care to venture into the Darklands. The Stalkers feel right at home here, as they can fade into the darkness with very little effort. And, of course, a few venturesome Berserkers wander into the area from time to time to see what kind of trouble they can get into. Very few Berserkers have managed to make it back out, however, since they simply get lost and wander aimlessly until death by either being devoured or  starvation.

Several of the Progeny's escape pods have had the unfortunate luck of crashing in the constant darkness of this zone. Luckily, Captain Moore and his team have flashlight technology, so navigating the Darklands shouldn't pose too much of a problem, although the same can't be said for the hostile wildlife in the area. But in the meantime, the crew of the escape pods have hunkered down, using the onboard lights from their escape pods to stay alive. Hopefully they can last long enough for a rescue operation.

Zone Bio: The Flood Plains

 The Flood Plains of Marcatia

Up until recently, the Flood Plains were a central trading hub for many of the Desian races. The regular precipitation and constant sediment deposit from the many rivers flowing through have caused the Flood Plains to be some of the most fertile farmland on Desia. Even the cliffs which separate the Flood Plains from the Barren Valley are so rich that they have supported thousands of Ascendants of the Arelian Tribe for generations. The Ooreahian Dredgers, seeking to trade with the Arelians, tunneled through the cliff faces and created large cliff-face trading ports, mutually benefiting both civilizations.

The Gluagian civilization called the Goggi has also maintained a large trade presence on the western coast of the Flood Plains for thousands of generations. This constant three-way trading in the Flood Plains eventually led the three races to dub the region "Marcatia," which is an amalgamation of the Gluaglian, Ascendant, and Dredger languages that means "Land of peace and prosperity."

The opportunities of Marcatia haven't been so prevalent as of late, however. The strange red substance which began bubbling up in the Deep Woods made its way downstream and contaminated much of the fertile soil of Marcatia, killing off the region's forest and much of its plants and wildlife. Worse yet, the recent volcanic flooding of Ooreahi City in the Barren Valley has spilled out through the trade ports the Ooreahian Dredgers had tunneled into the Marcatian cliff face, incinerating a huge number of Arelian crops and causing massive damage to the land below.

Juliog Goggi, the queen of the Goggi Civilization, has offered a helping hand to a few thousand Ooreahian and Arelian refugees who have been displaced by the traumatic events.

And to top it off, a pair of escape pods from the Progeny have crashed in the middle of it all`. The Desian races, unfamiliar with the humans, have not lent a helping hand, and the humans are finding themselves surrounded by danger and with only a very slim chance of survival. They have set up camp and are attempting to make contact with other escape pods that may have crashed in nearby regions.

Meanwhile, some unusual structures have appeared at the southern portion of the zone. They appear to be harvesting the dangerous red liquid from the rivers and from underground and concentrating it into large spherical tanks. Nobody saw the structures being built; they seemed to appear almost overnight, just a few days after the Progeny crashed. It is impossible to tell what these structures are doing and why they are there.

Zone: Ignea

Howdy! I've got a new zone up for today, which will be in the Planet Desia page. (See below if you don't feel bothered to visit that page.) 

Ignea

The twin islands of Ignea have been the home of the Komidians since before history began. Known as the birthplace of all Igneum stone, Ignea is easily the most dangerous region on the planet. The great mountain of Ignea, known as Hailum, constantly churns out Igneum dust, coating the entire region with the explosive substance.

The area is inhospital to all but a few forms of life, as nearly anything in the region will explode on contact with organic matter. The Komidians, however, have evolved a sort of hardened skin that somehow prevents them from suffering the ill effects of contact with Igneum, likely through some kind of chemical secretion. As the only sentient race able to live in Ignea, the Komidians maintain an extremely isolationist stance. They have everything they need on Ignea. They harvest most of their food from the sea, granting plenty of leisure time. They are free from political or power influences of the other races, as no race will enter Ignea to wage war on the Komidians. The Komidians have used their eternal state of peace to build up an advanced society replete with scholarship, advanced astronomy, and constant scientific endeavors.

They were previously spread all over both islands, but recent geological turmoil has pushed the Komidians to congregate on the southern island exclusively. Large cracks have opened up in the ground, and a sticky, toxic substance began oozing out, poisoning anything it touched. The Komidians have been frantically attempting to uncover its source and put a stop to it. If this traumatic process begins to take hold on the southern island, the Komidians may be forced off of Ignea and onto the mainland. This would disrupt their entire way of life, as they would be exposed to the other races of Desia. But fortunately, the Komidians' top scientists think they are on the verge of a breakthrough to solve the problem. Then again, perhaps no amount of knowledge can keep the ground from crumbling beneath their feet.

Zone: Grasping Plains

New zone added to the SB: Planet Desia page!

Grasping Plains

Constantly irrigated by the Mollu Glacier's melted runoff from the Overlook Plateau, the Grasping Plains have long been the fertile "heartland" of the northern Desian continent. It fares much better than its neighbors, the Barren Valley and the Searing Sands, although the Grasping Plains' ecosystem is certainly more strange.

The Grasping Plains are home to the Strider nation of Kiliat. The Kiliats once roamed the plains and hunted the herds of rhinoceros-like Huutas, but a few hundred years ago, the Huutas suddenly became scarce. An entire generation of Kiliats was faced with famine, and many Kiliats migrated to other zones where game was more populous. Those who stayed soon discovered that the Huutas were vanishing because they were being systematically devoured by an enormous creature which lived beneath the fertile ground of the plains. Its tentacles snaked through the ground like an eel through water, and it seemed to have the capability to recognize where creatures were walking on the ground. Any slight vibration of the loose topsoil would trigger a wildly flailing tentacle to shoot up from the earth, snatching up whatever it could and pulling it underground in an instant to be immediately devoured.

The Kiliats feared for their lives upon making this discovery, and they moved their portable homes onto the large, rocky outcrops that dotted the plains. It seemed that the beast's tentacles could not penetrate solid rock, so the Kiliats were safe for the moment. Perhaps out of rage or perhaps out of starvation, the Kiliats quickly began to strike back. They set up traps to coax the creature's tentacles to burst from the ground, and the ambushing Kiliats would charge at the tentacles and slash them to bits. After a few war marches on the demonic tentacles, the Kiliats realized that the tentacles were perfect for nutrition, as they were almost entirely composed of muscle. One severed tentacle could feed an entire village of Kiliats for weeks, and there never seemed to be a shortage of this monster's flesh.

Since then, the Kiliats have adapted to their situation and have settled in a permanent home on the rocks, regularly venturing out to chip away at the beast's appendages for the next big feast. Their tormentor became their sustenance. Nobody understands how, but for every tentacle that is removed, two seem to take its place. But the beast's rapid growth is becoming increasingly troublesome; its enormous tentacles are venturing closer and closer to the Kiliats' rocky fortresses, and they seem to grow larger with each passing day. If it gets any larger, the beast will very likely wipe out the Kiliat nation. Several recent expeditions have attempted to find the head of the beast and kill it, but not a single adventurer has returned. It's coming down to the wire; if this thing isn't dealt with soon, it seems there will be no end to its growth.

Zone: Deep Woods

Deep Woods

The dense forests of the Deep Woods have remained safe from the Stonefang attacks over the past half-century; Stonefangs don't fear much, but they do fear Stalkers, and there are plenty of those to be found in the Deep Woods. The Stalkers have claimed this region since the beginning of recorded history, and nobody on bad terms with the Stalkers dares to enter the Deep Woods.

The forests themselves are replete with a variety of carnivorous plants and even more carnivorous animals.  Even Berserkers are hesitant to venture into the Deep Woods. Berserkers are showboats and always display their risk-taking prowess, but most who enter the Deep Woods are never seen again. And it's certainly difficult to show off if you have vanished.

A recent phenomenon has killed off a significant portion of the forest, however. A strange red liquid began bubbling from the ground quite recently, and there doesn't seem to be an end to it. Its source is unknown, but it has recently begun overflowing and converging with the rivers that travel to the flood plains just southwest, which is causing huge problems for the wildlife there as well. The Ascendants who live on the east side of the Barren Valley's eastern mountain range live close to this red liquid, and some of them have reported seeing strange hallucinations and hearing voices after exposure to it. A tribe of Ascendant elders has been attempting to discover the source of this dangerous substance to put an end to it, but no solution has revealed itself as of yet.

Meanwhile, the Gleagski Clan of Gluaglians has taken a foothold along the southern coast of the zone. Although they normally stick to deep water, the Gleagskis have been pushed onto land after Reabl, one of their younger and less intelligent members, startled a massive nest of hibernating Gruffpac Eels at 5,000 feet while attempting to steal their eggs to sell on the surface. The school of 40-foot-long constrictors angrily devoured half the Gleagski Clan -- including Reabl -- before the day was through, and the remaining Gleagskis have set up shop along the Deep Woods coast while they wait for the swarming eels to calm down. So far it has been two years; Gruffpacs aren't known for their forgiving nature.

Zone: Barren Valley

New zone added to the SB: Planet Desia page!


Barren Valley

Sandwiched on three sides by lush forests, the Barren Valley is a peninsula of desolation jutting out into a sea of life. Like its neighbor, the Searing Sands, the Barren Valley has difficulty supporting basic life. This hasn't stopped the Dredgers from making it their home, however; directly beneath the center of the valley lies Ooreahi, one of the largest Dredger cities ever built. Its vast underground network of tunnels sprawls for miles, and the Dredgers have managed to cultivate vast fields of bio-luminescent fungi that dwell far underground, providing an endless supply of food and light.

The Barren Valley has seen a relatively conflict-free past; it has little to offer in terms of resources, and the extreme temperatures at the surface are nearly unbearable to endure. However, the Berskerkers find this type of region quite appealing because of its danger. And once the Stonefangs took over Mount Arua, the Berserkers simply couldn't stay away. They had to get in on the action. A bastion of a few hundred berserkers migrated to the Barren Valley over the past half-century to show off their prowess in fighting against the Stonefangs around Dianttua. It is said that whichever Berserker can manage to get into the hollowed-out mountain and come out alive will have eternal glory. No one has succeeded as of yet.

While the Ascendants from the region were grateful for the Berserkers' help, the Berserkers weren't interested in politics; they simply wanted to fight things, and the endless legion of Stonefangs provided the perfect opportunity. The campfires marking the Berserkers' temporary settlements dot the northern region of the Barren Valley to this day, for it seems that as long as the Stonefangs are holed up in Dianttua, the Berserkers will be close by, engaging them in bloody combat.

Some of the Berserkers have had difficulty staying focused, however, because a new temptation has arisen just to the south. As the Progeny was falling out of orbit, pieces of debris (or perhaps escape pods) plummeted to the Barren Valley like a steel hailstorm, decimating whatever they impacted. The shock waves from the impacts caused Taluiq Mountain, the largest mountain in the zone and a previously dormant volcano, to burst open and spew lava all over the southern portion of the region. This has caused a split in the Berserker tribe, as many of the more insane individuals have been coaxed to go for a swim in the newly-created lava pools.

The lava flows pervading the zone have caused untold damage to the Dredger city of Ooreahi, and the rumbling from the debris has caused much of their infrastructure to collapse. It seems that several thousand Dredgers may be trapped below with no clear means of escape. One thing is certain; this once peaceful desert has become a literal hotbed of dangerous activity. Tread with caution.

Zone: Stonefang Mountains

New zone added to the SB: Planet Desia page!

Stonefang Mountains

The Stonefang Mountains are the home of the largest group of Stonefangs, and it it is the staging ground for the Stonefangs' largest military operations. In ancient times, before the Ascendants had converted to the agrarian lifestyle, the Ascendants viewed this mountain range as prime hunting ground for Stonefang meat. But once the Ascendants began farming, the gargantuan mountain in the center of the region became regarded as a sort of promised land, and it was given the name Mount "Arua," which is a contracted form of the phrase "bridge to the sky." Mount Arua provided so much vertical farmland that it could support potentially millions of Ascendants at a time. Tens of thousands of Ascendants flocked to the mountain, covering its surface with their fields. Ascendant towns and cities blotted the mountain's face for millenia.

A few generations ago, however, a massive army of Stonefangs seemed to simply emerge from nowhere. It is rumored that they had spent most of recent history living deep underground in the northern caves, developing war technology and building their numbers, but this is unlikely; the network of caves is a breeding ground for an untold number of incredibly dangerous creatures. The Stonefangs swarmed the face of the mountain like locusts, burning the Ascendants' crops and massacring any who failed to escape, using grappling hooks and various war machines to scale the mountain. Once the Ascendants had been dealt with, the Stonefangs set about converting Mount Arua from a fountain of life into a fortress of war. They blasted the mountain with explosives until they had hollowed it out, allowing only one entrance sealed with a massive stone door, and they moved all of their war machines inside.

In the decades since the uprising, the Stonefangs built defenses all throughout the region as a warning to all outsiders that this territory was now theirs. Mount Arua lost its namesake and, over time, became known as "Dianttua" which translates to "suffering giant." The once green and lush mountain range had been burned and scarred until it was nothing but an endless field of jagged rocks. The other Desian races learned to stay far away from Dianttua, although it is of little use; the Stonefang attacks mounted from Dianttua have become increasingly severe and frequent as the Stonefangs venture farther from their mountain home.

Only Stonefangs are allowed inside the mountain, and there is little more than speculation as to what the Stonefangs are building inside. Others are simply uneasy because although the Stonefangs have assembled attacks on the other races, these attacks are nothing compared to their initial massacre of the Ascendants; they seem to be biding their time; it is clear that they are planning something major inside the impenetrable walls of Dianttua, and there is very little to stop them.

Updated Map: Searing Sands

The old placeholder graphic for the Searing Sands has been destroyed, and this polished glory muffin takes its place. I've also updated the full world map on the SB: Planet Desia page to reflect the changes.

Updated Map: Overlook Plateau

I've updated the old placeholder graphics on the map for the Overlook Plateau. Searing Sands will be next!

Updated Environment: Overlook Plateau

Today I finally sat down and rebuilt the Overlook Plateau environment from the ground up. I changed the grass so that it's no longer that goofy-looking, grid-like astroturf; now we've got a nice, smooth, genuine, grassy surface to roll around on. You may also notice in the background that there are no more awkward, jagged lines resembling "mountains" in the background. Say hello to actual mountains!

[Click the image to enlarge]

Mountain man, ready for action.

I also managed to come up with a completely revolutionary idea that has probably never been done before in the history of game development. That's right: I added clouds.

Thanks for protecting my delicate skin from the sun, clouds!

The clouds are in two layers so the smaller ones drift across the background at a slower pace, so it gives a nice depth feel. I'm pretty pleased with the whole scene overall! If you feel inspired, let me know what you think in the comments.

Searing Sands

Now updated on the Planet Desia page:

Searing Sands

Across the Overlook Plateau mountain pass lies Searing Sands, a white-hot sea of death. Save for the Dune Sloth Oasis in the north, the Searing Sands is nearly devoid of plant life. Its main inhabitants, the Dredgers, have built massive dwellings underground in order to escape the scorching sun, only hunting for food at night. Most of the creatures here are extremely aggressive and carnivorous; because there is such a lack of plant life, the indigenous beasts of the sand dunes must simply eat one another.

The warmongering Stonefangs from the east have recently begun attacking Dredger settlements, which has pushed the Dredgers into a retaliatory war march. The eastern half of Searing Sands has become a battle-scarred and blood-stained war zone, and the Stonefangs push ever closer to wiping out the Dredgers at their settlements near the Overlook Mountain Pass.

Meanwhile, turmoil within the Dredger's tribal elders has caused a rift between two factions within the tribe, and half of the Dredgers recently abandoned the underground safe haven and have migrated north to the Dune Sloth Oasis. This has left the remaining Dredgers in a precarious military position.

The Ascendants living in the mountains to the South are attempting to avoid conflict with the Stonefangs and the Dredgers and have been playing the middle-men, trading with both factions and dumping resources into whichever race seems to be winning at any point in time. If they are lucky, their strategy will prevail and the winning faction will spare them. But the Stonefangs don't believe in luck, and the Dredgers disfavor double dealing.

Zone Work: Searing Sands

One of the challenges in creating the story for Skybrawler is that, like many epic stories, it is comprised of a multitude of small stories. In the game, the player will be able to bypass a lot of content at his discretion and make a run for the final level, but there will also be a huge volume of side-quests and zones to explore. Each zone has its own story arc, and each of those story arcs supports a larger story.

I have sketches of the overall story completed, but I need to dig in and get down to details with all of the smaller stories. I'm now finishing the story of the zone to the east of Overlook Plateau: the Searing Sands. It is a white-hot desert where the Dredgers live, and the Dredgers are locked in warfare with the Stonefangs from the east. Ascendants dwell in the mountains along the southern edge of the Searing Sands as well, so the potential for conflict between the three races is certainly present. I don't want to give too much away from the story, so I won't. But I will have a zone bio ready in a short time regarding the Searing Sands on the Desia page.