World Building - Artificial Deity Project
A dying world full of ambiguity, fear and fish.
For this project, Franziska van Wulfen and I focused on developing a rich world that can contain multiple stories.
Thematic core pillars of the world and its mythology are ambiguity, decay and community.
A world bible is available here and a demo build of Artificial Deity Project: The Mansion by the Sea is available upon request!
Table of Contents
Key Points
- Story is set on a gigantic tree that grew from the corpse of a slain god
- The tree is surrounded by a seemingly infinite ocean
- Its inhabitants used to be immortal until people suddenly started dying several decades ago
- The tree’s ruler, an entity named Dav’D, began creating Artificial Deities to defeat death
- Ever since Immortality has been lost, a never-ending winter has set in and gigantic hands threaten to tear the tree down into the depths of the ocean
The Sea Region
Situated at the very bottom of the tree, far away from the glitz and glamour of the crown, lies the Sea Region.
What was once a popular tourist destination has been transformed into a desolate mishmash of small towns and abandoned settlements.
Due to its proximity to the ocean and the threat of the hands steadily emerging from it, it has been declared a key defensive position by the Tree’s military forces.
The military‘s arrival has drained the population of vital resources such as food and shelter, which has caused most people in the region to develop an intense hatred of the military.
Sea Region - In-Game
The player character, a spoiled brat who joined the military, should feel out of place and unwelcome among a tightly-knit community of working class people, who feel rightfully betrayed by the very institution the player, a military sergeant, represents.
NPCs in the region provide different perspectives on what it means to be undead. While some succumb to utter nihilism or put all of their hopes into a mystical saviour figure, others have learned to form communities around their fear of uncertainty and death.
The main quest in this area explores these themes in relation to our protagonist’s internal conflict. (Accepting uncertainty vs Trying to go back to the way things were)
They also serve as a minor antagonistic force, as they do not react well to the player character’s military background. Thus, their trust and cooperation are things to be earned and the player’s relationship to them changes.
The Artificial Deity
The artificial deity, a girl named “Daecii”, was artificially crafted from the heart of the Tree to save humanity from a future of neverending rot and stagnation.
Her entire life has been dedicated to gaining control over her healing powers and becoming the saviour of humanity, which puts her under immense pressure.
She has not made any meaninful progress for years and might not be able to fulfill the seemingly impossible task placed on her shoulders.
Under the impression that she is failling all of humanity and, worst of all, her father, her mental state has deteriorated drastically.
Since she is linked to the heart of the Tree, this has negatively impacted it and caused a brutal winter to settle in.
The Chronicle
The Chronicle, also referred to as the Immaterial Sea, the Ocean or “Ursuppe” , is a body of water that surrounds the Tree and stretches as far as the eye can see.
It is an unstable dimension of the metaphysical that is influenced by the emotions and actions of the Tree’s inhabitants. Like the name suggests, it is a chronicle of all that ever has been and will be.
This dimension is home to the mysterious entities commonly referred to as “The Sisters” and their creations.
It is the source of all life on the tree and frequently births new species of animals.
Attempting to traverse the Chronicle via boat is highly discouraged, as no one who has attempted this has ever returned.
The Tree
The Tree is divided into three sections; The Roots, the Branches and the Crown.
Overall, the Tree has a collective landmass of 40.000km², which is approximately the size of Switzerland.
Most populated areas are located on the outer branches, as it is less humid and sunnier there.
Sadly, a lot of these towns are sparsely populated nowadays, as people have been moving up the branches to escape the threat of the hands.
The bark and structure of the tree create a hilly topology. Water is extracted from the ocean and pumped up through the trunk to the very top of the tree, where it gets filtered. It flows back down in man-made rivers.
The Rot//Undeath
For most of the Tree’s existence, the people who have lived on it have been immortal. Their bodies would recover from any injury and death wasn’t something people knew or feared.
This changed when Dav’D created the first Artificial Deity and split people’s souls from their bodies. All of a sudden, hunger, injury and age became serious problems and large chunks of the population struggled to adapt.
Of course, this change affected those who could not afford food disproportionally harder, causing way more deaths among the working class than among the wealthy.
As a result, being in a state of undeath is now associated with belonging to the lower class.
The Undead who wish to avoid being ostracized for dying, tend to cover up the rot with clothing and masks.
In-game, the player character is rotting and falling apart which should be a consideration when writing dialogues and choices. The player can not do any physical labour or solve conflicts with violence without falling apart and NPCs react to the player’s state of decay.
The Military
The military forces deployed in the sea region are mainly tasked with keeping the gigantic hands emerging from the ocean at bay.
Their orders are to monitor and shoot at the hands twice per day, using large cannon constructs that have been deployed around the edges of the sea region just for this,
This task has proved to be a neverending, sisyphean one, as new hands appear every day and no discernible progress has been made. The source of the hands is unknown but Dav’D, the reigning entity of the tree, is convinced they were sent by his sisters to torment him.
