Life after the cataclysm
Ahoy, all you sky raiders,
When not busy with other tasks I like to indulge in a little storytelling. This helps me solidify my ideas and expand the universe in my mind. Hopefully, these will turn into lore documents, added into the game as collectibles, or just info on load screens. I like the more narrative style for these as it leaves a level of mystery and is just from the impressions of the people in the game.
In this little except from an in-game character they explore how life returned to a destroyed world.
R.J. Lloyd - Empyrean Scribe and Explorer
-excerpt from A Former Scribes thoughts on the World - Vol. II
"…and so the world was shattered. Little to nothing of the previous one exists, but the new world is full of life. Plants and animals, and some things maybe in between, are on every island and flying in the air currents. So the question is, where did they come from?
This has been a question since the first people were revived, though the imperial scholars have narrowed it down to two primary theories.
The evolution theory - It is unknown how much time has passed since the world shattered. This has evidence to support it. Many plants and creatures look (and taste) similar to what they were from Earth that was. Feathered birds in many cases are unchanged, and fly-crabs are incredibly similar in their form to former sea-dwelling crabs. In the cataclysm, while so many species went extinct almost immediately, others could have survived. Especially smaller, faster-adapting creatures like insects, rodents, and some birds.
Plants are constantly spreading seeds and only need water, sun, and a touch of land to grow. Mosses and lichens can take even less.
The evolution theory doesn't however explain some of the stranger creatures. Skywhale and Cloud-krakens show adaptations from purely ocean-based creatures, which would not have had time, food, or the required oceans to continue surviving for long enough for evolution to take its slow pace.
While small simple plants may have been able to survive, the complex plants that exist seem to have adapted from many sources and shouldn't have been able to reproduce at all.
Lastly, the evolution theory would require millions of years of slow evolutions to have taken place. While the existence of fossils is nearly impossible, astral charts of familiar formations show a drift of only a few thousand to tens of thousands of years.
This is where the reanimation theory picks up.
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| Someone elses idea of a sky whale. But I like the multiple fin/wings! |
The reanimation theory states that plants and animals were reintroduced to the world in a similar way that humans were. The shards constructed their bodies and gave them life, which then spread and adapted to their new environments.
The existence of cats, dogs, fish, and the large variety of fruit-bearing plants makes it possible to think this is the case. Presumably, after the world settled and light was able to reach the uppermost shard islands there was a sudden burst of plant life. Both the simple ones that had survived but also reanimated ones from the bygone age when the shards were created.
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| Almost too cute but very fun concept |
Animal life is spread far and wide, seemingly too wide to have happened by pure chance, but if the animals were reanimated by the same power as humans through the shards, why do they not de-materialized upon death, and how are they able to reproduce while humans cannot? While these questions are hard to answer, the biggest hole considered by philosophers is the existence of new plants and well-adapted creatures suited for a life in the sky. Sky-whales and Cloud-krakens are far different than any that existed previously, their existence speaks to an awareness of the forces that created them. To make them suit their environment so they can form new ecologies. This design idea also faces criticism, as if there was a grand design, why are humans so poorly suited to this new environment. Certainly if a creature as unique as a skywhale can float through a storm, a human could be granted claws to easily climb the floating islands, or wings to glide on the drafts?
Some with a more religious take on things believe this is all the work of a grand designer, sometimes referred to as the Great Rallen. Scholars believe that if the reanimation process is true it speaks to a plan put in place before the planet was shattered. If this is true, it means the creators of the shards also knew, or possibly caused the cataclysm and its eventual outcome, able to predict with some accuracy the eventual environment. I find these thoughts to be the most troubling..."
Let me know what you'd like a little in-game lore of next. Until next time, fair winds and clear skies!
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| Little fish/bat thing - I think it's cute |
As always, join us on our discord. Share your thoughts for weird and fun creatures to add to the game!
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