State of the Lore

[zabernat#1238]

I recently finished reading through the entire novel and have brushed up on the other official documents and wanted to start chronicling lore as I understand it and talk about what I like and dislike about it. Everyone and anyone are welcome to chime in.

Side note, whoever wrote the novel this far (Mark or otherwise) it is unexpectedly engaging and I feel a connection to the characters and story immediately.

Spoiler: Factions

Omega Frontier - America and Japan presumably ruled primarily by Japan (does this include all nations from the north and south American continents? I am unsure which they fit into otherwise and would love clarification on that in order to get my factions straight.
Soviets - their own faction or possibly part of the Sino
Harmonious Sino Alliance - much of Asia under Chinese rule likely including parts of India
The Europa Empire - presumably everything west of Soviet states ruled by Germany
The Crescent Coalition - The remainder of India (depending on how much is contained within the Sino Alliance) and to the west and south including African nations

Will these factions and the wars between them play a prominent role on Ember or is the planet primarily populated by one or two of them?

Spoiler: 28 Colonies Gatestriders

The 28 colonies also represent a chance to portray an array of diverse humanity, some almost alien in appearance after centuries of environmental, technological and genetic changes. Players can hail from high gravity planets fostering a short and stout people,
to low gravity planets with elfin-like and elegantly limbed humans. Some planets take this to an even farther extreme, with genetic or cybernetic augmentation. The imagination is the limit when coming up with human variants that populate the sphere of humanity.

Novel at a glance - marked in spoilers for those who have not read

Spoiler: Novel Synopsis

Kirii (protagonist) and thumper MEK, Dragon, are attacked by a Tsi-Hu while attempting to mine a mineral rich deposit and see the Tsi-Hu in both humanoid and beast form. They survive by killing the Tsi-Hu in its beast form but at a heavy cost with both being injured.
Kirii and Dragon are rescued by Kirii’s friends, Briga (male Human) and Simms (female Feli), and transported to “Home” where Engi can repair Dragon while Kirii is patched up.
Home is the massive space station orbiting Em-8er. It is indescribably large compared to modern space stations with farming and city biomes and teaming with people. Kirii is taken to the med bay and his legs are restored. We meet a medical AI Nurse A-KO, we hear from Kirii's farmer and tech genius friend Darla, and Kirii’s mother, Seldara Garrak. We see Kirii’s relationship with his mother, the First Claimer, Ark Liege, and the one who accidentally got the colony’s home planet blown up by enraging the Enshigi when she explored one of their forbidden sectors of space (or sent a crew to explore it).
Fast forward and a team is out hunting for Tsi-Hu not knowing about their humanoid form as Kirii left that detail out of his report and the team fails badly, 1 dead, 1 captured, and the other escapes.
Flash back to Home and Kirii goes out to the bar with Darla, Briga, Simms, and Kobashi and a guy from House Nesser start a fight with them. The entire group ends up in a holding cell until released to answers summons from the Council. The Council of Ark Lieges end up grounding all of House Garrak at the behest of Liege Nesser in hopes of establishing diplomatic ties with the Tsi-Hu.
Stranded while the diplomatic missions commence below, Darla creates a back-door to watch the progress while setting everything up for the Council.

Spoiler: Novel Lore

Home- The massive mega-city metropolis space station and only refuge of the people terraforming Ember.

Seldara and the failed House Garrak - As the discoverer of Ember Seldara and her house are given some special treatment, however they are also spurned for encroaching on an Enshigi Dark Sector and provoking their retaliation and likely destruction of one of the 28 colonies.

Fabric - a mental digital connection that allows the equivalent of mental texting or voice memo communication throughout Home (unconfirmed if this works planetside).

Darla is both one of Kirii's companions and the basis for a skin we can/could have purchased as backers. Will skins be added for Kirii and his other companions?

We meet a Council of Lieges at Home - Only Nesser, William Renalt, and Seldara Garrak are known. Will the others be named for Ark Liege backers or will they have their own names and stories?

 

[zabernat#1238]

Question about the “variations of humanity”:
At the time the game releases, reference has been made to humanity having enough variation from the 28 major colonies spread across space, do we know of variations aside from the Feli and are there names for them?

 

[Pandagnome]

do we know of variations aside from the Feli and are there names for them?

Feli are the nekos, and there is humans as for the other variations i am curious and do we as the community have a say in what variation we would like to have?

 

[zabernat#1238]

Feli are the nekos, and there is humans as for the other variations i am curious and do we as the community have a say in what variation we would like to have?

Technically all known sentient beings in the universe of Crixa are human aside from the Tsi-Hu, including the Enshigi.

Spoiler: 28 Colonies Gatestriders

The 28 colonies also represent a chance to portray an array of diverse humanity, some almost alien in appearance after centuries of environmental, technological and genetic changes. Players can hail from high gravity planets fostering a short and stout people,
to low gravity planets with elfin-like and elegantly limbed humans. Some planets take this to an even farther extreme, with genetic or cybernetic augmentation. The imagination is the limit when coming up with human variants that populate the sphere of humanity.

 

[Pandagnome]

Technically all known sentient beings in the universe of Crixia are human aside from the Tsi-Hu, including the Enshigi.

Spoiler: 28 Colonies Gatestriders

The 28 colonies also represent a chance to portray an array of diverse humanity, some almost alien in appearance after centuries of environmental, technological and genetic changes. Players can hail from high gravity planets fostering a short and stout people,
to low gravity planets with elfin-like and elegantly limbed humans. Some planets take this to an even farther extreme, with genetic or cybernetic augmentation. The imagination is the limit when coming up with human variants that populate the sphere of humanity.

In that case hopefully be a short panda and my alternate appearance is a hybrid alien - human with no ears or a cyborg mutant hmm

How many appearance profiles could we have?

 

[zabernat#1238]

Appearance profiles definitely are not something I’ve seen discussed. I am extremely curious about what the character creator will look like.

 

[Pandagnome]

I also wonder how this character creator will look like and what interesting ways we can make ourselves look like from seriously serious to playfully fun ofc with the filter.

Perhaps we could change on the fly just like we can with the frame colours from green to red?

To save the quick switch profile looks they could be limited to a number e.g 2 because could be an issue to change to many many profiles i am guessing?

So if we had to go back to the base or battle frame station etc we could access the full customization profiles we have created, or even use others appearance profiles if they are shared to set to our on the fly appearance switcher option!

 

[Sy]

Question about the “variations of humanity”:
At the time the game releases, reference has been made to humanity having enough variation from the 28 major colonies spread across space, do we know of variations aside from the Feli and are there names for them?

I've never heard any decided.

There is the thought that some Feli were working closely with the gatestriders but other races never really lived or worked with us, so they wouldn't exist in the game.

I already think that it's strange that because Feli would exist in the character creator we might have a disproportionate and lore-damaging number of Feli in the game. That would definitely be the case if others were included.

Appearance profiles definitely are not something I’ve seen discussed. I am extremely curious about what the character creator will look like.

You and the devs both want to know.

One Chief Chat walked through a really complex character creator preview for another game, to see what's interesting about it. I don't have a reference to that as it was a while ago.

 

[Quadrana]

I have heard in the past that the character alteration after character creation is probably going to be like the new you feature in firefall was, which was that you could change anything about your character in the new you screen that you had access too. So like if you have all the skins you will have access to every type of look that the skin packs make available plus any and all base game looks and any that are accessible as in game purchases in the final game. You would enter the menu and change things there so if its just like firefall theres no really changing on the fly except for minor visuals but at any major location there would be a new you station you could alter your look at. But there's been a lot of games that have been influencing Em-8er and anything is possible in end game. Its possible that the new you could be made as a systems menu or something as such or that a system is put in like final fantasy 14 where you can make "classes" and or looks and quickly choose between loadouts. If I recall correctly though EM-8er is a classesless game so it would be more blank loadouts if thats the case.

What ever the case is I do know that we will have lots of options for character customization and creation because that was one statistic that was harped on in early development which was that I believe firefall lost a lot of its players in character creation because there wasn't enough choices. Don't quote me on the game but Grummz has quoted the statistic a few times in past chief chats.

 

[Sy]

What ever the case is I do know that we will have lots of options for character customization and creation because that was one statistic that was harped on in early development which was that I believe firefall lost a lot of its players in character creation because there wasn't enough choices. Don't quote me on the game but Grummz has quoted the statistic a few times in past chief chats.

Something around half of players never progressed past the character selector, at least early on. Was the game pay-to-play at launch?

That and a lesson was learned from original WoW having a problem of beauty. Enough players found the horde faction too ugly and there was faction imbalance to the alliance faction. I think it was also the ugly zones, but characters was their takeaway. Curiously this was visible mostly in Korea, so there's also cultural, regional or other nuances that can arise.

At any rate, it's obvious that the character selector is important. Maybe it's important enough to warrant something basic for Kickstarter.

 

[zabernat#1238]

Something around half of players never progressed past the character selector, at least early on. Was the game pay-to-play at launch?

That and a lesson was learned from original WoW having a problem of beauty. Enough players found the horde faction too ugly and there was faction imbalance to the alliance faction. I think it was also the ugly zones, but characters was their takeaway. Curiously this was visible mostly in Korea, so there's also cultural, regional or other nuances that can arise.

At any rate, it's obvious that the character selector is important. Maybe it's important enough to warrant something basic for Kickstarter.

I would like to at least be able to see character creator for humans in game and give thoughts on it before the game launches. I’m hopeful we see something after the kickstarter if not before. Also, character creator options make the subscriber skins feel a lot more real if one or more of those can actually be worn in the vertical slice game before launch.

If the kickstarter results in us being able to build bases, I would hope that eventually we could have multiple characters and ones we aren’t playing on could AI path themselves around our base and accomplish tasks or look like they are.

 

[zabernat#1238]

The Enshigi - who are they and why do we hear about them a ton in lore despite expecting them to not be playable or even in the game?

Spoiler: History Spoiler

In all text describing the Enshigi, we are informed that they were a logical, elite group of humanity with technical knowledge far surpassing the rest of humanity. Enshigi were world rulers and apparently led the world to a time of prosperity marked by cruel, inhumane decisions that benefitted the world on paper at the cost of lives.
When the rest of the world began to riot and attempt to destroy and overthrow their calculating dictators, the Enshigi were far ahead of the rest of the world and the majority of their population left together all at once to space fleeing far into unknown space on a ship they had constructed in secret while leaving the rest of their people to be killed and tortured.
The Enshigi’s departure shocked the rest of the world into a space race which led to the 28 colonies separate and isolated for decades before the creation of D-Gates.
In more recent history, a group sent a probe where they assumed the Enshigi may have fled to which was destroyed and included a warning not to attempt contact ever again.

 

[Pandagnome]

The Enshigi - who are they and why do we hear about them a ton in lore despite expecting them to not be playable or even in the game?

Spoiler: History Spoiler

In all text describing the Enshigi, we are informed that they were a logical, elite group of humanity with technical knowledge far surpassing the rest of humanity. Enshigi were world rulers and apparently led the world to a time of prosperity marked by cruel, inhumane decisions that benefitted the world on paper at the cost of lives.
When the rest of the world began to riot and attempt to destroy and overthrow their calculating dictators, the Enshigi were far ahead of the rest of the world and the majority of their population left together all at once to space fleeing far into unknown space on a ship they had constructed in secret while leaving the rest of their people to be killed and tortured.
The Enshigi’s departure shocked the rest of the world into a space race which led to the 28 colonies separate and isolated for decades before the creation of D-Gates.
In more recent history, a group sent a probe where they assumed the Enshigi may have fled to which was destroyed and included a warning not to attempt contact ever again.

I wonder if the Enshigi are taking over another world and doing the same to what happened before.
They don't want us to know about it because of our ways and how we may dent their future plan. They just want to be left alone in their own controlling presence and build keeping ahead in technological terms and fear.

Whats to say an Enshigi outcast makes mysterious appearances we would not know it was an Enshigi who could disguise as a traveler or even a shop keeper giving us certain clues or info that is overlooked and never suspected.

If such Enshigi outcast exist who could it be and why help?
Is it a test to build trust from within, a trojan horse of the Enshigi?
What if the Enshigi outcast gets caught and could there be more?
What has led to an Enshigi branching off was it power, greed?

Will the Enshigi ever do a jiggy?

 

[zabernat#1238]

I wonder if the Enshigi are taking over another world and doing the same to what happened before.
They don't want us to know about it because of our ways and how we may dent their future plan. They just want to be left alone in their own controlling presence and build keeping ahead in technological terms and fear.

Whats to say an Enshigi outcast makes mysterious appearances we would not know it was an Enshigi who could disguise as a traveler or even a shop keeper giving us certain clues or info that is overlooked and never suspected.

I expect that the Enshigi will have some contact in the the course of game expansions if they don’t already.

Spoiler: Enshigi Lore

In both the attempted first glance probe that was intercepted and whatever failed D-Gate jump that earned Seldara Garrak everyone’s hate, the Enshigi seemed to know they were being looked at by people based on how the stories and lore are written. If that’s intended, then either their sensor technology is wildly more advanced than the Gatestriders’ tech or the Enshigi have methods of spying on the other humans

 

[zabernat#1238]

Side note, I am extremely interested in the larger purpose of the Enshigi for Crixa as they pose massive implications for the future of space-faring humanity. And will love hearing more about them especially in novel or future story form.

 

[Sy]

Side note, I am extremely interested in the larger purpose of the Enshigi for Crixa as they pose massive implications for the future of space-faring humanity.

I hope we see the Enshigi again. I think vengeance is a strong motivator, especially if it seems in reach: Gatestriders are now mining the equivalent of magic metal.

 

[zabernat#1238]

I hope we see the Enshigi again. I think vengeance is a strong motivator, especially if it seems in reach: Gatestriders are now mining the equivalent of magic metal.

I’m unfamiliar with the “magic metal” being mined. Where are you drawing that description from?
As for the Enshigi, it’s hard to believe they would have zero influence going forward but thus far, they basically represent a hard boundary against visiting dark sectors of the unknown universe that could end up with an entire planet being destroyed.

 

[ChAzZ_NuT]

I hope we see the Enshigi again. I think vengeance is a strong motivator, especially if it seems in reach: Gatestriders are now mining the equivalent of magic metal.

I like the idea of the Enshigi being this entity that's always just out of reach, and every time the Gatestriders think they're grasping an idea of many unanswered questions surrounding them. Every time we come across a slither of evidence that the Enshigi still exist, they're already another 5 steps ahead.

Like the way their growth on Earth multiplied exponentially towards the space-race, they have continued to do so as thier opportunities broadened out into the stars.

Always watching, always just out of reach, and every time we step a little too close, we get pushed back into place. Hopefully this time it's not another star-busting weapon.

 

[zabernat#1238]

I like the idea of the Enshigi being this entity that's always just out of reach, and every time the Gatestriders think they're grasping an idea of many unanswered questions surrounding them. Every time we come across a slither of evidence that the Enshigi still exist, they're already another 5 steps ahead.

Like the way their growth on Earth multiplied exponentially towards the space-race, they have continued to do so as thier opportunities broadened out into the stars.

Always watching, always just out of reach, and every time we step a little too close, we get pushed back into place. Hopefully this time it's not another star-busting weapon.

Sounds like a major in-game event to me.

 

[Pandagnome]

multiplied exponentially towards the space-race, they have continued to do so as thier opportunities broadened out into the stars.

A race of great magnitude!