The Reckoning shattered your world, Feneryss. The challenge now lies with you to gather the shards and forge a new path for humanity.
Our live Q&A on Youtube begins at 4PM to 8PM EST (20:00 GMT to 00:00 GMT) today! We will be taking questions from the livestream chat. Hope to see you there!
Hey folks!
On Sunday, July 17th from 4PM to 8PM EST (20:00 GMT to 00:00 GMT), the INDE team will be live-streaming a Q&A session on Youtube! This will be an open forum to any and all with questions about Shattered. We will be taking questions from the livestream's chat and answering them in the order they're presented to us. If time allows, we will discuss our airship creation and combat system. So save the date and get your questions ready! You can join us when we go live here.
Thanks,
The INDE Team
First off, for those of you who don’t follow us on Facebook or on the Forums, we recently locked our forums down to transfer to a new, better forum software, Xenforo. We got the old forums migrated over to the new software while NKdotzip and Tex hand crafted the new website and reset the permissions on the forums. Unfortunately, the passwords had to be reset due to changing forum software. Tex believes he got everyone converted over correctly, but please let us know if there’s something wrong with your forum account or you lost access to the backer forums. Now, we have changed to a new domain, http://neverdarkenough.com. But never fear! Our old website will redirect to the new one :) NKdotzip and Tex are still constructing the webpage for Shattered and will hopefully have it done soon.
A few weeks ago, we set up a Discord server for the community and invited a few backers to join us as guinea pi---er I mean, a test group. Since the real time feedback has been very helpful, we’re opening up the Discord to everyone! You can use this link and begin chatting with us! This link is also available on our forums as a menu option to the right of Members. If you are a Kickstarter or Backerkit backer, please PM a staff on Discord so you can get added to the user group.
Since we’ve last talked, one of our backers, BEAR, has drawn some epic monster art for us to use in the book:
Red Eye
A creature of nightmare, a Red Eye stalks the Alecian Plains with a bobbing, glowing red eye perched upon its forehead. As it walks, the cyclops' eye bobs up and down with each step. It has long, claws attached to its arms. It is roughly the size of a human and can blend in with the surroundings at night except for its glowing red eye. If the eye falls upon something, the foe freezes in fear. When it allows itself to be seen, a Red Eye is pitch black with a thin, bony body and vicious canine teeth.
Chronogast
Wrapped in a black, bio-mechanical chitin suit and topped with a glass visor, the Chronoghast is a lifeless creature, staring out of the glass visor with dead, hollow eyes set in a long-decayed skull. The suit is flooded with green, noxious gasses which vent when the Chronoghast vents when struck. Its proportions are lanky and dedicated, with long reaching arms that end in vicious-looking mechanical claws. The Chronoghast does not move like normal creatures, it simply flickers between time, so when it moves, there are always shimmering before and after images.
Harvester
Harvesters are the reapers of the damned and blessed alike. Their imposing, corpselike figure stands 10 feet tall and bears 4 lanky, handless, arms; each of which has a scythe strapped to the underside of its forearm. They have no eyes, although they do have eye sockets. The rest of their face, from the nose down is covered by a metal, featureless mask that has been drilled and bolted into the bone. From this mask, gurgles black ichor. Chained to their collar bones hangs a stone tablet that reads a different epitaph for each of those it has come to kill. They wear deep blue or purple robes from their waist down, usually tattered and grimy.
Porceleen
Standing at two feet tall, these creatures appear as a porcelain doll cast astray by a small child. It hardly moves, physically, and instead uses silent, psychic attacks to trip, confuse, paralyze, and put to sleep its victims so that it can feed off of their psykic energy. While they are normally solitary, occasionally there are infestations of them in old, run down buildings within cities. They prefer the large settlements because they are able to feed off of nearby sleeping denizens.
Absolox
While Ragnarok is little more than a false god to the Vampires, they do acknowledge the existence of a single demon. Deep in the subterranean caverns of Feneryss, Absolox was born of the collective souls of the Vampires’ cannibalized victims. It is said to be a lanky, shadowy creature black as rage with eyes that beam with the vibrant colors of revenge and soulfire. Its gaunt features perpetually shift between expressions of terror and anguish which are echoed by a chorus of dissonant screams and wails that seem to ring from every surface.
Absolox hunts for Vampires at every turn, but can only succeed in killing them when not in the presence of non-Vampires. However, when the right moment finds a Vampire secluded and alone, Absolox appears by seeping from their victim’s eyes, then flays them; skin from nerve; nerve from muscle; and muscle from bone.
Many believe that the Absolox is the cause for the rise of serial killers throughout Feneryss. It is said that if someone observes one of its murders, they gain a piece of its madness and begin to pursue the recreation of the killing they witnessed.
Mechani-diver
Somewhere in the wastes there is a madman that abducts birds by the thousands then enhances each of them with prosthetics. No two Mechani-Divers appear with the same enhancements and this diversity has forcibly evolved a pack-like hunting behavior. Each of these animals is extremely territorial and will not rest until an intruder has fled or has been killed. It is not uncommon to encounter corpses that have been quite literally torn apart by these violent cybernetic organisms.
We were linked a really nifty Kickstarter called Stygian that we thought you might like. It is a Lovecraftian horror computer based RPG with 2D graphics and turn based tactical combat. We feel their art definitely does justice to the genre they’ve placed themselves in. We encourage you to check them out!
Finally, we'd like to mention that barring final editing passes, we've assembled approximately half of the book. As for the status of the contents, we're still chugging along and our expected date range to send to the printer remains July/August 2016.
Thanks,
THE INDE Team
Hey folks!
Before we get down to the exciting unveiling of some of our lore, colloquially called “fluff”, we have some business to take care of first.
There are still a whopping twenty-one (21) of you who haven’t filled out your surveys from backerkit! We sent out reminders on June 1. We would really like to get everyone’s pledges finalized so that we know how to credit you in the book and on the website. However, some of you who did fill out your surveys didn’t fill in names! As such, We’ve only used your first name in the credits.
If you are not sure how your name appears, or would like to make sure that you have filled in your survey completely, you can get to backerkit here: https://shattered-rpg.backerkit.com/
In addition, Derek’s hard drive with the book formatting in InDesign was not recoverable despite his and Tex’s best efforts. We are looking into ways to speed up the construction of the book as to not push our release date back any further. As always, we will keep you posted on our progress.
Now onto the good stuff! Below, you’ll read all about our most industrial city, Pulse. We featured this city in a previous update, while the campaign was still ongoing, and wanted to revisit it to give everyone a chance to see how far it has come.
When the early explorers would pass through the struggling encampments and outposts of the old times, they would often speak of a living metal spire that stretched beyond the ash-clouded sky. For hundreds and hundreds of years it was believed to be a myth, explained away as a story to excite young children and inspire a sense of wonder and adventure.
Years passed and the horrors of the wastes took their toll. With raids by bands of cave-dwelling cannibals, children stolen from their beds, and rumors of settlements being devoured whole, it wasn’t long before the old explorers’ stories turned into a hope for a brighter future. Droves of survivors stepped out into the wastes for the first time in centuries to seek this fabled spire and build a new home.
In the days before it earned its moniker, the Great Forge, Pulse was governed by a small circle of influential individuals whose primary task was the defense of the fledgling city. They called themselves the Iron Ring. They dubbed their home Pulse due to their vigorous belief that this city would be the vibrant heart of Feneryss.
After designing a blueprint for the future, the Iron Ring began to methodically craft a set of rules to which each citizen of Pulse was bound and responsible to uphold. This Mandate called for each citizen to maintain a skilled trade from which the city could benefit as a whole.
Many found a renewed purpose for living in this inspiring culture, and its excitement was infectious. Word rapidly spread across the known world that anyone with a willingness to work had a place within the shelter of the Iron Ring. A torrent of immigrants flooded the city gates; Pulse grew at an astonishing rate, and industry boomed. The forges were raging infernos for hundreds of years, great war machines were constructed and an army was raised that was unlike any the world had seen before the Reckoning or since.
The true test for Pulse’s leadership began when a water collection vessel in the neighboring lake was raided. The few haggard survivors spouted madness about men on flying ships striking from the sky. Skepticism saw the men discharged from the service and forgotten-- until another ship was attacked. With no proactive efforts from the Iron Ring, the terrified citizens of Pulse became restless and eventually rioted. Rising above this chaos was a young officer named Brecht, who led a coup d'etat. Brecht was a charismatic young man, who had a knack for strategy and politics; skills that he used to great advantage. The deed was so swift and sure that in addition to ousting the previous rulers, Brecht formed a new governing body in a mere month’s time.
Despite his revolt, Brecht maintained a deep love of Pulse’s traditions. So much so that he based his new government on the original Iron Ring Mandates. Using his new authority, he established the city districts and military branches --each of which was placed under the supervision of an Iron Lord-- which comprise the city today. Once accounts had been settled inside the city, Brecht turned his eyes to the water, seeking both vengeance and understanding.
What followed were a series of missions with the goal of capturing one of the mysterious vessels. When success finally came, Pulse engineers were astonished at what they found. The ship had propellers and rudders, but lacked a discernable method for staying aloft. Pulse’s most advanced experimental craft required the use of a dirigible, but this ship lacked even sails. What it did possess was a great sphere of runed metal in its belly, which only further frustrated the engineers of the Great Forge.
While the ironworkers and a select handful of arkänists strove day and night to unravel the mystery of the alien craft, the rest of the Pulse geared up for the War of Duel Lake with its yet unidentified neighbor on the far shore of the eponymous body of water.
Feeding Pulse’s growing population was no easy task, especially when attacked by a horde of undead. To address this, the Iron Ring utilized the ancient method that many survivors had used since the Reckoning: hydroponics. Two locally found plants were utilized for their process.
The first was called Shard Leaf; it is actually not a plant at all, but rather a colony of crustacean extremophiles. Shard Leaf feeds from toxins from the water, and condenses anything unusable into its rock-like “stems”. Residual water gained through this process is stored in polyps of organic glass called Shards. Unfortunately none of this water is potable, but it generally considered safe for growing.
The second plant that Pulse uses is called tender-root. Each of this hearty plant’s parts are edible; the starchy roots, the pliable and nutritious leaves, and the mildly sweet fruit. The tender-root also purifies water to a further degree to allow for a variety of herbs and spices to be grown.
Every citizen of Pulse is allotted a daily ration based on their rank and job requirements. Any surplus is rotated into the city’s emergency stockpiles and anything rotated out is left in the slums for any willing takers.
Pulse has its share of trouble, but it is, above all other things, a place of order. Where the original Iron Ring gave it purpose, function, and focus, the posthumously titled “Iron King” Brecht gave it shape and propriety. The impact of these endeavors is still plainly visible today in the clean-cut organization of Pulse’s districts.
The Axis: The towers of Pulse are by far its most noticeable features, with each point striking the sky like pillars of the firmament. Here at the center of the city is Pulse’s military nerve center; containing training arenas, lecture halls, offices and armories.
The most infamous feature of this facility is the Field of War. It is a place of constant wargames where officers test their wits against one another and foot soldiers vie for various medals and titles. Governor Ludis is directly responsible for the Field, and he has in his employ a small legion of arkänists that apply their trade to alter the landscape and weather patterns in this arena. If the rumors are to be believed, they’re strong enough in their magic to simulate volcanic eruptions and even the Reckoning itself, albeit on a much smaller scale. Every event is recorded in the War Arc: the ever progressing story of the confrontations, victories, and defeats that take place in this arena. The prestigious task of documenting the War Arc is given to a single scribe, referred to as The Fieldsman.
The Axis:
Flora Labs: Encircling The Axis is the breadbasket of Pulse; the Flora Labs are built into a ring that connects to the base of each tower. The facility is divided into three sections; Water Purification, Agriculture, and Research. Here arkänists of all schools work alongside botanists and engineers to develop more effective ways to feed the city.
For health reasons, the water purification section is almost completely isolated from the rest of the facility. Greywater and wastewater are processed and treated to allow for safe use with irrigation and hydroponics. Once the processed water has gone through the Agriculture section of the Labs, it is returned here for sterilization and distributed for public use.
In the Agriculture section of the labs thousands and thousands of acres of farmland and hydroponics labs are harvested day and night to provide a steady supply of sustenance for Pulse’s citizens. Finally, the Research section of the Labs, which behind the city’s food stores, is one of the most secured facilities in Pulse. Here, top researchers strive endlessly to find new methods for crop harvesting, new breeds of crops and any number of other discoveries that would make other city-states green with envy.
The Great Forge: It is here that the might of Pulse’s military is built; airships, tanks and weapons, all flowing like blood from the burning and beating heart of Pulse. The Forge is located underground, at the base of the Flora Labs, and forms the foundation of the five towers of the city. It is a winding maze of claustrophobic streets, unfinished catwalks and dead ends.New businesses and factories spring up wherever vacant space can be found, and sometimes where it can’t be. It is not uncommon for a new venture to be built on top of an existing one, or even to see businesses stolen right in front of their owners. Crime is commonplace and everyone, even government officials are guilty of illegal conduct.
The most notorious of these illegal activities are the Death Pits, which are host to bloody battle royales between slaves, indentured workers, soldiers and free citizens alike. In these bloody brawls, men and women alike are torn apart. Limbs are severed, heads are removed, bodies are gutted, all for a bloodthirsty crowd and the chance to survive and earn the right to bet on and spectate future bouts. Here, the only buy in are your scars.
The Great Forge is the ward of Denna Lohrne. Her primary directive is to guarantee order and stability of the government manufactories. Her military rank being of small regard, she rose to prominence by striking a deal with the Iron Lords of Pulse. Little is known about the deal that was made, but upon taking command of the forge, she immediately descended into the death pits. She is said to have fought with an animalistic ferocity, and over the course of the fight, she collapsed a man’s chest cavity, disemboweled another fighter with her bare hands and ripped another’s throat out with her teeth; all while losing an eye and suffering injuries that should have ended her. People still tell stories about how she walked out of the pits under her own power, covered in blood that was not her own. Since then, she has made little attempt to quell the crime that runs rampant through the district, but instead has assembled a cadre of fighters from the pit that she leads into the battlefield during times of war.
The history and culture of the Great Forge is a stark contrast to the meticulous nature of the rest of the city. However it is this chaotic churning that drives the city and citizens of Pulse; like friction of shifting plates creating molten rock.
Quarterlock: Home to the majority of Pulse’s population, Quarterlock is split up into five sections. Four of them are assigned to a specific military branch while the fifth is allotted for tradesmen, merchants, and ambassadors. Visitors to Pulse are cautioned not to enter Quarterlock without a guide. The thousands of twisting alleyways and boulevards are haphazard at best and are generally considered dangerous.
Among these meandering halls beats the true heart of Pulse. Everyone’s home can be found here, from the wealthy and powerful on the upper crust to the lowly and forgotten in the center. This microcosm is a caricature of Pulse itself; having its own business areas, government and militia. While there are a number of players, power is divided primarily between the Pulse-backed Pathfinders and the Vortem.
The Pathfinders are an offshoot of the Pulse Municipal Police. They are made up of Quarterlock locals that sought to tear the district from the grasp of criminal enterprises, cults and warlords. Under the guidance of their commanding officer, Pes Grimtrod, they have been largely successful in this goal; with one principal exception, the Vortem.
The Vortem is a conglomeration of thieves, assassins, spies and smugglers who work together to hoard secrets of both the past and present of Feneryss. They hire their services out to those with ample funds or valuable knowledge while simultaneously infiltrating their client’s lives. Many of these infiltration agents have allowed the Vortem unfettered access to many areas that would have otherwise been restricted. Their influence is vast and they are well supplied, which is the primary reason they have not yet been eradicated by the Pathfinders.
Clashes between the Pathfinders and the Vortem are frequent, so much so that Citizens not aligned with either group simply go about their business, even in the midst of combat.
Quarterlock however is not purely a haven for warring entities. Every Leid the district enjoys a great deal of peace. A time of rest and celebration surrounding an event called Traitor’s Run, which is a deadly race from one end of the district to the other, concluding at Pulse’s sky port, The Nest. Each year, a number of handpicked citizens of Downtrod are given the opportunity to become citizens of Pulse should they survive the journey.
Known throughout the world, The Nest houses hundreds of private and public docks along with accommodations for any need visitors may have. Hundreds of airships stay at The Nest each week, bringing new ideas and goods to the people of Pulse. Even certain certain illicit trades flourish here; taking advantage of more than lenient observation of the law. The Nest however is more than a trade hub, it also houses the bulk of Pulse’s warships which are kept in a state of constant readiness. On any given day citizens and visitors alike can find comfort in glimpses of aerial patrol ships; keeping vigil in the skies over the city.
Downtrod: While Pulse grew to become the greatest military force in the new world, it quickly grew to fill the walls that it was founded in. Faced with the chaos and societal collapse that often comes with overpopulation, the Generals of Pulse forged a new mandate, which allowed the city guard to remove known criminals, truants and dropouts from the city.
Now in exile, many of these pariahs began to settle outside of the city’s walls which allowed them to take advantage of trade caravans entering Pulse. These slums grew to such an extent that the area is almost a city unto itself. Being a city of discarded people, it was not long before it became known as Downtrod.
This area, which surrounds Pulse on all sides, is nestled in the crush; at the foot of the walls of Pulse. In this area, the ever expanding walls slowly creep outward, eventually consuming homes and businesses; destroying lives in the process. With the constant flux of destruction, lawlessness abounds. Kingpins and local gang leaders carve their own spheres of influence, taking what they will from those that fall within their territory. These areas are further subdivided by the main thoroughfares into Pulse proper, which are guarded directly by the Pulse military.
Beyond the primary roads in and out of Pulse, there is little in the way of law and order and many citizens of Downtrod form small militias to protect their homes and businesses. Outside of the influence of these gangs of ruffians little protection can be found, save for the bawdyhouses, which fall under the express protection of the local Vampire coven, Styllyr.
Few areas in Downtrod are noteworthy, the one exception being the Gray Shade Tavern which attracts customers from all over the slums and even from inside the city walls. Many come to revel in the showmanship of the Tavern’s barkeep, Jordan Flunn, and experience an inclusive atmosphere rare for the Downtrod and indeed taverns. All are equal here, providing the tab is paid, and it is a common stop for explorers and would-be adventurers.
The local Vampire coven, Stillyr, is largely contained within the confines of Downtrod, despite numerous attempts to establish footholds in Pulse proper. Unlike many of the other Fenerrysian covens, Stillyr is poor and small in number, maintaining the majority of their brood nearby the collection of brothels that abound in the slums. However, considering their smaller numbers, they do not exhibit any familial behavior.
At the head of the coven is Anatoly, an elder Vampire, though considerably virile for his age. He spends the majority of his time traveling from brothel to brothel collecting revenue and making deals with many of the militia in Downtrod. Perpetually absent, but never far away, is Anatoly’s brother, Bogdan, who works from the Shadows as the coven’s primary enforcer and assassin. Because they are small in number, they cannot fight many turf wars that erupt in the streets from time to time, and instead settle for reducing enemy forces from the top down by eliminating officers and other valuable targets.
While it may seem a lucrative operation, Stillyr owes a great deal of money to Skryst, the coven of Lanis. It is an ever shifting debt that Anatoly would very much like to be rid of. To this end, he has allotted certain benefits to an information broker by the name of Vsevolod. In exchange for these small services, she provides Anatoly with small morsels of information about the inner workings of Skryst, although said information has culminated in minimal gains. Much to Bodgan’s frustration, Anatoly continues to compensate her for her table scraps.
Members of Stillyr never go without food or shelter while in Downtrod, though they may be asked for favors prior to taking advantage of the hospitality. Generally speaking, the more urgent the need for assistance, the greater the favor.
Inside the Walls
The average Pulse citizen wakes up bright and early with the Reveille being blared from the towers of Pulse. After a quick breakfast, the citizens of Pulse open their doors for business within an hour of the morning wakeup call ready to sell their wares and services. Young children without good homes will play in the street, while those from good homes will report for their Cadet classes at one of the spires. While the military is mostly composed of Humans, the other races have a moderate presence as well. Those citizens who have served their city well, often open up businesses such as taverns, butcheries, and general stores. More often than not, however, non-Humans are put down and not as “pure”.
Outside the Walls
Those unfortunate souls who live near the Crush, outside the safety of Pulse, tend to rise at the same time as those within. However, they must maneuver their traps and undead funnelling barricades. Unlike those within Pulse, the people of Downtrod must prepare to drive the undead away from their homes and businesses. Children run in the pathways between destroyed buildings while adults attempt to teach them what knowledge they possess in order to survive in the harsh environment. Outside the walls, no one truly cares what race you are as long as you help for the common good of the community.
In the early days of Pulse, the Iron Ring established institutes of Combat and Tactical study. Here students were trained primarily in Martial and Ballistic mastery, with the top pupils being enrolled in the Combat Tactics Academy. In recent years however, a new training school was established to explore the benefits of Arkana use in a military setting. Upon graduation, new members of the Military are either assigned to the ground or air force, and given a post.
Within the larger military organizations there are three specialized units that work with little to no oversight: The Savinical Method, Intervention, and Towerfall.
No military would be complete without an intelligence community to give it actionable information. This community relies heavily on its web of spies, called the Savinical Method or SavMet. When new recruits are initially screened, any presenting eidetic memory are selected for additional training in covert operations. Throughout their training, they are taught to be experts in the art of social engineering and disguise. They are also subjected to interrogations that borderline on torture. Roughly two-thirds of the recruits do not make it through this rigorous process, some die while others break under the pressure of the interrogations. The ones who make it through are hardened machines of deceit, capable of becoming a doppleganger of anyone, even those outside of their race.
Before any large scale military movements, Pulse utilizes a small legion of assassins, called Intervention, to destabilize enemy armies or political structures in order to tip the scales of a confrontation in their favor. In order to be selected for this faction, recruits must be free of mutation and of a lean build. Though unproven, a lack of mutation indicates genetic stability, playing a role as recruits are put through controlled mutation to unlock traits useful to stealth and infiltration. While they generally lack the same savvy that the Savinical Method possesses, they make up for it in their 100% lethality.
If a situation arises where a high value target needs to be extracted, the military elite turn to Towerfall; a specialized infantry group that excels at surgical strikes and personnel retrieval. They also often used as an instrument to infiltrate SavMet and Intervention agents deep into hostile territory. Each member undergoes a military funeral before beginning their training, which entails survival training and numerous exfiltration drills.
We hope you all enjoyed the read and as we said earlier, we will keep you posted on developments with the book, post hard drive crash.
Thanks,
The INDE Team
Hello everyone!
The first 38 Dice orders are going out today and the remaining will go out next week when we get more shipping envelopes in. So keep an eye on your mailboxes!
Thanks,
The INDE Team