How it began- The Breaking of the World

[Thalius]

I once floated an idea in response to a suggestion post that has led to my sharing of the following.  Just my personal take on what may have transpired in ages past, bringing about the reality in which we find ourselves in the Vintage Story world.

I humbly submit the following:

Down deep in the more temporally unstable regions of the lower world, there are unusual places that can be found.  Rare places where unusual crystals  grow in cavern-like voids at the bottom of the world.

The ancients studied these crystals, their odd properties and the caverns where they grew and discovered what would later be referred to as the temporal fabric of our world, and possibly the universe.

It was the study of these crystals and their environment- the temporal nature of the world, that led to the building of translocators and other devices largely lost over the ages..

In time, some who devoted their lives to studying the mystery of the temporal anomaly theorized that perhaps there was another world like ours that could be reached if they could but better understand the temporal nature of our world and learn to harness and manipulate it.  They did not know if it was another world in our universe or in another realm altogether, but they felt sure that something was there, connected to the temporal fabric of our own world and reality.

They found a way to part it, and learned to build a doorway down in the deep of the world where the temporal fabric was easiest to manipulate. They opened up a portal to a new world- a shadowy reflection of our own, and they crossed over.

On the other side they found a world the form of which was in almost every way like unto our own, but old, and the light played differently there.  It looked as if a dim, aged reflection of our own world.  And they found monsters there- creatures bearing a resemblance to life in our world but twisted oddly- a frightening and mysterious conglomeration of old metal and flesh. Creatures of nightmare. 

But they were curious. They took precautions, crossed over carefully to study what eventually came to be called the Rust world.  They found new locations deep beneath the earth, and built new doorways in an attempt to safely explore other parts of the world on the other side.

They learned their mistake all too late, as is often the case with such things. 

At first there were small warning signs that most missed and fewer paid much attention to.  But the signs grew. 

Parts of our world began to reflect a "temporal instability" they would come to call it- the kind of disturbance which had only been observed in the deep areas of the world, down where the crystals grew and the portals had been made.  The temporal nature of our world had become unbalanced, and would become even more so over time.  They closed down the gateways they had built, and dismantled them, but it was too late. 

Storms came. Storms that twisted reality, and when they came, so did the drifters- creatures from the Rust world, appearing in our own.  They were rare at first, these storms, but there was no denying them. Word would come from afar, and the tales that were told made the blood of those who knew the truth run cold.

Life in the open air of the world became dangerous. Most did not know when the storms would come, and so they had no warning.  A few developed the means to see the signs and forecast their approach, but most could not, and were caught unawares while about their daily task- often far from shelter. 

Much of the world perished.

Those that survived learned to live underground, cutting shelter in the rock and keeping field and pen for their flocks and herds close.

It was their downfall.

No one knows exactly when or how it happened, but a change began in those that managed to shelter down below and escape the storms.  Some craved the dark over the light and would rarely emerge.  They sought out the deeper recesses of the world. Most that did so were never heard from again. 

And then the drifters came. Not from the storms, but from below, out of the earth, and out of the very darkness.

The world was broken, and those that remained found shelter where they could- and feared the darkness.

It would be centuries before a new race would appear that could face the change brought to our world and bend their will to tame it.

They walk the world even now, this new race, strangely sensitive to the temporal distortion, and resistant to it.  Whether they break what remains of the world they inherited or find a way to mend what the ancients tore apart remains to be seen.

Time alone will tell.

~TH~

 

Edited March 11, 2021 by Thalius

[ravnuz]

I just started to play VS, and yet have not heard about the VS Story, but thats how I imagined and posted on discord, It very much matched your story:

That's how I imagine the world of Vintage Story.

The ancient vintarians, let's just call them "The Ancients" (Stargate inspiration), were an advanced civilization that developed a series of new technologies centered around their greatest achievement - the discovery of an inexhaustible source of energy called "lux aeterna", that enabled the creation of walking machines, advanced tools and the powerful matter-energy conversion units that powers the network of teleporters and translocators. Lately they were experimenting with the possibility of using this technology to time travel. During the test of a time-traveling bubble, a huge pulse of high energy violently radiated outward, destroying their world with great loss of life. (Stargate and Atlantis inspiration)

It turns out that this cataclysmic event opened several temporal rifts to this alternate dimension that would later be known simply as "The Rust". This creepy realm is a reflection of current reality, but somwhat different, toxic and rusty - (à la the "Upside Down" of Stranger Things). During this terrible accident, some "Ancients" were transported to "The Rust". These quickly died of starvation or intoxication in this inhospitable place. At the same time, many horrendous mechanical creatures and other non-biological forms of life invaded "Vintaria" (the world of Ancients) and killed everyone along the way. Those who managed to escape being sucked into the "Rust" realm and not being killed by that alien creatures, were affected by the residual energy radiation from the temporal explosion and went mad or lost their memory completely.

Over time this radiation lost energy and dropped, the portals gradually closed, most of the creatures returned to "Rust" and those that remained are trapped in this world, and life is blooming again in Vintaria. The zones of temporal instability and temporal storms that still plague this world are remnants of the old temporal rifts that destroyed the world of the Ancients. When a temporal storm passes over these areas, a power surge happens that reopens these portals once again. Those caught in the middle of the storm are momentarily transported to "Rust", where those fiendish creatures arise once more to take their victims.

As a result of these terrible events, all ancient knowledge was lost and all memory of the former glory was forgotten, only to be rediscovered again by a magnificent new species, descendants of the "Ancients", who roam again in this wonderful world: the "Seraphs"

Edited July 5, 2021 by ravnuz