The main idea of Fallen is to create living steampunk world in the huge dungeons.
Here is the story of Fallen, we want make playable:
Nobody knows why it has happened.
Someone blames ‘Magi trust’, someone thinks that demons did it or humanity lost their faith in Pantheon.
Maybe humans just overused mana winds and they were not ‘that’ endless and predictable as we thought? Who knows…
The truth is – ‘Mana Catastrophe’ has happened and life would never be the same.
But let’s tell the story from the very beginning.
The world, which is known now as ‘Fallen’, whenever its old name was lost and forgotten. This world was highly dependent on magic and powerful spells. Due to joke of some playful demiurge, the world of Fallen has plenty of metallic ores, but nearly no resource, that can be used as fuel. Even mushroom-like trees catch fire rather reluctantly and produce laughable quantity of energy while burning.
It wasn’t a problem after all, because even the apprentice of Magi trust, a ‘student of the Art’, as they named themselves can enchant mana crystal.
‘Mana crystal’ is amusing piece of magic technology that constantly accumulates mana flows from surrounding areas and turn into heat or even clouds of steam. It makes burning chambers and boilers of the steam engine completely useless. Steam engines were powerful, small, elegant and consumes no fuel, except for overflowing mana of any sort.
Of course the weakest crystals, enchanted by amateurs could make a cup of your morning tea barely warm in an hour or two.
But true masters can enchant real masterpiece, such crystal can be set to change the heat level or even accumulate it and release in one or few powerful surges, hot enough to power up the iron works or steam turbines of heavy assault automaton ‘Eradicator’ class.
Magic was the source of prosperity for the world, now known as ‘Fallen’. Nearly every person was using magic in the life or doubtlessly buying enchanted scrolls and potions from ‘Magi trust’.
Sprawling city states covered the face of the world and then covered all of the surface. People live in this conglomerate for years, factories have been producing loads of goods, wars had been starting and ending on their streets etc.
This life and death were powered by magic, until the ‘Mana Catastrophe’ had happened.
It didn’t come as one big tidal wave. It is agreed, that if it would fell sweepingly, humanity wouldn’t survive.
There were just small and not really disturbing news, one or two amateur mages were turned into frogs trying to waive some spells, couple of automaton gone rogue.
Nothing dangerous, poor fellows were saved, rogue automatons put down, but.
It has started to happen more often. Even the senior magi got drastic miscast effects for no reason and when the whole platoon of ‘Peacemaker’ class automatons gone rogue.
Well. That’s was disturbing.
The High colleague of Magi begun the research.
Results were terrifying. Slowly, but steadily mana was going wild. There are no more clean and easily distinguishable flows of mana. It was turning in to raving and boiling hurricane of uncontrollable magic. You wanted to weave the powers of life to heal the bruise? Then be ready, that this old and trusted spell will turn your kidney into cherry jam and your cat into rotting snail. Bruise is to be remain unhealed, by the way.
Magic can be no longer trusted, but it wasn’t the only disaster.
‘The Blight’ has come.
Crops, animals, humans began changing slowly, corrupted by uncontrollable waves of wild mana.
Dead begun to rise.
Situation became disastrous, but it has been found out, that the deeper you hide in the caves and catacombs, the safer it would be.
Government and people themselves started hiding, moving to the caves, building underground outposts.
Time was short. It wasn’t published to population, but barely 1/8 of the current population could be saved.
Even this hasn’t happened.
Artificial brains of automatons (guided by mana flows) gone malfunction one by one. Raving mad homicide lunatic was safe and sound person, comparing to automatons.
You should know that automatons were everywhere. Transport, mining, factories, military even your favorite coffee brewing machine ‘Coffee Brand Chef 9500M’ was automaton too!
Automatons were main ‘muscle’ power of humans’ exodus and they were turning rogue in geometrical progression.
Also, how do you think – what did humanity usually used to put down rogue automatons?
It was magic and normal military automatons.
Human army was unable to suppress the ‘uprising’ of the automatons. It was hit by The Blight and lost all heavy weapons, mounted on heavy military platforms. Automatons as you can understand.
It wasn’t the real uprising or war against the machines, automatons just gone rogue and crazy, attacking everything on sight. Cool comfort for people, used to easy life, when everything was done by automated servants.
Countless number of huge caravans has been lost and abandoned at the upper levels of the catacombs.
Just few managed to survive and escape irradiating hurricanes on wild mana on the planet surface.
Humanity fled the face of the "Fallen" planet. Its surface became the domain of crazed machines and unspeakable raving mutated monstrosities.
We came close to nowadays, hundreds of years from the ‘Mana Catastrophe’ and the Fall of the old world.
The new society has been formed.
The best living space – the deepest levels of the planet. It is known as the DeepHeaven. The living place of the high classes and true citizens of the Fallen.
Wild mana flow is so calm there, you even need a light source. Mana doesn’t irradiate everything with bright glowing as at the upper levels. Darkness became a privilege nowadays.
Children always born human, dead never raise back, life calm, prosperous and safe.
Then goes the servitors’ layers. Factories, farms, slaves quarters etc.
People live hard life there. They toil and toil to support their life, to get enough coins to feed their families.
It doesn’t mean, they don’t have a chance for better live somewhere at the deeper levels.
No, The Chance is the fundamental idea that glues the core of Fallen society.
The Chance for better life. Work hard and you get your Chance, said the brochure.
Pay off your birth debt, pay off your survival debt, contribute to the society and be worthy of your new status of true citizen, then make your life deposit and, ta da, welcome to DeepHeaven.
Let’s be bold. It is impossible for simple factory worker to become a True Citizen in couple of life times.
First of all, every baby that born outside of the DeepHeaven has ‘deprived slave’ of the ‘Corporate trust’ status, until he or she would pay of the Birth Debt. You can’t have family or select your job, until you do it.
It isn’t huge, by the way. Usually, parents pay this debt off their children as a gift, but then.
‘Free slave’ status isn’t a great promotion. You have to eat, pay rent and so on.
The only work you have is a worker at the servitors’ layers. The Chance exists, but it is mere illusions at this layers.
Then, we come to the Upper Frontier. The upper frontier is last outpost of the civilization, and then goes ‘no man’s land’ levels and the surface.
This is it, new level of frontier, new level of the possibilities.
If you really want to go deeper to the core Heavens of the ‘Corporate Trust’, at first you have to travel upwards.
This is the only place, where The Chance come true.
Why is it so?
First of all, it is mana crystals. They are still working for all this hundreds of years, but there is one great flaw. As you know, magic became just the original and painful way to commit a suicide and consider yourself lucky, if you will not hurt anyone around in process.
So, magic was banned, but also, it wasn’t functional.
If it was just torturing or killing caster, but works, ‘Corporate Trust’ wouldn’t afraid to sacrifice people to get new crystals.
But no, new crystals can’t be created.
It means that there is finite quantity of crystals in the world and vast majority of them are installed inside abandoned machinery or crazed rogue automatons.
Scraping machinery, which was abandoned at the Upper level during the Exodus, defeating rogue automatons that often come to the tunnels from the surface and so on.
Donating crystals and other loot to society would give you the score you need to get the citizenship.
The game starts, when player arrive from DeepHeaven workers quarters to the Frontire.
Tough luck, but mana pumps stopped working (sabotage?) and wild mana stats to flow freely all over the dungeon level.
Bligh strikes and necromutanst start rising.
Would you survive it?
