It is said in muttered rumours and whispers, that there lies a village in the woods where beasts work beside man. Where people disappear and are never spoken of again and where magic is said to run pure, free, and uncorrupted.
Your best friend’s hometown. Your best friend who you have not heard from since she returned to visit her family.
It’s time to gather your things and seek out answers.
Inspired by Norse sagas and general European fairy tales and folklore, The Village of Beasts is set in a world in which after the Fall of Magic in which the gods fell silent and magic became corrupted. Dealing with the aftermath of a world that is ramping up to Ragnarök, it is a story of sorrow and loss in an often-harsh world - but also of survival, of love and friendship, of finding yourself and a place within a world that has condemned you.
It is a story of hope.
DEMO: https://dashingdon.com/go/4517
Changelog
9 Sept 2019 - Link back up. Beginning of prologue done, background with Koda elaborated on.
1 Dec 2019 - Most of prologue done.
— CHARACTER CREATION
----Character creator should be pretty much finished.
----Custom appearance origins should now be calculated and you can now select your own cultural origin.
— MECHANICS
----Corruption mechanic implemented.
----Mementos system implemented, more detailed descriptions for the first time looking at a memento in the menu will come later.
----Stat/personality trait changes added - Will need to be rebalanced at a later stage.
— PROLOGUE
----Additions to Koda reaction dialogue in prologue. Added option to follow Koda. Koda can now become and remain angry at you.
----Option of going through the ruins via following the path instead of going into the woods.
----Dream sequence (Speak with a Northern god) added. Currently only Odin and Thor are available. Loki, Heimdallr and Freyja to be added in a later update. Can declare your allegiance to a pantheon or if you’re questioning the gods, this can still be established later on or changed.
----Earliest realisations of who the mysterious raven creature is are available, as well as the lead up to the fight. Actual fight mechanics are still in the works.
----Can go after the raven creature or the crumpled figure (huldra). Can meet the Wild Hunt or try and lead them off the Huldra lady’s trail.
THE MAIN CHARACTER:
The game features a default appearance and a custom appearance, with some slight differences in plot depending on which you choose.
Backgrounds (SPOILERS):
The default MC is an Ashlending and every MC will receive a portion of their memories to a degree. Choosing to go with the default background will mean discovering more about their past and how they got to where they are now, whereas a custom background is focused more on dealing with a set of clashing memories and choosing to move on.
Custom backgrounds:
- Ashlending: Known for their characteristic soot-like markings on their hands and the kohl they spread around their eyes, this background focuses on a different set of memories to the default background’s. Born in the years immediately after the Fall, the Ashlands were in a state of upheaval due to their volcano they lived beside going off and showering the land in ash. It was determined that their volcano god demanded blood.
- Luetian: Born in the titular Village of Beasts fifty years after the Fall, they know some of the village’s deepest secrets. They remember what happened to bring about the curse, being involved with seeing the first of the Beasts who became lost.
- Strossi: At only nineteen at the time of the Fall, everything had been working out fantastically for them until then; they had been accepted into one of the greatest magical universities in the worldly Strossean Empire as a researcher during a renaissance of magic. Then the Fall came; all their friends and colleagues of magical races began dying off and the entire city was quarantined during the horrors of the Fimbulwinter.
- Wayseeker: One born to a nomadic tribe a long time before the Fall, the tattooed centaur Wayseeker herder’s life follows them as they roamed the great plains of a now-Fallen continent. As a seer, they saw the warnings in the stars and omens in scattered bones of a great disaster that would lead up to Ragnarök.
ROs:
All the romance options can be romanced by any gender - you can also choose to be best friends instead. My intention was always to make it feel like friendship wasn’t any lesser than romance, simply different. While sexual situations are mostly fade to black situations that can be avoided, you will also be able to explicitly state your asexuality.
Romance Options
Sijjani - Watcher of the Night
(Female)
The resident town witch in her 40s-50s, she mainly keeps to herself. Once eager to delve into the shadier parts of life, she has since settled down and prefers a nice glass of wine in front of the fireplace. There are rumours that she was involved with the brewing the poison that the last Strossi king fell to.
Wilhelmina - Daughter of the Moon
(Female)
Trapped in the form of a giant black wolf, Wilhelmina has been lost to her base instincts for decades. She is wary around people, but everyone knows that if they need help in the deepest parts of the forest to wait for the wolf to find them. A gentle giant who is steadfast and loyal, she can only be romanced if you free her mind from the curse.
Zeer - Basker of the Sun
(Male)
Zeer is the youngest of the ROs, in his early twenties. Sarcastic and funny to make up for a troubled, angry interior, he was raised as a temple ward after the death of his parents. Due to being magic-sensitive he rarely leaves the safe pure zone of the temple. He questions his role as an exorcist at the temple, wanting to see the world and work with mechanics.
Locke
(Male or Female)
Locke was stolen from their parents as a baby and replaced with a changeling due to the fae having need of a human resistant to magic (and thus the corruption in magic) to carry out tasks that would be dangerous for them. Raised in by the Fair Folk, they are treated as just a human amongst the fae and too fae for the humans. Locke is cunning and manipulative but genuinely means well.
The Raven
(Genderfluid shapeshifter. Can choose a main form: Androgynous, Male or Female)
A fae spirit working under the domain of the Winter Court, the raven is a former childhood friend of yours who felt betrayed after what you did to them. Once quite mischievous and happy, a feeling of sorrow and bitterness tends to follow them nowadays. Their name was stolen from them and now they must do the bidding of their master.
Bainlan (Beyna hal Lan)
(Transgender male)
The fierce leader of the Red Eagles, a nomadic mercenary tribe that is thinking of settling down and establishing a settlement within the forest. Bainlan is seen by outsiders as shockingly crude and merciless. The people who see the way he coos over his dachshund Baby and rocks her in his arms would disagree. Considered a heathen barbarian by the villagers, he is beginning to make a name for himself by clearing the land of corrupted beasts nearby.
Will there be poly romances?
Yes. My reasoning for choosing the ones I have was to choose those who would realistically be able to have a good caring relationship together independent of the MC’s interference. The current plans are:
- MC/The raven/Locke
- MC/Zeer/Locke
- MC/Sijjani/Wilhelmina
- MC/Sijjani/The raven
Other characters of note:
Village and its outskirts
Koda: Cheerful and troublesome, she’s the reason why you have to go to all this trouble seeking her out in her hometown. Maybe it was fate that brought you together, maybe it was just sheer (un)luckiness. Whatever it was, you’ve been travelling together for a decade now and rely on each other to be able to watch your backs. She can be a bit too optimistic, fond of teasing and sometimes makes jokes at inappropriately serious times…but she’s saved your life more than a few times.
Näckeros: Friend to Wilhelmina in life, Näckeros is a corrupted drowned soul who is doomed to playing his haunting songs on his violin by the river, knowing he cannot cross over into whatever comes after death.
Daisy: An auroch. Moo.
The Red Eagles: A wandering mercenary tribe of misfits run by Bainlan looking to settle down in the forest. They are quite guarded and despise Corruption.
The Summer Court
The Queen of Summer: Disarmingly warm and friendly, the Summer Queen’s machinations are hidden behind a veil of smiles and joyful celebration. Visitors to her court see only eternal life and growth, mistaking it for goodness - and not realising the costs of endless growth left unchecked.
Locke is a minor lord or lady of the Summer Court.
The Winter Court
The Queen of Winter: Distant and frosty to all, the queen sits upon her throne in a castle made of ice that can be reached only by riding the breath of the North Wind. It is said that she seeks a true Fimbulwinter that will bring the end of days closer.
The Lord of Winter: Embodying the often fickle and alien nature of the fae, the lord of Winter is feared for his cruelty. Those that dare spill secrets have their tongues cut out, those who dare to pry into looking into things they should not have their eyes torn out. In truth, he does not understand the nature of cruelty and kindness, appreciating only the poetry of actions without any thought to things such as morals.
The raven is also a servant of the Winter Court.
Court of the Fallen
The Council: The Court of the Fallen is not really a court at all but a representative council, being named as such to mock the courts of Summer and Winter. Consisting entirely of Corrupted fae and their magic-resistant human representatives who must stand in for them to prevent the less corrupted from being exposed to more corruption, they attempt to represent the Corrupted they claim to stand for. Bitterness over their condition and conflicting viewpoints and desires has led to a lot of infighting.
The Discordant: A particular sect of the Court of the Fallen that believes the Corrupted are superior and desire to spread the Corruption over all the lands.
If one of your friends dies you can strike a little bargain with a fae queen and retrieve their soul from Hel…