This is where I stash all the developments regarding worldbuilding, story and narrative design.
Lore - religion - Huandzay Cosmogenesis
Overview of puzzles/translations
There are three story layers which function as embedded, parallel narratives:
This is the surface layer of the game and the storyline that is predominantly interacted with by the player. The story is told through lead-archaeologist Jane Bell’s study lab—the artefacts, article clippings and research notes she took and brought back from the first part of her two-section excavations on Huandzay Island.
Topically, this story is about the relationship of the team of archaeologists vs the island’s environment—how do people live when their existence within an environment is unsustainable. How do you respond to the destruction of your own habitat by your own doing but somehow you’re incapacitated to do anything about it? How do you live when your existence is destructive? These questions reflect a major existential crisis that humanity currently faces. If we don’t change our relationship to the planet, humanity won’t be able to sustain itself. But for many individuals it feels impossible to make that change, because of the power held by non-natural entities and the perceived insignificance of a single life.
The main conflict is between Jane and her environment. The island challenges her to reconsider beliefs that she’s held about her (and her job’s) position in the world and what it means to carry out her work, and how that work should be performed.
This topic is explored in each narrative layer in different ways (in the story of the archaeologists, the story of the Huandzaj people, and the story of the player character). In the Huandzaj-people story it takes on the shape of a love story.
Lead archaeologist, dr. Jane Bell, author of the logbook. The dutiful one.
Jane represents the enlightenment idea that through observation and calculation we can understand and therefore master the environment. Only when doom is irreversible does she realize the limitations of her own knowledge. This instills fear. She fails & causes the others to fail (tragic hero) as she cannot let go of her dogmatic/formalist ideals. hamartia – peripeteia – anagnorisis
The Sea Sprit/Shahda - the Huandzaj people worship a naturalistic religious entity conveniently called the sea spirit. It gives and takes, is the inspiration of their writing system and provides sustenance. At the same time it is an ever looming threat and isolates the people from the rest of the world. Religious services included singing in the Sea Hall, reading wave patterns as an oracular practice, offerings etc.
The player character: determines the experience of the player and how they relate to the story. WHY did they receive the logbook and what does playing this game set in motion? How is the player character changed? The player plays as Jane’s estranged partner and fellow researcher. You met at an excavation 22 years ago but you grew apart. Jane was focused so much on her work that the relationship slowly faltered, and you had a slower lifestyle in mind. Eventually these differences seemed insurmisable so you split up. Then on Huandzaj island, Jane realizes that you were right as the journey on the island precedes. When she realizes it’s too late for the team to make it out, she sends all her files to you.
The people of Huandzaj island used to live in relative harmony with the sea, until the surge of international trade sparked greediness in a part of the community, which slowly spread. For a while, the sea accepted the hunger, still processing the change of dynamic. But after a decade or so, the sea grew restless, and slowly the relationship between the sea, the religious officers (who were the bridge between the people and the sea) and the people grew bitter. In the final days of the Huandzaj civilization, plagued by environmental crises (floods and draughts) and civilian unrest, we follow the story of head sea priestess Shahda, one of the final people remaining who try to fix the world to before the Trade, and Dash, a sailor who inherited a large trading fleet from his parents and is now its captain.