KOTCL Dev Diaries - Theogony

Hello there, travelers!

How do you like the new patch? At your request, we’ve mostly focused on bug fixing, but aside from that there’s also a few treats in the patch.

Art

Our artists and animators weren’t idling away their time, so we were able to add several alternative, animated event artworks to the game. If previously some, let’s say, dwarves used to die during an event, but remained alive in the event artwork, now it won’t happen anymore. They’ll be dead in the artwork, too. It’s the little things, amirite?

And now, have a look at this image and pay attention to the little checkmark:

It’s the new reward panel that you didn’t like so much. When you started complaining and we rolled it back, there appeared, out of the blue, players who really liked it and asked for it to be brought back. That’s how it became an alternative one.

Free Floating

I’ve been meaning for a while to tell you more about our in-game world, Midian. I’ll try on the role of having everything I say automatically becoming part of the game lore, haha.

I’ll be talking about foundational things in the game world as well as about more global things that you won’t encounter in the game, so you don’t need to worry about spoilers. Let’s call this cosmogony or theogony. Anyway, let’s go.

The Forerunners

Once upon a time, on the path of their development, ancient humans reached perfection as they understood it. When they realised that they were perfect, it caused a rift. Half of the ancients said, “Since we are perfect now, that is how we should remain.” The other half objected, “Stagnation is worse than degradation. If we cannot develop anymore, let us at least change in some ways.”\

No agreement was reached, and society divided into two irreconcilable camps, which later became known as the Supreme Gods and the Elder Demons. Yet before parting ways for good, they jointly created Midian.

The Creation

The perfect humans created the Primordial Spirits, which in their turn created Midian and breathed life into it. Why didn’t the humans do that themselves? What did they need the intermediaries for?

Well, first of all, not only did the Primordial Spirits create the in-game world, but they also maintain its existence from the beginning to the very end. That is, thanks to the Spirits, Midian is autonomous.

Secondly, the perfect humans agreed not to intervene in Midian’s affairs after its creation.

The Spirits created Midian, as well as all of its inhabitants, including elves, dwarves, goblins, orcs—all except for humans. The humans of Midian are the children of the ancient ones, devoid of their knowledge and experience, and placed in their primeval environment. Speaking in today’s language, they were reset to factory settings.

The Purpose

The true purpose of the creation of Midian is, in fact, the main mystery in the game universe. I’m not going to reveal it. Think and make guesses for yourselves, there’s food for thought here.

Steam post imageSteam post image

(Our automatons are the coolest)

Death

It seems that we forgot to mention one inconspicuous Mistress who prefers to stay in the shadows, but whose power matches that of all the spirits put together.

The Spirits and Death herself are like two vectors equal in magnitude but opposite in direction.

According to one version, she was created by the ancients as a counterbalance to the Spirits. According to another, she is a byproduct of the Primordial Spirits’ own creation process—that is, waste from the making of Midian. In any case, the Mistress exists for the sake of balance, and the difference between the versions is minor.

Beyond Midian

All members of the aforementioned merry crew have direct connections to Midian, being either its creators or creations in it. But KOTCL also features two entities from beyond—the Divine Mite and the Star Spirits. Both are typically Lovecraftian (unspeakable horrors and all that jazz), so the less I say about them, the better. They interact graphically with the game world, so you can judge for yourselves.

Since I’ve mentioned Lovecraft—the next diary log will most likely be about the sources of inspiration for our gang. But that’s not set in stone. To find out for sure, stay with us!