Meet the Crew, pt. 1

Hi!

I’m currently focusing a bit on story and dialogue. I write it in Ink since it's well-suited for the kind of branching and dynamic narrative I want to make, where characters and relationships grow with the story and your actions. Ink looks like this:

Very fun to work with for me, but unfortunately not very fun to look at for you! (And also I wouldn't want to spoil anything good!)

But between events, choices, and plot points, some clear character portraits are taking shape, so today I'm coming up for air to introduce a few members of the crew aboard H.M.S. Solbrand that you'll come to know in the game!

Captain Vendelkråka is older than most, as he likes to put forth. A battery of navy glimmer on his lapel betrays a lively past before he swore off guns for good.

Today he says the veracity of a map is measured best by the number (and size!) of sea monsters pictured on it — more being better, obviously! —and speaks like a one-legged, two-toothed, late 1600s buccaneer for reasons unknown; Boye thinks it's thinly veiled nostalgia, Polhem says it's from when a 320mm smoothbore twin cannon malfunctioned and the backdraft rang his bell so hard he spent weeks gargling soup in the navy infirmary. The Captain himself says things like ye, afore and nary a spittle in the 2400s and is beyond redemption.

Tinker Polhem. This reluctant hero — well, we're halfway there anyway — is a modern day mechanical wizard with a knack for metal and the impossible. You'll find no thingamajig, gizmo, gadget or doodad his better, should he put his mind to it. You'll also find he often simply kind of doesn't, really...? Historically, a point of contention and disappointment in equal measure!

Honest and hard-headed, and sampling the ship logs one may be forgiven for thinking he lacks certain finesse when working with more pliable materials, ie. human beings (Captain's note: A straight-shooter oft-aimin' down the shitter). But that's not the case at all, they're all just soft little crybabies suckling the teat of their own fancies and fantasies, while he"tells it like it is".

Worder Boye, our resident language specialist, polyglot, and vicarious poet extraordinaire. In her hand is the Codex Regius (a real thing), her current meaty read from which she'll eagerly share grand tales of lost gods to those who care to listen. When you encounter strange new words, Boye's curiosity will have her scouring the archives to chase down their meaning in no time!

Sometimes she lies sleepless at night worrying over all the things said or written in dead languages that will never be understood again. A dizzying thought.

Polhem calls her the Periscope. She calls him Capital P(–... iece of shit).

All in good fun, of course! Like siblings, kind of!... Right?

To be Solbränd

Common for all on crew is that they've been deemed Solbränd (literally: sunburned) and are as such unwelcome inside the comfy walls of self-ascribed civilized places like the Stockholme or Oslo II.

But leading a life on the fringes forges unexpected bonds, and even from your remote situation on the seafloor you'll soon notice that, despite their differences, they're a tight knit bunch with a strong common heart.

In a future post we'll catch a glimpse of the Shimmer, Bishop, maybe the elusive Duster, and definitely the mysterious Urd — our predecessor.

Thanks,