Written 28.11.2008 - Uploaded 09.05.2009 - PDF (contains entire design document)
This mythology document, along with other parts of the design document, was written for a course project at the university. This design was ultimately turned into a prototype, implemented as a Half-Life 2 mod. I have no idea about the mods availability, but we got pretty high marks from the course (4 out of 5). Remnants of Reality is a horror game that focuses around sound.
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This section contains a (rather limited) dictionary of key terms in the game's mythology, defining the elements that happen behind the screen. Most of this is actually never revealed to the player but is written here as inspiration for artists, directors, level designers and writers. This part of the document is bound to expand once the project goes past prototyping phase and the story gets written more elaborately.
Nightmare Heaven is a dreamworld located at the rim of reality where beings from this dimension may enter only while they are dreaming. Typically people in despair are attracted to this world and on the surface it's a place of comfort and solace where it's easy to lose oneself in. There are no specifics as to what exactly it looks like, but it can be described simply as a heaven of sorts. Sinking inside doesn't happen instantly and many people have time to realize they are falling into a trap as they find themselves dreaming of the place every night and start to feel the pull of the dreamworld stronger and stronger night after night. The world itself is harmless, but it's various inhabitants are not, although they are not hostile towards dreamers, save for the Harpoons.
Harpoons are the only creatures in Nightmare Heaven that interact with dreamers. Their role is to plant a hook to a dreamer and that way make him permanently attached to the dreamworld (hence the name), making a connection. The Harpoons are relatively few in number and typically it'll take several nights before they can locate a dreamer but once they do, the trap springs and there is no escape for the dreamer anymore. Unlike Hunters, Harpoons never leave the dreamworld but are instead fed by tithes brought in by others as a payment for their services. This arrangement is the most sophisticated side in the entire otherworldly ecosystem.
Hunter is an umbrella term for a group of species found in Nightmare Heaven. Hunters are, by nature, intelligent predators who cooperate in packs that may contain individuals from several species. Every pack includes one Invoker that invokes the connection, causing a shift to occur. Once the pack reaches our dimension, they will hunt down every living soul inside the shifted area, eating most at the spot while taking a few back to act as offerings for Harpoons and the pack's Invoker. Hunter species vary physically in strength, speed and size. In the real world, Hunters become invisible to any inhabitants of the real world save the dreamer. However, if wounded, their shell cracks and beams of light bleed through, making them somewhat detectable.
Invokers are creatures that can use a connection to cause a shift, allowing inhabitants of the dreamworld to cross over into our dimension. In order to do so, they must find a spot where the connection is anchored and perform a simple ritual. That is essentially all they do: lead their pack in pursuit of connections. This hints that time flows very differently in dreamworlds as hunts typically occur rarely in our world whereas from their point of view, they hunt daily.
Dreamers are people who have been attracted to the dreamworld. Dreamers are people who feel they have no purpose in life, or who are otherwise desperate and most of the time lonely. The Nightmare Heaven appears to them as a place of solace and tries to hold them until they are caught by Harpoons. Before that happens, a person can stop dreaming about the place by realizing the trap he is about to fall into and try to change the thing in his life that makes him dream about it. While in the dreamworld, only the Harpoons interact in any way with the dreamer. Once the connection has been made, the dreamer continues with his life normally, typically until a shift occurs. The dreamer himself is always unaffected by the shift and the hunt never extends to him, but he is able to see the Hunters at their work. It's in the Hunters' best interest not to harm the dreamer, as there always remains the possibility to make another shift using the same dreamer. Dreamers themselves have no clue about what is going on, and the shift usually has a severe impact upon their lives, more often than not ending it.
Connection is a link between Nightmare Heaven and the real world. It's one end is always tied to an anchor spot in the dreamworld, while the other end is a dreamer. The connection can be activated by Invokers and this may happen whenever the dreamer is awake. When the dreamer is sleeping and thus residing in the dreamworld the connection does not lead into the real world and cannot be invoked. A connection is ultimately severed if the dreamer is killed and this seems to be the only way to do this.
Shift is an event that occurs immediately once a connection has been invoked by an Invoker. The shift's effects vary greatly and typical effects include time warps, decaying, all sorts of unnatural twisting etc. The ultimate effect of each shift on the other hand remains the same: to transfer Hunters into our dimension, to feed on anyone who survived the shift. The shift usually affects an area comparable to one large building in size. The shifted area is in some kind of haunted state as long as the dreamer remains there; this haunting appears as machines acting up, things moving around, sudden transformations and so on, anything can happen in an area that has been shifted. Once the dreamer leaves the area, it remains as it was after the shift with no evidence left of what caused it.
Hunt is what the feeding is called. A hunt begins after a shift and lasts until the dreamer is either killed or leaves the area. The Hunters will remain in our dimension, waiting for new prey to stumble on the area and they will only return when they have to; they also have no means of voluntarily going back to the dreamworld.