The game opens with a dream in which the player is swimming in a red ocean. When they surface, they see the sun, which is a deep orange or red. They stand in the water which is shin-deep. The ocean is infinite and goes to the horizons. The player finds a mysterious object in the water and when they hold it, it shocks them awake and they drop it, waking the player. The player is a person who wakes up in this village with no recollection of who they are or what their identity is, but they find objects in their home including a lab and different books and notes and they come to remember their skill at chemistry and their affinity/interest for psychopharmacology and mysticism. The village is quite small and does not have a lot of people, but it is homely. The player sees a city out in the distance and they figure they could go to the city and find out who they are. The player speaks to some of the villagers and assembles together a travel kit and they adventure to the city.
As they travel to the village and take shelter under a tree in the plains overnight, the player has another dream similar to the one they had at the start of the game. When the player gets to the city they go to a library and learn about something called the Temple of The Suncaster. It seems so familiar to them, but they can’t figure out why. In the library, in texts and from various NPCs, the player learns that while not much is known about the ToTS now, they learn that it is an urban legend/myth which some believe to still be true and real and that the Temple can be found. The player is determined to go there and find their identity because it is so incredibly familiar. Something is beckoning them to it. Their dreams seemed connected to it. Something feels so right about going to find the Temple. It feels like fate, destiny, to find it.
Eventually, the player meets a researcher in a museum after scraping through the library and speaking with several NPCs. The researcher is a curator at a museum in the city. The curator tells the player about the ToTS. It was a religion in which its followers worshipped the sun, as it was the closest thing to God, and without the sun, life would not exist on Earth. The temple is found deep in the Dawnwood Valley, an arid mountain range very far away.
The Suncasters had an artifact called the suncaster, supposedly originating from a meteorite, which they believed kept the sun alive. Though those who followed the religion were quite satisfied and fulfilled following the Temple, those who followed too closely perished. The suncaster was so beautiful, so magnificent, that it corrupted them, locking them in a psychedelic hell and killing themselves because to do so would be to transcend into its brilliance. Some followers could not kill themselves. Prophets were able to, but most of the common followers could not. They became puppets of the suncaster. It made them mental slaves, living in that psychedelic hell and death was the only catharsis they could receive.
The suncaster killed or took prisoner most of its followers. One follower, a man named Omani, took the walking stones—several objects used at the entrance of the temple to protect them—and he used them to seal the entrance to prevent the effects of the suncaster from escaping and to stop it from killing everyone outside of the Dawnwood. Omani took the stones and hid them, then became a recluse in his den far from Dawnwood Valley.
This is all the curator has for the player. The player takes the clues and maps and items from the library and their adventure so far and they are able to piece together a map that points to the location of the first walking stone.
After obtaining the first stone, additional lore, items, and NPCs direct the player to where they eventually find Omani’s den, where he is found dead. Omani wrote down in his study the history of the suncaster and its followers and about the temple and the stones. Though Omani’s research does not reveal the location of the stones, the player scrapes though his work and finds some more lore, but nothing that points to where the other stones are.
The player experiences in their dream something odd about the suncaster. When they wake, they piece together clues they found, as well as a hint from their dream, and decode the title of a specific text. They look for and find a book in Omani’s den called Poconos, in which they find the final clue to the location of the second walking stone. The player ventures to where it is and takes the second stone.
When going to this location, the player finds they are on the outskirts of the Dawnwood, though the terrain is too dangerous to proceed deeper into it. They travel to the biggest town nearby the Dawnwood. There, in the streets, they find flyers and posters about a person who claims to be a follower of the temple. When the player finds the supposed follower soapboxing to a crowd, no one believes him. They call him a liar and berate him. The player speaks to the man. He seems crazy, much like speaking nonsense, laughable conspiracies, but the player can tell the man is telling some information that is useful to them.
The player speaks with the man privately and becomes convinced the man is in fact a real follower. The follower is somewhat corrupted. This is the first time the player encounters a follower who is still alive. The player fights the follower who becomes aggressive and the player kills him, then recovering from him one half of the third walking stone. It glows faintly.
When searching the follower’s home, the player finds notes and finds a contact. Apparently, the follower’s family is still alive. The player goes to speak with his family and learns about the follower and what happened to him. The player learns that the stone glows in proximity to its other half and they follow more clues given by the family to where the other half is.
When the player finds the other half, all three stones are complete, and they glow brilliantly together and point a beacon into the Dawnwood Valley to where the temple is.
TBD
Questions & Comments:
Why did Omani hide instead of destroy the stones? The player has an affinity for chemistry and psychopharma and mysticism. Is that also what draws them to the suncaster along with their dreams? What makes the player less susceptible to the effects of the suncaster? The player has a stronger mental fortitude and flexibility. Is there a name for that skill? Nerium. The player has a high nerial ability, that is, they can easily traverse planes of consciousness. In their dreams and with drugs and mysticism, the player has greater control over their consciousness, and thus is in greater control of the suncaster effects.
How nerial are the prophets are compared to the common followers? Common followers, an d those travelers unfortunate enough to stumble into the temple, have extremely weak nerium much like any other person. Thus, they could less often kill themselves and became enslaved by the suncaster. Prophets have substantially more nerium than other followers, but killed themselves in belief that it would let them transcend. Was there a prophet who was so nerial they chose not to kill themselves, believing that suicide was insufficient for transcendence and that by living, it would be a better option? This could be the mysterious person who speaks to the player when they enter the temple. The player could be a lost prophet of the suncaster, one who was so nerial they could completely resist and lose effects of the suncaster, and so, maybe in the ocean or at the summit of Dawnwood Mountain, sacrificed all of their power and escaped somewhere, then losing their memory.
