Narrative team
That particular concept image was made before we created the Banu language. So unfortunately, this isn't Banu writing. An interesting find, though!
TL;DRThe team is working on a Tevarin language guide in the style of the existing Xi'an and Banu guides, currently doing weekly lore deep dives to answer the xenolinguist's cultural questions, with no release timing given.
Yeah, good. It's very abbreviated. Cherie could go into more detail about this one, but yeah, go for it.
Yeah, we're definitely working on the language currently. This isn't something that we are like, oh yeah, we're totally doing it. No, we're totally doing it. But we're going to make a language guide in the style of, if anyone's looked at our other language guides, we have the Diplomat's Guide to Xi'an, and we have the Rest Society Guide to Banu. It'll be something like that.
Every year we gain new citizens. There are people who may have no idea that there are already two alien language guides available now.
Yeah, to help you if you have that kind of inclination to actually learn the language yourself. We work with Britton Watkins, who is an incredibly smart and talented xenolinguist, as we call him, who is developing our languages. So one of the things that we do, aside from the fact that we release it in sort of an in-fiction way, the sort of phase that we're at is where we do a lot of deep dives into the culture, because he has to know a lot of things when building the language, of like, is color important to them? Do they have a strong sense of self, which might implicate a direction of how the language is formed. So we have a weekly what we call a narrative jam, where it's kind of a blocked out hour where we can bring the hive mind together and talk over large scale lore questions, histories. It's meant to be more kind of a social thing, but we can riff about ideas and stuff like that. And so we've been working through some of Britton's questions and trying to dive a little bit deeper into a lot of the Tevarin culture and stuff like that.
The Xi'an are a very long-lived civilization. They walk around on two legs. They have a very long history. Our first contact with the Xi'an was kind of a public relations disaster and a diplomatic disaster, because a terraforming company back in the Messer era, when everybody didn't really care about things like rights to terraforming planets, moved in and started the terraforming process, but they didn't know that it already had Xi'an on it. So that led to a horrific encounter where the Xi'an, naturally not trusting all these people who are shooting lasers at their planet, took them hostage. And that's how the Cold War between humans and aliens started.
TL;DRVanduul waste is handled in over-engineered rest pods that replenish nutrients and double as a place to eliminate waste, according to a narrative document the team found.
I mean, again, as part of our unique job description, we have had to have conversations about how each alien poops. I think we had figured... Adam, do you remember? I feel like we said that they probably had some way of recycling their waste, almost like a natural Fremen system, like the Fremen suit thing where it recycles your waste into something like that. But I actually don't remember.
I don't recall either, but I see Cherie searching furiously, so maybe she'll have an answer in a few moments while I add here for a second. These are the fun things. We do have these extensive documents that we work on just with these questions. And for the Vanduul in general, even though within the game world people don't know much about them, we as a narrative group know a lot about them and these kind of small things. It's fun to know all this stuff and to expand on it, and can't wait until you all get to learn more about it.
I found the answer to the very important Vanduul question. It's in one of our docs. So when the Vanduul are not fighting or they don't have any duties going on, they take rests in these heavily over-engineered pods that just replenish their nutrients, give them a better environment to sleep, et cetera. And the pods double as a place to eliminate your waste as often as you need to. All in one machine.
I mean, I would think that they do. It's a natural part of, if you have a military, if you have any kind of warfare that you would like to win, you would cover all the fronts you possibly can. I believe that would include tanks, mobile artillery, that kind of thing.
So the Xi'an, we don't know whether they've had first contact with the Vanduul, but we do know that when humanity had first contact with the Vanduul, it was during the Xi'an-Human Cold War, and the opinion of people in the Xi'an Empire is like, great, those people that we hate are distracted, so cool, we're fine with that. I mean, we don't want to get involved with the Vanduul ourselves or anything, but we like what they're doing. It's fine.
Banu would do it in a heartbeat. If it works and they have to modify it for Banu use, they'd be like, great, done. It's our ship now. Banu made.
Yeah, and I'm sure you'd see something similar with Tevarin, potentially, who, if they were lacking the resources to pursue more traditional designs that were Tevarin originated, I could easily see them wanting to adapt human ships to be more suitable for their use. But that's just purely in the written lore realm and not something that's probably going to be in the game.
Oh, yeah. They get tanks.
Every Xi'an, once they become a certain age, they have to sign up for the civil service, which is run by the Emperor's house, the Emperor's family. They do things depending on what their talents are and where they've been assigned. Some of them serve their stint in the military. Some of them join bureaucracy or other important government arms, but the military is big, and everybody essentially serves in it at one point in their life.
TL;DRThe question is mostly answered with jokes: the Xi'an would build such vehicles just not many, while the Banu would make the best party buses.
I don't know if Xi'an would ever make party buses, but I don't know, maybe it's a lore jam topic.
Yeah, they totally would, just not a lot. If you want a party bus, you should probably hit up the Banu. I imagine their party buses are the sickest in the universe.
Oh, yeah. Those would be the ones to be on. I just feel like, based on our conversations with Xi'an music being extremely slow, a Xi'an party bus would just be this droning thing with decaying food, slow-paced music.
Extreme meditation.
Meanwhile, the Banu, I believe the Banu are the ones that take short little naps in cuddle piles, right? So if you're more looking for that vibe. And they have the Slomadon, which is a giant drinking vessel that they do when you close a deal with the Banu. They take all this stuff, and everyone is supposed to bring something to add to the Slomadon to then drink, whether it's the Banu stuff or stuff from that. So in the Banu language guide, if you check it out, one of the cultural things, it warns you that if you do deal with the Banu and drink from this, to take it slow, bring something light, because sometimes the stuff the Banu put in is very, very strong. So yeah, Banu party bus, cuddle nap sleeping rooms, I think they'd be the ones that'd be way more into it than the Xi'an.
Yeah, I want to see the Origin 600 series of the Banu, like what that would look like.
Banu would absolutely go to Burning Man.
Yeah, we mostly make the manufacturers for Xi'an as they're required. So say the weapons team needs to have really good weapons that are Xi'an made. At that point, we would probably create the house that makes it and make up their history and do whatever development needs to be done to show that they would be assigned this particular role. But we do have a couple that we named in the Xi'an Diplomat's Guide. If you look in it near the prestigious family lines, we've got, hold on, I forgot the names. The 12 family does fabric and clothing manufacture. They're famous for their particular type of cloth that's really delicate and semi-transparent but warm. It's made from mashun wool, one of the animals that we invented a while back for the alien animal naming contest. It's a four-legged llama thing that makes really nice fur.
TL;DRXi'an endurance racing, where winners slow their body functions and are highly revered, is the main alien sport named, alongside the Banu's love of Sataball, where some play professionally.
We've got a few so far. Probably the most apparent one, and I don't even know how to pronounce it, is basically Xi'an endurance racing. Cherie, I'm not sure if you... the Kaikola.
It's Kaikoya.
So the endurance race the Xi'an have is, as we talked about, their operas being extremely long and their music being slow and stuff like that. Because I think it's endothermic, they're able to slow their heart rate to a certain pace. So the Xi'an endurance race is about seeing a long, long race where the best racers basically are able to slow their body functions down to a certain point. It's obviously maybe not the most exciting from a human or Banu perspective, but it does take a lot of skill, and basically the winners of that in Xi'an society are very highly regarded, because being able to do this well and control your body like that, and to meditate while still operating the ship over long distances, is very revered. So that's one sport type thing that we put in. The Banu are also, like you said, big fans of sport and Sataball in general. Even though that's not their sport, they love to watch, and Banu are even professional Sataball players within the UEE, because they've taken to this sport so much.
Yeah, I can't remember the name of it, but yeah, Will was...
It was Banu Banu.
Oh, Banu Banu, that's right. But yeah, he'd come up with this card game that we played a couple times over lunch, and he was iterating on it, which was getting to be fun. We should check in with him and see about resurrecting it, because it was a good time. Sort of like a liar's game, I think, if I remember correctly.
I mean, I don't see why not. The Xi'an do assign monopolies in different industries that are really high level. It's only really assigned to super prestigious houses. It doesn't really do that with smaller houses. And remember that each big house usually has like 100 or so satellite houses that fall under its umbrella. So any of those little tiny houses might just not want to do whatever industry was assigned to the big house, and they would do something else.
A lot. I mean, you saw how Cherie just took a little bit of time and was able to search Vanduul poop and had an answer for you. So we, yeah.
There may or may not be a 200-page document. Allegedly.
They have one. That's all I'm saying.
TL;DRExisting creatures like the Yao Yao, flat cats and flow pets could support missions such as lost-pet recovery, poaching of protected space whales, or flow pet extermination, offered as spitballed ideas.
I mean, we have come up with at least one pet. Harking back to the animal naming contest, we had the Yao Yao. It's a little cat-otter type thing that was domesticated by the Xi'an a long time ago as a method of pest control. But they have modern tech now and they don't really need it for pest control anymore. So it's just this adorable little creature that sits in their house and watches everybody. They go, oh my God, it's so cute. So we at least have one of those. Oh, the flat cat, of course. Flat cats are pets, although they're a little hard to get, because they're sourced from a planet that's protected by the Fair Chance Act. So you're not going to see those around. And of course, we remember the fish. We got fish. And the turtles, Leyland's tortoise. You remember that? That was really fun. I'd count that as a pet. But yeah, for stories in the game or missions, just off the top of my head, we could do a lost pet mission to find any one of these little creatures. Make their owners very happy when you give them back, or conversely, maybe keep it to yourself, run away with the adorable pet. But that's just an idea. I'm just spitballing.
I mean, I think also the question of alien creatures for me always makes me think of the space whales, right? Like the big space whales in Orison. [Not] human pets necessarily. But I've always been interested in, what's the poaching narrative around that, right? They're protected. I could easily see the kind of combat missions that we have already featuring that sort of narrative approach.
Oh, wait, sorry. I almost forgot about flow pets, which were a huge pet craze, some kind of freshwater sea slug. But they're considered invasive now because of how quickly they enter sewers in whatever settlement they're on, breed, and take over the whole thing. So another fun thing you could probably do in game is go on a flow pet extermination mission. I want to see that.
Only if they're really bad at parking.
TL;DRTevarin are absent because of staggered development; they're hoped to spread through the UEE once art and design work is done, and Stanton's corporate ownership explains the lack of Tevarin architecture.
This is just part of staggered development, is really the answer. We want to have Tevarin spread throughout the UEE as appropriate, and they'll have bigger enclaves that we've talked about in the lore, and maybe we can dive into those a little bit in a second just for some fun background. Generally, it'll come to pass, like how there were no refineries available for players to see until we added refineries, even though in lore, of course, they were refining stuff all the time. So that's our hope and goal. Down the road, we'll have a quarter where we get art and design, environment art, character art, a bunch of props, different disciplines that have to focus on creating these kinds of elements in order to have the Tevarin in place. And so that's the answer. But they do, there are Tevarin living in the Stanton system anyway.
And with the system too, since it's owned by all these corporate entities, there's no Tevarin architecture, because those entities, these companies, aren't building Tevarin buildings or shrines or anything related directly to that. If you go to Elysium or Branagh or other places like that, where there's going to be more Tevarin enclaves, you might see more Tevarin architectural influence in that way too, not just in them being there, but also maybe their input on stores and different areas, locations like that too.
Yeah, once we have them developed and in the game, you'll definitely see them walking around as part of the regular NPC crowd of humans.
TL;DRThey want to add alien NPCs, kiosks and signage down the line, depending on development factors; Banu and Xi'an text already exists, Tevarin language is still in development, and a Montreal branding team is being built.
Yeah, it's just the same answer. Like Will said, it depends on a lot of factors related to development and related to the different teams working together to make the best aliens that we can make. But down the line, we really want not just Tevarin and Tawai walking around, but Xi'an and Banu. And Banu kiosks, little stands where Banu are selling things, various Banu and Xi'an signs. Ideally, we would also have Tevarin language signs, although that would be contentious itself within the Tevarin community. Some of them would hate to see stuff in Tevarin language, and some of them would say, no, no, no, it's time for us to embrace the culture that we threw away. And there might be fights over it. Who knows?
Did you write that just to excuse not having the Tevarin signs?
No, I mean, even with the contentious cultural revival going on, there would still be some different language signs around.
And different locations that would embrace those signs too, or want to maybe convert some of the human standard stuff into their language as a way to kind of reclaim their history. So it's a fun little balance for the aliens, for them to have to kind of see that played out through the environment.
I think it would be interesting to see Tevarin language signs vandalized by other Tevarin. "No, we threw this away for a reason. Stop it."
Folks are aware of our budding studio up in Montreal with our partners at Turbulent. One of the teams that is currently being built out there right now is a branding team, specifically designed to help unify and explore and exploit all the opportunities for in-game branding. That includes things like graffiti and stuff like that. So I was just talking to them the other day, and they've got their work cut out for them. But when they get up and running, there's going to be a lot more immersive decor to the environments that you see. A lot more branding that seems genuine and in place and proper for the location. I'm excited for it.
Yeah, they were just asking about some Banu language the other day, which I think I pointed them correctly to you, Cherie. Cherie's our in-house xenolinguistic expert, who works with our external xenolinguistic expert. He's our true expert. So for eagle-eyed players out there, there is Banu and Xi'an text already in the game that you can find around our different locations. Do you want to give an example, Cherie, that comes to mind?
I don't remember.
For the Luminalia holiday stuff, we often have Banu text on that. I think last year's holiday-themed items for Luminalia.
Yeah, there was a Luminalia greeting on that cool sweater. It was the fan design sweater last year, wasn't it? We loved that. And we loved how the fan made sure to include accurate Banu text on it. That was a really nice touch.
So it's pretty neat. And then Tevarin, just to clarify, we're still in the process of developing that with Britton. It was a lower priority language because it's not as in active use as Banu and Xi'an were going to be in the game, though it's still coming and we're going to have it.
Oh, yeah. And we're having a lot of interesting discussions about how we're going to develop it. Britton favors a two-pronged approach where he develops the bones of the language as it actually was before the purge, and then he develops a modern version of the language that's mixed with UEE standard to create kind of a newish language, like what happened with English when the French invaded.
Yeah, it's very extra. We love it. Britton takes it next level. I've seen some of the docs. He will send Cherie a doc 100 pages long with questions about a certain species to be like, give me an idea about this. And he's all in and he's very into the details. It's incredible.
Yeah, that's why he's our perfect match.
No comment.
You have to investigate for yourself and draw your own conclusions.