#Project Athia

[phoenixiancrystallist]

"Erected to honor the Tantas

Special Shelters

Pilgrim's Refuge

While ballow trees were long seen as sacred by Athians, making it a crime to cut them down or otherwise harm them."

...

I managed to get a good screenshot of the refuge book to translate, so let's talk about the Pilgrim's Refuge! Because I think they're nifty :3

Long before the Break reduced Athia to the zombie-infested wasteland we know and love today, people traveled from all over Athia to worship the Tantas. These people were known as pilgrims, and they built refuges to house them in their travels—a fact I'm sure Frey and Cuff are very grateful for today!

But what's interesting about these buildings is, well, many things, really. First, they're made from ballow wood. The ballow tree is sacred to Athians, and as stated on that pamphlet above, it's illegal to "cut them down or harm them." They seem to be very fragile trees, considering that simply harvesting their sap will kill them. But ballow wood has special protective properties, specifically the ability to keep "evil" at bay. Doesn't seem to work on Cuff, but that's a different post for a different time.

So the refuges were built to house people who traveled across Athia to worship the Tantas, and keep them safe from not just the elements, but from the wildlife as well. That pamphlet also states that the refuges were built for the purpose of honoring the Tantas. These pilgrims were all about their Tantas! And you can see on the refuges themselves that the people who built them put a lot of love and effort into not only making a sound structure, but a beautiful one as well. There's not a single inch of the outside walls that is not painted with murals of four women and depictions of the ballow tree that gave the wood for the refuge.

Here's the thing though: those aren't our Tantas. And the mural in the center seems to depict a fifth Tanta, or at the very least conspicuously leaves room for a fifth person.

Who are these four women? They appear to be representative of the Tantas we're familiar with, but they're not the Tantas we know. Or they're not exactly the Tantas we know. None of them are wearing their signature, iconic regalia. At least Sila's counterpart (bottom right) has a sword and appears to be wearing armor. And I can figure out Prav's (top right) because she's blindfolded, and as the saying goes: justice is blind. Olas (top left) and Cinta (bottom left), though? Olas's wears green and has darker skin than the others, and Cinta's might be petting a cat? Maybe? And those are my only clues for who these murals are supposed to depict.

So, considering that the pilgrim's refuges were built centuries ago to honor the Tantas and house the pilgrims traveling across Athia to worship said Tantas, it's reasonable to assume that the four women depicted on the refuge murals are our Tantas: Olas, Prav, Cinta, and Sila. However, no one knows how long ago the refuges were built, nor how long ago the pilgrims began their pilgrimages. It's entirely possible that these four women are the predecessors to our modern-day Tantas. In addition, that conspicuous empty space in the center mural could have been left open for the First Tanta—who knows how long ago she'd passed her mantle of Tanta onto her successors? The space may have been left to honor the Tanta who started it all, who saved Athia and brought it into prosperity so, so long ago that no one even knows when it all happened.

But that empty space also serves as an interesting look forward. It leaves room for a fifth to join the ranks as well.

[mistress-light]

Whelp, here is my first fic ever. But I enjoyed the heck out of it. Peace out.

[dudebro231]

Yes, it is I, back with another Freyden prompt... :3 As Frey has no fond memories of her birthdays so far, Auden is determined to make Frey's first birthday in Athia the absolute best one ever.

suddenly remembered how to write! and i missed them! hope yall enjoy this <3

[gamerbulten]

Sony bazı PlayStation 5 oyunlarının çıkış tarihini doğruladı ...

[lesbxdyke]

@cruelfeline @radiantgarden I got a few bits of dialogue in a row about the fact that Frey is apparently always tired so now I'm thinking about chronic illness Frey who just seems healthier than everyone in Athia by the good grace of having had enough to eat, clean water and some modicum of healthcare in her early life.

Mostly thinking Hypermobile Frey because the idea of her creeping Cuff out by dislocating a shoulder to get out of someone's grip brings be great joy and definitely not at all because I like to project my issues onto fictional characters

Sad

So I'm gonna run around on Forspoken and listen to Cuff and Frey bitch

That normally makes me feel at least a little better

[vindicia]

FORSPOKEN | Official Name Announcement

[kennycrows]

Hide.

[phoenixiancrystallist]

Goddddd, the loot hits me where I live! I would have loved something like loot in Dark Souls, where there's a bit of lore attached to everything you find. Even if we can't use them as equipment, I'd have loved to open a chest and find, like, a personalized jeweler's kit, or a bundle of unsent letters, or whatever. Maybe have items scattered around the world! Have a locket hanging from a grave, and in a completely different town even further from Cipal, find a tiny key that opens the locket, and inside is a family portrait.

Even better, have little fetch quests from the people of Cipal! I loved when Johedy sent us to get her tools, or picking flowers for that old lady, or finding the bench part for the kid. I want more of that! Give me a woman who lost her wedding ring somewhere between Cipal and [insert town here]. Give me a man who wants to visit his mother's grave but he can't because it's out in the Break, so could you please deliver this small offering I made to her and leave it for her? Or a little girl who's grandma used to tell her stories about the Water Gardens and Frey goes out and gets a picture for her specifically, instead of just random photos for those two kids by the gates.

Athia is rich with lore if you look for it, but you have to be looking with a fine-toothed comb to find it. Sometimes we need a helping hand—or a guiding quest—to really appreciate the world the devs have created.

And don't get me started on the points of interest. There's a reason I've been wandering everywhere in Athia and taking pictures, though granted it's mostly been landscapes. I think my next photograph-everything-in-sight project will be going through the towns and ruins and forts and trying to piece together how Athians lived their lives before the Break. I'm not sure how much I'll find, but I can think of a few places where I did spot some interesting things that I'd like to investigate further.

I think what I'll do tonight is get on Reddit and write a post of my personal Forspoken critiques.

Thay subreddit gets constant "is this game any good" posts, and I feel like having a rundown of critiques from someone who loves the game an excessive amount would be helpful. Like, not the stupid "the dialogue is annoying!" nonsense. But actual problems with game design, because they do exist.

[olvaheiner]

Forspoken (2023)

[leam1983]

Forspoken (2023) - Thoughts

I think the hate train needs to die down somewhat. There are great games, games that elicit something personal and emotional out of you, there also are okay games where your investment is minimal but something about the tone or mechanics sustains enjoyment - and then there's a descending slope of mediocrity.

At the highest point on that slope, I'd probably slap anything that's conceptually or thematically broken, or anything that sort of expects its design to smooth deep gouges on the technical front. Past that, you've got what's incontrovertibly mediocre - like anything out of Gilson B. Pontes, for Jimquisition fans - and you hit the abyssal bottom of that slope with shit like Zog's Revenge or whatever other forms of unpublished Antisemitic, sexist or racist crap that exist online.

Is Forspoken about as good as a title that celebrates ethnic cleansing as a concept? Fuck no, it's inarguably better - by miles. It has a clear sense of identity, it's very sedately focused on being a fun time as opposed to a drag, and most of everything that's got the Web frothing at the mouth has to do with conveyance and with Fray's concept as a character.

Let's start with an admission, in that Fray very clearly has a chronic case of Joss Whedon Mouth Disease. She's confrontational, cynical, self-referential and off-putting in that really specific way that reminds me of the worst stretches of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's dialogue scenes. Considering how her tale is an isekai by design, you sort of have to excuse a certain modicum of "HOLY SHIT I MOVED THIS STONE WITH MY MIND!" because the fact is, if we all sprouted superpowers tomorrow morning, none of us would have the necessary self-consciousness to keep our bafflement in check.

Where that's a problem is that Fray is written in a way that freezes her in that moment, in that instant of acquired superiority and of suddenly increased self-confidence, without letting her internalize what's happened to her or letting her adapt to Athia's needs and expectations. Everyone you meet across Athia has the solemnity and dourness you'd expect out of someone plucked out of Ye Olde Fantasy Paperback, and Fray's dropping F-bombs and contractions like the locals wouldn't just ask her to repeat herself constantly.

When in Rome, as the saying goes. Fray ignores it entirely, and her being the protagonist seemingly absolves her of any etiquette or propriety breaches that would arise out of two wildly opposed dialects smashing together.

Literally everything else I've played is fine. As in, I won't bother remembering Forspoken's combat loop, not when Sony's own Housemarque released Returnal and not when PC players have access to several other different and more polished combat loops. It's a race-a-thon and a collect-a-thon and a case of narrative delivery being delayed for as long as possible in order to mask a lack of confidence - but it really isn't offensively bad. It's one of those games I'll actually pick up for myself (thank you, Day One game rentals at my local place) once the price comes down, but it really isn't worth all the bile I see in YouTube comments.

It's a decent 6/10 from me. A great pick for when your backlog's empty, you have twenty bucks burning a hole in your pocket a few years from now and don't mind mentally checking out from the characterization or lore. Not a must-play but a could-play, ideally on some muggy spring afternoon a few months from now.

[bilbobaggius]

some dude really commented “too much women” in the ps5 reveal vid live chat. tragic.

[halfwayriight]

Forspoken - Official Title Announcement

[ilikedetectives]

Ella Balinska as Frey Holland in Forspoken (2022)

[acecroft]

PROJECT ATHIA | Reveal Trailer

[gogopangolin]

Frey from Forspoken. I’m really excited for this game and love the character design!

[kennycrows]

FORSPOKEN | COMING 2022