Apparently Starfield had no design document from pre-production???

If I had the budget and fucking dev time that game got... I wish I could hire a handful of writers and narrative designers just to plot out a Darkening Skies game in one location! Like, just the floors of Kaiden Spire and the slum at the base. Two character species options (human or rat), one template (some kind of Magus probably). Give the team my setting bible and plot out some wider stuff for future content expanding the world (naming and detailing all Scions, for example, with gaps for potential player Scions).

And then we go deep on the inhabitants of the Spire, one main storyline, a bunch of associated sideplots in the vein of Disco Elysium's convergent narrative threads that give a place a real sense of life and history, and some totally unrelated sidequests.

Ideally we end up with a mechanical foundation that's a bit Mass Effect visually and navigationally with Disco Elysium conversations out of combat, a bit DMC meets Dark Souls in combat, but actively works to make violence a last resort.

December 27, 2023

Eerie Cloud Formations

Darkening Skies, Ancona, Italy

Darkening Skies, Ancona, Italy

Darkening Skies, Ancona, Italy

Darkening Skies, Ancona, Italy

Darkening Skies, Ancona, Italy

Darkening Skies, Ancona, Italy

Darkening Skies, Ancona, Italy

Darkening Skies, Ancona, Italy

Darkening Skies, Ancona, Italy

Random Darkening Skies Setting Drabbles

The most commonly used counting of days in the current era is the Throne Calendar. As implied by the name, it originates with the city of Throne and Dragon-Emperor Imperus. As with most of Imperus' influence over the Known World, it's not enforced; Throne was simply the most stable political centre after the Bellum Draconum and so other polities adopted their calendar for ease of trade and diplomacy. It is divided into the Antebellum years, counting down to the war where Imperus was forced to slay Their eldest daughters, and Postbellum years, counting up following the conclusion of the war.

Trollhaven still keeps their own calendar based on the tides and ice sheets, flexible in a way which serves their way of life.

The City-Engine internally uses an atomic clock to define their calendar, rigid and not quite so precise as they insist.

Kroms uses a lunar calendar. Kaer, ever contrarian, uses a solar calendar derived in part from the Throne Calendar but with absolute refusal to fully adopt.

The Crantiré calendar is based around the lifecycles of the heart trees and the Worldcap.

Darkening Skies, Ancona, Italy

Darkening Skies, Ancona, Italy

Darkening Skies, Ancona, Italy

Darkening Skies, Ancona, Italy