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[squamous]

Amongst all the great powers of the world, the empire of Vandel was absolutely without peer. Possessed of great military strength, vast swathes of land, and a stable political base, unrivaled in its scientific and alchemical skill, its rivals were legion and its foes many. However, the world was progressing into one were honor, glory, and chivalry would become things of the past in the face of the cold rationality of the battlefield, the aristocracy slowly giving way to new ideas and ways of doing things. It was only natural that enemies of Vandel would circle the old tyrant like vultures, eventually uniting as a single Free Entente with the intent of bringing the empire to heel once and for all.

And the ensuing war saw them utterly crushed.

No one had anticipated the sheer devastation that would be unleashed by both sides, but the imperial family's ruthlessness far outstripped the beleagured Entente's efforts to push inwards. One by one they collapsed into anarchy as chemical gasses, new war machines, and other, far more terrifying weapons of war were unleashed on the battlefield. In the end, the empire of Vandel stood alone and victorious, its borders a ruin of no-man's-land and chemical storms, where strange things lurk. But its glory was short-lived, for even the great empire could not withstand the terrific strain of such an unprecedented war, and fractured into countless feuding states. In the chaos, the creatures once confined to the darkness walk free, and great battles are waged by all who style themselves as successors to the legacy of Vandel. It is into this maddened world that you are thrust. Will you bring the people of Vandel under a single king once more? Profit as a dog of war? Fight for freedom and democracy? Or stamp out all dissidence under the iron boot of a new world order. All this and more awaits you in the Post-War era.
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Do you like my stuff? Consider donating to my patreon: https://www.patreon.com/themodsmith/posts

If I can get enough money to reach my goal, I can focus on modding full time and put out bigger and more frequent updates.
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What is?

Post-War is my attempt at a "modern fantasy" setting, or one which focuses on the period near world war one and two, taking the themes present in that time period and adding various fantastical elements. Players will fight off vampires, werewolves, the undead, and far stranger and crueler things using bolt-action rifles and trench clubs, when they aren't busy dealing with the threat of foreign nations and scheming gangsters. There is more of a focus on huge battles, with the recommended maps being the ones labelled "huge pop" in advanced worldgen, which create large worlds of one million+ NPCs, in an attempt to more realistically simulate the population and complexity of a game world roughly the size of Iceland. In a situation like this, ending up as the capital would be unrealistic, so rulers will stay where they are, though there is certainly the opportunity to rise in status. Rather, you should focus on a specific theme for your fort, like mine, farm, military academy, mafia hideout, factory, or an actual fortress. Either way, I hope you enjoy my work.

On another note, the default population cap in d_init is set rather low by default because I do so much long-term fort testing and need the game to not take ages to go through the years, so my apologies for the minor inconvenience. You can adjust that to a higher number to get a larger fort.


Download Link: https://dffd.bay12games.com/file.php?id=15284
Music Source: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsRbuU_ffaJuxagEGpXfNkg
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Changelog:


1.52
-Fixed reanimate slaves sleeping forever
-Water is no longer purple
-Mages can now gain corruption from defiling places of worship. That doesn't mean learning a spell automatically results in corruption debuffs, but that sometimes something will go wrong and you take corruption penalties as a result. It can also happen more than once, so watch out. Reading slabs is the only safe way to learn magic, but that only teaches you spells that other people discovered. If you want spells not inscribed on slabs, you have to risk corruption.
-Artillery, trucks, automobiles, tanks, and tankettes folded into "armored vehicles". Armored vehicles will both appear in combat and carry goods. All air vehicles folded into "flying machines", for the same reasons as the armor vehicle situation. Planes have been divided into various subtypes, as have dirigibles. Mechs and powered armor folded into "mechs" and will only be used by a few higher-tech civilizations, though you should be able to buy them from said civilizations. The reason for this is to reduce clutter and make vehicles rarer and more valuable, along with reducing memory usage by the game so cities run (somewhat) better. Also, swarms of unpiloted vehicles kept zerg rushing monsters that infiltrated cities and it was getting rather silly.
-New monsters added, should be more variety now.
-Vandel remnant civ is now an empire faction that uses hamlets rather than hillocks but is otherwise unchanged.

1.51 Changes:
-emergency fix to a CTD bug

1.5 Changes:
-So I changed everything again after a huge brain inspiration but this is the last time I promise, it's all coming together.
-Some changes to weapons. It was fun to have different civs have their own rifle models and all that, but a repeating rifle doesn't shoot any faster than a bolt-action because fire rates are hardcoded. To avoid that sort of immersion-breaking, everyone uses bolt-actions now, along with carbines which fire smaller caliber bullets and are slightly less expensive to make.
-Magic reworked, its now universally dark and scary. Make a man bleed out of his eyes, writhe in pain, or curse him with misfortune. Summon foul creatures and evil spirits to do your bidding. Become an enemy of humanity as your quest for power leads to your ruin. This is different from esoteric science, which is only slightly healthier and far less versatile.
-Corruption mechanic added. Monsters can infect NPCs via a bite or scratch with corruption, which will instill undesirable mood traits (loss of mental control, propensity for violence) and confer eerie abilities and bonuses. If you are very lucky, you might only get beneficial symptoms of corruption at first, and many "monster hunters" can become pretty terrifying individuals. But if you keep being infected by monsters you'll eventually become one yourself, in mind if not in body.
-Beasts of the upper air added. While technically natural creatures, the life forms above the thirty-thousand foot line of the planet's atmosphere are also horrific. These "atmospheric jungles" are often found above oceans, and those exploring such places may well run into inhabitants of the upper air come down for some inscrutable purpose.
-Monsters totally reworked, they are so awful, it's great. Don't go out at night, and keep at least a few silver bullets on you.
-Four new human civ types added, Orthodox Humanists (lore provided in the bay12 page), corporatists, technocrats, and anarchists.
-Steeljacks now come in multiple different flavors.
-New race, changelings. They come out of the woods sometimes to live with people. I am sure that is fine.
-Reanimates reworked to make them feel more like commodities, you can buy them now.
-Normal instruments added. There are a lot of those so if you feel one is missing tell me and it'll be added next update. I have also never done modded instruments before so they may all be broken, let me know if that is the case.
-The title is Broken Chain now.

1.4 Changes:
-The entire mod has been reworked from the ground up. Essentially, I have done a lot of under-the-hood changes and slight modifications to civilizations and people to give more detail and be more grounded. Instead of everything being evil biomes, everything should be more "normal" on the surface, with supernatural phenomena hidden in places like forests, swamps, the underground, and other places humans find creepy. I have decided I want a "secret world" type setting with all the monsters being hidden, but things are set up so the world has a chance of slowly disintegrating into supernatural anarchy over the centuries if certain events take place. The world has the trappings of modernity, but has also deteriorated into quasi-feudalism and balkanization. Thematically, things are coming together. Mechanically, I still have work to do. The purpose of this update is basically to prune away ideas which didn't fit too well and start fresh from a new, more solid and workable foundation.
-Troglodytes and animal men removed until I figure out how to fit them into the setting better
-Grass types changed to some experimental types, this may be too cluttered or super immersive idk
-Deserts are now the ruins of no man's land and bombed-out cities, as normal deserts don't exist in northern Euris. The poison gas weather and reanimate horrors live there now, venture within at your own risk. If you want the great war aesthetic go over there.
-Done some baby's first conlang on the language to make it seem more coherent. 99% of people probably won't notice it but I think it adds some immersion.
-Magic changed so that individual slabs will usually teach more spells than just one, and work a little differently. I am still working on the magic system and right now it's sort of a step back in terms of variety, but the idea is to make mages who even know one spell. This is mostly because now you can more easily create "specialist" mage teams like flamethrower-equivalents, assault troops, healers, etc, and more importantly they are more likely to show up in enemy sieges as dangerous threats. Magic still needs a lot of tweaking but this should be more playable and fitting with the lore.
-Gigantic horrors changed to megabeasts for balancing reasons.
-Music changed to something more brutal and industrial/ominous, for atmospheric reasons.

1.35 Changes:
-Gigantic horrors added to no man's land (evil biomes) for the purpose of making it properly intimidating. Smaller horors added too.
-Some more magic added
-Coffee, opiates, and cocaine added as drinks (its like an opium tea or something idk it needs to be a liquid to spawn in bars) with appropriate effects. Coffee makes you restless and anxious but more focused, while opiates give a massive mood bonus with a 10% chance to have a major negative mood debuff which can last for years (addiction) that can only be countered by regular doses of opiates (alcohol may help a little though). Cocaine has the same downside and many more upsides, improving focus, willpower, and potentially removing fear entirely for the duration of the effect, but also a 1 in 100 chance of dying from a heart attack. Use your drugs wisely
-Armor overhauled a little. I gave helmets names using the in-game language as a guide, but they aren't too out there. Read the armor section for what is what. The exception is helmets which are descriptive rather than using a word that isn't a proper noun or based on a location, because I don't need to change that.
-New civ added, Troglodytes. Despite the barbaric-sounding name, they're just civilized mutated humans who were trapped underground during the Great War and have adapted for a subterranean lifestyle. Their fortresses can be found in No Man's Land.

1.3 Changes:

-New school of magic added, Xankotic ritualism. This school studies the ancient arts of the quasi-mythical empire of Xankot, which mastered necromancy and the creation of bronze golems, along with manifesting rays of killing light.
-Another school added, Hermetic Occultism. Normal Occultism is changed to Sadic Occultism, and its nerve magic spells are moved to Hermetic Occultism. The new Hermetic school is based on unseen magic and the summoning of creatures from other realms, be they small familiars or larger fighters. Sadic Occultism uses one's own flesh, blood, and bone to fuel their power, rather than being reliant on outside forces.
-New human civ added, cultists. They wear robes and masks, don't use body armor, and are hostile to all outsiders.
-Overhaul to races. I've gotten rid of the ones besides Steeljacks and Reanimates, and added several types of beast men and one major civilization, ghouls, which serve as an invader race
-Various other small fixes

1.2 Changes:
-Added a new school of magic, shamanism, based around controlling living beings and the elements.
-Some new guns
-Bugfixes


1.1 Changes:
-Accidentally forgot to add underground and freshwater animals, this has been fixed
-You can now only get leather from cows, sheep, goats, and pigs, along with other large mammals. On the other hand, skin is now edible if cooked, enjoy.
-Megabeasts added, the Lords of Vandel. The aristocracy of the empire put their brains into gigantic war machines which menace the countryside. They are also all insane, have fun.
-Magic massively overhauled. I've found something better than the current placeholder system, that works in a manner similar to the Long Night's magic system, with a few notable differences. Magic is divided into esoteric science, which is magic that has been quantified and mass-produced under the auspices of the government, and occultism, which is the sort of finicky culty stuff that involves carving sigils on your chest or erupting into tumors to heal a wound.

1.0 Changes:

Beyond the Great War released

[squamous]

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Overview:

The setting of Beyond the Great War takes place on a planet similar to but different than our own, during a period similar to the technological era of the early 1900s, albeit with a few anachronistic devices and inventions here and there, along with mad science and occultism lurking in the shadows. The continent the story takes place on is known as Uresia, and features regions of the defunct empire of Vandel, a terrifying entity which completely destroyed its rivals in a global war, only to fall to the wounds sustained during the conflict, leaving its oppressed peoples to carve out their own meaning from a broken world.

The state of the world is also of importance. Most of Uresia has been touched in some way by the war, with entire major cities being wiped off the map and stalked by the remnants of the mad old war, and strange stories creeping in from the forests and marshes of unnatural horrors. The world is simply too dangerous for reckless expansion, and any nation trying to survive must carefully balance its resources and focus on staying fed or sheltered moreso than advancing or further developing. Thus, the current grim state of affairs, a perpetual deadlock between warring states with no end in sight.

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Humanity:

Humanity remains the overwhelmingly dominant race on the planet, though this has been slowly changing as more and more monstrous creations slowly grow in number. Regardless, it is mankind that can be found anywhere, and in numbers unmatched by any other civilization. This story, however, focuses on the myriad peoples who were forcibly relocated and all-but-enslaved by the Vandel Empire prior to its collapse, who now take the future of their region into their own hands. It would not be inaccurate to say that all the human cultures here carry the generational trauma of having been subject to one of the most merciless and powerful regimes the world has ever known. Due to this, many are prepared to fight fiercely in order to protect their newfound identity, and have fractured into various groups all determined to bring their vision of the future to reality, with radical new ideologies taking hold to compete with the conservative powers that cling on to authority. The old ways of king and crown, senate and minister, must contend with the extremist philosophies of the future.

Monarchism: These nations uphold the old ideals of Vandel, and continue the system of the nobility. The king rules over the land and delegates the running of his holdings to lesser dukes, counts, and barons. They tend to put an emphasis on decorum, family, chivalry, and tradition. They also have a tendency to eschew knowledge and general have a backwards and antiquated way of doing this. Despite this, one would do well not to underestimate the loyalty and pride unique to a king and his subjects. Their nations are described as Kingdoms, Empires, Sovereignties, and Realms.

Militarism: These nations are completely controlled by their military, with a grand general running the nation and appointing subordinates. Conventional nobility are completely absent, but captains, lieutenants, and lesser generals are granted lands and expected to defend them. Rather than election or succession by heir, the grand general is succeeded by one of his own subordinate generals upon his death. They tend to value power, discipline, and conquest. As a result of this, there are frequent attempts at coups and clandestine warfare among militarist countries, generating a high amount of rogue elements. Their nations are described as Federations, Nations, and States.

Militarism originated, surprisingly, as a consequence of the Great War rather than a factor leading up to it. In the face of a century of arcano-industrialized warfare, large segments of the population advocated for the reduction in power of civilian government in favor of direct military administration, simply because they believed, or were led to believe, that after decades of total war against increasingly human foes the only way to possibly survive was to effectively turn an entire nation into an army. Regardless of the practicality of such an endeavor, it was viewed as a solution to the horror of the Great War and persists to the present as a way to survived the ravaged continent.

Republicanism: Nations ruled by republicans rely on elected officials to govern their country. The prime minister rules the country as a whole, and can be replaced during an election. Likewise, ministers, senators, and congressmen have control over smaller parts of the country. Republican countries tend to be more varied in their ideals, with a stronger emphasis towards cunning, eloquence, and independence. Despite their high-minded ideals, the constantly shifting structures of power make them easier to corrupt, and in a world with supernaturally charismatic creatures of the night, this can be a damning weakness. Their nations are described as Confederations, Confederacies, and Republics.

Republicanism developed organically before the Great War, in reaction to the development of the printing press, which allowed lower-class citizens to educate themselves and freely spread both ideas and otherwise-isolated magical rites to one another, vastly empowering the common man. Republicanism particularly took hold in the continent of Zawia, as its previous confederated groups of tribes and clans needed less pushing to develop into properly representative democracies than the more authoritarian northern continents.

Communalism: Communalist states rely on a single centralized government to have complete control over production, with all land-owning classes eliminated. In theory, the government provides for everyone, and everyone works according to their ability to contribute to the state as a whole. In practice, things are not so clear-cut. Communalist states foster strong loyalty and obedience, but suffer from frequent banditry and corruption due to their stifling authoritarian government. Their nations are described as Unions and Communes.

Communalism came into its own during the early period of the Great War, when nations experimented with state-planned economies as a means to make their machine of war more efficient. However, some radical thinkers took this concept and hypothesized how it could be applied to create a utopia of equal workers rather than a mindless factory-state, with mixed results.

Oligarchism: Oligarchists simply follow whoever has the most money, functioning more like a merchant company than a true state. There's a great deal of leeway for how one runs their own business provided they don't overtly offend the fat cats at the top, and the general culture is one of unbridled consumerism. Anything goes, so long as you have the cash for it. At once wildly successful and cripplingly disorganized, these nations are hard to unite in any way but their pursuit of profit. Their nations are described as Companies, Leagues, and Guilds.

Oligarchism is less a developed ideology and more the natural result of enough resources being put in the hands of the new upper class that had no ties to the old family lines and lacking the legitimacy of noble blood. Money became power, and power was used to form independent governments. In some ways these are hotbeds of new ideas, as without any old ideologies, religious or political, to tie them down, they are much freer to experiment with new and exciting concepts. On the other hand, anything created is likely to be swiftly co-opted into the ruling class, or simply assimilated if the created manages to turn a profit from it.

Cultists: Once, Humanism was the major religion on Uresia, a faith of light and progress in the darkness of the primeval world. But after the Silence, more and more peoples have turned to the worship of pretenders, with some throwing their lot in with the most foul and despicable of such entities, should they truly exist. These crazed nations embrace madness whole-heartedly and dedicated the entirety of their industry and manpower towards the destruction of the infidel. Nonbelievers who so much as set foot in their cities can expect a visit from cultist death squads or angry mobs, and nations near them are embroiled in constant conflict.

The Hordes: The north is cold and empty, but many fled there to escape the Great War as it ravaged the continent. But more stayed, and with the collapse of order had no room for extra hungry mouths. The Uresiaian continent is the hope of desperate savages held together by necessity and jealousy of the warmer southern climes, periodically spilling forth to pillage the settled lands, or conquer them. More a cultural phenomenon than a defined political system, they are an ever-present looming danger in the minds of most Uresiaians.

The Companies: Different from the Oligarchy in that rather than a government run by various rich families, they are a government run by a single board of directors, a melding of corporate and governmental power into a singular whole. Workers are paid in the company scrip, and live in company homes. They work in the mines all day and eat company food when they're done. Borderline slave-states, they formed from the Vandel mining companies left abandoned after the Great War, which fortified their tunnels and encampments, declaring themselves to be independent entities which persist to this day.

Technocratism: Ruled by engineers and scientists, the technocracies, prize innovation and higher learning above all else, and ruthlessly compete both internally and externally to always stay on top. Known for their panopticon-like surveillance networks, it would not be inaccurate to say that the state is always watching you in technocratic nations. Most notable is their use of drones, non-sapient machines that use human brains as computers.

Anarchists: Anarchists are loose collections of independent communes constantly at war with each other and the world over various ideological differences. While only a minor player due to their infighting, anarchist communes are excellent places to hide in if you are looking to avoid the long arm of the law.

The Church: The theocracy of the Humanist Church even here retains power, adhering to the old orthodox path that denies the heretical saints being worshiped in the Uresiaian version of the faith. Taking no petty gods as their own and exalting humanity itself above all else, the Church is genuinely of good intentions, if sometimes misguided.

Naturally, these major political factions constantly scheme against one another to ensure the supremacy of their own ideology. As such, they tend to share technologies with one another and avoid going to war unless necessary. So, the Vandel remnants can thus be divided into five blocs of power along these lines, with each one trying to bring the other two to heel.

However, in addition to these powers, there exists another, the Vandel Provisional Government. The VPG is a collection of dug-in bunkers and fortresses originally populated by the most loyal members of the Vandel Empire. With the empire's collapse, they have been tasked with bringing the land's rebellious elements to heel. In most cases, they are widely spread and their influence limited to their closest neighbors, but their terrifying power comes from the ancient technologies available to them thanks to the powerful industrial capacity hidden in their fortress-cities. VPG sects are notorious for their ability to mass-produce old-world reanimate monstrosities. With these supporting their heavily-armed human infantry and tank corps, their forces are incredibly numerous and formidable. Of course, you could always try and raid their outposts to steal some of these wonder-weapons for yourself, but to get caught means to have the ire of this powerful faction directed at your own country, a mistake which may well spell the end for all you hold dear.

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Of course, humans are not the only people in this world.

Reanimates:

Reanimates are one of the most common non-human entities found in human countries. Put simply, they are intelligent beings constructed from the corpses of humans, invented by Vandel scientists in an attempt to create obedient soldiers and laborers. There are many types, some intelligent and some not, of varying levels of quality, with some possessing eerie, uncanny beauty while others are grotesque, malformed horrors, all dependent on the skill of the necrotechnician who has sculpted them. They possess supernatural strength and durability, do not eat, drink, or breathe, and lack any sort of vital organ. However, they are possessed of lower intelligence than a human in almost all cases, and often rely on humans to lead them in return for lending their monstrous power to that human's service. When left to their own devices, they congregate in No Man's Land to form minor townships and villages, away from the chaos of mankind's wars. Despite their macabre nature, they are seen as products of science moreso than true magic, and their existence is more or less tolerated and known across Uresia, though they have a bad name simply due to the sheer number of mindless reanimate monsters roaming No Man's Land, emblematic of Vandel's willingness to do anything to win.

Steeljacks:

Steeljacks, or steeljanes if female, are human brains encased in a mechanical body. These beings are the culmination of cyborg technology. While most cyborgs used by the Vandel Provisional Government are little more than biological calculators, steeljacks retain their identity and personality post-mechanization. They do not live forever, their mortal human brains eventually deteriorating, but are still quite long-lived, with rumors of perfected alchemical nutrient tanks existing that, upon gaining the knowledge to produce, will confer the reader with true agelessness. Steeljacks make their homes in fortified bunkers spread across Uresia, and are assisted by non-sapient cyborgs built in the same pattern as the VPG. How they acquire these brains is unknown, but theories range from black-market transactions to nihilistic computer-cults, with no true answer found.

Changelings:

Sometimes people disappear into the wilderness. Sometimes people come back out. But they're always changed, when this happens. Thus their name. Changelings are apparently a new species of humanity, sharp-toothed with a hunger for flesh. Man as a predator. Despite this they get along well enough with normal humans, and make for excellent hunters and trackers. Changelings have a bad reputation, but are generally seen as equal citizens alongside humans in the nations that tolerate them.

[squamous]

New Mechanics:

Age:

A small change to keep in mind is that the humans of this world are more realistic compared to vanilla dwarf fortress. A human is culturally considered an "adult" at 13, but like real humans, doesn't reach adult size until age 18. If you conscript a 14-year-old into the military, he'll have the body of a 14-year-old, not a fully grown male.

Numbers Matter:

Moreso than normal dwarf fortress, numerical advantage is important in Broken Chain. The prevalence of steel weaponry and armor, along with powerful firearms, means that a lone, vulnerable human has a much greater disadvantage when fighting multiple foes. In both fortress mode and adventure mode, increasing the size of your forces is recommended. Even an unarmored bandit can kill you in a single shot if he's carrying an anti-tank rifle.

Firearms:

Firearms are ubiquitous throughout Uresia, and come in multiple types:

Rifle: A two-handed gun that uses medium caliber bullets. Simple and reliable.

Carbine: A cheaper version of the rifle that uses small caliber bullets.

Pistol: A one-handed gun that uses small caliber bullets.

Revolver: A one-handed gun that uses medium caliber bullets.

Hunting Rifle: A decent sniping weapon that uses large caliber bullets.

Sniper Rifle: A direct and more expensive upgrade to the hunting rifle.

SMG: A sub-machinegun fires its load of bullets as an SMG magazine, doing slashing damage as the many bullets perforate a target.

Machine Gun: A stronger version of the SMG, it uses MG magazines to do the same on a greater scale.

Shotgun: Shotguns use pellet rounds and slugs to do slashing and blunt damage, respectively. Comes in pistol form as well.

Shotgun Pistol: A single-shot pistol that uses shotgun rounds. Slightly weaker and cheaper.

Anti-Tank Gun: AT guns use armor-piercing Anti-Tank bullets to damage armored targets.

Punt Gun: Punt Guns use larger and stronger versions of shotgun shells.

Rocket Tube: These fire powerful rockets that can do serious damage to anything they hit.

Grenade Launcher: A weaker but less expensive version of the rocket tube, firing grenades.

Armor:


Armor:

Armor in this setting is a strange mix of primitive and modern defense, accounting for threats both mundane and... otherwise. The most common types of armor are chain coats or some variant thereof, and the chestplates worn by elite soldiers during the great war, which come in several distinct types:

Baus: Arditi body armor analogue, lightest and cheapest.
Hessik: German stormtrooper analogue, decent all-around.
Tiat: Brewster chestplate analogue, heaviest chestplate available.
Rhaden: Analogue to a conventional cavalryman's cuirass. Antiquated but reliable.

Helmets:

The helmets of this world are similar to our own, but of course have different names on account that the countries of earth don't exist. This handy guide will explain what the different types are equivalent to:

Yul Helmet: brodie analogue. Notable for being the helmet of choice for the Vandel Empire.
Rhei Helmet: stahlhelm analogue.
Aryron Helmet: farina analogue.
Hengen Helmet: adrian analogue.
Ageo Helmet: sallet analogue.
Krim Helmet: capirote analogue.
Eadran Helmet: M1 analogue.

Vehicles:

Naturally, this world still makes use of vehicles of all types. They aren't much use in fortress mode, but invasions can bring these weapons with them, so be aware of the danger they can represent. Due to the crumbling infrastructure, most are built with all-terrain capabilities.

Civilian Vehicles:

Armored Vehicles: Large land vehicles that move on either wheels or treads, intended to conquer any terrain. Both merchants and military alike make use of these expensive vessels. Private vehicles like automobiles and motorcycles fell by the wayside in the face of the dangers of the wild, with transport vessels becoming bigger and bulkier to compensate.

Flying Machines: Dirigibles and planes coming in multiple forms, from massive blimps to nimble interceptors. With the seas as dangerous as the forest, the open sky seems paradoxically one of the safest methods of transporting cargo through otherwise impassible terrain.

Mechs: Walking war machines and powered armors, these advanced weapon systems were developed in the later stages of the Great War by Zawian engineers, but quickly spread throughout the world as both other Entente members and Vandel rushed to create their own. These days only the most advanced nations can afford to maintain them.

[squamous]

Magic

Magic is a strange thing in this world. Dark and mysterious, with a high risk of corruption, insanity, and self-destruction. Common is the practitioner whose thirst for knowledge damns them to a horrible fate, preying on their once-fellows and needing to be put down by a silver bullet. But with the modernization of the world, so too has magic changed. Where once profane gestures and chants made the impossible a reality, the modern mage blurs the line between science and witchcraft, creating wonders and terrors undreamt of in the past.


Witches/Warlocks:

These are the pracititoners of true magic, the art of using will to affect the world. Curses, pact, hexes, balls of fire and blades of ice. Raising the dead and calling dark spirits from beyond. Terrible and powerful, a witch of sufficient learning is among the most dangerous humans one could possibly encounter. So why, then, does everyone not learn these dread arts? Because of the risk. The means by which one gains more power is threefold. To be gifted knowledge by the gods, hewn in stone or metal through communion. To take by force, to perform iconoclastic acts and steal knowledge from the idols which have supplanted Humanism and from them wrest more magical potency. And lastly, to drink the blood of a mage who has already done so. The first is the easiest, of no risk at all. The third is troubling, but it is men one must guard against, and men die easily. But the second, oh, that's little more than luck. Perhaps you will learn dozens of rites and spells, and become a god among men. But perhaps not. Perhaps your skin will rot, you will go mad with hunger. Maybe you will melt into a mass of hateful flesh. Maybe you will develop a taste for human blood. Maybe you will become something far worse. The doom of a witch is to eventually become a monster. If one continually pursues magic, it is inevitable. Eventually you'll get unlucky, and something foul will take hold, and it will be the end of you. But if you can walk the tightrope, or perhaps murder other mages and take from them their own secrets, you might yet become a true power to be reckoned with. It's finding them that's the problem. Unlike esoteric scientists, the keepers of the old ways do not advertise what they are. Only careful investigation can root out a witch, and even they they will be a deadly enemy to make.


Esoteric Scientists:

These are the miracle-makers, the great minds who harnessed the power of alchemy and esoteric arts and combined them with industrial power and modern learning, creating a fusion of both. However, unlike true thaumaturgy, it lacks versatility. Much like mundane scientists, esoteric scientists specialize in a particular field. For some, it is the creation of the ubiquitous patchwork undead, the reanimates. Others dabble in hydraulics and alchemy to create machines run by human minds. Others delve further into even stranger paths. But all of them are limited, and once their path is set it cannot be changed. Furthermore, the act of becoming an esoteric scientist seems to "ground" them in reality to some extent. They cannot become true mages, or learn true magic. But they are also free of the curse which accompanies such pursuits, to an extent. Due to this, they practice their craft openly. While witchcraft is feared and half-doubted, esoteric science is practiced freely and seen by many as simply another facet of the material, though this is of course incorrect.

The true strangeness of the esoteric scientists is that as a whole, they wish to leave humanity behind deliberately. Given enough time, they will eventually warp themselves into inhuman forms, and seek inhuman goals. They are pleased by this. Humanity is on its way out, they say. Better to join the winning side, though they may help mankind last a little longer if it suits them.

In some ways, they are madder than the backwards magicians they decry.

Corruption:

Corruption is the result of coming into contact with unnatural creatures or magics. It will result in the afflicted persons slowly taking them further away from human nature. At its best, it grants increased prowess in combat, supernatural abilities and toughness, and eldritch gifts. At its worst, it twists the victim with unnatural hungers and sadistic, violent urges, permanently warping the personality of the corrupted into a bestial parody of its former self. When attacked by a monster or some kinds of magic, or even using magic on yourself, there is a chance to gain a random corruption trait. Continual use of magic or victimization by monsters will completely corrupt the subject. At this end point, even if they still mean well, they are likely horrific existences that harm their fellow men as much as they help them. In a best case scenario, they can be living weapons directed towards supernatural entities and then chained up or chased off when the deed is done. At their worst, they can throw their lot in with those same dark powers, joining the very forces they may have once sought to hunt. Some sorcerers can even bring back humans from the dead (or perhaps, use them as vessels for something else to inhabit) as fully corrupted servants.

[squamous]

Random Lore That's Not Very Important To Gameplay:

The Western World:

The Western World is the birthplace of humanity and the dominant religion of Humanism, comprising the continents of Zawia, Uresia, Khaiton, and Dulv. It has a long and storied history leading up to the Great War, and indeed still persists to this day, fractured though it may be.

Uresia:

The continent the game takes place on, cold, tired, and horribly balkanized after over a century of brutal arcano-industrial warfare. The rest of the world isn't much better, but Vandel's policy of the forced relocation of conquered people led to a diverse group of ethnicities and ideologies being lumped into the same general area, exploding into countless feuding states once their masters fell to ruin. Uresia is the largest continent in the world, hosting a diverse array of peoples and temperate to freezing environments. For a long time, it was considered a barbaric and untamed land by other, more civilized regions, but grew to prominence in the last few centuries before the Great War with the advent of the nation-state and modernization.

Zawia:

Connected to the southwest border of Uresia is the continent of Zawia, also referred to as the Land of Bounty. It is a massive region filled with deserts, savannas, and tropical jungles, filled with creatures of all shapes and sizes, many larger than anything on Uresia. One of the emperors of Vandel was so enamored with the continent that he imported one of its river-dwelling herbivores to dwell in Vandel's rivers, with mixed success. Hippopotamuses are still around, but few are happy about it given their aggressively territorial nature. Zawia is the birthplace of the human race and of the religion of Humanism, and has a long and storied history of empires and conquest.


Khaiton:

Another continent, this one further past bountiful Zawia to house the great empires of the far west, exotic even to the far-reaching hand of Vandel. Though somewhat backwards technology-wise, they were known to produce exceptional strategists and soldiers, pulling off victories against the unliving armies of Vandel in situations thought impossible to turn around. They were one of the greatest assets to the Free Entente, but fell all the same when the Great Silence reached them. While Khaiton is not the biggest continent, it has some of the most densely populated regions. Or rather, it once did.

The Eastern World:

The Eastern World is the pair of continents to the east of the Western World, comprised of the temperate Inner Redonia (Oniedra in the language of the locals) and Outer Redonia (Xycatl). Inner Redonia is closer to Uresia, while Outer Redonia is further. Both have a history of colonization and conflict, but overall the local natives still control large chunks of territory and have modernized into proper nations. At least, before the Great War and the Silence, anyway.

Inner Redonia (Oniedra):

Oniedra is a land of sweeping plains and ancient forests, dark and mysterious. It is believed that the Oniedrans were originally proto-Khaitonese and proto-Uresian nomads who either crossed a land bridge or used primitive ships to cross the oceans, forming new cultures and a distinct way of life. Originally discovered during the iron age by Uresian raiders, trade and suspicion would block true colonization until the invention of gunpowder weapons by the Western World, resulting in colonies from great powers across the Western Continents to be founded. However, the natives fought back viciously, and in the end the colonial powers only held one-third of the continent under their control by the time of the Great War, with many colonial nations already having gained their independence in revolutions of their own. Oniedra is known as the birthplace of democracy, with native nations being almost exclusively democratic, and are believed to have sponsored the revolutions of the colonial provinces to advance the cause of republicanism.

Outer Redonia (Xycatl):

Outer Redonia was comparatively more difficult to colonize, almost exclusively done so by the technologically advanced and well-supplied fleets of the empire of Zawia during the colonial period. Resistance was even harsher than Oniedra, with many powerful kingdoms and empires resisting them. In the end, even the mightiest of Zawia's armies could only colonize a few hundred miles off the coasts, the inland and much of the remaining coastline firmly in the hands of the native Xycatlan peoples.

Dulv:

A brutal island-continent north of Uresia, Dulv is a dark, foreboding place filled with dangerous opportunistic fauna. Even the deer there will strip the flesh off your bones during the winter months, it is said. Naturally, it bred a hardy sort of person which terrorized the southern continents for centuries. Dulvish mercenaries fought on both sides during the Great War, and it is joked were least impacted by the Great Silence that came after because it is hard to make living on Dulv any worse. In seriousness, Dulvishmen often face negative stereotypes on account of their past savagery, despite the fact that in the decades leading up to the Great War they were well on the path to modernization.


Old Uresia:

Old Uresia refers to the cultures which existed before the cultural dominance of Humanism and later Vandel hundreds of years ago. It was known to be a place of paganism, blasphemy, human sacrifice, cannibalism, and other such profane things. Most of the era's secrets lie buried, but with the destruction of the empire it is rumored that the most ancient rites and rituals of Old Uresia are more than mere superstition, and like a wave of occultism has been sweeping across the continent.

The Other Realm:

The Other Realm is a prominent part of Uresian folklore. Essentially, it is a dimension believed to reside parallel to ours, where strange spirits can be contacted to make bargains and offer sacrifices. It is said that many tribes and kingdoms of Old Uresia worshiped beings supposedly from this "Other Realm". It is said that the further one travels into the Other Realm, the deadlier and more inhuman it becomes. In addition, both types of gods are present here, according to myth. There are the Ancestor Gods, and the Nature Gods. The Ancestor Gods are deified humans from history, which are the gods most citizens in the world will worship. The Nature Gods are the impersonal forces of the wild which are, if not directly opposed to humanity, certainly not friendly with it, otherwise the world would be a garden instead of a jungle. However, they are generally respected, with a few even finding their way into the pantheons of men.

The Great War:

By far the most pivotal event in the world's history, the great war's legacy scars all of Uresia and beyond. Instigated in the year 4937 by the Humanist calendar, the war was instigated by the Vandel empire's invasion of its neighboring countries, subsuming multiple lesser nations into itself which had already established a tangled network of defensive pacts with powers near and far, most prominent  of which being the nation of Sediwah, a powerful technocratic federation controlling land in both northern Zawia and southern Uresia. Notable allies of Sediwah include Dulch-Miralm, Hoch, and the Western Uresian States from Uresia, Hika and Kel Dyado from Khaiton, and the Nansa Commune, Quan, and Sobel from Zawia, though many other nations participated as well. The Dulvish nations remained relatively neutral, but sold both weapons and soldiers to both sides as was common during the time period. Likewise, the Eastern World would remain neutral on account of it being an "western world' issue, though nations which suffered in the past due to Zawian and Khaitonese expansion grumbled that an age of Uresian dominance in the old world might not be too bad. Beyond this, the Vandel empire was mostly alone against this alliance, known as the Free Entente.

Vandel's primary strength was being the first major nation to nationalize its sorcerer schools. Magic users prior to the modern era were typically either in control of countries overtly or influenced them covertly, but never had to fully bow to mundane humans. However, innovations like the field artillery cannon and machine gun leveled the playing field enough that mages were no longer the dominant force they were in the past, and the past decades saw them integrated into modernized militaries. As such, Vandel had the greatest head start in mixed occult/mundane tactics, which it used to great effect in the early years of the war while the Entente scrambled to copy them. The war was also destructive on a mundane level, with mass deployment of tanks, machine guns, poison gas, and other new weapons of war happening for the first time across the front. Both sides bled heavily from the exchange, but year by year the Entente advanced northward, eventually setting up an offensive line on Vandel's border in preparation to invade the empire proper.

It was the year 4948 that reporters eagerly anticipated would be the end of the war as the Entente's forces prepared to advance into the heartland of Vandel. The overall mood was as optimistic as it was tired, everyone simply wished for the war to end, and the refusal of the obviously defeated Vandel to surrender had turned public sentiment against them even more than it had already been. No one could have known, of course, how deep Vandel's experimentation into the occult had gone, or thought to question why so many villages and small towns were completely abandoned, obviously emptied from fleeing the incoming invaders. But something horrible was about to happen on the fateful day the order was given to advance.

Across the front the radios blared to life, reporting that their units had encountered what they called stiff resistance, followed by overwhelming force, followed by calls for retreat and shouting for orders, as the Entente commanders began to realize their entire offensive was being subject to a simultaneous attack which must be involving millions of Vandel soldiers, an army Vandel could not possibly possess in its situation. But as more reports began to filter in, it was clear that Vandel had done something unspeakable. For the soldiers of its new army were not human, or even alive. They were the first instance of pass-produced, industrialized occult weapons. You may already know what they were. This was the creation of the first reanimates, a unique existence produced by Vandel to function as its endlessly numerous and perfectly loyal warriors with which it would conquer the world in the name of Y Esh Soll et Sanzem Vandel!

This was the beginning of the second phase of the Great War, an unspeakably horrific century of desperate industrialized warfare against a relentless foe, which saw all nations drawn in and threatened by the empire's unliving legions. Records of this period are fragmented but speak of titanic war machines, terrible sorceries, and millions of men dying for feet of ground. All continent and all nations were drawn in, even isolated Dulv and distant Xycatl feeling the tread of Vandel boots on their soil. The war was finally ended by a coalition of militaries from across the world working in sync to complete a suicidal campaign into the Vandel heartland, destroying key infrastructure and burning the capital to the ground, destroying the delicate chain of command which kept the slow-witted reanimates coordinated and effective. But suicidal it was, and the deaths of the ones who achieved it had robbed the free world of the necessary force of arms to maintain stability. Riots, chaos, and rebellion rocked the globe, and the world as was known fractured into apocalyptic feudalism and petty warfare. Even Vandel, the great giant which had outlasted its enemies, was crippled by the chaos, its unsupplied armies thrown into disarray by the capital's destruction and hunted anywhere outside the borders by vengeful mobs, and wracked from within by rebels seizing the chance to overthrow their masters. A decade of fire and genocide swept across the planet, and when it had burnt itself out, a great and long silence descended, where horrible things long thought tamed crept out from the dark once again. This is where the story starts. The year 0 After War.

The Great Silence:

The aftermath immediately following the end of the Great War, characterized by the global collapse of almost if not every extant nation-state, the return to primitive values and insular superstition, and the resurgence of occult and supernatural activity. Since the beginning of the Great Silence, mankind seems to have been stuck in a perpetual state of exhaustion, unable to muster the infrastructure or power to reach the old heights of pre-Great War technology or population. Some consider the Great Silence to have been the end of the world, with everyone now trapped in the aftermath.

Magic:

It is a common saying that the more one practices magic, the less one understands it. This is true. While many schools have their own laws, rites, and traditions, the fact is that most of them are arbitrary. There are, in fact, two true rules for magic.

1. Magic is the working of the will to shape reality
2. The cruder the working, the greater the cost.

There are countless ways to work one's will upon reality, which is why magic seems so diverse and maddening to comprehend. Every mage operates off of their own framework. Some follow similar principles, others entirely different ones. Group enough similar principles together, and you get a School, a shared mindset that's been codified such that it can be easily taught to new aspirants. Older schools, like Shamanism and Carnomancy, are crude and use matter and flesh as a medium to work magic, their methods blunt instruments. Newer schools like Hermeticism work in subtle ways, leaving no traces of their passing. Others like Esoteric Science meld reality and will so firmly that to the uninitiated it can hardly be seen as magic at all.


Xankot:

A quasi-mythical empire which is said to have existed some ten thousand years ago, and to have mastered immense sciences which baffled the mind, but vanished mysteriously despite its power. None know where Xankot has gone. Those who go looking sometimes don't come back.

Central:

The language spoken across the game map. As the game takes place somewhere in the ruins of the Vandel empire, it is natural that the inhabitants speak that language. Central is an ancient language that evolved with time, borrowing countless loanwords from the conquered victims of that powerful nation. It is more or less universally spoken, with the only ones who don't speak Central the type to screech gibberish instead.

Religion:

To outsiders, the Uresian faith(s) seem quite complex and indeed contradictory at times. This isn't necessarily incorrect, but not without reason. Originally, the Uresian clans and tribes venerated animal spirits and pagan gods, giving blood sacrifice and chanting profane incantations to please their masters. This changed with the arrival of the Zawian preachers thousands of years ago, who brought the faith of the Man Above Men to Uresia. In short, the Man Above Men is the first human (not necessarily male) from whom all other humans were spawned. It is a creator deity which safeguards its children from harm if they are just and faithful, and abhors the worship of animal spirits, for they are said to be callous and careless when it comes to the fate of humans, being amoral, selfish beasts. As the church of the Man Above Men, more commonly called the Humanist church, gained strength in Uresia, the natives ended up developing their own take on the faith, becoming the New Humanist Church. Whereas Orthodox Humanism believes that only the Supreme Human is divine, the New Humanist faith believes that mortal humans can become divine as well, ascending to godhood in the form of lesser god-saints worshiped throughout Uresia. Traditional Zawians condemn this practice as idolatry, and many wars were fought in the past between nations of the two continents over this schism. After the fall of Vandel and the Great Silence, the more esoteric aspects of Humanism have only intensified, with constant schisming over differences in saints and the proliferation of grotesque relics being common. Lastly, the Vandel Empire enforced Imperial Humanism in its own borders, which took the first emperor of Vandel to be the reincarnated Man Above Men and the empire of Vandel as the holy seat of mankind. The only large non-humanist groups are found in Khaiton, where the dominant religion is ancestor worship. As this is technically the veneration of mankind, most New Humanists don't have as much of a problem with this, though the Orthodoxy finds them dangerously subversive.

[squamous]

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[squamous]

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[Cataphract]

Dieselpunk DF? That's a first. It's a shame DF doesn't have a long view distance like CDDA, that would be great for fighting with machine guns and the like.

[squamous]

Dieselpunk DF? That's a first. It's a shame DF doesn't have a long view distance like CDDA, that would be great for fighting with machine guns and the like.

My attempt at machine guns in this game is honestly the hackiest thing I've ever made. Basically, the way it works is you have a "machine gun" and the ammunition item "MG magazine". So the machine gun fires the entire "MG magazine", which is the size of a human head and does slashing damage, to simulate a spray of bullets hitting you. It's like you mag dump every time you pull the trigger.

I have to do this because you can't mod firing rates yet.

[Asin]

Posting to watch. Glad to see a new setting from our main man, Squamous!

[Uthimienure]

Wow, this must have been a monumental project. Gotta try it after my current fort dies!

[Lidku]

Alright! Booting up a world now! ....First thing I notice however is how grey the color palette is. Definitely going to change that after my first world is genned...

Spoiler: Initial World (click to show/hide)

EDIT: Well I just started a fort but it seems that for some reason you start with no form of axe tool... so I cannot even chop trees. There only seems to be an excess of mauls and a pick however, but again no axe-tool. Dismantling the wagon only gives me three wood to use.. but that's it.

[squamous]

Alright! Booting up a world now! ....First thing I notice however is how grey the color palette is. Definitely going to change that after my first world is genned...

Spoiler: Initial World (click to show/hide)

EDIT: Well I just started a fort but it seems that for some reason you start with no form of axe tool... so I cannot even chop trees. There only seems to be an excess of mauls and a pick however, but again no axe-tool. Dismantling the wagon only gives me tree wood to use.. but that's it.

All melee weapons, including mauls, should be able to cut trees since they use the axe skill. It's hacky but a compromise due to previously stated reasons.

[Lidku]

Even with tree-cutting priority set to 1, my assigned wood-cutters aren't doing any work. Checking the wagon itself (before deconstructing it) shows they haven't picked it up at all meaning that the units don't recognize the mauls as an axe-cutting tool. The only unit to pick up a tool is of course the miner, but that's it.

EDIT: Just because all the melee weapons have been set to a common melee skill doesn't mean their non-combat purposes would translate to item that is not of that purpose. Mauls aren't recognized as an axe-cutting tool by the units as aforementioned.

[squamous]

Even with tree-cutting priority set to 1, my assigned wood-cutters aren't doing any work. Checking the wagon itself (before deconstructing it) shows they haven't picked it up at all meaning that the units don't recognize the mauls as an axe-cutting tool. The only unit to pick up a tool is of course the miner, but that's it.

EDIT: Just because all the melee weapons have been set to a common melee skill doesn't mean their non-combat purposes would translate to item that is not of that purpose. Mauls aren't recognized as an axe-cutting tool by the units as aforementioned.

I think it might require that the item has an edge then? In that case, just buy some actual axes from the next merchant caravan.