Welcome to the Great Insyaan mountain range! Today's Dev Diary is brought to you by Dragonchef101, Druplesnubb, Creatively bankrupt and Cappadocia!
Dragonchef has been around for several years and you may know them from writing large parts of Kobildzan and the Effelai, but Insyaa is home to their first work beyond just writing: the Taga’ala system and the Charkuchin Citadels.
Hey there, I’m Cappadocia. Unlike Dragonchef, I’m helpless when it comes to coding and so I’ve worked to make myself useful by writing, a lot. I’m most proud of my writing for Karassk and the Vanrahar revamp, both of which are coming with this update, or you may enjoy the national ideas I’ve made for Insyaa. There’s 22 of them, I checked. (I am also helpless when it comes to coding, massive thanks to Ziwik for coding this system! - Dragon)
Hi, it’s Druplesnubb again. You last saw me a couple of dev diaries ago when I presented the Groundhawk MT. Besides the Forest Goblins without a forest, my main project this update has been working on the religion of the Charkuchin Kobolds. Plus of course a whole bunch of smaller fixes and updates. I haven’t had as much time as certain previous updates, but I’m not planning to stop anytime soon!
And I'm Creatively bankrupt, the newest member of the team out of us four. As my name might suggest, my talents aren't related to writing much, so I've mostly been coding stuff. The system I'm most proud of would have to be the Gene Pillar exploration, which you'll get to enjoy in just a couple short days!
With that being said, it is almost time for the great Stormwall to falter and for Insyaa to be opened up to the insidious outside world. The Children of Storms come to enslave Djekogmirra, but Danguranga has mighty defenders in the Children of the Mountains, the Charkuchin Kobolds.
Yea, it is said that when Yeyalwa spread from the east Danguranga raised the great Charkuchar range to protect her children.
It stands like a mighty fortress, but even the mightiest fortress needs strong defenders, and so Danguranga nursed deep within the mountains the Charkuchin. Long she shielded them from the predations of the underworld until that great calamity, the Century of Storms, where the earth shook and even the mountains broke and she could protect them no longer. Yeyalwa knew the threat posed by the kobolds and since the dreaded holohana could not climb the mountains, another horror was chosen to destroy them, the terrible Hinuirocs. They caused great death to the Charkuchin, yet the Children of the Mountains had grown strong in Danguranga’s earthen womb and endured under the leadership of mighty figures like Pachpalka who they say rules Parmalchaa to this day.
As the centuries went on, the Charkuchin continued to fortify themselves, eventually constructing great citadels on the mountain tops - so great not even the Hinuirocs can breach them.
But be warned, to breach the skies will be no simple task. The Hinuirocs will seek to tear down your achievements, and if your fledgling empire is to last you must not stretch the meagre supplies available too far.
Each of the 7 citadels has developed its own speciality. You’ve previously heard of Parmalchaa which has been ruled by Pachpalka since the Century of Storms. This isn’t quite true; Pachpalka vanished many centuries ago. Only the royal family and their most trusted advisors are aware of this, and they keep up the masquerade. Pachapuru is dedicated to the preservation of Danguranga’s wondrous life, her natural plants and animals. Their citadel is a holy place, attracting pilgrims from far and wide. The Charkuchin of Chakturri are not content to stay in their citadel. Long have they sallied out into the Titanoflora valley, lost home of the Children of Water, and culled the beasts of the underworld, feasting on their venison. Purapuraxasqa Kawsay has always been the most isolated, accustomed to fighting and suffering on their own. Ganna Rassoo, on the other hand, is nigh impregnable even compared to the other citadels. Rinakaru seeks to connect all the Charkuchin; eventually they will. It is Rinakaru’s version of the Charkuchin empire that endures into the future. Finally Kuchiyarku is known as the rainbow mountain because of its great water works reflecting the light of the sun. Not even the Children of Water have such great control of it as they. And even though it would be greatly difficult, it’s not out of the question for new citadels to be made.
Having each developed in complete isolation from each other, the kobolds of the various citadels would naturally develop completely different faiths and belief systems about the worlds they lived in. Yet none of these belief systems would account for the boundary of the universe itself violently tearing open, and the freezing death and terrifying monsters that awaited outside. It was then not very surprising that once the kobolds encountered the first intelligent natives of this new outside world, their explanations of the Goddess of the earth and the wicked underworld that assaulted her would find credibility among them. By 1444 even the most isolated of the citadels have accepted the Yenbenmirran explanation of the universe, though as mountaindwellers they naturally hold the Gift of Mountains as the greatest and most important of Danguranga’s three gifts. As the Children of the Mountains, it is the duty of the kobolds to shield what remains of Danguranga’s garden from the forces of the Yeyalwa. Yet the great distance between the citadels, and the lingering influence of the old beliefs, has given rise to a great variety of beliefs and superstitions both new and old within this religious consensus.
Druplesnubb here, and my biggest goal with the Aycha Alpa religion was to properly represent this myriad of ideas, not just as mechanical modifiers but also by tying them to distinct groups within the world.
Each kobold citadel starts with three religious aspects, one specific to their citadel, one specific to their primary culture (Jatukyu, Unitsan, and Yawasichya), and one specific to their religious school. Besides their passive modifiers, each aspect also gives an immediate bonus upon being picked, to encourage cycling between the aspects. The general mechanics are very close to the Protestant mechanics of the base game. What sets the religion apart from other religions with similar mechanics is how these aspects are unlocked. Accepting the other Charkuchin cultures will give you access to their respective religious aspects. You can unlock the aspects of the other citadels by conquering and coring their respective citadel province. And the aspects of the other religious schools can be unlocked by inviting a scholar from the school in question (this means that even the schools exclusive to the Dunborgula and Mumambarra faiths have their own religious aspect). There’s yet another set of aspects which are tied to the unlocking and exploring of the still unopened kobold vaults, a mechanic which unfortunately won’t be making it into this update.
But enough of that, can you hear it? The High Temples are faltering and when they fall the Kiamoa will as well. Let us go check on the great stormwall.
Credit to Karguin for the great 3D model!
The Kiamoa is the great storm surrounding Insyaa. But it's not just a great mass of air - the energy collected by the High Temples is channelled into various evocation and abjuration spells. To cross it would mean certain death. It is also said that it extends so far above and below the ocean surface, that no one has ever dared to try and bypass it.
But, the world will soon see great changes occur. Temples that have stood for millennia may falter, and the first brave explorers would be able to brave the dangers of the Kiamoa. And Insyaa would be isolated no more.
But… I know you. Ambitious. Impatient. To sit, trapped within the Kiamoa for a century, ruler of a continent long pacified, waiting for a Temple somewhere, out there, to falter, would be a state much intolerable to you. “There has to be some way to prevent that fate, right!?” you cry. And indeed, there is, if you have but the strength to grasp it
Many tales have been told of the great Gene Pillars of Insyaa. The secrets they hold, and the dangers that would befall those too eager, those who would let their greed blind them. But if you forsake overconfidence, and explore the right pillar, you might well find something… unprecedented.
But a keyhole is of little use without a key. Even the Precursors, in all their arrogance, still maintained some level of security. The ancient machinery will not listen to one who beseeches it without first speaking the password. And no one has ever spoken it over the past eight millennia. Attempting to activate it would require the favour of a being both old enough to have learned the great words when they were still spoken freely, and wise enough to still remember them. But where would one find such a being?
While there may perhaps be other ways to gain knowledge of these phrases, they are not yet known to our diviners. Maybe next time they “update” us on the goings-on of fate, there will be more ways they foresee?
But for now, you will have to gain the favour and absolute trust of the three Dragon Turtles, if you wish to see the Kiamoa opened by your hand. But if you do not falter in the task, if you do as the Turtles wish, you may just get the chance to do so…
…and Halann shall never be the same again.
And with that, we've come to the end of the last dev diary for this update, but there's no need to be sad, for the Stormwall weakens and in a mere 2 days you may come and experience the wonders of Insyaa and the lands beyond for yourself. As always, if you wish to take a deeper look into the development process for all these content we've shown, or if you would like to join the dev team for future updates, our discord server is open for all (https://discord.gg/4J8SkQUtq). Thank you for joining us for these dev diaries, we'll see you on the other side of the storm.