Games Design Concept Story

Vines and Steel

Set in the world of Caledon, Vines and Steel tells the story of Bloom; a young girl from the deep forests of Cirrus as she joins the fight to remove the Blight that has spread across the world.

The world of New Caledon was a prosperous land that had learned to combine the two disciplines of magic and technology to create a world where the people prospered and the times of war were long over. Under the leadership of King Ares the Unifier, the 4 kingdoms of the world were brought together under the promise that this new technology of Vapourmancy would free the world from hardship and war.

This vapourmancy industrialised the cities and farmland of New Caledon and made possible new medicines and sciences.

The 4 kingdoms of Knut, Laros, Gerudo and Caledon soon came together but not without incident. As the promise of this technology began to spread, groups of that opposed this technology began to unite. Calling themselves the Followers of Enoch, they opposed the merging of what they saw as sacred magics with the new technology seeing it as a perversion against nature. After a few small conflicts with the armies of King Ares, the Followers chose to instead retreat to the northern forests of Cirrus renouncing their ties to King and choosing a life without the “corruption” of Vapourmancy.

With this small band of opposition removed vapourmancy spread amongst the peoples of New Caledon was filled with peace and prosperity.

King Ares however was not filled with peace, he feared that his people would soon become bored with the innovations that vapourmancy had brought. The art of vapourmancy had allowed for great cities to be built and for great swathes of land to be reclaimed for farming but there was a limit to power. Wanting to increase the power of the technology, the King sent out scouts looking for lost sources of magic.
Word soon came to the King that the great forest of the south held an ancient power that if harnessed would guarantee the stability of his people for generations to come. The King sent his best knights south in search of the source.

The knights moved south following every piece of hearsay and superstition till they found the Great Ziggurat. Inside the ziggurat the knights found a great and withered rose. As the knights approached the Rose it began to slowly blossom before them and soon the air was filled with its scent. The knights soon found they were unable to do anything but stare at the Rose and breathe deeply of its perfume. Infected by the Rose, the knight’s bodies were twisted and corrupted as they were reborn as The Knights of the Efflorescence.

The Rose controlled the minds of any that breathed its spores and bent them to its will.

Commanding the knights to return it to the King, the Rose’s blight soon spread throughout the kingdom sweeping aside all that opposed it with its new royal guard; the Knights of the Efflorescence.

Meanwhile those that had chosen to leave the kingdom and travel north found that they were the only ones that had not been affected by the Blight. Moving further into the woods the Followers of Enoch settled safe from the corruption of New Caledon and began to make a new life.

Decades past by and the followers, now know as the Tir Na laying aside all forms of advanced technology, had come to live with the forest and discover its ancient secrets. Into this people was born the girl Bloom….