In Palia, humans are the legendary race, having disappeared thousands of years ago at the height of their grandeur and mastery of magic. Nobody in the modern day knows why. Until one day humans begin to appear all over the world. As one of the newly re-emerged humans you’ll have to make yourself a new home in this friendly world, and forge a future for yourself and humanity. Palia has a deep, evolving story that we plan on telling (with you!) for years to come.
What you know when entering Palia for the first time is that some pretty major events happened a good thousand years plus in the history of the world, and that is the last time anyone saw hide or hair of a human. Part of the story will be delving into those secrets and finding out what happened in the past to cause humanity’s disappearance, in order to understand current events and find solutions for the future. You’ll see ruins dotted about the landscape with lore attached for you to discover, and meet characters that may offer better insight into humanity’s history. As for the future, and the timing of your return… Well, that is its own mystery you’ll have to unravel. It certainly seems like things are happening for a reason, but what that reason might be remains to be seen.
Vega, Sr. Narrative Designer: Great question! The player character enters when they are grown, as a young adult. Eventually, we will be adding more options to customize your character to your fantasy even more.
The elf-like people are called the Majiri. The name has a special significance in Palian culture, but you’ll have to play to find out what it is! A few common traits you’ll find among the Majiri are the values of tradition, hospitality, and community. They tend to be warm and welcoming, even towards those with customs very different from their own.
Vega, Sr. Narrative Designer: The M ajiri lifespan is a little longer than a human lifespan. Where we think of the human lifespan as roughly 100 years old, the Majiri live to about 150 years old. So they’ve seen a little bit more history, and invest even more in the future of their surroundings.
Vega, Sr. Narrative Designer: There’s a critter roaming around Kilima Village you haven’t met yet – Ormuus! Ormuus provide the milk players purchase from shops for their recipes in cooking. Fun fact! All ormuus, regardless of gender, have horns!
Our goal is not to stray away from tension or challenging emotions when it comes to worldbuilding or storytelling, just to provide a safe and welcoming atmosphere for players to explore those story beats. In fact, in certain storylines, we want to actively engage the player in helping some of our villagers navigate negative emotional experiences as we believe that emotional intimacy can be a big part of what allows you to feel cozy with someone.
Yes, we want to continue developing the story after release. We want our story to feel alive and we can achieve that through updates that introduce new story beats for players to dive into. We love the idea of giving the community the opportunity to affect the world and story through events, but that’s something we’d be exploring further down the line.
This is a narrative concept linked to a certain culture in our game of choosing a lifelong career in young adulthood. We have not yet determined if/ how the human characters (ie — the players) will engage with this narrative concept. The main thing is we want players to be able to play the way they want to, and engage with systems as they see fit. So we are unlikely to unlock important gameplay content behind a narrative Path choice.
There will be secret lore items for the player to discover and many mysteries to be unraveled. Some of these will be smaller atmospheric details, but others take the shape of items you find that unlock secret quests or books you can find to piece together bits of the backstory. We want the world to be full of fun secrets to explore and contemplate for years to come.
Jeremy: That language is an English alphabet cipher. All of the signage is directly translated to the English language and intentionally written, and I’m sure now the cat is out of the bag, it’ll be cracked in no time. The style of writing was designed by one of our concept artists and blends perfectly with the Majiri aesthetic. We also have an ancient script, though more on that will be revealed later.
Ashe: As a little tease, here’s the language found in signs from #official-art we’ve already shared in the past! Can you figure out what they say?
Jeremy: I thought it was important that the Majiri have their own culture and that it’s not directly referencing an existing culture. It should feel unique and pair with Majiri culture in a nice and aesthetic way. I knew we needed the player to see posters and signs in the world but I wanted to avoid using English as a language. So, I asked Yangtian Li, our lead concept artist, to take a shot at creating a written language that is a cipher for the English alphabet. The written characters needed to match the existing cultural patterns seen in the world and looks as though it derived from a pictorial language. The result she came up with has become our Majiri language in Palia!
Asherelle: We’ve shared some concept work from Yangtian on Twitter and Discord before! You can check out her Twitter here: https://twitter.com/yangtianli
Jeremy: I don’t have anything to reveal right now, but the visuals of family crests and iconography does play a role in Palia. For the more careful observers, you might be able to see family crests on some of the Villagers’ clothes. Runes and symbols are an important part of Ancient culture, you may find runes and icons that foreshadow events or tell a story about that world. I’m excited to see the community uncover these mysteries as we slowly build out the world.