THE ABYSS
| Difficulty | 4/5 | The Ruins holds many dangerous things, many of which are fatal when encountered. |
|---|---|---|
| Entity Count | 3/5 | There is a large amount of entities residing in The Ruins. They know the grounds, and protect the last parts of a broken civilization. |
| Chaos Gradient | 1/5 | The Ruins are stable, yet not fully discovered, littered with many objects scattered across its entirety. |
| Basset-Fraizier Index | 2.6/5 | The Ruins are dangerous and unexplored. It is recommended to move onto the deeper spaces as fast as possible. |
fig 1.0 An image taken of an ancestor shrine near a safe zone.
fig 1.0 An image taken of a safe zone hallway.
> The First Test
The Ruins - the shattered remains of a slaughtered race, is a dark and decaying structure made of cracked sandstone bricks and cold concrete slabs with vines growing out of cracks and crevices in the structures. There is a cold wind across the entirety of the limspace which makes passage a struggle for most. Be sure to watch your back, as the starving entities are ravenous for a nutritional meal.
The vines usually reach up to the ceiling of The Ruins. This provides ample cover for when humans when entities may be roaming. Paired with the light fog and the many concealed positions behind fallen structures, the vines make hiding from entities a fairly safe bet. While some parts of The Ruins are untouched by time, the majority of The Ruins are collapsed and dead.
The Ruins are where the abyss truly starts, in a sense. Wanderers always arrive at the ruins through the sinkhole in the sunken forest. Based on research done by the wanderers of this level and extensive work by A.D.F.R.S, it is confirmed that an unknown race lived here long ago. Based on the shrines and the stories told through engravings on the walls, a timeline of events can be made. They started out as all civilizations do, being in a prehistoric era for an unknown amount of time. Eventually, they went through a rapid development phase known as the "Golden Age", where they reached modern levels of technology and beyond. They were at a point in time where they were surviving in peace. Eventually, they made an advanced A.I that they claimed as The Lost.
The Lost were designed to fight. They were equipped with a rifle in their hands, and an undying will to protect the ruins, at all costs. Eventually, the Lost Minds were created, to serve and protect their masters. The Lost minds were used to control the legions of these machines. Three were made, each with different ideals and philosophies, to better lead them. They were each granted names. Portunos, The Will Of Thousands, who creates the strategies and commands the fights. Lanos, The Dreaming Mind, who mastered creative thinking over the direct approach. Tholas, Time's Descendant, who sees every outcome to every fight, and educates the lost on the winning path. These three shaped the lost army that protected the race that had built them.
Eventually, after many years of being loyal, Tholas broke free of his control and descended into the abyss, after simulating an unwinnable fight and becoming paranoid of his defeat. Lanos followed, out of pure curiosity and admiration for Atheon. Portunos, filled with rage from his betrayal by the other minds, commanded the lost on an incursion to wipe the race that had created them out. Portunos succeeded with his goal, utterly obliterating the race he had once served. He is still inside the ruins, wandering the condensed halls, waiting for some purpose to serve and an army to control.
The safe zones in the ruins were created in the last dying months of the unknown race's existence. They use protective technology (that of which A.D.F.R.S is currently studying), that keeps entities and lost out by some bind of binary mesh. They also have ancestor shrines, dedicated to those lost in the genocide of their race, before the creators of the shrines were hunted down. The safe zones provide supplies and a place to hide from entities if you are being hunted.
The entites themselves: Mangled abominations of flesh roaming the fractured ruins. They know each cracked brick and vine intimately; having existed here for eons. During this ample time, they have gained an equal prowess in killing. There is no society here. Only survival and escape. The only safety is to reach the shattered terminal and escape or to reach a safe zone with a shrine.
The shattered terminal, centered around the entrance to the next part of the abyss, is used by Portunos to create waves of lost. It can be found near the assumed center of the ruins, although it is highly dangerous due to the countless lost patrolling the area. Once you have reached the terminal, make your way to the sinkhole in the center of the room. Jump in and descend to the next part of the abyss.
> The Abyss
This part of our article is dedicated to tracking and researching Doctor Elizabeth Cane. She is an ex- A.D.F.R.S researcher, and she holds valuable information in regards to the abyss. We started our investigation into Cane in our article documenting the sunken forest.
Elizabeth is confirmed missing after we found her research lab ransacked. We have allowed for 2 of her research logs to be archived here. Please do note that all redacted information is for the greater good of public saftey, and that the information contained within the logs may not align with A.D.F.R.S beliefs.
Eliza Cane's Personal Logs| Logs | Observations |
| Log 1 | The facility exploded. Parnes rigged a bomb to the goddamn thing. He said that he had seen beyond the abyss and that it had responded to him, promising salvation. He was fucking insane. He was taken away by A.D.F.R.S. for mental evaluation and prosecution. He had just been looking at the monitors, ranting about the ruins and the potential it had for studies, then he just broke when the camera changed to a random hallway. I'm currently preparing to embark from our research lab in the ruins to investigate this phenomenon. End Log. |
| Log UNKNOWN | ███████ has seen me. ███████'s embrace is so warm but so harsh. ███████ tells me everything. How I can fix our reality. All I have to do is free him from the abyss. I will save humanity. ███████ will save us all. I am returning to the research lab to put the plan in motion. End Log. |
if what we read is correct, ███████ may be a major threat to A.D.F.R.S. and the entire system itself. We cannot confirm at this time if ███████ is Portunos, though it is highly unlikely due to the research we have on the lost mind.
> Entrances and Exits
If stranded in the ruins, your only exit will be the sinkhole in the shattered terminal.
You can only enter through the sinkhole in the Sunken Forest. Once you are in the ruins, you cannot return to the Sunken Forest (By our current understanding of the Abyss).