Plot

Emperor Maranth, ruler of the free world R’vanna, has constructed a Great Pit on the other side of the continent. All of the elderly, sick, and otherwise close-to-death are sent to this Pit in great caravans and thrown in to die. By maintaining this system with as much militant rigidity as possible, the emperor has ensured that the Goddess Death must remain in the Pit, effectively keeping her as far away from him as possible. In doing so, the Emperor becomes immortal, securing his place as the untouchable ruler of the empire for centuries. A young person, thought to be struck with a fatal disease, is sent to the Pit by his/her family. However, along the way, the sickness is diagnosed and treated by an elderly shaman. The boy/girl arrives at the bottom of the pit, the picture of health, and is met face-to-face with Death. Initially, only her face is seen, the face (and personality) of a precocious young lady. When the pit becomes illuminated, we see that her face is a small part of a larger body, the body of an enormous spider. Death, through a conversation with the hero, decides to choose this person to be Her champion, and bestows them with a fraction of Her power. Our hero is sent out into the world with the mission of seeking out and killing the emperor, effectively dissolving the pit system, releasing Death, and restoring natural order.

Timeline Of Plot Events

After years of peacetime in the empire of R’vanna, Military General Maranth goes rogue, breaking off from the empire and disappearing with legions of soldiers. Unbeknownst to the rest of the empire, he spends the next decade using his army to dig The Great Pit on the outskirts of the Erridus Desert.
General Maranth quietly begins sacking the more rural areas of the empire, amassing a body of human life at the pit. He begins wounding and poisoning them and sending them into the pit in great numbers. This lures Death Incarnate (a giant spider with a woman’s face) into the Pit for long enough that the General’s Occult division is able to cleanse the land of Death’s web.
Once Death becomes trapped in the Pit, Maranth returns to the center of the empire and claims to have ascended as a demigod. He knows of Death’s imprisonment and his subsequent immortality, and people are quick to rally behind him as a Theocratic ruler. He allows the current King to live and serve under him, establishing himself as benevolent.
A strict system is put into place where all elderly and sick are sent in massive caravans to the Pit to die. The further away from the pit people are, the more slowly they age in real time. Maranth is well supported by the people of the empire, because quality of life has improved so much upon his return. People accept his system and his word en masse, with naysayers and uprisings dropping in number rapidly over the years.
After decades of this, the center of the empire is superficially utopic, while the weakened outskirts of the land suffer. Once in a while, someone is sent to the pit and spared by Death in hopes that they can make it back to the empire and overthrow Emperor Maranth. None make it beyond the Erridus Desert, known now as The Bones Wastes.
A young warrior from The Tributaries becomes ill and is put on a caravan and sent to the Pit. While on this caravan, an elderly witch doctor is able to cure them of their strange disease, and the warrior awakens at the bottom of the pit in perfect health.
Upon meeting Death, the warrior is instructed to set out across the land, with a strand of Death’s web attached to their heel. Death bestows upon the warrior a fraction of Her power, giving the warrior the ability to take a human life. By traveling across the land, rebuilding Death’s web and absorbing the power of human souls, the warrior seeks to kill Emperor Maranth and set the natural order right.

Main Characters

The Pit Crusader

Potential Character Options!

You play as a young person from The Tributaries who is chosen by Lady Death to restore natural order. CUSTOMIZE YOUR CHARACTER by choosing hair style, hair color, skin tone, and gender pronoun preference!
Choose from 8 classes! Each with unique skills and talents.

• Solider
• Berserker
• Rogue
• Ranger
• Wizard
• Sorcerer
• Monk
• Paladin

Lady Death

The physical embodiment of death, this Lady isn’t afraid to give you a hard time when you end up repeatedly in her clutches. Don’t let her down, or she might just give up on you (and that means lights out for good).

The Emperor

Tyrannical ruler that destroyed the balance of life and death in order to ensure his empire’s longevity, as well as his own. Travel across the land to find and put an end to his reign and properly restore the life cycle!

Maps and Landscape

Emperor Maranth and the pit are located on the exact opposite points of the planet. To successfully complete Lady Death’s mission the crusader must fight through ten regions containing over 100 unique levels.

1. The Bone Wastes
2. Drossfoot Bog
3. Inkleaf Forest
4. The Grimlands
5. Wolfjaw Range
6. The Opal Caves
7. Rime Peak
8. The Guilded Wood
9. The Tributaries
10. The Capitol

Gameplay

We decided that best way to deliver this game would be to make a platformer with strong RPG elements. As lifelong gamers we drew on our experiences with titles like Megaman and Castlevania, as well as the Final Fantasy and Elder Scrolls franchises.

Combat in our game is based on weapons, equipment, perks, and skills. There are eight different weapon types and currently eleven different equipment sets. Weapons define your class, which also defines how your stats increase when you level up. Class restrictions also limit what kind of equipment you can use.

There will be a perk system that you can use to gain stat bonuses and valuable skills. Each level you will be awarded a perk point which can be used to upgrade your character with the help of Lady Death. Skills are unlocked after gaining enough points in their respective stat. We will include a profile switch mechanic, which will allow several different character builds to be readily accessible.

Our short term goal is to get enough support for the game that when we go live in Steam Greenlight we will make it to the top 10 and be able to sell our game. Please help by staying involved in our game!

Baba Yaga – The Witch of the Forest