Project Quantum

Game World Codex

SPOILERS AND FURTHER STORIES OMITTED

19/06/2021
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OVERVIEW

Project Quantum offers the fantasy of high-stakes sci-fi treasure hunting. The
player steps into the boots (and exo-suit) of a newly re-awakened mercenary
whose ship long ago crashed onto the mysterious wartorn planet it was
intended to save. You awaken into a bizarre world, centered around the ruins
of the crashed ship, now repurposed as a walled hub-city called Jericho, and
are swept into a rust-clad frontier culture obsessed with seeking out treasures
from the past to fuel Jericho's thriving trade economy.

Within moments the ship’s trade-obsessed former AI, now the de facto mayor
of Jericho, has you suited up and ready to launch into the wilds in search of
hidden plunder. Trouble is - everyone else wants the same loot, and outside of
Jericho, the only thing that keeps you safe is your trigger finger.

NARRATIVE APPROACH

Project Quantum is a fast paced, round-based looter/shooter whose

mechanics are rooted in a consistent narrative world, rich in history and
intrigue. We aren’t seeking to tell an explicit story, but rather to release players
into a narrative-rich environment, full of embedded secrets and revelations
they can discover and follow if they choose.
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Charnel

Charnel was humanity’s most remote colony world, Charnel is smaller than
Earth but many times more dense due to rich deposits of previously
undiscovered resources held within the planet’s crust, meaning gravity is
roughly the same as Earth’s despite the difference in size.

The human infrastructure of “COLONY ONE” spanned most of the planet’s

varied landscapes, from deserts, forests, oceans and tundras, all covered by a
mixture of indiginous plant life as well as modified variants of crops and trees
imported from Earth. Charnel was known among the more established inner
worlds as the “Jagged Jewel” for its dramatic natural beauty and rich
minerals, but also for its hazardous nature. Large predatory creatures roam
the planet and the colonists had to devise clever methods to live alongside
them.

Now, after the SCYTHE invasion known as the DAY OF KNIVES, Charnel, the
jagged jewel has become something else, something more scarred and
strange. The cratered landscape tells of myriad past battles; the colony
structures now lie destroyed and the occupants have all vanished. Downed
scythe ships and other burned out war machines dot the landscape and if
you know where to look, secure vaults, hastily buried by the original colonists
can yield valuable treasures, weapons, and clues to the past.
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JERICHO

A city sized vessel, Jericho was humanity’s largest starship, dispatched to

rescue Charnel after receiving a distorted SOS message that took years to
travel the distance between stars. Its mission was to repel any invasion and
restart the colony. The resource-intensive journey to Charnel lasted decades,
so humanity only had one shot. As such, the Jericho carried military
equipment as well as thousands of cryogenically-frozen humans to
repopulate Charnel.

But disaster befell The Jericho. For reasons unknown, the ship’s AI pilot
AMELIA malfunctioned as it entered Charnel’s orbit. This led to the
atmospheric entry angle briefly being set at 10% instead of 40%. The ship
crash landed onto Charnel and no waking crew survived the impact.

But once the dust settled, Amelia began waking up the sleeping human
cargo. Following her glitched programming, she supplies these newly-woken
humans with a standard issue MODEX (Modular-Exosuit), and releases them
into the strange and treacherous world of Charnel.

Now, Jericho exists as a melting pot of different factions and enclaves of these
reawakened humans who, as hunters of past relics, call themselves SEEKERS.
Jericho’s vast welded walls keep out marauding Scythe forces and Charnel
beasts alike and serves as a launching platform for lucrative raids into the
wilds.

Within Jericho, bazaars and markets flourish, reflecting Amelia’s insatiable

obsession with ‘trade’. The open air markets smell of incense and rust as
crowds gather to vye for the best prices and exchange secrets and tips that
might offer an edge on the outside. Seekers who would be mortal enemies
out in the wilds, coexist in Jericho as Amelia automatically disables all
weapons to ‘protect the market’.
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AMELIA

The capricious AI pilot of The Jericho, Amelia suffered a mysterious

programming malfunction on arrival at Charnel, causing the ship to crash.
She now exists as a sort of omniscient tin-pot mayor of Jericho, only partially
comprehending the new circumstances on Charnel. The anomaly in her
programming has given her a greater degree of self awareness than she
should have and she enjoys her new agradnised position in Jericho. But old
habits die hard and Amelia struggles to suppress her old subservient
personality and much to her chagrin, can’t help executing some of her old
functions.

Importantly, this includes involuntarily waking up cryo-frozen humans from

their sleep and providing them with a fresh MODEX and a cold cup of long
expired coffee.

However loose her screws might be, Amelia plays an important role in Jericho
culture, ensuring the safety of all seekers within Jericho’s walls by disabling all
weapons. She also controls the ship’s external autocannons, which keep
Jericho relatively safe from Scythe and creatures alike. Perhaps her most vital
role is in facilitating trade, which Amelia is obsessed with and around which,
all life in Jericho revolves. All markets run through her central quantium
computer systems and are traded in QBITS.

Amelia exists deep within Jericho’s systems and can broadcast her voice
across the settlement as well as into any seeker’s modex in the field. However
she has also chosen a mechanical avatar for herself - a mobile service drone
modified with a rotating carousel of three screens that represent the
competing aspects of her personality - the subservient pilot, the supercilious
mayor, and the hyperactive trader. Amelia can often be seen flying around
the Jericho markets, inducting new arrivals, yelling at traders and arguing
with herself.

The cause of Amelia’s rogue programming is the subject of much speculation

among Seekers. Parts of her data processing unit were ejected as the Jericho
crash landed, like black-box recorders. These may hold the answers for those
who care to find them.
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CREATURES OF Charnel

Ferocious beasts have always lived on Charnel, but their presence has been
antagonised by the conflict in the past decades. Many creatures have been
observed to become aggravated by excavation or other loud noises, meaning
certain actions in combat will be likely to attract their attention. Canny
seekers have taken note of creature behaviors and can exploit them to their
advantage in the field. However as seeker activity increases in an area, so will
the number of creatures. If you don’t get out at the right time, you’ll be
overwhelmed.

SEEKERS

Humans resuscitated from their cryo-sleep who have had to adapt to survive.
Too independent to be soldiers, too ferocious to be colonists, seekers traverse
the Charnel wilds in search of old world vaults, scythe caches, fierce but
valuable creatures to hunt, or perhaps just to ambush other seeker groups.

Ultimately they must all return to Jericho though, to refuel, sell their loot,
purchase new gear, or pick up leads on new opportunities.

Invariably, any seeker’s most prized possession is their Modex - an

ability-enhancing exo-suit that each seeker tailors individually to suit their
style of combat and aesthetically reflects their loyalties and personality.
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MODEX

Your MODEX or “Modular-Exosuit” is every Seeker’s most important piece of

equipment. It’s a highly customisable mechanical skeleton designed to assist
both colonists and military personnel in navigating Charnel.

Every seeker woken up by Amelia is automatically issued with the basic

model, but these can be kitted out with firearms, drilling equipment, medical
tools, jetpacks and almost anything else that can be found, stolen, or welded
together. Resourceful seekers have even found ways of grafting reclaimed
Scythe technology onto MODEX units for extra abilities.

Aesthetically, these suits are highly customised with trophies or parts of

creatures slain in the wilds. Their colouring often aligns Seekers with certain
factions or clans to avoid friendly fire in the field.

THE SCYTHE

This terrifying race of aliens invaded Charnel 30 years ago on The Day of
Knives. Their main force appears to have since moved on, leaving behind
scattered garrisons who roam the landscapes, attacking seekers at will.
Scythes are tactically aggressive, technologically advanced and appear to
have a hierarchy of different forms, although how this works isn’t fully
understood. Scythes never allow themselves to be captured alive, but their
superior technology and mysterious bone-like carapaces are highly prized by
seekers.

Some seeker factions believe that the Scythes predate the first human colony
on Charnel, that the Jagged Jewel is somehow sacred to them. In which case,
we were the invading force and the human mineral extractors provoked the
Scythe to return. But this view is not widely held.
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DAY OF KNIVES

The Scythe invasion of Charnel became known as ‘The Day of Knives’ after the
knife-shaped dropships the scythe used in their coordinated attack on the
planet. These vicious looking ships descended from orbit and gouged
themselves into the ground as scythe troops burst forth. Many of these knife
ships still stand, jutting out of the Charnel landscape like giant teeth.

Exactly what happened on the Day of Knives remains a mystery. It appears

the human forces did their best to resist but were quickly overwhelmed.
Other colonists appear to have found inventive ways of fighting back using
guerilla tactics and powerful homebrew weaponry, but many of these secrets
have been lost or deliberately buried in VAULTS.

No original colonists appear to have survived the Day of Knives, but also no
bodies were found, leading to speculation that the main scythe force took the
colonists off world when they left… to what end, remains a mystery.

VAULTS

Following the Day of Knives, the colonists of Charnel scrambled to protect

themselves and their valuables against the onslaught. Many chose to bury all
manner of valuables in custom made VAULTS hidden all across the landscape.
Being predominantly miners, burying these vaults was a natural and easy
security solution. Most of these vaults can only be accessed with
corresponding keycards. When the colonists disappeared, the keycards did
not and so they can often be found scattered across Charnel, waiting to be
discovered and fought over by opportunistic seekers. The contents of Vaults
include weapons, blueprints, resources and local lore.
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BLADE STINGS

Bladestings (or often just ”stings”) are The scythe equivalent of vaults. It
appears that many of the scythe dropships had to disembark in a hurry and
left behind part of their ship embedded in the ground to expedite takeoff.
These became known as stings as the result is similar to a bee leaving an
embedded stinger after an attack.

Killing scythe warriors and decoding their data stores will help locate these
buried stings. This can prove extremely lucrative as stings often hold rare and
valuable scythe technology.

COLONY ONE

The original human colony on Charnel established by The League. Many of

the earliest colony structures were built by self-replicating interstellar
reconnaissance probes.

The humans of colony one later arrived in a vast starship called The Hattusa,
that set to work establishing a planet-wide mining operation.

Due to Charnel’s extreme distance from all other human worlds, Colony One
was never intended to trade with other worlds or be resupplied, instead it was
meant to be self sufficient and over generations and build up enough
resources to construct its own ships to further colonise the galaxy. In a project
codenamed “Sursum”, Charnel was intended to become the first node in a
new chain of human worlds expanding into the fringes of the galaxy, hence
the name: Colony “ONE”.

It appears many of the thousands of workers unhappy with the conditions

imposed by the League took advantage of Charnel’s isolation from League
reinforcements and staged a revolt known as the Ossian Revolution. Shortly
after this, the Scythe invaded and now all that remains of Colony One are
overgrown ruins, treacherous mines and of course… vaults.
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WEAPONS

The lawless nature of the Charnel wilds has made weapons the most highly
prized commodity a seeker can own. Often heavily modified and customised
by their owners, weapons are seen as status symbols in seeker culture.

Weapons range from basic standard issue firearms issued by Amelia, to

unique improvised guns made and hidden by the original inhabitants of
Colony One. Some lucky seekers have managed to obtain Scythe weapons
and have grafted them to their modex for extra firepower.

Some of the more advanced weapons available to a seeker will have to be

constructed using blueprints and crafting materials collected in the field.
These blueprints were created by the colonists from Colony One and detail
inventive homebrew methods of defeating the scythe or indiginous Charnel
monsters.

DROP PODS

Using repurposed ejectable life-pod systems, seekers can blast off from
Jericho to almost anywhere on Charnel. Fired from a giant rail-cannon on
Jericho, these pods’ descent can be steered down to any point on the map.

After dramatically touching down in the wilds, the drop-pod will

automatically begin charging its engines until it’s ready to blast its occupant
off again for the return trip (usually in a hail of gunfire, loot and monsters!)

Just be wary that other seekers don’t hijack your drop-pod for the return
journey and leave you with loads of loot, but no way home.
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SCYTHE GATEWAYS

Little is known about these mysterious portals which have been observed to
appear seemingly at random, throughout Charnel. These glowing gateways
are believed to be part of the scythe’s invasion infrastructure. Sustained using
yet undeciphered scythe technology, entering one of these gateways will
teleport a seeker to a different random part of the map in an instant.

The ride is so wild and nauseating that experienced seekers have nicknamed
gateways ‘vomit comets’, but while dangerous, making smart use of a
gateway could be the difference between life and death.

HATTUSA

The original colony ship dispatched to Charnel. The Hattusa was the precursor
(and sister ship) to The Jericho and was a similar model and size. Knowledge
of its location has now been lost and it is unknown whether it successfully
evacuated Charnel some time after the Day of Knives, or if it somehow
survived the ensuing destruction.

THE LEAGUE

The League is an interstellar coalition of human worlds. Bureaucratic but

powerful, it controls and coordinates all of humanity’s combined militarised
forces. exists with the primary goal of propagating human habitation
throughout the galaxy - expansion.

The League has dispatched two incredibly expensive quantum starships to

Charnel: Hattusa and Jericho, both now lost, representing an enormous sunk
cost. It remains to be seen if it will commit to a third, but Charnel’s enticing
position as an important foothold to further expansion, hasn’t changed.
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OSSIAN REVOLUTION

Beneath the scarring from the scythe invasion, there is evidence of a deeper,
earlier past conflict on Charnel - a revolution originating in the mines. It
seems even the apparent halcyon days of Colony One were troubled. Delve
deep enough into the abandoned mines or destroyed industrial quarters of
charnel and you’ll find revolutionary banners, graffiti and other relics of
revolution..

A significant subset of the miners, calling themselves the ‘OSSIANS’ - the vital
skeleton of Charnel’s infrastructure, became so unhappy with their
indentured position digging for minerals to build a grand future not meant
for them, that the miners staged an uprising against the colony’s League
government, demanding autonomy and increased rights. The tension spilled
over into conflict, with many mining facilities becoming battlegrounds. The
miners improvised weapons made from mining technology - from laser
cutters, to seismic inducers.

This distracting civil conflict may help explain why the scythe were able to
decimate the human settlements so swiftly on the Day of Knives, but also
why it seems many seemingly unarmed civilians were able to hold out for
months after the invasion.
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TIMELINE OF CHARNEL’S HISTORY (KNOWN EVENTS ONLY)

3050 - Unmanned scout probe identifies Charnel as habitable.

3052 - Probe begins self replicating to perform advanced construction for

“Colony One”

3060 - Humanity’s coalition of worlds - THE LEAGUE, dispatches the colony

ship HATTUSA to settle and colonise Charnel.

3070 - Hattusa successfully touches down on Charnel.

3085 - Colony One fully operable. Colony spans the whole planet. 13 Mining
operations underway. All available resources reserved for PROJECT SURSUM.

3090 - Ossian Revolution begins. Mining operation shuts down. Colony One’s
League forces dispatched to quell the uprising. Conflict escalates and spreads
across Charnel.

3092 - DAY OF KNIVES. Scythe forces invade Charnel. Planetary

communication network severed. Hattusa goes dark. Only one interstellar
SOS message successfully transmitted.

3097 - SOS received by League outpost.

4000 - JERICHO dispatched to reclaim Charnel, repel invasion and

re-establish colony.

4010 - Jericho arrives at Charnel, but an AI malfunction causes Jericho to

crashland. All active personnel are killed but cryobanks are unharmed.

4011 - AMELIA secures the Jericho wreck and begins waking frozen humans
from stasis. QBIT currency re-established.

c.4015 - Jericho city and factions established. First seekers begin to conduct
raids into Charnel for resources.

4025 - Present day. The day *you* wake up...