Golden Land Game Elements

Part 4: Gameworld

2003-03-18

In this series of Golden Land features we cooperate with publisher Russobit and developer Burut to tackle a single element of the game at a time. The feature is split up in an overview of the feature and a short Q&A to get more detailed information about some of the mentioned aspects.

The gameworld of Golden Land is divided into several regions, magic and fascinating countries. Today we’ll tell you about two of these lands.

Golden land, The Land of Golden Mountains
Golden Land is a vast fertile plain, edged by thick mountain ranges. The first pilgrims who came here in the immemorial times, were amazed by the amounts of gold in the bordering mountains and named their land after this precious metal. The great natural resources prepared the basis for the agriculture in this land, so a large part of the population are shepherds and cultivators. The great Ra-river flows over the plains of Golden Land. At the east and south-east this land is limited by the great Ripei mountain ranges.

Once at the western mountainsides of the Ripei mountains there were a lot of tribes consisting of little people named the gmures. They were the industrious miners, who loved the mountains and different mechanisms. The development of the human nation in Golden Land resulted in the people starting to dig the deep mines and force the gmures out of their native place of living. There was the danger of war between the two nations, but after some time the gmurian leaders decided not to come into conflict and moved to Marvia through the secret tunnels.

The protector of Golden Land, Belobog, took care of the people living there for hundreds of years, taught them how to obtain fire, cultivate the land and make different things from metal. But, besides the Lucid Gods, the evil forces were always present in the world. Looking at the prosperity of Golden Land, the Dark Gods became envious and lustful for power. That's when Drakh-Shu appeared - the monstrous incarnation of the Dark forces. He was able to control the death, and created the great army of the living corpses - vaigaks, against which even the best warriors of Golden Land were powerless. Only two Great Heroes - Velemir and Velena managed to stop the mortal danger which threatened all the land. They overcame all the barriers, destroyed Drakh-Shu and the peace came over the land again.

Even after three hundred years, Golden Land has not yet recovered from the Dark Invasion, and for the moment it is the land of the farmers and cattle-farmers. The people of Golden Land are mostly tall and white-haired. A king is the head of the state: he controls mayors in the cities and in the villages. There's no slavery in the land, and there's enough land for everybody.

From the times of the Great Heroes and Drakh-Shu confrontation, people almost forgot their gods. New objects of deference came to take their places. The most prevailing is the Heroes Cult, which is based on the worship of Velemir and Velena. Those who practice this cult consider that the humans, like the Great Heroes, should be strong both by body and soul. The followers of this cult live in the temple in the center of Golden Land's capital - Svetlograd, and every year they take on thirty novices who want to achieve perfection.

In spite of people's recreancy, the Lucid Gods remember and take care of their creatures. Sometimes the Gods help them to solve their problems, talk to them through their dreams, and give advice to them.

In spite of the time passed, the invasion of Dark forces left it's traces, the map of the land underwent changes - some cities disappeared, other ones appeared.

Now Golden Land consists of the capital, Svetlograd, which is situated at the north, the agricultural settlement Velegrad, which became the town, the trade capital Ra-city and the villages Som and Maiden Field.

Turbern
Turbern is the land situated at the south from Golden Land and at south-west from Marvia. The people who live there, at first lived at the canyons of the southern range of the Ripei Mountains and extracted ore from it. They achieved great successes as blacksmiths. Because of the badlands they have to exchange their goods for food and household goods, because the hunt, traditional for the Turbernians, was not able to feed the growing population of the land. When trade relations began to form, the Turbernians started to come down the mountains, settling at the swamps and forests at the southeast. The climate in Turbern is not so good for living though. It's cold and it often rains.

The history of this land is connected with the mountains. In these mountains the first clans came to existence, which still play an important part. In the ancient times there were many clans, and during a conflict between two of them - the Mangaurs and the Serugenets - a person appeared, a person who later played a great part in the history of Turbern. The king Hvarung First conquered all clans and created a new, strong state, with the capital named in his honor. Other legends say that Turbern was once a part of the big Star Kingdom Renadul, which included Marvia also.

Three hundred years ago the Turbernians were the first who took the blow of the Drakh-Shoo forces upon themselves and took part in the next battles of the Great Heroes against evil.

After victory over Drakh-Shu, the influence of the two powerful ancient clans - the Mangaurs and Serugenets - slowly came to its end. They were both destroyed by the young but aggressive clan Ljoth, whos power now is challenged by the growing clan Audun.

For many years the wars between clans are tearing Turbern apart, weakening the country and preventing its unification. Today a new group gains the power in this country - anarchists, who want to destroy all clans.

The base of Turbernian economy, as many years ago, is hunting, ore extraction and making forged goods. The Turberian weapons are the best in the world, and their axe-warriors are well-known for their skills.

Turbern consists of Hvarung, Orog, Hutlendal, Vega and the small fishermen's settlement, Tarvik.

Q&A
Dmitry Glasnev, the script-writer for Golden Land was kind enough to answer a few questions about todays feature for us.

RPGDot: Are there specific features and/or magic that only apply to people living in Goldenland? or Turbern? That people from other regions don't have.

Dmitry: Of course, there are many distinctions between the people of Golden Land, Turbern and Marvia, including the field of magic spells. All three countries have their unique culture, and, in accordance with it, people dress, speak, and behave differently. They treat trespassers in different ways, and react on the events in the world and on meddling in their business differently. The residents of different districts have a different inventory, which depends on both geographic position of location where the character lives, and the level of the character.

RPGDot: What's the relationship between the people from Golden Land and Turbern?

Dmitry: Long ago, when Turbern was not a separate state, but was just a group of hostile clans, Golden Land has already been formed as an independent country with fair rules and powerful centralized government. The relations in this period were only at trade level - the Turbernians always were the unsurpassed blacksmiths, but the mountainous location where they have lived was not ver good for agriculture, so their masterpieces of weapons art were mostly bartered for bread from Golden Land - with the help of Marvian merchants, of course. The connection between Marvia and Golden Land was broken, and because of that the relations between the two lands have exhausted. That's the situation nowadays.

RPGDot: Can I travel freely from one country to the other or does it depend on events in the game?

Dmitry: The first problem the player will face is the necessity to find the passage through Ripei Mountains, which leads to Marvia, forgotten long time ago by the people of both countries. There are no barriers in communication between Marvia and Turbern, so, when the character will find this passage, he'll have full access to all cities and settlements of Marvia and Turbern - to most part of the world, as it seems. We think that such an approach to the accessibility of the gaming locations gives the player the feeling of freedom - most fully and, what is more important - close to real life.

RPGDot : Is it required to know the background information to play the game? Or in other words how does the story given for the two countries influence the storyline?

Dmitry: No, in the game there will be no need to know the history of Golden Land and other countries in detail. The game is quite independent and separate from the first part, and it does not require anything from the player, except some desire and good sense. On the other hand, the knowledge about the gaming world will make the process of walking through it even more atmospheric and fascinating. The player will understand the motivation and behavior of different characters, their actions and views on events taking place. Besides, we hope that for those who played Heath it will be interesting to meet some known characters - for example, Ivlis, the immortal cursed Marvian merchant.

RPGDot: In which city do we start? And what are we when we begin the game?

Dmitry: The game starts at the capital of Golden Land - Svetlograd. This is the most ancient and one of the biggest towns of this land. Our character is the modest apprentice of the Great Heroes temple, situated in the center of the city. The temple was built by the admirers of the Great Heroes who defeated Drakh-Shu - of Velemir and Velena. In his attempts to find out the reason of the evil omens, which took place recently, and total worsening of Golden Land's state, The Great Priest of the temple, Kotar, obeying the will of the Lucid Gods, sends the apprentice to search for the legendary sorcerer of the past, Shurba-Khal, who, as legends said, had mastered the secret of immortality and still lives somewhere in Marvia. Kotar hopes that Shurba Khal's wisdom will help to answer the questions.