Mimesis Online from Polish Developer Tannhauser Gate, is a role-playing game which transports you to a world where the borders between reality and illusion do not exist. An unimaginable catastrophe on a cosmic scale transformed this world, playing havoc with the natural order of things, twisting everything, even time itself, wiping out civilisation as we know it. For the Universe itself, everything changed and nothing changed - a new order was established, one where entropy rules, without intelligent beings working to hold it back. The beings who survived the catastrophe have tried to rebuild their world, each in their own way. They once again want to enforce on the natural chaos their order, their ways - authority, money, prejudice, cruelty and conviction of their own superiority. Once again, they are showing the unlimited ability of intelligent races to adapt and survive. The forgotten civilisation is waking up and slowly but surely emerging as the "new" civilisation - and how similar it is to the old one.

On a regular basis we will feature a developer's diary made by the Mimesis Online development team. In this diary Derek Handley talks about the upcoming beta and finalises the first of the P&P Roleplaying tests that have been performed to see how well a player could get into a world that far removed in time from ours.

Part 8. "Buried Secrets"

If you haven't read Part 7, I'd advise you to go back and take a look at it now - this starts where it left off...

The arachne swung its great head from side to side in the darkness of the tunnel, trying to sense what was ahead. It was not capable of reasoning, but its rudimentary intelligence 'knew' that something was wrong. The tunnel should lead forward and down, becoming narrower until it reached the spawning chambers, yet the arachne could sense a wide open space, open to the sky, and an acrid smell like burning flesh. And it could sense something moving around - invaders from another colony? Prey? It tried to determine what was ahead, all the while preparing its spawn-pods...

Iridia was having second thoughts again. 'Maybe this is not such a good idea - who would we sell this information to anyway?' Jezkirriak drew himself up from his examination of the only undamaged metal drum he had managed to find. 'Every scrap of information is important.' 'I must know if this threatens the access fields - I sense a familiar energy,' Desaf added, getting as close as he could to the twisted metal in the centre of the pit. Iridia looked unconvinced, standing off to one side. To have something to do, she set her visor to scan the walls of the pit - maybe if she could find something that would satisfy their curiosity, they would all the sooner be able to leave. The enhanced images flooded into her eyes...what was that!?!
'What?' Nil asked, and she realized she'd spoken aloud. 'Something moved on the wall up there - it came running across my field of vision.' 'I can't see anything - hey, Jez, shine your torch over here...there's nothing there.' 'Well, there's nothing there now - I said it was moving fast,' she said, a little more sharply than she'd intended to. She flipped open her biocon panel on her left wrist, and started to recalibrate her visor for motion detection.

Desaf was ignoring the others. He couldn't shake the feeling that the energy he could feel was familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. 'If only I had scanners here...' The twisted sheets and bars of metal seemed to emanate the energy, but other than that, looked perfectly normal. There was some writing on the lower side of one, just hidden from view - human alphabet, printed on. Shielding itself from the heat from the nearest burning drum, Desaf tried to get a better look.
Nil felt a touch surplus to requirements - he was curious to know what was going on, but could contribute little. As Jezkirriak returned to his examination of the drums, Nil kicked over some stones and fragments of metal that were lying on the floor.
Then he saw something, out of the corner of his eye - a flash of movement. 'I saw something too.' Jezkirriak looked up sharply - three pairs of eyes scanned the walls, Desaf still focused on the inscription.

Nothing...movement! 'Over there!' Iridia trained her pistol into the darkness. 'Did anyone see it properly?' 'Another one!' That got even Desaf's attention.
And the spawn attacked, launching themselves from the walls they had been scuttling around, poison stingers streteched in the direction of the 'invaders'. The spawns' bulbous, tripedal bodies could be seen now, in the light of the torches, the glow of the fires and the pulses of two shots fired from Iridia's pistol. The first shot went wild, the second caught one of the spawn on the side, sending it spinning off to one side. Desaf deflected another with the power of his mind; Jezkirriak dodged the others, trying to measure up his foe. Nil, trying to activate his energy shield, looked up just in time to see the stinger sweep down and embed itself in his shoulder. A sharp burning sensation followed - poison! - and, dropping to one knee, he flicked on his Medikit, on Auto, so it would pump the appropriate Biodote into his bloodstream. Iridia fired again, a flash of light followed by a squeal of pain in the darkness, and Jezkirriak made his move, focusing the energies that flow through him into hardening his skin, and belting the skull-sized attackers away from the group. Impaling one on a rusted metal rod from the wreckage, Desaf tried to gauge the distance to the lip of the pit - could he manage a strategic retreat with the whole group?

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