Getica is a project that includes
two 3D,
third person, single player RPGs. The foundation of the games is formed by
the classic concepts of the RPG: assuming a role in a story, developing the
playing character, becoming part of a class, solving quests, acquiring
items and special abilities. To this skeleton, Getica adds a special approach
of the magic powers available in the game and a dynamic, real-time
combat system, which will emphasize both the character's power and the player's
skill. The main character is part
of a "living" world, and his passage produces visible changes. Our goal is to
give the player the sensation that he's acting inside a real world that follows
its own ways, and that his mere presence can disturb the delicate and
long before established relations that hold together the parts of this
breathing system.
The action in Getica takes place during the golden ages
of the
Dacian civilization. The Dacians - also known as the
Getae,
thus the name
Getica - were the most important and well organized of the
thracian peoples. The Thracians were one of the oldest European civilizations;
at the peak of their power, they occupied over half the Europe and some territories
in the Middle East.
The player will get in contact with the mythology and
spirituality of the Getae, and will be able to observe the relations and the
influences between this civilization and the rest of the ancient european cultures:
the
Celts, the
Norse, the
Greeks and the
Romans. The
adventure begins in a crucial moment for the Getae's history in particular, but
also for the rest of the contemporary peoples in a broader context. The player
will represent the values and the interests of the Getae in this critical moment
and will be responsible for the communication between them and the rest of the
cultures.
Due to the fact that one of Getica's main goals is
to present the getic civilization both from a spiritual point of view, as
well as in the context of the historic events that it has been part of, the
project was split in two parts from the beginning.
The first part is called
Cult of the Elders, and will
act as an introduction into the atmosphere, accomodating the player with the
Getae and their culture. Of the two, this part is closest to the classic fantasy
RPG, as it will be played from a wizard's perspective and its world will be
inhabited by mythological creatures.
Cult of the Elders is a game that
appeals to any player, because it doesn't require any initial knowledge of the
Getae. The action is not very well anchored in time; it takes place somewhere
between 1000 and 500 BC.
On the contrary, the second part, called
Roman Wars,
is well defined in time; its action is placed at the limit between the first and
the second century AD. During this time, the Getae fought a series of wars against
the Roman Empire, and the events in the second title closely follow the history
of that period. While maintaining the third person RPG skeleton,
Roman Wars
is not a fantasy game. Instead, it creates its gameplay by mixing a complicated
political plot with military strategy and tactics elements. This game's world will
contain evidence of the events that took place in the first part, and its
subtleties will unveil more easily to someone who has also played
Cult of the Elders.
The RPG was a natural choice for this kind of
presentation. As a genre where the player plays a part in a series of events,
and where progress is based on applying knowledge gathered earlier in the game,
the RPG is the ideal tool for turning a player's eyes and heart towards
the fascinating world of an ancient civilization.
The player will live the adventure of
Cult of the Elders
through the eyes of a
hultan. The hultan was a powerful getian wizard who
controlled the manifestations of the weather: the rain, the storm, the mist, etc.
The conflict in this first part is given by the degradation of the Magic, due to
the fact that people are slowly turning away from the ancestral rites and are
starting to embrace new values and ways of life. The main character, knowing that his
destiny is tightly and intricately linked with the faith of the Magic, will try to
fight against the annihilation of the ancient powers. In his quest, he will discover
that the Magic wielded by mages of the other civilizations is also fading. The pieces
that form the final puzzle will be gathered not only from the Getae, but from the
Celts, the Norse and the Greeks as well. The player will meet mythological beings from
all these cultures, and in key moments will be given the chance to
turn some of these creatures or some of the powers of the old world into his allies,
if he manages to convince them that they too are affected by the change.
The action of the first game in the Getica series happens at
the same time with an historic event that radically changed the Getae: the coming
of the prophet
Zalmoxe and the birth of his religion. The main character
will have to discover in what way this prophet and his religion are linked with
the degradation of the old Magic.
The
Dacians chapter
in the
Peoples section of the site contains more information about the
myth of the hultan, about Zalmoxe and the religion of the Getae in general.
