Board Thread:Planning/@comment-1743498-20160124131621

With there being some discussion on incorporating my ongoing Project: Light World into HM Wiki, I think it's a good time to revamp it and refit this place.

Of course, seeing as the game's plot is still subject to change, the sorts of articles I'm looking to add are those relating to either backstory and history or about unrelated areas not in the game. I'm specifically avoiding putting out the entire game's storyline to avoid constraining myself during development.

However, for now, I'm not too concerned about continuity. I'm looking to just simply have a place where the setting and atmosphere can be further fleshed out.

Stylistic changes
First off, I'm looking to have the overall atmosphere shift towards light and whimsical with dark undertones. While Erudite Tales is a Tolkien/D&D type fantasy as its primary world, Hallows Maleficient would be an expressionist, symbolic fantasy as a secondary world where Earth exists as the primary world. Think Alice in Wonderland or Wizard of Oz.

Settings would base themselves around emotions and ideas. Less realism and more magical wonder. These worlds are dreams so they can be totally anachronistic or plain weird in other ways. Literally anything is impossible. If you can have a dream about visiting this place, then it's fair game as a setting.

The horror element would be a lot more subtle, much more psychological than physical. Essentially, the type of horror you would find in the fairy tales. Less gross-out type scare and more psychological horror.

Setting ideas
The different hallows on the wiki are dream worlds created by the thoughts and nightmares of humans. These dream worlds can look like anything and can have anything in it. However, unlike real dreams which vanish when you wake up, these worlds persist afterwards and can be visited by other people. I'm just using the term "dream" since these are just magical lands with no grounded basis in realism.

Light World, for example, is a dream world created for innocent souls that met tragic circumstances. Light World is a place of healing where they can be at ease with fun and games and relaxation. However, the demon Antithesis corrupted Light World turning it into a realm of madness and terror.

Earth does exist in this setting, so references can be made to it. It would be pretty much exactly like our world except that the supernatural is a thing. However, it is more or less a backdrop and any occurrences on Earth would be low scale such as within a school or small town. So there wouldn't be any real significant deviation from real world history.

So how do people visit these dream worlds? Well, several ways. When a human dies, their soul can find themselves in one of these worlds as a sort of afterlife. Another way is a person that comes very close to death or goes into a death-like state. And the third way is to use astral projection, going into a deep state of meditation to enter these worlds. Since these worlds associated with the deepest of emotions and coming to terms with death, they do tend to be a bit grim-looking or outright disturbing. Others however are more lighthearted and joyous. Ultimately though, they are shaped by whoever dreamt these worlds up.

So what do you think? Any feedback would be great. 