Merry Quiffmas
...and a Heron New Year!
Okay, festive puns aside, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Seasonal Greetings, Celebratory 25th December, and Good Day. Take your pick of your favourite greeting.
I was too busy enjoying my presents and being excited about Santa's visitations to write you guys a substantial update (but I did make the today's Top-Story header-image!), but Lord Snakie was kind enough to fill the gaps with his own Christmas pressie for you all to feast upon with sharpened knives and forks.
I think I'll pass things over to him now:
Hello Susslings!
Lord Snakie here, your resident Founder in charge of Universe-Building for our upcoming game "Heron". It's the holiday season (or so I hear), and the figurative Santa of Suss is YOOOUUUU!!
Well, no, it's me, as a matter of fact.
I've crawled away from the drunkards at my family dinner, fought my way through the vicious freezing rain of doom, and driven all the way back to my home precisely so I can deliver these words of wisdom and win to you on this very merry of days. The Heron team has been working hard these past few days (despite a myriad of roadblocks and misunderstandings that plagued the beginning of the concept art phase of our work) to deliver some awesome art to you - the catch, you ask? They only had about three or four days of dedicated time to get art ready. And, to be a Brit for a moment, they did a "bang-up job". That's right, innit, John? [Ed's Note: -.-' yes, Snakie, a pure bra wee jobbie they did, ken?]
Anyhow, as long as my compatriot Cheeh and I are still working dutifully on the difficult and daunting task of creating a Universe, the artists naturally cannot grant you detailed art based on specific scenes or on characters and enemies that we haven't quite given them the full details on yet. Rest assured though, O watchers of Heron, that we are well on our way to completing the Game Bible. As soon as it is finished and we release the Story and Game Bibles' entirety to our Artists and Writers, there will be so much concept art that your computer will probably explode from the sheer awesome. Or maybe from the size and numerous nature of the files.
Either way, don't tell your momma it was us. We enjoy our relationship with her. [Ed's Note: sorry, Bungie, we got there first that night]
But telling you that the entire Whisper team is your new daddy isn't why I came back home today (although I certainly did look forward to informing you, sport, don't worry about that!). I came back home today to show you some (I can't very well give away any big secrets now, can I?) of the unbelievable work that our artists are doing and to give you a bit more insight into the vast and truly marvelous world that is Heron. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the art while I take you on a journey to Mars....
Click for larger version.
Heron takes place in 2189, over fifty years after a comet strike devastated Earth in 2136. The only known group of humans that survived the civilization-crippling blow exists on a partially-terraformed Mars, which the above concept art details a terminal for. Mars began down the path to terraforming in 2053 when its core was re-ignited with the use of precision lasers, heat-radiation technology, and nuclear elements. This re-liquefied core has brought Mars' ancient magnetic field back to life, in a manner of speaking, protecting the planet from Sol's deadly radiation.
Click for larger version.
Click for larger version.
In 2087, with overpopulation rampant on Earth, the official terraforming process begins, and thousands of citizens flock to live on the "new frontier" in ships like the ones shown in the concept art above. They arrive at Mars and quickly begin constructing underground facilities with dedicated oxygen supplies where plants can be grown and then transplanted to the surface to steadily and efficiently increase oxygen in the atmosphere. In the meantime, many bio-domes are constructed on the planet's surface where families can live and otherwise assist the process. The planned date for terraforming completion is 2300.
Click for larger version.
Click for larger version.
But in 2133, archaeologists discover an alien artifact on Luna (early concept art for that Artifact pictured above). The government of Earth is worried about popular response, especially religious response, to bringing an artifact of a professed alien race to Earth - if aliens exist, the religious community would fracture, they reasoned, and the stability of the planet would be threatened. Thus, a group of scientists are sent with the Artifact to Mars, where they can safely study it in the underground facilities used for plant growth.
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But things don't go as planned. The Artifact is not dormant as the humans came to believe, and its ill effects become apparent shortly after the comet strikes Earth and the terraforming efforts on Mars are stalled. The Artifact exerts a field of Indoctrinating effect- the purpose of this field is unknown, but all who exist within it come to serve what they perceive as the Artifact's ultimate goals. The Artifact is not only used to Indoctrinate, however, but to mutate - anyone who comes into direct contact with it has a chance of being mutated, either into a gross or impressively powerful new physical form, or into a being with telekinetic powers. The reasons for these mutations, or why they fail in some or succeed so grandly in others, are completely unknown. The beings with telekinetic powers are known as "Cerebrals", and the lovely fellow shown above (whom we have lovingly nicknamed "Jeremy", although we don't quite know why he has birds in his hair) is one of them. To be specific, he's a Priest... but you don't get to know anything more about them than that they exist, for the moment.
Click for larger version.
Click for larger version.
Click for larger version.
Mars descends into war. The faction known as the "Zealots", beings that have been Indoctrinated by the Artifact, take control of the underground facilities (the only locations with dedicated oxygen supplies) and set about increasing their numbers. On the surface, rioting and the fight to survive on a barely-terraformed planet destroys order and life-supporting facilities more effectively than the Zealots ever could; the surviving humans on the surface have no choice but to turn to the genetic treatments that they originally used to increase survivability in animals and plants in order to improve their own odds. Years pass, and the humans on the surface - all of the ones still alive having turned to genetic treatments to increase their odds for survival and decrease their dependence on raw materials long past - form a coalition. This coalition is tentatively called the Genetics' Pact; the collective simply becomes known as the Genetics. They build habitats, hunt for food, cultivate plants, and build both light and heavy weapons for any instance; some of those weapons are shown above.
But the Zealots have not been quiet all these years while the Genetics have been forming their alliance. They have been slowly but steadily picking up stray humans that come into the Indoctrination field, studying the artifact, and attaining and making their own weapons and armor. When they are ready, they burst from the underground with a Telekinetic - the first telekinetic - at their head. The year is 2169.
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Enter the present, 2189. The first telekinetic is long dead, martyred in 2169, the same year he came to power - but in that time, much worse and much more powerful telekinetics have come into being, much worse and much more deadly physical mutants have been formed, and the war has been raging for two decades. You are a Genetic Commando, one of the few who has received treatments while still in the womb. You represent the pinnacle of survivability and strength that the Genetics have to offer - you're one of the best. Your team - known as Heron Squad - is a special forces strike group employed by the Genetic Military designed to get in, get the job done, and get out with minimum Genetic casualties and maximum punishment to the Zealots. You're about to be sent in on a mission, the most important one since the war began two decades ago.
Welcome to Hell.
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