Hi everyone, I’m the producer of Annulus. I’ve wanted to start this series for a long time—we want to share our thoughts on “why we designed things this way” with you, honestly. Let's begin with the name:
Why ''Annulus''?
''Annulus'' literally refers to a loop—something circular, layered, and enclosing.
But for us, it’s not just a shape. It’s a worldview.
1. The Starting Point: A 'Cyclical' World
From the project's inception, we envisioned a ''cyclical'' world.
Not merely circular terrain or fate spinning in circles, but something deeper:
Every life form at each tier is trapped within a self-contained loop.
They live, choose, and struggle with endless repetition, believing they've broken free only to enter a larger cycle.
You can think of it as a structure—
Small loops within larger loops, each nested within the next. What seems like an endpoint at one level is actually the starting point for the next.
We believe this ''annulus-like'' structure mirrors the real world more closely than a straight line:
Growth isn't a linear ascent, but a cycle of repetition, collision, doubt, and continually trying to understand your place within the system.
2. Ants and Humans: A Cross-Hierarchical Perspective Gap
To illustrate this ''circular'' sensation, we often use a theoretical analogy:
To ants, humans are neither good nor evil. You don’t intentionally kill ants, nor do you intentionally help them. You simply pass by—maybe you step on many without noticing, or maybe you stop out of curiosity and watch them. A breath from you can blow some ants onto food, while others fall into water and drown.
But ants cannot comprehend ''unintentional''.
They can only interpret everything through the logic of their own level:
- Blown onto food: ''The gods have blessed me.''
- Drowned in water: ''The gods are punishing us.''
A vast hierarchical gap exists between humans and ants.
Human actions exceed ants' comprehension, so “chance” becomes ''divine will''.
3. The Three Questions of Life, and the Cycle of ''Divinity''
That brings us to the oldest questions of all:
Who am I? Where did I come from? Where am I going?
From a higher perspective, humans may not be so different from ants.
Our understanding of ''divinity''—or ''beings beyond our level''—is inherently limited.
We strive to explain the world, make sense of destiny, and search for meaning, yet often we can only grasp the cause-and-effect within our own level.
Thus, we continually look upward, continually attempt to approach something higher:
Faith, sacrifice, imitating divine actions, pursuing truth, pursuit of transcendence…
Yet no matter how hard we try, it’s nearly impossible for humans to fully cross their own boundary.
This is another meaning of ''annulus'' for us:
Transcendence and limitation coexist. We believe we're approaching ultimate answers, but what we truly reach is often greater unknowns, and new cycles.
4.Back to Annulus
Thus, the name Annulus isn't only a concept from our lore. It represents our fundamental assessment of this world:
-Insurmountable gaps exist between tiers, and conflict often stems from misunderstanding.
-Every breakthrough may merely mark the beginning of a larger loop.
-War is not a straight line toward victory or defeat, but collisions between rings—pulling, devouring, reshaping one another.
What you experience in the game is not only battlefield progression.
Over time, you''ll see that every faction, every belief, every choice is trying to prove itself within its own "rings".
And when rings collide, war erupts.
That’s all for this episode.
If you're interested, next time I'll discuss:
What exactly does ''war'' mean in Annulus? And how it locks together with the cyclical structure you experience in gameplay.
I hope this title gives you a deeper sense of what we aim to convey.
Thanks for reading this far—see you next time.