The bestiary in Deathless sheds light on the game’s monsters and NPCs, providing insight into the game’s story.
Join our narrative designer Vitaliya Voronova as she recounts the story behind the creation of the bestiary and explains how to unlock its entries.
When did you realize a bestiary was needed?
We’ve always wanted to add something of the kind. As development progressed, the main story kept changing alongside the characters’ stories and their presentation. At last, we settled on the Hero’s Path. Once it was released, we quickly realized that it wasn’t enough for the players to get immersed into the main story or fully appreciate the game’s world — so the idea of designing a bestiary resurfaced.
Were the stories in the bestiary created from scratch or taken straight from Roman Papsuev’s books?
The bestiary entries are not directly linked with the books. We decided early on that the books — The Battle for Lukomorye series specifically — and the games should exist in what you’d call parallel realities. They may share the same main cast and basic concepts inherent to the world of Tales of Old Rus, but they’re still different works set against the same background.
Will the bestiary tell us about all creatures from the game or just selected ones?
The bestiary contains stories about all characters that can be fought in Deathless. Each foe has three to five dedicated pages that need to be discovered first. It’s not just about enemies, of course. In these stories, you’ll also meet allies and some NPCs that can be encountered as you progress through the game.
Will we get to learn more about the Barker?
The Barker has a story of its own!
How exactly do you unlock bestiary entries?
Whenever you come across a new foe, their base entry is unlocked immediately. You’ll have to win the battle in order to unlock some of the actual story, though. Each victory unlocks a part of the story about one of the monsters you defeated.
Did you face any challenges when working on the bestiary?
Quite a few, actually. I set out to work knowing that all stories needed to be intertwined with each other. For example, one of the entries mentions a sorceress who then immediately goes missing. Sometime later, you find out that she was murdered by a dark wizard in a different story, which sets the stage for yet another story, and so on. I enjoy writing these kinds of interconnected stories, but it does require a lot of effort. Roman and I had our work cut out for us, from designing the rough sketch of the scenario to carefully proofreading every single story — there are over two hundred of them.
Which story would you say is your favorite?
I love them all equally! They’re like children to me :)
I guess I could call the story of Elena the Wise one of my favorites, though. It’s presented in an unusual way, which makes it stand out. I also like Chara’s story a lot — check out the bestiary if you want to know who she is!
Will there be a farm produce section in the bestiary? After all, no one knows for sure if potatoes exist in the Tales of Old Rus universe...
The Lore Corner, which houses the card collection and the bestiary, will soon get a separate Relics & Consumables section. That’s where you’ll be able to learn more about all kinds of items in Deathless — and yes, that does include some farm produce!
Have you discovered the bestiary yet? Which story stood out the most to you? Let us know in the comments!