Champions, welcome to your next assignment.
Our first debriefing covered the strength of the Scales faction, but now we turn our attention to the polar opposite. We're distributing crucial intel on the lore and chilling art of the Eclipse faction, the ruthless cold war machine of Terrene Gall.
Dive into our second dev blog below:
Eclipse
Lore
Population: Less than 25,000 living (millions more dead or partially-dead)
Capital: Marble City
Governing Body: The Gajji Council
Notable Locations: The Tempest Construction Yards, the Marshlands of Sunken Hollow, the Haunted Hills of Potter’s Field
Eclipse: The Cold Grip of the Occult
In the northern Tundra of Terrene Gall, lies a land where winter never sleeps, now cold, barren, and fit only for the dead and those that harness dark, terrible energy... A fitting home for the occult denizens of the Eclipse faction. Within the haunted halls of the Marble City, the Gaiji Council rules over a loose and dreadful alliance of necromancers and their Stygian servants, life-drinking Shades, dark-steel Tempest abominations, and the tormented souls of the dead.
Servants of Stygia
Politically, Eclipse has few “citizens”; they are a collective bound by service to Stygia, the regent of death, suffering, and disease. They use necromancy as their primary tool of warfare, allowing them to feed on the living, snuff the life from foes, and add the dead to their numbers.
Conflict and Conversion
Eclipse counts Scales and Silence as its primary rivals in this current conflict. However, they have been facing increasing raids from Strife as they cross the jagged peaks of the Rage Mountains.
That being said, for Eclipse conflict is not necessarily a risk – it can be an opportunity. Every new enemy force entering their territory is a chance to replenish their ranks, turning their foes’ own strength and numbers against them.
Art/ Inspiration
Eclipse is the antithesis of everything that Scales stands for, making them chief enemies to each other. As a result, much of Eclipse, and the Stygian army in particular, embody this antithesis with their distinct, black and red military appearance, mirroring the cold, flat, hopeless exteriors of the iron citadels from which they receive their orders.
The Stygian Army
The Stygian soldiers of Eclipse are not living beings, but a collection of constructs - they are iron soldiers animated by the spirits of long dead warriors. This spirit energy is piped through their chassis via a tube system. This system has a gruesome side effect though, the necromatic energy flowing through their cold, iron bodies causes deadly clusters of sharp ice to form on their armor, serving as a natural defense mechanism.
Their uniforms fuse a mixture of WWII silhouettes with feudal Japanese armor, creating an unsettling blend of industrial war machine and ancient warrior clan. Their helmets, based on early 20th century designs, are reimagined with customized vampire motif faceplates and other medieval adornments, underscoring their role as an extension of their master, Stygia. As a reflection of their undead nature, their armor is never pristine; it is rusted, dirty, pockmarked, and gouged from countless past battles.
Eclipse counts many undead among their numbers besides Stygians, though none of them are nearly as organized as the iron-clad foot soldiers.
Weapons and Technology
Eclipse’s policy is to kill and convert as quickly as possible, resulting in weaponry that is large, inefficient, and overwhelmingly deadly. They opt for more modern-looking, automatic weaponry primarily to intimidate their enemy and instill dread – a necessary precursor to adding the defeated to their necromantic ranks. Their equipment is uniformly dirty, grimy, and oil-stained due to faction-wide pollution and their undead nature, and their weapons often feature prominent barrel cartridges or ammo belts.
Of all of the factions, Eclipse’s machinery is the most diesel-based, with nasty-looking armor plating. They spew thick, black, greasy smoke into the air, polluting all they encounter. In direct contrast with the tread-based Scales, Eclipse’s primary means of locomotion is wheels. These wheels resemble those that are used on a train and are often adorned with spikes for maximum cling and damage.
The Black Winter
Eclipse is also chillingly known as “The Black Winter”, because everything that the undead touches withers. Their landscape is a barren expanse of icefields pocked with large cold stone citadels. Winter never leaves these wastelands, where chains, brick, and iron are all blackened with scorch marks, evoking feelings of hopelessness. Errant ghosts wander the land, trapped by the same frostbitten death magic that permeates everything. Massive war machines sit idly amongst the ruins of the towns they have destroyed, and the sky is marred by a thick smog that blots out the sun, covering the landscape in everlasting night.
