Hold the wall. Take what the next watch will need.
Current foundation, proposed details. All four factions have distinct bodies and origins and are mutually hostile. Corruption spreads on Earth from the crashed city-sized prison mothership. Primordial Corruption and the independent manufactured Caretakers remain separate factions. Exact adaptations, new archetypes, mechanics, dimensions and scenes below are proposals, not implemented gameplay.
GENERATED CONCEPT ART · FRONTIER STUDY
Adult Human defenders and rivals use recognisable clothing, bodies, tools, steel and concrete in an armed Earth district. No alien tissue or machine bodies define their baseline. View full image ↗
CURRENT SETTING FOUNDATION
After containment breaks.
Humans are recognisable Human beings with Human-made clothing, weapons, vehicles and built settlements. Altered people are exceptional cases, not the baseline Human body.
Human enclaves fight Gaia, Corruption, Caretakers and rival Human groups for territory and resources. The player's Human identity does not confer universal trust.
The alien city-sized prison mothership is the source of Corruption's spread on Earth. Humanity is neither its native biomass nor an offshoot of the manufactured Caretakers.
A stronghold survives by holding its water, raiding its enemies and deciding which of its own people must bear the losses.
In this proposed tidal stronghold, recognisably Human residents in worn clothing and assembled protective gear begin another watch with damage reports and ration demands. Boats are dragged behind cover, roofs are patched between attacks and food moves under armed guard. Their tools and barricades are built equipment, not growths fused into normal Human bodies. Rival Human enclaves seize returning loads. Gaia's regrowth breaks the works around exposed workers, manufactured Caretaker units strip the power corridor, and alien flesh from the Corruption outbreak spreads into damaged structures. Repair sustains the fighting position without making it a safe harbour.
Three pressures from within.
Who stays behind the wall.
Those controlling the stores can assign dangerous work to households with less leverage. Refusing a watch or a raid may cost food, shelter or standing inside this enclave. Cooperation under that pressure is not proof of a harmonious community.
The raid that comes home.
A stolen pump can keep one stronghold supplied while leaving another desperate enough to retaliate. Raiders want reward and another route; defenders want the enemy pursuit led elsewhere. Even a successful expedition can worsen the siege.
A captive is not a new faction.
A captured Machine frame or constrained living fragment may be forced into a particular task in an exceptional proposed encounter. Some residents want to keep the asset; others demand its destruction. It remains visibly separate from ordinary Human bodies and gear. Chosen augmentation, imposed restraint, present control and allegiance must be assessed separately; none defines the baseline Human faction.
ADDITIONAL ROLE PROPOSALS
New ways to inflict pressure.
Breach Runner
A proposed Human assault and extraction role using carried tools, clothing and a limited load to cross a temporary gap or deliver an urgent order under pursuit.
Limit: A runner needs a viable destination and cannot carry the whole store. Losing the gap can strand them between hostile Human positions and another faction's territory.
Sapper
A proposed Human siege role using recognisable tools and carried protection to attack supports, clear hostile growth or reinforce a damaged barrier.
Limit: Tools, time and physical access constrain the work. Breaking a support can expose allies, release a loaded structure or open the same route to an enemy.
Quartermaster
A proposed Human logistics role allocating scarce stores, claiming captured material and setting the price of another watch or expedition; authority rests on people and armed organisation, not a transformed body.
Limit: A ledger cannot create supplies or obedience. Concealed stock, rival armed groups and failed returns can turn control of the store into a local power struggle.
TERRITORY STUDY
A shoreline held by force.
Proposed Human territory follows defended high ground, built barricades, locked stores and landing points covered by Human weapons. Clothes, tools, damaged boats and repaired structures retain a recognisable Human origin. Seized alien parts are separate equipment or contested salvage, not ordinary Human anatomy. Lower routes may already belong to a rival enclave. Native predation, alien flesh intrusion and manufactured Machine attacks leave different traces around the same defended ground.
Shutters, damaged boats and fresh barricades show where the last attack reached.
Ration marks and guarded loads reveal which resources are being withheld or seized.
Abandoned gear and blocked exits show the cost of a failed crossing rather than a promised safe route.
TWO MORE ENCOUNTER PROPOSALS
What the fighting costs.
The landing under fire
A proposed stronghold's last usable landing is being attacked by a rival Human enclave. A damaged ferry carries water and wounded defenders, while Caretaker extraction threatens the power route above it.
A decision
Observe the attackers' positions long enough to choose a gap, hold the landing at the cost of supplies, move only part of the ferry's load or abandon the boat and take a route through living ground resisting their passage. Delay can close an option.
A possible consequence
Show the water, people or position left behind and who gains the landing. A withdrawal can preserve some of the group while worsening its next shortage; it is not a safe reset.
The pump taken twice
Raiders have brought a stolen Human pump into a roof workshop. Its former owners are closing the streets. A separate Corruption infestation has entered the damaged intake as the Earth outbreak spreads from the crashed mothership; this is a contested intrusion, not the pump's normal construction. The raiders demand that the player defend their claim.
A decision
Contest the demand, spend scarce material isolating the intake, carry a smaller component out before the encirclement or leave the workshop while another faction's advance threatens the remaining route.
A possible consequence
The pump's ownership, condition and present threat remain distinct. Keeping it deepens the Human feud; leaving it can deny the player water and hand the site to another attacker.
Survival is organised around held ground, guarded stores and routes wrested from enemies. A settlement can keep its people fed by stripping another community of fuel, tools or access. Repair is part of the war effort, not proof of a peaceful town.
Organisation
Human enclaves organise through people, material claims, armed obligations and rival local authorities. Their technology remains recognisably Human-made. Captured alien parts may appear in an explicitly identified salvage or conversion study, but do not define the faction's ordinary bodies or equipment.
Internal tension
A raid can secure fuel and bring retaliation onto the same settlement. Some groups want to destroy alien material; others risk keeping a captive or constrained sample. That argument concerns exceptional spoils of war, not an assumption that everyone already carries alien anatomy.
02 / ART DIRECTION PROPOSAL
Read the silhouette.
Recognisable adult Human civilians and fighters: Human faces and proportions, fabric clothing, conventional protective equipment and hand-held Human technology. Defenders hold concrete and steel barricades; raiders carry practical loads. Baseline figures have no alien flesh, animal grafts or Caretaker geometry fused into their bodies.
sage workwear#67725A
patched waterproofs, tarpaulins and pack panels
canvas cream#D9C9A5
worn canvas, rope and visible repairs
safety amber#E9B653
work lamps, tools and safety accents
weathered slate#46585A
wet hardware, layered clothing and roof shadows
Materials
Worn fabric, canvas, leather and ordinary protective layers
Human-made steel, concrete, timber and glass
Conventional tools, vehicles and weapon shapes
Visible fasteners, patched equipment and repair marks
Movement
Human weight, fatigue, aim and handling remain legible. People run, carry, brace and use equipment with their own hands. Exceptional restraint or external bodily control needs a separately labelled study and visible interface.
Sound
Impact on shutters paired with visible damage
Short hostile challenges and interrupted work
Loaded carts and hurried repairs beneath distant pursuit
Avoid
Alien flesh or Machine limbs on every Human
Identical futuristic uniforms that erase civilian and local differences
Friendly default settlements or guaranteed safe surrender
A visible prosthesis automatically proving coercion or lost Humanity
Gore or blended anatomy replacing a recognisable Human threat
03 / PROPOSED ARCHETYPES
Three ways to meet them.
Role and silhouette studies. Dimensions are rough art targets; behaviours and counterplay need prototyping. Earlier visual studies remain available as design history.
01.01 / Proposed wartime civilian role
Salvager
Strip contested material before another force takes the site.
Art scale
Adult civilian under an awkward recovery load.
Silhouette
Human cutting tools, worn conventional protective layers and an unbalanced salvage pack; no built-in alien anatomy.
Behaviour proposal
Works under threat, conceals a valuable find and may fight or flee to keep it. A rival Human is not presumed welcome.
Counterplay
Read the held exit and load; contest the part, bargain from cover or seek another source. Neither a deal nor retreat guarantees immunity from pursuit.
Cost / tradeoff
Heavy salvage slows escape. Taking a part may disable another group's shelter or warning system and trigger retaliation.
01.02 / Proposed wartime civilian role
Signal Keeper
Direct local warnings, firing restrictions and contested route information.
Art scale
Adult Human with a deployable mast and limited power.
Silhouette
Human-operated shielded radio, cable reel and exposed antenna supports.
Behaviour proposal
Moves a signal point when threatened and can withhold or falsify a route report to protect an enclave's interests.
Counterplay
Compare the report with visible ground, disrupt one relay or leave before the broadcast draws attention. There is no complete trusted map.
Cost / tradeoff
Transmitting exposes a position and consumes power. Silence can protect the signal team while stranding people outside.
01.03 / Proposed armed perimeter role
Warden
Hold a gate, raid exit or ration point through force.
Art scale
Adult Human with broad directional protection.
Silhouette
A Human carrying a battered conventional shield, reinforced fabric and a narrow viewing visor.
Behaviour proposal
Blocks entry, demands compliance and may advance to seize a disputed position. It protects its own group, not every Human nearby.
Counterplay
Watch its facing, flanks and supporting fire. Challenge the boundary, trade a costly concession or abandon the objective before the position closes.
Cost / tradeoff
Directional cover limits carrying and vision. A Warden defending one exit leaves another exposed.
04 / ENCOUNTER PROPOSAL
The stolen transformer
A besieged Human enclave has seized a transformer from a rival landing. Its defenders can power a pump or an exposed warning system, while the owners prepare a raid to reclaim it. Caretaker units are approaching the same power route.
01 / NOTICE
Readable cues
Fresh removal marks and a rival claim show the part was taken
Stopped gauges and dark warning lamps expose the competing uses
Barricade positions and approaching machinery show the shrinking decision window
02 / DECIDE
Player choices
Hold the part for the pump and accept the unguarded approach
Power the warning system while water reserves run down
Move the part out through a contested route and redirect the pursuit
Abandon the claim and leave before the siege closes the landing
03 / LIVE WITH IT
Aftermath
Show which service and position are lost, who controls the part and which enemy gains time. Leaving preserves a life or load at the cost of another objective; it is not a clean reset or a universal reputation gain.
05 / SYSTEM PROPOSAL
A footprint in the world.
Barricaded stores, contested crossings, raided workshops and fields held through repeated force.
Needs
Water, food and fuel taken or defended
Human-made weapons, tools and replacement parts
Labour, coercion and route intelligence
→
Does
Fortify, ration, raid and repair while rivals attack the same dependencies.
→
Leaves
Held positions and damaged services
Captured material and local obligations
Displacement, retaliation and exposed routes
Pressure to model: Every defended place consumes people and supplies. Expansion creates longer fronts; isolation lets enemies cut the remaining necessities.
Human forces clear and burn living ground, seize resources and suppress organic resistance. Their ordinary bodies and equipment remain recognisably Human; any coerced organism is an exceptional appropriation.
Pressure in return
Gaia's living growth and organic responses reclaim occupied ground, undermine Human works and resist extraction. Dangerous encounters are expressions of the wider living world, not a separate local animal faction.
Asymmetry
The baseline factions remain separate and hostile. Damage or capture does not itself create a hybrid; exceptional alteration must identify the original body, invading or imposed process, present control and unresolved allegiance.
Humans attack the flesh incursion spreading from the crashed mothership. A seized and constrained fragment is an exceptional hazardous experiment, not ordinary Human anatomy or standard equipment.
Pressure in return
Corruption's mothership-sourced incursion stalks and assimilates Human bodies and shelter. An infested Human is an altered victim whose origin, remaining control and allegiance must be distinguished from the attacking flesh.
Asymmetry
The baseline factions remain separate and hostile. Damage or capture does not itself create a hybrid; exceptional alteration must identify the original body, invading or imposed process, present control and unresolved allegiance.
Human groups ambush manufactured Caretakers and dismantle their components. Retasking a captured frame is an exceptional coercive intervention, not proof that every Human body or machine shares Caretaker technology.
Pressure in return
Manufactured Caretaker forces suppress Humans and seize their infrastructure. Physical reconstruction of a captive is an exceptional coercive process, not a baseline Human feature or automatic allegiance change.
Asymmetry
The baseline factions remain separate and hostile. Damage or capture does not itself create a hybrid; exceptional alteration must identify the original body, invading or imposed process, present control and unresolved allegiance.
07 / PROTOTYPE SPECIFICATION
Make the idea testable.
Acceptance criteria
Make a Human group's hostile boundary and objective visible before commitment.
Give contested supplies at least two costly uses and a credible rival claim.
Show a local loss or retaliation after a decision without promising a safe route, universal hostility reset or implemented siege simulation.
Open questions
Which local obligation can bring the player into an enclave without making it welcoming?
How can retreat cost something without becoming an unavoidable death trap?
Which signs distinguish a rival, a coerced worker and a person acting under external control?
Design risks
Random betrayal replacing clear competing interests
Every Human face carrying the same allegiance
Punishing altered bodies rather than observed hostile action
SEEDFALL.
SETTING / DESIGN STUDIES