Topic
The Eleven Books of the Giants (Things that could have been but weren't, numbers #237-248 in a series of bajillions)
I was just rifling through lots of old google docs in a nostalgic kind of way, and, just in case anyone was interested, this was an idea that floated around for a while last year but got shelved in favour of things of greater priority. It is, however, one of the ideas I was fondest of. Well, that and the characters chatting on twitter and other places outside the game. Oh, and the artifacts (I think about 100 of the 627 planned ones of those are in the encyclopedia now), and the other holiday things we discussed. And the 23 different versions of the giants origin story that are floating around. But apart from THOSE I love THESE. These are good, or at least would have been fun (in my generally very humble opinion)…
THE BOOKSSONG OF SPRIGGAN
Written entirely in verse, this epic poem details the cycle of ages - where each giant comes into ascendancy for a short while, is taken out by their weakness (though not in a violent way, obvs), but the cycles are without beginning or end. The poet’s knowledge of fact is hazy, but their mastery of the rhyming dictionary is great.
Perspective: Spriggot Poet
Worldview: Constant cycle of ages of the giants, non-constant in length, non-linear in order, hierarchy always in flux - more than 11 ages, basically.
THE ANNALS OF ALPH
Written by an Alphibian scholar who is convinced (for logical and rational reasons) that there have been exactly eleven ages, culminating in the last, greatest, age. That of Alph. May introduce possible ideas of time travel between the two.
Perspective: Alphibian male
Worldview: 11 fixed ages (though we are reading this from the 12th). This being written in the11th (and as far as they were concerned) last age.
THE BOOK OF LEM
Written by a devoted Lemmite, wandering supplicant, convinced that there are at least 11 worlds existing at the same time, and that they can be glimpsed, if not reached, from the edges of her own. The Book of Lem attempts to describe the other concurrently existing ten worlds, as well as their own, as she believes Lem sees them (Lem, who can travel to these worlds that she can only conjecture upon).
Perspective: Lemmish Woman
Worldview: Belief in 12 concurrent worlds of fixed edges and age. Limited knowledge beyond that.
THE MYTHS OF ZILLE
The epic folk lore of the Zillots, who writes only from the perspective of Zille's own universe, not aware of the existence of other Giants. Set down by a great storyteller of the Zillot people, with a great tone and a great big beard (probably male. Probably, though you never know) these are a set of short fairy tales that take place on the slopes and in the caves of the Zillot’s world. And nothing else.
Perspective: Zillots (many)
Worldview: Completely oblivious to anything but the Giant Zille, the Zillots, and the confines in which they live.
TIINCYCLOPEDIA GALACTICA
The collated efforts of Tii-ite scholars to make locigal sense of the world around them by cataloguing (and numbering, and creating “definitive” creation stories for the objects and things around them. Tii-ites assume there to have always been one age, that of Tii, which has been infinite and superior, but entertain the possibility of visiting ‘alien beings’
Perspective: Tii-ite male/female
Worldview: One superior people, one constant ‘age’ (that of Tii) other shortlived peoples/lessergiants/visiting ‘aliens’ making small contributions.
SONG OF COSMA
Seperated into four quartos, this epic poem was written by the great female epic poet of the Cosmapolitan people, detailing this story: Each of the eleven giants are only some of a race of giants, each occupying one facet of an eleven-sided world. They have been put there by a race of gargantuans, whose favor they curry by tending their flock of even smaller peoples. These smaller, seperate peoples learn to work together in the until they create a plane on which even smaller beings could be brought into life.
Perspective of: Cosmapolitan female
Worldview: The worlds are not time or space delineated, but size-specific, with each new ‘generation’ (over a thousand thousand years or more) creating the next tiny people, and making themselves, in turn, the giants.
HUMBABARIAN FABLES
Basically creation myths, these allegorical tales recall a time when the 11 types of animals, given human qualities, ruled, and battled for superiority
Perspective of: Humbabarian Storyteller (genderless)
Worldview: The world is primarily one of giant animals, and Humbabarians (and other) are simply tiny riders upon their backs.
DRAMATIS FRIENDLY
Mythology detailing the hierarchy of the giants, relationships to one another, with one another, etc, in the social breakdown of the tight unit that once ruled over one unified world, in the before-beforetimes. Could be done as a drama? Greek-like, etc?
Perspective of: Friendly Priest
Worldview: There was once one unified world of ALL the giants that split into 11 separate ones. That was the original set-up.
GRENDALINE ILLUSTRATUS
An entirely illustrated book with no (or no readble) words at all, made up of strange diagrams, figures, maps and (almost) comic book panels.
Perspective of: Grendalinian artist
Worldview: Debatable, though seems to suggest at least somewhat interacting ages/peoples and communication between the giants and the giantlings.
BOOK OF MAB
A record of the first great Mabbite, a devilishly clever trader and traveller, who moved through the lands, tricking the greedy out of their riches and redistributing things to the people by making up giants who, he said, would visit great punishments upon them if they failed to behave well and reward them if they didn't.
Perspective of: Mabbish Male
Worldview: Basically that the giants were a fiction instilled in the minds of people by a Mabbite in the beforetimes, but were essentially a made up thing, a construction of 'glitchanity'. It does mean the Mabbites always come out on top, though.
POT ORACLES
Supposedly transcribed by a ‘Seer’, but written with words being fed to her directly by Pot himself, this is a much disputed version of Pot’s story has him as the overall creator of not only the worlds and everything in them, but of all the other giants (from scratch), from clay, dough, other materials. Commonly considered to be a prank by either Pot or the seer in question, it was never-the-less believed in and acted out in dance by Pot’s peoples.
Perspective of: Pot (via Oracle)
Worldview: Pot created everybody: dreamed them up and brought them into being all by himself. Maybe.
And that, as they say, was all she wrote. Writed. Writ.
Very basic ideas, but my GOD I wish I'd had the time to make them bigger and stronger and more alive. I've had the time of my life writing for this game, I really have.
Replies
- holy shits
- Aw for a second I thought you were going to be publishing all the unreleased writing content in the game, or just a compilation of all the existing written content, dialogues, stories, quotes, flavor texts, descriptions, concepts etc. perhaps through an Indiegogo fundraiser also...
- Tom: "hint hint"
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Phew. A lot to take in... If only.... And what TomC said.
And also: I always knewed Humbaba was the bestest. - That would be so amazing, I'd love to see more stories!
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Ah! @TomC, Martlume sent me the spreadsheets of all the item/character talkbacks in the game in response to your email - I thought he'd cc'ed you too, I'll find it out and send it to you, knowing how amazing you are at cataloguing all of the stuffs.
There are, deep in my notes, the thought process of what all the characters of the things in the game represent and why they are as they are. If I have time I'll dig it out and put it... I don't know: somewhere?… - Wow entire spreadsheets of stuff!! Thanks so much for sharing it. Looking forward to reading any development notes, perhaps in a Glitch section on your website.
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I KNEW Pot was the One True Giant.
Also: I'm going to need a pair of caterpillar trousers. -
Oh! I would've loved this! I've set myself to cataloging all the stories as told by all the things in Ur, but I don't know if I have them all. Is it possible for me to get them?
This is what I have so far: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C2FERGmu492xEbGU1FAIJjZw18HX158qUfaUS56ZdTI/edit i'd love to have whatever else you can give me that I'm missing if it's not to much to ask. One writer to another. Please? - Thank You! You have made me both laugh and cry with the writings. Mostly laugh!!!
- whoa ur-epic! thanks for sharing!
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I so dearly wish we could have seen this develop.
I'll miss all the beauty of Ur, the fun of exploring and crafting... but I think I'll miss the wit and cleverness of the writing most of all. Thanks, annapeee <3 - +1 to Georgia, you articulated my thoughts beautifully
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Thanks Annapeee! Those are marvelous.
You should know, it was the funny quips of the chickens, piggies, and trees that completely hooked me on glitch. The game would not have been the same without you. - Y'know, I had long suspected I was a Grendalinian at heart. This confirms it.
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Wonderful!
Also, reading this makes me think of TomC as one of those Tii-ite scholars ;-). -
"written with words being fed to her directly by Pot himself,"
Oh ho ho.
But seriously, this would have been so awesome. D: - I am constantly amazed at the creativity of the Tiny Speck folks. You are a beautiful group of people.
- I would have loved to read these! Thank you for letting us know they exsted!
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Your writing skills are amazing to me. Most of the in-game texts made me laugh & the rest brought a cheerful smile to my face, i have to thank you for that. :)
You guys made up such a complete team: i salute the complementarity of your skills (Annapeee's writing skills, Kukubee's drawing skills, Danny's music-composing skills etc...), they seem to fit like they were made for each other!
It's heart-breaking to see you split (from a professional point of view) & go your own way, but in spite of that, i'm sure the future holds many pleasant surprises for you all.
I'm gonna miss the fruit of your creative collaboration very much. <3 - Thank you for this - and for all your wonderful, witty, engaging and - of late - very moving writing. I've enjoyed it all. Thank you. Thank you.
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Well, this confirms what I've always suspected: I am, in my heart of hearts, a Lemmite!
Thank you from the bottom of my wee Lemmish heart for all the laughter and joy you've given to myself and others through your writings!
And, like others have mentioned, I would love to see an easily accessible, umm, "place/document" pop up somewhere that contains all the in-game writing, as well as ideas that hadn't made it yet, or had been shelved for various reasons! TomC, I love what you do, and have quietly read everything you've put together...thank you for everything and for making my way around Ur much easier at time over the past year and 3 months... - So... why isn't there an indiegogo campaign to make this into a real book? I would buy a copy :)
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Aw, you are all very lovely. I will cry (again). Still trying to find a good copy in google docs of those conversations, but will make a concerted effort once the baby is in bed. Important to note: I didn't do ALL the writing, and a lot of the amazing more recent quests and rememberings from the street spirits etc have been done by some of the incredible devs, designers and stoots working on the game, and a lot of the earliest items and rock quests were written by a lovely person called Tammy, of whom I am a massive fan.
I take full responsibility for a lot of the badges, conversations, anything said by an object or critter, quests etc over the intervening couple of years, though. And the icon conversations that just went in and artefacts that would have made more sense as the numbers of them went in, they woz me. I LOBE those. - I saw many added collectibles in the encyclopedia with their provenances. The mythos of this world has been the ultimate draw for me. Thank you for all the stories.
- Oh my god, and I LOBE you for writing all those.
- Actually I planned to give an input to kukubee's glitch artbook to insert some of dialogues the trees/animals/rocks/shrines talk about... is this possible?
- What about TRISOR?! Everybody knows he's the true and rightful (if usurped) Supreme Ruler of Ur.
- OH MY GOD HOW MUCH LOVE DO I HAVE FOR THIS, FOR REALSIES. One thing I've always hated about so many RPG worlds is the linearity/univocality/monosemy of them, like, ARROWGOD IS THE GOD OF ARROWS AND OTHER V. SMALL POINTED WEAPONS, AND HIS MYTH IS ABOUT SHOOTING AN ARROW, AND HIS FACE IS ARROW-SHAPED, AND HIS WIFE IS BOWGODDESS, AND HIS WORSHIPPERS ALL MAKE ARROWS IN THEIR RITUALS, and so on. The beautiful complexity and inner tensions and contradictions of your stories are some of the things that made this world so amazing and I will miss them something FIERCE. FIERCE.
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"AND HIS WIFE IS BOWGODDESS, AND HIS WORSHIPPERS ALL MAKE ARROWS IN THEIR RITUALS"
xD - @Pale Queen. MY god I'm laughing hard at that. I'm so writing that into the next game I work on. ARROWGOD THE SINGLE-MINDED DEITY FTW
- I would love to contribute to an indiegogo campaign for all the published and backstory writing in UR. Put everything in, down to the things written on napkins staff still have saved in their third drawer.
- My latest sadness is that the devs don't have time to make an Arrowgod Bobblehead. Because they totally would have.
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@Pale Queen LMAO! I TOTALLY know what you mean! As a world builder myself I've been trying NOT to have that sort of thing going on.
I do plan on tossing some Glitch references into many of my future works and the main reason I'm collecting stories is so I can supplement my own Glitchy story with them. I'm SO glad that this has been posted and if I can have permission to include it in my own way in my story, I'd love it! - Now that I think on it, there's a part of me that sort of loves the idea of an overly literal deity. "I just wrote you a manual so you can learn how to make arrows! Don't-- don-- LOOK, JUST DO WHAT IT SAYS. Don't go looking for PHILOSOPHY and shit in there. There isn't any! It's just an instruction manual! It doesn't mean anything. LOOK, ALL I WANT IS FOR YOU TO LEARN TO MAKE ARROWS, STOP COMING UP WITH ALL THESE INTERPRETATIONS OF I---- oh, never mind."
- I adore this stuff. Thank you.
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This got knocked off the front page and its quite amazing to read... so...
BUMP - <3
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Thank you so much! You know, of course, that the Game has not ended and never will as long as we continue to Imagine. I am sure that these concepts will now be elaborated upon and possibly speculated about and perhaps posted in these Forums for us all to consider.
I have felt honored and blessed to enjoy the amazing art, music and literature that I have found here. No words seem adequate to express how much it has all meant to me. Thank you annapeee and all the amazing creators who made Glitch such a pleasure to experience. - I would have so loved to read all of these. Just getting to see the notes makes me so happy. The best part of Glitch was always the wonderful character everything in the world had. Thank you so much for that.
- By the way Annapeee, when you do start working on another game, will you let us know?
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Annapeee, you did a great job in Glitch. Thanks for that.
I hope you don't mind that I post a couple of links about you for people interested in reading or knowing more about who you are and what your work is:
Blog: http://littleredboat.co.uk/
About: http://anna.pickard.usesthis.com/ -
is there a read-only version of this doc?
i wold like to link to in, but i don not want visitors to be able to mess with it. -
Yes, allow us to see these secrets.
BTW, very nice. I like this line: "Supposedly transcribed by a ‘Seer’" - Aw man now I need the spreadsheet with all the texts, I need it like I need AIR.
- These are fascinating. The writing was my favorite part of the game, and this was the sort of backstory I was desperate to see before the end. Thank you so much for sharing. <3
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"I would love to contribute to an indiegogo campaign for all the published and backstory writing in UR. Put everything in, down to the things written on napkins staff still have saved in their third drawer."
...I still think this would be a really good idea :) - Oh annapee, how absolutely wonderful! Thanks so much... and I'm eagerly looking forward to playing the next game you work on!
- I loved the backstory stuff in the game, this was interesting to read!