A play report for Incarnis
I played Incarnis as a 2-player game. Turns out, that's a very quick way for myth creation, also known as mythopoeia.
Mythopoeia is the act of making a myth. It was my core principle behind designing Incarnis: playing the game should empower to be a myth maker.
With the truest artisanship, from nothing, Brahlyt made itself. A being and a place at once, Brahlyt basked in the glow of its own being in a state of blissful wholeness. Then, one day, Brahlyt spoke to itself. It presented itself with a beautiful, simian creature, formed from its own essence. 'Look what I made us,' Brahlyt said. And Brahlyt answered, 'We do not need anything other than ourselves.'
The simian crumpled up into a malformed little monkey, stooped and bow-legged. Heart-broken at the dismissal of this love letter to itself, Brahlyt sliced a stone tablet from its centre, and the god split into two; Brahl, god of senses, and Yt, god of craft. Yt clutched the stone tablet to himself as Brahl shrieked indignantly at the separation, bestowing the sense of pain onto the both of them.
Yt fled, and claimed part of the world as his workplace. Here, in the Forest, he started making more monkeys, and other creatures and forms. Brahl was left behind in its own part of the world, now a Barren Floor where there was nothing.
Brahl wanted nothing more than to feel whole again, but it could not see a way to unite with Yt. Brahl devided that Yt would just have to make something for Brahl to make it feel one with something. Brahl visited the Forest, Yt's workplace, where Yt was busily creating dung beetles, dung for the beetles to roll, and... where did the dung come from? Yt jabbed at his stone tablet, each chip that flew off turning into something new. Brahl was overwhelmed, shielding its eyes, ears and skin. Trees, each with thousands of leaves, hundreds of working animals in various shapes, there was simply too much here for the senses to take in. Yt saw the monkeys, the original creation, skittering about, not thriving but existing, doing exactly what Yt wanted them to do. Brahl spoke to Yt, begging him to fill the Barren Floor with something, a substance for Brahl to submerge itself in and feel one with. Yt refused, calling Brahl impractical and lacking vision. Brahl scoffed, 'What, then, do you intend to create?' 'Something that will be like a heaven on earth. I will make it, you will see. '
'And without me, how will you enjoy this heaven? How will you sense your creation, and take pleasure in it?'
'When it is finished, you can come.'
Yt waved his hand at Brahl, gesturing for it to leave. Brahl looked at the hand, and in a fit of passion, cursed it. Small spirals carved themselves onto each of Yt's fingertips. 'So you don't need me until then? Fine. If you do not fill my lake soon, those spirals will take away the senses in your fingers. You will be able to make, but you will not feel what you create. Yt panicked at this thought, his hands being his most prized attributes. The next day, he showed up at the Barren Floor with plans, materials and working animals. 'When will my lake be filled?' Brahl asked. 'First,' Yt replied, 'I will install machinery. This will turn the Floor into a beautiful device that maps days, seasons, years, as constantly shifting and moving realities. It will count down to the moment my creations are complete, and then I will fill your lake. Until then, I think we should stay apart.' Brahl fumed with rage at the thought of Yt disturbing its grounds with new changes and alterations, and then leaving it all alone again. 'If you don't fill my lake right now, I will slowly drain the feeling from your fingers until we are together again.' Brahl immediately noticed a dull numbness in his fingers. The sensation made him realise how essential Brahl was to him, and his power of creation. His behaviour towards Brahl filled him with shame, and tears welled up in his eyes. As the first tears hit the Barren Floor, the numbness ceased. Yt was hit with a new idea, which he shared with Brahl. What if the filling of the lake WAS the mapping device that counted down to the completion of Yt's work? What if the intervals between his tears, which were become rain, were the moments during which Yt worked, and when the rain fell Yt would pause and be with Brahl? Brahl, who had felt the rain on its skin and delighted at the new sensation, gladly agreed. Their fight had brought on two new beings; Prints, the god of Identity, and Lana, the god of Rain. From their reunion came forth Time, which ticked on as an unclaimed entity. The Barren Floor became the Budding Flood, a lake that was slowly filling up. What would happen when the lake was full, nobody knew. It filled some with a sense of dread that the lake would ultimately overflow.
Another issue arose from an otherwise happy end. The monkeys, as children of the god Yt, had each received fingerprints at the same time that Yt had received them. Where they were previously without feeling, they were now developing a sense of identity. When the rain fell on their skin, they realised that they could shield themselves from it if they cut down the trees Yt had made, and fashioned them into huts. Suddenly, the monkeys transformed back into beautiful creatures, called humans. They were Yt's children, but no longer under his control. They claimed his craftsmanship as their own, and started tearing down his work to use as materials for their own creations.
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