None of the story is really given to you; it's your job to explore and discover it. By the end, you'll have your own theory of what happened and who you really are, but there will never be anything concrete. It's the kind of work that you immediately want to discuss after finishing.
All of this is possible because the game world is so immense and rich with detail. There is a huge map to explore, filled with what must be nearly 100 rooms. And these rooms are packed with hundreds of items, many of which can be collected into inventory, with thousands of things to do with them, testing out new rituals, examining for more background details, sniffing and feeling and manipulating everything that plausibly warrants it. The enormous ship cries out for exploration, and thanks to Plotkin's joyously peculiar set of ideas and inventive prose, the game is incredibly fun to read. In what other game would you discover formulas and rituals like the Greater Phlogistical Saturation or Gaian precipitate synthesis, let alone the prophylactic scalpel inscription? And in what other game would you, right at the start, be wafting a sprig of rosemary in order to form a resonant note for a cleansing of brass tarnish ritual
(2).jpeg)
