The Cryspo

The Cryspo colony encountered by the pioneer Softie appeared to be a highly organized collective mind of insectoid organisms. However, all was not how it seemed. Only one division of the Cryspo manifested intelligence, and the Softie remained ignorant of their existence. It was the Larvae-subterranean creatures- incapable of fast movement and relatively weak, who ran the colony. A complicated system of scents was used to control the other divisions of the colony.

These worm-like bearers of mind were at the top of the colony hierarchy, with the Queen at their head. The Queen did not possess her own consciousness or identity; she merely integrated the mental primitives of the Larvae. Human individualism was alien to her intrinsically collective mind.

Territorial expansion of Cryspo was highly organized, and began with the invasion of the Queen's satellites-the Larvae-into the area to be occupied. The Larvae controlled the Cryspo combat troops from deep underground by generating pheromones. The Larvae consisted of a simple biological structure with a slow metabolism which resulted in a life span lasting eons.

All the creatures in the universe live according to their inherent nature. The Softie possessed a restlessness of mind and spirit that urged them to ceaselessly search for their raison d'‰tre. Cryspo were free from such high matters: their leading strength lay in the integration of diverse beings by the Queen in a complicated but well-organized biological system.

The Clash extracted these drives from both Cryspo and Softie. The few bios produced during the Bouillon of Spawn capable of physical survival inherited a combination of racial instincts producing obscure urges which had lost any meaning.

The Lostie

During the Clash, while defending themselves from the ferocious Cryspo, the last generation of the Softie built underground enclave cities-escaves-which became home for their descendents, the Lostie. Although the Lostie inherited their brains from the Softie, their subconscious integrated many weird psychic features of their Cryspo ancestors, which emerged as somewhat bizarre behavior in the mutants. It is the influence of these instincts that has resulted in the bios existing in urban communities-the bunches. They endlessly practice cult rituals, the only reason for existence they have. The bunches have survived only by strict adherence to the conservation laws that developed over time.

A bunch cycle consists of several stages, each of which is closely connected to the physiology of one of the bios. The completion of each such function depends on the scent of a particular Larva which serves as a catalyst. The complicated Cryspo mechanism of controlling the colony through a system of scents evolved into a sophisticated cult, practiced by the Lostie. It involved great reverence of and addiction to the scents of the now hidden and unfathomable Larvae who still slowly crawl underground, disunited without their connection to the Queen, lost long ago when the Passage to Cry was sealed.

It is now a thousand years after the Clash. The Lostie have stabilized and formed aberrant tribes of inbred creatures. Living on the rubble of powerful and ancient civilizations, they practice endless cult cycles in an attempt to establish a rationale for their existence.

The player belongs to the clan of Vangers-explorers, warriors, traders and pirates-in a world that is only just beginning to wake up from the oblivion. The strange Worlds of the Lost Chain emerge as time passes. They are full of mystery, weird inhabitants and dangerous competitors. Eventually, it will be revealed that the Clash between the Softie and the Cryspo was not coincidental: the weird history of the Bouillon of Spawn had been planned by the Infinite Mind specifically to develop a new type of warrior-the Vanger...