Today I’m going to talk a little bit about the world were the story of Aurora’s Nightmare takes place.

Lucerna is a world defined by three words: ancient, grandeur, and peace.  It’s a beautiful world covered in blue skies and grassy meadows.  Nature is a key part of Lucerna and even its biggest cities are filled with greenery.  But this is no underdeveloped world.  Ancient stone structures cover the planet, instilling a sense of age and grandeur while hiding a surprisingly advanced level of technology.  While some fell into ruin centuries ago, many are still used for residential and business purposes.

Lucerna’s main inhabitants are the Angellus, a humanoid race with white feathery wings.  I would like to stress that, despite their appearances, the Angellus are not angels.  Lucerna is not heaven, or any sort of afterlife.  However, the similarities are intentional.  But as for the reason?  You’ll have to play the game to find out.

Lucerna appears to be a truly beautiful and peaceful world.  And, in fact, it is.  War is known only in books, crime is almost unheard of, and even sickness is uncommon and rarely serious.  But all is not as it appears.  Lucerna harbors a number of mysteries and dark secrets (some of which I’ll discuss in future posts).  Through an unfortunate twist of fate, a young man named Ars and his friends find themselves drawn closer and closer to the truth.  Though whether or not they’ll survive long enough to find it will depend on what choices you, the player, make.

Some of those mysteries are completely unknown by Lucerna’s inhabitants.  But there are three great mysteries which everyone in Lucerna is aware of.  Many people dedicate their lives to solving these three mysteries, Ars and Tia being two of them.

The first of these three mysteries is known as the lost history.  Lucerna clearly has a long history, with numerous buildings clearly dating back hundreds or even thousands of years, advanced technology and infrastructure, and a highly developed culture.  However, all historical records, both oral and written, abruptly end a mere 300 years in the past.

Writings from the time make it sound as if every single person on Lucerna merely awoke one day to find that they had no memory of their pasts.  Some hints remained.  Basic knowledge, family ties, personalities, even culture.  But none could remember even the smallest scrap of their lives or history from before that fateful day.

Uncovering the secret of their lost history has become an obsession for the Angellus but it is only one mystery of many that you’ll encounter in Aurora’s Nightmare.  The second is the Nightmares.  Little is known about exactly who are what the Nightmares actually are.  In terms of shape, they appear much like Angellus but more feral and bestial, with glowing eyes and oily black skin.

Nightmares can appear anywhere, at any time, with no known logic or pattern behind their movements.  They simply appear out of thin air and vanish the same way several minutes, or even seconds, later.  Despite decades of research, Lucerna’s scientists still know nothing about the Nightmares’ motivations or where they come from.

Nightmares are extremely deadly, lashing out violently at anyone and everyone around them.  Records of Nightmare attacks show them to be not only violent, but cruel as well, with a tendency to toy with and torture their victims.  In a world while deaths and even injuries by violence are extremely rare, Nightmares have become a symbol of all that’s dark, evil, and terrifying.  Although their appearances are rare, they’re something that every inhabitant of Lucerna fears.    And the heroes of our story are no different.  In fact, it’s an encounter with one of these terrifying creatures which will change their lives forever…

The third mystery is the disappearances.  In rare instances, people of Lucerna have been known to vanish, seemingly into thin air.  There’s never any sign of a struggle and, in many cases, they leave behind meals half eaten, books partially read, and other signs which imply that their departure was both sudden and unplanned.

Despite decades of research, Lucerna’s scientists have been unable to find any explanation for these disappearances.  In most instances, the person or people who have vanished are never seen again.  There have been rare cases of victims returning days or even weeks later (often in a completely different place), but the experience always leaves them broken in mind and spirit, unable to even comprehend their surroundings, much less speak of what happened.  For the Angellus, the disappearances are something to be feared as much as, or perhaps even more than, the nightmares.