Stray: Narrative Bible

A JPG Production
By Jonathan Vogt (and friends <3)

Document Date: 1/19/19

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 Summary
Synopsis
The World of Stray
The People
The Volcano
The Corruption & The Prophecy
The History
The Protagonist
The Caretaker
The Events of Stray
Golden Path
Narrative Integration into Gameplay
The Gauntlet
The Corruption + Combat
The Journal
Asset Specifics
Levels
Tutorial Area -
Ruins
Notes (PUT INTO SPREADSHEET)

 Summary
The Ampato people flourished in the shadow of their slumbering god, a volcano tricked
with magma and magic. But as time passed, the Ampato began to take more than the volcano
could give. A war for resources broke out, and in the midst, the volcano erupted; once-pure
magic turned sour, blanketing the land in corruption, pushing the Ampato to the brink of survival.
But not all was lost.
From the ashes rose a young boy and his caretaker. Now, they roam the untamed wild;
the corruption has spread, and previously-tame creatures have grown aggressive. Worst still,
your caretaker has disappeared, leaving you alone in a land fraught with scars. Armed with a
magical gauntlet, you must find your missing caretaker and uncover the mystery behind your
people’s disappearance.

Synopsis
Long ago, the Ampato people dominated the continent of Pachacusi. At the land’s center
was Chi’Lito, a titanic volcano that birthed the lands and heavens. Magical energies bless
Pachacusi with fantastical qualities, flowing up from the Earth through the volcano. Overtime,
the Ampato learned to harness this magical energy for their usage, revering the volcano as their
creator and patron deity.
The Ampato found that sacrificial offerings brough fortune and magical boons from the
volcano. Offerings of wheat became cows, cows became gold, and gold became human. Only
the most esteemed children of the Ampato were groomed for sacrifice at Chi’Lito’s summit.
As the Ampato flourished, a certain faction began to view the volcano through a different
lens. It brought incredible power, and rather appeasing that power, it could instead be taken.
Their reverence turned to ambition as they bored their pipes into Chi’lito’s slopes, tapping into
the magically potent magma for their own use.
Many were in in opposition of the rabid consumption. Their beliefs only grew more
intense to counter the industrialists, demanding more sacrifices to the mountain, and making
threats against the industrialists. Eventually, war broke out. This conflict and the abuse of
Chi’lito’s energies began to harbor a growing corruption within the magical wellspring. This
corruption spread through the volcano, until it finally grew unstable.
An eruption tore through Pachacusi. The land was torn asunder, and the Ampato
population battered and scattered. In the blink of an eye, their world was changed forever.
A small boy, Aapo, and his shamanic caretaker, Kunara, rose from the ashes intent upon
carving a life for themselves in this new world. As the volcano’s corruption spreads across the
land, their aim to curb the corruption grows more dire. Slowly, Kunara learns of a solution to the
corruption’s spread, but it involves a sacrifice far greater than they expected.
Having gifted a gauntlet of incredible power to Aapo, Kunara disappears. A distraught
Aapo decides to go on the hunt, traversing the dangerous remains of Pachacusi in search for
his caretaker, unaware of the danger that lies atop the hill.

 The World of Stray

The People
The Ampato people populate the pangeaic continent of Pachacusi. They take moderate
inspiration from the Incan and Aztec cultures, with heavy agricultural roots. Much of their
technology is run with arcane magic; golems crafted from levitating volcanic rock and gems are
a common sight in their cities.
They are a polytheistic people, revering the sun and stars, as well as the moon to a
lesser extent. However, they are all derivative of the volcano, for whom the Ampato people hold
the greatest reverence. They believe from the womb of the Earth, the sun and the stars were
tossed into the sky in a fantastic eruption, wherein the cinders became the stars, the ash
became the moon, and the magma continued to burn as the sun.
The Ampato believe themselves to be the volcano’s children, born from where the
magma meets the sea. As the island grew larger and larger, encompassing a massive space, so
did their population.

The Volcano
Mount Chi’Lito stands at the center of Pachacusi, tall and proud. Soaring high into the
heavens, the Ampato people built their society on its slopes, living in reverential fear of its
awesome power and stature.
Not since the dawn of time had Chi’Lito erupted with the cataclysmic fervor that brought
light to the heavens. Instead, the mountain sleeps, oozing a perennial stream of lava, as
commonplace as a brook or river.
It is the lava of Chi’Lito that brings fantasy to the world of Stray. It isn’t just molten rock;
it’s magic made liquid, the chaotic energies of creation concentrated into a burning, glowing
ooze. Ripe with the same potential in stem cells, lava is the common ancestor of everything on
the land and in the sky. Magic touches everything in Stray.
The Ampato learned to tame the volatile energy, slowly building their society from
aimless nomads, to pious agrarians, and eventually to the great innovators that flourished
before their collapse.

The Corruption & The Prophecy

The Ampato’s selfish abuse of the mountain’s magic at the end of their time lead to it
growing unstable with corrupted magic--energies that were cancerous and corrosive, and could
not be bent like before. The corrupted magic could only be contained as [Kunara] learned.
Once a living creature is infected with the corruption, they slowly grow more aggressive
as time goes on as their life form is leached away, eventually leading to death. It’s basically
magical rabies; very bad!
Kunara learned of a Prophecy, however.They began to have visions, the first illustrating
the necessity of journeying to the summit of Chi’Lito. Thus, they begin their journey, following a
series of visions along the way as they begin to learn what must be done to save the world.

 The History
The Ampato people were one among many occupying the great pangeaic continent
known as Pachacusi. They built their society upon the slopes of the Chi’Lito, a place of great
reverence to the Ampato. Said to have given birth the world, the Volcano is believed to be the
direct source of magic in the world, and from within its bowels came the spark of life.
The Ampato began their existence as a wandering people, living under the shadow of
Chi’Lito in fear. But over the millennia, Pachacusi grew larger; a greater breadth of life flourished
on the nascent continent, growing more and more verdant with each generation. The Ampato
learned to harness the fertile, volcanic soil, and their agricultural ways took root. So, too, did
culture; no longer just fearful, but now grateful for Chi’Lito, they began to revere the mountain.
Sacrifices were made, and good fortune followed. Soon, offerings of corn became chicken,
chicken became gold, and gold became men. As the Ampato grew, so did their offerings; the
mountain deigned the greatest boons when offered the strongest, richest, most beautiful
children in Ampato society. Groomed as paragons of innocent and potential, these sacrificial
children were offered every few years to court the mountain’s favor.
Now living in established settlements, the Ampato found their towns gravitated around
Chi’Lito, with fewer living on the receding coast. A common language developed, settlements
grew larger, and a collective society was born. Just as humanity advanced technologically, so
did the Ampato magically, slowly learning and understanding the magical properties of Chi’Lito’s
magma, crafting cities around these wellsprings of lava.
Floating masses of verdant land constituted their cities, with lava pools and cascading
waterfalls coupled with impressive structures carved from the earth. Golems powered by arcane
magic, equal parts molten earth and blooming plant-life.
A rift began to grow among the Ampato. They refrained from gluttonous consumption of
its magic. However, a select few began to craft strange technologies from the metal and earth
from the volcano. Imbued with the raw, undifferentiated magic from the Volcano, these materials
proved to be immensely powerful. A call for industrialization was made.
Ampato society experienced a surge in magical and technological progress. Pipes bore
into the mountain, siphoning magma with reckless abandon. Magical constructs dominated their
cities.
Opposition grew between those who revered magic with religious fervor, and those who
wished to industrialize it. As the industrialists abused the mountain’s resources, the clerics
demanded greater sacrifices to appease the mountain. Chi’Lito found itself at the center of an
ideological tug-o-war.
It escalated into civil war. With its stewards at war and its precious metals forcibly
extracted, the earth’s magic grew corrupted. At the war’s height, the volcano erupted, sundering
the land and corrupting the wildlife. Isolated pockets of survivors are now left to fend for
themselves in a world doomed to rot.

The Protagonist
Born on the night of the great eruption, [Aapo] knew nothing of the prosperous life his
people had enjoyed for hundreds of years. His parents, farmers, did not survive the cataclysm,

 but by complete chance, an Ampato shaman found the crying infant amid the chaos. The two
took shelter in a cave; when the chaos was over, they stepped out into an alien world.
[Aapo] is a spritely young lad, keen on adventure and driven by curiosity. He is prone to
wander (much to his caregiver’s chagrin) but is always able to tell his way back home. Life in the
wild has given him a lean, athletic body and necessitated great dexterity. Curiously, he has little
sense of self. Without a society or peers to act as a frame of reference, [BIO] grew up aimless,
yet dependent upon his caretaker. He is completely oblivious to the religious significance his
caregiver has placed upon him.

The Caretaker
[Kunara] was an esteemed Ampato shaman before the eruption, but he had been more
moderate than his contemporaries at the time. He disavowed the industrialists of his age for
their reckless abuse of nature’s resources, but he had also worried that the shamans’ belligerent
opposition would eventually lead to war.
It did.
He had fled to the coastal regions in the war’s midst, where the conflict wasn’t as severe.
He settled in a small fishing village named Quel’Cut, to wait out the conflict. Nature would
eventually reach a state of balance, he thought. These were forces far beyond his power. But as
time passed, a sense of dread befell Kunara. Nightmares plagued him; scenes of cities burning,
loved ones smoldering, and
The waiting didn’t take long. Only a month later, the cataclysm broke out--Chi’Lito
erupted. Amid the raining fire and crumbling buildings, he had found an infant cradled in his
dead mother’s arms. His attempts to revive her failed; she had passed. But the young boy was
alive. [Kunara] believed he had to save at least one life that night; he took the boy and fled,
taking shelter in a seaside cave. Days later, they emerged and beheld a world changed
irrevocably.
The two traversed the fractured and ash-laden land. [Kunara] felt the island’s scars as
though they were his own; regretful of his passivity during the conflict, he kept a journal,
desperate to uncover some solution to the corruption now festering on the island. But [Aapo]’s
youthful demeanor gave him hope.
Years later, [Kunara] devised a plan to create a gauntlet that could absorb the corruption,
keeping the plans secret. But the years weighed heavy on his mind; years of isolation strained
him, and he began to see the boy as a chosen one, crafting delusions of grandeur around him.
He was meant to have found him, and [Aapo] is meant to reverse the corruption--absorbing it,
before casting himself into the volcano; sacrifice had brought his people this far, and the
traditions must be observed, he felt.
He gifted [Aapo] the gauntlet, feigned his disappearance, and provided an ample paper
trail across Pachacusi; always just a few steps ahead of [Aapo], he awaited their bittersweet
reunion atop Chi’Lito’s summit.

 The Events of Stray

Golden Path

Narrative Integration into Gameplay

The Gauntlet
The Gauntlet is a vessel that can siphon/transfer corruption into the player to power
them up. Crafted by Kunara, this device will allow Aapo to vacuum the world of corruption and
traverse the chaotic terrain around Chi’Lito. The player gets a power-up that lets them use the
corruption to their benefit through shielding or movement boons.

The Corruption + Combat

Spawned from the Ampatos’ corrupt war before their eradication, the Corruption is the
tainted magic of Chi’Lito vomited across the world. In the years since the eruption, the
Corruption has latched itself to the creatures of Pachacusi, leading to unnatural hostility and
eventual death. The Corruption is a contagious phenomena, spreading like a cancer as it infects
the very being of other living creatures.
The gauntlet has combat features, namely punching, and dealing damage charges up
the corruption within, with a kill replenishing even more corruption.

 The Journal
Along Aapo’s travels, he will jot down notes of narratively important details–primarily out
of a child-like curiosity. When he encounters either a diary entry from Kunara, a mural depicting
some scene, or even environmental cues such as a scene of battle, an update will be made to
his journal that will A. Indicate to the player whatever they interacted with is narratively

 significant, no matter how discrete or obvious it may seem, B. Give the player a window into
Aapo’s perception of the things around him, and C. Provide the player with a narrative reference
for their progress in Stray.
The player will understand a diary entry left by Kunara will be narratively significant. But
a few spears on the ground–an object Aapo has never encountered before, not knowing the
concept of war–may also be, despite the player not knowing that. This gives insight into Aapo’s
differing perception.
On the subject of Aapo, the Journal also provides a fantastic opportunity to develop
Aapo’s character. His writings, scribblings, and doodles will provide a great deal of insight into
his juvenile personality, showcasing how he–and the player–will slowly piece together Stray’s
not-so innocent world.
Lastly, much of Stray’s narrative is non-diegetic, so as to give a complex context to for
the diegetic narrative. That is to say, the backstory gives the present actions of Stray their
emotional and narrative potency. Thus, the narrative can be told two-fold: Aapo traveling from
the beginning to the end of the game can only be told in a linear fashion, but Stray’s backstory
can be told non-linearly. To avoid confusing the player, the journal acts as a reference for this
non-linear narrative.

Asset Specifics

Levels

Tutorial Area -

● Bag belonging to caretaker

● Tents
● Fire

Ruins
● Pieces of rubble
● Building piece that can be broken apart and strewn around
● Blueprints/sketch of gauntlet
● Box of materials
● Workbench
● Workshop items
● Pipes

Mountains
● Temple
● Mural
● Praying area/shrine
● Workshop (same assets as ruins)
● Gauntlet Prototypes

 ● House/Tent/Huts (living spaces for mountain village)

Volcano
● Mural describing sacrificial process
● Evidence of previous sacrifices

General
● Note Pieces/paper
● Symbol signifying Shamans presence
● Possible bodies of those caught in eruption
● Background for notes/things player has to read
● Living props (chairs, tables, desks)

The current environment assets can be reused a lot, but some new ones will be needed to
address the verticality of the mountains and the addition of an underground area. We will try to
reuse our rigged characters where possible but an analysis is needed to determine if they are
good enough.

 Notes (PUT INTO SPREADSHEET)

1. Details Kunara’s concerns about the industrialists and zealots alike. He fears the
conflict will grow. Doesn’t outright detail what the zealots are doing; leave the
exposition about sacrifice to the non-essential exposition points (NEEPs). (Split this into
2; illustrate two different sides, each voicing concern, along with great shaman dude
leaving)

2. Laments that war broke out. Says he is travelling to the coast to escape the conflict.
(Caretaker has a bag; take the note out? Diary note) (Environmental cues such as
spears, Aapo has juvenile interpretation in note, player knows exactly what’s up)

3. Kunara has premonitions :( (3?) (SMush in with #5 or #6)

4. A terse, frantic exposition about the eruption as it’s happening. (Do environmentally.
Come back; needs art tests) S K E L E T O N S

5. Writes that he survived, details how he found Aapo, fled to a cave. (COULD BE
DIARY ENTRY :D)

6. This note is written far later than the previous. Kunara reports Aapo is growing up
well. He writes of his guilt; his yearn for the past. He also writes of the corruption.
(Leave in mountain[church??]?) (Could be given by Kunara? Left on his sleeping
bag? Dialogue? Crumpled up note?

7. Kunara writes of finding a cache of old Ampato technology; he believes he can

construct a device to siphon and isolate corruption. (2) (Blue print in ruins workshop?)
(lower priority)

8. Writes of the device’s progress--as well as Aapo’s. He has fashioned the prototype
into a gauntlet of sorts. Would make traversing the landscape far easier than on foot.
(Fuse with 7?) (Leave in mountains?) (COLOR PALETTE SWAP WORKBENCH)
(PROTOTYPES????)

9. Kunara writes of his people’s old ways--how sacrifices would appease the volcano.
Ties it in with his plan of vacuuming up the corruption. A vessel of purity would be
required. His heart breaks. (FINAL, mural)

10. Eurika! He has completed the device. (Don’t need uwu)

11. Moral deliberation; is what he is doing right?

12. He is close to the summit of Chi’Lito. His heart hurts without Aapo, and he fears
for what must happen. (This or 9 will be last note) (Middle of mountain, or second to last
in mountain area. 3rd last?) (Volcano must be visible from this note??? Diary entry,
recent camp, alter)